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Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily Ours. Today is Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: the seventeenth of August. I'm Zara Sidler and I'm joined

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Speaker 1: by Sam Koslowski. Before we start off, there is not

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Speaker 1: a lot of good news out there today. We're not

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Speaker 1: going to sugar coated, so if you do need to

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Speaker 1: chat to someone or log off, please do so. There

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Speaker 1: is always someone available to talk to and the news

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Speaker 1: will be here.

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Speaker 2: When you get We put up some resources on our

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Speaker 2: Instagram a few days ago. Please be kind to yourself.

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Speaker 2: Today in the news, we're going to look at the

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Speaker 2: latest in COVID nineteen around Australia and then take you

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Speaker 2: to what is going on in Afghanistan where the capital

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Speaker 2: Kabul has fallen to Taliban forces. But we really wanted

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Speaker 2: to slow down and explain some of the historical contexts

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Speaker 2: that's at play here.

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Speaker 1: So straight to New South Wales. Yesterday was the worst

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Speaker 1: day of the pandemic for the state, with New South

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Speaker 1: Wales recording four hundred and seventy eight locally acquired cases.

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Speaker 1: We know that at least sixty one of those cases

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Speaker 1: were infectious in the community, but many hundred romaine under investigation. Tragically,

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Speaker 1: there were also eight deaths reported, and here's what the

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Speaker 1: Premier said about the rise in cases yesterday.

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Speaker 3: Our community transmission numbers are disturbingly high. We had four

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Speaker 3: hundred and seventy eight cases of community transmission to eight

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Speaker 3: pm last night, and we can't stress enough how hard

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Speaker 3: all of us have to work to reduce these numbers,

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Speaker 3: to reduce the growth of the spread, and to make

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Speaker 3: sure we're all staying home unless we absolutely have to

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Speaker 3: do otherwise.

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Speaker 1: Meanwhile, unfortunately not much better news for Victoria, though they

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Speaker 1: did have lower case numbers twenty two yesterday, with seventeen

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Speaker 1: of those linked to a known cluster. The lockdown for

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Speaker 1: Melbourne was extended by a further two weeks as a result,

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Speaker 1: with tighter restrictions including a curfew restrictions on playgrounds and

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Speaker 1: exercise in place during this time. So now the new

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Speaker 1: date for the Melbourne lockdown to end is eleven fifty

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Speaker 1: nine on Thursday September second, which coincident sam is the

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Speaker 1: same day as the Act's lockdown is meant to lift.

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Speaker 2: That comes after ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr announced a

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Speaker 2: two week extension, So it's nice that there's at least

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Speaker 2: some sinking up in the lockdowns there because the Chief

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Speaker 2: Ministers and premiers don't really manage to schedule their press

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Speaker 2: conferences at the right times. However, the Chief Minister said

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Speaker 2: he wasn't surprised that there was a spike in cases.

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Speaker 3: And it demonstrates that the virus is active in our community.

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Speaker 1: We have been expecting this though, and we will continue

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Speaker 1: to see more cases in the coming days.

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Speaker 2: Meanwhile, in the top ends, the Northern Territory recorded one

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Speaker 2: new case of COVID nineteen yesterday, with Darwin and the

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Speaker 2: Catherine Region entering a three day lockdown that midday yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Just to recap there, we've now got lockdowns in Melbourne,

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Speaker 2: the Act, the whole of New South Wales and parts

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Speaker 2: of the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Yesterday, all anyone was talking about was Afghanistan, and we'll

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Speaker 1: go into a bit later why that is. But yesterday Kabul,

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Speaker 1: which is the capital of Afghanistan, fell to Taliban forces

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Speaker 1: and they now control most of the country. The invasion

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Speaker 1: of the capital did signal the collapse of Afghanistan's Western

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Speaker 1: backed government, and the president, Ashraf Ghani, has actually already

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Speaker 1: fled the country. That was yesterday morning. Taliban fighters have

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Speaker 1: seized the presidential palace, and many fear that the Taliban

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Speaker 1: will return to a strict implementation of sharia law.

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Speaker 2: Before we go deeper into that story, let's find a

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Speaker 2: little bit of good news in the news today. People

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Speaker 2: over the age of sixteen in Western Australia can now

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Speaker 2: get the PISI COVID nineteen vaccine. The expanded eligibility criteria

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Speaker 2: means more than two million Western Australians aged over sixteen

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Speaker 2: years can be vaccinated in WA health clinics. They now

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Speaker 2: joined South Australia as the only two states where you

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Speaker 2: can get PISA from that age. There's kind of two

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Speaker 2: timelines to think about when discussing the conflict in Afghanistan.

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Speaker 2: What has happened in the last couple of days and

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Speaker 2: what has happened over the last two decades, And each

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Speaker 2: timeline is equally important to understand, but without understanding one,

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Speaker 2: you can't really understand the other. So what we thought

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Speaker 2: would be helpful today we know that you've read stuff

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Speaker 2: online about what's happening there. We thought it would be

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Speaker 2: helpful to quickly run through both these timelines so you

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Speaker 2: can get a sense of where these events fit in

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Speaker 2: the big scheme of things. So let's go to the background. First.

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Speaker 2: The war in Afghanistan started over twenty years ago. So

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Speaker 2: following nine to eleven the terrorist attacks on the World

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Speaker 2: Trade Center in New York City, the US accused the

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Speaker 2: Taliban of providing refuge to Issama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

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Speaker 2: This is actually a really important point that gets overlooked.

