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☆ The US military created an illusion of success in Afghanistan by handling tasks it was supposed to train Afghan troops to do, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A new watchdog report details how Afghanistan's security forces collapsed in August 2021. It said the US handled tasks that it was supposed to be training Afghan troops how to do. Washington lacked the political will and effort to actually develop an Afghan security force in a "war-torn and impoverished country," which is a monumental task. Additionally, the report placed blame on the Afghan government, which it said was riddled with corruption that trickled down into the military. "However, nothing affected morale more than the realization in February 2021 that US military forces were leaving."

☆ Sundance Movies: Brett Kavanaugh and Steph Curry Docs, "Cat Person"
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Alison Brower | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Sundance Film Festival was back in person for the first time since 2020. In five days I saw eight films, and while I'm not a critic, I can affirm that not one of them was a clunker. Asked about the film's aspect ratio in an audience Q&A, Jalali said, "It was prettier that way." The bulk of the films I saw were more commercial, and four of them centered on relationships. And then there was "Cat Person," based on a 2017 New Yorker story about dating by Kristen Roupenian.

☆ The Taliban requires all mannequins' heads be covered or cut off. Eerie storefront photos offer a glimpse of Afghanistan's new reality.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Marielle Descalsota | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

In Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, mannequins were once a symbol of fashion and culture. But in the past year, shop owners have resorted to displaying them headless or covered in cloth, just to keep their stores open. AP Photo/Ebrahim NorooziIn August 2021, the Taliban announced that shop owners must remove the heads of their mannequins, or do away with them all together. But several shop owners pleaded with the Taliban to let them keep their mannequins intact. Azizi told Insider that the Taliban forced locals to deface banners displaying photos of fashion models before trying to totally ban the use of mannequins.

☆ The Taliban requires that all mannequins' heads be covered or cut off. Interviews with locals and eerie photos of storefronts offer a glimpse of Afghanistan's new reality.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Marielle Descalsota | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

☆ The Sundance Film Festival stirs buzz, draws A-list stars, and screens movies that get you talking, but it can't hide the crisis facing independent filmmakers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Alison Brower | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Sundance Film Festival was back in person for the first time since 2020. A-list stars like Anne Hathaway and Jason Momoa were present to promote their buzzy films. It was impossible not to feel optimistic about the state of independent film at the opening weekend of the Sundance Film Festival. In five days I saw eight films, and while I'm not a critic, I can affirm that not one of them was a clunker. At an event like Sundance, even amid some hand-wringing over the future, the excitement is contagious.

☆ U.N. aid chief raises women's rights concerns with Taliban in Afghan capital
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations' aid chief visited Kabul on Monday and raised concerns over women's education and work with the Taliban administration's acting minister of foreign affairs, an Afghan ministry statement said. U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths raised the issue of women's education and work and how this affected the U.N.'s operations, according to a ministry of foreign affairs statement. He said Griffiths would "underscore the message that humanitarian aid cannot be delivered without women." No foreign government has formally recognised the Taliban administration since it seized power, with some diplomats saying it must change course on women's rights. Enforcement of sanctions and a cut in development aid have contributed to the country falling into an economic crisis which has left more than half the population dependent on humanitarian aid, aimed at meeting urgent needs.

☆ Deputy U.N. chief has talks in Afghanistan on women's rights
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The United Nations deputy secretary-general discussed women's rights with Afghanistan's acting foreign minister on Wednesday after the Taliban authorities banned most female aid workers and stopped women and girls from attending high school and university. Amina Mohammed has also met with U.N. staff, aid groups and Afghan women "to take stock of the situation, convey solidarity, and discuss ways to promote and protect women's and girls rights," deputy U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said in New York. In those talks, Mohammed "stressed the need to uphold human rights, especially for women and girls" and was "encouraged by exemptions" to the ban on female aid workers, Haq said. The Taliban administration on Dec. 24 ordered local and foreign aid organisations to stop female staff from working until further notice, days after it banned women from universities. Many aid groups, some of whom carry out humanitarian work under contracts with the United Nations, stopped operations following the ban.

☆ Cricket Afghan fans disappointed at Australia cancellation over women's rights
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/6] An Afghan man plays cricket on the snow-covered ground at the Chaman-e-Huzori field in Kabul, Afghanistan, January 13, 2023. "The decision by Australia made us very disappointed," said 25-year-old fruit seller Abdullah. Australia were scheduled to play a test match against Afghanistan in November 2021 but the fixture was postponed after the Taliban took power in August that year. The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has criticised Australia's decision, saying it had put political interests over sportsmanship and that cricket had contributed to education and social development in the country. Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley defended the decision, saying "basic human rights" are not politics.

☆ Leg-lengthening surgery still has risks, despite recent advances, and should be a last resort, surgeons say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Patients are increasingly asking surgeons for leg-lengthening surgery for non-medical reasons. Surgery is safer now, but it still carries risks and should be avoided if possible, said surgeons. Two surgeons told Insider the procedure should be avoided if possible. However, one surgeon who had refused to do the surgery for cosmetic reasons said he had recently changed his mind. How leg-lengthening worksDuring a leg-lengthening procedure, the bone is purposefully broken.

