Afghanistan – Michmutters
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Australia

A year on from the fall of Kabul, Afghans reflect on their new lives in Australia

Before being forced to flee Kabul as the Taliban returned to power, Maryam Nabavi was a print and radio journalist.

Her courageous reporting focused on democracy and women’s rights—particularly education for girls—in what was still a firmly patriarchal society.

Now a year on since the fall of the Afghan capital, Ms Nabavi is gradually getting used to a new, freer and more secure way of living with her son and husband in their adopted country: Australia.

However, the restrictions on the rights and freedoms imposed on women and girls in her native land continue to haunt her from thousands of kilometers away.

At the moment, she’s busy caring for her young son and learning English but she’s keen to restart her career.

She said she missed the purposefulness and excitement of her life as a reporter in Afghanistan.

“Since I came to Australia, I am not the same person anymore,” she said.

“The first days when I came here were very difficult for me. I spent days and nights crying and a deep sense of emptiness took over my whole being.”

Ms Nabavi is one of thousands of Afghans who have embarked on new lives in Australia, while grappling with the emotions of fleeing their country on the heels of the abrupt US withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power on August 15 last year.

According to the Department of Home Affairs, 5,929 permanent humanitarian visas were granted to Afghan nationals between August 15, 2021, and the end of July this year.

However, almost 50,000 applications on behalf of more than 200,000 people have been lodged in that time and only another 31,500 places are available over the next four years.

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Categories
Australia

Australian academic Timothy Weeks, once held captive by the Taliban, praises regime on return to Afghanistan

An Australian academic previously held hostage by the Taliban has returned to Afghanistan to “celebrate” the regime’s one year in power.

In 2016, Timothy Weeks was a teacher at the American University in Kabul when he, along with his US colleague Kevin King, were abducted at gunpoint and held hostage for three years.

While locked up, the Taliban released videos of the captives, showing them pale and gaunt.

In one of the videos, Mr Weeks pleaded with then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to negotiate his release.

A prisoner-swap deal was made in 2019 that saw the two men released in exchange for three Taliban prisoners, including Anas Haqqani, who is today a high-ranking Taliban commander.

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Categories
US

Afghan man charged in killings of Muslims in New Mexico

The ambush killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, shook the community but inspired a flood of information, including a tip that led to the arrest of a local Muslim man originally from Afghanistan who knew the victims, authorities said.

Muhammad Syed, 51, was arrested on Monday after a traffic stop more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) away from his home in Albuquerque. He was charged with killing two victims and was identified as the prime suspect in the other two slayings, authorities announced Tuesday.

The Muslim community is breathing “an incredible sigh of relief,” said Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico. “Lives have been turned upside down.”

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Syed had an attorney to speak on his behalf.

The first killing last November was followed by three more between July 26 and Aug. 5.

Police Chief Harold Medina said it was not clear yet whether the deaths should be classified as hate crimes or serial killings or both.

Syed was from Afghanistan and had lived in the United States for about five years, police said.

“The offender knew the victims to some extent, and an interpersonal conflict may have led to the shootings,” a police statement said, although investigators were still working to identify how they had crossed paths.

When asked specifically if Syed, a Sunni Muslim, was angry that his daughter married a Shiite Muslim, Deputy Police Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock did not respond directly. He said “motives are still being explored fully to understand what they are.”

Assed acknowledged that “there was a marriage,” but he cautioned against coming to any conclusions about the motivation of Syed, who occasionally attended the center’s mosque.

Police said Syed gave them a statement but didn’t disclose details.

The slayings drew the attention of President Joe Biden, who said such attacks “have no place in America.” They also sent a shudder through Muslim communities across the US Some people questioned their safety and limited their movements.

“There is no justification for this evil. There is no justification to take an innocent life,” Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American–Islamic Relations, said at a Tuesday news conference in Washington, DC

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He called the killings “deranged behavior.”

The earliest case involves the November killing of Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, from Afghanistan.

Naeem Hussain, a 25-year-old man from Pakistan, was killed Friday night. His death from him came just days after those of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Aftab Hussein, 41, who were also from Pakistan and members of the same mosque.

Ehsan Chahalmi, the brother-in-law of Naeem Hussain, said he was “a generous, kind, giving, forgiving and loving soul that has been taken away from us forever.”

For now, Syed is charged in the killings of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain because bullet casings found at the crime scenes were linked to a gun found at his home, authorities said.

