The head of the World Food Programme in Afghanistan says the agency can only feed half the millions of Afghans in need after cuts in international aid and an impending freeze in US foreign funding.

Many people were living on just “bread and tea,” WFP Country Director Hsiao-Wei Lee told Reuters.

Afghanistan was tipped to the brink of economic crisis in 2021 as the Taliban took over and all development and security assistance to the country was frozen, with restrictions also placed on the banking sector.

Since then humanitarian aid – aimed at funding urgent needs through non-profit organizations and bypassing government control – has filled some of the gap. But donors have been cutting steadily in recent years, concerned by Taliban restrictions on women, including their order that Afghan female NGO employees stop work, and competing global crises.

Lee told Reuters shortly before finishing her three-year term in Afghanistan that funding cuts had meant that roughly half the 15 million Afghans in acute need of food were not receiving rations during this year’s harsh winter.

“That’s over 6 million people who are probably eating one or two meals a day and it’s just bread and tea,” she said in an interview on Saturday. “Unfortunately this is what the situation looks like for so many that have been removed from assistance.”

Afghanistan’s humanitarian plan was only just over half funded in 2024, according to United Nations data, and aid officials have flagged fears this could fall further this year.

The US State Department issued a “stop-work” order on Friday for all existing foreign assistance and paused new aid, according to a cable reported by Reuters, after President Donald Trump ordered a pause to review if aid allocation was aligned with his foreign policy.

It was not immediately clear how that would impact Afghanistan’s humanitarian operations, which in 2024 were over 40% funded by the United States, the largest donor.

“I think any potential reduction in assistance for Afghanistan is of course concerning…whether it is assistance to WFP or another actor,” Lee said.

“The levels of need are just so high here in Afghanistan. I certainly hope that any decisions made, any implementation of decisions made take into consideration the needs of the people – the women, the children,” she said.

Western diplomats and humanitarian officials have said aid is dropping to Afghanistan in part due to global emergencies in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza and also because of concerns with Taliban restrictions on women.

Last week, the International Criminal Court prosecutor announced he had applied for arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders, including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, accusing them of the persecution of women and girls.

Lee said the operating environment had been a “roller coaster” in the last three years, but that WFP was trying to prove to donors concerned about the plethora of restrictions on women that they were still reaching female beneficiaries and their children with aid.

Though the Taliban have said female Afghan NGO workers must stop work, many humanitarian organizations have said they have been granted exemptions, especially in areas like health.

Lee said WFP had adapted and been able to reach women despite funding cuts and official restrictions.

People across China are hailing the success of homegrown tech startup DeepSeek and its founder, after the company’s newest artificial intelligence model sent shock waves through Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

“DeepSeek overturns the US stocks overnight” one trending hashtag with tens of millions of views proclaimed on Chinese social media platform Weibo. “DeepSeek makes Meta panic,” said another, in reference to the US tech giant that’s invested heavily in developing its own AI models.

More than a dozen hashtags related to the cutting-edge technology were trending on Weibo early this week as DeepSeek surged to the top of international app store charts, surpassing American company OpenAI’s ChatGPT on Monday.

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng was also hailed as a tech visionary who could help China usher in a culture of innovation to rival that of Silicon Valley.

The engineer-turned-entrepreneur, who rarely gives interviews, is known for hiring only domestic talent and keeping his AI models open source, allowing other companies or users to test and build upon the model.

Liang, a co-founder of AI-oriented hedge fund High-Flyer Quant, founded DeepSeek in 2023. The startup’s newest model DeepSeek R1, unveiled on January 20, can nearly match the capabilities of its far more famous American rivals, including OpenAI’s GPT-4, Meta’s Llama and Google’s Gemini. However, it cost less than $6 million to build, the company claims – a fraction of the investment from those other firms.

Famed tech investor Marc Andreessen hailed the model as a “Sputnik moment” and US President Donald Trump on Monday called the breakthrough a “wake-up call” for America in its rivalry with China. Technological dominance, especially in AI, has become a key battleground between the two powers, with the US in recent years limiting Chinese firms’ access to chips that could power rapid AI development.

Analysts say that more information is needed to verify DeepSeek’s claims about its product’s pricetag and point out that the app operates within the stringent restrictions on speech and information imposed by the Chinese government. That means its AI assistant’s answers to questions on the Tiananmen Square massacre or Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests will mirror Beijing’s line – or a response will be declined altogether.

