Shelter

The former head of UCLA’s football name, image and likeness collective on Thursday denied any impropriety related to a report that revealed efforts by the school’s athletic department to funnel NIL donations through his non-profit charity.

The story published by the muckraking college football website foiaball.com showed email communications from UCLA athletic department officials directing payments intended for Bruins for Life, the onetime NIL collective of the school’s football program, through Shelter 37 Inc., a tax-exempt charity that purports to empower home ownership and help local youth through a variety of activities.

Donating through Shelter 37 would provide a tax deduction not available to those giving directly to Bruins for Life — a standard practice in the NIL sphere — but it also raised questions about a potential conflict of interest and the control of funds given James Washington ran Bruins for Life until recently and remains the president of Shelter 37.

The story also questioned Shelter 37’s charitable endeavors and suggested that UCLA athletic department officials encouraged the evasion of Internal Revenue Service guidance regarding so-called donor-advised funds, directing money to Shelter 37 that couldn’t go to other firms taking a more conservative approach with regard to NIL rules.

Emails obtained by foiaball.com through a public records request showed nearly a half million dollars of donations intended for Bruins for Life going through Shelter 37, with school officials requesting that anyone who sent their money through the latter organization to specify that it be earmarked for football NIL.

Washington said there was nothing untoward about an arrangement that was approved by UCLA and involved full transparency.

“There’s nothing that’s happening between Shelter 37 and UCLA and Bruins for Life that’s in the closet,” Washington, a former UCLA safety who went on to win two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys, told The Times. “Everything has been discussed, every move, every act that I’ve taken toward the NIL, every step — bookkeeping and everything — has been handled and handed over to UCLA.”

In a statement, a UCLA athletic department spokesperson said that “UCLA athletics operates with integrity and transparency, in a manner that is consistent with industry best practices. Our development team educates potential donors on a range of giving opportunities, including avenues to support our student-athletes.”

In what Washington described as an unrelated move confirmed by an athletic department official, UCLA recently shifted its football NIL operations to new leadership, allowing Bruins for Life to pivot into an alumni club for football. Washington said the Bruins for Life website was temporarily inactive as part of that transition and that it would still have an NIL component providing community outreach opportunities for football players.

Alongside longtime UCLA donor John Manuck, James had spearheaded the fundraising efforts of Bruins for Life when it debuted in October 2024 as the new NIL arm of UCLA football.

“It’s really exciting,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said at the time, “because it’s going to support our football student-athletes in a real positive way.”

The foiaball.com story contended that the Bruins for Life website stated that it was not a 501(c)(3) organization, meaning that any donations it accepted were not tax deductible. The website directed those wishing to donate to Shelter 37, a 501(c)(3) organization that said it could receive tax-deductible contributions.

The story reported that Shelter 37’s 2024 IRS 990 tax form, published by ProPublica, showed a revenue jump to $4.8 million in 2024, up from $800,000 the previous year. The document stated that $3.6 million had been raised for the Bruins for Life NIL program but only $200 for scholarships for at-risk youth.

Washington said that latter number was misleading because Shelter 37 was not a scholarship-based organization, even though it assisted at-risk children through a variety of community services. The Times reviewed one Shelter 37 tax document reporting nearly a combined seven figures spent on scholarships, education programs and housing.

“This is when people are not fact-checking,” Washington said, “and they’re just putting stuff out there and they’re just trying to make the story bigger than what it needs to be.”

Over the years, Washington said, Shelter 37 has held many community-based events such as turkey drives, football camps for inner-city kids and “I’m going to college” days in which the organization paid for buses to transport students to football games at the Rose Bowl.

The foiaball.com story contended that Shelter 37 was used as a workaround for donor-advised funds that were in limbo. One UCLA athletic department employee, informed of a denial of one donor-advised fund, forwarded the message to other internal fundraisers, along with a message saying, “Just as an FYI. Here is info for Shelter 37 for DAF gifts.”

A new home for donor-advised funds was needed after another NIL firm, Blue Print Sports, ceased its charitable operations in the wake of the IRS recommendation, its legal counsel citing “no path forward.” According to the documents reviewed by foiaball.com, a UCLA athletic department official sent an email to Washington not long after the IRS guidance was issued, informing him of a $15,000 donation through Bank of America that should be directed to Bruins for Life.