Investigators consider Syed to be the primary suspect in the deaths of Naeem Hussain and Ahmadi but have not yet filed charges in those cases.

The announcement that the shootings appeared to be linked produced more than 200 tips, including one from the Muslim community that police credited with leading them to the Syed family.

Police said they were about to search Syed’s Albuquerque home on Monday when they saw him drive away in a Volkswagen Jetta that investigators believe was used in at least one of the slayings.

Officers followed him to Santa Rosa, about 110 miles (177 kilometers) east of Albuquerque, where they pulled him over. Multiple firearms were recovered from his home and car, police said.

Syed’s sons were questioned and released, according to authorities.

Prosecutors expect to file murder charges in state court and are considering adding a federal case, authorities said.

Shiites make up the second largest branch in Islam after Sunnis.

Aneela Abad, general secretary at the Islamic center, said the two Muslim communities in New Mexico enjoy warm ties.

“Our Shiite community has always been there for us and we, Sunnis, have always been there for them,” she said.

Muhammad Afzaal Hussain had worked as a field organizer for Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury’s campaign.

“Muhammad was kind, hopeful, optimistic,” she said, describing him as a city planner “who believed in democracy and social change, and who believed that we could, in fact, build a brighter future for our communities and for our world. ”

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Dazio reported from Los Angeles and Fam from Winter Park, Florida. Associated Press writer Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Categories
US

Afghan man charged in killing of 2 Muslims in Albuquerque

This photo released Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, by the Albuquerque Police Department shows Muhammad Syed.  Syed, 51, was taken into custody Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in connection with the killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, over the last nine months.  He faces charges in two of the deaths and may be charged in the others.  (Albuquerque Police Department via AP)
This photo released Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, by the Albuquerque Police Department shows Muhammad Syed.  Syed, 51, was taken into custody Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in connection with the killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, over the last nine months.  He faces charges in two of the deaths and may be charged in the others.  (Albuquerque Police Department via AP)
This photo released Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, by the Albuquerque Police Department shows Muhammad Syed.  Syed, 51, was taken into custody Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in connection with the killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, over the last nine months.  He faces charges in two of the deaths and may be charged in the others.  (Albuquerque Police Department via AP)

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This photo released Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, by the Albuquerque Police Department shows Muhammad Syed. Syed, 51, was taken into custody Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in connection with the killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, over the last nine months. He faces charges in two of the deaths and may be charged in the others. (Albuquerque Police Department via AP)

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This photo released Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, by the Albuquerque Police Department shows Muhammad Syed. Syed, 51, was taken into custody Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in connection with the killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, over the last nine months. He faces charges in two of the deaths and may be charged in the others. (Albuquerque Police Department via AP)

Police announced a breakthrough Tuesday in the killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, charging a man from Afghanistan — himself a Muslim — with two of the slayings and identifying him as a prime suspect in the other killings that put the entire community on edge.

Muhammad Syed, 51, was taken into custody a day earlier after a traffic stop more than 100 miles away, authorities said.

Police Chief Harold Medina said it was not clear yet whether the deaths should be classified as hate crimes or serial killings.

Investigators received a tip from the city’s Muslim community that pointed toward Syed, who has lived in the US for about five years, police said.

Police were looking into possible motives, including an unspecified “interpersonal conflict.”

When asked specifically if Syed, a Sunni Muslim, was angry that his daughter married a Shiite Muslim, Deputy Police Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock did not respond directly. He said “motives are still being explored fully to understand what they are.”

Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, cautioned against coming to any conclusions about the motivation of the suspect, who he said attended the center’s mosque “from time to time.”

“Knowing where we were, you know, a few days ago to where we are today is an incredible sigh of relief that we’re breathing,” he said. “Lives have been turned upside down.”

The exact nature of the relationships between Syed and the victims – and the victims to one another – remained unclear. But police said they continue to investigate how they crossed paths before the shootings.

The slayings drew the attention of President Joe Biden, who said such attacks “have no place in America.” They also sent a shudder through Muslim communities across the US Some people questioned their safety and limited their movements.

When told about the announcement, Muhammad Imtiaz Hussain, brother of one of the victims, Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, said he felt relieved but needed to know more about the suspect and the motive.

“This gives us hope that we will have (the) truth come out,” he said. “We need to know why.”

