Texas governor has sent another busload of migrants to Kamala Harris's home in Washington DC. As per reports, 50 migrants have arrived including a month-old-baby.

Texas sends another busload of migrants to Kamala Harris's home

There is an improvement in US President Joe Biden's approval ratings from the lowest point this summer but citizens remain concerned about the state of the economy and how the president is dealing with the economic situation.

Joe Biden's approval ratings improve 2 months before mid-term polls

A federal judge has named Raymond Dearie, a senior US district judge as an independent arbiter to vet records seized by the FBI from Donald Trump’s Florida estate Mar-A-Lago in an ongoing criminal investigation.

Mar-A-Lago probe: US judge appoints special master to review seized Trump files

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US, created in 1947, has completed 75 years, with several notable achievements and some terrible failures that earned it bouquets of ridicule.&nbsp;

The agency’s emblem sets out the paradigms it aims to follow: the eagle representing alertness and strength, and the 16-point compass star for the convergence of intelligence data from around the world, but quite a few of its bloopers exposed how it floundered in abiding with the precepts. &nbsp;

The agency prospered during the Cold War so much that its actions often proved to be scandalous as it appropriated unbridled power and had no accountability due to the nature of its operations. Some of its blunders would leave readers bemused today for the sheer idiosyncrasies and frivolity of ideas, and had even then resulted in raucous criticism.&nbsp;

CIA has worked in enabling regime changes, assassinations and coups, from Latin America to Africa to the Middle East to Southeast Asia.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky had said, “It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently,” and the Central ‘Intelligence’ Agency seems to have taken it rather too seriously.

THE FIDEL CASTRO FIXATION&nbsp;

The most ridiculous of all CIA operations turned out to be the bizarre methods it repeatedly kept devising to snuff out the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, his brother Raul and Ernesto Che Guevara.&nbsp;

It is said that the CIA made 638 attempts to kill Castro, but failed every time and its ludicrous strategies became a laughing point. So much so that even Castro cracked a joke once on being offered a Galápagos turtle as a present and politely declined it on learning that it was likely to live only 100 years. “That’s the problem with pets. You get attached to them and then they die on you,” he famously said.&nbsp;

Its outlandish plots to kill Castro included exploding cigars, poisoned pens and booby-trapped seashells among others.&nbsp;

The assassination attempts, from 1959 to 2001, transcended eight presidencies, starting from the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration to Bill Clinton’s, but CIA’s ‘try and try, until you succeed’ dictum never paid off. &nbsp;

A 1967 report revealed that since Castro was fond of cigars, CIA came up with the idea of lacing one with explosives so that it would blow his face off after a few puffs, and then another of spiking it with botulinum, a toxin that attacks nerves, causes respiratory distress, muscle paralysis and leads to death. It recruited a double agent, gave him a box of Castro’s favourite cigars laced with the toxin, but it never worked, as it was conjectured that he had a tobacco-taster who took the first few drags to ensure his safety. And then Castro quit smoking!&nbsp;

Castro, also a keen scuba diver, loved to pick colourful seashells, which gave CIA brains the idea to place brightly painted seashells rigged with explosives at his favourite diving spots and wait for him to pick the molluscs and be doomed with a boom underwater. Even this didn’t work out, so then they devised a custom-made diving-suit infected with a deadly fungus. &nbsp;

When the indefatigable CIA learnt that Castro was an ice cream lover, it hatched a plan to place poison pills in his cone through a worker at his pet joint. The vial containing the poison was hidden in the freezer, but at the crucial moment, it could not be dislodged — it was frozen stuck!&nbsp;

The CIA roped in Castro’s former lover as a hitwoman and gave her poison pills, which she hid in her cold-cream jar, but they melted as did the chances of forcing them into Castro’s mouth while he slept.&nbsp;

Castro noticed her unusual behaviour and questioned her, and she admitted to the bid on his life. He allegedly handed her his pistol to finish the job, but she could not and they ended up making love —another CIA plot ending on a gratifying note for its bête noire.&nbsp;

Another CIA conspiracy was to use a superfine poisoned hypodermic needle concealed in a pen and the victim would not even notice the prick, but the Cuban official roped in for the job did not think much of the device and said the CIA should come up with something more sophisticated.&nbsp;

At times it seemed the CIA was more interested in bumping off the Cuban leader than protecting their own: the man given the pen-syringe was dispatched on his ‘mission’ on Nov. 22, 1963, the very day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. &nbsp;

Even American underworld figures from the mafia – still smarting at being kicked out of Cuba by Castro – were approached to carry out a hit. One would-be sniper was caught by security men at the University of Havana and a grenade attack at a baseball game was also foiled. &nbsp;

In 2000, about 90kg of high explosives were placed under the podium where Castro was due to speak during his visit to Panama, but his personal security team found it during checking.&nbsp;

The CIA also came up with non-fatal plans to discredit Castro by spraying an LSD aerosol near him during a broadcast which would lead to national humiliation as he freaked out on air. Then it planned to dust Castro’s shoes with thallium salts which would make his beard fall out while delivering a speech abroad. The trip was cancelled, and even this opportunity was lost.&nbsp;

The infamous Bay of Pigs invasion, in which the CIA trained, armed and funded 1400 exiled Cubans to attack Castro did not last days and John F Kennedy had to stop all air support and concede the embarrassing loss.&nbsp;

Castro, who is said to have used doubles and moved around the country constantly, survived all the assassination attempts, without even getting a scratch, and died of natural causes in 2016, at the ripe age of 90, finally giving respite to CIA.&nbsp;

OPERATION SHAKTI

Yet another colossal failure was on May 11, 1998, when under Operation Shakti, India detonated five underground atomic bombs and CIA was caught sleeping and stunned by how it was outsmarted by a third world nation. &nbsp;

India walked into the nuclear club with swag and the alert ‘eagle’ didn’t have a clue despite the billion-dollar satellites up in sky keeping a watch and much-bragged-about human intelligence.&nbsp; 
Relying on plain common sense, the Indian scientists only worked during the nights to evade the satellite detections, used camouflage to perfection, besides code words like White House for underground shafts. &nbsp;

"It is apparent that the Indians went to some lengths to conceal their activities and intentions," the ruffled CIA said later to explain the failure. &nbsp;

