Six In The Morning Wednesday 25 August 2021

 

Taliban tell Afghan women to stay home from work because soldiers are 'not trained' to respect them

By Rob Picheta and Zahid Mahmood, CNN

Updated 1503 GMT (2303 HKT) August 25, 2021

Fear is mounting for women and girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban told working women to stay at home, admitting they were not safe in the presence of the militant group's soldiers.

Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said at a news conference on Tuesday that women should not go to work for their own safety, undermining the group's efforts to convince international observers that the group would be more tolerant towards women than when they were last in power.

The instruction came the same day that the World Bank halted funding in Afghanistan, citing concerns about the safety of women, and within hours of the UN calling for a "transparent and prompt investigation" into reports of human rights abuses since the Taliban takeover.

Hong Kong to scour old films for subversive themes under new censorship law

Movies deemed a security threat can bring penalties of up to three years’ jail under stricter law that also covers previously approved titles

Agence France-Presse in Hong Kong

Wed 25 Aug 2021 06.46 BST

Hong Kong will scrutinise past films for national security breaches under a tough new censorship law in the latest blow to the city’s political and artistic freedoms.

Authorities announced in June that the financial hub’s censorship board would check any future films for content that breached the security law. But on Tuesday they unveiled a new, hardened censorship law that would also cover any titles that had previously been given a green light.

“Any film for public exhibition, past, present and future, will need to get approval,” the commerce secretary, Edward Yau, said.

Former Afghanistan minister with Oxford engineering degree spotted delivering pizza in Germany

Former Afghan minister Syed Ahmad Shah Saadat has been spotted delivering pizza in Germany

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

A former minister in Afghanistan has now reportedly taken up a job delivering food in Germany.

Syed Ahmad Shah Saadat, Afghanistan’s former minister of information and communications, was spotted by a local journalist in Germany’s Leipzig city when he was on his way to make a delivery on his bicycle.

Mr Saadat had joined the government of the now-exiled president Ashraf Ghani as a cabinet minister in 2018. After serving for two years, however, Mr Saadat resigned and left the country for Germany last December.

Are India's emergency visas for Afghans issued based on religion?

India's past citizenship policy, which critics say excludes Muslims, has raised questions as to who is eligible for special new humanitarian visas for Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban.

Days after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, the Indian government introduced a new category of visa to fast-track the applications of Afghans who want to come to India and flee what has become a growing humanitarian crisis.

It was announced that all Afghans, irrespective of their religion, could apply for the so-called e-Emergency X-Misc Visa online.

However, the announcement of the fast-tracked visas kicked up controversy in India over whether there would indeed be religious discrimination in determining eligibility.

African mountain forests store more carbon than thought: study

Africa's mountain forests may store up to two-thirds more carbon than previously thought, according to research published Wednesday that highlights the role the threatened ecosystems can play in battling climate change.

Traditionally, forests at higher altitudes are thought to contain less carbon than lowland forests due to factors such as soil and climactic changes that affect growth and thus the amount of carbon the trees can absorb.

To more accurately estimate the carbon stored in these so-called montane forests, an international team analysed data on carbon stored in trees across 44 highland sites in 12 African countries.

Miami-Dade is a hot COVID mess, but we have company all over Florida. Thank DeSantis | Opinion

Fabiola Santiago

Wed, August 25, 2021

From Miami to Jacksonville, the tragic trail of new deaths from COVID-19 is heartbreaking.

Police officers, young parents who leave behind children and people from all walks of life are dying, only this time with the realization, when it’s too late, that they should have been vaccinated to prevent hospitalization and death.

Or, with the realization that, had they properly worn a mask, a lesser viral load of the deadly delta variant might not have killed them.