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The Taliban government runs on WhatsApp. There’s just one problem.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:39 GMT

KABUL, Afghanistan — Late one night two months ago, a team of Taliban security officers assembled on the outskirts of Afghanistan’s capital to prepare for a raid on an Islamic State group hideout.As the zero hour approached, the men fiddled with their automatic rifles while their leader, Habib Rahman Inqayad, scrambled to get the exact location of their target. He grabbed his colleagues’ phones and called their superiors, who insisted they had sent him the location pin of the target to his WhatsApp.There was just one problem: WhatsApp had blocked his account to comply with U.S. sanctions.“The only way we communicate is WhatsApp — and I didn’t have access,” said Inqayad, 25, whom The New York Times has followed since the Taliban seized power in August 2021.He was not alone. In recent months, complaints from Taliban officials, police and soldiers of their WhatsApp accounts being banned or temporarily deactivated have become widespread, disruptions that have illuminated how...

No. 1 again: Keenan Hayes tops bareback world rankings

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:39 GMT

Pro Rodeo’s top bareback rider in the world once again hails from Northwest Colorado.Related ArticlesSports | What to do in Denver this weekend: “Star Wars” celebs at Fan Expo, Greeley Stampede Hayden’s Keenan Hayes has been in a back-and-forth battle for the No. 1 bareback ranking all season against Leighton Berry of Weatherford, Texas. But after a three-rodeo weekend, Hayes for now has taken back the lead.A top ranking is something the 20-year-old has worked for since he was a child growing up in Routt County, and he said it means the world to see himself in the top spot once again.“It’s been something I’ve been working for my entire life and you just have to keep working at it,” Hayes said. “It’s pretty awesome to see, especially being so young and that being my main goal for my whole life.”Full story via Steamboat Pilot & TodayWant more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Grading The Week: Broncos need to move some preseason camp practices to Empower Field

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:39 GMT

The Broncos say talk to Arapahoe County. Arapahoe County says talk to the Broncos. South Metro Fire says rules are rules.New owners. New coach. New staff. New camp. No longer can you roll outta bed on a Tuesday and decide at half-past 9 in the morning that you feel like driving over to Dove Valley before lunch to see if your secret fears about Elliott Fry are somehow justified. Sean Payton’s inaugural training camp will ring a few more firsts: (free) ticketed entry for fans — no more than four tickets per fan account — and a cap of 3,000 visitors per practice.Now it turns out that last number was always the designated capacity for the facility — insiders say that, like holding, local officials in the past generally chose not to call the Broncos out for occasionally stuffing the hill. The first weekend practice of Nathaniel Hackett’s Club Med ‘22 last July drew 7,121 into a space that’s reportedly only supposed to house about half that number.So, yeah, safety comes first,...

Ukrainian businesswoman warns of corrupt seizures of assets in fog of war

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:39 GMT

Alona Lebedieva is a highly successful Ukrainian businesswoman. Her company supplies freight cars for use on her country’s rail network and also owns a factory in the Sumy region producing water pumps. However, her assets have been seized and she was sanctioned by presidential decree in May 2023. Her story illustrates how far short of European standards the country’s legal system remains, writes Political Editor Nick Powell.Alona Lebedieva maintains that she is not alone and that there are a thousand cases like hers, but it is an example of how a country with a weak legal and judicial system can be exploited, especially amid the fog of war. An allegation that her company had supplied 16 water pumps used by the Russian military first emerged in November 2019, when it was investigated by the Security Service of Ukraine and no violations of the law were found.Although Russian forces have been on Ukrainian territory since 2014, trade in goods not considered to have a potential military ...

Opinion: Court’s affirmative action decision is height of judicial activism

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:39 GMT

For decades, conservatives have railed against judicial activism, but Thursday’s decision striking down affirmative action by colleges and universities in admissions was the height of conservative judicial activism. The court rejected almost half a century of precedents, overturned decisions made by public and private universities across the country, and ignored the history of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.The experience of California — where affirmative action was eliminated by Proposition 209 in 1996 — shows that it still will be possible to have diversity in higher education, but it will take sustained effort and it will be difficult.In 1978, in University of California v. Bakke, Justice Lewis Powell wrote the pivotal opinion and explained that colleges and universities have a compelling interest in having a diverse student body and may use race as one of many factors in admissions decisions to benefit minorities and enhance diversity. The Supreme Court reaffirmed this i...

