A veteran-led organisation has launched a new artificial intelligence-powered platform designed to help Afghans navigate complex visa and relocation options as thousands remain stranded or at risk nearly five years after the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

The Visa Pathways and Relocation Information Center (V-PRIC), developed by AfghanEvac, uses artificial intelligence to guide users through possible immigration and protection pathways based on their individual circumstances.

According to AfghanEvac founder and U.S. Navy veteran Shawn VanDiver, the platform attracted more than 30,000 visits during its first week online.

Users begin by answering questions about their current location, whether they worked with the United States, whether they face security risks, and by providing a brief description of their situation. The system then compares that information with a database covering 124 U.S. visa and immigration categories, including 16 relevant to Afghan applicants, as well as relocation options offered by other countries.

VanDiver said the platform is intended to simplify what is often a confusing and constantly changing immigration process. Before using the service, applicants must acknowledge that it does not provide legal advice.

The launch comes as many Afghans who supported the U.S. during its two-decade military presence continue to face uncertainty. AfghanEvac says policy changes have significantly reduced available relocation opportunities, leaving many applicants unable to progress with immigration cases.

According to the organisation, around 1,100 Afghan allies and their family members remain at the Camp As Sayliyah processing facility in Doha, Qatar, despite many having previously received approval to enter the United States. AfghanEvac says travel restrictions have prevented them from completing the process.

VanDiver said the new tool helps users identify obstacles affecting their applications, including whether delays are caused by legal requirements or government policy, while also highlighting possible next steps.

The platform has been trained using legal decisions, executive orders, policy documents and information gathered through AfghanEvac surveys and guidance materials. The organisation says it will continue updating the system as immigration policies evolve.

VanDiver said the tool could also help applicants avoid actions that may complicate future immigration cases, such as pursuing visa interviews when programmes are temporarily suspended.

AfghanEvac recently surveyed more than 1,100 Afghans between January and July this year. Of the 427 respondents still inside Afghanistan, nearly half reported facing direct security threats. Another 427 respondents were in Pakistan awaiting relocation, with many expressing concerns about possible deportation and limited access to healthcare.

The organisation emphasised that the AI platform is intended to complement, rather than replace, professional legal assistance. It encourages applicants to seek legal advice while using the service to better understand the immigration options available to them.

Facebook users around the world experienced widespread disruption on Sunday after the social media platform suffered a major outage that left many unable to access their accounts or use key features.

According to outage-tracking service Downdetector, reports of problems surged sharply overnight, jumping from just a handful of reports initially to millions by noon on Sunday (Kabul time). 

Many users reported being unable to log into Facebook, while others who were already signed in encountered an error message stating: “Account Temporarily Unavailable. Your account is currently unavailable due to a site issue. We expect this to be resolved shortly. Please try again in a few minutes.”

The outage appeared to affect Facebook’s desktop platform most severely, although users also reported problems with the mobile app, including uploading photos and videos, viewing content and sending messages through Messenger.

Thousands of users turned to other social media platforms, including X, to confirm they were not alone, with “Facebook down” quickly becoming a trending topic in several regions.

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, had not issued an official explanation for the disruption at the time of publication. It also remained unclear whether the outage affected users in all regions equally or whether other Meta-owned services, including Instagram and WhatsApp, experienced related issues.

Downdetector, which tracks online service disruptions through user-submitted reports, said the spike suggested a significant global outage. The number of reports on the platform does not necessarily represent the total number of affected users.

While outages of this scale are relatively uncommon, Facebook has experienced several high-profile service interruptions in recent years, affecting millions of users worldwide.

Meta is expected to provide further details once engineers identify the cause of the disruption. Users are advised to avoid repeatedly attempting to log in or changing account settings while the issue is being resolved, as the problem appears to stem from Facebook’s systems rather than individual accounts.

The Artemis II astronauts reunited with their Orion capsule on Wednesday, three months after completing a record-breaking mission around the moon that took them farther into space than any humans in history.

It was the crew’s first visit to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center since their launch in April. When they last saw the launch pad, the Space Launch System rocket that carried them to space was still standing there.

“It’s a lonely place without that rocket on it,” mission commander Reid Wiseman said, as the four astronauts thanked the teams that supported the historic flight.

The crew—NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen—set a new human distance record by traveling 252,756 miles (406,771 km) during the lunar flyby. The mission marked humanity’s first journey to the moon in more than 50 years.

Wiseman said public enthusiasm for the mission remains strong, recalling that a passenger on a recent flight in France thanked him for “reminding us about joy and hope in the universe again.”

NASA last month announced the four-member crew for Artemis III, scheduled for next year. The mission will remain in Earth orbit to rehearse docking with lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin, while Artemis IV is planned as early as 2028 and is expected to include a crewed lunar landing.

Christina Koch, the first woman to fly to the moon, said she welcomed NASA’s merit-based crew selection after Artemis III’s all-male crew drew attention.

Jeremy Hansen, Canada’s representative on Artemis II, announced earlier this week that he will leave the Canadian Space Agency in September but will continue supporting the Artemis program as a reservist in the Royal Canadian Air Force.