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Afghanistan issued more than 203,000 visas to foreign nationals over the past year as the Taliban administration sought to expand diplomatic and economic engagement with neighboring states and major regional and international powers.

Government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid announced the figure at a press conference in Kabul while outlining Afghanistan’s foreign policy and diplomatic developments over the past year.

According to the Afghan government’s website, Mujahid said Kabul had pursued what he described as a ‘balanced and economy-centric foreign policy,’ with a particular focus on strengthening economic partnerships and expanding relations with countries in the region.

He cited the establishment of diplomatic and consular relations with Kuwait, the elevation of diplomatic ties with Pakistan to the ambassadorial level and Afghanistan’s formal inclusion in the Moscow Format as among the major foreign-policy developments during the period.

Mujahid also highlighted Russia’s decision to formally recognize the Afghan government in July 2025, describing it as a significant development in Afghanistan’s diplomatic relations.

On consular services, Mujahid said Afghan authorities issued 203,693 visas to foreign nationals during the past year. At the same time, 313,796 passports were issued to Afghan citizens living abroad.

Afghan authorities also issued 64,541 road passes during the period, while passport services remained available through 28 Afghan diplomatic and consular missions abroad.

Mujahid said Afghanistan had also increased high-level diplomatic engagement, with senior officials from various state institutions making 93 visits to regional and other countries during the year.

According to the spokesperson, the visits were aimed at strengthening political relations, expanding commercial cooperation and developing Afghanistan’s economic partnerships with other countries.

The figures come as Kabul continues efforts to broaden its international engagement despite the Taliban administration remaining diplomatically isolated in much of the international community.

While Russia became the first country to formally recognize the Taliban government in July 2025, most countries have stopped short of extending formal recognition, while maintaining varying degrees of diplomatic, economic and humanitarian engagement with Kabul.

Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley are set to share the screen again, nearly a decade after The Vampire Diaries came to an end.

The actors, who became television favorites as Elena Gilbert and Stefan Salvatore in the hit supernatural drama, are reuniting for Hulu’s upcoming series You Deserve to Know. The project is an adaptation of Aggie Blum Thompson’s 2025 novel of the same name.

This time, however, Dobrev and Wesley will leave Mystic Falls behind. They will portray Gwen and Scott, respectively, in the new mystery drama. The two are also set to serve as executive producers on the series.

You Deserve to Know centers on three couples living in a suburban neighborhood whose seemingly close relationships begin to unravel after a murder. Secrets emerge, and suspicion falls on those who appear to know one another best.

The reunion marks a major change of pace for the former Vampire Diaries co-stars. Instead of supernatural romance, their new project will explore secrets, relationships and a murder mystery.

The series is being written by Brian Tanen, with Alex Cooper’s Unwell Productions and Kapital Entertainment among the production companies involved. Dobrev and Wesley are currently the only announced cast members.

For fans of The Vampire Diaries, the reunion carries plenty of nostalgia. Dobrev and Wesley appeared together throughout the series’ run, with their characters’ relationship becoming one of the show’s most memorable storylines.

Wesley has previously acknowledged that the new project will have a different dynamic from The Vampire Diaries. He said the pair are not trying to recreate the relationship between Stefan and Elena, instead approaching their new characters as something entirely separate.

The original series ended in 2017 after eight seasons, but its cast continues to attract attention from longtime viewers. Dobrev and Wesley’s return to the screen together now gives those fans a chance to see the actors in a completely different story.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed that Syria attempted to construct a nuclear reactor at a site in the eastern province of Deir Az Zor under ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

In a confidential report circulated to member states and seen by news agencies on Tuesday, the UN nuclear watchdog said its inspectors visited several sites in Syria in August and carried out verification activities.

Based on observations at the Deir Az Zor site, the IAEA said it had confirmed that ‘the cooling infrastructure which has now been uncovered is consistent with that of a nuclear reactor.’

The agency said it would continue monitoring activities at the site as excavation work progresses.

