Axios

A locust outbreak in Afghanistan threatens to exacerbate the country's food crisis by potentially destroying up to a quarter of its annual wheat production this year, the UN warned this week.

The big picture: Decades of conflict, an economy in peril, prolonged drought conditions and other factors have left two-thirds of the country's population in need of humanitarian assistance. Nearly 20 million people are facing severe hunger, including 6 million who are at risk of famine, according to the World Health Organization.

Paramilitary police in Pakistan stormed a courthouse on Tuesday to arrest former Prime Minister Imran Khan, a man many in the military establishment had longed to see behind bars — only for the Supreme Court to rule on Thursday that the arrest was illegal.

Why it matters: Khan's release is another unexpected twist in the showdown between Pakistan's most popular politician and its most powerful institution, the military.

Latin Americans and U.S. Latinos in a recent poll showed more willingness than others to delegate parts of their work to AI tools despite saying they fear the tech could eventually replace their jobs.

The big picture: The survey from Microsoft's Annual Work Trend Index, published Tuesday, comes as generative AI and related tools have become more widely accessible.

Mpox is no longer a global health emergency, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared at a press briefing Thursday.

Driving the news: There has been a steep decline in mpox — previously known as monkeypox — over the past three months, with countries reporting 90% fewer cases than they had in the previous three-month period, Tedros said.

Journalist Cecilia Vega tells Axios Latino she hopes her gig as a correspondent for CBS' "60 Minutes" will open more doors for journalists of color.

Driving the news: Vega in January became the first Latina correspondent for one of the most-watched news programs in the U.S. Her first segment will air on Sunday.

A proposal to legalize recreational cannabis use in Colombia is close to becoming law, with final voting rounds in the Senate coming later this month

Why it matters: The country has for decades been a flashpoint in the so-called war on drugs, which contributed to almost half a million deaths and the displacement of millions more as a result of militarized action and violence between paramilitaries and criminal groups. The crackdown didn't reduce drug use.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with China's top diplomat Wang Yi in Vienna this week as the U.S. seeks to resume and maintain high-level communication channels with the Chinese government.

Why it matters: Lines of communication between Washington and Beijing, particularly around defense issues, were largely severed after the U.S. shot down what officials said was a Chinese spy balloon in February. Since then the U.S. has repeatedly said it was trying to restart communications.

In a last-minute bombshell, opposition candidate Muharrem İnce dropped out of Sunday's presidential election in Turkey.

Why it matters: İnce had fallen to around 2% in the polls, but the primary opposition candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, may only need a slight boost to defeat President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the first round.

A mass shooter at a mall in Allen, Texas, with purported neo-Nazi views is the latest in what experts say is a growing number of Hispanics pushing the doctrine of white supremacy.

The big picture: Advocates warn that racist organizations and websites are evolving to pull in more recruits, including Hispanics.