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It was not immediately clear whether Syed had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Naeem Hussain was killed Friday night, and the three other men died in ambush shootings. Three of the four slayings happened in the last two weeks.

Hussain, 25, was from Pakistan. His death from him came just days after those of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Aftab Hussein, 41, who were also from Pakistan and members of the same mosque.

The earliest case involves the November killing of Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, from Afghanistan.

For now, Syed is charged in the killings of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain because bullet casings found at the crime scenes were linked to a gun found at his home, authorities said.

Investigators consider Syed to be the primary suspect in the deaths of Naeem Hussain and Mohammad Zaher Ahmadi but have not yet filed charges in those cases.

Police said they were about to search Syed’s Albuquerque home on Monday when they saw him drive away in a Volkswagen Jetta that investigators believe was used in at least one of the slayings.

Officers followed him to Santa Rosa, about 110 miles east of Albuquerque, where they pulled him over. Multiple firearms were recovered from his home and car, police said.

Syed’s sons were questioned and released, according to authorities.

Prosecutors expect to file murder charges in state court and are considering adding a federal case, authorities said.

Aneela Abad, general secretary at the Islamic center, said the two Muslim communities in New Mexico enjoy warm ties.

“Our Shiite community has always been there for us and we, Sunnis, have always been there for them,” she said.

Muhammad Afzaal Hussain had worked as a field organizer for Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury’s campaign.

“Muhammad was kind, hopeful, optimistic,” she said, describing him as a city planner “who believed in democracy and social change, and who believed that we could, in fact, build a brighter future for our communities and for our world. ”

___

Dazio reported from Los Angeles and Fam from Winter Park, Florida.

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Categories
Sports

Chris Lynn turns back on Big Bash League, signs for United Arab Emirates T20 tournament

Australian cricketer Chris Lynn has officially turned his back on the Big Bash League, signing on for the inaugural International League T20 in the United Arab Emirates.

On Monday, Emirates Cricket announced that 54 international cricketers had agreed to participate in the newly-developed T20 league, which makes its debut in January 2023.

Lynn, one of the sport’s most destructive short-format batters, was the only Australian featured on a list headed by Ashes winner Moeen Ali and West Indies veteran Andre Russell.

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The 2023 ILT20 will have 34 matches, with all the teams playing each other twice before four playoffs fixtures across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

It’s understood the UAE league could offer players up to AU$700,000 for five weeks’ work.

“It’s exciting to see how well the squads are shaping up for the first season of ILT20,” Emirates Cricket General Secretary Mubashshir Usmani said in a statement.

“Each team will consist of 18 players including four UAE players and two other players from ICC Associate countries. The quality of the names announced today is outstanding and so is the interest in our league of top players from all around the world.

“We are very excited that a select number of UAE representative-players, from our current pool, will also be considered and signed on to participate in the league. It is also extremely important to note that these (UAE) players will form part of the team’s playing XI.

“One of the key objectives for ILT20 is to provide opportunities for players from UAE and other Associate nations to perform on the big stage, and, ECB extends its deep appreciation to the six franchises for their support of our vision to grow our game and create stronger, more competitive players.”

The announcement effectively confirms that Lynn, the highest run-scorer in Big Bash history, won’t sign for a BBL franchise this year.

In May, the Brisbane Heat elected not to renew the Queenslander’s $200,000 contract after a couple of underwhelming seasons in the domestic T20 tournament.

Lynn was not only one of the Heat’s foundation players, winning a BBL title with the Brisbane-based club in 2013, he also served as captain for several years.

According to The Agethe 32-year-old was unable to find another club willing to meet his asking price, although he had recently been in talks with the Adelaide Strikers.

The powerful right-hander has scored 3005 Big Bash runs at 34.54 at an imposing strike rate of 148.83.

Chris Lynn of Northamptonshire Steelbacks celebrates after scoring a century. Photo by David Rogers/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images

Lynn has been in impeccable form this winter, recently smacking an unbeaten 113 from 57 balls in the T20 Blast to equal his highest individual score and set up a Northamptonshire victory.

Although the loss of Lynn is a massive blow for the BBL, Cricket Australia is reportedly on the verge of brokering a deal with superstar batter David Warner.

According to AustralianWarner has been offered a groundbreaking BBL contract above and beyond any previous player contract.

“I am very hopeful David will play BBL and I am hopeful that all of our best Australian cricketers will play in it,” Australian Cricketers’ Association chief executive Todd Greenberg told the Cricket Et Cetera podcast this week.

