Israel banning dozens of aid organisations from operating in Gaza.

 Extract from ABC News

By Middle East correspondent Eric Tlozek

• Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

4 hours ago

A Palestinian carries a box of food from the World Food Program as others carry sacks of flour unloaded from a humanitarian aid convoy that reached Gaza City. (AP: Abdel Kareem Hana, file)

In short:

Israel is banning dozens of charities and aid organisations from operating in Gaza.

The government stated that the organisations have failed to meet the new registration rules.

Agencies have warned that the move will have a "catastrophic" impact on Gaza, where the population is reliant on aid.

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Israel is banning dozens of major aid organisations, including some of the world's best-known charities, from working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, saying they failed to meet new registration requirements.

The agencies said the bans will have a "catastrophic" impact on services delivered to Palestinians, particularly in the Gaza Strip, where most of the population relies on aid.

Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism introduced new requirements for international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) in March 2025, with a deadline of January 1, 2026, for them to comply.

The requirements included political and ideological elements, such as recognising Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, and bans on any so-called "de-legitimisation" of Israel.

The Israeli government also demanded the details of all INGO staff and their family members, something INGOs said would be a breach of humanitarian principles and their duty of care, given that Israel has killed hundreds of humanitarian workers in Gaza over the past two years.

"The system relies on vague, arbitrary, and highly politicised criteria and imposes requirements that humanitarian organisations cannot meet without violating international legal obligations or compromising core humanitarian principles," the United Nations Humanitarian Country Team, which coordinates aid to Palestinians, said in a statement on December 17.

A hunger crisis has gripped Gaza for many months since Israel's invasion of the strip. (Reuters: Dawoud Abu Alkas, file)

Among the organisations rejected by the ministry are Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, Oxfam, Caritas, Action Aid, the International Rescue Committee and World Vision.

Israel's government said the 37 organisations were being banned for failing to submit details of local employees.

"The registration requirement is aimed at preventing the involvement of terrorist elements and at safeguarding the integrity of humanitarian activity, as demonstrated in past cases," the Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military department responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said in a statement.

Plan 'simply unprecedented'

The Israeli government said nine other organisations were rejected for other reasons.

Israel has denied the bans will affect conditions in Gaza, alleging the organisations were only responsible for 1 per cent of the total aid entering Gaza at present.

NGOs fear lifesaving aid program blockage in Gaza

Israel has introduced new rules for aid organisations, including that they must not engage in any activities or criticism which "delegitimise" the state of Israel.

"The overall scope of humanitarian aid (approximately 99 per cent) is not affected by this measure," COGAT said.

But the organisations say that ignores the services they provide, which include field hospitals, health clinics, water treatment programs, cash payments and soup kitchens.

Also, some said the reason they were not bringing aid into Gaza at present was because Israel was preventing them.

Israel's management of aid into Gaza has been a major issue for much of the conflict. (Reuters: Mahmoud Issa, file)

"In fact, all of our many, many requests to bring our humanitarian goods into Gaza since March this year have been denied, including very recently, and those items include food in Jordan, sanitary pads for women, very basic and essential items," Ruth James, Oxfam's humanitarian coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, told the ABC.

"I think it's clear, Palestinians are not allowed to leave Gaza. So if we can't get anything into them and they can't get out, obviously the situation for them is going to become even more catastrophic than it has been, which it is honestly very difficult to imagine.

"On a broader level, this is simply unprecedented — Israel is kicking out almost the entire humanitarian community outside of the UN."

Locals brace for 'hunger, siege and destruction'

Gazans told the ABC they were distressed to hear the aid groups would be forced to stop their services, saying they relied heavily on charities for many essentials.

"We don't have a government to introduce services in Gaza so we are in dire need of these international institutions, so we ask all international community to help us to allow them to come to Gaza, to work in Gaza, to help Palestinians, to help our children, to help old people, to help us all," Sanaa Siyam, who is living in the Zeitoun displaced persons camp in north Gaza, told the ABC.

Sanaa Siyam was dismayed by the Israeli government's decision. (ABC News)

Thirty-two-year-old Raed, who is also living in the displaced persons camp, told the ABC the move would be devastating for families throughout the strip.

"Most citizens in Gaza rely entirely on these organisations," he said.

