FP: Omar Joya, an economist formerly with the World Bank and Afghanistan’s central bank, described the Afghan Fund as a “windfall” for the Taliban, saying it effectively pays their bills while relieving them of responsibility for managing an economy suffering from the political shock of the republic’s fall as well as natural disasters that have
8am: Reliable local sources in Bamyan report that the Taliban’s attack on a base being led Mohammad Tahir Zahir and his loyal fighters in the border area of Yakawlang district of Bamyan and Balkhab, Sar-e-pol was repelled. The attack was carried out on Tuesday, September 20. Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi, the Taliban’s governor was leading this
Tolo News: The [Taliban] Islamic Emirate’s [Taliban] supreme leader [Haibatullah Akhundzada] issued an order on Tuesday announcing a reshuffle of several national and provincial positions, including replacing the acting education minister. Tuesday’s order also announced that acting Deputy Interior Minister Mullah Mohammad Mohsin would be appointed to run the northern province of Panjshir, replacing a
Tolo News: A blast took place around noon on Wednesday in PD3 of Kabul city, killing three people and wounding 13 others, according to the Kabul security department spokesman. Khalid Zadran said in a statement that the blast took place at a restaurant, and a team has arrived in the area to find out the
Stabmag: From refugee to constitutional lawyer to university lecturer to Afghan surfing icon. Afridun Amu has managed to cram three or four lifetimes of experience into thirty-five years. He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1987 but soon fled the country with his family to Germany in 1992 as a political refugee. He grew up
8am: Sources on Tuesday, September 20, speaking to Hasht-e Subh said that in a new move, the Taliban group removed the Persian signs of the departments of management, publications, information technology, procurement management, and several other departments and replaced them with Pashto and English signs. This is while 90% of the visitors to government offices
8am: Taliban officials have called the release of Haji Bashir Ahmad Noorzai, known as Haji Bashar, as a sign of American goodwill and a “new chapter in the relations” between the Taliban and the United States. Haji Bashar is known in the media and political circles as the godfather of Afghanistan’s drug mafia. It is
popMATTERS: Matthew Heineman’s remarkable Retrograde—a National Geographic film showing at some festivals now and hitting theaters and streaming later this year—is one of the most unsettlingly intimate examples of this kind of filmmaking. Ostensibly, it’s a document of the last nine months of the Western-backed Afghanistan government in 2021. The film’s scope ranges from furious
Tolo News: After more than a year since the change of government in Afghanistan, international aircraft crossing Afghanistan airspace–which provides revenue to the government–is still low, according to officials. The Ministry of Transportation and Civil Aviation said 70 to 90 aircraft cross Afghan airspace each 24 hours, which is much less than it was in