ISLAMABAD: The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) on Tuesday announced an agreement to provide solar panels for schools in Pakistan’s northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
The agreement, which will provide energy for primary schools in KP’s southern districts, was signed in Islamabad with the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
Over the next two years, UNOPS will implement the project on behalf of KP’s government, with £6.5 million ($9 million) of funding jointly committed by the DFID and SFD.
The grant will cover nearly 2,000 government schools in seven districts in KP: Bannu, D.I. Khan, Karak, Kohat, Lakki Marwat, Tank and Hangu.
Of these, more than 700 are girls’ schools with more than 81,000 students already enrolled, the British High Commission said.
The Saudi ambassador to Pakistan, Nawaf Saeed Ahmad Al-Maliki, said at the signing ceremony that the project will be extended.
He is looking forward to working closely with Pakistan and investing in the country, he added.
In his address, SFD head Yousef Ibrahim Al-Bassam said the project will be a turning point in the implementation of large-scale renewable energy projects.
“It will empower the students, provide them with opportunities and lead the province to economic and social development,” he added.
Al-Bassam said he is delighted to launch the project in collaboration with the DFID. He thanked UNOPS and KP’s government for their continuous support and cooperation in its implementation.
In his speech, KP’s Education Minister Mohammed Atif Khan lauded the SFD’s involvement and contribution, and expressed hope that it will further cement the brotherly relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
“Education is one of the top priorities of the KP government, and we’re committed to providing quality education in every single district of the province,” Khan said. “Lack of facilities in schools directly affects children’s education.”
Lack of basic facilities in government schools in Pakistan is one of the main reasons for low enrolment and high dropout rates. The problem can be particularly acute in remote areas.
With the DFID and SFD funding the provision of solar panels in these schools, KP’s government can focus its funding on other facilities, the British High Commission said.
While addressing the signing ceremony, DFID head Joanna Reid expressed confidence that providing electricity in schools in KP’s southern districts will improve enrolment rates and education quality.
Saudi, UK groups fund solar power panels for Pakistan’s KP schools
Saudi, UK groups fund solar power panels for Pakistan’s KP schools
Tufts says international student taken into US custody, visa revoked
Trump and his top diplomat Marco Rubio in particular have pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters, accusing them of supporting Hamas militants
WASHINGTON: Federal authorities have detained an international student studying at Tufts University near Boston and have revoked their visa, the university said in a statement Tuesday night.
Tufts said the graduate student was taken into US custody from an off-campus apartment building in Somerville, Massachusetts and that it had no further details about the incident or the circumstances surrounding the student’s status.
Representatives for the US Department of Homeland Security, US Customs and Border Protection and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not be immediately reached for comment on the university’s statement.
A lawyer representing the student could also not be immediately reached.
The detention is the latest move by Republican US President Donald Trump’s administration targeting international students as it seeks to crack down on immigration, including ramping up immigration arrests and sharply restricting border crossings.
Trump and his top diplomat Marco Rubio in particular have pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters, accusing them of supporting Hamas militants, posing hurdles for US foreign policy and being antisemitic.
At Columbia University, student protester and lawful permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil was arrested this month. He is legally challenging his detention after Trump, without evidence, accused him of supporting Hamas, which Khalil denies.
Federal immigration officials are also seeking to detain a Korean American Columbia University student, who is a legal permanent US resident and has participated in pro-Palestinian protests, a move blocked by the courts for now.
Earlier this month, a Lebanese doctor and assistant professor at Brown University in Rhode Island was denied re-entry to the US and deported to Lebanon after Trump’s administration alleged her phone contained photos “sympathetic” to Hezbollah. Dr. Rasha Alawieh said she does not support the militant group but held regard for its slain leader because of her religion.
Trump’s administration has also targeted students at Cornell University in New York and Georgetown University in Washington.
Funding shortages may halt global child malnutrition programs, WFP warns
- “If we fail to act, we are condemning millions of children to a lifetime of suffering,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain
- The US provided $4.5 billion of the $9.8 billion budget last year for the WFP
GENEVA: Programmes to help prevent malnourishment in children in Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria could be suspended within months if urgent funding is not found, the UN’s World Food Programme warned on Wednesday.
“If we fail to act, we are condemning millions of children to a lifetime of suffering,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain in a statement ahead of a summit in Paris on Wednesday where governments and charities will discuss tackling growing global malnutrition and hunger.
