Afghanistan’s cash-strapped Taliban government has tripled prices for coal in less than a month to raise revenue from its mining sector amid a lack of direct foreign funding and booming coal exports to neighboring Pakistan.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum in Kabul, Esmatullah Burhan, on Saturday told VOA that each ton of coal is priced at $280.

On June 28, the Taliban-led Finance Ministry raised coal prices to $200 per ton from $90 per ton. Customs duties also were raised by 10 percent, totaling 30% on each ton, although Afghan coal is still comparatively cheap — about 40% of the international market value.

Burhan said Afghanistan is exporting about 10,000 tons of coal a day to Pakistan. He asserted that the government is selling coal to private Afghan traders in local currency (known as Afghani) and they are then exporting it, primarily to the neighboring country.

He told VOA that out of Afghanistan’s 80 coal mines, 17 are currently in use.

The repeated Afghan coal price hikes came just after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced plans last month to increase coal imports from Afghanistan using local currency, as opposed to dollars, to save foreign reserves.  

Officials in Kabul insist that coal prices have been revised after studying regional markets and rising global prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine to ensure Afghan traders could receive as much revenue as possible and prevent Pakistani importers from switching to other options.

Sharif told a recent cabinet meeting that importing Afghan coal could help Islamabad save more than $2.2 billion annually. His decision comes against a backdrop of rising coal prices on the international market in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Pakistan, which reportedly imported 70% of its thermal coal from South Africa to run its cement, steel and Chinese-built power plants, is facing an energy crisis. South African coal prices have increased in recent weeks because of higher demand from Europe.  

The shortages have forced coal-based facilities in Pakistan to either operate at significantly reduced capacities or to shut down plants temporarily.  

Customs duties from coal exported to Pakistan are a key source of revenue for the Taliban. The Islamist group reclaimed control of Afghanistan nearly a year ago, but sanctions on the Afghan banking sector and the suspension of foreign financial aid have severely hampered the war-torn country’s economy.

No country has formally recognized the Taliban government, citing concerns over human rights of Afghans, particularly restrictions placed on women’s rights to work and education.  

Islamabad already has eased the visa regime for Afghan nationals and removed duties on all imports from Afghanistan to help facilitate bilateral trade.

Additionally, Taliban authorities, in collaboration with Pakistani counterparts, are said to be working to smooth the transportation of coal exports at border crossings between the two countries.  

Hundreds of trucks carrying coal pass daily through three dedicated border crossings, and both sides are planning to add more space for additional trucks and open customs facilities for longer durations per day, instead of 12 hours currently.

A high-level Pakistani delegation, led by top commerce ministry officials, will travel to Afghanistan Sunday to further the discussions. Pakistani officials said Islamabad would discuss the pricing issue, as well as propose to keep border terminals open 24 hours for coal imports and infrastructure-related improvements on the Afghan side.
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Armed masked soldiers were part of the security detail around Sri Lanka’s Parliament Saturday as lawmakers met to choose a new president. Roads near the building in Colombo, the capital, were closed.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in Friday as Sri Lanka’s interim president a day after Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled to Singapore, stepped down as the country’s top leader.

In a statement, Wickremesinghe said he will initiate steps to bring constitutional changes to clip the enormous powers vested in the president, and to strengthen law and order.

Rajapaksa’s resignation was formally accepted Friday by the speaker of Parliament, who said that a new president would be elected within a week to serve the remaining two years of the president’s term.

Saying that the election will be done in a “swift and transparent manner,” the speaker of Parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, called on people to “create a peaceful atmosphere” to implement the democratic process.

His appeal came after a chaotic week, in which protesters stormed the president’s and prime minister’s residences and offices, after Rajapaksa defied monthslong calls to step down. They only vacated the buildings on Thursday, saying they had achieved their objective of demonstrating people’s power and wanted to ensure their struggle remains peaceful.

The 73-year-old Rajapaksa’s resignation marks a major victory for the protest movement that had demanded his exit after an economic crisis left the island nation struggling with runaway inflation and severe shortages of fuel and medicine, as foreign exchange reserves ran out.

In Colombo, the jubilant celebrations that erupted overnight after the news that Rajapaksa had resigned, continued in the morning with many calling it a “historic moment.” At the main protest site that has sprung up in the city, outside the presidential secretariat, volunteers cooked and distributed a traditional rice milk pudding that is served at celebrations.

“I am a bit numb, but I am really relieved. Rajapaksa was incompetent and had to go. He failed to provide for the people although he had such a huge majority in Parliament,” said Udith Erosh, an activist and protester. “But the real struggle begins now to move the country forward from the utter chaos and humanitarian crisis that we are facing.”

The movement began with small candlelight vigils and gradually swelled to include university students, professionals, trade unionists and even Buddhist monks, who were once Rajapaksa’s staunchest supporters. Many were first time protesters, who said they were forced to come out into the streets because of the hardships they were facing.

Rajapaksa and his family, who held key posts in the government, including that of prime minister and finance minister, controlled about 70% of the national budget and are widely blamed for mismanagement leading to the country becoming virtually bankrupt. It was a rude shock for a nation once hailed as a success story among developing countries with a well-educated population and a large middle class.

Seen as being close to the Rajapaksas and accused of alleviating pressure on Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign after he accepted the prime minister’s job in May, Wickremesinghe also is under pressure from protesters to quit.

Wickremesinghe had earlier said he will step down when a new administration is in place and called on political parties to elect a new unity government, but the ruling party has said he will be their choice for the next president. The main opposition party wants its leader, Sajith Premadasa, to head the country.

Political observers said it is imperative for lawmakers to set aside their differences and arrive at a consensus.

“The hope is that the political parties can come together because restoring the economy has to be a collective effort and everyone must share the responsibility,” says Jehan Perera at the National Peace Council research group in Colombo.
…

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the country’s acting president Friday.

Sri Lanka’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, resigned after he went to Singapore from the Maldives, where he had first landed after fleeing angry protests triggered by a deep economic crisis that people blamed on his administration.

The speaker of parliament formally accepted Rajapaksa’s resignation Friday.

“From this point, we will move to constitutionally appoint a new president,” the speaker of parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, said.

The resignation was sent to the speaker by the Sri Lankan High Commission in Singapore.

Although Rajapaksa had pledged to quit office by Wednesday, he had not stepped down earlier, deepening political uncertainty and anger in Sri Lanka, where chants of “Gota Go Home” have reverberated for months. The delay apparently helped him escape while he still enjoyed presidential immunity.

Singapore could be only a layover destination for the embattled leader.

Singapore’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Rajapaksa has been allowed entry on a private visit. “He has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum. Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylums,” the ministry said.

In Colombo, protesters vacated official buildings Thursday, including the president and prime minister’s official residences that they had occupied in recent days.

A curfew was imposed in the city and troops patrolled the streets, but the capital was calm a day after thousands of protesters stormed the prime minister’s office demanding that Wickremesinghe, who had been appointed acting president by Rajapaksa, also step down.

Although the protesters had earlier vowed not to vacate the buildings until the two leaders resigned, they appeared to have shifted tactics, saying that they want their movement to remain peaceful.

“In a people’s struggle like ours, moments of victory don’t last forever. When we occupied the official buildings, there was a symbolic meaning to it,” Chameera Dedduwage, one of the protesters, told VOA. “Now that the president has left the country, it is not necessary to hold on to them.”

Popular protests demanding a leadership change had erupted in the country after its economy spiraled into crisis earlier this year resulting in severe shortages of food and fuel. They have been largely peaceful but frustrated people stormed the president’s home and office after Rajapaksa defied calls to step down, prompting him to go into hiding and then flee the country.

The protesters have vowed to continue their struggle to press for the resignation of Wickremesinghe, calling him part of the same political system that has brought the country to the point of economic collapse.

“We will do it in a peaceful manner, in a patient manner,” said Manuri Pabasari, a protester. “But we will persevere to change the system that the Rajapaksas represented.”

Wickremesinghe had taken over as prime minister in May to lead efforts to restore the economy, but he has also become a target of public ire.

“He is seen as a proxy for the Rajapaksas,” said Murtaza Jafferjee, chairman of the Advocata Institute, a research organization in Colombo. “His party has a single seat in parliament and therefore he has no legitimacy and people are not accepting him.”

Wickremesinghe has said he will only resign once a new unity government is in place and has asked the speaker of parliament to find a new prime minister agreeable to both the ruling and opposition parties.

However, a leadership transition could be chaotic as the political parties are deeply divided. Lawmakers have agreed to elect a new president next week, but so far, a consensus appears elusive.

The political instability is causing concern because it will delay urgent efforts needed to address the economic crash that has led to enormous hardship for the country of 22 million. Sri Lanka is left with virtually no foreign exchange to import essential commodities and most people are coping with massive hardship as prices of food soar, fuel supplies run out and long hours of power outages become the norm.

