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Pakistan's National Security Advisor, Moeed Yusuf interacted virtually on Thursday (August 26) with a wide spectrum of British leadership as he opened up on the ongoing Taliban crisis, stating Afghanistan is at risk of a "security vacuum" without an international push for an "inclusive government".

Yusuf also said that the West has "embarrassed" itself by refusing to listen to Pakistan over its take on Afghanistan's ousted government led by Ashraf Ghani. He added thatthe West should help Afghans by engaging with the Taliban to ensure a "governance model".

In a speech to the Conservative thinktank Policy Exchange and as reported by The Guardian, Yusuf called for an internationally coordinated effort to establish the Taliban government. He mentioned that there's a need to have "an inclusive government, rights protected, a moderate governance model".

ALSO READ | Pakistan is second home to the Taliban, says spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid

Yusuf dismissed the claims that Islamabad had allowed a porous border to give Taliban access in Pakistan, hiding from US forces.

However, this comes immediately after the controversial statement made by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid who claimed that Pakistan is like the "second home" of the organisation and that activities that are not in line with the interests of neighbouring countries are not allowed on the territory of Afghanistan.

'Mistakes of the 90s'

Pakistan NSA warned that if the world repeats the "mistakes of the 90s", the results will not be better than last time. He said, "If we again find the easy path and say 'we are done and out of here,' the international legitimacy of the western world will disappear in one second."

"We will have a humanitarian crisis, we will have instability and we will have a security vacuum that terrorists may fill, again targeting Pakistan first and the western world second," he said.

He also accused the West of turning Pakistan into a "scapegoat" and said that the "world should stand up" now and say we will learn lessons, something has gone wrong.

ALSO READ | 'Biden has blood on his hands': Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers slam US president after Kabul blasts

"When the real problems on the ground a lack of trust, corruption, an army not able to stand up were completely ignored," said Pakistan's NSA.

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Pakistan`s NSA wants the West to `engage` with Taliban for `inclusive government` - WION

WASHINGTON: The United States and Pakistan have a shared interest in working together in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan's National Security Adviser, Moeed Yusuf, has said, but pointed out that it will require fixing the bilateral relationship by "moving past their problems."

"Afghan instability could lead to more terrorism, refugees and economic hardship for Pakistan," he said in a phone interview with The Washington Post columnist, Josh Rogin, whose opinion piece appeared in the newspaper on Thursday under the headline: Pakistan wants to be treated like an ally, not a scapegoat.

Columnist Rogin argued that instead of engaging with Pakistan, the country is being indicted in American media coverage for its alleged support of the Taliban over the years, and he proposed that the US "seriously consider Pakistan's offer of cooperation."

"Right now, in the situation we are in, how are US and Pakistan's interests not aligned?", Moeed Yusuf, asked in the interview, which Rogin worked into his column. "I am not asking for any sympathy for Pakistan," Yusuf said. "I am thinking in terms of pure US selfish national interests. How does it help to push away a country of this size, stature and power?", he asked.

Rogin also noted that Pakistan perennially stands accused of providing havens for the Taliban, but Pakistani officials point out that tens of thousands of Pakistani soldiers have died fighting extremists in their own country since 9/11.

"Pakistan is the victim. We had nothing to do with 9/11. We teamed up with the US to fight back and after that there is a major backlash on Pakistan," Yusuf said.

The US-supported government in Kabul, he said, used Pakistan as a scapegoat to excuse its own ineptitude, corruptions and unpopularity. Pakistan helped bring the Taliban to the negotiating table at Washington's request, got cut out of the negotiations and is now being blamed for the outcome, it was pointed out.

"Did Pakistan tell the Afghan National Army not to fight? Did Pakistan tell Ashraf Ghani to run away?" Moeed Yusuf said.

"The entire state collapsed in a week. So somebody was lying, somebody was misreporting, or somebody was mistaken about the reality and when it came to informing the taxpayers of the Western world."

