Politics
Afghanistan airdrops commandos to rescue quake survivors
- Toll stands at 1,457 deaths, 3,394 injuries.
- WFP warns food aid will run out in four weeks.
- Entire households wiped out.
Afghanistan airdropped commandos on Wednesday to pull survivors from the rubble in areas ravaged by earthquakes that have killed more than 1,400 this week, as a UN agency warned that food aid for victims would run out soon without urgent funding.
Dozens of commando forces were being airdropped at sites where helicopters cannot land, to help carry the injured to safer ground, in what aid groups said was a race against time to rescue those still stuck under rubble.
Time was also running out for those who survived the two devastating quakes in the remote eastern region of the impoverished country, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Wednesday.
John Aylieff, the head of WFP in Afghanistan, told Reuters that the agency only has enough funding and stocks for the next four weeks.
“Four weeks is just not enough even to meet the basic, essential needs of the population struck by the earthquake, let alone put the victims on a path back to rebuilding their lives,” Aylieff said.
WFP funding for Afghanistan this year is just under $300 million, according to UN financial data, down from $1.7 billion in 2022, the first full year the country was ruled by the Taliban.
Resources for rescue and relief work are tight in the nation of 42 million people hit by war, poverty and shrinking aid. It has received limited global help after the disaster.
The first earthquake of magnitude-6, one of Afghanistan’s deadliest in recent years, unleashed widespread damage and destruction when it struck the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar around midnight on Sunday at a shallow depth of 10km.
A second quake of magnitude-5.5 on Tuesday evening caused panic and interrupted rescue efforts as it sent rocks sliding down mountains and cut off roads to villages in remote areas.
The toll stands at 1,457 deaths, 3,394 injuries and more than 6,700 destroyed homes, the Taliban administration said. The UN has said the toll could rise, with people still trapped under rubble.
Authorities have set up a camp to coordinate supplies and emergency aid, while two centres were overseeing transfer of the injured, burial of the dead and the rescue of survivors, Ehsanullah Ehsan, the head of disaster management in Kunar, said in a text message.
“What we really need is air support, helicopters. Tragically WFP had a helicopter … until a few months ago when funding cuts put an end to that,” Aylieff said.
Afghanistan has been badly hit by US President Donald Trump’s funding cuts to foreign aid, while donor frustration over the Taliban’s restrictive policies towards women and curbs on aid workers have worsened its isolation.
Entire households wiped out
In some villages in Kunar province, entire households were wiped out. Survivors sifted through rubble looking for families, carried bodies on woven stretchers and dug graves with pickaxes.
In Lulam village, one of the hardest-hit, Darbar, a 63-year-old woman who goes by one name, said she and her family had been waiting for aid for three days since the earthquake destroyed their house.
“No one even hears our voices,” she said, perched on a traditional wood-and-rope bed, adding that she had been injured on the chest. “Now we are just sitting with hope in God. We have no house, nothing to eat.”
On the nearby mountain road, trucks carrying sacks of flour or men with shovels could be seen on their way to villages even worse hit.
Ruhila Mateen from Aseel, a humanitarian tech platform that has teams on the ground, said conditions were worsening by the hour for survivors, with women and children especially vulnerable.
Flimsy or poorly-built homes made of dry masonry, stone and timber gave little protection from the quakes, in ground left unstable by days of heavy rain, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The agency, which is pulling together the global disaster effort, called for emergency shelter, food assistance and sanitation facilities, along with drinking water, critical medical supplies and other items.
An official of international group Doctors without Borders (MSF), which distributed trauma kits at two hospitals in the affected areas, also called for more humanitarian assistance.
Afghanistan is prone to deadly earthquakes, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountain range, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has revealed plans to build a massive new ballroom at the White House, marking one of the biggest changes to the presidential residence in more than a century.
Construction crews have already started tearing down part of the East Wing to make way for the grand project, which the US president says will be “big, beautiful, and built to last for generations.”
A mechanical excavator had ripped through the façade of the East Wing, leaving a tangle of broken masonry, rubble and steel wires, AFP journalists at the scene saw.
Republican Trump said, as he hosted college baseball players at the White House on Monday, that “right on the other side you have a lot of construction that you might hear occasionally.”
The 79-year-old billionaire later officially announced that work had started on the ballroom, the biggest addition to the US presidential mansion in more than a century.
