But it is the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, thousands of miles from Europe, that has nearly broken ​the 76-year-old bloc and threatens to leave it in its weakest state since its creation, say analysts and diplomats.

Trump, enraged that European countries have declined to send their navies to open up the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping ‌following the start of the air war on Feb 28, has declared he is considering withdrawing from the alliance.

“Wouldn’t you if you were me?” Trump asked Reuters in a Wednesday interview.

In a speech on Wednesday night, Trump criticized U.S. allies but stopped short of condemning NATO, as many experts thought he might.

But combined with other barbs aimed at Europeans in recent weeks, Trump’s comments have provoked unprecedented concern that the U.S. will not come to the aid of European allies should they be attacked, whether or not Washington formally walks away.

The result, say analysts and diplomats, is that the alliance created in the Cold War that has long served as the basic fabric of European ​security is fraying and the mutual defense agreement at its core is no longer taken as a given.

“This is the worst place (NATO) has been since it was founded,” said Max Bergmann, a former State Department official who now leads the Europe, Russia, and ​Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“It’s really hard to think of anything that even comes close.”

That reality is sinking in for Europeans, who have counted on NATO as a ⁠bulwark against an increasingly assertive Russia.

As recently as February, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte had dismissed the idea of Europe defending itself without the U.S. as a “silly thought.” Now, many officials and diplomats consider it the default expectation.

“NATO remains necessary, but we must be capable of thinking of NATO ​without the Americans,” said General Francois Lecointre, who served as France’s armed forces chief from 2017 to 2021.

“Whether it should even continue to be called NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization – is a valid question.”

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said: “President Trump has made his disappointment with NATO and other allies ​clear, and as the President emphasized, ‘the United States will remember.’”

A NATO representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

THIS TIME IT’S DIFFERENT

NATO has been challenged before, not least during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021, when he also considered withdrawing from the alliance.

But while many European officials until recently believed that Trump could be kept on board with pomp and flattery, fewer now hold that belief, according to conversations with dozens of former and current U.S. and European officials.

Trump and his officials have expressed frustration over what they see as NATO’s unwillingness to help the United States in a time of need, including by not directly assisting with the Strait of Hormuz ​and by restricting U.S. use of some airfields and airspace. U.S. officials have declared NATO cannot be a “one-way street”.

European officials counter that they have not received U.S. requests for specific assets for a mission to open the strait and complain that Washington has been inconsistent about whether such ​a mission would operate during or after the war.

“It’s a terrible situation for NATO to be in,” said Jamie Shea, a former senior NATO official who is now a senior fellow at the Friends of Europe think tank.

“It is a blow to the allies who, since Trump returned to the White House, have ‌worked hard to ⁠show that they are willing and able to take more responsibility (for their own defense).”

Trump’s latest comments follow other signs of an increasingly unsteady alliance.

Those include his stepped-up threats in January to wrest Greenland away from Denmark and recent moves by the U.S. that Europeans see as particularly accommodating toward Russia, which NATO defines as its principal security threat.

The administration has remained essentially mum amid reports that Moscow has provided targeting data for Iran to attack U.S. assets in the Middle East and has lifted sanctions on Russian oil in a bid to ease global energy prices that have spiked during the war.

At a meeting of G7 foreign ministers near Paris last week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kaja Kallas, the foreign policy chief of the European Union, had a tense exchange, according to five people familiar with the matter, underlining the increasingly fraught transatlantic relationship.

Kallas asked when U.S. patience ​with Russian President Vladimir Putin would run out over Ukraine peace negotiations, ​prompting Rubio to respond with irritation that the U.S. was ⁠trying to end the war while also providing support to Ukraine, but the EU was welcome to mediate if it wanted to.

NO GOING BACK

Legally, Trump may lack the authority to withdraw from NATO. Under a law passed in 2023, a U.S. president cannot exit the alliance without the consent of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate, a nearly impossible threshold.

But analysts say that, as commander-in-chief, Trump can decide whether the U.S. military will defend ​NATO members. Declining to do so could imperil the alliance without a formal withdrawal.

To be sure, not everyone sees the current crisis as existential. One French diplomat described the president’s rhetoric as a passing ​temper tantrum.

Trump has changed his position on ⁠NATO before.

