Desert dunes beckon for Afghanistan’s 4×4 fans
On any Friday, when the Afghan weekend begins, dozens of drivers gather in the Kandahar desert to charge their SUVs up steep ochre dunes, kicking up rooster tails of sand to the delight of spectators.Sometimes they don’t make it, and have to carefully roll down backwards as other 4x4s surge past just an arm’s length away. Accidents are rare but not unheard of.It’s an anarchic ballet where drivers can stomp on the gas and let loose not far from the historic bastion of the ruling Taliban.”This desert is half of Kandahar’s beauty, its charm lies here in the dunes,” said Abdul Qadir, a 23-year-old shopkeeper from Kandahar, the country’s second-largest city.Like scores of other men — no women are allowed under the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islam — Qadir was relishing a party that lasts well into the night.”We came in a small car and are just here to watch and enjoy,” he told AFP, as fellow fans drank tea and ate snacks on blankets spread around fire pits.- No fear -Mohammad Rahim, a 25-year-old partner at a Kandahar car dealership, has been climbing the sheer sand walls for the past “four or five years”.”We’ve been driving on these dunes for a long time, so the fear that young drivers usually have is gone. Anyone who comes here and drives no longer feels afraid,” he said.Many of the SUVs look like new, even after hours of roaring up dune crests so steep the trucks look on the verge of tipping over backwards.Some drivers have customised their vehicles with “snorkel” air intakes that rise over the bonnet to keep sand out, while others add spotlights for when the sun goes down.The cheapest cars on show cost around $8,000, while pricier models fetch up to 10 times that amount, said Haji Abdul Samih, a 39-year-old customs agency employee who came to watch. “The poor cannot afford such cars,” he acknowledged.”The good thing is that Kandahar’s young men use their own vehicles to bring many underprivileged people here to the dunes and the picnic area, and after the gathering they take them back to their places.”- Fun and fireworks -The thrill-seekers say no one has ever been hurt or killed during the rallies, in a country where road accidents are a main cause of death, according to UN Habitat Afghanistan.”Accidents do happen here, but the good thing is that when a collision happens, no one asks for compensation,” Samih said.”No matter how damaged the vehicles get, people don’t demand payment from each other.”Like in North America and Europe, the trucks attract fans from all walks of life, offering a bright moment of unity in a country where the UN estimates 45 percent of the population will need humanitarian assistance next year.And in a country wracked by decades of war, where the Taliban authorities have banned music, films and other entertainment since 2021, the increasingly popular gathering offers a rare chance for loud fun in the sun.When the bright orange moon rises, fans start shooting fireworks over the drivers as their motors keep revving into the night.
US, Japan hold joint air exercise after China-Russia patrols
Japan said Thursday it held a joint air exercise with the United States in a show of force, days after Chinese-Russian patrols in the region and following weeks of diplomatic feuding between Tokyo and Beijing.The Japanese joint chiefs of staff said Wednesday’s exercise with the US Air Force was conducted in “an increasingly severe security environment surrounding our country”.Tokyo said Wednesday that two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers flew a day earlier from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country.Japan said that it scrambled fighter jets in response.Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi angered Beijing last month by suggesting that Japan would intervene with military force in any Chinese attack on Taiwan.Thursday’s announcement by Japan’s chiefs of staff said: “We confirmed the strong resolve of Japan and the United States not to allow any unilateral change of the status quo by force, as well as the readiness of the Self-Defense Forces and the US military.”In a separate statement it said that the “tactical exercises” over the Japan Sea involved two US B52 bombers, three Japanese F-35 fighter jets and three Japanese F-15s.The joint exercise came as the United States criticized Beijing for the first time on Wednesday after Chinese military aircraft locked radar onto Japanese jets on Saturday.The J-15 jets from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier twice locked radar on Japanese aircraft in international waters near Okinawa, according to Japan, which scrambled jets in response.”China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US State Department spokesperson told AFP on Wednesday.”The U.S.-Japan Alliance is stronger and more united than ever. Our commitment to our ally Japan is unwavering, and we are in close contact on this and other issues.”Fighter jets use their radar for fire control to identify targets as well as for search and rescue operations. Tokyo also summoned Beijing’s ambassador following the radar incident, over which the two countries offer differing accounts of events.Japan said it scrambled its F-15 jets because it was worried about possible “airspace violations”.Guo Jiakun, spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs, accused Japan Wednesday of sending the jets “to intrude into the Chinese training area without authorisation, conduct close-range reconnaissance and harassment, create tense situations, and continue to maliciously hype up the situation”.Takaichi’s comments about intervening in any Taiwan emergency enraged Beijing as China claims the self-ruled island as its own and has not ruled out seizing it by force.Tokyo was forced to deny a Wall Street Journal report that said US President Donald Trump had advised Takaichi not to provoke China over Taiwan’s sovereignty.But Tokyo is apparently frustrated at the lack of public support from top officials in Washington and has urged the US to be more vocal, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.- ‘Regrettable’ -NATO chief Mark Rutte said on Wednesday that the radar incident and the joint Chinese-Russian patrols were “regrettable”, Japan’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said on X.The statement followed a 15-minute video conference between Rutte and Koizumi, the defence ministry said in a statement.Rutte “affirmed that security in the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic regions is completely inseparable”, Koizumi said.South Korea said Tuesday that Russian and Chinese warplanes also entered its air defence zone, with Seoul also deploying fighter jets that same day.Beijing confirmed later on Tuesday that it had organised drills with Russia’s military according to “annual cooperation plans”.Moscow also described it as a routine exercise, saying it lasted eight hours and that some foreign fighter jets followed the Russian and Chinese aircraft.