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PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan’s health ministry has confirmed at least one case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country, it said on Friday, as provincial health authorities reported they had detected three cases.

A health ministry spokesperson said the sequencing of the confirmed case was under way, and that it would not be clear which variant of mpox the patient had until the process was complete.

A new form of the virus has triggered global concern because it seems to spread more easily though routine close contact.

Earlier on Friday, the health department in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said three cases had been detected in patients on arrival from the United Arab Emirates. It was not clear whether the patient confirmed by the central health ministry was among the three.

The World Health Organization has declared the recent outbreak of the disease as a public health emergency of international concern after the new variant of the virus was identified.

Health ministry spokesperson Sajid Shah said so far they had no confirmation of the new variant, but the sequencing of the sample of the confirmed patient was under way.

“Once that’s done, we will be able to say what strain is this,” said Shah.

Salim Khan, the director general of health services for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said three patients were in quarantine.

Global health officials on Thursday confirmed an infection with a new strain of the mpox virus in Sweden and linked it to a growing outbreak in Africa, the first sign of its spread outside the continent.

The WHO on Wednesday sounded its highest level of alert over the outbreak in Africa after cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo spread to nearby countries.

There have been 27,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, mainly among children, in Congo since the current outbreak began in January 2023.

The disease, caused by the monkeypox virus, leads to flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild but can kill, with children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, all at higher risk of complications.
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TOKYO — Flights and trains in the Tokyo area were canceled Friday, and people were warned of strong winds, heavy rains and potential flooding and mudslides as a typhoon swerved near Japan on its way further north in the Pacific Ocean.

Typhoon Ampil was forecast to reach the waters near Tokyo in the evening then continue north, bringing stormy conditions to the northern Kanto and Tohoku regions early Saturday. It had sustained winds of 162 kph with higher gusts Friday morning and was moving north at 15 kph, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Ampil was not expected to make landfall and would weaken to a tropical storm by Sunday.

Tokyo’s Disneyland, usually open until 9 p.m., was closing early at 3 p.m. because of the typhoon. Yamato Transport, which makes Amazon and other deliveries in Japan, said no deliveries will be made in the Tokyo and nearby affected areas Friday and Saturday.

The Shinkansen bullet trains running between Tokyo and Nagoya were halted for the entire day, according to Central Japan Railway, a common response to typhoons here. Bullet trains serving northeastern Japan and some local Tokyo trains were suspended temporarily or switched to a slower schedule.

Dozens of departing and arriving flights were canceled at Tokyo’s two airports, Haneda and Narita, as well as at Kansai, Osaka and Chubu airports. The flight cancellations affect some 90,000 people, according to Japanese media reports. Several highways may also partly close to traffic.

Airports and train stations had been packed Thursday with people moving up their plans to avoid disruptions from the typhoon. Friday was drizzly and windy in Tokyo, although the intensity varied. Traffic and crowds out on the streets were sparse, mostly because of the Bon summer holiday period, not just the weather. Stores remained open.

Officials warned people to stay away from rivers and beaches and to be wary of winds strong enough to send objects flying.

“We foresee extremely fierce winds and extremely fierce seas,” said Shuichi Tachihara, JMA chief forecaster.

Japanese TV broadcasts showed Hachijo residents boarding up windows. Ampil moved past Hachijo by midday, as it headed northward. Store shelves for bread and instant noodles were empty.
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washington — As North Korean leader Kim Jong Un struggles to cope with devastating floods in his country, his recent brash words have exposed his fear of South Korean influence over his people, analysts in Seoul said.

During a visit to a flood-stricken area last week, Kim slammed South Korean news reports about the flooding, claiming media outlets were producing fake news stories about the damage and death toll.

Kim accused the South Korean media of spreading false rumors, calling news reports “conspiracy propaganda” and “blasphemy” from “the country of waste.” The South’s media had reported that an estimated 1,500 people were dead or missing after the flooding, citing unnamed South Korean government officials.

While Kim often engages in bellicose rhetoric, his direct criticism of South Korean media stood out as rare. His sister, Kim Yo Jong, has often taken the role of verbally attacking the country’s southern neighbor.

Anxiety over outside influence

Some analysts said Kim’s denunciation of the South Korean media was spurred by his anxiety over North Koreans’ greater access to outside information.

Cho Han-bum, a senior research fellow at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, told VOA Korean on Tuesday that thanks to modern technology, North Korean people receive information from the outside world more easily today.

According to Cho, there are around 34,000 North Korean defectors in South Korea these days. This is a 23.6% increase from the end of 2014, when there were 27,500, data from South Korea’s Unification Ministry show.

“Many of them manage to talk frequently with their families in North Korea over the phone,” Cho said. “The information from South Korea tends to spread faster through the intranet within North Korea, even though the internet connected to the outside world is blocked.”

North Korean authorities are having more difficulty controlling the flow of information now than they did in the past, Cho added.

Nam Sung-wook, professor of North Korean studies at Korea University in Seoul, said the reopening of the North’s border with China in the post-COVID-19 era has allowed more information to enter what is often called the “Hermit Kingdom.”

“Those who live near the Chinese border area should be able to get hold of the foreign news,” Nam told VOA Korean in a phone call Tuesday. “They must be upset to find out the regime’s incapability in dealing with the disaster, and the regime, on the other hand, is trying to contain such dissatisfaction.”

South Korea has always been an easy target for the North Korean regime to frame as a source of fake news, Nam said. North Korea would be hesitant to blame China, its longtime benefactor, he said, although it is likely that some North Koreans have heard from the Chinese side across the border along the Yalu River about the flooding, which has affected both countries.

Cha Doo-hyun, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, said Kim might fear that his incompetence would be highlighted if he accepted support from South Korea, which made an offer earlier this month that Kim rejected.

“For Kim, the news reports of the offers from other countries only underscore that the Kim regime doesn’t have enough capacity to handle the situation,” Cha told VOA Korean on the phone Tuesday. “And that is what makes Kim Jong Un respond to the South Korean media even more defiantly.”

Refusal of aid

In his speech last week, Kim also stressed that North Korea would “pioneer its own path with its own strength and effort,” while admitting that several countries and international institutions had offered to help the North.

Kim’s remarks suggested that the regime would refuse to accept any support from outside.

Lim Eul-chul, associate professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University in Changwon, South Korea, told VOA Korean on the phone Tuesday that Kim is trying to discredit the South Korean media.

“Kim Jong Un has already defined a new relationship with South Korea and is seeking an internal unity while escalating animosity toward the South,” Lim said. “He cannot receive the humanitarian aid proposed by South Korea in this situation, so I think Kim is using this South Korean media report as an excuse to lower expectations about the humanitarian aid that South Korea was willing to provide.”

