KABUL, Afghanistan Taliban – Yunis Safi, a Kabul businessman, understands how important it is to show off your phone if you want something done.

“In Afghanistan, your phone is your personality,” he remarked, beaming, his hands adorned with jewel-encrusted rings. One has an emerald, the other a large Russian diamond. “When you go to a meeting with the government, the better your phone, the more they respect you.”

Safi owns a phone business in the exclusive Shar-e-Naw area. An armed guard stands outside. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is now on store shelves, priced at $1,400. He has customers willing to part with this amount of money, which may surprise some, considering the country’s economic troubles and that more than half of the population relies on humanitarian help for survival.

Afghanistan’s finances were precarious even before the Taliban took power in 2021. The budget relied significantly on foreign help, and corruption was rampant. The seizure shattered Afghanistan’s economy, freezing billions of dollars in international finances and forcing tens of thousands of highly skilled Afghans to flee the country with their money.

Phones, Islamic Books And Currency Exchange. Some Businesses Are Making Money Out Of Taliban Rule

Despite the terrible conditions, some businesses benefit under the Taliban administration. Women are relegated to customers, however, because authorities have forbidden them from most jobs, including retail. None of Safi’s 78 employees are female.

He has tapped into a varied client base, including those eager for the latest iPhone release and those who prefer simple devices. The latter account for the majority of his sales and range in price from $20 to $200.

The Taliban used to target phone towers and threaten telecom companies, accusing them of working with the United States and other international forces to detect insurgent movements via mobile phone signals. Now, they’re investing in 4G mobile networks.

The Communications Ministry reports that 2 million new SIM cards have been issued in the last two years, and subscriber numbers are increasing. Enayatullah Alokozai, a ministry official, stated that the government is investing $100 million in telecom and has completely rebuilt hundreds of towers.

There are 22.7 million active SIM cards in a country with a population of 41 million. Ten million are for phone calls, with the remainder for mobile internet.

According to Trade Ministry estimates, phone imports have increased. More than 1,584 tons of phones entered Afghanistan in 2022. Last year, it weighed 1,895 tons.

Safi said he had many Taliban customers, and the younger ones prefer iPhones. “Of course, they need smartphones. They use social media and enjoy making videos. The iPhone offers stronger security than Samsung. The camera’s resolution, CPU, and memory are all improved. Afghans use smartphones like everyone else.”

Safi has the iPhone 15 Pro Max, an Apple Watch Ultra, and three automobiles.

Business was difficult shortly after the Taliban took power, but it is improving, according to Safi. “The people buying the new release iPhones are the ones with relatives abroad sending money to Afghanistan.”

Phones, Islamic Books And Currency Exchange. Some Businesses Are Making Money Out Of Taliban Rule

Remittances are a lifeline, but less than half of what they were before the Taliban took power and the financial system collapsed.

At Kabul’s rowdy Shahzada Market, hundreds of money changers clutch stacks of the local currency, the Afghani, and noisily hawk their wares. They occupy every floor, stairwell, corner, and cranny.

According to Abdul Rahman Zirak, a senior official at the money exchange market, $10 million changes hands every day. The diaspora sends largely U.S. cash to family, which they convert for Afghani.

Before the Taliban took control, there were more ways to donate money to Afghanistan. However, there are no longer any linkages to SWIFT or international banking, which is one of the main reasons why business is brisk in the market, he said.

“The work of money exchangers has increased and strengthened,” he stated. “Money transfers come from Canada, the U.S., Europe, Australia, Arab nations and other neighboring countries.”

Trade becomes extremely chaotic during the holidays. During the holy month of Ramadan, 20,000 people visited the market daily, and it took more than 90 minutes to enter, he claimed.

Our business may suffer if the restrictions are lifted and the assets are unfrozen. But I don’t see this happening. Many do not have bank accounts. Unemployment is rising, therefore people send money to Afghanistan. Our company will be needed for years to come.”

Irfanullah Arif, who owns Haqqani Books, a specialist retailer of Islamic manuscripts, is likewise pleased with his fortunes. His consumers are primarily religious school professors and pupils.

