Foreign News
US disaster agency suspends workers who criticised Trump cuts, reports say
The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has reportedly suspended a number of staff who criticised the agency’s direction under US President Donald Trump.
The staff are said to have been among those who recently signed an open letter that castigated Trump officials over cuts and alleged interference, warning that another “national catastrophe” akin to Hurricane Katrina was possible.
More than 20 employees were told on Tuesday that they had been put on administrative leave, according to sources who spoke to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News.
Asked by the BBC for a comment, a Fema spokesperson said the agency’s obligation was to survivors of disasters, “not to protecting broken systems”.
The spokesperson also said: “It is not surprising that some of the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform.
“Change is always hard. It is especially for those invested in the status quo, who have forgotten that their duty is to the American people not entrenched bureaucracy.”
There has been renewed scrutiny of US disaster readiness after recent deadly flooding in Texas, and as a result of Trump actions during his second presidency.
Trump set about drastically overhauling the disaster-management agency soon after returning to office in January, when he mooted the idea of “maybe getting rid of Fema” altogether.
He has characterised the organisation as inefficient and suggested that state-level officials were better placed to respond to natural disasters.
Reports suggest that hundreds of employees – representing about a third of Fema’s workforce – have left their jobs since the start of the year for various reasons.
Of the 191 Fema employees who signed Monday’s open letter criticising the agency’s direction under Trump, the majority remained anonymous.
The letter reflected on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, pointing out that the storm had claimed more than 1,800 lives and had highlighted the need for competent American disaster-management leadership.
It took the Trump administration to task for cuts to the agency’s funding and workforce, the failure to appoint a permanent agency boss and other issues including the perceived “censorship of climate science”.
Addressing the Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council, the letter made demands including a defence against “interference” from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and an end to “politically motivated firings”.
The aim was to “to prevent not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of Fema itself”, the document said.
In response to the letter, a Fema official defended the agency’s work and reforms under Trump – saying it was committed to delivering for the American people and had previously been “bogged down by red tape” and other inefficiencies. DHS is yet to respond.
Some of those who lent their names to the letter of protest received emails on Tuesday saying they had been put on administrative leave “effective immediately, and continuing until further notice”, according to copies of the emails seen by CBS.
The group would begin a “non-duty status” and would continue to receive pay and benefits, the emails said. The emails did not give a reason for the move, but reassured that it was “not a disciplinary action and is not intended to be punitive”.
The New York Times reported that a higher number of about 30 employees had received the email.
The Washington Post reported that at least two of the suspended Fema staff had been involved in the federal response to July’s deadly flooding in Texas.
Scores of people died in the disaster – including 27 attendees of a girls’ summer camp. Questioned by lawmakers about accusations that some rescue work had been delayed, Fema’s acting administrator described the response as a “model” one.
Among the other natural disasters with which US disaster officials have contended this year were rampant wildfires in Los Angeles.
The row over the Fema suspensions comes with the North Atlantic hurricane season under way and with expectations that the agency will be busier than usual because of warmer sea temperatures – made more likely by climate change.
[BBC]
A rare pink diamond is going on display in France for the first time since it was stolen almost 100 years ago to the day – the last time it was shown to the public.
The nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone known as the “Grand Condé” was pilfered in an overnight raid on the Château de Chantilly in October 1926 and concealed in a hollowed-out apple.
The diamond – one of few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution – was recovered a few weeks later when a hungry maid at the hotel in which the thieves were staying took a bite of the apple.
It will once again be on display in the Condé Museum at the Château de Chantilly until 3 January.
The museum’s director Mathieu Deldicque said that while the apple story may sounds far-fetched, it was widely covered by newspapers at the time.
Deldicque has faced questions about whether the exhibition may be tempting fate, especially given the string of heists on European cultural institutions in the past 12 months, including the daring daylight robbery of jewellery from the Louvre museum in Paris.
While he declined to reveal to CNN how much the diamond was insured for, he noted that extensive academic study into the properties of the diamond had taken place to make it uniquely identifiable.
The results of this analysis, as well as previously unseen archive material about the gem’s history and theft, form part of the exhibition, according to the museum.
Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally rare and often sell for tens of millions of dollars. The highest price ever fetched for one at auction was $71.2m (£53.6m) in 2017, according to Sotheby’s.
The exact origins of the Grand Condé remain a mystery.
It was first mentioned in 1740 in an inventory of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, drawn up following his death, the Château de Chantilly said.
It then became part of the collection of Queen Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Sicily, the wife of French King Louis Philippe I, and then her son, Prince Henri of Orléans, the Duke of Aumale.
