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Russia leaves nuclear test ban treaty in show of public posturing
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, shares his perspective on European politics from Stockholm.
What can be done by Europe or others to help the 1.7 million Afghan refugees that are now being expelled from Pakistan back into Afghanistan?
Well, sorry to say the answer is not very much can be done. We are delivering humanitarian aid to some extent, and the UN is there to Afghanistan, but to take care of or to help substantially 1.7 million people that are expelled from Pakistan is going to be very difficult. Relationship with the Taliban regime is virtually non-existent, so it's one of these tragedies that are happening at the same time as we have the Gaza War and the Ukraine War.
Does Europe feel less secure now that Russia has revoked its ratification of the test ban treaty?
Well, not really changing very much. What the Russians are doing is that they're doing, to the same situation as the Americans have, because the US hasn't ratified the CTBT either, but they adhere to it, and that is just as well. So, the Russians decided, and I think it's a signaling effect to some extent, that nuclear weapons are there and that they, at some point in time, might presume nuclear testing. But until they do that, and I hope they don't, it doesn't mean very much, but it shows that they are sort of playing around with nuclear weapons and with public posturing with nuclear weapons, which of course is less than good.
An Afghan man works in a poppy field in Nangarhar province in 2016.
Hard Numbers: Afghans' fewer poppies, Trump's lead in key states, Lake Titicaca’s lower water level, New Delhi's smog, Japan's new frigates, Swifties' tents
95: Once the world’s top opium supplier, Afghanistan has slashed its cultivation of opium poppies by a whopping 95%, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The drop follows a Taliban edict banning opium cultivation.
5: Former President Donald Trump is leading in five of six battleground states in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, according to new polls by The New York Times and Siena College. The numbers indicate that Biden is trailing among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. The president remains ahead in Wisconsin by the smallest of margins: two percentage points.
29: Over the past seven months, Lake Titicaca’s water level at the Peru-Bolivia border has fallen 29 inches to near-record lows. According to scientists, climate change is exacerbating this year’s El Nino phenomenon, layering heat on top of heat in South America’s largest freshwater lake.
471: In more bad environmental news, primary schools in New Delhi have been closed through Nov. 10 due to high pollution levels. On Sunday, the capital recorded an Air Quality Index reading of 471, a level considered hazardous.
12: The Japanese Ministry of Defense will acquire a total of 12 new Mogami class frigates over the next five years. The vessels will be used to defend the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, which are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan.
5: Die-hard Taylor Swift fans have been camped out in tents for 5 months for a chance at front-row seats to the singer’s Eras Tour concerts in Buenos Aires on Nov. 9, 10, and 11. Some Bad Blood has been reported between the tent dwellers and locals who say the Swifties should get jobs rather than spend days waiting for their idol – but despite the potentially Delicate situation, fans appear able to Shake it Off.
Scores of foreign passport holders trapped in Gaza started leaving the war-torn Palestinian territory on Nov. 1 -- some are seen here waiting at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip before crossing into Egypt.
Hard Numbers: Egypt accepts Gazan evacuees, Debating a 70-hour work week, Pushing voters buttons with warplanes, Afghan refugee arrests
400: On Wednesday, Egypt allowedmore than 400 people, injured Palestinians and foreign nationals, to enter the country from Gaza. These were the first refugees allowed across the border, and Egypt will face international pressure to accept many more. Egypt’s government, fearing the long-term burden that large numbers of refugees might impose, will continue to resist.
70: Indian software billionaire NR Narayana Murthy kicked off a furious debate within his country with a recent comment that India’s young people should work 70 hours per week. (Mr. Murthy is the father-in-law of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.)
43: Taiwan’s Defense Ministry announced Wednesday it had detected 43 Chinese warplanes and seven naval vessels near the island in a single 24-hour period. There are many reasons why Beijing is unlikely to launch a war anytime soon, but it does hope to persuade Taiwan’s voters to elect a new president in January who has a more cooperative relationship with Beijing than the outgoing incumbent has had.
1.7 million: On Wednesday, authorities in Pakistan began nationwide arrests of Afghan refugees who lack permission to remain in the country as the deadline passed for undocumented Afghans to leave. There are some 1.7 million undocumented Afghans still in Pakistan, and Pakistan’s government hopes the arrests will spur more to leave on their own.Afghanistan's captain Hashmatullah Shahidi celebrates the team's victory against Pakistan in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023, at MA Chidambaram Stadium, in Chennai on Monday.
Afghanistan’s cricketers inspire nation with World Cup dream
The streets of Kabul erupted in joy Monday night as Afghans celebrated their national team’s massive upset victory against Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup. It’s a brief moment of elation amid the crushing crises that have immiserated millions since the US withdrawal.
The stunning eight-wicket win against one of the sport’s most celebrated sides put Afghanistan in a four-way tie for a knockout stage berth. They face an uphill climb for a shot at the trophy, though: The mighty South African and Australian teams are sure to put Afghan bowlers and batters through their paces, and they’ll have to beat both Sri Lanka and the Netherlands as well. If they manage to pull it off, waiting in the knockout stages is thus-far undefeated India, playing at home to roaring crowds.
Intimidating, but cricket is a game that rewards resilience, a trait Afghans have shown they possess in spades over the trials of the last half-century. Many members of the Afghanistan Cricket Board fled the country after the Taliban takeover, and the team has since played home games in the United Arab Emirates and India.
Daily life for those back home teeters on the knife’s edge: The World Food Program is urgently calling for $400 million to keep the country fed through winter as the families that can afford food report spending 91% of their incomes to buy it. Women are shut out of public life so totally that 90% of the victims of recent earthquakes near Herat were women and children, stuck indoors during the day.
