Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s foreign minister, says Daesh group has lost its ability to carry out operations in Afghanistan, adding that it; therefore, targets defenseless people in the country.
After their husbands’ killings, these women desperately sought to protect their sons from ongoing violence, even as they are largely shunned by society.
Every time Jameela Begum, 46, wants to talk to her late husband, she digs out a worn photo album from an old wooden almirah.
How Beijing’s Aggression Pushed New Delhi to the West
In June 2020, the Chinese and Indian militaries clashed in the Galwan Valley, a rugged and remote area along the disputed border between the two countries. Twenty Indian and at least four Chinese soldiers were killed, and debate flared about the long-term implications of the skirmishes. Some analysts believed the Sino-Indian relationship would soon return to normal, with regular high-level meetings, increased Chinese investment in India, defense exchanges, and multilateral coordination. Record-high bilateral trade and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s trip to India in March 2022 seemed to support the notion that the two countries could set aside the border dispute and keep strengthening ties. So, too, did Chinese and Indian officials’ agreement in September to pull back from confrontational positions along one of the sections of the border in the Ladakh region where the militaries had been facing off since 2020.
Security at Home, Influence Abroad
In April 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a speech on foreign policy at the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual conference of business executives and world leaders in Hainan Province. In it, he proposed what he called Quanqiu Anquan Changyi, or the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which he framed as “promoting the common security of the world.” Xi offered few details of how the initiative might be put into practice, however, and with Western governments intensely focused on Russia’s unfolding war in Ukraine, the speech did not receive much attention.
The 73rd National Day of China on 1 October brings a new reflection on its global purpose. Its future orientations remain mired in both inevitable challenges and the greatest potential, dictated by the path and spectre of its intention. Its dream of the great Chinese rejuvenation that will signal its comeback to global primacy by 2049, hinges on two indicators. Firstly, is Beijing fully equipped both in its hard and soft power calculations needed to both dislodge America’s position and to readily and capable execute the subsequent obligations? Secondly, will the responses by the other global players apart from the incumbent powers be accepting or otherwise in Beijing’s intent and purpose to create a Chinese led order?
Taiwan and Ukraine are far apart, geographically different, and have contrasting geopolitical valuations. One is in Asia, an island, and the world’s largest microchip maker. The other is in Europe, a continental country with a maritime frontage, with a bustling pre-war industrial base, and is one of the world’s breadbaskets. But as a devastating war in Ukraine entered its seventh month with no end in sight, growing tensions in the Taiwan Strait make for stark comparisons. Is Ukraine the present and Taiwan the future?
How the Chinese Communist Party Rewrites History
On January 18, 2005, tucked away just above a weather report on page four of People’s Daily, the main newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was a three-line notice reporting on the death of an elderly man: “Comrade Zhao Ziyang suffered from long-term diseases of the respiratory system and the cardiovascular system and had been hospitalized multiple times, and following the recent deterioration of his condition, he was unable to be rescued and died on January 17 in Beijing at the age of 85.”
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) Interior Minister Sarajuddin Haqqani met with border security and Kuchis during a visit to Kost province on Wednesday.
According to the ministry, Haqqani met with the two groups, along with locals, in a remote area in Gurbaz district close to the Durand Line.
US special representative for Afghanistan Thomas West said Wednesday that former al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had freedom in Kabul prior to his death and that Washington “is deeply concerned about a number of other terrorist groups active in Afghanistan”.
