Five years of Taliban rule: A state has survived, but at what cost?
Economic despair, social repression, and regional friction have preserved Afghanistan as an enduring catalyst for crises A security personnel stands guard next to a mural depicting the Taliban flag, along a street in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Taliban's takeover of the country, on 12 August 2026 (Aimal Zahir/AFP) Five years after the Taliban’s return to power on 15 August 2021, Afghanistan has transformed from a chaotic battlefield into a functioning but deeply…
Where: Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, China, Russia
Exact coordinates
pakistan: 30.380, 69.350
iran: 32.430, 53.690
afghanistan: 33.930, 67.710
china: 35.860, 104.200
russia: 61.520, 105.320
Read it at Middle East Eye See this on the map
2 outlets covered this story — see how their framing differs
What might happen next? AI-generated
These scenarios are written by an AI language model from the headline and summary above. They are not predictions from the newsroom, and they are not evidence of anything. Every one is given a deadline and checked against later coverage, and the score is published on the ledger — including the ones that miss.
ForecastGeo shows the headline and summary published by the newsroom and places the story on a map. The full article lives at the source.