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bulletinobserver · 3 years

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Erdogan says Taliban lacking ‘inclusive, encompassing leadership’ | Taliban News

Turkish president says Ankara is willing to work with Taliban if the armed group formed a more encompassing government.The Taliban’s current approach and their interim government are not inclusive but Turkey is willing to work with them if the armed group formed a more encompassing government, President Tayyip Erdogan has said. NATO member Turkey has been working with Qatar to operate Kabul airport for international travel after the Taliban took power and foreign countries withdrew from Afghanistan. Turkey welcomed the Taliban’s initial messages but said it would evaluate its engagement and recognition of the group based on their actions. “Looking at the Taliban’s approach right now, unfortunately an inclusive, encompassing leadership has not been formed,” Istanbul-based broadcaster Haberturk quoted Erdogan as telling reporters after attending the UN General Assembly in New York.

The Taliban has said it wants international recognition and financial help to rebuild the war-battered country, but the makeup of the new Taliban government poses a dilemma for many countries “At the moment, there are only some signals the possibility of some changes, that there may be a more inclusive atmosphere in the leadership,” Erdogan said. “We have not seen this yet. If such a step can be taken, then we may move on to the point of discussing what we can do together.” Erdogan’s comments came after Turkey’s ambassador to Kabul, Cihad Erginay, met Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. Erginay said on Twitter that he pledged “Turkey’s continued support to the Afghan people and commitment to build upon our historic ties”. Earlier this month, the Taliban appointed hardline veterans to an all-male cabinet. The Taliban has framed the cabinet as an interim government, suggesting that changes were still possible, but it has not said if there would ever be elections.

International recognition

Neighbouring Pakistan, a close ally of Turkey, has also been among the countries calling on the Taliban to establish an inclusive government. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Imran Khan said in a Twitter post he “initiated a dialogue with the Taliban for an inclusive Afghan govt to include Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks”. The Taliban has said it wants international recognition and financial help to rebuild the war-battered country, but the makeup of the new Taliban government poses a dilemma for many countries. Several of the interim ministers are on the UN’s blacklist of international “terrorists and funders of terrorism”. The Taliban’s took over Afghanistan last month after its stunning victory on the battlefield, capturing more than a dozen provincial capitals in less than two weeks. This is the second time the Taliban has ruled Afghanistan. Their first rule, from 1996 to 2001, ended when they were removed by a US-led coalition after the 9/11 attacks. Read the full article

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haiwei-12 · 3 years

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In Taliban's 7-day march to power, a stunning string of wins

Just a week before Afghanistan’s collapse, things looked staggeringly different, but even for a country scarred by generations of war, the weeklong string of victories by the Taliban stood out as a remarkable turn of events

By MATT SEDENSKY AP National Writer18 August 2021, 21:49• 9 min readShare to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this article

In just seven days, any lingering dreams of a free Afghanistan died.

As last week dawned, many clung to hope that the Taliban could be held back, though key trade routes had been seized, border crossings overtaken and swaths of remote areas clutched. But then, in just a week, militants won city after city, toppled the government and grabbed the grand prize of Kabul.

On its streets, ads with women in Western clothes were covered in white paint, while men in jeans and T-shirts rushed to change into traditional tunics. At the U.S. embassy, staff raced to destroy documents as helicopters shuttled away diplomats.

Fingers once splashed with purple ink — residue of voting, a badge of democracy — now clenched tickets seeking exit, and frantically punched ATMs to withdraw life savings.

All in seven days.

“The only thing people are thinking about is how to survive here or how to escape,” said Aisha Khurram, a 22-year-old headed to class Sunday at Kabul University before being turned back, unsure whether she would ever be able to return, or if females will once again be barred from school. “The only thing we have is our God.”

Even for a country scarred by generations of warfare, it was an astonishing week.

MONDAY

The week dawns with news that insurgents claimed the northern cities of Aybak and Sar-e Pul.

In some districts, pro-government forces surrender without a fight. In others, where firefights sprout, desperate residents areforced from their homes, trudging hundreds of kilometers on foot in exodus.

