The Guardian: A suicide bombing at a mosque in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar has killed at least 47 people and injured more than 80, in the second major attack on Shia worshippers in Afghanistan in a week.The Imam Bargah mosque was particularly crowded when the attackers struck, because the community had been holding memorial prayers for the victims of the previous bombing, in northern Kunduz province.      Full news...

AP: KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Islamic State suicide bomber struck at a mosque packed with Shiite Muslim worshippers in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 46 people and wounding dozens in the latest security challenge to the Taliban as they transition from insurgency to governance.      Full news...

Amnesty International: Taliban forces unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras, including a 17-year-old girl, in Afghanistan’s Daykundi province after members of the security forces of the former government surrendered, a new investigation by Amnesty International has revealed.      Full news...

New York Post: The Taliban hung the dead bodies of three alleged criminals in public view in Afghanistan on Tuesday — a shocking display reminiscent of the Islamic militant group’s brutal regime of the late 1990s.The alleged criminals were killed by a man after they tried to break into his home, deputy governor Mawlawi Shir Ahmad Muhajir told AFP.      Full news...

ToloNews: An Afghan woman displaced from Baghlan province to Kabul due to fighting prior to the fall of Kabul, has sold her one and a half years old infant due to poverty. Living in a tent in Kabul, the mother, Lailuma, said she had no option but to sell her infant to treat her 13-year-old daughter who is sick.      Full news...

AP News: KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — At least five civilians were killed in a bomb blast outside a Kabul mosque Sunday, a Taliban official said. It was the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital since U.S. forces left at the end of August.There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on Islamic State extremists who have stepped up attacks on the Taliban in recent weeks, particularly in an IS stronghold in eastern Afghanistan.      Full news...

NHK News: Armed Taliban fighters have forcibly dispersed a group of women who were demanding that girls in Afghanistan be allowed to return to secondary school. The protest took place on Thursday in the capital Kabul. About 10 Taliban fighters rushed to the scene and threatened the women to leave, including by firing shots into the air.      Full news...

RAWANews: Sayed Maroof Sadat, an Afghan journalist, was assassinated in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, local media reports. He is the third journalist killed since the Taliban takeover. Two others were killed in Kabul Airport explosion in August. Since Taliban rule solidified in the country, at least 153 media outlets have had to shut down over increasing threats towards journalists while female media employees have been barred from work entirely.      Full news...

BBC: The gruesome display came a day after a notorious Taliban official warned that extreme punishments such as executions and amputations would resume. The men were killed in a gun battle after allegedly seizing a businessman and his son, a local official said.      Full news...

The Intercept: IF YOU ARE waiting for an American general to resign or be fired over the drone strike that killed seven children and three men in Kabul last month, you will likely experience the meaning of infinity.You might think that the Pentagon would be scrambling to find a general to take the fall for what can no longer be denied: that the U.S. military killed 10 Afghans on August 29, called it a “righteous strike” against terrorists, and then had to admit the truth after journalists found out what happened. But don’t bet your bitcoin on it.      Full news...

BBC: In a matter of weeks, the birthing unit Rabia delivered her baby in had been stripped down to its bare basics. She was given no pain relief, no medicine and no food.The hospital sweltered in temperatures topping 43C (109F) - the power had been cut and there was no fuel to work the generators. "We were sweating like we were taking a shower," says Rabia's midwife Abida, who worked tirelessly in darkness to deliver the baby by mobile phone light.      Full news...

The Guardian: Female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said on Sunday, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers. The decision to prevent most female city workers from returning to their jobs is another sign that the Taliban, who overran Kabul last month, are enforcing their harsh interpretation of Islam despite initial promises by some that they would be tolerant and inclusive.      Full news...

Anadolu Agency: KABUL, Afghanistan _A small group of women gathered in Kabul on Sunday for a “silent protest” against the interim Taliban administration's decision permitting only boys and male teachers to resume their educational activities in Afghanistan.Although it failed to get much public attention, women managed to register their disapproval of the Taliban decision before representatives from certain international media outlets in the capital city.      Full news...

The Statesman: The recent developments in Afghanistan, particularly since August 2021 have brought forth many tumultuous issues with respect to life, liberty, and rights of resident Afghans in their country. Of particular concern is the position of women and the challenges they face in the wake of the resurgence of Taliban after 20 years as the group’s earlier regime from 1996 to 2000 had almost decimated women’s rights to freedom, health, education, life, and liberty. The world is watching with concerned anticipation as to how events will unfold in near future, and, what such developments would mean for the average Afghan women and girls.      Full news...

UNDP: New York – Afghanistan teeters on the brink of universal poverty. As much as 97 percent of the population is at risk of sinking below the poverty line unless a response to the country’s political and economic crises is urgently launched, according to a rapid appraisal released today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).The study, which analysed four potential scenarios of escalating intensity and isolation, indicates that real GDP could contract by as much as 13.2 percent, leading to an increase in the poverty rate of up to 25 percentage points.      Full news...

