SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Monday, April 14, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Trump Will End Temporary Protections for Afghans and Cameroonians (New York Times)
New York Times [4/11/2025 6:34 PM, Hameed Aleaziz, 126906K]
The Trump administration will end temporary protections for more than 10,000 people from Afghanistan and Cameroon, putting them on track for deportation in May and June, Department of Homeland Security officials said on Friday.Many of the Afghans affected by the decision had been allowed into the United States after the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from their country in 2021. Now, the Trump administration could send them back to a country under Taliban rule.The Afghans and Cameroonians had been living in the United States legally under Temporary Protected Status, which is meant to shield migrants from being returned to countries facing conflict or natural disasters. People who have the protected status are also allowed to work in the United States.The Trump administration has targeted T.P.S. as part of its broad crackdown on immigration. Trump officials say the program is being used improperly, to allow people to stay in the United States indefinitely. Already this year, the administration has tried to cut off Venezuelans from T.P.S. and shortened the time that Haitians can have the protections.Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, head of Global Refuge, a refugee resettlement organization, said sending immigrants back to Afghanistan was “unconscionable.”
“For Afghan women and girls, ending these humanitarian protections means ending access to opportunity, freedom, and safety,” Ms. Vignarajah said. “Forcing them back to Taliban rule, where they face systemic oppression and gender-based violence, would be an utterly unconscionable stain on our nation’s reputation.”The effort could face legal challenges. Earlier this month, Judge Edward M. Chen, a federal court judge in San Francisco, temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending T.P.S. for Venezuelans.In his decision, Mr. Chen said the Trump administration’s efforts threatened to “inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States.”Lawyers in the lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision on Venezuela said they would be examining the latest move by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary.“We will closely examine the terminations to determine whether the government complied with the T.P.S. statute in determining Afghanistan and Cameroon are now safe to accept returns of their nationals as required by the T.P.S. statute,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, who runs the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at U.C.L.A. and is an attorney in the case challenging the Trump administration decision to end T.P.S. for Venezuelans.The Biden administration first protected migrants from Afghanistan in 2022, following the collapse of the government there and the takeover by the Taliban. In 2023, they extended those protections, saying that there was a “serious threat posed by ongoing armed conflict; lack of access to food, clean water and health care; and destroyed infrastructure, internal displacement and economic instability.”The Biden administration also extended protections for people from Cameroon in 2023, citing continued conflict in the country. Ms. Noem terminated it earlier this week.Gustavo Torres, the executive director of Casa de Maryland, an immigrant advocacy organization, said in a statement that Cameroonian nationals were unable to return and reside safely in their country because of an armed conflict. “The ongoing violence, human rights violations, and humanitarian crises in Cameroon continue to place its citizens at severe risk,” he said.More than 9,000 Afghans and 3,000 Cameroonians had T.P.S. as of late last year, according to the Congressional Research Service.On March 21, “the secretary determined that Afghanistan no longer continues to meet the statutory requirements for its T.P.S. designation and so she terminated T.P.S. for Afghanistan,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the agency, in an email.Julia Gelatt, an immigration expert at the Migration Policy Institute, said the move would have far-reaching effects in the Afghan community.“Revoking T.P.S. for Afghans would be a stark reversal in the country’s treatment of Afghan allies who fought and worked alongside the U.S. government. Most Afghans in the U.S. have strong asylum cases based on their U.S. affiliation. This is even more true for Afghan women,” she said. “Revoking their T.P.S. will push thousands of Afghans into our backlogged asylum system — if they can find a lawyer with capacity to support their application.” DHS ends protections from deportation for Afghanistan, Cameroon (Reuters)
Reuters [4/11/2025 6:13 PM, Ted Hesson, 12829K]
The Trump administration has terminated temporary deportation protections for thousands of Afghans and Cameroonians in the U.S., a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said on Friday, building on Trump’s far-reaching immigration crackdown.An estimated 14,600 Afghans eligible for Temporary Protected Status will now lose it in May. Some 7,900 Cameroonians had access to the status but will lose it in June under the termination.U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, took office in January pledging to deport record numbers of migrants in the U.S. illegally. At the same time, he has swiftly moved to strip migrants of temporary legal protections, expanding the pool of possible deportees.Trump has criticized high levels of illegal immigration under Democratic former President Joe Biden and said Biden programs offering legal status overstepped the bounds of the law.The TPS program is available to people whose home countries experience a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event. The status lasts 6-18 months, can be renewed by the Homeland Security secretary, and offers deportation protection and access to work permits.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem found that the conditions in Afghanistan and Cameroon no longer merited the protected status, spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.Trump tried to end most TPS enrollment during his 2017-2021 presidency but was thwarted by federal courts. A U.S. district judge in late March blocked his attempt at ending the status for Venezuelans, saying that officials’ characterization of the migrants as criminals "smacks of racism."PAROLE REVOKEDThe U.S. evacuated more than 82,000 Afghans from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021, including more than 70,000 who entered the U.S. with temporary "parole," which allowed legal entry for a period of two years.The Temporary Protected Status offered another avenue of protection. DHS said in 2023 that it was warranted due to armed conflict and insurgency in Afghanistan.Advocates have said in recent days that migrants who entered the U.S. via a Biden-era app known as CBP One, including Afghans, have been receiving notices revoking their temporary parole and giving them seven days to leave the country.McLaughlin confirmed this week that the department had revoked some migrants’ parole, saying DHS was "exercising its discretionary authority." She did not provide the number of revocations."Affected aliens are urged to voluntarily self-deport using the CBP Home App," she said in a statement.The notices mirror messages sent in error last week to Ukrainians. Trump administration ends temporary protected status for thousands of Afghans amid deportation push (FOX News)
FOX News [4/12/2025 4:50 PM, Brie Stimson, 46189K]
The Trump administration is ending the protected status for thousands of Afghans who entered the U.S. after its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 under the Biden administration.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security doesn’t plan to renew Afghans’ Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which lasts six to 18 months and applies to people from countries that are war-torn or have a natural disaster or some other event that makes returning dangerous.
The U.S. military evacuated more than 82,000 Afghans from the country when the U.S. withdrew in 2021, and the Taliban took over.
Thousands of Cameroonians are also expected to lose their status."At least 60 days before a TPS designation expires, the Secretary, after consultation with appropriate U.S. Government agencies, is required to review the conditions in a country designated for TPS to determine whether the conditions supporting the designation continue to be met, and, if so, the length of an extension of the designation," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told FOX News Digital. "If the Secretary determines that the country no longer meets the statutory conditions for designation, she must terminate the designation."She added, "The Secretary determined that Afghanistan no longer continues to meet the statutory requirements for its TPS designation and so she terminated TPS for Afghanistan." McLaughlin said that the decision was "based on a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) review of the conditions in Afghanistan. As part of its review process, USCIS consulted with the Department of State."Shawn VanDriver, who served in the military and is president of #AfghanEvac, disagreed with the administration’s assessment on Afghanistan. "The conditions on the ground haven’t improved — they’ve worsened," he told NPR. "Afghans who were invited here, who built lives here, are now being told they don’t matter. It’s cruel, it’s chaotic, and it undermines everything America claimed to stand for when we promised not to leave our allies behind."More than 14,000 Afghans and 7,000 Cameroonians are expected to lose their TPS protections. The Biden administration renewed TPS protections for Afghans in 2023. Afghan TPS protections end in May and Cameroonian protections in June. At that time, foreign nationals will be eligible for deportation. Fox News Digital has reached out to DPS and the White House for comment. Last month, a judge delayed a Trump administration effort to end TPS protections for Venezuelans. Both Afghanistan and Venezuela are listed by the U.S. State Department as "Level 4: Do Not Travel" because of the risk of terrorism, unlawful detention, civil unrest and kidnapping. Cameroon is listed as "Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution" due to the risk of terrorism, kidnapping and armed violence. UN Warns US Aid Cuts Threaten Millions Of Afghans With Famine (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/12/2025 4:39 AM, Susannah Walden, 1054K]
Fresh US cuts to food assistance risk worsening already widespread hunger in Afghanistan, according to the World Food Programme, which warned it can support just half the people in need -- and only with half rations.
In an interview with AFP, WFP’s acting country director Mutinta Chimuka urged donors to step up to support Afghanistan, which faces the world’s second-largest humanitarian crisis.
A third of the population of around 45 million people needs food assistance, with 3.1 million people on the brink of famine, the UN says.
"With what resources we have now barely eight million people will get assistance across the year and that’s only if we get everything else that we are expecting from other donors," Chimuka said.
The agency already has been "giving a half ration to stretch the resources that we have", she added.
In the coming months, WFP usually would be assisting two million people "to prevent famine, so that’s already a huge number that we’re really worried about", Chimuka said.
Already grappling with a 40 percent drop in funding for this year globally, and seeing a decline in funding for Afghanistan in recent years, WFP has had to split the standard ration -- designed to meet the daily minimum recommended 2,100 kilocalories per person.
"It’s a basic package, but it’s really life-saving," said Chimuka. "And we should, as a global community, be able to provide that.".
WFP, like other aid agencies, has been caught in the crosshairs of funding cuts by US President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order freezing all foreign aid for three months shortly after his inauguration in January.
Emergency food aid was meant to be exempt, but this week WFP said the United States had announced it was cutting emergency food aid for 14 countries, including Afghanistan, amounting to "a death sentence for millions of people" if implemented.
Washington quickly backtracked on the cuts for six countries, but Afghanistan -- run by Taliban authorities who fought US-led troops for decades -- was not one of them.
If additional funding doesn’t come through, "Then there’s the possibility that we may have to go to communities and tell them we’re not able to support them. And how do they survive?".
She highlighted the high levels of unemployment and poverty in the country, one of the world’s poorest where thousands of Afghans are currently being repatriated from Pakistan, many without most of their belongings or homes to go to.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, this week urged international donors to keep supporting Afghanistan, saying 22.9 million needed assistance this year.
"If we want to help the Afghan people escape the vicious cycle of poverty and suffering, we must continue to have the means to address urgent needs while simultaneously laying the groundwork for long-term resilience and stability," said Indrika Ratwatte, the UN’s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, in a statement.
The statement warned that lack of international aid in Afghanistan could lead to increased migration and strain on the broader region.
The call for funding comes as other countries including Germany and Britain have also made large cuts to overseas aid.
But the Trump administration cut has been the deepest. The United Sates was traditionally the world’s largest donor, with the biggest portion in Afghanistan -- $280 million -- going to WFP last fiscal year, according to US State Department figures.
But other UN agencies, as well as local and international NGOs are being squeezed or having to shut down completely, straining the network of organisations providing aid in Afghanistan.
The Trump administration also ended two programmes -- one in Afghanistan -- with the UN Population Fund, an agency dedicated to promoting sexual and reproductive health, the agency said Monday.
And other organisations working on agriculture -- on which some 80 percent of Afghans depend to survive -- and malnutrition are impacted.
"We all need to work together," said Chimuka. "And if all of us are cut at the knees... it doesn’t work.". The Taliban leader says executions are part of Islam (AP)
AP [4/13/2025 5:42 AM, Staff, 456K]
The Taliban leader said executions were part of Islam, days after four men were killed by gunfire in Afghanistan after they were convicted of murder.
The executions took place in sports stadiums Friday, the highest number known to have been carried out in one day since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Rights groups and the U.N. condemned the killings.
Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has previously rejected the need for Western laws in Afghanistan.
In an audio clip released Sunday by the Taliban’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on X, Akhundzada said: “We must carry out disciplinary measures, perform prayers and acts of worship. We must enter Islam completely. Islam is not just limited to a few rituals; it is a comprehensive system of all divine commands.”
Not a single command of Islam should be left unfulfilled, he told a seminar of Hajj instructors during a 45-minute speech in southern Kandahar province.
God had commanded people to pray and to enforce his punishments, said Akhundzada, adding that the Taliban did not wage war for power or wealth but rather to “implement Islamic law”. He rejected criticism of the executions.
Afghanistan’s Supreme Court earlier ruled that the four men were guilty of murder. A death sentence was handed down after families of the alleged victims refused to grant the men amnesty.
Akhundzada’s comments come as the Taliban seek greater engagement with the international community, most recently the West.
The United States last month lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister who also heads a powerful network blamed for bloody attacks against Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government.