MK-ULTRA PROGRAMME: CIA'S QUEST FOR MIND CONTROL &nbsp;

During early Cold War, the CIA came to conclusion that Communists had discovered a drug or technique that allowed them to control human minds, and it began its own secret programme, called MK-ULTRA, the details of which read like a dystopian science fiction novel as it searched for mind control drugs and ways.&nbsp;

It drugged US and Canadian citizens with LSD and other psychoactive chemicals without their consent and subjected some to psychological torture ranging from electroshock to high doses of LSD.&nbsp; 
The illegal, unethical and dangerous programme ran from 1953 to 1964 and in 1973 CIA director ordered all related files to be destroyed.&nbsp;

9/11 TERROR ATTACK

The 9/11 attack is deemed the biggest failure of US intel agencies. The CIA failed to add to the ‘watch list’ two suspected al-Qaeda militants Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar it had been tracking since they attended a terrorist meeting in Malaysia on January 5, 2000. The error enabled them to enter US under their real names, rent apartment under real names, obtain driver’s licences, open bank accounts, purchase a car, and take flight lessons at a local school.&nbsp;

The commission appointed to probe the September 11 attacks revealed several glaring oversights and lapses in its report, including by the CIA.&nbsp;

WIKILEAKS VAULT 7&nbsp;

The CIA’s hacking team had started making cutting-edge cyber weapons to steal secrets from foreign governments but failed to monitor who had access to its information.&nbsp;

Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who stole data from the Pentagon and State Department, and the former contractor Edward Snowden, who took information from the National Security Agency, exposed the secrets. &nbsp;

In March 2017, WikiLeaks published some of the CIA’s most valuable hacking tools, which it called Vault 7, revealing how the agency could break into foreign computer networks, or activate the camera or microphone on devices to eavesdrop on adversaries.&nbsp;

The rattled CIA then plotted to kill or kidnap WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, but has not succeeded so far.&nbsp;

POLITICISATION OF INTELLIGENCE&nbsp;

The information of a stock of “weapons of mass destruction” in the possession of Saddam Hussein’s regime collected by CIA was used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq. The intel inputs were subsequently found baseless and critics condemned it as ‘politicisation’ of intelligence. &nbsp;

OTHER BLOOPERS

In 1990, US intel agencies were aware that Saddam Hussein was making unusual movements of armoured forces in his country, but didn't know and did nothing till he invaded Kuwait. &nbsp;

In 2003, CIA kidnapped Khaled El-Masri, a German and Lebanese citizen, mistaking him for a dreaded terrorist with the same name. He was flown to Afghanistan, where he was routinely interrogated, beaten, strip-searched, sodomised, and subjected to other cruel forms of inhumane treatment and torture. It took the smart detectives of the premier agency full four months to draw the conclusion that they had in fact picked up the wrong man. The CIA finally admitted his arrest was a mistake and released him. So much luck to the agency for bringing smiles on our faces, even as we wish it continues its stupendous endeavours, aborts terror attacks in time and saves lives as it has been scrupulously doing over the years.

