WASHINGTON: The United States on Saturday condemned a “senseless” attack in the Afghan capital Kabul, which saw an explosives-laden ambulance blow up in a crowded area killing nearly 100 people.
In a statement, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insisted there can be “no tolerance for those who support or offer sanctuary to terrorist groups.”
“The Taliban’s use of an ambulance as a weapon to target civilians represents inhumane disregard for the people of Afghanistan and all those working to bring peace to the country,” he said, adding the attack breached “the most basic international norms.”
“All countries who support peace in Afghanistan have an obligation to take decisive action to stop the Taliban’s campaign of violence.”
Although Tillerson did not name any specific countries, Washington has repeatedly accused Pakistan of neglect in cracking down on militant groups such as the Taliban or their Haqqani allies.
President Donald Trump lashed out at Pakistan in early January, denouncing Islamabad’s “lies” and “deceit” in the fight against terrorism — with the US suspending hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance.
US condemns ‘senseless’ Kabul ambulance attack
US condemns ‘senseless’ Kabul ambulance attack
Russian missile attack kills two, injures 28 in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih
- Kryvyi Rih, home town of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has been a frequent target since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago
A Russian missile smashed into a hotel in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih late on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring 28, the regional governor said.
Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, said on the Telegram messaging app that a child was among the injured. Several people were seriously hurt, he said.
Ukraine’s Emergency Services, also posting on Telegram, said 14 people had been rescued from rubble at the hotel which suffered heavy damage.
They posted pictures of crews making their way through piles of rubble outside the floodlit five-story building and clambering up and down ladders.
Smoke billowed from the top of the hotel and virtually all its windows had been blown out. A crane was deployed to reach upper levels.
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s military administration, said rescue operations proceeded through the night.
Kryvyi Rih, home town of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has been a frequent target since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Hundreds of US diplomats join letter to Rubio to protest dismantling of USAID
- “The freeze on life-saving aid has already caused irreparable harm and suffering to millions of people around the world,” the letter says
WASHINGTON: Hundreds of diplomats at the State Department and US Agency for International Development have written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio protesting the dismantling of USAID, saying its dismantling undermines US leadership and security and leaves power vacuums for China and Russia to fill.
In a cable expected to be filed with the department’s internal “dissent channel,” which allows diplomats to raise concerns about policy anonymously, the diplomats said the Trump administration’s January 20 freeze on almost all foreign aid also endangers American diplomats and forces overseas while putting at risk the lives of millions abroad that depend on US assistance.
More than 700 people have signed onto the letter, a US official speaking on the condition of anonymity said.
“The decision to freeze and terminate foreign aid contracts and assistance awards without any meaningful review jeopardizes our partnerships with key allies, erodes trust, and creates openings for adversaries to expand their influence,” said the cable, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
The Republican president, pursuing what he has called an “America First” agenda, ordered a 90-day pause on all foreign aid on his January 20 return to office. The order halted USAID operations around the world, jeopardizing delivery of life-saving food and medical aid, and throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.
“The freeze on life-saving aid has already caused irreparable harm and suffering to millions of people around the world,” the letter said, adding that despite statements on waivers being issued for life-saving programs, the funding remained shut.
The president tasked billionaire and adviser Elon Musk with dismantling USAID as part of an unprecedented push to shrink the federal government over what both say is wasteful spending and abuse of funds.
“Foreign assistance is not charity. Instead, it is a strategic tool that stabilizes regions, prevents conflict, and advances US interests,” the letter said.
A State Department spokesperson, when asked about the cable, said: “We do not comment on leaked internal communication.”
In fiscal year 2023, the United States disbursed $72 billion of aid worldwide, on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS trea“The freeze on life-saving aid has already caused irreparable harm and suffering to millions of people around the world,” the letter satments, energy security and anti-corruption work.
Upon evaluating 6,200 multi-year awards, the administration decided to eliminate nearly 5,800 of them worth $54 billion in value, a 92 percent reduction, according to a State Department spokesperson. USAID fired or put on administrative leave thousands of staff and contractors.
The cable said the government’s failure to pay outstanding invoices to contractors and implementing partners has severe economic repercussions.
“The resulting financial strain not only undermines confidence in the US government as a reliable partner, it also weakens domestic economic growth at a time of mounting global competition,” the cable said.
Organizations and companies that contract with USAID last month sued the administration, calling the dismantling of the agency unlawful and saying funding had been cut off for existing contracts, including hundreds of millions of dollars for work that is already done.
The US Supreme Court declined on Wednesday to let the administration withhold payments to foreign aid organizations for work they already performed for the government, upholding a district judge’s order that had called on the administration to promptly release payments to contractors.
Turkiye to build wall on Greece border
- The barrier is aimed at preventing migrants crossing into EU member states
ISTANBUL: Turkiye plans to build an 8.5-km wall on its western border where neighbors Greece and Bulgaria have already erected their own fences, a local governor said.
The barrier is aimed at preventing migrants crossing into EU member states.
Turkiye has in the past built walls on its border with Iran and Syria.
“For the first time we will take physical security measures this year on our western border,” Yunus Sezer, governor of Edirne in northwestern Turkiye, said.
The governor said that initially an 8.5-km wall was planned, adding it could be extended.
“We will start from the border with Greece and from there, God willing, it will continue in the upcoming period depending on the situation,” he added.
Turkiye shares a 200-km frontier with Greece and the border is separated along the Evros River, called Meric in Turkish.
In 2012, Greece built two 3-meter tall, barbed wire barriers along 11 km of its frontier with Turkiye, which has previously been mined.
It later tripled the length of the fence, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis vowing to extend it to more than 100 km by 2026.