Ongoing talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout were seen as key to begin the process of putting the economy back on track, but the political flux will likely set them back.

“We were hoping to finalize a staff-level agreement with the IMF this month, but it does not look like that will happen,” said Jafferjee. “The political situation will have a huge impact on economic recovery.”
…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to revive a bailout package for Pakistan, providing timely relief as the high global price of energy imports pushes the cash-strapped country to the brink of a payment crisis.

An IMF statement late Wednesday said its staff and Pakistani authorities had reached an agreement on policies under review of the global lender’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) Program for Islamabad. The staff-level agreement, if approved by the IMF board, will bring total disbursements under the program to about $4.2 billion.

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said in a tweet that Pakistan “will soon receive” an initial tranche of $1.17 billion.

“Pakistan is at a challenging economic juncture. A difficult external environment combined with procyclical domestic policies fueled domestic demand to unsustainable levels,” said Nathan Porter, who led the IMF team in weeks of negotiations with Islamabad.

“The resultant economic overheating led to large fiscal and external deficits in FY22, contributed to rising inflation, and eroded reserve buffers,” Porter added.

The IMF statement noted that its board would also consider an extension of the EFF program until the end of June 2023, and whether to add nearly $1 billion.

Central bank foreign currency reserves have fallen around $9.7 billion, barely enough to cover a few weeks of imports. The rupee also dipped to historic lows against the U.S. dollar in recent weeks.

“The Agreement with the Fund has set the stage to bring country out of economic difficulties,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a tweet.

The resumption of the IMF loan means Pakistan will have easier access to funds from other international lenders, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Pakistan needs at least $41 billion in the next 12 months to repay debt and fund imports, according to a Bloomberg news agency report. In Pakistan, inflation is growing at the second-highest rate in Asia.

Analysts saw the deal as crucial for Sharif’s coalition government, which came to power in April and is struggling to stabilize the economy at a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to an increase in fuel prices.

The Pakistani government has raised domestic fuel prices by more than 90 percent over the past month to meet IMF conditions for the revival of the bailout package. The politically unpopular move has drawn strong public criticism.

“The authorities should nonetheless stand ready to take any additional measures necessary to meet program objectives, given the elevated uncertainty in the global economy and financial markets,” said the IMF statement.  

Late Thursday, in a televised address to the nation, Sharif announced a reduction of up to 15% in the fuel costs.

Sharif said his move was meant to pass on a drop in global prices to consumers and defend the earlier rise in prices.

“We had no other way. We had to take tough measures; however, oil prices are declining in global markets and … today we have got the chance to reduce the prices,” the prime minister added.

In 2019, the government of then-Prime Minister Imran Khan agreed to the $6 billion IMF program in a bid to avoid default on foreign debt repayments. The global lender has disbursed less than half of the amount.

Sharif led an opposition parliamentary no-confidence vote that ousted Khan from office in early April and paved the way for him to become the prime minister.

The new government has since withdrawn the unfunded subsidies that Khan gave to the oil and power sectors during his last days in office. It also imposed a levy on petroleum earlier this month that will further raise prices by about 70% within a month.

“After this agreement and the recent decline in international oil prices, God willing, we will now be able to provide relief to our people,” Miftah tweeted Thursday.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
…

Authorities in Pakistan’s turbulent southwestern Baluchistan province found the body of a senior serving military officer Thursday, two days after he was kidnapped by insurgents there.

Officials said the slain officer, identified as Lieutenant Colonel Laeeq Baig Mirza, was abducted on Tuesday while he was traveling in a vehicle with his family to the tourist resort of Ziarat, about 100 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital, Quetta.

The armed assailants freed Laeeq’s family members before forcing him into one of their vehicles and driving away, according to local sources.

Pakistani troops and helicopters were quickly dispatched to the area to rescue the officer and track down his abductors. Local security officials said the massive search operation ended Thursday morning, with recovering Laeeq’s body and luggage.

The outlawed Baluchistan Liberation Army group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The BLA routinely carries out roadside bombings and ambushes against security forces in the sparsely populated, natural resource-rich province, Pakistan’s largest. However, the deadly hostage-taking incident involving a senior army officer is unprecedented, said residents and officials in Baluchistan.

Provincial Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo in a statement condemned the killing of the military man as a “cowardly act of the terrorists” and vowed to bring those responsible to justice.

Baluchistan is among the regions in Pakistan where China has invested billions of dollars over the past seven years in large-scale infrastructure development projects under Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative.

The bilateral program, known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, has built road networks and power plants across Pakistan and the Gwadar deep-water port in the turbulent province.

The BLA and other banned insurgent groups operating in Baluchistan oppose Chinese investments there, claiming Beijing and Islamabad are depriving people in the impoverished region of their natural resources.

Pakistan dismisses insurgent claims and accuses rival India of supporting and funding them to undermine the corridor, accusations that New Delhi rejects.

In April, a female BLA suicide bomber killed three Chinese nationals in the southern port city of Karachi.
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Uzbekistan’s desert region of Karakalpakstan lies astride the bone-dry Aral Sea. But it has another distinction besides its harsh climate: it has autonomy, and even the right to secede from Uzbekistan by referendum, both guaranteed by the country’s 1992 constitution.  

But many Uzbeks resent that special status. “While we debate how much of Ukraine Russia controls, we may lose nearly 40 percent of our land,” warned Shuhrat Shokirjonov, a blogger, watching unrest in Karakalpakstan.    

Karakalpaks took to the streets of Nukus, their administrative center, on July 1-2, to protest constitutional changes penned in the national capital, Tashkent, that would have removed the region’s “sovereignty.” Demonstrations quickly turned violent, with security forces and citizens accusing each other of bloodshed and destruction.   

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev initiated the changes, which would also enable him to remain in power until 2040. But it was the draft provisions on Karakalpakstan’s unique status that precipitated the crisis, which has left at least 18 dead and poses the biggest test Mirziyoyev has faced in his six years in power.   

He flew to Nukus amid the turmoil and passed the buck onto local leaders. “Why didn’t you call me to let me know about people opposing these proposals?” he asked the Karakalpak parliament, which had itself approved the amendments.  

And Mirziyoyev quickly reversed course, saying: “No article will ever change without the approval of the Karakalpak people.”  

Days later, the president fired his chief of staff, Zaynilobiddin Nizomiddinov, allegedly the mastermind of the constitutional changes. VOA sources predict more heads will roll in Tashkent and Nukus, where the parliament chair serves as head of the autonomous republic.  

Karakalpakstan has been under tight emergency measures since July 3. Hundreds remain jailed, dozens face criminal charges, and dozens more remain in critical condition.  

Promising transparency and justice, Tashkent is promoting its own narrative through domestic media. It says the Karakalpak people exercised their right to express opposition but “criminal groups supported from the outside” hijacked the demonstrations and pushed for secession, even declaring a new leader, Dauletmurat Tajimuratov, who is behind bars. Tajimuratov’s supporters believe he never promoted separation but found himself used by separatists for their propaganda.  

Washington, Brussels, the U.N., OSCE, Human Rights Watch, and other advocacy groups have called on the Mirziyoyev government to carry out a full, credible and independent investigation.  

Javlon Vakhabov, Uzbekistan’s ambassador in Washington, said his government is “grateful for America’s consistent and unique support of his country’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.” 

Vakhabov told VOA that members of the U.S. Congress have encouraged Uzbekistan to consider international calls, learn lessons from the unrest, and “do the right thing.” 

He said Uzbekistan is “talking with leading human rights organizations and hearing their concerns and advice.”    

Vakhabov argued the bloodshed in Karakalpakstan will not hinder Uzbek-U.S. relations. “Every message from Washington has been supportive and empowering. President Mirziyoyev has instructed the entire system to adhere to our laws and stick to our international obligations.”  

But Tashkent has many questions to answer. In Uzbek media reports from Karakalpakstan, security officers speak of ordinary Karakalpaks as “peaceful protesters” and stress that “the order from the highest level was to absolutely refrain from using force against citizens.” 

But social media footage, claimed to be from Nukus, shows abuses both by demonstrators and the military. The authorities call some of these unconfirmed videos fakes. 

On social media, the public is divided about Karakalpak complaints but equally blames the government for ignoring tensions, failing to prevent violence and restricting internet access there.  

“The role of foreign elements” is pushed by both government and citizens, including Mirziyoyev himself, who does not specify any particular state or groups.   

Some 2 million residents of Karakalpakstan have long been mired in poverty and environmental despair. Yet others claim these problems are prevalent in most parts of Uzbekistan and should not be an excuse to destabilize the country. Other ethnic groups, such as Uzbek and Kazakhs, also live in Karakalpakstan.   