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe>

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us <a href="https://www.wionews.com/content-contribution-registration-form">here</a>.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US, created in 1947, has completed 75 years, with several notable achievements and some terrible failures that earned it bouquets of ridicule.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US, created in 1947, has completed 75 years, with several notable achievements and some terrible failures that earned it bouquets of ridicule. The agency’s emblem sets out the paradigms it aims to follow: the eagle representing alertness and strength, and the 16-point compass star for the convergence of intelligence data from around the world, but quite a few of its bloopers exposed how it floundered in abiding with the precepts. The agency prospered during the Cold War so much that its actions often proved to be scandalous as it appropriated unbridled power and had no accountability due to the nature of its operations. Some of its blunders would leave readers bemused today for the sheer idiosyncrasies and frivolity of ideas, and had even then resulted in raucous criticism. CIA has worked in enabling regime changes, assassinations and coups, from Latin America to Africa to the Middle East to Southeast Asia. Fyodor Dostoyevsky had said, “It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently,” and the Central ‘Intelligence’ Agency seems to have taken it rather too seriously. THE FIDEL CASTRO FIXATION The most ridiculous of all CIA operations turned out to be the bizarre methods it repeatedly kept devising to snuff out the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, his brother Raul and Ernesto Che Guevara. It is said that the CIA made 638 attempts to kill Castro, but failed every time and its ludicrous strategies became a laughing point. So much so that even Castro cracked a joke once on being offered a Galápagos turtle as a present and politely declined it on learning that it was likely to live only 100 years. “That’s the problem with pets. You get attached to them and then they die on you,” he famously said. Its outlandish plots to kill Castro included exploding cigars, poisoned pens and booby-trapped seashells among others. The assassination attempts, from 1959 to 2001, transcended eight presidencies, starting from the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration to Bill Clinton’s, but CIA’s ‘try and try, until you succeed’ dictum never paid off. A 1967 report revealed that since Castro was fond of cigars, CIA came up with the idea of lacing one with explosives so that it would blow his face off after a few puffs, and then another of spiking it with botulinum, a toxin that attacks nerves, causes respiratory distress, muscle paralysis and leads to death. It recruited a double agent, gave him a box of Castro’s favourite cigars laced with the toxin, but it never worked, as it was conjectured that he had a tobacco-taster who took the first few drags to ensure his safety. And then Castro quit smoking! Castro, also a keen scuba diver, loved to pick colourful seashells, which gave CIA brains the idea to place brightly painted seashells rigged with explosives at his favourite diving spots and wait for him to pick the molluscs and be doomed with a boom underwater. Even this didn’t work out, so then they devised a custom-made diving-suit infected with a deadly fungus. When the indefatigable CIA learnt that Castro was an ice cream lover, it hatched a plan to place poison pills in his cone through a worker at his pet joint. The vial containing the poison was hidden in the freezer, but at the crucial moment, it could not be dislodged — it was frozen stuck! The CIA roped in Castro’s former lover as a hitwoman and gave her poison pills, which she hid in her cold-cream jar, but they melted as did the chances of forcing them into Castro’s mouth while he slept. Castro noticed her unusual behaviour and questioned her, and she admitted to the bid on his life. He allegedly handed her his pistol to finish the job, but she could not and they ended up making love —another CIA plot ending on a gratifying note for its bête noire. Another CIA conspiracy was to use a superfine poisoned hypodermic needle concealed in a pen and the victim would not even notice the prick, but the Cuban official roped in for the job did not think much of the device and said the CIA should come up with something more sophisticated. At times it seemed the CIA was more interested in bumping off the Cuban leader than protecting their own: the man given the pen-syringe was dispatched on his ‘mission’ on Nov. 22, 1963, the very day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Even American underworld figures from the mafia – still smarting at being kicked out of Cuba by Castro – were approached to carry out a hit. One would-be sniper was caught by security men at the University of Havana and a grenade attack at a baseball game was also foiled. In 2000, about 90kg of high explosives were placed under the podium where Castro was due to speak during his visit to Panama, but his personal security team found it during checking. The CIA also came up with non-fatal plans to discredit Castro by spraying an LSD aerosol near him during a broadcast which would lead to national humiliation as he freaked out on air. Then it planned to dust Castro’s shoes with thallium salts which would make his beard fall out while delivering a speech abroad. The trip was cancelled, and even this opportunity was lost. The infamous Bay of Pigs invasion, in which the CIA trained, armed and funded 1400 exiled Cubans to attack Castro did not last days and John F Kennedy had to stop all air support and concede the embarrassing loss. Castro, who is said to have used doubles and moved around the country constantly, survived all the assassination attempts, without even getting a scratch, and died of natural causes in 2016, at the ripe age of 90, finally giving respite to CIA. OPERATION SHAKTI Yet another colossal failure was on May 11, 1998, when under Operation Shakti, India detonated five underground atomic bombs and CIA was caught sleeping and stunned by how it was outsmarted by a third world nation. India walked into the nuclear club with swag and the alert ‘eagle’ didn’t have a clue despite the billion-dollar satellites up in sky keeping a watch and much-bragged-about human intelligence. Relying on plain common sense, the Indian scientists only worked during the nights to evade the satellite detections, used camouflage to perfection, besides code words like White House for underground shafts. "It is apparent that the Indians went to some lengths to conceal their activities and intentions," the ruffled CIA said later to explain the failure. MK-ULTRA PROGRAMME: CIA'S QUEST FOR MIND CONTROL During early Cold War, the CIA came to conclusion that Communists had discovered a drug or technique that allowed them to control human minds, and it began its own secret programme, called MK-ULTRA, the details of which read like a dystopian science fiction novel as it searched for mind control drugs and ways. It drugged US and Canadian citizens with LSD and other psychoactive chemicals without their consent and subjected some to psychological torture ranging from electroshock to high doses of LSD. The illegal, unethical and dangerous programme ran from 1953 to 1964 and in 1973 CIA director ordered all related files to be destroyed. 9/11 TERROR ATTACK The 9/11 attack is deemed the biggest failure of US intel agencies. The CIA failed to add to the ‘watch list’ two suspected al-Qaeda militants Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar it had been tracking since they attended a terrorist meeting in Malaysia on January 5, 2000. The error enabled them to enter US under their real names, rent apartment under real names, obtain driver’s licences, open bank accounts, purchase a car, and take flight lessons at a local school. The commission appointed to probe the September 11 attacks revealed several glaring oversights and lapses in its report, including by the CIA. WIKILEAKS VAULT 7 The CIA’s hacking team had started making cutting-edge cyber weapons to steal secrets from foreign governments but failed to monitor who had access to its information. Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who stole data from the Pentagon and State Department, and the former contractor Edward Snowden, who took information from the National Security Agency, exposed the secrets. In March 2017, WikiLeaks published some of the CIA’s most valuable hacking tools, which it called Vault 7, revealing how the agency could break into foreign computer networks, or activate the camera or microphone on devices to eavesdrop on adversaries. The rattled CIA then plotted to kill or kidnap WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, but has not succeeded so far. POLITICISATION OF INTELLIGENCE The information of a stock of “weapons of mass destruction” in the possession of Saddam Hussein’s regime collected by CIA was used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq. The intel inputs were subsequently found baseless and critics condemned it as ‘politicisation’ of intelligence. OTHER BLOOPERS In 1990, US intel agencies were aware that Saddam Hussein was making unusual movements of armoured forces in his country, but didn't know and did nothing till he invaded Kuwait. In 2003, CIA kidnapped Khaled El-Masri, a German and Lebanese citizen, mistaking him for a dreaded terrorist with the same name. He was flown to Afghanistan, where he was routinely interrogated, beaten, strip-searched, sodomised, and subjected to other cruel forms of inhumane treatment and torture. It took the smart detectives of the premier agency full four months to draw the conclusion that they had in fact picked up the wrong man. The CIA finally admitted his arrest was a mistake and released him. So much luck to the agency for bringing smiles on our faces, even as we wish it continues its stupendous endeavours, aborts terror attacks in time and saves lives as it has been scrupulously doing over the years. (Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.) WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

How intelligent is Central Intelligence Agency? CIA’s spotty record of 75 years

Seven months since the war in Ukraine began and there is no sign of conflict ending anytime soon. Where is the war heading? What does US intelligence have to say on Putin's war?

Russia-Ukraine War: Putin's approach in Ukraine needs changing, says US

Russia-Ukraine War: Putin may need to change his plans, says US

US railroad workers are close to striking over claims that grueling schedules and poor working conditions have been driving employees out of the industry over the past several years. The looming strike could paralyse the nation's supply chain and transportation.

Possible US Railroad strike could fuel more inflation, cripple transportation

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has now approved the Taiwan Policy Act, this is the first step toward Americans providing billions of dollars in terms of military aid to Taiwan and also making their relationship official.

US Senate committee approves new Taiwan act to boost support

The US is extremely worried about the American data falling into the hands of the Chinese govt. Reportedly, Chinese individuals could access TikTok's US user data. Now, the social media company's chief has testified before the US Senate.

US lawmakers grill TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat executives about ties with China

On August 15, 2022, marking one year since the US withdrew its forces from Afghanistan, the country has been&nbsp;suffering under the rule of the Taliban. The ongoing crisis may have even more to do with US decisions than you think. Afghanistan has blessed the world with innumerable treasures like embroidery, traditional Pashto, Persian poetry, and the majestic Afghan hound. But the country now is struggling to feed its 38 million population as the ruling extremist organisation has forced people to the brink of starvation with rising malnutrition and&nbsp;lack of adequate healthcare, education, and financial facilities.

