NewYork Post: Islamic State terrorists are using Afghanistan as a base for “aspirational plotting” against American and European targets in the wake of President Biden’s disastrous military withdrawal, according to a secret Pentagon assessment allegedly leaked by Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira. The US intelligence findings, part of a trove posted to the Discord messaging platform, discussed specific ISIS plans to hit major events like the 2022 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in Qatar, as well as smaller-scale attacks on churches, embassies, and other targets, the Washington Post reported.
AFP: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released on Tuesday a stark new assessment of 2022 data estimating 34 million Afghans were living below the poverty line. The figure is a staggering increase of 15 million on 2020, the last full year of rule by the Western-backed government that crumbled in a matter of weeks the following summer.
Index on Censorship: Female journalists are forced to work remotely as much as possible for their own safety, and Zan Times advises them to only speak to sources who they can be sure are not linked to the Taliban. Any time they tell someone they’re a journalist, they risk being identified. For women still working as journalists in Afghanistan, safety is paramount.
Kabul Now: he United Nations has asked all its 3,300 female and male staff in Afghanistan to stay home for two days and stop working after its officials “received word of an order” by the Taliban that bans female national employees of the UN agencies from work on Tuesday. UN officials in Afghanistan “received word of an order by the de facto authorities that bans female national staff members of the United Nations from working,” the Reuters quoted the UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric as saying to reporters in New York.
Afghanistan International: The Taliban’s Ministry of Education has introduced new uniforms for male and female schoolchildren in Afghanistan. According to the Taliban’s \