Washington said there was nothing illegal about accepting donor-advised funds and that every move made by his organizations was within the rules.

“Any dollar that was given to me, there’s a track record and we have a communication document that shows what came out and how it was received,” Washington said. “They [UCLA athletic officials] know exactly what came into accounts, they know exactly what came out because everything was disclosed and we were communicating and I was acting as a vessel during the time of the Wild, Wild West to try to help UCLA’s football program succeed in this new era of what we call the NIL.”

More than 288,000 families in Gaza are enduring a shelter crisis as Israeli restrictions on humanitarian supplies worsen conditions for Palestinians displaced by the war, the territory’s Government Media Office says.

Local authorities said in a statement on Monday that heavy rainfall over recent days submerged tens of thousands of makeshift tents across Gaza, leaving Palestinians suffering under conditions that “no society can endure”.

The Government Media Office warned that Palestinians are facing “the most dangerous humanitarian disaster” since the war began with Israel “deliberately deepening the catastrophe” through its blockade of essential shelter materials.

“We strongly condemn this ongoing crime committed by the [Israeli] occupation against civilians,” it said.

“We hold the occupation fully responsible for the suffering of hundreds of thousands of displaced people who are facing the harshness of winter without safe shelter or basic services, and for its catastrophic crime of insisting on completely closing the crossings and preventing the entry of shelter supplies.”

The flooding began on Thursday when the first winter storm hit Gaza. The United Nations confirmed more than 13,000 households were affected within hours.

Conditions deteriorated over the following days as the rain continued, overwhelming the worn tents that have housed displaced families for nearly two years.

Many displacement camps sit at lower elevations than surrounding areas. Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported on Monday that “some areas are completely submerged” after water rushed in from all sides.

Gaza authorities said the enclave requires 300,000 tents and mobile homes to provide basic shelter, a figure they have “clearly stated” for months.

However, Israel has prevented their entry despite a ceasefire that came into effect on October 10.

More than 80 percent of buildings across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed during the war, according to UN figures, forcing massive displacement.

Rights experts have said Israel’s campaign that turned most of Gaza into rubble amounts to genocide. Actions that constitute a genocide, according to the United Nations, include “deliberately inflicting on [a] group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.

On Monday, the Government Media Office accused Israel of “continuing its policy of restriction and preventing the entry of tents, tarps and plastic covers” while keeping border crossings closed and “reneging on implementing the humanitarian protocol” it signed as part of the ceasefire.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency responsible for coordinating aid deliveries to Gaza, has repeatedly rejected allegations that it is restricting humanitarian supplies.

But Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), described the situation last week as “misery on top of misery” and warned that Gaza’s fragile shelters “quickly flood, soaking people’s belongings”.

UNRWA said it has enough supplies waiting in Jordan and Egypt to fill 6,000 trucks, including food to sustain Gaza’s entire population for three months. Yet Israeli restrictions mean only about half the required 500 to 600 aid trucks a day are entering the territory.

UNRWA has also said it cannot bring pens and notebooks into the territory under import rules imposed by Israeli authorities.

Aid groups warned in early November that about 260,000 Palestinian families, totalling nearly 1.5 million people, faced vulnerability as winter approached.

Natalie Boucly, a senior UNRWA official, said Israel is breaching international humanitarian law by maintaining restrictions. Boucly cited the Fourth Geneva Convention and a recent International Court of Justice ruling that found Israel must ensure Palestinians have “essential supplies of daily life”.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said during a visit to aid warehouses in Jordan this month that Israel has “no excuse” for delaying humanitarian supplies.

‘Aid restrictions are entirely political’

Professor Mukesh Kapila of the University of Manchester said the restrictions represent deliberate strategy rather than logistical problems.

“Accessing Gaza is one of the easiest regions where a humanitarian crisis is happening, so this is entirely a political act,” he told Al Jazeera.

“It is a deliberate Israeli strategy to keep up pressure on Hamas on the hostages and possibly disarmament, but it is compounding human suffering in Gaza.”

