KABUL: A Taliban government delegation was visiting Japan for the first time on Monday, in a rare diplomatic visit outside of the region.
The Afghan delegation left Kabul on Saturday, in a visit that local media said would last one week and included officials from the higher education, foreign affairs, and economy ministries.
“We seek dignified interaction with the world for a strong, united, advanced, prosperous, developed Afghanistan and to be an active member of the international community,” Latif Nazari, a deputy minister at the ministry of economy who is part of the delegation, tweeted on Saturday.
The Taliban government makes regular visits to neighboring and regional countries, including in Central Asia, Russia and China.
However, it has only officially visited Europe for diplomacy summits in Norway in 2022 and 2023.
Japan’s embassy in Kabul temporarily relocated to Qatar after the fall of the previous foreign-backed government and the takeover by the Taliban in 2021.
However, it has since reopened and resumed diplomatic and humanitarian activities in the country.
Taliban delegation visits Japan in rare trip outside region
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Taliban delegation visits Japan in rare trip outside region
- The Taliban government makes regular visits to neighboring and regional countries
Burst gas pipe sparks colossal fire in Malaysia
- The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights in central Selangor state was visible for kilometers
- The Selangor Disaster Management unit said that the blaze spread to several houses in a nearby village
The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights in central Selangor state was visible for kilometers (miles). National oil company Petronas said in a statement that the fire broke out at one of its gas pipeline at 8:10 a.m.
It said in a brief statement that the affected pipeline has been isolated. Three gas stations nearby the fire site were not affected but have been temporarily closed as a precautionary measure, Petronas said, adding that investigations are still underway.
The Selangor Disaster Management unit said in a statement that the blaze spread to several houses in a nearby village, and efforts were efforts being made to rescue trapped residents. It added that several people suffered burns and will be taken for treatment, but the extent of the full damage is being assessed, and said that the valve to the pipeline has been shut, and that will eventually snuff out the fire.
The Star English newspaper said that fire and rescue teams had rescued seven victims, including two elderly individuals. No casualties have been reported so far.
Dozens of Selangor firefighters have been dispatched to the scene. Selangor Chief Minister Amirudin Shari said the fire department has quickly evacuated residents from nearby homes as a safety measure. He said they will be temporarily placed in a mosque nearby until the situation is under control.
Pictures and videos of the fireball went viral on social media, with some residents saying they felt the doors and windows of their homes shaking believed to be due to the fire explosion earlier.
Trump urged to dismiss vaccine-skeptic Kennedy as health chief
- “HHS cannot be led by an anti-vax, conspiracy theorist with inadequate training,” analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald assert
- Kennedy last week announced plans to reshape the federal public health agencies, a move that could involve firing thousands of workers
Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald, formerly headed by the Trump administration’s Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, called for the dismissal of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy, a well-known vaccine skeptic, last week announced plans to reshape the federal public health agencies, a move that could involve firing thousands of workers.
Cantor analysts Josh Schimmer and Eric Schmidt said in a note on Monday that Kennedy was “undermining the trusted leadership of health care in this country. HHS cannot be led by an anti-vax, conspiracy theorist with inadequate training.”
The note came after reports that the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official, Peter Marks, was forced to resign, the highest-profile exit at the regulator amid the Trump administration’s health agency overhaul.
Lutnick, Cantor’s CEO for 40 years, stepped down last month to run Trump’s commerce department. His sons, Brandon and Kyle Lutnick took over as chairman and executive vice chairman of the brokerage, respectively.
“The views expressed in our Equity Research reports are solely those of the analyst(s). As always, we pride ourselves on the independence of the analysts within our Research division,” Cantor Fitzgerald said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
The ouster of Marks led to a decline in biotech and vaccine stocks on Monday. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF closed down 3.9 percent.
The Cantor analysts noted the fall in the stocks, but said their note had nothing to do with politics, stocks and biopharmaceutical sales, but with keeping lives out of jeopardy.
They said they had learned from sources that Marks, who was willing to stay at the FDA, took a scientifically driven review of vaccine safety and did not yield to an anti-science agenda that undermined public health. The same could not be said about Kennedy, they said.
