31 March 22
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"I don't care what Mr. Manchin has to say," he told Insider on Tuesday.
He went on: "At a time of massive income and wealth inequality where billionaires are doing phenomenally well and in some cases don't pay any federal taxes, it's absolutely essential that we have a progressive tax system and demand billionaires pay their fair share in taxes. We got to go forward on that."
Manchin came out in opposition to President Joe Biden's tax proposal less than 12 hours after it was formally unveiled. It's the second time in five months that he derailed a specific proposal designed to target the super-rich. Democrats are closer to reviving pieces of their defunct social and climate bill, but it can reach Biden's desk only if all 50 Senate Democrats cast a vote for it.
The plan would establish a 20% minimum tax rate on households worth $100 million or more and would expand the definition of taxable income to include the accruing value of unsold investments like stocks or bonds, otherwise known as unrealized capital gains. Currently, gains on investments are taxed only when they're sold for cash.
The conservative Democrat is against taxing these financial investments annually. "You can't tax something that's not earned — earned income is what we're based on," he told reporters on Tuesday. "Unrealized gains is not the way to do it."
Manchin and Sanders have had an icy relationship in recent months. The Vermont independent has repeatedly criticized Manchin for derailing Biden's economic agenda late last year.
He opened the door to backing a primary challenger to Manchin in 2024. Sanders also swiped at Manchin for siding with the GOP and allowing the expiration of the expanded child tax credit.
Manchin has taken Sanders to task as well, saying his ideology is "not what I think the majority of Americans represent."
Ukraine's government is preparing for 'a build-up of Russian forces for new strikes on the Donbas.' (photo: Heidi Levine/Washington Post)
ALSO SEE: Putin's Soldiers Caught on Tape Lamenting Losses
and Blasting His Army of 'Stupid Morons'
Volodymyr Zelenskiy says fierce resistance has pressured Russian forces in Kyiv but Ukraine is preparing for strikes in other regions
In an early morning video address, the Ukrainian president said Russia’s drawdown announcement had been forced upon the Kremlin by the fierce resistance of Ukraine’s armed forces.
He added that his government was instead seeing “a build-up of Russian forces for new strikes on the Donbas” and preparing for that. The region encompasses two self-proclaimed “people’s republics” that Russia says it is helping to free from Ukrainian control. The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, said on Wednesday that offensive operations were intensifying.
Donetsk includes the besieged port city of Mariupol, which has seen some of the war’s heaviest fighting and bombardment and where about 170,000 people are trapped with scarce food and water.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Thursday morning that a convoy of 45 buses were on their way to the city after the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed Moscow had agreed to open a corridor from 10am local time (7am GMT) for three hours.
Previous attempts to organise safe passage have failed. Moscow denies targeting Ukrainian civilians in its five-week bombardment of the city.
A successful evacuation would build on Russian promises to draw down its forces in some areas before the planned resumption of peace talks on Friday.
Ukraine’s government and its western allies, however, remain wary that Russia is building up its forces in eastern Ukraine in readiness for a new wave of attacks in the breakaway Donbas region, which includes Mariupol. Despite the withdrawal claims, Russian forces have continued to bombard the northern city of Chernihiv and parts of the capital Kyiv.
A renewed move on Donbas would be consistent with Moscow’s claim this week about a withdrawal from some areas to focus on “liberating” the breakaway eastern region
The fate of Donbas, which Russia demands Ukraine cede to the separatists, was a topic of discussion at peace talks held on Tuesday in Istanbul. A senior Ukrainian negotiator said on Wednesday night that the talks would resume online on Friday.
Zelenskiy said the talks had produced nothing “concrete” while one of his senior aides said the Ukrainian leader could meet Putin soon.
The head of Ukraine’s negotiating team, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that Moscow was scrutinising proposals submitted by Kyiv in Istanbul that he believed could lead to a presidential peace summit between the pair. However, a Kremlin spokesman downplayed the hopes of an early breakthrough in the peace talks.
Ukraine has sought a ceasefire without compromising on territory or sovereignty, although it has proposed adopting a neutral status in exchange for security guarantees. Russia opposes Ukraine joining Nato, the western military alliance, and has cited its potential membership as a reason for the invasion.