The Taliban have freed four Americans from custody this year, describing these releases as the “normalization” of ties between the U.S. and Afghanistan. Public Executions By Taliban Spark Global Outcry (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [4/11/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K]
The Taliban carried out public executions of four individuals on April 11 -- the highest single-day number since it returned to power -- prompting a wave of condemnation from groups around the world.
Local Taliban officials confirmed that the individuals — who were accused of murder — were executed in front of crowds gathered in the western provinces of Farah, Nimroz, and Badghis.
Eyewitnesses at one of the sites, who spoke to RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi on condition of anonymity, said family members of the victims shot the accused.
"Their families offered blood money to spare their relatives’ lives, but the victims’ relatives refused. People here don’t fully understand these issues — this kind of event leaves a serious psychological impact," the person said.In Nimroz province, the Taliban invited civilians, civil servants, and military personnel to witness the execution at a stadium in Zaranj.
"The man was shot by the victim’s family. Watching this scene was unbearable. No one wants to witness a killing, even if it is declared a divine punishment," said one local resident.
The executions, part of the Taliban’s hardline interpretation of Islamic law, are described by the regime as "qisas," or retributive justice.
Since they seized power in August 2021, the Taliban have resumed corporal punishments and public executions, echoing their repressive rule of the 1990s. So far, at least 10 individuals have been publicly executed.
Rights organizations say these punishments are a clear violation of international law.
They say the use of executions as a public spectacle is not only inhumane but also contributes to a culture of fear and trauma in communities already scarred by decades of war and violence.
In a statement posted on X, Amnesty International condemned the executions, calling them "deplorable."
"Afghanistan: The deplorable public executions of four people in Nimroz, Farah and Badghis in Afghanistan today point to Taliban’s continued alarming abuse of human rights in the country. The Taliban de facto authorities continue to flagrantly flout human rights principles," it said.
"The international community must put pressure on the Taliban to stop this blatant human rights abuse and help ensure international guarantees are upheld in Afghanistan."
The Taliban claim that the executions followed "transparent investigations and justice procedures," but the United Nations and multiple human rights bodies have consistently disputed such assertions, citing the absence of a functioning judicial system and lack of due process in Taliban courts.
"We are appalled by executions of four men in the Badghis, Nimroz and Farah provinces this morning," the United Nations rights office said on X, urging "the de facto authorities in Afghanistan to place a moratorium on the use of the death penalty." British couple imprisoned by Taliban left ‘weeping’ after being ‘interrogated’ dozens of times in Afghanistan prison; daughter deeply concern for ‘frail’ mother (Daily Mail)
Daily Mail [4/12/2025 3:24 AM, Sabrina Penty, 62527K]
An elderly British couple imprisoned in Afghanistan have faced 29 ‘interrogations’ and several court appearances - while no charges have been brought against them, their daughter has said.
Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife Barbie, 75, were arrested as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, in central Afghanistan, in February.
The couple were detained alongside Faye Hall, an American friend who had rented a plane to travel with them, and a translator from the couple’s Rebuild training business.
Their daughter, Susie Romer, told Channel 5’s 5 News on Thursday that the pair had ‘absolutely no idea’ why they are being imprisoned and called on the UK government to do more to secure their release.
She said: ‘They’ve been through so many investigations - I believe it’s 29 interrogations that they’ve had to endure.‘They’ve been in court three or four times now, I believe, and various accusations that have been brought against them, they’ve been thoroughly investigated and shown up as empty accusations.‘So they’ve been told that there is not actually a charge against them.’.
Ms Romer went on to say that while the British government has been assisting the family, she is not convinced that the message that her parents should be ‘immediately released’ has been conveyed by the Government to the Taliban.
She said the family had met Foreign Officer minister Hamish Falconer, who had told them the case was a ‘priority’ for him.
Ms Romer continued: ‘We do want the Government to make it clear to the Taliban that my parents should be immediately released and we’ve told them this.‘It’s been 10 weeks now, and we’ve not been reassured that this message has been conveyed, but this is really urgent.‘Each day that they remain in prison, they’re at risk, so we’ll keep on asking the Government to send that message.’.
Ms Romer added that the conditions her parents were being held in were ‘absolutely horrific’, that they were receiving one meal per day and there were mice and cockroaches ‘running around’.
She said that hearing her parents ‘weep’ on the phone was ‘excruciating’ for her.
Ms Romer told BBC Breakfast that while her father had received much-needed medication, her mother faced growing health concerns.‘We’ve recently heard mum is anaemic and really weak and frail,’ she said. ‘We’re obviously really concerned about both of them and their health.’.
Earlier this month, Mr Reynolds - who spoke from a payphone inside Pul-e-Charkhi maximum security jail in Kabul, also voiced his fears for his 76-year-old wife, who is being held in the prison’s women’s quarters.‘I’ve been joined up with rapists and murderers by handcuffs and ankle cuffs, including a man who killed his wife and three children, shouting away, a demon-possessed man,’ he said.Mr Reynolds said his circumstances – ‘a cage rather than a cell’ – were ‘VIP conditions’ compared with those in for the women. He said he had lost weight thanks to a single meal a day, usually nan bread and chickpeas with green tea for breakfast.‘The atmosphere is pretty shocking. I am learning a lot about the underbelly of Afghanistan. The prison guards shout all the time and beat people with a piece of piping. It’s a horrible atmosphere — the nearest thing to hell I can imagine.’.
American friend Hall was released last month after the Trump administration lifted bounties worth $10 million from the heads of senior Taliban figures including Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister.
After being told that the American woman who was detained with the couple had been freed, Mr Reynolds’s fears only increased.
In a call with his son Jonathan, he said: ‘Oh no, so Mum’s on her own. Oh my, oh my goodness, and they won’t let me see her, that’s terrible news.’.
In an interview with BBC News last week, their son, Jonathan Reynolds, said he had been ‘interacting’ with the US government after a video plea to President Donald Trump for help to get his parents was released.
The couple, who originally met at the University of Bath, married in Kabul in 1970 and have run school training programmes for 18 years.
They remained in the country after the Taliban takeover in 2021.
After taking power, the Taliban introduced a ban on women working and education for girls older than 12.
In a statement to The Associated Press this week, the Taliban said the case ‘will soon be resolved’ and ‘should not be a cause for concern’.
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: ‘We are supporting the family of two British nationals who are detained in Afghanistan.’. Pakistan
U.S. weapons from Afghan war give Pakistani militants a deadly advantage (Washington Post)
Washington Post [4/14/2025 2:00 AM, Rick Noack, Alex Horton, Haq Nawaz Khan, and Shaiq Hussain, 6.9M]
On Jan. 9, 2018, an M4A1 carbine rifle left the Colt’s Manufacturing plant in Connecticut, bound for Afghanistan. Last month, it was recovered in the aftermath of a deadly train hijacking by militants in Pakistan.
The banged-up rifle, bearing serial number W1004340 and stamped with the Colt logo, was among billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military equipment provided to Afghan forces, much of which was abandoned after the withdrawal of American troops in 2021.
Many of the weapons wound up across the border in Pakistan, at arms bazaars and in the hands of insurgents, illustrating how the consequences of America’s failed war continue to reverberate years after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
After a decade of progress against militants, Pakistan is now struggling to contain multiple insurgencies — from jihadists in the north to Baloch separatists in the southwest — fueled in part by American weapons.
U.S. assault rifles, machine guns and night-vision goggles, originally meant to help stabilize Afghanistan, are now being used by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and other groups to wreak havoc across this nuclear-armed nation, according to militants, weapons traders and government officials.“They have the latest American-made weapons,” said Ahmad Hussain, 35, a Pakistani special forces constable who was critically injured in a targeted nighttime attack in northwestern Pakistan last year. “They could see us,” he said, “but we couldn’t see them.”
In May, Pakistani officials gave The Washington Post access to dozens of weapons that they said were seized from captured or killed militants. After months of inquiries, the U.S. Army and the Pentagon confirmed to The Post that 63 weapons that were shown to reporters had been provided by the U.S. government to Afghan forces.
Most were M16 rifles, alongside several, more-modern M4 carbine models. Pakistani officials also displayed a handful of PVS14 night-vision devices, which are used throughout the American armed forces but could not be independently verified as former U.S. government property.
After the March 11 train attack by Baloch militants, which claimed at least 26 lives, Pakistani officials provided serial numbers for three U.S. rifles allegedly used by the attackers. At least two came from U.S. stocks and had been provided to Afghan forces, according to records obtained by The Post through the Freedom of Information Act.“The presence of US advance weapons … has been an issue of profound concern for the safety and security of Pakistan,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement in late January.
President Donald Trump has threatened to permanently cut suspended aid to Afghanistan unless the Taliban returns U.S.-provided military equipment.“We left billions, tens of billions of dollars’ worth of equipment behind … all the top-of-the-line stuff,” Trump said during his first Cabinet meeting, in February. “I think we should get a lot of that equipment back.”
His remarks have reignited hope in Islamabad that the United States will move more decisively to account for its missing military gear. But most believe it is already too late to stem the flow of illicit arms.“They’re now the property of Afghanistan,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-led government’s chief spokesman, said in response to Trump. “No one can take them away from us.”
Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst, said that Pakistan risks “falling back into that terrible period between 2009 and 2014, when the country was a major magnet for terrorism.”
A treasure trove for the Taliban
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, more than $7 billion in U.S.-provided military equipment was still in the country, a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, estimated in 2023.
The U.S. military had an uneven record of keeping track of weapons provided to the Afghans, SIGAR concluded, which was exacerbated by its “abrupt and uncoordinated” withdrawal.
Under President Joe Biden, U.S. officials refused to accept responsibility. The Defense Department provided weapons and equipment after “careful end-user considerations including risks of enemy capture,” the Pentagon said in a September statement, and had no intention of recovering them. The materiel “could have been captured by the Taliban and then utilized or transferred elsewhere,” the agency acknowledged.“Once transferred to the Afghan government, they were the Afghan government’s property and its responsibility,” a senior defense official said in a statement to The Post. The Pentagon declined to disclose the official’s name or justify why they could not provide it. The weapons seized by Pakistan “comprise a minuscule portion of the total we bought for the Afghans over more than a decade,” the official added.
More than a quarter-million rifles were left behind, SIGAR estimated, enough to arm the entire U.S. Marine Corps, as well as nearly 18,000 night-vision goggles, which could outfit the Army’s 82nd Airborne .
Goggles worn by insurgents undercut the technological advantages of modern militaries, which use infrared lasers and strobes to coordinate attacks and keep track of friendly troops. Those devices are invisible to the naked eye but are illuminated by night vision.“Just after the Taliban takeover, the latest night-vision devices were sold at a scrap rate,” said Raz Muhammad, 60, a Pakistani weapons trader. Around August 2021, the devices, which retail for about $2,000, were being sold for less than $300, he estimated.
Insurgents have paired night vision and thermal equipment with small drones to attack troops with more precision, said Zaheer Hassan, a major in the Pakistani army.“The battle has become much more dangerous,” said Hassan, who was injured in an attack last year.
Verification requests from The Post revealed occasional slapdash recordkeeping in a Defense Department database that tracks small arms and light weapons. Among the recovered weapons were three M203 grenade launchers that were incorrectly listed as rifles in the database. The launchers attach to the underside of rifles, and someone may have confused the two serial numbers when documenting them, officials said.
Among the other items recovered by Pakistani authorities and shown to The Post were sets of U.S. body armor and piles of ammunition. The Pentagon left behind millions of rounds, SIGAR found, including ammunition for heavy weapons that can penetrate vehicles and bring down aircraft.
A few of the displayed weapons appeared to come from non-U.S. sources. At least one rifle reviewed by The Post was a Norinco CQ-A, a Chinese-made clone of the M4.
Soaring demand
Along Pakistan’s porous border with Afghanistan, illicit weapons bazaars have long done business with militants and other criminals.
One of the oldest markets is in Darra Adamkhel, a town south of Peshawar. Vendors say the market dates back to the first Anglo-Afghan war, in the mid-19th century, when this part of Pakistan was contested between Afghan forces and the British.
But the market’s most dramatic days, at least in recent memory, were prompted by the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. “The market was flooded with American weapons,” recalled Raz Muhammad.“Demand was high,” said Qari Shuaib Bajauri, a senior TTP member, adding that his fighters benefited from plummeting prices and abundant supplies. He noted that the boom began even before the U.S. had fully withdrawn from Afghanistan, as a growing number of cities fell to the Afghan Taliban.