That’s just a taste of the pressure the Afghan players will feel to bring a little joy and hope into the darkness when they take on Sri Lanka next week. If this sounds like must-see TV to you, read this cricket explainer for Americans, brew up some coffee, and we’ll see you at 4:30 a.m. on Monday.An Afghan woman stands next to her house after a recent earthquake in Chahak village in the Enjil district of Herat province, Afghanistan. Three deadly quakes have plagued the region this month.
Hard Numbers: Quake hits Afghanistan again, Venezuela’s opposition field narrows, Oz rejects “The Voice,” antisemitic attacks on the rise
11: The field is narrowing slightly ahead of the opposition primary in Venezuela next week, the winner of which will face off with Nicolás Maduro in 2024. Freddy Superlano, of the Voluntad Popular party, withdrew from the race on Friday, throwing his support behind frontrunner Maria Corina Machado, a neoliberal from the Vente Venezuela party who supports privatization and reducing the size of the state. Machado is the leader of the remaining 11 candidates, and while she has been disqualified from running by Chavista-controlled courts, that isn’t stopping her – or her supporters.
60: Australians decisively voted “No” on Saturday to a proposal to amend the constitution to allow Indigenous people to create a body that represents them in government. Dubbed “The Voice,” the proposal was rejected by 60% of voters, while 40% voted yes. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, while disappointed by the result and divisiveness of the campaign, said he respected the results and the democratic process.
50: With war raging between Hamas and Israel, there has been a shocking rise in antisemitic attacks around the globe. In the UK, there was a fourfold increase in antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7 and 10 – a total of 89 episodes – compared to 21 from the same period a year ago. In France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, there were 50 antisemitic acts last week, and in the US, where hate crimes have already been on the rise, there is fear of a spike in antisemitic attacks linked to the violence in the Middle East.
An Afghan man stands on the debris of damaged houses after the recent earthquake, in the district of Zinda Jan, in Herat, Afghanistan October 9, 2023.
Hard Numbers: Thousands killed in Afghan quake, Thais caught in the fighting, RFK’s new approach, China claims to hit economic targets, US wealth gap grows
2,400: At least 2,400 people have died in Afghanistan following Saturday’s 6.3-magnitude quake near the western city of Herat, the country’s third largest. While the search for survivors continues, the devastating tremor brings new hardship to an area already hard hit by the economic crisis. The World Bank estimates that two-thirds of Afghan families are at risk of losing their livelihood.
11: At least 11 Thai nationals who were working as guest laborers on farms in southern Israel have been kidnapped by Hamas, and another dozen were killed in the weekend attacks. Over 30,000 Thais work in Israel, and at this stage they are thought to be the largest group of foreign nationals — not dual citizens of Israel — to have been taken hostage, though at least two Mexicans, three Brazilians, a Nepali, and a British citizen are also believed to be in Hamas’s hands.
14: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Monday that he will run for president as an independent, not as a Democrat, and polls show he is on track to be the most popular third-party candidate since Ross Perot in 1992. Two polls found 14% of voters would choose him over either former President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden.
5.1: The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state-run think tank, says China’s economy will grow by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, putting the country on the path to meet its annual growth targets. International investment banks, however, remain more skeptical given Beijing’s reluctance to provide short-term stimulus funding.
26.5: The top 1% of American households, in terms of annual income, held about 26.5% of the nation’s wealth in 2022, up about 1.5 percentage points from 2019. The share owned by the bottom 40% of households, meanwhile, fell from 7% to 6.7%, so despite the perception that workers gained leverage during the pandemic, it didn’t result in them getting a bigger slice of the pie.
People protesting in Parliament Square in London
The Islamic State’s rise in Afghanistan
In 2017, the Trump administration declared that the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq had been defeated. But a new UN report released this week claims that there are between 5,000-7,000 fighters across the Levant. And many more – around 11,000 – are ready to fight but remain locked up in northern Syria, according to the UN.
At the group’s peak around 2015, it’s estimated that there were around 30,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria. Still, the latest report suggests that the group has been able to regroup and recruit.
Crucially, however, it’s in Afghanistan that the capabilities and scope of the Islamic State affiliate known as ISIS-K are expanding at the fastest clip, with estimates that the group now commands up to 6,000 fighters.
Since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan exactly two years ago, ISIS-K has terrorized the Afghan population and repeatedly attacked Taliban positions. (For more on the ongoing beef between the Taliban and ISIS-K, both extremist Sunni groups, see our explainer here.)
The Taliban says it has been strengthening regional security, but Western intelligence agencies are increasingly concerned that a group that was once seemingly confined to the dustbins of history is slowly making a comeback.Afghan women demonstrate in the center of Kabul, Afghanistan
Hard Numbers: Afghan women protest, gunman kills two in New Zealand, Eastern Europe seeks import ban extension, Phoenix melts
50: In Afghanistan, where women’s rights have been increasingly restricted since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, 50 women dared to protest in Kabul on Wednesday. The demonstrations were a response to the Taliban closing beauty salons, further restricting the public spaces accessible to women.
2: Two people were shot dead in Auckland, New Zealand, early Thursday, just hours before the launch there of the ninth Women’s World Cup. The gunman is also dead, and six others were injured in the incident. Authorities do not believe it was an act of terror, and the soccer tournament is set to continue as planned.
5: The five countries closest to Ukraine – Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia – are asking the EU to continue allowing them to ban the sale of Ukrainian grain until the end of the year. These countries serve as critical ground transport routes and will continue to allow for the transfer of grain, but selling it domestically was proving catastrophic for local markets and farmers. This led to an import ban in April that was set to end in September.
20: As of Wednesday, Phoenix, AZ, has endured 20 straight days of temperatures at or above 110 degrees, beating its previous record of 18 days in 1974. Wednesday also marked nine consecutive days where the low temperature was in the 90s, another record.