Zelenskiy also said in his TV address that he talked to Joe Biden for an hour on Wednesday during another “very active diplomatic day”. He said he thanked the US president for a new $1bn (£760m) humanitarian aid package and an additional $500m in direct budget support. Zelenskiy said: “The support of the United States is vital for us. And now it is especially important to lend a hand to Ukraine, to show all the power of the democratic world.”
A possible shift in the military situation in Ukraine came as the head of Britain’s spy services agency claimed Putin had been misinformed about the extent of Russian military failure in Ukraine because his advisers were too frightened to tell him the truth.
Sir Jeremy Fleming, in a speech given in Australia on Thursday, said the Russian leader had misjudged the strength of Ukrainian resistance, the western response and the ability of his forces to deliver a rapid victory.
Fleming, whose comments were backed up by US and EU officials, said that the failure to achieve a quick victory must be causing discord in the Kremlin. “And even though we believe Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, what’s going on and the extent of these misjudgments must be crystal clear to the regime.”
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby agreed and said: “It’s [Putin’s] military. It’s his war. He chose it ... the fact that he may not fully understand the degree to which his forces are failing in Ukraine, that’s a little discomforting.”
In other developments
- The Biden administration is considering a plan to release approximately 1 million barrels of oil a day from US reserves for several months, in order to combat rising fuel prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, according to Bloomberg.
- Germany has triggered the first stage of plans to ration power if the standoff with Russia over gas supplies and sanctions is not resolved. Moscow is demanding payment for energy be made in roubles, but this could undercut western sanctions on Russia and countries are under pressure not to go along with the Kremlin’s plan.
- The Russian rouble has recovered to its pre-war value despite western sanctions on the country’s exports and financial systems. The currency was trading at 75.5 to $1 on Thursday morning, compared with almost 140 at the beginning of March when it crashed with the onset of sanctions.
- Zelenskiy addressed the Australian parliament on Thursday.
- Global restrictions on exports of industrial components to Russia have hit car and tank production. A carmaker has shut down and tank production has halted, according to the US. Baikal Electronics, a Russian semiconductor company and computer manufacturer, has been cut off from integrated circuits to support its surveillance, servers, and other domestic communications equipment.
- Liz Truss, Britain’s foreign secretary, is due to land in India on Thursday to urge Narendra Modi’s government to reduce its strategic dependency on Russia. Her arrival coincides with that of her sparring partner Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, who will be making his first visit since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Major jewellers including American brand Tiffany … Co; Swiss watch and jewellery-maker Chopard; Signet, the largest retailer of diamond jewellery; and Pandora, the world’s largest jeweller, have released statements saying they will stop buying diamonds of Russian origin.
- The UK has announced new laws targeting the access of Russian oligarchs to “UK aviation and maritime technical services”, according to the Foreign Office.
A customer hands over Russian ruble banknotes and coins to a vendor at a market in Omsk, Russia, on Feb. 18. (photo: Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)
ALSO SEE: Why Is Vladimir Putin Demanding Russian Gas
Is Paid for in Roubles?
Some current and former Treasury officials, foreign exchange traders and sanctions experts say the ruble's rebound doesn’t necessarily mean the West’s economic weapons are losing their punch.
The Russian currency, which was trading at about 84 rubles to the dollar on Feb. 23, the day before President Vladimir Putin launched the attack, had plunged roughly 70 percent by March 7. As of Wednesday, the ruble was nearly back to its prewar level. That’s partly because a surge in oil and gas prices — commodities that were explicitly carved out of the initial sanctions — has boosted Russia’s energy revenue.
“The strength in the ruble is reinforcing the argument for those who think that we need to take greater steps on the energy side,” said Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “It’s definitely increasing that political pressure.”
Some current and former Treasury officials, foreign exchange traders and sanctions experts say the ruble’s rebound doesn’t necessarily mean the West’s economic weapons are losing their punch. While there may be reason to escalate sanctions, the currency’s comeback primarily reflects the extraordinary steps Russia’s central bank has taken to stop the ruble’s freefall, they say. It is not a sign of an improvement in the Russian economy or in Putin’s hand.