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Speaker 2: The Taliban and al Qaeda are not the same body.

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Speaker 2: So by December of that year, three months after the attacks,

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Speaker 2: the US had removed the Taliban from power in Afghanistan.

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Speaker 2: They then spent the next twenty years replacing the government

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Speaker 2: with a Western run, democratically elected government in Afghanistan, and

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Speaker 2: the US and their allies, including of course Australia, it

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Speaker 2: was their job to arm security forces in Afghanistan with

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Speaker 2: the tools that they needed to self govern. The aim

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Speaker 2: was never for the US to stay there forever.

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Speaker 1: And it's this whole idea of nation building. If you

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Speaker 1: go to university and study anything remotely to do with politics,

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Speaker 1: you always learn about nation building, and Afghanistan and Iraq

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Speaker 1: are always used as the examples here of what US

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Speaker 1: led nation building looks like. Here it has gone drastically,

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Speaker 1: drastically wrong.

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Speaker 2: And this is where different versions of a successful mission

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Speaker 2: in Afghanistan come into play. Here's what US Secretary of

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Speaker 2: State Anthony Blincoln said about the US's success in the

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Speaker 2: Middle East.

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Speaker 3: We went to Afghanistan twenty years ago with one mission

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Speaker 3: in mind, and that was the deal with the people

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Speaker 3: who attacked us on nine to eleven.

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Speaker 1: And that mission has been successful.

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Speaker 2: It was on the back of this sentiment that the

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Speaker 2: US decided to fully withdraw troops from Afghanistan by the

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Speaker 2: AIM's date of September eleventh, twenty two. One. Of course,

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Speaker 2: it's the twentieth anniversary of the hijackings at the World

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Speaker 2: Trade Center, But actually, in reality, US President Biden withdrew

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Speaker 2: most US troops before that. The process started in about May.

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Speaker 2: He said he wanted to end the US investment in

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Speaker 2: the Middle East as quick as possible.

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Speaker 1: And it's with this withdrawal that we have seen a vacuum,

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Speaker 1: and that power vacuum has been very very quickly filled

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Speaker 1: by the Taliban. So the US and its allies hopes

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Speaker 1: of building capacity among the Afghan community to maintain governance

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Speaker 1: and military prowess once US troops withdrew has not come

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Speaker 1: to fruition at all. Instead, we're looking at images like

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Speaker 1: we posted on Instagram yesterday of people flocking to the

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Speaker 1: airport trying to get out of the country desperately before

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Speaker 1: the Taliban take complete ownership over the country.

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Speaker 2: And just to join a few dots here for everyone.

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Speaker 2: The fear on the ground in Afghanistan is that the

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Speaker 2: Taliban's rule will be brutal and that there is a

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Speaker 2: genuine fear of life. So you're going to be here

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Speaker 2: a lot in the coming weeks and months about the

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Speaker 2: refugee crisis that will result from this invasion by the Taliban.

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Speaker 2: One of the really complicated dynamics at play here is

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Speaker 2: that a lot of Afghans who helped US Australian, Canadian,

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Speaker 2: British troops on the ground in the last two decades

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Speaker 2: were promised a safe passage to another country in times

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Speaker 2: of need. So there's actually an obligation now on US

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Speaker 2: Special Forces Australian Special Forces to withdraw Afghans on the

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Speaker 2: ground who have helped them, whether they be translators, cooks

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Speaker 2: or local staff.

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Speaker 1: And that's exactly right. That's clearly where our government's focus

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Speaker 1: is lying currently. Scott Morrison has said that his government

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Speaker 1: is doing everything that they can, including sending troops over

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Speaker 1: to safely rescue all those people who had helped Australian

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Speaker 1: troops while they had been in Afghanistan, and some fear

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Speaker 1: that this rescue mission is happening too late.

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Speaker 2: To give you a sense of the chaos on the

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Speaker 2: ground at the moment, the Australian government is reportedly trying

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Speaker 2: to negotiate a landing spot at Kabul Airport in order

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Speaker 2: to land the RAAF aircraft that will hopefully rescue hundreds

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Speaker 2: of Australian citizens, their family members, and Afghan allies on

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Speaker 2: the ground.

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Speaker 1: While the Australian government's efforts are focused on those people

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Speaker 1: who have helped Australian troops, there is an entire country

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Speaker 1: waking up to a new reality today, and that is

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Speaker 1: especially poignant for the women and children of Afghanistan who

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Speaker 1: are looking at a very different reality where their rights

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Speaker 1: are not ensured. The Guardian is doing an incredible series

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Speaker 1: on this at the moment, I would really recommend finding

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Speaker 1: it and reading it. There are Afghan women writing every

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Speaker 1: day about what their experiences of being a raised from

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Speaker 1: the Afghan narrative looks like. It's an extremely powerful way

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Speaker 1: to understand what's happening on the ground there. I would

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Speaker 1: really recommend it.

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Speaker 2: We'll keep you up to speed with how the rescue

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Speaker 2: mission goes and the general events that are happening across

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Speaker 2: the entire country. It's a really important story to keep

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Speaker 2: on top of.

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Speaker 1: Well.

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Speaker 2: For today, though, look after yourselves. We'll have all the

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Speaker 2: COVID data throughout the day over on our Instagram, and

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Speaker 2: we'll speak to you tomorrow.