well the issue is not the taliban guns are the taliban ideology the issue is to taking one the taliban enjoy safe haven and pakistan so when we put pressure on the taliban fighters their leaders are our way they are not on their pressure they continue to . operation provide logistics from beyond beyond our borders so that's a matter of concern and the second thing which. is the taliban is a dogmatic approach on policies if they i agreed to be part of a poor alist exercise. they will melt down the she at are active in this and pressure off a pool or a list excess this group will make them in a live and a very short span of time that is why both the pakistanis and the taliban and are stunned that if they do not get some hard come sessions which will ensure. ensure their survival as a militant group they will not engage into any peace process so we are not afraid of taliban becoming part of the society because the afghan society as a whole will reject them democratically and the biggest enemy off half of the taliban is not necessarily the nato guns or our political rejection of the taliba

and provide some degree of support to the taliban. to the taliban.pport do you understand to be? the support is difficult to quantify. to the taliban. observed the russian behaviour elsewhere around the world. we have also seen exercises on the border. in tajikistan. yes. vezo counterterrorism exercises. exercises. large amount of equipment and leave some of it behind. some of it behind. —— these are counterterrorism exercises. to the efforts of the united states and nato. with the war in syria. of the taliban in afghanistan? last 18—24 months. when things started to heat up in syria. it is interesting to note the timing of the whole thing. seemingly interminable conflict. opium, and the heroin it is used to produce. comes from afghanistan. and production has been going through the roof. it almost doubled last year according to un figures. and use the revenue that raises to fund their operations. is what we saw similarly in colombia. this insurgency continue. in this conflict? absolutely. in order to profit from the drugs trade. of profit than it is

on a taliban position.ghan commandos launch a night raid on a taliban position. despite improvements in elite troops like these, the fact is that afghanistan still looks like a quagmire. the latest figures show that last year, the taliban expanded their territory. meanwhile, opium production is at record levels and injanuary, insurgents launched a series of horrific terrorist attacks in kabul and elsewhere around the country. generaljohn nicholson is one of the longest serving officers in afghanistan. he is in his third year as the commander of us and nato forces and is reckoned to have played a pivotal role in formulating america's new policy. so, this, of course, is america's longest war. it is one that started because of 9/11 and the attacks on our country which emanated from here. my office was in the pentagon and struck by the plane that hit the pentagon on 9/11, so for me and many of us it is personal. it wasn't clear that president trump was going to commit america to this conflict. you advocated qui

so why haven't we had a response from the taliban? i don't know, you have to ask the taliban.r to the people of america. this needs to be an afghan—led process, this needs to be a process between afghans so we are hopeful that the taliban will respond to this and will engage in a peaceful reconciliation. now, president trump's policy is conditions—based. that means, until the success here, how long do you think this will last? i'm encouraged that six months after president trump announced the policy, we have peace offers being discussed by both the government and the taliban. i do not think this is any coincidence. it is the pressure that this represents and what this represents, when we say is it a conditions—based policy, this is a fundamental change from the past and — it's an important point here — it demonstrates that we have the will, and war is a contest of wills, and that we have now demonstrated the will to see this through, and i think that demonstration of will has contributed to getting these two parties to the point where they are both talking about peace in their

to the —— by the russians to the taliban."information campaign, which will be familiar to anyone who has observed the russian behaviour elsewhere around the world. we have also seen exercises on the border in tassie to stand. —— in tajikistan. they... the russians used the pretext of a spillover of terrorism from afghanistan as the reason to support the taliban, which of course is destabilising to the country and destabilising to the efforts of the united states and nato. this activity has picked up in parallel with the war in syria. you think this is in a way a proxy war that they are keeping pressure on america on through the activities of the taliban in afghanistan? this activity really picked up in the last 18— 24 months. prior to that we have not seen this kind of destabilising activity by russia here, and when you look at the timing, it roughly correlates to when things started to heat up in syria. it is interesting to note the timing of the whole thing. this is what is funding afghanistan's seemingly interminable confli

