Headlines:

• Saudi Hajj Deaths
• Taliban Captures Northern city Kunduz
• Germany Volkswagen Scandal

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Saudi Hajj Deaths

Officials and eyewitnesses to the stampede in Mecca during Hajj have questioned the number of deaths and the cause. The Saudi authorities insist the death toll from last week’s stampede was 769, but officials from Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Indonesia who are in Saudi Arabia have stated over 1000 people perished. The number of deaths have constantly changed, and this is what led many nations to directly criticize the Saudi handling of the stampede. The country’s most senior cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin-Abdullah al-Sheikh, defended the authorities, saying the stampede was “beyond human control”. King Salman has ordered a safety review into the disaster. Numerous eyewitnesses and regional news outlets reported that the convoy escorting Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, comprising 200 soldiers and 150 police officers, played a central role in the incident, by making some pilgrims turn around against the flow which triggered a stampede. The Saudi authorities sought to hush up the entire story and imposed a media blackout on reporting Prince Mohammad’s presence in the area.

 

Taliban Captures Northern city Kunduz

The official narrative is the Afghan war has long ended with a new central government in Kabul.

But this has been contradicted this week after the capital of Kunduz fell to the Taliban. During their annual Spring Offensive, the Taliban set its sights on northern parts of Afghanistan, the fighting continued throughout spring and summer, with Taliban forces seizing several districts. The Afghan Interior Ministry confirmed that defenses in the city had “collapsed” in the face of the latest offensive, and while they were talking up a counteroffensive to try to retake the city, the Taliban have wasted no time in capturing all the significant buildings in the city, and are moving on the airport. They also captured the city’s main prison, releasing hundreds of Taliban forces that had been held there, who will now be reinforcing the Taliban defense of the city. This is the second major prison break the Taliban has done in the last month. The loss of Kunduz is a huge blow to the Afghan government, because it had never really been under control of the Taliban even when the Taliban were in power. Kunduz was the center of the Northern Alliance rebellion against the Taliban, which eventually took over the key government positions during the US occupation, and holds them to this day.

 

Germany’s Volkswagen Scandal

Volkswagen, the largest company in Germany and the largest automaker in the world, has been hit by a scandal that has already cost the company’s chief his job. The software in some Volkswagen cars have been found to contain an algorithm that senses when the car is being tested for emissions of the harmful gas nitrous oxide and temporarily limits its emissions, tricking regulators into thinking it is cleaner than it is. Not only is the company likely to receive a hefty fine from US authorities, but an additional 11 million vehicles sold elsewhere suffer from the same problem. Germany, Switzerland and South Korea have announced that they will be looking into whether Volkswagen meets their standards, and France and Italy have called for a Europe-wide inquest. Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said it will begin investigating other cars for similar faults. Germany is Europe’s engine, and its economies its exports equal 45% of its gross domestic product. The automotive sector makes up 17% of Germany’s exports, the highest portion from any single industry. There is real danger if Volkswagen is implicated alongside other German manufacturers, this will impact the wider German economy.