 It's been two years since the Taliban after a lightning campaign took over Afghanistan. What is the country's situation today? We all know how Iraq continues to suffer from the impact of the disastrous U.S. invasion of 2003. What is the state of its health system? And after some heated contests, we are in the semifinal stage of the FIFA Women's World Cup. What can we look forward to? These are our stories for daily debrief. Keep watching. And if you're watching this on YouTube, don't forget to hit that subscribe button. It's been two years since the Taliban took over Afghanistan after a lightning campaign. August 2021 was quite stunning as government forces crumbled and the Taliban triumphed with almost no resistance. Two years later, the situation is quite grim. The economy faces a crisis. The Taliban has enforced brutal social policies, especially regarding the rights of women. And the country is facing its third year of drought-like conditions, according to media reports. To understand the situation, we go to Abdul. Abdul, not exactly the happiest of anniversaries, I would think. But to begin with, for our viewers, could you maybe recollect those two weeks, those rapid two weeks of August 2021 when everything just turned around? The Taliban, suddenly, of course, people knew that the Taliban was gaining strength. There were talks between the Taliban and the U.S. But then just in a whirlwind kind of a campaign, the Taliban took over. So could you maybe just refresh your memories? Well, in August 2020, it was basically, sorry, 2021, it seemed very rapid. But one should not forget that the Taliban was building up for ever since the, you can say, the U.S. invasion in 2001, since they moved out of the urban areas and relocated themselves in different parts of Afghanistan. They were raising their struggle to come back. But in the middle of it, U.S. started a new campaign about good Taliban and bad Taliban, said that, OK, we need to talk with Taliban. And the talks went off for months. And on the basis of that, it was agreed. It was basically, by and large, agreed that Taliban will basically surrender and be part of the larger Afghanistan politics. But what happened ultimately is Taliban took Afghanistan by force and U.S. had to withdraw in hurry, first saying that we will withdraw in September, then reducing it for a few days, then reducing again. Basically, U.S. was quite unwilling to fight the assault which was coming from Taliban. So even before it was clear that whether Taliban will take Kabul or not, Americans were completely out of it, left the entire administration of Afghanistan at the mercy of those people who have never had any experience of running the administration independently, and which ultimately led to the chaotic situation all over the country, and particularly in Kabul, where hundreds of thousands of people were seen at the Kabul airport trying to get out of it. Then there was an attack at the Kabul airport. Then there were different kinds of chaotic scenes all over Kabul and all over Afghanistan. So these were the days which basically, which we could visualize when we talk about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. And that basically is, you can say, was compared with the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975. So that chaotic withdrawal has basically an impact on both the legitimacy of the so-called U.S.-led administration. Most of the leaders of the U.S.-backed administration fled the country overnight, including the president of the time. And those who remained within the country also had no clue what to do, and in fact, they surrendered within hours to Taliban. So Taliban's takeover was, as you rightly pointed out, at that particular moment was lightening. But we should not think that it happened in one day or one month. It was basically building up ever since. So entire period since 2001, till 2021, U.S. attempts to portray its invasion as a success, attempt to create an administration in Afghanistan, was basically a sham which was exposed within the hours and Afghanistan was taken over by Taliban in 2000. So now let's move on to the important question of what the situation is like today. I think last year, especially in 2020, to the economic situation drastically deteriorated. It's maybe picked up a bit now, but not too much security for the people of Afghanistan in terms of basic economic criteria and even social conditions. Exactly. See, there are two ways to look at Taliban government since 2021. Of course, there is some kind of stabilization. The chaos, which was there in the early days, has basically, you can say, slowed down. And there is some kind of, even if it is not ideal, there is some kind of order, which has led, which has basically, as you rightly pointed out, has led to some kind of economic stabilization in the country. But that stabilization is basically on the basis of something which is not good at all for the common Afghans. Majority of Afghans today are still living in under poverty more than 80%. And some estimates say that more than 90% of the Afghans are living below the poverty line. There is no prospect about industrial or any kind of employment generation in the country. Those who are working in some kind of small sectors, even they are being targeted in the name of many things, particularly when it comes to the right of women. And then, of course, Taliban has also been successful in kind of curbing the opium production in the country. Those are the things. Security, of course, has improved when you compare it with the US-backed administration before Taliban took over. So all those things are there. But when it comes to economic condition at large and when it comes to the rights of the minorities and women in Afghanistan, those conditions are completely deteriorated. And it seems that the Taliban too, whatever you call it, does not seem any difference when it comes to the right of women and right of minorities than what Taliban I was. But just to be kind of clear about one thing, and I think I will repeat here, that the Taliban regime is primarily based on foreign aid. And there is a huge debate at this moment whether the foreign aid should continue the way it is continuing or it should stop. In fact, the UN estimate says that last year, when $3.7 billion foreign aid was collected for Afghanistan, which helped at least sustain the human rights situation in the country, starvation, lack of food, lack of clothing, and so on and so forth. This year, even that target of around $4 billion will not be met. And it seems that only 5% even claims that only 5% of the $4 billion plus aid required has been raised so far. And so that is the condition that this year is going to be worse than what previous year was when it comes to the foreign aid. One thing which needs to be