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(MOSCOW) — Russia’s state censor has threatened to block YouTube in the country in retaliation for the Google-owned video platform deleting two German-language channels belonging to the Kremlin-funded broadcaster RT for allegedly publishing misinformation around COVID-19.

The Russian censor, Roskomnadzor, sent a letter to Google warning that if it did not swiftly restore the two RT YouTube channels, then it faced a complete or partial block, according to Russian state news agencies that published parts of the letter Wednesday.

YouTube this week deleted the two RT channels, RT DE and Der Fehlende Part, for posting what it said was misinformation on the coronavirus pandemic. YouTube in a statement said RT DE had initially received a week-long suspension, blocking it from uploading videos, because it had violated misinformation rules.

But the platform said RT DE then tried to circumvent the restriction by using the other channel, Der Fehlende Part, to upload videos, a violation of YouTube’s user terms, which resulted in both channels being permanently banned.

Russia’s government has responded with fury and a torrent of threats to retaliate. The Russian foreign ministry on Tuesday called the deletions an “act of unprecedented information aggression” and asked the state censor to take actions against YouTube and German media in Russia.

RT’s editor in chief, Margarita Simonyan, claimed the bans amounted to a “true media war” by Germany on Russia and said she was “looking forward” to Russia banning the main German public television broadcasters, ARD, ZDF and Deutsche Welle.

Germany’s government on Wednesday said it had no involvement with YouTube’s decision to delete the RT channels and and criticized Russia’s threats to retaliate against German media.

“I want to say in crystal-clear terms that this is a decision by YouTube, and the German government, or representatives of the German government, have nothing to do with this decision,” Steffan Seibert, the German government’s spokesman told reporters, according to Euronews.

Seibert said anyone calling for retaliation against German media “doesn’t show a good relationship with press freedom, from our point of view.”

Russian authorities have sought to pressure German state news media in Russia over the past two years amid a broader crackdown on free media. Russian officials have previously publicly threatened to withdraw the accreditation of Deutsche Welle, the foreign-focused public news agency, that has a Russian-language service.

The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said that in blocking the RT channels, “there are signs” YouTube had “grossly” violated Russian laws.

He told reporters that if Russian law enforcement agencies concluded the same then it couldn’t be excluded that measures might be taken to “oblige this platform to fulfil our laws.”

The threats to block YouTube come amid an escalating campaign by Russian authorities to pressure American tech companies, as the Kremlin seeks to take tighter control over Russia’s internet.

Just over a week ago, Google and Apple bowed to Kremlin demands to remove some content relating to a tactical voting campaign promoted by the jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny during Russia’s parliamentary elections.

Google removed an app as well as two videos from YouTube related to the campaign, called Smart Voting.

The move was seen as the biggest concession the tech giants have made to Kremlin demands to delete content from opponents and it has alarmed liberal Russians that it is a step toward the companies accepting broader censorship in Russia.

Apple and Google have largely declined to comment on the matter, except to indicate they were following local laws.

Russia’s government has pressed Google, Facebook and Twitter for years to remove more content critical of president Vladimir Putin’s rule, imposing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines on the companies. But the Kremlin had stopped short of blocking the platforms, partly because it lacked the technical capacity to do so and because it feared a backlash at home and internationally.

Some experts believe that calculus has shifted though, and that the government is now prepared to take a hard line. Since earlier this year, Roskomnadzor has slowed down Twitter, causing videos and photos to load poorly.

Google, in particular, has faced increased pressure in recent weeks. In the days before the company deleted the Navalny voting content, bailiffs visited its Moscow office to demand unpaid fines imposed by the censor. Google and Apple representatives were also summoned before a committee of the Russian senate, where the companies were accused of enabling “election interference.” The New York Times reported that Google deleted the Navalny materials after Russian authorities threatened to prosecute specific employees at its Moscow office.

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(LONDON) — Prince William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are hiring.

The Cambridges are searching for a personal assistant to add to their team, according to a new job listing.

The full-time position is based at Kensington Palace, where William and Kate live with their three young children.

The personal assistant role would provide an up-close look at William and Kate’s lives. The role is responsible for managing the royals’ schedules, arranging meetings, drafting letters and emails and assisting with events and travel, according to the listing.

“Excellent organization and communication skills are essential, as is attention to detail and a willingness to undertake a wide variety of tasks,” the listing reads. “The ability to maintain confidentiality and exercise discretion at all times is essential.”

The job listing does not include a salary for the role.

The personal assistant would join what the listing describes as a “busy team” supporting William and Kate, the future king and queen.

In just the last two days alone, William and Kate have attended a global movie premiere and traveled to Ireland.