But for many in China, the success of the technology – and Liang’s vision and ethos for DeepSeek – mark a significant step forward for the country in a competitive international arena.

“No matter how powerful the old guard is, they may be overturned overnight,” read one triumphant comment on Weibo with over a thousand likes.

“(Liang’s) achievements … can be called a national destiny,” another read.

‘Changing the rules of the game’

Born in the 1980s as the son of a primary school teacher, Liang grew up in a small city in China’s southern province of Guangdong. He went on to study information and electronic engineering at Zhejiang University, a prestigious school in China’s eastern tech hub Hangzhou, according to Chinese state media.

Early business associates interviewed by state-linked financial outlet Yicai in recent days remembered the future DeepSeek founder as a bit “nerdy” and recalled “a terrible haircut” he sported in the past.

Liang talked about his idea of training large AI models and “changing the rules of the game,” but no one took him seriously, the outlet reported, without naming the early associates. Such feats were typically only deemed possible for China’s tech giants like ByteDance or Alibaba, it said.

Liang co-founded his AI-oriented hedge fund High-Flyer Quant in 2015, less than decade after he finished his undergraduate studies, according to state media reports. The fund incorporates AI machine learning models into its operations, according to the company’s website.

At the same time, the firm was amassing computing power into a basketball court–sized AI supercomputer, becoming among the top companies in China in terms of processing capabilities – and the only one that was not a major tech giant, according to state-linked outlet The Paper.

In 2023, Liang founded DeepSeek, with a focus on advancing the field of general artificial intelligence – and, apparently, revamping China’s culture around innovation.

“We often say there’s a one or two-year gap between China and the US, but the real gap is between originality and imitation. If this doesn’t change, China will always be a follower,” Liang said in a rare media interview with the finance and tech-focused Chinese media outlet 36Kr last July.

The rise of DeepSeek roughly coincides with the wind-down of a heavy-handed state crackdown on the country’s tech giants by authorities seeking to re-assert control over a cohort of innovative private firms that had grown too powerful in the government’s eyes.

But Beijing has also placed tremendous emphasis on cultivating technological prowess, with Chinese leaders vowing over the past year to boost self-reliance and strength in technology – especially in the face of mounting tech competition with the United States.

Liang appeared to reference difficulties posed by US tech export controls – saying in the 36Kr interview last year that his company’s challenges have not been about money, but the embargo on “high-end chips.”

But he also expressed optimism about China’s ability to compete in the future.

“When society allows hardcore innovators to succeed, collective thinking will change. We just need more concrete examples and processes,” Liang told the outlet.

‘We don’t do mediocre’

The company, which has teams in Beijing and Hangzhou, has remained small, with just under 140 researchers and engineers, according to state media – a far cry from the large firms both in China and the US that have led the creation of AI models.

DeepSeek’s employees have been recruited domestically, Liang said in the same interview last year, describing his team as fresh graduates and doctorate students from top Chinese universities.

“The top 50 talents may not be in China, but maybe we can create such people ourselves,” he told 36Kr, noting that the work is divided “naturally” by who has what strengths. “Innovation first requires confidence. This confidence is usually more obvious in young people,” he added.

Zihan Wang, a former DeepSeek employee now studying in the US, told MIT Technology Review in an interview published this month that the company offered “a luxury that few fresh graduates would get at any company” – access to abundant computing resources and the freedom to experiment.

The whole team shared a “collaborative culture” around research, Wang said.

Active recruitment ads on the DeepSeek website and major job seeking sites show the company hiring deep learning researchers, engineers, and user interface designers.

Among them, the highest paid engineers’ positions are listed with a monthly salary range of up to 90,000 yuan ($12,400). By comparison, the higher end of the base pay for a Google software engineer is upwards of $29,000, according to tech industry salary insight platform levels.fyi.

A post on DeepSeek’s official Wechat social media account declares that the company’s devotion is to “exploring the essence of AGI” or artificial general intelligence. “We don’t do mediocre things and answer the biggest questions with curiosity and a far-reaching vision,” the post added.

A simmering diplomatic stand-off over deportation flights spilled onto social media Sunday, threatening the once close relationship between the United States and Colombia and further exposing the anxiety many feel in Latin America toward a second Trump presidency.

