Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada
Amu: Internal divisions within the Taliban have resurfaced, as sources report that the Haqqani faction sought to appoint Ahmad Haqqani, the eldest son of Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, as the new minister of refugees. However, the Taliban’s leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, rejected the request by naming Abdul Kabir, the former deputy chief minister for political affairs, to lead the ministry. Six days after Akhundzada’s decision, there has been no official announcement of Abdul Kabir assuming his new role or any update regarding the now-vacant deputy prime minister position. Click here to read more (external link).
Khaama: U.S. President Joe Biden, in a speech reflecting on his foreign policy legacy, defended the decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, stating it allowed his administration to focus on “more immediate challenges.” Biden emphasized that rival powers like Russia and China were pleased to see the U.S. entangled in Afghanistan and said, “Nothing made our adversaries happier than seeing us stuck there for another decade.” He reiterated that ending the war was the right decision and expressed confidence that history would validate his choice to withdraw U.S. forces. 
8am: Over the past two years, the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan has increasingly deteriorated, becoming more critical and catastrophic. Thousands of refugees are forcibly deported and subjected to violent and brutal treatment by the Pakistani police. Ignoring the plight of the distressed and those who have sought refuge out of necessity, the Pakistani police cruelly arrest Afghan women, children, and the elderly. They extort money from them and, when unable to pay bribes, the refugees are expelled in extremely dire and degrading conditions. Former military personnel, media, and civil activists have been arrested upon deportation by the Taliban, with some even facing execution. 
Al Jazeera: From the 1980s when it backed the mujahideen against the Soviet Union through the first two decades of the 21st century, Pakistan was a primary backer of the Taliban, many of whose leaders found shelter on Pakistani soil. India, by contrast, viewed the group as a Pakistani proxy, shuttering its embassy in Kabul after the Taliban first came to power in Afghanistan in 1996. It blamed the Taliban and its current allies in the government, including the Haqqanis, for repeatedly attacking Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan — the embassy in 2008 and 2009, and the Indian consulates in Jalalabad in 2013, Herat in 2014 and Mazar-i-Sharif in 2015. Yet, a decade later, those equations no longer stand. 
The Guardian (UK): It was a normal summer morning in July last year when 19-year-old Samira* made her way to the carpet-weaving shop where she worked in Kabul to pick up her wages. She had no way of knowing that in just a few hours, her life as she knew it would be over. She would end the day in a Taliban police station, a victim of forced marriage with her entire future decided for her by a group of strangers with guns. 
Afghanistan International: Amid growing calls for the cutting U.S. financial aid to Afghanistan under Taliban rule, the Afghanistan currency has once again depreciated against the U.S. dollar. On Sunday, one U.S. dollar was traded at 74 Afghanis in Afghanistan’s currency markets. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, in a press conference on Tuesday, January 7, condemned the decision of President Joe Biden’s administration to send funds to the Taliban-led government, calling it unacceptable and stressing the need to halt these payments.