The analysts also said the “administration has shown an ability to correct course, to compromise and to make changes where needed,” adding they are “hopeful that the leaders in Washington will recognize and appreciate the benefits that vaccines can and should play in protecting US citizens.”
European countries resist US push to scrap diversity and inclusion initiatives
- European firms reportedly have received a letter saying Trump’s rollback of DEI initiatives also could apply outside of the US
- Belgium's FM Jan Jambon said Europeans have a “culture of “non-discrimination” that must be continued
- Barcelona’s mayor said his municipal government will defy Trump’s attack on DEI initiatives that have included a cultural program hosted by the city
PARIS: US government efforts to eliminate diversity initiatives are not going down well on the European continent.
Laurent Saint-Martin, France’s minister for foreign trade, said on Monday the country won’t compromise after the US State Department said that French companies who have contracts with the US government need to drop diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
In neighboring Belgium, where some companies received similar requests, the government lashed out at the new US rules.
French media reported last week that French companies received a letter saying US President Donald Trump’s rollback of DEI initiatives also could apply outside of the US.
Saint-Martin spoke to RTL Radio following the reports and said French authorities will seek explanations from their US counterparts about the letter.
The reported demands included abandoning inclusion policies that are part of French and European Union laws such as equality between men and women, the fight against discrimination and racism or the promotion of diversity to help people with disabilities, he said.
“All of this is progress that corresponds first and foremost to our French values, we are proud of this and we don’t want to compromise on it,” Saint-Martin said. “We can’t just cancel the application of our own laws overnight.”
French media said the letter was signed by an officer of the US State Department who is on the staff at the US Embassy in Paris. The embassy didn’t respond to questions from The Associated Press.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, speaking to reporters at a briefing in Washington, confirmed that letters were sent.
“This is an effort to comply with the executive order from the president and it is essentially a self-certifying statement to local consulates and embassies,” she said.
Le Figaro daily newspaper published what it said was a copy of the letter. The document said an executive order that Trump signed in January terminating DEI programs within the federal government also “applies to all suppliers and service providers of the US Government, regardless of their nationality and the country in which they operate.”
The document asked US government contractors to complete, sign and return within five days a separate certification form to demonstrate that they are in compliance.
Saint-Martin said he was “deeply shocked” but insisted on the need to have a “positive agenda” and maintain a dialogue with the US.
In Belgium, Finance Minister Jan Jambon said Europeans have a “culture of “non-discrimination” that must be continued. “We have no lessons to learn from the boss of America,” he told channel RTL-TVi.
In a joint statement quoted by local media, Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot and Equal Opportunities Minister Rob Beenders regretted the “step backward” taken by the US.
“Diversity and inclusion are not just buzzwords, but the foundations of a strong and dynamic society,” they said. “They strengthen our economy, foster innovation and allow talent to flourish.”
In Spain, Barcelona’s mayor said last week that his municipal government will defy Trump’s attack on DEI initiatives that have included a cultural program hosted by the city.
Trump issued the executive order to roll back the programs with federal funding, including those receiving US government aid abroad.
The Barcelona-based program is one of 700 “American Spaces” located in 140 countries. They offer English-language and other courses to adults and children, information and materials about the US and counseling for foreign students hoping to enroll at US schools and universities.
Russian and US steps to normalize ties bring optimism, China’s FM Wang Yi says
- Wang calls for Ukraine peace talks to continue, says China ready to help solving conflict
- Wang said Russia and China bear a special responsibility to maintain world peace
Russia and the United States have taken the first step toward normalizing relations, which inspire optimism, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Russia’s RIA state news agency in remarks published on Tuesday.
“Russia and the United States have taken the first step toward normalizing relations, which is good for stabilizing the balance of power between major powers and inspires optimism in a disappointing international situation,” RIA cited Wang as saying.
Wang is on a three-day visit to Moscow for strategic cooperation talks, surrounded by uncertainty around the partial ceasefire in Ukraine and US President Donald Trump striking a critical tone against the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
China calls for the peace talks to continue, Wang told RIA in a wide-ranging interview.