Syria had previously been suspected of operating an undeclared nuclear programme under al-Assad, including a reactor reportedly constructed with North Korean assistance at Deir Az Zor.

The facility became publicly known after Israel carried out an air strike against the site in 2007, destroying the suspected reactor. Syria subsequently levelled the site and did not provide full answers to the IAEA regarding the facility and the wider questions surrounding its nuclear activities.

The IAEA has for years sought clarification from Damascus over the nature and purpose of the Deir Az Zor facility as part of its investigation into Syria’s undeclared nuclear activities.

Following al-Assad’s removal from power in December 2024, Syria’s new authorities agreed to allow IAEA inspectors access to suspected former nuclear sites, opening the way for renewed verification efforts.

The latest findings could provide further evidence for the IAEA’s long-running assessment of Syria’s nuclear activities under the previous government.

Israel, meanwhile, is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, although it maintains a policy of nuclear ambiguity and neither confirms nor denies having an atomic arsenal. It is generally regarded as the only state in the Middle East believed to possess nuclear weapons.

New York City plans to introduce a ban on the use of artificial intelligence by students in public schools through the eighth grade. The new rules are expected to be announced today and will take effect next week.

The measure is part of a major reform of technology use in the largest public school system in the United States, which serves around 900,000 students each year. Under the new policy, younger students will also face restrictions on the use of personal technology in classrooms. Children will not be allowed to use laptops or tablets during lessons until the third grade, when they are usually around nine or ten years old.

The changes are being closely watched by other school districts and states across the US, as many educators are still trying to determine how much technology should be used in classrooms.

Teachers and parents have raised concerns about AI-powered educational software, arguing that excessive reliance on such tools could affect children’s mental development and reduce their ability to think independently. Some educators are particularly worried that students may begin using AI to solve problems instead of developing their own reasoning and critical-thinking skills.

Under the new rules, students will be allowed to use AI only in high school, which begins in the ninth grade in the American education system. Even then, its use will be restricted to specific educational purposes, including learning about AI itself.

AI-powered chatbots designed to provide psychological or emotional support will also be prohibited in schools. Teachers, however, will still be allowed to use AI for certain administrative tasks, such as preparing lesson materials or drafting messages. They will not be allowed to use AI to grade or evaluate students’ assignments.

The city’s Department of Education also recommends limiting screen time during lessons to about 45 minutes for middle school students in grades 6-8 and 30 minutes for elementary school students. However, one major challenge remains: it is difficult to control how students use AI outside the classroom, especially on their personal smartphones and computers.

The new policy is based on an earlier proposal published in March that introduced a ‘traffic light’ system for AI use. Under that approach, different activities were classified as green, yellow, or red depending on whether AI was considered appropriate.

Interestingly, New York City’s approach to AI has already changed once. In 2023, the school system banned students from using ChatGPT, but the restriction was lifted less than a year later. The latest rules suggest that officials are now trying to take a more structured approach rather than simply banning technology altogether.

The debate reflects a much bigger question facing schools around the world: should children learn to work without AI first, or should they learn how to use it responsibly from an early age? New York’s experiment could provide an important answer as education systems try to adapt to the rapid development of artificial intelligence.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly pressured the Palestinian Authority to remove references to ‘Palestine’ from school curricula and replace them with the biblical term ‘Samaria,’ according to former UK Ambassador to the United Nations Jeremy Greenstock.

Speaking to Middle East Eye, Greenstock said Blair, who has been involved with US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, traveled to Ramallah and conveyed the demand to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Greenstock said a ministerial-level source told him that Blair presented the removal of the term ‘Palestine’ from Palestinian textbooks as a condition for the Board of Peace to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a viable negotiating partner.

According to Greenstock, Abbas rejected the demand outright, saying he would not agree to such a change.

Greenstock criticized the reported request, saying it raised questions about the principles guiding the Board of Peace.

The claim has been disputed by Blair’s Institute for Global Change, which denied that such a request was made.