“There’s a variety of reasons why. There’s absolutely no doubt that someone like David and others of his ilk could earn more in the coming Australian summer if they were to ply their trade overseas, but there’s a much broader discussion and a bigger picture we are trying to solve here and that’s the discussion I am having with several of our players this week.”

CA is desperate to ensure the sport’s biggest names will make an appearance in the BBL this summer; the competition has been starved of international-quality talent after the last two seasons were plagued by Covid-19.

Earlier this year, The Daily Telegraph reported that broadcaster Channel 7 had launched Federal Court action against CA in a bid to terminate its TV rights deal.

According to the News Corp report, Seven is adamant the cricketers that featured in last summer’s BBL were not of a high enough quality for the competition to meet the standard provisions stipulated in CA’s TV rights contract.

However, the Big Bash has already secured the services of former South African captain Faf du Plessis and Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan, while Australian stars Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Swepson, Nathan Lyon and Alex Carey have also signed for their respective BBL franchises.

Australia’s David Warner. Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFPSource: AFP

“These leagues we are talking about at the moment are competing with our Australian domestic summer and that is the first time we’ve faced this, it is a unique challenge,” Greenberg said.

“The second thing is that the reasons they enjoy the benefits and remunerations that they enjoy under this model is because of those that came before them.

“David and others understand … and are very aware that if they play in this competition it increases the opportunity for the next broadcast deal to be secured at a higher number which maybe doesn’t benefit them specifically, but it benefits the next generation of Australian cricketers coming through.

“This is a real test of our players demonstrating the level of partnership.

“They understand they have to get the best players to play, which includes them and the best players from overseas, which is why we’ve agreed in this one-year deal to ensure that there is an international draft and salary cap – an opportunity to bring the best overseas players in.”

Because South Africa has withdrawn from next January’s three-match ODI series against Australia, the country’s international stars will be available for the second half of the BBL.

However, multi-format paceman Mitchell Starc has already decided he won’t be signing for any franchise due to the sport’s busy calendar, and Australian teammates Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins will most likely follow suit.

“I have always enjoyed the BBL when I have played it … but my approach with all franchise cricket hasn’t changed over the last seven years,” Starc told AAP earlier this month.

“My approach to the IPL, BBL, I have looked at the Australian schedule and wanting to be as fit and well-performed for that as I can.

“And franchise cricket has taken a back seat.”

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Categories
Sports

Cricket news 2022: Chris Lynn turns back on Big Bash League, signs for United Arab Emirates T20 tournament

Australian cricketer Chris Lynn has officially turned his back on the Big Bash League, signing on for the inaugural International League T20 in the United Arab Emirates.

On Monday, Emirates Cricket announced that 54 international cricketers had agreed to participate in the newly-developed T20 league, which makes its debut in January 2023.

Lynn, one of the sport’s most destructive short-format batters, was the only Australian featured on a list headed by Ashes hero Moeen Ali and West Indies veteran Andre Russell.

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The 2023 ILT20 will have 34 matches, with all the teams playing each other twice before four playoffs fixtures across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

It’s understood the UAE league could offer players up to AU$700,000 for five weeks’ work.

“It’s exciting to see how well the squads are shaping up for the first season of ILT20,” Emirates Cricket General Secretary Mubashshir Usmani said in a statement.

“Each team will consist of 18 players including four UAE players and two other players from ICC Associate countries. The quality of the names announced today is outstanding and so is the interest in our league of top players from all around the world.

“We are very excited that a select number of UAE representative-players, from our current pool, will also be considered and signed on to participate in the league. It is also extremely important to note that these (UAE) players will form part of the team’s playing XI.

“One of the key objectives for ILT20 is to provide opportunities for players from UAE and other Associate nations to perform on the big stage, and, ECB extends its deep appreciation to the six franchises for their support of our vision to grow our game and create stronger, more competitive players.”

The announcement effectively confirms that Lynn, the highest run-scorer in Big Bash history, won’t sign for a BBL franchise this year.

In May, the Brisbane Heat elected not to renew the Queenslander’s $200,000 contract after a couple of underwhelming seasons in the domestic T20 tournament.

Lynn was not only one of the Heat’s foundation players, winning a BBL title with the Brisbane-based club in 2013, he also served as captain for several years.

According to The Agethe 32-year-old was unable to find another club willing to meet his asking price, although he had recently been in talks with the Adelaide Strikers.