The Cambridges walked the red carpet Tuesday night alongside William’s father, Prince Charles, and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, at the premiere of the latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die.

The next morning, William and Kate traveled to Northern Ireland.

In their first-ever visit to Derry-Londonderry, the royals met with nursing and medical students at a local university and visited a rugby club that is working to bridge divides among people of different religious backgrounds.

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(WASHINGTON) — It’s been nearly one month since the U.S. withdrew all U.S. troops from Afghanistan on President Joe Biden’s order to leave by Aug. 31, ending a chaotic evacuation operation after the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized the capital Kabul.

Top Pentagon leaders are appearing before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday amid bipartisan criticism of the chaotic withdrawal and on the failure to anticipate the Taliban’s swift takeover of the country.

In their appearance before Congress on Tuesday — their first since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan — the leaders candidly admitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee that they had recommended to Biden that the U.S. should keep a troop presence there, appearing to contradict his assertions to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.

Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:

Sep 29, 11:21 am
GOP links failed drone strike to ‘over-the-horizon’ capabilities

Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, raising the August U.S. drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children, took direct issue with the U.S. military’s ability to conduct “over the horizon” drone strike capabilities in Afghanistan.

“What we know from your prior statements is that you did not know who it was, who was in the car, whose house it was,” Turner said. “This greatly concerns me as we look to the over horizon claims that the administration has of its ability for counterterrorism.”

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told House lawmakers he took “full responsibility” for the strike.

“That strike was a mistake and I take full responsibility for that strike. I was under no pressure from any quarter to conduct the strike,” McKenzie said.

“While in many cases we were right with our intelligence and forestalled ISIS- K attacks, in this case we were wrong, tragically wrong,” he added.

“Over-the-horizon” capabilities are a cornerstone of the U.S. military’s counterterrorism strategy in Afghanistan. The top Pentagon commanders said the U.S. will continue to investigate the intelligence that led to the August strike and will be transparent with their findings.

Sep 29, 10:47 am
Milley praises Afghanistan War veterans, defends calls to China

Echoing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in his opening testimony that lawmakers can debate the decisions surrounding the Afghanistan withdrawal but that the courage of U.S. service members is not up for debate.

“Over the course of four presidents, 12 secretaries of defense, seven chairmen, 10 CENTCOM commanders, 20 commanders in Afghanistan, hundreds of congressional delegation visits, and 20 years of congressional oversight, there are many lessons to be learned,” Milley said.

“One lesson we can never forget: every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine who served there for 20 years, protected our country against attack by terrorists, and for that we all should be forever grateful, and they should be forever proud,” he said.

Milley again took the chance to push back on recent characterizations of phone calls to China’s top military official in the final days of former President Donald Trump’s presidency.

“At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself into the chain of command. But I am expected to give my advice and ensure that the president was fully informed on military affairs,” he said.

Sep 29, 10:18 am
Defense secretary delivers opening testimony for House lawmakers

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, facing a House panel on Wednesday, repeated his opening testimony given to Senate lawmakers at Wednesday’s hearing, in which Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, appeared to contradict Biden by saying they recommended keeping a residual force of 2,500 troops behind in Afghanistan.

Austin again defended leaving Bagram Airfield, saying it would have required at least 5,000 troops and would have “contributed little” to the mission of protecting the embassy in Kabul, which ultimately fell to Taliban control.

“Staying in Baghram even for counterterrorism purposes meant staying at war in Afghanistan, something that the president made clear that he would not do,” Austin said.

He again walked through some “uncomfortable truths” about the two-decade U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, of which he is a veteran.

“We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation. The fact that the Afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise,” he said.

Sep 29, 10:12 am
Heated House hearing underway with residual force in focus

House Armed Services Chair Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., opened Wednesday’s hearing on Afghanistan with a defense of Biden for ending America’s longest war — and with a preemptive strike on the panel’s Republicans, who he said would spend the day trying to get the military leaders to contradict the commander in chief.

“The option of keeping 2,500 troops in Afghanistan in a peaceful and stable environment did not exist,” Smith said, opening the hearing.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, face a second day of questions from congressional lawmakers on the U.S. military’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan.

Ranking Republican member Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said he “could not disagree more” with Smith and called Biden “delusional” before the leaders gave their opening testimonies.

Sep 29, 9:22 am
Top military leaders face more questions in House hearing

The nation’s top military leaders are back on Capitol Hill at 9:30 a.m. before the House Armed Services Committee — where Republicans are expected to seize on their comments from Tuesday that they recommended Biden keep a residual force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, appearing to contradict the president’s comments to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, candidly admitted in a Senate hearing on Tuesday — their first appearance before lawmakers since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan — that they had recommended the U.S. keep a small troop presence there, with Milley openly advising presidents not to assign complete withdrawal dates without conditions.

