Taliban names all-male 33-member interim government in Afghanistan.

Muhammad Hassan Akhund, a close aide to the Taliban founder Mullah Omar, has been named as Afghanistan’s prime minister. [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [View in your browser]( [Top of The World]( --------------------------------------------------------------- What The World is following Taliban names all-male 33-member interim government in Afghanistan [In this Aug. 25, 1999 file photo, Mullah Hasan Akhund, right, then Afghanistan's Foreign Minister is received by then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in Islamabad.] Credit: B.K. Bangash/AP File Afghanistan The Taliban has [announced a 33-member interim government]( for Afghanistan, weeks after taking control of the country. The appointments, all-male veterans from previous Taliban rule and the 20-year battle against the US-led coalition, were drawn from Afghanistan’s dominant Pashtun ethnic group. Muhammad Hassan Akhund, a close aide to the Taliban founder Mullah Omar, has been named as Afghanistan’s prime minister. Sirajuddin Haqqani, who headed the infamous Haqqani network blamed for deadly attacks in the country, and who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list, was named as interior minister. The US State Department [said that the US has concerns]( over the background of some individuals and that the Biden administration would "continue to hold the Taliban to their commitments" to allow foreign nationals and Afghans with travel documents to leave the country. France The trial of 20 men accused in the 2015 attacks in Paris [has started in a courtroom]( in the French capital and is expected to last for nine months. The ISIS attack, in which nine gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the Bataclan concert hall, the Stade de France football stadium and several restaurants, left 130 people dead and hundreds injured in the deadliest attack on French soil since World War II. Salah Abdeslam, [the sole survivor of the ISIS cell](, and whose brother was a suicide bomber that night, is the key defendant. Nineteen other suspects, including six who will be tried in absentia and five who are presumed dead, are accused of helping provide guns and vehicles to the group. Mexico Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled criminal penalties for terminating pregnancies [as unconstitutional](. The landmark, unanimous ruling, annulled provisions of a law from the state of Coahuila — which borders Texas — that made abortion a criminal act and left women vulnerable to being prosecuted for getting the procedure. In Mexico, abortion is allowed in cases of rape or when the mother's life is in danger, but it is severely restricted in all but four of the country's states. The Supreme Court decision could pave the way for the decriminalization of abortions across the country. --------------------------------------------------------------- From The World [Award-winning photograph illustrates the US-Mexico border wall threat to biodiversity]( ["Blocked" by Alejandro Prieto was named grand prize winner of the Bird Photographer of the Year competition 2021.]( Credit: Alejandro Prieto Mexican photographer Alejandro Prieto's image of a roadrunner bird, staring up at the enormous US-Mexico border wall, was just named the grand prize winner in the [Bird Photographer of the Year competition](. His captivating photograph highlights the threat to the delicate biodiversity and critical animal migratory patterns that the wall poses in the US-Mexico border region. [This refugee’s academic success in the US comes with plenty of complications — and joy]( [Rumbila Abdullahi and her husband, Ibrahim Abdi, hold their newborn son, Nabeel, outside their home in Springfield, Massachusetts.]( Credit: Ben James/The World Rumbila Abdullahi was born in a refugee camp in Kenya. Today, she’s on her way to becoming a doctor. In many ways, [she was an outlier](, and her school journey came with immense pressure to succeed. --------------------------------------------------------------- Seeing the news Saturday marks two decades since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan that led to the fall of the Taliban. The group is now in power once again. Take a look at some powerful images of life in the war-torn country over the past 20 years: [Two decades of war and daily life in Afghanistan]( 📸 [Newly trained female officers from the Afghan National Army sit in front seats as a new batch of officers attend their graduation ceremony at National Army's training center in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 23, 2010.] Credit: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP/File photo --------------------------------------------------------------- In case you missed it from The World --------------------------------------------------------------- - [Rise in authoritarianism during the pandemic]( - [Wikipedia’s efforts to get its 300 language versions on the same page]( - [Downstream drought stems from controversial Euphrates dams]( - [Threat assessment today]( - [Semiconductor chaos in Malaysia causing global ripples]( - [Afghan crisis alert app still operational]( - [El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as official currency]( - [Extreme weather pressuring Brazil’s coffee export]( - [Taliban unveil new caretaker government]( Don't forget to subscribe to The World's Latest Edition podcast using your favorite podcast player: [RadioPublic](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Stitcher](, [Soundcloud](, [RSS]( [The World logo]( [The World on Facebook]( [The World's Twitter account]( [Donate]( | [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [Edit your subscription]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [View in your browser]( Top of the World is written weekday mornings by the team at [The World](. 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