The Taliban has ordered media in three provinces of Afghanistan to stop airing images of any living being, a drastic step widely criticized by journalism and civil liberty groups. A Taliban official said this week that state-run media in the provinces of Takhar, Kandahar, and Maidan Wardak have been told to stop showing images of living things. Experts who spoke with VOA said the Taliban also met with local media outlets and told them that the rule also applied to their coverage.

Less than three weeks before the presidential election, TikTok is still struggling to consistently enforce its long-standing ban on political advertising, a new report finds. In September, researchers from the nonprofit Global Witness tested the political ad moderation systems of three leading social media platforms — TikTok, Facebook and YouTube — by submitting ads that contained election disinformation. Examples included ads falsely warning that citizens must pass an English language test...

One of the most interesting phenomena of the 2024 election is the accelerating collapse of identity politics. As identity politics has become a driving force among white-overeducated voters, the working class has begun to abandon them. Black, Latino, gays and lesbians and most minority groups are opening their eyes to the fraud. Latino voters have been leading the way in this trend, but you see it in the black community, anti-alphabet gays, and union members--all of whom have been drifting away...

Forecasters are increasingly upbeat about the economy’s prospects, according to The Wall Street Journal’s latest quarterly survey of business and academic economists. The following graphics show what economists are thinking and how their predictions—and the economy—have changed over recent months and years. After looking at the charts, see whether you can guess what the economists said about the two main presidential candidates and manufacturing employment.  

For the third time in eight years, Americans have to decide whether they want Donald Trump to be their president. No voter could be ignorant by now of who he is. Opinions about Trump aren’t just hardened—they’re dried out and exhausted. The man’s character has been in our faces for so long, blatant and unchanging, that it kills the possibility of new thoughts, which explains the strange mix of boredom and dread in our politics. Whenever Trump senses any waning of public attention, he’ll...

According to the Washington Post, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and its Instagram, Facebook, and Threads platforms are suppressing content related to the 2024 election, making it harder for users to discuss politics and voting. One influencer suffered from an astonishing 63 percent drop in audience just by mentioning the word “vote” on a post. In an exclusive investigation, Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler has uncovered how Meta’s social media platforms,...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said under oath that Tucker Carlson is funded by a Russian state-owned media outlet, without providing evidence for the claim. Trudeau made the allegation about Carlson and fellow conservative media personality Jordan Peterson while testifying at a public inquiry into foreign interference on Wednesday. The Canadian prime minister was addressing alleged Russian influence in spreading anti-vaccine messaging in the...

In the final weeks of a divisive, high-stakes campaign season, state election officials in political battleground states say they are bracing for the unpredictable and emergent threat posed by artificial intelligence, or AI. "The number one concern we have on Election Day are some of the challenges that we have yet to face," Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said. "There are some uncertainties, particularly with generative artificial intelligence and the ways that those might be used."...

Attorneys for Ryan Routh, the man charged with attempting to assassinate former president Donald Trump last month, are asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to recuse herself from his case, arguing that she would struggle to be impartial. In a ten-page motion filed Thursday, Routh’s attorneys point to the fact that Cannon was a Trump appointee and that the former president has spoken favorably about her past rulings. Cannon has overseen several cases related to Trump, including a lawsuit...

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