There are at least 20,000 madrasas in Afghanistan. The Taliban intends to build more. Last year, the supreme commander allegedly directed the recruiting of 100,000 madrassa teachers.

Phones, Islamic Books And Currency Exchange. Some Businesses Are Making Money Out Of Taliban Rule

While Arif’s business suffered, along with everyone else’s, from the chaos that followed the takeover, there was another cause. “All the students left the madrassas and went to work for the (Taliban) government,” Arif claimed.

The Taliban’s push for Islamic education has brought him some relief. Last year, he sold 25,000 textbooks.

Success, however, comes with a price. Arif imports everything, and the Taliban are just concerned with collecting revenue, even from Islamic literature.

Arif pays a tax of 170 Afghanis ($2.36) for a carton of 100 books, with a shipping cost of 500 Afghanis ($6.95). His bookstore’s taxes have increased under the Taliban administration.

“That’s why books are expensive in Afghanistan,” he sighed. “With the increase of madrassas, our trade has gone up, but so have the taxes.”

SOURCE – (AP)

Washington — Former President Donald Trump has purchased an extra $1.8 billion in shares of Trump Media, according to a regulatory filing this week.

Trump was granted an additional 36 million shares in the firm that controls his social media network, Truth Social, in exchange for the company’s stock meeting specific price targets. Based on Wednesday morning’s market price, this takes his overall holding to more than 114 million shares, valued at $5.7 billion.

Trump Awarded 36 Million More Trump Media Shares Worth $1.8 Billion After Hitting Price Benchmarks

Trump, the probable Republican presidential nominee, now owns almost two-thirds of the company’s outstanding shares.

Trump Media & Technology Group shares have risen sharply recently, closing Tuesday at $49.93. To get the new shares, Trump merely needs the stock to trade over $17.50 for 20 consecutive trading days.

Trump Media joined the Nasdaq after merging with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). These mergers provide emerging companies with a faster and easier path to publicly listing their shares.

Trump Awarded 36 Million More Trump Media Shares Worth $1.8 Billion After Hitting Price Benchmarks

On March 26, the first day of trading following Trump Media’s merger with Digital World Acquisition, shares of the newly combined business reached nearly $80 apiece in intraday trading before closing at $57.99.

Less than a week after its glitzy stock market debut, Trump Media revealed that it lost roughly $58.2 million last year, sending its stock down more than 21%. The $50.5 million profit the company reported in 2022 was significantly lower than the 2023 losses, according to a regulatory filing.

Trump Awarded 36 Million More Trump Media Shares Worth $1.8 Billion After Hitting Price Benchmarks

The company’s shares fell to roughly $22 in the following weeks before recovering in mid-April.Truth Social was created in February 2022, one year after Trump was barred from major social media platforms such as Facebook and X, previously Twitter, following the January 6 revolt at the US Capitol. He has been reinstated to both but has remained with Truth Social.

Trump Media’s stock sank 8.6% to $45.64 in morning trading on Wednesday.

SOURCE – (AP)

Washington — The United States Narcotic Enforcement Administration is considering reclassifying marijuana as a less harmful narcotic. The Justice Department’s proposal would recognize cannabis’ medical purposes but not legalize it for recreational use.

The proposal would shift marijuana from the “Schedule I” category to the less stringent “Schedule III.”

So, what does this mean, and what are the implications?

Technically, nothing has happened. The White House Office of Management and Budget must first examine the idea, followed by a public comment period and an administrative judge’s assessment, which could be a lengthy process.

Nonetheless, the change is considered “paradigm-shifting, and it’s very exciting,” Vince Sliwoski, a Portland, Oregon-based cannabis and psychedelics attorney who runs well-known legal blogs on those topics, told The Associated Press when the federal Health and Human Services Department recommended it.

What Marijuana Reclassification Means For The United States

“I can’t emphasize enough how big of news it is,” he said.

It came after President Joe Biden last year requested that HHS and the attorney general, who controls the DEA, investigate how marijuana was classified. Schedule I legalized it alongside heroin, LSD, quaaludes, and ecstasy, among other substances.