Still, Russia’s economic policymakers have responded, so it is now the West’s turn to answer, said Daniel Glaser, the former assistant Treasury secretary for terrorist financing during the Obama administration.
“It’s very hard to keep sanctions the same because the target will do things to adjust,” Glaser said. “So I do think it’s important to keep the pressure on, and I think keeping the pressure on means increasing sanctions.”
Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, who is traveling across Europe this week for meetings with his counterparts, signaled where Western allies are headed, saying on Tuesday that they’re planning new sanctions on more sectors of Russia’s economy, including its military supply chains.
“Now that our actions have blunted Russia’s ability to use its central bank assets to prop up its economy and fund Putin’s brutal war, we are going to increasingly focus our efforts on going after industries that are critical to Russia’s ability to project power, purchase the military equipment necessary to continue the war effort, and invest in the other tools of repression that are a part of the Kremlin’s playbook,” Adeyemo said in a speech in London.
Biden administration officials have repeatedly pointed to the deteriorating currency as a sign of the swift and devastating impact of Western sanctions, which included a coordinated effort to cut off Russia’s access to its war chest of foreign reserves.
“As a result of these unprecedented sanctions, the ruble almost is immediately reduced to rubble,” President Joe Biden said in Poland last week.
Biden has faced constant calls from Republicans and from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ratchet up sanctions. And while the ruble’s resurgence may be strengthening the argument that the U.S. and Europe need to do more to cut off Russian energy exports, those aren’t the only options.
Edward Fishman, a former Obama State Department official who played a central role in crafting sanctions after Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, said the U.S. could go much further, including escalating the sanctions that have already been imposed.
For example, the U.S. has imposed full blocking sanctions on only one of Russia’s five largest banks and has cut only seven financial institutions off from the SWIFT international payments system. While the U.S. has targeted Russia’s defense and banking sectors, it hasn’t imposed major restrictions on any of the big players in the mining and metals, transportation or shipping sectors.
“The U.S. and Europe I do believe deserve a lot of credit for the solidarity and resolve they’ve shown on sanctions,” Fishman said. “The sanctions are clearly impacting Russia’s economy dramatically. However, I think that we’ve stalled out a bit.”
“There’s a lot of room for escalation,” he added.
Treasury officials say they don’t see the ruble’s rise as a sign that sanctions are no longer effective.
One official pointed to a series of steps the central bank has taken to limit Russians’ ability to get rid of their rubles, including barring commercial banks from selling dollars to customers, prohibiting Russian brokerage firms from letting foreign clients sell securities, and limiting how many dollars Russians can withdraw from their bank accounts.
Those all have the effect of artificially inflating the ruble’s value, the official said.
“The retracement that we’ve seen from its historic weakness is really coming from these extreme policy decisions that have been made by the central bank,” the person said. “We don’t view this as demonstrating any kind of strength in Russia’s economic outlook.”
Looking beyond the ruble, the outlook is clearly ominous for Russia — people are fleeing, contributing to what the White House calls a “brain drain,” and trying to pull their money out of the country; Western businesses are closing up shop, and interest rates have soared. Economists at the Institute of International Finance estimate Russian GDP could contract by 15 percent this year.
The Western financial sanctions and export controls, coupled with the reluctance of many companies to do business in Russia, have also made it exceptionally difficult for Russia to import goods, said Ziemba.
She said the revenue from oil and gas is from contracts that were signed months ago, before the invasion began, suggesting that funding source could begin to dry up if more companies decide to self-sanction and stop buying Russian oil.
But there’s no evidence that that has happened yet, IIF chief economist Robin Brooks said on Twitter, posting a chart showing tanker traffic at Russian ports in March was on par with previous years.
Detroit election workers count absentee ballots for the 2020 general election at TCF Center on Nov. 4. (photo: Jeff Kowalsky/Getty)
In Philadelphia, the city was able to buy new high-speed machines to help sort mail ballots by ward and precinct, thanks to the roughly $10 million it received in donated funds.
In Coconino County, Ariz., the money paid for temporary staff to assist Native American voters to register and vote. In Chester County, Pa., it paid for body cameras for election workers picking up mail ballots from drop boxes.
