WASHINGTON: Vacationing in India, engineer Amrutha Tamanam rushed to return to the United States after Donald Trump abruptly announced a $100,000 fee for the visa she holds.

As she scrambled to get back to the country she’s called home for a decade, racially motivated far-right trolls launched coordinated efforts to disrupt flight bookings from India, calling their campaign “clog the toilet.”

The White House would later clarify that the new H-1B fee was a one-time payment not applicable to current holders. But leading US companies had already advised their employees abroad to swiftly return to avoid the fee or risk being stranded overseas.

Tamanam, an Austin-based software engineer, began searching for a flight from the city of Vijayawada, as users on the far-right message board 4chan moved to overwhelm reservation systems, in a bid to block Indian visa holders from booking tickets.

One 4chan thread encouraged users to find India-US flights, “initiate the checkout process”, but “don’t check out,” thereby clogging the system and preventing the visa holders from reaching the United States before the announcement took effect.

The campaign may have had a direct impact on Tamanam, who encountered repeated crashes on airline websites. The checkout page, which typically allows users a window of a few minutes, timed out much faster.

After multiple attempts, she eventually managed to rebook a one-way ticket to Dallas on Qatar Airways, spending around $2,000 — more than double the cost of her original round-trip fare.

“It was hard for me to book a ticket, and I paid a huge fare for the panic travel,” Tamanam told AFP.

‘Keep them in India’

The 4chan thread — which also circulated among far-right Trump supporters on Telegram and other fringe forums — read: “Indians are just waking up after the H1B news. Want to keep them in India? Clog the flight reservation system!”

Responding posts, many riddled with racist slurs, advised users to hold seats for popular India-US routes on airline websites and booking platforms — without completing the purchase.

The stated goal was to block availability on high-demand flights, making it harder to find available seats and inflating prices.

Illustrating the scale of the operation, one 4chan user posted a screenshot of their browser and claimed: “I got 100 seats locked.”

“Currently clogging the last available seat on this Delhi to Newark flight,” another wrote.

Several 4chan users also posted about holding up seats on Air India and slowing the airline’s website. However, an Air India spokesperson told AFP the site experienced no disruptions, with systems operating normally.

‘Shared antipathy’

Though it was difficult to measure the campaign’s overall effectiveness, the trolling was an attempt to “cause panic among H-1B visa holders,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told AFP.

“The real scary thing about 4chan is its ability to radicalise people into extremist beliefs,” Beirich said, adding that several US mass shooters had published manifestos to the site.

H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialised skills — such as scientists and computer programmers — to work in the United States, initially for three years but extendable to six.

The United States awards 85,000 H-1B visas per year on a lottery system, with India accounting for around three-quarters of the recipients.

In an age of information warfare, the troll operation illustrates how bad actors can launch disruptive attacks “with the stroke of a keyboard,” said Brian Levin, founder of the Centre for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

“As nationalistic politics takes hold across the world, an informal international association of opponents will use an array of aggressive tools, including the internet,” Levin told AFP.

“What I think is so relevant is how rapidly it spread, how diverse the nations represented were, and how shared antipathy across international borders can be mobilised online.”

NEW JERSEY:  Dr Maryam Shoukat, a 27-year-old Pakistani doctor pursuing her residency in the United States, passed away today just 30 minutes before her scheduled liver transplant. 

She had been admitted in critical condition with acute liver failure. Dr Maryam had travelled to US with the dream of serving humanity, but her life was cut short before she could realise that goal.

Earlier this month, Maryam was admitted to Rutgers University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, after her liver suddenly failed. Her condition rapidly deteriorated, and doctors made it clear that an urgent liver transplant was the only way to save her life. 

In this critical situation, her husband, Dr Hamza Zafar, reached out to APPNA (Association of Physicians of Pakistani descent of North America) for help.

APPNA immediately launched an emergency fundraising campaign, raising $273,000 within just one day, and said the total had now reached close to $400,000.

This extraordinary response led the hospital to reduce the total transplant cost from $900,000 to $450,000. APPNA quickly paid $100,000 to the hospital, allowing Dr Maryam’s name to be officially placed on the transplant list. A matching donor liver was also found soon after.

According to APPNA’s General Secretary, Dr Muhammad Sanaullah and Dr A. Fazal Akbar, the organisation’s President, Dr Humera Qamar, along with Dr Zeeshan, Dr Babar Rao, Dr Fateh Shehzad, and Dr Siddique Khurram, played vital roles in this life-saving effort. 

They shared that all members came together with the hope of saving a life that, once recovered, would go on to save many more through her service as a doctor.

