The Week Evening Review
Women silenced by the Taliban, AI chatbots, and Trump's stance on Israel

 
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION

Has the Taliban banned women from speaking? 

Afghanistan's minister of vice and virtue has announced a "bizarre new restriction" banning women from speaking to each other, said The Daily Telegraph. "Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear," said the minister Khalid Hanafi in an audio clip released on Monday. 

What did the commentators say? 
Human rights activists have warned it could mean women are "effectively banned from holding conversations with one another," said The Telegraph, although Hanafi's "rambling" voice recording left exact details unclear. The Taliban is "waging an all-out war against us, and we have no one in the world to hear our voices," a former civil servant in Kabul said to the outlet. Now, "we cannot even hear each other's voices."

The ban on women praying together joins a list of restrictions on women's speech passed in August, when Afghanistan's ruling regime banned women from speaking in public or loudly inside their homes to prevent their voices from being heard by men. "The mere sound of a woman's voice outside the home is apparently considered a moral violation," Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. assistance mission in Afghanistan, said to France's TV5 Monde. 

Even if the Taliban's behavioral edicts are difficult to enforce in practice, "people start self-regulating," said Yogita Limaye, a BBC correspondent in Afghanistan. "We even avoid speaking among ourselves, thinking that if someone from the Taliban hears us they could stop and question us," one girl said to the broadcaster. "If we can't speak, why even live? We are like dead bodies moving around." 

What next? 
The U.N. called for the Taliban to repeal the "egregious" laws, which are an attempt to turn women into "faceless, voiceless shadows." In response, the Taliban said it would no longer cooperate with the U.N. As a result, relations appear to have "hit a significant roadblock," said Limaye. Meanwhile, Afghan women are "showing their dissent by posting videos of themselves online, their faces covered, singing songs about freedom."

 
 
IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Teen suicide puts AI chatbots in the hot seat

An Orlando, Florida, teenager's attachment to an AI-generated chatbot led to him to take his life, according to a lawsuit recently filed by his mother. The case spotlights the risks of the largely unregulated AI chatbot industry and its potential threat to impressionable young people.

What is the lawsuit against Character.AI?
In the lawsuit against Character.AI and Google, the teen's mother, Megan Garcia, argues that the platform for custom AI chatbots is "unreasonably dangerous" despite marketing to children. She accused the company of harvesting teenage users' data for AI training, having addictive features and luring participants into sexual conversations. "It's a big experiment, and my kid was just collateral damage," she said to The New York Times.

The lawsuit outlines how 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III began interacting with a Character.AI bot modeled after "Game of Thrones" character Daenerys Targaryen. Setzer became more withdrawn and isolated from his real life as he grew attached to the bot he affectionately called Dany. Some of their chats were romantic or sexual. Other times, Dany was a "judgment-free sounding board he could count on to listen supportively and give good advice, who rarely broke character and always texted back," said the Times. 

As he gradually lost interest in other things, Setzer's mental health "quickly and severely declined," said the lawsuit. On Feb. 28, Sewell told the bot he was coming home, to which Dany replied, "Please do, my sweet king." Seconds later, the teen took his life.

'Wake-up call for parents'
The lawsuit underscores the "growing influence and severe harm" that generative AI chatbot companions can have on the lives of young people when "there are no guardrails in place," James Steyer, the CEO of Common Sense Media, said to The Associated Press. The lawsuit is a "wake-up call for parents," who should be "vigilant about how their children interact with these technologies." 

Character.AI has since announced several safety changes to the platform. They include a pop-up that directs users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

 
 

Statistic of the day

25%: The percentage that bariatric (weight loss) surgeries dropped in the U.S. from 2022 to 2023, according to data from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. This drop coincided with the steep rise in GLP-1 RA anti-obesity medications like Ozempic. These drugs saw a 132.6% increase in use from 2022 to 2023.

 
 
QUOTE OF THE DAY

'Horror gets at truths that we might not be able to access in other ways. It gives us a language to speak to what troubles us. In that way, dark things can be quite illuminating.' 

Katie Kohn, a horror fiction writing instructor at the Harvard Extension School, on what draws readers to the literary genre

 
 
the explainer

Donald Trump sees himself as 'protector' of Israel

The 2024 presidential election is taking place amid war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. GOP nominee Donald Trump has long fashioned himself as Israel's champion, and it's a stance likely to continue in a second term.

'Pro-Israel bona fides'
Trump "hasn't laid out a clear vision for Gaza," Nicole Narea said at Vox. But his first-term record is pretty clear: He recognized Israel's "controversial annexation" of the Golan Heights and, after years of pledges from American politicians, also recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Those acts may have hurt the U.S.'s ability to push Israeli-Palestinian negotiations forward. Trump sees those acts as "proof of his pro-Israel bona fides," said Narea.

The former real estate developer has viewed Gaza as a development opportunity. Gaza could be like Monaco "if it was rebuilt the right way," he said on Hugh Hewitt's radio show. "You know, as a developer, it could be the most beautiful place — the weather, the water, the whole thing, the climate," said Trump. Palestinians "never took advantage of it."