Uzbek blogger Hamid Sodiq points to deeply rooted distress. “Inequality has meant political subjugation for Uzbeks but ethnic discrimination for Karakalpaks,” he wrote. 

State records show the Mirziyoyev administration has spent at least $1 billion to develop Karakalpakstan since 2017 but the population still largely relies on remittances from Russia and neighboring Kazakhstan.    

For Sodiq, more funding of Karakalpakstan may in fact have elevated separatist sentiment by bolstering the middle class. “This should not stop economic reforms. But we need to smartly channel that newly acquired prosperity,” he wrote.    

“Economic progress and political reforms must go together. Imbalances bring back old grievances. Well-fed people want to be part of political processes.”  

Uzbek political analyst Kamoliddin Rabbimov told VOA he does not think the Karakalpak crisis will have an impact beyond the country’s borders. Uzbekistan’s neighbors and major partners, including China, Russia, and Turkey, are backing Mirziyoyev’s “swift measures” in Karakalpakstan. “They all are siding with Uzbekistan, supporting its sovereignty and territorial integrity. They understand Tashkent’s predicament.”   

Rabbimov argued that Karakalpakstan’s sovereignty “has been one of the biggest challenges for Tashkent for the last 30 years.” 

When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, Karakalpakstan had already been part of Uzbekistan for 55 years. 

“There is no political, geopolitical, legal, or demographic basis for Karakalpakstan to secede even through a referendum as the constitution says. Because in Uzbekistan’s unitary system, referendums cannot be held regionally, and any proposal for a national vote must be approved by the Uzbek parliament,” Rabbimov wrote.  

He also argued that “there is no potential for Karakalpaks to win any referendum, since more than half of the region’s population are Uzbeks and other ethnic groups.”  

He said the government should promote an inclusive national identity. “By taking down regional barriers, and most importantly ending systemic corruption and monopolistic practices, you can dramatically improve the situation.”   

Rabbimov sees major differences between Mirziyoyev and his predecessor, Islam Karimov.  

“Karimov feared his people. He did not tolerate any protest or opposition. Force was justified to put down any uprising, including the 2005 Andijan unrest, which started as a local social-economic tension. Karimov aimed to teach a lesson that no dissent would endure.”  

Mirziyoyev, observed Rabbimov, is doing the opposite. “He is not afraid of people and cares about Karakalpaks in particular. He’s been to Nukus twice to engage the public. The situation is under control. His administration admits the issues and promises to work on them. 

“The message we’ve got from Mirziyoyev is that the government is seeking political and legal solutions to the problem. In my view, he realizes that disproportionate use of force would be a historic mistake.” 
…

Protesters storm Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, hours after the embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country, forced out by a popular uprising that has targeted the top leadership over the country’s dire economic crisis. Rajapaksa went to the Maldives just before dawn Wednesday on a military aircraft with his wife, four days after he went into hiding, as protesters, furious over his refusal to step down, overran his residence and office. But Rajapaksa’s exit did not appease protesters, who were incensed he had named Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, seen as a close ally, as acting president. 
…

Rights defenders are demanding an urgent inquiry into reported allegations that British special forces executed dozens of detainees and unarmed men in suspicious circumstances during anti-insurgency operations in Afghanistan a decade ago.

A BBC investigation, citing newly obtained military documents, alleged Tuesday that 54 people were unlawfully killed in the southern Afghan province of Helmand by a single unit of the Special Air Service (SAS), a special forces unit of the British army.

The broadcaster said its four-year inquiry also found “evidence suggesting the former head of the special forces failed to pass on evidence to a murder inquiry.”

The alleged war crimes reportedly occurred between 2010 and 2011 when British troops were still fighting Taliban insurgents alongside allies in the South Asian nation.

Unarmed Afghans were routinely shot to death “in cold blood” by SAS troops during nighttime raids, and weapons were planted on them to justify the crimes, the report said.

In a statement, Amnesty International called for an “effective and transparent” investigation into the allegations made against U.K. special forces.

Amnesty’s South Asia researcher, Zaman Sultani, said the BBC findings are “horrifying and clearly depict an alarming level of impunity and lack of accountability of U.K. troops who operated in Afghanistan.”

“The suggestion that there’s been a high-level cover-up compounds the moral outrage and suggests an unwillingness on the part of the U.K. to pursue independent and effective investigations into the allegations.”

In response to the report, Shaharzad Akbar, former head of the now-defunct Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), denounced what she said was a “culture of impunity and lack of accountability” in her country for decades.

“There was little transparency & no accountability for abuses by the international forces,” Akbar tweeted. “It is still not late for transparency, accountability & reparations,” she said.

The British Ministry of Defense said the report “jumps to unjustified conclusions from allegations that have already been fully investigated.” It said in a statement that two independent investigations have looked into the conduct of British forces in Afghanistan and that neither found sufficient evidence to prosecute.

“Insinuating otherwise is irresponsible, incorrect, and puts our brave Armed Forces personnel at risk both in the field and reputationally,” the ministry said, adding it stands open to considering any new evidence.

British forces were deployed to Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led international coalition after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that Washington said were plotted in Afghanistan by al-Qaida terrorists who were harbored by the then-Taliban government.

The BBC investigation focused on one six-month deployment by an SAS squadron that operated in Helmand from late 2010. It said the unit carried out “kill or capture” raids to detain Taliban commanders and disrupt bomb-making networks.

Opposition lawmaker John Healey described the allegations as “deeply disturbing,” and urged Defense Secretary Ben Wallace to explain to parliament what action he would take to verify the claims.

The final British forces and their NATO allies withdrew from Afghanistan last August, days before the Taliban insurgents retook control of the country.

The Taliban captured Kabul on August 15 and now governs Afghanistan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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More than 1.8 billion people worldwide are at risk of severe floods, new research shows. Most reside in low- and middle-income countries in Asia, and four out of 10 live in poverty.

The figures are substantially larger than previous estimates. They show that the risk is concentrated among those least able to withstand and recover from flooding.

“I thought it was a valuable paper, indeed. Because this link between poverty and flood risk is kind of overlooked,” said hydrologist Bruno Merz, of the German Research Center for Geosciences, who was not involved in the study.

Flood risk assessments typically consider risk in monetary terms, which is highest in rich countries where more wealth is at stake. The new study focused on how flood exposure and poverty overlap.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the study combined a global flood risk database with information on population density and poverty. The research focused on places where floods 15 centimeters deep or deeper happen at least once every 100 years on average.

The study found that nearly 90% of people at risk of severe flooding live in poor countries, not rich ones. More than 780 million flood-exposed people live on less than $5.50 per day.

The substantial overlap between high flood risk and poverty feeds into a vicious cycle that further concentrates flood protections in rich countries that have more resources to deal with floods in the first place, said flood risk researcher Jeroen Aerts of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Aerts was not involved in the study.

“It’s doing a cost-benefit analysis,” Aerts said. “Less money is going to poorer countries, because, of course, if the country is poorer, there are less dollars exposed.” Aerts said that this also happens within countries, which tend to invest in pricey flood protections for wealthy urban centers rather than for poorer rural areas.

The new estimate for global flood exposure is higher than some earlier ones. For instance, one previous study predicted that 1.3 billion people would be exposed to severe floods by 2050 — 500 million fewer than are exposed today, according to the new estimate. The authors attribute their higher number to their use of better data covering more regions at higher resolution and combining the risks from coastal, river and surface water floods.

The study did not consider protections, such as levees or dikes, in its assessment of flood exposure. This “distorts the picture,” Merz said, since some flood-prone populations are well-protected, such as those in the Netherlands.

Rather than undermining the study’s findings, Merz thought that this could mean that an even greater proportion of the people threatened by floods lives in poor regions.

“In many low-income countries, there is no flood protection, so people will be flooded by a small flood … that occurs on average every five years. On the other hand, in Europe, in North America, many of the areas are protected (from floods that happen once every) 100 years, 200 years or even higher. And so, this is not included,” he said.

Unprotected, poorer regions could thus shoulder an even greater share of the actual risks from flood exposure than the paper suggests.

The new result offers a snapshot of flood risk around the world as it is today, not a projection of how it will develop in the future. Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of floods in much of the world. And although early warning systems have decreased flood fatalities, including in resource-poor regions, population growth in flood-prone areas will also put more people at risk in the future, Aerts said.

“The exposure to natural hazards, exposure to flooding — it’s larger than previously investigated. And the majority of those exposed people live in a vulnerable, poor region,” Aerts said. “I think that’s the takeaway, I think, and maybe one sentence more: This means that investments in … flood adaptation should be targeted at those areas.”
…

Embattled Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa confirmed that he will resign Wednesday, even as opposition parties try to reach a consensus on forming a new government in a country confronted with an economic crisis and a political vacuum.