In 2024, he said on the campaign trail that he would encourage Putin to attack NATO members that do not pay their fair share on defense. By the last annual NATO summit, in June 2025, the alliance was in his good graces, with Trump delivering a speech effusively praising European leaders as people who “love their countries.”

Next week, Rutte, the NATO secretary-general, who has a strong relationship with Trump, is set to visit Washington in an effort to change Trump’s view once again.

Analysts say European nations have good reason to keep the U.S. engaged in NATO despite doubts over whether Trump would come to their defense. ⁠Among other reasons, the ​U.S. military provides a range of capabilities NATO can’t easily replace, such as satellite intelligence.

Even if Trump and the Europeans find a way to stay together in NATO, ​diplomats, analysts and officials say, the transatlantic alliance that has been central to the global order since World War Two may never be the same.

“I do think we’re turning the page of 80 years of working together,” said Julianne Smith, the U.S. ambassador to NATO under Democratic President Joe Biden.

“I don’t think it means the end of the transatlantic relationship, but we’re ​on the cusp of something that’s going to have a different look and feel to it.”

Source: Reuters

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Trump, who for weeks had been threatening new sanctions against Russia for failing to halt the conflict, announced instead last Friday that he would hold an August 15 summit with Putin in Alaska.

A White House official said on Saturday that Trump was open to Zelenskiy attending, but that preparations currently were for a bilateral meeting with Putin.

The Kremlin leader last week ruled out meeting Zelenskiy, saying the conditions for such an encounter were “unfortunately still far” from being met.

Trump said a potential deal would involve “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both (sides)”, a statement that compounded Ukrainian alarm that it may face pressure to surrender more land.

Zelenskiy says any decisions taken without Ukraine will be “stillborn” and unworkable.

On Saturday the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland and the European Commission said that any diplomatic solution must protect the security interests of Ukraine and Europe.

“The U.S. has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Sunday. “Any deal between the U.S. and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine’s and the whole of Europe’s security.”

EU foreign ministers will meet on Monday to discuss next steps, she said.

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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told U.S. network ABC News that Friday’s summit “will be about testing Putin, how serious he is on bringing this terrible war to an end”.

He added: “It will be, of course, about security guarantees, but also about the absolute need to acknowledge that Ukraine decides on its own future, that Ukraine has to be a sovereign nation, deciding on its own geopolitical future.”

Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, now holds nearly a fifth of the country.

Rutte said a future peace deal could not include legal recognition of Russian control over Ukrainian land, although it might include de facto recognition.

He compared it to the situation after World War Two when the United States accepted that the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were de facto controlled by the Soviet Union but did not legally recognise their annexation.

Zelenskiy said on Sunday: “The end of the war must be fair, and I am grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine and our people today.”

A European official said Europe had come up with a counter-proposal to Trump’s, but declined to provide details. Russian officials accused Europe of trying to thwart Trump’s efforts to end the war.

“The Euro-imbeciles are trying to prevent American efforts to help resolve the Ukrainian conflict,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev posted on social media on Sunday.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a vituperative statement that the relationship between Ukraine and the European Union resembled “necrophilia”.

Roman Alekhin, a Russian war blogger, said Europe had been reduced to the role of a spectator.

“If Putin and Trump reach an agreement directly, Europe will be faced with a fait accompli. Kyiv – even more so,” he said.

CAPTURED TERRITORY

No details of the proposed territorial swap that Trump alluded to have been officially announced.

In addition to Crimea, which it seized in 2014, Russia has formally claimed the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as its own, although it controls only about 70% of the last three.

It holds smaller pieces of territory in three other regions, while Ukraine says it holds a sliver of Russia’s Kursk region.

Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin analyst, said a swap could entail Russia handing over 1,500 sq km to Ukraine and obtaining 7,000 sq km, which he said Russia would capture anyway within about six months.

He provided no evidence to back any of those figures.

Russia took only about 500 sq km of territory in July, according to Western military analysts who say its grinding advances have come at the cost of very high casualties.

Ukraine and its European allies have been haunted for months by the fear that Trump, keen to claim credit for making peace and hoping to seal lucrative joint business deals between the U.S. and Russia, could align with Putin to cut a deal that would be deeply disadvantageous to Kyiv.