“The step toward peace, although not that big, is constructive — it’s worth building on it,” Wang said. “With peace, it is no pain no gain. You need to work hard to achieve it.”
China and Russia declared a “no limits” strategic partnership days before Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has met Putin over 40 times in the past decade and the two leaders agreed in May 2024 to deepen their partnership and cooperate on issues such as Taiwan, Ukraine and mutual rival the United States.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Putin will receive Wang, who will also hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Wang reiterated to RIA that Beijing is ready to play a role in settling the conflict in Ukraine, although its peacemaking efforts to date have gone nowhere.
“China is ready, taking into account the aspirations of the parties involved, to play a constructive role in the settlement together with the international community, primarily with the countries of the Global South,” Wang said.
Xi has been pushing for a greater involvement of China in peace talks since the early days of the war, which marked its third anniversary in February.
Beijing has proposed on its own, and together with Brazil, general principles to end the conflict, but its ideas have received a tepid reception.
Wang said Russia and China bear a special responsibility to maintain world peace.
“Our countries, as each other’s largest neighboring states, world powers and permanent members of the UN Security Council, bear a special responsibility for maintaining peace and development throughout the world,” Wang said.
NASA’s newly returned astronauts say they would fly on Boeing’s Starliner capsule again
- President Donald Trump urged SpaceX’s Elon Musk to hurry things up, adding politics to the stuck astronauts’ ordeal
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: NASA’s celebrity astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said Monday that they hold themselves partly responsible for what went wrong on their space sprint-turned-marathon and would fly on Boeing’s Starliner again.
SpaceX recently ferried the duo home after more than nine months at the International Space Station, filling in for Boeing that returned to Earth without them last year.
In their first news conference since coming home, the pair said they were taken aback by all the interest and insisted they were only doing their job and putting the mission ahead of themselves and even their families.
Wilmore didn’t shy from accepting some of the blame for Boeing’s bungled test flight.
“I’ll start and point the finger and I’ll blame me. I could have asked some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide,” he told reporters. “All the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this.”
Both astronauts said they would strap into Starliner again. “Because we’re going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We’re going to fix them. We’re going to make it work,” Wilmore said, adding he’d go back up “in a heartbeat.”
Williams noted that Starliner has “a lot of capability” and she wants to see it succeed. “We’re all in,” she said.
The two will meet with Boeing leadership on Wednesday to provide a rundown on the flight and its problems.
“It’s not for pointing fingers,” Wilmore said. “It’s just to make the path clearer going forward.”
The longtime astronauts and retired Navy captains ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days more than planned when they blasted off on Boeing’s first astronaut flight on June 5. The test pilots had to intervene in order for the Starliner capsule to reach the space station, as thrusters failed and helium leaked.
Their space station stay kept getting extended as engineers debated how to proceed. NASA finally judged Starliner too dangerous to bring Wilmore and Williams back and transferred them to SpaceX. But the launch of their replacements got stalled, stretching their mission beyond nine months.
President Donald Trump urged SpaceX’s Elon Musk to hurry things up, adding politics to the stuck astronauts’ ordeal. The dragged-out drama finally ended two weeks ago with a flawless splashdown by SpaceX off the Florida Panhandle.
“It’s great being back home after being up there,” Williams told The Associated Press in an interview. She waited until she was steadier on her feet before reuniting with her two Labrador retrievers the day after splashdown. “Pure joy.”
Wilmore already has a to-do list. His wife wants to replace all the shrubs in their yard before summer. “So I’ve got to get my body ready to dig holes,” he told the AP.
NASA said engineers still do not understand why Starliner’s thrusters malfunctioned; more tests are planned through the summer. If engineers can figure out the thruster and leak issues, “Starliner is ready to go,” Wilmore said.
The space agency may require another test flight — with cargo — before allowing astronauts to climb aboard. That redo could come by year’s end.
Despite Starliner’s rocky road, NASA officials said they stand behind the decision made years ago to have two competing US companies providing taxi service to and from the space station. But time is running out: The space station is set to be abandoned in five years and replaced in orbit by privately operated labs.
