ISLAMABAD: On the campaign trail in Pakistan, candidates boast about their readiness to stand up to Washington and often tout their anti-American credentials. One party leader even claims he would shoot down US drones if he comes to power.
So it’s perhaps no surprise that the government that emerges from next month’s parliamentary election is likely to be more nationalistic and protective of Pakistani sovereignty than its predecessor.
As a result, the US may need to work harder to enlist Islamabad’s cooperation, and the new Pakistani government might push for greater limits on unpopular American drone strikes targeting Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants in the country.
But ultimately, the final say on Pakistan’s stance toward drones and many aspects of the relationship with Washington is in the hands of the country’s powerful army. And even nationalist politicians like former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the leading contender in the election, recognize the need for a US alliance and are unlikely to go too far in disturbing it.
“I think the tagline here is different posturing, same substance” when it comes to the next government’s relationship with the US, said Moeed Yusuf, an expert on South Asia at the United States Institute of Peace.
Nevertheless, it’s unclear how long Pakistan’s alliance with the US can remain relatively insulated from anti-American sentiment. The May 11 vote is historic because it will mark the first transfer of power between democratically elected governments in a country that has experienced three military coups.
US officials have remained fairly quiet about the election because they don’t want to be seen as influencing who wins. But Secretary of State John Kerry has met Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani twice in the last month, underlining the importance of the relationship to Washington.
The US needs Pakistan’s help in battling militants and negotiating an end to the war in neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan relies on the US for billions of dollars in aid and also needs American support as it seeks a bailout from the International Monetary Fund to shore up the government’s shaky fiscal situation.
The relationship has been severely strained in recent years, especially following the 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden near Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point. But it has never broken down completely and has settled into a wary calm over the last year or so. Trust is still in short supply, but both sides recognize they can’t do without each other.
“We have moved into a phase of reduced expectations of each other, which is good,” said Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the US “It’s what they call the new normal.”
Sharif has criticized the outgoing Pakistan People’s Party for selling out the country’s sovereignty in exchange for US aid and likes to recount how he tested Pakistan’s first nuclear weapon in 1998 despite American pressure.
“We will never accept any foreign pressure,” said Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N party, during a recent campaign speech. “We will have relations with foreign countries on the basis of mutual respect, dignity and equality.” Sharif’s party controlled the government of Pakistan’s largest province, Punjab, in 2011 when it turned down more than $ 100 million in US aid following the raid that killed Bin Laden. But Lodhi, the former ambassador, said she thought it was unlikely Sharif would give up the more than $ 1 billion in American aid Pakistan receives annually if he came to power.
Imran Khan, who many analysts believe will end up playing a key role in the opposition after the election, has been even more critical of Pakistan’s relationship with the US, saying he would “end the system of American slavery.” But the manifesto of Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, is more tempered, saying “Pakistan will endeavor to have a constructive relationship with the US based on Pakistan’s sovereign national interests and international law, not on aid dependency.” Pakistan’s relationship with the US — and foreign policy in general — has been less of a focus in the election than domestic issues, such as corruption, pervasive energy shortages and stuttering economic growth.
Lodhi believes this is because the US has said it is largely pulling out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and is seeking a peace settlement with the Taleban — a move long advocated by the Pakistani government and supported by the main contenders in the election.
“That has helped to take the edge off negative sentiment in Pakistan which we saw in the last couple of years against the United States,” Lodhi said.
One issue that continues to create tension between the two countries is the US drone program targeting militants in Pakistan’s rugged tribal region near the Afghan border.
The attacks are extremely unpopular in Pakistan. They are seen as violating the country’s sovereignty, and many people believe they kill mostly civilians — an allegation denied by the US Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders have contributed to these perceptions by criticizing the strikes in public in the past, while supporting them in secret. This support has declined over time as the relationship between the two countries has worsened.
The number of strikes has dropped from a peak of more than 120 in 2010 to close to a dozen so far this year, but it’s unclear how much this trend has been driven by US decisions about targeting versus the political sensitivity of carrying out strikes.
Khan, the former cricketer, has sharply criticized US drone attacks and has even pledged to shoot down the unmanned aircraft if he came to power.
Sharif has also been a vocal opponent of the strikes in the past, although he hasn’t made them as much of a focal point of his campaign as Khan has.