They had drawn some encouragement lately as Trump, having piled heavy pressure on Zelenskiy and berated him publicly in the Oval Office in February, began criticising Putin as Russia pounded Kyiv and other cities with its heaviest air attacks of the war.

But the impending Putin-Trump summit, agreed during a trip to Moscow by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff last week, has revived fears that Kyiv and Europe could be sidelined.

“What we will see emerge from Alaska will almost certainly be a catastrophe for Ukraine and Europe,” wrote Phillips P. O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

“And Ukraine will face the most terrible dilemma. Do they accept this humiliating and destructive deal? Or do they go it alone, unsure of the backing of European states?”

Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said on Sunday that Kyiv’s partnership with its European allies was critical to countering any attempts to keep it away from the table.

“For us right now, a joint position with the Europeans is our main resource,” he said on Ukrainian radio.

Source: Reuters

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The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, made this known while briefing newsmen on Thursday in Abuja on the operations of the Armed Forces.

Buba said the troops recovered 231 assorted weapons and 6,441 assorted ammunition, comprising 89 AK47 rifles, 40 locally fabricated gun, 59 dane guns, 250kg bombs used by NATO and Eastern Bloc aircraft and one MRAP.

Others according to him are 4,198 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo; 841 rounds of 7.62mm NATO; 88 rounds of 5.56mm; 16 rounds of 7.62 x 39mm; 99 rounds of 7.62x51mm; 956 rounds of 7.62x54mm; 242 live cartridges; one PKM magazine and 24 magazines among others.

In the North East, Buba said the troops of Operation Hadin Kai neutralised 83 terrorists, arrested 59 suspects and rescued 58 kidnapped hostages as well as recovered large cache of arms.

He said that 219 terrorist comprising 29 adult males, 65 adult females and 125 children surrendered to troops within the theatre of operations between May 8 and 14.

In the North Central, Buba said the troops of Operations Safe Haven and Whirl Stroke, neutralised 27 insurgents, arrested 154 violent extremists and rescued 42 kidnap hostages.

In the North West, he said the troops of Operation Hadarin Daji, also neutralised 58 terrorists, arrested 125 terrorists and rescued 105 kidnapped hostages.

Buba said the air component had on May 8, bombarded a new terrorists’ enclave in Faskari area of Katsina State following intelligence trail and confirmatory ISR on migration of notorious terrorists’ elements to the deserted settlement.

According to him, battle damage assessment revealed that several terrorists were neutralised and their structures as well as logistics destroyed.

He added that troops of Operation Whirl Punch apprehended 68 illegal miners from an illegal mining site in Gwagwalada Area Council of FCT Abuja during the week.

He said that the troops also neutralised 25 terrorists, arrested 97 suspects and rescued 32 kidnapped hostages.

He also said that in the South South, troops of Operation Delta Safe recovered 1,442,700 litres of stolen crude oil and 154,650 litres of illegally refined AGO.

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According to him, troops discovered and destroyed 18 dugout pits, 34 boats, five drums, four receiver, four reservoirs and 97 storage tanks.

“Other items recovered include 198 cooking ovens, nine vehicles, three pumping machines, two speedboats, one Baofeng radio, one outboard engine and 57 illegal refining sites.

“Troops also neutralised three extremists and apprehended 16 suspected oil thieves and other violent extremists.”

In the South East, Buba said the troops of Operation UDO KA neutralised 21 terrorists, arrested 45 violent extremists and rescued 12 kidnapped hostages as well as recovered cache of arms.

Source: NAN

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The West should remember that Russia also has weapons that could hit targets on its territory, he told 1,000 representatives from politics, business, culture and religion at his State of the Nation address to both houses of parliament.

The 71-year-old, set to be re-elected next month, emphasised that any escalation and the use of nuclear weapons could lead to the “extinction of civilization.”

“This war’s not a “cartoon film,” Putin said.

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NATO countries had sent Ukraine substantial amounts of military weapons to try to repel Russia’s invasion, now into its third year, but the Western defence alliance had yet to send its own troops.

The consequences of such a move could be tragic, Putin said, while at the same time rejecting claims that Russia wanted to attack the West as “nonsense.”

However, Russia would further strengthen its western flank due to the supposed danger posed by the expansion of NATO, Putin added.

