KABUL: Two people were killed and 12 wounded in an explosion in western Kabul on Thursday, police said, in the third deadly blast to hit the Afghan capital in less than a week.
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said a grenade was detonated outside a commercial center in the Dasht-e-Barchi area, an enclave of the historically oppressed Shiite Hazara community.
“The initial information shows that unfortunately two civilian compatriots were martyred and 12 others were wounded,” Zadran said in a statement.
The blast is the second deadly explosion in the area in less than a week.
On Saturday, a bomb planted on a bus that killed at least five people and wounded another 15 was claimed by the Daesh group, which considers Shiites heretics.
Daesh claimed responsibility for another blast days later in eastern Kabul, in which police said three people were killed and four wounded by a bomb hidden in a cart near a minivan.
The number of bomb blasts and suicide attacks in Afghanistan has declined since the Taliban ended their insurgency after seizing power in August 2021, ousting the US-backed government.
A number of armed groups — including Daesh-- remain a threat, however.
Two killed in third deadly Kabul explosion in less than a week
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Two killed in third deadly Kabul explosion in less than a week
- A grenade was detonated outside a commercial center in the Dasht-e-Barchi area
- The blast is the second deadly explosion in the area in less than a week
Tesla stock plunges as Musk’s feud with Trump over GOP tax bill spooks investors
- The drop on Thursday wiped out nearly $150 billion from Tesla’s market value
Shares of Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker fell sharply Thursday as investors feared his dispute with President Donald Trump will hurt the company.
Tesla plunged closed down more than 14 percent as a disagreement over the US president’s budget bill turned nasty. After Musk said that Trump wouldn’t haven’t gotten elected without his help, Trump implied that he may turn the federal government against his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump wrote on his social messaging service Truth Social. “I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!”
The drop on Thursday wiped out nearly $150 billion from Tesla’s market value, partially reversing a big runup in the eight weeks since Musk confirmed that Tesla would testing an autonomous, driverless “robotaxi” service in Austin, Texas, this month.
Investors fear Trump might not be in such a rush to usher in a future of self-driving cars in the US, and that could slam Tesla because so much of its future business depends on that.
“There is a fear that Trump is not going to play Mr. Nice Guy when in come to autonomous,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives. “The whole goal of robotaxis is to have them 20 or 25 cities next year. If you start to heighten the regulatory environment, that could delay that path.”
Trump’s threat to cut government contracts seem targeted more to another of Musk’s businesses, SpaceX, his privately held rocket company that received billions of dollars to send astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station, provide launches and do other work for NASA. The company is currently racing to develop a mega rocket for the space agency to sent astronauts to moon next year.
A subsidiary of SpaceX, the satellite Internet company Starlink, appears to also have benefited from Musk’s once-close relationship with the president.
On a trip with Trump to the Middle East last month, Musk announced that Saudi Arabia had approved his satellite service for aviation and maritime use. Though its not clear how much politics has played a role, a string of other recent deals for the company in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and elsewhere has come as Trump has threatened tariffs and sent diplomats scrambling to please the president.
One measure of SpaceX’s success: A private financing round followed by a private sale of shares recently reportedly valued it at $350 billion, up from an estimated $210 billion just a year ago. Tesla shares initially got a lift from his support of Trump. In the weeks after Trump was elected, Tesla shares soared, hitting an all-time high on Dec. 17. But they gave back those gains during Musk’s time as head of a government cost-cutting group as Tesla’s reputation took a hit. They’ve recently popped higher again after Musk vowed to focus much more on Tesla and its upcoming launch of driverless taxis.
Trump threatens Musk’s government deals as feud explodes over tax-cut bill
- Trump asserted that Musk really objected to the president’s elimination of consumer tax credits for electric vehicles
- Musk’s increasing focus on politics provoked widespread protests at Tesla sites in the US and Europe
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to cut off government contracts with billionaire Elon Musk’s companies, and Musk suggested Trump should be impeached, as the bromance between the president and his former adviser disintegrated into a barroom brawl.
Trump started the feud in remarks from the Oval Office. Musk quickly responded with posts on his social media site X, and within hours both were trading barbs on their respective social media platforms.
“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social.
Their sparring hammered shares of Musk’s electric vehicle maker Tesla, which lost about $150 billion in value, closing down 14.3 percent for the day.
Minutes after the closing bell, Musk replied, “Yes,” to a post on X saying Trump should be impeached.
Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress and are highly unlikely to impeach him.
The trouble between the two built up over the week. On Tuesday, Musk began denouncing Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill. The president held his tongue while Musk, his former adviser, campaigned to torpedo the bill, saying it would add too much to the nation’s $36.2 trillion in debt.
Trump broke his silence on Thursday, telling reporters in the Oval Office he was “very disappointed” in Musk.
“Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump said.
As Trump spoke, Musk responded with increasingly acerbic posts on X.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” Musk posted. “Such ingratitude.”
