Symbolic imageTaliban mark five years in power as Kabul courts Washington
The Taliban marked five years in power on Saturday with a cricket match in Kabul that women may not attend. Their foreign minister asked the United States to return, while the UN warned that women's aid groups may fold.
In an interview published on Friday, 14 August, foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi urged Washington to reopen its embassy and invest, a sell analysts told the New York Times is near impossible. He told the BBC a day earlier that his ministry runs more than 40 embassies and consulates and that states withholding recognition should explain why. Russia remains the only country to formally recognise the government; former US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told The National that abandoning Afghanistan would create a vacuum.
Women's groups near collapse
UN Women's Susan Ferguson said on Friday that over half of 74 women's organisations surveyed in April may close within a year; the UN's $1.7bn appeal is only a quarter funded.
Madrassas over schools
Girls remain barred from secondary school and university, while boys' textbooks glorify war and registered madrassas rose from 5,000 in 2021 to 23,000 in 2025, The National reports.
Faizabad mayor killed
A bomb killed Faizabad's mayor Habibur Rahman Mansur on Thursday as Taliban forces fought the dissident commander Juma Khan Fateh in Badakhshan, Breitbart reported; Tajikistan protested over airspace violations.
Other opinions
Politika, citing AFP, gives space to Taliban claims of security and economic growth; Breitbart calls the government terrorist.