Women have been banned from appearing in television dramas in Afghanistan under a raft of new guidelines issued by the Taliban yesterday. Under the new rules, female TV presenters have also been ordered to wear headscarves on screen, and anything racy has been banned. It’s the Taliban’s latest cultural crackdown since they seized power in August – but what’s on the telly can seem minor compared to, well, everything else… The United Nations’ World Food Programme predicts that more than half the population will face acute levels of food insecurity in the coming weeks. And the UN envoy for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons said last week that the country is “on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe”. Reports say aid agencies are demanding an emergency intervention by the UN before winter sets in.