Reuters: Taliban gunmen fired in the air on Tuesday to scatter protesters in the Afghan capital of Kabul, witnesses said, as video showed scores of people scurrying to escape volleys of gunfire, although there were no immediate reports of injuries. Hundreds of men and women shouting slogans such as “Long live the resistance,” and “Death to Pakistan” marched in the streets to protest against the Taliban and what they called interference in Afghanistan’s affairs by neighbouring Pakistan.      Full news...

BBC: The woman, named in local media as Banu Negar, was killed at the family home in front of relatives in Firozkoh, the capital of central Ghor province.The killing comes amid increasing reports of escalating repression of women in Afghanistan.      Full news...

New York Times: The women were assaulted with rifle butts, tear gas and metal clubs, while anti-Taliban rebels in the north vowed to repel an assault by the Islamist group. Several of the women, who were demanding inclusion in the yet-to-be named Taliban government, said they were beaten by Taliban fighters — some of the first concrete evidence of harsh treatment of women by the group.      Full news...

AFP: "The rocket came and hit the car full of kids inside our house," said Aimal Ahmadi. He said 10 members of the family died in the air strike -- including his own daughter and five other children. On Monday, when AFP visited the scene, Aimal was impatiently waiting for other relatives to arrive to help him organise burials for most of his family.      Full news...

CNN: As many as five rockets were fired at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Monday local time, a US official told CNN.The C-RAM defense system installed at the airport engaged with the rockets, the official said. There are no reports of any casualties at this time.      Full news...

The Indian Express: The Pentagon said on Friday that a deadly attack at the gate to Kabul airport in Afghanistan yesterday was carried out by one suicide bomber, not two. “I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, that it was one suicide bomber,” Army Major General William Taylor was quoted as saying by Reuters.      Full news...

Yes: I am feeling a pervasive sense of d?jà vu in reading the news of how the Taliban has taken over Afghanistan within weeks of the U.S. withdrawal. Nearly 20 years after the U.S. invaded one of the world’s poorest nations in a retaliatory response to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the so-called enemy force is back in power. Afghan feminist activists have spent the past two decades warning the U.S. against resorting to violent solutions like war and collaborating with armed fundamentalists.      Full news...

Washington Post: On Aug. 15, the Taliban completed its conquest of Afghanistan by seizing Kabul. These events were tragically similar to those of 25 years ago, when Kabul fell to the Taliban in September 1996. Americans have recently watched chaotic scenes unfold in Afghanistan: panicked Afghans desperately clinging to evacuating U.S. planes; Taliban fighters going house-to-house hunting journalists, prominent women and Afghans who worked for the toppled government; and the Taliban beating Afghan protesters. While many Afghans face suffering under Taliban rule, women and girls have the most to fear — and lose.      Full news...

Medya News: These past few days, we have witnessed on our television screens and social media, images of the Taliban having swept through Afghanistan and on the 15th August, walked into the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul and straight into the Presidential Palace without any resistance after the withdrawal of the US forces just a few weeks before.      Full news...

Counter Punch: As Taliban fighters enter Kabul, everybody from the US government to local policemen seeks to reach a deal with the new rulers of Afghanistan. Alternatively, they want to flee the country as soon as possible.      Full news...

Counter Punch: One of the doctrinal principles behind U.S. corporate-imperial news coverage and commentary and mainstream US politics is that the United States is a fundamentally benevolent force for good facing difficulties created by evil others and challenging situations not of Washington’s own making. Debate is permissible on immediate strategy and tactics but is not allowed on these core American Exceptionalist positions.      Full news...

Counter Punch: President Biden put a popular flag-waving wrapping on America’s forced withdrawal from Afghanistan in his 4 PM speech on Monday. It was as if all this was following Biden’s own intentions, not a demonstration of the totally incompetent assurances by the CIA and State Department as recently as last Friday that the Taliban was over a month away from being able to enter Kabul. Instead of saying that the massive public support for the Taliban replacing the United States showed the incompetent hubris of U.S. intelligence agencies – which itself would have justified Biden’s agreement to complete the withdrawal with all haste – he doubled down on his defense of the Deep State and its mythology.      Full news...

India Today: A young woman was allegedly killed by the Taliban for wearing tight clothes and not being accompanied by a male relative in Afghanistan’s northern Balkh province.“The woman was shot dead in the village of Samar Qand, which is controlled by Taliban," a report by Radio Azadi said in Afghanistan.      Full news...

Nasdaq: KABUL, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Suspected Taliban fighters killed an Afghan radio station manager in Kabul and kidnapped a journalist in southern Helmand province, local government officials said on Monday, reporting the latest in a long line of attacks targeting media workers.      Full news...

BBC News: An Afghan defence ministry spokesman told the BBC government forces were still in the city and would clear out the Taliban "soon".This is the second regional capital to fall to the militants, after Zaranj in the south-western province of Nimroz fell on Friday.It is a major blow to security forces, with battles raging across the country.      Full news...