He bequeathed it to the Institut de France, which now owns the Château de Chantilly, 50km (31 miles) north of Paris, along with thousands of artworks and manuscripts which became the Musée Condé collection.
(BBC)
A nursery owner and five members of her staff have been jailed after they were found to have poisoned more than 200 children with lead-tainted food.
Li Huifang, who operated the Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, in the Gansu province, was sentenced to life in prison for producing and selling toxic and harmful food, according to Chinese state media.
In July 2025, 247 pupils and staff at the nursery were found to have abnormally high blood lead levels after children began falling ill.
A report into the incident found that chefs at Heshi Peixin had used inedible paint to “enhance the look” of its meals to attract more students – despite the paint being being clearly marked as such.
In addition to the sentence, the Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court also ordered the confiscation of 500,000 yuan (£56,200; $74,700) of Li’s personal assets, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Nursery executive principal Zhi Jinglin was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 300,000 yuan.
Four other members of staff who worked in the nursery’s kitchen received sentences of between six to eight years, according to state media.
The court found the four had been instructed by Li and Zhi to add toxic and harmful ingredients to food served to children and staff.
Food samples were later found to contain lead 2,000 times in excess of China’s national safety limit.
The investigation into the poisoning began after 235 children from Heshi Peixin nursery had to be treated for lead poisoning after eating steamed red date cakes and sausage corn buns.
Investigators found that the red date cake and the corn sausage rolls had lead levels of 1052mg/kg and 1340mg/kg respectively, both of which far exceed the national food safety standard limit of 0.5mg/kg.
Lead poisoning is “particularly harmful to young children” and can “severely damage the brain and central nervous system”, according to the World Health Organization.
Officials later found that dozens of provincial officials and hospital staff attempted to cover up the incident by tampering with blood tests and accepting bribes from a nursery investor.
China has since published a set of national guidelines for the provision of meals on campuses. Among the measures is the requirement for every new batch of food to be tested, and for flour, rice and cooking oil to be purchased from centralised procurement points only.
(BBC)
Five people have been killed and 16 injured in a Houthi missile attack targeting the presidential palace in the port city of Aden in southern Yemen, which is the seat of the internationally-recognised government, officials say.
Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani told the BBC that the prime minister and other ministers were unhurt when five ballistic missiles hit al-Maashiq Palace.
The Houthis’ military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said they struck “the Saudi enemy’s military operations headquarters in Aden”.
A coalition led by Saudi Arabia backs the government and is providing air support for an offensive by pro-government forces against the Iran-backed Houthis.
Yemeni health minister Qasim Buhaibeh said the casualties included “those working to guard the site and civilian employees”.
The country’s Prime Minister Shaya Zindani condemned the Houthis’ attack on Aden, calling it “cowardly” and a “continuation of their criminal behaviour”.
He said the government continued to carry out its duties and vowed that it would not weaken the resolve of its forces to continue operations against the Houthis on Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast and other front lines.
Earlier, the Houthis denied that they had attacked Saudi Arabia on Thursday, after the coalition said its forces had intercepted a cruise missile in the Medina region, home to one of Islam’s holiest shrines.
The Houthis have been launching missiles and drones at airports, oil and gas facilities, and military bases in Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the strikes on the territory that they control in western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.
On Saturday, a Houthi missile strike killed 13 people at Riyadh’s international airport, which was the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade.
Saudi Arabia’s deputy foreign minister accused Iran of encouraging the Houthis to escalate their conflict with the kingdom.
“Iran continues to arm, train and support the Houthi militia in violation of UN Security Council resolutions,” Rayed Krimly told reporters, according to AFP news agency.
“We think that the escalation by the Houthis at this latest stage of the conflict is encouraged by Iran,” he added.
There was no immediate response from Iran’s government. However, it has previously denied supplying weapons to the Houthis and said it only supports them politically.
Iran’s foreign minister has also said it is ready to provide “any assistance necessary to facilitate the start of talks” between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.
Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the internationally-recognised government from Sanaa. The conflict escalated in 2015, after the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states intervened in an attempt to restore the government’s rule.
A four-year-old informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.
The Houthis said they were retaliating for what they call a Saudi blockade of their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom.
The conflict escalated in September after the Houthis seized part of Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a chokepoint for global shipping. Their advance contributed to a rise in oil prices following six months of war between the US, Israel and Iran.
Last week, pro-government forces said they had regained control of territory overlooking Bab al-Mandab after launching a major counter-offensive with the support of Saudi air strikes.
At least 1,282 people have been killed and 5,890 injured in the fighting in Yemen since 6 August, according to the government’s health ministry.
The UN says another 201,000 people have been displaced and that there has been an alarming surge in suspected cholera cases.
(BBC)
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