and then finding a way to work with taliban. now, of course, we received assurance that taliban will not be provided with weapons and resources. we would welcome that assurance and then would like to see that in practice. but we also get concerned that when they claim that there are u.s., nato, afghan marked helicopters so far bringing daesh from the south or even tribal areas of pakistan to the north of the country, and just quite simply during the conference we respectfully engaged them. if you have any evidence of this happening, please produce it and we welcome a joint regional investigation into the evidence that you have provided. but if you don't have evidence, we do have evidence that we would like you to have a look at. and the evidence that we have is that already we have over 80 daesh, i.s. related, associated foreign fighters in our custody. so ask them to come and question them as to where they were recruited, who trained them, who provided them with the resources and who brought them into afghanistan and to the nor

a lot of the taliban leadership is. today are helmund it's a power pace for the taliban. the 9/11 attacks were trained and ordered from helmund and kandahar. this is where the pre-9/11 conditions that gave us 9/11 attacks and the like. it came -- emanates right from here as well. the history of the -- our military involvement there has been significant. i won't go through the whole thing. between 2010 and 2014, there was about 30,000 coalition forces in helmund province. about 20,000 marines, about 10,000 brits as part of the mission. we enjoyed great success in helmund during those years. and so that's kind of where we sat at that point. as you know, the previous strategy was a time-based strategy. rather than a conditions-based strategy. that basically had all coalition forces were removed from the helmund province in 2014. that was based on the -- based on the numbers of forces that were going to be allowed to stay in afghanistan. and then because of the location here, it was unsupportable to keep coalition forces in helmund. so that pulled back. then what happens then

taliban that the we are fighting. see foreign, we athters associated with least three categories of terrorist networks. a global terrorist network such , the regionalaesh epim ands such as such as therrorists taliban in pakistan. , thehese categories afghans, the global, the regional and the pakistanis, have a relationship among themselves. drawing all throwing -- on the criminalized economy, chief of all drugs. drug networks need them and they need a drug income. unfortunately there has been a growth in the number of foreign fighters in the country, primarily because four years ago troopsere 352,000 afghan international with all afghanistan the sophisticated weaponry humanity has ever produced. four years ago, a decision was combat,transition the and security responsibility to the afghans. ago, there was a young army that stood not developed, including its air force. the transition has taken place successfully. setbacks,'s -- especially in rural areas. but no major population center under control of taliban. so what

but the taliban, are they an affiliate of al qaeda? are they a danger to the united states as al qaeda? on what basis? they did not participate in the 9/11 attacks. the leadership of the taliban knew about the 9/11 thought. obviously they were complicit. they create a sanctuary for al qaeda. they refuse repeated request to do something to al qaeda. but after the fall of the government what did the reviving caliban close by way of a threat, and direct that across borders of the united states for its allies? this was a question that all of these reviews and that conference room on the fourth floor of the eisenhower building could never settle. president obama knew one thing. he did not want to fight the forever were against the caliban. bob gates, the defense secretary, a holdover from the bush administration pointed out that the taliban are part of afghanistan. we are not in a position to fight a long war against them. the pentagon wanted to fight in the war against them but it wasn't able to persuade many of the civilian decision-maker

the story that the taliban had attacked us somehow. so the idea was first of all really just to make a target out of them but i just kept hearing from the egyptian surgeon that he had the engineering degree in the pilot of the plot were all friends studying engineering they were grad students so these were not taliban cavemen they knew exactly what they were doing and why. what they were counting on again was an overreaction so of course bin laden said himself our plan is to bleed you to bankruptcy just as we did to the russians that is a little after-the-fact but one is a terrorist right now but this is not giving an interview to "rolling stone" magazine they published in 2010 where bin laden said my father's dream was to bring the americans to afghanistan he would do the same thing he did to the russians, with america's help. i was surprised the americans took the bait i respected the mentality of president clinton he was the one who was smart when my father attacked he sent a few kurdish missiles to my father's training camp eating

