What happened: Khalid Payenda, Afghanistan’s finance minister until last Aug, handling a $6 billion budget, is now driving an Uber north on Interstate 95 from his home in Woodbridge, Virginia, toward Washington, D.C., seven months after Kabul had fallen to the Taliban. Details: “I get a $95 bonus if I complete 50 trips in the next two days,” Payenda told the Washington Post. In a bid to provide for his wife and four children, the 40-year-old took the job and expressed his gratitude by saying, “I feel extremely grateful for it. It eliminates the need for me to be desperate.” According to Payenda, this job is also a break from worrying about his country’s unending tragedy, which included a devastating drought, a pandemic, international sanctions, a failing economy, starvation, and the rebirth of Taliban authority. About Afghanistan: When asked about who was responsible for Afghanistan’s downfall, Payenda was plagued by the question as he blamed himself and fellow Afghan. He explained, “We didn’t have the collective resolve to reform, to be serious.” He criticised the Americans for handing the country over to the Taliban, accusing them of betraying the enduring values that had supposedly motivated their struggle.