Noting PM Khan's government last week's statement about the Taliban's takeover, Rogin said it "becomes apparent there is actually significant overlap with the Biden administration's policy goals."

Pakistan, the columnist pointed out, is calling for the Taliban to work with other ethnic groups toward a political settlement to establish an inclusive government in Kabul. Pakistan has urged the Taliban to respect international law and human rights, and he also wrote that Islamabad agrees with President Joe Biden that withdrawing all US troops was the right decision. Pakistan also wants the United States to increase its diplomatic and economic involvement in Afghanistan and to find a way forward to engage diplomatically with the Taliban, Rogin said, referring to the Pakistani statement.

On his part, Moeed Yusuf said, the United States should not isolate Afghanistan to punish its new rulers.

"Now that the Taliban has the whole country, they don't really need Islamabad as much anymore," he said. "Assistance and recognition is the leverage. Who has that? It's the Western countries that have much more leverage in Afghanistan than Pakistan."

In this regard, Rogin carried in his column former US Ambassador to Afghanistan and Pakistan Ryan Crocker remarks in The New York Times last week that the United States made a mistake by disengaging with Pakistan in the 1990s and would be repeating that mistake by turning away from Islamabad now.

"We need to be engaged with Pakistan on ways to assess and deal with this enhanced threat," wrote Crocker. "The prospect of violent destabilization of a country with about 210 million people and nuclear weapons is not a pretty one," the diplomat added.

The NSA told Rogin that the US-Pakistan relationship can't be just about Afghanistan; the two countries share a much broader range of interests. But first, the United States must learn the lessons of the 1990s, when it abandoned Afghanistan. Otherwise it can expect a similar outcome.

"If a security vacuum is left in Afghanistan by abandoning it, you will see that these terrorist organizations take root again. Let's not kid ourselves," Moeed Yusuf said.

In his concluding comments, Rogin wrote, "Given (President Joe) Biden's haphazard withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover, the United States has little alternative but to seriously consider Pakistan's offer of cooperation. Sure, it might not work, but it's worth a shot."

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US, Pakistan have shared interest in Afghanistan: NSA - Business Recorder

Axonius announced that Chris Cochran and Ron Eddings, highly experienced security professionals and the producers and hosts of the popular Hacker Valley Studio podcast, have joined the company as Creative Directors.

Hacker Valley Studio, a Webby Award finalist and one of the most popular cybersecurity shows, with listeners in more than 150 countries, will continue unabated as an independent creative entity. In the latest episode, Cochran and Eddings talked with Axonius CEO Dean Sysman about the next stages of their careers and applying their passion for understanding the human elements of technology to shape the future of how cybersecurity and other professionals grow, share, and give back to the community.

Chris and Ron have a powerful combination of talentshands-on, professional security expertise in top companies and government agencies, and creative, engaging, and very human storytelling skills, said Sysman. Joining Axonius will provide them the freedom to continue producing and hosting Hacker Valley Studio and to build new, fresh content to inspire security professionals and help them navigate constant change, complexity, and challenges in the industry.

Chris Cochran is a former active-duty U.S. Marine Network Intelligence Sergeant with extensive experience in building and leading cybersecurity missions at Netflix, Mandiant, and the National Security Agency (NSA). Ron Eddings has more than a decade of security architecture and operations experience, including work at Intel, McAfee, Palo Alto Networks, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the NSA.

Hundreds of companies trust the Axonius Cybersecurity Asset Management platform to serve as a system of record for infrastructure and intelligence about all assets and their security coverage. Axonius was recently named to the Forbes Cloud 100, a Fortune Best Places to Work, and a sample vendor in the newly coined Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) category in the recently published Gartner Hype Cycle for Network Security, 2021 report.

In just four years, Axonius has skyrocketed to a $1.2B valuation with $195M in total funding and 187% year-over-year annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth in the first half of 2021. The company is actively hiring across a range of engineering, marketing, and operations positions.

