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New Taliban decree bans women from medical training: 'devastating decision'

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New Taliban decree bans women from medical training: 'devastating decision'

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The Taliban has reportedly banned women in Afghanistan from attending nursing and midwifery classes in yet another blow to women’s rights since the Taliban takeover. The latest directive closes one of the last remaining avenues women had to get an education.

“This devastating decision has crushed the hopes of hundreds of women who aspired to pursue an education and serve their communities,” Manizha Bakhtari, ambassador and permanent representative of Afghanistan in Austria, told Fox News Digital.

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Afghan nurses hold a newborn boy after delivery in the maternity ward of a hospital as he was born on the auspicious “12.12.12” date in Mazar-i-Sharif on Dec. 12, 2012.

Human Rights Watch noted that the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, issued the decree and it was communicated by the Taliban’s Ministry of Public Health during a meeting with private medical institutions.

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The latest decree follows earlier bans from the Taliban on secondary education for girls and universities for women, extinguishing the last glimmer of hope for Afghanistan’s young women. 

Ambassador Bakhtari, who is also Afghanistan’s representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said the ban is not only a gross violation of human rights, but is also a grave setback for Afghanistan’s development. 

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“Preventing women from participating in essential professions will lead to higher maternal and neonatal mortality rates, undermining the country’s health system and progress,” the ambassador said.

Taliban security personnel stand guard as an Afghan burqa-clad woman walks along a street at a market in the Baharak district of Badakhshan province on Feb. 26, 2024. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

Women who were attending courses to study nursing and midwifery were ordered not to attend classes any longer. Nursing and midwifery provided women with one of the last opportunities to have a profession that was exempt from bans the Taliban implemented on women’s employment after taking power in 2021. 

U.N. Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett said in a post on X that the “inexplicable and unjustifiable” announcement will have a devastating impact on the entire population if implemented and must be reversed.

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Access to health care and a lack of adequate services has left Afghanistan’s population vulnerable to disease and even routine illnesses that could be treated with basic medical services. Preventing women from studying at medical institutions harms Afghanistan’s entire population, which is desperately in need of health care workers.

Rural areas will be the hardest hit by the Taliban’s latest ban, where cultural norms prevent male doctors from treating female patients. 

A girl reads a book in her classroom on the first day of the new school year, in Kabul, Saturday, March 25, 2023. Afghanistan’s schools open Wednesday for the new educational year, while thousands of schoolgirls remain barred from attending classes for the third year as the Taliban banned girls from school beyond sixth grade. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

Afghanistan has one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world and is one of the most dangerous places on Earth to give birth. According to the World Bank, 620 women die per 100,000 live births due to pregnancy-related causes. The World Health Organization estimated in 2020 that 24 women die every day during childbirth or pregnancy.

Girls walk to their school along a road in Gardez, Paktia province on Sept. 8, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)

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The ban on medical training for women will likely compound Afghanistan’s growing humanitarian crisis that has only worsened since the Taliban came to power and the international community dramatically reduced its financial support over objections to the Taliban’s oppressive policies toward women.

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More than 23 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023, according to the U.N. The world body also reported that 4 million Afghans were malnourished, including 3.2 million children under the age of 5.

Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where women and girls are banned from secondary and higher education as well as many sectors of the economy and government, according to Human Rights Watch. 

The Taliban have reneged on all of their promises they made following their takeover of Kabul to respect the rights of women. In September 2021, shortly after overthrowing the U.S.-backed Afghan Republic, the Taliban barred young girls from attending secondary school after the sixth grade and then banned women from attending higher education in December 2022.

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The U.N. and international nongovernmental organizations have urged the Taliban to repeal the directive as well as their other repressive policies toward women.

World

Family demands answers in death of young Black man in Mississippi

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Family demands answers in death of young Black man in Mississippi
A mother on Friday pleaded for anyone to come forward with information about what happened to her son, a young Black man whose body was found on an island off the coast ​of Mississippi after he traveled there over the Fourth of July weekend with three white friends.
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Gunfire shatters Toronto Latin street festival, leaving at least 2 dead and multiple wounded

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Gunfire shatters Toronto Latin street festival, leaving at least 2 dead and multiple wounded

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The Toronto Police Service is investigating after gunfire broke out Saturday night at a large Latin street festival in Midtown Toronto, leaving at least two people dead and four others wounded.

