Afghanistan Is Back Online

After two days of what watchdog group NetBlocks called "a total internet blackout as Taliban authorities move to implement morality measures," the modem lights are back on in at least parts of Afghanistan. As the New York Times reports, the official reasons are muddled: "I still don't have the reason for the internet cutoff," says a rep for the Afghan telecommunications ministry.

Meanwhile, the Taliban on Wednesday said the nationwide outage was simply due to old fiber cables being replaced, reports NBC News, though that outlet quotes a senior Taliban leader as saying, "We don't understand what's happening in the country. Nobody is telling us, as majority of the people don't have access to each other." The Times notes that the outage, which also affected cellphone service, halted flights, shuttered banks, and ground the economy to a halt.