Four years after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Donald Trump's demands for the return of Bagram Air Base and his ultimatums are escalating tensions and increasing the specter of a renewed conflict. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2025/10/03/world/trump-new-afghan-war-over-bagram-airbase/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #commentary #worldnews #afghanistan #taliban #us #donaldtrump #bagramairbase #defense

We're seeing requests to www.bbc.com return to normal-looking levels from Afghanistan - since about midday UTC today (1st Oct 2025).

#Afghanistan #Censorship #WebDev #InfoSec #Taliban

After the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, they restricted women’s access to jobs and barred girls over the age of 12 from getting an education. Now, with an internet blackout in the country, women there have lost their last source for learning. @BBCNews has more.
https://flip.it/ECPTsl
#Taliban #Afghanistan #WomensRights #Education #Internet #Blackout

We're seeing requests to www.bbc.com return to normal-looking levels from Afghanistan - since about midday UTC today (1st Oct 2025).

#Afghanistan #Censorship #WebDev #InfoSec #Taliban

Afghans around the world felt despondent over being unable to reach their loved ones at home after a Taliban-enforced internet blackout took effect. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/10/01/world/afghans-abroad-taliban-blackout/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #afghanistan #internet #taliban

After the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, they restricted women’s access to jobs and barred girls over the age of 12 from getting an education. Now, with an internet blackout in the country, women there have lost their last source for learning. @BBCNews has more.
https://flip.it/ECPTsl
#Taliban #Afghanistan #WomensRights #Education #Internet #Blackout

Taliban authorities imposed a nationwide shutdown of communications, weeks after they began severing fiber optic connections to prevent "vice." https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09/30/world/politics/taliban-shut-internet-afghanistan/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #politics #afghanistan #internet #taliban

Afghanistan Has Been Cut Off From the Internet, Monitors Say https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/world/asia/internet-blackout-afghanistan.html #CommunicationsandMediaBlackouts #ComputersandtheInternet #Afghanistan #SocialMedia #Censorship #Taliban

Despite widespread poverty and the strict theocratic rule of the Taliban, cosmetic surgery clinics in Kabul have flourished since the end of decades of war in Afghanistan. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09/29/world/society/botox-cosmetic-surgery-afghanistan/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #society #plasticsurgery #afghanistan #taliban #women039sissues

On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old #DOGE staffer and college dropout.

On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar.

This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media. Then the #Taliban took his family. 🧵

On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old #DOGE staffer and college dropout.

On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar.

This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media. Then the #Taliban took his family. 🧵

Afghanistan's Taliban authorities marked the fourth anniversary of their takeover on Friday. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/08/16/world/politics/taliban-fourth-year-in-power/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #politics #afghanistan #taliban #terrorism

Taliban denials of a U.S. citizen's detention present a conundrum for the FBI, which is leading the U.S. government effort to secure his release. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/08/11/world/politics/cia-al-qaeda-us-citizen-afghanistan/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #politics #cia #alqaeda #us #afghanistan #taliban

Matt Zeller, an #Army veteran whose #Afghan interpreter saved his life in a 2008 firefight, co-founded the nonprofit No One Left Behind to help resettle #Afghans. He said he fears the #immigration crackdown will unwind that effort.
“The #Trump administration knows what’s going to happen to these folks. They’re not stupid. They understand that the #Taliban is going to kill them when they get back to #Afghanistan,” Zeller said. “They just don’t care.”

#law#USmilitary #betrayal

They point to the arrests of Zia, 36, and Sayed Naser, 33, whose attorneys argue they followed proper #immigration processes. The Post agreed to withhold the last names of both men because of the ongoing threats to their lives from the #Taliban.
“Zia is not an outlier,” his attorney Lauren Cundick Petersen said during a news conference last month. “We’re witnessing the deliberate redefinition of legal entry as illegal for the purpose of meeting enforcement quotas.”

#Trump #law#USmilitary

But the #Trump admin is rolling back programs created to assist >250k #Afghans — including the #allies who worked for #US forces & other #refugees who fled after the #Taliban takeover. And while admin officials say #SIV processing will continue, advocates for Afghans who served with US troops fear the curtailment of programs they depend on, along with Trump’s ambitious #deportation plan, jeopardizes those still vying for SIV protection.

#immigration #law#USmilitary #betrayal

After #Kabul fell to the #Taliban in August 2021, President Joe #Biden’s admin moved to resettle #Afghans who had worked for the #US government through the Special Immigrant #Visa (#SIV) program, which grants lawful permanent resident status & a pathway to US #citizenship. As of April, about 25k Afghans had received an SIV, & another 160k had pending applications, said Adam Bates, an attorney with the International #Refugee Assistance Program who analyzed #State Dept data.

#immigration #law

As the admin seeks to fulfill #Trump’s pledge to carry out the largest #deportation op in #US history, attys for the men say their clients — #Afghans who fear retribution from the #Taliban for their work assisting the US in its 20-yr war in #Afghanistan — have found themselves in the crosshairs of #ICE. The attys provided WaPo with #military #contracts & certificates, #asylum & #visa applications, recommendation letters & other records that described both men’s work on behalf of #USmilitary….