US holding back $59m in Palestinian food aid

WASHINGTON • The United States will not provide US$45 million (S$59.4 million) in food aid for Palestinians that it pledged last month as part of the West Bank/Gaza Emergency Appeal led by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

The US State Department also denied on Thursday the withholding of a separate US$65 million it had planned to pay UNRWA was to punish them for being sharply critical of US President Donald Trump's announcement last month that he would move the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

REUTERS

New app to record legal consent to sex

LONDON • A Dutch startup is launching an app which will allow people to give legal consent to sex via their mobile phones in an initiative spurred by Sweden's plans to bolster its rape law.

The LegalFling app, which lets users set out which practices they are and are not comfortable with, records sexual consent in a legally binding agreement.

REUTERS

NZ PM announces first pregnancy

WELLINGTON • New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday she was pregnant with her first child, prompting an outpouring of support from women's rights groups and labour activists as she declared: "I'll be a prime minister and a mum."

The popular 37-year-old politician's pregnancy is one of the very few examples of an elected leader holding office while pregnant and the first in New Zealand's history.

Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto gave birth while she was prime minister in 1990.

REUTERS