Students and faculty with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music flew last week from Doha to Lisbon, where they will start their new lives and reconstitute their celebrated academy in exile.
"We want to prove to everyone forever that we respect humanity," Taliban spokesman Muhammad Naeem Wardak told NPR in Doha, Qatar. He also said women "must have the right to education and to work."
Saudi Arabia has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to stage high-profile sporting events. Critics say those investments are an attempt by the kingdom to cover up human rights violations.
Even with stringent lockdowns, the coronavirus has spread through migrant communities in some Middle Eastern countries where foreign workers live in cramped quarters.
Qatar made the announcement early Monday — the same day it informed OPEC it is withdrawing from the group. The country says it wants to focus on producing natural gas.
Qatar has been isolated by neighboring countries in a heated diplomatic standoff. But Saudi Arabia has announced it plans to open its border to allow pilgrims from the tiny Gulf country.
The change, effective immediately, means that people from the U.S. and other countries are now able to enter Qatar "with no paperwork, no payment and no visas."
The U.S. secretary of state will also visit Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The latter has joined three other countries in isolating tiny Qatar. The shuttle diplomacy marks a shift in approach for Tillerson.
A group of four regional neighbors led by Saudi Arabia accuses Qatar of supporting terrorism. A Qatari spokesman counters that the demands are "about limiting Qatar's sovereignty."
The Gulf state blew past a Sunday deadline to meet a series of demand that from Saudi Arabia and its allies that Doha describes as an "affront to international law."
If Qatar wants to end a recent diplomatic standoff, Saudi Arabia and three other Arab states say the country has 10 days to comply with a steep list of demands, including shutting down Al-Jazeera.
It's the most recent flare-up in a series of long-running tensions between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. This time, analysts say, there will be no easy or quick resolution.
A businessman will charter some 60 Qatar Airlines flights for the bovines. He aims to jump-start a dairy industry in Qatar, which risks food shortages amid a blockade from its Gulf Arab neighbors.
After tweets that seemed to side against Qatar, President Trump has offered to host a meeting to work out problems between the small oil-rich nation and its neighbors, which are seeking to isolate it.
The White House and the State Department stressed the need for cooperation among Arab allies, after President Trump appeared to take the side of Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors against Qatar.
Qatar hosts a key air base for the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. It's unclear how or if coalition members that severed ties with Qatar will continue to participate in operations out of that base.
The coordinated move closes Qatar's lone land-based border crossing. It comes amid accusations of support for terrorism and suspicions about ties with Iran.
Li Jie and Hitomi Sato met at the Qatar Open on Thursday and wound up in a battle of wills that lasted more than 10 minutes and perhaps defied the average human ability to focus.
"I think I will learn a lot and also have lots of fun there," says Ahmed Mohamed. The 14-year-old and his family have accepted a scholarship for high school and college.
Israel's long-standing policy has been to isolate Hamas. But in a rare exception, Israel does permit Qatar to send large sums for projects in Gaza, the territory run by Hamas.
Their call comes on the same day the BBC said a reporting crew spent two nights in a Qatari jail for trying to film migrant workers who are building the infrastructure for the sporting event.