refused to engage in the taliban and the taliban says unless u.s. engages they won't speak to ghani's government? >> it's interesting since 2012 the u.s. has been more active in its engagement with the taliban and the example of course is the release of bowe bergdahl and the deal that was made for -- it's has been going on for some time. the challenge now is that there's no home for negotiations in the state department or or in the place you would expect to see it. there used to be a special representative for afghanistan and pakistan which started under richard holbrook's perimeter and since his death has tailed off and been reconsolidated into bureaus -- regional bureaus in the state department. there's no home for negotiations. i think there's been an attempt by the white house and hr mcmaster is a veteran of afghanistan who knows that territory quite well. he and lisa curtis, also on the national security council have done what they can i think to try and create a home within the national security council but there still isn't a team. a lot depe

the taliban not al-qaeda.n fact, they cia officer, the second in command said his orders was to wage war against the taliban with al-qaeda as the secondary target if available. so they spent the whole first eight weeks or something of the war in northern afghanistan taking the enemies which it absolute nothing to do with retribution for the man who was behind september 11 attacks at all. bin laden and his sons were making their escape to bora bora in and our province in eastern afghanistan. finally, i guess second week of december the cia and the delta force cornered osama bin laden and the last three or 400 of these guys at a place called tora bora. it is true that it unleashed airpower, b-52s and f-16s and even rolled at daisy cutter bomb which is a 15,000-pound bomb out of the back of ac-130 and they really did blow a lot of al-qaeda guys to bits. one of the cia guys said he thought a body count you better bring q-tips. and yet for three weeks straight the cia and the delta force were begging for ground rei

taliban ambush the taliban leadership and every other taliban member accept peace accepted with honor and come together so we can make this country safe and secure. all the taliban has yet to respond to the invitation but two weeks ago the group issued a statement calling for peace and urging u.s. congressman to pressure the transfer of ministration into negotiations it came in response to don't trump only a declaration that ruled out any possibility of peace talks between washington and the taliban there's no talking to the taliban we don't want to talk to the taliban we're going to finish what we have to finish what nobody else has been able to finish we're going to be able to do it political analysts muslim shares that thinks the afghan president lacks the all soroti to propose peace talks with the taliban why the taliban after seventeen years should come to the table with a government where the taliban saying they didn't have anything to to do with their solve otherwise the united states is going to decide the conflict of afghanistan and the other issue i don't think that the afgh

this exclusive footage shows them besieging a taliban stronghold and capturing a taliban commander.ese guys the tip of the sphere, it's theirjob to take the fight to the taliban. commandos like these and special forces make up just 10% of afghan troops. but they carry out 80% of offensive operations. but, says the general, some of the taliban insurgents these troops will be fighting are likely to have been armed by russia. we've had stories written by the taliban that have appeared in the media about financial support provided by the enemy, we've had weapons brought to this headquarters and given to us by afghan leaders and said, "this was given by the russians to the taliban." last month, the president of afghanistan made an unprecedented peace offer with a wide amnesty for taliban leaders who join negotiations. but there's been no response yet. the taliban have rejected such offers in the past, and the fear is that foreign meddling in afghanistan is likely to make any peace here even less likely. justin rowlatt, bbc news, afghanistan. with all the sport, here's lizzie greenwood—hu

highlighting the misery for women under taliban rule. but while others might have chosen to stop talking used the global attention to keep fighting for her causes. the un general assembly sharing its appreciation on her sixteenth birthday. to a game is the day of every woman every warrior and every guy. who have raised their wife for their lives. she went on to set up her own funds the fund to promote goals education and in twenty fourteen a seventeen year old malala became the youngest ever recipient of the nobel peace prize the visit has attracted much attention in pakistan divides opinion to some she's on a mission to shame the country a mouthpiece of the west to others though she remains a national hero for standing up to the taliban. correspondent and machine a bus with joins us from islamabad a welcome to how was this homecoming well it's been fantastic it's a very happy go back. book people who were present when it was very happy to buy a share you knew so really it has been a really warm welcome to. dish explain why it's taken us