Nevertheless, Daniel Markey, a South Asia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, believes Sharif would work with the army to renegotiate the use of drones in Pakistan if he took power.
“In the end, I think probably some accord will be reached in which the use of drones will probably be curtailed from where they have been over the past couple of years,” Markey said during a recent call with media. “But they will continue, particularly against high-value targets when they are found.” However, Lodhi, the former ambassador, has doubts Sharif would pick a high-profile fight with the US over drones since the number of strikes has decreased so much.
“The centrality of drones may not be what it was in the past,” Lodhi said. “Why would you want to whip up something that is going down anyway?”
Pak-US alliance takes hits on campaign trail
Pak-US alliance takes hits on campaign trail
Two women shot on campus of small technical college near Los Angeles
- The Los Angeles Police Department said officers detained a male subject from a car matching the description of a vehicle linked to the shooting
- The school went on lockdown for at least an hour after the shooting
The shooting occurred around 4 p.m. in an office at the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology campus in Inglewood, where Mayor James Butts said the suspect was believed to be a former employee.
Aerial TV video showed a heavy police presence outside the campus in the city, which abuts Los Angeles to the southwest.
One of the victims was in critical condition, Butts said. The Los Angeles County Fire Department confirmed on the social platform X that two people were taken to the hospital.
A person was taken into custody after initially leaving the scene, Butts said.
The Los Angeles Police Department said officers detained a male subject from a car matching the description of a vehicle linked to the shooting, which had been sent to local law enforcement agencies by the Inglewood Police Department. The Inglewood police did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
The school went on lockdown for at least an hour after the shooting.
Chris Becker, president and chief administrator of the campus, told KABC-TV that the campus is patrolled regularly and, as an aviation school, safety is one of its primary focuses.
“It’s a peaceful campus,” Becker said. “It’s a nice community of students and teachers and staff.”
The Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology has campuses across the country. The college’s Inglewood location, about a mile (about 1.5 kilometers) from the Los Angeles International Airport, accommodates 500 students and offers training programs focused on aviation maintenance technology, according to its website.
Gunman kills three in Thailand’s conflict-hit south
- Violence frequently rocks the kingdom’s southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala
- In 2004, Thai security forces shot into a crowd of protesters outside a police station in Tak Bai, killing seven
BANGKOK: A gunman has shot dead three people including a child in Thailand’s insurgency-hit south, police said Saturday, as authorities pursued the suspect.
The attacker opened fire late Friday in a residential area of Tak Bai district in Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces in Thailand’s far south gripped by a decades-long separatist insurgency.
Three people were killed, including a nine-year-old girl and a 75-year-old man, police said.
“One victim died at the scene, and two others succumbed to their injuries at the hospital,” local police officer Watthana Thurarat told AFP, adding that two more people were wounded.
Police believe the suspect, who remains at large, is linked to a rebel group, Watthana said.
Violence frequently rocks the kingdom’s southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, where separatists seeking greater autonomy for the religiously distinct region have killed more than 7,000 people since 2004.
However, attacks on unarmed civilians in residential areas remain relatively rare, with most targeting security personnel.
In 2004, Thai security forces shot into a crowd of protesters outside a police station in Tak Bai, killing seven.
Subsequently, 78 others suffocated in the back of military trucks after they were arrested — a deadly crackdown widely seen as a trigger for the southern unrest in the Buddhist-majority country.
Last year, a Thai court dismissed the long-delayed Tak Bai case, brought by victims’ families against seven officials, when the statute of limitations expired.
Analysts have warned the decision could further inflame tensions in the region.
Six killed, dozens injured in India temple stampede
- Stampedes during large Hindu religious gatherings are routinely reported in India
NEW DELHI: At least six people were killed and 55 were injured in a stampede at an Indian temple in the western coastal state of Goa where hundreds of devout Hindus had assembled, police official said on Saturday.
The stampede occurred on Friday night during the annual Shri Lairai Zatra festival in Shirgao village, which is popular for its events including fire-walking.
“Devotees were witnessing a religious ceremony and the frenzy caused during the rituals triggered a stampede,” said V.S. Chadonkar, a police officer in Goa’s state capital Panjim.
“Six people lost their lives and at least eight were critically injured,” he said.
