8am: Over the past two years, local Taliban forces in Ghor province collected funds from residents, claiming it was for constructing the Ghor-Herat highway. Currently, Ghor residents express concern that these funds have been misappropriated by local Taliban officials, and there is no accountability. Residents state that, while poverty and hunger are increasing in the province, the Taliban have seized aid from humanitarian organizations under the guise of the Ghor-Herat highway project, and they have extorted money two to three times from all local businesses. Click here to read more (external link).