One hostage, a security official, died during the raid , he said. The army spokesman's comments provided the first detailed official account of the standoff, in which two security personnel were killed when the militants first took over the compound, and two commandoes killed in the ensuing raid. Later other militants at the centre broke into a storeroom where confiscated weapons had been stored. STANDOFFAfter talks failed to resolve a two-day standoff, army commandos stormed the centre on Tuesday. Earlier, residents said they heard explosions coming from the vicinity of the centre on Tuesday as helicopters hovered overhead.

Pakistani Taliban militants detained at the centre had snatched interrogators' weapons and taken them captive on Sunday. Asif did not say how many militants were killed or how many hostages they had held. Residents said they heard explosions coming from the vicinity of the centre on Tuesday as helicopters hovered overhead. The army operations forced the militants and their leaders to flee to neighbouring Afghan districts. There, Islamabad says, they set up training centres to plan and launch attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Afghan authorities deny.

☆ Exclusive: Afghan government officials helped smugglers sneak almost $1 billion in cash and gold out of Afghanistan as the US-backed government neared collapse, documents show
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | Edris Lutfi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

The office of Ashraf Ghani, the US-backed Afghan president, had been informed about the problem, insiders say. The smuggling flouted Afghan laws requiring travelers to declare cash or gold worth $10,000 or more and a strict ban on exporting $20,000 or more. The documents identify the two men as being part of the 2021 smuggling ring; they do not allege who was behind the $824 million smuggled in 2019 and 2020. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani meets with President Joe Biden in June 2021. The UAE is also the home of Ghani and Noor, the former provincial governor with alleged ties to the Hairatan smuggling ring.

According to a provincial government spokesman, the militants were demanding safe passage to Afghanistan. "We are in negotiations with the central leaders of the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan," Mohammad Ali Saif, a spokesman for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, said. He said the authorities were yet to receive a response from the Pakistani Taliban, adding that relatives of the militants and area tribal elders had also been involved in initiating talks with the Islamists inside the facility. The militants in control of the interrogation facility had demanded a safe passage to Afghanistan, a TTP statement sent to a Reuters reporter said. It added the TTP had also conveyed the demand to Pakistani authorities, but hadn't heard back any "positive" response.

☆ The Taliban has reintroduced public floggings and executions in Afghanistan, reports say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Taliban have reintroduced public floggings and executions in Afghanistan under sharia law. On Wednesday, the Taliban performed the first public execution since seizing Kabul in August 2021. Girls attend class at a secret school on August 14, 2022 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo by Nava Jamshidi/Getty ImagesAn Afghan woman spoke to Al Jazeera about her experience living under the Taliban regime and her fear of public floggings or execution. Sadaf told Al Jazeera she was sentenced to a public flogging and whipped around 30 times until she passed out.

☆ Taliban carry out first public execution since Afghan takeover
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban authorities on Wednesday executed an Afghan convicted of killing another man, the first public execution since the former insurgents took over Afghanistan last year, a spokesman said. The execution, carried out with an assault rifle by the victim’s father, took place in western Farah province before hundreds of spectators and many top Taliban officials, according to Zabihullah Mujahid, the top Taliban government spokesman. The executed man, identified as Tajmir from Herat province, was convicted of killing another man five years ago and stealing his motorcycle and mobile phone. Taliban security forces had arrested Tajmir after the victim’s family accused him of the crime, said a statement from Mujahid, the spokesman. During the previous Taliban rule of the country in the late 1990s, the group carried out public executions, floggings and stoning of those convicted of crimes in Taliban courts.

☆ Afghanistan's Massoud urges elections to create legitimate government
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

DUSHANBE, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Only elections can lead Afghanistan out of political crisis, even if they legitimise Taliban rule, Afghan anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Massoud told a conference in Tajikistan on Wednesday. The most recent elections in Afghanistan were held under the U.S.-backed administration which the hardline Islamist Taliban deposed in August 2021 when Western troops withdrew. Domestic, regional and international consensus is needed to work out a general elections framework in Afghanistan, he said. "If the Taliban come to power through elections, (the Resistance Front) will accept that as they will have the authority from the people." The NRF groups opposition forces loyal to Massoud, son of the former anti-Soviet mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

☆ The scramble to rearm Ukraine is transforming NATO in a way that would've been hard without Putin's help
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Rachel Nostrant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

NATO countries have scrambled to rearm and resupply Ukraine as it fights off Russia's invasion. Troops from six NATO countries during a joint terminal attack controller training in Latvia on April 6. Germany has agreed to send some older hardware to countries that send their Soviet-made tanks and armored vehicles to Ukraine. Interoperability with weapons and alignment on tactics will also make it "veritably impossible for these countries to leave NATO," Banerjee added. "The weapons are from NATO, they're going to be from NATO, they will be back-built, and these components will be from NATO countries."

