Trump aid cut imperils water scheme in scorching Pakistan city
In one of the world’s hottest cities, fresh and filtered water can quench the searing onslaught of climate change — but US President Donald Trump’s foreign aid freeze threatens its vital supply, an NGO says.Pakistan’s sun-parched Jacobabad city in southern Sindh province sometimes surpasses 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in increasing heatwaves causing critical health problems like dehydration and heat-stroke.In 2012, USAID committed a $66 million grant to uplift Sindh’s municipal services, including the flagship renovation of a plant pumping and purifying water from a canal 22 kilometres (14 miles) away.But Pakistani non-profit HANDS says Trump’s aid embargo has blocked $1.5 million earmarked to make the scheme viable in the long-term, putting the project at risk “within a few months”.”This has transformed our lives,” 25-year-old Tufail Ahmed told AFP in Jacobabad, where wintertime temperatures are already forecast to pass 30C next week.”If the water supply is cut off it will be very difficult for us,” he added. “Survival will be challenging, as water is the most essential thing for life.”Between September and mid-January Sindh saw rainfall 52 percent below average according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, with “moderate drought” predicted in the coming months.Heatwaves are becoming hotter, longer and more frequent due to climate change, scientists say.- Services withdrawn – The project pipes in 1.5 million gallons (5.7 million litres) daily and serves about 350,000 people in Jacobabad, HANDS says — a city where grinding poverty is commonplace.HANDS said it discovered Trump’s 90-day freeze on foreign assistance through media reports with no prior warning.”Since everything is just suspended we have to withdraw our staff and we have to withdraw all services for this water project,” HANDS CEO Shaikh Tanveer Ahmed told AFP.Forty-seven staff, including experts who manage the water purification and service the infrastructure, have been sent home.The service will likely stop functioning “within the next few months”, Ahmed predicted, and the project will be “a total failure” unless another funder steps in.The scheme is currently in the hands of the local government who lack the technical or revenue collection expertise HANDS was developing to fund the supply from bill payments, rather than donations.The international aid community has been in a tailspin over Trump’s campaign to downsize or dismantle swathes of the US government — led by his top donor and the world’s richest man Elon Musk.The most concentrated fire has been on Washington’s aid agency USAID, whose $42.8 billion budget represents 42 percent of humanitarian aid disbursed worldwide.But it accounts for only between 0.7 and 1.4 percent of total US government spending in the last quarter century, according to the Pew Research Center.Trump has claimed USAID is “run by radical lunatics” while Musk has described it as a “criminal organisation” needing to be put “through the woodchipper”.In Jacobabad, 47-year-old local social activist Abdul Ghani pleaded for its work to continue.”If the supply is cut off it will severely affect the public,” he said. “Poverty is widespread here and we cannot afford alternatives.”- ‘Supply cannot be stopped’ -Residents complain the Jacobabad supply is patchy but still describe it as an invaluable service in a city where the alternative is buying water from private donkey-drawn tankers.Eighteen-year-old student Noor Ahmed said before “our women had to walk for hours” to collect water. HANDS says the private tankers have a monthly cost of up to 10 times more than their rate of 500 rupees ($1.80) and often contain contaminants like arsenic. “The dirty water we used to buy was harmful to our health and falling ill would cost us even more,” said 55-year-old Sadruddin Lashari.”This water is clean. The supply cannot be stopped,” he added.Pakistan — home to more than 240 million people — ranks as the nation most affected by climate change, according to non-profit Germanwatch’s Climate Risk Index released this year and analysing data from 2022.That year a third of the country was inundated by unprecedented monsoon floods killing more than 1,700 and causing an estimated $14.9 billion in damages after a punishing summer heatwave.Jacobabad’s water system also suffered heavy damage in the 2010 floods which killed almost 1,800 and affected 21 million.Pakistan produces less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions which scientists say are driving human-made climate change.Islamabad has consistently called for countries which emit more to contribute to aid for its population suffering on the front line of climate change.”It’s incredibly hot here year-round,” said Lashari. “We need water constantly.”Â
US sends migrants from Guantanamo to Venezuela
