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After working for years alongside the United States to combat the Taliban in Afghanistan, Zahra says she was just days from being evacuated to America when President Donald Trump suspended refugee admissions.She sold her belongings as she awaited a flight out of Pakistan, where she has been embroiled in a three-year process applying for a refugee scheme Trump froze in one of his first acts back in office.”We stood with them for the past 20 years, all I want is for them to stand up for the promise they made,” the 27-year-old former Afghanistan defence ministry worker told AFP from Islamabad.”The only wish we have is to be safe and live where we can have peace and an ordinary human life,” she said, sobbing down the phone and speaking under a pseudonym to protect her identity.The 2021 withdrawal of US-led troops from Kabul ended two decades of war but began a new exodus, as Afghans clamoured to escape Taliban government curbs and fears of reprisal for working with Washington.Trump’s executive order to pause admissions for at least 90 days starting from January 27 has blocked around 10,000 Afghans approved for entry from starting new lives in the United States, according to non-profit #AfghanEvac.Tens of thousands more applications in process have also been frozen, the US-based organisation said.”All sorts of people that stood up for the idea of America, now they’re in danger,” #AfghanEvac chief Shawn VanDiver told AFP. “We owe it to them to get them out.”- ‘Hopes are shattered’ – Trump’s order said “the United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees”, and stopped the relocation scheme until it “aligns with the interests of the United States”.But campaigners argue the country owes a debt to Afghans left in the lurch by their withdrawal — which Trump committed to in his first term but was overseen by his successor president Joe Biden.A special visa programme for Afghans who were employed by or on behalf of the United States remains active.But the more wide-reaching refugee scheme was relied on by applicants including ex-Afghan soldiers and employees of the US-backed government, as well as their family members.With America’s Kabul embassy shut, many travelled to neighbouring Pakistan to enter paperwork, conduct interviews and undergo vetting.Female applicants are fleeing the country where the Taliban government has banned them from secondary school and university, squeezed them from public life and ordered them to wear all-covering clothes.”I had a lot of hopes for my sisters, that they should graduate from school and pursue education,” said one of five daughters of an ex-government employee’s family seeking resettlement from Pakistan.”All my hopes are shattered,” said the 23-year-old. “I have nightmares and when I wake up in the morning, I feel like I can’t fall asleep again. I’m very anxious.”The European Court of Justice ruled last year that Afghan women have the right to be recognised as refugees in the EU because Taliban government curbs on women “constitute acts of persecution”.This week, the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor said he was seeking arrest warrants for Taliban government leaders because there are grounds to suspect they “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds”.Moniza Kakar, a lawyer who works with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, said some women told her they “prefer suicide than going back to Afghanistan”.The Taliban government has announced an amnesty and encouraged those who fled to return to rebuild the country, presenting it as a haven of Islamic values. But a 2023 report by UN rights experts said “the amnesty for former government and military officials is being violated” and there were “consistent credible reports of summary executions and acts tantamount to enforced disappearances”.- ‘No life left for me’ – Last summer, Pakistan’s foreign ministry complained as many as 25,000 Afghans were in the country awaiting relocation to the United States.Islamabad announced a sweeping campaign in 2023 to evict undocumented Afghans , ordering them to leave or face arrest as relations soured with the Taliban government.At least 800,000 Afghans have left since October 2023, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. But Afghans awaiting refugee relocation have also reported widespread harassment to leave by authorities in Pakistan.A foreign ministry spokesman told reporters this week Trump’s administration had not yet communicated any new refugee policy to Pakistan.Islamabad is following “the same old plan” where Washington has committed to taking in refugees this year, Shafqat Ali Khan said.Afghans awaiting new lives abroad feel caught between a cancelled future and the haunting prospect of returning to their homeland.”I don’t have the option of returning to Afghanistan, and my situation here is dire,” said 52-year-old former Afghan journalist Zahir Bahand.”There is no life left for me, no peace, no future, no visa, no home, no work: nothing is left for me.”

