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Michael Slackman, Lauren Katzenberg, Doug Schorzman and Greg Winter | The New York Times

For 20 years, The New York Times has remained fully dedicated to covering the war in Afghanistan. As we usher in a new era, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Christina Goldbaum take the helm in Kabul.

Dear Colleagues,

Afghanistan experienced tremendous upheaval last summer that forced The Times to evacuate all of our staff after the Taliban took control. It was a trying time, you will all recall, as over the course of five days we sought to get more than 120 Afghan current and former colleagues and their family members out of the country, without any idea what would come next, all while putting out a report on the historic moment.

We succeeded on both fronts, thanks to the tremendous efforts of so many throughout the newsroom and the company.

But while our commitment to covering Afghanistan never wavered, we were unsure how we would move forward.

Now those plans are clear and we wanted to share them with you.

Thomas Gibbons-Neff, who took on the role of acting bureau chief at the height of the crisis, is now our permanent Kabul bureau chief.

He will be joined by Christina Goldbaum, who became part of our Kabul reporting team just five weeks before the collapse and will return to Afghanistan as a correspondent.

Both will work closely with David Zucchino, a prince of a correspondent who will continue to rotate through Kabul with extended visits. We expect other correspondents to rotate through as well.

When they are in the country, the team will work from our Kabul bureau, which was reopened a few weeks ago and is managed by Warren Coleman. Were extremely thankful for the months of hard work by The Times operations team, including Tug Wilson, Charlie OMalley, Warren and Mark Powell and by our correspondents who made this return possible.

Thomas T.M. Gibbons-Neff

Thomas T.M. Gibbons-Neff joined The Times in our Washington bureau in 2017, covering the Pentagon before heading to Kabul in 2020. In Afghanistan, he reported on a range of stories, from the Talibans choice of sneakers to the shadowy militias forced to defend Afghanistans highways. On the frontlines, he painted haunting portraits of the war through dispatches that showed the rapid collapse of Afghan security forces as U.S. troops left, weaving his experiences as a Marine with what he witnessed on the frontlines as a reporter.

As Kabul fell in August, T.M., alongside other Times employees, helped evacuate our Afghan colleagues and their families over five brutal days where he had to draw on his experience as a Marine and journalist to help get everyone to safety.

In October last year, T.M. returned to Afghanistan to cover a country now ruled by the very movement he had fought a decade earlier. He visited his old battlefields and showed a country now at peace but ravaged by a humanitarian crisis and the remnants of war. T.M.s coverage also wrestled with the one question that has endured after the two-decades-long U.S. occupation ended last August: What was it all for?

Christina Goldbaum

Christina Goldbaum won the Livingston Award in 2018 for her coverage in East Africa and joined The Times that same year. In Metro, she had a fine run covering immigration and transportation, then quickly established herself in Kabul. As the Taliban seized territory, Christina anchored our coverage, charting Afghanistans unfolding migration crisis and offering an early glimpse of life under Taliban rule. After the U.S.-backed government collapsed, she worked around the clock to help secure The Times Afghan employees safe arrival in Doha and transfer to Mexico City and then the United States.

Christina returned to Afghanistan last October and has traveled across the country writing the insightful, compassionate stories we have come to expect from her: She introduced us to high school girls coming to terms with life under Taliban rule, delved into the rising threat from the Islamic State, and defly explained the economic collapse and ensuing humanitarian catastrophe. Her reporting on women trying to keep their children alive amid a worsening hunger crisis spurred the U.S. government to issue humanitarian exemptions to sanctions, U.S. officials told The Times.

David Zucchino, who had a brilliant career with The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Los Angeles Times before joining The Times as a contributing writer, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, first in 1989 for his series, Being Black in South Africa, for The Inquirer, and in 2021, for his book, Wilmingtons Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy.

For 20 years, The Times remained fully dedicated to covering the war in Afghanistan. In 2021, it operated the largest bureau in Kabul of any foreign newspaper. Now, we will continue that commitment in this new era and are thrilled to have T.M. and Christina at the helm.

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Afghanistan: The New York Times announces next steps in coverage - Editor And Publisher Magazine

Hundreds of dogs and cats that were abandoned in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan have been flown back to North America following a large-scale rescue mission.

