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Going, going, gone: What it means to be a ‘failed’ state

The term has re-emerged as war rages in the Middle East. But what qualifies as a failed state – and why are they such a worry?

  • Angus Holland

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Ben Roberts-Smith (left) with a former colleague drinking from the prosthetic leg of a dead Afghan man in 2012.

His brother’s leg became a grisly trophy. Now, he wants justice

The families of two men allegedly murdered under Ben Roberts-Smith’s direction said they had lost faith in Australia’s justice system.

  • Nick McKenzie and Amber Schultz
Women’s rights have been quashed since the Taliban retook Afghanistan during August 2021.

‘Gender apartheid’: Why we can’t forget the women of Afghanistan

Afghani men are now permitted to beat their wives as long as it does not cause “broken bones or open wounds”.

  • Liz Gooch
Local residents and civil defence workers look on as a bulldozer clears the rubble of a house hit by a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, on February 22.

Pakistan says it’s in ‘open war’ with Afghanistan. What’s behind the latest fighting?

Markets, mosques, airports, military bases and police stations have been hit and dozens of people have been killed in border clashes.

  • Lucy Craymer, Saad Sayeed and Asif Shahzad
Sayed Anas Hashemi, now aged 3, has been separated from his family since he was a month old.

Facing a terrible choice, Husna handed over her sleeping newborn. She hasn’t held him since

The last time she saw her son he was bundled in blankets. Now the twisting saga to reunite them has hit another dead end, thanks to a snap decision by Donald Trump.

  • Anna Griffin
What do we want to stand for as a nation?

We’re a great nation. Let’s remind ourselves why that is

Compared with much of the world, everything “just works” in Australia, right? No, it doesn’t. It’s up to us to make sure it keeps working.

  • Parnell Palme McGuinness
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John Howard was warned in 2005 by his ministers and his departments and defence agencies not to send Australia back to war.

The six weeks that would destroy John Howard’s prime ministership

In a six-week period, the Howard government made two decisions that would reverberate through Australian politics for the next 20 years.

  • Shane Wright
A woman walks past a mural calling for women and children’s rights in Bamian, Afghanistan.

Unspeakable violence against girls and women meets global silence

Australia has just introduced a world-leading sanctions regime against the Taliban, an important but insufficient step as the world turns away.

  • Virginia Haussegger
The world’s opium is sourced from Afghanistan, where production has surged.

Inside the CIA’s secret mission to sabotage Afghanistan’s opium

Clandestine night flights dropped billions of genetically modified seeds over poppy fields in a classified mission to disrupt the country’s lucrative opium trade.

  • Warren P. Strobel
A series of loud blasts was heard in Kabul on Thursday night after Pakistan targeted a Taliban official.

Firefights erupt between Pakistani and Afghan forces along border

Pakistani security officials said they were responding “with full force” to what they called unprovoked firing from Afghanistan amid rising tensions between the two countries.

  • Mohammad Yunus Yawar, Mushtaq Ali and Saeed Shah