🔴 Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund to lead Taliban's administration in Afghanistan

The military of #Tajikistan will not take part in the Rubezh-2021 exercise of the Collective Security Organization, which will be held in #Kyrgyzstan. This was stated by the First Deputy Minister of Defense Nurlan Kiresheev during the meeting of the Committee on International Relations, Defense and Security of the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan.

The reason is the recent border clash between the countries.

The news is bad for Russia as well, as Moscow is the leading power in the region and coordinates the exercises.

#ЕлСалвадор прие биткойн като законно платежно средство от днес, което го прави първата страна, използваща криптовалута като национална валута.

Президентът Найб Букеле обяви плана за официално приемане на биткойн само преди три месеца на конференция в Маями. Местните жители и почитателите на криптовалутите нарекоха 7 септември „B-day“.

Новите разпоредби означават, че биткойн може да се използва за плащане на данъци и освобождаване от дългове. Това също така ще принуди бизнеса да приема биткойн като начин на плащане. За да се подготви за приемане, страната пуска свой собствен цифров портфейл за биткойни, наречен „Chivo“, който салвадорците могат да използват за държане и обмен на биткойни. Вече има инсталирани около 200 банкомата, които преобразуват физически долари в криптовалута.

И все пак, много предприятия в столицата Сан Салвадор изглеждат неподготвени. Три четвърти от салвадорците, анкетирани през юли, са скептично настроени към въвеждането, а две трети не желаят да плащат в биткойни.

The United Nations has warned that #Afghanistan is at risk of “total breakdown” of the international community does not find a way to keep money flowing into Afghanistan despite concerns over the Taliban government.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said in a report released on Thursday that about 97 percent of Afghanistan’s population may sink below the poverty line unless the country’s political and economic crises are addressed.

#Lebanon's president, PM-designate sign decree to form new government after 2-year political deadlock

#Israel has put prisons holding Palestinian detainees under lockdown after a daring prison break, a Palestinian official has said, as authorities arrest family members of the escapees.

The six Palestinians who managed to break out of the maximum-security Gilboa Prison on Monday have still not been caught and are the subjects of a desperate Israeli search.

Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees' Affairs spokesperson Thaer Shreiteh told The New Arab's Arabic-language sister service, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that "all sections in all prisons have been closed and prisoners are forbidden to go out to [the prison yard]". [The New Arab]

Google provided some user data to the government of Hong Kong last year, despite promising it would not process such data requests from authorities. https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/11/22668734/google-user-data-hong-kong-authorities-china

A record number of environmentalists were killed in 2020, according to a report by Global Witness. The NGO counted 227 murders last year, or four per week. Over half of all those took place in just three countries: Colombia (65), Mexico (30) and the Philippines (29). One-third targeted indigenous people.

#Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis is worsening. The country is facing a grim mixture of economic devastation, covid-19 infections and drought. Its banking system is paralysed and its foreign reserves frozen. Aid, which once funded around three-quarters of the government budget, has dried up. The health-care system is on the verge of collapse. The first snows are only weeks away.

#Qatar's foreign minister met with senior Taliban officials in #Kabul, becoming the highest-ranking foreign official to visit Afghanistan since the militants took the capital.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met with the Prime Minister, Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, former President Hamid Karzai and others.

⚡️Turkish Defense Minister: "There are agreements signed with Russia, we are observing them and we expect Russia to comply with them as well."

The statement came after Lavrov's words that Turkey does not comply with the Idlib agreement, and the increased frequency of Russian airstrikes on the province of Idlib.

An updated map of #Afghanistan. Currently, fighting continue in different parts of the Panjshir Valley, while Pul Khumri fell into Taliban control. The valley is not under the Taliban control; the mountainous region is also under resistance’s control.

#Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, met Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Putin urged American and Turkish forces to withdraw from Syria, claiming their presence was the country’s “main problem”. He also congratulated Assad on “winning his fourth seven-year term” as president.

Two senior Taliban leaders have gone missing from public view, leading some Afghans to question whether the group’s supreme leader and new deputy prime minister are alive.

The top Taliban leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, has not been seen in public a month after the militants seized control of Afghanistan. A spokesperson has gone on the record to deny rumours of his death.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the Taliban’s most recognised faces, has also gone missing. Questions about the wellbeing of the head of the political office and key figure in peace talks began mounting after he was not seen in public for several days.

There have been rumours in Kabul that he had been killed or badly injured in a fight with another senior Taliban figure during an argument about how to divide Afghanistan’s ministries. (Guardian)

🔴 Casualties reported following suicide blast in Mogadishu.

The investigation into the assassination of the Haitian president Jovenel Moïse has taken a sensational turn after the country’s chief prosecutor asked a judge to charge Haiti’s prime minister in connection with the crime.
Ariel Henry, a 71-year-old neurosurgeon, became Haiti’s principal leader in July, two weeks after Moïse was killed at his home in the capital Port-au-Prince.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/14/haiti-prime-minister-ariel-henry-president-assassination-implicated?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The new Chinese ambassador to the UK has been barred from parliament by the Speakers in the Commons and Lords after the imposition of sanctions on British MPs by Beijing.

The new ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, was due to attend a meeting of the broadly pro-Chinese all-party group on China, but after a letter from MPs who were subjected to sanctions by China, including the former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith, the Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, has said the meeting is not appropriate.

French Defence Minister Florence Parly has warned #Mali against a deal with Russian private security group #Wagner amid claims the country’s military government is close to hiring 1,000 mercenaries.

Two French sources told the AFP news agency on Tuesday that the Malian government was nearing a deal with the Russian firm, which would underline Moscow’s growing influence in the region.

Four sources told Reuters that the Wagner Group would be paid about six billion CFA francs ($10.8m) a month for its services.

#SouthKorea conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test hours after #NorthKorea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea.

North Korea tested its first long-range cruise missile two days ago—but firing ballistic weapons would breach UN sanctions.

A meeting today between #China and South Korea is to focus on tensions on the Korean peninsula.

⚡️Three American ex-intelligence agents admitted to breaking American laws on behalf of the United Arab Emirates, which employed them to hack into the computer networks of rival governments, journalists and human-rights groups. The Emiratis’ spying programme was revealed in 2019.

🔴 Australia announces plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarine fleet with assistance of US, UK

- US, UK and Australia form new AUKUS trilateral security partnership amid growing great power competition with China in Indo-Pacific