Brazil’s government expressed outrage on Saturday after dozens of immigrants deported from the United States arrived by plane in handcuffs, calling it a “flagrant disregard” for their rights.The foreign ministry said it would demand an explanation from Washington over the “degrading treatment of passengers on the flight”.The spat comes as Latin America grapples with US President Donald Trump’s return to power bringing a hard-line anti-immigration agenda, promising crackdowns on irregular migration and mass deportations.When the plane landed in the northern city of Manaus, Brazilian authorities ordered US officials to “immediately remove the handcuffs,” the justice ministry said in a statement.Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski told President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of “the flagrant disregard for the fundamental rights of Brazilian citizens,” the statement said.Brazil will request “explanations from the US government about the degrading treatment of passengers” on the Friday night flight, the foreign ministry said on X.The government said 88 Brazilians were aboard the aircraft.Edgar Da Silva Moura, a 31-year-old computer technician, was on the flight, after seven months in detention in the United States.”On the plane they didn’t give us water, we were tied hands and feet, they wouldn’t even let us go to the bathroom,” he told AFP.”It was very hot, some people fainted.”Luis Antonio Rodrigues Santos, a 21-year-old freelancer, recounted the “nightmare” of people with “respiratory problems” during “four hours without air conditioning” due to technical issues on the plane.”Things have already changed (with Trump), immigrants are treated as criminals,” he said.- Crackdown -The flight was originally destined for the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte, but encountered a technical issue forcing it to land in Manaus.A government source told AFP the deportation flight was not directly linked to any immigration orders issued by Trump upon taking office Monday, but rather stemmed from a 2017 bilateral agreement.Brazil’s Minister of Human Rights, Macae Evaristo, told journalists that “children with autism … who went through very serious experiences” were also on the flight.Footage on Brazilian television showed some passengers descending from the civilian aircraft, with their hands handcuffed and their ankles shackled.”Upon learning of the situation, President Lula ordered that a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) aircraft be mobilized to transport the Brazilians to their final destination, in order to ensure that they could complete their journey with dignity and safety,” the justice ministry said.Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign and began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the United States. On his first day in office he signed orders declaring a “national emergency” at the southern US border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area while vowing to deport “criminal aliens.”Several deportation flights since Monday have garnered public and media attention, though such actions were also common under previous US presidents.In a break with prior practice, however, the Trump administration has begun using military aircraft for repatriation flights, with at least one landing in Guatemala this week.The plane which landed in Manaus was not a military aircraft, AFP journalists in the city confirmed.A Brazilian government source said that the deportees who arrived in Manaus traveled “with their documents”, which shows that they agreed to return home.There are an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security statistics.The United States also expelled 265 migrants to Guatemala on Friday.

US President Donald Trump floated a plan Saturday to “just clean out” Gaza, and said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take Palestinians from the territory in a bid to create Middle East peace.Describing Gaza as a “demolition site” after the Israel-Hamas war, Trump said he had spoken to Jordan’s King Abdullah II about the issue and expected to talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.”I’d like Egypt to take people. And I’d like Jordan to take people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.”You’re talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know, over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts that site. And I don’t know, something has to happen.”The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, by the war that began with Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.Trump said moving Gaza’s inhabitants could be “temporarily or could be long term.””It’s literally a demolition site right now, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there,” added Trump. “So I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”A fragile truce and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas — which was signed on the last day of former US president Joe Biden’s administration but which Trump has claimed credit for — has entered its second week.- Bomb shipment released -Trump’s new administration has promised “unwavering support” for Israel, without yet laying out details of its Middle East policy.Trump confirmed on Saturday that he had ordered the Pentagon to release a shipment of 2,000-lb bombs for Israel which was blocked by his predecessor Biden.”We released them. We released them today,” Trump said. “They paid for them and they’ve been waiting for them for a long time.”Israel’s retaliatory offensive has left much of the Palestinian territory in ruins, with infrastructure destroyed, and the United Nations estimates reconstruction will take many years.In October during his presidential campaign, former real estate developer Trump said that war-torn Gaza could be “better than Monaco” if it was “rebuilt the right way.”Trump’s son-in-law and former White House employee Jared Kushner suggested in February that Israel empty Gaza of civilians to unlock the potential of its “waterfront property.”For Palestinians, any attempt to move them from Gaza would evoke dark historical memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba” or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation 75 years ago.Israel has denied having any plans to force Gazans to move.But some extreme-right members of the Israeli government have publicly supported the idea of Gazans leaving the Palestinian territory en masse.

