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The Duffel Brief · the free edition, Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Vol. 15 · No. 130 · Sunday, 1 November 2026

Veterans

Spirit Halloween store to become pop-up ICE detention center

DHS praises seasonal retailer's expertise in occupying abandoned buildings and disappearing overnight

Army FRG unveils haunted house featuring spouses saying ‘I’m fine’

Hasan execution venue double-booked with Comic-Con

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Vol. 15 · No. 130

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Vol. 15 · No. 130 · Deployed worldwide

Sunday

1 November 2026

1450 Zulu

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· Page 2

Taliban can’t believe they actually have to govern this shithole now

IED making was so much easier.

Filed · 0500

Following their rapid advance across Afghanistan in recent days, the Taliban expressed concerns about the fact that they “actually have to govern this shithole now.”

“The whole insurgency thing was fun, and capturing the major population centers was surprisingly easy,” said Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada. “But governing this godforsaken hellscape is going to be an absolute nightmare.”

Many Taliban leaders are worried that decades of waging an insurgency have not given them the appropriate skills to effectively govern a diverse country of 39 million people.

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