An Islamic State operative who allegedly helped carry out the 2021 suicide bombing outside Kabul airport during the chaotic US military withdrawal from Afghanistan appeared in a Virginia court Wednesday.Mohammad Sharifullah has confessed to scouting out the route to the airport, where the suicide bomber later detonated his device among packed crowds trying to flee days after the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the Justice Department said.The blast at the Abbey Gate killed at least 170 Afghans as well as 13 US troops who were securing the airport’s perimeter.Sharifullah appeared in a court in Alexandria, near the US capital Washington, wearing light blue prison garb and a black face mask. He was officially appointed a public defender and provided with an interpreter.He did not enter a plea. His next appearance will be in the same courthouse on Monday, and he will stay in custody until then, the judge said.Sharifullah — who the US says also goes by the name Jafar and is a member of the Islamic State Khorasan (ISK) branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan — was detained by Pakistani authorities and brought to the United States.President Donald Trump triumphantly announced his arrest Tuesday in an address to Congress, calling him “the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity.”ISK militants gave Sharifullah a cellphone and a SIM card and told him to check the route to the airport, according to the Justice Department’s affidavit in the case.When he gave it the all-clear, they told him to leave the area, it said.”Later that same day, Sharifullah learned of the attack at HKIA described above and recognized the alleged bomber as an ISIS-K operative he had known while incarcerated,” the affidavit said, using an alternative acronym for the group.Sharifullah is charged with “providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in death.”- Moscow attack link -Trump thanked Islamabad “for helping arrest this monster.””This evil ISIS-K terrorist orchestrated the brutal murder of 13 heroic Marines,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.Sharifullah also admitted to involvement in several other attacks, the Justice Department said, including the March 2024 Moscow Crocus City Hall attack, in which he said “he had shared instructions on how to use AK-style rifles and other weapons to would-be attackers” by video.The United States withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, ending a chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans who had rushed to Kabul’s airport in the hope of boarding a flight out of the country.Images of crowds storming the airport, climbing onto aircraft as they took off — and some clinging to a departing US military cargo plane as it rolled down the runway — aired on news bulletins around the world.In 2023, the White House announced that an Islamic State official involved in plotting the airport attack had been killed in an operation by Afghanistan’s new Taliban government.- ‘Leverage US concerns’ -Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for acknowledging his country’s role in counter-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan, and promised to “continue to partner closely with the United States” in a post on X.Pakistan’s strategic importance has waned since the US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has seen violence rebound in the border regions.Tensions between the neighboring countries have soared, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of failing to root out militants sheltering on Afghan soil who launch attacks on Pakistan.The Taliban government denies the charges and in a statement said Sharifullah’s arrest “is proof” that ISK hideouts are on Pakistani soil.ISK, which has claimed several recent attacks in Afghanistan, has staged a growing number of bloody international assaults, including killing more than 90 people in an Iranian bombing last year.Michael Kugelman, South Asia Institute director at the Wilson Center, said on X that Pakistan was trying to “leverage US concerns about terror in Afghanistan and pitch a renewed security partnership.”