US President Donald Trump held a victory rally in Las Vegas on Saturday, wrapping up a tumultuous week that saw him double down on promises to reshape American politics and culture.He was back in front of an adoring crowd in the nation’s gambling capital hours after a dramatic late-night purge of internal federal agency watchdogs, and a narrow confirmation victory for one of his most controversial cabinet picks.After visits to disaster sites in North Carolina and California, the Vegas stop was a feel-good campaign-style event for the president.A relaxed Trump laughed and joked his way through a modified version of his pre-election stump speech, including repeatedly bashing his predecessor Joe Biden.”Since I became the 47th president at noon on Monday, I’ve been moving with urgency and historic speed to fix every single calamity of the Biden administration that they’ve created,” he told cheering supporters.”This week alone, I took nearly 350 executive actions to reverse the horrible values and betrayals that we inherited from a group of people that didn’t know what the hell they were doing.”Trump won Nevada in the 2024 election — the first Republican candidate to take the state in 20 years — and he said he was back to thank voters.He pledged to follow through on a pre-election promise to make tips tax-free — an enormously popular move in a city built on the hospitality industry.The speech was in sharp contrast with his visits Friday to communities devastated by floods and wildfires, during which he threatened to shut down FEMA — the US federal disaster agency.”FEMA is incompetently run, and it costs about three times more than it should cost,” he said during a combative briefing with local politicians and firefighters in Los Angeles.The three-leg tour was Trump’s first trip outside Washington since his inauguration as president on Monday.His first week has been marked by an avalanche of daily executive orders and proclamations.Among them was the controversial pardoning of hundreds of people who took part in the assault on the Capitol in January 2021, something he told his audience — including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes — he was “very proud” to have done.Other orders ran the gamut from climate change to gender identity, and abortion access to migrant deportations.Although many of the measures will likely be challenged in court, their sheer volume and variety have laid down a marker for his second term in the White House.- New Pentagon chief sworn in -Shortly after arriving in Vegas, it emerged that Trump had sacked — with immediate effect — the independent inspectors general of at least 12 federal agencies.The late-night firing of officials charged with rooting out fraud, waste and abuse capped a series of directives widely seen as ensuring a federal bureaucracy that is acquiescent and loyal.”It’s a very common thing to do,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked about the firings later Saturday.”I don’t know them,” Trump added. “But some people though that some were unfair or some were not doing their job. It’s a very standard thing to do.”The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, described the decision as a “chilling purge”.”It’s a preview of the lawless approach Donald Trump and his administration is taking far too often,” he said.There was no immediate indication of who Trump would bring in to fill the void — or if the officials would be replaced at all. A number of legal experts said the sudden terminations could violate a federal law requiring a 30-day notice of dismissal.Trump’s first week back in the Oval Office has also been notable for confirmation hearings for his cabinet picks — some of them highly contentious.On Saturday, one of the most divisive choices — former Fox News co-host Pete Hegseth — was sworn in as defense secretary.Hegseth secured Senate confirmation as the new Pentagon chief by the narrowest of margins late Friday when a 50-50 tie was broken by Vice President JD Vance.It was only the second time in history a vice president has had to intervene to save a cabinet nominee.Three Republican senators voted against Hegseth, who has been buffeted by allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual assault and general fears about his experience and ability to lead the world’s most powerful military.The 44-year-old is a former Army National Guard officer who until recently worked as a co-host for Fox News — one of Trump’s favored television channels.