Although he also offered to enter into dialogue with the United States over strategic security in the world.

Russia and the U.S. had suspended or cancelled several disarmament treaties in the course of the Ukraine conflict.

Putin said Russia would be ready for new talks if the U.S. stopped setting its sights on a strategic defeat for Moscow in Ukraine.

Source: dpa/NAN

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Putin issued a warning to Ukraine not to deploy the largely internationally outlawed cluster munitions that were shipped recently by the United States.

“I want to say that Russia has sufficient reserves of various types of cluster munitions,” Putin said in a video clip released by Russian state TV.

Russia did not want to use this resource, he added. “But of course, if it is used against us, then we reserve the right to take congruent actions.”

Human rights activists accuse Russian and Ukrainian forces of already using cluster bombs.

Putin denied this, even though he admitted that for a time there was a “known shortage of the ammunition” on the Russian side.

Cluster munitions are missiles and bombs that burst in the air over the target and scatter many small explosive devices.

Their use is controversial because a considerable proportion of them do not detonate but remain unexploded, like mines, endangering civilians long after hostilities have ended.

A total of 111 countries have outlawed cluster bombs under an international treaty, but the U.S., Ukraine and Russia have not signed that treaty.

Ukraine can potentially use the munitions to help clear extensive Russian defensive positions in its ongoing counter-offensive to retake its territories in the east and south.

The provision of the controversial cluster munitions is intended to fill a “gap” for Ukraine, according to the U.S. administration.

U.S. President Joe Biden was determined not to leave Ukraine “defenceless,” Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told US broadcaster CNN on Sunday.

Biden had earlier acknowledged that the U.S. had little other ammunition left in its stockpiles and described cluster munitions as a temporary solution.

Asked about this, Sullivan said that after Biden’s administration took office, it had been determined that the stockpiles of NATO standard munitions in the U.S. were “relatively small.”

Putin also mocked European politicians, whom he described as being totally dependent on the U.S. on state television on Sunday.

He also stated that Russian specialists will analyse the NATO weapons captured during the war against Ukraine and use them to improve Russia’s military systems.

READ ALSO: Biden defends decision to send Ukraine controversial weapons

“If there is an opportunity to look inside to see if there is something there that can be applied in our country, well, why not?” Putin told Russian state television on Sunday.

Putin repeated his assertion that Ukraine’s counter-offensive to liberate its occupied territories in the east and south of the country was unsuccessful.

In contrast, Ukraine has reported numerous territorial gains.

The Russian military often uses social media networks to display captured military equipment donated by Western allies who support Ukraine.

There have been proposals in the parliament in Moscow to organize an exhibition of the spoils of war.

Ukraine also displays captured Russian weapons in the city centre of the capital Kiev.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is heading to New York to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the International Criminal Court, ICC.

There, she is expected to give a speech calling for a reform of international law so that perpetrators of a war of aggression such as the Russian leader are held accountable.

“No one should be allowed to wage a war of aggression in the 21st century and go unpunished,” the Baerbock said on Sunday before her trip to New York.

Source: dpa/NAN

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NATO is deploying units of the rapid reaction NATO Response Force, NRF, on land, at sea, and in the air to respond quickly to any contingency, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, as Russian continued its attack on Ukraine.

He did not initially state where the troops would be deployed, in comments that followed a video conference with NATO leaders, but dpa learned that ground troops could be sent to Romania.

Meanwhile NRF units are due to head to Norway, for an exercise, in the first deployment of parts of the NRF in the course of deterrence and defence of the alliance area, Stoltenberg said.

The NATO members said the measures were “preventive, proportionate, and non-escalatory” in a statement.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the emergency summit that the eastern members of the alliance needed more troops following Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

As he spoke, the first British soldiers and trucks carrying additional equipment reached Estonia to reinforce the NATO battalion there.

A convoy with six battle tanks and other military vehicles reached the Tapa military base, the Estonian army said.

London is set to send 850 soldiers and equipment to Estonia, roughly doubling the British contingent there.

Other NATO members also announced new deployments to strengthen the Western military alliance.

Italy said it was making around 3,400 additional soldiers available on the alliance’s eastern flank, while Denmark announced it was ready to contribute 20 more F-16 fighter jets to help secure NATO airspace.