Biden, a Democrat, is in favor of legalizing medical marijuana “where appropriate, consistent with medical and scientific evidence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Thursday. “That is why it is important for this independent review to go through.”

No. Schedule III medicines, such as ketamine, anabolic steroids, and several acetaminophen-codeine combos, are still considered controlled narcotics.

What Marijuana Reclassification Means For The United States

They are subject to a variety of restrictions that allow for some medical usage as well as federal criminal punishment of anyone who traffics in the medications illegally.

Medical marijuana programs, which are already regulated in 38 states, and legal recreational cannabis markets in 23 states are expected to remain unchanged, but they are unlikely to meet federal production, record-keeping, prescribing, and other Schedule III drug criteria.

There haven’t been many federal prosecutions for simply possessing marijuana in recent years, even with marijuana’s existing Schedule I designation, but reclassification would have no immediate impact on those currently in the criminal justice system.

“Put simply, this shift from Schedule I to Schedule III is not keeping people out of jail,” said David Culver, senior vice president of public relations of the United States Cannabis Council.

However, rescheduling would have an impact, especially on research and marijuana business taxes.

Because marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance, it has been extremely difficult to undertake permitted clinical trials involving its administration. This has produced a Catch-22 situation: there is a need for further study, but there are hurdles to doing so. (Sometimes, scientists rely on people’s claims of marijuana use.)

Schedule III medications are easier to study, although reclassification would take time to remove all hurdles to research.

“It’s going to be really confusing for a long time,” says Ziva Cooper, director of the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids. “When the dust has settled, I don’t know how many years from now, research will be easier.”

Among the unknowns include whether academics will be permitted to study marijuana from state-licensed shops and how the federal Food and Drug Administration would regulate this.

Some researchers remain optimistic.

“Reducing the schedule to schedule 3 will allow us to conduct research with human subjects using cannabis,” said Susan Ferguson, director of the University of Washington’s Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute in Seattle.

Firms involved in “trafficking” marijuana or any other Schedule I or II substance are not allowed to deduct rent, payroll, or other expenses that other firms can. (Yes, despite the federal government’s prohibition on marijuana, at least some cannabis firms, particularly those permitted by states, pay federal taxes.) According to industry associations, tax rates frequently reach 70% or more.

The deduction regulation does not apply to Schedule III medications, so the proposed amendment would significantly reduce cannabis companies’ taxes.

They claim it would treat them like other industries and let them compete with unlawful competitors that frustrate licensees and officials in locations like New York.

“You’re going to make these state-legal programs stronger,” says Adam Goers, an executive at Columbia Care, a medicinal and recreational cannabis provider. He co-chairs a group of corporate and other stakeholders advocating for rescheduling.

According to Beau Kilmer, co-director of the RAND Drug Policy Center, deducting those expenditures could result in greater cannabis marketing and advertising.

Rescheduling would have no direct impact on another marijuana business issue: limited access to banks, particularly for loans, due to federally regulated institutions’ concerns about the drug’s legal status. Instead, the sector has focused on the SAFE Banking Act. It has frequently passed the House but is stuck in the Senate.

What Marijuana Reclassification Means For The United States

Yes, there are, notably the national anti-legalization organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana. President Kevin Sabet, a former Obama administration drug policy official, said the HHS suggestion “flies in the face of science, reeks of politics” and gives a disappointing nod to an industry “desperately looking for legitimacy.”

Some legalization supporters argue that rescheduling marijuana is too modest. They want to keep the focus on totally removing it from the controlled substances list, which does not include alcohol or tobacco (although they are regulated).

According to Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, simply reclassifying marijuana would be “perpetuating the existing divide between state and federal marijuana policies.” According to Kaliko Castille, President of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, rescheduling simply “re-brands prohibition,” rather than giving state licensees the green light and bringing an end to decades of arrests that disproportionately affected people of color.

“Schedule III is going to leave it in this kind of amorphous, mucky middle where people are not going to understand the danger of it still being federally illegal,” the senator stated.

Peltz reported from New York. Associated Press writers Colleen Long in Washington and Carla K. Johnson in Seattle contributed to this story.

SOURCE – (AP)