and she was shot by the taliban the militants she was an individual she belonged to the so a lot. such a beautiful place and i'm sure that she she wants to go there as well but now when she has come back she has become an archaeologist and the ideology is that pakistan should be progress of focus on to be secular pakistan should be should have decision you know toward the end the military should go back to the barracks because the military calls the shots in pakistan and malala has to strengthen the narrative and by coming back she has she has strengthened does not or to that pakistan should be during. the secular progressive forces and i think i agree that she is not safe in pakistan she has lots of tricks from islamists and obviously should go back to the u.k. where she studied this but pakistan needs people like malala and a vest must cited with malala vest must not sight with the military generals and usually the rest of us have germany and all the countries kind of negotiated with the military people and has going to many remember that tamil let's we're going to talk with you

you see when malala was shot by the taliban and she left to the u.k. she was an individual when she has come back to pakistan she is an ideology she represent and ideology and the ideology is is folklore democracy and boxed up. a lot of people in pakistan i'm not supportive of democracy the democratic process so my argument is that the west needs to support malala and people like malala it's not just about malawi and pakistan there is an indigenous look at the struggle against dictatorship and the. super mysie of the military in august and my lot ever since that the fight is ongoing in pakistan and the vest needs to fight with that movement you know in my lower short by the taliban pervaiz musharraf the dictator was ruling the country now but is not is a different but is not has a government of the long end and it is important that the best sites with people like democracy and the rest must not suppose military rulers military genders they should not even talk to the military generals in part and let me ask you about her future there are some people wh

or should fight with the taliban.germany's chancellor angela merkel has acknowledged the problem of so-called no go zones in her country it's the first time she's made such an admission artie's peter oliver has the details. we've seen an unexpected change of time. when it comes to talk of no go areas. there should not be any no go zones there can be no places where nobody dares to go by these owns exist and they should be named and something must be done about it. burkle had previously used the same injury phrase no go area to describe parts of the country with a high crime rate but that rate has been going up the government's own figures released earlier this year point to a ten percent rise in violent crime between twenty fifteen and twenty sixty ninety percent of which is attributed to young male refugees there was criticism of last year of the way the german media covered the refugee crisis a highly respected group of researches said this editors acted as public educators and that the whole refugee crisis in the a

afghanistan's president is offering to recognize the taliban as a legitimate political party. made the announcement during a couple peace conference where twenty five countries have met for talks aimed at ending the sixteen year long war tony but reports from kabul it was a warm and far reaching speech in which the afghan president offered the taliban a peace deal without precondition he also promised official political recognition and an office in kabul if the armed group joins the peace process of the taliban a machine. i call on the taliban and the leadership today the decision is in your hands accept peace a dignified peace will come together to safeguard this country which has been the results of our sacrifices and struggle. they were his most conciliatory words as president ghani has previously described the taliban as terrorists and rebels but now he says he'll not prejudge any group he even went as far as to say taliban fighters and officials could be removed from international blacklists delegates representing twenty five regional and international countries have come

and they started to essentially act as agents for the taliban. at one point, they delivered ages to the americans in mullah omar's name and the americans could never quite figure o what the relationship between i.s.i. and the taliban leadership was in thnee tiations, it made it very difficult to succeed. >> schifrin: and one mabe thing t how u.s. soldiers fought this war. you talk about how u.s. soldiers went blind into batt to a certain extent, not understanding the kind of historic nature of the taliban's relationship with the people and also a level of hubris that came from how easy the first few weeks or months of the war was. did the u.s. ever really understand what to do on the ground in afghistan? >> well they fought a counterinsurgency war at the peak of u.s. military presence there and there was kind of a fashionable bubble of doctrine around counterinsurgency theory that was appli to the afghan war after the perceived success in iraq in 2007, 2008. and you know hamid karzai warned the american generals who were arriving to carry out thi

