OTTAWA —
With the United States and its allies, Canada included, having left Afghanistan firmly in the hands of the Taliban, another world power is stepping into the void to exert its influence on the troubled country — China.
Analysts predict that could transform the recent political foe into an unexpected Western ally on a shared priority: fighting terrorist groups within Afghanistan and preventing them from threatening neighbouring countries.
That’s because Afghanistan and China share a small piece of land border that abuts the Chinese province of Xinjiang where Beijing has detained hundreds of thousands of ethnic Muslim Uyghurs.
Canada and dozens of countries have denounced China at the United Nations for what it sees as the systematic abuse of the Uyghurs. Human rights advocates, political figures and scholars gathered last week in Britain for a major conference to discuss what they allege is a genocide being perpetrated by Beijing.
China denies the allegations and has vigorously defended its actions in Xinjiang, saying it is trying to stamp out domestic terrorism through re-education efforts.
China does not want to see any infiltration of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate known as ISIS-K, which staged a suicide attack on Kabul airport late last month killing 13 American military personnel and dozens of Afghans.
Cong Peiwu, China’s ambassador to Canada, said his country wants Afghanistan to be on good terms with the international community, especially its neighbours.
“China sincerely hopes all parties of Afghanistan can echo the eager aspirations of the Afghan people, and the common expectation of the international community: build an open and inclusive political structure, adopt moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, make a clear break with terrorist organizations in all forms,” Cong said in an interview.
Relations between China and the U.S. are at an all-time low for a number of reasons. China’s aggressive military provocations and claims to the vast waters of the South China Sea have angered regional neighbours and Washington.
Beijing’s clampdowns on Hong Kong and ethnic Muslim Uyghurs have also exposed the Chinese government to widespread international condemnation, including from Canada, that it is violating the human rights of a vulnerable group.
“The number 1 priority is avoiding the spillover of terrorist groups into China, their connection through Xinjiang,” said Paul Evans, a China expert at the University of British Columbia.
“We’ve had something of a common agenda with China since 9/11, but in practical terms, it was not too far developed.”
The al-Qaida terrorist group used Afghanistan to stage the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, but was routed along with the then Taliban government by U.S.-led forces.
Canada joined with its American-led NATO allies to fight a resurgent al-Qaida based in Kandahar in 2006, and fully withdrew its military from the country in 2014. There were 158 Canadian military personnel and seven civilians who died in Afghanistan.
“When I was serving in Afghanistan, China certainly had an interest and it wasn’t in any kind of antagonistic manner,” said Ben Rowswell, the top Canadian political representative to Kandahar just over a decade ago.
China’s main interest in Afghanistan back then was primarily economic, which included an interest in a copper mine. “They were relatively content to have someone else provide the security backstop for the Afghan state,” he said.
Today, Rowswell said, China has “massively exaggerated the threat of political Islam within its borders” and it doesn’t need to be worried about an infiltration of terrorists from Afghanistan.
“I would expect there to be difficult times ahead for the Uyghurs as the Chinese crack down even further out of fear, out of perceptions there may be some kind of threat,” said Rowswell, now the president of the Canadian International Council think-tank.
Bessma Momani, an international affairs specialist at the University of Waterloo, said the fact the Taliban sent its second-in-command to Beijing for a meeting in late July sends a clear signal that it wants amicable relations with China.
“The Taliban have actually made it very clear that they don’t have any interest in picking a fight with China or to provide sympathy to the Uyghurs in some way,” she said.
But with no diplomatic footprint on the ground, it will be hard for Canada to monitor the effectiveness of its three-year, $270 million foreign aid spending commitment to international organizations operating inside Afghanistan, said Momani.
“For us, the big question is: will we continue to have a foreign aid program there?”
Momani and other analysts are also dismissive of a growing school of thought that China is interested in pursuing new economic interests in Afghanistan, whether it is their old copper mine or attempting to exploit the country’s rare-earth mineral potential.
“When you look at it, China plays a pretty conservative game. They want to get a return on their investment,” said Ian Johnson, a Montreal native who is the senior fellow on China studies at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations.
“Yes, there are natural resources. But it’s hard getting them out of the ground and getting them to China, as other countries have experienced in the past.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2021.
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
