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Reuters otg reporter actively writing stories closely related to Taliban activity. Very little information about him online most likely due to safety precautions

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Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world's largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.

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Very shallow news report highlighting a tweet from the former president in support of women in school after a video went viral of female students in uniform protesting.

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KABUL, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on the ruling Taliban on Sunday to re-open girls' high schools and applauded female students in the eastern province of Paktia who residents said have been publicly protesting against the measure.

"The voice of Paktia's female students is the voice of all our girls and of Afghanistan," said Karzai, who remained in Kabul after the Taliban took over just over a year ago, on Twitter.

"We ask the acting Islamic government to open the schools," he said.

The ruling Taliban made a sudden U-turn on promises to open girls' highschools in March, leaving some female students who had turned up to class in tears.

Authorities in Paktia said this week that girls' high schools had re-opened, though the move had not been officially approved. read more

On Saturday, the head of Paktia's information department told journalists any suggestion schools were closed was "propaganda".

But three residents and three Taliban officials, who all declined to be named, told Reuters that schools were shut on Saturday. The residents, one of whom is a teacher, asked to remain anonymous for security reasons and said the closure had prompted some girls to protest.

Video footage shown by local broadcaster Tolo on its website and Twitter account showed dozens of girls in school uniform marching down a street while chanting. Reuters could not independently verify the footage.

Taliban education officials in Paktia and Kabul did not reply to a request for comment. The group's spokesperson declined to comment.

The Taliban sources, who asked for anonymity as they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, said many in the group wanted girls to be able to go to high school.

The Taliban have said that they are working on a plan to re-open high schools for girls, but have not specified when.

Primary-school aged girls and female university students are still able to attend class.

Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Former Afghan President Karzai tweets his support of protesting female students

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KABUL, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on the ruling Taliban on Sunday to re-open girls' high schools and applauded female students in the eastern province of Paktia who residents said have been publicly protesting against the measure.

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- Russia doesnt fully support Taiban, but has entertained thoughts of selling commoditites
- Attack claimed by Islamic State militant group

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KABUL, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Two Russian embassy staff in Kabul were among six people killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives near the entrance of the embassy, in a blast that injured at least 10 others, the Russian Foreign Ministry and Afghan officials said on Monday.

The attack was claimed by Islamic State militant group on its channel on Telegram.

Police said the attacker was shot dead by armed guards as he approached the gate, in one of the first such attacks since the Taliban took power last year.

"The suicide attacker before reaching the target, was recognised and shot by Russian embassy (Taliban) guards ... there is no information about casualties yet," Mawlawi Sabir, the head of the police district where the attack took place, told Reuters.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that an unknown militant set off an explosive device near the entrance to the consular section of the embassy around at 10:50 a.m. Kabul time. read more

"As a result of the attack, two employees of the diplomatic mission were killed, and there are also victims among Afghan citizens," the ministry said.

The four others killed were Afghan civilians, Khalid Zadran, a Kabul police spokesperson said.

Russia is one of the few countries to have maintained an embassy in Kabul after the Taliban took over the country more than a year ago. Although Moscow does not officially recognise the Taliban's government, they have been in talks with officials over an agreement to supply gasoline and other commodities.

The United Nations' mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned the blast.

"In light of recent events, UNAMA stresses the need for the de facto authorities to take steps to ensure the safety and security of the people as well as diplomatic missions," the UN wrote on Twitter, in reference to the Taliban government.

The spokesperson for the foreign ministry in Afghanistan said Taliban forces would take serious steps towards securing embassies operating in the country.

"(The government) has a close relationship with Russia; we will never let such negative actions of enemies have a negative impact on the relationship," spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement.

During the decades-long Taliban insurgency against the Western-backed Afghan government, bombings targeting foreign missions were a regular occurrence in Kabul, especially in recent years, with embassies and hotels fortifying themselves with razor wire and blast walls.

Such incidents have decreased dramatically since the insurgent group swept to power in August 2021.

However, the Taliban has had to contend with an insurgency by the Afghanistan affiliate of the Islamic State militant group.

The attacks had thus far been against the Taliban and civilian targets such as mosques.

Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar; Writing by Charlotte Greenfield, Alasdair Pal, Shivam Patel and Gibran Peshimam; Editing by William Maclean, Hugh Lawson and Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Two Russian embassy staff dead, four others killed in suicide bomb blast in Kabul

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Two Russian embassy staff in Kabul were among six people killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives near the entrance of the embassy, in a blast that injured at least 10 others, the Russian Foreign Ministry and Afghan officials said on Monday.

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Facts and Statistics from the United Nations reporting on the drug trade and routes out of Afghanistan.

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United Nations : Office on Drugs and Crime

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Reports

AOTP Update Vol 4 - Understanding heroin manufacture in Europe from 2013 to 2020 - English 2022

AOTP Special Edition - Voices of Quchaqbar - English 2020

AOTP Update Vol 3 - Opiate trafficking along the early stages of the Balkan route - English 2020

AOTP Update Vol.2 - Heroin seizures and opiate trafficking along the Caucasus Route - English 2019

AOTP Update Vol.1 - Acetic anhydride in the context of Afghan heroin - English, Farsi, Русский 2018

Afghan Opiate Trafficking along the Northern Route - English, Русский 2018

The Afghan Opiate Trade and Africa - A Baseline Assessment - English, Русский 2016

Afghan opiate trafficking through the southern route - English, Русский 2015

Impacts of drug use on users and their families in Afghanistan - Full report 2014

The Illicit Drug Trade through South-Eastern Europe - Full report 2014

Opiate flows through Northern Afghanistan and Central Asia: A Threat Assessment - English, Русский, Farsi 2012

Misuse of Licit Trade for Opiate Trafficking in Western and Central Asia: A Threat Assessment - English, Русский 2012

Handbook on Stamps and Other Markings of Heroin Bags - English, Русский 2012

The Global Afghan Opium Trade: A Threat Assessment - English, Resumen Español, Русский 2011

Addiction, crime and insurgency - the transnational threat of Afghan opium 2009

Capacity Building Reports

Afghanistan
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN)

Pakistan
Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Pakistan Customs, Federal Board of Revenue, Ministry of Finance (MoF)

Tajikistan
Republic of Tajikistan, Drug Control Agency (DCA)
Central Asian Regional Information and Co-ordination Centre (CARICC)

Handbook of Heroin Stamps and Other Markings of Heroin Bags - English, Русский (2012)

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AOTP Update Vol 4 - Understanding heroin manufacture in Europe from 2013 to 2020 - English 2022 AOTP Special Edition - Voices of Quchaqbar - English 2020 AOTP Update Vol 3 - Opiate trafficking along the early stages of the Balkan route - English 2020 AOTP Update Vol.2 - Heroin

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General store of all Afghan news stories

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Afghanistan | Today’s latest from Al Jazeera

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Stay on top of Afghanistan latest developments on the ground with Al Jazeera’s fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated maps.

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General store of all Afghan news stories

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All the latest content about Afghanistan from the BBC.

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Link to online news source many Afghans seem to use to replace the lack of news found on TV

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 12, 2022

A UN human rights expert says conditions in Afghanistan under Taliban rule indicate a "descent towards authoritarianism" and called for radical changes to stop the trend.

"The severe rollback of the rights of women and girls, reprisals targeting opponents and critics, and a clampdown on freedom of expression by the Taliban amount to a descent towards authoritarianism," Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, told a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on September 12.

The mandate to monitor human rights violations in Afghanistan was established by the council almost a year ago after the Taliban takeover last August and is now up for renewal.

A year after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, teenage girls are still barred from school and women are required to cover themselves from head to toe in public, with only their eyes showing. Hard-liners appear to hold sway in the Taliban-led government, which imposed severe restrictions on access to education and jobs for girls and women, despite initial promises to the contrary.

On September 10, Taliban authorities shut down girls' schools above the sixth grade in eastern Afghanistan's Paktia Province, according to witnesses and social media posts. The schools had briefly opened after a recommendation by tribal elders and school principals.