Armed troops patrolling for migrants have become a familiar sight in Eagle Pass, Texas. While President Donald Trump’s order this week declaring a “national emergency” at the Mexican border may soon result in thousands of US Army soldiers heading south, troop deployments in Eagle Pass were already boosted last year. Separated from the Mexican city of Piedras Negras by the Rio Grande, Eagle Pass had been a focal point of friction between Texas’s staunchly conservative Republican Governor Greg Abbott, a Trump ally, and former president Joe Biden’s administration. Accusing Biden of failing to protect Texas from a migrant “invasion,” Abbott sent National Guard troops to Eagle Pass. Republican governors from other states sent reinforcements. Through 2024, the center of military activity in the city has been Shelby Park, for decades a center of recreation, where families had picnics, dipped their feet in the river or went kayaking on the Rio Grande, often intermingling with their Mexican neighbors. For Eagle Pass resident Jessie Fuentes, the deployments are just a “show,” with little impact on controlling migration. It’s “only five to six miles long. Everywhere else is open, so if (Abbott) thinks that made a difference, he has no idea,” added Fuentes, who said his family has lived on the border for “over 200 years.”Massive containers now line the border, where patrolling humvees kick up dirt and troops in fan boats scan the riverbanks. – ‘A bit safer’ -On the first day of his new term, Trump moved to overhaul US border security management, with hundreds of active duty soldiers expected to immediately head to Texas, and more likely to follow. About 50 of them stopped for breakfast on Saturday in San Antonio, three hours from the border, receiving applause from other diners. Some Eagle Pass residents said the Trump reinforcements brought comfort, including 25-year-old Maria Aquado. She lives on a ranch near the border and sometimes finds people who appear to be migrants spending the night in her stables, getting some rest before journeying north. “I feel with him (Trump) sending troops this way, there would just be less activity. And yeah, I think we would feel a bit safer being in the ranch and not have to worry about who’s going to be coming through and what their intentions are,” she said. The number of US border patrol encounters with migrants crossing over from Mexico had spiked to 250,000 in December 2023, but fell to around 54,000 in September of last year. The shift was linked to tougher Biden administration immigration policies in an election year. Biden had signed an order to shut the border to asylum seekers after certain daily limits, while transit countries like Panama and Mexico had faced increased pressure from Mexico to tackle migrant flows.- ‘Twiddling their thumbs’ -Fuentes, 64, insisted that cooperation between governments was the only way to reduce migration, dismissing the effectiveness of military deployments and arguing the Texas National Guard troops should have packed up after Trump’s 2024 election win.”They started using these poor, innocent individuals (migrants) as political pawns to win an election. They won… It’s over, and now you can leave,” he said. “What are they doing, the soldiers, here? If you look at them, all they’re doing is sitting there and twiddling their thumbs.”His kayaking business has been hurt by the increased military activity on the Rio Grande. “We don’t have to put up these deterrents like barbed wire or cyclone wire or slats of fencing or soldiers with guns,” he said. Ismael Castillo, 51, conceded that migrants passing through Eagle Pass can create unease, given that some have trespassed and damaged property. But, he said, “at the end of the day they mean no harm.””They just want to better their lives and make something better for them and their families. And a lot of people don’t stay here in the border town. They usually go up north,” he said. 

The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from President Donald Trump.The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the last four months of 2024 and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of two percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Jim Bullard, the long-serving former president of the St. Louis Fed, told AFP. “I think the committee’s in very good shape right now.”The Fed’s challenge this week is how to pause and communicate a data-dependent approach to future cuts without drawing the ire of the commander-in-chief, who has expressed his desire for rates to come down. “The goal will be to make as least amount of news as possible as they pause, which is well televised,” KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk said in an interview. Financial markets saw a probability of more than 99 percent on Friday afternoon that the Fed would vote on Wednesday to hold interest rates at their current level of between 4.25 and 4.50 percent, according to data from CME Group.”Next week should be a boring start to a tumultuous year for the Fed,” JP Morgan chief US economist Michael Feroli wrote in a note to clients published Friday. – Trump’s ‘demands’ lower rates -Trump has frequently criticized the Fed, which has a dual mandate from Congress to act independently to tackle inflation and unemployment. After returning to office on Monday, he renewed his attacks on the US central bank.”I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately,” the real estate mogul-turned president said Thursday, later adding that he would “put in a strong statement” if the Fed — led by chair Jerome Powell — did not listen to his views. “I think I know interest rates much better than they do,” he added. “And I think I know certainly much better than the one who’s primarily in charge of making that decision.”Trump’s public criticism of the Fed and Powell — whom he first nominated to run the US central bank — is unusual, and runs counter to the policy pursued by most recent presidents of avoiding public criticism of the institution and its policymakers while in office.”The Fed will not front-run any policies by the new administration,” Swonk from KPMG said of the bank’s upcoming rate decision. “They will wait and see how they play out and how they actually affect the economy.”- Tariff inflation concerns ‘overplayed’ – The Fed’s expected pause comes against the backdrop of a small uptick in inflation, with a relatively robust labor market and strong economic growth. In December, Fed policymakers dialed back the number of rate cuts they expect in 2025 to a median of just two, with some incorporating assumptions about Trump’s likely economic policies into their forecasts, according to minutes of the meeting. Since returning to office on Monday, President Trump has revived his threats to impose tariffs on US trading partners including Mexico, Canada and China, and to deport millions of workers. He has also said he wants to extend expiring tax cuts, and cut red tape on energy production. Many economists see Trump’s tariffs and immigration proposals as inflationary, potentially keeping the Fed on pause for longer if they come into effect. But this is not a universally held view.”I think the story that tariffs are inflationary is overplayed in financial markets,” said Jim Bullard, who is the Dr. Samuel R. Allen Dean of the Mitch Daniels School of Business at Purdue University. “We have seen this movie before: We had the first Trump administration.” “The (economic) growth effects are actually the ones to worry about, and most of those are coming through the uncertainty channel and not through the actual effects of actual tariffs,” he added. “I do think that this will be more business-friendly administration, and they may be able to do some stuff on the deregulation side,” he said. “So that’s probably the thing could have the biggest impact.”