The whereabouts of Rajapaksa, who has faced monthslong demands for his resignation in the wake of a devastating economic downturn, remain unknown. He was taken from his residence Saturday to a secure location before thousands of protesters stormed the premises.    

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office issued a statement Monday stating that Rajapaksa said he would resign on July 13.    

Rajapaksa’s decision to resign after initially defying protesters’ demands was first announced Saturday by the parliament’s speaker. But hundreds of protesters continued to occupy his colonial-era mansion and office in Colombo for a third day, refusing to vacate the properties until he officially steps down.    

The prime minister’s office also said that all Cabinet ministers would resign once a decision on a new unity government is reached.    

The main opposition party, Samagi Jana Balawegaya, met with smaller political groups Sunday to decide on a new government and to build support for their leader, Sajith Premadasa. For months, the opposition has demanded that Rajapaksa step aside and make way for a unity government that would include all political parties.   

Wickremesinghe has also offered to step down and make way for an all-party government but said he will stay in office until a new administration is in place.     

“A government has to function according to the law. I am here to protect the constitution, and through it fulfill the people’s demands. What we need today is an all-party government, and we will take steps to establish that,” Wickremesinghe said in a video statement.   

Wickremesinghe was appointed in May to solve the country’s economic woes but was seen as being too close to the family. Wickremesinghe also became a target of public anger. His private residence in Colombo was set on fire on Saturday, and his office has also been occupied by protesters.

There was a sense of jubilation among long-time protesters who had chanted, “Gota, go home.” Many called it a “historic moment,” a “true citizens’ struggle” and took selfies inside the president’s residence to mark what they called the victory of the protest movement.   

Police said protesters handed over $50,000 in cash that they found inside the residence.   

The public’s ire was directed against Rajapaksa and other family members who had occupied powerful posts in the government for years. The powerful political dynasty, which returned to power in 2019, is blamed for policies that have devastated the economy of the island nation of 22 million.  

Frustration has been building over the worsening fuel shortages and runaway inflation that have led to a massive increase in food prices.   

Long lines were seen at fuel stations on Monday as limited sales of fuel to private vehicles resumed. In recent weeks, the country has come to a near standstill as it faces difficulties importing food, fuel or medicines. Because of its depleted foreign exchange reserves, schools have been closed for three weeks, and government employees have been asked to work from home. Power outages and fuel shortages have made it difficult for factories to operate.  

While the crisis was years in the making, mismanagement during Rajapaksa’s tenure compounded the problems, according to economists. Populist tax breaks depleted government revenues, and an abrupt switch to organic farming led to a steep fall in agricultural production, while the pandemic battered the country’s tourist-dependent economy. Massive loans to finance infrastructure projects built by China added to the debt burden.  

The country has been negotiating with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.  

“We hope for a resolution of the current situation that will allow for resumption of our dialogue on an IMF-supported program,” the IMF said in a statement. 
…

Sri Lanka’s prime minister said late last month that the island nation’s debt-laden economy had “collapsed” as it runs out of money to pay for food and fuel. Short of cash to pay for imports of such necessities and already defaulting on its debt, it is seeking help from neighboring India and China and from the International Monetary Fund.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office in May, was emphasizing the monumental task he faced in turning around an economy he said was heading for “rock bottom.” On Saturday both he and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa agreed to resign amid mounting pressure from protesters who stormed both their residences and set fire to one of them.

Sri Lankans are skipping meals as they endure shortages and lining up for hours to try to buy scarce fuel. It’s a harsh reality for a country whose economy had been growing quickly, with a growing and comfortable middle class, until the latest crisis deepened.

How serious is this crisis?

The government owes $51 billion and is unable to make interest payments on its loans, let alone put a dent in the amount borrowed. Tourism, an important engine of economic growth, has sputtered because of the pandemic and concerns about safety after terror attacks in 2019. And its currency has collapsed by 80%, making imports more expensive and worsening inflation that is already out of control, with food costs rising 57%, according to official data.

The result is a country hurtling towards bankruptcy, with hardly any money to import gasoline, milk, cooking gas and toilet paper.

Political corruption is also a problem; not only did it play a role in the country squandering its wealth, but it also complicates any financial rescue for Sri Lanka.

Anit Mukherjee, a policy fellow and economist at the Center for Global Development in Washington, said any assistance from the IMF or World Bank should come with strict conditions to make sure the aid isn’t mismanaged.

Still, Mukherjee noted that Sri Lanka sits in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, so letting a country of such strategic significance collapse is not an option.

How is it affecting real people?

Tropical Sri Lanka normally is not lacking for food, but people are going hungry. The U.N. World Food Program says nearly nine in 10 families are skipping meals or otherwise skimping to stretch out their food, while 3 million are receiving emergency humanitarian aid.

Doctors have resorted to social media to try to get critical supplies of equipment and medicine. Growing numbers of Sri Lankans are seeking passports to go overseas in search of work. Government workers have been given an extra day off for three months to allow them time to grow their own food.

In short, people are suffering and desperate for things to improve.

Why is the economy in such dire straits?

Economists say the crisis stems from domestic factors such as years of mismanagement and corruption.

Much of the public’s ire has focused on President Rajapaksa and his brother, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. The latter resigned in May after weeks of anti-government protests that eventually turned violent.

Conditions have been deteriorating for the past several years. In 2019, Easter suicide bombings at churches and hotels killed more than 260 people. That devastated tourism, a key source of foreign exchange.

The government needed to boost its revenues as foreign debt for big infrastructure projects soared, but instead Rajapaksa pushed through the largest tax cuts in Sri Lankan history. The tax cuts were recently reversed, but only after creditors downgraded Sri Lanka’s ratings, blocking it from borrowing more money as its foreign reserves sank. Then tourism flatlined again during the pandemic.

In April 2021, Rajapaksa suddenly banned imports of chemical fertilizers. The push for organic farming caught farmers by surprise and decimated staple rice crops, driving prices higher. To save on foreign exchange, imports of other items deemed to be luxuries were also banned. Meanwhile, the Ukraine war has pushed prices of food and oil higher. Inflation was near 40% and food prices were up nearly 60% in May.

Why did the prime minister say the economy has collapsed?

The stark declaration in June by Wickremesinghe, who is in his sixth term as prime minister, threatened to undermine any confidence in the state of the economy and didn’t reflect any specific new development. The prime minister appeared to be underscoring the challenges facing his government as it seeks help from the IMF and confronts criticism over the lack of improvement since he took office weeks earlier. The comment might have been intended to try to buy more time and support as he tries to get the economy back on track.

The Finance Ministry said Sri Lanka had only $25 million in usable foreign reserves. That has left it without the wherewithal to pay for imports, let alone repay billions in debt.

Meanwhile the Sri Lankan rupee has weakened in value to about 360 to the U.S. dollar.

That makes the costs of imports even more prohibitive. Sri Lanka has suspended repayment of about $7 billion in foreign loans due this year out of $25 billion to be repaid by 2026.

What is the government doing about the crisis?

So far Sri Lanka has been muddling through, mainly supported by $4 billion in credit lines from India. An Indian delegation came to the capital, Colombo, in June for talks on more assistance, but Wickremesinghe warned against expecting India to keep Sri Lanka afloat for long.

“Sri Lanka pins last hopes on IMF,” read a June headline in the Colombo Times. The government is in negotiations with the IMF on a bailout plan, and Wickremesinghe has said he expected to have a preliminary agreement later this summer.

Sri Lanka has also sought more help from China. Other governments like the U.S., Japan and Australia have provided a few hundred million dollars in support.

Earlier in June, the United Nations launched a worldwide public appeal for assistance. So far, projected funding barely scratches the surface of the $6 billion the country needs to stay afloat over the next six months.

To counter Sri Lanka’s fuel shortage, Wickremesinghe told The Associated Press in a recent interview that he would consider buying more steeply discounted oil from Russia.
…

The Taliban prime minister Saturday defended rules for women and girls in Afghanistan, insisting his government is practicing human rights as “ordained” by God and it cannot dare amend them.

The statement comes a day after the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution urging the Taliban to reverse practices that curtail the fundamental rights of Afghan women, making them “invisible” in the society.

“People say the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the government) does not care about human rights of men and women,” Hasan Akhund told a gathering in the capital, Kabul, in connection with the Muslim festival of Eid. He apparently referred to growing criticism of the harsh treatment women face under Taliban rule.   

“There are two types of human rights – one that non-Muslims have devised for themselves and stand by them. And the rights set by almighty Allah for the humanity,” the Taliban prime minister asserted.  

“How can the emirate not enforce them if our mission is to introduce an Islamic system in the country. They are also a part of the Islamic system and a divinely defined path (for Muslims).”

