Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

The Taliban government celebrates five years of ruling Afghanistan on Saturday, with the authorities hailing their country’s “freedom” and security, while critics decry tightening restrictions in all areas of daily life. Afghans riding rickshaws and motorbikes decorated with flags were driving around Kabul, where new murals declared: “Independence is a sign of dignity, pride and identity”. Men sell Taliban flags on a Kabul street ahead of celebrations marking the 5th anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. © Nava Jamshidi, AP The authorities will host a cricket match and other sports events – which girls and women are banned from attending –…

A South Florida rally headlined by Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan became the latest flashpoint in the Democratic Party’s internal battle over Israel, after a venue that had planned to host the event backed out.The rally, in support of three progressive Democrats — two of whom are running for U.S. House seats and one for the Senate — was initially expected to take place at The Venue in Fort Lauderdale on Friday night, four days before the Florida primary election.But on Thursday, State Representative Michael Gottlieb, a Democrat and the chairman of the Florida Legislative Jewish Caucus, issued a statement…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.An evening walk through Islington with an Australian friend. He looks around at the Georgian facades, at the Lime-biking locals, and grows ruminative.“They say it’s the best city in the world . . . ”I wait for the counter-argument.“ . . . but they don’t say it enough.”Of where else will they say it in future? Which will be the next city to penetrate the club of two or three that vie for number one status in surveys?Ask around, as I have done for months, pestering thoughtful and…

Lance Whitney/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on GoogleZDNET’s key takeawaysApple is warning certain users about targeted spyware attacks.These attacks are aimed at journalists, activists, politicians, and diplomats.Anyone notified should enable Lockdown Mode on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac.Apple is warning certain users about a new round of targeted attacks designed to infect their iPhones, iPads, and Macs with what it calls mercenary spyware. If successful, the spyware is able to bypass any built-in encryption to access your private files, snoop on your conversations, capture your audio and video, track your locations, and control your device.Also: Older iPhones…

A multi-stage Rust-based macOS information stealer has been distributed through a counterfeit GitHub download page in recent ClickFix attacks, Jamf reports. The fake download page lures victims into pasting a command into Terminal, which leads to the newly discovered AmnesiaStealer being installed. As part of a three-stage infection chain, a shell script runs to fetch and execute the payload, the infostealer harvests data, and a third module is run on command to provide interactive control over the victims’ browsers. “Its objectives overlap with families such as Atomic (AMOS), MacSync and CrashStealer. Three traits set it apart: a builder-driven configuration, OS…

Bitcoin treasury Strategy has said it “doesn’t need” Morgan Stanley Capital International after the index provider said it could remove the Bitcoin company from its Global Investable Market Indexes. MSCI said in a consultation that it was consulting on a plan to define “Non-Operating Companies” and make them ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes (GIMI). The removal of such companies would exclude companies like Strategy from indexes visible to a large pool of institutional investors. MSCI said it was weighing up the decision as Strategy is primarily known for holding a large amount of Bitcoin rather than running a…

In 1989, Voyager 2 discovered six previously unknown moons around Neptune. Five of them are tiny satellites that travel just beyond the planet’s main rings. Their small size and distant location have made them extremely difficult to investigate from Earth. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has given scientists a much closer look. A Caltech led team used Webb to study Neptune’s rings along with three of its inner moons, Larissa, Galatea, and Proteus. The observations revealed a chemical makeup unlike anything previously identified among bodies in the outer solar system. The results support the idea that Neptune once…

There are fewer and fewer stories coming out of the land of my birth. Before, I would open Instagram and see my cousins, lip-syncing to trending videos, posing with flowers at a rose garden or at a trendy cafe in their coolest outfits, keeping a record of their lives. I would hear British-Afghan friends talk about their recent trips to the provinces, towns and cities of their foremothers and the buzz of learning about their heritage. I would eagerly await the latest music video from Afghanistan’s many pop stars, all vying to become the hottest track played at weddings, not…

Last December, Trump sued the BBC and subsidiaries BBC Studios Productions and BBC Studios Distribution over the 2024 Panorama episode.Trump’s lawsuit – filed in Florida – accuses the BBC of “intentionally, maliciously and deceptively doctoring” the speech he gave outside the Capitol on 6 January 2021.The BBC has apologised for an editing error that gave “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.However, the BBC has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the programme did not meet the legal criteria for defamation and was not made available on its US platforms.Last…

Westminster council is making it “impossible” for soup kitchens to operate by complaining about the “crowds of vulnerable people” who turn up to be fed, a charity has said.Steven Stuart, who founded Friends of Essex & London Homeless (FOELH) with his wife, Cheryl, a decade ago, said constant complaints from the council could force the soup kitchen to shut down.The council is also facing a licensing battle with the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, who has objected to its restrictive new draft policy that would ban new bars and pubs from opening in Soho and the West End. The council also…