You may remember the staggering images on your television and mobile screens that captured the scenes of complete mayhem marked by chaos and desperation of Afghan citizens running to depart Afghanistan when the US announced it was withdrawing its troops from the country. The indelible images of a US Marine lifting a baby over the barbed wire topped wall at the Kabul airport or the 800 people jammed-packed on a jet fleeing their country captured by Technical Sergeant Justin Triola are etched in the memory of the world as they are forever part of the dark chapter of the South Asian country.&nbsp;

Everything happened so fast that, apparently, the Taliban was surprised by the superpower exiting. The Afghan government fell quickly, and the Taliban took over. Many top US military officials have struggled since then to justify their hasty actions, which they blame on bad calculations. As General Mark Milley put forth his statement, " All the intel assessments failed to indicate any justification for our actions and there is no question about it that all of us got it wrong. It was a swing and a miss." That is the expression that US intelligence failed to estimate that 11 days was enough for the&nbsp;troops to exit Afghanistan.&nbsp;

There are a lot of aspects that you can criticise about the US exit strategy. However, they managed to migrate&nbsp;roughly 80,000 Afghans who worked with the US and Afghan governments, since the withdrawal.

While on the other hand, the number of Afghans that remain in danger is somewhere in the hundreds of thousands, left stranded due to the limited time frame the United States had to execute a mammoth rescue operation. What happened was completely justified as it was the administration of the orange you're adorning despicable being who signed the deal to leave Afghanistan in the first place. His thought process to justify this action went something like this, the Bagram base is great, the lights are on, and dogs. No one likes dogs. The brave people of the Kabul Animal Rescue would disagree with his statement as they risked their lives to get as many dogs out of Afghanistan in the impossible time frame of 11 days before the Taliban took hold. The incoherent extraordinary brain function at full capacity failed to comprehend the after-effects of this complex situation and the people and animals it would impact.&nbsp;

The turmoil that has unfolded since the US exit from Afghanistan may have faded as a hot topic of discussion. But the country is in a dire crisis that is getting worse for reasons and is&nbsp;in immediate&nbsp;need to be addressed. With the Taliban now in charge of the country, even though they tried to paint a slightly softer image for journalists through carefree photo ops, there is no denying that they are the epitome of radical extremism. Even if the Taliban members ride around in bumper cars on their visits to a fairground in Kabul and a trip to the zoo, it doesn't change the Taliban into a peace-loving organisation that will let anyone live under Islamic rule and security as long as everything is enjoyable and everyone can live in their own country the way they want. We do not associate the Taliban with the ideology of freedom to live and let live, but rather with fearmongers who terrorise and harass female journalists who report on the reality of their actions on the ground. The Taliban is not a monolith as different regional leaders rule with different degrees of severity, but there is no denying that they are an oppressive regime that chips away at the souls of innocent people who suffer at the hands of brutality.

The brutal reprisals against US allies and former Afghan government employees have been taken up by the Taliban. 500 Afghan government employees have been killed or forcibly disappeared during the Taliban’s first six months in power. On the bigger level, the Taliban has taken an absolute sledgehammer to women’s rights. On one hand, with the legitimate criticism of America’s occupation, this period saw Afghan women making strides. In 2001, there were few, if any, girls in schools, whereas by 2020, this number grew to roughly 40 per cent of girl students. In the same year, the percentage of women in the Afghan parliament was more than in the current sitting US Congress, which has sunk to absolute zero. The Taliban decree&nbsp;tried to control nearly every aspect of women’s lives with orders such as these: no woman can leave their homes unless necessary, and only women who can’t be replaced by men will be allowed to keep working. Fortunately, one area where women are allowed to work in Afghanistan is healthcare, due to the situations where men aren’t allowed to treat women as patients. The midwives in Afghanistan made appeals to the Taliban that they shouldn’t meddle in women’s rights to education and employment as they are paralysing one arm of the body of society and a country can’t just be run by men. As history bears witness, the world tried to do so for thousands of years, and look where it has got us. We are in a global pandemic. The planet is on fire and, to add to everything that the world is dealing with right now, the world’s richest man is a ventriloquist dummy from hell. There I said it.

In March, the Taliban went back on the promise after they took over and announced that girls would be prevented from receiving a secondary education in most areas. Even the Taliban members condemned this move and the reasoning behind it. Banning Afghan girls from attending school beyond 6th grade because they needed more time to decide on a school uniform for teenage girls is an abhorrent organisation that is obsessed with virtue and purity. Taking months to brainstorm a uniform for school girls is objectively perverted.&nbsp;

Women have lost a great deal in the last year, on top of the cascading series of humanitarian crises. The UN&nbsp;estimates that 97 per cent&nbsp;of the population is at risk of sinking below the poverty line. A series of natural disasters like the ongoing drought has diminished the food production capacity of the country. Another massive earthquake in June and flooding just this month have exacerbated the fact that falling on a brand new Taliban is ill-equipped to take it on. The Taliban are a jihadist insurgency to a ruling group that spent 20 years building an organisation that is designed to fight and motivate people to engage in suicide bombings. People don't turn into government officials overnight as a militant insurgency group is low on the list of people you want leading a country's government.&nbsp;

Although the US occupation wasn't a perfect magical wonderland, it was awful in its way as the Afghans lived under the specter of hellfire being rained down from unmanned death machines every day. The continued presence of the US in Afghanistan was untenable, but the exact circumstances of America's departure were substantially worse. While some understandable decisions were made, they had huge ramifications for the Afghan people. The Taliban's government is sanctioned by the US because the Taliban is a specially designated terrorist group.Some pre-existing sanctions apply to only part of the Taliban government.

The US State Department has announced a 10 million dollar reward for any information that leads to the arrest of Taliban member Sirajuddin Haqqani, who also happens to be the current acting Interior Minister of Afghanistan. The whole Afghan government under the Taliban has made it impossible for banks, businesses, and charities to operate and keep the economy functioning. The massive problem is that 75 per cent&nbsp;of the Afghan government's budget relies on foreign aid, which makes up the salaries of vital government service employees, teachers, and public sector employees, and that aid has immediately disappeared.