Earlier this month, four girls schools above grade 6 in Gardez, the provincial capital, and one in the Samkani district began operating without formal permission from the Taliban Education Ministry.

On September 10, all five schools were once again closed by the Taliban, sparking protests.

A resident of Paktia Province, who declined to be identified for security reasons, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that the girls protested in Gardiz, the capital of Paktia Province, the same day the Taliban closed the schools.

Several videos of the demonstration circulated on social media. In one of them a student asks: "Why did you play with our feelings and why did you send us back to our homes disappointed?" She described herself and other girls as "oppressed people."

Maulvi Monib, the head of education in Paktia Province, declined to answer Radio Azadi's questions about the demonstration and the closing of the schools. He said that he was traveling and would provide information about it later.

The chief spokesman for the Taliban-led government, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a press conference that authorities are investigating the issue of who ordered the opening of schools in Paktia Province.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 12, 2022 A UN human rights expert says conditions in Afghanistan under Taliban rule indicate a "descent towards authoritarianism" and called for radical changes to stop the trend.

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Fox news, historically right leaning media source. This article is from late Aug, but references and analyzes sources from the UN in its reporting. Demeanor is...

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As the Taliban secures its grip on Afghanistan, the United Nations is warning that the militant group is reliant on drug trafficking as one of its primary sources of financing, as opium poppy production has increased significantly.

In a June report to the Security Council, U.N. officials said the issue of production of poppy-based drugs and methamphetamine was "unaddressed" by the Afghan peace process.
BIDEN WON'T EXTEND AFGHANISTAN DEADLINE AS TALIBAN REITERATES DEMAND FOR US FORCES TO LEAVE
"This remains the Taliban's largest single source of income," the report says. "It also has a destabilizing and corrupting effect within Afghanistan and contributes significantly to the narcotics challenges facing the wider international community."

The report also found that there was a decline in narcotics seizures by the Afghan government in 2020, which was attributed in part to the gradual expansion of Taliban-controlled territory - where the militant group was reliant on it as one of its sources of funding.

"The primary sources of Taliban financing remain criminal activities, including drug trafficking and opium poppy production, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, mineral exploitation and revenues from tax collection in areas under Taliban control or influence," the report says.

IN the last months, the Taliban's reach has grown dramatically - with the militant group sweeping through the country in recent days ahead of the U.S. withdrawal on Aug. 31. It has led to chaos in Kabul as Americans and Afghan allies struggle to get on planes to flee the country.
U.S. TROOPS WILL HAVE TO BEGIN AFGHANISTAN PULLOUT ON FRIDAY TO MEET DEADLINE
CBS News, which first highlighted the June U.N. report last week, also cited estimates from the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) that taxes collected from drug farmers alone were estimated to be around $14.5 million, while another $46-98 million comes in from heroin manufacturing and trafficking.

A top UNODC official told Reuters that the Taliban "have counted on the Afghan opium trade as one of their main sources of income."

"More production brings drugs with a cheaper and more attractive price, and therefore a wider accessibility," Cesar Gudes, the head of the UNODC's Kabul office, told the outlet.

Meanwhile, CBS reported that the UNODC's Afghanistan Opium Survey found that the area under opium poppy cultivation increased by 37% in 2020 and that drug transit routes were not interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

That survey also found that potential opium production in Afghanistan was estimated at between 5,400-7,200 tons and in 2020 the area under cultivation was among the four highest ever measured.
TALIBAN CLAIMS IT'LL BE MORE MODERATE, BUT KILLINGS CONTINUE IN AFGHANISTAN
"All regions except the Eastern region saw an increase in opium poppy cultivation in 2020, with the largest relative increases being in the Southern region, followed by the Western, North-eastern, Northern, Central and South-Western regions," the report found.

While the Taliban did not have control of the entire country in that period, opium production surged under Taliban rule in the late 1990s up and until they were removed from power in 2001. A State Department report in 2000 described an "explosion of poppy cultivation under the Taliban." While there was a brief ban on production by the hardliners, it was quickly reversed after objections from farmers.

"The Taliban's support for, or acquiescence to, poppy cultivation and narcotics manufacture and trade has further exacerbated the humanitarian crisis of the Afghan people," the report found.