The reported episode comes amid wider disputes over how Palestinian history, identity and terminology are represented in educational and cultural institutions. Palestinian and Israeli authorities have repeatedly clashed over the portrayal of history and national identity in textbooks, museums and public institutions.

The controversy also comes as international efforts surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continue to focus on the future political status of the Palestinian territories and the possibility of renewed negotiations.

A federal court in Austin, Texas, has sentenced Armenian citizen Kamo Kirakosyan to two years and two months in prison for evading US sanctions against Russia and supplying equipment from the United States to a Russian company.

According to court documents, Kirakosyan acted as an intermediary between February 2022 and August 2024, purchasing components used in the production of US-made goods, including semiconductors, and reselling them to Russia.

Kirakosyan allegedly presented himself to US companies as a buyer operating in Armenia while concealing the ultimate recipients of the goods. Court documents said he worked with the Russian company.

He was arrested in Germany in 2024 and extradited to the United States in August 2025.

The FBI San Antonio Counterintelligence Task Force, comprised of the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and other partners, led the investigation. The FBI’s Legal Attaché office in Berlin provided significant assistance. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs also played a key role in securing Kirakosyan’s extradition to the United States.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Roomberg and Keith Henneke prosecuted the case with assistance from the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

US authorities said the case marks the first conviction of an Armenian citizen in the United States for evading sanctions against Russia in the past four years.

The US Army has signed its first contract for the production of a high-energy laser weapon system designed to destroy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The agreement was reached with AeroVironment (AV) as part of the development program for the High Energy Laser (E-HEL) system, a powerful continuous-wave combat laser.

US Army Vice Chief of Staff General Christopher LaNeve said the directed-energy program would provide military units with a new capability to counter drone threats.

The Army stated that the E-HEL system could destroy UAVs at a lower cost compared with traditional missile-based defenses. Powered by electricity, the system generates a high-energy laser beam, allowing operators to engage targets with a significantly lower cost per shot.

Developed using a modular open-systems-approach design consisting of 11 major interfaces, E-HEL is not locked into a single platform or vehicle. The system is designed for operational flexibility, capable of deployment from fixed bases, semi-fixed tactical sites, and mobile combat vehicles, ensuring broad applicability across the operational spectrum. This approach will enable onboarding of cutting-edge capabilities and continuous technology upgrades as they mature to address emerging Army requirements.

The issue of the Russian 102nd Military Base in Armenia was not discussed during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bishkek, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

“There were no discussions about the military base. We have never raised this issue during this period. It is not the case that we consider the presence of the 102nd Military Base in Armenia a vital necessity,” Pashinyan noted during a briefing with journalists.

According to him, Armenia would not object if Russia decided to withdraw the base from the country.

“If Russia decides to withdraw the base from Armenia, we will not object. If they express a desire to remain, we are also ready to discuss that. But we have never raised this issue,” Pashinyan added.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in turn, said that Russia would leave Armenia “as early as tomorrow” if Yerevan decides that the military infrastructure is no longer needed.

“We are not going to impose anything on anyone. If the Armenian people want there to be some kind of Russian military presence nearby, we will stay, work and cooperate,” Putin emphasized at a press conference in Bishkek.

The 102nd Russian Military Base has been stationed in Gyumri, northern Armenia, since 1995.

Azerbaijan’s AzerEnerji OJSC and China’s Universal Energy have discussed opportunities for cooperation in the energy sector.

A meeting was held between Baba Rzayev, Chairman of the AzerEnerji Board, and Yi Nan, CEO of Universal Energy.

The talks focused on cooperation in renewable energy, the activities of Chinese energy companies in Azerbaijan, and prospects for further partnership.

The sides also exchanged views on issues of mutual interest in the energy sector and explored opportunities to expand cooperation.

Azerbaijan and China are steadily expanding cooperation in the energy sector, with renewable power, electricity infrastructure and green energy corridors becoming increasingly important areas of the partnership.