When Afghanistan was under Taliban rule previously, it unleashed a global wave of terror that claimed thousands of innocent lives in the 9/11 attacks and so many tragic incidents before and after. The war on terror dealt a mortal blow to Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups until the US withdrew from Afghanistan a year ago. Now the conflict-wracked country is again in danger of becoming a hotbed of global terrorism. It is clear from the recent killing of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri in a US drone attack in Kabul that the Taliban regime has never severed its links with Al-Qaeda. It has also continued to shelter other groups with terrorist ambitions in Pakistan, Central Asia and China. The UN estimates that over 10,000 terrorists are currently present in Afghanistan. These facts refute the Taliban’s repeated claims that they do not harbor any terrorist group on Afghan soil. The Taliban regime also faces no direct threat from the Islamic State Khorasan Province since both have persecuted the Afghan minority and female population. The Daesh affiliate has been responsible for a spate of bombings on soft targets, such as mosques, hospitals and schools, in the past year, with Hazaras and other Afghan minorities among key victims. It has also claimed responsibility for killing Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, a prominent Afghan cleric and proponent of female education, in a suicide bombing in Kabul on Thursday.
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.