“We walked with slippers, didn’t have the chance to wear our shoes,” says Bibi Ruqia, who left northern Takhar province for Kabul after a bomb hit her house. “We had to escape.”

The fall of Aybak and Sar-e Pul pleases the Taliban fighters; afterward, they are seen on video relishing their victory outside one of the government buildings they now controlled.

But Americans and the Afghan troops they spent years training had reasons to take heart: The cities were just the fourth and fifth provincial capitals to crumble. Twenty-nine more remained.

TUESDAY

In the sparkling Qatari capital of Doha, American envoy Zalmay Khalilzad arrives with a warning to the Taliban: Any gains made by force would be met with international condemnation and assure their status as global pariahs.

The effectiveness of the diplomacy is diminished, though, by Taliban forces’ push into the western city of Farah. They are seen in front of the provincial governor’s office.

As the United States’ self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw its troops nears, the Taliban steadily gains ground while hundreds of thousands are displaced. Kabul’s parks swell with the newly homeless, while the United Nations releases tallies of civilian deaths and injuries they know would only grow.

“The real figures,” says U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, “will be much higher.”

WEDNESDAY

Three more provincial capitals fall in Badakhshan, Baghlan and Farah, giving the Taliban control over two-thirds of the country. With those regions lost, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rushes to Balkh province, already surrounded by Taliban-controlled land, to secure help from warlords linked to allegations of atrocities and corruption. But he is desperate to push back the insurgents.

At the White House, President Joe Biden signs off on a plan to mount a full-scale evacuation of Afghans seeking to flee their country after a new intelligence analysis makes clear the country’s government and military are unwilling or unable to mount any significant resistance. Afghan special forces, left to pick up much of the burden of defending multiple fronts, are stretched increasingly thin.

As the Taliban’s drive widens, they emerge in more and parts of the country carrying M-16 rifles and driving Humvees and Ford pickup trucks, equipment paid for by American taxpayers.

THURSDAY

Any hope that the Taliban’s successes might be limited to Afghanistan’s more remote reaches vanish, as the country’s second- and third-largest cities are captured.

With Kandahar and Herat, a dozen provincial capitals are now in the group’s grasp. And with security rapidly deteriorating, the U.S. reverses course, announcing 3,000 troops will be sent to help evacuate the embassy.

Zahra, a 26-year-old resident of Herat, is on her way to dinner with her mother and three sisters when she sees people running and heard gunshots blast. “The Taliban are here!” people scream.

She spent most of her life in an Afghanistan where girls got an education and women dared to dream of careers and she had spent the past five years working with nonprofit organizations to press for gender equality. Now, her last name is shrouded to avoid making her a target, and she hunkers down indoors with her family.

“How can it be possible for me as a woman who has worked so hard and tried to learn and advance, to now have to hide myself and stay at home?” she asks.

Taliban fighters finally break through at Herat after two weeks of attacks. As they move in, witnesses tell of Taliban members once detained in the city’s prison are spotted moving freely in its streets.

FRIDAY

As the Taliban push ever further into the country they once again seek to rule, reports of revenge killings trickle out: A comedian. A government media chief. Others.

Signs of a new day in Afghanistan proliferate.

In Herat, two alleged looters are paraded through the streets with black makeup smeared on their faces, reminders of the unsparing version of Islamic law the Taliban has imposed. In Kandahar, militants commandeer a radio station that had beamed Pashto and Indian songs into residents’ homes, music banned by the Taliban. The tunes stop, abruptly. And the station is renamed Voice of Sharia.

Militants complete their sweep of the country’s south, taking four more provincial capitals. Among them is Helmand province, where American, British and other allied NATO forces fought some of their bloodiest battles. Hundreds of Western troops died there during the war. Now, many of their families ask why.

SATURDAY

Ghani delivers a televised speech in which he vows not to give up achievements of the 20 years since the Taliban were toppled. But the group pushes forward, notching more victories.

Along the Pakistani border, the provinces of Paktika and Kunar fall. In the north, Faryab province is taken. And in the country’s center, Daykundi is captured. Biggest of all, Mazar-e-Sharif — the country’s fourth-largest city, a heavily defended swath that government forces had pledged to defend — is now under Taliban control.