One of the worst and most crucial sectors affected is healthcare, where doctors have a minuscule amount of medical supplies; their budget has been zero since the takeover by the Taliban. The US forced the assets worth 7 billion dollars of the Afghan Central Bank to be held in America. Primarily to kneecap the entire Afghan banking system. As Afghanistan can't print its currency, the actions have led to a literal cash shortage where citizens have been standing in line for three days to withdraw cash from their bank accounts.

An unusual state of affairs and a unique humanitarian crisis have resulted in food being technically available but there isn't enough liquidity in the economy and, therefore, enough availability of paper currency to purchase food. The situation is very grim as half the population of Afghanistan is under 15 years of age. Many Afghans have nowhere to turn for food or money, and their families are forced to make harrowing choices. An increasingly common decision that can be done precisely once in a person's life is selling kidneys. Some parents are even resorting to selling some of their children to feed others, which is unimaginably heartbreaking to even contemplate. The people of Afghanistan are in dire need of help.&nbsp;

US President, Joe Biden, has inherited this mess from an alarmingly blithe orange blob of human flesh (Donald Trump) who has a direct hand in aiding and abetting the situation in Afghanistan. While Biden's official statement is grammatically incorrect to "feel bad about the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan", it is pretty disheartening to see a US official foreign policy boil down to such a simplistic statement of " You can't win them all." While the US is directly responsible for the problems in Afghanistan. The Biden administration has begun issuing sanctions exemptions to allow the free flow of humanitarian aid. With a pledge of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan, more than any other company. In the face of stiff opposition from the right-wing politicians who argue against any kind of monetary assistance to the hands of the Taliban. The prospect of US aid falling into the hands of the Taliban is worrisome.&nbsp;

For years now, a couple of charities have managed to circumvent this concern to find ways with, through, or around to help ordinary Afghan citizens. Moreover, even when America was present in Afghanistan, the Taliban effectively still controlled large parts of the country. The Afghan director at the International Rescue Committee has been financially constrained to help which has left them feeling frustrated. If you look at the math, letting 38 million people suffer for the actions of a few thousand, doesn't work or make sense. There is a strong case to find ways to get humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.&nbsp;

While speaking as a long-term solution, no emergency aid is going to stand in for healthcare, education, and a functioning economy. Aid is bandaged, not a cure to the problems. A growing problem in offering humanitarian aid to just half the population, which is 20 million people under high and critical levels of food insecurity, is donor fatigue. But a sustainable way to help the country is by developing and building long-term solutions with a major focus on education, healthcare, and building infrastructure like investing in irrigation and waste management areas, especially areas affected by drought.

But the challenge is engaging with the Taliban in some shape or form. Additionally, there are mechanisms in place that don't benefit the Taliban, but none are perfect. It's hard to swallow that even one cent could go to the Taliban with their outward-facing life, laugh, live vibe, but they constantly remind us of their heinous treatment of women and the recent confirmation that the Taliban is harboring a known leader of Al Qaeda in a safe house. Withholding all forms of aid until the Taliban either give in or collapse isn't a viable strategy. Most importantly, waiting for a long period could potentially result in millions starving.

The sanctions will kill Afghan people faster than any violation of their rights, as a girl who is dying from hunger and her mother either sell her daughter from hunger or pressured her to marry. The issue of illiteracy and education is meaningless when people are dying of hunger.

The crisis in Afghanistan is at a fundamental level and the US&nbsp;is releasing billions in frozen money into a trust fund that the Taliban can't access to inject stability into the country's financial system, but it's conditional as this would only happen if the process is smoothly executed. The United Nations and World Bank have initiatives at work to try and bridge the gap between humanitarian assistance and long-term aid with adequate developmental funding.

The Afghans&nbsp;deserve better as they are feeling the effects of a government that they didn't choose.&nbsp;

In reality, there is no simple solution without taking any risks, as 38 million are at risk, and it would be a colossal mistake if we did nothing.

On August 15, 2022, marking one year since the US withdrew its forces from Afghanistan, the country has been suffering under the rule of the Taliban. The ongoing crisis may have even more to do with US decisions than you think.