The market has maintained its signature smell of gunpowder, and shots often echo from the surrounding mountains. But its busiest days are over.
As Pakistani militants used the weapons to escalate their insurgency, security forces raided regional markets and arrested vendors. The few M4s on sale here are hidden away, and prices have skyrocketed.
But Bajauri said the TTP is still easily able to source illicit gear, giving it an edge over Pakistan’s military.
Recently released propaganda material shows TTP militants with U.S.-made night-vision devices, M4s with thermal optics and rifle-mounted infrared lasers.
A United Nations report last year concluded that Afghan Taliban “rank and file” directly supply the group with weapons and equipment. The TTP and the Afghan Taliban have denied the claims.
An unsettled borderThe wave of violence along Pakistan’s restive northwestern border with Afghanistan has led to a severe deterioration in relations between the two countries. In late December, Pakistani airstrikes killed 46 people in eastern Afghanistan.
But Pakistan, once accused of sheltering Afghan Taliban leaders and providing U.S.-made weapons to insurgents in Indian-controlled Kashmir, has struggled to persuade Washington and other foreign players to more aggressively back its counterinsurgency efforts.
The Afghan Taliban has responded angrily to Islamabad’s requests to rein in the TTP, and to Trump’s threats that future aid is dependent on the return of U.S.-provided military equipment.“The weapons are in the control of the security forces and well guarded in the depot,” Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesman for the Taliban-run Interior Ministry, wrote on X.
Pakistani officials are pinning their hopes on the Trump administration, despite concerns that the freezing of foreign aid and the suspension of the U.S. refugee admissions program could fuel further instability in the region.“The Biden administration left the weapons there, and we believe the U.S. should do something about it — whether they buy them from the Afghan Taliban or do something else,” said a Pakistani Foreign Ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
Hussain, the special forces constable who was injured by militants last year, blames the United States as much as the militants who shot him.“Both are responsible,” he said. Islamabad urges Tehran’s cooperation over the killing of 8 Pakistani nationals in southeastern Iran (AP)
AP [4/14/2025 4:17 AM, Staff, 456K]
Islamabad has sought Tehran’s “full cooperation” over the killing of eight Pakistani nationals in restive southeastern Iran, officials said Monday.The Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement the killing happened Saturday in Mehrestan County in Sistan and Baluchistan province, about 230 kilometers (142 miles) from the Pakistan-Iran border, urging a thorough investigation.Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran, Muhammad Mudassir, wrote on X that the eight were laborers and that Islamabad and Tehran were working on facilitating the repatriation of the bodies.There has been no immediate claim of responsibility.The Baluch regions across Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan have faced an insurgency by Baluch nationalists seeking independence for more than two decades.In Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan, the Baloch Liberation Army, designated a terrorist group by the United States in 2019, often targets security forces and civilians.Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned on Monday the killings and extended condolences to the Pakistani people and government.“Iran will spare no effort in identifying the perpetrators and masterminds behind this atrocity and ensuring justice is duly served,” the ministry said in a statement.Esmail Baqaei, the spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the killing “an act of terrorism” and “a criminal act which is fundamentally incompatible with all Islamic principles and legal and humanitarian norms”.HalVash, an advocacy group for the Baluch people of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, reported that unknown gunmen opened fire on eight Pakistani citizens who ran a family auto repair business in the city. This couldn’t be independently verified. Eight Pakistanis killed in southeastern Iran (Reuters)
Reuters [4/14/2025 1:14 AM, Charlotte Greenfield, 5.2M]
Eight Pakistanis were killed in southeastern Iran, according to a statement from the Pakistani government on Sunday.
The people, who have yet to be identified, were killed in the Mehrestan County of Sistan-Baluchistan province, which borders Pakistan.
The Pakistani Embassy in Tehran and Consulate in Zahidan are working with Iranian authorities to investigate the killings and repatriate the victims’ remains, the statement said
It added that further details on the identification of the deceased and the circumstances surrounding their deaths will be shared once available.
Last year Tehran said it struck militants from the Jaish al Adl (JAA) group in Pakistan, while Islamabad said it hit bases of the separatist Baloch Liberation Front and Baloch Liberation Army in Iran.
The militant groups operate in an area that includes Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan and Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. Both regions are restive, mineral-rich and largely underdeveloped.
Last year’s tit-for-tat strikes by the two countries are the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years. Lukashenko Invites 150,000 Pakistanis To Work In Belarus Amid Labor Shortage (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [4/11/2025 4:14 PM, Merhat Sharipzhan, 235K]
In a rare moment of international visibility, Belarusian strongman Aleksandr Lukashenko welcomed Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for an official visit to Minsk on April 10, hailing it as a significant milestone in bilateral relations.
The visit, which continued on April 11, resulted in multiple agreements spanning military cooperation, food security, and trade. Most notably, Lukashenko offered to accept up to 150,000 Pakistani workers to help address Belarus’s deepening labor shortage.
For Lukashenko, whose presidency remains unrecognized by the West following the widely disputed 2020 election and subsequent brutal crackdown on dissent, any direct engagement with a foreign leader carries enormous symbolic and strategic value. Isolated diplomatically, shunned by the European Union and the United States, and increasingly reliant on Moscow, Lukashenko has few opportunities to present himself as a legitimate international actor.
"Pakistan has many people who want and are ready to work in Belarus," Lukashenko said during a joint press conference, emphasizing Belarus would create the "necessary conditions" for their employment. With more than 198,000 job vacancies reported across the country, the proposal aims to inject labor into an economy under pressure.
The move, however, raises alarm bells across neighboring European Union states.
The offer to import tens of thousands of Pakistani workers can certainly be viewed with suspicion in neighboring NATO member states Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania.
In a 2021-22 border crisis, Belarus was accused of using migrants as pawns in a political standoff with the EU. Belarus facilitated travel for migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia -- including Pakistan -- and directed them toward the EU’s external borders, triggering a humanitarian and security crisis.
At the time, thousands of migrants were left stranded in forests along Belarus’s borders with Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania, often with no food, shelter, or legal protection.
Belarusian authorities were accused of weaponizing migration in retaliation for Western sanctions.
Polish, Latvian, and Lithuanian border guards resorted to pushbacks, resulting in dozens of deaths, international condemnation, and an enduring mistrust of Minsk’s migration policies.
During the visit, Belarus and Pakistan signed a military cooperation agreement and a roadmap for defense-industrial ties through 2027, deepening ties between the two countries, as well as other pacts and economic memoranda.
Notably absent from the spotlight, however, is any substantial record of recent trade volume.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry last reported annual bilateral trade with Pakistan for the year 2020, saying it ranged from $50 million to $65 million -- a far cry from a 2015 vow to grow trade between the two countries to $1 billion.
For comparison, Pakistan’s primary trading partners in 2023 included China, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia; Belarus didn’t make the list.
For Lukashenko, however, Sharif’s visit may offer a diplomatic lifeline and a moment of validation. For the EU, it brings back memories of 2021-2022. It may be a warning sign that the authoritarian leader of Belarus could once again use people as leverage in his ongoing standoff with the West. India
India Eyes Wrapping Key Aspects of US Trade Talks in Six Weeks (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [4/14/2025 2:58 AM, Shruti Srivastava, 5.5M]
India will start sector-specific trade discussions with the US on Monday, according to a New Delhi official, with the South Asian nation looking to nail down key details within six weeks.
Virtual talks will begin this week, a senior official aware of the developments told Bloomberg News. By end of May, both sides aim to have clarity on the sectors where they have room for concessions, the official added, asking not to be identified in line with protocol. The development was first reported by local Indian media on Monday.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House in February, India and the US had said they plan to conclude the first tranche of the trade deal by fall. Despite that, Donald Trump hit India with 26% reciprocal tariffs on April 2, before announcing a 90-day reprieve for most nations.
According to the Indian official, New Delhi is not overtly worried about the reciprocal tariffs, and said that sealing a trade deal with the South Asian nation is a priority for Washington as well. Both sides are working on setting realistic targets, the official added.
The commerce ministry in India did not respond to a request for comment.
Last week, India had said it can reach a provisional trade agreement with the Trump administration in 90 days if the offers are mutually beneficial.
New Delhi has already overhauled its tariff regime over the last few weeks, reducing import duties on some 8,500 industrial items, including on prominent American goods like bourbon whiskey and high-end motorcycles made by Harley-Davidson Inc., satisfying a longtime grievance of the US president. Officials are also considering US demands to reduce import tariffs on American farm products, Bloomberg News has reported, although agriculture is a politically-sensitive issue in India.
Analysts have said India should be cautious when it comes to the farm sector. “Many of Washington’s demands — such as weakening India’s minimum price support system for farmers, allowing genetically modified food imports, lowering agricultural tariffs, changing patent laws to extend drug monopolies, and letting American e-commerce giants sell directly to consumers — pose major risks,” said Ajay Srivastava, former trade official and founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative, in a note last week. India, US finalise terms of reference for first phase of trade deal, Indian official says (Reuters)
Reuters [4/11/2025 10:31 AM, Shivangi Acharya and Manoj Kumar, 5.2M]
India and the U.S. have finalised terms of reference for talks over the first part of a bilateral trade deal, an Indian trade official said on Friday, adding it was possible that a "win-win" deal could take shape in the next 90 days.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a 90-day pause on most tariff hikes for major trading partners including India, while raising levies on China, providing temporary relief for Indian exporters.
India and the U.S. agreed in February to work on the first phase of a trade deal to be concluded late this year, with a view to reaching bilateral trade worth $500 billion by 2030.
"We are far ahead in trade talks with the U.S. compared to other countries ... there are lots of possibilities in 90 days," said the official, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Reuters reported on Thursday that India wanted to move quickly to clinch a trade deal following Trump’s tariff pause.
Trade discussions between the countries will continue virtually and regularly, the official said, adding there could be some delegation-level visits from both sides as part of the talks.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance is also expected to visit India soon, the official said.
Trump’s administration had announced a 26% tariff on Indian goods earlier this month, and New Delhi had said it did not plan to retaliate.
Bilateral trade with the U.S., India’s largest trading partner, rose to around $129 billion in 2024, with a $45.7 billion surplus in favour of India.
India has asked its customs authorities to step up scrutiny of exports and imports of goods to ensure the country is not used as a conduit to re-route goods to the U.S., the official said.
India has started operating a global tariff and trade helpdesk to help stakeholders navigate trade issues, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade said in a notice on its website.
The helpdesk will look into issues relating to import and export challenges, import surges or dumping, supply chain challenges, and financial issues, among other things, the notice said.
Trade analysts have said that, following Trump’s huge increase in tariffs on China, some companies could use India to divert exports to the U.S. market.
"Neither will India be the source of trade diversion for our products, nor will it become a safe haven for others to divert through India," the official said.
"India wants to remain a trusted trading partner. This is the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to all government officials and industry." India launches biggest-ever joint naval exercises in Africa (Financial Times)
Financial Times [4/12/2025 4:14 PM, John Reed and Andres Schipani, 14.6M]
India has launched its biggest-ever joint naval exercise with African nations, part of a push to boost its influence on the continent and presence in the Indian Ocean, where China is exercising growing commercial and military clout.
Indian government and military officials, including deputy defence minister Sanjay Seth, inaugurated the six-day exercises, which are being co-hosted by Tanzania and will include eight other countries including Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius and South Africa in Dar es Salaam on Sunday.
Analysts said the manoeuvres were part of New Delhi’s broader ambitions to play a more assertive role in maritime operations, including anti-piracy efforts, and deepen ties on the continent, where its influence has been diminished by rivals including China as well as emerging competitors Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Indian officials said they planned to make the exercises — which will include both a “harbour phase” and a “sea phase” — a biennial event.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh, who met several of his African counterparts in February, last week flagged off the a flagship Indian patrol vessel, INS Sunayna, which was deployed in the south-western Indian Ocean alongside destroyer INS Chennai and other ships with a joint crew of participating nations.“Qualitatively, this exercise is quite a new thing,” said Sudarshan Shrikhande, a former Indian head of naval intelligence and adjunct professor at the Indian Naval War College in Goa, adding that the drills were “part of a growing diplomatic and economic engagement with Africa, where the big player is China”.