President Donald Trump’s threats to impose punishing tariffs on Canada and Mexico may be part of a strategy to gain leverage ahead of new negotiations on a regional trade agreement, experts said.Hours after his inauguration on Monday, Trump told reporters he may implement a 25 percent levy on all Canadian and Mexican imports starting February 1. He had previously promised to sign documents imposing the duties first day of his new term. Trade experts note that while Trump may make good on his threat, the posturing could be a way for Washington to gain an upper hand ahead of a 2026 deadline to review the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).”What’s going to happen here is, it’s just going to create a lot of pressure on the parties to come back to the negotiating table,” said Kathleen Claussen, a law professor at Georgetown University.Trump inked USMCA in 2020, during his first term. As recently as last year he called it “the best trade deal” ever made.  But on the 2024 campaign trail and since winning the November election, he has taken aim at North American trade, insisting the United States is getting a bad deal. Mexico’s auto industry has been a target, with Trump threatening 200 percent tariffs on its vehicle imports.For Canada, Trump’s recent main gripe has been a trade deficit. “We’re not going to have that anymore,” he told leaders at the World Economic Forum this week. – ‘Renegotiation’ -The United States imposing 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports would be “equally incompatible” with USMCA and World Trade Organization rules, said Columbia Law School professor Petros Mavroidis.”No one can unilaterally raise duties that have been capped unless there is a good reason to do so,” he told AFP.When Trump initially made the tariff threat after winning the election, he said the duties were necessary to force Canada and Mexico to stem the flow of migrants and illegal narcotics like fentanyl into the United States.Canada has countered that less than one percent of undocumented migrants and fentanyl that enters the United States comes through its northern border.  Mavroidis said that under existing trade rules, Washington would have to prove its case on drugs, for example, before retaliatory measures could be justified. Trade deficits are likely Trump’s primary target, Mavroidis added, noting that China and the European Union — which also have notable trade gaps with the United States — have also faced tariff threats. “In my view, he does what he does because he firmly believes that through tariffs he will reduce trade deficits and will claim victory to the American people,” said Mavroidis.Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States, said Trump may be trying to get ahead of a USMCA review in July 2026.”I think that he’s trying to force not a review, but a renegotiation,” Sarukhan said.- Autos in focus -Rather than reopening the full agreement, Sarukhan believes Trump has the rules on auto parts and vehicles in his sights.North America’s automobile industry is highly integrated, with vehicle parts crossing borders between the three countries several times during the manufacturing process.Sarukhan suggested Trump wants to address the issue of electric vehicles and China’s potential business footprint in Mexico.While China does not make a significant number of vehicles in Mexico, the possibility that it could do so or that it could export intelligent components for cars to US buyers has raised concern in Washington, he noted.It remains unclear if Canada and Mexico will agree to renegotiation. Analysts note both are major importers of US goods.About half of Canada’s imported goods came from the United States in 2023, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.Canada has also been the biggest supplier of US energy imports including crude oil, natural gas and electricity, the CRS added.Mexico is a key trading partner as well, ranking second behind China among suppliers of US imports, a separate 2023 CRS report said.But Sarukhan warned of “a real asymmetry of power” between Mexico and the United States, in particular due to its dependence on exports of US natural gas.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday threatened bounties on the heads of Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders, sharply escalating the tone as he said more Americans may be detained in the country than previously thought.The threat comes days after the Afghan Taliban government and the United States swapped prisoners in one of the final acts of former president Joe Biden.The new top US diplomat issued the harsh warning via social media, in a rhetorical style strikingly similar to his boss, President Donald Trump.”Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported,” Rubio wrote on X.”If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on bin Laden,” he said, referring to the Al-Qaeda leader killed by US forces in 2011.Rubio did not describe who the other Americans may be, but there have long been accounts of missing Americans whose cases were not formally taken up by the US government as wrongful detentions.In the deal with the Biden administration, the Taliban freed the best-known American detained in Afghanistan, Ryan Corbett, who had been living with his family in the country and was seized in August 2022.Also freed was William McKenty, an American about whom little information has been released.The United States in turn freed Khan Mohammed, who was serving a life sentence in a California prison.Mohammed was convicted of trafficking heroin and opium into the United States and was accused of seeking rockets to kill US troops in Afghanistan.The United States offered a bounty of $25 million for information leading to the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden shortly after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, with Congress later authorizing the secretary of state to offer up to $50 million.No one is believed to have collected the bounty for bin Laden, who was killed in a US raid in Pakistan.