Wednesday, October 6, 2021

TRT World’s Daily News Brief for Wednesday, October 6th: *) British PM's envoy meets Taliban in Afghanistan British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's special envoy met Taliban leaders in Afghanistan to discuss the humanitarian crisis and battling terrorism. Simon Gass, Johnson's high representative for Afghanistan, met Taliban leaders including Amir Khan Muttaqi and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Foreign Office said. The Taliban have been courting foreign powers to help restart cash flows to the country, where civil servants and healthcare workers have not been paid for months. *) 330,000 children victims of church sex abuse in France Victims of abuse within France’s Catholic Church welcomed a historic turning point after a new report estimated that 330,000 children were sexually abused over the past 70 years. The figure includes abuses committed by some 3,000 priests and an unknown number of other people involved in the church according to the report. The study’s authors estimate 80 percent of the church’s victims were boys, while the broader study of sexual abuse found that 75 percent of the overall victims were girls. *) Whistleblower urges regulation to tackle Facebook 'crisis' A Facebook whistleblower told US lawmakers that the social media giant fuels division, harms children and urgently needs to be regulated. Frances Haugen, testifying to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, accused the company of failing to make changes to Instagram after internal research showed apparent harm to some teens. Haugen’s accusations were buttressed by tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job. *) Third tanker carrying Iranian fuel to Lebanon reaches Syria A third tanker carrying Iranian fuel for distribution in Lebanon has reached the Syrian port city of Baniyas, TankerTrackers.com reported on Twitter. The Iran-aligned Hezbollah movement says the imports should ease a crippling energy crisis in Lebanon. Lebanese Prime Minister Naji