Stampedes during large Hindu religious gatherings are routinely reported in India, as huge crowds gather in tight spaces often ignoring safety protocol.
VP Vance’s global travels are a mix of diplomacy, dealmaking, soft power and family time
- In the opening months of Trump’s term, Vice President Vance has traveled all over the globe — family in tow — to conduct top-level diplomacy for the administration, in addition to taking a number of d
- Trump has upset many Greenlanders with his aggressive claims that the US needs to take control of the island away from Denmark
WASHINGTON: When JD Vance was running for vice president, he walked across an airport tarmac in Wisconsin one August day when his campaign travels happened to intersect those of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and approached Air Force Two. Besides wanting to take a poke at Republican Donald Trump’s rival for avoiding the press, Vance said, “I just wanted to check out my future plane.”
It’s an aircraft he now knows well.
In the opening months of Trump’s term, Vice President Vance has traveled all over the globe — family in tow — to conduct top-level diplomacy for the administration, in addition to taking a number of domestic trips. His international forays have featured a mix of meetings with world leaders, sharply crafted speeches advancing US policy, “soft power” appearances to build goodwill and family time at tourist sites along the way.
Diplomacy before family and cultural sights
Vance’s trips have included a five-day trip to Europe in February, a hastily reorganized trek to Greenland in March and a tour of Italy and India in April that was notable for the vice president’s brief meeting with Pope Francis the day before the pontiff died.
In his first big moment on the world stage in February, Vance pressed Trump’s “America first” message at an artificial intelligence summit in Paris and spoke of maintaining US dominance in the surging industry. From there, he attended a security conference in Munich, where the vice president left his audience stunned with his lecturing remarks about democracy and scant focus on Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In March, Vance delivered pointed remarks while in Greenland, scolding Denmark for not investing more in the security of its territory and demanding a new approach. Trump has upset many Greenlanders with his aggressive claims that the US needs to take control of the island away from Denmark.
There’s been dealmaking, too.
In India last month, Vance announced after meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that they had agreed on a negotiating framework for a US-India trade deal. In Italy, he held talks with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in addition to his separate audiences with the pope and a top Vatican official.
Family time follows Vance’s diplomatic work
Vance has been accompanied on his overseas trips by his wife, Usha, and their 7- and 5-year-old sons and 3-year-old daughter. The kids are usually in pajamas as they board Air Force Two for the overnight flights.
The Vances have gazed aloft at the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City and been photographed, with the children in traditional Indian dress, in front of the Taj Mahal in Agra. Without their children, the Vances also visited Dachau in Germany.
Brad Blakeman, a former senior official in George W. Bush’s administration who has provided planning advice to Vance’s office for some of his foreign travel, said that, while some personal time is woven in, these are not vacations.
“You try and balance the policy with the culture aspect of the trip so that you’re honoring the customs and culture of the places that you are visiting,” he said. Visiting iconic cultural sites while abroad shows respect and builds rapport with host nations that can enhance diplomacy.
It’s also important to be mindful that the president and vice president travel at the public’s expense, he said.
“That’s the balancing act that always has to be done because of the stewardship of the taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Joel Goldstein, a law professor at Saint Louis University who specializes in the US vice presidency, said the journeys also could be intended to build Vance’s foreign policy chops.
“Part of foreign travel for a vice president is establishing a national security and diplomatic credential,” he said, noting that it’s particularly important for Vance.
At age 40, Vance served just two years in the Senate before ascending to the office.
Vance displays the habits of a millennial
Vance is also the second-youngest person and the first of the millennial generation to hold the job.
“Generations” author Jean Twenge, a San Diego State University psychology professor who studies generational differences, said the ease with which Vance moves between work and leisure is emblematic of his generation.
“The research suggests that, just with Internet use and social media use, the lines between work time and family time blur, that you switch tasks much more quickly than, say, Gen Xers or boomers,” she said.
Vance frequently switches gears on the road. Last week, he wedged in a quick beer with service members in Germany — and autographed the “kegerator” built by one airman — after days of wall-to-wall official and cultural activities throughout Italy and India.