In 2014 Bulgaria put up a 30-kilometer razor wire fence along its border with Turkiye as migrants flocked there to avoid the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing.
Four years later the fence was extended to cover almost all of the 259-km border.
US House starts reprimand of Democrat Al Green for disrupting Trump speech
- Green is facing a House censure resolution for yelling at the president, waiving his black cane and refusing to sit down during Trump’s Tuesday night speech
- Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon unfurled a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag as Trump spoke about the country’s war with Russia
WASHINGTON: The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives kicked off a process on Wednesday that could lead lawmakers to censure Democrat Al Green, who was kicked out of the chamber after yelling at President Donald Trump during an address.
Representative Green, a Texas Democrat who has been in Congress for 20 years and has repeatedly called to impeach Trump, is facing a House censure resolution for yelling at the president, waiving his black cane and refusing to sit down during Trump’s Tuesday night speech.
Green’s message was drowned out by boos from Republicans, but he told reporters on Tuesday that he was saying Trump had no electoral mandate to slash funding for Medicaid, the government health care program that helps cover costs for people with limited income.
Green was eventually escorted out by chamber staff who maintain the decorum and security of the floor.
Representative Dan Newhouse, a moderate Republican from Washington, introduced the resolution to censure Green for a “breach of proper conduct.”
A vote by the full House chamber on the censure resolution is expected in coming days, and Green will be required to be on the floor at that time. Censure is a symbolic reprimand that carries no fines or other penalties.
The censure process was once a rarity, but four House lawmakers have been publicly reprimanded by their colleagues in the last four years for inappropriate social media posts, actions that a majority of the House found problematic, and disrupting a vote.
In 2009, Republican Representative Joe Wilson from South Carolina faced a resolution of disapproval — a lesser form of punishment — after he shouted “You lie!” at Democratic President Barack Obama during an address to a joint session of Congress.
Wilson’s outburst at the time drew gasps from other lawmakers, but on Tuesday that type of behavior was happening almost every minute inside the chamber. Republicans cheered Trump’s speech and taunted Democrats, while other House Democratic lawmakers held signs to fact-check the president and repeatedly yelled from their seats in opposition.
Green’s outburst — and moves by some of his colleagues who walked out during the speech — marked a sharp contrast with Democratic leaders who had urged decorum and tapped a moderate senator from Michigan to deliver their rebuttal speech.
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon unfurled a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag as Trump spoke about the country’s war with Russia.
Greek government faces no-confidence vote over deadly 2023 train crash
- “Being aware of our duty toward society and history and toward the Greek people ... we submit a motion of no-confidence,” said the document signed by 85 lawmakers
- The government has denied any wrongdoing and, with 156 seats in the 300-seat parliament, is expected to survive the motion
ATHENS: Greece’s center-right government faces a no-confidence vote this week over a deadly 2023 train disaster, days after protesters brought the country to a standstill to press their demands for political accountability.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to mark the second anniversary of the country’s worst rail crash, demanding justice for the victims. Fifty-seven people, most of them students, were killed in the disaster.
Lawmakers from the main opposition, the center-left PASOK party, and from leftist parties submitted a censure motion against Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government during a parliamentary debate on the disaster on Wednesday.
They said the government has lost its popular mandate since some of the biggest protests in Greece for years, accusing it of shirking responsibility over the crash and failing to fix critical safety gaps and covering up evidence.
“Being aware of our duty toward society and history and toward the Greek people ... we submit a motion of no-confidence against the government,” said the document signed by 85 lawmakers.
The government has denied any wrongdoing and, with 156 seats in the 300-seat parliament, is expected to survive the motion.
The vote will be held on Friday afternoon.
Addressing parliament earlier on Wednesday, Mitsotakis said the allegations by opposition parties threatened domestic political stability during turbulent international times.
“It would be fatal if stability in Greece was threatened at this point,” he said, adding that his government would modernize by 2027 the railway network, which is operated by a state-run company, and would hire a foreign company to take over its maintenance.
For many Greeks the accident has become a painful emblem of the perceived neglect of infrastructure for decades before the crash and two years since.
On Wednesday evening, thousands of people rallied peacefully outside parliament and held a moment of silence to honor the victims. Some of the demonstrators released lanterns into the air and lit candles shaped like the number “57” on the ground.
Later, clashes broke out between police and a group of protesters. Police responded with several rounds of teargas to disperse them and violence spread in other areas of Athens.
More protests are scheduled this week, meant to coincide with the no-confidence vote.
On Tuesday, a majority of 277 lawmakers voted to set up a committee to investigate how a former minister handled the aftermath of the crash and a potential breach of duty.
Christos Triantopoulos, who was minister for state aid at the time of the crash, has denied any wrongdoing. On Tuesday, he resigned from his post as deputy civil protection minister to support the inquiry by parliament, the only Greek body that can lift politicians’ immunity and probe them.
A judicial investigation into the crash is expected to be completed later this year.
Relatives of the victims have criticized the government, which won re-election after the crash, for not initiating or backing a parliamentary inquiry into political responsibility.
They say the authorities tried to cover up evidence by laying down gravel at the scene soon after the crash. Triantopoulos, who went to the crash site shortly after the incident, has dismissed the allegations as groundless.
The Air and Rail Accident Investigation Authority (HARSIA), an independent agency set up hastily after the crash, reported last week that the disaster had been caused by chronic safety shortfalls that still need to be addressed to prevent a repeat.
Christos Papadimitriou, head of HARSIA’s rail division, told the Kathimerini newspaper on Sunday that authorities’ ignorance and lack of experience were possible reasons for the loss of significant evidence from the scene.