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Chris Cochran and Ron Eddings join Axonius as Creative Directors - Help Net Security

The metaverse is morethan trending just ask Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Microsoft, Epic Games (owner of Fortnite), and Roblox.

Is the metaverse a buzzword or buzzworthy? The next internet?

Marketers need to be in the know!

Imagine accessing a virtual universe where you can create an entire world, bringing your physical world experiences with you.

It was only thirty years ago that the internet became publicly available, and twenty years ago that many businesses realized that a website was a necessity for marketing.

And lets not even talk about how long it took for social media networks to catch on.

Now, virtual reality experts predict that 58.9 million and 93.3 million people in the United States will use VR and AR respectively at least once a month this year thats 17.7% and 28.1% of the total US population, respectively.

At a conceptual level, the metaverse can be thought of as the successor-state to todays internet just as todays predominantly mobile internet was built on top of fixed broadband internet of the 1990s and early 2000s, according to Matthew Balls Metaverse Fund.

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The convergence of 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and edge cloud processing will soon make it easier to deliver more seamless, enjoyable, and cost-effective AR VR experiences across a variety of connected devices.

Just like the internet, industry insiders are predicting the metaverse will become a necessity for all brands.

Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that Facebook is turning itself into a metaverse company, for what thats worth. Meanwhile, tech journalist Tara Swisher says the jury is still out and thinks Apple or Google might be better suited to lead the metaverse revolution.

1. Google Trends shows a significant climb in people searching the term metaverse in the last 12 months, hitting the 100 mark in March.

2. Top-tier media are all in. Forbes has a weekly round-up covering all corners of the metaverse news written by tech futurist and metaverse strategist, Cathy Hackl.

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3. Theres a fund. Matthew Ball, a media analyst and co-founder of the metaverse Investment Fund Metaverse ATF (NYSE: META) published The Metaverse Primer, a primer in 9 free essaysthat is a good starting point and someone to follow.

4. Chief Metaverse Officer and other metaverse titles. Search LinkedIn for the keyword metaverse, and you will find about 2700 results of people using metaverse in their profile title, headline, or experience.

5. Google News shows 175,000 search results for the keyword metaverse news.

6. On Twitter, #metaverse gets about 500+/- Tweets an hour depending on the news cycle.

7. Instagram shows more than 43K posts using #metaverse. Once known as a mobile photo-sharing app, Instagram insiders hint at a shift from photos to videos as the charge towards the metaverse marches on.

According to Wikipedia, the metaverse is the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet. Its a collective virtual shared space created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet.

A metaverse is a place where everyone will have an avatar. Its a virtual experience in 3D whether you are playing, creating, gaming, or exploring.

There is a shift in business mindset and adaptation from looking at a virtual reality beyond just gaming to using VR to create, explore, identify, express, collaborate, and socialize.

Thanks to the pandemic push of new technologies and opportunities, VR is quickly moving away from the traditional stigma of being a waste of time to the next technology revolution much like mobile technology has shaped our culture from the first version of the iPhone to now.

Brands such as Gucci, Nike, Disney, Snap, and Facebook are in the midst of creating virtual communities, content, assets, fashion, art, experiences, and worlds.

We can now step out of our real world and into virtual worlds where we will have a new economy, environment, currency, and behaviors.

On todays agenda: Using new technologies wrapping virtual reality around augmented reality, and artificial intelligence as part of the digital marketing strategy.

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Much like the evolution of the Internet and the impact of mobile technology, savvy marketers will educate for change and adapt to new virtual worlds of opportunity.

Hackl points out that:

Brands will need to rethink their narratives in three dimensions and that marketers will need to embrace emerging technology at a faster speed. In the metaverse, everyone is a world builder, including brands.

Matt McGowan, Snap Director and General Manager Canada, says:

For brands and marketers, its important to remember the value of Gen Z and millennials or the Snapchat Generation, as we like to call them.

Consider what happens in a persons life between the ages of 13 and 34. They move out of the house for the first time, get their first apartment, first credit card, first car and they start buying the day-to-day products that they will need at various points throughout the rest of their lives.

