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🌏 The Taliban Names An All-Male Interim Government, Mexico Decriminalizes Abortion And More

All the world news to know this week.

Sep 12, 2021 — 3 min read

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The Taliban has announced a new hard-line interim cabinet comprised of all men and officially declared Afghanistan an Islamic Emirate after taking control of the country last month.

Most of the appointments are senior figures who held power during their rule in the 1990s and during the battle against the US-led coalition. Several of them are listed as global terrorists by the US and the United Nations.
Mullah Muhammad Hassan, a hard-liner, was named as the acting prime minister and the head of the government. Hassan held a similar role in the Taliban’s leadership council in recent years and was a deputy prime minister during the first Taliban government.
The Interior Minister will be Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list with a $5 million bounty. He is believed to still be holding at least one American hostage and was the head of a network blamed for many attacks and bombings.
Taliban leaders had said for weeks they would form a more inclusive government, but the appointments did not include any women or anyone who didn’t hold a leadership position during the 20-year insurgency.
On Wednesday Sep. 8, women in Kabul had held a protest against the interim government, and said they were lashed with whips and beaten with batons that emitted electric shocks by Taliban fighters.

🇸🇻 El Salvador has official adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, becoming the first country in the world to do so. However, the day of the launch was marred with problems including street protests, technical glitches and a Bitcoin crash.
🇲🇬 Madagascar is on the brink of the world’s first ever famine directly caused by climate change instead of conflict after suffering its worst drought in 40 years, as well as four consecutive years of little rainfall and sandstorms.
🇧🇾 Maria Kolesnikova, the last major opposition leader in Belarus who organized demonstrations against President Alexander Lukashenko, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for “extremism.”

In a major victory for women’s rights, Mexico’s Supreme Court has ruled that criminalizing abortion is unconstitutional.

In an unanimous ruling, the ten judges voted to strike down a law in the northern state of Coahuila that criminalized the procedure, finding it unconstitutional.
The ruling means courts around the country will no longer be able to prosecute anyone who has an abortion as it violates the constitution.
Previously, abortion was only legal in Mexico City and three other states in Mexico, the world’s second largest Catholic country, except in cases of rape or when a mother’s life is in danger.
The decision, which comes after years of campaigning by women’s rights activists, now paves the way for Mexico to become the most populous Latin American country to legalize abortion.

🇵🇰 Ayesha Malik, a judge at the Lahore High Court, is set to become the first woman judge in Pakistan’s Supreme Court in the country’s 74 year history.
🇿🇲 Zambia’s parliament has elected Nelly Mutti, a human rights lawyer and anti-corruption activist, as its first woman Speaker of the country’s parliament.

London Zoo held its annual weigh-in on Aug. 26, weighing and measuring all of its 20,000 animals and it was beyond adorable 🦁🐢🐧🦉🐒🐫🐸

🇨🇭 Tens of thousands of people in Switzerland held a huge pride protest in support of same-sex marriage ahead of a referendum on Sep. 26.

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