Lim added that Kim is exploiting the natural disaster to more broadly limit South Korean influence among North Korean people.

The South Korean government interpreted Kim’s remarks about its nation’s news media as his attempt to “minimize public sentiment turning against the regime” by pointing fingers outward.

North Korea is “shifting the subject of criticism to the outside,” Koo Byoung-sam, a spokesperson at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, told a press briefing earlier this month.
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Ayesha Rahimi was in 11th grade when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 and barred girls from secondary education. Three years later, Rahimi lives as a refugee in Peshawar, Pakistan, where she hopes to go back to school. VOA’s Muska Safi met with Rahimi in this story narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
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islamabad — From sharing memes to sealing deals, millions of Pakistanis are struggling to communicate digitally as internet and data services have slowed down across much of the country. 

Officials are blaming internet service providers for the slowdown, but media reports indicate the problem may stem from the deployment of a nationwide internet firewall aimed at controlling online content and traffic. 

Crippling economy 

The problem, which began several weeks ago, has worsened in recent days, frustrating freelancers like Moadood Ahmad, who is seeing a drop in income. 

“If I don’t show as available on Upwork or Fiverr, then new clients can’t even approach me. Older clients are also disturbed,” Ahmad told VOA. The Lahore-based digital marketing services provider says he has made virtually no money in the last two weeks. 

According to DataReportal.com, 111 million Pakistanis in the nation of more than 240 million have access to internet. The country has nearly 189 million active cellular connections. State Bank of Pakistan put the country’s IT exports at $3.2 billion in the financial year that ended in July 2024. 

The spokesperson’s office of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told VOA it has only heard about issues with internet speed and web access through media. Speaking to VOA in late July, a PTA spokesperson blamed the slowdown at that time on a possible technical glitch. 

During a hearing Thursday, the secretary for the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication told a Senate committee that it was gathering data about the situation from mobile operators. 

But the slump in services is not limited to mobile data users. In a statement to the media Thursday, an alliance of internet service providers (ISPs) said internet speeds had plummeted by 30% to 40%, “crippling [the] digital economy.” 

“Many are leaving the smaller ISPs because they can’t sustain the poor service quality anymore. If this continues, we will see a mass exodus of businesses from Pakistan,” said the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (WISPAP). 

Speaking to VOA, WISPAP Chairman Shahzad Arshad said his alliance members were inundated with customer complaints. 

“The authorities should at least tell us a timeframe that we can give to the customer,” Arshad said. 

Without mentioning the firewall, WISPAP’s statement blamed increased “security and surveillance” for the decline in service quality. 

“While the government remains steadfast in its commitment to enhancing security, the question remains: at what cost to the nation’s digital economy?” the statement asked. 

Controlling access 

A source familiar with the nationwide firewall told VOA the system — acquired from China and installed through the Ministry of Defense — is based at a cable landing station in Pakistan, the place where the undersea internet data cable meets a country’s internet system.    

The firewall, also placed on the systems used by data providers, can give Pakistani authorities information about an individual user’s online activities and where they are operating from, allowing for targeted monitoring, the source said. 

Efforts to deploy the firewall on servers that major international companies use to store content close to end users are also underway. This can give authorities deeper access to an individual’s data and control of their online activities. 

Digital rights activists reject the government’s claim that the firewall is only a cybersecurity tool.

“To me, this is about political control. This desperation to do whatever they can,” said Farieha Aziz, co-founder of the digital rights group Bolo Bhi, an Urdu name that means “speak up.” 

Government officials “are still not transparent and open about the capability [of the firewall], what kind of monitoring is happening,” said Aziz. “What are they attempting?” 

The country’s latest efforts to control internet traffic and user activity come as the powerful military frequently complains of rising “digital terrorism,” a term it uses for those who criticize or mock the armed forces on social media. 

Digital rights activist Aziz also criticized telecom companies and internet service providers for not being transparent with users about the reasons for service disruptions. 

Digital freedom is limited in Pakistan. Global rights watchdog Freedom House describes Pakistan as “not free,” with a low score of only 26 out of 100 on its internet freedom index. 

Pakistanis trying to bypass poor connectivity and speed by using VPNs are not faring much better either. 

“Even those who use VPNs, and use our internet services, are unable to connect,” WISPAP’s Shahzad confirmed to VOA. 

A PTA official told the Standing Committee on Cabinet Sec­retariat, earlier this month that the regulator was working on a plan to approve certain virtual private networks. All other VPNs would be blocked. 

Senator Palwasha Khan, chairperson of the Senate’s standing committee on IT, told VOA she expected internet speed to normalize in Pakistan within days. She said the committee was not informed if the problem was because of the firewall, but said she supported the censorship tool. 

“I do agree that if some security measures are taken to control the chaos on social media, I don’t have any problem with that,” said Khan, a senator from the Pakistan People’s Party, which is part of the ruling alliance. 

Struggling to share voice notes and visual content with clients via a popular messaging app, freelancer Moadood Ahmad told VOA he regretted moving back to Pakistan from the United Arab Emirates. 

“I am thinking I made a mistake,” Ahmad said. “I should go back.” 
…

islamabad — The United Nations said Thursday that Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have “deliberately deprived” 1.4 million girls of schooling since they reclaimed power three years ago, putting at risk the future of an entire generation.

The U.N. Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization or UNESCO released the new report as de facto Afghan leaders marked the third anniversary of ruling the poverty-stricken South Asian country this week.

The Taliban swept back to power in August 2021 and have placed sweeping restrictions on women’s access to education and public life, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to prohibit access to education for girls ages 12 and older.

“As a result of bans imposed by the de facto authorities, at least 1.4 million girls have been deliberately denied access to secondary education since 2021,” said Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO director-general, in a statement.

“This represents an increase of 300,000 since the previous count carried out by UNESCO in April 2023 – with more girls reaching the age limit of 12 every year,” she noted.

The U.N. and global human rights groups have denounced the bans as “gender apartheid” and called for their immediate reversal.

The Taliban government, not formally recognized by any country, has not immediately responded to the UNESCO findings and demands for removing the bans on female education.

The radical Afghan leaders have vehemently and persistently rejected criticism of their policies, claiming they are aligned with local culture and their harsh interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law.

Azoulay said that almost 2.5 million girls in Afghanistan, which accounts for 80% of school-age girls, are now unable to access education due to the bans. The report also includes girls who were not attending school before the Taliban takeover, she added.