On August 15, 2022, marking one year since the US withdrew its forces from Afghanistan, the country has been suffering under the rule of the Taliban. The ongoing crisis may have even more to do with US decisions than you think. Afghanistan has blessed the world with innumerable treasures like embroidery, traditional Pashto, Persian poetry, and the majestic Afghan hound. But the country now is struggling to feed its 38 million population as the ruling extremist organisation has forced people to the brink of starvation with rising malnutrition and lack of adequate healthcare, education, and financial facilities. You may remember the staggering images on your television and mobile screens that captured the scenes of complete mayhem marked by chaos and desperation of Afghan citizens running to depart Afghanistan when the US announced it was withdrawing its troops from the country. The indelible images of a US Marine lifting a baby over the barbed wire topped wall at the Kabul airport or the 800 people jammed-packed on a jet fleeing their country captured by Technical Sergeant Justin Triola are etched in the memory of the world as they are forever part of the dark chapter of the South Asian country. Everything happened so fast that, apparently, the Taliban was surprised by the superpower exiting. The Afghan government fell quickly, and the Taliban took over. Many top US military officials have struggled since then to justify their hasty actions, which they blame on bad calculations. As General Mark Milley put forth his statement, " All the intel assessments failed to indicate any justification for our actions and there is no question about it that all of us got it wrong. It was a swing and a miss." That is the expression that US intelligence failed to estimate that 11 days was enough for the troops to exit Afghanistan. There are a lot of aspects that you can criticise about the US exit strategy. However, they managed to migrate roughly 80,000 Afghans who worked with the US and Afghan governments, since the withdrawal. While on the other hand, the number of Afghans that remain in danger is somewhere in the hundreds of thousands, left stranded due to the limited time frame the United States had to execute a mammoth rescue operation. What happened was completely justified as it was the administration of the orange you're adorning despicable being who signed the deal to leave Afghanistan in the first place. His thought process to justify this action went something like this, the Bagram base is great, the lights are on, and dogs. No one likes dogs. The brave people of the Kabul Animal Rescue would disagree with his statement as they risked their lives to get as many dogs out of Afghanistan in the impossible time frame of 11 days before the Taliban took hold. The incoherent extraordinary brain function at full capacity failed to comprehend the after-effects of this complex situation and the people and animals it would impact. The turmoil that has unfolded since the US exit from Afghanistan may have faded as a hot topic of discussion. But the country is in a dire crisis that is getting worse for reasons and is in immediate need to be addressed. With the Taliban now in charge of the country, even though they tried to paint a slightly softer image for journalists through carefree photo ops, there is no denying that they are the epitome of radical extremism. Even if the Taliban members ride around in bumper cars on their visits to a fairground in Kabul and a trip to the zoo, it doesn't change the Taliban into a peace-loving organisation that will let anyone live under Islamic rule and security as long as everything is enjoyable and everyone can live in their own country the way they want. We do not associate the Taliban with the ideology of freedom to live and let live, but rather with fearmongers who terrorise and harass female journalists who report on the reality of their actions on the ground. The Taliban is not a monolith as different regional leaders rule with different degrees of severity, but there is no denying that they are an oppressive regime that chips away at the souls of innocent people who suffer at the hands of brutality. The brutal reprisals against US allies and former Afghan government employees have been taken up by the Taliban. 500 Afghan government employees have been killed or forcibly disappeared during the Taliban’s first six months in power. On the bigger level, the Taliban has taken an absolute sledgehammer to women’s rights. On one hand, with the legitimate criticism of America’s occupation, this period saw Afghan women making strides. In 2001, there were few, if any, girls in schools, whereas by 2020, this number grew to roughly 40 per cent of girl students. In the same year, the percentage of women in the Afghan parliament was more than in the current sitting US Congress, which has sunk to absolute zero. The Taliban decree tried to control nearly every aspect of women’s lives with orders such as these: no woman can leave their homes unless necessary, and only women who can’t be replaced by men will be allowed to keep working. Fortunately, one area where women are allowed to work in Afghanistan is healthcare, due to the situations where men aren’t allowed to treat women as patients. The midwives in Afghanistan made appeals to the Taliban that they shouldn’t meddle in women’s rights to education and employment as they are paralysing one arm of the body of society and a country can’t just be run by men. As history bears witness, the world tried to do so for thousands of years, and look where it has got us. We are in a global pandemic. The planet is on fire and, to add to everything that the world is dealing with right now, the world’s richest man is a ventriloquist dummy from hell. There I said it. In March, the Taliban went back on the promise after they took over and announced that girls would be prevented from receiving a secondary education in most areas. Even the Taliban members condemned this move and the reasoning behind it. Banning Afghan girls from attending school beyond 6th grade because they needed more time to decide on a school uniform for teenage girls is an abhorrent organisation that is obsessed with virtue and purity. Taking months to brainstorm a uniform for school girls is objectively perverted. Women have lost a great deal in the last year, on top of the cascading series of humanitarian crises. The UN estimates that 97 per cent of the population is at risk of sinking below the poverty line. A series of natural disasters like the ongoing drought has diminished the food production capacity of the country. Another massive earthquake in June and flooding just this month have exacerbated the fact that falling on a brand new Taliban is ill-equipped to take it on. The Taliban are a jihadist insurgency to a ruling group that spent 20 years building an organisation that is designed to fight and motivate people to engage in suicide bombings. People don't turn into government officials overnight as a militant insurgency group is low on the list of people you want leading a country's government. Although the US occupation wasn't a perfect magical wonderland, it was awful in its way as the Afghans lived under the specter of hellfire being rained down from unmanned death machines every day. The continued presence of the US in Afghanistan was untenable, but the exact circumstances of America's departure were substantially worse. While some understandable decisions were made, they had huge ramifications for the Afghan people. The Taliban's government is sanctioned by the US because the Taliban is a specially designated terrorist group.Some pre-existing sanctions apply to only part of the Taliban government. The US State Department has announced a 10 million dollar reward for any information that leads to the arrest of Taliban member Sirajuddin Haqqani, who also happens to be the current acting Interior Minister of Afghanistan. The whole Afghan government under the Taliban has made it impossible for banks, businesses, and charities to operate and keep the economy functioning. The massive problem is that 75 per cent of the Afghan government's budget relies on foreign aid, which makes up the salaries of vital government service employees, teachers, and public sector employees, and that aid has immediately disappeared. One of the worst and most crucial sectors affected is healthcare, where doctors have a minuscule amount of medical supplies; their budget has been zero since the takeover by the Taliban. The US forced the assets worth 7 billion dollars of the Afghan Central Bank to be held in America. Primarily to kneecap the entire Afghan banking system. As Afghanistan can't print its currency, the actions have led to a literal cash shortage where citizens have been standing in line for three days to withdraw cash from their bank accounts. An unusual state of affairs and a unique humanitarian crisis have resulted in food being technically available but there isn't enough liquidity in the economy and, therefore, enough availability of paper currency to purchase food. The situation is very grim as half the population of Afghanistan is under 15 years of age. Many Afghans have nowhere to turn for food or money, and their families are forced to make harrowing choices. An increasingly common decision that can be done precisely once in a person's life is selling kidneys. Some parents are even resorting to selling some of their children to feed others, which is unimaginably heartbreaking to even contemplate. The people of Afghanistan are in dire need of help. US President, Joe Biden, has inherited this mess from an alarmingly blithe orange blob of human flesh (Donald Trump) who has a direct hand in aiding and abetting the situation in Afghanistan. While Biden's official statement is grammatically incorrect to "feel bad about the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan", it is pretty disheartening to see a US official foreign policy boil down to such a simplistic statement of " You can't win them all." While the US is directly responsible for the problems in Afghanistan. The Biden administration has begun issuing sanctions exemptions to allow the free flow of humanitarian aid. With a pledge of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan, more than any other company. In the face of stiff opposition from the right-wing politicians who argue against any kind of monetary assistance to the hands of the Taliban. The prospect of US aid falling into the hands of the Taliban is worrisome. For years now, a couple of charities have managed to circumvent this concern to find ways with, through, or around to help ordinary Afghan citizens. Moreover, even when America was present in Afghanistan, the Taliban effectively still controlled large parts of the country. The Afghan director at the International Rescue Committee has been financially constrained to help which has left them feeling frustrated. If you look at the math, letting 38 million people suffer for the actions of a few thousand, doesn't work or make sense. There is a strong case to find ways to get humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. While speaking as a long-term solution, no emergency aid is going to stand in for healthcare, education, and a functioning economy. Aid is bandaged, not a cure to the problems. A growing problem in offering humanitarian aid to just half the population, which is 20 million people under high and critical levels of food insecurity, is donor fatigue. But a sustainable way to help the country is by developing and building long-term solutions with a major focus on education, healthcare, and building infrastructure like investing in irrigation and waste management areas, especially areas affected by drought. But the challenge is engaging with the Taliban in some shape or form. Additionally, there are mechanisms in place that don't benefit the Taliban, but none are perfect. It's hard to swallow that even one cent could go to the Taliban with their outward-facing life, laugh, live vibe, but they constantly remind us of their heinous treatment of women and the recent confirmation that the Taliban is harboring a known leader of Al Qaeda in a safe house. Withholding all forms of aid until the Taliban either give in or collapse isn't a viable strategy. Most importantly, waiting for a long period could potentially result in millions starving. The sanctions will kill Afghan people faster than any violation of their rights, as a girl who is dying from hunger and her mother either sell her daughter from hunger or pressured her to marry. The issue of illiteracy and education is meaningless when people are dying of hunger. The crisis in Afghanistan is at a fundamental level and the US is releasing billions in frozen money into a trust fund that the Taliban can't access to inject stability into the country's financial system, but it's conditional as this would only happen if the process is smoothly executed. The United Nations and World Bank have initiatives at work to try and bridge the gap between humanitarian assistance and long-term aid with adequate developmental funding. The Afghans deserve better as they are feeling the effects of a government that they didn't choose. In reality, there is no simple solution without taking any risks, as 38 million are at risk, and it would be a colossal mistake if we did nothing.

