Politics
Afghan earthquake survivors refuse to return to villages, fearing landslides
- Survivors camp outdoors fearing aftershocks, lack tents.
- More than 2,200 dead, helicopters delivered aid.
- Children face trauma, disease risks.
Haunted by the fear that aftershocks could bring rocks crashing down from the mountains, the survivors of Afghan earthquakes vowed not to return to destroyed villages but camp in fields and on riverbanks instead, even without tents to keep off the rain.
“We have no shelter, not even a tent,” said 67-year-old farmer Adam Khan, leaning on a stick outside his ruined home in the village of Masud in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Kunar, devastated last week by earthquakes and subsequent aftershocks.
“It rained last night, we had no place to take cover,” he added. “Our biggest fear is the big rocks that could come down at any moment.”
Two earthquakes on September 1 killed more than 2,200 people and injured over 3,600 across the region, flattening thousands of homes, while aftershocks brought fresh landslides, leaving families trapped between unstable mountains and swollen rivers.
Aid groups sped in food and supplies by helicopter, but survivors say help is patchy and slow.
Afghanistan’s poverty and inadequate infrastructure maroon many villages hours from the nearest road, while most homes, built of mud and stone, crumbled instantly in the tremors.
Families cluster in makeshift camps dotting the area. In the village of Shaheedan, farmer Shams-ur-Rahman, 40, said he lost six relatives and fled with his family of nine. Now they sit in the open beside a road, flanked by their few possessions.
“The tents they gave us cannot even accommodate our children,” he said. “On the way down from the mountain, I had no shoes for my son, so I shared mine with him in turns as we walked down.”
For some, the displacement looks set to be permanent. In the harsh glare of the sun, Gul Ahmad, 51, stood beside his relatives, the women of his family crouched in the shade of a wall as their pop-up tents flapped in the dust nearby.
“Even if there is no earthquake, a simple rainfall could bring rocks crashing down on us,” he said. “We will not go back. The government must provide us with a place.”
Without sufficient shelter, sanitation and food, the trauma will spread disease and poverty in one of the world’s poorest and most quake-prone nations, international aid agencies say.
Some of the worst affected are children. Twelve-year-old Sadiq was pulled out alive after being trapped for 11 hours under rubble, in which his grandmother and a cousin were killed beside him.
“I thought I would die,” he said, sitting quietly on a rope bed as cousins and uncles milled around the family’s shelter. “It felt like doomsday.”
WASHINGTON: Air travel turmoil deepened with more than 4,300 flights delayed nationwide on Monday following more than 8,800 delays on Sunday, with air traffic controller absences surging as the federal government shutdown reached its 27th day.
The Federal Aviation Administration cited staffing shortages affecting flights across the Southeast and at Newark Airport in New Jersey, while the agency imposed a ground stop at Austin Airport in Texas and a ground delay program at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport that delayed flights by an average of 18 minutes.
Southwest Airlines LUV.N had 47%, or 2,089, of its flights delayed on Sunday, while American Airlines AAL.O had 1,277, or 36%, of its flights delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website. United Airlines UAL.O had 27%, or 807, of its flights delayed and Delta Air Lines DAL.N had 21%, or 725, of its flights delayed.
Roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers must work without pay. The Trump administration has warned that flight disruptions will increase as controllers miss their first full paycheck on Tuesday.
On Monday, Southwest had 24% of flights delayed, American 18% and Delta 13% as of 5:00 p.m. ET (2100 GMT), according to FlightAware.
A US Department of Transportation official said 44% of Sunday’s delays stemmed from controller absences — up sharply from the usual 5%.
The mounting delays and cancellations are fueling public frustration and intensifying scrutiny of the shutdown’s impact, raising pressure on lawmakers to resolve the budget impasse.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was in Cleveland meeting with controllers on Monday, while the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union plans events at numerous airports on Tuesday to highlight the first missed paycheck.
The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels and many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown.
In 2019, during a 35-day shutdown, the number of absences by controllers and TSA officers rose as workers missed paychecks, extending wait times at some airport checkpoints. Authorities were forced to slow air traffic in New York and Washington.
- US-backed plan aims to stabilise fragile Gaza ceasefire.
- Israel rejects Turkish troop participation under Trump’s plan.
- Netanyahu says Tel Aviv will decide which forces enter Gaza.
The Israeli lawmakers have been told that troops from Pakistan would likely be part of the international force in Gaza, alongside soldiers from Indonesia and Azerbaijan, a media report claimed.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee members were told during a closed-door briefing last week, according to a report in the Ynet news site.
It further stated that a US-backed international force to stabilise security in Gaza will include soldiers from the three Muslim countries.
Furthermore, Indonesia has publicly offered to send troops for the effort, whereas Azerbaijan had also agreed to contribute soldiers, The Times of Israel reported.
US President Donald Trump’s plan includes an international force in Gaza to help secure a fragile ceasefire, which began this month, halting two years of war between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Israel said earlier today that it won’t accept the presence of Turkish armed forces in Gaza under a US plan to end the war in the Palestinian territory for good.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said today that Israel has not surrendered its right to self-defence as part of the agreement brokered by Washington, Egypt and Qatar.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tel Aviv would decide which foreign forces to allow in Gaza.
But it remains unclear whether Arab and other states will be ready to commit troops to the international force.
While the Trump administration has ruled out sending US soldiers into the Gaza Strip, it has been speaking to Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and Azerbaijan to contribute to the multinational force.
— Additional input from Reuters
- Rubio meets Jaishankar as US–India push trade talks.
- Highest-level contact since sanctions on Russian oil firms.
- Meeting sidelines Southeast Asian summit in Malaysia.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with India’s foreign minister on Monday, as the two countries push trade talks and ease tensions over Washington’s punishing tariffs.
Few details were released, but Rubio’s meeting with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is the highest-level contact since the United States imposed sanctions last week on Russian oil companies, a key source of India’s crude supplies.
Jaishankar posted a photograph on social media showing him smiling and shaking hands with Rubio, saying he “appreciated the discussion on our bilateral ties as well as regional and global issues”.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Malaysia, which US President Donald Trump attended in person and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed by video link.
Relations between Washington and New Delhi plummeted in August after Trump raised tariffs to 50%, with US officials accusing India of fuelling Russia’s war in Ukraine by buying Moscow’s discounted oil.
Trump, who spoke to Modi last week by telephone, has claimed that the Indian leader has agreed to cut Russian oil imports — something New Delhi has not commented on.
Trump warned that New Delhi would continue paying “massive” tariffs if it did not stop buying Russian oil.
“I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Asked about India’s assertion that it was not aware of any conversation between Modi and Trump, Trump replied: “But if they want to say that, then they’ll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don’t want to do that.”
India has become the biggest buyer of seaborne Russian oil sold at a discount after Western nations shunned purchases and imposed sanctions on Moscow for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
India’s foreign ministry said it was not aware of any telephone conversation between the leaders that day, but said that New Delhi’s main concern was to “safeguard the interests of the Indian consumer”.
— With additional input from Reuters
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