Hunger gains: Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2021
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Economic collapse and halting international aid following the Taliban’s takeover have compounded shortages that were already deepening; we examine the unfolding disaster. The verdict in a blockbuster case against Apple might look like a win for the tech giant; a closer read reveals new battle lines. And the data that reveal how polluters behave when regulators are not watching.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:06.4 | I'm your host, Jason Palmer. |
| 0:08.6 | Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:17.6 | When Epic, which makes the game Fortnite, took on Apple in court, it was pitched as, well, an epic battle, challenging Apple's stranglehold on the money that app makers earn. |
| 0:27.6 | A verdict is now in, and the tech giant appears to have won, but not entirely. |
| 0:33.6 | And if regulators do their regulating only one-sixth of the time, |
| 0:38.4 | do the regulated keep within the regulations for only one-sixth of the time? |
| 0:43.5 | A close look at some air pollution data suggests that the answer is disappointingly yes. |
| 0:57.0 | But first... It's now been a month since the Taliban took over Afghanistan's capital Kabul, and with it, the country as a whole. Now they're struggling to run it. |
| 1:10.0 | Zabihullah Mujah Mujahid, the Taliban's deputy |
| 1:12.6 | information and culture minister, has admitted they didn't expect to gain power so quickly. |
| 1:18.2 | When they did, international aid stopped, aid that propped up most of the government's budget. |
| 1:23.9 | So poverty is soaring, and at a conference convened by the United Nations, its boss, Antonio Gutierrez, |
| 1:30.3 | warned that many Afghans could find themselves without food as winter sets in. |
| 1:35.3 | After decades of war, suffering and insecurity, they face perhaps their most perilous hour. |
| 1:47.8 | Now is the time for the international community to stand with them. |
| 1:54.1 | And let us be clear, this conference is not simply about what we will give to the people of Afghanistan. |
| 1:56.8 | It is about what we owe. |
| 2:05.5 | Donors have so far pledged more than a billion dollars, but that won't go very far in helping the country's 39 million citizens. |
| 2:12.4 | Afghanistan's been in the grip of a humanitarian crisis before the events of the last few weeks. |
| 2:20.3 | It's one of the poorest countries in the world. It's got very high poverty rates. It has a very weak government. Ben Farmer writes about Afghanistan for the economist. |
| 2:23.3 | But now on top of this, you have a Taliban takeover. It means foreign aid has ended. It means the economy has collapsed. |
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