Afghanistan is crumbling under the rule of Taliban, US promises to send aid

The incident comes shortly after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sent migrants to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. Speaking at a rally on Thursday, DeSantis defended his decision to send migrants to the wealthy Island.

US: Florida sends two flights carrying 50 migrants to Martha's vineyard

Ahead of the mid-term polls in November, Florida governor Ron DeSantis flew two planes loads of undocumented Venezuelans to Massachusetts. After a day, two dozens of buses with migrants from Texas stopped in Washington DC. White House has slammed this move of both Texas and Florida governors.

Florida, Texas governors send off migrants to Massachusetts, Washington

Here we bring you a quick round-up of all latest news, top headlines and international breakings from all across the globe, stay tuned with Gravitas for more!

Gravitas Global Headlines: US approves Taiwan policy act; Apple increases in-app purchase prices

A crucial issue which has surfaced ahead of the midterm elections in the United States is that of migrants. The Republicans and the Democrats have offered different opinions on the immigration system in America.

US: Texas sends two buses of migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris' home

Due to their participation in Washington's most recent military sales to Taiwan, the CEOs of Boeing Defense and Raytheon will face sanctions from China, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry announced on Friday.&nbsp;

Ted Colbert, CEO of Boeing Defense, Space, and Security, and Gregory Hayes, CEO of Raytheon Technologies Corp. have been subject to penalties as a result of the US State Department's approval of the sale of military hardware to Taiwan on September 2.&nbsp;

These deliveries include 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air-to-air missiles, with Raytheon and Boeing Defense serving as the prime contractors for each.&nbsp;

According to Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, Colbert and Hayes will face sanctions "in order to protect China's sovereignty and security interests" due to "their involvement in these arms sales".

Mao didn't go into detail about the specifics of the penalties or how they would be applied.&nbsp;

The US government and associated organisations are once again urged by the Chinese side to "stop selling arms to Taiwan and US-Taiwan military contacts."&nbsp;

After Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited Taipei last month—the highest-ranking US official to visit the island in years—and in response to China's aggressive military exercises near Taiwan, the Pentagon unveiled the package.

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/with-usd-377-million-in-loans-india-is-sri-lankas-top-lender-in-2022-report-516466">With USD 377 million in loans, India is Sri Lanka's top lender in 2022: Report</a>

Raytheon, Boeing Defense, and other unnamed parties implicated in arms sales to Taiwan have already received sanctions from China.&nbsp;

Beijing identified and enforced punishments against individuals from these companies for the first time with Friday's announcement.&nbsp;

Taiwan is a self-governing island that Beijing views as a province that needs to be reined in, possibly by force.&nbsp;

Taiwan denies China's claims to sovereignty, claiming that only its citizens have the power to determine their future, and it pledges to defend itself in the event of an assault.

(with inputs from agencies) 
&nbsp;

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1  width=&quot;100%&quot;"></iframe>

Due to their participation in Washington's most recent military sales to Taiwan, the CEOs of Boeing Defense and Raytheon will face sanctions from China, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry announced on Friday.

Due to their participation in Washington's most recent military sales to Taiwan, the CEOs of Boeing Defense and Raytheon will face sanctions from China, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry announced on Friday. Ted Colbert, CEO of Boeing Defense, Space, and Security, and Gregory Hayes, CEO of Raytheon Technologies Corp. have been subject to penalties as a result of the US State Department's approval of the sale of military hardware to Taiwan on September 2. These deliveries include 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air-to-air missiles, with Raytheon and Boeing Defense serving as the prime contractors for each. According to Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, Colbert and Hayes will face sanctions "in order to protect China's sovereignty and security interests" due to "their involvement in these arms sales". Mao didn't go into detail about the specifics of the penalties or how they would be applied. The US government and associated organisations are once again urged by the Chinese side to "stop selling arms to Taiwan and US-Taiwan military contacts." After Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited Taipei last month—the highest-ranking US official to visit the island in years—and in response to China's aggressive military exercises near Taiwan, the Pentagon unveiled the package. Also Read: With USD 377 million in loans, India is Sri Lanka's top lender in 2022: Report Raytheon, Boeing Defense, and other unnamed parties implicated in arms sales to Taiwan have already received sanctions from China. Beijing identified and enforced punishments against individuals from these companies for the first time with Friday's announcement. Taiwan is a self-governing island that Beijing views as a province that needs to be reined in, possibly by force. Taiwan denies China's claims to sovereignty, claiming that only its citizens have the power to determine their future, and it pledges to defend itself in the event of an assault. (with inputs from agencies)

China plans to impose sanctions on CEOs of US companies over arms sales to Taiwan

The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the Taiwan Policy Act. This is the first step towards the US providing billions of dollars in military aid to Taiwan and making ties between them more visual.

WION Dispatch: Biggest change in US relations with Taiwan and China since 1979

The Chinese government has urged that the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA to quickly halt the the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, citing that the deal would violate the agency's own rules.

