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Afghanistan
Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, pictured here at the anniversary event of the departure of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 28, 2022.
The Trump administration has dropped multimillion-dollar bounties on senior Afghan officials from the Haqqani network, a militant faction that carried out some of the deadliest attacks on American troops but has now positioned itself as a moderate wing within the Taliban government.
The “largely symbolic” move this week came days after the US sent its first major diplomatic mission to Kabul since the Taliban took power in 2021, securing the release of an American citizen detained for the past two years.
While the bounties have been lifted, the men, including Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, remain on the US list of “specially designated global terrorists.”
Thawing relations: While few countries formally recognize the Taliban’s government, a handful – including India, Turkey, and Tajikistan – have established limited ties with Kabul.
China was the first country to formally welcome a Taliban diplomat as the official Afghanistan ambassador last year. In the highest-profile state visit yet, Uzbekistan last summer sent its prime minister to Kabul. Last month, Japan received a delegation from the Taliban for the first time.
Mineral riches: Washington estimates that Afghanistan sits atop at least $1 trillion in mineral wealth, including copper, cobalt, and lithium, in addition to gems such as emeralds, rubies, and sapphires. Last year, Beijing stepped up efforts to help the Taliban tap what could be the world’s second biggest deposit of copper. Washington may now want to keep China from seizing a monopoly like the one it has over minerals in places such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“The Taliban’s war is against women,” Fawzia Koofi, former Afghan parliamentarian and women’s rights activist, told GZERO’s Tony Maciulis on the sidelines of the 2025 Munich Security Conference.
Nearly four years since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Koofi described a country in economic collapse, political repression, and worsening humanitarian conditions. With women erased from public life and banned from education and employment, Afghanistan’s economy has suffered a $3 billion loss—all while 90% of Afghans live in poverty.
Despite international condemnations, Koofi argued that diplomatic efforts have failed to bring meaningful change. “It is naïve to believe the Taliban will reverse their edicts. Their survival depends on suppression.” Instead, she sees division within the Taliban’s ranks as a possible opening for change, provided sustained international pressure weakens the group’s control. As global leaders debate their approach, Koofi warned against engaging the Taliban without clear principles. “We don’t need to fix the Taliban. We need to fix Afghanistan.”
This interview, conducted by Tony Maciulis, is part of the Global Stage series at the 2025 Munich Security Conference, presented by GZERO in partnership with Microsoft.
Hard Numbers: Rebels advance in DRC, Yuge trade corridor, Tragic flooding strikes US, UN seeks billions for Sudan, Taliban visits Japan, Plane crashes in Toronto
Congolese civilians who fled from Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, following clashes between M23 rebels and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, carry their belongings as they gather at the Rusizi border crossing point to return home, in Rusizi district, Rwanda, on Feb. 17, 2025.
350,000: M23 rebels are meeting little resistance in their advance on Bukavu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, further challenging Kinshasa’s rule. This move comes after the Rwandan-backed rebels seized control of Goma late last month and just two days after the UN warned that unrest in the country has displaced 350,000 people.
600: Israel and India are working on a free trade agreement they hope to announce as early as 2025. Israeli and Indian business leaders held over 600 meetings in New Delhi last week, on cybersecurity, smart agriculture, renewable energy, digital health, and water technologies, AI, and big data. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump continues to push for the rail and shipping corridor advocated by his predecessor, Joe Biden, to connect India to the Middle East, Europe, and the US, which he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi call “one of the greatest trade routes in all of history.”
10: Severe flooding claimed the lives of at least 10 people in the United States over the weekend, including nine in Kentucky and one in Georgia. Storms walloped Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear saying that nearly 1,000 people had to be rescued.
6 billion: The United Nations announced on Monday that it wants to raise $6 billion for Sudan to help alleviate one of the world’s worst hunger crises caused by nearly two years of civil war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The need, the agency says, has increased 40% from last year’s appeal.
1: While Afghanistan’s Taliban government makes regular visits to countries close to home, such as Russia, China, and parts of Central Asia, this weekend it went further afield. The Taliban sent its first-ever delegation to Japan on Sunday to seek humanitarian support and to discuss establishing diplomatic ties with Japanese leaders. One Afghan leader said that the Taliban seeks “dignified interaction with the world for a strong, united, advanced, prosperous, developed Afghanistan.” Japan’s foreign ministry has not commented yet on the visit.
18: A Delta Airlines flight from Minneapolis crash-landed at Toronto's Pearson airport on Monday, injuring at least 18 people, three critically. The plane crashed and flipped upon landing at the airport, which is located just outside Toronto. All 80 passengers and crew are accounted for, and crews are on hand to investigate what happened.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio embraces Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo at the end of their joint news conference at the National Palace in Guatemala City, on Feb. 5, 2025.
40: During a press conference with visiting Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo announced Wednesday that his country will accept 40% more deportation flights from the United States. Guatemala also agreed to the creation of a task force for border control aimed at fighting “all forms of transnational crime.” Under the previous administration, Guatemala received roughly 14 deportation flights per week.
20: President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that aims to bar federal funding for schools that allow transgender athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports, claiming it violates Title IX. The order conflicts with laws in 20 states protecting transgender people from discrimination and allowing them to play on sports teams. It remains to be seen whether any of those states will file lawsuits to try to override the order.
2: Alphabet — Google’s parent company — has updated its AI principles, removing a previous pledge not to use AI for defense or surveillance purposes that “cause or are likely to cause overall harm.” Google’s head of AI on Tuesday said the move reflected a changing world and that it “supports national security.” The news comes just two months after AI leader OpenAI made a similar policy change.
