Taliban FM goes viral riding motorcycle through Kabul

Special Taliban FM goes viral riding motorcycle through Kabul
The combination of photos shows Afghanistan's acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi riding a motorcycle in Kabul in October 2024. (Social media/Screengrab)
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Updated 31 October 2024
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Taliban FM goes viral riding motorcycle through Kabul

Taliban FM goes viral riding motorcycle through Kabul
  • Amir Khan Muttaqi filmed on a motorbike in Wazir Akbar Khan area
  • Kabul residents admit that public safety has been increasing in the city

Kabul: A video of Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister riding a motorcycle through Kabul has gone viral on social media, with people saying it showed improving security under Taliban rule.

Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to Arab News that the video shot this week shows Amir Khan Muttaqi riding after sunset in the Wazir Akbar Khan area of the Afghan capital.

The street where Muttaqi was driving is less than 1 km away from the Arg — the presidential palace, which since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan three years ago has served as the meeting place of the country’s interim government.

The surrounding neighborhood was known as the diplomatic zone of Kabul before most representatives of the international community left the country after its Western-backed government collapsed and US-led troops withdrew in August 2021.

The sighting of a minister riding on the street was for some residents a reflection of the country being safer now than during the two-decade period of foreign military presence following the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

“The security is very good now. The security forces are trying day and night to make sure people live in peace without any fear,” Hamza Kawsar, a resident of Kabul, told Arab News on Thursday.

“Unlike the leaders in previous regimes, our current leaders are not hiding from the people. They live a simple life. The foreign minister’s move to come out alone is proof of this.”

While people generally acknowledged that security had improved, many other pending issues were left unaddressed or aggravated.

“It’s been two weeks, and I can’t get my national ID. I go from one office to the other and my work is delayed,” said Rahmanullah, 22, who came from Logar province to Kabul to have his documents issued.

“It’s good that the ministers and other people are able to go around in the city without any worries. But in some offices it’s very difficult to see director-level officials, let alone a minister.”

For Javed Rahimi, a shopkeeper, the motorcycle video was a PR stunt and many new problems emerged with Taliban rule, including huge unemployment, poverty and bans on women’s education and work.

He admitted, however, that cases of theft, robbery, and deadly blasts, which were common before, had decreased.

“The good thing is that there’s no war and conflict anymore,” he said. “Our countrymen are not dying in explosions and attacks every day.”


Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says

Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says
Updated 5 sec ago
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Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says

Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says
  • Russia launched 51 drones, focusing its attack on Odesa and the nearby region in the south of Ukraine
  • Ukraine’s military said that Russia launched more than 2,000 attack drones at civilian and military targets in Octobe
KYIV: Russian drones attacked Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa overnight, killing one person and injuring 13 others, including two boys, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Saturday.
Several residential apartment buildings, private houses, commercial buildings and dozens of private cars were damaged in what was the second day in a row of Russian drone attacks on the city, Kiper said.
“At night the enemy again attacked Odesa and the nearby region with attack drones. One person died and 13 were wounded. Among the injured there were two children,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Prosecutors said the children were boys aged four and 16.
Russia launched 51 drones, focusing its attack on Odesa and the nearby region in the south of Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that Ukrainian air defense units and mobile drone hunter groups shot down 32 Russian drones.
It also said that 18 drones were “lost,” most likely meaning they had been thwarted electronically.
Russian drones also triggered a large fire in one of Odesa’s districts, public broadcaster Suspilne reported, quoting residents.
Other media outlets in the city posted video footage showing cars and buildings ablaze and thick smoke billowing skyward.
As the war against Russia nears its 1,000-day mark, Moscow’s forces have intensified air attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns, sending swarms of drones almost every night.
Ukraine’s military said that Russia launched more than 2,000 attack drones at civilian and military targets in October.
Moscow says it does not target civilians. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine had verified 11,743 civilian deaths in conflict-related violence from Russia’s full-scale invasion in Feb. 2022 to the end of August this year. The Ukrainian government says the toll is likely to be much higher due to difficulties accessing parts of the country.

Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say

Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say
Updated 09 November 2024
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Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say

Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say

WASHINGTON: Several Maryland boards of elections and an office in a county in California received bomb threats on Friday, state authorities said, adding everyone was safe and law enforcement authorities were conducting probes.
Election officials were counting mail-in ballots when the threats came in Maryland. State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis said the threats led to evacuation of some buildings. He called the threats “cowardly,” adding local officials will resume counting on Saturday.
“Safety is a top concern — but we WILL resume canvassing tomorrow. Cowardly threats whether from abroad or not shall not deter us,” DeMarinis said on social media platform X.
“The Baltimore County Police Department is aware and currently investigating the bomb threat received via email by the Baltimore County Board of Elections Office,” police posted on X, later adding that a probe found that threat unfounded.
In California’s Orange County, the registrar of voters received a bomb threat at an office in Santa Ana after which the office building was evacuated and bomb detection dogs were used to conduct a search. No explosives were located, officials said, adding normal operations will resume on Saturday.
The offices of California Governor Gavin Newsom and Maryland Governor Wes Moore said they were monitoring the situations and working with local officials.
Republican Donald Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election. Counting continued in parts of the country in local, congressional and presidential races.
The FBI said that hoax bomb threats, many of which appeared to originate from Russian email domains, were directed on Tuesday at polling locations in five battleground states — Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — as Election Day voting was under way. Russia denies interfering in US elections.
Ahead of the elections, officials had braced for attacks and threats arising from misinformation and conspiracy theories about the vote.


Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’

Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’
Updated 09 November 2024
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Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’

Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’
  • The US Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump
  • Investigators learned of the plan to kill Trump from Farhad Shakeri, an Iranian government asset

WASHINGTON/TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday described as “totally unfounded” US accusations of a plot by Tehran to assassinate president-elect Donald Trump.

The foreign ministry “rejects allegations that Iran is implicated in an assassination attempt targeting former or current American officials,” spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement, after US prosecutors announced charges over the alleged plot.

The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week’s election with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.

Investigators learned of the plan to kill Trump from Farhad Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who authorities say maintains a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots.

Shakeri told investigators that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.

The official was quoted by Shakeri as saying that “We have already spent a lot of money” and that “money’s not an issue.” Shakeri told investigators the official told him that if he could not put together a plan within the seven-day timeframe, then the plot would be paused until after the election because the official assumed Trump would lose and that it would be easier to kill him then, the complaint said.

Shakeri is at large and remains in Iran. Two other men were arrested on charges that Shakeri recruited them to follow and kill prominent Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, who has endured multiple Iranian murder-for-hire plots foiled by law enforcement.

“I’m very shocked,” said Alinejad, speaking by telephone to The Associated Press from Berlin, where she was about to attend a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the tearing down of the wall. “This is the third attempt against me and that’s shocking.”

In a post on the social media platform X, she said: “I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech — I don’t want to die. I want to fight against tyranny, and I deserve to be safe. Thank you to law enforcement for protecting me, but I urge the US government to protect the national security of America.”

Lawyers for the two other defendants, identified as Jonathan Loadholt and Carlisle Rivera, did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Iran’s UN Mission declined to comment.

Shakeri, an Afghan national who immigrated to the US as a child but was later deported after spending 14 years in prison for robbery, also told investigators that he was tasked by his Revolutionary Guard contact with plotting the killings of two Jewish-Americans living in New York and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka. Officials say he overlapped with Rivera while in prison as well as an unidentified co-conspirator.

The criminal complaint says Shakeri disclosed some of the details of the alleged plots in a series of recorded telephone interviews with FBI agents while in Iran. The stated reason for his cooperation, he told investigators, was to try to get a reduced prison sentence for an associate behind bars in the US

According to the complaint, though officials determined that some of the information he provided was false, his statements regarding a plot to kill Trump and Iran’s willingness to pay large sums of money were determined to be accurate.

The plot, disclosed just days after Trump’s defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials, including Trump, on US soil. Last summer, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot targeting American officials.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the case shows Iran’s “continued brazen attempts to target US citizens,” including Trump, “other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran.”

Iranian operatives also conducted a hack-and-leak operation of emails belonging to Trump campaign associates in what officials have assessed was an effort to interfere in the presidential election.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposed Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the president-elect was aware of the assassination plot and nothing will deter him “from returning to the White House and restoring peace around the world.”