The Taliban have made similar noises about banning narcotic productions in recent days, but given their reliance on it for funding - and their past actions - it seems unlikely that that will change.

Additionally, the Biden administration and international partners have been working to block Taliban access to reserves held abroad, meaning the Taliban could be more reliant on that funding than ever.
Fox News' Ben Evansky contributed to this report.

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Taliban reliant on illegal drug trafficking for financing as production booms, UN says

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As the Taliban secures its grip on Afghanistan, the United Nations is warning that the militant group is reliant on drug trafficking as one of its primary sources of financing, as opium poppy production has increased significantly. In a June report to the Security Council, U.N.

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LA Times, historically left leaning media source. This article is also from late Aug, very similar to the time of the article written by Fox. Maybe look into events occurring at this time.

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In a few months, farmers in Afghanistan will begin planting the fall poppy crop, eventually blanketing the dusty countryside in resplendent white, pink and red flowers.

It will mark the first time in 20 years that the illicit plant - the raw ingredient of opium and its derivative, heroin - will grow free of interference from U.S. and coalition forces.

The role of policing poppy now belongs to Afghanistan's new rulers, the Taliban, which has spent years exploiting the crop to help fund its insurgency, cementing the country's longtime position as the world's leading producer of opium.

The militant group recently pledged to ban the production and sale of drugs, but weaning the country off the opium trade will be next to impossible given the nation's dire economic situation and the lifeline poppy cultivation provides for Afghanistan's vast rural population.

At its peak in 2017, annual opium production was valued at $1.4 billion, or 7.4% of Afghanistan's gross domestic product, according to the United Nations. That tumbled to $400 million, or roughly 2% of GDP, in 2020 because of falling prices for the narcotic in the face of competition from synthetic opioids and methamphetamines.

But the crop remains one of the only reliable sources of income for farmers in a country ravaged by decades of war. The more unstable Afghanistan becomes, the more poppy is planted by those who have no safety net to hedge against the future.

"People who cultivate are often the poorest," said Angela Me, a senior researcher at the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, who places Afghanistan's share of the global opium market at over 80%.

The Taliban knows first-hand how difficult it is to sustain a ban. The first time the group ruled Afghanistan, it prohibited poppy cultivation in 2000, reducing acreage by 90% and cutting the world's supply of heroin by two-thirds. But the edict also plunged farmers into debt, leading to an unemployment crisis that damaged support for the Taliban in the run-up to its ouster by U.S. forces and their allies in 2001.

Experts say that by again declaring that it will not tolerate drugs, the Taliban is trying to persuade the world it should no longer be regarded as a pariah state so it can gain access to vital international aid and funding at a time when Afghanistan's economy is on the precipice of disaster.

The local currency, the afghani, could soon collapse, now that regular deliveries of U.S. dollars to Afghanistan's central bank have been halted. The Taliban has also been cut off from billions in development assistance.

"Drugs are likely to be a bargaining chip with international players," said Jonathan Goodhand, an expert on the global narcotics trade at SOAS University of London, who described the Taliban as being caught between foreign and domestic pressures.

"If the Taliban do try to introduce draconian measures to deal with drugs, they will undermine their support base and exacerbate the humanitarian and development crisis currently affecting much of the population," he said.

The same calculus vexed U.S. and coalition forces tasked with reconstructing Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime nearly 20 years ago. Fighting drugs often had to take a backseat to the mission of dismantling Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks. To fight a counterinsurgency, American troops and officials often sought support from tribal leaders enmeshed in the opium trade. Military commanders were reluctant to destroy poppy crops for fear of alienating farmers they were trying to win over.

When coalition forces did try to counter narcotics, their efforts were regularly thwarted by corruption, botched planning and poor execution, concluded a 2018 report by the U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.

A British operation in 2002 that involved paying farmers to destroy their poppy fields only encouraged new plantings after growers realized they could harvest the opium gum for profit and then destroy the remaining plants to receive compensation.

Fifteen years later, the U.S. launched costly airstrikes on suspected drug labs that failed to disrupt opium networks because the crudely built facilities could often be replaced within a day.

