Taliban fighters raided a hideout of the Islamic State group north of the Afghan capital on Friday, killing and arresting an unspecified number of militants, a Taliban spokesman said.

Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, there has been an increase in attacks by IS militants targeting Taliban members. The Taliban and IS are enemies, and the attacks have raised the specter of a wider conflict between the long-time rivals.

Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi told The Associated Press that Friday's raid took place in the city of Charikar in Parwan province. He did not provide more details and his statement could not be independently verified.

The raid followed an arrest by the Taliban of two IS members linked to a roadside bombing that targeted their vehicle in the city, wounding four fighters, Karimi said. The two were questioned and the information they provided helped the Taliban identify the hideout, he added.

In recent weeks, China has announced a series of measures to further regulate online entertainment, including a crackdown on so-called "fandom culture" and new curbs on online gaming. But a push in the state media last week against a popular role-playing game may suggest that momentum is building for action against offline activities too.

"Script murder," or jubensha (剧本杀), is one of the latest obsessions of China's Gen Z. The murder mystery-like role-playing game requires only a room, a table and a host with a variety of storylines and scripts from which players can choose. The excitement unfolds as each player is assigned a script with a different character, and must act out that character - either to the group or in private one-on-one conversations - until the original plot can be pieced together and the murderer unmasked.

The jubensha craze was driven by the popularity of the Chinese variety program "Who's The Murderer" (明星大侦探), released on Mango TV in 2016, in which groups of famous singers and actors were placed in murder mystery scenarios for the enjoyment of television audiences - with a celebrity culprit exposed in each episode. The game now has a huge market in China. Countless Jubensha shops have opened across the country since 2016, and the game saw a sharp increase in popularity over the Spring Festival holiday earlier this year. A 2021 report by Meituan estimates that there are currently around 9.41 million consumers of script murder products, over 70 percent of them under the age of 30, with total sales of 15.42 billion RMB.

The rocketing growth of the jubensha industry has also come with problems. There have been complaints among various game publishers and shops about another sort of crime - the shameless pilfering of others' plot lines. And there have been some concerns about the use of more violent and explicit content. But negative press coverage of jubensha since September may be the first clue that the industry is facing increased pressure in the midst of the government's broader crackdown on the entertainment industry, and on youthful activities such as "fandom culture." Some jubensha fans have criticized coverage in the state media, saying that it unfairly distorts public perception of the game.

Laura Becker was female until 18, male at 20 and female again at 22. She feels there needs to be more awareness of the mental health issues many young 'trans' people face, before others damage their body needlessly as she did.

In recent times, liberals' desire to embrace the burgeoning trans movement has meant that if someone says they're trans, people have been encouraged to support them unconditionally.

On the surface, this may appear to be 'doing the right thing'. But according to one woman who has detransitioned, there is a danger to this - as transition conceals a hidden mental health crisis. "Transition is a big Band Aid that ironically causes more damage," says Laura Becker, who previously identified as a trans man.

• The leader of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, announced her resignation on Friday after the state's corruption watchdog said it was investigating her.
• She said her resignation will take effect as soon as the state's Liberal party can elect a new leader.
• The New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption said it was investigating whether some of Berejiklian's actions between 2012 and 2018 may have breached public trust.

The leader of New South Wales — Australia's most populous state — announced her resignation Friday after the state's corruption watchdog said it was investigating her.

"It pains me to announce that I have no option but to resign from the office of premier," Gladys Berejiklian said a briefing where she did not take questions from reporters.

She said her resignation will take effect as soon as the state's Liberal party can elect a new leader.

Plan inadvertently revealed in MoD strategy document.

The UK Ministry of Defence has inadvertently revealed its plan to spy on social media platforms in order to detect "change(s) in population sentiment."

Despite ostensibly being about "better use of existing silos," the MoD's Data Strategy for Defence document explains how the military should move towards "Automated scanning of social media platforms" to detect "change in population sentiment."

Former Metropolitan Police Officer PC Wayne Couzens admitted kidnapping, raping and murdering Sarah Everard after being confronted with a mountain of evidence. Initially he had denied any knowledge of her and then tried to blame a people trafficking gang from the Balkans.Wayne Couzens has become the first police officer to be given a whole life sentence after admitted abducting, raping and murdering Sarah Everard after carrying out a fake arrest on the grounds of breaching Covid-19 laws.

