Name: Taliban cut off internet: BBC Learning English from the News
Uploaded: 2026-01-23T17:11:14.000Z
Duration: 7 min 28 s
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This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines in this programme, Taliban cuts off Internet in Afghanistan.

In this program, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.

You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode in as well as a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com okay, Phil, let's hear about this story.

The Taliban government has cut the Internet and many telephone services across Afghanistan.

This follows services being cut in some provinces earlier this month.

Authorities said that this was to prevent immorality after women and girls over 12 were barred from schools, universities and many types of jobs.

Many of them use the Internet to study online or to sell products abroad.

This shutdown has stopped them from being able to do this.

Afghans living outside the country have reported being unable to contact their relatives inside Afghanistan.

Foreign media organizations have reported been unable to contact their offices in Kabul and flights have also been disrupted.

Total Internet blackout in Afghanistan sparks panic after Taliban vowed to stamp out immoral activities.

Okay, there are a few things to look at in this headline.

Let's start with blackout, which means that something like power telephone, in this case Internet connections are completely unavailable.

If something is said to be immoral, it is something society thinks is wrong.

What's considered immoral changes from culture to culture.

For example, in some cultures, being in debt is seen as immoral.

The Taliban government sees education for women as immoral and this blackout has prevented online education for girls.

Girls had already been excluded from schools and universities.

We're going to learn the expression stamp out Now.

The literal meaning of stamp out means to put out a fire with your feet to stop it burning.

Stamping on something is stepping on something violently with a lot of force.

Stamping something out is to forcefully stop something happening.

In the headline, the Taliban have promised to stamp out to stop what they consider to be immoral.

Politicians and people in authority often talk about stamping out things that they want to get rid of, like crime, discrimination, corruption or unacceptable behaviour.

We had stamp out take strong action to stop something.

For example, the new manager promised to stamp out sexism in the office.

This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.

We're talking about Internet and telephone services being cut off in Afghanistan.

The move has been criticised by human rights organizations, one of which is quoted in our next headline.

Taliban cut Internet for whole country as Afghanistan dragged into abyss.

And that headline again from the independent in the uk.

The headline includes a quote from an organization called Afghan Peace Watch who have said that the country is being dragged into an abyss.

Abyss is the next word we're going to learn.

There is a literal meaning which we don't use that often.

An abyss is a very big, deep, dark hole, particularly one where we can't tell where the bottom is.

But abyss is much more commonly used as a metaphor to mean a very bad situation that is difficult or impossible to get out of.

The headline writer is saying that the Taliban government is taking Afghanistan into a bad situation and and that the country is being cut off from sources of help.

Abyss can be used to describe situations full of suffering, like a war torn country.

And it can be used to describe dark feelings like depression.

If a company is facing a financial abyss, then they have very serious money problems.

We've had abyss, a very negative situation that is difficult to escape from.

For example, without immediate humanitarian aid, the country could slide into the abyss.

Today we've been talking about Afghanistan's Internet blackout.

Here's a headline talking about the impact of this measure.

Afghan women lose their last hope as Taliban shuts down Internet.

Okay, so we're going to learn the expression last hope.

If something is your last hope, then it's the last or final chance that you have for something to be successful.

And we often use it to say that there's no alternative.

Here it's reporting the words of an Afghan woman who was studying at an online university, which she saw as her last hope after restrictions on work and study were imposed by the Taliban.

We used last hope to describe lots of types of things.

We often use it for serious life or death matters like medical treatment or rescue missions, which could be someone's last hope.

But it can also be used more generally for less serious things.

So a free kick at the end of a football match could be a team's last hope to win the game we had.

Last hope, the last opportunity for success.

For example, the new wildlife reserve could be the last hope for keeping this species of rhino alive.

That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News.

We'll be back next week with another news story.

If you want to practice what you've learnt, go to our website to see more example sentences and try our free worksheet.

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