Afghanistan Financial News

Prince Harry reportedly declined to stay at Buckingham Palace. The trial of Prince Harry against News Group Newspapers is scheduled to start the following week. Harry's case for police protection was unsuccessful, but new reports state that the Duke of Sussex will receive limited police protection, as quoted in a report by Town & Country.

Joe Biden spoke on with relatives of three Americans the US government is looking to bring home from Afghanistan but no agreement has been reached on a deal to get them back, family members said. Biden's call with family members of Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi took place in the waning days of his administration as officials try to negotiate a deal that could bring them home in exchange for Muhammad Rahim, one of the remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Corbett, who had lived in Afghanistan with his family at the time of the 2021 collapse of the US-backed government, was abducted by the Taliban in August 2022 while on a business trip and Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, was taken by the Taliban's intelligence services in December 2022 while travelling through the country. Officials believe the Taliban is still holding both men as well as Habibi, an Afghan American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company and also went missing in 2022. The FBI has said that Habibi and his driver were taken along with 29 other employees of the company but that all except for Habibi and another person have since been freed.

India Meteorological Department (IMD), authorities have said, citing restrictions on non-essential foreign travel at government expense. Mominul Islam, the acting director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), on Friday confirmed receiving the invitation from the IMD a month ago, saying: «The India Meteorological Department invited us to their 150th anniversary celebrations. We maintain good relations and continue to collaborate with them.» «However, we are not going to the event as there is an obligation to limit non-essential foreign trips funded by the government,» Islam told bdnews 24. He emphasised the regular contact between the two agencies, noting his recent visit to India on December 20, 2024, for a separate meeting with Indian meteorologists.

Henley Passport Index of the year 2025 has crowned Singapore as the most powerful passport of the world while granting its citizens visa free access to 195 out of 227 global destinations, reported CNBC Travel. This achievement actually marks a pretty significant milestone in global mobility while demonstrating the diplomatic and international standing of Singapore. According to CNBC Travel, Japan actually closely follows in second place with 193 visa free destinations while Finland, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Spain share third place together whereas each country is offering access to 192 destinations. The rankings actually highlight the continued dominance of Asian and European nations in international travel freedom. The United Arab Emirates emerged as a notable climber while rising 32 places to enter the top 10 with access to 185 destinations, asserted CNBC Travel. At the same time, on the other hand, the US eventually experienced a significant decline while dropping seven places to ninth position.

American detainees in Afghanistan by offering to free Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, a high-profile al-Qaeda operative and close aide of Osama bin Laden, currently held at Guantanamo Bay.

Haqqani Network in Pakistan. The certification also needs to say that Pakistan has taken steps to demonstrate its commitment to prevent the Haqqani Network from using Pakistan as a safe haven and that Islamabad actively coordinates with the Afghan government to restrict the movement of militants such as the Haqqani Network, along the Afghan-Pak border.

CNN is on trial for libel this week before a jury in Florida, and it comes at a particularly inopportune time for legacy media

exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI including ChatGPT to help plan the attack, Las Vegas police said Tuesday.A laptop, cellphone and watch are still under review nearly a week after 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger fatally shot himself just before the truck blew up.A review of Livelsberger’s searches through ChatGPT indicate he was looking for information on explosive targets, the speed at which certain rounds of ammunition would travel and whether fireworks were legal in Arizona.Livelsberger, an Army Green Beret who deployed twice to Afghanistan and lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado, left notes saying the explosion was a stunt meant to be a “ wake up call ” for the nation’s troubles, officials said last week.He left cellphone notes saying he needed to “cleanse” his mind “of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.”The explosion caused minor injuries to seven people but virtually no damage to the Trump International Hotel. Authorities said that Livelsberger acted alone.Livelsberger’s letters touched on political grievances, societal problems and domestic and international issues, including the war in Ukraine.

The highly decorated Special Forces soldier who died by suicide in a Cybertruck explosion on New Year’s Day confided to a former girlfriend who had served as an Army nurse that he faced significant pain and exhaustion that she says were key symptoms of traumatic brain injury.

UK under scanner in grooming gangs’ scandal but the issue has highlighted inadequacy of the British system where the political class has overlooked the crime for vote bank politics.

India-Pakistan relations, responding to remarks made by India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. The controversy followed Dar’s use of the phrase “It takes two to tango” in reference to the normalisation of ties between the two countries. Jaiswal, speaking during a briefing on Friday, highlighted that the core issue was «terrorism,» not the metaphorical «tango» as used by Dar.

Matthew Livelsberger and Shamsud Din Jabbar, served at the same military base, Fort Bragg, though law enforcement has not confirmed any direct link between the attacks.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The alleged terrorist behind the New Year’s killing spree in New Orleans was a born-and-bred Texan, an Army veteran, and father of three who had climbed the corporate ladder. But Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s burnished professional résumé belied a path that had gone off course.

Pakistan army took out its pent-up anger by carrying out airstrikes on an encampment of Pakistani nationals in Paktika province of Afghanistan on December 24, alleging that it was a training camp of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a charge vehemently denied by the Afghan Taliban. The Taliban claimed that those killed were mostly women and children of refugees living there.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Jimmy Carter was a good man who was president at a bad time. The question for the history books to decide is whether he made the problems worse through indecision and vacillation, or whether his tumultuous presidency was simply trapped in a period of inescapable turmoil, the seeds of which had been sown years earlier.

Taliban's supreme leader has issued an order banning the construction of windows in residential buildings that overlook areas used by Afghan women and saying that existing ones should be blocked.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Of late, I am hearing Indians say an un-Indian thing. When they think about a world in turmoil—the devastating wars in the Levant and Ukraine, the cruelty of militias in Africa, the upheavals in Bangladesh, the recent collapse of Sri Lanka’s economy, and of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which do not require descriptors—I hear them say, “Actually, we are quite lucky to be Indians." This sentiment is new.