Source: AFP
The son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar appeared in public for the first time on Wednesday, as Afghanistan’s hardline rulers try to polish their media image.
The televised event saw Mohammad Yaqoob, Afghanistan’s new defence minister, appealing to local businessmen to invest in hospitals and clinics, signalling the Taliban are emerging from the shadows.
Source: The Economist
TWO MONTHS after the Taliban’s victory, civilians face a looming disaster. Will Western governments dig their heels in, or turn the aid taps back on? India’s government has increasingly turned to high-tech means for delivering government services. But its digital-first solutions are inaccessible to millions of citizens. And we look at the business of renting clothing, as Rent the Runway goes public with a sky-high valuation.
Source: The Moscow Times
In recent weeks, Tajikistan has hit the headlines for its hardline stance on Afghanistan, where the Taliban recently returned to power. It might seem that if anyone should be concerned about maintaining good relations with the Taliban, it’s Tajikistan. It has an extensive mountainous border with Afghanistan that is difficult to control, and the Tajik military is believed to be the weakest in Central Asia. Tajikistan is a transit stop for most of the drug traffic from Afghanistan to Russia and Europe, and the country has suffered numerous terrorist attacks in the last few years.
Source: TASS
CAIRO, October 25. /TASS/. The Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) welcomes remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin about possibility to exclude the group from the list of terrorist organizations, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesperson of the Afghan Foreign Ministry in the interim government of the country, said on Sunday.
Source: Reuters
HARB-MAIDON TRAINING GROUND, Tajikistan, Oct 23 (Reuters) – A Russia-led military exercise held over six days near the Tajik-Afghan border, designed to demonstrate Moscow stands ready to protect Dushanbe in the event of an incursion from the south, reached its conclusion on Saturday.
Tajikistan’s relations with the Taliban leadership in Kabul have been strained from the start and reports of troop build-up on both sides of the border have alarmed Moscow, which operates a military base in the former Soviet republic.
Source: The New Arab
The United States did not put enough pressure on former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani to share power with the Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad, who recently resigned as US envoy to Afghanistan, said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS.
Source: Sundaypost.com
They promised it would be different. As the Taliban gunmen surged into Kabul to seize power again, they said women had nothing to fear.
Few believed them then and, as each day passes, there are fewer still as people living in the capital say life is deteriorating under growing Taliban oppression and violence.
Source: Guardian
An intricately handwoven rug is one of the few things British embassy worker Shukoor Sangar and his family were able to bring with them when they were hastily airlifted out of Kabul in August.
It now covers the grey carpet in the living room of the family’s new flat, courtesy of the west London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which has worked with the Home Office to offer permanent housing to four families among the 7,000 people brought to the UK under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap).
Source: CNN
(CNN)The Biden administration is taking an unprecedented step to resettle the 55,600 Afghan evacuees from the US military bases where they’ve been living for weeks and into permanent homes, an official leading the effort told CNN.
The move marks the biggest change to the resettlement program since 1980, when the modern-day infrastructure for admitting refugees was put in place.
Source: Guardian
The RAF has airlifted more than 100 people who had left Afghanistan and were in a neighbouring third country to the UK.
The Ministry of Defence said the two flights had landed safely in the UK carrying 102 people who would receive support to begin their lives in Britain.