EU’s Borrell in Kyiv to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s backing

EU’s Borrell in Kyiv to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s backing
Updated 09 November 2024
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EU’s Borrell in Kyiv to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s backing

EU’s Borrell in Kyiv to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s backing
  • ‘The message is a clear one — the Europeans will continue to support Ukraine’
  • Europe together has spent around $125 billion on supporting Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion

KYIV: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell arrived Saturday in Kyiv to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s backing in the first visit by a top Brussels official after Donald Trump’s poll win.
The volatile Republican’s victory in the United States election has set nerves jangling in Ukraine and Europe that Trump could end Washington’s support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s invasion.
“The message is a clear one — the Europeans will continue to support Ukraine,” Borrell, who is set to leave office next month, told an AFP journalist accompanying him.
“We have been supporting Ukraine since the beginning, and on this my last visit to Ukraine, I convey the same message, we will support you as much as we can.”
On the campaign trail, Trump cast doubt on maintaining the vast US military and financial aid to Ukraine and said he could cut a quick deal to end the war.
“Nobody knows exactly what the new administration is going to do,” Borrell said, pointing out that incumbent Joe Biden still has two months in power to make decisions.
“But we Europeans have to use this opportunity in order to build a stronger and united Europe, and one of the manifestations of being united and being stronger and able to act is our role in supporting Ukraine.”
Europe together has spent around $125 billion on supporting Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion, while the United States alone has coughed up more than $90 billion, according to a tracker from the Kiel Institute.
Keeping the US, Ukraine’s single biggest donor, on board is seen by most as key for ensuring Kyiv stays afloat, especially at a time of political uncertainty in major European powers Germany and France.
On the battlefield, Ukraine’s fatigued troops are struggling to stave off Russia’s advances as they approach three years of full-scale combat.
Borrell, who will meet top Ukrainian officials on his visit, said it was up to EU countries to decide “when and how to increase” their support if needed.
But he said that at a meeting of EU leaders in Budapest Friday “most of the member states were insisting on the same line, continue supporting Ukraine.”


Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’

Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’
Updated 09 November 2024
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Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’

Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’
  • The US Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump
  • Investigators learned of the plan to kill Trump from Farhad Shakeri, an Iranian government asset

WASHINGTON/TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday described as “totally unfounded” US accusations of a plot by Tehran to assassinate president-elect Donald Trump.

The foreign ministry “rejects allegations that Iran is implicated in an assassination attempt targeting former or current American officials,” spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement, after US prosecutors announced charges over the alleged plot.

The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week’s election with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.

Investigators learned of the plan to kill Trump from Farhad Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who authorities say maintains a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots.

Shakeri told investigators that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.

The official was quoted by Shakeri as saying that “We have already spent a lot of money” and that “money’s not an issue.” Shakeri told investigators the official told him that if he could not put together a plan within the seven-day timeframe, then the plot would be paused until after the election because the official assumed Trump would lose and that it would be easier to kill him then, the complaint said.

Shakeri is at large and remains in Iran. Two other men were arrested on charges that Shakeri recruited them to follow and kill prominent Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, who has endured multiple Iranian murder-for-hire plots foiled by law enforcement.

“I’m very shocked,” said Alinejad, speaking by telephone to The Associated Press from Berlin, where she was about to attend a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the tearing down of the wall. “This is the third attempt against me and that’s shocking.”

In a post on the social media platform X, she said: “I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech — I don’t want to die. I want to fight against tyranny, and I deserve to be safe. Thank you to law enforcement for protecting me, but I urge the US government to protect the national security of America.”

Lawyers for the two other defendants, identified as Jonathan Loadholt and Carlisle Rivera, did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Iran’s UN Mission declined to comment.

Shakeri, an Afghan national who immigrated to the US as a child but was later deported after spending 14 years in prison for robbery, also told investigators that he was tasked by his Revolutionary Guard contact with plotting the killings of two Jewish-Americans living in New York and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka. Officials say he overlapped with Rivera while in prison as well as an unidentified co-conspirator.

The criminal complaint says Shakeri disclosed some of the details of the alleged plots in a series of recorded telephone interviews with FBI agents while in Iran. The stated reason for his cooperation, he told investigators, was to try to get a reduced prison sentence for an associate behind bars in the US

According to the complaint, though officials determined that some of the information he provided was false, his statements regarding a plot to kill Trump and Iran’s willingness to pay large sums of money were determined to be accurate.

The plot, disclosed just days after Trump’s defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials, including Trump, on US soil. Last summer, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot targeting American officials.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the case shows Iran’s “continued brazen attempts to target US citizens,” including Trump, “other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran.”

Iranian operatives also conducted a hack-and-leak operation of emails belonging to Trump campaign associates in what officials have assessed was an effort to interfere in the presidential election.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposed Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the president-elect was aware of the assassination plot and nothing will deter him “from returning to the White House and restoring peace around the world.”