The United States deported 177 migrants from its military base in Guantanamo, Cuba to their homeland in Venezuela Thursday, the latest sign of cooperation between the long-feuding governments. Officials in Washington and Caracas confirmed that a plane left the US base and deposited the 177 people in Honduras, where they were picked up by the Venezuelan government. The deportees then left for Venezuela on a flag carrier Conviasa flight that arrived in Maiquetia late Thursday.Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello received the all-male group of deportees at the airport, telling them: “Welcome to the homeland.” “Those who returned, in theory, are all Venezuelans who were in Guantanamo,” Cabello told journalists, adding that another deportation flight was expected to arrive at the end of the week.The carefully choreographed operation would have seemed impossible just weeks ago when the United States accused President Nicolas Maduro of stealing an election. But since President Donald Trump entered office four weeks ago, relations have thawed, with the White House prioritizing immigration cooperation. Maduro said the handover was at the “direct request” of his government to that of Trump.”We have rescued 177 new migrants from Guantanamo,” he said at an official event.Trump envoy Richard Grenell traveled to Caracas on January 31 and met Maduro, who is the subject of a $25 million US bounty for his arrest. Grenell brokered the release of six US prisoners. A day later Trump announced Venezuela had agreed to accept illegal migrants deported from the United States. – ‘Recovered’ -Venezuela said it had “requested the repatriation of a group of compatriots who were unjustly taken to the Guantanamo naval base.””This request has been accepted and the citizens have been transferred to Honduras, from where they will be recovered,” the government said in a statement. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed they had transported “177 Venezuelan illegal aliens from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras today for pickup by the Venezuelan government.”Caracas broke off ties with Washington in January 2019 after The United States recognized then-opposition leader Juan Guaido as “interim president” following 2018 elections that were widely rejected as neither free nor fair. In October 2023, Maduro allowed US planes with deported migrants to fly into Venezuela but withdrew permission four months later. His government has been flying free or subsidized repatriation flights for Venezuelans wishing to return home. Venezuela is keen to end crippling US sanctions and to move beyond the controversy over elections last July that the United States and numerous other countries said were won by the opposition. The contested election results sparked protests in which at least 28 people were killed and about 200 injured, with 2,400 arrests.Human rights groups in the United States have sued to gain access to migrants held in Guantanamo after Trump ordered the base to prepare to receive some 30,000 people who entered the United States without papers.Guantanamo is synonymous with abuses against terror suspects held there after the September 11 attacks. The United States on Thursday deported another group of 135 migrants of various nationalities — including 65 children — to Costa Rica, from where they will be repatriated to their home countries, including China, Russia, Afghanistan, Ghana and Vietnam, the government in San Jose said.Costa Rica, along with Panama, is serving as a way station for migrants deported by Trump’s government.Â
Just 17% of Japan citizens hold passport, data shows
Only around one in six Japanese citizens hold valid passports, fresh data has shown, with the number of residents travelling abroad slowly recovering but still below pre-pandemic levels.The latest rate is far below the half of Americans with passports, a level that has soared from around five percent in 1990.As of December 2024, there were 21.6 million valid Japanese passports in circulation, representing around 17.5 percent of the overall population, the foreign ministry said Thursday.Before the Covid-19 pandemic, about a quarter of Japanese people owned valid passports.The country’s travel document is tied with neighbour South Korea’s passport as the world’s second strongest after Singapore, allowing visa-free entry to 190 destinations, according to this year’s Henley Passport Index.Outbound travel from Japan has gradually resumed after the quarantine measures and border closures of the pandemic era, according to the ministry.But the weakness of the yen — which has shed a third of its value in the past five years — is one factor deterring Japanese travellers along with inflation and a renewed interest in domestic travel, analysts say.The new data comes as the nation welcomes a record influx of tourists from other countries, with more than 36 million visits recorded last year and many flocking to hotspots like Kyoto.International travel by Japanese nationals began to increase sharply in the boom years of the late 1980s.In 1990, more than 10 million people from Japan travelled abroad, a figure that rose to 20 million before the pandemic. This year around 14.1 million Japanese are expected to travel abroad, according to top Japanese travel agency JTB.”In recent years, the rapid depreciation of the yen has caused some to refrain from overseas travel, but once the currency market calms, overseas travel is expected to pick up steam,” said its study, issued in January.