The WFP has suffered severe financial setbacks after the US, its single largest donor, announced a 90-day pause on foreign aid assistance while it determines if programs are aligned with the Trump administration’s “America first” policy.
The US provided $4.5 billion of the $9.8 billion budget last year for the WFP, which gives food and cash assistance to people suffering from hunger due to crop shortages, conflict and climate change worldwide.
The organization called on Wednesday for $1.4 billion to deliver malnutrition prevention and treatment programs for 30 million mothers and children in 56 countries in 2025, saying malnutrition is worsening worldwide due to war, economic instability and climate change.
It did not give details on its financial shortfall or mention the US
Prevention programs in Yemen, where one-third of children under the age of 5 are malnourished, could stop from May if additional funding was not received, the WFP said. The UN children’s agency UNICEF said on Tuesday that western coastal areas of Yemen are on the verge of a catastrophe due to malnutrition.
McCain said that the WFP is being forced to make tough choices such as prioritising treatment over prevention due to lack of funds. Programmes in Afghanistan could also be stopped by May, while in Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo programs could be reduced from June unless money is found.
Earlier this month, the WFP announced potential cuts to food rations for Rohingya refugees, raising concern among aid workers of rising hunger in the overcrowded camps.
The WFP said the reduction was due to a broad shortfall in donations, not the Trump administration’s move to cut foreign aid globally.
But a senior Bangladeshi official told Reuters that the US decision most likely played a role, as the US has been the top donor for Rohingya refugee aid.
Magazine publishes entire US attack plan mistakenly shared in chat group
- Magazine said it was now publishing details after the Trump administration confirmed it was genuine and denied any classified information had been included
WASHINGTON: The Atlantic magazine on Wednesday published what it said was the entire text of a chat group mistakenly shared with a journalist by top US national security officials laying out plans of an imminent attack on Yemen.
The stunning details, including the times of strikes and types of planes being used, were all laid out in screenshots of the chat, which the officials had conducted on a commercial Signal messaging app, rather than a secure government platform.
The magazine, which initially only published the broad outlines of the chat, said it was now publishing the details after the Trump administration confirmed it was genuine and repeatedly denied that any classified information had been included.
The scandal has rocked President Donald Trump’s administration, which for now is reacting defiantly — attacking The Atlantic and denying any wrongdoing.
National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes had said Monday the chain cited by The Atlantic appeared to be “authentic.”
However, Vice President JD Vance, who was on the Signal chat, said The Atlantic had “oversold” the story, while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said “the entire story was another hoax.”
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz likewise insisted on X that the Signal chain revealed “no locations” and “NO WAR PLANS.”
However, the depth of detail in the now published chat will fuel a furious outcry from Democrats in Congress who are accusing the Trump officials of incompetence and putting US military operations in peril.
The House of Representatives was set to discuss the scandal in a hearing Wednesday.
The story first broke Monday when Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent information in the Signal chat about imminent strikes against the Houthi rebels on March 15.
For reasons unknown, Goldberg’s phone number had been added to the group, also including Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, among others.
Goldberg also revealed disparaging comments by the top US officials about European allies during their chat.
The Atlantic initially did not publish the precise details of the chat, saying it wanted to avoid revealing classified material and information that could endanger American troops.
But on Tuesday, Ratcliff and other officials involved in the chat played down the scandal, testifying before Congress that nothing critical had been shared or laws broken — and that nothing discussed was classified.
Trump himself brushed the breach off as a “glitch” and said there was “no classified information” involved.
The Atlantic said on Wednesday that it therefore asked the government whether in that case there would be any problem in publishing the rest of the material. It got no firm indications to the contrary.
The Atlantic said its full publication Wednesday included everything in the Signal chain other than one CIA name that the agency had asked not to be revealed.
The text discussion includes Hegseth laying out the weather conditions, times of attacks and types of aircraft being used.
The texting was done barely half an hour before the first US warplanes took off and two hours before the first target, described as “Target Terrorist,” was expected to be bombed.
The details are shockingly precise for the kind of operation that the public usually only learns about later — and in vaguer terms.
“1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package),” Hegseth writes at one stage.
“1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets).”
A short time later, Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of an attack, writing “Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID” and “amazing job.”
The Houthis, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the US.
The Trump administration has stepped up attacks on the group in response to constant Houthi attempts to sink and disrupt shipping through the strategic Red Sea.
