The greatest threat to the Taliban, according to its leader, comes from within the group itself. The BBC has obtained a leaked recording of a speech by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, warning that internal disagreements could bring the Taliban down. This prompted the BBC's Afghan service to begin a year-long investigation that allowed them to map out two distinct groups within the leadership, with competing visions for Afghanistan. My colleagues explain how the divisions between these groups played out over the shutting down of the internet in September, and what it could mean for the future amid differing views on women's rights and international relations. A senior Taliban spokesman acknowledged differences in opinion but denied there was a split.

Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi has spent a total of 20 years in detention in Myanmar, including the last five. "Today she is invisible," writes South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head. But, he writes, with no end in sight to the deadly civil war that has gripped the country since the February 2021 military coup, "many would argue she is probably still needed if the country is to chart a path out of its current deadlock".