De Guantanamo au Venezuela: nouvelles expulsions américaines après les accords Caracas-Washington
Les Etats-Unis ont renvoyé de leur base cubaine de Guantanamo 177 migrants vénézuéliens vers leur pays, avec une escale au Honduras, à la demande des autorités vénézuéliennes, dans un nouveau signe de coopération entre Washington et Caracas.Ce groupe s’ajoute aux 190 migrants vénézuéliens renvoyés chez eux il y a 10 jours dans le cadre de la politique d’expulsions massives promise par le président Donald Trump à son retour au pouvoir.”Merci!”, a crié l’un des expulsés à sa descente de l’avion. “Vous m’avez sorti de là !”, a lancé un autre à l’intention du ministre de l’Intérieur, Diosdado Cabello, qui les a accueillis en leur disant “Bienvenue dans la patrie”.L’avion de la compagnie d’Etat vénézuélienne Conviasa a décollé du Honduras, où un autre appareil américain transportant les détenus est arrivé de la base de Guantanamo, connue pour sa prison militaire ouverte après les attentats du 11-Septembre 2001 et qui héberge toujours une trentaine de détenus accusés de “terrorisme”.Les migrants expulsés sont tous des hommes, la plupart d’entre eux portant des masques, des combinaisons de sport grises et des baskets sans lacets ou des tongs. Aucun d’entre eux n’était menotté.Ils ont défilé entre une haie de militaires déployés entre l’escalier de débarquement et le terminal. “Ceux qui sont revenus sont en théorie tous des Vénézuéliens qui étaient à Guantanamo”, a fait savoir M. Cabello à la presse, ajoutant qu’un autre vol de migrants expulsés arriverait en fin de semaine.Le Venezuela et les Etats-Unis ont rompu leurs relations diplomatiques en 2019, au cours de la première administration Trump qui menait l’offensive internationale contre le président Nicolás Maduro à coups de sanctions.Et si la position officielle de Washington reste de ne pas reconnaître M. Maduro, qui a prêté serment pour un troisième mandat après une élection contestée, le président américain a initié des contacts avec son homologue axés sur la migration et la libération de ressortissants américains emprisonnés au Venezuela.Le gouvernement américain a signalé début février le transfert de dix membres du gang vénézuélien “Tren de Aragua” vers Guantanamo où 30.000 lits ont été installés pour les migrants.Cette organisation a été désignée par les Etats-Unis et le Canada comme terroriste. “Si l’un des rapatriés se trouve dans une situation correspondant à l’une des formes de criminalité établies dans notre système juridique, les autorités compétentes agiront conformément à la loi”, a déclaré le Venezuela, qui a réaffirmé que le gang “a été démantelé” dans le pays. – “Externalisation des frontières” -Donald Trump mène une vaste offensive contre l’immigration illégale, avec notamment des raids dans plusieurs villes et des expulsions massives, ainsi que la suspension des programmes humanitaires lancés par son prédécesseur, Joe Biden, qui bénéficiaient aux Vénézuéliens, aux Cubains et aux Nicaraguayens. Washington reçoit le soutien de plusieurs pays d’Amérique centrale, comme le Panama et le Costa Rica, pour accueillir les personnes expulsées avant qu’elles ne soient renvoyées dans leurs pays d’origine.Le Costa Rica a d’ailleurs annoncé jeudi que 135 migrants de diverses nationalités, dont 65 enfants, expulsés par les Etats-Unis étaient arrivés dans le pays, d’où ils seront rapatriés chez eux.Aucun de ces migrants n’a de casier judiciaire, a précisé le vice-ministre costaricien de l’Intérieur, Omer Badilla.Il s’agit d’un système d'”externalisation des frontières” par lequel les Etats-Unis transfèrent le lent processus de rapatriement à un pays tiers, a expliqué Carlos Sandoval, chercheur en sciences sociales et expert en migration.Les personnes expulsées vers l’Amérique centrale sont des ressortissants de pays qui n’acceptent pas les vols de rapatriement, ou avec lesquels Washington entretient des relations tendues.Parmi les 299 personnes arrivées au Panama la semaine dernière figurent des ressortissants de l’Iran, de la Chine, de l’Afghanistan, du Pakistan, de l’Inde, de l’Ouzbékistan, de la Turquie, du Népal, du Sri Lanka et du Vietnam.Les accords avec le Venezuela ont même permis à deux avions de la compagnie aérienne nationale sanctionnée Conviasa d’entrer sur le territoire américain pour récupérer les 190 premiers ressortissants. Le Honduras a précisé que sa participation au transfert de jeudi ne faisait pas de lui un “pays tiers sûr” ou un “pont” pour les migrants expulsés par l’administration Trump, a souligné auprèsde l’AFP le vice-ministre hondurien des Affaires étrangères, Tony Garcia. “C’est un transfert”, les migrants “changent d’avion et continuent” vers leur pays, ils ne restent pas dans des refuges, a-t-il souligné.
