Elian Peltier
@elianpeltier.bsky.social
Pakistan and Afghanistan bureau chief - The New York Times
Hundreds of Afghan women are at risk of losing access to higher education as the State Department has pulled its funding for the American University of Afghanistan. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/w...
American University of Afghanistan at Risk of Closure Amid Funding Cuts (Gift Article)
The State Department has denied its funding for the next two years, jeopardizing the education of hundreds of female Afghan students.
nytimes.com
In Pakistan, one of the top producers of red chile peppers, farmers dry them old-fashion, in the sun. On market days, the dust is so overwhelming that eyes water and throats burn. But extreme heat, floods and drought are causing a way of life that has shaped generations of farmers to disappear.
"America has a moral responsibility to not simply look away and accept that the systematic erasure of Afghan women is no longer its concern." www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/o...
Opinion | What America Owes to Afghan Women (Gift Article)
Five years after giving up on Afghanistan, America still has a responsibility to the country’s women.
nytimes.com
"Pakistan has begun a sweeping new crackdown on reporters that rights groups and local journalists say will close off one of last remaining ways to get independent journalism about the world’s fifth-most-populous country." www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/w...
Pakistan Starts Sweeping New Crackdown on Journalists (Gift Article)
With a protest movement in Kashmir challenging its authority in the region, Pakistan restricts independent reporting by local and foreign media.
nytimes.com
"Hacked emails show Yahav Lichner, a UN official, repeatedly supplied Israeli diplomats with confidential UN reports and private briefings. He now directs UNICEF’s Washington office." open.substack.com/pub/dropsite...
"For Your Eyes Only": Israel’s Mole Inside the United Nations
Hacked emails show Yahav Lichner, a UN official, repeatedly supplied Israeli diplomats with confidential UN reports and private briefings. He now directs UNICEF’s Washington office.
open.substack.com
"Many of the foreign students listed appeared to be from Pakistan[...] Profiles of the students included their religion, marital status, focus of study and times they had been captured on cameras at the school’s entrances. The platform also claimed to be able to map a person’s relationship network."
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 3mo agoIn China, an unsecured police dashboard provided a rare look into how foreigners are tracked using vast amounts of private data.
How Sergio Gor is transforming the role of U.S. ambassador in the Trump era www.nytimes.com/2026/06/13/u...
How Sergio Gor Is Transforming the Role of U.S. Ambassador in the Trump Era
nytimes.com
Pakistan has been pitching an economy ripe for foreign investment, but a wave of attacks from Balochistan, the TTP, and now ISKP in Islamabad shows just how brittle that security narrative remains. My analysis after yesterday’s deadly suicide bombing www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/w...
A Mosque Bombing Undercuts Pakistan’s Bid for Security
nytimes.com
Our story on the impact of U.S. aid cuts in Afghanistan on today’s front page www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/w...
I’m honored to be The New York Times’s next bureau chief for Pakistan & Afghanistan. Working in these countries over the past few months has been an immense privilege and I can’t wait to tell more of their stories alongside my talented colleagues here. www.nytco.com/press/new-bu...
New Bureau Chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan | The New York Times Company
nytco.com
NEW: Secret negotiations between the Trump administration and Taliban authorities for the release of US prisoners and the last Afghan in Guantánamo have stalled. The sticking point: the fate of two high-profile detainees. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/w...
“A senior Iranian health ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said about 3,000 people had been killed across the country.” — ‘Shoot to Kill’: Accounts of Brutal Crackdown Emerge From Iran www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/w...
‘Shoot to Kill’: Accounts of Brutal Crackdown Emerge From Iran
nytimes.com
The demolition of the Ariana cinema in Kabul to make way for a shopping mall highlights how the Taliban are prioritizing land sales and revenue over the city's history. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/w...
A Vintage Kabul Cinema Finally Falls to Taliban Bulldozers
nytimes.com
“As Israeli settlers build more encampments across the valleys of the West Bank, the hiking trails that Mr. Aruri has walked since childhood are, one by one, being turned into dead ends.” As Israeli Settlements Get Bigger, Palestinian Hikes Grow Shorter www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/w...
