The Taliban has slammed what it terms the hypocrisy of branding the U.S. and Facebook as proponents of censorship of free speech after a question about the regime’s stance on freedom of expression.
This was in reaction to a question that was dismissed by the Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, on Tuesday.
“This question should be asked to those people who are claiming to be promoters of freedom of speech, who do not allow publication of all information,” Mujahid responded to a question about freedom of speech in the new government.
“I can ask the Facebook company. This question should be asked to them.”
Notably, the Taliban mentioned Facebook on censoring of free speech and not Twitter, which has permitted Taliban leaders to remain on the platform.
Facebook, however, issued a statement to the BBC that Taliban accounts will continue to be banned.
“The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under U.S. law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies,” a Facebook spokesman told the BBC on Monday night.
“This means we remove accounts maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban and prohibit praise, support, and representation of them.”
We also have a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts, who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of local context, helping to identify and alert us to emerging issues on the platform.”
Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister, has warned the Federal Government to stop its reliance on American aid while detailing lessons from the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
Ripples Nigeria had reported that the Taliban in Afghanistan over the weekend took over Kabul, the country’s capital, 20 years after the US chased them out.
This led to the president fleeing the country.
In his reaction via a series of tweets on Sunday, Fani-Kayode stated that this was an indication that Nigeria should not depend on the United States in its fight against ISWAP, Boko Haram and foreign Fulani militias.
The former minister also pointed out that Nigerians must unite and confront the monster of terrorism together.
Two lessons can be learnt from this. Firstly we must NEVER rely on the Americans or the international community to defend our nation from the terrorists that are ravaging our land and instead we must do it ourselves.
Secondly, we must come together, unite, forget our differences & collectively fight and resist the scourge of Islamist terror that has plagued our land. May God NEVER allow Boko Haram, ISWAP, the foreign Fulani militias or any other terrorist organisation to fly their flag over our nation, take over our nations capital, defeat our Armed Forces and conquer Nigeria,” Fani-Kayode noted.
He also explained the implications of the takeover on Afghanis.
Fani-Kayode wrote: “The implications for millions of Afghans are obvious and the implications for the entire region and the international community are legion.
As from today Islamist terrorist groups all over the world will have massive financial, logistical and moral support from a strong Islamist Government in Afghanistan. Apart from that, millions of Afghan men who refuse to accept the dictates of the Islamists and jihadists will be executed and millions of Afghan women and girls will be enslaved.”
Police in the US state of Georgia have identified four of the eight people who were killed in mass shootings at three massage parlours in the Atlanta area.
Officials say it is still too early to know whether the attack, in which six Asian women were killed, was racially motivated.
Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said the suspect may have been a patron and claimed to have a “sex addiction”.
The attack comes amid a sharp uptick in crimes against Asian-Americans.
Four of the victims have been identified as Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Yan, 49; and Daoyou Feng, 44. Elcias R Hernandez-Ortiz was identified as having been injured.
What did police say?
In a news conference on Wednesday, investigators said suspect Robert Aaron Long admitted to the shooting spree, and said that he denied that the attack was motivated by race.
“He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these locations as a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate,” said Capt Jay Baker, adding that Mr Long was caught with a 9mm handgun and did not resist arrest.
Massage parlours are known to sometimes provide prostitution services, but authorities say there is no indication yet that this is the case at the targeted locations.
“These are legally operating businesses that have not been on our radar,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who added that the city would not engage in “victim shaming, victim blaming”.
Police also noted it is still too early in the investigation to definitively state a motive and that the suspect appeared to have been acting alone.
Ms Bottoms said that he was on his way to Florida, possibly to commit more shootings, when he was arrested.
The suspect’s parents helped to identify him, officials told reporters.
According to CBS News, the suspect told investigators that “he loved God and guns”.
What do we know about the shootings?
The first happened at about 17:00 (21:00 GMT) on Tuesday at Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth, Cherokee County.
Two people died at the scene and three were taken to hospital, where two more died, sheriff’s office spokesman Capt Baker said. He later confirmed the victims were two Asian women, a white woman and a white man, and said a Hispanic man had been wounded.
Less than an hour later, police were called to a “robbery in progress” at Gold Spa in north-east Atlanta.
“Upon arrival, officers located three females deceased inside the location from apparent gunshot wounds,” police said.
While there, officers were called to a spa across the street, called Aromatherapy Spa, where they found another woman shot dead.
Investigators who had studied CCTV footage then released images of a suspect near one of the spas. Police said that, after a manhunt, Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, was arrested in Crisp County, about 150 miles (240km) south of Atlanta.
image captionRobert Aaron Long was taken into custody
Authorities in South Korea said they were working to confirm the nationalities of the four women of Korean descent.
What has the reaction been?
Though authorities say it is too early to know if the victims were targeted because of their race, many online have criticised a recent rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, which activists have linked to rhetoric blaming Asian people for the coronavirus pandemic.
The advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate, which tracks attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders acknowledged a motive was unclear, but said “right now there is a great deal of fear and pain in the Asian American community that must be addressed”.
It called the shootings “an unspeakable tragedy” for both the victims’ families and the Asian-American community, which has “been reeling from high levels of racist attacks”.
“A motive is still not clear, but a crime against any community is a crime against us all,” Mayor Bottoms said in a statement, adding that she had been in communication with the White House.