Besides Tesla, Musk’s businesses include rocket company and government contractor SpaceX and its satellite unit Starlink. The billionaire spent nearly $300 million in the 2024 election in support of Trump and other Republican candidates.
Musk, whose space business plays a critical role in the US government’s space program, said that as a result of Trump’s threats he planned to begin decommissioning SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. Dragon is the only US spacecraft capable of sending astronauts to the International Space Station.
SpaceX’s cheap, reusable Falcon 9 rockets have made it the world’s most active launch provider. Its vast Starlink network has disrupted the global satellite communications market.
EVER-PRESENT ALLY
After serving as the biggest Republican donor in the 2024 campaign season, Musk became one of Trump’s most visible advisers as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which mounted a sweeping effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending.
Musk was frequently present at the White House and made multiple appearances on Capitol Hill, sometimes carrying his young son.
Only six days before Thursday’s blowup, Trump and Musk held a joint appearance in the Oval Office, where Trump praised Musk’s government service and both men promised to continue working together.
A prolonged feud between Trump and Musk could make it more difficult for Republicans to keep control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. In addition to his campaign spending, Musk has a huge online following and helped connect Trump to parts of Silicon Valley and wealthy donors.
Musk had already said he planned to curtail his political spending in the future.
Soon after Trump’s Oval Office comments, Musk polled his 220 million followers on X: “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80 percent in the middle?“
‘KILL THE BILL’
Musk’s blistering attacks this week targeted what Trump calls his “big, beautiful bill.” Musk called it a “disgusting abomination” that would deepen the federal deficit, and his posts amplified a rift within the Republican Party that could threaten the bill’s prospects in the Senate. Nonpartisan analysts say Trump’s bill could add $2.4 trillion to $5 trillion to the nation’s $36.2 trillion in debt.
Trump asserted that Musk really objected to the president’s elimination of consumer tax credits for electric vehicles.
Trump also suggested that Musk was upset because he missed working for Trump.
“He’s not the first,” Trump said on Thursday. “People leave my administration ... then at some point they miss it so badly, and some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile.”
Musk wrote on X, “KILL the BILL,” adding he was fine with Trump’s planned cuts to electric vehicle credits as long as Republicans rid the bill of “mountain of disgusting pork” or wasteful spending.
He also pulled up past quotes from Trump decrying the level of federal spending, adding, “Where is this guy today?“
Trump, meanwhile, posted on Truth Social that Musk “went crazy.”
Musk came into government with brash plans to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. He left last week having cut only about half of 1 percent of total spending.
DOGE eliminated thousands of federal jobs and cut billions of dollars in foreign aid and other programs, causing disruption across federal agencies and fueling a wave of legal challenges.
Musk’s increasing focus on politics provoked widespread protests at Tesla sites in the US and Europe, driving down sales while investors fretted that Musk’s attention was too divided.
Following Trump’s remarks, a White House official, speaking on background, underscored the shift in the once-close dynamic between Musk and Trump.
“The president is making it clear: this White House is not beholden to Elon Musk on policy,” the official said. “By attacking the bill the way he did, Musk has clearly picked a side.”
US slaps sanctions on four ICC judges over Israel, US cases
- The four judges, all women, will be barred entry to the United States
- Two of the judges took part in proceedings that led to an arrest warrant issued in November for Israel's Netanyahu
WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court including over an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as it ramped up pressure to neuter the court of last resort.
The four judges in The Hague, all women, will be barred entry to the United States and any property or other interests in the world’s largest economy will be blocked — measures more often taken against policymakers from US adversaries than against judicial officials.
“The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other US ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
“I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel,” Rubio said.
The court swiftly hit back, saying in a statement: “These measures are a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all corners of the globe.”
Human Rights Watch urged other nations to speak out and reaffirm the independence of the ICC, set up in 2002 to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.
The sanctions “aim to deter the ICC from seeking accountability amid grave crimes committed in Israel and Palestine and as Israeli atrocities mount in Gaza, including with US complicity,” said the rights group’s international justice director, Liz Evenson.
Two of the targeted judges, Beti Hohler of Slovenia and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin, took part in proceedings that led to an arrest warrant issued last November for Netanyahu.
The court found “reasonable grounds” of criminal responsibility by Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant for actions that include the war crime of starvation as a method of war in the massive offensive in Gaza following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Israel, alleging bias, has angrily rejected charges of war crimes as well as a separate allegation of genocide led by South Africa before the International Court of Justice.
The two other judges, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, were part of the court proceedings that led to the authorization of an investigation into allegations that US forces committed war crimes during the war in Afghanistan.
Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court.
But almost all Western allies of the United States as well as Japan and South Korea, the vast majority of Latin America and much of Africa are parties to the statute and in theory are required to arrest suspects when they land on their soil.
Trump in his first term already imposed sanctions on the then ICC chief prosecutor over the Afghanistan investigation.
After Trump’s defeat in 2020, then president Joe Biden took a more conciliatory approach to the court with case-by-case cooperation.