Also on Friday, Russia banned British aircraft from using its airspace, in a tit-for-tat response a day after London barred Russia’s Aeroflot airline from flying to Britain.

Poland and the Czech Republic followed up later by saying they would also close airspace to Russian planes.

Friday also saw Western countries impose tougher sanctions amid Moscow’s unrelenting attacks.

Washington was the latest to announce sanctions targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on Friday after penalties imposed on the two earlier by Britain and the European Union in response to Moscow’s invasion.

Russia responded by criticising the sanctions on Putin and Lavrov, slamming these as a sign of weak foreign policy.

In further efforts to cease hostilities, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, formally ended Russia’s accession negotiations, it said in a statement.

The organisation said it would continue to reconsider its co-operation with Russia in the days and weeks ahead, while also weighing how to better support the Ukrainian government.

The move came after the 47-country Council of Europe, Europe’s human rights watchdog, suspended Russia with immediate effect.

Individual countries also adopted their own measures, with the Spanish government withdrawing the country’s ambassador to Ukraine.

The pro-Russian president of Serbia, Alexander Vucic, has been critical of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“We consider it a grave mistake to violate the territorial integrity of a country like Ukraine,” Vucic said in Belgrade on Friday evening.

At the same time, he said that his country would not be imposing sanctions on Moscow.

Ambassador Silvia Cortés will be taken to Poland in a convoy of vehicles together with around 100 other Spanish citizens, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares told Spanish media on Friday.

The invasion has opened the eyes of many EU states, according to Latvia’s prime minister Krisjanis Karins, who said a period of naivety had come to an end, in comments to Latvian news agency Leta.

“Many European countries have lived under the illusion that everything can be negotiated if they find the right words to say to Putin and if they are patient,” Karins said, referring to the Baltic states’ long-standing admonitions to its EU and NATO partners.

But with a “brutal war” unfolding in Ukraine, Karins said, the same countries now understand that these were only empty hopes.

“For a long time, the world did not want to accept the obvious. Now everything has changed.

“Putin has lost all trust and support within the democratic world,” Karins said.

At the close of the day, U.S. President Joe Biden reiterated Washington’s support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“I commended the brave actions of the Ukrainian people who were fighting to defend their country,” Biden said in a statement following their call.

“I also conveyed ongoing economic, humanitarian, and security support being provided by the United States as well as our continued efforts to rally other countries to provide similar assistance,” U.S. President Joe Biden assured Zelensky.

Washington also dismissed Russian offers of talks with Ukraine.

“Diplomacy by the barrel of a gun, coercive diplomacy, is not something that we are going to take part in,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, adding this would not aid peace efforts in a real, genuine and sustainable way.

Diplomacy cannot succeed in a context where “you rain down bombs, mortar shells” and “your tanks advance towards a capital of 2.9 million people,” he said.

Meanwhile people worldwide took to the streets to show their solidarity with Ukraine.

Buildings and monuments were lit up in the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag, including starting Friday evening the Eiffel Tower.

In Germany, rallies were announced for the weekend in cities including Berlin.

In Stockholm, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg showed her support during Friday’s climate protest.

Along with others, the 19-year-old stood in front of the Russian embassy.

She held a small sign in the blue and yellow national colours with the inscription “Stand with Ukraine” in her hand.

Source: dpa/NAN

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Thousands of people, desperate to flee the country, were still thronging the airport, the official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters, even though the Taliban have urged people without legal travel documents to go home.

The speed with which the Islamist militant Taliban conquered Afghanistan as U.S. and other foreign troops were completing their withdrawal surprised even their own leaders and has left power vacuums in many places.

The Taliban called for unity ahead of Friday prayers, the first since they seized power, calling on imams to persuade people not to leave Afghanistan amid the chaos at the airport, protests and reports of violence.

Residents in Kabul and four other major cities said prayers appeared to have passed off with incident, though attendance was low.

A witness told Reuters several people were killed in the eastern city of Asadabad on Thursday when Taliban militants fired on a crowd demonstrating their allegiance to the vanquished Afghan republic, as the Taliban set about establishing an emirate, governed by strict Islamic law.

There were similar shows of defiance in two other cities – Jalalabad and Khost – in the east, with Afghans using celebrations of the nation’s 1919 independence from British control to vent their anger with the Taliban takeover.