- Harder line on Taliban? -Trump is known for brandishing threats in his speeches and on social media. But he is also a critic of US military interventions overseas and in his second inaugural address Monday said he aspired to be a “peacemaker.” In his first term, the Trump administration broke a then-taboo and negotiated directly with the Taliban — with Trump even proposing a summit with the then-insurgents at the Camp David presidential retreat — as he brokered a deal to pull US troops and end America’s longest war.Biden carried out the agreement, with the Western-backed government swiftly collapsing and the Taliban retaking power in August 2021 just after US troops left. The scenes of chaos in Kabul brought strong criticism of Biden, especially when 13 American troops and scores of Afghans died in a suicide bombing at the city’s airport. The Biden administration had low-level contacts with Taliban government representatives but made little headway. Some members of Trump’s Republican Party criticized even the limited US engagements with the Taliban government and especially the humanitarian assistance authorized by the Biden administration, which insisted the money was for urgent needs in the impoverished country and never routed through the Taliban.Rubio on Friday froze nearly all US aid around the world.No country has officially recognized the Taliban government, which has imposed severe restrictions on women and girls under its ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam. The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Thursday said he was seeking arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders over the persecution of women.

Donald Trump has long ranted against wind energy — claiming turbines are unsightly, dangerous to wildlife and too expensive — with him threatening to upend decades of industry progress just a few hours after resuming power.”We’re not going to do the wind thing,” Trump said Monday as he returned to the Oval Office for the first time in four years as commander-in-chief.”Big, ugly windmills,” he said as he signed a series of executive orders that has brought the sector into crisis, adding that “they kill your birds, and they ruin your beautiful landscape.”Among the measures were a temporary freeze on federal permitting and loans for all offshore and onshore wind projects.Jason Grumet, president of the American Clean Power Association (ACP), quickly slammed the move, saying it “increases bureaucratic barriers, undermining domestic energy development and harming American businesses and workers.”After the announcements, wind-related stocks fell into the red.”It’s had a real cooling effect on the sector,” Elizabeth Wilson, an offshore wind specialist at Dartmouth University, told AFP.Conflict-weary developers are already “backing away from some of these projects,” she said.Coming at the same time as he has declared a “national energy emergency,” some observers have noted a contradiction in Trump’s assault on wind energy.Though not as robust as in Europe, wind energy in 2023 accounted for some 10 percent of US electricity production — more than twice as much as solar.Onshore wind power is also relatively inexpensive, according to experts, with the price per megawatt-hour ranging from $27 to $73 in 2024, far less than nuclear or coal — though rates could fluctuate in the future.Ember, an energy think tank, warned on Thursday that the United States “risks being left behind in the clean industrial revolution” as major economies such as China are increasingly “embracing wind as a source of cheap, clean electricity.”It remains to be seen what the longterm effects of Trump’s actions will have on the sector, which has already faced struggles in the United States in recent years due to rising costs from inflation and interest rates, along with mounting local opposition to projects.The offshore wind industry, still in its infancy in the United States, is likely to be the hardest hit, according to Wilson, as the majority of exploitable marine areas are in federal waters subject to Trump’s measures.However, “most of the onshore development happens on private lands where the federal government doesn’t really have any control,” she added.- ‘I don’t want even one built’ -Days before taking office, Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform: “I don’t want even one (windmill) built during my Administration.”That pledge has seriously spooked the sector, which is worried he could permanently block subsidies or the environmental approvals needed for certain projects.Such moves would likely be challenged in court and prompt political backlash.”Ninety-nine percent of onshore wind power projects are on private lands, and the private landowners generally like these wind farms, and they get a lot of economic benefit from them,” said Michigan Technological University professor emeritus Barry Solomon.He noted that the projects are also largely in Republican-led states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas and the Dakotas.The ACP also warned that restricting wind development would “increase consumer energy bills.”Despite the headwinds, some experts remain optimistic.”Ultimately… the economics is driving the desire for wind and solar,” said University of Delaware professor Jeremy Firestone.With artificial intelligence, he added, energy needs “are increasing a great deal. So there’s going to be a lot of pressure to continue to build out wind turbines.”