The UNESCO report said that access to primary education had “also fallen sharply,” with 1.1 million fewer Afghan girls and boys attending school under the Taliban rule. It added that Afghanistan had only 5.7 million girls and boys in primary school in 2022, compared with 6.8 million in 2019.

The study attributed the drop in primary school enrollment to the Taliban’s decision to prohibit female teachers from teaching boys, exacerbating the teacher shortage. Increasingly difficult “socio-economic” circumstances facing Afghanistan are also responsible for parents’ lack of incentive to send their children to school, according to the report.

“UNESCO is alarmed by the harmful consequences of this increasingly massive drop-out rate, which could lead to a rise in child labor and early marriage.”

“In just three years, the de facto authorities have almost wiped out two decades of steady progress for education in Afghanistan, and the future of an entire generation is now in jeopardy,” Azoulay said.

Enrollment in higher education is equally concerning, the statement said, adding that the number of university students had decreased by 53% since 2021.

“As a result, the country will rapidly face a shortage of graduates trained for the most highly skilled jobs, which will only exacerbate development problems,” said UNESCO.

Azoulay urged the global community to “maintain its mobilization for the full restoration of the right to education for girls and women in Afghanistan.”
…

Bangkok — Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the heir of Thailand’s most powerful political dynasty, is tipped to become the kingdom’s youngest leader in a parliament vote on Friday after a top court ousted a prime minister this week. 

Her Pheu Thai party selected the 37-year-old to be its candidate in the vote to replace Srettha Thavisin, who was dismissed on Wednesday for appointing a cabinet minister with a criminal conviction. 

Srettha’s ouster threw Thailand into fresh political turmoil, fueled by a long-running battle between the military, pro-royalist establishment and parties linked to Paetongtarn’s father, one-time Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra. 

If she is voted in, Paetongtarn will become the youngest leader in Thailand’s history as a constitutional monarchy and the third of the Shinawatra name after her billionaire father and aunt Yingluck Shinawatra. 

She must secure 247 votes from the 493 members currently sitting in parliament to win.

“We are confident that the party and coalition parties will lead our country in helping with Thailand’s economic crisis,” she said after her candidacy was announced on Thursday. 

A political newcomer, Paetongtarn helped run the hotel arm of the ultra-rich family’s business empire before joining politics three years ago. 

She was a near-constant presence on the campaign trail in last year’s election amid searing heat despite being heavily pregnant. 

That vote ultimately saw Srettha take power in alliance with pro-military parties previously staunchly opposed to Thaksin and his followers. 

The timing seemed to suggest a truce in the long-standing feud as both sides sought to see off the threat posed by the newer Move Forward Party (MFP), which won the popular vote. 

Pheu Thai members voted overwhelmingly in October 2023 for Paetongtarn to become party leader and vowed to rejuvenate its image. 

During the Srettha government, she chaired the national soft power committee to push Thailand abroad.

Paetongtarn, known in Thailand by her nickname Ung Ing, is the youngest child of Thaksin, a policeman turned telecoms tycoon who won two elections in the early 2000s before being ousted in a coup in 2006. 

She grew up in Bangkok and studied hotel management in Britain, then married commercial pilot Pidok Sooksawas in 2019 with two glitzy receptions in the Thai capital and Hong Kong. The couple now have two children. 

Paetongtarn shares her jet-setting lifestyle with almost a million followers on Instagram, and her youth and energy stand out in a political scene dominated by strait-laced elderly men. 

She was chosen ahead of Pheu Thai stalwart Chaikasem Nitisiri, 75. 

The move showed “Pheu Thai’s strategy to stand by the youth movement,” political analyst Yuttaporn Issarachai told AFP. 

But he said it would be difficult to “move on from the conservative and military influence” that has dominated Thai politics for decades. 

Paetongtarn will hope to avoid the fate of her father and aunt — Yingluck was ousted by a military coup in 2014. Her uncle was also kicked out of office by a court ruling.
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Washington  — Landlocked between Russia and China, analysts say Mongolia is finding ways to balance its outreach to Western democratic nations without alarming it neighbors to the north or south.

Although Mongolia regards China and Russia as its top foreign and economic priorities, with most of its trade transiting the two, it has also committed to deepening and developing relations with the United States, Japan, the European Union and other democracies, calling these countries its “third neighbors.”

Sean King, senior vice president of Park Strategies, a New York-based political consultancy, tells VOA, “They’re smart to involve us as much as possible as a counterweight to Moscow and Beijing.”

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his latest trip to Asia earlier this month in Mongolia, where he emphasized the country is the United States’ “core partner” in the Indo-Pacific and that such partners are “reaching new levels every day.”

Blinken’s visit came after the two sides held their first comprehensive strategic dialogue in Washington.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was scheduled to visit Mongolia this week, but the trip was canceled as Japan braces for a rare major earthquake predicted for the coming week. Instead, the two sides spoke by phone on August 13.

Leaders of democracies who visited Mongolia the past few months include German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Mongolia for the first time last year.

The State Department said that including Mongolia as one of two countries in Campbell’s diplomatic debut “underscores the United States’ strong commitment to freedom and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.”

Charles Krusekopf, founder and executive director of the American Center of Mongolian Studies, told VOA, “Being able to have some regional presence by having a close relationship with Mongolia, having a friend in the region, I think, is important to the United States.” 

The June 2019 edition of the U.S. Defense Department’s “Indo-Pacific Strategy Report” includes Mongolia, along with New Zealand, Taiwan and Singapore, in the camp of Indo-Pacific democracies, positioning them as “reliable, competent and natural partners.”

Despite its geographical location, which limits its diplomatic space to maneuver, Mongolia has managed to maintain close relations with all parties, from the U.S., China, and Russia to North and South Korea, making it an exception in complex geopolitics.

At last month’s Mongolia Forum, government officials and strategic experts from eight countries, including Britain, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, gathered in Ulaanbaatar to discuss the most pressing strategic issues in Asia today, including tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

“It’s one of the rare places in which people from all countries of the region can come together to meet, and it’s considered kind of a neutral ground,” Krusekopf tells VOA.

Mongolia abstained from U.N. resolutions in 2022 and 2023 that condemned Moscow’s annexation of Ukrainian territory and demanded that Russian troops leave the country.

Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai also met with Chinese leaders Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, respectively, last year.

Oyun-Erdene visited China just a month before his state visit to the U.S., where the two countries issued the U.S.-Mongolia Joint Statement on the Strategic Third Neighbor Partnership.

Shortly before Blinken’s visit this month, Mongolia held its annual military exercise called Khan Exploration, which, although it was a peacekeeping exercise, was attended not only by troops from the U.S. and Japan but also China.