12: In another blow to women’s rights in Afghanistan, officers from the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture on Tuesday raided andshut down the country’s only women’s radio station and arrested two employees. The Taliban, who closed at least 12 media outlets last year, blamed the suspension on violations of broadcasting policy. Kabul-based Radio Begum was not only run by women but also released content aimed at women’s education.
80: Results from a Jewish People Policy Institute Israel Index poll this weekshow that approximately 80% of Israeli Jews support President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Gaza’s entire population. The same poll found that less than 15% believe the plan is immoral.
2,000: Scientists used X-ray imaging and AI to virtually “unwrap” ascroll uncovered in Herculaneum, Pompeii’s less famous neighbor that was also buried in the infamous 79 CE eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. It was announced Wednesday that researchers from Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries and the Vesuvius Challenge were the first to peek inside the scroll in nearly 2,000 years — and while more time is needed to fully decipher the full text, they believe it contains a work of philosophy.
FILE PHOTO: Afghan women walk after the recent earthquake in the district of Zinda Jan, in Herat, Afghanistan October 10, 2023.
2 million: The United Nations has called for an investigation into reports that Iran’s security forces opened fire last weekend on roughly 200 Afghan migrants who had entered the country illegally, killing an unknown number of them. Iran has threatened to deport as many as 2 million undocumented Afghan migrants who live in the country as refugees from decades of war and famine in their home country.
25: There’s no free lunch, they say – but if there were, you certainly shouldn’t use the money to buy acne treatment pads, wine glasses, or laundry detergent. Meta has fired around two dozen employees in its Los Angeles office after they were caught using the company’s $25 meal allowances to purchase household items.
5: Venezuela has arrested five foreigners, including three Americans, on charges of terrorism. Since winning a heavily disputed election this summer, President Nicolas Maduro has cracked down on the opposition, accusing it of collaborating with foreign intelligence operatives. The recent arrests bring to 12 the number of foreigners detained in Venezuela.
10: The US and NATO allies on Thursday marked 10 years since the start of their campaign to defeat Islamic State, often referred to as “ISIS.” On the plus side, the terror organization was rooted out of its modern “caliphate” strongholds in Syria and Iraq. On the minus side, it has shown a growing presence and capability in the Sahel, where some local governments are pushing out Western forces, and Central Asia, where Islamic State is at war with the Taliban in Afghanistan and has managed to carry out attacks in Russia.
Hard Numbers: Putin visits Mongolia, France hears horror case, Deadly Kabul blast, Half a million for a rager, Japan tries to kick back, Guyana makes record blow bust
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh attend an official welcoming ceremony in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Sept. 3, 2024.
1: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday visited Mongolia, marking his first trip to an International Criminal Court member state since the ICC issued a warrant for his arrest over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Putin’s visit included a meeting with Mongolia’s president and was met with protests demanding his arrest for war crimes related to the deportation of Ukrainian children. Instead of being arrested, Putin was welcomed with a lavish ceremony.
51: On Monday, a French court in Avignon began hearing a horrific sex abuse case involving 51 defendants, all of whom are accused of raping a woman who was routinely drugged by her husband (he is one of the defendants). The case is bringing to light severe problems with France’s laws surrounding rape, which don’t refer to consent explicitly and sometimes make it hard to convict abusers who use drugs to subdue their victims.
6: A suicide bomber killed at least six people in Kabul on Monday and injured at least 13 others. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Taliban government of Afghanistan is a major rival of the Islamic State, which has carried out past atrocities against civilians under Taliban control.
500,000: Fraternity brothers from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill spent over $500,000 dollars raised on GoFundMe to throw a “rager” hosted by conservative country music star John Rich on Monday. The GoFundMe campaign went viral after photos emerged last April of UNC frat brothers holding up a US flag that pro-Palestinian protesters on campus had attempted to take down, instantly making the young men stars on right-wing media.
4: Japan is hardly the first country that comes to mind for work-life balance, with a notoriously grueling work culture that sees most employees working dozens of unpaid overtime hours each month. But Tokyo is looking to change that by encouraging four-day work weeks. The country’s labor department is offering grants and free consulting services targeted at small and medium-sized businesses to help them roll out shorter work weeks — but, so far, only three companies have asked for advice.
200 million: Authorities in Guyana said Sunday that they had seized a record 8,000 pounds of cocaine in a bust of a cache deep in the jungle, with a street value of at least $200,000,000. Guyana is not a producer of cocaine, but traffickers increasingly use its inhospitable jungle as covert staging areas to export the drug, sometimes via homemade submersibles.FILE PHOTO: Afghan women clad in burkas wait for transportation on a road in Kabul November 5, 2012.
On Sunday, the United Nations condemned new laws enacted by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue that prohibit the display of women’s faces and bodies in public and said that “even the sound of a female voice” outside the home constitutes “a moral violation” and can be grounds for arrest.
Since 2022, Afghan women have been barred from education beyond the sixth grade and from employment outside the home. They are now forbidden from singing, reciting, and reading aloud in public. They are also not allowed to laugh very loud, and their laughter should not be heard by men. Women cannot look at men they are not related to by blood or marriage and vice versa.
As for men, they must grow beards, eschew Western dress and hairstyles, pray and observe religious fasts.
Breaking these rules may result in warnings, confiscation of property, or detention for up to three days. The ministry has already detained thousands for similar violations, but the new codification represents a further crackdown that women say has made life in the country completely intolerable. Roza Otunbayeva, the UN’s envoy to Afghanistan, said it represents a “distressing vision” for the country’s future.
In response, Vice and Virtue Minister Mohammad Khaled Hanafi claimed the regulations protect women’s rights under Islamic law. We’ll be watching whether Otunbayeva’s report to the UN, scheduled for Sept. 18, makes any difference, and whether the rest of the international community will join the condemnation — though serious action to help Afghan women and girls is unlikely.