AFGHANISTAN — TALIBAN'S ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY, A COUNTRY COLLAPSING Today is the first anniversary of the Taliban retaking control of Afghanistan, and it's a grim one: More than half the population is in need of humanitarian support, including 13 million children. The economy has collapsed and there is no constitution. The Taliban continues to provide a haven for terrorists. New research by UNICEF puts a price tag on girls being prevented from completing their school education: 2.5 percent loss of GDP. Global Insider spoke to UNICEF's Afghanistan Representative, Mohamed Ayoya, on Saturday. What's changed over the past year? "Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are banned from education, and there is really no breakthrough, or even discussion, about getting them back to school. Now the nutrition situation of children is deteriorating. In the year up to June 2021, 30,000 children were admitted to our treatment centers with severe acute malnutrition. In the year up to June 2022 it was 57,000." Is that because you're now serving areas that were previously inaccessible under Taliban control? "In part, but it's mostly due to the economy collapsing and families being unable to access food. One person working might be supporting 15 to 20 people. Coming into the winter season we expect the number to keep increasing. And yes, some people were [previously] cut off and had no access to services: no health, no schools, no wash (shower)." What is happening to the girls thrown out of school? "Some continue to study at home. There are local community initiatives to support these girls to continue having access to some kind of education. But the majority are being forced either to stay at home, completely stressed and miserable, and a lot have been forced into marriages because one of the means for families to survive and put food on the table is unfortunately to sell their girls into early marriage. It's quite sad for us see it happening, under our eyes every day, and almost everywhere in the country." Do you have the access you need to provide support, and do you have the funds you need? "We have the security we need, we move easily around the country. We're very grateful to our donors, but we don't have all the funds we need. And unfortunately, with the crisis in Ukraine, and what has been happening in other emergencies, the Horn of Africa for example, we have seen less attention to Afghanistan. But if we want to see lasting change in Afghanistan, we need to support the children. We're also facing changing needs: We are now facing an earthquake and the worst drought this country has had for many years." IRAN — RUSHDIE AND THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told reporters today that the country has no information on the suspect in Friday's attack on British American novelist Salman Rushdie. The 24-year-old man accused of stabbing Rushdie, 75, on-stage in western New York on Friday, had been in direct contact on social media with members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, European and Middle Eastern intelligence officials told VICE. While there is no evidence that Tehran was behind the attack, it's not hard to see how this complicates Congressional approval of any revised Iran nuclear deal. The proposed new deal would blunt American sanctions against Iran's Revolutionary Guards and pave the way for Tehran to avoid further scrutiny of suspected atomic sites, according to excerpts of a draft of the text reviewed by POLITICO. "The Satanic Verses" is back among Amazon's best-selling books, at 18th. h/t Nahal Toosi U.K. — THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF LIZ TRUSS' BRITAIN: POLITICO's Eleni Courea lays out what life will be like under Britain's likely next prime minister. The new Conservative leader will be announced Sept. 5. The first major policy announcement will be an emergency budget, and Truss would presumably come to New York for the U.N. General Assembly from Sept. 19 UKRAINE — LAST ODESA REGION PORT REOPENED: Pivdennyi Port is the last of the Odesa region's three main ports to reopen following months of blockades by Russian warships in the Black Sea. That's allowing grain shipments to Africa, where at least five countries are now experiencing famine-like conditions and another 20 are on the "watch list for famine," per Denise Brown, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine. WORLD HUNGER INDEX — WHERE THE DANGER IS MOST ACUTE U.N. — HIGH SEAS TREATY NEGOTIATIONS ENTER FINAL STRETCH: A fifth and final round of negotiations for a legally binding marine biodiversity treaty covering seas beyond national jurisdiction is taking place this week in New York. Both an EU-led 49-country "high ambition coalition" and the G-7 have called for a treaty to be finalized this year.
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