Afghan economy faces ‘uncertain’ future despite modest growth: World Bank

Afghan economy faces ‘uncertain’ future despite modest growth: World Bank
An Afghan worker carries tin pipes at a workshop in Kandahar on December 4, 2024. (AFP)
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Afghan economy faces ‘uncertain’ future despite modest growth: World Bank

Afghan economy faces ‘uncertain’ future despite modest growth: World Bank
  • The economy’s challenges include “fiscal constraints, trade imbalances, and a limited capacity for public investment,” the bank said in its Afghanistan Development Update

WASHINGTON: Afghanistan’s economy continues to face significant challenges despite showing signs of modest growth, the World Bank warned on Wednesday, with the future “uncertain.”
The economy’s challenges include “fiscal constraints, trade imbalances, and a limited capacity for public investment,” the bank said in its Afghanistan Development Update.
Critical factors for long-term recovery include enabling women’s participation in the economy, maintaining price stability and dealing with key deficits in human capital — such as education and health care, the multilateral development lender said.
While Afghanistan has seen GDP growth of 2.7 percent, driven by private consumption, this has “recouped only about 10 percent of past economic losses,” the World Bank said.
Afghanistan has been ruled by the Taliban since 2021, when their forces capitalized on the withdrawal of the US military under a peace deal to overthrow the country’s government.
The Taliban’s government has not been officially recognized by any country, and the economy remains largely isolated, with many Afghans living under the poverty line.
“Afghanistan’s long-term growth prospects depend on tapping into the substantial potential of the domestic private sector and improving the overall business environment,” said World Bank country director for Afghanistan Faris Hadad-Zervos.
The economy requires more investment, access to finance for small businesses, and support for skilled women entrepreneurs, Hadad-Zervos added.
Women and girls have been barred from secondary school and university as part of restrictions imposed by the Taliban that the UN has dubbed “gender apartheid.”
The World Bank noted that partial economic recovery, alongside falling food prices, has contributed to a gradual improvement in household welfare.
But it said many Afghan households still struggle to meet basic needs and that “poverty remains widespread.”
Trade is another challenge with a widening deficit due to surging imports on the back of greater demand for foreign goods and a revival of domestic industry.
“The trade deficit, exacerbated by Afghanistan’s reliance on imports for essential goods like fuel, food, and machinery, might pose a risk to the country’s economic stability,” the World Bank said.


Under pressure, UK’s Starmer sets out plans to deliver on election pledges

Under pressure, UK’s Starmer sets out plans to deliver on election pledges
Updated 22 sec ago
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Under pressure, UK’s Starmer sets out plans to deliver on election pledges

Under pressure, UK’s Starmer sets out plans to deliver on election pledges

LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer will set out plans on Thursday to deliver on his priorities to raise living standards and rebuild Britain in a speech he hopes will draw a line under what even some of his supporters say has been a bumpy start to government.
Five months since his Labour Party swept back to power with a landslide win, Starmer wants to turn the page on criticism of his government on everything from its use of campaign donations to a tax-raising budget which prompted an outcry from businesses and farmers.
He will use Thursday’s speech to plot out when Britain can expect to start seeing progress his government has promised in a range of areas, including hospital backlogs, increasing police numbers, improving education and securing home-grown energy.
Called the government’s ‘plan for change’, he is expected to set out a reform program for Britain’s overly stretched public services to try to restore trust in politics, eroded by years of chaos and scandal under the Conservatives and further deepened by Labour’s missteps in its first few months in power.
“My government was elected to deliver change, and today marks the next step. People are tired of being promised the world, but short-term sticking plaster politics letting them down,” Starmer will say, according to excerpts of his speech provided by his office.
“My mission-led government will deliver.”
Labour campaigned before the July 4 election on five missions — boosting economic growth, accelerating steps toward reaching net zero, reducing waiting times in the state-run health service, tackling crime and improving education.
His first measures on Thursday will include a move to give communities a named, contactable police officer to deal with local issues, his office said, part of a pledge to add a further 13,000 police in neighborhood roles.
“This marks a return to the founding principles of British policing — where officers are part of the communities they serve,” interior minister Yvette Cooper said in a statement.
“Through this visible, responsive police presence in every neighborhood, we will restore the trust and partnership that lies at the heart of keeping our communities safe.”


North Korea, Russia defense treaty comes into force

North Korea, Russia defense treaty comes into force
Updated 20 min 55 sec ago
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North Korea, Russia defense treaty comes into force

North Korea, Russia defense treaty comes into force

SEOUL: A landmark defense pact between North Korea and Russia, signed by its leaders in June, has gone into effect after the two sides exchanged ratification documents, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said Thursday.
The formalization of the treaty comes as the United States and South Korea have accused the nuclear-armed North of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine.
Experts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is keen to acquire advanced technology from Moscow and battle experience for his troops in return.
Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the strategic partnership deal during the Kremlin chief’s visit to Pyongyang.
It obligates both states to provide military assistance “without delay” in the case of an attack on the other, and to jointly oppose Western sanctions.
It came into effect from Wednesday, when the ratification documents were exchanged in Moscow by the countries’ vice foreign ministers Kim Jong Gyu and Andrei Rudenko, KCNA reported.
Lawmakers in Moscow last month voted unanimously for the deal and it was later signed by Putin. Pyongyang said it was ratified by a decree from Kim.
The treaty will serve “as a strong driving force accelerating the establishment of an independent and just multi-polarized world order without domination, subjugation and hegemony,” KCNA said.
Analysts have suggested Pyongyang could be using Ukraine as a means of realigning its foreign policy.
By sending soldiers, North Korea is positioning itself within the Russian war economy as a supplier of weapons, military support and labor — potentially even bypassing traditional ally, neighbor and main trading partner China, they say.
North Korea and Russia have strengthened their military ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Both countries are under rafts of UN sanctions — the former for its nuclear weapons program and the latter for the Ukraine conflict.
Kim said last week during a visit to Pyongyang by Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov that his government, army and people would “invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Putin hailed the deal in June as a “breakthrough document.”