The unfolding disaster prompts a statement from President Joe Biden, standing firm in his decision to finish the withdrawal of U.S. forces that began under Donald Trump.

“I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan — two Republicans, two Democrats,” he said. “I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”

In Kabul, long lines form outside the international airport. Afghans seeking to flee push carts loaded with carpets, televisions and mementos as they waited hours to enter the terminal.

On normal days, Afghans in business suits and traditional dress mingle beside tattooed military contractors in wraparound sunglasses and aid workers from across the globe. Now, the panicked masses fill the airport, scrambling to leave.

Farid Ahmad Younusi abandoned his Kandahar contracting firm for a chance to escape. Everything he built, he says, now appeared to be lost, and militants were searching for him.

“Taliban have everything that I worked for over the past 20 years,” he says.

In sight of the airport, the mountains ringing the capital rise in the distance as the walls seem to close in. As Saturday wears on, news arrives of new Taliban wins.

Just south of the capital, Logar province falls. To the north, insurgents take Mihterlam, reportedly without a fight. Members of the Taliban are reported in the Char Asyab district, just 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Kabul.

The city’s fate seems all but sealed.

SUNDAY

The Taliban seize Jalalabad, the last major city besides the capital, and a string of victories follows. The capitals of Maidan Wardak, Khost, Kapisa and Parwan provinces, as well as the country’s last government-held border post falls to militants, and Afghan forces at Bagram Air Base, home to a prison housing 5,000 inmates, surrender.

Insurgents had no air force and just days earlier had no major city. They were far outnumbered by Afghan troops, who were trained by the American military, the most well-funded and strongest on the planet. And yet, the impossible is now true: The capital of Kabul and its 5 million residents is theirs.

Helicopters whirr. Smoke rises. The American flag is lowered at the embassy.

Ghani, who hours earlier urged his people not to give up, has now fled himself, his abandoned palace occupied by heavily armed fighters, his name cursed by his own countrymen.

“They tied our hands from behind and sold the country,” says Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.

In the U.S., Biden’s CIA director cuts short a foreign trip to return to Washington. Others in the administration reject comparisons to the fall of Saigon even as many find the resemblance impossible to ignore. With preparations underway to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that drove the U.S. to war, the top American general warns of a rise in terrorist threats to come.

Whiplash over the sheer speed of Afghanistan's fall jars those in seats of power.

“You want to believe that trillions of dollars and 20 years of investment adds up to something,” says Sen. Chris Murphy, a Biden ally and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Night falls with Taliban fighters deployed across the capital. Abandoned police posts are claimed. And on nearly empty streets, men carry the black-and-white flag of the Taliban.

Their victory is complete.

———

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Matthew Lee and Nomaan Merchant in Washington and Rahim Faiez in Istanbul contributed to this report.

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xtruss · 3 years

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Does the Great Retreat from Afghanistan 🇦🇫 Mark the End of the American 🇺🇸 Era?

It’s a dishonorable end that weakens U.S. standing in the world, perhaps irrevocably.

— By Robin Wright | August 15, 2021 | The New Yorker

The humiliating U.S. retreat from Afghanistan is now part of an unnerving American pattern. Photograph from EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

History will surely note this absurdly ill-timed tweet. On Monday, August 9th, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul posed a question to its four hundred thousand followers: “This #PeaceMonday, we want to hear from you. What do you wish to tell the negotiating parties in Doha about your hopes for a political settlement? #PeaceForAfghanistan.” The message reflected the delusion of American policy. With the Taliban sweeping across the country, storming one provincial capital after another, the prospect that diplomacy would work a year after U.S.-backed talks in Qatar began—and quickly stalled—was illusory. By Thursday, the Afghan government controlled only three major cities. President Joe Biden, the leader of the world’s most powerful nation, announced that he was dispatching three thousand U.S. troops to Afghanistan to pull hundreds of its diplomats and staff out of that Embassy. And, by Sunday, it was all over—before dusk. President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, his government collapsed, and the U.S.-trained Afghan security forces simply melted away as the Taliban moved into the capital. American diplomats—having evacuated the fortress-like U.S. Embassy—were forced to shelter in place at the airport as they waited to be evacuated. America’s two-decade-long misadventure in Afghanistan has ended. For Americans, Afghanistan looks a little, maybe a lot, like a trillion-dollar throwaway. Meanwhile, Afghans are left in free fall.