Britain’s Labour government hopes to stay in US President Donald Trump’s good books by mobilising the royal family and a former spin doctor dubbed the “Prince of Darkness”.Trump’s affection for his mother’s ancestral home, Scotland, where he owns two golf resorts, and a mooted second state visit to the UK could also help maintain good relations, observers say.”He’s liable to be buttered up, right? So anything you can throw at him (will help),” Steven Fielding, a politics professor at the University of Nottingham, told AFP.From the Russia-Ukraine war and possible trade tariffs to differences over climate change and China, the US-UK “special relationship” looks set for a rollercoaster ride over the next four years.Trump’s unpredictable nature threatens to derail UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s overarching ambition for his premiership — to fire up Britain’s anaemic post-Brexit, post-Covid economy.Added to the mix are unflattering comments about Trump made by senior Labour figures in the past, and recent verbal attacks on Starmer by Trump ally Elon Musk, the world’s richest man.- Charm offensive -Now a British charm offensive is under way, highlighted by Buckingham Palace revealing on Monday that King Charles III had sent a personal message of congratulations to Trump on his second inauguration.Trump is known to be a big fan of the royal family. Heir-to-the-throne Prince William was dispatched to Paris last month, where he chatted with Trump on the sidelines of the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral.”A good man, this one!” Trump said of William, adding: “He’s doing a fantastic job” as the prince laughed.The Times reported this week that senior royals were being lined up to visit the United States to boost relations with Trump. That may be in 2026, when America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of its declaration of independence.The late Queen Elizabeth II hosted Trump and his wife Melania in 2019, when they were last in the White House, and the British government may be tempted to roll out the red carpet for another state visit.Trump’s son Eric has already said his golf-mad father plans to visit Scotland this summer for the opening of a new golf course at his club near the northeastern city of Aberdeen. Trump’s mother Mary Anne MacLeod was from the northwestern Isle of Lewis.- ‘Trump respects power’ -Crucial to smooth relations with the Trump administration will likely be Peter Mandelson. His work as Labour’s director of communications in the 1980s helped set the party on its way to three consecutive election wins under then prime minister Tony Blair.The UK government has nominated him as its next ambassador to the US, although Trump still needs to approve the appointment, and there is speculation that he could block it.Mandelson is renowned for his powers of persuasion and, as a former European commissioner for trade, would bring considerable deal-making experience to Washington.”What Trump respects is power and he will know that Mandelson is obviously a powerful player within British politics,” Patrick Diamond, a special adviser to Mandelson when Labour was last in government, told AFP.Centre-left Labour has spent recent months trying to build bridges with the US Republican’s team. Senior figures have love-bombed Trump with compliments to try and atone for previous unflattering comments.Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who once called Trump a “tyrant in a toupee”, this week praised his “incredible grace”, recalling a dinner he and Starmer had had with Trump in New York in September.”I think strategically they have to (row back) because Trump isn’t a particularly forgiving man,” said Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group think tank.The British government has been noticeably careful not to criticise Trump’s first moves since he returned to the White House on Monday.Starmer’s official spokesman refused to condemn Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization — entities the UK supports.It remains to be seen how long the UK government can maintain that silence.Fielding noted that it was probably going to have to “live through a lot of degrading rhetoric”.”I think holding of tongues is what it will be,” Aspinall told AFP.”Even if we’re using diplomatic channels to persuade, our outward front will always be quite smiling and constructive,” she added.Fielding reckoned the British government should stress the “mutual benefits” of UK-US cooperation. It should put its case “as clearly and as transactionally as possible”, he said.”Don’t be craven. Don’t let him bully you. Just play it straight.”