Mr Biden said he had been briefed on the shootings. Ahead of his meeting with the Irish prime minister, the president acknowledged that “Asian-Americans have been very concerned” but would not speculate on the gunman’s motive.
“I’ll have more to say when the investigation is completed.”
Vice-President Kamala Harris, the first Asian-American to hold the office, said during a Wednesday meeting with Irish officials: “I do want to say to our Asian-American community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people.”
Ben Crump, a leading civil rights lawyer, also took to Twitter, saying: “Today’s tragic killings in #Atlanta reaffirm the need for us to step up and protect ALL of America’s marginalised minorities from racism.”
image captionTwo of the spas were across the road from each other in Atlanta
Atlanta police said they were increasing patrols around businesses similar to those attacked.
The New York Police Department’s counter-terrorism branch said that while there was no known connection to New York city, it would “be deploying assets to our great Asian communities across the city out of an abundance of caution”.
The police department in Seattle also said it would increase patrols and outreach to support its Asian-American community.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp praised law enforcement officials for their response to the shootings, and said: “Our entire family is praying for the victims of these horrific acts of violence.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the shootings ahead of a meeting with his South Korean counterpart on Wednesday. “We are horrified by this violence which has no place in America or anywhere,” he said.
“We will stand up for the right of our fellow Americans, Korean Americans, to be safe, to be treated with dignity.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that fully vaccinated Americans can return to some sense of normalcy.
Those who have received the required jabs can visit with other vaccinated people and some unvaccinated people, according to the new guidelines.
People are considered protected two weeks after they take the final dose of their vaccine, the CDC said.
Over 30 million Americans have been fully vaccinated thus far.
Health officials announced the new safety guidelines at Monday’s White House coronavirus task force briefing.
The recommendations say fully vaccinated Americans can:
Meet indoors with other fully vaccinated people without masks or social distancing
Meet indoors with unvaccinated people from a single household, if they are at low risk for severe illness from the virus
Skip testing or quarantine when exposed to Covid-19, unless symptoms appear
“We’ve begun to describe what a world looks like as we move beyond Covid-19,” senior adviser Andy Slavitt told reporters. “As more and more people get vaccinated… the list of activities will continue to grow.”
Those who are vaccinated are still required to follow other basic safety measures, like wearing masks and socially distancing in public as well as avoiding large crowds and travel.
The guidelines also call for masking and distancing from those who are unvaccinated and who may be at an elevated risk of serious Covid-related complications.
The US has seen a recent uptick in the number of jabs per day. Over 90m vaccines have been administered to date. The approval of the third vaccine, Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose jab, has also helped boost supply.
But health officials also warned that Covid-19 is still a serious concern.
“Over 90% of the population still has not been vaccinated,” CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said.
“Our responsibility is to make sure, in the context of 60,000 new cases a day, that we protect those who are vulnerable.”
The US has reported over 29 million virus cases and 525,000 deaths.
Dr Walensky added that the guidance will continue to be updated “as more people get vaccinated and science and evidence expands”.
Mr Slavitt said it was a “very hopeful morning but with continued warning signs for the future”.
Later on Monday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden will deliver his first primetime address this Thursday to mark one year under Covid-19 lockdown measures.
Last week, Mr Biden said the US will have enough coronavirus vaccines for every adult by the end of May.
President Biden’s administration on Friday revoked a last-minute memo issued by former President Trump’s Justice Department that sought to limit the scope of a landmark Supreme Court decision on workplace discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
Greg Friel, the acting head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, on Friday issued a memo revoking a Trump administration directive in response to the Supreme Court’s June 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County. The justices ruled in a 6-3 decision that the country’s laws on sex discrimination in the workplace also apply to discrimination against LGBTQ individuals.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump Justice Department’s 23-page memo dated Sunday said the court’s ruling should not extend to areas where gender-based policies on bathrooms and sports teams are relevant. The memo also indicated that employers could cite religious beliefs as justification for discrimination against LGBTQ employees.
However, Friday’s move, first reported by Politico, revoked the Trump administration’s memo, with Friel arguing that the directive conflicted with a Wednesday executive order from Biden that committed the federal government to preventing any type of discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.
“I have determined that this memorandum is inconsistent in many respects with the E.O.,” Friel wrote in his Friday directive to civil rights division colleagues, according to Politico. “I plan to confer with Department leadership about issuing revised guidance that comports with the policy set forth in the E.O. As part of that process, we will seek the input of Division subject matter experts.”
Biden’s executive order, one of several actions taken on his first day in office, calls on federal government agencies to review current policies against sex discrimination to make sure they prohibit discrimination toward members of the LGBTQ community.
“Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love,” the order states. “Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes.”
“All persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation,” the order adds.
Sunday’s memo from former acting Assistant Attorney General John Daukas, released publicly one day before Trump left office, sided with Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent in the Bostock case.
“We must hesitate to apply the reasoning of Bostock to different texts, adopted at different times, in different contexts,” Daukas wrote.
“Unlike racial discrimination, the Supreme Court has never held that a religious employer’s decision not to hire homosexual or transgender persons ‘violates deeply and widely accepted views of elementary justice’ or that the government has a ‘compelling’ interest in the eradication of such conduct,” the memo added, according to the Journal.
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