Krusekopf says with most of Mongolia’s foreign trade being mining exports through China, Beijing doesn’t feel a threat from Western security interests there.

“Mongolia is friends with everyone in the region. It’s never been a threat to other countries, and they’re seen as a middle country. And it’s a broker in that region,” he said.
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Wellington, New Zealand — Kim Dotcom, who is facing criminal charges relating to the defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, will be extradited to the United States from New Zealand, the New Zealand justice minister said on Thursday.

German-born Dotcom, who has New Zealand residency, has been fighting extradition to the United States since 2012 following a FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith signed an extradition order for Dotcom, a spokesperson for the Minister of Justice said

“I considered all of the information carefully and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the U.S. to face trial,” Goldsmith said in a statement.

“As is common practice, I have allowed Mr Dotcom a short period of time to consider and take advice on my decision. I will not, therefore, be commenting further at this stage.”

In a post on social media website X on Tuesday, Dotcom said “the obedient US colony in the South Pacific just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload,” in what appears to be a reference to the extradition order.

Reuters could not immediately contact Dotcom for a response.

U.S. authorities say Dotcom and three other Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $500 million by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material, which generated more than $175 million in revenue for the website.

The company’s chief marketing officer Finn Batato and chief technical officer and co-founder Mathias Ortmann, both from Germany, along with a third executive, Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, were arrested with Dotcom in 2012.

Ortmann and van der Kolk entered plea deals that saw them sentenced in 2023 to jail terms in New Zealand but allowed them to avoid extradition. Batato died in 2022 in New Zealand.
…

…

Dhaka, Bangladesh — Hundreds of Bangladeshi students wielding bamboo rods patrolled the site of a planned gathering Thursday of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina’s supporters, vowing to quash any show of strength.

Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter last week to neighboring India, where she remains, as student-led protests flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her iron-fisted 15-year rule.

Thursday is the anniversary of the 1975 assassination of her father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, during a military coup — a date her government had declared a national holiday.

Previous years saw huge rallies around Bangladesh to mark the occasion, but the students who toppled Hasina were eager to ensure supporters of her Awami League party did not have a chance to regroup.

“Awami League will try to create chaos on Thursday in the name of observing (the) mourning day,” prominent student leader Sarjis Alam told reporters the previous day, according to the Daily Star newspaper.

“We will remain on the streets to resist any such attempts.”

With no police in sight, hundreds of students on Thursday patrolled the street leading into Hasina’s old family home where her father and many of her relatives were gunned down nearly 50 years ago.

The landmark was until recently a museum to her father, but it was torched and vandalized by a mob hours after her fall.

In her first public statement since her abrupt departure, Hasina had this week asked supporters to “pray for the salvation of all souls by offering floral garlands and praying” outside the landmark.

Thousands of civil servants were required to join public demonstrations marking her father’s death during her tenure.

Awami League organizers would also set up temporary public address systems around Dhaka to blare Mujib’s old speeches and devotional songs praising his leadership.

The caretaker administration now running Bangladesh cancelled observance of the politically charged holiday on Tuesday, requiring bureaucrats to remain in the office.

And on Thursday, the prevailing sound in the city of 20 million people was the horns and motors of its perennially gridlocked traffic.

‘Identified and punished’

Hasina’s statement came hours after a court in the capital opened a murder case into her, two senior Awami League allies and four police officers related to last month’s unrest.

Several other top Awami League politicians have also been detained in unrelated probes, including former law minister Anisul Huq and business adviser Salman Rahman.

Hasina’s statement also demanded an investigation into violence during the unrest that forced her out of office, with the culprits to be “identified and punished.”

Police weaponry was the cause of the more than 450 people killed during the protests that ousted Hasina, according to police and hospital figures previously gathered by AFP.
…

…

BANGKOK — A court in Thailand has removed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office with immediate effect on the basis of what the court calls an “ethical violation.”

On Wednesday, Thailand’s Constitutional Court voted 5 to 4 in favor of stripping Srettha of his position on the grounds that he had appointed to his Cabinet a member of parliament who had been imprisoned for an alleged attempt to bribe an official.

Srettha, who led the ruling Pheu Thai party, spoke outside the court in Bangkok, accepting the decision.

“The Constitutional Court has made their decision and I abide by it. I can assure, since I’ve been working as prime minister, I have done my best with the best intentions and there was no personal conflict with anybody,” he told reporters.

He also refuted that he is an “unethical” person.

“I feel sorry that people are calling me an unethical [prime minister]. I can assure you that I am not that kind of person,” he added. 

After the ruling, Srettha was removed immediately from his duties. His Cabinet is expected to stay in a caretaker role until a new prime minister is selected. Phumtham Wechayachai, who was first deputy prime minister under Srettha, is expected to become acting prime minister.

The action was taken a week after the Constitutional Court dissolved the Move Forward Party. The reformists, who had pledged to amend Thailand’s strict laws that prohibit criticism of Thailand’s royalty, were dissolved after the court ruled their pledges were aimed at toppling the monarchy.

Last week’s ruling also banned the party’s leaders from politics for 10 years. Move Forward had won the most votes in Thailand’s general election in 2023 but the Senate blocked the party from leading government.

Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher on Thailand for Human Rights Watch, said the recent rulings amounted to a “judicial coup.”

“Within 7 days Thailand’s Constitutional Court dissolved the election winner Move Forward Party, sacked PM [Srettha Thavisin], from the runner-up Pheu Thai Party, and removed the elected government from power. This is a serious blow to democracy,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Pravit Rojanaphruk, a veteran journalist for Khaosod English and political analyst in Thailand, says Srettha’s case is serious.

“One can regard it as a judicial coup, although I mean to be fair, Srettha had appointed someone who has been charged in the past for attempted bribery of a judge, which is a serious thing,” he told VOA.

In a Cabinet reshuffle in April, Srettha appointed Pichit Cheunban as a minister of the prime minister’s office. But Pichit stepped down from his role weeks later after nationwide attention turned to his imprisonment in 2008 for contempt of court after he allegedly tried to bribe a judge with $55,000 in cash over a case involving former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The court ruled that Srettha had sole responsibility for qualifying his Cabinet’s appointments, despite knowing of Pichit’s criminal past, and had thereby violated the ethics codes in Thailand’s Constitution. 

Thailand is governed by a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with the king as head of state. It is divided into three branches: legislative, executive and judiciary. 

Pravit says Thailand’s leaders are not on the same page.

“We need to take last week’s ruling into consideration against Move Forward Party. I think it’s clear that the traditional branch (the monarchy, judiciary and military), particularly the Constitutional Court, are now playing a very active role. I think they clash heads on with the electorate,” he told VOA.

