As thousands of Afghans are loaded onto trucks for forced return, the crisis reflects not just the failure of diplomacy but also the erosion of trust between two interdependent nations. Unless talks resume on a more equal footing, analysts warn, South Asia may face yet another cycle of displacement, resentment and instability.
The warning came during a workshop in Kabul on child and adolescent mental health. Alice James, UNICEF’s representative in Afghanistan, urged Afghan authorities, humanitarian agencies, and civil society to adopt a unified, national strategy to address the burgeoning mental health crisis.
In the wake of the New York Times’ revelations, key questions arise: Why was Golsteyn targeted so aggressively while the Nerkh case was quashed? Which decisions were taken higher up the chain of command? And what reforms, if any, will emerge to prevent recurrence?
This was the first major disaster to strike since the Trump administration suspended US foreign aid to Afghanistan in January. While Washington released statements of sympathy, it has made no formal pledge of direct financial assistance to quake relief.
Large projects like the Mes Aynak copper deposit, the vast iron ore reserve at Hajigak, the Balkhab copper prospects, and rich gemstone deposits in Badakhshan have long drawn interest from potential foreign partners.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement this week that the continued exclusion of girls from classrooms was “a tragic violation of their fundamental rights.” She warned that the ban is denying an entire generation the opportunity to learn and jeopardizing Afghanistan’s future.
At the Sixth Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue held in Kabul on 20 August 2025, Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar reached a landmark agreement to extend CPEC into Afghanistan.
The case raises wider questions about how rapidly advancing biotechnologies are governed in one of the world’s largest agricultural economies and food exporters.
ASEAN foreign ministers are expected to discuss the transboundary haze at an upcoming meeting. The episode highlights longstanding regional tensions over the annual haze, which has strained diplomatic relations in previous severe seasons such as 2015.
BCG says that policymakers and businesses alike will need strategies that address both the scale of the rural middle class and the constraints facing households that have slipped downward if the gains of recovery are to become more widely shared.
The case raises wider questions about how rapidly advancing biotechnologies are governed in one of the world’s largest agricultural economies and food exporters.
ASEAN foreign ministers are expected to discuss the transboundary haze at an upcoming meeting. The episode highlights longstanding regional tensions over the annual haze, which has strained diplomatic relations in previous severe seasons such as 2015.