Angered by how deportees were being returned with their hands bound aboard military flights, Colombian President Gustavo Petro turned back two of the flights that were already in the air and heading to the South American nation, catching the Trump administration by surprise.

In several posts on X, he announced he was blocking US military deportation flights. Petro later directed a post at US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, warning, “I will never allow Colombians to be brought in handcuffs on flights. Marco, if officials from the Foreign Ministry allowed this, it would never be under my direction.” It was a bold position – and one he would soon be forced to back down from.

The sudden rift between the United States and Colombia, which has long been a major recipient of US military aid and until now had accepted deportation flights, immediately galvanized a region struggling over how to respond to the new US president.

Trump has vowed to deport scores of immigrants back to Latin American nations, carry out cross border attacks on Mexican drug cartels, increase economic sanctions on leftist governments in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and seize control of the Panama Canal.

Some regional leaders were quick to cheer the Colombian on. “Our support to President Gustavo Petro in his worthy defense of the rights of Colombians and his response to the discriminatory treatment and blackmail with which they intend to pressure his people and Our America,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on X.

For Colombia – a country that has received billions of dollars in aid from the US to fight drug trafficking and militant groups over the years – to openly defy the US would have sent a powerful signal across the hemisphere. And it could have complicated the Trump administration’s efforts to force other countries to fall in line behind their campaign to accept the deportations, which are deeply unpopular in the region. By successfully pushing back, Petro could have opened the door for other regional leaders to do the same.

Already dealing with corruption scandals and worsening violence as two Colombian militant groups battle each other and the government, Petro may have thought that picking a public fight with the Trump administration would provide a welcome distraction.

But the former guerrilla-turned-Colombia’s first leftist president apparently misjudged how vociferously the new US administration would respond.

Petro did not follow Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s declaration that “it’s always important to keep a cool head” when dealing with Trump’s threats.

Instead, Petro tried to go insult for insult with Trump, writing in lengthy posts on X to the US president that he must consider Colombians to be “inferior” and that “I don’t shake hands with white slavers.”

Short-lived escalation

There is little patience for Petro in the new Republican administration, say experts.

“Donald Trump and the people around him, including Rubio, don’t like Gustavo Petro,” said Adam Isacson, the director of defense oversight for the Washington Office on Latin America think tank. “So he was like a perfect foil, somebody they could use to make an example of for every other country in the region that they want to threaten if they get in the way of deportation.”

The US is Colombia’s largest trading partner. As the Trump administration struck back with 25% tariffs among other things, Petro backed down later that day – and hopes that he would become the new standard bearer for an anti-Trump, Latin American left suddenly evaporated.

Washington’s threat of economic tit-for-tat and canceled visa services spooked not only Colombians but other countries in the region who saw even more clearly after Sunday how central arm-twisting will be to Trump’s foreign policy.

Many across the region were surprised that Petro – after initiating a diplomatic incident– had folded so quickly. Still, the possibility remained that a summit of leaders at the leftist regional CELAC body scheduled for Thursday could revive a unified anti-Trump bloc to push back against the deportations.

The dust-up between Colombia and the US showed once again that because of sheer proximity, Latin America will likely bear the brunt of many Trump policies and the wrath of US officials when regional leaders attempt to speak out.

However bitter the fallout from the incident, the heavy-handed US pressure campaign appeared to have achieved the desired result for the Trump administration – at least for the moment.

On Monday, Colombia announced it was sending its own military planes to pick up the migrants that were supposed to have arrived the day before.

Detonating a grenade under the chin rather than being captured. Using a fellow soldier to lure out attack drones. Removing body armor plates and helmets to enable faster attacks on foot. Writing pledges of allegiance to North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.

These are the brutal and near-suicidal tactics of North Korean soldiers, who have, since November, been deployed to repel Ukraine’s incursion in the southern Russian border region of Kursk.

Up to 12,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia, according to Western intelligence reports, which say around 4,000 troops have been killed or injured.

Ahead of a likely escalation before any peace talks, Moscow is experiencing manpower shortages and Pyongyang is expected to send reinforcements, according to Ukrainian defense intelligence.

The Ukrainians swiftly open fire and dive back. South Korean lawmakers were told by the country’s intelligence service, who have provided assistance to Kyiv, that the soldier in the video’s last words were: “General Kim Jong Un.”