The powerful right-hander has scored 3005 Big Bash runs at 34.54 at an imposing strike rate of 148.83.

Lynn has been in impeccable form this winter, recently smacking an unbeaten 113 from 57 balls in the T20 Blast to equal his highest individual score and set up a Northamptonshire victory.

Although the loss of Lynn is a massive blow for the BBL, Cricket Australia is reportedly on the verge of brokering a deal with superstar batter David Warner.

According to AustralianWarner has been offered a groundbreaking BBL contract above and beyond any previous player contract.

“I am very hopeful David will play BBL and I am hopeful that all of our best Australian cricketers will play in it,” Australian Cricketers’ Association chief executive Todd Greenberg told the Cricket Et Cetera podcast this week.

“There’s a variety of reasons why. There’s absolutely no doubt that someone like David and others of his ilk could earn more in the coming Australian summer if they were to ply their trade overseas, but there’s a much broader discussion and a bigger picture we are trying to solve here and that’s the discussion I am having with several of our players this week.”

CA is desperate to ensure the sport’s biggest names will make an appearance in the BBL this summer; the competition has been starved of international-quality talent after the last two seasons were plagued by Covid-19.

Earlier this year, The Daily Telegraph reported that broadcaster Channel 7 had launched Federal Court action against CA in a bid to terminate its TV rights deal.

According to the News Corp report, Seven is adamant the cricketers that featured in last summer’s BBL were not of a high enough quality for the competition to meet the standard provisions stipulated in CA’s TV rights contract.

However, the Big Bash has already secured the services of former South African captain Faf du Plessis and Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan, while Australian stars Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Swepson, Nathan Lyon and Alex Carey have also signed for their respective BBL franchises.

“These leagues we are talking about at the moment are competing with our Australian domestic summer and that is the first time we’ve faced this, it is a unique challenge,” Greenberg said.

“The second thing is that the reasons they enjoy the benefits and remunerations that they enjoy under this model is because of those that came before them.

“David and others understand … and are very aware that if they play in this competition it increases the opportunity for the next broadcast deal to be secured at a higher number which maybe doesn’t benefit them specifically, but it benefits the next generation of Australian cricketers coming through.

“This is a real test of our players demonstrating the level of partnership.

“They understand they have to get the best players to play, which includes them and the best players from overseas, which is why we’ve agreed in this one-year deal to ensure that there is an international draft and salary cap – an opportunity to bring the best overseas players in.”

Because South Africa has withdrawn from next January’s three-match ODI series against Australia, the country’s international stars will be available for the second half of the BBL.

However, multi-format paceman Mitchell Starc has already decided he won’t be signing for any franchise due to the sport’s busy calendar, and Australian teammates Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins will most likely follow suit.

“I have always enjoyed the BBL when I have played it … but my approach with all franchise cricket hasn’t changed over the last seven years,” Starc told AAP earlier this month.

“My approach to the IPL, BBL, I have looked at the Australian schedule and wanting to be as fit and well-performed for that as I can.

“And franchise cricket has taken a back seat.”

Read related topics:Brisbane

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Categories
US

Top Pakistan Taliban leader killed in Afghanistan roadside attack | Pakistan Taliban News

Abdul Wali, also known as Omar Khalid Khorasani, was allegedly behind some of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan in recent years.

A late night roadside bombing in eastern Afghanistan has struck a vehicle carrying members of the Pakistan Taliban, killing a senior leader and three other members of the group, several Pakistani officials and the group said.

Abdul Wali, also known as Omar Khalid Khorasani, was a top commander of the Pakistan Taliban and was allegedly behind some of the deadliest attacks in recent years.

Wali’s vehicle was struck on Sunday night by a roadside bomb in the Afghan province of Paktika, along the border with Pakistan, according to Pakistani officials and the TTP members who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press news agency.

The three other men who were killed included his driver and two of his close aides, they said.

Wali’s death delivers a big blow to the armed group, known formally as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and comes a week after a US drone raid in Kabul killed al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the Sunday night killing of Wali, who was on the US State Department’s most-wanted list and carried a reward of up to $3m for information on his whereabouts.

Pakistan Taliban on Monday confirmed the killing and blamed Pakistani intelligence agents for it, without offering evidence or elaborating.

A longer statement from the TTP is expected later on Monday.