But a year and a half later, that lifeline has also spawned a slew of conspiracies, and efforts in dozens of states to ban the kind of financial help local election officials say saved them.
The pandemic was killing more than 1,000 people per day that fall, and the risks it posed made voting exponentially more expensive as officials hurried to implement mail options and make in-person precincts safer.
But Congress didn't allocate more money to help make the general election happen, after an initial allotment during the primaries. That left local election officials desperate for other funding sources.
"I know the benefit that that [private] funding provided," said Al Schmidt, a Republican former election commissioner in Philadelphia. "And I cannot comprehend what a mess the 2020 election would have been if we did not have the equipment that we were able to purchase."
But for many Republican legislators across the country, using private money to run a government operation was unacceptable. And now, in many states, it won't happen again.
Bans are spreading across the U.S.
Since voting ended in 2020, more than a dozen states — all with Republican-controlled state legislatures — have enacted laws that prevent local election officials from accepting donations like they did leading up to that election. In at least five other states, Republican legislatures have tried to do the same, but they have been blocked by the vetoes of Democratic governors.
Much of the money donated leading up to the election, $350 million, came from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan. It was distributed through a grant program run by a nonprofit called the Center for Tech and Civic Life.
Facebook and Zuckerberg have been criticized since the 2016 election for damaging democracy by allowing misinformation to flourish on the platform.
Republicans have falsely seized on Zuckerberg's donations as a sign that the tech executive interfered in the voting process in 2020 to advantage Democrats, although there is no evidence that is the case.
Much of the money did go to helping states expand vote-by-mail operations, which Republicans have sought to paint as partisan in favor of Democrats, but research has shown there is traditionally very little if any partisan effect to such voting access expansions.
Michael Gableman, a conservative former state Supreme Court judge in Wisconsin who the GOP-controlled state legislature there hired to investigate the 2020 election, recently released a report that falsely implied the private donations amounted to "illegal bribery."
"I've been shocked at how deeply ... embedded the private Zuckerberg agents or employees came in actually administering the elections in those cities to one degree or another. In some cities, they took over the election," said Gableman in a recent interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission released a seven-page statement rebutting Gableman's claims shortly after, noting that a number of lawsuits were filed challenging the legality of the donations prior to the 2020 election and none were successful.
Republicans have also accused the CTCL of political bias, because significantly more of the donation money was allocated to districts won by Joe Biden than by former President Donald Trump.
But in many cases, those jurisdictions were cities with large populations that were also scrambling more frantically to ramp up their vote-by-mail operations, since it became clear early in the year that more Democrats than Republicans would want to vote by mail. Trump's misinformation campaign against mail voting tainted the practice for many GOP voters.
The Center for Tech and Civic Life gave grant funding to every election jurisdiction that applied for it.
"We invited every single election department in the entire country to apply for grant funding if they needed it," said Tiana Epps-Johnson, the executive director of the Center for Tech and Civic Life. "Ultimately, we received about 2,500 applications from election departments across 49 states and awarded funding to all of them."
An analysis of three swing states after the election by APM Reports also found no consistent difference in turnout rates among counties that received grants versus those that didn't.
A financial conundrum persists
Basically everyone in the elections community, including Epps-Johnson, wants these sorts of private grants to be unnecessary, regardless of whether they are legal.
"We have always agreed that the best way to fund election departments is robust, predictable public funding," said Epps-Johnson.
The problem is that predictable public funding hasn't come, even as state legislatures rush to cut off this other funding source for voting officials.
A recent MIT study noted that the U.S. spends roughly the same amount each year on its elections as it does on maintaining parking facilities.
"While legislatures have been taking up the issue of banning the ability to supplement election departments' budgets, they haven't at the same time made sure to address the underlying issue that made our work necessary in the first place," Epps-Johnson added.
Since revelations about election vulnerabilities came out of the 2016 election, officials have been begging Congress not only for more money to support voting, but annual allocations instead of one-time lump sums.
In 2020, Congress allocated $400 million to help election officials respond to the coronavirus. It sent no money in 2021, and this year the federal government sent another $75 million as part of the recent spending package signed by President Biden.
"The thing [election officials] want is consistency, something they can set their budget clocks to," said Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in 2019. "If the federal government is going to play in this space, we have to be dependable partners."