The radical insurgent-turned-ruling group regained control of Afghanistan last August as the United States and NATO partners withdrew their troops from the country after almost 20 years of war with the Taliban.

Since then, the male-only Taliban government has placed curbs on women’s clothes and movement in public and education, in breach of their earlier pledges they would respect rights of all Afghans.  

Women are ordered to cover their faces in public and male family members of those who fail to do so could end up in jail. Most teenage girls have been barred from resuming secondary school education, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where girls are unable to attend secondary school.

On Friday, the U.N. human rights council adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in Afghanistan. The European Union brought the resolution and 50 countries from across all regions co-sponsored it.  

“The actions of the Taliban directed against women and girls and the violation of their rights are highly worrying,” said Ambassador Lotte Knudsen, head of the EU delegation to the U.N. in Geneva.  

The U.N. council’s decisions are not legally binding, but they do carry political weight and can lead to official investigations into allegations of rights abuses.

Last week, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet accused the Taliban of systematic oppression and of the exclusion of women and girls from public life in Afghanistan.

Bachelet told an urgent debate at the council on the status of Afghan women and girls that an increasing number of restrictions on movement and dress have plunged women into a deep depression. She noted that women and girls in Afghanistan “are experiencing the most significant and rapid rollback in enjoyment of their rights across the board in decades.”

The special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, while taking part in the debate, said that the degradation of women’s rights is central to the Taliban ideology. Under Taliban rule in the 1990s, he noted, there was a marked regression in women’s and girls’ rights.

“Therefore, it should come as no surprise that, despite public assurances from the Taliban that they would respect women’s and girls’ rights, they are re-instituting step by step the discrimination against women and girls characteristic of their previous term and which is unparalleled globally in its misogyny and oppression,” Bennett said.

Lisa Schlein contributed to this report from Geneva.
…

Bangladesh has been facing severe power cuts for the last week that the government blames on a natural gas shortage.  

However, the cuts have spurred protests and criticism of past government policies, as well as calls for new policies.  

The shortage has brought back load shedding – the shutting down part of the grid to prevent failure of the system — which had become a thing of the past, in both cities and in rural areas. The renewed frequent outages have spurred expressions of anger and frustration in the street and social media.    

“For the past few days, we had electricity for like five to six hours a day. It has become unbearable to live like this in this summer heat,” Hamidul Bhuiyah, a resident of the town of Sylhet in northeastern Bangladesh told VOA.    

“I am wondering whether we are facing a crisis like Sri Lanka,” said Bhuiyah, who came down onto the street on Wednesday night to protest the outages in his Dakkhin Surma neighborhood.     

While Bhuiyah protested on the street, economics professor Anu Muhammad expressed his frustration on his Facebook page.

“I didn’t have electricity in my house even when the government lavishly celebrated the 100% electrification of the country through fireworks in Dhaka’s Hatirjheel area.”  

Muhammad was referring to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government’s celebration of making electricity available to 100% of the country’s population in late March. Hasina, in power since 2009, has long boasted about solving the electricity crisis that plagued the nation just a decade ago.     

Questioning that success, Muhammad — known for his fierce advocacy of protecting Bangladesh’s natural resources from foreign control — said the electricity crisis was long in the offing and had happened because of some of the government’s faulty policies, such as not exploring Bangladesh’s own resources through a state-owned company.    

Triggered by war       

Hasina, meanwhile, said her government is finding it increasingly difficult to keep power plants running as operational costs continued to spiral in the face of the war in Ukraine.      

“Prices have gone up to such an extent that it has now become difficult to keep the power plants running with the gas we have in stock,” she told a virtual program on Thursday.     

Fifty-two percent of Bangladesh’s electricity is produced from natural gas, whose declining domestic production has been supplemented by liquefied natural gas imports. However, sharp price increases in the global LNG market have forced a halt in purchases for now.     

After the Russian invasion, Europe announced a plan to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by buying LNG from elsewhere. This new competition for limited global LNG supply has quickly driven prices up.     

LNG accounts for 20% of Bangladesh’s gas supply to power plants, and the country last paid $25 per MMBtu – LNG is measured by MMBtu, or million British thermal units — but the price is now $40 per MMBtu in the global spot market.    

According to Bangladesh’s Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry data, on average 3.1 billion to 3.2 billion cubic feet per day of gas has been distributed across the country since the beginning of the year. But for the last week, the average supply was 2.8 billion to 2.9 billion cubic feet, a drop of more than 10%.  

Energy experts are predicting that LNG prices could increase further this year as European countries will likely buy more LNG for winter.     

Hasina thus urged people to be cautious in using power and said she is considering reducing power production for some time to save fuel.      

Her government will implement additional steps through executive order, including shortening office hours, not setting air-conditioners below 25 degrees in offices, reducing the use of air conditioning in religious establishments like mosques, and ending weddings and other social events by 7 p.m.    

Experts said such rationing might bring some relief in the short run but that the government needs to revamp its energy and power policy for a long-term solution.    

“It’s not that the power crisis of Bangladesh will be resolved in a week or two,” said Shamsul Alam the current  energy adviser of Consumer Association of Bangladesh.     

“It’s here to stay for some time,” Alam told VOA.     

Like economist Muhammad, Alam believes the country’s current electricity crisis is taking place not just because of war or a global energy crunch but is partly the responsibility of the Hasina administration.     

“We have already put too many eggs in one basket, as our power production is heavily dependent on natural gas. The reserves in the gas fields are declining and the government, instead of focusing on new gas field explorations, opted for costly LNG imports,” he said.    

Alam said such dependency on LNG imports is dangerous given volatile international market prices.     

“Our government should have opted for a better energy mix to reduce the dependency on a single fuel,” Alam added.      

Relief in September           

Hasina’s energy adviser, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, meanwhile told a news conference Thursday that the current power crisis is likely to continue until September, but after that some coal-burning power plants will be connected to the national grid, which could bring relief.     

About 8% of the country’s electricity production capacity of 22,066 megawatts comes from coal, and Bangladesh has plans to significantly increase that percentage.      

In the last year, Bangladesh canceled plans to build 10 coal-burning power plants but construction of some of large plants is going on and on course to be completed soon.      

Chowdhury said that by September, 1,200 megawatts of coal-based electricity is likely to be added to the national grid from a plant being built in India’s Jharkand state by India’s Adani Group. Another 1,320 and 700 megawatts will be added respectively from power plants in Bangladesh’s  Rampal and Payra areas.

Arifuzzaman Tuhin, a journalist who has been covering Bangladesh’s energy sector for over a decade, however, told VOA that these large coal-burning power plants will not solve Bangladesh’s energy crisis in the long run.     

“The cost of producing per unit of electricity from coal is already 13 cents but the government is selling electricity at 5 cents per unit. So, again, the government will have to inject a large subsidy to keep producing power from coal. I don’t think it’s sustainable,” he said.      

Tuhin said Bangladesh lacked a holistic approach in handling the energy and power sector.

“For example, we have created a 22,000-megawatt capacity system but could transmit and distribute only 60% of it now.”     

“Rather than focusing on transmission and distribution, the government was keen on spending more on power generation. Because of this, we now have to make billions of dollars’ worth of capacity payments for idle plants,” he added.   

Under the terms of its various agreements with power producers, the Bangladesh government pays the latter what’s known as a capacity payment, meant to ensure electricity is always available on tap, even if it means paying them to remain idle.      

According to the annual report of state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board, for the 2020-21 fiscal years, the capacity charge paid to 37 private power producers was about $1.35 billion.     

“Such large payments for practically nothing of course put a big dent on the government’s purse. No surprise there that a price escalation in global fuel market thus force them to go for austerity measure,” Tuhin told VOA.
…

The death toll following sudden heavy rains that caused flash floods during an annual Hindu pilgrimage Friday in Indian-controlled Kashmir has reached 16, officials say, with more than 40 people missing.

The sudden deluge left at least 15,000 people stranded on their trek to a sacred Himalayan cave. Indian army units have evacuated most of the pilgrims to a base camp.

At least four helicopters have been deployed to transport the injured to hospitals, authorities said Saturday.

The rains destroyed about two dozen camps and two makeshift kitchens, The Associated Press reports.

Emergency workers are continuing to search for missing people during the inclement weather.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. 
…

At least 13 people were killed when sudden rains triggered flash floods during an annual Hindu pilgrimage to an icy Himalayan cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday, police said.

Officials said in addition to the deaths, at least three dozen people were missing while an unspecified number of injured devotees were airlifted to hospitals for treatment. Authorities rushed several teams of doctors and paramedics to the rugged area and were administering first aid to the injured.

The heavy rain Friday evening near the mountain cave revered by Hindus sent a wall of water down a gorge and swept away about two dozen camps and two makeshift kitchens, officials said. An estimated 10,000 people were in the mountains when the rains struck.