Also undermining interdiction efforts were Afghan government officials and authorities who accepted bribes or even engaged in smuggling. In 2005, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents found about 10 tons of opium stashed inside the offices of the governor of Helmand province, the center of Afghanistan's poppy belt.

The U.S. spent nearly $9 billion between 2002 and 2017 to counter Afghanistan's opium trade. Rather than declining in that time, poppy acreage more than tripled.

"Despite this investment, drug production and trafficking remain entrenched," the special inspector's report said.

The counternarcotics campaign was driven by the belief that the Taliban was filling its coffers with taxes levied along the opium supply chain. One U.S. estimate said the drug trade provided 60% of the group's funding in Helmand. But experts say those numbers are vastly overstated. The Taliban relies more on taxing ordinary goods such as fuel and cigarettes. Its revenues from levying taxes on NATO supply trucks during the peak of the U.S. surge in 2011 is believed to have exceeded its earnings from drug taxes.

The distinction matters, experts say, because blaming the Taliban for perpetuating the drug trade ignores the weak governance, lack of security and poverty that play larger roles in driving farmers to grow poppy.

"The Taliban's dependence on drug revenues has been exaggerated," Goodhand said. "Drugs obviously did significantly contribute to the Taliban's war chest - along with taxation of licit trade, which was probably at least, if not more, important than drugs."

A ban on poppy cultivation could have unintended consequences on the global drug market, which was jolted this year by a military coup in Myanmar, the world's second-largest supplier of opium.

The absence of Afghan opium and heroin, which mostly reaches users in Europe, Africa and Canada rather than the United States, could create a wider opening for highly potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl from China and India, which are preferred by traffickers because they're less bulky. Those drugs have already made inroads in North America.

"If Afghanistan and the Taliban go for a ban, they could rapidly find themselves without a market in places like Europe," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "Other countries could easily switch to synthetic opioids from China and India. Synthetic opioids are far more dangerous. Heroin is the lesser evil."

Felbab-Brown said there is precedent for a country eradicating its opium trade: Thailand. Starting in the late 1980s, the Southeast Asian nation was able to reduce its opium footprint by providing poppy growers alternative jobs. Replicating that success will be difficult in Afghanistan. Thailand had the benefits of peace, a rapidly industrializing economy and a far smaller opium trade to start with.

"It will be enormously difficult to achieve a poppy-free, drug-free" Afghanistan, Felbab-Brown said. "Even assuming that the country remains stable and doesn't disintegrate into civil war and assuming it has meaningful international support, it will still take decades to wean Afghanistan off of poppy."

There have been small pockets of success. Vithal Karoshi, a director for agricultural programs at the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps, said his group persuaded thousands of Afghan farmers to abandon poppy to grow high-value alternatives like almonds, pistachios and saffron.

The work was painstaking. Many farmers had no intuition for growing anything other than poppy. Some used too little water, others too much. It was also difficult to compete with the established infrastructure of the opium trade, where traffickers often paid growers up to 40% of the cost of cultivating their crops in advance. And, unlike high-end nuts and fruits that carry warehousing costs, poppy farmers could sell their harvests immediately to traffickers.

"These farmers have been trained to grow poppy for decades," said Karoshi, who spoke from Bangalore, India, after recently being evacuated from Kabul. "They already have a market and value chain. It will take years of concentrated effort to get them to switch."

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The Taliban says it wants to ban drugs in Afghanistan. Here's why it can't

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In a few months, farmers in Afghanistan will begin planting the fall poppy crop, eventually blanketing the dusty countryside in resplendent white, pink and red flowers. It will mark the first time in 20 years that the illicit plant - the raw ingredient of opium and its derivative, heroin - will grow free of interference from U.S.

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On many of the popular sites and forums, information (as well as disinformation) was notably absent. The few tidbits I found were related to Afghan culture rather than current Afghan hardships or issues. I think this is mainly due to the fact that Afghan is no longer very popular in the US. There are bigger fires in the world that people are more interested in, and with the speed of modern news cycles, the state of Afghanistan affairs has been put on the back burners.