Experts also say the $75 million that Congress sent to support voting this year doesn't come close to what's needed. Schmidt called it "inadequate," noting that administering elections in Philadelphia alone costs about $20 million per year.
The Brennan Center for Justice estimated in a recent report that it would cost more than $350 million just to replace outdated polling place equipment nationwide. Another study from the Election Infrastructure Initiative estimated that election offices need roughly $50 billion over the next decade to modernize and run voting.
"There is an argument that funding should come from the government, so you don't open yourself up to criticism that you're being somehow persuaded by some partisan group. ... Perception-wise, it's cleaner," said David Maeda, the state elections director in Minnesota. "The problem has always been getting that [funding]."
Ismael Jimenez, a social studies and African American studies teacher at Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School, speaks with a megaphone at a Jan. 4 rally. (photo: Tom Gralish/Philadelphia Inquirer)
"We are writing to urge you to act now to extend the pause on federally-held student loan payments until at least the end of the year and to provide meaningful student debt cancellation," the letter signed by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Jim Clyburn (D-SC) stated. Another 87 lawmakers added their names to the letter.
Student loan payments and interest on federally-held debt have been suspended since March 2020, meaning that an estimated 37 million borrowers did not have to pay on their loans. The New York Fed recently found that the payment pause has led to "an estimated $195 billion worth of waived payments through April 2022." Another roughly 10 million borrowers who hold private or Family Federal Education Loan (FFEL) loans owned by commercial banks did not benefit from the payment pause.
"The payment pause has been a significant federal investment throughout the pandemic, providing essential relief to millions of families during the economic and public health crisis and saving them an average of $393 per month," the letter asserted, later adding that most borrowers "are not financially prepared to shoulder another bill as they face skyrocketing costs for necessities like food and gas."
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain recently said that President Biden "is going to look at what we should do on student debt before the pause expires, or he’ll extend the pause." The letter noted that Klain's comments "about potentially extending the payment pause and administratively canceling student loan debt are encouraging to millions of borrowers across the country."
Biden backed broad student loan forgiveness of $10,000 on the campaign trail in 2020 amid more generous proposals from then-rivals Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Warren. An erasure of $10,000 for all borrowers with federally-backed loans would cost roughly $371 billion and erase the loans of about a third of borrowers.
During the current administration, Democrats have repeatedly urged a seemingly skeptical President Biden to enact broad-based cancellation of up to $50,000 via executive action (as opposed to legislation passed by Congress). The letter echoed Warren's previously stated argument that student loan forgiveness would boost the economy.
"Canceling a meaningful amount of student debt will provide long-term benefits to individuals and the economy, helping families buy their first homes, open a small business, or invest in their retirement," the letter stated.
'Your administration must act as quickly as possible'
The debate surrounding another extension of the pause and potential direct student loan forgiveness increasingly has potential political implications with midterm elections coming up in November.
“The majority of Americans support you taking action; recent polling shows that over 60% of likely voters support continuing to pause student loan payments and canceling student debt, with support strongest among likely voters of color,” the letter said, adding that “your administration must act as quickly as possible to extend the pause and make clear to the American public your intention to cancel a meaningful amount of student debt."
Rep. Pressley has repeatedly argued that student loan forgiveness is "a matter of racial and economic justice" given the disproportionate burden on borrowers of color.
"Canceling student debt is one of the most powerful ways to address racial and economic equity issues," the new letter stated. "The student loan system mirrors many of the inequalities that plague American society and widens the racial wealth gap. Black students in particular borrow more to attend college, borrow more often while they are in school, and have a harder time paying their debt off than their white peers."
A recent analysis from the California Policy Lab and the Student Loan Law Initiative found that if the payment pause ends after May 1, about 7.8 million borrowers — roughly one in three student debtors — are at "high risk" of struggling to repay their loans.
'We applaud your efforts to date'
Thursday's letter was the latest in lawmakers’ and advocates’ efforts to push the administration to make a decision on loan forgiveness.
Warren, Schumer, and Pressley have repeatedly called on Biden to cancel $50,000 in student loan debt immediately via executive order on the premise that there is sufficient legal backing for the administration to do so.