De Guantanamo au Venezuela: nouvelles expulsions américaines après les accords Caracas-Washington
Les Etats-Unis ont renvoyé de leur base cubaine de Guantanamo 177 migrants vénézuéliens vers leur pays, avec une escale au Honduras, à la demande des autorités vénézuéliennes, dans un nouveau signe de coopération entre Washington et Caracas.Ce groupe s’ajoute aux 190 migrants vénézuéliens renvoyés chez eux il y a 10 jours dans le cadre de la politique d’expulsions massives promise par le président Donald Trump à son retour au pouvoir.”Merci!”, a crié l’un des expulsés à sa descente de l’avion. “Vous m’avez sorti de là !”, a lancé un autre à l’intention du ministre de l’Intérieur, Diosdado Cabello, qui les a accueillis en leur disant “Bienvenue dans la patrie”.L’avion de la compagnie d’Etat vénézuélienne Conviasa a décollé du Honduras, où un autre appareil américain transportant les détenus est arrivé de la base de Guantanamo, connue pour sa prison militaire ouverte après les attentats du 11-Septembre 2001 et qui héberge toujours une trentaine de détenus accusés de “terrorisme”.Les migrants expulsés sont tous des hommes, la plupart d’entre eux portant des masques, des combinaisons de sport grises et des baskets sans lacets ou des tongs. Aucun d’entre eux n’était menotté.Ils ont défilé entre une haie de militaires déployés entre l’escalier de débarquement et le terminal. “Ceux qui sont revenus sont en théorie tous des Vénézuéliens qui étaient à Guantanamo”, a fait savoir M. Cabello à la presse, ajoutant qu’un autre vol de migrants expulsés arriverait en fin de semaine.Le Venezuela et les Etats-Unis ont rompu leurs relations diplomatiques en 2019, au cours de la première administration Trump qui menait l’offensive internationale contre le président Nicolás Maduro à coups de sanctions.Et si la position officielle de Washington reste de ne pas reconnaître M. Maduro, qui a prêté serment pour un troisième mandat après une élection contestée, le président américain a initié des contacts avec son homologue axés sur la migration et la libération de ressortissants américains emprisonnés au Venezuela.Le gouvernement américain a signalé début février le transfert de dix membres du gang vénézuélien “Tren de Aragua” vers Guantanamo où 30.000 lits ont été installés pour les migrants.Cette organisation a été désignée par les Etats-Unis et le Canada comme terroriste. “Si l’un des rapatriés se trouve dans une situation correspondant à l’une des formes de criminalité établies dans notre système juridique, les autorités compétentes agiront conformément à la loi”, a déclaré le Venezuela, qui a réaffirmé que le gang “a été démantelé” dans le pays. – “Externalisation des frontières” -Donald Trump mène une vaste offensive contre l’immigration illégale, avec notamment des raids dans plusieurs villes et des expulsions massives, ainsi que la suspension des programmes humanitaires lancés par son prédécesseur, Joe Biden, qui bénéficiaient aux Vénézuéliens, aux Cubains et aux Nicaraguayens. Washington reçoit le soutien de plusieurs pays d’Amérique centrale, comme le Panama et le Costa Rica, pour accueillir les personnes expulsées avant qu’elles ne soient renvoyées dans leurs pays d’origine.Le Costa Rica a d’ailleurs annoncé jeudi que 135 migrants de diverses nationalités, dont 65 enfants, expulsés par les Etats-Unis étaient arrivés dans le pays, d’où ils seront rapatriés chez eux.Aucun de ces migrants n’a de casier judiciaire, a précisé le vice-ministre costaricien de l’Intérieur, Omer Badilla.Il s’agit d’un système d'”externalisation des frontières” par lequel les Etats-Unis transfèrent le lent processus de rapatriement à un pays tiers, a expliqué Carlos Sandoval, chercheur en sciences sociales et expert en migration.Les personnes expulsées vers l’Amérique centrale sont des ressortissants de pays qui n’acceptent pas les vols de rapatriement, ou avec lesquels Washington entretient des relations tendues.Parmi les 299 personnes arrivées au Panama la semaine dernière figurent des ressortissants de l’Iran, de la Chine, de l’Afghanistan, du Pakistan, de l’Inde, de l’Ouzbékistan, de la Turquie, du Népal, du Sri Lanka et du Vietnam.Les accords avec le Venezuela ont même permis à deux avions de la compagnie aérienne nationale sanctionnée Conviasa d’entrer sur le territoire américain pour récupérer les 190 premiers ressortissants. Le Honduras a précisé que sa participation au transfert de jeudi ne faisait pas de lui un “pays tiers sûr” ou un “pont” pour les migrants expulsés par l’administration Trump, a souligné auprèsde l’AFP le vice-ministre hondurien des Affaires étrangères, Tony Garcia. “C’est un transfert”, les migrants “changent d’avion et continuent” vers leur pays, ils ne restent pas dans des refuges, a-t-il souligné.
