Bessent Says Yen Moves Contained as BOJ Rate Decision Looms 
Finland’s Stubb Says Russia Unlikely to Attack NATO 
Nepal Declines Foreign Rescue Aid After Deadly Flash Flood 
Israeli Airstrike Kills Hamas Operative, Two Others in West Bank 
Iran’s Khamenei Urges Muslim, Gulf Unity Against ‘Real Enemy’ 
Trump Says ExxonMobil Among Oil Majors Planning Venezuela Return 
South Korea Leveraged Chip ETF Trading Plunges After New Rules 
Brazil, US Resume Tariff Talks as Trade Tensions Persist 
Top US General Says No Troops Planned at Polling Places 
Trump Posts AI Video of Iran’s Kharg Island Exploding as Tensions Surge 
Nepal Seeks More China Glacier Data After Deadly Himalayan Flood 
Bessent Urges G20 to Rethink China Trade Ties 
US Treasury Plans Weekly Iran Sanctions Push 
Trump Secures Drug Pricing Deals With Nine Pharma Companies 
U.S. Strikes Iranian Launchers on Larak Island 
Canada Backs €100B Global Defence Bank as G7 Support Lags 
Trump Reviews U.S. Position on Falkland Islands 
Add as a preferred source on Google
The Taliban looks to solve certain concerns raised by the international community regarding its governing of Afghanistan. The insurgent group’s supreme leader decreed that there would no longer be the cultivation of opium poppy.
The Taliban’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhunzada issued a decree Sunday, ordering the prohibition of cultivating the opium poppy nationwide. This comes as the international community raised its concerns about how the group plans to control the key issue of drugs in the country.
“As per the decree of the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, all Afghans are informed that from now on, cultivation of poppy has been strictly prohibited across the country,” said Akhunzada during a press conference in Kabul.
“If anyone violates the decree, the crop will be destroyed immediately and the violator will be treated according to the Sharia Law,” Akhunzada added. The ban also applies to the production, use, or transporting of other narcotics in the country.
The latest policy by the Taliban also comes as it looks to gain international recognition as Afghanistan’s government since the withdrawal in August 2021 in order for some sanctions relief that has affected the country’s economy. The Taliban previously banned poppy growing during their rule in 2000 as they also sought to gain international recognition at that time.
Afghanistan’s Acting Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi urged the international community to cooperate with the Taliban towards the treatment of drug addicts and to help farmers diversify their businesses as poppy cultivation is a key source of income for farmers facing poverty.
Meanwhile, a former Taliban torturer has been granted the right to stay in the UK over fears that he himself may be subject to torture if he is sent back to Afghanistan. The UK Home Office accepted the reason that deporting him back to Afghanistan would also place him at “real risk” of getting tortured and his human rights getting violated.
The former Taliban torturer was recruited by the insurgent group during the 1990s, first coming to the UK in 2006 and trying to claim asylum but was rejected. The former torturer claimed asylum again in 2010 but was also rejected at the time until his third attempt.