The Indian Navy has played a growing role in counter-piracy operations, helping project the country as a regional security power. During a visit to Mauritius last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he wanted to cement the stature of the naval forces as the “preferred security partner” and “first responder” in the Indian Ocean.
In March 2024, the Indian Navy staged a commando-type rescue of the MV Ruen, a Bulgarian-owned cargo ship that had been hijacked by Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea.“India’s recent initiatives in the western Indian Ocean reflect a growing ambition to position itself as a maritime power with regional responsibility,” said Abhijit Singh, a retired naval officer and former head of the maritime policy initiative at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank.
But those ambitions should be “tempered with realism”, Singh added. “While these engagements project an image of leadership, they also expose a gap between India’s strategic ambitions and its material capabilities.”
Under Modi, India has also sought to promote itself as a leader of the developing world, hosting two “Voice of the Global South” summits and successfully pushing for the African Union’s permanent admission to the G20 during its presidency of the group of nations in 2023.
However, officials and analysts have conceded that India remains far from being able to match China’s commercial or military edge.
India traded goods worth more than $83bn with African countries in 2023-24, up from $68.5bn in 2011-12 but less than a third of the continent’s turnover with China, its largest trading partner.
As part of the drills, an Indian ship will be deployed for more than a month to undertake port calls in Africa, including in Dar es Salaam, where the Adani Group has a container terminal. “India is trying to step up its role in Africa,” said Liberata Mulamula, a senior Tanzanian lawmaker and former foreign minister. “They’re maybe not as vocal and as visible as other countries like China and Russia, but everyone is trying to catch up with Africa and now India is doing it on defence.”
India has also been unsettled by China’s overtures towards its neighbours, including Sri Lanka, which Modi visited earlier this month, and the Maldives, whose Beijing-friendly president was elected in 2023 on an “India Out” campaign.
More recently, it has been concerned about last year’s revolution in Bangladesh that toppled Sheikh Hasina, a Modi ally. The country’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, visited Beijing last month. “India is now contending with China on multiple fronts, from its south Asian neighbourhood to the Indian Ocean region,” said Praveen Donthi, senior analyst for India with the Crisis Group.
New Delhi was “quite alert”, he added, to China’s growing commercial and military activity at ports in the region ranging from the Bay of Bengal to the Horn of Africa, and is working to bolster its international presence. “The India-Africa maritime exercise is one such effort,” he said.
Among the countries participating in the exercises is Djibouti, which is home to five foreign naval outposts, including one from the US and China’s first overseas military base.
The small country, which is in an area vital to global commerce at the southern end of the Red Sea, opposite Yemen, has been affected by Houthi rebel attacks on shipping lines.“India exercises leadership in the Indian Ocean region and is emerging as an important presence here,” said Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya’s principal secretary for foreign affairs.“Because of the critical juncture in which we are, it is countries like India and China that we are looking up to,” he added. “Even if we see there is competition between them in Africa there is no hegemonic kind of control per se at this point in time.” 3 suspected militants and an Indian army officer killed in Kashmir fighting (AP)
AP [4/12/2025 3:38 AM, Staff, 456K]
Three suspected militants and an army officer have been killed in two separate gunbattles in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the Indian army said Saturday.
Army soldiers laid a cordon in a forested area in southern Kishtwar district on Wednesday following a tip that a group of insurgents was operating there, an army statement said.
A search in the area by soldiers led to a firefight with militants, initially leaving one militant dead late Wednesday, the statement said.
It added that despite inclement weather, troops maintained their cordon in the area, triggering more exchanges of gunfire that resulted in the killing of two more militants on Saturday.
The army did not report any casualties on its side.
However, in another incident, the Indian army said its soldiers in southern Akhnoor area intercepted a group of militants close to the heavily militarized Line of Control dividing the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan late Friday. Fighting ensued during which one army officer was killed, it said.
The statement said militants were trying to infiltrate into the Indian side from the Pakistan-controlled area.
There was no independent confirmation of either of the incidents.
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
The territory has simmered in anger since 2019 when New Delhi ended the region’s semiautonomy and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms while intensifying counterinsurgency operations. 3 Dead, 118 Arrested In India Protests Over Muslim Land Bill (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/12/2025 12:19 PM, Staff, 931K]
India deployed troops on Saturday to quell deadly protests that have erupted in the state of West Bengal over legislation to change how Muslim-owned properties are managed.
Police fired tear gas at the thousands of demonstrators who gathered on Friday in the state’s Murshidabad district. Three people, including a child, were killed, police told AFP on Saturday.
"So far, 118 people have been arrested in connection with the violence," said Jawed Shamim, a senior police official in the state, adding that at least 15 police officers were injured.The state’s high court ordered federal troops to deploy.
The Waqf amendment bill that set off the protests was passed earlier this month after heated debate.
According to the ruling Hindu nationalist government, it will boost transparency around land management by holding accountable powerful Waqf boards, which control properties gifted by Muslim charitable endowments.
But the opposition has called the bill a polarising "attack" on India’s Muslim minority. They accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to win favour with its right-wing Hindu base.
After the bill’s passage, Modi called it a "watershed moment".
Opposition Congress Party chief Rahul Gandhi meanwhile said the bill was "aimed at Muslims today but sets a precedent to target other communities in the future".
Modi’s decade as premier has seen him cultivate an image as an aggressive champion of the country’s majority Hindu faith.
His government revoked the constitutional autonomy of India’s Muslim-majority region Kashmir, and backed the construction of a temple on grounds where a mosque stood for centuries before it was torn down by Hindu zealots in 1992. India Saw a Surge in Smartphone Exports Ahead of Tariffs (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [4/11/2025 9:00 PM, Tripti Lahiri, 810K]
India saw a marked increase in smartphone export shipments to the U.S. from January to March, according to Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of the India Cellular & Electronics Association.
In the final days of March alone, India lifted a massive amount of air cargo—essentially phones—to the U.S., he said. “This clearly reflects that India has arrived as a very serious capacity and logistics leader in the global value chain,” said Mohindroo.
The additional shipments came as companies sought to get ahead of Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement and helped lift India’s smartphone exports to more than $23 billion for the year ended March 2025, including more than $17 billion in iPhones.
Apple iPhones now make up about three-fourths of India’s overall smartphone exports, up from about 65% in the previous financial year ended March 2024, and constitute the bulk of India’s phone shipments to the U.S.
Air cargo data from Chennai airport, in the state of Tamil Nadu, a key hub for Apple contract manufacturing in India, showed that electronics and electrical exports by air went from around 1,000 metric tons in December to 1,500 metric tons in January and February, to nearly 2,200 metric tons in March. Apple iPhones make up a large share of electronics exports from the state, according to a person familiar with the state’s electronic manufacturing.The Tamil Nadu industries minister is meeting with companies and suppliers looking to seize a further advantage for the state from uncertainty around the tariffs–some of which the Trump administration has paused for three months. NSB
Some 100,000 rally against Israel in Bangladesh’s capital (AP)
AP [4/12/2025 9:29 AM, Staff, 2017K]
Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday to condemn Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip.
The protesters, estimated at some 100,000, gathered at the Suhrawardy Park in the Dhaka University area. They carried hundreds of Palestinian flags and chanted slogans such as "Free, Free Palestine.".
Many among them beat the images of U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing them of backing Israel. Symbolic coffins and effigies representing civilian casualties were carried during the rally.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and Islamist groups and parties expressed their solidarity with the rally.
Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people, maintains no diplomatic relations with Israel and it officially supports an independent Palestine. Bangladesh Reintroduces ‘Except Israel’ Phrase On Passports (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/13/2025 1:05 PM, Staff, 931K]
Bangladesh has restored an "except Israel" inscription on passports, local media reported Sunday, effectively barring its citizens from travelling to that country.
Israel is a flashpoint issue in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, which does not recognise it.
The phrase "valid for all countries except Israel," which was printed on Bangladeshi passports for decades, was removed during the later years of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.
Nilima Afroze, a deputy secretary at the home ministry, told Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) news agency on Sunday that authorities had "issued a directive last week" to restore the inscription.
"The director general of the department of immigration and passport was asked to take necessary measures to implement this change," local newspaper The Daily Star quoted Afroze as saying Sunday.
In 2021, the words "except Israel" were removed from passports, although the then government under Hasina clarified that the country’s stance on Israel had not changed.
The country’s support for an independent Palestinian state was visible on Saturday when around 100,000 people gathered in Dhaka in solidarity with Gaza.
The Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
A fragile ceasefire between the warring parties fell apart last month and Gaza’s health ministry said Sunday that at least 1,574 Palestinians had been killed since then, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,944. Bangladesh court issues arrest warrant for British MP linked to ex-premier Sheikh Hasina (AP)
AP [4/14/2025 4:24 AM, Staff, 456K]
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for British lawmaker and former government minister Tulip Siddiq, a niece of Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule.
The country’s official Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near the capital, Dhaka.
Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission, the leading Dhaka-based Bengali-language Prothom Alo newspaper reported.
Siddiq, 42, was named in the arrest warrant along with more than 50 others including her mother, Sheikh Rehana, and her brother, Radwan Siddiq, the newspaper reported.
Siddiq’s lawyers said the charges against Siddiq were baseless and “politically motivated.”“Ms. Siddiq knows nothing about a hearing in Dhaka relating to her and she has no knowledge of any arrest warrant that is said to have been issued,” law firm Stephenson Harwood said in a statement.“To be clear, there is no basis at all for any charges to be made against her, and there is absolutely no truth in any allegation that she received a plot of land in Dhaka through illegal means,” it added.
The lawmaker, who represents the north London district of Hampstead and Highgate in Parliament, served in Britain’s center-left Labour Party government as economic secretary to the Treasury — the minister responsible for tackling financial corruption.
She quit that post in January after she was named in an anti-corruption investigation into Hasina and her family in Bangladesh. The investigation alleged that Siddiq’s family was involved in brokering a 2013 deal with Russia for a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh in which large sums of money were said to have been embezzled.
Siddiq said in January that she had been cleared of wrongdoing, but that the issue was becoming “a distraction from the work of the government.”
Hasina’s Bangladesh Awami League party says the charges are politically motivated to destroy the reputation of the prominent family. Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is Bangladesh’s independence leader. The country gained independence in 1971 under his leadership after a nine-month war against Pakistan.
Hasina has been in exile in India since early August.
After the ouster of Hasina on Aug. 5 last year, Siddiq’s mother’s home in Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan area was looted and vandalized, and so far no police case has been filed over the incident. Hasina accused Bangladesh’s interim administration headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus of backing mobs to attack her followers across the country. The home affairs adviser says they are trying to restore order in the country. Arrest warrant issued in Bangladesh for UK MP Tulip Siddiq (The Guardian)
The Guardian [4/13/2025 1:32 PM, Jessica Elgot, 78938K]
An arrest warrant for the former City minister Tulip Siddiq has been issued in Bangladesh with a new allegation accusing her of illegally receiving a plot of land from her aunt, the ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladeshi media reported the warrant was issued by a judge for 53 people connected to Hasina, including Siddiq. There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Bangladesh.
Siddiq’s representative said there was "no basis at all for any charges to be made against her, and there is absolutely no truth in any allegation that she received a plot of land in Dhaka through illegal means".
The MP for Hampstead and Highgate has denied allegations of corruption linked to her aunt’s collapsed regime and accused the Bangladeshi authorities of a "targeted and baseless" campaign against her.
Siddiq resigned in January as economic secretary to the Treasury, citing the risk of becoming a distraction and saying the government was being harmed by the furore over her use of properties given to herself and her family by allies of the regime of Hasina.
She was not deemed by Keir Starmer’s ethics adviser to have broken any rules over her use of the homes and he found no evidence to suggest that any of Siddiq’s assets were derived from anything other than legitimate means.
But Laurie Magnus did find a lack of records and said lapse of time meant he had "not been able to obtain comprehensive comfort in relation to all the UK property-related matters".
A Conservative party spokesperson said: "If it is the case that Keir Starmer’s choice for anti-corruption minister is the subject of an international arrest warrant for corruption, she should immediately stand down as Labour MP.
"It is shocking that Keir Starmer believes ‘the door remains open’ for Ms Siddiq returning to a government position. Keir Starmer must put his close friendship and association with Ms Siddiq aside and take the action he should have months ago.".
Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission (ACC) has alleged that Siddiq, 42, received a 670 sq metre plot in the diplomatic zone of the capital, Dhaka, through ties to the former rulers, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
The allegation is that Siddiq persuaded her aunt to allocate three plots of land in the exclusive enclave for her family members, including her mother, Sheikh Rehana, her brother Radwan and her younger sister Azmina. The family are all based in Britain.
The ACC chair, Mohammad Abdul Momen, previously told the BBC the investigations in Bangladesh were "based on documentary evidence of corruption" and Siddiq should return to fight her case in Bangladesh.
In a statement made through her lawyers, Siddiq’s representatives said: "The ACC has made various allegations against Ms Siddiq through the media in the last few months. The allegations are completely false and have been dealt with in writing by Ms Siddiq’s lawyers.
"The ACC has not responded to Ms Siddiq or put any allegations to her directly or through her lawyers. Ms Siddiq knows nothing about a hearing in Dhaka relating to her and she has no knowledge of any arrest warrant that is said to have been issued.
"To be clear, there is no basis at all for any charges to be made against her, and there is absolutely no truth in any allegation that she received a plot of land in Dhaka through illegal means.
"She has never had a plot of land in Bangladesh and she has never influenced any allocation of plots of land to her family members or anyone else.
"No evidence has been provided by the ACC to support this or any other allegation made against Ms Siddiq and it is clear to us that the charges are politically motivated.". Can Bitcoin save Bhutan’s struggling economy? (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [4/14/2025 3:55 AM, Sarah Shamim, 18.2M]
For years, Bhutan has measured its economic and social development using uncommon currencies: happiness and sustainability.
But amid growing economic pains and a brain drain, the small, landlocked Himalayan kingdom is adopting a new emblem of progress, which is propelling Bhutan into a leading role globally in embracing financial innovation: Bitcoin.
Nestled between India and China, Bhutan – also the first country in the world to become carbon negative – has mined millions of dollars in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency in recent years, making an economic bet that almost no other country has to the same extent.
So, why is Bhutan going big on Bitcoin? How is it mining the energy-intensive cryptocurrency? How much wealth in Bitcoin does the country hold? And is its move risky, given the wild fluctuations in prices that the digital currency has witnessed over the years?
What is Bitcoin and how do you mine it?
Bitcoin is the first decentralised, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, created in 2008. It is not controlled by any government.
People can buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and these transactions are recorded on a shared ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoin has value because there is a finite number of Bitcoins that can exist on the blockchain, about 21 million. Most of these coins have been mined, and approximately one million remain.
Bitcoin mining is the process through which new Bitcoins are officially added to the blockchain. To mine Bitcoin, an energy-guzzling supercomputer needs to solve a complex puzzle. This adds a new digital coin into circulation.
How is Bhutan mining Bitcoin?
Bhutan’s hydropower plants fuel supercomputers that solve complex problems to be rewarded with Bitcoin, which can be added to the blockchain.“It’s just a simple strategic choice that many people have made and earned billions of dollars, and I think governments should do it,” Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay told Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith in the capital, Thimphu, in March.
Tobgay explained that during the summer months, there is more water flow, and the hydropower plants generate more energy than needed.“That’s where Bitcoin mining makes tremendous sense,” said Tobgay.
Why is Bhutan facing an economic crisis?
The country is in the midst of mounting economic challenges, and Bitcoin mining is among a set of steps the nation of 800,000 people is taking to fight its way out of the crisis.
The country has no outlet to the sea, and although – at a little more than 38,000sq km (14,672sq miles) – it is almost as big as Switzerland, most of this land is not arable due to its mountainous terrain. Bhutan imports most of its food from India, which Tobgay described as the kingdom’s “closest friend and neighbour”.
Tourism contributes more than 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). In 2023, it brought in $334m, according to the Royal Monetary Authority, Bhutan’s central bank. The country’s GDP stood at $3.02bn that year.
However, those figures mask the country’s struggle to draw people back to visit its mountains, forests and Buddhist shrines since a setback during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bhutan has long controlled how many tourists it hosts to ensure that its pristine ecology is not affected by a higher footfall than it can manage. It charges a sustainable development fee of $100 to foreign tourists. The only exception to this rule is tourists from India, who have to pay $15. Tobgay says the vision behind this is to attract “high-value and low-volume” tourists.
But now, Bhutan is struggling to attract even the limited number of tourists it wants. According to Tobgay, the country can host approximately 300,000 tourists every year.“Last year, I think about 150,000 tourists visited,” the prime minister said.
Bhutan’s youth unemployment rate was 19 percent in 2024. The global average youth unemployment rate in 2023 was 13.6 percent, according to the World Bank.
How might Bitcoin help Bhutan address its economic challenges?
One of the most potent symptoms of Bhutan’s crisis is the exodus of young, educated people to other countries in recent years – and their departure only compounds the country’s economic struggle.
In 2022 alone, more than 10 percent of Bhutan’s skilled and educated population left the country. Australia, one of the major destination countries, saw its Bhutanese immigrant population more than double in five years between 2016 and 2021.“We have jobs in Bhutan but they cannot compete against the wages that they can earn elsewhere in developed countries,” Tobgay said.
This brain drain has also depleted Bhutan’s civil services. There was a sharp increase in civil servants quitting the system since 2019, with the number of civil servants quitting continuing to increase until 2023, the state-funded Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) reported in April 2024.
This is where Bitcoin, as an economic resource, appears to have helped. In 2023, the Bhutanese government sold $100m of cryptocurrency to double the salaries of civil servants, Al Jazeera’s Smith reported from Thimphu.
Since then, the BBS reported a marginal decline in civil servants quitting their jobs. In the first quarter of 2024, 500 civil servants resigned, compared with the nearly 1,900 who resigned in the same period in 2023.
How much Bitcoin does Bhutan hold?
Bhutan has not formally disclosed how much it holds in the cryptocurrency.
However, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, Bhutan’s Bitcoin holdings are worth more than $600m as of April 9, making up about 30 percent of the kingdom’s GDP.
Arkham’s data suggests that Bhutan also holds other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum and LinqAI, although the kingdom’s holdings of these currencies are much smaller than those of Bitcoin.
Bhutan’s king, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, has long advocated for the country to invest in its digital infrastructure.“Being a small nation makes us a smart nation – this is not out of choice but out of necessity,” the king said in a 2019 address. “Technology is an indispensable tool that will be necessary to realise this aspiration.”
Is Bhutan’s Bitcoin mining sustainable?
Bitcoin mining is one of the few ventures that allows Bhutan, a constitutional monarchy, to grow its economy while aligning with its values as a country, analysts say.“The number of private sector investments that flow into Bhutan is quite limited because of the restrictions that come with Bhutan’s mandate to maintain around 60 percent of forest cover and to focus on happiness and conservation of the environment rather than embracing industrialisation rapidly,” Aditya Gowdara Shivamurthy, an associate fellow at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation (ORF), told Al Jazeera.
This limitation is also something Prime Minister Tobgay spoke of.“We have been mindful to be very careful about foreign direct investment,” Tobgay said. “We have been careful about allowing industries that would harm the environment, that would pollute our air, that would undermine our culture.”
What Bhutan does have is an environment and natural resources conducive to mining the cryptocurrency, said the ORF’s Shivamurthy.
The capital, Thimphu, and other regions have cold temperatures, reducing the need to overutilise the cooling systems needed to prevent supercomputers from overheating. The average temperatures in the country remain between 15 to 30 degrees Celsius (59-86 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the year, according to data from the World Bank.
The country also produces more hydropower than it consumes.“It is important for Bhutan to capitalise on the green energy we have in terms of mining Bitcoin as a part of our investment portfolio,” Ujwal Deep Dahal, the CEO of Druk Holding and Investments, the commercial and investment arm of the Royal Government of Bhutan, told Al Jazeera.
Bhutan exports hydroelectricity to India. But Bitcoin mining gives Bhutan an alternative to exports. Where tariff rates are good, it sells the power to India. In projects where the rates are not good, Bhutan keeps the power and uses it to mine Bitcoin instead, the ORF’s Shivamurthy explained.“Instead of exporting [hydropower] at a very cheap rate, we are using it to mine Bitcoins in the high mountains of Bhutan,” Tenzing Lamsang, editor-in-chief of The Bhutanese newspaper, a private weekly based in Thimphu, told Al Jazeera.
Besides mining Bitcoin, the country is building a special administrative region and economic hub, the Gelephu Mindfulness City, to combine its ideals of sustainability and wellbeing with commercial growth. The city is an urban development project with low-rise buildings, sustainable businesses, residential zones, a national park and a wildlife sanctuary.
Are other governments mining Bitcoin?
While governments were wary about Bitcoin in its early days, many are now changing their approach.
On March 6, United States President Donald Trump established a strategic Bitcoin reserve. Besides the US, El Salvador holds nearly $550m in Bitcoin, the government announced on March 5.
Other governments, such as the Central African Republic and France, are beginning to recognise Bitcoin as a legal tender.
On April 7, Pakistan appointed Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, which is the largest cryptocurrency exchange globally, as an adviser to the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC), a regulatory body set up in March, as the country attempts to position itself as a crypto leader in South Asia. Maldives To Phase Out Smoking With Generational Ban (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/14/2025 2:32 AM, Staff, 931K]
The Maldives will attempt to stamp out smoking across the South Asian luxury tourist archipelago this year with a ban making it illegal for anyone currently under 19 to ever buy cigarettes.
A proposed law will prohibit the sale of tobacco products to individuals born after a January 2007 cut-off date, effectively phasing out smoking for future generations.
"The new legislation is set to come into force on November 1, 2025," President Mohamed Muizzu’s office said in a statement issued after a cabinet meeting on Sunday.
The penalties for breaching the new law were not immediately announced but officials said they were working to amend existing tobacco control laws to bring them in line with the new legislation.
A similar law proposed in Britain is still in the legislative process, while New Zealand -- the first country to enact a generational law against smoking -- repealed it in November 2023, less than a year after it was introduced.
The Maldives raised the legal age for smoking from 18 to 21 in November and banned the importation of e-cigarettes and vaping devices, a policy that also applies to tourists. US Tariffs Threaten Troubled Sri Lanka’s Recovery: IMF (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/11/2025 5:16 AM, Staff, 931K]
Sri Lanka’s recovery from its worst economic meltdown, which forced a sovereign default and toppled a president, will be undermined if punishing US tariffs resume, the IMF warned on Friday.
The United States is Sri Lanka’s largest single market, accounting for almost a quarter of its $12 billion in merchandise exports. The trade balance is heavily in favour of the small South Asian nation.
Washington imposed a 44 percent "reciprocal tariff" on the island nation before putting it on hold for 90 days on Thursday.
Sri Lanka has not retaliated but instead appealed for negotiations with Washington.
"The recent external shock and evolving developments are creating uncertainty for the Sri Lankan economy, which is still recovering from its own economic crisis," the IMF said following talks with local officials.
It noted that more time was needed to assess the full impact on the IMF-supported bailout programme Sri Lanka entered into in early 2023.
Sri Lanka secured a $2.9 billion, four-year loan from the IMF after running out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports, such as food, fuel and medicines.
"Against ongoing global uncertainty, it remains important to continue rebuilding external buffers through reserves accumulation," the IMF said.
Sri Lanka had reported its first full year of economic expansion since its unprecedented crisis in 2022 when the US tariff announcement was made.
The final quarter of 2024 saw the economy expand by 5.4 percent, bringing the full calendar year’s GDP growth to 5.0 percent, compared to a contraction of 2.3 percent in 2023.
The island’s worst economic performance came in 2022, when GDP shrank by 7.3 percent.
Months of shortages in early 2022 led to street protests that eventually toppled then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, doubled taxes, cut subsidies, raised prices and went on to lose his re-election bid in September.
The leftist administration led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has maintained many of the austerity measures and has urged all parties to work out a negotiating strategy with Washington together.
