Tolo News: The report also said that the US made commitments on behalf of an unwilling Afghan government, most importantly to a large-scale exchange of prisoners. “In effect, the US-Taliban agreement paved the way for the Taliban’s takeover, an outcome that was not given yet seemed highly likely, whether seen from the vantage point of 2018 (when talks started) or 2020 (when they were concluded),” the report reads. “Here lies the core of the US ethical conundrum.” Click here to read more (external link).
Khaama: A Herat-based company made pomegranate soft drinks. “The first shipment of pomegranate juice from Pamir Cola factory was exported to America from Herat Province, Afghanistan,” Interim administration’s senior spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, tweeted on Saturday. 
AP: As the Taliban swept back into power in Afghanistan, in the summer of 2021, Fahima Sultani and her fellow university students tried for days to get into the Kabul airport, only to be turned away by gun-wielding extremists. “No education, just go back home,” she recalled one shouting. 
Ariana: Afghanistan defeated Kyrgyzstan 5-4 in their first match of CAFA Futsal Cup 2023 in Tajikistan on Sunday. Six teams including Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Turkmenistan are participating in the CAFA Futsal Cup. Afghanistan will next meet Uzbekistan on Monday. 
Al Jazeera: A martial arts coach and his former student are training women in Afghanistan virtually from Norway. 
Tolo News: Amir Hossein Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, claimed that leaders and fighters of Daesh have recently moved to Afghanistan from Iraq, Syria and parts of Libya. Abdollahian said that the shifting of the Daesh leaders to Afghanistan has become one of the main challenges ahead of the interim Afghan government. 
Ariana: A U.S. funded audit of Afghanistan’s Islamic Emirate-run central bank has failed to win Washington’s backing for a return of bank assets from a $3.5 billion Swiss-based trust fund, said two U.S. officials and a former U.S. official, a move that would help ease the country’s financial crisis, Reuters reported. The audit has not changed the U.S. Treasury’s view that the bank must make reforms before the department will support disbursements from the Afghan Fund to Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), said a U.S. Treasury official on condition of anonymity.