Nearly 300 dogs and cats were loaded onto the plane which departed Kabul on Sunday, and arrived in Vancouver, Canada on the evening of February 1.

U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan in August, 2021, after 20 years in the country. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated when the Taliban took over on August 15, leaving many dogs and cats stranded amid the chaos.

During the takeover, global animal rescue organization SPCA International were approached by Afghanistan-based rescue, Kabul Small Animal Rescue (KSAR) for help in getting the abandoned pets out of the country.

At the time Kabul Small Animal Rescue had taken in around 130 cats and dogs. Some of them were pets abandoned after their owners were evacuated while others were found on the street.

SPCA International worked with the rescue shelter to get the pets out but were not able to get the pets on a plane. The dogs and cats were then released in the airport with nowhere to go.

The SPCA said that all rescue partners were "devastated" at the unsuccessful rescue attempt, but refused to give up.

The rescue finally took place on February 1 after five months of preparation and collaboration with other rescue partners. The mission was branded 'Mission Possible' by the organizations involved.

No Dogs Left Behind, another partner involved in the rescue operation, said that the months leading up to this successful rescue mission has been a "challenging yet incredible journey."

SPCA International said that watching the plane depart Kabul was "an extremely emotional moment" for everyone involved.

In a Facebook post, which can be found here, Kabul Small Animal Rescuesaid it was "relieved" that the animals were finally making it out.

The plane, loaded with the cats and dogs, stopped in Turkey and Iceland along the way to give veterinary teams a chance to check in on the animals and make sure they were doing well.

No Dogs Left Behind, went live on Facebook as the animals arrived in Canada. The footage shows volunteers handling hundreds of crates and bringing them inside to the airport terminal.

No Dogs Left Behind was live.

Lori Kalef, director of programs for SPCA International, told Global News it works with numerous organizations around the world to embark on rescue missions such as these.

For this particular operation, it also worked with War Paws, Marley's Mutts, Thank DOG I Am Out Rescue Society and more.

The dogs and cats rescued will now be reunited with their owners or put up for adoption.

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Hundreds of Cats and Dogs Abandoned in Afghanistan After U.S. Withdrawal Rescued - Newsweek

Its been almost six months since the United States packed up and pulled out of Afghanistan, ending the longest war in American history and sending thousands of Afghans into hiding. The Taliban, rebranded as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, initially promised amnesty and understanding to those who had opposed the terror group for more than 20 years.

But as many had feared, the Taliban lied.

A United Nations report released this week and seen by several news organizations claims approximately 100 former Afghan military members and government officials have been killed since the Taliban took over, at least two-thirds of them directly by the Taliban or their affiliates. That figure seemed improbable to one woman reached by Coffee or Die Magazine who is currently hiding in Afghanistan from Taliban retaliation. And it rang unrealistically low to a Marine Corps veteran in Mississippi who spends his free hours desperately trying to coordinate the rescue of people still in the country.

In a tweet, an account linked to the Taliban Ministry of Interior Affairs said the government has not killed anyone since the amnesty.

Aysha, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, is a 26-year-old human rights activist in Afghanistan who has spent the last five months hiding in fear for her life. She moves from one safe house to the next every few weeks, a shell-game tactic used to avoid the Talibans door-to-door searches.

They are killing soldiers, activists and lawyers in the cities, villages and surrounding areas by [calling them] thieves, or removing them from their homes to unknown places, Aysha told Coffee or Die. No trace of them is left.

Aysha doesnt leave the house unless she has to. Instead, her younger sister ventures out with her face covered by a hijab to fetch supplies, bringing back a month or twos worth of food for a dozen people.

However, when her sister contracted COVID-19 and grew grievously ill, Aysha had no choice but to take her to a doctor in a city. There, she said, she saw Taliban soldiers open fire on two vehicles transporting former Afghan soldiers.

Aysha is one of 1,100 at-risk Afghans supported by Allied Extract, a US-based nonprofit founded by military veterans determined to help those who once worked for or supported the American war effort but were left behind last summer. The group has managed to evacuate more than 240 vulnerable Afghans, many of whom supported coalition efforts, spending a total of $115,000 raised from private donors.