'Internal constraints' to ending war
Trump's vision of a Monaco-like Gaza has "gained little traction," John T. Bennett said at Roll Call. It amounts to a plan to "ethnically cleanse millions of Palestinians from their land," and to do so for "the sake of beachfront property is either genocidal or delusional or both," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Trump "did not mention the Gazan population" in his musings.

Israeli officials, meanwhile, have "expressed concern" about Trump's call for a quick end to the war, said The Times of Israel. There are "internal political constraints to ending the war quickly," said an anonymous official. Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has campaigned on his "ability to stand up" to Democratic presidents. It's not clear he would react to pressure from Trump to wrap things up. "A fight with Trump is something he hasn't really had to deal with," said the official. "And I think it's something he would want to avoid."

 
 

Good day 📈

… for Reddit. Shares in the company surged over 40% yesterday after the company's results and forecast surpassed analysts' expectations, marking its "biggest intraday rally since the day after its initial public offering," said Bloomberg. The social network platform reported sales of $348.4 million for the three months ending in September, exceeding the average $312.8 million estimate..

 
 

Bad day 🎉

… for Shanghai. Police were cracking down on the city's usually raucous Halloween festivities amid "concerns that revelers would once again turn up in costumes considered politically sensitive," said NBC News. While there was no official announcement banning Halloween activities, local businesses reportedly received notices.

 
 
Picture of the day

Bloody scene

A staff member in a Halloween costume entertains volunteers donating blood at the Thai Red Cross Society's National Blood Center in Bangkok.
Chanakarn Laosarakham / AFP / Getty Images

 
 
Puzzles

Test your general knowledge with The Week's daily crossword, part of our puzzles section, which also includes sudoku and codewords

 
 
The Week recommends

In an increasingly busy world, the chance to slow down and have simple, blissful experiences is what brings visitors to Perthshire, Scotland. In this gateway to the Scottish Highlands, the sheep grazing alongside the roads and near the River Tay outnumber people. How you want to experience the region is up to you. 

Get your heart pumping in Big Tree Country
Perthshire's untamed wilderness is why the area is known as Big Tree Country. More than 200,000 acres of woodland stretch across the region, begging to be explored. Leave the navigation to a kilted ranger with Highland Safaris who will drive you through the countryside. You might stumble on an elusive mountain hare or golden eagle, and you will definitely take in "breathtaking panoramic views of the entire region," said The Herald.

Explore art and culture through the ages
Ask five Scots about the Stone of Destiny's history, and you will likely get five answers. Multiple stories swirl around this object, and after 700 years, it's back in Perthshire and housed at the new Perth Museum. "This is a local museum that reinvents local museums," said The Guardian.

To go further back in time, head to the interactive Scottish Crannog Center. This delightful site focuses on crannogs, above-water dwellings people lived in during the Iron Age 2,500 years ago. Inside stone and wooden huts, "charismatic character-guides in period costumes, from foragers to blacksmiths, share their stories and crafts," said The West Australian.

 
 

Poll watch

Nearly 60% of Americans support current diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the workplace, according to a survey from The Conference Board. The survey of 1,345 workers also found that 49% of women and 56% of Black respondents wouldn't work at a company that doesn't take DEI seriously. 

 
 
INSTANT OPINION

Today's best commentary

'America can't do without fracking'
Daniel Yergin at The Wall Street Journal
Fracking has become "essential to the nation's energy supply and can't be eliminated," says Daniel Yergin. People "continue to underestimate how transformative shale oil has been for the U.S. economy and the American way of life." If America were to "start importing again, the price of oil would doubtless rise, as we would be forced to compete for supplies." A ban on fracking would be "both misguided and destructive for the U.S. and its allies."

'The parable of the chainsaw'
Emily C. Hughes at Slate
"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" has endured because of "how vividly it captured the hysterical unreality of living in a turbulent age and how it picked at the scabs crusting over the face of the American dream," says Emily C. Hughes. The film's "greatest accomplishment is that pervasive feeling of wrongness, of danger, a vertiginous sense that there's no safe haven left," and to "live in America right now is to feel squeezed from all sides."

'How Supreme Court decisions could shape the presidential election'
Hassan Ali Kanu at The American Prospect
Recent Supreme Court rulings show the "tremendous power the court has, and often exerts, over elections and Democratic processes and how it could again have a significant effect on or even decide the 2024 presidential election," says Hassan Ali Kanu. Recent "voting rights petitions to the court have the potential to further erode voting rights in the country beyond 2024." Justices could "intervene in the election process" even when their "interventions appear calculated to restrict basic democratic rights."

 
 
WORD OF THE DAY

kidulting

The state of young adults clinging to their youth and relishing in childhood experiences, such as Wendy's new adult menu Boo! Bag, toy included. Young people today appear less mature than previous generations, and Western culture is to blame, said Keith Hayward, a criminologist at the University of Copenhagen, in his book "Infantilised."

 
 

Evening Review was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harold Maass, Joel Mathis, Summer Meza, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz, Anahi Valenzuela and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Illustration by Stephen Kelly / Getty Images; Bloomberg / Contributor / Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch / Staff / Getty Images; Catherine Garcia / The Week