A pregnant New Zealand (NZ) journalist said she had to turn to the Taliban for help after her country refused to grant her a travel exemption due to its strict COVID-19 strict border control. In a column published in the New Zealand Herald on Saturday, Charlotte Bellis, a former journalist with Al Jazeera, said she discovered she…

The chief U.S. envoy to the Taliban on Wednesday expressed concern over emerging reports that the Taliban terrorist group has summarily killed or forcibly “disappeared” more than 100 former police and intelligence officers since seizing control of Kabul in August. Thomas West, who formerly served as the deputy special representative, said on Twitter that the…

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) has cancelled a planned event after it attracted criticism for providing a platform for senior Taliban representatives to speak in Australia to Muslim youth. The online forum was titled The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and Diaspora Muslims, and was billed as a “stellar panel of speakers” discussing “the…

The United States during talks with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar over the weekend agreed to provide humanitarian aid directly to the Afghan people, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. Price said an inter-agency delegation traveled to Doha to meet with senior Taliban representatives on Oct. 9 and 10, marking the first…

A former Taliban commander already in U.S. custody has been charged with murder and terrorism-related offenses in the deaths of three U.S. troops and an Afghan interpreter and the downing of a U.S. helicopter in Afghanistan in 2008, federal prosecutors in New York said on Thursday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said Haji Najibullah…

News Analysis When President Joe Biden delayed the Afghanistan withdrawal timeline from May to September, some observers were left scratching their heads. Afterall, it’s well documented that summertime is traditionally the peak fighting season in Afghanistan. According to a study from the Small Wars Journal, this trend exists for two main reasons. The first and most obvious…

Special envoys of China, Russia, and Pakistan have met and held talks with representatives of the Taliban terrorist group’s self-appointed government, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. The three special envoys during their visit to Kabul on Tuesday and Wednesday held talks with the Taliban-appointed acting prime minister Mohammad Hasan Akhund, foreign minister Amir Khan…

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a military veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, along with a number of her Republican colleagues are urging Secretary of State Antony Blinken to take into full consideration the Taliban’s violent actions since seizing complete control of Afghanistan in August and have the United States officially designate the…

During a hearing by The House Energy and Commerce Committee to finalize their portion of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package on Monday, GOP members urged Democrats to support an amendment that would end the reliance on China for rare earth minerals and more specifically China’s new source of these minerals, the Afghan Taliban. “Mr….

Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry on Sept. 8 condemned the Taliban’s “so-called cabinet” announcement, after it unveiled its new all-male interim government on Tuesday. A statement issued by the Afghan embassy in Geneva on Twitter said that “the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which emanates from the free will of the people and epitomizes the vision and aspirations of…