They survived some of the Afghanistan War's most grueling and treacherous missions, regularly battling the Taliban in nighttime raids and urban gun battles. But once evacuated to the U.S., many Afghan fighters who served in "Zero Units" led by the CIA found themselves spiraling into despair because of what they saw as bureaucratic neglect and abandonment by the U.S. government, a former CIA operative and a former Afghan fighter involved in the units told NPR.
A gentle and peaceful dog walker who was just trying to help has died and two people have been injured in a triple stabbing in west London. A 22-year-old Afghan national has been arrested on suspicion of murder as neighbours paid tribute to the victim, who they said was just doing the normal dog walk that he does every day.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground.
It is up to Angela Rayner whether she takes a 17,000 severance payment, despite Labour vowing to block such payments from October in a crackdown on sleaze, John Healey has said. Sir Keir Starmer moved to tighten the rules around severance pay, with ministers in future to have payments withheld if they are forced out over serious breaches of the ministerial code.