they have not wanted to talk to the taliban even though the taliban has reached out directly to them.etary is right. we have to show an end to a war. we've had full support and backing from the trump administration and it's actually the new south asia strategy of the trump administration that has created the enabling environment to both have the strength to move forward with security reforms and consolidation of security and also to put the ultimate political solution clearly. we want to thank the trump administration for bringing all instruments of american power and particularly its diplomatic, full weight so that the region and afghanistan and the international community can move forward. >> what about your neighbor pakistan which you have called the center of the taliban which the trump administration has censured and removed a hefty, many, many hundreds of millions of dollars of security aid for their activities in this regard. you know, without their support it's not going to work, is it? >> we have offered a comprehensive discussion with pakistan and yesterday i announced that

under taliban rule.he used the attention to keep fighting for her causes. the u.n. general assembly, showing appreciation on her 16th birthday. >> today is the day of every woman, every boy, and every guoe who has raised the voice for their rights. reporter: she went on to set up her own fund to promote girls' education. in 2014, a 17-year-old malala became the eldest recipient of a nobel peace prize. the visit has attracted much attention in pakistan, where malala divides opinion. to some she is a mouthpiece for the west but to others she remains a national hero for standing up to the taliban. brent: joining us now is shamil from our asia desk. shamil, good to have you on the show. you have covered malala's story extensively. what is the real purpose of her visit to pakistan, six years after being the target of the taliban? shamil: i think malala always wanted to be back in pakistan, and she was desiring to go back to her home country. and finally she is back, although briefly. she is on a four-day visi

refused to engage in the taliban and the taliban says unless u.s.ngages they won't speak to ghani's government? the example of course is the release of bergdahl and the deal made for his release out of taliban captivity. the conversation has been going on for quite some time. now is the challenge that there is no home for negotiation in the state department or in the places where you would expect to see it, there used to be a special representative for afghanistan and pakistan which started under time.d holbrook's since his death, that has tailed off and has been re-consolidated into the regional bureaus in the state department. there is no home now for negotiations. there has been an attempt by the white house and h.r. mcmaster is a veteran of afghanistan who knows that territory quite well. can tove done what they try to create a home within the butonal security council there is still not a focus. a lot depends on whether the u.s. is willing to accept this opportunity that has opened up and really see it as an opportunity. , he is not out there sa

the taliban rejects this offer. but we haven't seen an official statement from qweta for that matter. and that's significant for a couple of different reasons. one, the lack of an official statement might suggest that, in fact, there are elements within the taliban that want to continue to talk, that are interested in arriving at some sort of settlement, but two, there's a sort of second subtext here that's very important. during that same frame when ghani was talking about this offer, saudi arabia was exerting some pressure on kabul to move the office, the taliban office from zoha out of qatar into another location, possibly kabul, maybe riyadh. that's significant because this continuing sectarian caste of conflict in the middle east and south asia is evident everywhere and this is one of those moments. the saudis exerting pressure on the kabul government to move the office and the taliban out of qatar really suggest that they're upping the ante. they want to be involved. they're not convinced by our vision of winn

to return to pakistan for the first time since twenty twelve but she was shot on a school bus by taliban militants also on the program. senior envoys from the north and south korea hoaxed top of the border and announced an april twenty seventh asked the date when the two leaders will meet it's the latest step in the attempts to calm the north's nuclear ambitions. i'm sorry you know absolutely devastated. i am to predict captain steve smith apologizes for the ball tampering scandal that's as shaken the cricketing. i'm frugal welcome to the program nobel peace prize winner yousafzai has returned home to pakistan my first visit since being shot that by the taliban in twenty twelve the failed assassination attempts on the van schoolgirl shocked the world she was talkative for promoting education for girls despite the attack malala yousafzai became an international icon for women's education and human rights. tears of sadness and moments of joy upon a long awaited return. speaking in order to malala yousafzai says she has dreamed of coming home to pakistan and walking the streets in peace. th

