promoearn: Life in Afghanistan: Fear, hunger, violence

Monday, August 15

Afghan girls read the Quran in the Noor Mosque outside the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug 3, 2022. Maulvi Bakhtullah, the head of the mosque, said that the number of girls who come to this mosque to learn Quran has multiplied after the closure of public schools. For most teenage girls in Afghanistan, it's been a year since they set foot in a classroom. With no sign the ruling Taliban will allow them back to school, some girls and parents are trying to find ways to keep education from stalling for a generation of young women. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) ORG XMIT: DV516

Life in Afghanistan: Fear, hunger, violence

A year under Taliban rule, Afghans in crisis.

A look at life in Afghanistan one year after the fall of Kabul. The FBI is boosting security after threats in the wake of the Mar-a-Lago search. And have you ever wanted to name a planet? Now's your chance.

👋 It's Laura Davis. It's Monday. Let's do the news thing.

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Life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule: Violence, hunger, fear

One year after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban's return to power, life in Afghanistan has been transformed for many into a daily struggle for survival – marked by unemployment, homelessness, hunger and fear. Most of the attention from the West has focused on the Taliban's draconian social restrictions on women, girls and minorities after the Taliban barred girls from attending school after age 12 and eliminated women's personal freedoms. But the top concern in Afghanistan today is the economy. An estimated 700,000 have lost jobs since the U.S. withdrawal, impacting the livelihood of millions. Here's a look at how life in Afghanistan has changed in the past year.

•	'Self-inflicted wound': US withdrawal from Afghanistan still haunts Biden's presidency.
•	Tens of thousands of Afghan allies were left behind. Why have so few reached US safety?

Taliban fighters celebrate one year since they seized the Afghan capital, Kabul, in front of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. The Taliban marked the first-year anniversary of their takeover after the country's western-backed government fled and the Afghan military crumbled in the face of the insurgents' advance.

Ebrahim Noroozi, AP

Georgia election-interference inquiry: Graham must testify, Giuliani a target of investigation

A federal judge in Georgia denied Sen. Lindsey Graham's bid to avoid testifying before an Atlanta-area grand jury investigating interference in the 2020 election, rejecting the Trump ally's claim that he was shielded from such scrutiny by legislative privilege. Keep reading.

•	Why he's involved: Graham placed at least two telephone calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and staff members after the November 2020 election, seeking additional review of the absentee ballots, according to court documents.

Meanwhile, Georgia prosecutors notified lawyers representing Rudy Giuliani that Giuliani, the personal attorney to former President Donald Trump, is now a target of the widening election-interference investigation led by the Fulton County district attorney. Keep reading.

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Why he's involved: Giuliani, a former New York mayor. is scheduled to testify before a special grand jury in Atlanta this week. He had made wide-ranging claims that voting systems altered Georgia ballots, while ignoring a hand-count audit that confirmed President Joe Biden's victory in the state.

Fani Willis, District Attorney for Fulton County, opened an investigation last year, into any potential attempts to improperly influence the 2020 general election in Georgia by then President Donald Trump and his associates.

Dustin Chambers, Dustin Chambers-USA TODAY

What everyone's talking about

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Is DACA still working 10 years later? Immigrants want relief

It was supposed to be temporary. Ten years ago, the Obama administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which grants some undocumented immigrants protection from deportation and permission to legally work in the United States. But today, many immigrants are still waiting for a permanent solution. DACA recipients – who have grown into adults in the decade since it was introduced – number more than 600,000 today. They are activists, college students, lawyers, journalists, nurses and teachers. They must reapply for status every two years. The USA TODAY Network interviewed DACA recipients to better understand how the program changed their lives. These are their stories.

•	'I don't know if I will be deported': Young immigrants prepare for DACA to end.
•	'Like a roller coaster': DACA opens doors for two Texas brothers, leaves another in shadows.

Carlos Medina, 20, was brought to the U.S. as an infant by his parents from Mexico on a touriist visa and the family decided to over stay their visa. Carlos' two older brothers have received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), protecting them from deportation but his petition to receive the same protection has stalled as DACA is challenged in the courts.

Omar Ornelas/El Paso Times

FBI boosts security after increasing threats over Mar-a-Lago search

The aftermath of the FBI's search and seizure at former President Donald Trump's Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, has led the FBI to bolster security at its offices across the country in the wake of increasing threats to federal law-enforcement officers, according to sources. Over the weekend, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin expressing concern about an extraordinarily volatile environment, citing last week's attempted breach of the FBI's Cincinnati office by an assailant who is believed to have made provocative posts on Trump's Truth Social platform. Read latest on the Mar-a-Lago search.

•	Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul calls for repeal of Espionage Act.
•	What makes information 'classified'? Who has the power to declassify it? Answers here.

Mar-a-Lago search warrant shows Trump under espionage investigation

USA TODAY

Real quick

•	3 people injured in shooting at Six Flags theme park near Chicago.
•	China announces more military drills near Taiwan as US delegation visits.
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•	Surprise! Man discovers a rare purple pearl in his clam appetizer.
•	High-school football players rescue trapped woman from car crash.
•	How Nick Saban transformed Alabama – and changed the football program forever.

📲 USA TODAY politics reporters want to talk to you – the voter – about what you really need to know about the upcoming election. Join our text group!

🪐 Want to name a planet?

Anyone can name a star online, but the International Astronomical Union is offering a rare space opportunity: to name a planet discovered by the groundbreaking James Webb Telescope. The IAU is responsible for naming everything in space, and it wants the next set of planets to be named by the public. Twenty planet names are up for grabs, all of which are exoplanets, meaning they are outside our solar system. And you can't just name them whatever you want. The IAU says the proposed names should be of long-standing significance, worthy of being assigned to a celestial object. Here's how to make it happen. I have a lot of great ideas, by the way: Laura. Planet McPlanetface. MMMBop. Beyonce.

Scientists discovered the first exoplanets in the 1990s and as of 2022, the tally stands at just over 5,000 confirmed planets outside our solar system, or exoplanets. This illustration suggests what they may look like.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

A break from the news

•	📲 Lost an important text? Here's how to get it back on your iPhone.
•	👩‍💻 Got FOMO? Can't stop scrolling? It might be time to take a social media break.
•	💌 Relationship advice: I uprooted my life for my boyfriend and he dumped me. What do I do now?

Laura L. Davis is an Audience Editor at USA TODAY. Send her an email at laura@usatoday.com or follow along with her adventures – and misadventures – on Twitter. Support quality journalism like this? Subscribe to USA TODAY here.

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