Taliban patrol the streets of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, in late August 2021. EPA In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we talk to two Afghan experts about the origins of the Taliban and what’s happened over the last 20 years that enabled the group to retake control ofContinue Reading
With the Taliban back in Kabul, thousands of Afghan nationals who serviced the ousted government, the US and its allies are desperately attempting to seek asylum. Many attempted to board US jets at an airport in Kabul, some even clinging to the outside of aircraft as they took off. VideosContinue Reading
There is no other way to put it. The west’s failure in Afghanistan will be remembered as one of epic proportions. Not only has the coalition of nations that entered the country 20 years ago failed to export their values – they have failed to bring any stability to localContinue Reading
As he described the rapidly unfolding events in Afghanistan on British radio, UK defence secretary Ben Wallace fought back tears when he conceded that some Afghan local staff “won’t get back” before a full-scale evacuation is completed. He said that he felt a “really deep part of regret” that itContinue Reading
The long war in Afghanistan reached a potential watershed on August 6 when Taliban fighters took over Zaranj, a dusty frontier town with a population of some 63,000 on the Afghan-Iranian border. Though geographically and politically marginal, Zaranj was the first provincial centre to fall during a month of rapidContinue Reading
When asked about the government’s position on remote working in the long-term, UK chancellor Rishi Sunak recently said that young people in particular would benefit from physically being in the office. “It was really beneficial to me,” he said in the interview with LinkedIn News, “when I was starting outContinue Reading
Thousands of aircraft were grounded during the pandemic. Now research is showing people might fly less JetKat/Shutterstock Tens of thousands of aircraft have been grounded for well over a year due to the pandemic. In April 2020 air travel around the world was cut by 94% from April 2019. ByContinue Reading
21 March 2022 is a historic moment for children’s rights in Wales. From this day on, all types of physical punishment will be illegal thanks to new Welsh Government legislation. The Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act 2020 will remove an archaic legal defence by outlawing theContinue Reading
The UK government’s National Disability Strategy and £1.6 billion in funding was announced recently with great fanfare. Politicians hailed it as a landmark initiative, but on closer inspection, the document is not quite as innovative as advertised – many of the elements contained in it were first considered decades ago,Continue Reading
Western Power Distribution (WPD), the company responsible for the electricity pylons and power lines, has joined the emergency services to encourage the public to download the what3words in case of emergencies. The #KnowExactlyWhere summer safety campaign raises awareness of the free what3words app and how it can be effectively utilisedContinue Reading
