Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Sports fans are getting ever more on board with surfing.

In Tokyo this summer it'll be part of the Olympics for the first time.

Brazil's surfers have become some of the best, but perhaps not for long.

At the grassroots level the sport is slowly suffering.

And when you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?

And how different were your options when you actually got into the workforce?

Today's teens are facing an even starker divide between what's desirable and what's available.

First up though.

In Afghanistan this week there's a rare feeling of hope.

Hope that the relative peace that took hold over the weekend might be lasting.

Talks between America and the Taliban seem to be heading toward a peace deal.

Psychologically, economically, social life, everything is destroyed.

Mahmoud Marhun, a lecturer at Kabul University, says that even modest success would be significant for Afghans.

Now people are hoping if Taliban pays make 10% reduction that will big change in their life.

Before the signing of the deal slated for later this week, both sides signed up to a reduction in hostilities, short of a truce proper.

For America an eventual deal would bring thousands of troops home and spell an end to the country's longest war.

Yesterday President Powell Trump sounded a hopeful note.

There's much to work out yet, not least because Afghanistan's government hasn't been part of the negotiations.

And it's not even clear who in Kabul is in charge.

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