Rubio’s predecessor Antony Blinken rescinded the sanctions and, while critical of its stance on Israel, worked with the court in its investigation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
ICC judges in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the alleged mass abduction of Ukrainian children during the war.
Both Putin and Netanyahu have voiced defiance over the ICC pressure but have also looked to minimize time in countries that are party to the court.
The ICC arrest warrants have been especially sensitive in Britain, a close US ally whose Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a former human rights lawyer.
Downing Stret has said that Britain will fulfill its “legal obligations” without explicitly saying if Netanyahu would be arrested if he visits.
Hungary, led by Trump ally Viktor Orban, has parted ways with the rest of the European Union by moving to exit the International Court.
Orban thumbed his nose at the court by welcoming Netanyahu to visit in April.
Putin ready to ‘help resolve’ Iran nuclear stand-off
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that abandoning uranium enrichment was “100 percent” against the country’s interests
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump that he was ready to use Russia’s close partnership with Iran to help with negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, the Kremlin said.
Trump said after a phone call with Putin that time was running out for Iran to make a decision on its nuclear program and that he believed Putin agreed that Iran should not have nuclear weapons.
Putin, according to Trump, suggested that he participate in the discussions with Iran and that “he could, perhaps, help get this brought to a rapid conclusion,” though Iran was “slowwalking.”
“We have close partner relations with Tehran and, naturally, President Putin said that we are ready to use this level of partnership with Tehran in order to facilitate and contribute to the negotiations that are taking place to resolve the issue of the Iranian nuclear dossier,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
Asked when Putin could join the negotiations, Peskov said that dialogue with Tehran and Washington continued through various channels.
“The president will be able to get involved when necessary,” Peskov said.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that abandoning uranium enrichment was “100 percent” against the country’s interests, rejecting a central US demand in talks to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
The US proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by Oman, which mediated talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.
After five rounds of talks, several hard-to-bridge issues remain, including Iran’s insistence on maintaining uranium enrichment on its soil and Tehran’s refusal to ship abroad its entire existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium — possible raw material for nuclear bombs.
Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, said nothing about halting the talks, but said the US proposal contradicts Iran’s belief in self-reliance and the principle of “We Can.”
Majority of Labour Party’s Muslim representatives unhappy with UK government’s Gaza policy
- Survey finds 82% of Muslim MPs, councillors and mayors belonging to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s party think his handling of conflict is ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ bad
- Almost all of those polled want immediate, official UK recognition of the State of Palestinian
LONDON: Muslim political representatives who belong to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party are overwhelmingly unhappy with the British government’s approach to the war in Gaza, a survey reveals.
The study by the Labour Muslim Network found that 82 percent of the Muslim MPs, councillors and mayors that were polled described Starmer’s handling of the conflict as “fairly bad” or “very bad.”
Three‐quarters supported the suspension of all UK arms exports to Israel, and nearly all of the respondents backed immediate, official recognition by the UK of the State of Palestine. More than 80 percent favored sanctions on Israel.
The results of the survey will add to the pressure on Starmer over the issue, with large sections of his party increasingly voicing anger over the UK’s lack of action against Israel over the war in Gaza.
In recent weeks the prime minister has stepped up his criticism of the Israeli military campaign in the territory, which has killed more than 54,000 people since October 2023. The UK last month joined France and Canada in calling on Israel to end the fighting and resume deliveries of humanitarian aid. All three countries threatened “concrete measures” if Israel failed to halt the slaughter. Britain also paused negotiations with Israeli authorities for a free-trade agreement.
In September 2024, the UK suspended 30 of 350 export licenses to Israel for weapons used in military operations in Gaza, after a review of Israeli compliance with international humanitarian law.
However, many members on the left wing of the Labour Party want much stronger action, including an end to all arms sales and tougher sanctions. There have also been growing demands for the UK to join the majority of UN member states in officially recognizing the Palestinian sate.
The issue of the war in Gaza featured heavily during campaigning for the UK parliamentary elections last year, and independent candidates running on pro-Palestinian platforms took five seats from Labour.
There are 25 Muslim MPs in the UK Parliament, 19 of whom belong to the Labour Party. The survey was sent to 477 party members who are elected representatives, and 221 responded.
In addition to the dissatisfaction with Labour’s policy on Gaza, many voiced concern about discrimination within their own party.
Two-thirds said they were not treated equally to other Labour representatives, and more than a half said they did not believe the party takes Islamophobia seriously enough.
In its report on the survey results, the Labour Muslim Network said the figures “tell the story of a growing chasm between the Labour Party and its Muslim representatives.”
It added: “The party must urgently address the structural issues identified in this report or face the moral and political consequences to come.”
A Labour spokesperson told The Guardian newspaper: “The Labour Party is proud of the diversity of our party, including the increase in the number of Muslim MPs in the parliamentary Labour party and having the first Muslim lord chancellor in Shabana Mahmood, and the first Muslim mayor of London in Sadiq Khan.
“We take any complaints of discrimination, including Islamophobia, seriously.”