The Government Media Office statement called on United States President Donald Trump and mediator countries to the ceasefire to “take serious and immediate action to force the occupation to comply with what it signed” in the truce and humanitarian protocol.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 266 people have been killed since the truce began with Israeli forces carrying out strikes almost daily even in areas where troops were supposed to withdraw.

Palestinian families call for help as Israel’s two-year military assault has left hundreds of thousands vulnerable.

Cold temperatures and heavy rainfall have worsened already dire conditions for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian families across the Gaza Strip, as Israel continues to block deliveries of tents and other critical shelter supplies to the besieged territory.

Humanitarian groups have been warning for weeks that Palestinians living in tent camps and other makeshift shelters do not have what they need to withstand blistering winter conditions in the coastal enclave.

Many have been forcibly displaced multiple times as a result of Israel’s two-year bombardment of Gaza, which damaged and destroyed more than 198,000 structures across the Strip, according to United Nations figures.

“I have been crying since morning,” a displaced Palestinian mother of two told Al Jazeera from Gaza City on Saturday, pointing to her family’s tent, which had been flooded as a result of heavy rainfall overnight.

The woman, who did not provide her name, said she was struggling to provide for her children after several members of her family, including her husband, were killed in Israel’s genocidal war, which began in October 2023.

“I am asking for help to get a proper tent, a mattress and a blanket. I want my children to have suitable clothes,” she said. “I don’t have anyone to turn to … There is no one to help me.”

The UN and other humanitarian groups have urged Israel to lift all restrictions on aid to the Strip, where more than 69,000 people have been killed in more than two years of Israel’s war.

But the Israeli government has maintained its severe restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid despite a ceasefire deal with the Palestinian group Hamas that came into effect on October 10.

Aid groups said earlier this month that about 260,000 Palestinian families in Gaza, totalling almost 1.5 million people, were vulnerable as the cold winter months approached.

‘Misery on top of misery’

At the same time, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said it has enough shelter supplies to help as many as 1.3 million Palestinians – but cannot bring them into Gaza due to the Israeli restrictions.

On Saturday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said deliveries were more critical than ever as this winter coincides with Gaza’s displacement crisis.

“It’s cold and wet in Gaza. Displaced people are now facing a harsh winter without the basics to protect them from the rain and cold,” he said in a social media post.

Describing the humanitarian toll as “misery on top of misery”, Lazzarini noted that Gaza’s fragile shelters “quickly flood, soaking people’s belongings”.

“More shelter supplies are urgently needed for the people,” he added.

Reporting from az-Zuwayda in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary also said many Palestinians have no other option but to remain in flooded and flimsy tents since their neighbourhoods were destroyed by Israel and shelters are full.

“Parents are unable to [buy] their children winter clothes, shoes and slippers,” she said. “Families are left helpless, without knowing what to do.”

Late on Saturday, the Israeli military fired flares in areas southeast of Khan Younis city, sources in southern Gaza told Al Jazeera. Armies generally launch flares to highlight enemy positions and indicate incoming attacks.

Earlier, Israel launched air strikes inside Gaza ceasefire’s “yellow line” demarcation near Khan Younis as well as Gaza City in the north.

It’s been created ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics

An incredible new glass house will let mountaineers shelter from high-altitude perils. Designers have created the camp ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, where it will be showcased in Milan before being airlifted to its permanent location in the Alps.

The eye-catching bivouac is the brainchild of Italian design firm CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, in collaboration with Salone del Mobile.Milano. Designed to harmonise with the Alpine landscape, its creation began with a 3D scan of rock formations in the region.

Carlo Ratti, co-founder of CRA, said: “Unfortunately, today bivouacs often look like airships that have landed on our beautiful alpine landscapes. Here we took the opposite approach: a structure that blends as much as possible with the surroundings.”

CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati say the resulting design minimises visual impact while maximising functionality – incorporating energy production, storage, and water harvesting through air condensation.

Maria Porro, president of Salone del Mobile.Milano, said: “It is a gesture that turns research into a form of harmony with the natural world and that, in its journey from our Milan to the Alps, expresses the principles we share: a circular, responsible design.”

Carlo Ratti added: “Great 20th-century Italian architect Gio Ponti once said that architecture is ‘like a crystal’. We took that literally in this design, using digital fabrication to design a bivouac as if it were part of the natural rock formations that shape the Alps.”