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Two reception centers in Albania ready to handle migrants sent by Italy

Two reception centers in Albania ready to handle migrants sent by Italy
The 2023 deal with Albania stipulates that irregular migrants arriving in Italy will be taken by boat to Shengjin, where they will be identified and their applications for asylum processed. (REUTERS)
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Updated 11 October 2024

Two reception centers in Albania ready to handle migrants sent by Italy

Two reception centers in Albania ready to handle migrants sent by Italy

SHENGJIN: Two reception centers built in Albania to take in migrants arriving in Italy opened their doors on Friday, an Italian official said, part of a deal between the two countries aimed at tackling irregular migration into the European Union.
The deal is the first example of a non-EU country accepting migrants on behalf of an EU nation and has drawn the interest of other Western nations seeking to discourage the growing numbers of migrants arriving from Africa, the Middle East and beyond.
“As of today the two centers are operational and ready to welcome the first ones,” said an Italian official who spoke on condition of anonymity in the port town of Shengjin, a port on Albania’s Adriatic coast where one of the facilities is located.
The 2023 deal with Albania stipulates that irregular migrants arriving in Italy will be taken by boat to Shengjin, where they will be identified and their applications for asylum processed.
They will then be driven a short distance inland to the small town of Gjader, where they will be accommodated.
Albania, one of Europe’s poorest countries which is also a candidate for EU membership, cannot host more than 3,000 migrants in total at any one time under the deal.


Hopes of Western refuge sink for Afghans in Pakistan

Hopes of Western refuge sink for Afghans in Pakistan
Updated 5 sec ago

Hopes of Western refuge sink for Afghans in Pakistan

Hopes of Western refuge sink for Afghans in Pakistan
  • In their Pakistan safehouse, Shayma and her family try to keep their voices low so their neighbors don’t overhear their Afghan mother tongue
ISLAMABAD:In their Pakistan safehouse, Shayma and her family try to keep their voices low so their neighbors don’t overhear their Afghan mother tongue.
But she can belt out Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’” any time she likes, and no-one would guess it comes from a 15-year-old refugee in hiding.
“In the kitchen, the sound is very good,” she told AFP alongside her sister and fellow young bandmates.
By now, Shayma should have been testing the acoustics of her new home in New York.
But before her family’s scheduled February flight, US President Donald Trump indefinitely suspended refugee admissions, stranding around 15,000 Afghans already prepared to fly out from Islamabad.
Thousands more are waiting in the city for relocation to other Western nations, but shifting global sentiment toward refugees has diminished their chances and put them at risk of a renewed deportation drive by Pakistan, where they have long exhausted their welcome.
For girls and women, the prospect is particularly devastating: a return to the only country in the world that has banned them from most education and jobs.
“We will do whatever it takes to hide ourselves,” said Shayma’s 19-year-old bandmate, Zahra.
“For girls like us, there is no future in Afghanistan.”
’Not a transit camp’
After the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, tens of thousands of Afghans traveled to neighboring Pakistan to register refugee and asylum applications with Western embassies, often on the advice of officials.
Many had worked for the US-led NATO forces or Western NGOs, while others were activists, musicians or journalists.
Four years on, thousands are still waiting, mostly in the capital Islamabad or its outskirts, desperately hoping that one of the embassies will budge and offer them safe haven.
Hundreds have been arrested and deported in recent weeks, and AFP gave interviewees pseudonyms for their protection.
“This is not an indefinite transit camp,” a Pakistan government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He said Pakistan would allow Afghans with pending cases to stay if Western nations assured the government that they would resettle them.
“Multiple deadlines were agreed but they were not honored,” he added.
Miraculous music
The teenaged musicians learned to play guitar back in Kabul at a nonprofit music school for girls, who are now dispersed across Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States.
“We want to use our music for those who don’t have a voice, especially for the girls and women of Afghanistan,” said Zahra, one of the four in Pakistan.
The school opened under Kabul’s previous US-backed government, when foreign-funded initiatives proliferated alongside NATO troops.
Overcoming social taboos, Shayma and her sister Laylama attended the after-school lessons run by an American former arena rocker, who helped kids get off the streets and into guitar practice.
One of 10 siblings, Laylama sold sunflower seeds to help support the family. She had cherished a stringless plastic guitar, until she encountered the real thing.
“Music really changed our life,” she said.
But fearing retribution from the Taliban government, which considers Western music anti-Islamic, Laylama’s father burned her guitar.
“I cried all night,” the 16-year-old told AFP.
’Drastic measures’
Since they were smuggled into Pakistan in April 2022 to apply for refugee status with the United States, Shayma and her bandmates have had to move four times, driven deeper into hiding.
At the start of Pakistan’s crackdown in 2023, the US embassy provided the government with a list of Afghans in its pipeline that should be spared, according to a former staffer with the State Department’s Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts.
That office, and the protections it offered, have been dismantled by the Trump administration.
“Leaving these refugees in limbo is not just arbitrary, it’s cruel,” said Jessica Bradley Rushing of the advocacy coalition #AfghanEvac.
As Pakistan expands its “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan” to include refugees, it may be seeking leverage over foreign partners in its counter-terrorism campaign, said International Crisis Group analyst Ibraheem Bahiss.
“These are really drastic measures not only to put pressure on the Taliban government but also to show the international community they are very serious,” he told AFP.
For the girls, every day brings the fear that a knock on the door will send them back.
Outside, mosque loudspeakers in Afghan neighborhoods order migrants to leave, while refugees are picked up from their homes or workplaces, or off the street.
To stem their anxiety, the girls maintain rigorous daily routines, starting with the dawn call to prayer.
They rehearse a Farsi version of Coldplay’s “Arabesque” and a riff on Imagine Dragons’ “Believer.”
They also practice English through YouTube videos and reading “Frankenstein.”
“It’s not normal to always stay in the house, especially for children. They should be in nature,” Zahra said.
“But going back to Afghanistan? It’s a horrible idea.”