The Snapchat Generation has over $4.4 trillion in global spending power, and beyond that carries a massive influence on household purchasing (over 80% of parents of Gen Z report that this generation influences household spend).

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McGowan also noted:

There is deep, long-term value in our audience, which is why its important to reach them where they spend so much of their time on their phones using apps like Snapchat.

Heres a starting point when it comes to SEO, social media, and public relations to get you started.

Just like marketers transitioned into optimizing to get found in search engines like Google, YouTube and Bing, its time to start analyzing how to get found in the metaverse.

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Brands can achieve this by staking their claim in a world, community, or platform that matches your audience.

Will search engines be the gateway to getting found in the metaverse? Having the keyword metaverse in a brand name, product or headline is helpful for getting found in search and social channels by those seeking that type of interaction.

Have a local restaurant, small business, or retail shop? Googles AR/VR technologies create 3D experiences direct from your local listings and more.

According to Google:

Augmented reality overlays digital content and information onto the physical world as if theyre actually there with you,

Using AR for trying on shoes, training someone how to do CPR, or sharing tips for applying cosmetics are all examples of how a brands content strategy can impact search results.

Eric Enge, author of The Art of SEO and co-founder of Pilot Holding, says:

One of the key aspects of the Metaverse is the big role that image processing plays. Virtual reality augmented reality, and visual search all rely on it.

Yet its important to acknowledge that capabilities in this area are still developing and that practical applications remain limited in nature. However, some of these are quite interesting.

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Deep content is at the heart of any SEO Strategy. The more that content serves a users needs, the better in terms of driving SEO rankings and organic search traffic.

Images are a highly effective form of content. As Google gets better and better at understanding the content and quality of images, the bigger a factor this will become.

Take an audit of your current content strategy and see how you can implement AR, VR, and 3D experiences into your marketing plans.

As mentioned earlier, Facebook sees its future self as a metaverse company.

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Equipped with brands such as Oculus (the hardware), the virtual reality platform Facebook Horizon, and a newly formed Facebook Metaverse executive team, the social network seems ready to launch from 2D to 3D.

If you are ready to explore the metaverse through the eyes of Facebook:

No experience is necessary.

Navah Berg, Facebook Horizon Creator and co-founder of Women in Horizon, says:

Connecting 2D newsfeeds to a 3D community in Horizon where world-building with others is truly a community-building experience. Horizon is the heart of the social metaverse.

Once inside Horizon, you can do things like visit different worlds centered around specific interests and topics. Youll find everything from gardening to gaming to meditation, and even community groups tied to Facebook Groups.

Created by early alpha-beta testers Berg and Paige Dansinger to empower women to build in Horizon, Women In VR host monthly meet-ups and hosted Facebook Horizons community leaders Q&A for their first Accelerator program. The group also holds Horizon world-building classes, and in early March had an all-day International Womens Day event with meditation, speakers from Facebook, Futurists, and Social Media experts.

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Facebook allows you to share moments in Horizon through Facebook Groups such as sharing your selfies and worlds from your 3D world to a 2D audience. They are creating a bridge between worlds.

Its possible to create worlds, collaborate with others, host events, have meet-ups, take selfies, and create meaningful relationships, avatar-to-avatar.

McGowan shared how brands can easily get started with AR on Snapchat:

Our free Lens Web Builder tool is a great way to get started with AR on Snapchat. It offers an easy, fast way for anyone to build compelling, professional AR Lenses in minutes either through templates with a pre-selected combination of 3D assets or from scratch.

Released this week, Snapchat Trends is a public, web-based tool for advertisers, partners, and more to learn which words and phrases are trending across Snapchat and whats driving buzz for our community of 500 million monthly active users.

For partners, its a great way to understand and get visibility into the communitys interests in real-time, said McGowan.

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Snap is also snapping into 3D content at a steady pace. With its beta launch of Spectacles: The Next Generation, creators are pushing the boundaries of what our 3D world will look like.

