WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed to go around Congress and utilize the US military to build a wall along the US-Mexico border if he does not get funding, just hours before he is to meet with the top two Democratic lawmakers.
In a series of early-morning tweets, Trump praised his administration’s moves to block migrants at the US border with Mexico and said efforts to stop a caravan of migrants seeking to reach the United States were a success, and vowed that “the Wall will get built.”
The president has made funding for the border wall, a campaign promise, a central issue as Congress seeks to finalize spending before some federal government funding expires on Dec. 21.
Trump is scheduled to meet at the White House later Tuesday with US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is seeking to become House Speaker when her party gains control of the chamber next month.
“If the Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our Country, the Military will build the remaining sections of the Wall,” Trump said on Twitter ahead of the 11:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT) meeting.
Trump deployed the US military to the border area before November congressional elections, calling the caravan an “invasion,” and critics decried the action as politically motivated. He has continued to press immigration issues in what could be a political standoff that could shutter the US government.
The president wants $5 billion this year to pay for the border wall in addition to other funds for separate border security measures. Democrats, who have fiercely opposed the wall, say they would back the $1.6 billion that Senate Republicans have sought for the fiscal year to pay for related technology.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump promised that Mexico would pay for the wall, but turned to Congress after Mexico refused.
Trump presses border wall ahead of meeting with top Democrats
Trump presses border wall ahead of meeting with top Democrats
- Trump praised his administration’s moves to block migrants at the US border with Mexico and said efforts to stop a caravan of migrants seeking to reach the United States were a success
Kabul shakes as 5.8-magnitude earthquake hits eastern Afghanistan
- The 5.8-magnitude quake struck a mountainous area around 130 kilometers northeast of Kabul
- Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range
KABUL: A strong earthquake rocked eastern Afghanistan including the capital Kabul on Friday, AFP journalists and residents said.
The 5.8-magnitude quake struck a mountainous area around 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Kabul, the United States Geological Survey said.
The epicenter was near several remote villages and struck at 5:39 p.m. (1309 GMT), just as people in the Muslim-majority country were sitting down to break their Ramadan fast.
“We were waiting to do our iftars, a heavy earthquake shook us. It was very strong, it went on for almost 30 seconds,” said Zilgay Talabi, a resident of Khenj district near of the epicenter.
“Everyone was horrified and scared,” Talabi told AFP, saying he feared “landslides and avalanches” may follow.
Power was briefly cut in parts of the capital, while east of Kabul an AFP journalist in Nangarhar province also felt it.
Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range, near where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet.
Haqmal Saad, spokesman for the Panjshir province police, described the quake as “very strong” and said the force was “gathering information on the ground.”
Mohibullah Jahid, head of Panjshir Natural Disaster Management agency, told AFP he was in touch with several officials in the area.
The district governor had told him there were reports of “minor damage, such as cracks in the walls, but we have not received anything serious, such as the collapse of houses or anything similar,” Jahid said.
Residents in Bamiyan and Wardak provinces, west of Kabul, told AFP they also felt the earthquake.
In Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, rescue service official Bilal Ahmad Faizi said the quake was felt in border areas.
In August last year, a shallow 6.0-magnitude quake in the country’s east wiped out mountainside villages and killed more than 2,200 people.
Weeks later, a 6.3-magnitude quake in northern Afghanistan killed at least 27 people.
Large tremors in western Herat, near the Iranian border, in 2023, and in Nangarhar province in 2022, killed hundreds and destroyed thousands of homes.
Many homes in the predominantly rural country, which has been devastated by decades of war, are shoddily built.
Poor communication networks and infrastructure in mountainous Afghanistan have hampered disaster responses in the past, preventing authorities from reaching far-flung villages for hours or even days before they could assess the extent of the damage.
