effect

Two-time Grand Tour winner Simon Yates has announced his retirement from cycling with immediate effect.

The shock announcement comes just seven months after the 33-year-old Briton clinched a thrilling victory at the 2025 Giro d’Italia.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider also claimed his third stage win at the Tour de France in July last year.

Yates, whose first Grand Tour title was the 2019 Vuelta a Espana, joined the Dutch team on a two-year contract before the 2025 season.

“This may come as a surprise to many, but it is not a decision I have made lightly,” said Yates.

“I have been thinking about it for a long time, and it now feels like the right moment to step away from the sport.”

Visma’s head of racing Grischa Niermann added: “[Winning the Giro d’Italia] was one of the major goals of the season, for us as a team and for Simon personally. The fact that he also went on to win a stage in the Tour de France underlines his class.

“It is a shame that he is stopping now, but he does so at an absolute high point.”

Ban could cut hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza off from essential care, Doctors Without Borders warns.

Israel faces mounting global condemnation as a ban on dozens of international aid organisations working to provide life-saving assistance to Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip has come into effect.

On Thursday, a group of 17 human rights and advocacy organisations in Israel condemned the prohibition, saying it “undermines principled humanitarian action, endangers staff and communities, and compromises effective aid delivery”.

“Israel, as the occupying power, has an obligation to ensure adequate supplies to Palestinian civilians. Not only is it failing to fulfil that obligation, but it is also preventing others from filling the gap,” the groups said.

Israel has revoked the operating licences of 37 aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, for failing to comply with new government regulations.

The new rules require international NGOs working in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to provide detailed information on staff members, as well as their funding and operations.

Israel has defended the move by accusing international organisations that work in Gaza of having links to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – without providing any evidence.

But experts say the requirements contravene humanitarian principles and follow a longstanding Israeli government campaign to vilify and ultimately impede the work of aid groups providing assistance to Palestinians.

“The new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality,” the Israel-based rights groups, including B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, said in Thursday’s statement.

“Conditioning aid on political alignment, penalizing support for legal accountability, and requiring the disclosure of sensitive personal data of Palestinian staff and their families all constitute a breach of duty of care and expose workers to surveillance and harm.”

‘Pattern of unlawful restrictions’

The ban comes as Israel has waged a genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, imposing restrictions on food, medicine and other humanitarian aid deliveries to the coastal territory.

Israeli violence has also soared in the occupied West Bank, with the military forcing tens of thousands of Palestinians out of their homes in what Human Rights Watch has described as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Against that backdrop, United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said earlier this week that Israel’s NGO ban is “the latest in a pattern of unlawful restrictions on humanitarian access” in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Doctors Without Borders said in a social media post that, as of Wednesday, it was still waiting on the renewal of its registration to operate in Gaza and the West Bank under the new Israeli rules.

“The Palestinian health system is decimated, essential infrastructure is destroyed, and people struggle to meet basic needs. People need more services, not less,” MSF said.

“If MSF and other INGOs lose access, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be cut off from essential care.”

Former UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, who sits on the board of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Al Jazeera he was not optimistic about what will happen next.

“The reality is these agencies are essential to aid delivery – [and] aid delivery in particular in the Gaza Strip,” Griffiths said. “They are the last mile, the phrase used in humanitarian operations to those who actually deliver the aid to the people involved.”

NEW strict customs laws have gone into effect, allowing government officials to request tourists’ DNA in some cases.

The new biometric data collection started on December 26, just ahead of the new year. 

The new rule targets non-citizens entering or leaving the US, according to government documents seen by Reuters. 

Travelers will now be subjected to facial recognition photos at the airport to help match them against existing records.

Those facial recognition pictures will be stored for up to 75 years, according to the documents. 

Under the new law, Department of Homeland Security officials may request additional biometric information, including fingerprints or DNA, from non-citizens.

The updated security measures are meant to “deter the filing of frivolous claims and provide operational consistency,” according to the government.

The new biometric rules would also remove any age restrictions on facial recognition, meaning that any foreigner is now subject to the biometric measures.

Up until now, there were restrictions on who could be scanned using facial recognition.

Travelers under 14 years old and those over 79 years old were exempt from those requirements.

Biometric data has been collected from foreign visitors for years, but now the government is pushing to collect more information to tighten border security.

The new rules expand what officials are legally allowed to ask for. 

Select visitors planning to stay in the US for more than 29 days are now required to pay a $30 fee.

Those who refuse to pay the fee and be fingerprinted could be hit with a $5,000 fine.

The new rules come one day before one of the busiest travel days of the year, according to United Airlines. 

The popular airline said that December 27 is expected to be a record-breaking day in the winter travel season.

Travelers should brace for longer security lines and make sure everything they have complies with TSA rules and restrictions. 

“You will probably be waiting an extra-long time in the security line this Christmas,” Air passenger rights expert Ivaylo Danailov, CEO of SkyRefund, warned.

“There are going to be many more people than normal carrying much more stuff than usual for the Christmas season, both of which result in longer security waits.”

Most importantly, Danailov urged travelers to “check the TSA’s website” before they fly.

“Unfortunately for Christmas travellers, this scrutiny also extends to wrapped goods,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter what you have wrapped, or how nicely, the TSA will unwrap anything to get a good look at it and are not always gentle in the process.”

HONOLULU — A federal judge’s ruling clears the way for Hawaii to include cruise ship passengers in a new tourist tax to help cope with climate change, a levy set to go into effect at the start of 2026.

U.S. District Judge Jill A. Otake on Tuesday denied a request seeking to stop officials from enforcing the new law on cruises.

In the nation’s first such levy to help cope with a warming planet, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green signed legislation in May that raises tax revenue to deal with eroding shorelines, wildfires and other climate problems. Officials estimate the tax will generate nearly $100 million annually.

The levy increases rates on hotel room and vacation rental stays but also imposes a new 11% tax on the gross fares paid by a cruise ship’s passengers, starting next year, prorated for the number of days the vessels are in Hawaii ports.

Cruise Lines International Assn. challenged the tax in a lawsuit, along with a Honolulu company that provides supplies and provisions to cruise ships and tour businesses out of Kauai and the Big Island that rely on cruise ship passengers. Among their arguments is that the new law violates the Constitution by taxing cruise ships for the privilege of entering Hawaii ports.

Plaintiff lawyers also argued that the tax would hurt tourism by making cruises more expensive. The lawsuit notes the law authorizes counties to collect an additional 3% surcharge, bringing the total to 14% of prorated fares.

“Cruise tourism generates nearly $1 billion in total economic impact for Hawai‘i and supports thousands of local jobs, and we remain focused on ensuring that success continues on a lawful, sustainable foundation,” association spokesperson Jim McCarthy said in a statement.

According to court records, plaintiffs will appeal. They asked the judge to grant an injunction pending an appeal and requested a ruling by Saturday afternoon, given that the law takes effect Jan. 1.

Hawaii will continue to defend the law, which requires cruise operators to pay their share of transient accommodation tax to address climate change threats to the state, state Atty. Gen. Anne Lopez said in a statement.

The U.S. government intervened in the case, calling the tax a “scheme to extort American citizens and businesses solely to benefit Hawaii” in conflict with federal law.

Kelleher writes for the Associated Press.