highlighted that post-Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, it has again come under sanctions and US holding billions of dollars of Afghan reserves in its banks and all those things. So the economic deterioration in Afghanistan is not only a doing of Taliban, it is also basically a result of the US-led sanctions which basically has hampered any possibility of even the smallest scale improvement of the living conditions of common efforts. Right, Naptal, finally, of course, you mentioned the situation of women, could you also maybe quickly take us through the kind of restrictions that and the impact it has had, especially in terms of humanitarian relief in terms of the work situation. See, Afghanistan, ever since Taliban came to power, despite the fact they promised that the women's condition will not be, that women's rights will be protected, we have seen that they are not allowed to go to schools, they are not allowed to work, they are not allowed to even work in human, basically NGOs which provide humanitarian aid, which basically makes it difficult for the organizations to reach the women in Afghan families. So all these has basically led to, of course, deterioration of condition of women in particular, but also it has a larger impact on the country's economy as well. Since women can't go to educational institutions, they can't work, a large number of institutions were run by them, that kind of, all of them are shut, people are forced to kind of depend on aid for their survival, and there is no attempt yet to basically undo these particular conditions. And when it comes to the debate about how to deal with it, there are of course two different versions and both of them are completely opposed to each other, one claiming that one needs to engage with Taliban, talk with it until we talk, we will not be able to influence it, its policies and so on and so forth. And other set of people saying that sanctions need to be imposed, made it a stricter. So these are two completely opposed worldviews available when it comes to dealing with Taliban government at this hour in Afghanistan, and which basically makes it very difficult for anyone to take a clear stand on what should be the way ahead when it comes to Afghanistan and its recognition or the people, and so on and so forth. Thank you Sabdul for giving us that update, very important country to keep watch, lot of issues there, thank you so much for talking to us. From Afghanistan, we go to another country which face the brunt of US invasion, talking about Iraq. We have often heard about the huge toll in terms of lives lost, injuries, the political instability that Iraq faces today is also a legacy of that invasion. 20 years later, we take a look at the state of healthcare in the country for which we go to Anna Rajan. And of course, Iraq spent many, Iraq faced many, many years dealing with political instability, with chaos, with very violent, you know, a lot of violence, we know ISIS was also there. So maybe could you first take us through, say what the general state of the country's healthcare? Well, I mean, the health system in Iraq is, I would say, quite interesting because it went from the state in the 1970s and 1980s when it was recognized as one of the best in the region to being completely overwhelmed by the effects of the sanctions of the wars that have gone, that have happened since then. And so essentially what activists on the ground are reporting now is that there is a very weak system, essentially, especially when we talk about the public health system, which used to be organized around primary healthcare and the provision of primary healthcare in centers to a bit of a patchy distribution of health services across the country with cities, of course, being somewhat of a better position than all of the rural areas. And of course, you know, there's a lot of reasons behind this, not only the war, but also the level of investment that can be made for health at this time, as well as, of course, the impact of what the US allies essentially did since the invasion in 2003. So what several reports have shown is that essentially health authorities or even health policy makers in Iraq were not consulted as the new plans for the health system were developed after the invasion. And that, of course, health was not very high on the list of priorities of these forces. So essentially what we're looking at now is that there has been a lot of talk about reconstruction, about rebuilding the health system, but at the moment, it's simply not there. The, these promises have very minimally, they have been realized in a very minimal way. And essentially it's putting at risk most of those people who live outside of Baghdad or live outside of the other bigger cities. Right, Anna, in this context, of course, when you talk about health, very important to talk about the role of the private sector as well, because that often has a very outsized role and sometimes even a very negative role. So what is the state of privatization of healthcare in Iraq? Well, interestingly, but yes, not surprisingly, of course, the private sector has grown as the public sector has fallen in extent and that also has a lot to do with how the post-invasion policies were made, those were made and tailored, essentially to favor the private sector, to favor private constructors who would come in and then build or not build health centers or hospitals or whatever else. So essentially right now, and again, this is something that's been mirrored in some of the most recent reports on health in Iraq is that the private health sector has been strengthened, not only in the typical way that we see in terms of hospitals or clinics, but there's also a lot of strengthening in particular areas like cosmetic medicine or even lab diagnostics, which is something that we usually wouldn't talk about, but some of the reports and some of the researchers that have been following this topic lately are singling out as something to look out for. Essentially what's happening is that the labs are targeting patients directly, so they're advertising some procedures, some tests that might not be relevant for the people at all, but are a very good way to make a profit on. So add to that that these labs and the other private health resources are held by military militias, by a very small group of people. It's essentially pushing health in Iraq towards a very, very dangerous place. Thank you so much, Anna, for speaking to us about the situation in Iraq. And finally, we are at the semifinal stage of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023. Spain, Sweden, Australia and England are the final teams in contention. The quarter-finals saw some closely fought matches, including a penalty shootout. We are with the stunt and therefore more. Siddharth, we are at