The Colombo-based private economic policy think tank Verite Research urged Colombo to join others hard-hit nations "under the aegis of the WTO (World Trade Organization)and agree on a common response", its head Nishan de Mel told AFP. The USAID Freeze: A View From Sri Lanka and the Global South (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [4/13/2025 7:41 PM, Uditha Devapriya and Omar Rajarathnam, 2K]
On January 20, 2025, his first day in office, U.S. President Donald Trump signaled a pivotal turnaround in U.S. foreign policy, paving the way for arguably the most consequential shift since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
In a single stroke, Trump imposed a 90-day freeze on all aid programs. The executive order that imposed the freeze stated that these programs would be reviewed to ensure "programmatic efficiencies" and "consistency with United States foreign policy.".
Trump’s initial order was followed four days later (January 24) by a memo from the State Department ordering officials at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to stop all projects and "new obligations of funding.".
Since then, 83 percent of all programs have been eliminated, while the remaining 17 percent have been taken under the direct purview of the U.S. State Department.
Meanwhile, officials from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have conducted several spot inspections and raids, which have been criticized as unconstitutional but have continued uninterrupted at USAID and other institutions, including the U.S. Institute for Peace. Many of these institutions and programs have also since been shut down.
While the State Department has clarified that it will approve waivers on humanitarian grounds, only a few programs, including assistance to Israel, have been allowed to continue.
Washington’s suspension of foreign aid and assistance has been met with mixed reactions, abroad and at home. The Democratic Party, in disarray since Kamala Harris lost the presidential election last November, has opposed the gutting of any foreign assistance.
Critics contend that the president has no power to bypass congressional approval in enforcing such measures and that the agency tasked with those measures, headed by Elon Musk, a man who enjoys federal tax subsidies, is violating the Constitution.
Since Trump’s assumption, DOGE, which is not an officially mandated body, has accessed personnel data, ostensibly to ensure compliance with Trump’s "America First" policy and "curb wasteful spending.".
In a press release after it halted USAID operations, the State Department declared that ensuring conformity with the president’s mandate, and auditing how taxpayer money is being spent abroad, is no longer an option but a moral imperative.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that in the future, aid programs should be able to address three questions: "Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?".
On February 3, Rubio was appointed as acting administrator at USAID. Around that time, officials confirmed the agency would be merged with the State Department – a move critics say will undermine its independence.
Samantha Power, the head of USAID under Joe Biden, has been openly critical of these developments. In a spate of interviews, she argued that USAID operations have saved countless lives in the developing world. In a recent op-ed in The New York Times, she wrote that its closure would be "a win for autocrats everywhere.".
Despite the State Department’s clarification, the suspension has impacted aid operations in the most vulnerable regions, including South Asia. In Nepal, projects to do with disease surveillance, malnutrition, and other critical health issues have stopped. According to one report, the suspension in Nepal could affect the operation of U.N. agencies that were financing these projects.
Pakistan and Bangladesh are reeling from multiple crises; USAID held a significant presence in both countries. Though not as badly affected, India’s social sector has also unraveled. Sri Lanka and Maldives, reliant on USAID assistance, are bracing for similar impacts.
It’s not just civil society and the development sector that have been left in the dark. In Sri Lanka, parliamentary committees have relied on technical expertise from USAID.
In a recent interview, opposition parliamentarian Harsha de Silva, who chairs the country’s Committee on Public Finance, admitted that while it was the government’s responsibility to ensure "we have high quality analysts," they have depended on foreign assistance.
Whether the government can resolve this is left to be seen. While Cabinet Spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa said the Sri Lankan government would continue USAID projects, if necessary with alternative funding, how such funds will be secured has not been mapped out.
In certain cases, humanitarian waivers have come into play. U.S. funding for certain projects, including a $121 million initiative for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, has been allowed. On the other hand, it is unclear how these programs will run without proper personnel to oversee them.
For the Trump administration, the USAID shutdown is part of a broader effort to align foreign aid with U.S. foreign policy and national interests. Supporters of the move claim that the organization has been funneling taxpayer money to "woke" causes, including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), gender, and climate resilience.
In one of many such "disclosures," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Must accused USAID of having disbursed funds for, among other things, "the expansion of atheism in Nepal" through the State Department.
The Heritage Foundation-authored Project 2025, which some see as the basis for Trump’s agenda, devoted a chapter to USAID, pointing out that it was overhauled during the first Trump presidency but that under Biden it reverted to the old model of making "scores of poor countries underdeveloped and dependent on aid.".
Many of these allegations have been echoed by nationalist-populist politicians in the Global South, including in Sri Lanka, as well as left-wing critics of U.S. and Western aid.
Opponents of Trump’s move, on the other hand, contend that by gutting USAID, the United States stands to lose more than goodwill and influence in the developing world; they argue that it will empower China and Russia, as well as authoritarian leaders around the world.
In the days after the USAID shutdown, statements from Russia and Belarus, and the likes of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, to say nothing of politicians in countries like Sri Lanka, appeared relieved and exultant at the gutting.
On X, both Elon Musk and Trump tweeted details about projects that USAID supported, including one in Sri Lanka to educate journalists on "gender pronouns.".
Many of these disclosures have since been shown to be false or misleading, including by local media. Still, that has not stopped politicians from recycling claims critical of such organizations. This has been true in Sri Lanka, where politicians have frequently linked foreign assistance with "regime change," and in Bangladesh, where, according to one State Department official, USAID was involved with political changes last year – though Trump himself has since denied such claims.
The situation has become particularly complex in Myanmar, where in the aftermath of the recent earthquake employees from USAID were dispatched for humanitarian work, only to be informed of their dismissal and termination while going about their work.
In the days following the initial USAID stop order, Wimal Weerawansa, a Sri Lankan (Sinhala) nationalist ex-MP, tweeted his support for Trump’s decision. In his book "Nine: The Hidden Story," published in 2023, Weerawansa accused a host of actors, including an ambassador, of having helped with then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s removal from power in 2022. Weerawansa went as far as to accuse USAID of conspiring to reduce the country’s population. He has since regularly been retweeting right-wing figureheads on Twitter, including Elon Musk himself.
Namal Rajapaksa, Gotabaya’s nephew and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son, soon joined these harangues, penning a long tweet against USAID and calling for a probe into local NGOs. According to a Sri Lankan journalist, however, these parliamentarians made use of USAID funding for government projects when they were in power.
To be fair, of course, USAID has not entirely been free from controversy. When then-President John F. Kennedy initiated it through an executive order in 1961, Washington was engaged in a battle of propaganda with the Soviet Union.
USAID was one of several outfits, including the Peace Corps and the Alliance for Progress, that aimed on the one hand at projecting to other countries, mainly postcolonial societies in Latin and Central America, Africa, and Asia, a positive, benevolent image of the United States, and on the other ensuring economic and political stability in states that seemed vulnerable to communism.
No doubt USAID, like all foreign government funding, has been hard to extract from the quagmire of geopolitics. During the Cold War, such institutions helped achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives, particularly in regions like Latin America.
However, the Trump administration’s argument is that while billions of dollars have been spent on spreading "American values," this has not helped project American power. "It was always about promoting an agenda," Rathindra Kuruwita, a Sri Lankan international relations analyst, said. "Trump has made the geopolitical underside of U.S. aid more transparent.".
While the politics and geopolitics of USAID remain debated, the humanitarian fallout from its shutdown continues. In regions like South Asia, development sector organizations that were working with marginalized communities, including sexual minorities, relied on USAID funding.
Because of the shutdown, they have all been forced to lay off staff, or worse, wrap up operations altogether. In a newspaper interview, a Sri Lankan transgender activist stated that, given Trump’s policies, they did not expect a waiver after the 90-day period.
It goes without saying that alternative funding for such organizations will be hard to come by. As a Sri Lankan analyst observed, "this shows how dangerous it was to become complacent about U.S. government funding and to not look into other sources.".
In fact, such funding is increasingly being seen as a two-edged sword. On the one hand, in countries like Sri Lanka, U.S. government involvement in advocacy for gender rights, climate resilience, and democratic governance has been criticized as an intrusion on sovereignty or an attempt at undermining "national culture.".
On the other, in the United States, such funding has been viewed as inimical to U.S. interests. On both counts, activism on gender, minority, and climate issues will suffer; as one activist noted, "smaller agencies that were not able to diversify their funding will take the bigger hit.".
Since Trump’s executive order and subsequent cancellation, USAID employees have faced a dilemma over whether to obey instructions and halt projects or not.
While some in the agency have opposed the shutdown, they have so far been powerless to stop it. USAID employees in the United States and outside have, despite the pressure on them, voiced concerns about what they view as a capitulation by the U.S. to interest groups and lobbies.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a USAID employee who was based in Sri Lanka questioned the rationale for Trump’s orders. While Musk has supported the gutting as a means of promoting transparency on government spending, the employee said that "in fact, the data on USAID funding was available online, including on the Congressional Research Services website.".
However, the employee said that the Trump administration has "developed and perfected a robust and successful communications ecosystem which has enabled disinformation on USAID to be amplified, especially on Elon Musk’s platforms." Democrats, who are currently in opposition, lack an effective communications strategy to counter this.
The USAID employee also questioned the motives behind these decisions, speculating whether they were part of a bigger effort by Musk to preempt investigations into his companies, "including SpaceX and Starlink," which have long benefited from government subsidies.
Moreover, by terminating contracts without thinking of replacements, "the government is making the work of the U.S. State Department even harder," the employee said, contradicting its own objective of making government leaner and more efficient.
"On the one hand, Trump is claiming credit for revealing information on USAID grants, which was already online before," the employee argued. "On the other, he and Musk are demonizing employees for wasting funds in a context where federal workers pay taxes and billionaires find so many ways of avoiding it.".
All these arguments are being watched closely in developing countries, including Sri Lanka. "Today, the view is that the United States has damaged its international credibility. Even if USAID resumes tomorrow, how can we assure our partners in the Global South we will not break their trust again?" the USAID employee said. This can impact the governments of poor countries.
"In Sri Lanka, nationalist politicians can use Trump’s policies to discredit the current government." This is becoming more likely. Already, social media posts and articles linking USAID funding to important officials, including the prime minister herself, are making the rounds.
Finally, the official criticized the view that USAID does not serve American interests, pointing out that USAID agriculture projects have benefited American farmers, and that the suspensions will adversely affect these stakeholders.
Perhaps the most important takeaway from these developments is the extent to which the domestic consensus on U.S. foreign aid has ruptured. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have their international aid organizations. The International Republican Institution (IRI), affiliated with the Republican Party, has expanded its presence across countries like Bangladesh.
Yet while the Democratic Party-affiliated National Democratic Institute is still online, the IRI website has been disabled – supposedly to "mitigate expenses." In the meantime, the National Endowment for Democracy, created during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, has come under attack by Musk for being a "scam.".
The question remains as to who will step forward to fill the gap left behind by these policy turnarounds. Western liberal commentators argue that China and Russia will take up the mantle, weakening the United States’ soft power in the Global South. Some even suggest that this will make the U.S. weaker. However, such a scenario remains unlikely for at least two reasons.
First, as an economic and business analyst in Sri Lanka noted, "China may not want to devote much of their budget to aid when confronted with domestic economic challenges.".
While China’s overseas aid has increased since 2009 – reaching, according to one source, more than $3 billion last year – this has been a fraction of what the U.S. has been able to muster, which according to PEW, came to more than $70 billion in 2023. Meanwhile, the EU allocated $1.9 billion for its humanitarian budget this year, against the backdrop of "decreased cooperation funding.".
Second, despite being a key development partner in the Global South, China holds different positions on issues like human rights, media freedom, and good governance, which have long been seen as the mainstay of Western government funding.
The flurry of responses by Sri Lankan journalists to reports of a media agreement between Sri Lanka and China, along with one media organization’s critique of Beijing’s attitude to journalists, indicates that media advocacy groups in such countries tend to prefer U.S. aid to agreements with other countries. Given the blowback against USAID’s activities in the Sri Lankan media landscape, however, it remains debatable whether this will continue.
Some commentators argue that China has more potential in meeting the shortfall in U.N. organizations like the World Health Organization, which have a significant presence in South Asia and Africa. Doing so would certainly be in China’s interest, though it could reinforce accusations that such organizations have become a part of Beijing’s agenda.
On the other hand, both India’s and China’s quick response to the Myanmar earthquake, coupled with Rubio’s recent declaration that the U.S. can no longer "bear the burden of providing the majority of global humanitarian aid," means that other countries will have to reassess their funding commitments. It is significant that Rubio specifically mentioned China and India as countries that should pitch in to do humanitarian work.