China cancels schools and flights as it braces for Ragasa, one of the strongest typhoons in years

China cancels schools and flights as it braces for Ragasa, one of the strongest typhoons in years
Updated 6 min 53 sec ago

China cancels schools and flights as it braces for Ragasa, one of the strongest typhoons in years

China cancels schools and flights as it braces for Ragasa, one of the strongest typhoons in years
  • Hong Kong’s observatory reports Super Typhoon Ragasa is approaching the southern Chinese economic hub of Guangdong
  • Schools in Hong Kong, Macao and Shenzhen are closed, and at least hundreds of flights have been canceled in the Asian financial hub

HONG KONG: Southern Chinese cities scaled back many aspects of daily life on Tuesday with school and business closures and flight cancelations as the region braced for one of the strongest typhoons in years that has already killed three people and led to the displacement of thousands of others in the Philippines.
Hong Kong’ s observatory said Super Typhoon Ragasa, which was packing maximum sustained winds near the center of about 137 mph (220 kph), is expected to move west-northwest at about 14 mph (22 kph) across the northern part of the South China Sea and edge closer to the coast of Guangdong province, the southern Chinese economic powerhouse.
China’s National Meteorological Center forecast the typhoon would make landfall in the coastal area between Zhuhai and Zhanjiang cities in Guangdong between midday and evening on Wednesday.
Already hoisting a strong wind signal, the observatory in Hong Kong will issue storm warning signal No. 8, the third-highest in the city’s weather alert system, on Tuesday afternoon. It recorded wind speeds of 84 mph (135 kph) near the ground at a distance of about 75 miles (120 km) from the typhoon’s center, indicating a wide coverage of hurricane force.
The city categorizes tropical cyclones with maximum sustained winds near the center of 185 kph (115 mph) or above as super typhoons to make residents extra vigilant about the approach of more intense storms.
The water level is forecast to rise about 2 meters (6.5 feet) over coastal areas in the Asian financial hub on Wednesday morning, and the maximum water level in some areas could hit 4 to 5 meters (13.1 to 16.4 feet) above the typical lowest sea level.
The government said the water levels could be similar to those recorded during Typhoon Hato in 2017 and Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018 — estimated to have caused the city direct economic losses worth over 1 billion Hong Kong dollars ($154 million) and 4.6 billion Hong Kong dollars (about $590 million), respectively.
Residents living in flood-prone areas have already put sandbags and barriers at their doors, while others have put tape on windows and glass doors to brace for strong winds. Many people stockpiled food and daily supplies on Monday, as some market vendors reported that their goods were selling out fast.
Schools were closed in Hong Kong and the neighboring city of Macao. Other cities such as the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen and Foshan in Guangdong province and Haikou in Hainan province ordered class cancelations and a gradual suspension of other businesses and transportation.
Hundreds of flights were canceled in Hong Kong. Shenzhen airport will halt all flights from Tuesday night. The Macao government was evacuating residents and tourists and ordered bridges to close in the evening as it expected Ragasa would pass within 62 miles (100 kilometers) to the south of the casino hub on Wednesday morning.
At least six people were injured and over 7,000 people were evacuated in Taiwan when the typhoon swept south of the island, and over 8,000 households were impacted by a power outage, the Central News Agency reported.
In the Philippines, Ragasa left at least three people dead and five others missing and displaced more than 17,500 people in flooding and landslides set off by the most powerful storm to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago this year, the country’s disaster-response agency and provincial officials said.
The dead included a 74-year-old man, who died while being brought to a hospital after being pinned in one of four vehicles that were partly buried by mud, rocks and trees that cascaded down a mountainside onto a narrow road on Monday in the mountain town of Tuba in Benguet province, officials said.
Two other villagers died in the storm, including a resident in Calayan town, a cluster of islands off northern Cagayan province where the super typhoon made landfall on Monday, officials said without providing details.
Ragasa, Tagalog for scramble, prompted the Philippine government on Monday to close schools and government offices in the densely populated capital region and 29 northern provinces. Fishing boats and ferries were prohibited from venturing into very rough seas and domestic flights were canceled.