Some of the Vances’ activities have been unwelcome
Usha Vance was originally slated for a solo trip to Greenland with one of their sons to attend a dogsled race. But that plan was scrapped amid growing discontent from the governments of Greenland and Denmark over the visit and Trump’s tough talk of the US taking the territory away from a NATO ally. Instead, the vice president joined the trip, and their visit was limited to a US military base there.
On his Italy trip, Vance took heat on X for being photographed inside the Sistine Chapel. Photography there is usually forbidden, but the session turned out to have been sanctioned by the Vatican, as has happened on past visits by US dignitaries.
A decision during the same trip to close the Roman Colosseum to the public so Usha Vance and the children could take a tour drew some grumbling from tourists stranded outside. A consumer group has since filed a legal complaint.
In India, the Taj Mahal, normally swarming with tourists, was also closed to visitors to accommodate the Vances, according to local media reports.
American officials are often formally invited to make such cultural diversions, and it’s not unusual for the US Secret Service, which provides protection for top US officials, to ask for the sites to be closed to the public for security reasons during presidential and vice presidential tours.
The Vances appear to have tried on occasion to avoid such disruptions. In France, the family visited the Louvre on a Tuesday, a day when the museum is closed to the public.
Such trips have a long history
Other recent vice presidents also have taken family members along on trips. Presidents do, as well.
As vice president, Democrat Joe Biden often took one of his older granddaughters on trips, a practice he continued as president. Presidents’ children, including Malia and Sasha Obama and Chelsea Clinton, went along on some trips with their parents, too.
Practices differ, but the idea is the same: Time in office is short, so make the most of it and expose your children to the world.
Usha Vance said as much during the family visit to India, where her parents were born. She hadn’t visited in decades, and her husband and children had never been there.
In an interview with India’s NDTV, she said she’d been anxious to make the “trip of a lifetime” with them.
“It’s been something that I’ve wanted to share with my new nuclear family,” the US second lady said, adding that they knew Vance would have a chance to visit India as vice president. “We always knew that, when that opportunity arose, we would all come with him.”
“We think of it as sort of a gateway, the first of many trips to come, I hope,” she said.
Soft diplomacy is another goal
One aim of vice presidential travel abroad is often soft diplomacy, or the building of favorable attitudes toward the US through imagery and symbolism.
When Vance, with his wife of Indian descent and their children, is photographed at the Taj Mahal, it sends a message of solidarity with that nation. When he visits the Vatican and worships there, it emphasizes common ground with Catholics around the world.
Likewise, when Vance appears in public with his children, it could help drive home his quest to encourage large families and build goodwill among American voters, said University of Dayton political scientist Christopher Devine, co-author of “Do Running Mates Matter?”
“I wonder, with JD Vance, if it’s an effort to soften his image,” Devine said. “He’s someone who has not been particularly popular ever since he entered the national scene, and appearing with family tends to make people a little more likable, harder to hate.”
Now a trusted ally, ‘Little Marco’ gets Trump’s big jobs
- Trump once disparaged his political adversary as "Little Marco" and labeled him a con artist
- Now Trump has named him as top national security aide in addition to his main job as top diplomat
WASHINGTON: Top diplomat, foreign aid chief, national archivist and now national security adviser.
Marco Rubio’s expanding resume underscores President Donald Trump’s increasing trust in the former Florida senator, officials said.
Trump said on Thursday that his national security adviser Mike Waltz would move on to become UN ambassador, weeks after Waltz added a journalist from The Atlantic to a Signal chat where top officials were discussing military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
In his place, Trump named Rubio as his top national security aide on an interim basis, the latest instance of the president turning to the man he once disparaged as Little Marco and labeled a con artist to take on crucial tasks in his administration.
Rubio will lead the council that coordinates the administration’s national security actions around the world, although Trump did not indicate when a permanent replacement would be named.
The reshuffle comes amid efforts to end the war in Ukraine, restore a failed ceasefire in Gaza and conduct complex nuclear talks with Iran, all while managing the diplomatic fallout from Trump’s trade war with China.
A senior US official said Rubio has built trust with Trump by carrying out whatever tasks Trump hands to him. “He’s done everything that Trump has asked him to do,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. “Why wouldn’t you trust him?”
NSC Spokesman Brian Hughes told Reuters that Rubio had implemented Trump’s America First agenda and was “well qualified” to oversee the council.