Europe can be pointed out as another possible alternative, even if, given the political compulsions there, it is doubtful whether they will be able to match the United States’ aid spending capacity. If anything, it is likely that Europe will offset increased defense expenditures by cuts to foreign aid: the United Kingdom, for instance, will slash foreign aid to 0.3 percent of Gross National Income from 2027, a move academics and policymakers have criticized.
Yet even as Europe appears to be bracing for foreign aid cuts, there are signs that some countries are moving in to fill the gaps left behind by the USAID suspensions. Recently, for instance, the Sri Lanka Police launched a new training program on LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion. The program, the first-ever in the history of the Sri Lanka Police, commenced in the presence and under the patronage of the Dutch ambassador in Colombo.
Others point out that countries within the Global South themselves can, as one journalist put it, "build an organic civil society more responsive to the needs of our societies.".
The Future: A Question Mark?
All this underlines a fundamental though uncomfortable truth for civil society organizations, which is that competition for funding will now be more intense than before. This is especially true of South Asia, where funding shortfalls were a problem even before the USAID freeze, and it will impact even those CSOs that had a diverse donor portfolio.
More than anything, these developments call into question the United States’ claim of being a reliable partner in the region, seen as an indispensable plank in Washington’s Indo-Pacific policy. How the Trump administration can balance its aggressive foreign policy posturing with the need to project a positive image of itself across the Global South remains to be seen.
The recent arrival of the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Sri Lanka, with the aim of strengthening security partnerships between the two countries, shows that the U.S. military-security establishment is still very much focused on the region. The question can be asked as to whether the withdrawal of foreign aid and assistance initiatives will have an impact on U.S] activities across the Indo-Pacific, particularly in small states like Sri Lanka.
At the same time, the funding freeze has made civil society in countries like Sri Lanka aware of the need to break away from the dependency that U.S. funding institutionalized in the first place. One activist, interviewed by a local newspaper, said that foreign funding tends to be "counterproductive" in "thinking creatively" and "responding to ground realities.".
There is no doubt that the withdrawal of aid has made vulnerable communities who relied on such programs insecure, in a context where nationalist and conservative forces frame such groups as handmaidens of Western agenda. Yet there is also no doubt that, for a long time, even local activists have felt foreign funding benefits a host of intermediaries, resource personnel, and consultants, rather than those for whom such funding is intended.
Things were far from perfect before the freeze. The Trump administration’s claim that USAID entrenched contractors, rather than actual people, is not wholly false. At the same time, as Jake Johnston tweeted, the result of the USAID shutdown will be to direct aid toward political objectives: in effect, to "make political interventionism an even more explicit aim of U.S. foreign assistance." In regions like South Asia, hardly a stranger to electoral shifts, this is likely to have broad ramifications in the future. Central Asia
Central Asia border deals open door for Japan to strengthen ties (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [4/13/2025 2:51 PM, Yohei Ishikawa, 1191K]
Recent moves toward closer integration in Central Asia, 30 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, are likely to attract economic cooperation and investment in the strategically important region.
The five Central Asian nations -- Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan -- held their first summit with the European Union on April 4. Speaking at the event, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, president of summit host Uzbekistan, noted the growing trust and expanding cooperation within the region."Just seven or eight years ago, there were no prerequisites for this," he said.A major sign of the change described by Mirziyoyev is an agreement signed on March 13 by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan demarcating their 980-kilometer border. Much of it had remained undefined even after the collapse of the USSR, making it a frequent source of conflict. Settling the issue has removed the region’s biggest destabilizing factor.Soon after, on March 31, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan inked another agreement setting the junction point of the three countries’ complex borders. A silver monument was erected at the site to commemorate their new friendship.The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development expects Central Asia’s economy to grow nearly 6% this year. While the region is not densely populated, the five countries have a combined 80 million people, a figure that is expected to increase further. They are also rich in resources such as rare metals and natural gas.Central Asia lies along the old Silk Road trade route that linked Asia and Europe. While China and Russia have significant influence in the region, all five countries are majority Muslim, and all but Tajikistan have strong ethnic ties to Turkey. Although differences remain in their levels of economic reform and democratization, each has made substantial progress.The region was tested in 2021 and 2022, when armed conflict broke out between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in part over water rights along their border.There were fears that this could erupt into all-out war, but a shared sense of crisis throughout the region brought the countries to the table to negotiate the border agreements. Borders were opened, the region stabilized, and joint projects among the countries have been picking up.The EU is taking advantage of this turning point, choosing Central Asia as an economic partner as tariffs strain relations with the U.S.The bloc plans to invest 12 billion euros ($13 billion) in projects including a transport corridor, in an effort to revive the Silk Road and promote regional integration.The corridor will "unlock untapped potential for business between our regions, and it will boost links and trade within your five Central Asian nations," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the summit.The Kyrgyz-Tajik border agreement has a connection to Japan.In August 1999, Islamic militants from Tajikistan crossed the ill-defined border into Kyrgyzstan and kidnapped four Japanese geologists from the Japan International Cooperation Agency along with their Kyrgyz translator.The Japanese nationals were in Kyrgyzstan to survey gold and copper deposits for potential development, in hopes of strengthening relations. Although the hostages were released about two months later, the incident cast a shadow over Japan’s ties with Central Asia.In a 2021 interview, a Kyrgyz businessperson expressed regret over the abductions, saying that had it not happened, relations would be different, and more investment would have come to the region. The resolution of the border issue has opened up new prospects on that front.Japan had been scheduled for its first summit with Central Asian leaders last August -- before the EU. But then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was forced to cancel the trip at the last minute due to an advisory of a potential megaquake. Current Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba looks to hold such a summit soon.For the countries of Central Asia, forging deeper ties with nations besides Russia and China to shore up their independence is a key issue. Given their positive views of Japan, the opportunity is there to build a strong, mutually beneficial relationship. Tajikistan: Rogun Dam project going under microscope (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [4/11/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K]
The World Bank is under fire over allegations of impropriety in financing the Rogun Dam project in Tajikistan. Specifically, bank officials are facing accusations that they failed to comply with procedures to account for potential environmental and socio-economic harms associated with the project.
A statement issued April 8 by the World Bank’s Inspection Panel, an independent investigative body, announced the registration of a formal Request for Inspection, in effect a complaint, concerning the bank’s involvement in the Rogun hydropower project (HPP). Bank officials now have three weeks to respond to the allegations raised in the complaint. At that point, the Inspection Panel will decide whether or not to conduct a formal investigation.
The complaint was initiated in February by two concerned citizens in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan with the assistance of a Kazakhstan-based environmental organization, Rivers without Boundaries.“The Rogun HPP project in its current, unfinished form poses a colossal threat to environmental stability and the well-being of millions of people in Central Asia,” said a statement issued by Rivers without Boundaries. “The applicants argue that the decision to finance the construction of the Rogun HPP was made by the World Bank’s Board of Directors despite an incomplete and outdated Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), which does not adequately reflect the transboundary risks and cumulative impacts of the project on vulnerable ecosystems and people in the Amu Darya River basin.”
The complaint characterized the Rogun project, which currently has a price tag exceeding $8 billion, as among the “most expensive and time-consuming false solutions” to address electricity shortages in Tajikistan and reduce carbon emissions. A study published by Rivers without Boundaries in late 2024 alleged that Rogun is a white elephant in the making, and is likely to be outmoded as an efficient and profitable generator of electricity before it becomes fully operational.
The World Bank approved a $350 million grant in December to be used to help complete the dam’s first phase of construction. If built to its present specifications, Rogun would be the world’s tallest dam, capable of producing 3,600 megawatts of power per year. Bank officials have described the project as a “transformative clean energy project that will improve domestic and regional welfare and contribute to the decarbonization of regional power grids in Central Asia.”
Initial due diligence conducted by the Inspection Panel found that the complaint was “not frivolous, absurd, or anonymous.”
The complaint alleges that World Bank officials relied on faulty and outdated data to evaluate the environmental impact of the dam’s operation. It goes on to assert the reservoir needed to generate electricity would reduce the flow of the already-stressed Amu Darya River by at least 25 percent, causing a “progressive catastrophe” adversely impacting the lives of up to 10 million people living downstream.Perhaps the harshest allegation leveled against the World Bank’s approval process is that “the Project’s safeguard documents were not disclosed to impacted persons and communities in Tajikistan and in the riparian countries [Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan] and that meaningful consultations were not held,” according to the Inspection Panel statement.
Even before the Inspection Panel makes a determination on whether to proceed with a full investigation, environmental activists are seeking an immediate halt to Rogun’s construction.
The Rivers without Borders statement “calls on the World Bank and other financial institutions involved in the Rogun HPP construction project in Tajikistan to suspend funding until a comprehensive, independent and transparent investigation of all issues raised in the request is conducted, and adequate measures are developed to prevent and mitigate the negative consequences of the project.” Twitter
Afghanistan
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[4/11/2025 3:18 PM, 33K followers, 152 retweets, 323 likes]
URGENT Many Afghans who came to the U.S. through various types of parole have received notices that their parole has been terminated and that they have 7 days to leave the country. #AfghanEvac thread below: whatever you do, do not leave the country without talking to a lawyer.
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[4/11/2025 3:18 PM, 33K followers, 11 retweets, 42 likes]
No official announcement has been made, and no litigation has been filed to date. These notices are also being sent to attorneys and U.S. citizen family members. We are asking @DHSgov to issue a statement clarifying policy related to all types of Afghans.
Beth W. Bailey@BWBailey85
[4/13/2025 9:13 AM, 8.3K followers, 1 retweet, 3 likes]
A point of clarification - the letters telling Afghans they have seven days to depart the country are going to those with CBP One app parole revoked. TPS revocation has not resulted in letters like this.