"There is no work in Gaza, and I am a head of a family, so I depend completely on soup kitchens and the things provided by international institutions."

He added that the blocking of Doctors Without Borders would be particularly problematic.

"If it weren't for Doctors Without Borders, many people would have lost their legs, arms, and limbs, because we don't have aid or enough doctors except for them.

"The Israeli occupation destroyed the hospitals, and these international organisations came to Gaza. Even before the war, they were working."

Heba Dahdouh agreed.

"Our entire life will collapse. Everything will stop. We'll go back to hunger, siege, and destruction. Our lives will become even harder than before,"

she said.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, called the bans "outrageous" and said they could breach Israel's obligation to allow necessities of life to reach the Palestinian population.

"This is the latest in a pattern of unlawful restrictions on humanitarian access, including Israel's ban on UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East), as well as attacks on Israeli and Palestinian NGOs amid broader access issues faced by the UN and other humanitarians," he said.

"Such arbitrary suspensions make an already intolerable situation even worse for the people of Gaza."

The Israeli government said aid agencies have until March 1 to conduct an "orderly withdrawal" from Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

It said organisations could still submit the required details in order to register.

"Registration remains open, organisations may still apply, and applications will continue to be reviewed and processed," COGAT said.

Four titan arum 'corpse flowers' to bloom in a week at Cairns Botanic Gardens.

Extract from ABC News

• By Sharnie Kim

By Conor Byrne

• ABC Far North

• Topic:Plants

2 hours ago

Four titan arums are set to bloom this week at Cairns Botanic Gardens, with two already on full display. (ABC News: Conor Byrne)

In short:

Four titan arums, known as corpse flowers, are set to bloom within days of each other at the Cairns Botanic Gardens.

The flowering structure only appears for 24 hours once every few years, emitting a powerful odour likened to rotting flesh.

Two of the blooms have already opened, attracting thousands of visitors keen to see and smell the plant firsthand.

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Four rare titan arums — known as corpse flowers due to their pungent odour — have bloomed within days of each other at the Cairns Botanic Gardens in Far North Queensland, drawing thousands of visitors.

Renowned for their size and stench of its flowers, the plants produce a large burgundy flowering structure known as an inflorescence, which can exceed 3 metres in height and contain clusters of small flowers.

The inflorescence only appears once every few years for about 24 hours, emitting a scent likened to rotting flesh or "bin juice" to attract pollinators.

The titan arums have delighted and disgusted thousands of visitors this week including Izzy Dunn, 7, and her dad. (ABC News: Conor Byrne)

Cairns Botanic Gardens has 15 titan arums in its collection, with two flowering this week and two more poised to open in the coming days.

Curator Charles Clarke said while the plants typically bloomed during the hot summer months, it was "something of a record" to have four opening in such a short period.

"I think the Bonn botanic gardens in Germany has had a lot of these things flower over the years, so that would probably be the record holder," he said.

"But we're not aware of any published examples of more than four flowers in one week."

Charles Clarke says the simultaneous flowerings have kept staff busy over the Christmas period. (ABC News: Conor Byrne)

'Bin juice' with a hint of 'rotting fish'

More than 2,000 people have visited the attraction since the first plant fully flowered on Monday, with appraisals of the scent ranging from "a bit rubbishy" to "like rotting tropical fruit".

Dr Clarke said the garden's own survey of visitors had helped narrow down the description to "bin juice, dead animals such as wallaby and rat, with a slight background flavour of rotting fish".

"It's a bit like dog poo," said Cairns  resident Terina Sylvester, who had attended four or five previous flowerings.

Terina Sylvester tries to make it to each titan arum flowering in Cairns. (ABC News: Conor Byrne)

Meeah Webb, 11, from Townsville described the smell as "pretty disgusting".

Newcastle resident Julie Young braved wet weather to visit two days in a row while on holiday.

"I grabbed my daughters and said, 'Come on, we need to go and have a look at this plant,'" she said.

"We're so grateful that we were here to witness the plant in all its glory."

Julie Young has visited the titan arums twice in two days. (ABC News: Conor Byrne)

Cairns the 'perfect' climate

The titan arum is native to West Sumatra in Indonesia, where the species has declined due to deforestation, and is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The first flowers grown outside the species' native habitat were cultivated at Kew Gardens in the UK in 1889. The plants have since proliferated around botanic gardens in Australia and other parts of the world, where they have become a major drawcard for visitors keen to see and smell their flowers firsthand.