As Israeli Settlements Get Bigger, Palestinian Hikes Grow Shorter
nytimes.com
Nearly 17.5 million Afghans are facing acute food insecurity this winter, according to the World Food Program—roughly 40 percent of the population, and a 2.5 million increase from last year. www.wfp.org/news/latest-...
Latest food security report confirms fears of deepening hunger crisis in Afghanistan as winter sets in | World Food Programme
KABUL, Afghanistan – Over 17 million Afghans are facing acute food insecurity this winter, as the scale and severity of hunger and malnutrition deepens, warns the United Nations World Food Programme (...
wfp.org
Afghanistan’s GDP is projected to grow by 4.3 percent in 2025, up from 2.5 percent in 2024, according to the World Bank. But… GDP per capita is expected to decline by 4 percent because of rapid population expansion estimated at 8.6 percent. www.worldbank.org/en/news/pres...
Afghan Economy Expands Amid Persistent Challenges
Afghanistan’s economy is expanding for the second consecutive year, supported by low inflation and stronger revenues.
worldbank.org
Pakistan and Afghanistan have stopped all forms of legal trade with each other. Caught in the middle are millions of business owners and members of close-knit communities living on each side of the border. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/w...
I was at the Spin Boldak border crossing a few hours before Afghanistan and Pakistan accused each other of opening fire there. The damaged “Friendship Gate” remained inaccessible. Only Afghans returning from Afghanistan, on wheelbarrows and in trucks, were allowed to cross.
The suspect in the DC attack had joined a CIA-backed Afghan paramilitary unit during the U.S. war in Afghanistan to earn money for his family and get medical training, not for ideological reasons, a friend of his told @nytimes.com. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...
nytimes.com
Pakistan is no longer the refuge that generations of Afghans once found. One million of them have been expelled or forcibly returned this year. Expulsions are not new, but the indiscriminate nature of the current drive is. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/w...
Fed Up With the Taliban, Pakistan Expels One Million Afghans
nytimes.com
“The State Department instructed its diplomats to stop processing all visas for Afghan passport holders. If visas have been approved and printed but not handed to the applicant, diplomats should destroy the printed visas.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/u...
Trump Pauses All Asylum Applications and Halts Visas for Afghans
nytimes.com
R. Lakanwal, the Afghan suspect behind the DC shooting, served in the CIA-backed Zero Unit in Kandahar. He suffered from mental health issues even before the Taliban takeover and was disturbed by the casualties his unit had caused. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/u...
D.C. Shooting Suspect Worked With C.I.A.-Backed Unit in Afghanistan
nytimes.com
It’s hard to fathom the scenes of devastation in northern Pakistan, and yet they’re becoming the norm.
More than 3,000 Afghan women applied for asylum in July in Germany — twice as much as in June. www.infomigrants.net/en/post/6627...
Germany: Sharp rise in asylum claims by Afghan women
The number of asylum applications from Afghan women in Germany has risen significantly in recent months. Authorities say, however, that nearly half of all cases are secondary applications following a ...
infomigrants.net
Last week I went to the border between Iran and Afghanistan to report on the mass expulsions and forced returns of nearly 1.5 million Afghans living in Iran this year. The story is on today's front page of the New York Times.
I’m coming back from the Iran-Afghanistan border where 20,000+ Afghans return everyday amid a wave of mass expulsions from Iran. 435,000 have returned since July 1, per UNHCR. 800,000 since June 1 and 1.4 million this year. When was the last time we’ve seen such figures?
What it’s like to work as a moto taxi driver in one of the world’s five least livable cities, Karachi, when it’s 40 degrees. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/12/w...
When It’s This Hot, ‘We Are Enduring, Not Living’
nytimes.com
🇦🇫🇵🇰 Some news! Over the next several months I will be reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Times. First story from Kabul this week: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/w...
I.C.C. Seeks Arrests of Taliban Leaders Over Persecution of Women
nytimes.com
On M23's challenges in governing Goma: "Seizing is easy, ruling is harder." continent.substack.com/p/seizing-is...
Seizing is easy, ruling is harder
Months after seizing Goma, M23 is still struggling to control it. The city remains unstable due to widespread small arms and thousands of escaped inmates from Munzenze Prison
continent.substack.com