Lina Rozbih@LinaRozbih
[4/13/2025 7:25 PM, 428.1K followers, 1 retweet, 4 likes]
Afghanistan is not safe—for women, nor for the U.S. or other Western countries. I hope Secretary Noem doesn’t fall for the pro-Taliban narrative promoted by some Americans, like Khalilzad, who attempt to whitewash the Taliban’s actions. To the Taliban and their supporters, the West will always be viewed as ‘infidels.’ For jihadist terrorists, killing an infidel remains a top priority and the most highly rewarded act. @Sec_Noem @MikeWaltz47 #Taliban #Afghanistan #terrorists
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[4/11/2025 7:05 AM, 100.1K followers, 50 retweets, 85 likes]
Afghanistan: The deplorable public executions of four people in Nimroz, Farah and Badghis in Afghanistan today point to Taliban’s continued alarming abuse of human rights in the country. The Taliban de facto authorities continue to flagrantly flout human rights principles with complete disregard for international human rights law. We oppose all executions as a violation of the right to life. The Taliban has been repeatedly carrying them out publicly which is a gross affront to human dignity as well as a violation of international laws and standards. Carrying out executions in public adds to the inherent cruelty of the death penalty and can only have a dehumanizing effect on the victim and a brutalizing effect on those who witness the executions. The international community must put pressure on the Taliban to end this blatant human rights violation and help ensure that international safeguards are respected in Afghanistan. Taliban must halt all executions and abolish death penalty. Pakistan
Shehbaz Sharif@CMShehbaz
[4/11/2025 7:44 AM, 6.7M followers, 337 retweets, 1.1K likes]
A monumental day in Pakistan-Belarus ties! Had a warm and most cordial meeting with H.E. Aleksandr Lukashenko, President of Belarus. I thanked him for the gracious hospitality extended to me and my delegation. We reviewed the entire spectrum of our bilateral cooperation, including political, trade, investment, and people-to-people contacts. Highlights of our talks included the agreement to send over 150,000 highly skilled Pakistani workers to contribute to nation-building efforts in Belarus; enhanced cooperation in agriculture and food security; and potential joint ventures in the manufacturing of electric buses and agricultural machinery—steps that will help transform our enduring bond of friendship into a lasting partnership. President Lukashenko and I share a strong desire to continue elevating Pakistan-Belarus cooperation to new and greater heights. India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[4/14/2025 1:04 AM, 107.5M followers, 1.1K retweets, 4.1K likes]
The inauguration of Hisar Airport marks a significant milestone in Haryana’s development journey. It will boost regional connectivity and catalyse economic growth across the state. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1DXxyqZqLDYxM
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[4/13/2025 11:25 PM, 107.5M followers, 7.2K retweets, 42K likes]
We pay homage to the martyrs of Jallianwala Bagh. The coming generations will always remember their indomitable spirit. It was indeed a dark chapter in our nation’s history. Their sacrifice became a major turning point in India’s freedom struggle.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[4/12/2025 3:01 AM, 107.5M followers, 8.8K retweets, 56K likes]
Jai Sachidanand Ji! Here are highlights from yesterday’s visit to Shri Anandpur Dham in Madhya Pradesh. https://x.com/i/status/1910951460134846720
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[4/11/2025 12:36 PM, 107.5M followers, 7.9K retweets, 46K likes]
Stronger together, united towards Tamil Nadu’s progress! Glad that AIADMK joins the NDA family. Together, with our other NDA partners, we will take Tamil Nadu to new heights of progress and serve the state diligently. We will ensure a government that fulfils the vision of the great MGR and Jayalalithaa Ji. For the sake of Tamil Nadu’s progress and to preserve the uniqueness of Tamil culture, it is important the corrupt and divisive DMK is uprooted at the earliest, which our alliance will do. @AIADMKOfficial @BJP4TamilNadu
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[4/11/2025 10:19 AM, 107.5M followers, 6.6K retweets, 39K likes]
Feeling truly blessed to be at Shri Paramhans Advait Mandir, Shri Anandpur Dham in Madhya Pradesh — a spiritually vibrant place that radiates peace, devotion and timeless wisdom.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/14/2025 3:38 AM, 3.4M followers, 19 retweets, 142 likes]
Moved on to MPLADS projects in Amadla. The Health and Wellness Centre is encouraging more screenings and preventive measures. Smart Anganwadi in Amadla is ensuring higher attendance of children. Great to see students of 7th-8th Grade enjoying their studies in a Smart Classroom.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/14/2025 2:15 AM, 3.4M followers, 59 retweets, 390 likes]
Visiting Narmada district #Gujarat to see the progress on MPLAD works. Started with projects in Vyadhar. Very glad to see the new Health and Wellness Centre being operationalized. It has evoked a positive community response.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/14/2025 2:15 AM, 3.4M followers, 8 retweets, 68 likes]
Went on to see the Smart Anganwadi. The presence of mothers and children there spoke for itself.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/14/2025 2:15 AM, 3.4M followers, 7 retweets, 60 likes]
Most gratifying thereafter to visit the Smart Classroom. So encouraging to see how our young minds embrace the digital tools.Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/11/2025 11:42 AM, 3.4M followers, 1.4K retweets, 9.8K likes]
Appreciate the counter-terrorism cooperation between our two countries. This is indeed a big step in ensuring justice for the victims of 26/11 attacks. @SecRubio
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney
[4/13/2025 12:01 PM, 271K followers, 25 retweets, 167 likes]
The start of India’s six-day naval drills with nine African nations highlight an effort to enlarge its strategic footprint in Africa. Co-hosted by Tanzania, the exercises also aim to reinforce India’s role as the first responder to any natural disaster in the Indian Ocean region.
Ashok Swain@ashoswai
[4/13/2025 7:59 AM, 621.7K followers, 25 retweets, 101 likes]
Russian missile targeted Indian Pharma warehouse in Kyiv, Ukraine - Modi is silent!
Ashok Swain@ashoswai
[4/12/2025 10:57 AM, 621.7K followers, 232 retweets, 670 likes]
Muslims are protesting against Modi’s new Wakf law in India - 3 protesters have been killed in West Bengal! NSB
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[4/13/2025 8:42 AM, 143K followers, 45 retweets, 564 likes] General Secretary of the World Council of Churches calls on Chief Adviser DHAKA, April 13: Reverend Dr. Jerry Pillay, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), paid a courtesy call on Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the State Guest House Jamuna on Sunday. During the meeting, Reverend Pillay, who is based in Geneva, expressed the World Council of Churches’ full support for Bangladesh’s Interim Government and its efforts to promote peace, justice, and communal harmony. “We are here to express our support and solidarity with your leadership,” Reverend Pillay said. “After two decades, this visit reflects our continued commitment to Bangladesh. Like you, we believe in unity, peace, and a just society—and we see your Interim Government working hard to achieve exactly that.”
Chief Adviser Professor Yunus welcomed the WCC delegation and thanked them for their show of support. “We are doing our best—there are always ups and downs, but we are determined,” Professor Yunus said, adding, “We need your support in the days ahead. And I hope you will visit Bangladesh again.”
The World Council of Churches, a global fellowship of 352 member churches representing over 500 million Christians worldwide, has been an advocate for interfaith harmony. Reverend Pillay noted that the WCC shares Professor Yunus’s vision for a “3 Zero World", which includes zero net wealth concentration, zero unemployment, and zero carbon emissions. “At the World Council of Churches, we actively promote the same 3 Zero principles. This is a natural alignment, and we’re glad to walk alongside you on this path,” he said. Reverend Pillay also praised Bangladesh’s leadership in climate adaptation efforts. The Bangladesh chapter of the World Council of Churches has opened a climate centre in Gazipur. “Bangladesh has one of the most innovative and world-class engineers tackling climate challenges.,” he said.
Minister of Religious Affairs Dr A F M Khalid Hasan was also present during the meeting. Reverend Pillay was joined by Dinesh Suna, Programme Executive of the World Council of Churches (WCC); Bishop Philip Adhikary, President of the Federation of Protestant Churches of Bangladesh (FPCB); Wing Commander Christopher Adhikary (Retd.), President of the National Council of Churches in Bangladesh (NCCB); and Reverend Dipok Das, General Secretary of the NCCB.
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[4/13/2025 3:10 AM, 143K followers, 39 retweets, 583 likes]
Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus lays the foundation stone of ‘Shompriti Bhaban’ at the International Buddhist Monastery in Dhaka on Sunday, 13 April, organised by the Bangladesh Buddhist Federation. Photos: CA Press Wing
Sabria Chowdhury Balland@sabriaballand
[4/13/2025 3:40 PM, 8K followers, 4 likes]
#Bangladesh exported $1.5 billion worth of apparel to the US in Jan-Feb 2025, up from $1.18 billion in the same period last year. However, renewed trade tensions under the #Trump admin’s reciprocal #tariff strategy are casting uncertainties over the future of global trade.
Sabria Chowdhury Balland@sabriaballand
[4/13/2025 10:24 AM, 8K followers, 3 retweets, 11 likes]
#Bangladesh authorities have issued an arrest warrant for the British MP & former Labour minister Tulip Siddiq. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has been investigating allegations she illegally received land as part of its wider probe of the regime of her aunt, Sheikh Hasina.
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney
[4/11/2025 12:15 PM, 271K followers, 186 retweets, 1K likes]
Though Bangladesh is not a landlocked nation, India since 2020 allowed transhipment of Bangladeshi exports to third countries through Indian airports and ports. Bangladeshi exporters used this facility largely due to significantly lower costs and more-efficient handling of cargoes. But now India has withdrawn this facility (other than for Bangladeshi exports to Bhutan and Nepal) as it was creating congestion, hindering India’s own exports.
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[4/11/2025 7:04 AM, 100.1K followers, 97 retweets, 243 likes]
Bangladesh: Amnesty International is deeply concerned about the use of the Special Powers Act for the arrest of model Meghna Alam. The draconian legislation, with vague, overbroad provisions, has historically been used to arbitrarily detain people for long periods of time, without charge, and without judicial oversight. These all constitute gross violations of due process safeguards and international human rights standards and best practices. As per media reports, Meghna’s detention was shrouded in secrecy, and was allegedly carried out without a warrant, which are considered to be alarming violations of procedural safeguards. We call on the authorities to either charge Meghna with an internationally recognizable crime or release her. They must also end the use of and repeal the Special Powers Act.
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[4/12/2025 8:43 AM, 112.7K followers, 182 retweets, 178 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu attends the commencement ceremony for the construction of IUM Sanabil Building. Senior Government officials and representatives from @official_ium and @bankofmaldives were in attendance. The Sanabil project aims to ensure a sustainable source of income for IUM via renting out 7 storeys of office spaces, meeting rooms, auditoriums, and a food court in addition to commercial parking spaces. All financial activity would follow Islamic financing principles.
Abdulla Khaleel@abkhaleel
[4/11/2025 12:35 PM, 33.9K followers, 24 retweets, 31 likes]
Honoured to lead the #Maldives’ delegation at the opening session of #ADF2025. I look forward to engaging in insightful discussions with counterparts as we work together to tackle the global challenges and to build a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive future for all. @AntalyaDF @MFATurkiye
Abdulla Khaleel@abkhaleel
[4/11/2025 8:52 AM, 33.9K followers, 24 retweets, 37 likes]
It was a privilege to be a panelist at the high-level panel discussion on “Geostrategic Dynamics in the Asia-Pacific” with Dr. Atsushi Sunami and Prof. @jppjagannath1. Continued dialogue is essential for fostering peace and stability across the world. @SPF_PR @AntalyaDF #ADF2025
Abdulla Khaleel@abkhaleel
[4/11/2025 8:51 AM, 33.9K followers, 36 retweets, 56 likes]
Warm Congratulations to Ambassador @mundhu_maldives on presenting the Letter of Credence to Director General of @IRENA Francesco La Camera, as Permanent Representative of Maldives. Confident that your tenure will further strengthen the collaboration between the #Maldives and #IRENA and will yield positive outcomes in achieving our objectives of accelerating the transition to renewable energy.
K P Sharma Oli@kpsharmaoli
[4/13/2025 12:24 PM, 868.9K followers, 2 retweets, 17 likes]
May the New Year 2082 BS bring achievements as towering as Sagarmatha for the nation and its people. Warmest wishes!Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[4/13/2025 6:00 PM, 149.4K followers, 17 retweets, 135 likes]
As we celebrate the Sinhala and Tamil New Year this year, a festival that symbolises the hope of both physical and spiritual renewal, our nation finds itself at a defining moment, achieving significant victories while resolutely striving towards the realisation of a better and more prosperous future. It is with profound joy and gratitude that I reflect upon the efforts undertaken by the National People’s Power government over the past months to lift our nation from adversity and steer it towards economic, social and political advancement. The successes we have thus far achieved rightfully belong to the people of this country, whose steadfast trust, as expressed in the most recent Presidential and General Elections, has been the driving force behind this transformative journey.
As a responsible government, we possess the strength and determination to further deepen our commitment to the nation, even amidst formidable challenges. We are implementing well-considered plans to address the multifaceted challenges confronting our country, both in terms of national development and within the broader geopolitical landscape. The Sinhala and Tamil New Year traditions beautifully reflect the harmony between humanity and nature, bearing witness to the deep-rooted history of coexistence between our Sinhala and Tamil communities. While contemporary society may be burdened by various divisions, occasions such as the New Year provide a timely reminder of the enduring values of unity, harmony and peaceful coexistence. It is our solemn responsibility, particularly at this time of renewal, to nurture those values within ourselves and to foster a more compassionate and ethical society.
Moreover, the rituals associated with the sun’s transition are underpinned by the universal aspiration to create a renewed individual, one free from outdated thoughts and attitudes. The New Year, therefore, offers us an invaluable opportunity to embrace renewal in our own lives. As we welcome this New Year, I call upon all of you to come together with renewed strength, unity and goodwill. Let us collectively work towards a common purpose, supporting the government’s vision for economic, social and political transformation and thereby ensuring enduring progress and prosperity for our country and all its people. May this New Year bring you and your loved ones peace, happiness, renewed hope and abundant prosperity in your journey towards ‘A Thriving Nation - A Beautiful Life’. Warmest wishes for a Happy Sinhala and Tamil New Year! Anura Kumara Dissanayake President Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka 14th April 2025
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[4/12/2025 11:41 AM, 149.4K followers, 7 retweets, 92 likes]
Today, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who participated in the ‘Outcome is clear - Victory is ours!’ public rally in Kinniya. Your presence and support have been vital in uniting our community and reinforcing our collective journey toward progress and renewal. Together, we stand for a brighter future!
Harsha de Silva@HarshadeSilvaMP
[4/12/2025 1:15 AM, 361K followers, 22 retweets, 216 likes] This is what I told Pres @anuradisanayake at the meeting he called to get our views on #TrumpTariffs https://x.com/i/status/1910924685963124929 Central Asia
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