Sitting Ducks.

Desert Island Discs.

1. Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan and opposition leaders have called a series of protests after the government increased fuel prices to try to salvage an IMF loan and stave off a balance of payments crisis. The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has raised fuel prices by more than a third in two separate moves this month after requests by the IMF to remove subsidies, according to Pakistani officials. The move is designed to facilitate the disbursement of the next $1 billion tranche of a stalled $6 billion IMF loan program. Pakistan’s foreign reserves of about $9.7 billion have fallen below two months’ worth of imports, prompting concern that the country could follow South Asian neighbor Sri Lanka in defaulting on its foreign debts. But raising fuel prices could prove politically perilous for Sharif’s new government, which took power after Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April. Pakistan is facing growing political unrest over a painful economic crunch and double-digit inflation, with widespread protests in recent weeks. (Source: ft.com)

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2. Al-Qaida has a haven in Afghanistan under the Taliban and “increased freedom of action” with the potential of launching new long-distance attacks in coming years, a UN report based on intelligence supplied by member states says. The assessment, by the UN committee charged with enforcing sanctions on the Taliban and others that may threaten the security of Afghanistan, will raise concerns that the country could once again become a base for international terrorist attacks after the withdrawal of US and Nato troops last year. (Sources: theguardian.com, un.org)

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3. Sophie Pinkham:

Russia is warming 2.5 times as fast as the world on average, and the Arctic is warming even faster. The cliché, avidly promoted by Moscow, is that the country will be a relative winner in climate change, benefiting from a melting and accessible Arctic shipping route, longer growing seasons, and the expansion of farmland into newly thawed areas. Gustafson counters, with a dry but persuasive marshaling of facts, that in the redistribution of wealth and power that will result from climate change, Russia is doomed. After reading Klimat, Russia’s attack on Ukraine begins to look like the convulsion of a dying state.

About two thirds of Russia is covered in permafrost, a mixture of sand and ice that, until recently, remained frozen year-round. As permafrost melts, walls built on it fracture, buildings sink, railways warp, roads buckle, and pipelines break. Anthrax from long-frozen reindeer corpses has thawed and infected modern herds. Sinkholes have opened in the melting ground, swallowing up whole buildings. Ice roads over frozen water, once the only way to travel in some remote regions, are available for ever-shorter periods. The Arctic coast is eroding rapidly, imperiling structures built close to the water. (Source: nybooks.com)