“You have the electorate, who vote for whichever party they like, and we see two very prominent parties. On the other hand, you have the military, the senior bureaucracy, bureaucrats and the court, and then the third one might even say the monarchy. Nobody is fully in charge. I think that’s the reality. I think the country is deeply divided,” he said.

The U.S. State Department said it hopes a new prime minister will be selected “as soon as possible.”

“We are aware of today’s ruling by the Thai Constitutional Court to dismiss Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and the entire Cabinet from office. The United States looks forward to the selection of a new prime minister as soon as possible, and a smooth transition of power,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA.

Srettha took office in August 2023. 

Srettha had pushed to open up Thailand following nine years under a military government marked by reform protests and the COVID-19 pandemic.

He relaxed visitor requirements for nearly 100 countries in an effort to boost tourism in Thailand, a crucial part of the country’s economy. He also introduced new visa initiatives, including the Destination Thailand Visa, aiming to lure professionals and digital nomads to work and stay in the kingdom.

But Srettha’s main pledge during his campaign was the Digital Wallet scheme, giving millions of eligible Thai citizens $286 in digital currency handouts to stimulate the sluggish economy. The plan had finally launched in August and millions had applied online.

With Srettha’s dismissal, the vote for a new prime minister is set to be held on Friday in parliament. There is no immediate rush for that to happen and the caretaker Cabinet could also dissolve parliament and call for a new election should nothing be resolved.

The question that still remains concerns the alliance among Pheu Thai, its conservative allies and the party’s driving force, founder Thaksin Shinawatra. 

Thaksin’s daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawtra, is a potential Pheu Thai candidate for the top post. But reports late Wednesday suggested that Chaikasem Nitisiri, a former minister of justice, could be named as the party’s main candidate.

Another frontrunner would be Anutin Charnvirakul, head of Thailand’s Bhumjaithai party, and a current deputy prime minister.
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washington — The suspension of broadcast licenses, arrests and closures of news outlets in Afghanistan show that the Taliban continue to exert pressure on media, watchdogs say.

In recent weeks, the Taliban-run Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority, or ATRA, suspended 17 broadcast licenses assigned to 14 media outlets in eastern Nangarhar province. The privately owned Kawoon Ghag radio station in Laghman province has also been shuttered, according to media watchdogs.

“Three years after the fall of Kabul, the Taliban continue to put pressure on journalists and media outlets that remain in Afghanistan,” Beh Lih Yi, the Asia Program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, told VOA.

“In July alone, at least two journalists — Sayed Rahim Saeedi and Mohammad Ibrahim Mohtaj — have been arrested by Taliban intelligence agents and morality police, respectively,” she said via email.

Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV, Sharq TV and Arzasht are among the outlets to have their licenses suspended, according to Afghan media associations.

The media outlets were ordered to pay outstanding license fees, which cost around $1,500 a year.

But with the media industry under economic pressure since the Taliban takeover, costs can be hard to cover.

“As the country experiences an economic crisis, it is difficult for local media outlets to pay the license fees,” one freelance journalist told VOA. “Even if this was the case, they [the regulatory authority] should have approached the outlets and helped them,” the journalist, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, told VOA.

He described the action as a systematic repression of freedom of expression.

Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Afghanistan has seen a stark decline in international aid and its economy, according to a 2024 report from the World Bank.

Neither the Taliban Ministry of Communications and Information Technology nor the ATRA regulator responded to VOA’s email requests for comment.

Shukrullah Pasoon, a former director at the now-shuttered broadcaster Enikass TV, said even if the Taliban allowed affected outlets to keep working, it wouldn’t be easy to return to programming and viewership.

“It is part of their crackdown on journalists. Journalists are not feeling safe to continue their work under the Taliban. In this way, they want to put pressure on journalists to influence the content of the media outlets,” Pasoon said.

The outlet he worked for closed after the Taliban’s takeover. Soon after the group regained control of Afghanistan, armed militants raided the home of Zalmai Lotfi, the head of Enikaas TV.

The unnamed freelance journalist who spoke with VOA said the suspension would have “a negative impact” on the province.

Local media outlets can no longer report independently and hold those in power accountable, as the free media landscape has shrunk under the Taliban, the local journalist said.

“Many journalists have already lost their jobs, and with the closure of these outlets, more journalists would lose their jobs,” the freelance journalist said.

The Taliban have previously said media outlets have unrestricted freedom and support from the government if they follow the country’s laws and Islamic values.

But watchdogs, including the Afghanistan Journalists Center, have recorded more than 450 media violation cases since the Taliban took power.

The country currently ranks as the third-worst country for media, coming in at 178th out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 signals the best environment.

In 2021, just before the Taliban takeover, it ranked 122nd.

Waheed Faizi contributed to this report.
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GENEVA  — A newly released report from a group of independent human rights experts says there is “substantial evidence” that Myanmar’s military junta has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, with civilians deliberately targeted in violation of international human rights law. 

“Our mandate is to collect evidence of the most serious international crimes in Myanmar. Our report shows that the number of these crimes is only increasing. The armed conflict is increasing in intensity and brutality,” Nicholas Koumjian, head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, IIMM, told journalists Tuesday in Geneva. 

“We have collected substantial evidence showing horrific levels of brutality and inhumanity across Myanmar. Many crimes have been committed with an intent to punish and induce terror in the civilian population,” he said at the launch of IIMM’s annual report. 

There was no immediate response from Myanmar’s junta, which the United Nations does not recognize as a legitimate government. 

Koumjian said the IIMM has not sent the report to any authorities in Myanmar, though a public information officer noted the U.N. sent a copy to all member states, including Myanmar.  

The 18-page report by IIMM, a body created by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2018, covers the period between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.   

Investigators say the report is based on evidence collected from more than 900 sources, including more than 400 eyewitness testimonies, along with additional evidence such as photographs, videos, geospatial imagery, social media posts and forensic evidence.  

Authors of the report say that since the military toppled the country’s democratically elected government in February 2021, “the number of serious international crimes in Myanmar has continued to increase in frequency and scale.” 

They note that in the civil war, the military has lost territory in outlying regions to ethnic armed organizations and the People’s Defense Force, or PDF, causing it to increasingly rely “on aerial and artillery bombardments of populated areas, resulting in numerous injuries and fatalities among the civilian population.” 

The report documents many incidents proving that civilians “are often the victims of the conflict, not simply collateral damage, but often are targeted in the conflict,” Koumjian said. 

“In Kayah state in February of this year, four children were killed and around 10 injured when fighter jets dropped bombs and deployed machine gun fire on the school,” he said. 