Austria to stop refugee family reunification in EU first: govt
- Austria has already halted family reunification for Syrians since the ouster of Syria’s leader Bashar Assad last December
- Syrians make up the bulk of family reunifications
VIENNA: Austria announced on Wednesday that it would pause family reunifications for those with asylum status from May, becoming the first in the European Union to do so.
Several EU countries are mulling stopping or tightening the right for people, who cannot safely return to their home countries, to bring their families, but so far no bloc member has a complete halt in place.
Austria has already halted family reunification for Syrians since the ouster of Syria’s leader Bashar Assad last December, arguing it has to reassess the situation and threatening their deportation.
Syrians make up the bulk of family reunifications, but a newly formed conservative-led government — under pressure with anti-immigration sentiment high — has insisted that it needs to stop all.
Integration Minister Claudia Plakolm said the government would make a legal change to allow the interior ministry to issue a decree to halt family reunification.
“By May, so in just a few weeks, the stop is expected to become reality,” Plakolm of the conservative People’s Party (OeVP) told reporters.
“On one hand, our systems have reached their limits and, on the other hand, the probability of successful integration decreases massively with each new arrival,” she added.
The pause is for six months but can be extended until May 2027, she said, adding it was a “mammoth task” to integrate those who have arrived, many of whom struggle to learn German and find jobs.
In 2023, almost 9,300 people arrived due to family reunification; last year it was almost 7,800 people, according to government figures.
Most of them were school-aged minors, placing a burden on schools, the government said.
Rights organizations have criticized the government’s plans in the country of nine million, with one of the main asylum support groups saying they would challenge the decree once issued in court.
“There must be an emergency (to allow the government to pause family reunification), which in Austria is not the case,” Asylkoordination Oesterreich spokesman Lukas Gahleitner told AFP.
The anti-immigration far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) topped parliamentary elections for the first time ever last November, gaining almost a third of the votes.
It failed to form government, with the election runner-up long-ruling OeVP cobbling together a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPOe) and the liberal NEOs.
War ignited record-breaking wildfires in Ukraine last year, scientists say
- Satellite data showed nearly 9,000 fires torched a total of 965,000 hectares in Ukraine in 2024
- Ukraine has around 10 million hectares, or 100,000 sq km of forest
BRUSSELS: Last year was Ukraine’s worst year for wildfires in more than three decades of record-keeping, as shelling along front lines in the war with Russia triggered an unprecedented number of blazes, scientists said.
Forest fires in Ukraine in 2024 burnt more than twice the area destroyed by fire in the entire 27-country European Union in 2024, the EU’s Joint Research Center — its independent science research service — said in a report published this week.
Satellite data showed nearly 9,000 fires torched a total of 965,000 hectares in Ukraine in 2024. Ukraine has around 10 million hectares, or 100,000 sq km (38,610 sq miles), of forest. Around a third of the area burned last year was farmland.
For comparison, the EU member state with the most land burnt last year was Portugal, which lost 147,000 hectares — its worst annual total since 2017.
The JRC said satellite data showed the fires were concentrated in Ukraine’s east, in areas apparently in close proximity to front lines of the war.
Ukrainian forests have incurred severe damage as both Russian and Ukrainian armed forces blast thousands of shells at each other every day, shredding the earth.
Maksym Matsala, a forest researcher at Sweden’s University of Agricultural Sciences, said the main cause was artillery and falling shells igniting fires.
He said the jump in fires last year was partly because of a large build-up of dead and damaged trees since Russia’s invasion in 2022, which had created plentiful fuel for fires during extremely dry weather in 2024.
“If war is continuous, then sooner or later there will be a lot of inaccessible areas and a lot of areas with accumulating dead wood,” Matsala told Reuters.
Ukraine’s forests are also riddled with land mines and unexploded ordnance that can detonate during fires — making it impossible for firefighters to control the flames.
The EU data only goes back to 2020, but when cross-checked with data from researchers at Ukraine’s National University of Life and Environmental Sciences, 2024 was the worst year for forest fires in Ukraine since at least 1990.
Climate change is exacerbating wildfires by increasing the hot and dry conditions that help them spread faster, burn longer and rage more intensely, scientists say. Hotter weather saps moisture from vegetation, turning it into dry fuel.
Ukraine’s fires mostly occurred during summer, when this kind of fire-prone weather is more frequent.