President Donald Trump’s administration aims to cut some 80,000 jobs from the federal department overseeing veterans’ health care and other benefits, according to a memo obtained Wednesday by AFP.The move to downsize the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) brings Trump’s unprecedented cost-cutting efforts, led by billionaire adviser Elon Musk, into another sensitive area, with Democrats quick to pounce on the issue.The VA, in concert with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), will “identify and eliminate waste, reduce management and bureaucracy, reduce footprint, and increase workforce efficiency,” the memo says.”A portion of the savings garnered will be reinvested in the veterans we serve and the systems required to support our workforce and execute our mission,” it says.The initial aim is to return staffing at the VA — which is responsible for providing benefits including health care, education and disability pay to veterans — to the 2019 level of 399,957 employees, according to the memo.The VA said in early February it employed more than 479,000 people, meaning about 80,000 jobs would be cut under the plan.Some Democratic lawmakers slammed the planned cuts, including Representative Mark Takano of California, who said in a statement: “This deliberate dismantling of VA’s workforce… isn’t just dangerous — it’s an outright betrayal of veterans.””These cuts won’t just impact those seeking health care. They will create chaos across every aspect of VA — delaying benefits, straining claims processing, and making it nearly impossible for student veterans and schools to get the assistance they need.”Senator Patty Murray of Washington said it is “infuriating that two billionaires think they can fire tens of thousands of people responsible for administering the services and care that over nine million veterans across the country count on,” referring to Trump and Musk.”It’s flat-out immoral and a breach of the sacred commitment we make to our veterans to take care of them when they return home,” she said in a statement.Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has launched a vast offensive aimed at slashing public spending and reducing the federal bureaucracy, one of the goals he promised on the campaign trail.To that end, he tapped Musk, a top campaign donor turned close adviser, to lead DOGE, which has cut thousands of government jobs and upended agencies — prompting numerous lawsuits.Among his first targets were members of the federal bureaucracy overseeing policies that promote diversity.His administration has also sought to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), ending many humanitarian and other support projects around the globe.And a source with knowledge of the situation told AFP on Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service — responsible for collecting US federal taxes — is considering letting go up to half of its approximately 90,000 employees.

Ukraine said on Wednesday it planned to hold new talks with the United States after Washington suspended its intelligence sharing, delivering a fresh blow to Kyiv as it battles Russia’s invasion.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been scrambling to contain the fallout from his explosive meeting with Donald Trump last week, in which the US leader berated him in front of international media and kicked him out of the White House.”Today, Ukrainian and American teams began working on an upcoming meeting. We’re seeing forward momentum,” Zelensky said in a late-Wednesday address, without saying when or where new talks would take place.Zelensky also said he would join EU leaders for a Brussels summit on Thursday.Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said European military forces could be sent to Ukraine if a peace deal is signed to ensure that Russia does not invade its neighbour again.The United States said earlier on Wednesday it had “paused” intelligence sharing with Ukraine, two days after announcing it was also suspending military aid.The moves have cemented fears in Kyiv and Europe that Ukraine could be forced to accept a peace settlement on terms favourable to Moscow or risk losing US support entirely.”We all want a safe future for our people. Not a temporary ceasefire, but an end to the war once and for all. With our coordinated efforts and US leadership, this is entirely achievable,” Zelensky wrote Wednesday on social media following a call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.A day earlier, he said he was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer”, and that he wanted to “make things right” with Trump. – ‘Generally positive’ -In an address to US Congress on Tuesday, Trump read aloud from a letter he said he had received from Zelensky in which the Ukrainian leader said he was ready for peace talks.Trump has made ending the war one of his top foreign policy priorities, though has yet to outline his plan for a deal both sides could endorse.Zelensky wants security guarantees from the United States to deter Russia from invading again in the future.Moscow, meanwhile, has refused to rule out giving up any of the land it has captured in its three-year military campaign, and has been buoyed by the suspension of US military aid.The Kremlin welcomed news of the Ukrainian leader’s letter to Trump.”This approach is generally positive,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in answer to a question from AFP.However, the Kremlin has repeatedly thrown doubt on whether it would hold talks with Zelensky.On Wednesday, Peskov cited a decree passed by Zelensky that rules out direct negotiations with Putin.The Ukrainian president has since said on multiple occasions he would be willing to meet Putin — but only after Kyiv and its Western allies agree on a common negotiating position.Moscow has also accused Zelensky of not being a legitimate leader, citing the expiration of his five-year mandate following his 2019 election as president.Under Ukrainian martial law, elections are banned during wartime. Zelensky’s key European backers have supported the suspension of any vote amid Russia’s full-scale offensive.Trump has falsely claimed the Ukrainian leader is widely unpopular at home and called on him to hold elections.