Eyeing Trump, Los Angeles adopts ‘sanctuary city’ rules

Eyeing Trump, Los Angeles adopts ‘sanctuary city’ rules
Updated 52 min 55 sec ago
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Eyeing Trump, Los Angeles adopts ‘sanctuary city’ rules

Eyeing Trump, Los Angeles adopts ‘sanctuary city’ rules

LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted to adopt “sanctuary city” status for America’s second biggest metropolis, as liberal jurisdictions gird for Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The ordinance, passed by a unanimous vote, will prohibit city resources or personnel from being used to implement federal immigration laws.
The move comes as Trump appears ready to push ahead with campaign promises to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants, with the appointment of hard-liners to his administration.
It also comes as liberal administrations across the United States, led by California, are trying to establish bulwarks against what they see as the expected excesses of a new Trump presidency.
Wednesday’s vote was passed with an urgency clause that would allow it to come into effect in as little as 10 days after Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signs off on it.
There was no debate at the council meeting as the vote was a procedural repetition of an earlier agreement.
“We have been a pro-immigrant city for a number of years, we know that there is a target on our back from this president-elect, and what we are doing here is we are hardening our defenses,” Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said last month.
“We are codifying our good policies on protecting immigrants.”
Trump made a promise to crack down on migration the centerpiece of his election campaign, and rallygoers were frequently photographed carrying placards that said “Mass Deportation Now.”
The president-elect insisted that illegal migrants were disproportionately responsible for crime, even as figures show US citizens commit more offenses per capita.
The Los Angeles County Republican Party lashed out at Wednesday’s move.
“So-called ‘sanctuary’ cities and states sound warm and fuzzy, but the protections they offer aren’t for (grandmothers) getting ice cream, they’re for people who’ve entered the country illegally and committed additional crimes,” a statement said.
“Whether drunk driving, robbery, sexual violence, assault or murder, none of those should go unpunished. Perpetrators should definitely not be protected by the largesse taken from hard-working taxpayers.”
Los Angeles is home to a variety of cultures, with a large number of its residents first or second generation immigrants.


85 migrants rescued in Channel: French authorities

85 migrants rescued in Channel: French authorities
Updated 59 min 14 sec ago
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85 migrants rescued in Channel: French authorities

85 migrants rescued in Channel: French authorities

LILLE, France: The French navy rescued 85 migrants trying to cross the Channel from France to England on Wednesday, maritime authorities said, the latest in a deadly series of dangerous crossings.
One of “numerous” migrant boats that set out to sea called for help after hitting a sandbank off the Pas-de-Calais region, France’s Channel and North Sea maritime prefecture said in a statement.
A navy tugboat saved 80 passengers from that boat and five more from a second migrant vessel at another location, it said.
The migrants were brought back to land at Boulogne-sur-Mer and attended to by emergency services and border police.
More than 70 migrants have died trying to cross the Channel to Britain this year, according to the Pas-de-Calais authorities.
Tens of thousands more have reached Britain, whose government has vowed to crack down on people-smuggling gangs.
In Germany on Wednesday, police carried out pre-dawn raids targeting an alleged Syrian and Iraqi-Kurdish criminal network accused of smuggling migrants by boat from France to Britain.
 


Biden aide says US would run out of munition in China war

Biden aide says US would run out of munition in China war
Updated 05 December 2024
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Biden aide says US would run out of munition in China war

Biden aide says US would run out of munition in China war
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s national security adviser warned Wednesday that the United States could quickly run out of munitions in a war with China as he called for more sustained defense production.
Jake Sullivan appealed to the incoming administration of Donald Trump to sustain the ramp-up of the domestic defense industry spurred by the war in Ukraine.
“God forbid we end up in a full-scale war with the PRC,” Sullivan said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“But any war with a country like the PRC, a military like the PRC, is going to involve the exhaustion of munition stockpiles very rapidly,” he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“A big part of the answer to a healthy defense industrial base over time is the ability to regenerate, to surge, to build during a conflict — not just to build before, or to prepare for a conflict,” he said.
Sullivan called for Congress and the Trump administration to keep working on a Biden proposal to create a revolving fund of munitions.
The fund, which was proposed at $500 million a year, would let the Pentagon procure critical munitions even as they run out due to wars such as Ukraine.
Sullivan acknowledged there would be debate in the next administration on the size of the defense budget but said it was critical to keep up efforts to boost a military-industrial base which atrophied after the end of the Cold War when then United States saw no close competitor.
“First and most fundamentally, we’ve got to keep ramping up and accelerating production and procurement of the things that we need most,” he said.
He pointed to efforts to build 155-millimeter artillery rounds for Ukraine.
He said that the United States will produce 55,000 such rounds per month by the time the Biden administration leaves office next month, a 400 percent increase from before, with a goal of reaching 100,000 per month by early 2026.
Sullivan also pointed to the need to counter cooperation among US adversaries — China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.
Trump’s team has made clear it is unenthusiastic about the billions of dollars in US weapons for Ukraine and has spoken of forcing a quick settlement with Russia.
Trump’s advisers, notably Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, have said that US resources would be better spent countering China.