Collected from New Zealand and elsewhere
Newsroom
The US is gone but rivals China and Russia will be limited in their role in the new Afghanistan because of its deep economic needs and the fate of Islamic minorities within their borders, writes Robert Patman
Seven months after a military coup, experts weigh up whether democracy and civilian rule can return to Myanmar, while citizens give vent to hopelessness and fears for the future on the programme Insight.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday ordered reviews of the potential declassification of documents from the FBI's investigation into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Stephen Miller seemed floored by the idea, raised during a fall Cabinet meeting in 2018, of keeping open the doors for Afghan allies and other Middle East refugees to enter the US.
The Conversation
The Japanese prime minister has announced he will not seek re-election as party leader ahead of a general election later this year.
It was a mistake not to include the Taliban in the post-2001 state-building effort.
The Conversation
New laws making religious conversion more difficult aim to mobilise sentiment against Muslims, women and social mobility for lower castes.
nationalpost
'We are going to lose more of the people and their family members.... That blood is on our governmentâs hands'
CounterPunch.org
It would be easy to blame Donald Trump for the disarray in the transatlantic alliance, but twenty-five years of American exceptionalism is the real culprit. The aggressive expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the Clinton and Bush administrations over the objections of our West European allies began a period of discontinuity that still exists. Bush deepened the disarray in 2002 with his “axis of evil” speech that set the stage for the invasion of Iraq. Bush and Barack Obama considered Afghanistan the “good war,” which brought two full decades of chaos throughout Southwest Asia. President Joe Biden contributed to the fault lines within the transatlantic alliance with his failure to consult our allies on the Afghan withdrawal.
Asia Times
An anti-conversion law passed late last year in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, is being used to prevent interfaith couples from getting married. Media reports suggest right-wing groups…
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is offering a glimpse of the Donald Trump-inspired authoritarian streak likely to animate a Republican majority if the party triumphs in next year's midterm elections.
Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers struggled to keep the country functioning on Wednesday after the final withdrawal of U.S. forces, with foreign donors alarmed about an impending humanitarian crisis.
AP NEWS
BEIRUT (AP) — Driving back to base after firing rockets toward Israeli positions from a border area last month, a group of Hezbollah fighters was accosted by angry villagers who smashed their vehicles' windshields and held them up briefly.
If Western wars are meant to ‘liberate’ Muslim women, why did centuries of Western military intervention fail to do so?
Afghans will not embrace Taliban governance unless it is centred on the rule of law.
The Conversation
Following the completion of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Neta Crawford, the co-director of the Costs of War Project, reflects on 7,268 days of American involvement in the conflict.
President Joe Biden may have ended the "forever war" but the dangerous loose ends he left behind in Afghanistan could still thwart his attempt to throw everything at his top priority domestic goals.
Asia Times
In the wake of the chaotic evacuation of Europeans and Afghans from Kabul airport, NATO allies worry about the reliability of the United States and the competence of President Joe Biden’s governmen…
The IS-K bombing reconfigured the Afghan mosaic and is pushing the US and other countries to recalculate their political and military approach, says an international politics professor.
There has been a wave of surrenders by jihadists who say they have repented, but civilians who have borne the brunt of their violence are not so sure they can be trusted.
President Joe Biden took responsibility on Tuesday for the tumultuous U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan, saying it was the best available option after a leading Republican foe described it as a self-inflicted wound that had made America less safe.
AP NEWS
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban reveled in their victory after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, reiterating their pledge Tuesday to bring peace and security to the country after decades of war.
Pundit
President Joe Biden has declared the war in Afghanistan over, but the 20-year legacy of bitter fruit will remain on our tongues for many years yet. The price for America’s “little revenge” has been paid by us all and we will keep paying it
www.abc.net.au
With the Taliban now in total control, Afghan people are left to reassess the lives they built when they believed they would be free.
Asia Times
China is proving remarkably skilled at taking its censorship policies global. From NBA players to H&M executives to European Union officials to Hollywood celebrities like John Cena, the outside world is learning it’s best to avoid offending President Xi Jinping’s Communist Party. But are Xi era sensitivities about to cut into economic bone? Xi’s increasingly thin-skinned government is now actively scanning the internet and social media platforms for financial-related materials.
RNZ
The 2021-2022 Pacific cyclone season has started, and officially runs from November 1, 2021 to the end of the cyclone season in 2022.
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