‘He gets it solved’
Early on, Rubio was sent to Panama to put Trump’s promise to “take back” the Panama Canal in more diplomatic terms. In March, after an Oval Office blowup with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump dispatched Rubio to Saudi Arabia, where he helped bring his effort toward peace between Ukraine and Russia back on track.
Rubio has also played a leading role in Trump’s controversial crackdown on migration to the United States, securing an agreement to send alleged gang members to a high-security prison in El Salvador, and revoking thousands of student visas, in many cases after the students took part in anti-Israel protests.
Above all, Rubio has vociferously argued for Trump’s agenda, even when it clashed with his own previous positions. As a US Senator, Rubio championed foreign assistance around the world. Under Trump, Rubio has overseen the dismantling of Washington’s main aid agency, and proudly defended the decision to do so.
At a Rose Garden event on Thursday, Trump thanked Rubio for his “unbelievable” work. “When I have a problem, I call up Marco,” Trump said. “He gets it solved.”
It is not unprecedented for one official to hold multiple roles at the same time. Henry Kissinger served as both Secretary of State and national security adviser in the 1970s.
But Rubio’s current workload raises questions over how he would manage multiple briefs. In addition to the role of US top diplomat, Rubio serves as the administrator of the US Agency for International Development and the acting archivist of the United States, an office that oversees the preservation of government records.
“Either one of these jobs, done correctly, requires a super-human level of dedication, focus, and energy,” said a State Department official, who requested anonymity to speak frankly. “Even with the best of intentions, I don’t see how you can do both jobs at once without neglecting responsibilities that cannot easily be delegated.”
Tammy Bruce, Rubio’s spokesperson at the State Department, said that Rubio has people around him to help him handle the two roles. “If anybody can do it... it will be Marco Rubio.”
Some major foreign policy issues remain concentrated in a tight circle, with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff leading talks with Russia, the Iran nuclear negotiations, and Israel’s war in Gaza. “The president has assembled an incredibly talented team that is fully committed to putting
America and Americans first,” the State Department said in an emailed response to a request for comment. “Secretary Rubio looks forward serving as his interim National Security Adviser while ensuring the mission critical work at the State Department continues uninterrupted.”
Trump and Rubio once traded barbs
Rubio and Trump clashed during the hard-fought campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. They exchanged barbs on the debate stage, with Trump giving Rubio the moniker Little Marco, and calling him a “con artist” for missing votes in the Senate. Rubio, who also accused Trump of being a “con man,” mocked Trump for supposedly having small hands. Rubio has said those comments were made in the context of a competitive primary, comparing himself to a boxer punching an opponent in the ring. “Doesn’t mean you hate the guy, but we were in a competition for the same job,” Rubio told CNN.
After Trump took office in 2017, tensions eased as Rubio, who is Cuban American, played a key role advising on Venezuela and Cuba policy. Rubio was a driving force behind-the-scenes in helping to craft Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, including the imposition of sanctions against the OPEC member’s vital energy sector, and in the sharp reversal of former President Barack Obama’s rapprochement with Cuba.
A senior State Department official who requested anonymity attributed Trump’s growing reliance on Rubio to a history of “
working collaboratively together, building a professional and personal relationship.”
Long a staunch advocate of traditional Republican foreign policy positions including strong support for Ukraine, allegiance to NATO, and a hawkish view of China and its human rights record, Rubio has increasingly aligned himself with Trump’s America First message.
At the State Department, Rubio has shut down an office that worked on countering Russian and Chinese misinformation, accusing it of targeting conservatives. He has worked with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to cut aid and other programs he supported as a senator, and initiated a major overhaul that would shutter offices dealing with human rights and war crimes.
Immigration purge
Rubio used State Department powers to revoke the permission of foreign students to study in the US, including a Turkish student who wrote an op-ed criticizing Israel’s war in Gaza.
In a visit to El Salvador in February, Spanish-speaker Rubio reached an agreement with President Nayib Bukele that led to hundreds of men being sent to the country on military planes, even as US courts sought to pause the deportations. Those deported included Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The administration admitted his deportation to his native El Salvador, despite a court order, was a mistake.
At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rubio, seated beside Trump, said the judiciary could not force the administration to try to return Abrego Garcia.
“The conduct of our foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge,” Rubio told reporters.