The region’s disaster management department said emergency workers were searching for missing people despite inclement weather.

The Amarnath pilgrimage began on June 30 and tens of thousands of pilgrims have already visited the cave shrine where Hindus worship Lingam, a naturally formed ice stalagmite, as an incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus from across India take part in the pilgrimage, which lasts up to 45 days. Groups of pilgrims are staggered over a month and a half for security and logistical reasons.

This year, officials expect nearly 1 million visitors after a two-year gap in the annual endeavor because of the coronavirus pandemic.

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish over the deaths and said in a tweet that “all possible assistance is being provided to the affected.”

Worshippers trek to the cave along two routes through lush green meadows and rocky and forested mountain passes with a view of glacial lakes and snowy peaks. A traditional route via the southern hill resort of Pahalgam takes three days while a trip through northeastern Baltal lasts one day. Some pilgrims use helicopter services to make quick visits.

The cave, at 4,115 meters above sea level, is covered with snow most of the year except for the short summer period when it is open to pilgrims.

Hundreds of pilgrims have died in the past because of exhaustion and exposure to harsh weather during the journey through the icy mountains. In 1996, thousands of people were caught in a freak snowstorm during their trek, leading to more than 250 fatalities.

The pilgrimage concludes on Aug. 11, a full-moon night that Hindus say commemorates Shiva revealing the secret of the creation of the universe.

Apart from weather-related hazards, officials have said that pilgrims face an increased threat of attacks from Muslim rebels who have fought for decades against Indian rule. This year, for the first time, devotees are tagged with a wireless tracking system. Tens of thousands of police and soldiers guard the pilgrimage routes.

The pilgrimage has been targeted in past attacks by suspected rebels who accuse Hindu-majority India of using it as a political statement to bolster its claim on the Muslim-majority disputed region.

At least 50 pilgrims have been killed in three dozen attacks blamed on militants since an armed rebellion began in Indian-controlled Kashmir in 1989 for the region’s independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls a part of the territory.
…

The U.N. Human Rights Office is urging Sri Lankan authorities to rein in their security forces to prevent expected large-scale demonstrations from turning violent in Colombo on Saturday.

Human rights officials warn tensions are high because of Sri Lanka’s worsening economic crisis. They say they are worried that Saturday’s demonstrations, called to protest the rising cost of food, fuel and other commodities, could become as violent and deadly as those held in May. 

During demonstrations in Colombo May 9-10, supporters of former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa attacked peaceful protesters, reportedly killing eight people and injuring more than 250. 

U.N. Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani says worrying signs have emerged that Saturday’s planned peaceful protests could get out of control.

“Reports have been received of several confrontations between individuals and members of the police force and the armed forces at fuel stations where thousands of desperate members of the public have queued for hours and sometimes even days,” she said. “Police have used tear gas and water cannons at times in an unnecessary and disproportionate manner. On occasions, armed forces have also fired live ammunition.” 

Shamdasani says High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has been in contact with Sri Lankan authorities on several occasions urging them to show restraint in the policing of assemblies. She has told authorities that all Sri Lankans have the right of freedom of assembly and expression, including through protests. 

Shamdasani notes that under international law, using force to disperse gatherings can be permitted only as a last resort and must be proportionate.

“As a general rule, the military should not be used to police assemblies,” she said. “In exceptional circumstances, where members of the military carry out law enforcement functions, they are bound by international norms and standards and must remain fully subordinate to the civilian authority, and they must be accountable under civilian law.”

Shamdasani says the high commissioner is calling on the government to hold an open and genuine dialogue to tackle the root causes of the crisis and grievances of the people.
…

There is public outrage in India over the depiction of a Hindu goddess that critics say disparages the religious figure.

The image appears in a poster promoting the new short film Kaali by Canadian-based Indian filmmaker Leena Manimekalai. The poster depicts Hindu goddess Kaali smoking a cigarette and holding an LGBTQ+ flag.

After filmmaker Leena Manimekalai shared the poster in a tweet Saturday, the day a museum in Toronto hosted the film’s first showing, the image of the smoking goddess sparked a furor in India with angry Hindus demanding a ban on the film and legal action against the filmmaker.

Monday, the Indian High Commission in Canada said it had received complaints from Hindu community leaders over the “disrespectful depiction of Hindu gods” in the poster, and it urged the Canadian authorities and the event organizers to withdraw all “provocative” materials related to the film.

A day later, the museum issued an apology, saying the film was no longer being shown there, and that it regretted having “inadvertently caused offense to members of the Hindu and other faith communities.”

Manimekalai wrote and directed Kaali as an academic project in her graduate study program at Toronto Metropolitan University. In the film, Manimekalai is an incarnation of the goddess Kaali. Living as a queer female filmmaker in Toronto, she attempts to find belonging in a land stolen from its rightful inhabitants— the First Nations.

As the goddess of death, time and change, the dilemma of the reincarnated goddess in the film finds a resolution only at the end, when it dawns on her that ultimately, the land can be owned by no one; the universe is in a state of constant flux. The promotional poster shows a scene in which, dressed as the goddess Kaali, Manimekalai shares a cigarette with a homeless man.

“When I embody Kaali, I am Kaali myself. My Kaali is queer. She is a free spirit. She spits at the patriarchy. She dismantles Hindutva. She destroys capitalism,” Manimekalai told VOA. “She embraces everyone with all her thousand hands.”

Death threats

Manimekalai’s tweet of the poster went viral Saturday with tens of thousands of members of the Hindu community retweeting it with a hashtag reading “Arrest Leena Manimekalai.”

Police cases were filed against her in several states for “hurting the religious sentiments” of Hindus.

One Hindu group said in a police complaint that the depiction of the goddess Kaali in the poster was “completely unacceptable to Hindus” and Manimekalai “deliberately distorted the Hindu religion and culture with malicious intent to insult Hindu religious feelings.”

Manimekalai said she and her family members received death and rape threats from more than 200,000 social media accounts. In a video that surfaced online, a Hindu priest from the north Indian temple town Ayodhya threatened: “Do you want your head to be severed from your body?”

In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Manimekalai’s native state in India, police arrested the female leader of a Hindu right-wing group for allegedly threatening her with death. The leader allegedly posted a video online in which she condemned her using strong words and threatened to kill her.

Twitter on Wednesday removed Manimekalai’s poster tweet.

Reacting to Twitter’s action, she said in a tweet, “Will @TwitterIndia withhold the tweets of the 200000 hate mongers?! These lowlife trolls tweeted and spread the very same poster that they find objectionable. Kaali cannot be lynched. Kaali cannot be raped. Kaali cannot be destroyed. She is the goddess of death.”

The filmmaker said that the reaction in India against her film cannot be termed just an “outrage.”

“If a person in the street pounces upon you, it is a crime. If a person violates your body in a public place, it is sexual harassment. If a person throws acid on your face, it is an attempt of murder. If a person uses foul language against you, it is abuse. If a person goes after your family and friends and supporters and threatens them, it is violence. If all this is done by a mob, how can you call it just an ‘outrage’?” she asked.

“How can I report 200000 ids? Where should I report? Who is going to take action? There is no law in India. The Constitution of the country is dead.”
…

For the first time in three years, a 40-day-long pilgrimage is being held in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Secretary Apurva Chand says the Amarnath pilgrimage is expected to be the biggest in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. For VOA, Muheet Ul Islam has more from Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates.
Videographer and video editor: Wasim Nabi
…

Donald Lu, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, says the Biden administration is committed to strategic partnerships, aims to invest in Central Asian sovereignty and independence, and understands why policies of balance toward Russia are rational for Central Asian interests. 

But amid unrest in Uzbekistan’s autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan, Washington has urged Tashkent “to pursue a full, credible, and transparent investigation” into a wave of violence on July 1 and 2, in which Tashkent officially reported 18 deaths, more than 500 arrests, and nearly 250 injuries. 

Karakalpaks say they took to the streets to oppose constitutional changes that would deprive them of sovereignty and secession rights. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has since promised not to take any such steps without Karakalpaks’ blessing. His government has pledged to uphold the laws and freedoms while maintaining security under emergency measures. 

The State Department called on the authorities to protect “fundamental rights, including peaceful assembly and expression, in line with Uzbekistan’s international obligations and commitments.” 

In an interview with VOA, Lu also said Washington prioritizes human rights and democracy alongside counterterrorism cooperation. 

He said Washington knows Central Asian economies are suffering because of U.S. sanctions on Russia, with food and fuel prices rising and migrant workers forced home. Lu confirmed licenses to ensure the Caspian Petroleum Consortium and Kazakhstan’s oil industry are immune from sanctions, “because the last thing we want to do is hurt the oil and gas industry of this region.” 