In the six-hour hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Milley also characterized that the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan as “a strategic failure” and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledged that it was time to acknowledged some “uncomfortable truths” about the two-decade U.S. military mission there. House lawmakers are expected to follow up on the revelations on Wednesday.

Sep 28, 3:53 pm
1st Senate hearing with top commanders on Afghanistan adjourns

After nearly six hours of testimonies and tough questions, the Senate Armed Services Committee has adjourned its hearing with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command — their first since the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Senators sunk into Milley and McKenzie saying they had recommended leaving 2,500 troops behind as a residual force in Afghanistan ahead of the chaotic evacuation effort. Several GOP senators called on the leaders to resign, to which Milley offered a powerful rebuttal.

“It would be an incredible act of political defiance for a commissioned officer to just resign because my advice is not taken,” Milley said. “My dad didn’t get a choice to resign at Iwo Jima.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, during the hearing, defended Biden’s interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in which the president said the views of his advisers were “split,” saying, “There was no one who said, ‘Five years from now, we could have 2,500 troops, and that would be sustainable.’”

“That was not a decision the president was going to make,” Psaki added. “Ultimately, it’s up to the commander in chief to make a decision. He made a decision it was time to end a 20-year war.”

It’s been nearly one month since Biden withdrew all U.S. troops, ending a chaotic evacuation operation after the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized the capital Kabul.

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(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Over one month into Taliban control of Afghanistan, fears for women’s and girl’s rights and education have only grown — fueled further Tuesday by a top Taliban official’s comments that “women will not be allowed to come to universities or work.”

The tweets from the Taliban-appointed chancellor of Kabul University set off a fresh firestorm, prompting a clarification and a complaint about media coverage, before the outspoken chancellor deleted his Twitter account.

It’s a strange episode that says as much about the Taliban’s acute awareness of international perceptions as it does about what the future of Taliban rule holds for half of Afghanistan’s nearly 40 million people — its women and girls.

While the U.S. and other Western countries have called on the Taliban to respect women’s and girls’ rights, especially access to education, the Taliban have already taken steps to restrict them, including announcing earlier this month that certain subjects may be off limits and female students would be barred from studying with males. That could mean they’ll be excluded entirely, given the limited resources at Afghanistan’s schools and universities.

Already, the militant group has named an all-male cabinet and prohibited women from returning to work, saying there were security concerns that temporarily prevented it. A handful of women-led protests against Taliban rules have faced violent crackdowns in Kabul and other cities.

When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, they largely barred women and girls from public life without a male relative and excluded them from schools and universities entirely.

Kabul University chancellor Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat suggested a return to that policy Tuesday, tweeting, “As long as a real Islamic environment is not provided for all, women will not be allowed to come to universities or work. Islam first.”

After media outlets reported on his comments, he issued a second tweet, criticizing the New York Times in particular for what he called a “bad misunderstanding” of his comments.

“I haven’t said that we will never allow women to attend universities or go to work, I meant that until we create an Islamic environment, women will have to stay at home. We work hard to create safe Islamic environment soon,” wrote the 34-year old, who was named to his role earlier this month.

Hours later, his Twitter account was deleted entirely.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, spun Ghairat’s statement, seemingly keen to ease Western concerns about women’s education, even without denying it was true.

“It might be his own personal view,” Mujahid told the New York Times, according to the paper, which added that he would not give assurances about when the ban on women would be lifted. He only said the militant group was working on a “safer transportation system and an environment where female students are protected.”

Asked about Ghairat’s comments, a State Department spokesperson told ABC News, “Any government should demonstrate respect for and inclusion of women and girls, in all their diversity, including supporting their education. Equal access to higher education on the basis of merit for all individuals is one of the principles codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

But it’s unclear what steps the U.S. or other government would be willing to take to ensure that equal access. The spokesperson didn’t address that issue, saying instead in their statement the U.S. “will continue to support Afghan women and girls.”

The Taliban is already under heavy international sanctions, and the former Afghan government’s U.S. assets, worth billions of dollars, remain frozen by the U.S., while the World Bank and International Monetary Fund suspended funding.

There’s growing pressure from Taliban leaders as well as some Afghan civilians to release those funds as the country’s economy teeters on collapse and millions are desperate for international aid.

During the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, there were enormous gains for women and girls, especially in education. The female literacy rate nearly doubled in a decade to 30% in 2018, according to a UNESCO report this year, and the number of girls in school went from nearly zero in 2001 to 2.5 million in 2018, making up nearly half of all primary students.

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