It was a full week of international news on The Daily, where we covered two stories of crisis and abandonment. First, with the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, we heard the desperate, devastating chaos that ensued through the voices of those left behind. Then, we reported on the isolation of Haitians fending for themselves in the wake of a presidential assassination and another major earthquake. |
In this newsletter, we want to share how our Afghanistan coverage came together — and introduce you to the woman you heard on Monday's episode. Then, we share a playlist for your weekend to get you caught up on other international news you might have missed. |
On Monday, you heard the voice of R., an Afghan woman searching for safety as her country fell under Taliban rule. Not sure whether R. would make it out of Afghanistan, we identified her by only her first initial to protect her from retaliation. We're happy to share that she has now made it safely to France on an emergency visa. |
As a result, she allowed us to share her full name, Rada Akbar, and images of her. Rada is an Afghan photographer and artist who, alongside recording voice memos for us, chose to visually document her journey. |
"I did a photo shoot the day before packing up stuff, trying to record and document the situation I'm going through, with photos and writings," Rada wrote in a text message. Below, we share Rada's representation of how it felt to shrink her entire life into suitcases — giving up a vibrant art career in Kabul to evacuate to France. |
 | | "I took self-portraits to say farewell to my house," Rada said of these images taken in Kabul on August 6. "The text on my dress is written, 'Only Voice Remains' and was designed by myself."Rada Akbar |
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 | | Rada Akbar |
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Rada is one of the few who have made it out of the country. Thousands of Afghans are still stranded at Kabul's airport, a site of such danger and chaos that even those with proper paperwork and tickets are unable to reach their planes. |
"It's been such a long and tough journey," Rada said. "But at the end of the day, I'm still very happy and feel lucky and privileged that I had this chance and I was protected, I was respected and I was cared for by the French people." |
Below, Lynsea Garrison, The Daily's senior international producer, explains how we found Rada. |
Listening to the voices of Afghanistan |
For several weeks, a team of producers had been looking for voices of people trying to leave Afghanistan: former military interpreters, people rushing to apply for a priority visa, others who aren't eligible for those visas. |
One stood out to me. A few weeks back, I had asked Fatima Faizi, one of our reporters in Kabul, if she knew anyone. She mentioned Rada, whom I talked to on the phone to learn more about her background. We were supposed to talk again, but then the situation there really started to deteriorate. I realized that she would have zero time for a recorded interview, so I sent her a voice memo suggesting it as a way for us to document her experience. |
It was a pretty spontaneous idea, and she agreed by sending me a voice memo back. We then continued the conversation, with her documenting what she was experiencing in a very fast-moving situation. When Rada messaged me about Mazar-i-Sharif and Jalalabad falling, I was at a loss for words — at her pain, desperation and anger at feeling betrayed by the world. I knew after those memos that she had given us something special. |
Because of these impassioned voice memos, we decided to lean into her as our main voice in Monday's episode about the Taliban takeover. We put all her memos together, but we needed to show the passage of time, so we used ambient newsreel to communicate how fast things were happening — and to time stamp the moment each voice memo was sent. What listeners heard is virtually what Rada sent me. There were only a couple of voice memos we didn't use, mostly for security reasons, but we did very little editing. The rawness of those memos was something we really felt we wanted to preserve. |
As we finished the episode in the early hours of Monday morning, after the Taliban had taken Kabul, the capital, Rada was still sending me voice memos. So we added her most recent updates at the end to keep her experience as fresh as possible. |
There were many others who also shared their updates with me over the weekend. All were powerful voices of people who were desperate and fearful for their own reasons. I hoped that in leaning into one voice we could convey a sense of the dire situation. But I'm grateful for all of the Afghans who talked to us, and who are continuing to talk to us. They are vital witnesses of history whose voices Americans need to hear. |
Here's what else you need to know this week |
 | | While out fishing with some other women one day, Onitsha Joseph saw oil bubbling to a river's surface in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria — and knew she had found the source of an oil spill.Yagazie Emezi |
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By Desiree Ibekwe and John Woo |
If you want to learn more about the situation in Afghanistan, and get up to speed on other news events from across the world, we have put together some recommendations for your weekend listening from our narrated articles team: |
In this article, three reporters detail how American spy agencies grew more pessimistic over the summer about the situation in Afghanistan, and the ability of its military to mount resistance to a takeover by the Taliban. |
The pessimism grew concurrently with the Biden administration's assurances that the collapse of the nation was unlikely to happen quickly. |
In the two decades since the invasion of Afghanistan, tens of thousands of Afghans have settled in the United States. Now, many of them worry for the safety of their families, fearing retaliation for their own involvement with U.S. agencies. |
"This is kind of a movie drama for the United States," said Mohammad Sahil, a former employee at the United States Agency for International Development in Afghanistan, in the article. "When you watch the movie, maybe you're scared, but then you walk out of the movie theater." He added: "But this is real for us." |
For more than two years, English soccer has been pressing Facebook and other social media companies to rein in online hate speech against its players. Yet as the Premier League, England's top division, opens its season, players are again steeling themselves for online hate. |
For decades, oil companies like Chevron, Shell and Eni have made billions in profits in the vast Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Now, some of them are pulling out, and, according to government monitors and environmental and human rights organizations, they are leaving ruin in their wake. With its delicate ecosystem, the delta, once teeming with life, is now one of the most polluted places on the planet. |
A group of fisherwomen who say that a leak in a Chevron pipe imperiled their livelihoods have decided to call the oil companies to account and bring the fight to their doors. "You want to kill us with your oil," one of the women said. "We'll come to you so you can kill us yourselves." |
Monday: Our conversations with R, a Kabul resident, as Afghanistan's government collapsed. |
Wednesday: We speak to Maria Abi-Habib, who was on the ground in Haiti, about the devastating impact of last week's 7.2 magnitude earthquake. |
Friday: The concerns over Apple's new tools to take action against child sexual abuse imagery. |
That's it for The Daily newsletter. See you next week. |
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