But two Kazakhstan-based Russian banks and an Uzbek firm have been sanctioned, accused of aiding Russia. “We want those Russian banks sold, so they become Kazakh banks,” Lu said. 

He conceded that Central Asians have deep ties with Russia and, while claiming to be neutral on Ukraine, have complex partnerships with Moscow, which invaded Ukraine in February. But regional decision makers tell VOA they also want balanced relationships with the West. 

Lu, a former U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, said that is “a rational policy … to take the best from Moscow, Beijing, Washington, Brussels and Ankara.” 

And he stressed continuity in U.S. policy toward Central Asia following last year’s change of administration in Washington. 

“We’re not standing against Russia or China but believe in independent, sovereign and prosperous Central Asian countries that respect their democratic institutions, human rights, and civil society,” he said. 

In recent visits to Washington, some Central Asian officials told VOA that the State Department and Pentagon have been more deferential to their concerns than in past years. And since the United States withdrew from Afghanistan last year, say experts, the region is dictating its own trajectory. 

Lu agreed that “Central Asian states show great leadership in telling us what they want from this relationship,” adding that America is committed to counterterrorism, including the training and equipping of Central Asian police, military, and especially border security forces. 

Many analysts believe the U.S. is still mainly focused on security cooperation while democracy and rights take a back seat. Lu disagreed, pointing to Washington’s position on turmoil in Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region, where dozens were killed in a recent central government crackdown on protesters. 

“We’re concerned that civil society is being swept up in this effort to contain anti-government forces and media freedom is being limited there,” he said. “There needs to be a distinction between those who should be captured and prosecuted for anti-government, violent activity and those who are legitimate civil society, free media.” 

Lu claimed to see “some pretty spectacular movement in recent years” on human rights in Central Asia. In Uzbekistan, for instance, “none of us would have believed that since 2016, the government could have stamped out 100% of forced labor.” 

And after violence in Kazakhstan in January, Lu said, “Some real progress towards strengthening of the parliament, reducing the powers of the president, strengthening the human rights ombudsman, and providing more legitimacy for the independent judiciary.” 

Lu did not deny that America’s partners in the region are autocrats, including Emomali Rahmon, who has led Tajikistan since 1994, currently making him the region’s longest-serving president.   

Uzbekistan’s Mirziyoyev is pursuing constitutional changes that will make him eligible to remain in power until 2040.  

“We support the reform agenda. The things that are publicly announced that they want to do, we absolutely support that. The truth will be shown to the people of this region based on the actions taken by their government,” Lu said.  

He added that Washington wants real accountability for January’s violence and human rights abuses in Kazakhstan and “a fair and transparent process of accountability in the court system.” 

In Uzbekistan, Lu highlighted problems in registering civil society organizations and religious organizations. 

He noted that only two countries in the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, criminalize homosexuality: Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The Biden administration hopes to see some progress. 

“I think the mentality is changing, people’s views are changing,” he said. “Eventually governments will change as well.” 

“Even in the United States, we haven’t perfected our democracy,” he said. “We recognize that democracy is not easy. These countries are only 30 years old. They can’t be expected to have all the same trappings of very old democracies. They’re going to have a form of democracy that suits their country. 

“And we want to be a supportive, good partner that helps to spread the values of Central Asian people — not my values, not the values of foreigners, but values that are intrinsic to this region. I believe Central Asians are at their core democrats.” 

Yet many Central Asians express deep cynicism toward America, blaming it for failures in Afghanistan and accusing it of pushing Russia to attack Ukraine. That may reflect Russian propaganda but even those sympathetic to the U.S. question its commitment. 

“We are very far away,” Lu said, and Moscow, Beijing, and Ankara “feel much closer.” 

“People are a little concerned about whether their countries will survive into the next few decades. … We believe that these are countries that should exist forever as countries, as people, and we look to invest in the sovereignty and independence of Central Asia.”  
…

Taliban security forces in eastern Afghanistan have extrajudicially killed dozens of suspected members and supporters of a local affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group, according to Human Rights Watch.

The global human rights group has documented the alleged abuses in a report released Thursday, saying they were committed in eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.

“Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, residents of Nangahar and Kunar … have discovered the bodies of more than 100 men dumped in canals and other locations [between August 2021 and April 2022],” the report said.

The two provinces, which border Pakistan, are known for hosting active bases of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), the Afghan affiliate of Islamic State.

Taliban forces in these areas had “carried out abusive search operations” against residents they accused of sheltering or supporting ISIS-K members, according to the report.

During these security actions, including night raids, residents allegedly had been subjected to torture and men detained without legal process or revealing their whereabouts to their families.

“Taliban authorities appear to have given their forces free rein to detain, ‘disappear,’ and kill alleged militants,” said Patricia Gossman, the associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The bodies showed evidence of torture and brutal executions: some had missing limbs, ropes around their necks, or had been beheaded or had slit throats, according to the report.

Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the report as baseless, saying local authorities had investigated these “rumors” but found not a single body in Nangarhar or other areas.

“The propaganda being spread by some well-known international organizations in this regard is disturbing and unfortunate,” Mujahid wrote on Twitter.

Human Rights Watch said while working with a local partner, it interviewed — mostly in person — 63 people between October 2021 and June 2022 for the report. The watchdog claimed to have found “substantial evidence of summary executions and “enforced disappearances” by Taliban forces of suspected ISIS-K supporters.

In November, a United Nations Security Council meeting on Afghanistan was also informed the Taliban’s campaign against ISIS-K “appears to rely heavily on extra-judicial detentions and killings.”

Afghanistan has experienced a spike in ISIS-K-plotted bombings since the Taliban takeover, particularly targeting Hazara, Shiite and other minority communities in the country. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including security forces.

Taliban authorities have regularly conducted retaliatory raids against ISIS-K hideouts in Kabul and elsewhere in the country. The latest such operation was carried out Wednesday night in the Afghan capital, where Mujahid claimed it killed two ISIS-K militants and arrested several others.

“The ISKP’s numerous atrocities do not justify the Taliban’s horrific response,” HRW’s Gossman said, using a local acronym for the terrorist group. “Taliban forces have repeatedly carried out summary executions and other war crimes against people in their custody and have yet to hold those responsible to account.”
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A U.N. study released Thursday shows the first three months of the war in Ukraine has driven up the global cost of fuel and food, creating record inflation that has helped drive 71 million people into poverty.

Speaking during a virtual news conference in Geneva, U.N. Development Program Administrator Achim Steiner said the analysis of 159 developing countries indicated that price spikes in key commodities were already having “immediate and devastating impacts on the world’s poorest households.”

The study shows that the economic shock of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine came after 18 months of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, which had a slower but cumulative and strong negative impact on world economies. He said the pandemic had already pushed about 125 million people into poverty.

At the same news conference, UNDP Senior Economist George Gray Molina said as a result many countries have faced 36 months of “shock after shock after shock.”

Molina said the impact of the war has been “drastically faster,” affecting global food and energy supplies and sparking the inflationary surge.

Steiner said failure by governments to take decisive and “radical” action risks sparking widespread unrest, as the patience and ability of people to cope with the situation runs out.

He pointed to the situation in Sri Lanka, where the government is in turmoil and the nation is facing food and fuel shortages and has defaulted on its national debt for the first time in its history.

The development program study offers some financial policy recommendations to address the crisis. Steiner suggested, for example, that it might be possible for some countries to tackle runaway inflation without resorting to the “blunt instrument” of raising interest rates.

He said multilateral investment institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) could provide more capital to allow nations to address the crisis through targeted lending and other crisis-response measures.

Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press and Reuters.
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India has reestablished a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan by sending a technical team to reopen its Kabul embassy, ostensibly for humanitarian purposes, but analysts see it as an effort to secure New Delhi’s strategic interests in the conflict-ridden country, where the Taliban’s return has put Pakistan in a dominant position.

India closed its embassy after the Taliban takeover last August in what was seen as a major strategic setback for New Delhi.

The Ministry of External Affairs said the team is to coordinate the delivery of humanitarian assistance but analysts cite other reasons for the move.

“Reopening the Indian Embassy is really about keeping our eyes and ears on the ground and exploring the possibility of a working relationship with the Taliban, which includes security assurances that Afghan territory would not be used, particularly by Pakistan against India,” Gautam Mukhopadhaya, a former Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, said.

“It’s an opening gambit so to speak, in some ways you are back in the game,” he said.

India has been concerned that Afghanistan will become a haven for militants from Pakistan who have been at the forefront of a three-decade violent separatist insurgency in Indian Kashmir.

India and the Taliban have long been fiercely opposed to each other, but both sides have shifted their stance slightly. Analysts say that while New Delhi has accepted that the hardline Islamist group is there to stay for the foreseeable future, Afghanistan’s new leadership has also reached out to India.