But fleeing Afghanistan became increasingly difficult as the Talibans grip on the country grew stronger. Despite Taliban promises that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said were to let anyone with proper documents leave the country in a safe and orderly manner, the Taliban are not allowing many Afghans to leave, especially those who supported the United States.

Moises Espinal is Allied Extracts co-executive director and chief financial officer, and served four years as a Marine infantryman including two deployments to Afghanistan. Now a full-time accountant, he says he squeezes in a handful of hours each week to help coordinate Allied Extract.

Those weekly hours, he said, were as high as 40 in September and October, as he received dozens of messages each day from Afghans seeking asylum. But when the flights stopped and leaving the country became something between difficult and impossible, the number of messages declined. Thats when Allied Extract decided to pivot its strategy.

Now the group spends approximately $6,000 a week on renting buildings as safe houses, along with groceries and other supplies for approximately 1,100 people. But these efforts are just buying time, which always seems to be running short for those Afghans in hiding.

The Taliban are actively persecuting those who either worked against the Taliban movement with the government or those who spoke out against the Taliban movement while they were conducting their insurgency, Espinal said. Two weeks ago we had an incident where one of the judges left the compound and the Taliban controlling that district recognized [him]. And [he] and his wife were beat in front of the family pretty much and they were taken away to an unknown prison. Luckily for them, they were one of the few that were released.

As for the UNs estimate, Espinal thinks the numbers dont add up. Just among Allied Extract clients, he said, two have disappeared without a trace, and another 100 who decided to escape on their own have not been heard from, though the team hopes for the best.

Espinal said its hard to believe that the Taliban, who are now equipped with US weapons and operate unopposed almost everywhere, have only tracked down and killed 100 US-affiliated Afghans in five months.

We are trying to help roughly 1,100 people that actively worked against the Taliban movement, and we are a small organization, Espinal said. Other groups are helping tens of thousands of other people who all worked against the Taliban movement. Youre telling me that out of these tens of thousands of people and special immigrant visa applicants, the Taliban has managed to only get their hands on 100 of them?

And reports of killings and disappearances continue to trickle out of the country. Six people were kidnapped in Kabul two weeks ago, the UN reported, three days after attending a womens rights demonstration in the city. Two were snatched out of their car in the early evening hours of Jan. 19 and four others were taken from their home later that same night. The UN said, Control over dissent appears to be tightening, noting reports of torture and ill-treatment of activists, journalists, and former government officials and military members.

#Afghanistan: We are very alarmed at the continued disappearance of 6 people who were abducted in Kabul two weeks ago in connection with recent womens rights protests.

Arbitrary arrests and detentions perpetuate a climate of fear and uncertainty.

https://t.co/WU7OxSpgKV pic.twitter.com/g8DnxmC88H

UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) February 1, 2022

Aysha said most of the violence is rarely reported or the Taliban invent stories to justify the killings. The former Afghan troops she saw ambushed were later painted as thieves, she said. Others who have been killed were labeled as members of Afghanistans Islamic State group affiliate, ISIS-K.

We fully understand that by the name of thief they are killing former soldiers, Aysha said. One of my friends brothers was also a former soldier and [the] Taliban killed him in November 2021 and said that he was a thief.

The Taliban agreed to resume commercial flights out of Kabul Tuesday after months of stagnant airport operations, Axios first reported. The agreement will allow two Qatar Airways flights per week out of Kabul. The resumption of flights, Aysha hopes, could eventually be a way out. But she knows it could also be a trap.

Aysha hopes she might one day board a plane bound for the United States, but for now, a flight anywhere will do. For now, her days are spent indoors, studying or busying herself with housework, anything to safely pass the time, which is otherwise broken up only by running from one safe house to the next.

But her spirit is dwindling. Some days, she admits, she feels as if all hope for the future has dissipated. Nevertheless, she continues to fight, not for herself, but for her younger sister. Their future depends almost entirely on the kindness of others, many of whom are half a world away.