Mexico says won’t accept US ‘invasion’ in fight against cartels
Mexico’s president warned the United States on Thursday her country would never tolerate an “invasion” of its national sovereignty and vowed fresh legal action against US gunmakers after Washington designated cartels as terrorist organizations.The remarks were the latest in a series hitting back at the administration of President Donald Trump, which has ramped up pressure on its southern neighbor to curb illegal flows of drugs and migrants.Mexico is trying to avoid the sweeping 25-percent tariffs threatened by Trump by increasing cooperation in the fight against narcotics trafficked by the cartels in his sights.The eight Latin American drug trafficking groups designated as terrorist organizations include Mexican gangs such as the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels — two of the country’s most powerful and violent criminal organizations.But the designation “cannot be an opportunity for the US to invade our sovereignty,” President Claudia Sheinbaum told a news conference.”They can call them (the cartels) whatever they want, but with Mexico, it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion.”In an interview broadcast late Thursday on the social media platform X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to allay those concerns.”In the case of Mexico, the preference always is to work in conjunction with our partners in Mexico, and we can provide them a lot of information about who they are and where they’re located,” he said, referring to the newly designated criminal gangs. Sheinbaum said Mexico would expand its legal action against US gun manufacturers, which her government accuses of negligence in the sale of weapons that end up in the hands of drug traffickers.The lawsuit could lead to a new charge of alleged “complicity” with terrorist groups, she said.- ‘Eligible for drone strikes’? -Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in the White House last month saying that the cartels “constitute a national security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that the designations “provide law enforcement additional tools to stop these groups.””Terrorist designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective way to curtail support for terrorist activities,” he said in a statement. While he did not mention it, the move has raised speculation about possible military action against the cartels.Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been given a prominent role in the Trump administration, suggested the designation “means they’re eligible for drone strikes.”On Wednesday, Sheinbaum confirmed that the United States had been operating drones spying on Mexican cartels as part of a collaboration that has existed for years.According to The New York Times, Washington has stepped up secret drone flights over Mexico in search of fentanyl labs as part of Trump’s campaign against drug cartels.Military threats from the United States always generate resentment in Mexico, which lost half of its territory to the United States in the 19th century.Sheinbaum said that she would present to Congress a constitutional reform to protect “the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the nation” including against the violation of its territory by land, air or sea.On Thursday, Canada — also under threat of 25-percent tariffs from Trump over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States — joined the United States in labeling seven drug cartels as “terrorist entities.”The groups sanctioned by Canada included the Gulf Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Michoacan Family, the United Cartels, MS-13, TdA and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. – Mexico adjusting strategy -Mexico says that between 200,000 and 750,000 weapons manufactured by US gunmakers are smuggled across the border from the United States every year, often being used in crime.The Latin American country tightly controls firearm sales, making them practically impossible to obtain legally. Even so, drug-related violence has seen around 480,000 people killed in Mexico since the government deployed the army to combat trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.While she has ruled out declaring “war” on drug cartels, Sheinbaum has quietly dropped her predecessor’s “hugs not bullets” strategy, which prioritized tackling the root causes of criminal violence over security operations.Her government has announced a series of major drug seizures and deployed more troops to the border with the United States in return for Trump pausing tariffs for one month.Mexican authorities also announced the arrest this week of two prominent members of the Sinaloa Cartel, including the head of security for one of its warring factions.