The basic argument, as detailed by the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, is that the Education Secretary has the power “to cancel existing student loan debt under a distinct statutory authority — the authority to modify existing loans found in 20 U.S.C. § 1082(a)(4).” (Toby Merrill, who founded the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard Law School and co-authored the legal analysis, currently works for the Education Department.)
A memo related to the president's legal authority on student loan forgiveness, sent to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in April 2021, became public in November in a heavily redacted form.
The Biden-era ED has taken several actions — aside from extending the payment pause multiple times — to refine the unwieldy student loan system and erase debt. These include overhauling the troubled Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program for student loan borrowers in public service, erasing debt held by some students who were defrauded by a predatory for-profit college, discharging debt of totally and permanently disabled borrowers, and increasing scrutiny of student loan servicers. One estimate is that 700,000 borrowers have seen more than $17 billion wiped away during Biden's tenure.
“While we applaud your efforts to date – including targeted relief for disabled borrowers, victims of for-profit colleges, and others as well as working to fix existing programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness – these efforts still leave the majority of federal student loan borrowers out,” the new letter from the Democrats stated.
The UN World Food Program says Afghanistan is facing a 'tsunami of hunger' with it on the verge of economic collapse. (photo: Petros Giannakouris/AP)
Dire economic situation sees children dying of starvation as millions of Afghans struggle to put food on their tables.
“As adults, we can manage, but when the kids ask for food, I don’t know what to tell them,” the 24-year-old former radio presenter from northern Afghanistan told Al Jazeera.
When the family are able to eat, it’s often only bread, and sometimes with vegetables, accompanied by watered-down green tea. Sometimes there is sugar to put in the tea, which is a rare luxury these days, as they struggle to survive after Farahanaz, the sole breadwinner for the family of eight – lost her job after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last August.
“My younger sister was recovering from surgery when the Taliban took control and lives were overturned. She has lost so much weight, and falls sick when there isn’t enough to eat,” Farhanaz said. But the family cannot afford medical assistance, either.
Farhanaz’s family is among the 23 million Afghans facing starvation, in what has become a hunger crisis of “unparalleled proportions”, according to Dr Ramiz Alakbarov, deputy special representative of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“In Afghanistan, a staggering 95 percent of the population is not eating enough food … It is a figure so high that it is almost inconceivable. Yet, devastatingly, it is the harsh reality,” Alakbarov said in a statement issued in early March, adding that almost 100 percent of women-led households were experiencing hunger.
Alakbarov’s disturbing claim is reflected in Farhanaz’s situation.
“In better days, I was a radio presenter, and also worked as a teacher part-time. Between my brother, who worked in the Afghan security forces, and I, we were able to feed and care for eight members of our family,” she said. “I even supported my own education and paid for my university, while helping my family,” she told Al Jazeera.
However, after the Taliban takeover, Farahnaz’s brother was forced to flee the country fearing persecution, leaving her as the sole breadwinner of the family.
“But when I went to work after the fall of the previous government [of President Ashraf Ghani], I was sent back. I lost my job, and have been struggling to feed my family over the last seven months,” she said.
Starvation and poverty
Since the Taliban returned to power, nearly 60 percent of women working in the media have lost their jobs, according to the International Federation of Journalists, more than 90 percent of whom were sole family breadwinners.
“Starvation and poverty are like a disease that not only affects your dastarkhwan [traditional rug meant for dining], but also your ability to challenge the situation and stand by your values,” said Dr Wahid Majrooh, the former Afghan minister of public health.
“It impacts your sense of dignity,” said Majrooh, who, unlike many government officials, refused to flee the country after the fall of the Western-backed Afghan government in the interests of preventing the collapse of the country’s underfunded health systems.
Simultaneously, increasing food insecurity has also led to a rise in cases of malnutrition, and starvation-related mortalities, particularly among children.
Majrooh pointed out that with people’s purchasing power affected, they also are unable to seek healthcare.
“Mothers cannot pay for their antenatal and postnatal care, and as evident maternal mortality and morbidity rate is increasing tremendously, and is also affecting child mortality,” he said, adding that health facilities are also unable to meet the demand.
