When the event’s five co-founders first proposed moving it out of Central Park, it seemed impossible. Much has changed in the sport and the city since that 1976 race.

© Paul Hosefros/The New York Times

Thousands of runners will take part in the New York City Marathon on Sunday. Temperatures are expected to be unusually warm for November.

© Johnny Milano for The New York Times

When Basir Arian was summoned to the Taliban headquarters, he knew he had to go. To defy them meant death. The torture left him devastated and sure he had to leave the country

‘I knew that sooner or later, they would come for me,” says Basir Arian. After the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, he had set up an online English study programme for girls when they were banned from attending school. In May 2022, he was eating lunch in the western city of Herat, when he got a call from an unfamiliar local number. A Talib official told Arian to come to the intelligence directorate within 20 minutes and to bring his phone.

“I’ll never forget that moment,” he says. “If you disobey this order, they will kill you. You have to try not to make them angry.” He told a friend where he was going, and they hurriedly discussed what to do if he didn’t return.

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© Photograph: Mary Turner/The Guardian

© Photograph: Mary Turner/The Guardian

© Photograph: Mary Turner/The Guardian

Writers are being bombarded daily with invitations from fake book groups and offers to publicise their work. For the scamming industry, aspiring authors can be a soft touch

• This piece first appeared in the Dial

‘Hello Professor Snigdha Poonam,” the email began. I read that again. Nobody has ever called me “professor” for the obvious reason that I am not a professor. Bracing myself, I read on. The email was from Timothy Firth, organiser of a Seattle-based life-drawing community with 1,943 members that regularly has “thoughtful discussions inspired by creative works”. A recent inspiration was my first book, Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World. The group wanted to discuss it, the email said, at one of its upcoming meetups. Attendees would be encouraged to post reviews on Goodreads and Amazon after.

I looked up CAM Life Drawing and found an events page and an Instagram account. The latter had some photos of Timothy Firth – white, male – as well as testimonials from members who said he worked “day and night to create more community space”. Something told me this wasn’t the man who had reached out to me.

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© Illustration: Anaïs Mims/Guardian Design

© Illustration: Anaïs Mims/Guardian Design

© Illustration: Anaïs Mims/Guardian Design

Nothing done to stop planting weapons on dead Afghans, ADF inspector says, as ‘breakdown of command’ allowed ‘egregious behaviour’

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Some Australian SAS officers knew that soldiers under their command were using “throwdowns” – planting weapons on dead Afghan civilians to portray them as combatants – but did nothing to stop the unlawful practice, a previously unpublished military report has said.

Posted online this week, the executive summary of a 2021 investigation into the “cultural context” of the special operations command by the inspector general of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) is scathing about the “breakdown of command” and the erosion of military discipline during special forces operations in Afghanistan, which “resulted in episodes of potential and actual egregious behaviour”.

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© Photograph: LS Paul Berry

© Photograph: LS Paul Berry

© Photograph: LS Paul Berry

Afghan doctors told they will no longer be able to perform corneal transplants

Struggling to find steady work, many migrants who have arrived recently from Senegal have adapted with a relentless sidewalk hustle, sustaining their families through street vending.

© Arisa Haboshi for The New York Times

Iran says diplomacy remains possible but rejects U.S. demands for surrender.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan made a rare joint visit to Tehran amid reports that the U.S. and Israel were drawing up plans to renew their attacks on Iran.

© Mohammed Salem/Reuters

The Parks Department has a $10 million plan to renovate the northeast corner of Tompkins Square Park, but fans of its workout bars want things to stay just as they are.

© Nate Schweber for The New York Times

Oscar Belgal, a Dominican immigrant, was shot in the neck on Oct. 8 and detained at a federal prison. His lawyers had said he needed outside medical care.

© Dakota Santiago for The New York Times

This is the first documented instance of barn owls nesting in Manhattan in modern history, according to one expert, and the owls have attracted nightly crowds of people in the street eager to get a glimpse of the elusive birds.

More than 90 women were sent to Saudi Arabia on fake documents in an elaborate fraud to provide workers for short-staffed Gulf hospitals

For female students, the move would spell the end of their careers and prospects under Taliban rule

A skeletal maternity service is battling to keep mothers and babies alive in Afghanistan. It is running on borrowed time