For the first time since reassuming control of its country in 2021, Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban regime this week shut down huge swaths of internet access across multiple northern provinces, which contain the nation’s major population centers. The ban applies only to high-speed fiber-optic connections. But for many Afghans — particularly women — the move is the latest impediment to education and economic security imposed under the Taliban. As the Afghan government vows to expand the high-speed ban for the whole country, concerns have grown over the lasting effects of such a change.

Why is high-speed internet being throttled?
The crackdown on internet access comes after the Taliban released a “long set of rules governing morality” late last year, which mandated that women wear facial coverings and men grow beards, said Reuters. This new attempt to restrict access to the greater internet makes it more difficult for Afghans to “communicate, attend online classes and receive or send news,” said The Washington Post. 

The ban “not only disrupts millions of citizens’ access to free information and essential services” but also “poses a grave threat to freedom of expression and the work of the media,” said the Afghanistan Media Support Organization in a statement to The Associated Press. Coming on the heels of the Taliban’s previous digital restrictions on certain social media platforms and pornography websites, and the education ban for girls, these latest measures “extend beyond media and entertainment, targeting women and girls in daily life,” said The Diplomat.

Can the Afghan economy survive the ban?
A complication is that the shutdown is “connected to a lingering competition for power” between the Taliban’s central authority in the city of Kandahar and the "more pragmatic officials" tasked with “day-to-day” governance in Kabul, said the Post.

Any internet ban is “beyond my comprehension in such an advanced era,” said one resident of the northern province of Balkh to the AP, refusing to provide his name “for fear of Taliban reprisals.” Not only is the decision to throttle high-speed access in Balkh “absurd and unwise,” said former U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad on X, but it will “undermine investment and development” while damaging the province’s economy and the country’s "prospects as a whole.”

BBC Director-General Tim Davie has refused to say whether the corporation will take part in next year’s Eurovision, as the national broadcasters of Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain threaten to boycott the song contest if Israel is allowed to participate. The European Broadcasting Union is consulting with members on how to “manage participation and geopolitical tensions” around next year’s event. 

‘Hypocrisy and division’
It would be impossible to overlook the “double standards” if the European Broadcasting Union allowed Israel to compete after throwing out Russia in 2022 over the Ukraine invasion, said Pablo O’Hana at The Independent. Unless the EBU “rediscovers its backbone,” Eurovision risks becoming a “stage for selective storytelling, hypocrisy and division” at a time when our continent “most needs unity.”

Azerbaijan was not suspended during its war in Nagorno-Karabakh nor Turkey during its incursions into northern Syria, even though both countries “initiated the wars they fought while Israel was attacked,” said Jack Simony at The Jerusalem Post. For Eurovision to single out Israel would be “undermining its own ethos” as a “festival of inclusion.” 

A nation that’s “perpetrating genocide cannot continue to sing,” said Gideon Levy at Israeli daily Haaretz. The justification for Russia’s 2022 suspension was “considered self-evident,” and Israel’s conduct in Gaza has been “far crueller and more genocidal” than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

‘Awkward intersection’ 
Boycotts and bans are “almost as old as the contest itself,” historian Tess Megginson said to Vox. In the 1970s, Greece and Turkey boycotted Eurovision over Turkey’s invasion of northern Cyprus. And while there were songs about “peace and unity and breaking down walls,” as Eastern European countries started joining in the 1990s, Yugoslavia was banned from the contest following the siege of Sarajevo. 

More recently, the suspension of Russia symbolized the “awkward intersection of politics and culture at which Eurovision sits,” said Politico. This latest row is part of a wider European debate over “whether cultural bans on Israeli artists and athletes” are “proportionate responses to the war in Gaza” or risk “crossing into antisemitism.”

A protester lights a flare in Marseille as hundreds of thousands of people join in a nationwide strike and mass demonstrations today against France’s draft budget. The government says cuts are needed to tackle the ballooning national debt, but unions condemned the “horror show” proposals.
Miguel Medina / AFP / Getty Images

When it comes to new museum exhibitions, this fall has it all — 19th-century American marine scenes, historical Black art, and manga. It’s sightseeing in a fresh way. 

‘Art of Manga,’ de Young Museum, San Francisco
Manga, a style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, is a “worldwide obsession,” said KQED, but “despite its ubiquity,” it’s rare to see the original drawings on display — until now. “Art of Manga” is the first major U.S. museum exhibition focusing on what goes into creating this work and includes more than 600 drawings from some of the most influential manga creators. (Sept. 27-Jan. 25)

‘Reimagine African American Art,’ Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts will christen its four new African American art gallery rooms with this assemblage of Black masterpieces from its collection. The “reimagined” galleries were moved to the “heart of the museum” to “better showcase” the contributions of local Black artists, said the Detroit Free Press. (opens Oct. 18)

'Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolor,' Museum of Fine Arts Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts is home to the world's largest collection of watercolors by Winslow Homer, one of “America’s greatest artists” who with “just washes and brushes on paper” could “evoke profound emotions,” said Boston Magazine. “Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolor” provides a rare look at almost 50 pieces that have been in storage and are “so fragile” they have not been exposed to daylight in nearly five decades. (Nov. 2-Jan. 10)