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The headline is:

As mayhem persisted at Kabul’s airport, the Taliban reached out to a former Afghan president about a new government.

The way I think it's suposed to be is: "reach out to a former Afghan president" TO something as :

reach out to a former Afghan president TO TALK about...

Does it makes any sense?

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  • reach out means to contact.
    – Lambie
    Commented Oct 13, 2022 at 22:08

2 Answers 2

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It doesn't have to be "reached out to (someone) [to do something]"

The construction "reach out to (someone) [about something]" is also correct.

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"reach out" is no different to any other verb, so it is perfectly OK to add a prepositional phrase "about...", which works as an adverbial to modify the verb.

"reach out" is a relatively new expression: it has only become common since 2000, so usage is not yet set in stone. According to this NGram graph, "reached out about.." is used but "reached out to talk about..." is not.

Looking at individual instances of "reached out about...", it seems that the "to..." phrase is optional when an "about..." phrase is used.

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  • The verb "reach out (to someone)" has been used fhroughout the 20th century with the figurative meaning of "to seek aid, assistance, or advice". books.google.com/ngrams/…
    – TimR
    Commented Nov 8 at 12:02
  • @TimR That Ngram graph is a bit misleading. If you look at actual usages of "reach out about" during the 1910 to 1960 peak period, they are things like "reach out about 45 miles", which is not the usage under discussion in this question.
    – JavaLatte
    Commented Nov 8 at 12:30
  • There are plenty of earlier attestations with the figurative meaning. This phrase has been around for a long time. google.com/…
    – TimR
    Commented Nov 8 at 12:41

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