Manjoo: Let’s not put gas-powered cars out to pasture without proper farewell

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:39 GMT

I’ve been driving for nearly 30 years, but until recently, I hadn’t ever changed my car engine’s oil by myself. Of course I hadn’t: By the time I got my first car, in the mid-1990s, cars had long since become reliable enough that you could go years without popping the hood. In Southern California, where I grew up, there’s a quick-lube place on just about every other corner. Owning a car meant pulling into one as regularly as you visited a dentist, catching up on old magazines in the lounge as a technician mucked about under your ride for a half-hour before you went on with your day.But a month ago, figuring I may not have many more chances, now that oil-free electric cars are becoming the norm, I decided to jack up my car and do it myself. The process wasn’t nearly as messy as it might sound and, thanks to YouTube, was pretty simple, even for a lube noob. I was able to drain the spent oil, pour in new oil and pop out and replace the filter without a hitch.I didn’t save any time or m...

Brooks: Why Joe Biden isn’t getting the credit he deserves

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:39 GMT

The misery index is a crude but effective way to measure the health of the economy. You add up the inflation rate and the unemployment rate. If you’re a president running for reelection, you want that number to be as low as possible.When Ronald Reagan won reelection, it was about 11.4; when George W. Bush did so it was 9; for Barack Obama it was 9.5; and today, as Joe Biden runs for reelection, it’s only 7.7.Biden should be cruising to an easy reelection victory. And that misery index number doesn’t even begin to capture the strength of the U.S. economy right now. There are a zillion positive indicators right now, as the folks in the administration will be quick to tell you. The economy has created 13 million jobs since Biden’s Inauguration Day. According to The Conference Board, a business research firm, Americans’ job satisfaction is at its highest level in 36 years. Household net worth is surging.We learned Thursday that the U.S. economy grew at an annualized 2% rate in the first...

Pope appoints bishop from his Argentine homeland to lead powerful Vatican doctrinal watchdog office

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:39 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Saturday chose a bishop who is a trusted theological advisor from his Argentine homeland for one of the Vatican’s most powerful positions — head of the watchdog office that ensures doctrinal orthodoxy. Monsignor Victor Manuel Fernández, now serving as archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, is tapped to head the Department for the Doctrine of the Faith. The new doctrinal prefect, or chief, has been nicknamed the “pope’s theologian,″ since he is widely believed to have helped author some of Francis’ most important documents. The office enforces orthodoxy of church teaching and disciplines theologians deemed to have strayed from Catholic doctrine in their lectures or publications. But the office has taken on considerably more importance in recent decades to rank-and-file faithful as the stain of pedophile priests spread across the globe. Among the department’s duties are evaluating and processing sex abuse allegations against clergy.Fernández is wi...

Planning to party this Fourth of July? You have a free ride home in the DC area!

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:39 GMT

Everyone in the D.C. area has access to a designated driver this Fourth of July, thanks to the Washington Regional Alcohol Program’s SoberRide program.The nonprofit is paying up to $15 on the Lyft app for residents celebrating with alcohol on July Fourth to get home safely. The program will begin at 4 p.m. Tuesday and will run until 4 a.m. on Wednesday, July 5.Kurt Erickson, president of WRAP, said the $15 should cover the estimated cost of most rides around the region.“But let’s say your fare is $20, we’re still going to pay for the first $15 and the passenger will simply be on the hook for the remaining $5,” Erickson explained.The program is meant to keep roads safe from impaired drivers that account for 39% of U.S. traffic deaths during the Fourth of July holiday, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s estimates from 2021.The charity offered its SoberRide program last Independence Day as well as on St. Patrick’s...

Verstappen qualifies in first place for the Austrian Grand Prix sprint race

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:39 GMT

SPIELBERG, Austria (AP) — Defending Formula One champion Max Verstappen continued his dominant form when he qualified in first place for the sprint race which takes place later Saturday at the Austrian Grand Prix.The runaway championship leader, who had already secured pole position for Sunday’s GP, was .49 seconds quicker than his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and .57 ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris. Nico Hulkenberg qualified in fourth place ahead of Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc.“It was good, the track was drying up,” Verstappen said. “I think we did well. We got the car in the right window.”The shortened qualifying format — known in F1 as the “sprint shootout” — set the grid for a 17-lap sprint race later, where seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton starts from 18th place after being knocked out of the first part of sprint qualifying. Hamilton looked pensive as he walked back through the paddock to rejoin his team’s garage.Charles Leclerc jus...