Another witness reported gunshots near a rally in Kabul, but they appeared to be Taliban firing into the air.

A Taliban spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Kabul has been largely calm, except in and around the airport where 12 people have been killed since Sunday, NATO and Taliban officials said.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview with NBC News that the United States was “laser-focused” on “the potential for a terrorist attack” by a group such as Islamic State during the evacuation.

BLAME

Criticism of NATO and other Western powers has risen as images of the chaos and desperate fear of Taliban rule were shared around the world.

In one scene captured on social media, a small girl was hoisted over the airport’s perimeter wall and handed to a U.S. soldier.

U.S. President Joe Biden was set to speak about the evacuation efforts at 1 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Friday, having faced a torrent of criticism for his handling of the troop withdrawal, negotiated by the previous U.S. administration.

Biden is brushing off criticism of his administration’s chaotic Afghan pull-out because he and his aides believe the political fall-out at home will be limited, according to White House allies and administration officials.

Media in Britain reported its spy chiefs may face a grilling over intelligence failings.

Several British officials remained on holiday as the Afghan debacle erupted, and Foreign Minister Dominic Raab has been fiercely criticised for his initial response to the unfolding crisis.

The governments of Germany and Australia have also faced calls to do more and speed up the evacuation of citizens and Afghans who fear possible Taliban retribution.

On Thursday, G7 foreign ministers called for a united international response to prevent the crisis from worsening, in comments echoed by countries including Russia.

China said the world should support, not pressure, Afghanistan.

A Taliban spokesman told Chinese state media that China has played a constructive role in promoting peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and was welcome to contribute to its rebuilding.

FEAR OF REPRISALS

Since seizing Kabul on Sunday, the Taliban, who ruled with an iron fist from 1996 to 2001 before being toppled by U.S.-led forces for sheltering al Qaeda militants behind the Sept. 11 attacks, have presented a more moderate face this time round.

They said this week they want peace, will not take revenge against old enemies and will respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.

As the Taliban work to set up a government, including talks with a former president, Hamid Karzai, they are discovering new problems including hundreds of government officials who have not been paid for two months, a Taliban official said.

“It’s too early to say how this problem will be solved but it’s an immediate challenge,” the official said.

A Norwegian intelligence group said in a report the Taliban had begun rounding up Afghans on a blacklist of people linked to the previous administration or to U.S.-led forces that supported it.

Complaints by some Afghan journalists have cast doubt on assurances that independent media would be allowed.

Amnesty International said an investigation found the Taliban had murdered nine ethnic Hazara men after taking control of Ghazni province last month, raising fears that the Taliban, whose members are Sunni Muslims, will target Hazaras, who mostly belong to the Shi’ite minority.

A Taliban spokesman was not immediately available for comment on the reports.

A U.S. lawmaker said the Taliban were using files from Afghanistan’s intelligence agency to identify Afghans who worked for the United States.

“They are methodically ramping up efforts to round those folks up,” said Representative Jason Crow, who has been leading efforts in the U.S. Congress to accelerate the evacuation of American-affiliated Afghans.

Source: Reuters

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It said the militants have been going door-to-door to find targets and threatening their family members.

The hardline Islamist group has tried to reassure Afghans since seizing power in a lightning offensive, promising there would be “no revenge”.

But there are fears the Taliban have changed little since the brutal 1990s.

The warning the group were targeting “collaborators” came in a confidential document by the RHIPTO Norwegian Center for Global Analyses, which provides intelligence to the UN.

“There are a high number of individuals that are currently being targeted by the Taliban and the threat is crystal clear,” Christian Nellemann, who heads the group behind the report, told the BBC.

“It is in writing that, unless they give themselves in, the Taliban will arrest and prosecute, interrogate and punish family members on behalf of those individuals.”

He warned that anyone on the Taliban’s blacklist was in severe danger, and that there could be mass executions.

Foreign powers are continuing efforts to get their nationals out of Afghanistan.

A Nato official said on Friday that more than 18,000 people have been evacuated in the last five days from Kabul airport.

Some 6,000 more, among them former interpreters for foreign armed forces, are on standby to be flown out late on Thursday or early Friday.

The aim is to double evacuation efforts over the weekend, the official said.

