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Malala Calls for Pakistan to Stop Deporting Afghans

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai
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Malala Calls for Pakistan to Stop Deporting Afghans

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai called for Pakistan to stop deporting undocumented Afghans, saying she was especially concerned about the “dark future” awaiting women and girls sent back.
“It is deeply concerning that Pakistan is forcing Afghan refugees based in Pakistan back into Afghanistan, and I’m deeply concerned about the women and girls”, the activist, who was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 2014, told AFP in an interview on Friday.
Despite extending leave for Afghan refugees with permits to stay in Pakistan for another year, Islamabad this week said it would remove illegal migrants.
More than 600,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan since Islamabad last year ordered undocumented migrants to leave or face arrest.
Human rights monitors have warned that some sent to Afghanistan faced persecution by the Taliban, who came into power in 2021 and have imposed an austere form of Islam, barring girls from higher education and excluding women and girls from areas of public life.
“A lot of these girls in Pakistan were studying, they were in school, these women were doing work”, said Malala, 27, who grew up in Pakistan’s Swat valley.
She had to move to the UK after she was shot, aged just 15, for resisting the Pakistan Taliban’s then-ban on girls’ education in her hometown.
“I hope that Pakistan reverses its policy and that they protect girls and women especially because of the dark future that they would be witnessing in Afghanistan”, she added.
Speaking to AFP on her birthday, recognised by the UN as Malala Day, the activist launched into the challenges facing the only country in the world where girls over 12 are barred from school.
“I cannot believe that I’m witnessing a time when girls have been banned from their education for more than three years”, she said, adding that while the situation was “shocking”, she “admired the resilience of the Afghan activists.”
The Malala Fund is campaigning for the UN to formally broaden their definition of crimes against humanity to include “gender apartheid” — a phrase the UN has used to describe the situation in Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, the UN and Taliban sat down for talks in Doha for the first time since the latter came to power but without women in attendance.
“World leaders need to realize that when they sit down with the Taliban... and they’re excluding women and girls, they are actually doing a Taliban a favor,” Malala said.
Malala also called for an “urgent” ceasefire in the war in Gaza.
“It is horrifying how many schools have been bombed in Gaza, even more recently the four schools,” she added, referring to four schools that were hit by Israeli air strikes this week.
According to the education ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, 85 percent of educational facilities in the territory are out of service because of the war.
“It is deeply concerning because we know that children do not have a future when they’re living under a war, when their schools and homes are destroyed,” said Malala.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, said it used more than half its budget before the war to fund education.

 

 

 

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China Has Expanded its Nuclear Force, Strengthened Ties to Russia, the Pentagon Says

An American flag is flown next to the Chinese national emblem outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Nov. 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
An American flag is flown next to the Chinese national emblem outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Nov. 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
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China Has Expanded its Nuclear Force, Strengthened Ties to Russia, the Pentagon Says

An American flag is flown next to the Chinese national emblem outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Nov. 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
An American flag is flown next to the Chinese national emblem outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Nov. 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

China is expanding its nuclear force, has increased military pressure against Taiwan and has strengthened its ties with Russia over the past year, according to a Pentagon report Wednesday that details actions accelerating key areas of conflict with the United States.

The report, however, also notes that the recent rash of corruption allegations within China's powerful Central Military Commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army, is hurting Beijing’s military growth and could slow its campaign to modernize.

The impact, said a senior defense official, is a bit of a mixed bag because while there has been progress in some programs, China has slid back in others.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the US assessment, warned that Beijing is working toward developing a more diverse and technologically sophisticated nuclear force. While the expected number of nuclear warheads has maintained consistent growth, China is broadening its targeting abilities, The AP reported.

Beijing is going to be able to go after more and different types of targets, do greater damage and have more options for multiple rounds of counterstrikes, the official said. The US is urging China to be more transparent about its nuclear program, while also warning that America will defend its allies and take appropriate steps in response.

According to the report, which provides the annual US assessment of China’s military power and is required by Congress, China had more than 600 operational nuclear warheads as of May, and the US expects it will have more than 1,000 by 2030.

The Biden administration has worked to maintain a balance with China, building up the US military presence in the Asia-Pacific region to be ready to counter Beijing while also encouraging increased communications between the two countries at the diplomatic and military levels.

That uptick in talks has coincided with a decrease in coercive and risky intercepts of US aircraft since late 2023, compared with the previous two years. China still, however, does what the US military considers “unsafe” flights near American and allied forces in the region.

The Pentagon’s national defense strategy is built around China being the greatest security challenge for the US, and the threat from Beijing influences how the US military is equipped and organized for the future.

The corruption within the PLA has resulted in at least 15 high-ranking officials being ousted in a major shakeup of China’s defense establishment.

“This wave of corruption touches every service in the PLA, and it may have shaken Beijing’s confidence," the report said.

In June, China announced that former Defense Minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor, Wei Fenghe, were expelled from the ruling Communist Party and accused of corruption. Last month, another senior official, Miao Hua, was suspended and put under investigation, according to China's Defense Ministry.

The US report points to a persistent increased military presence by China around Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its own. It said China's navy has been in the region more and that there have been increased crossings into the island's air defense identification zone and major military exercises in the area.

Just last week, a large deployment of Chinese navy and coast guard vessels in the waters around Taiwan triggered alarm as Taiwanese officials said it looked like China was simulating a blockade. Officials have said there were as many as 90 ships involved in what Taiwan described as two walls designed to demonstrate that the waters belong to China.

Taiwan split from communist China in 1949 and has rejected Beijing’s demands that it accept unification. China says it will do so by force if necessary, and leaders have said they want to be ready to do so by 2027.

The United States is obligated under domestic law to help defend Taiwan and give it weapons and technology to deter invasion.

The island democracy has been the chief source of tension between Washington and Beijing for decades and is widely seen as the most likely trigger for a potentially catastrophic US-China war.

More broadly, the report concluded that the PLA continued its drive to develop greater military capabilities but “made uneven progress toward its 2027” milestone for modernization.

One area of expansion, the report said, is with unmanned aerial systems, which officials said are “quickly approaching US standards.”

Regarding Russia, the report said China has supported Russia's war against Ukraine and sold Russia dual-use items that Moscow's military industry relies on. Dual use items can be used for both civilian and military purposes.