One of two captured videotapes that he viewed shows PDF fighters “being tied between two trees and a fire built underneath them,” burning them to death. Another video shows “resistance forces beheading captured soldiers in Loikaw in Kayah State” in November and December of last year. 

“It is incredible, not just the level of brutality, but the obvious feelings of impunity of those that committed the offense that they actually would videotape what occurred and then put it on social media so it would be broadcast,” he said. 

The report accuses security forces of violently suppressing protests with disproportionate, often lethal force, “causing civilian deaths and serious bodily injury.” It says thousands of people have been arrested and many tortured or killed in detention, “particularly in military detention.” 

Investigators say they have also collected reliable evidence of sexual and gender-based crimes in detention committed against males and females, including children under age 18, including gang rape and multiple rapes. 

“I think the desperation of the regime is leading to more ferocity, more brutality in their attacks against the civilian population,” Koumjian observed. “But I would add that we are also seeing a very concerning increase in violence and brutality by opposition forces, and we are very concerned about that also.” 

The chief investigator is calling on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional bloc, or ASEAN, to help end the violence and bring the perpetrators of crimes to justice.

“ASEAN is a very key player in Myanmar,” Koumjian said, noting that the group “has drawn up a five-point consensus to end the fighting, that the junta itself has signed.” 

“Yet we have seen an increase in violence, and we have seen an increase in the violence targeting civilians. … It is not simply enough to say we support ending the violence,” he said. “There have to be steps taken to ensure that, in fact, the violence has ended. 

“It is time for ASEAN to put some bite into its consensus.”
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Washington — At a radio station in Afghanistan’s eastern Logar province, the managing editor says he double checks everything before broadcasting, making sure that “nothing is against the Taliban and their policies.” 

His intense checking of content is just one of many ways journalists like him have changed how they work since the Taliban took power.  

“We work in fear,” said the editor, who has worked in journalism for around 10 years and asked not to be named out of security concerns.  

“What if something goes on air that the Taliban don’t like? We try to make sure that it doesn’t create problems for us, for our colleagues and the radio,” he said. 

Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan three years ago, they have tightened their grip over what can and cannot be broadcast and have increased restrictions on media. But not all rules are laid out clearly, and journalists are at risk of arbitrary detention or having licenses revoked.  

The Taliban’s “systematic persecution” of media means it is “not easy for journalists to fulfill their mission of providing news and information to the citizens,” said Gul Mohammad Graan, president of the Afghanistan chapter of the South Asian Association of Reporters Club and Journalists Forum, or SJF.  

The radio editor told VOA that media in Afghanistan “can’t even air the voices and complaints of local communities.”  

The restrictions have resulted in a significant decline in press freedom in Afghanistan, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, which is known as RSF.  

The country is currently ranked the third-worst for media freedom, coming in at 178 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 shows the best media environment. 

In 2021, just before the Taliban takeover, it ranked 122.  

A Taliban spokesperson did not respond to VOA’s request for comment. But the Taliban have previously said that media have unrestricted freedom and support from the government if they follow the country’s laws and Islamic values. 

Declining numbers 

Like other provinces, Logar has seen a drop in the number of journalists due to financial and political problems.  

The radio journalist said the province has 30 journalists — all of them men — who work in five nongovernment-affiliated radio stations — a 50% decrease from 2021.  

The decline is a trend seen across Afghanistan. In the first three months of the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, 43% of the media outlets closed, and more than two-thirds of the 12,000 media workers lost their jobs, according to RSF. The country’s female journalists were among those most affected. 

Only a few female journalists remain in the profession because of rules that they must cover their faces on TV or cannot travel without a close male guardian.  

Additionally, women are denied access to official sources, said a journalist and member of a media watchdog group in Afghanistan who requested anonymity. Some have said they were not allowed to enter press conferences and government buildings.  

“There are no female journalists in most of the provinces, particularly in the southern and eastern provinces,” the radio journalist said. He added that the Taliban’s strict restrictions, compounded by economic problems, have made it difficult for women to work in the media sector.  

‘Threats, detentions continue’ 

Large numbers of journalists have fled Afghanistan since August 2021. Those still working in the country do so under increasing pressure.  

“There are no cases of journalists killed in the past few months. But threats, detentions and pressure on journalists have continued, and journalists work in an environment of fear,” the journalist said.  

The Afghanistan Journalists Center has documented 181 media violation cases in the past 12 months, including 133 cases of threats, the suspension of several licenses, and 48 arrests.  

But the watchdog said a positive change in the third year of the Taliban’s rule is a reduction in the number of targeted attacks on journalists.  

No clear policies 

Part of the problem for Afghanistan’s media is uncertainty. 

A month after seizing power, the Taliban issued 11 directives for broadcasting in the country, which watchdogs and journalists said was the Taliban’s plan to control and censor news and information.  

The Taliban’s spokesperson said on several occasions that the media law under the former government remained in force.   

But a Kabul-based journalist who requested his identity not to be disclosed told VOA the Taliban are not clear about their own media policies.  

“The reason that it is so difficult to work under the Taliban is that there are no laws,” the journalist said. “For a journalist, it is difficult to know how the Taliban would react to content, as there are many Taliban departments involved in dealing with media.” 

RSF has also found that to be the case. 

“The situation is particularly confusing for journalists who receive directives from many different parts of the government,” its research states. 

Despite the restrictions, Graan of SJF said the media still have “a positive impact,” creating awareness and informing the public of local and international events. 

“Even with all these limitations under the Taliban, I think it is important that the media continue their work,” he said. 

Back in Logar province, the radio journalist remains hopeful that things for media will improve.  

“We are here in Afghanistan. We don’t have any other place to go. And we will continue,” he said.
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Helsinki, Finland  — Next week, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, TSMC, the world’s top advanced computer chipmaker, is expected to break ground on its first European factory in Dresden, Germany, as it seeks to diversify production from Taiwan and threats from China. 

TSMC is the biggest supplier of semiconductor chips used in everything from computers to cars and medical equipment. The company will run the nearly $11 billion plant, holding a 70% stake. The joint venture that includes minority investors Robert Bosch, Infineon Technologies and NXP Semiconductors, will be called European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or ESMC. 

Dresden’s mayor’s office confirmed to VOA that the ground-breaking ceremony will take place August 20 and that ESMC is the largest ever investment project in Germany’s Saxony region.  

Analysts say Beijing’s threats against Taiwan have spurred TSMC to diversify from the self-governing island, which Beijing considers a breakaway province that must one day reunite with China, by force if necessary.  

TSMC is already building a new factory in Arizona, with a total investment of $65 billion in the U.S., and constructing a nearly $9 billion plant in Japan. 