Wali is thought to have been close to al-Qaeda founding leader Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri but it was not immediately known if there was any link between the August 1 drone attack and Sunday night’s bombing.

In 2014, Wali broke away from TTP and formed his own group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which carried out some of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan, including a bombing in the eastern city of Lahore in 2016 that killed at least 75 people from the minority Christian community on Easter Sunday.

The group also claimed responsibility for killing two Pakistani employees of the US Consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar in March 2016.

Khorasani later dissolved Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and rejoined the TTP in the group’s drive to reunify several alienated groups.

The US State Department described him as a former journalist and poet who studied at several religious schools in Pakistan.

There has been a fragile truth between Islamabad and the TTP for the past two months as peace talks brokered by the Afghan Taliban’s Haqqani network take place.

The TTP has launched armed attacks in Pakistan during the past 14 years, fighting for stricter enforcement of Islamic laws in the country, the release of their members who are in government custody and a reduction of the Pakistani military presence in the country’s tribal-dominated regions .

The group has killed nearly 80,000 Pakistanis in almost two decades of violence, according to official estimates.

Islamabad has demanded that the new Taliban rulers next door prevent armed groups from using Afghan territory for attacks inside Pakistan.

Before the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, Islamabad and Kabul often traded blame and accused each other of sheltering armed groups.

Pakistan says it has finished the construction of more than 93 percent of a fence along the border with Afghanistan to prevent cross-border attacks.

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Sports

A dozen years after waking up from a coma in Birmingham, Micky Yule returns to the city to win bronze in para powerlifting

There was no way Micky Yule was leaving Birmingham without a medal.

The Scottish heavyweight para powerlifter came to the Commonwealth Games with the greatest drive and purpose of all, fueled by having his daughter, Tilly, in the crowd.

As the six-year-old held a homemade sign reading “DAD”, it was all the inspiration he needed.

“I could see her in the crowd and I looked for her. I needed to see her and [think]’Listen, your daughter’s here tonight, you’re not gonna leave without a medal when she’s here’,” he explained.

A man wearing a blue and white jacket hugs his daughter.  She has long, blonde hair pulled back in Dutch braids and blue ribbons
Micky Yule says his daughter is his biggest inspiration.(Getty Images: Al Bello)

The 43-year-old was bursting with magnetic passion and emotion reflecting on his performance, tightly gripping Tilly’s hand while speaking to reporters.

“Maybe in other competitions I have missed [lifts]. But I wasn’t going to do it today. I was looking her straight in the eye, and I was bringing that emotion.

“I couldn’t just drift through this competition. I needed to be emotional. I needed it to mean more than ever. I needed to lift like it was my last-ever lift and that’s what I’ve done.”

End of a chapter

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In 2010, Yule was serving in Afghanistan with the Royal Engineers when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED).

He immediately lost his left leg, and his right leg also had to be amputated, while he was left with other significant injuries.

Afterwards, he was flown to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, still in a coma, and spent eight weeks there undergoing multiple surgeries.

In the lead-up to the Games he described his return to the city as a full-circle moment. Perhaps now, leaving with the bronze, it’s something else.

“Maybe it’s a chapter closed and maybe it’s the next one to be opened,” he said.

“The people of Birmingham have been here for me before, when I came back from Afghanistan cut in half, in a coma, and now, hopefully, they’ll witness that and [the medal is] for everyone.

“It’s for Scotland, Birmingham, the whole country.”

Spurred on by crowd and fellow Scot, Eilish McColgan

Yule didn’t just lean on his daughter to get him through the competition. He also urged the crowd to cheer him on for each of his three lifts from him.

He’d had the disappointment of missing out on a medal at his home Games in Glasgow in 2014 and thought he might never get to experience that crowd again.

But the Brummies embraced Yule as their own, and he re-paid them.

“I wanted to whip the crowd up. I wanted to get the Birmingham crowd behind me,” he said.

A man wearing black and white punches the air during a weightlifting competition
After each lift, Micky Yule turned to the crowd to try to amp them up.(Getty Images: Al Bello)

He admits he also felt some responsibility to perform, having carried the Scottish flag at the opening ceremony, alongside badminton player Kirsty Gilmour.

“You don’t just be the flag-bearer [who] comes in and competes and, maybe, same old excuses for Micky,” he said.

“You compete and you win a medal and you make sure that not only the flag-bearer is a memory but the medal’s a memory as well.”