Drones that shut Copenhagen Airport sent by ‘capable operator’, Danish police say

Drones that shut Copenhagen Airport sent by ‘capable operator’, Danish police say
Updated 17 min 13 sec ago

Drones that shut Copenhagen Airport sent by ‘capable operator’, Danish police say

Drones that shut Copenhagen Airport sent by ‘capable operator’, Danish police say
  • Copenhagen Airport was closed for four hours when two or three large drones were seen flying in its immediate vicinity, officials said

COPENHAGEN: Danish police said on Tuesday that drones that shut the country’s main airport on Monday appeared to have been sent by “a capable operator.”

The airports in Copenhagen and Oslo, the two busiest in the Nordic region, were shut for hours after drones were observed in their airspace late on Monday, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded as flights were diverted.
Copenhagen Airport was closed for four hours when two or three large drones were seen flying in its immediate vicinity, officials said, while the Oslo Airport was closed for three hours following two sightings, according to local police.


Trump to take aim at ‘globalist institutions,’ make case for his foreign policy record in UN speech

Trump to take aim at ‘globalist institutions,’ make case for his foreign policy record in UN speech
Updated 33 min 57 sec ago

Trump to take aim at ‘globalist institutions,’ make case for his foreign policy record in UN speech

Trump to take aim at ‘globalist institutions,’ make case for his foreign policy record in UN speech
  • The US president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly
  • White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars

NEW YORK: Watched by the world, President Donald Trump returns to the United Nations on Tuesday to deliver a wide-ranging address on his second-term foreign policy achievements and lament that “globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order,” according to the White House.
World leaders will be listening closely to his remarks at the UN General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish US support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.
After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end US participation in the UN Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of US membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.
“There are great hopes for it, but it’s not being well run, to be honest,” Trump said of the UN last week.
The US president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza,Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.
Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.
The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Some US lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using US forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in US courts.
“This is by far the most stressed the UN system has ever been in its 80 years,” said Anjali K. Dayal, a professor of international politics at Fordham University in New York.
Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leaders
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars.
“The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” Leavitt said.
Following his speech, Trump will hold one-on-one meetings with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Ƶ, Indonesia, Turkiye, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.
Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speech
Trump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the US and Israel vehemently oppose.
France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the UN aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.
Leavitt said Trump sees the push as “just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies.”
Trump, for his part, in the lead-up to Tuesday’s address has tried to keep focus on getting agreement on a ceasefire that leads Hamas to releasing its remaining 48 hostages, including 20 still believed be alive.
“I’d like to see a diplomatic solution,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening. “There’s a lot of anger and a lot of hatred, you know that, and there has been for a lot of years … but hopefully we’ll get something done.”
Leaders in the room will also be eager to hear what Trump has to say about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelensky. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelensky and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.
European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.
Trump has Oslo dreams
Despite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the spurious claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.
He points to his administration’s efforts to end conflicts between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.
Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.
Still, Trump’s Nobel ambitions could have impact on the tenor of his address, said Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.
“His speech is going to be driven by how much he really believes he has a chance of getting a Nobel Peace Prize,” Montgomery said. “If he thinks that’s still something he can do, then I think he knows you don’t go into the UN and drop a grenade down the tank hatch and shut it, right?”


Judge orders Trump administration to restore frozen federal grants for UCLA

Judge orders Trump administration to restore frozen federal grants for UCLA
Updated 23 September 2025

Judge orders Trump administration to restore frozen federal grants for UCLA

Judge orders Trump administration to restore frozen federal grants for UCLA

WASHINGTON: A federal judge on Monday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to restore frozen federal grants to the University of California, Los Angeles, according to a court filing.
In August, UCLA said the Trump administration froze $584 million of its funding after the federal government reprimanded the school over its handling of pro-Palestinian protests.
The Los Angeles Times and Politico said US District Judge Rita Lin’s ruling ordered that more than $500 million in funding be restored to the university. Lin had previously ordered the Trump administration to restore part of the suspended federal funding to UCLA. The Trump administration has cut or threatened to withhold federal funds to universities over their handling of protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza. The federal government has said that universities, including UCLA, allowed displays of antisemitism during the protests. Pro-Palestinian protesters, including some Jewish groups, have said that their criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories should not be characterized as antisemitism. In addition, they have said their advocacy for Palestinian rights should not be equated with extremism.
Lin, a judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, said in her order that the indefinite suspensions of grants from the National Institutes of Health were likely “arbitrary and capricious.”