Dr Clarke said the species was very much at home in tropical Cairns, where it regularly produced large and spectacular inflorescences.

Staff have cut a window in one of the blooms for cross-pollination. (ABC News: Conor Byrne)

"If we couldn't flower these things in Cairns … [there would] be something wrong with us because our climate is just about perfect for them," he said.

"We just plant them and watch them go."

Dr Clarke expected this round of flowering to conclude by the end of the week.

"I'd say probably sometime over the next [day or two] we'll get another bloom open, but they're very unpredictable," he said.

Farmer restores and puts vintage harvester to work 95 years after its first season.

Extract from ABC News

• By Isabella Kelly

• ABC Rural

• Topic:Agricultural Machinery

55 minutes ago

Leigh Baker's harvester from 1930 is put to work at Wild Horse Plains. (Isabella Kelly)

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When farmer Leigh Baker suffered a triple heart bypass, he knew he had to find a new project to help him recover.

So on his Wild Horse Plains farm, 75 kilometres north of Adelaide, Mr Baker began restoring the 1930 Sunshine Auto Header in his shed.

He bought it for $250 in the late 1970s from his grandfather, who bought it in 1950.

Leigh Baker has a passion for collecting and restoring vintage farm equipment.  (ABC North & West: Isabella Kelly)

"I put it in our shed, and then I dragged it out approximately 30 to 40 years later when I had a triple bypass," Mr Baker said.

"I lost all motive in life, and I thought, 'Well, I'll do something.'"

After removing a "wheelbarrow load of rat manure", the header required little work.

"I bought a new set of plugs and got my cousin to make a new exhaust, and we towed it probably 10 metres, and it started," Mr Baker said.

"It has got an instruction book; I should have read that first, I suppose."

The 1930 header made its way to Leigh Baker's family farm in 1950.  (ABC North & West: Isabella Kelly)

That was about four years ago, and it has sat in a shed until being put to work this harvest.

"It ran quite well, actually," Mr Baker said.

"It did get fairly hot. I suppose we're not used to sitting so close to the motor — nowadays we're just used to sitting in an air-conditioned cab.

"I suppose we don't know how easy we have it."

The first of its kind

A 1929 advertisement said the 12-foot comb front header could harvest 40 acres (16 hectares) in a day.

Modern equivalents advertise an ability of 12 hectares per hour.

The machinery was revolutionary in its time, as the first commercial harvester that did not need towing.

A 1922 publicity brochure for an older version of the Sunshine Header Harvester.  (Supplied: Museums Victoria)

Running the harvester for about an hour got Mr Baker a few bags of grain, but efficiency was not the point.

"All I wanted was a photo of the new ones next to the old one so I could put it on the wall," he said.

It is back in the shed now, but Mr Baker plans to take it out for its 100th birthday in 2030.

The Sunshine Auto Header is not the first piece of vintage machinery Mr Baker has restored, nor will it be the last.

Leigh Baker says sitting on the vintage header is a far cry from the comfort of modern machinery. (ABC North & West: Isabella Kelly)

"I've been collecting probably for 40 years now," he said.

"I just like old things."

A family history

Much of the machinery filling up Mr Baker's three old pig sheds had sentimental value.

"I like collecting old tractors that my grandpa used to have," he said.

"I've tried to buy all the original tractors that they owned when they first started farming."

Leigh Baker has been collecting and restoring vintage equipment for four decades.  (ABC North & West: Isabella Kelly)

Where possible, he collected the exact machines used on the family farm.

Otherwise, he has found and restored the same type, much like his grandpa.

"They never had a lot of money, so they bought somebody's old tractors, then they fixed them up," Mr Baker said.

The Caterpillar brand makes up much of his collection, while one shed is dedicated to John Deere.

Leigh Baker's collection of machinery takes up three old pig sheds.  (ABC North & West: Isabella Kelly)

"I like Caterpillars, I suppose, because Dad had one," Mr Baker said.

"I always liked John Deeres, but we could never afford them."

Mr Baker hopes to preserve as much of the machinery he has collected as possible, and has restored around 60 per cent of it to working condition.