☆ 19 people lashed in northeastern Afghanistan, official says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL, Afghanistan — Nineteen people in northeastern Afghanistan were lashed for adultery, theft and running away from home, a Supreme Court official said Sunday. It appeared to be the first official confirmation that lashings and floggings are being meted out in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. After they overran Afghanistan last year, the Taliban initially promised to be more moderate and allow for women’s and minority rights. A Supreme Court official, Abdul Rahim Rashid, said 10 men and nine women were lashed 39 times each in Taloqan city in northeastern Takhar province, on Nov. 11. He said their cases were assessed by two courts before they were convicted, confirming information in a Supreme Court statement.

☆ Pakistan reopens Afghan crossing shut after border hostilities
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Saeed Ali Achakzai/File PhotoQUETTA, Pakistan, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Pakistan has reopened a major Afghan border crossing that was shut for trade and transit after security forces clashed last week, officials from both sides said on Monday. As the crossing opened on Monday, three people were wounded in another clash reported on a northwestern border with Afghanistan, an Afghan official said. A Pakistani security official said the fresh exchange of fire killed one member of border personnel and wounded nine other people. "We are going to meet senior Pakistani officials to find an amicable solution," he said. The Pakistan military did not respond to a request for comment, but a Pakistan security official said there has been regular border management coordination with Afghan authorities, adding that details of Afghan investigations into last week's hostilities will be shared with Pakistan in due course.

☆ Afghan Taliban say group will stick to strict Islamic law
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban will stick to their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, a spokesman said Thursday, underscoring the group’s intention to continue hard-line policies implemented since they took over Afghanistan more than a year ago. During their previous years in power in the late 1990s, the Taliban carried out public executions, floggings and stoning of those convicted of crimes in Taliban courts. According to Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, the group’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhunzada, met with Taliban judges a few days ago and instructed them to implement Sharia law in their rulings. Mujahid said this instruction prompted perceptions that Islamic law had been abandoned in the Islamic emirate, as the Taliban call their administration. “It doesn’t mean that the Islamic emirate didn’t implement the limits of Allah Almighty since it came to power,” he said.

☆ How small-town Maine embraced a family that fled the Taliban
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Elyse Lightman Samuels | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +36 min

CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine — Last November, at about midnight, Omid was lying in bed in his new home in Cape Elizabeth, Maine — exhausted, but unable to sleep. On this night, and on many nights during Omid's first few months in Maine, Nasir was soon at his door. Omid's family arrived in Maine just before Halloween in 2021 and recently celebrated one year in Maine. Catholic Charities, the local refugee-resettlement organization in Maine, was working with Omid's family to help them resettle. After Omid's family escaped Kabul, members of his extended family came by to collect some of their more precious items, and gave other things away.

☆ Qatar to suspend evacuation flights for U.S.-bound Afghan refugees while it hosts soccer World Cup
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Dan De Luce | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Julia-Ainsley-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Qatari officials have said they plan to suspend evacuation flights for Afghan refugees hoping to resettle in the U.S. while the country hosts soccer’s World Cup next month, according to refugee advocates, congressional aides and a source familiar with the Qatari government’s plans. Afghan refugees trying to book flights to Doha have received emails saying it’s not possible to reserve a seat until January, Afghans and advocacy groups said. Flights are continuing to operate at the moment but refugee organizations are worried the planes will soon stop flying out of Kabul. The Biden administration has not released up-to-date numbers on how many Afghans are in the pipeline for special immigrant visas. A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. has issued more than 18,000 special immigrant visas to Afghan applicants and their family members from January 2021 to Sept. 30, 2022.

☆ Merrill Lynch's support staff is fed up. Here's why client associates at the massive wealth manager are heading for the door.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The support wants supportThere's another uprising on Wall Street. And at Merrill Lynch, which oversees $2.7 trillion in assets, there is plenty of dirty work that falls to the 6,500 CAs. But it's important to remember that we're a long way away from the spring of 2021, when Wall Street was making money hand over fist. Wall Street bonuses are expected to drop by as much as 22% from last year, Reuters reports. If you do one thing today, read this inspiring story about a Wall Street banker leading the evacuation of an Afghan colonel and his family.

☆ They were on the run from the Taliban, abandoned by their US allies — until a Wall Street banker decided to smuggle them out of Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Nina Burleigh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

His daughter worked for the US-backed government in Kabul, prosecuting the Taliban and their followers for acts of violence against women. The war in Afghanistan effectively began on 9/11, with the attacks on Wall Street and the Pentagon. Last summer, when the Taliban overran Kabul, Calbos was in Greece visiting his father. "I see kind of a mirror image to mine in his history and his family," Calbos says. With the clock ticking on the family's temporary visas, Calbos scrambled to arrange a flight out of Pakistan.

☆ An Afghan couple says a US Marine abducted their baby when they evacuated to the US. He says it was a legitimate adoption.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Baby Doe, two months old at the time, was seriously injured but survived, and was transported to a military hospital. However, the US government did not take action to release Baby Doe to the Masts. The baby was released to her first cousin, identified in the suit as John Doe, and his wife, Jane Doe, who assumed legal guardianship of her. The Afghan couple told AP they have been devastated since losing Baby Doe. Food has no taste and sleep gives us no rest," Jane Doe told the outlet.

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