the semifinal stage again, lots of interesting football ahead, but first let's take a look at the quarters which saw some very close matches, including a penalty shootout. What do you think? Absolutely, Prashant. All the games, in fact, were pretty close run affairs, except for Spain, of course. And again, like we talked about before on the show, as well, the gaps between the teams that reached the later stages of the competition haven't shown the kind of massive differences in quality that we have become used to when we come to these big tournaments and get to these deciding parts of these tournaments. Extremely, extremely exciting games going down to the wire, going into extra time. In fact, actually one of the interesting things that has come up over the course of this tournament, particularly because of Australia doing so well being one of the home nations, the host countries, that is, is that the viewership numbers for these Australia games have shattered all records, you can imagine, going back as far as 20 years and even some are saying coming close to the all-time Australian record for a sporting event, which is Kathy Freeman's 400-meter finals at the Sydney Olympics back in the year 2000. In fact, the interesting part, even more interesting, is that the other major events have been Kathy Freeman's, of course, 2000, that Olympic Games final, but the other was Ash Barty's 2022 Grand Slam final. So all women's sporting events, getting these kind of massive numbers, which completely sort of rips apart the narrative that has been bent over so many years by marketing executives and television executives and sports executives, saying that the reason women's sport isn't encouraged given the kind of platforms, given the kind of pay parity and prize money that men's sport tend to get is because they simply don't draw the numbers. And what we've seen, at least in this part of the world, as far as this tournament is concerned, that that is completely untrue Prashant and we're expecting the semifinals to draw even bigger crowds. And some of these numbers also don't include the broadcasts that are going out to public venues. Like major sporting venues in Australia have been opened up for live broadcasts free for people to enter, including Melbourne, cricket ground, the Sydney cricket ground, iconic sporting venues like that, where 50, 60, 70,000 people can come and watch the game on large screens. Here there's conversation about public holiday if the Matilda's, as they are known, go on to win the World Cup, of course, that's still a while away. But in the meantime, both on the pitch, the kind of competitiveness we're seeing, the kind of tactical as well as technical football we're seeing and how closely for all the matches have been right up to the quarter-final stage. The fact that, I mean, I, for example, we did a bit of a show on one of our channels and I was hoping for, or predicting as these things go, Japan coming through on one side and France going through on the other for a potential final. That's completely not worked out. So it just goes to show, I think, one small example of how closely sort of contested this World Cup is and how much excitement is drumming up. I've also been speaking to some people who do grass-roots football in Australia and also people getting together from elsewhere in the world who are talking about how much of a difference this is making to younger players who are getting into the sport. And again, going back to some of those television numbers, over 90% of that television audience was a young audience between the ages of, let's say, 15 and 30, 35. So among maybe a more active sort of younger demographic set, clearly there is no real difference between this World Cup and any other World Cup that has happened and maybe because it's at home, there's a little more attention. But we're hoping with the semi-finals that will pick up even more and we have a couple of really, really interesting games to look out for. Sweden are playing on one side and looking extremely strong. Spain looked like they've recovered so well from that loss to Japan, you know, and that should be a mouthwatering quarterfinal that comes up on the 15th ahead of, of course, England versus Australia. And we talk a bit more about that if you want later. Right, Asitant, yes. So just maybe very briefly, quick look at the two matches. How do the teams look? So, I mean, of course, you know, we all talk about in a sporting sense, anyone but England, and that's very much the case here. So I was reading a report coming out of the English camp where they essentially know that outside of England, everyone is rooting for them to not go through to the final and they're sort of channeling that pressure and they seem to be, or they claim to be thriving of it. The interesting thing when it comes to this stage, whether it's, you know, that organization and defensive structure will become critical to teams doing well. We've already seen this. It's not likely to be a very free-flowing football with lots of goals and all of that. So it'll be tension all the way through. And in the end, the sides that are able to keep their composure, keep their structure and shape and remain most organized defensively will have the best chances going forward. England are in their third straight women's world cup semifinal. And, you know, that's a major point there. Every time, you know, they reach the latest stages of any English team, which is the latest stages of a competition. The talk of football coming home comes up. And this is no exception. They are, of course, reigning European champions as well. Australia are keeping the flag flying for the Asian continent, who they represent from a football perspective. And on the other side, we have two strong teams with great pedigree. I mean, Sweden have been a world cup champions before way back in the mid-90s and Spain. I mean, we all know Spain and football pretty much runs in their blood. So very exciting semi-finals coming up. Prasanth and a huge amount of excitement at least on the ground here in Australia. And hopefully the rest of the world also kind of catching up at least where time difference allows. Right, Sita, thank you so much for that update. We'll definitely be watching those matches and we'll come back to you just before the finals. Definitely very interesting competition so far. And that's all we have time for today In this edition of Daily Debrief, we'll be back on Wednesday with more stories from around the world, more stories of struggles, more stories of demands of people's movements, more stories of geopolitical interest for us, which tell us a lot about our world today and tomorrow. So keep watching. Visit our website peoplesdispatch.org. And if you're watching this on YouTube, don't forget to hit that subscribe button.