Source: Voice of America
U.S. officials have confirmed that a newly formed armed group resisting Taliban rule in Afghanistan has registered with the Justice Department to carry out political lobbying in the United States.
The confirmation came in response to claims by the anti-Taliban National Resistance Front (NRF) that its international office has “received authorization to officially open” in America.
Source: NPR (radio)
Among the many problems that people in Afghanistan are dealing with: acute power shortages. And there’s a possibility that things will get worse as winter approaches.
Source: Al Jazeera
The former United States special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said the Biden administration should engage with the Taliban to help ease the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country now.
Source: Forbes
As the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was turning ugly, and the Taliban took province after province, the world watched as the concept of human rights disappeared overnight and a massive exodus began for those in fear for their lives. Reports of mass killings and the targeting of religious minorities, women and girls, human rights defenders and others, followed.
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: 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.
Source: BBC
Dozens of Afghan families staying in hotels as part of a scheme to resettle them are declaring themselves homeless.
More than 200 families have asked councils in London for emergency accommodation.
They are concerned that the Home Office scheme they are currently part of could see them moved to anywhere in the UK and away from family and friends.
Source: RFE/RL
WASHINGTON — Zalmay Khalilzad, the top U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, is stepping down from his long-standing role following the Western military pullout from that war-ravaged country, the State Department said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on October 18 said Khalilzad, who led U.S. negotiators in talks with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, prior to the Islamist group’s takeover of Afghanistan, was leaving his position and that his deputy, Thomas West, would take over.