The Friday Brief with Phoenix Ricks
The Friday Brief is a calm news podcast by Girl Friday, a boutique global affairs firm in Washington, D.C. We believe awareness impels action for a world of good.
The Friday Brief with Phoenix Ricks
The Taliban's Internet Blackout
Internet and mobile services are being restored today across Afghanistan. Did the Taliban shut off access as part of an "immorality" ban? Or is something else happening? We delve into China's oil feud with the Taliban and examine potential reasons for this disruption. In Congo, former president Joseph Kabila has been sentenced to death for war crimes. But, where in the world is he? Plus: Israel intercepted an aid flotilla; Madagascar's president dissolved the government; the U.S. Congress shut down the government; and American farmers are paying the price for Trump's trade wars. All in under 15 minutes!
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Welcome to The Friday Brief, a news podcast by Girl Friday. I’m Phoenix Ricks, the CEO of Girl Friday and your host. This is your brief for October 2, 2025.
Reuters reported that Madagascar’s president has dissolved the government. Youth-led protests, inspired by similar demonstrations in Kenya and Nepal, highlighted the country's water and power shortages. The United Nations says 22 people were killed and at least 100 were injured during these protests. The BBC says that despite the government's dissolution on Monday, demonstrations continued on Tuesday, and the country’s security forces continued to use unnecessarily violent measures against protestors.
Afghans are also taking to the streets, but this time it's in lukewarm celebration. The BBC reported that the Taliban restored internet and telecom services after having shut them down for 48 hours, interrupting everything from people calling their families to emergency services and flights. The Taliban has apparently not told the media why they shut down these critical communications services. NBC reported that internet disruptions actually began last month, when northern provinces announced a ban as part of a campaign against immorality.
Did this ban spread across the country without warning, or did the Taliban shut off the internet and telecom services nationwide for other reasons? There were legitimate concerns that the Taliban could have been using the blackout to further isolate women and girls from connecting with online education, since girls cannot attend school past the sixth grade anymore. They have been marginalizing and oppressing women and girls since they resumed power in 2021. This is an uncomfortable fact Western influencers should remember before flocking to Afghanistan to share carefully curated propaganda with their social media followers.
However, men were, of course, also impacted by this outage. So, as services come back on track across the country today, the question remains: Who shut off vital internet and communications services for 48 hours? Was it the Taliban silently enacting their northern immortality ban everywhere? The services are being restored too quickly for that to be the single answer, in my opinion. And, while the Taliban didn't announce the blackout, they issued a statement about restoration. Here's what their Ministry of Information and Culture said yesterday: “Following a major technical disruption in Afghanistan’s mobile networks, phone call services have now begun to be gradually restored." They said they are "working round-the-clock to ensure the complete restoration of services.” You may have noted in that statement that they did not take responsibility or place blame.
Now, this is my area of expertise for clients: determining why leaders, governments, militias, and mercenaries take specific actions allows me to predict their next moves and assess how their behavior will affect businesses. If I had to assess this for a client, I would investigate who is actually in control of those telecom services and who benefits from them being down for 48 hours. Does the Taliban benefit or someone else? I'd think about the other countries that were eager to invest in Afghanistan after the U.S. left and the chronic issues they've faced with the Taliban. Here's just one example. In late August, NPR published a story about a dispute over an oil deal between China and the Taliban. The Taliban accused China of breach of contract, and China accused the Taliban of acting like "bandits." The argument centers on where oil will be processed under their deal: in Afghanistan or in China. The Taliban was adamant that oil would be processed in Afghanistan because they were trying to make as much money from the joint venture as possible. Chinese employees said Afghans "unreasonably drove our Chinese personnel out of the oil field at gunpoint."
Now, foreign investment controversies may have nothing to do with this internet blackout. There are so many reasons why a blackout could be strategically deployed, including moving people or products undetected. When I see questionable mobile blackouts or disruptions of online services anywhere in the world, I always ask: who benefits from this directly, and who benefits from learning how the government handled it? If it wasn't the Taliban and they feel they do not have the power to out the perpetrator, I think they'll lean on the immorality ban as the answer, or pretend it was an unpredictable problem with the physical infrastructure of those services, like saying a mobile tower went down during a storm. I think there's a lot more to this story, and I'll be watching this space.
Looking at news from the Congo, there have been developments in the case against former president Joseph Kabila. CNN reported that a military court convicted him of treason, insurrection, conspiracy, and war crimes this week, sentencing him to death. How they plan to carry out that sentence remains to be seen, as this was a trial in absentia. Kabila hasn’t been spotted in public since a rare sighting in Goma earlier this year. Kabila’s party continues to say this is all political, but Congo’s government maintains that Kabila collaborated with violent rebels who Rwanda supports. Once they do find Kabila, Congo’s government will also have to figure out how he’s going to pay damages. In addition to the death sentence, the court also ordered Kabila to pay $29 billion in damages to the country, as well as an additional $4 billion to two provinces. Have you been following the latest GSF flotilla to Gaza?
Yesterday, CNN reported that the Israeli military intercepted GSF aid ships headed to Gaza. GSF said, “In addition to the boats confirmed to be intercepted, live-stream coverage and communication has been lost with multiple other boats. We are diligently working to account for all participants and crew.” According to GSF, everyone on board was unharmed. The press is awaiting statements from the Israeli military.
And now to news from the U.S., October 1st was day one of yet another U.S. government shutdown. Another shutdown? Under Trump? Groundbreaking. Contrary to Republicans’ snappy talking points, this stalemate has nothing to do with undocumented immigrants because, under U.S. law, they do not receive healthcare benefits. NBC News reported that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “Nowhere have Democrats suggested that we're interested in changing federal law. The question for the president is whether he's interested in protecting the health care of the American people.”
I would strongly recommend that Democrats lean into that last part of that statement. I don't think most Americans know that Republicans are repeating an inaccurate talking point because most Americans don't know that U.S. law prevents covering healthcare for undocumented immigrants. Very few journalists are calling this out in real time, on air, with Republican guests. Kaitlin Collins of CNN is one of the few journalists who have effectively done this. So, instead of explaining that Democrats aren't trying to change federal law, a law most Americans know nothing about, they should say that this administration is taking away American citizens' healthcare. Keep it short, and repeat it across every network and platform. Democrats have to make it clear what they are fighting for and give Americans a short, memorable line about that fight. And they must do this for voters in red states who could lose their livelihoods because of this administration's policies and actions.
I’ve been tracking how American farmers have been affected by this administration, which many of them voted for. ABC News says the trade war between the U.S. and China is hurting American soybean farmers. According to farmers in Nebraska, China stopped buying their soybeans in response to U.S. tariffs. One farmer told ABC that China hasn't purchased a single export of beans this year, and that's not normal. He said, "When China quits buying, our prices go down." At a recent policy event in DC, I learned that American farmers are facing serious mental health challenges because of this administration's economic policies. In September, FarmJournal reported that farmers are 3.5 times more likely to die by suicide than the rest of the population and added, “With mounting financial stress, that number could be on the rise this year. Suicide rates in the agriculture community are alarmingly high, driven by extreme stress and ongoing financial crises. But help is available — including a dedicated crisis line specifically for farmers.” From trade wars to the shutdown, we must check in on our farming neighbors around the country. Let them know that while we all suffer varying degrees of consequences due to the government shutdown, members of Congress will still receive their paychecks.
Thank you for listening to The Friday Brief. Make sure you and your friends don’t miss an episode! Check out thefridaybrief.com, and follow The Friday Brief on Instagram. Until next time, I’m Phoenix Ricks, signing off from Washington, DC. Let’s work together for a world of good.
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