It’s not just an epic defeat for the United States. The fall of Kabul may serve as a bookend for the era of U.S. global power. In the nineteen-forties, the United States launched the Great Rescue to help liberate Western Europe from the powerful Nazi war machine. It then used its vast land, sea, and air power to defeat the formidable Japanese empire in East Asia. Eighty years later, the U.S. is engaged in what historians may someday call a Great Retreat from a ragtag militia that has no air power or significant armor and artillery, in one of the poorest countries in the world.

It’s now part of an unnerving American pattern, dating back to the nineteen-seventies. On Sunday, social-media posts of side-by-side photos evoked painful memories. One captured a desperate crowd climbing up a ladder to the rooftop of a building near the U.S. Embassy in Saigon to get on one of the last helicopters out in 1975, during the Ford Administration. The other showed a Chinook helicopter hovering over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Sunday. “This is manifestly not Saigon,” the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, tried to argue on Sunday, on ABC’s “This Week.” It didn’t wash. And there are other episodes. In 1984, the Reagan Administration withdrew the U.S. Marine peacekeepers from Beirut after a suicide bomber from a nascent cell of what became Hezbollah killed more than two hundred and forty military personnel—the largest loss for the Marines in a single incident since the Second World War. In 2011, the United States pulled out of Iraq, opening the way for the emergence of isis. The repeated miscalculations challenge basic Washington policy-making as well as U.S. military strategy and intelligence capabilities. Why wasn’t this looming calamity—or any of the earlier ones—anticipated? Or the exits better planned? Or the country not left in the hands of a former enemy? It is a dishonorable end.

Whatever the historic truth decades from now, the U.S. will be widely perceived by the world today as having lost what George W. Bush dubbed the “war on terror”—despite having mobilized nato for its first deployment outside Europe or North America, a hundred and thirty-six countries to provide various types of military assistance, and twenty-three countries to host U.S. forces deployed in offensive operations. America’s vast tools and tactics proved ill-equipped to counter the will and endurance of the Taliban and their Pakistani backers. In the long term, its missiles and warplanes were unable to vanquish a movement of sixty thousand core fighters in a country about as big as Texas.

There are many repercussions that will endure long after the U.S. withdrawal. First, jihadism has won a key battle against democracy. The West believed that its armor and steel, backed by a generous infusion of aid, could defeat a hard-line ideology with a strong local following. The Taliban are likely, once again, to install Sharia as law of the land. Afghanistan will again, almost certainly, become a haven for like-minded militants, be they members of Al Qaeda or others in search of a haven or a sponsor. It’s a gloomy prospect as Americans prepare to mark the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks next month. Since 2001, Al Qaeda, isis, and other jihadi extremists have seeded franchises on all six inhabited continents. Last month, the United States sanctioned an isis branch as far afield as Mozambique, the former Portuguese colony in southern Africa where almost sixty per cent of the population is Christian.

Second, both Afghanistan and Iraq have proved that the United States can neither build nations nor create armies out of scratch, especially in countries that have a limited middle class and low education rates, over a decade or two. It takes generations. Not enough people have the knowledge or experience to navigate whole new ways of life, whatever they want in principle. Ethnic and sectarian divisions thwart attempts to overhaul political, social, and economic life all at the same time. The United States spent eighty-three billion dollars training and arming an Afghan force of some three hundred thousand—more than four times the size of the Taliban’s militia. “This army and this police force have been very, very effective in combat against the insurgents every single day,” Mark Milley told reporters back in 2013. He is now the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Yet, by March, when I was last in Kabul, the Taliban controlled half of the country. Between May and mid-August, it took the other half—most just during the past week. Last month, Biden said that he trusted “the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped and more competent in terms of conducting war.” In the end, the Taliban basically walked into Kabul—and the Presidential palace—on Sunday.