Tragically, just as Dr Maryam was about to be taken to the operating room for the transplant today, her condition suddenly worsened, and she passed away only thirty minutes before the procedure.

APPNA leaders expressed deep sorrow, saying that Dr Maryam Shoukat’s journey was a story of sacrifice, courage, and hope. She came to heal others, but in her final days, she needed healing herself.

NEW YORK: Without naming the United States, Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang has warned Washington of the dangers of imposing civilisational superiority, unilateralism and tariff on the world.

In his speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Li Qiang said: “A major cause of the current global economic doldrums is the rise in unilateral and protectionist measures, such as tariff hikes and erection of walls and barriers. Ultimately everyone will be worse off”.

Li Qiang urged for collaborative approach in expanding convergence of interests and promote inclusive economic globalisation.

He equally stressed for the interaction among civilisations by saying that obsession with so-called “civilisational superiority” or ideology-based circles only breeds more division and confrontation.

“We Chinese people often say, ‘a single flower does not make spring; one hundred flowers in full blossom bring spring to the garden’,” Li Qiang told the august gathering.

Li Qiang equally highlighted China’s flagship Belt and Road initiative with over 150 countries and Beijing’s role in international cooperation on sci-tech innovation, sharing technologies like 5G and AI to promote global development.

He reminded the Trump administration that, “China has consistently opened its door wider to the world. It has lowered its overall tariff level to 7.3% and remained the world’s second largest importer for 16 consecutive years”.

These remarks were made at a time when in mid-September President Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jingping had exchanged views over a telephonic conversation about the new tariff imposed on Beijing.

Xi had apprised President Trump that: “The US side should refrain from imposing unilateral trade restrictions so as not to disrupt the outcomes of multiple rounds of consultation between the two sides. The US side needs to provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese investors”.

China seems to be creating a parallel platform or the so-called non-discriminatory environment for the world.

At Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Tianjin Summit, President Xi had proposed Global Governance Initiative. It highlighted, “The principles of adhering to sovereign equality, abiding by international rule of law, practicing multilateralism, advocating the people-centred approach and focusing on taking real actions”.

He had earlier outlined the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilisation Initiative and established the International Organisation for Mediation together with over 30 countries.

Meanwhile, China has emerged as an economic giant. The key to its success lies in innovation and resilience.

In the first half of the current year, China’s GDP has grown by 5.3% year-on-year, and the annual target of 5% is expected to be achieved.

From Deepseek model to robot marathons, China has shocked the world in almost every field. The advancement in agricultural machinery has enabled Chinese rice and wheat growers to produce up to “600 kilogrammes of crops per minute”.

Deep-ocean drilling vessels Mengxiang is enabled to drill up to 11,000 metres to explore the hidden treasures of the oceans.

In the Taklimakan Desert, Shenditake 1 Well has reached a depth of 10,910 metres, making it the Asia’s deepest vertical well.

The aviation and space industry is also booming. China has delivered 22, C919, passenger aircrafts and Tianzhou-9 spacecraft has completed a space delivery in just three hours.

The Fuxing CR450 train operates at a speed of 400 kilometres per hour. It has reduced the travel time from Beijing to Shanghai to just two and a half hours.

Pakistan is also benefitting from his “Iron brother”. In their recent visits to China, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has signed a number of memoranda of understandings.

During PM’s recent visit, China agreed to launch a high-speed train in Pakistan as well. The project may cost $9.85 billion.

Addressing a reception in celebration of the 76th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, Consul General Yang Yundong said that both countries are working to build an even closer China-Pakistan Community.

“The ‌all-weather strategic cooperative partnership‌ between China and Pakistan has gained stronger momentum, richer substance, and brighter prospects”, remarked Yang Yundong.

A testament to this statement is the ‌China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)‌ which is accelerating its transition to a ‌”2.0 upgraded version.

Yang Yundong said.”‌China is willing to take CPEC as a guiding framework, focusing on three key areas —‌ industry, agriculture, and mining, advance mutually beneficial cooperation in ‌industrial parks, connectivity, and high-tech sectors‌. We will also facilitate the export of more high-quality Pakistani products to China”.

He further said that, “China will also strengthen ‌counterterrorism and security cooperation‌ with Pakistan, supporting ‌Pakistan’s counterterrorism capacity building‌, to create a ‌favourable environment‌ for Pakistan’s development and China-Pakistan cooperation”.

Everything aside, China’s support in the recent Pakistan-India war is enough to remind Pakistan that a friend in need is a friend indeed.