I am in a very difficult situation, I am very stressed and anxious. I dont know what will be my future, but I dont have [any other] choice, we have to endure these dark days, Aysha said. I dont know if we will see good days again or not, but for now, we are like a bird that [has] been taken out of flight and trapped in a dark cage.

Read Next: Operation Rubicon: How the CIA Listened in on Adversaries and Allies for Decades

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'No Trace of Them Is Left' The Toll of Hiding in Afghanistan - Coffee or Die Magazine

After resettling in the United States, Zubair Rezwan said living in this new country compared to Afghanistan was like time traveling.

When you come here, there are lots of new things you face, and lots of new cultural things you may not be familiar with, he said.

Pitts Political Science Student Association hosted a virtual lecture featuring Rezwan, an Afghan journalist and refugee, last Friday. As a former translator for the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Rezwan opened up about his work in Afghanistan and his eventual resettlement to the United States.

As a young professional in Kabul, Rezwan said his career began at Metro Media, where he worked as both a producer and presenter. Rezwan said the job was a defining moment in his life.

I learned how to see the world from a different angle and a critical window, Rezwan said. I met lots of new friends, I saw different corners of the city and I found lots of weird, secret things going under the skin of the city.

Rezwan said he encountered many Taliban attacks through his work, including an attack during a play that killed more than 20 people. His friend, a German citizen, died in the attack and several of his peers, who were there to cover the production of the play, were badly injured.

I lost my friend, and colleague, in a suicide bombing during a play in 2014, Rezwan said. There was going to be a scene about a suicide bombing, which kills innocents, and suddenly there was a real explosion, among the audience. Later international media outlets reported that the bomber was a young student trained by the Taliban to attack this show.

Rezwan said when the Taliban began to occupy Kabul, they targeted journalists, women, students, activists and anyone who could be counted as a spark of knowledge and wisdom.

When Hannah Goldstein, a junior political science and urban studies major, asked Rezwan what drove him to continue journalism in the face of danger, he said his actions were no different than other Afghan citizens.

What drives a woman to work? What drives a teacher to teach? What drives the police member to serve? Rezwan said. I think its all about life everyone wants to live, and everyone wants to have freedom and choice.

After his time with Metro Media, Rezwan continued his career as a journalist at other media outlets, where he gained experience in writing, producing and reporting. Then, in 2018, Rezwan said he began to work at the U.S. Embassy as a translator.

This job was a risk itself, Rezwan said. The Taliban believed that the interpreters were the eyes, ears and tongues of the infidel foreigners, especially Americans.

Despite this risk, Rezwan continued his work at the embassy, where he witnessed many of his colleagues face danger, particularly a father of two young children.

He used to keep his fruits everyday in his pockets to bring to his children. I cannot forget those days, when we used to tease him about stealing office mangoes and apples, and he would laugh out loud, Rezwan said. He was shot by the Taliban, one or two days before his flight to the United States.

Under Taliban threat, Rezwan said he began the process of applying for a U.S. visa, and he finally received an interview date for Aug. 23, after three and a half years of waiting. Rezwan said eight days before his appointment, the Taliban seized Kabul, and Afghanistan began to crumble from the inside.

Rezwan said there were thousands of people trying to seek refuge from the Taliban, leaving many people displaced.

We saw the fear of people escaping from their killers. They got shot, they fell down from the wings of the U.S. forces planes, they lost their kids, but they did it to run from the Taliban, Rezwan said.

The embassy eventually escorted Rezwan and his peers to the airports gates once the airport was secured. After many days, Rezwan and his wife were transported to Fort Pickett, a military base in Blackstone, Virginia, and they lived at a local refugee camp for about two months.

Rezwan said he is now living in Alexandria, Virginia. Though he is now protected from future Taliban attacks, Rezwan said it is important to remember those living in Afghanistan and listen to the stories of people still in the country.

Afghanistan is suffering the worst possible situation that a human society can even face, Rezwan said. There is no food, no banking, no jobs and no school, especially for women.

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Everyone wants to live: Zubair Rezwan reflects on journalism career in Afghanistan - The Pitt News

New Delhi: India will continue to help crisis-hit Afghanistan and fund its humanitarian aid requirements, but at much lower levels than it did before the Taliban captured power last year, Budget allotments made by the Modi government show.