Outside the airport the situation remains chaotic.

The Taliban have been blocking Afghans trying to flee, with one video showing a child being handed to a US soldier.

President Joe Biden, who has come under scathing criticism over what his opponents say is a “shambolic” US withdrawal, is expected to speak on Friday about the evacuation effort.

The Taliban captured Kabul on Sunday, having swept across the country as foreign forces withdrew.

Their victory returns the group to power 20 years on from when they were toppled in a US-led invasion.

The group’s previous stint in power saw widespread abuses, including public executions and banning women from the workplace.

But in their first news conference since retaking control of Afghanistan, the group presented a conciliatory tone, promising women’s rights would be respected “within the framework of Islamic law”.

The Taliban have reportedly pledged not to force women to wear the burka – a one-piece veil that covers the face and body.

Instead, the hijab – or a headscarf – will be compulsory.

They also said they did not want “any internal or external enemies” and that there would be an amnesty for former members of the security forces and those who worked with foreign powers.

International powers – and many Afghans – remain sceptical.

The UN chief Antonio Guterres said the only leverage the body had over the Taliban was the militant’s desire for international recognition.

Asked in an interview if he thought the Taliban had changed, President Biden said no, adding the group faced an “existential” choice about whether they want to be recognised.

Source: BBC

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China, they said, was rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, was “opaque” about its military modernisation and was co-operating militarily with Russia.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg warned China was “coming closer” to Nato in military and technological terms.

But he stressed the alliance did not want a new Cold War with China.

Nato is a powerful political and military alliance between 30 European and North American countries.

It was established after World War Two in response to the threat of communist expansion.

In recent years, the alliance came under strain as leaders debated its purpose and funding.

Tensions grew during the presidency of Donald Trump, who complained about his country’s financial contributions to the alliance and questioned the US commitment to defend European partners.

It is his successor Joe Biden’s first Nato meeting since taking office, and the new president has sought to reassert American backing for the 72-year-old alliance.

Mr Biden said Nato was critically important for “US interests” and the alliance had a “sacred obligation” to observe Article 5 of its founding treaty, which commits members to defend each other from attack.

Asked about his forthcoming summit with Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday, he described the Russian president as a “worthy adversary”.

In another development, the Nato leaders also agreed to pay to keep Kabul airport running in Afghanistan, as the US and its allies withdraw troops from the country.

Alliance member Turkey has offered to guard and operate the airport after troops leave.

Why is Nato focusing on China?

According to the summit’s communiqué (concluding statement), China’s “stated ambitions and assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to Alliance security”.

“We remain concerned with China’s frequent lack of transparency and use of disinformation,” it says.

Mr Stoltenberg told reporters: “We’re not entering a new Cold War and China is not our adversary, not our enemy.”

But, he added, “we need to address together, as the alliance, the challenges that the rise of China poses to our security”.

China is one of the world’s leading military and economic powers, whose ruling Communist Party has a tight grip on politics, daily life and much of society.

The Chinese military currently has the largest armed forces in the world, with over two million personnel on active duty.

Nato has become increasingly concerned about the growing military capabilities of China, which it sees as a threat to the security and democratic values of its members.

In recent years, the alliance has also grown wary of China’s activities in Africa, where it has set up army bases.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “When it comes to China, I don’t think anybody around the table wants to descend into a new Cold War with China.”

Nato’s tough message on China followed criticism of the country by the G7, a group of major economies that met for a summit in England last week.

In a communiqué G7 leaders criticised China for alleged human rights abuses and demanded a transparent investigation of the origins of Covid-19 in the country.

In response, China accused the G7 of “lies, rumours and baseless accusations” in a statement through its embassy in the UK.

What did Biden say about Putin?

The US leader famously said in an interview in March that he considered the Russian president to be a “killer”, but on Monday he appeared to take a more conciliatory tone with regard to Mr Putin.

“He’s bright,” he said. “He’s tough. And I have found, as they say when I used to play ball, he’s a worthy adversary.”

But Mr Biden stressed that he would take a tough line on what the US regards as Russia’s “harmful activities” such as alleged cyber-attacks.

“If he chooses not to co-operate and acts in the way he has in the past related to cyber-security and some other activities, we will respond,” he said. “We’ll make it clear where the red lines are.”

Source: BBC

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