An evangelical leader and adviser to Donald Trump on interfaith issues has been appointed the new head of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as the controversial US- and Israeli-backed initiative attempts to recover from top-level resignations during a tumultuous rollout last week.
Johnnie Moore, a member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and founder of the boutique advisory firm Kairos Company, was appointed the new head of the GHF after Jake Wood, a former marine, resigned, saying that he could not guarantee the GHF’s independence from Israeli interests.
Moore has been a vocal defender of the GHF who has bristled at public criticism of the rollout, telling the UN chief, António Guterres, on X that reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza was “a lie … spread by terrorists”.
Major partners continue to abandon the GHF, which was launched with vocal support from US government officials. Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a US consulting firm, said it had cancelled its contract with the GHF on Tuesday amid growing media scrutiny into the group’s work and sources of funding.
Global trade tensions could disrupt ocean goods trade and will push up the price of seafood in the United States, a major importer of fish, according to a report from the United Nations trade agency published on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump has imposed 10% tariffs on nearly all seafood, with China facing tariffs of 30%, according to the report by the UN Trade and Development agency.
“Prices on fish products are likely to rise due to limited capacity to scale up local production,” the report found.
Wild fish stocks in the US are limited due to overfishing and it takes time to scale up domestic aquaculture production, the report said. For example, salmon farms have a three-year production cycle.
The US exports $4.5bn and imports $16bn worth of fish each year, according to UNCTAD data.
Brazil, which exports 55% of its primary fish products to the US, and China, is likely to redirect its seafood to domestic markets or alternative trading partners, UNCTAD predicted.
US immigration officials push for increased detentions, including ‘collateral’ arrests
Senior US immigration officials over the weekend instructed rank-and-file officers to “turn the creative knob up to 11” when it comes to enforcement, including by interviewing and potentially arresting people they called “collaterals”, according to internal agency emails viewed by the Guardian.
Officers were also urged to increase apprehensions and think up tactics to “push the envelope” one email said, with staff encouraged to come up with new ways of increasing arrests and suggesting them to superiors.
“If it involves handcuffs on wrists, it’s probably worth pursuing,” another message said.
The instructions not only mark a further harshening of attitude and language by the Trump administration in its efforts to fulfill election promises of “mass deportation” but also indicate another escalation in efforts, by being on the lookout for undocumented people whom officials may happen to encounter – here termed “collaterals” – while serving arrest warrants for others.
The emails, sent by two top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials this past Saturday, instructed officers around the country to increase arrest numbers over the weekend. This followed the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, and the White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, pressing immigration officials last month to jack up immigration-related arrests to at least 3,000 people per day.
US immigration authorities have taken into custody the family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the man who allegedly used a flamethrower to attack a Colorado rally for Israeli hostages, the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.
Twelve people were wounded in Boulder on Sunday when the 45-year-old allegedly used incendiary devices to attack people demonstrating for the release of hostages in Gaza in what the FBI has deemed an “act of terrorism”. During the attack, Soliman allegedly targeted Zionists and shouted “Free Palestine”.
The Trump administration quickly seized on Soliman’s immigration status to push its mass deportation agenda. Soliman, who was born in Egypt, was in the US on an expired tourist visa after entering the country in 2022. He applied for asylum that year and received work authorization that later expired, Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary said. Donald Trump has blamed the attack on his predecessor, arguing it was the result of Joe Biden’s “ridiculous Open Border Policy”.
Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, announced on Tuesday that immigration agents were taking Soliman’s wife and five children into custody, and that federal officials are investigating whether his family knew about his plans.
Soliman has said he acted alone, and told police “no one knew about his plans”, according to a state arrest affidavit.