In Union Budget 2022-23, India has slashed its development assistance to the war-torn country to Rs 200 crore, down 43 per cent from Rs 350 crore in 2021-22 (Budget estimates), when Kabul was under a democratic government.

As is usual practice, Bhutan has been given a major chunk of the budgetary allocation for development assistance to Indias neighbours. However, Bangladesh has witnessed a significant jump this time, with aid going up to Rs 300 crore in FY23 from Rs 200 crore in FY22.

According to sources, while budgetary allocation for a particular fiscal keeps getting tweaked over the year in accordance with the geopolitical needs, the figures are indicative of the Narendra Modi governments priority as it has to focus on some of the key nations in the neighbourhood now if it must counter Chinas growing influence.

With the Taliban taking over Kabul last year, India has suspended its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan by shutting down the embassy and the four consulates there, and has also halted all the big-ticket and small and medium infrastructure projects there. This has led to the fall in budgetary allocation, sources said.

Moreover, the Modi government has also temporarily suspended scholarships to Afghan students who used to travel to India every year for higher studies.

Under the former Ashraf Ghani regime, India had been running several large-scale infrastructure projects in Afghanistan through grants and other kinds of assistance.

However, with Afghanistan facing a humanitarian catastrophe as its economy continues to collapse under the Taliban regime, India has decided to continue its aid to the Afghan people.

New Delhi has already supplied four batches of large-scale medical consignments to Afghanistan, consisting of essential life-saving medicines and vaccines, since the Taliban took over Kabul on 15 August 2021.

In the coming days, India has plans to send 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan via Pakistan, in collaboration with the UN World Food Programme.

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At Rs 2,266 crore, Bhutan continues to be the largest recipient of Indias assistance due to the rise in development work.

Almost one-third of Indias total aid assistance goes to Bhutan every year as New Delhi continues to remain involved in building large-scale hydro projects and several other small and medium projects in the neighbouring country, sources said.

Indias key development projects in Bhutan as part of its aid assistance include the Mangdechhu Hydroelectric Project, Punatsangchhu Hydroelectric Project, the E-Library Project and introduction of Rupay Cards, among others.

With Bangladesh, the expenditure has witnessed a rise as India has been involved in the celebrations around the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of that nation, and the golden jubilee of the countrys independence.

During his visit to Bangladesh in 2021, PM Modi had also announced some large-scale connectivity projects that are strategically key for Indias foreign policy.

The budget allocation for Myanmar is at Rs 600 crore, up nearly one-third from Rs 400 crore in 2021-22.

India has continued to remain diplomatically engaged with the junta in Myanmar after the military coup last February, that overthrew the democratically elected government.

According to sources, New Delhi will continue to support the ongoing development projects there.

The overall budget of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has been increased 20 per cent to Rs 17,250 crore for 2022-23, up from Rs 14,329 crore in 2020-21.

This is due to the fact that the government aims to roll out e-passport schemes too this year.

The spending will likely begin towards Indias preparations for the G20 presidency next year.

Despite the fact that the Taliban have taken over, its a message to the Afghan public that India still is interested in their welfare. Its of course a lower aid allocation than in 2020-21 because at that time, we were involved on ground in many projects, said former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal.

In the case of Bangladesh, in which weve increased our aid allocation, its a political message to the Sheikh Hasina government that India will provide continuous support to Bangladesh and deepen the relationship. You cant ignore the China factor either, because they have a large presence there also. We want to deepen our position in the country for a longer term too, he said.

On aid to Myanmar, Sibal said while the rest of the world has been imposing sanctions on Myanmar and pushing it more and more into an alliance with China, India cant be in the same boat and needs cooperation because both countries share a border.

In fact, we saw a major refugee influx into the Northeast when the junta took over last year. So, the aid allocation reflects that we are interested in stabilisation in the country and the money allocated is of course, for projects to benefit the people, not for lining the pockets of the junta, he added.

(Edited by Amit Upadhyaya)

Also read: India ready to engage with Pakistan on expanding list of pilgrimage sites, mode of travel: MEA

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India cuts development aid to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan by 43%, big jump for Bangladesh: Budget - ThePrint