Ready and willing to capture the hearts of 16-25-year-olds, Snap also recently launched new 3D, fashion-forward Bitmojis. You can dress your avatar with your favorite brand and be the best digital version of the real you.

Brands dipping their toes in the metaverse today are making headlines. 60 Minutes recently featured the story on how nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are making it possible for people to buy and sell goods, and use them in the metaverse.

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Its a convergence of the physical world with the digital world.

Creative ways to use AR, VR and dip your PR toes in the metaverse:

It is now possible to create (or hire) a virtual being, the new influencers for your brand can be the perfect spokesperson or ambassador, or concierge. Check out a recent podcast interview between Guy Kawasaki and Kuki, an artificial intelligence chatbot.

Virtual beings are already part of our daily lives just not in 3D.

Think Alexa and Siri.

Looking at the world through AR glasses and leveraging immersive technologies are the waves of the near future.

How are you planning to surf through these new ways of communication and venture out past the shore of today to take a plunge in the waters the metaverse brings for tomorrow?

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The internet might have taken 30 years to get where it is today, but the metaverse is poised for rapid growth with technology primed and humans ready to crossover into new worlds.

In the metaverse, I wear Gucci.

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Marketing in the Metaverse: The Future of Search & Social - Search Engine Journal

The FDA gets more than a fair share of jabs on social media, but lately its Twitter account has been showing its own spunk.

Last week, the FDATwitter account posted,You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it. The post linked to anarticlediscouraging use of ivermectin, commonly used to treat parasites in animals, to treat COVID-19.

Spurred by serious reports of people hospitalized after self-medicating with the veterinarydrug, the cheeky tweet containeda serious message.

And thats the point, says the FDA.

Historically, weve used our social media platforms to communicate about a lot of important public health issues in fairly straightforward ways, but as the platforms have evolved, weve embarked on an effort to find creative ways to deliver our messages, Brad Kimberly, director of social media in the FDAs Office of External Affairs, said in an email.

These posts are designed to get peoples attention and, most importantly, combat dangerous viral misinformation," he said.

RELATED:FDA reputation takes another hit after scathing aducanumab advisory panel meeting

He added that so far the efforts are very effective, and Im glad people are recognizing this shift.

Effective may be an understatement. The not-a-horse post garnered more than 104,000 likes and 46,500 retweets. For comparison purposes, an FDA Twitter post the week before about the approval of a generic form of amoxicillin for dogs and cats got 70 likes and 28 retweetsand people really love their pets.

The ivermectin tweet in fact rivaled the FDA's Monday announcement that Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty, had been approved. The FDA breaking news post got 90.000 likes and 55,000 retweets.

Some naysayers didnt appreciate the agency's attempts at witone responder calledthe tone of voice inappropriate and saidit's better suited to Wendys than FDA.

Many others approved, thoughone commenterpromised to stopreferring to the organization as the"Fun Destroying Agency"and those in favor included some marketing experts.

Its actually quite appropriate, Eileen OBrien, Real Chemistrys social media practice leader, said in an email.

FDA social media channels can remain an important voice of authority while also having a personality. Its essential to speak in a way that engages the general public, she said.

Wendy Blackburn, executive VP at Intouch Solutions, called the FDAs new tone uncharacteristic, but she also approves.

Recently we have seen the FDA Twitter handle speak more in social medias native language. Theyre using emojis. They retweeted Ellen DeGeneres. Theyre showing their humanity with a dose of authenticity, and its a welcome change, she said.

RELATED:Pharma's reputation drops again. Could it foreshadow a return to the bottom?

Blackburn added, Its an effective and welcome trend in the way that FDA is battling misinformationas long as they also continue to balance their tone with one of authority and a focus on the science.

The FDA concurs on her science point.

As Kimberly said, We hope that people will come for a little bit of snark, stay for the serious, and in the process learn something new about the FDA and an issue that could save their lives.

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Show me the funny: FDA social media account gets spunky, adding wit and wordplay to combat misinformation - FiercePharma