“They can just brazenly go into battle until they are neutralized,” Pokémon said, adding: “Despite all attempts to call them to surrender, they will continue to fight.”

He added that the North Koreans were unprepared for Ukraine’s battlefield realities, where modern drone combat and archaic trench warfare have led to significant casualties.

While the North Korean soldiers are “all young, trained, hardy fighters,”Pokémon said, they would have not previously faced a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) – which have transformed the war in Ukraine – in combat. “They are prepared for the realities of war in 1980 at best,” he said.

Amur, a company commander, said some North Koreans removed their helmets and the heavy protective plates from their body armour, to make them lighter on their feet and enable a faster assault at Ukrainian positions.

“They’re very maneuverable and they run and move very quickly,” he said. “They’re hard to catch, especially with a drone,” Amur added, explaining that they often weave an indirect path towards Ukrainian defenses, as if trained to not run in a straight line.

The North Koreans also leave anti-tank mines on roads as they go, Amur said. “Every shelter, every car they just destroy with anti-tank grenade launchers. They move very fast, (they) literally run,” he said.

“In their backpacks is the minimum of water, small bottles – up to a liter,” Amur said. “There are no additional warm clothes – no hats, no scarves, nothing.”

Amur said the North Koreans appear to have the more modern versions of Russian standard issue equipment, with most in possession of around 10 magazines, 5-10 grenades, machine gun ammunition and mines. The North Korean soldier was carrying an AK-12 assault rifle – the newer model of the standard issue AK-47, Amur said.

Notes, fake military ID found

Earlier this month, Ukraine captured two North Korean soldiers, and released video of the injured men, speaking Korean and receiving treatment, as evidence of Pyongyang’s robust military support for Moscow.

Russian shelling escalated as the soldier was captured, Ukrainian officials said, aimed at stopping the North Korean soldier from being taken alive.

Ukrainian troops have taken DNA samples – saliva swabs and locks of hair – from the dead, which they said showed them to be of East Asian extraction, and provided further evidence of North Korean involvement.

The North Korean soldier seen detonating the grenade in the video carried a fake Russian military ID which identified him as 29-year-old Ment Chat. The document said he joined the Russian army in October and was from the Russian border region of Tuva, near Mongolia.

One sheet of paper is peppered with pledges of allegiance to North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and of victory in battle. It is unclear if the notes were meant to emphasize the soldier’s loyalty if killed in battle to protect their surviving families, or if it truly reflects their mindset.

Another note retrieved from the bodies extols North Korea’s prowess in combat and derides their enemy, Ukraine.

“The hammer of death to the unknown and the puppet trash is not far off. We wield the powerful force that makes them tremble in fear. An invincible and certain-to-win battle.”

Another note, from the collection said: “I will demonstrate unparalleled bravery to its fullest. World, watch closely.”

Acts of ‘disloyalty’ recorded

Ukrainian officials who reviewed the papers said the North Korean units consider their involvement in Russia’s war as an opportunity to gain battle experience to assist their leader in any future conflict nearer home.

While North Korea is one of the most militarized societies on earth – with an estimated 1.2 million armed service personnel and mandatory military service from age 17 – its troops have had very limited exposure to the battlefield since the Korean War, where an armistice brought hostilities to a halt in 1953.

Another document, likely written by an officer, recorded acts of disloyalty by North Korean subordinates – a common practice in the totalitarian state, where citizens are encouraged to inform on each other.

One note said a soldier had “engaged in an unimaginably disgraceful act by stealing supplies.” Another note said a different soldier had “failed to uphold the Supreme Commander’s dignity and placed his personal interests above all.”

Other papers contained the radio codes of the North Korean force, but also contained notes on new tactics to counter drone attacks, from which Amur said North Koreans had suffered major losses.

“My unit could take out about 30 enemy soldiers in a day’s work, just by throwing grenades on their heads. They didn’t understand what to do,” he said.

Labelled “How to destroy drones,” the handwritten North Korean note suggested using soldiers as bait.

“When a drone is spotted… at a distance of about 10-12 meters, one out of three people should unconditionally lure it, and the other two should take aim and shoot.

“Another method is, since shells will not fall again in the same crater, take cover in the crater…” it read.

Amur described a ruthless opponent. “They don’t take our prisoners. All of our servicemen we found are shot in the back of the head.”