Yule also looked to fellow Scot Eilish McColgan, who produced one of the highlights of the Games the previous night, sprinting to the line to win the women’s 10,000m to join her mum, and coach Liz, as a Commonwealth champion in the event.

“I must have watched that 20 times,” Yule said.

“She fought back, and she fought back when everybody thought she was going to quit and she didn’t quit.

“Seeing her run to her mum [when she won], I said: ‘Right, that run to her mum is my daughter. Don’t you dare quit on yourself’.”

It has been an extraordinary para sport journey for Yule, one that started in Birmingham in one of his lowest moments, and now — as he suggests he’ll likely retire — he’s finished with one of his highest.

“[Sport] gave me a drive from having surgeries and learning how to walk and being in pretty dark place. It took my mind off it,” he said.

“Elite sport will give you highs and it’ll give you lows as well, and I’ve had them [both]certainly, but this is a high end and it feels like a pretty good time to go out.”

Watson soaks up her coming of age in para sport

Australia’s Hani Watson was another athlete ecstatic to be on the medal dais, after winning bronze in the women’s heavyweight division.

“I was about to lose my banana peel up there and start crying,” she said.

Watson says it has been a tough year, juggling back-to-back competitions, while working full-time, but the bronze is the perfect pay-off.

A woman wearing yellow and white celebrates after lifting a weight
Hani Watson of Australia also captured a bronze medal in the women’s for powerlifting.(Getty Images: Al Bello)

“It can be exhausting, but it’s also very thrilling and very exciting at the same time,” she said.

“I feel old sometimes. I’m 39, about to turn 40, and this is epic. This is a great 40th birthday present to myself. It’s just nuts.”

Watson had been targeting a top-five finish and, after failing her second attempt at 125kg, she went all out on her last effort and lifted 127kg.

It was the “cherry on top” of her first Commonwealth Games experience, which has galvanized her in so many ways.

“As a kid growing up and wanting to be an elite athlete, I couldn’t do that because I had a disability and it wasn’t introduced into the right areas,” she said.

“But then it sunk in when I was at the opening ceremony to come out and to see everyone cheer you on: their energy, it was overwhelming for me.

“I’m not just a potato at home bench-pressing. This is real. This is epic.”

And Watson has a warning for the world: she’s only just getting started.

“I told you Australia was coming. And now we’re coming in 2024, we’re gonna get gold for Paris [2024 Paralympics].

Meanwhile, Australia’s Ben Wright was fourth in the men’s heavyweight division.

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Categories
US

Al Qaeda leader Al-Zawahiri dead after drone strike on home in Kabul

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed at the home of an FBI-wanted Taliban lackey who was once given a platform by the New York Times.

The jihadist, one of the planners of the Sept. 11 attacks, was taken out by a CIA-issued drone strike Sunday morning at a Kabul home belonging to senior Taliban official Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to initial reporting by Gray Lady herself.

The publication infamously published an op-ed penned by Haqqani — the leader of the insurgent Haqqani Network in Afghanistan linked to brutal and deadly attacks — to ask for a peace agreement between US and Afghan leaders in 2020.

The paper was slammed by critics and even its own reporters for giving the global terrorist a microphone to thousands of readers to spew what many saw as thinly-veiled propaganda. The Times defended its decision to publish the piece at the time.

The home that Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed at belonged to senior Taliban official Sirajuddin Haqqani.
The home that Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed at belonged to senior Taliban official Sirajuddin Haqqani.
Bilal Sarwary/Twitter

Now the Times is being accused of “stealth-editing” their reporting on the killing of al-Zawahri to remove details of the initial report specifically naming Haqqani.

“According to one American analyst, the house that was struck was owned by a top aide to Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior official in the Taliban government whom American officials say is close to senior Qaeda figures,” the Times wrote in his initial reporting.

However, that paper axed that paragraph without an editor’s note and later replaced it with language that failed to name Haqqani specifically, as first pointed out by Pluribus editor Jeryl Bier.

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed at the home of an FBI-wanted Taliban lackey who was once given a platform by the New York Times.
The New York Times published an op-ed written by Sirajuddin Haqqani regarding a peace agreement between Afghan and the US.
Universal Images Group via Getty

“After the strike, members of the Haqqani network, a terrorist group that is part of the Taliban government, tried to conceal that Mr. Zawahri had been at the house and restrict access to the site, according to a senior administration official. But the official said the United States had multiple intelligence threads confirming that Mr. Zawahri was killed in the strike,” the Times wrote in the updated story.