Sarah vanished on 3 March as she walked home from a friend's house in south London. Her body was later found 80 miles away, burned and dumped in a pond in woods in Kent. Couzens had strangled her with his police belt.

Accused of being the Canadian Jeffrey Epstein, the walls are closing in on former playboy Peter Nygard with Toronto Police now adding to his long list of charges.

The jetsetting fashion mogul's Winnipeg jail cell — and his next stop in a New York prison — is a long way from his lifestyle of the rich and famous and his $50 million, 22-bedroom palatial estate in the Bahamas where he's accused of luring some of his alleged victims.

In response to a whistleblower complaint alleging corruption within the EPA's New Chemicals Division, agency officials immediately notified those accused of misconduct.

Within minutes of receiving a complaint from four Environmental Protection Agency whistleblowers in late June, an agency official shared the document with six EPA staffers, including at least one who was named in it, according to records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The records — more than 1,000 pages of internal emails — also show that within 24 hours EPA officials sent the whistleblowers' complaint to other staff members who had been named in it. Two days later, the named employees met to discuss it. The releases were not in keeping with the best practices of handling whistleblower complaints, according to several experts contacted by The Intercept, and may have undermined the goals of the staff scientists who filed it.

The scientists' disclosure laid out allegations of corruption within the EPA's New Chemicals Division and provided detailed evidence that managers and high-level agency officials had deliberately tampered with numerous chemical assessments, sometimes deleting hazards from them and altering their conclusions. The environmental group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, which is representing the whistleblowers, submitted the complaint to Michal Freedhoff, the assistant administrator of the EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, the office that contains the New Chemicals Division, as well as to the EPA inspector general, Rep. Ro Khanna, and The Intercept.

UK policing minister Kit Malthouse contradicted the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Clarke, on Friday as government officials gave conflicting timelines for when the country's ongoing fuel crisis would be brought to an end.

Speaking to the media, Malthouse suggested that the long queues and fuel shortages seen at petrol stations across the UK could last for another "week or so," contradicting a government colleague who had suggested that officials had addressed the situation.

On Thursday, Clarke had sought to reassure motorists that the fuel crisis was now "back under control," with the government having outlined a plan to prevent fuel shortages from continuing. The conflicting timelines add to the chaos that has been seen on UK roads in recent weeks, as motorists panic-bought fuel over concerns that the UK is facing an imminent shortage. The government has rejected the idea that there is any need to be concerned, stating that there is not a shortage of fuel, just a lack of HGV drivers to deliver it.


Malthouse reiterated this on Friday, stating that, while there is still "unprecedented demand" in some regions, demand and supply are coming "better into balance", with a return to normality not expected immediately.

The Petrol Retailers Association has raised concerns in the past week that petrol stations are still running dry quicker than they can secure new fuel supplies from delivery drivers, urging motorists to stop panic buying. The British Army has been put on standby by the government, ready to deliver fuel if needed, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson is preparing to review the current situation, having drawn up a 10-point plan to tackle the fuel crisis.

Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey took a hardline approach to Big Tech this week, blasting Facebook over the temporary removal of her gubernatorial campaign page and accusing it of working alongside President Joe Biden's administration to stop conservatives from speaking out on things like opposition to federal coronavirus vaccine mandates.

Speaking with Fox News Digital, Ivey reiterated she strongly supported Alabamians taking the vaccine, but continued to reject any attempts by the federal government to mandate vaccinations. She blamed her opposition to those mandates as the reason for Facebook taking action against her page - Facebook has called it a mistake - and declared that "Big Tech has gotten out of hand" in its attitude towards conservatives.

"I've been against mandates since day one," Ivey said, before adding she was one of the earliest leaders to speak out on the importance of people getting vaccinated. "I took the vaccine along with state health policy, and took the second shot, and I've even had the booster."

"So I believe in the vaccine. I just don't believe in mandating any level of government. That's just not the role of government," she added. "The mandate that President Biden has rolled out puts an extra burden on our already belabored and beleaguered businesses and employees. And it's just unacceptable."