Your Thursday Briefing: A Lethal Earthquake in Afghanistan

We’re overlaying a lethal earthquake in Afghanistan and the results of China’s ban of a Taiwanese fish.

Not less than 1,000 killed by earthquake in Afghanistan

An earthquake struck a distant and mountainous a part of Afghanistan yesterday, killing greater than 1,000 individuals and injuring at the very least 1,600 others.

The quake, which had a magnitude of 5.9, struck about 28 miles southwest of town of Khost, however the worst harm was within the neighboring Paktika province, which lies alongside the border with Pakistan and the place some residents dwell in homes product of clay and straw. It was the deadliest earthquake to hit Afghanistan in additional than twenty years, and the variety of casualties was anticipated to rise, a U.N. company mentioned.

Search-and-rescue efforts, led by the Afghan Ministry of Protection, have been hampered by wind and heavy rain, which prevented helicopters from touchdown safely. A U.N. consultant for Afghanistan reported that almost 2,000 properties have been destroyed. Afghan households are usually giant, and households generally dwell collectively, the consultant mentioned, and the earthquake will most certainly displace many individuals.

Eyewitness: Sarhadi Khosti, 26, who lives within the Sperah district of Khost Province, mentioned that the earthquake woke him up after 1 a.m. and destroyed numerous homes — particularly these product of earth or wooden. “For now, we nonetheless are busy pulling the lifeless or injured from underneath the rubble,” he mentioned.

Pakistan: The earthquake was felt in a number of elements of Pakistan, however the nation was spared the form of harm seen in neighboring Afghanistan.

Authorities: The earthquake is simply the newest problem to confront the fledgling Taliban authorities.

The sluggish, brutal advance of Russian troops has tightened their vise round Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk — the neighboring cities the place Ukrainian forces have been trying to cease Russia from seizing all of Luhansk province. Moscow’s forces already management most of Sievierodonetsk, making the protection of Lysychansk a key showdown for management of the Donbas area.

Russia controls about half of Donetsk province and is pushing from the east, north and south to attempt to take extra territory there. However analysts say that Russia’s battered forces face an much more troublesome battle in Donetsk than in Luhansk.

Extra information from the warfare in Ukraine:

• Finland and Sweden, who utilized to affix NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, anticipated fast admission to the alliance. Turkey had different concepts.

China pressures Taiwan with fish ban

China’s current ban on importing grouper from Taiwan has rapidly reworked a profitable business into one scrambling for help, threatening the livelihoods of fish farmers there and displaying the extent of Chinese language financial energy.

With out the Chinese language market, grouper, which is thought for its lean and moist meat, is crashing in value. Final 12 months, the overwhelming majority of Taiwan’s grouper exports — 91 % and greater than $50 million value — went to China. Most of these grouper have been shipped alive, and shifting markets elsewhere would most certainly require a system of refrigerated or frozen transportation, which might deliver added prices.

The ban got here as China’s chief, Xi Jinping — who has mentioned that Taiwan’s unification with China is inevitable — has ramped up stress on the island: sending army plane towards the island virtually every day, peeling off its diplomatic allies and blocking it from becoming a member of worldwide organizations. Just lately, Beijing has sought to limit the island’s entry to China’s huge client market, banning Taiwanese pineapples and wax apples — and now grouper.

What’s subsequent: Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture has mentioned it would think about submitting a grievance concerning the grouper ban to the World Commerce Group. Within the meantime, grouper farmers mentioned they must accept promoting the fish on the home market at an enormous loss.

Households whose kin have been kidnapped or imprisoned by North Korea are in search of to sue the nation in hopes of holding it financially accountable. Odds of accumulating any cash from the remoted nation are low, however a couple of current payouts derived from seized North Korean belongings have given some households a cause to be cautiously optimistic.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Cooking for newcomers

On the subject of cooking, all of us have to begin someplace — and for a few of us, that begins with slicing an onion or cracking an egg right into a pan. Possibly you’ve simply graduated from school and are by yourself for the primary time, or maybe you’ve by no means fairly gotten the cling of cooking. Both approach, there’s hope.

Nikita Richardson, an editor for The Occasions’s Meals part, has collated these ten recipes for can-hardly-boil-water newcomers. Organized from best to hardest, they embody a no-cook tuna mayo rice bowl on the simpler finish, and oven-roasted hen thighs with potatoes and lemons for extra of a problem.

With apply, repetition and persistence, you’ll not solely develop a set of abilities which you can apply to different kitchen exploits, however you’ll even have 10 scrumptious dishes underneath your belt value cooking on repeat. Bon appétit! — Natasha Frost, a Briefings author