“I am pleased to announce that ground has been broken on the White House grounds to build the new, big, beautiful White House Ballroom,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.
Trump said the East Wing was being “fully modernised as part of this process, and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!”
The East Wing is where US first ladies have traditionally had their offices. The president works in the West Wing, and the couple live in the Executive Mansion.
‘Generous Patriots’
But while Trump said that the East Wing is “completely separate from the White House itself,” it is, in fact, physically joined to the main mansion by a covered colonnade.
Trump says the new 90,000-square-foot ballroom with a capacity of 1,000 people is needed to host large state dinners and other events that currently have to be held in a tent.
The former reality TV star held a glitzy dinner at the White House last week for donors to the ballroom.
The guests included representatives from tech firms like Amazon, Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft and Palantir, and defence giant Lockheed Martin — all companies with significant contracts or other dealings with the government.
They also included twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the founders of crypto platform Gemini, who were made famous as jilted investors in the film The Social Network about the birth of Facebook.
“The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly. This Ballroom will be happily used for generations to come!” he said on Monday.
It is the largest part of the huge makeover Trump has given the White House since returning to power in January, including covering the Oval Office with gold décor and paving over the Rose Garden.
Trump has also unveiled plans for a huge triumphal arch in Washington, which was dubbed the “Arc de Trump” after AFP first revealed the proposal.
ABU DHABI: At least Nine Arab nationals have been referred to the court in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over allegations of kidnapping and blackmail stemming from a financial dispute.
Authorities said the suspects detained a victim for a week, assaulted him, and recorded footage showing him bound and in a compromising state. The video was later circulated on social media in an attempt to extort money from his family.
The UAE Federal Public Prosecution said the suspects were swiftly arrested. Investigators also seized mobile phones and vehicles used in the crime, uncovering evidence that pointed to the gang’s coordinated criminal operations.
Officials said the gang operated in a highly coordinated manner and posed a direct threat to public safety and law and order. The accused face severe penalties, including life imprisonment or the death sentence.
UAE Attorney General Dr Hamad Saif Al Shamsi stressed that national security and stability remained the highest priority.
He confirmed that the Public Prosecution would continue to take strict and impartial action against anyone committing crimes that threaten public peace or the nation’s security.
- Tehran confirms scrapping nuclear monitoring deal with IAEA.
- Development follows reimposition of UN sanctions last month.
- Iran may review fresh IAEA proposals despite deal’s cancellation.
DUBAI: Iran has called off its nuclear cooperation deal with the UN’s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it signed in September, the country’s state media reported, citing its Supreme National Security Council Secretary on Monday.
The decision comes after Western powers reimposed UN sanctions on Tehran. The move is seen as another blow to efforts aimed at rebuilding trust and monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities.
The statement came around three weeks after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said Tehran would scrap the agreement, which allowed the IAEA to resume inspections of its nuclear sites, if Western powers reinstated UN sanctions.
Those were reinstated last month.
The confirmation will be a setback for the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been trying to rebuild cooperation with Tehran since Israel and the United States bombed the nuclear sites in June.
“The agreement has been cancelled,” Ali Larijani said while meeting his Iraqi counterpart in Tehran, according to state media.
“Of course, if the agency has a proposal, we will review it in the secretariat,” he added.
New US port-fee regime targeting China fails to achieve targets: AAFA
Lions knock Bucs out of first in NFC behind Jahmyr Gibbs’ big night
Trade talks about ‘hard yards’ rather than photo opportunities, says Starmer
-
Tech1 week agoAustralian airline Qantas says millions of customers’ data leaked online
-
Tech1 week agoUK police to upgrade illicit asset recovery system | Computer Weekly
-
Tech4 days agoWhy the F5 Hack Created an ‘Imminent Threat’ for Thousands of Networks
-
Tech6 days agoWhat Is Google One, and Should You Subscribe?
-
Entertainment1 week agoKaty Perry and Justin Trudeau are dating: Report
-
Entertainment1 week agoVictoria Beckham thinks Brooklyn Beckham is fed up with Nicola Peltz drama?
-
Business1 week agoEnvironment minister Bhupender Yadav heads to Brazil: India engages in pre-talks ahead of COP30; climate finance and adaptation on agenda – The Times of India
-
Sports1 week agoUSMNT’s second half vs. Ecuador gives positives for Pochettino