Critics of the newspaper suggested the publication removed the initial paragraph linking Haqqani’s role in protecting al-Zawahri due to the backlash it received for publishing the Taliban leader’s op-ed.

Critics of the New York Times suggested the newspaper remove Haqqani's initial paragraph linking his role in protecting al-Zawahri.
Critics of the New York Times suggested the newspaper remove Haqqani’s initial paragraph linking his role in protecting al-Zawahri.
FBI

However, a Times spokesperson denied such a narrative in a statement to Fox News.

“We regularly edit web stories—especially breaking news stories—to refine the story, add new information, additional context or analysis,” the spokesperson told Fox.

In this case, we updated a complex piece of breaking international news with additional detail from open press briefings. There is absolutely no connection between the editing of this news item and any previous publication by Times Opinion.”

Ayman al-Zawahiri was one of the planners of the Sept.  11 attacks.
Ayman al-Zawahiri was one of the planners of the Sept. 11 attacks.
FBI

Haqqani, deputy leader of the Taliban, is on the FBI’s most wanted list for his alleged involvement in a January 2008 attack on a Kabul hotel that killed six people, including an American citizen. He is also believed to have coordinated and participated in cross-border attacks against the United States and coalition forces in Afghanistan, according to the agency.

The FBI is offering up to a whopping $10 million for information leading directly to his arrest.

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Categories
Australia

Ryan Butta says Afghan cameleers were ignored by Henry Lawson, and our national story is the poorer for it

It’s a bold move to pick a bone with one of Australia’s best-known and most celebrated writers, but Ryan Butta doesn’t shy away from it.

The writing of Henry Lawson, he says, “gave a sense of national identity … which still permeates how white Australians thinks about [themselves]”.

However, there are some glaring omissions in that writing, argues Butta, a NSW-based author and editor.

In 1892, when Lawson was reporting on his time in Bourke, in north-western New South Wales, he “not only ignored the Indigenous people, but [also] the Afghans”, Butta says.

Yellowing black and white photo of a camel with saddle and man holding its reigns wearing turban and squinting into the sun.
Cameleer Bejah Dervish leaves on an expedition from Mullewa, WA, in 1896. Camels carried heavy loads over long distances with little need of water.(Image: State Library of South Australia)

Butta spent several years researching this history for his book, The Battle of Abdul Wade.

Wade was a young Afghan entrepreneur who first brought his camel trains to the outback in the 1890s.

He was revered by many in and around Bourke for his business nous and his generosity.

Among other things, Wade offered hundreds of his camels to Australia’s war effort at the outbreak of World War I.

However, he was attacked by other sections of the community, who saw him as a threat to their business interests, and to white Australia.

Black and white grainy photo of Henry Lawson with thick mustache and round cap, and jacket, vest and tie, standing.
Henry Lawson, pictured in 1911, was sent to Bourke on assignment for The Bulletin newspaper, and spent about nine months there,(Supplied: Trove)

Wade was not alone in dividing opinions. Newspapers from the time heave with conflicted community sentiment about early camels.

For example, after flooding in 1890, the Cunnamulla Argus reported that: “When provisions had nearly run out and not even the lightest vehicle could stir on any highways leading to us, the despised Afghan came with his camels through wastes of water and saved us from semi-starvation.”

An 1892 editorial in the Bulletin put forward another view, saying “the imported Asiatic … is another cheap labor curse in a land where such curses are already much too plentiful”.

Butta believes it would have been impossible at that time to have missed the Afghans’ “ubiquity” in social, political and business life.

Yet, he says, Lawson wrote about none of it.

“If you know Bourke, you know Australia,” Lawson told a friend in a 1902 letter.

But which version of Australia?

Black and white image of one man holding camel's lead while another man mounts the camel.
In 1916, Abdul Wade donated camels to the Australian war effort. Here, men from the Imperial Camel Corp, deployed to fight in World War I, train to ride them.(Supplied)

How camels came to Australia

There’s some confusion about exactly when the first camels and their handlers arrived in Australia, and for what purpose.

We do know that “Harry” was the first camel to arrive in Australia after landing in Port Adelaide on 12 October, 1840. The animal was shipped from Tenerife, Spain, by the Phillips brothers, Henry Weston and George.

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