- Intelligence pause -Outgoing German Chancellor Scholz on Wednesday gave his backing to Zelensky’s calls for a truce in the sky and at sea as a first step towards ending the fighting.”The Chancellor welcomed the Ukrainian president’s willingness to start negotiations as soon as possible. Both agreed on the importance of the American president’s leadership,” Scholz’s office said in a statement.Macron is mulling a joint visit to Washington alongside Zelensky and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to present a united European front to Trump, the French government said Wednesday.Macron, in a televised address, said European troops could be deployed to Ukraine once a peace treaty is signed. “They won’t go to fight today, they won’t go to fight on the front line, but they would be there once a peace deal is signed, to guarantee it is fully respected,” he said.Macron added that chiefs of staff of European militaries would meet in Paris next week to discuss how to support Ukraine after a peace deal.Trump is pushing for Europe to do more for Ukraine’s defence.CIA director John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday the United States had “paused” intelligence sharing with Ukraine after the dramatic breakdown in relations between Kyiv and the White House.The Ukrainian presidency declined to comment.On the battlefield, Russia’s forces said they had captured another small village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.The gains come as AFP analysis of US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) data showed Moscow’s advance had slowed in February after a series of accelerating territorial gains throughout the winter.burs/gv/rmb

For decades, Mexico’s industrial borderlands boomed thanks to growing trade with the world’s largest economy next door. Today, US tariffs cast a long shadow over a region home to thousands of factories employing armies of workers.Lower labor costs, tax incentives and a North American free trade pact dating back more than 30 years have long lured companies south of the US border.But President Donald Trump’s 25-percent duties on Mexican goods have heaped doubt on the future of the trade agreement, which was renegotiated during his 2017-2021 first term.Manufacturers of goods ranging from medical supplies to semiconductors and other electronic components will be hit by the tariffs, said Jose Luis Contreras, president of the Mesa de Otay Industrial Association in Tijuana, just south of California.Some products like car parts cross the Mexican-US border several times during production.In the Tijuana region, whose industrial parks are home to around 400 companies, a million cargo border crossings are made each year, according to official figures.Following Trump’s imposition of tariffs, Mexico’s “domestic market must be reoriented,” Contreras told AFP in an interview.He said that could mean replicating the production chains of the USMCA free trade deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada in the Latin American nation, home to 130 million people.It also requires offering tax incentives and seeking new markets, he added.”Action must be taken quickly” given the high stakes, notably 80,000 factory jobs just along the stretch of the border near Tijuana, said Contreras, a metalworking businessman.The tariffs have dealt a heavy blow to Mexico’s hopes of attracting US-owned factories from Asia to its industrial north, a trend known as “nearshoring.”President Claudia Sheinbaum warned Wednesday that Mexico would seek other trading partners besides the United States if needed.She has vowed to respond to Trump’s tariffs with retaliatory duties, calling on supporters to mass in Mexico City’s main square on Sunday to hear details.Sheinbaum has previously hailed the USMCA as “one of the best trade agreements in history” and “the only way we can compete with Asian countries, particularly China.”She has proposed replacing Chinese imports with domestically produced goods — an apparent bid to ease Washington’s concerns that Chinese companies want to use Mexico as a backdoor into the United States.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that Mexico had also proposed matching Washington’s tariff hikes on China.- ‘Unfair trade practices’ -In Mexico’s northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, business leaders who favor maintaining close ties with Washington pointed the finger at China as the trade tension culprit.”The common problem that we have in the United States and Mexico is the position of China,” said Maximo Vedoya, president of CAINTRA, an organization that represents several thousand companies.”China is the one that disrupts all world trade,” he told reporters Tuesday, accusing the Asian giant of “unfair trade practices.”The answer was not US-Mexico trade barriers but “strengthening the North American region” to make it more competitive, added Vedoya, chief executive of a steel products maker.The United States is Mexico’s top trading partner, buying more than 80 percent of its exports.Analysts have warned the US duties could push Mexico’s economy, the second largest in Latin America, into recession.Sheinbaum has accused Trump of violating the USMCA, which replaced the previous NAFTA accord in 2020 and is due for review next year.”Are we to blame for companies deciding to come to Mexico to export to the United States? No, it’s the result of a good relationship since President Trump’s first term and the trade agreement that came before,” she said.Contreras doubts the United States can quickly replace the labor and skills developed in Mexico during decades of trade.”We may be less competitive, but in the end we will still be competitive,” he said.