Who’s who in the Taliban leadership
Afghan Islamic Press Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada is a political and religious leader who is the third Supreme Commander of the Taliban The Taliban took many by surprise as they swept across Afghanistan in just 10 days in August, quickly taking control of towns and cities. The militant group has announced an interim government, declaring the […]
Zuckerberg’s metaverse: Lessons from Second Life
Linden Lab This week, I travelled back in time to visit the future. It has been about 10 years since I first entered the virtual world of Second Life, arguably the internet’s first attempt at what every tech giant is now racing to build: the so-called metaverse. The term metaverse was coined in the 1990s […]
The Welsh drifter who helped end WW2
BBC Glyndwr Michael’s body was given a fake identity as Acting Major William Martin “The only worthwhile thing that he ever did, he did after his death.” British intelligence agent Ewen Montagu’s view of Welshman Glyndwr Michael may be somewhat harsh. After all, after his death aged 34, he helped to end World War Two […]
Women’s World Cup 2023: What the stats say about the tournament
Before Sunday’s game, Spain (71%) and England (66%) were the two sides involved in the knockout stages with the highest possession average. According to Opta’s sequence data, they were also the two teams leading into the final who averaged the most passes per open play sequence (3.9 for England, 3.6 for Spain) – highlighting their […]
London Mayor Sadiq Khan speaks out about racist abuse
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, reads out online racist abuse and death threats The Mayor of London read out some of the racist online abuse he receives as he demanded action from social media firms to tackle hate speech. Sadiq Khan suggested the level of abuse could deter other people from minority backgrounds from entering […]
Women’s Six Nations: Vicky Irwin to make Irish debut against Scotland
Ireland sit fourth in this year’s championship with their sole win so far coming at home to Italy in round three. Scotland are out to avoid the wooden spoon as they currently occupy sixth in the table without a victory. They can draw from recent success against Ireland, having secured a dramatic last-gasp win in […]
Who wants to follow in Merkel’s footsteps?
Getty Images Angela Merkel, here with one of the candidates Armin Laschet, will not run in next year’s German elections The race is on to succeed Angela Merkel, by becoming leader of Germany’s centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and potentially chancellor. She will not run again in Germany’s next general election, due by October 2021. It […]
Anne Boden, the steelworker’s daughter who started her own bank
BBC Anne Boden started her career on the counters at Lloyds Bank The daughter of a steelworker and a department store worker from Bonymaen in Swansea, Anne Boden had a fairly ordinary Welsh childhood. Now she’s part of a revolution in the financial world – and has set up her own online bank. As a […]
Stay home, female Kabul government workers told
AFP Some women held a protest in Kabul against the restrictions they are facing The new Taliban mayor of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul has told female municipal employees to stay home unless their jobs cannot be filled by a man. Hamdullah Nomany said the Taliban “found it necessary to stop women from working for a while”. […]
Top talking points of 2019 and how they evaded the censors
Getty Images China has one of the most tightly controlled internet environments in the world, but despite this its 854 million internet users yet again in 2019 found ways to challenge the government or talk about the issues they want to discuss. This year, China has seen a reignited #MeToo movement, young people have challenged […]