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Stories from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, India and the USA.

It was truly symbolic when the last US forces flew out of Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase. They left behind military vehicles, furniture and other remains of their 20 year presence. But they also left a country where the Taliban continues to capture territory, and which many fear will now descend into civil war. So what was achieved by the 20 year intervention? Frank Gardner looks back.

A grave humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Ethiopia. Recent fighting in the Tigray region has resulted in widespread hunger – the UN warns that almost two million people are at risk of famine. Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed has been somewhat elusive. So Catherine Byaruhanga travelled to his home town, to see if she could ask him about the many problems now unfolding.

The lockdown in India seems to be working. The country is still reporting around forty thousand new Covid infections a day, and at least four hundred thousand people have died so far – perhaps many more. Yet death rates are now far lower than they were, and with only a small proportion vaccinated, the drop is being attributed to strict lockdown measures. But isolation is far from easy to sustain. The writer and poet, Tishani Doshi, has spent the time in a secluded spot, where even grocery shopping has become a complex process.

How do you persuade people to come home? That’s the challenge facing New York right now - because more people left New York during the Covid pandemic than any other city in the US. Its residents are now slowly emerging from the nightmare of last spring: restaurants and bars are serving again, the theatres on Broadway are due to reopen. But the city has lost a million jobs and many businesses, and is still losing its people. Lucy Ash has been meeting some of those who are part of the exodus, and the other New Yorkers attempting to lure them back.

(Image: Silhouette of US soldiers in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Credit: Reuters/Baz Ratner)