Anna Rita Ferrara, an Italian political and international law adviser for research organizations, told VOA, “TSMC’s investment in Germany and the U.S.A. is a strategic move that allows the microchip industry to stay ahead in case China invades Taiwan. Relocating production to two major Western cities [Dresden and Phoenix] would help protect the Western IT sector from a dangerous supply reduction and a possible technological debacle.” 

TSMC has a $3 billion Chinese mainland factory in Nanjing that has been producing less advanced chips since 2016. 

TSMC has a 61.7% market share in the global semiconductor market, while second-place Samsung has an 11% market share, according to Statista, a European statistics platform.

The Dresden plant is scheduled to go into operation in 2027, with a monthly output of 40,000 chips, including 12-nanometer automotive chips, which are more advanced than those made in Taiwan. 

The Taiwanese chip giant did not immediately respond to VOA’s requests for comment on the Dresden-based plant’s opening and importance to diversifying from Taiwan in the face of China’s threats.   

According to Reuters, TSMC’s chairman, C. C. Wei, told reporters in June that the company had discussed moving factories outside of Taiwan, but called it impossible because up to 90% of its production is based in Taiwan. “Instability across the Taiwan Straits is indeed a consideration for supply chain,” he was quoted as saying, “but I want to say that we certainly do not want wars to happen.”

As China has repeated its threats to force Taiwan’s reunification, Europe and the U.S. have been working to attract domestic chip production to reduce their dependence on imports from Taiwan. 

The U.S. passed the Chips Act in 2022 to invest $39 billion to support chip companies in building factories. The European Union’s Chips Act last year followed with its own plans to invest $47 billion to increase the share of European chip production to 20% of the world by 2030.  

Stefan Uhlig, deputy director and senior consultant of Silicon Saxony, the German region’s semiconductor industry association, told VOA, “TSMC is coming to the EU because of the EU Chips Act, which is in place to attract technologies to the EU which are not here.” 

Uhlig said one-third of European semiconductors come from Saxony. “The region is known as Silicon Saxony and recognized as such in Europe and around the globe. Many places around the globe are chip hot spots, some larger production-capacity-wise but none is larger in terms of different chip manufacturers in one place.” 

Enrico Cau, an associate researcher at the Taiwan Centre for International Strategic Studies, told VOA having a factory in Europe is certainly part of TSMC’s global plan to improve the resilience of the supply chain and logistics, and it will also help bring the entire supply chain closer to where chips are needed. 

“It is unclear how these new plants will affect Taiwan in the long term under certain conditions,” he said. “For example, in case of critical disruptions of supply chains due to war, natural disasters, or even energy shortages, (especially with the new AI industry developing as a second core sector on the island and requiring much more power), that force(s) TSMC to also relocate the cutting edge manufacturing out of the island, temporarily or for longer periods of time.”   

TSMC’s electricity consumption currently accounts for about 8% of all power in Taiwan. 

The company accounted for about 8% of Taiwan’s GDP in 2022, Bloomberg reported, while its market value was more than $800 billion, ranking ninth in the world and surpassing companies such as Tesla, JPMorgan Chase, and Walmart, and far exceeding semiconductor peers such as Intel and Samsung.   

Analysts say TSMC’s diversifying production could also boost Taiwan’s soft power on the world stage, where Beijing has sought to squeeze Taipei. 

Marcin Mateusz Jerzewski, director of the Taiwan office of the European Center for Values and Security Policy, told VOA that TSMC has undeniably enhanced Taiwan’s global standing. 

“As the world’s leading dedicated semiconductor foundry, TSMC embodies technological excellence and innovation, significantly bolstering Taiwan’s soft power on the international stage,” he said. “However, the burgeoning reliance on TSMC poses a nuanced dilemma for Taiwan’s international standing, as the country’s global perception increasingly hinges on the success of this singular entity. This overdependence necessitates a strategic reassessment to ensure sustainable economic and diplomatic engagement.” 

Jerzewski noted that while TSMC accounts for a large chunk of Taiwan’s economy, it mainly relies on small and medium-sized enterprises, which he said the government should help to invest in democratic countries to strengthen their ties and reduce the risk of over-reliance on a single corporate entity.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Islamabad — The Islamist Taliban marked the third anniversary Wednesday of recapturing power in Afghanistan with a public holiday and a televised military parade at the former U.S.-run Bagram airbase, among other symbolic events.

The so-called “victory day” celebrations occurred amid ongoing global criticism of the Taliban government, known as the Islamic Emirate, for allegedly creating “the world’s most serious women’s rights crisis” and making impoverished Afghanistan the only country where girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade.

The ceremony at Bagram, around 40 kilometers north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, featured a 21-gun salute and speeches from top Taliban leaders, with thousands of people in the male-only audience, including foreign diplomats.

The then-insurgent Taliban swept back to power on August 15, 2021, as the U.S.-led international forces withdrew from the country after their involvement in the Afghan war for almost 20 years.

The Taliban’s prime minister, Hassan Akhund, stated in a message read by his chief of staff, “Allah granted the Mujahid nation of Afghanistan a decisive victory on this date over an international arrogant and occupying force.” Akhund, largely considered a figurehead, was absent from Wednesday’s event.

Akhund’s message said that the Taliban government “has the responsibility to maintain Islamic rule, protect property, people’s lives, and the honor of our nation.”

The de facto Taliban government, not formally recognized by any country, cited the national solar calendar for marking the anniversary of “Afghanistan’s victory and freedom” from the U.S.-led “occupation” a day early.

Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, wanted by the United States for terrorism with a $10 million bounty for his arrest, also addressed the Bagram event, urging global cooperation and engagement with the Taliban administration.

“My message to the international community is that there is no need for dismay over the fact that you took our independence, and we reclaimed it successfully,” Haqqani said, without naming any country.

“We do not want to hold anyone accountable. We have created favorable circumstances and have good intentions for them to cooperate with us in rebuilding Afghanistan, similar to how they helped during the occupation,” he said.

Haqqani ran his network of militants, staging high-profile suicide bombings and other deadly attacks in support of Taliban insurgents on American and NATO forces during their presence in the war-torn South Asian nation.

The Bagram parade was also an opportunity for the Taliban to showcase the military hardware, including tanks, helicopters, and Humvees, left behind by U.S. and NATO forces.

Taliban leaders boasted about their conquest and subsequent achievements, such as establishing “peace and security” and an Islamic system in line with their harsh interpretation of Islam, but none of them responded to allegations of human rights abuses, particularly their sweeping curbs on women’s rights. They did not discuss hardships facing millions of Afghans.