“The Taliban has sent signals that it would like India to be present because they are trying to engage with the rest of the world and India is an important country in the region. From the Indian point of view, if the possibility emerged of keeping a presence in Afghanistan, then why not?” said Sushant Sareen, a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

“However, this is in no way an endorsement of the Taliban regime. India has only gone back in a small way,” he added.

India has consistently called for an inclusive administration in Afghanistan and expressed concern at the erosion of women’s and girls’ rights under Taliban rule.

The first signal of rapprochement between the two sides came when India began sending food and medicine to the country earlier this year. So far it has sent 20,000 tons of wheat. It also sent aid in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake that wracked Afghanistan last month, along with the technical team posted to Kabul.

After India reopened its embassy, Afghanistan called on other countries to do the same thing.

“The arrival of Indian diplomats in Afghanistan and reopening of [Indian] embassy demonstrates that security is established in the country and all political and diplomatic rights are respected,” Abdul Qahar Balkhi, Taliban spokesperson said.

The next step could be to facilitate student and medical visas for Afghans wanting to come to India. Hundreds of students, including many who were given scholarships by the Indian government, were enrolled in Indian universities before the Taliban takeover but many had returned to Afghanistan during the COVID-19 pandemic, as colleges switched to online learning. India was also a popular destination for Afghans seeking medical treatment.

After a meeting between Taliban foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and Afghan students this week, the Taliban said that Kabul will approach New Delhi to grant visas to students who have not been able to return to India after COVID restrictions were lifted.

“The premise on which India has gone back to Afghanistan is for the welfare of the people. If that is so, then giving student and medical visas are likely to be on the table although it may not happen in the near future,” Sareen said.

“India will first wait and watch whether the Taliban is willing to do business with us,” he said.

The Taliban outreach to India is also seen as helping the group as Afghanistan faces huge challenges.

“The Taliban better positions itself to make pitches for badly needed financial assistance from a major source of aid – even though New Delhi likely won’t make commitments to anything beyond humanitarian aid,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “And it can help the Taliban earn some backing from a public that has resented the Taliban’s historic deep ties to Pakistan,” he said.

However, India’s engagement with the Taliban is likely to be a slow, cautious process as it assesses the group’s attitude toward New Delhi.

“It is unlikely India will upgrade the embassy anytime soon or maybe at all, depending on the direction that the Taliban takes. You are treading water but with your foot in,” Mukhopadhaya said.

From the standpoint of India’s Western allies, such as the United States, New Delhi’s return to Afghanistan is a welcome development according to analysts.

“It’s important for Washington that it’s not just rivals like Pakistan, China, Russia, and Iran that are engaging with the Taliban,” according to Kugelman. “The US will also likely view India as an important player in its efforts to get the Taliban to improve its rights record.”

The embassy reopening could also be a step toward New Delhi, which some had thought sidelined in the region in August, regaining some of the leverage that it has lost in the country, where for two decades following the 2001 U.S. invasion it had built soft power with a slew of development projects such as roads, schools and hospitals.

“In Afghanistan, there is never any endgame,” Sareen said, “Every endgame is the beginning of a new Great Game.”
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The Taliban say they will not hold former Afghan officials accountable for the massive corruption that derailed donor-funded development projects and contributed to the collapse of the former Afghan Republic.

“Those who nurtured and enriched themselves during the previous invasion and from the U.S.’s system own their properties and assets and it will remain so,” Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA’s Pashto Service.

Former officials suspected of corruption will face courts, he said, only if they seized private properties or public assets during the past two decades.

Asked about properties some former Afghan officials might have acquired via corrupt practices in the former Afghan government, Mujahid said, “individuals who abused the previous system” would not face legal accountability and will keep their wealth.

Bankrolled by foreign donors, the former Afghan Republic was consistently ranked among the five most corrupt states in the world.

“Corruption inflicted significant damage to U.S. efforts to reconstruct Afghanistan and strengthen its institutions,” said Philip LaVelle, director of public affairs for the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a U.S. government monitor for aid to Afghanistan. He spoke to VOA.

From 2002 to 2021, the U.S. spent more than $145 billion on reconstruction and development projects in Afghanistan while other donors such as the European Union also channeled billions of dollars for the same purposes.

“Corruption was a major cause of the republic’s ignominious collapse,” Wahed Faqiri, an Afghan-American analyst, told VOA. “It undermined the entire system. It severely undermined the legitimacy of the republic. It strengthened the Taliban. Corruption made Taliban’s propaganda effective, real, and tangible.”

Mohammad Halim Fidai, a former senior Afghan official, said corruption was one factor but not the underlying cause of the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as the country was named from 2004 to 2021.

“Highlighting corruption is aimed at diverting attention from the wrongdoings by U.S. policymakers,” Fidai told VOA, adding that Taliban insurgents were also involved in corruption as they levied taxes and extorted money from development projects.

LaVelle said U.S. spending was flawed and even fueled corruption in Afghanistan.

“The United States failed to recognize the magnitude of corruption early on, empowered warlords and other corrupt actors, and poured too much money in so quickly it couldn’t be absorbed,” he said.

No anti-corruption body

Nearly a year in power, the Taliban have neither announced a policy nor appointed a government body to counter corruption.

The leadership’s anti-corruption performance has received mixed results.

Citing the findings of a survey of Afghan traders, Andrea Mario Dall’Olio, the World Bank’s lead economist for Afghanistan, said in April that corruption appears to have been “curbed significantly” at customs and border checkpoints.

Others say Taliban officials are succumbing to all sorts of corruption and abuses of power.

“On the whole, the Taliban are relatively cleaner than the republic. However, as time goes on, nepotism is creeping in. Corruption is taking root. Luxury is showing its ugly face,” said Faqiri.

Fidai, the former Afghan official who now lives abroad, accused the Taliban of more than monetary corruption.

“Occupying all political government posts by Mullah without merit and even having three ministers from one family in the cabinet is corruption,” he said, referring to the powerful Haqqani family that occupies several top cabinet positions in the ruling Taliban leadership.

Officials return to immunity

As the Taliban consolidate their grip on power, they have allowed and even facilitated the return of some former Afghan officials, including at least two ministers, offering them “immunity cards” against persecution.

Women, as in the Taliban’s other policy arenas, have been excluded from the process as no prominent female politician or former official has been repatriated to Afghanistan so far.

While the returning officials say they have come back to their country and want to live with their people, some observers say former officials want to retain the assets they could not take abroad when the former Afghan government abruptly collapsed last year.

The Taliban’s unconditional offer to let former Afghan officials return and retain their assets, and the group’s assurance of immunity from prosecution, could protect those who illicitly made riches out of projects and programs that aimed to build effective and viable institutions and services for Afghanistan.

SIGAR, which has investigated numerous cases of corruption and abuse in U.S. spending in Afghanistan — several cases of which have been heard in U.S. courts — said it will not cease criminal investigations into “theft, fraud, and abuse of U.S. reconstruction dollars, and we go where the facts and the evidence lead us.”
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Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said Wednesday he had spoken with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to seek credit help in order to import fuel. The island nation is in the midst of its worst economic crisis in seven decades, with the situation triggering anti-government protests.

“Had a very productive telecon with the #Russia President, Vladimir Putin,” Rajapaksa said in a tweet. Rajapaksa also thanked Putin for the support the Russian government has extended in the past.

Sri Lanka has struggled to import essentials, leading to shortages of medicine, food and fuel caused in large part by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Reuters news agency cites doctors as saying the entire health system could now collapse.

Many Western Nations have cut off energy imports with Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said earlier that his country would follow suit and look for other sources first, but it had not been successful. Sri Lanka has already made oil purchases from Russia and indicated that it was willing to make more.

Sri Lanka has turned to tourism as an avenue to generate more revenue. Sri Lanka will also hold road shows in five Indian cities in hopes of attracting more visitors and bringing in more foreign currency from its northern neighbor. In the first five months of the year, Sri Lanka, an island that features rolling hills, pristine beaches, and laidback seaside towns, has seen more than 61,000 Indian tourists, the most from any foreign country, according to Reuters.

Tourism Minister Harin Fernando told reporters, “Sri Lanka must have tourism revenue if it is to emerge from this crisis. That is essential.” Fernando said he hopes the country finishes the year with about one million tourists.

Last week, a team from the International Monetary Fund wrapped up a 10-day visit to Sri Lanka, but the two sides did not reach a deal on a bailout package. A statement issued after the visit said, “Sri Lanka is going through a severe economic crisis. The economy is expected to contract significantly in 2022, while inflation is high and rising. The critically low level of foreign reserves has hampered the import of essential goods.”

The statement, however, also said, “We reaffirm our commitment to support Sri Lanka at this difficult time in line with the IMF’s policies.”
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