13,700 newborn babies died in 2022
According to data shared by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) earlier this month, nearly 13,700 newborn babies and 26 mothers have died in 2022 due to a lack of nutrition.
In Baghlan province, Dr Abdul Rahman Ulfat, head of the nutrition department at the Public Health Directorate, told Al Jazeera that he had witnessed an unprecedented rise in starvation and malnutrition cases.
“Children under the age of five are worst affected because they are more vulnerable. Their bodies are still developing and the organs need a steady supply of nutrients, minerals, carbohydrates and adequate fats,” Ulfat explained. “If they don’t get these, they will lose their life.”
Afghan parents are flocking to hospitals and clinics with “sick babies and children withered to their bones” as health workers struggle to provide necessary care and treatments.
“While there is a lack of awareness within the community in terms of nutrition and healthcare conditions, the worsening situation can be attributed to the deteriorating economic conditions in Afghanistan,” Ulfat said, attributing rising crises, particularly among the urban middle class, to widespread poverty and unemployment.
“There is also a lack of domestic resources, particularly access to quality nutrient products, and a lack of transparency in the distribution of food packages among the deserving and vulnerable,” he added.
Alongside health workers, international aid agencies are also struggling to tackle the hunger crisis, faced with new financial challenges, triggered by international sanctions.
“While many countries have pledged humanitarian aid, Afghanistan also urgently needs a functioning banking system to address the crisis. Most Afghan banks are barely operating now,” a recent report by Human Rights Watch observed.
John Sifton, director at HRW, said Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis was an economic crisis. “Afghans see food in the market but lack the cash to buy it. Health workers are ready to save lives but have no salaries or supplies. Billions have been pledged for aid but remain unspent because banks can’t transfer or access funds.”
Banking crisis
Banking restrictions and sanctions on the Taliban by the United States and other countries have made it more difficult for aid groups to move funds and other resources into Afghanistan. Afghan banks are also operating cautiously and have limited cash withdrawals due to currency shortages in the country.
“The unresolved liquidity crisis is a key driver in what is becoming the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world,” Jan Egeland, secretary-general at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) had said, adding that the organisation had called to raise $4.4bn for starving Afghans.
“But unless the US Treasury and other Western financial authorities enable us to transfer the aid money, we will be forced to work with our hands tied, unable to get that money to the communities who desperately need it,” he warned.
Farhanaz echoed this concern. “There is a visible sense of desperation among millions of Afghans; people are selling their babies and young girls to survive. And yet Afghans are losing their lives,” she said, choking back tears.
“I hope the Taliban will allow us back to work and schools so we can help our families survive, but I also appeal to the world to not turn their backs on us. They are also responsible for this crisis, and I ask them to not abandon us in this misery,” she said.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks to participants at a climate change protest on January 17, 2020 in Lausanne, Switzerland. (photo: Getty)
Penguin Random House announced Thursday that “The Climate Book” will be published in Britain in October.
It contains contributions from more than 100 academics, thinkers and campaigners, including novelists Margaret Atwood and Amitav Ghosh, climate scientist Saleemul Huq and World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The book aims to help readers connect the dots between threats to the climate, environment, sustainability and indigenous populations — among others — and is intended as a guide to understanding and activism.
Contributors including Kenyan environmentalist Wanjira Mathai, Brazilian indigenous activist Sonia Guajajara, French economist Thomas Piketty and Canadian journalist Naomi Klein offer “compelling stories of change, action and resilience,” the publisher said, alongside Thunberg’s own stories of "learning, demonstrating, and uncovering greenwashing around the world.”
“My hope is that this book might be some kind of go-to source for understanding these different, closely interconnected crises,” Thunberg said in a statement.
Chloe Currens, editor at Penguin Press, said it was “a unique book, alive with moral purpose, which aims to change the climate conversation forever.”
Thunberg began skipping classes once a week to protest climate change in 2018, when she was 15, sparking a series of school walkouts that grew into a global youth movement.
Now 19, the Swedish activist has already published a memoir, “Our House Is On Fire” and a collection of speeches, “No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference.”
“The Climate Book” is published Oct. 27 in the U.K. by Allen Lane and in the U.S. in early 2023 by Penguin Press, as well as in countries around the world.
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