Afghanistan's Money Problem

In the past couple years, demand has gone wild for drugs like Ozempic – and its cousins, Zepbound, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. For people who had never been able to lose weight before, suddenly the numbers on the scale were plummeting. And everybody wanted to get their hands on them. N ... Show More

Tariffs are the favorite tool of our current president, but there are lots of other ways that governments insert themselves into the free exchange of goods and services. Some of these trade barriers are so insidious and have been going on for so long that it may surprise you that ... Show More

For most Americans, we just lived through the highest period of inflation in our lives. And we are reminded of this every time we go grocery shopping. All over TikTok, tons of people have posted videos of how little they got for… $20. $40. $100. Most upsetting to us: an $8 box of ... Show More

The FT’s south Asia correspondent Ben Parkin explains how Afghanistan’s economy has changed in the year since US forces left the country and the Taliban retook control of the government.    Clips from CBS, BBC  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  For further read ... Show More

The former finance minister from the collapsed Afghan government, Khalid Payenda, tells Ed Butler that it was brought down by rampant corruption at a very high level. He served for six months from the beginning of this year and says that by the time US forces left and the Taliban ... Show More

The Taliban have made big moves in the last few days in their bid to take control of Afghanistan. This weekend, they seized several cities and suddenly claimed a lot of the north. On Monday, they took another provincial capital. What is the Taliban’s strategy, what will the Unite ... Show More

A firsthand account of the Taliban’s “reign of terror” in Kabul a year after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. 

After 20 years the United States is ending its occupation of Afghanistan. A lot has changed but many Afghans like journalist Ali Latifi are concerned about how many things are still the same. Roads remain unpaved, the electricity is spotty and a newly energized Taliban is threate ... Show More

Is it time to stop the freeze of the country's financial assets and donor aid or will that just legitimise the Taliban? Ed Butler speaks to John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director for the campaign group Human Rights Watch, who says the west should ease up on its sanctions to help ... Show More