Deadly Russian air raids hit Ukraine as Trump warns of sanctions
29/07/2025
France leads UN talks on Israel-Palestine two-state solution
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China: Deadly floods hit the north of the country
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France: Paris election shows split in the Republican party, Culture Minister and ex-PM to face off
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How Claude Monet's masterpiece named Impressionism?
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Colombia ex-president Uribe guilty in bribery trial
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Turkey battles wildfires, arrests suspects as heatwave grips Mediterranean
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Thailand and Cambodia ceasefire holds as wary displaced villagers return home
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Heavy rain causes flooding, evacuations and at least 38 deaths around Beijing region
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100-year-old Frenchman breaks skydive record with family
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Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
Pakistan resumes expulsions of Afghan refugees despite UN concerns
Authorities in Pakistan have resumed the forced deportations of Afghan refugees after the federal government declined to extend a deadline for their stay, officials said on Monday. The decision affects approximately 1.4 million Afghans holding Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, whose legal status expired at the end of June. Many had hoped for a one-year extension to settle personal affairs, such as selling property or concluding business, before returning to Afghanistan. In addition to PoR card holders, around 800,000 Afghans hold Afghan Citizen Cards. Police say they also are living in the country illegally and being detained prior to deportations in the eastern Punjab, southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province. Monday's decision drew criticism from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN refugee agency. At least 1.2 million Afghan nationals have been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan this year, according to a June report published by UNHCR. Repatriations on such a massive scale have the potential to destabilise the fragile situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban government came into power in 2021. A 31 July government notification confirmed Pakistan's decision to repatriate all Afghan nationals holding expired PoR cards. It states Afghans without valid passports and Pakistani visas are in the country illegally and must return to their homeland under local immigration laws. Police across Pakistan are detaining Afghans to transport them to border crossings, according to two government and security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly. They said there are no mass arrests and police were told to go to house-to-house and make random checks to detain foreigners living in the country illegally. "Yes, the Afghan refugees living in Pakistan illegally are being sent back in a dignified way," said Shakeel Khan, commissioner for Afghan refugees in north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The latest operation is the most significant step yet under orders from federal government in Islamabad, he said. Afghan national Rehmat Ullah, 35, said his family migrated to Pakistan's north-western Peshawar city decades ago and now is preparing to return home. "I have five children and my concern is that they will miss their education," he said. "I was born here, my children were born here and now we are going back." Millions have fled to Pakistan over the past four decades to escape war, political unrest and economic hardship in Afghanistan. The renewed deportation drive follows a nationwide crackdown launched in 2023 targeting foreigners living illegally in Pakistan. The Interior Ministry, which oversees the campaign, did not immediately comment. Qaiser Khan Afridi, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, expressed deep concern over the government's actions. "Sending people back in this manner is tantamount to refoulement and a breach of a state's international obligations," Afridi said in a statement, urging Pakistan to adopt a "humane approach to ensure voluntary, gradual, and dignified return of Afghans." "Such massive and hasty return could jeopardise the lives and freedom of Afghan refugees, while also risking instability not only in Afghanistan but across the region."
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
Videos of Israeli hostages in Gaza increase pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu for a ceasefire
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LeMonde
8 hours ago
- LeMonde
Texas Democrats stage walkout to block Trump-backed redistricting plan in high-stakes gamble
Dozens of Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives left the southern US state on Sunday, August 3, in a last-ditch maneuver to block electoral redistricting requested by US President Donald Trump. The high-stakes move took place before lawmakers were set to vote Monday on the new map, which, if passed, could help Republicans win five additional seats in the US House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections, giving them a better chance of maintaining their slim majority. The plan put to a vote would divide up Democratic-leaning urban centers, home to most of Texas's roughly 30 million residents. The practice of redrawing electoral districts is known in the United States as gerrymandering. Currently, Republicans hold 25 of the state's 38 seats. "This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity," said Gene Wu, chair of the Democratic caucus, in a statement. "We're not walking out on our responsibilities; we're walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent," he added. Texas lawmakers cannot pass bills in the House of Representatives, which has 150 members, without at least two-thirds present. Democrats hold 62 seats in the Republican-majority chamber, and more than 50 were expected to leave the state, according to Josh Rush Nisenson, spokesperson for the Democratic caucus. Threat of removal from office Texas's Republican governor Greg Abbott threatened to ask for the lawmakers to be removed from their positions. "This truancy ends now," he wrote in a statement released Sunday evening. Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows said the chamber would convene as scheduled Monday afternoon. "If a quorum is not present then, to borrow the recent talking points from some of my Democrat colleagues, all options will be on the table..." he wrote on X. The outcome of the strategy is highly uncertain and past attempts haven't worked. In 2021, House Democrats already left Texas for 38 days to protest voting rights restrictions, which were eventually passed after the blockade was lifted in a special session. Texas Democrats used the same tactic in 2003, when House members went to Oklahoma and senators to New Mexico, but failed to thwart a Republican redistricting plan. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, a candidate for the US Senate, said on X that Democrats who "try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested and brought back to the Capitol immediately. We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law." New Refusing to attend a legislative session constitutes a civil violation of the rules. In 2021, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that House leaders had the authority to "physically compel the attendance" of absent members, but no Democrat was forcibly returned to the state after warrants were issued that year. Two years later, Republicans passed new rules allowing for daily fines of $500 (about €430) for lawmakers who failed to show up for work as a penalty. For Trump, avoiding a repeat of 2018 Many Texas Democrats traveled to Illinois, in the north of the country, where they were welcomed by Governor JB Pritzker, a potential candidate for the 2028 presidential election, who offered his support. A staunch opponent of Donald Trump, Pritzker had already hosted several Texas Democrats the week before to publicly oppose the redistricting effort, and California Governor Gavin Newsom held a similar event in his own state. "This is not just rigging the system in Texas, it's about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come," Pritzker said Sunday evening at a press conference alongside Democratic lawmakers who had just landed, including Gene Wu. "We will do whatever it takes. What that looks like, we don't know," Wu told the media. With the Texas redistricting plan, Trump is hoping to avoid the setback that occurred during his first term (2017-2021), when Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in the November 2018 midterms, just two years after his election. In response to the move, Democratic governors have also raised the possibility of redrawing their own states' electoral maps in retaliation, but their options are more limited.