nobel peace prize winner says it's a dream to come back for the first time since she was shot by the taliban in two thousand and twelve and. i'm sorry in an absolutely fit the state of. israel years band of cricket captain steve smith excepts the blame for a ball tampering scandal that has shaken the world of cricket. golf it's good to have you with us tonight russia is striking back exactly as expected the kremlin expelling u.s. diplomats and closing the u.s. consulate in st petersburg the move mirrors washington's expulsion of russian diplomats following the poisoning of former russian spy sergei script all and his daughter in britain british prime minister to resign may and much of the west now. say that moscow was behind the poisoning the kremlin denies. moscow hit back with a simple tit for tat sixty u.s. diplomats are to be expelled from russia matching the sixty russian diplomats thrown out by the u.s. . the retaliation against other countries will also be reciprocal that's in terms of the number of diplomats expelled from each country. usually it is that he's content seoul for the mo

the taliban right now have the upper hand on the ground. they control large swaths of land.nd they're consistently committing brazen acts of violence. just last month, a suicide bomber in central kabul killed 100 people. as president obama's defense secretary, chuck hagel is all too familiar with the challenges posed by afghanistan, and he joins me now, from washington. welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> so, obvious first question, what do you make of president of afghanistan's offer off to the taliban? >> it's truly the only wise course of action that the president could take. if you look at the -- dynamics and the realities that, that face afghanistan today and you noted a couple, but now, we're in our 17th year in the united states in afghanistan. only some kind of a diplomatic solution is going to break this. and i, i think, the way that -- the president of afghanistan has approached this is the right way. >> obviously begs the question as to why this is not happened in the past. it is true that, that president obama tried that. it is true that the afpac process, t

six years ago her activism nearly killed her taliban gunman boarded a bus asking who's malala shot in the head because of a diary should been writing for the b.b.c. highlighting the misery for women under taliban rule but while others might have chosen to stop talking malala used the global attention to keep fighting for her causes. the u.n. general assembly showing its appreciation on her sixteenth birthday. is the day off every woman every warrior and every god. who have raised their wife. she went on to set up her own fund the malala fund to promote girls' education. and in two thousand and fourteen a seventeen year old malala became the youngest ever recipient of the nobel peace prize. the visit has attracted much attention in pakistan where malala divides opinion to some she's on a mission to shame the country a mouthpiece of the west to others though she remains a national hero for standing up to the taliban for joining us now is from our asia desk good to have you on this show you have covered this story extensively what is the real purpose of her visit back to pakistan six yea

leaders whojoined the wide ranging amnesty for taliban leaders who joined the negotiations.d the offers in the past and there is that foreign meddling in afghanistan is likely to make any peace here even less likely. investigators from the information commissioner's office are assessing material seized during are assessing material seized during a seven—hour search of the london offices of the company cambridge analatica. they was all part of a large enquiry into the use of personal data and political campaigning. the headlines now on bbc news: huge rallies have been held across the united states to call for tougher controls on guns. frind says it will hold a national memorial service for the police officer who died after changing places with a hostage in the siege ata places with a hostage in the siege at a supermarket. the commander of nato forces in afghanistan claims russia is trying to stall effort to end the war with the taliban. sport now. and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's hugh. (05) we so with cricket at a major scandal developing in south af

she remains a national hero for standing up to the taliban. but now being some of the stories making news around the was british prime minister theresa may is on a deal on two of the u.k. to mark the year countdown to britain's departure from the european union visited a textiles factory in scotland she told people there that breaks it would provide the u.k. opportunities she'll also make stops in england wales and northern ireland british police don't believe that the former russian spy said again and his daughter yulia were poisoned at the home detectives identify the highest concentration of the military grade a nerve agent on the front door of the house in the town of swords vary the to remain in a critical condition in hospital normal twitter for julian assange ish ecuador's government says it's cutting off a soldier's internet access from its london embassy the wiki leaks founder has taken refuge in the building since two thousand and twelve he fears extradition to the u.s. if he leaves the premises ecuador said the decision was taken to