Police said they received reports of a shooting at St. Clair Avenue West and Arlington Avenue at 8:12 p.m. local time and discovered an active shooter situation.

First responders found six people suffering from gunshot wounds, officials said. Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police respond to an active shooter at the Salsa on St. Clair event in Toronto, Saturday, July 11, 2026. (Keito Newman/The Canadian Press via AP)

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It is unclear what led to the shooting, and authorities said suspect(s) are still “outstanding.” No arrests have been made as of Saturday evening, police said. 

Toronto Police Deputy Chief Frank Barredo said during a news conference there seemed to be an “exchange of gunfire” between two individuals targeting each other.

“This is a very chaotic scene,” he said. “I think we had something in the neighborhood of 13,000 people participating in this festival.”

Police initially described the incident as an active shooter situation before later determining that was not the case.

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Police officers stand guard at the site of a deadly shooting at a salsa-themed street festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 11, 2026. (REUTERS/Cole Burston)

“There was some concern of an active shooter. That turned out not to be the case,” Barredo said.

Barredo said authorities were managing three separate crime scenes connected to the shooting. Two firearms have been recovered, he added.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “horrified” by the shooting.

“My prayers are with the families grieving their loved ones, those who are in critical condition, and everyone who has been affected by this horrific event,” he said in a statement.

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“My thanks to the police officers and other first responders whose courage and fast action prevented further tragedy,” he continued. “Police have my full support as they work to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

Paramedics respond to an active shooter at the Salsa on St. Clair event in Toronto, Saturday.  (Keito Newman/The Canadian Press via AP)

FOUR DEAD AND 29 SHOT IN CHICAGO WEEKEND VIOLENCE AS LEADERS TOUT CRIME PROGRESS

Following the shooting, the Toronto Transit Commission suspended train stops at the nearby St. Clair West station on Line 1 Yonge-University due to what officials described as a “security incident.”

Regular transit service has since resumed.

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Authorities urged the public to avoid the area and follow all directives from police at the scene.

The TD Salsa on St. Clair Festival, Toronto’s biggest Latin culture celebration, was celebrating its 22nd annual event in Toronto’s Hillcrest Village.

Emergency Task Force vehicles and police officers are seen on the site of a shooting in Toronto on Saturday. (Jorge UZON / AFP via Getty Images)

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The Toronto Police Service told Fox News Digital no further information is available.

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This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, architect of modern Qatar

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Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, architect of modern Qatar

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former emir of Qatar who transformed the small Gulf state into one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential nations through its vast natural gas wealth and an ambitious programme of political, economic and social reforms, has died. He was 74.

A charismatic figure with a friendly demeanor, the father Emir assumed the reins of power in 1995. Regarded as the architect of modern Qatar, he embarked on forging development and reform plans and education programs.

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During his reign, Qatar’s GDP increased more than twenty-fourfold, while production from the North Field turned the country into the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas by 2006. After four years, the small nation’s LNG production capacity reached 77 million tons per annum, according to government’s figure.

His tenure also saw the establishment of the Qatar Foundation, the launch of Al Jazeera News Channel in 1996, the promulgation of Qatar’s first permanent constitution in 2004 and the introduction of municipal elections in which women were granted the right to vote and stand as candidates. Under his leadership, the Gulf nation also adopted the Qatar National Vision 2030 and secured the right to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

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Born in Doha in January 1952, Sheikh Hamad graduated from the British Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst before becoming commander of Qatar’s armed forces. He became heir apparent and defence minister in 1977, assumed power as emir on June 27, 1995, and handed over leadership to his son, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on June 25, 2013.

“The future lies ahead of you, the children of this homeland, as you usher into a new era where young leadership hoists the banner,” Sheikh Hamad said as he announced his abdication and the carefully crafted transition to his son, the British-educated crown prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who was then 33.

The peaceful, voluntary transfer of power was rare in a region where such change usually results from death or overthrow.

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