The views expressed on this podcast are those of the participants, not of Roiders' news.

Was America right to abandon Afghanistan to its fate?

And what role will China play now?

That's what Pete Sweeney and I will be discussing in our first segment on the views room this week.

Following that, we'll tackle the seismic shifts B.H.P. is experiencing under Chief

Executive Mike Henry's leadership.

Welcome to the Views Room, a podcast from Reuters Breaking Views. I'm Anthony Curry, one of the

editors of Breaking Views, coming to you from Down Under in Melbourne. We'll return here

later in the program to dig into the

latest happenings at mining giant BHP, the cities and countries' largest company by market

value. First, though, let's turn to Afghanistan. The country is back under the control of the

Taliban almost 20 years after the United States invaded and removed them from power.

Their return has been swift, exposing poor US intelligence in the short term,

and in the longer term, America's failed two-decade attempt at nation building

that cost at least $2 trillion and more than 250,000 lives.

Fears now grow for human rights inside the country, not least for women who

weren't even allowed to be in public without a male chaperone under Taliban rule, let alone

get an education or have a career. The events of recent days have raised many other questions,

including from our perspective about America's choices and whether China now gets involved

in the country as well. Joining me to discuss this is Pete Sweeney up in Hong Kong. Afternoon, Pete, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you, sir? Good, thanks. Good, despite the news, of course, we're seeing. So, look, obviously, I mentioned there, the human toll there and also the financial toll. But if we, if we're to look at this, if we take a step back,

let's think about what America did. And obviously we're channeling here to an extent one of our

colleagues in America, Richard Beals, who's written about this, as well as you have this week.

...