Afghan

'Allies Left Behind,' Documentary Depicting Heartbreaking Post-War Conditions for Afghan Allies in the Middle East, Set to Release in March

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 30, 2024

NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 300,000 Afghan men, women and children, who supported America's vision in the U.S. War in Afghanistan were abandoned and forced to fend for themselves after the nation's departure in 2021. "Allies Left Behind", a harrowing documentary that aims to tell the stories of America's Afghan allies, will be released in March and shed light on the situation as it stands.

Key Points: 
  • "Allies Left Behind" , a harrowing documentary that aims to tell the stories of America's Afghan allies, will be released in March and shed light on the situation as it stands.
  • After experiencing first-hand the trauma that America's Afghan allies are experiencing post war, he decided to act by documenting their lives to show the world.
  • I created 'Allies Left Behind' to make America and the world aware of the dire situation in order to support policies to grant them safe passage."
  • Additionally, subjects of the film, including Afghan women who supported women's rights during the war, are available to discuss the situation.

Young men in violent parts of Philadelphia, Chicago die from guns at a higher rate than US troops in the heat of battle

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Mass shootings tend to dominate the debate over gun violence – but they accounted for just 3% of all firearm homicides in the United States in 2021.

Key Points: 
  • Mass shootings tend to dominate the debate over gun violence – but they accounted for just 3% of all firearm homicides in the United States in 2021.
  • The vast majority of gun homicides are murders that happen in an extremely concentrated number of neighborhoods – places where the rate of gun deaths rivals war zones.

Concentrated disadvantage

  • These same neighborhoods tend to suffer from what criminologists call concentrated disadvantage – an unsavory mix of high crime rates, illegal drug markets, poverty, limited educational and economic opportunities, and residential instability.
  • Cumulatively, these factors decrease the residents’ ability to maintain public order and safety in the ways that safer neighborhoods do informally by confronting violent behavior or supervising teenagers.
  • The demographics of these neighborhoods means that both victims and perpetrators of shootings are disproportionately young Black men.
  • Young Black men represented 93.9% of firearm-related homicide victims in Chicago and 79.3% of gun homicides in Philadelphia – where young Hispanic men make up another 12.9%.

How we did this work

  • Our paper is published in JAMA Network Open, an open-source medical journal, and is freely available to read.
  • We first collected all publicly available city-level data on shooting deaths, including the time, exact place and information about the victim.
  • Our study focused on Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago because they were the largest American cities with public data available.

In military zones


For the military casualties, we relied on the estimates from studies of the mortality of U.S. soldiers at war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Afghan War was deadlier, with 395 deaths of U.S. combatants per 100,000 people per year, compared with 330 in Iraq. We used the higher rate from the Afghan War as our reference, setting its value as 1 and expressing the homicide rate in other places in relationship to this benchmark.

How places compare

  • The violence of these city streets was captured by sociologist Elijah Anderson in his ethnographic study “Code of the Street,” published in 2000.
  • During 2020 and 2021, this ZIP code was home to about 2,500 young men.
  • Young men living there were 3.23 times more likely to die from a bullet than U.S. service members deployed to Afghanistan.
  • Moreover, survivors of this violence bear the burden of it for the whole time they live in these neighborhoods.

Complicating the narrative

  • Answering them can better help us understand the limitations of our study.
  • For example, many service members do not engage in active combat.
  • The brigade had a casualty rate 1.71 times higher than our benchmark.
  • It is also worth noting that we studied two particularly violent years in U.S. cities.

Faster care could help


Our research also showed that soldiers who are injured on the battlefield are less likely to die from their wounds than people shot in the American cities we studied. Surviving a wound is more likely if medical help is immediate. This suggests two ideas to decrease shooting deaths: train more police officers to provide urgent basic medical treatment to the victims of gun violence and add capacity to trauma centers near violent neighborhoods.
Alex Knorre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Canada meets commitment to welcome 40,000 vulnerable Afghans

Retrieved on: 
Monday, October 30, 2023

Today, the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, shared that Canada has met its commitment to welcome at least 40,000 vulnerable Afghans since August 2021.

Key Points: 
  • Today, the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, shared that Canada has met its commitment to welcome at least 40,000 vulnerable Afghans since August 2021.
  • The Government of Canada remains steadfast in its commitment to help vulnerable Afghans.
  • While welcoming over 40,000 Afghans to Canada is a significant achievement, Canada will continue to bring Afghans to safety.
  • Canadians, resettlement organizations and their front-line staff have gone above and beyond to welcome Afghans, and we are thankful for their ongoing support."

A reflexive act of military revenge burdened the US − and may do the same for Israel

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 17, 2023

In the wake of the shocking invasion of southern Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy Hamas.

Key Points: 
  • In the wake of the shocking invasion of southern Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy Hamas.
  • On that same day, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant went further, stating, “We will wipe this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza, off the face of the earth.
  • The immediate goals were to force the Taliban from power and destroy al-Qaida.
  • Very little thought or resources were put into what happened after those goals were attained.
  • That’s what happened in Afghanistan, and that is what could happen in Gaza.

A war of weak results

    • The U.S. invasion toppled the Taliban from power by the end of 2001, but the war did not end.
    • Nongovernmental and international relief organizations began to deliver humanitarian aid and reconstruction support, but their efforts were uncoordinated.
    • U.S. trainers began creating a new Afghan National Army, but lack of funding, insufficient volunteers and inadequate facilities hampered the effort.
    • The Taliban entry into Kabul in August 2021 merely put an exclamation point on a campaign the United States had lost many years before.