highlighting the misery for women under taliban rule. but while others might have chosen to stop talking used the global attention to keep fighting for her causes. the un general assembly sharing its appreciation on her sixteenth birthday to a game is the day of every woman every warrior and every guile. who have raised their wife or did i say. she went on to set up her own funds the men lolla funds to promote go cation and in twenty fourteen a seventeen year old member became the youngest ever recipient of the nobel peace prize. the physicians attracted much attention in pakistan it's invites opinion to some she's on a mission to shame the country a mouthpiece of the west to out this very she remains a national hero for standing up to the taliban. and to talk about my last return to pakistan let me join chorus line in islam but as a view thing following milan a story since the day she was shot well what what was a return to pakistan like yes it's definitely been an emotional time for pakistanis i think particularly given the kind of une

during taliban, particularly, but also before that and after that. but during taliban, as you rightly mentioned, women have been deprived of basic rights. i was living in kabul during that time and i know what that means when you live under taliban regime. so i believe that women should be consulted and there is a fair and legitimate fear among women in afghanistan that we might lose some of the gains that we have. because if you open up the talks for peace and amendment of constitution, there are other articles that there are people who are studying to change, especially when it comes to kind of the positive discrimination for women, political participation that a lot of people in afghanistan oppose it when it comes to equality, article number 22 of afghan constitution state that afghan, both man and women, all the genders, have equal rights. and there are people who are sitting, watching the momentum to change that. and i guess to make such statement is easy, but to actually bring it to practice without making anybody lose anything would be a chall

afghan commandos. and capturing a taliban commander.hese elite troops. they call these guys the ‘tip of the sphere'. it is theirjob to take the fight to the taliban. troops but they carry out 80% of offensive operations. troops will be fighting are likely to have been armed by russia. to the taliban. who join negotiations. but there has been no response yet. peace here even less likely. justin rowlatt, bbc news, afghanistan. that ball tampering incident by the australian cricket team. australian cricket team. this news hasjust come in. hasjust come in. executive of cricket australia, james sutherland, has spoken. james sutherland, has spoken. urgent internal investigation to get to the bottom of what happened. to the bottom of what happened. taken about whether the team captain should keep hisjob. should keep hisjob. question being asked about the team's role in this. team's role in this. is that a loss of questions. of questions. we will keep you up—to—date as this story continues. thames. over 19 minutes. john watson was riverside for

especially groups like the taliban. we spent the last two days the mainhey remain terrorist sector in afghanistan. connectivity combat clearly dominates. the problem with movements like that, they are very hard, there is not much you can do without changing something fundamental, without -- and it is very hard to defeat them militarily just by mobilizing external international support. gilly reason that was possible in syria and iraq is because the movement is without region. it created the necessary degree , a western broad coalition. nevertheless, this is the broadest you can have. but the movement like the taliban, it does not have any particular goals beyond the afghan and pakistani area of operation. it is very hard to mobilize if it enjoys a degree of support from neighboring countries. there is a comp looks regional complex-- there is a regional balance. cases, somalia, afghanistan, even libya, there is no military solution to the problem. this brings us back to fundamental things. , trying to find a solution. th

the first question, of course, is around negotiations with the taliban.nd, you know, lately there has been sort of a lot of discussion about talks with taliban and on and off, you know, there have been back channel talks between members of the -- the leadership body for the taliban, and the u.s. government. for many years, going back as far as 2001, with the first initial invasion, where you saw some back channel contacts between the taliban, via pakistan. but what's changed in the last year or so, is there is a greater desperation on the part of the afghan administration to try and curtail the violence because it's getting out of control. in terms of institutional strength and obviously, it's resulted in millions and millions of displaced afghans both within the country and outside, where we have millions now traveling across europe, through these trafficking channels. so this deterioration, of course, has led the administration to begin very seriously to consider the prospect of negotiations with the taliban. just two weeks ago, for the first time we he