Will China's warning to IAEA jeopardize AUKUS Nuclear-powered submarine deal?

Gravitas Global Headlines: US mulls China sanctions; Europe energy crisis

US inflation data for August came in at 8.3%, much higher than the market expectations. The latest data has revived fears of a hawkish interest hike by the Federal Reserve. How will this impact global markets? Priyanka Sharma tells you.

Gravitas: US inflation data spooks global markets

One of the biggest deals in the history of gaming, World Microsoft's acquisition of video game make activision blizzard is now under the lens of regulators. This deal worth around $75 billion dollars faces in-depth probes in Brussels and the UK following growing concerns that this deal is anti-competitive.

Microsoft: 'Call of Duty' to be available on other platforms, xbox competes with Sony's playstation

At the Detroit Auto Show on Wednesday, President Joe Biden pressed the throttle pedal of a powerful V-8 sports vehicle.

Watch: US President Joe Biden revs up V-8 Corvette Z06 at Detroit Auto Show

The United States is considering options for a sanctions package against China to deter it from invading Taiwan, with the European Union coming under diplomatic pressure from Taipei to do the same, according to reports. Molly Gambhir tells you more.

WION Fineprint | U.S. considers China sanctions to deter Taiwan action

In the wake of a joint smuggling probe, the US has given Israel a coin that was part of a nearly 2,000-year-old Jewish revolt against Roman control.&nbsp;

The "exceedingly&nbsp;rare" quarter shekel was minted in AD 69, and the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which held a repatriation ceremony in New York on Monday, estimated its value at over $1 million.&nbsp;

The action was taken 20 years after Israeli officials first learnt through sources that the silver coin had been found in the Ella Valley, south of Jerusalem, by antiquities robbers. It is thought to be a part of a stash of coins that criminals discovered in the region, which is home to many significant archaeological sites.

According to investigators, the item was purchased illegally before being trafficked through Jordan to the UK. Then, it was shipped to the US using fraudulent documentation. The coin was scheduled to be auctioned off in Denver, Colorado, but was instead taken by Homeland Security agents in 2017.&nbsp;

The coin has "immense cultural value," according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., who noted that despite the investigation's complexity, his team of prosecutors, analysts, and agents working with Israeli authorities was able to locate it in a couple of months.

In AD 6, the Romans conquered the kingdom of Judaea, but resistance to their rule resulted in a string of uprisings known as the Jewish-Roman Wars. The currency was made during the First Jewish Revolt, also known as the Great Jewish Revolt, which started in AD 66 and lasted for four years.&nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/data-lab-fed-up-with-mundane-beer-options-a-brewing-revolution-is-underway-in-the-us-516212">Data Lab| Fed up with mundane beer options? A brewing revolution is underway in the US</a>

In some regions of their empire, including Judaea, the Romans had permitted the creation and circulation of particular regional coinage. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), rebel commanders covered the emperor's visage on imperial coins by adding "Jewish motifs." It was "a declaration of independence by the Jews in the land of Israel, a statement against the mighty empire that stood before them," according to an IAA press release.

The British Museum bought a coin in the 1930s that is the only other quarter shekel of a similar design that the IAA is aware of. It estimates that "approximately three" more are also available on the illegal market.&nbsp;

Senior Israeli officials, including Gilad Erdan, the nation's ambassador to the UN, were present for the coin's return ceremony. The repatriation of the object, according to IAA director Eli Eskosido, "marks the beginning of a very positive and important trend for the restoration of cultural heritage items."

(with inputs from agencies) 
&nbsp;

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1  width=&quot;100%&quot;"></iframe>

In the wake of a joint smuggling probe, the US has given Israel a coin that was part of a nearly 2,000-year-old Jewish revolt against Roman control. The "exceedingly rare" quarter shekel was minted in AD 69, and the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which held a repatriation ceremony in New York on Monday, estimated its value at over $1 million.

In the wake of a joint smuggling probe, the US has given Israel a coin that was part of a nearly 2,000-year-old Jewish revolt against Roman control. The "exceedingly rare" quarter shekel was minted in AD 69, and the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which held a repatriation ceremony in New York on Monday, estimated its value at over $1 million. The action was taken 20 years after Israeli officials first learnt through sources that the silver coin had been found in the Ella Valley, south of Jerusalem, by antiquities robbers. It is thought to be a part of a stash of coins that criminals discovered in the region, which is home to many significant archaeological sites. According to investigators, the item was purchased illegally before being trafficked through Jordan to the UK. Then, it was shipped to the US using fraudulent documentation. The coin was scheduled to be auctioned off in Denver, Colorado, but was instead taken by Homeland Security agents in 2017. The coin has "immense cultural value," according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., who noted that despite the investigation's complexity, his team of prosecutors, analysts, and agents working with Israeli authorities was able to locate it in a couple of months. In AD 6, the Romans conquered the kingdom of Judaea, but resistance to their rule resulted in a string of uprisings known as the Jewish-Roman Wars. The currency was made during the First Jewish Revolt, also known as the Great Jewish Revolt, which started in AD 66 and lasted for four years. Also Read: Data Lab| Fed up with mundane beer options? A brewing revolution is underway in the US In some regions of their empire, including Judaea, the Romans had permitted the creation and circulation of particular regional coinage. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), rebel commanders covered the emperor's visage on imperial coins by adding "Jewish motifs." It was "a declaration of independence by the Jews in the land of Israel, a statement against the mighty empire that stood before them," according to an IAA press release. The British Museum bought a coin in the 1930s that is the only other quarter shekel of a similar design that the IAA is aware of. It estimates that "approximately three" more are also available on the illegal market. Senior Israeli officials, including Gilad Erdan, the nation's ambassador to the UN, were present for the coin's return ceremony. The repatriation of the object, according to IAA director Eli Eskosido, "marks the beginning of a very positive and important trend for the restoration of cultural heritage items." (with inputs from agencies)

United States returns 2000-year-old coin worth $1 million to Israel

US Intelligence officials have declassified a report claiming that Russia spent at least $300 mn to influence the outcome of foreign elections.

US: Russia spent over $300 mn on foreign parties & candidates

us-1

Us, News on Us, stories on Us, articles on Us, Us stories at Wion, Us news, Us latest news

us 1