The United Nations and international aid agencies have ranked Afghanistan as one of the world’s “largest and most complex” humanitarian crises. They estimated that 23.7 million Afghans, more than half women and children, need humanitarian relief.

A group of 29 U.N. experts Wednesday jointly called for “stronger and more effective” international action to address the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan.

“We stress that there should be no move to normalize the de facto authorities unless and until there are demonstrated, measurable, and independently verified improvements against human rights benchmarks, particularly for women and girls,” the Geneva-based experts said in a statement.

In a separate joint statement this week, international non-governmental organizations warned of a growing aid funding gap.

Speaking ahead of the three-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover, a top U.N. official on Tuesday urged the world to support Afghan women’s fight for freedom.

“Three years’ worth of countless decrees, directives, and statements targeting women and girls – stripping them of their fundamental rights, eviscerating their autonomy,” Alison Davidian, the U.N. Women’s country representative in Afghanistan, said while sharing details of the latest survey.

She referred to religious edicts the reclusive Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has issued over the past three years to govern the crisis-hit country, most of them leading to restrictions on the freedom of Afghan women and girls. Akhundzada rarely leaves the southern city of Kandahar, regarded as the country’s de facto capital.

“To date, no woman in Afghanistan is in a leadership position anywhere that has influence politically at the national or provincial level. When Afghan women are engaged in the Taliban’s structures, their roles are largely about monitoring the compliance of other women with their discriminatory decrees,” Davidian told reporters in New York.

“We must continue to invest in women. Nothing undermines the Taliban’s vision for society more than empowering the very part of the population they seek to oppress,” she stressed.

Human Rights Watch reiterated its call for the global community to press the Taliban to remove curbs on women.

“The third anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover is a grim reminder of Afghanistan’s human rights crisis, but it should also be a call for action,” said Fereshta Abbasi, the U.S.-based watchdog’s Afghanistan researcher.

The Taliban have dismissed criticism of their government as interference in internal matters of Afghanistan, saying their policies are aligned with local culture and Islam.

Terrorism-related international sanctions on many top Taliban leaders, isolation of their administration, and continued suspension of foreign development aid have made it difficult for Kabul to address deepening economic troubles.

The World Bank reported in April that the aftermath of the Taliban takeover had seen a stark decline in international aid, leaving Afghanistan without any internal growth engines and leading to “a staggering 26 percent contraction in real GDP.”
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Afghan refugee Gul Ali and his family were living in Pakistan in November when they were deported back home. Just two months later, they came back to Pakistan, saying that they could not find shelter and work in Afghanistan. Muska Safi reports from Peshawar, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard.
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SHANGHAI/BEIJING — One of the biggest movies to hit China’s cinemas this summer tackles several of its biggest economic pain points: an uncertain job market, downward mobility and the hardscrabble life of millions working gig jobs.

“Upstream” tells the story of a middle-aged programmer who is laid off, shut out of white-collar jobs because of his age and pushed into the perilous food-delivery gig economy to try to keep his family afloat.

Directed by and starring Xu Zheng, best known for comic roles, “Upstream” showcases the low-paid scooter drivers who rush packages through the final mile for China’s popular on-demand food platforms led by Meituan.

As of Tuesday, almost 5 million had watched it, according to movie-ticketing platform Maoyan.

The movie, which led China’s box office on its release Friday, lands at a time when uncertainty in a deflationary economy and real-life pressures on delivery drivers have both been trending concerns.

Its focus on economic issues contrasts with the typical genres of Chinese blockbusters over the years, which are usually war films, historical dramas or romances.

At least 10 million delivery drivers work for Meituan and its largest rival, Alibaba-owned Ele.me. Drivers have complained of long hours and payment per delivery that is often less than the equivalent of $1.

In “Upstream,” competition between the drivers and platforms is depicted as unrelenting, leaving no time for breaks and creating incentives to take dangerous shortcuts in days that can stretch 14 hours or longer.

“It’s a rather realistic depiction of the psyche of many Chinese people today,” said Ashley Dudarenok, founder of a Hong Kong-based marketing consultancy, who said the current negativity is a contrast to the mood of a decade ago.

“There was this strong underlying belief that tomorrow is going to be better than today, the economy is going to be better, opportunities are going to be better,” said Dudarenok, who has authored books on Chinese business and consumer trends. “Today, that belief is not there.”

While the companies the drivers work for in “Upstream” are never explicitly identified, they wear canary-yellow helmets and uniforms that closely resemble Meituan’s branding.

A Meituan spokesman said the company was not involved in the movie and offered no comment on its depiction of the industry when asked by Reuters.

A film subsidiary of Alibaba is listed among the 17 production companies behind “Upstream.” Drivers in the light-blue uniforms of Alibaba’s Ele.me service appear in the movie but are outside the main action and also not explicitly identified by the company they work for. Alibaba did not immediately comment.

Crashes and clashes

Xu’s character, Gao Zhilei, and two other drivers, are hit by vehicles as they race to avoid late-delivery penalties and keep up with robotic orders from an app piped through their mobile phones.

And Gao struggles to understand his loss of status. Stopped by a security guard for trying to enter a mall through the main entrance, he protests that he used to shop there until recently. “That was before,” the guard says, pointing him to the service entrance.

Clashes between rushing drivers and security guards are common on China’s streets. On Monday, police in Hangzhou said they were investigating an incident where a driver jumped a barrier to make a delivery at an office complex and ended up kneeling beside the security guard who apprehended him. Reports of his treatment sparked sharp online reaction.

Xu did not immediately respond to a request for comment through his production company. He said at the premiere he had tried to “convey hope and warmth” by allowing audiences to “see what a day in the life of a delivery worker is like.”

Some online reviews praised “Upstream” for addressing a social issue of a kind not often highlighted by recent films in China, which are subject to censorship. “It’s quite bold to tackle this subject,” one viewer said on Douban, a Chinese online movie database that is similar to IMDb.

“This shows hard work alone won’t necessarily lead to a better life,” another wrote. “Avoiding marriage, not having children and not buying a house might be the only way to achieve it.”

Others were unimpressed by a happy ending, which shows Gao heroically sprinting to make enough deliveries to cover overdue mortgage payments. “In order to make the movie more ‘entertaining’ some authenticity has been sacrificed,” said a review on social media platform Xiahongshu.

Delivery drivers interviewed by Reuters in Shanghai said they had no plans to pay to see the movie in theaters but might stream the film when it’s free online.

“It’s not an industry for a normal person,” said a 37-year-old driver who asked to be identified only by his surname, Lin. “You have to race against time. Sometimes in the last minute or two before an order is overdue, you are racing with your life.”
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