A goal that’s hard to achieve

    • An Israeli invasion of Gaza could well lead to an indecisive quagmire if the political goal is not considered ahead of time.
    • Israel has invaded Gaza twice, in 2009 and 2014, but quickly withdrew its ground forces once Israeli leaders calculated they had reestablished deterrence.
    • The newly declared goal of destroying Hamas as a military force is far more difficult than that.
    • Israel has the capacity to level Gaza and round up segments of the population, but that may not be wise.

Eagle Technologies Group Helps Afghan Refugees Rebuild Their Lives After Years of Loyal Service

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Over 80,000 of these Afghan citizens now reside in the United States.

Key Points: 
  • Over 80,000 of these Afghan citizens now reside in the United States.
  • Since immigrating, their needs to integrate into the economic classes of society and live fulfilling lives have gone largely unmet and often forgotten.
  • After several deployments to Afghanistan during America’s involvement, Dyer has experienced firsthand the kindness, hospitality and family values of the Afghan people.
  • This means they still have their Afghan community, and are not forced into this English-only environment.”

Legislation to support humanitarian aid to vulnerable Afghans receives Royal Assent

Retrieved on: 
Friday, June 23, 2023

In the face of a unique and dire situation, Canada's Criminal Code needed changes to allow international assistance, most importantly humanitarian aid, to reach vulnerable Afghans.

Key Points: 
  • In the face of a unique and dire situation, Canada's Criminal Code needed changes to allow international assistance, most importantly humanitarian aid, to reach vulnerable Afghans.
  • The Honourable Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety, today announced that legislation to facilitate humanitarian aid to Afghanistan – as well as immigration activities and other government operations – has received Royal Assent and is now in effect.
  • The new legislation addresses this by providing an exception for the delivery of humanitarian assistance by impartial humanitarian organizations operating under international law in geographic areas controlled by terrorist groups, including Afghanistan.
  • Whether providing aid or welcoming refugees, we are there for vulnerable Afghans – while always strongly condemning the Taliban's violence, misogyny and disregard for human rights.

JOURNALISTS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RACHEL PULFER HONOURED WITH THE SPENCER MOORE AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT ON WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, May 3, 2023

TORONTO, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - This World Press Freedom Day, Rachel Pulfer, Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), is being awarded the Spencer Moore Award for Lifetime Achievement by Ottawa-based nonprofit World Press Freedom Canada (WPFC) for JHR's work to help move thousands of at-risk Afghan human rights defenders and journalists to safety, after the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.

Key Points: 
  • TORONTO, May 3, 2023 /CNW/ - This World Press Freedom Day, Rachel Pulfer, Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), is being awarded the Spencer Moore Award for Lifetime Achievement by Ottawa-based nonprofit World Press Freedom Canada (WPFC) for JHR's work to help move thousands of at-risk Afghan human rights defenders and journalists to safety, after the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.
  • JHR is a Canadian charitable organization that works to empower independent media across the world and strengthen their coverage of human rights issues in their local communities.
  • I'm both grateful for and proud of what JHR has been able to do — work that continues to this day.
  • This year, to mark World Press Freedom Day and continue building awareness about these initiatives, JHR is organizing a two-part networking series for women journalists in exile.

Michener Awards Foundation Announces its 2023 Fellowship Winners

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 20, 2023

The Michener-Deacon fellowship for investigative reporting is awarded this year to Molly Thomas for her investigative project "Afghanistan's Secret Schools: Version 2.0".

Key Points: 
  • The Michener-Deacon fellowship for investigative reporting is awarded this year to Molly Thomas for her investigative project "Afghanistan's Secret Schools: Version 2.0".
  • At this event hosted by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon Governor General of Canada, all of the Michener Award finalists and winners of the 2021 and 2022 will be celebrated, along with our 2022 and 2023 fellowship recipients.
  • The Michener Award, founded in 1970 by the late Roland Michener, then governor-general, honours excellence in public service journalism.
  • The Michener-Deacon Investigative Journalism fellowship is supported by the Michener Awards Foundation and the family of the late Paul S. Deacon.

Major Companies Pledge to Help Afghan Refugees Advance Their Careers with Support of U.S. Military Veterans

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, March 16, 2023

NEW YORK, March 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Tent Partnership for Refugees (Tent) announced a new initiative alongside Hiring Our Heroes and the Afghan-American Foundation to help Afghan refugees in the United States enter the workforce and advance in their careers. The program will enlist military veterans employed at participating U.S. companies – including through their veterans employee resource groups (ERGs) – to serve as mentors, with the goal of providing mentorship to at least 1,500 Afghan refugees over the next three years.

Key Points: 
  • The program will enlist military veterans employed at participating U.S. companies – including through their veterans employee resource groups (ERGs) – to serve as mentors, with the goal of providing mentorship to at least 1,500 Afghan refugees over the next three years.
  • Each company will mentor 50 Afghan refugees or more over three years, collectively reaching at least 800 of the initiative's 1,500 goal.
  • I encourage many more American companies to join this effort, especially those at the forefront of employing our nation's Veterans."
  • Companies interested in joining the Afghan Refugee Mentorship Initiative in the U.S. can find out more by emailing [email protected] .