Third, America’s standing abroad is profoundly weakened, symbolized by the U.S. Embassy’s lowering the Stars and Stripes for the final time on Sunday. Smoke was seen rising from the grounds of the Embassy—which cost almost eight hundred million dollars to expand just five years ago—as matériel was burned in the rush to exit. Washington will have a hard time mobilizing its allies to act in concert again—whether for the kind of broad and unified alliance, one of the largest in world history, that formed in Afghanistan after 9/11, or for the type of meagre cobbled-together “coalition of the willing” for the war in Iraq. The United States is still the dominant power in the West, but largely by default. There aren’t many other powers or leaders offering alternatives. It’s hard to see how the United States salvages its reputation or position anytime soon.

America’s Great Retreat is at least as humiliating as the Soviet Union’s withdrawal in 1989, an event that contributed to the end of its empire and Communist rule. The United States was in Afghanistan twice as long and spent far more. The Soviet Union is estimated to have spent about fifty billion dollars during the first seven of its ten years occupying the mountainous country. Yes, the United States fostered the birth of a rich civil society, the education of girls, and an independent media. It facilitated democratic elections more than once and witnessed the transfer of power. Thirty-seven per cent of Afghan girls are now able to read, according to Human Rights Watch. The tolo channel hosted eighteen seasons of “Afghan Star,” a singing competition much like “American Idol.” Zahra Elham, a twentysomething member of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority, became the first woman to win, in 2019. But untold numbers of the Afghans encouraged by the United States are desperately searching for ways out of the country as the Taliban move in. Women have pulled out their blue burqas again. And the enduring imagery of the Americans flying out on their helicopters will be no different than Soviet troops marching across the Friendship Bridge from Afghanistan to the then Soviet Union on February 15, 1989. Both of the big powers withdrew as losers, with their tails between their legs, leaving behind chaos.

For the United States, the costs do not end with its withdrawal from either Afghanistan or Iraq. It could cost another two trillion dollars just to pay for the health care and disability of veterans from those wars. And those costs may not peak until 2048. America’s longest war will be a lot longer than anyone anticipated two decades ago—or even as it ends. In all, forty-seven thousand civilians have died, according to Brown University’s Costs of War Project. More than twenty-four hundred were U.S. military personnel, and almost four thousand were U.S. contractors.

I first went to Afghanistan in 1999, during the original Taliban rule. I drove through the breathtaking Khyber Pass from Pakistan, past the fortified estates of the drug lords along the border, on the rutted, axle-destroying roads to Kabul. The images of the Taliban’s repressive rule—little kids working on the streets of Afghan towns to support widowed mothers not allowed in public, checkpoints festooned with confiscated audio and video tapes—are indelible. I went back with Secretary of State Colin Powell on his first trip after the fall of the Taliban. There was hope then of something different, even as the prospect of it often seemed elusive, and the idea sullied by the country’s corrupt new rulers. I’ve been back several times since, including in March with General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, Jr., the head of Central Command, who is now overseeing the final U.S. military operations. On Sunday, as America erased its presence in Afghanistan in a race to get out, I wondered: Was it all for naught? What other consequences will America face from its failed campaign in Afghanistan decades from now? We barely know the answers.

— Robin Wright, a contributing writer and columnist, has written for The New Yorker since 1988. She is the author of “Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World.”

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neerthirai24 · 3 years

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Taliban capture Herat and Kandahar, as U.S. sends troops to help evacuate embassy staff

The Taliban captured two major Afghan cities — the country’s second- and third-largest after Kabul — and a strategic provincial capital on Thursday, further squeezing the embattled government just weeks before the end of the U.S. military mission there. The seizure of Kandahar and Herat marks the biggest prizes yet for the Taliban, who have taken 12 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals as part…

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eagle-eyez · 3 years

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Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said on Saturday remobilising security and defence forces was his foremost priority, a remark that came against the backdrop of speculations over his possible ouster in the wake of a lightning Taliban offensive capturing over half of the war-torn country.

In a brief and pre-recorded televised message, Ghani tried to send out two key messages: a resignation does not seem imminent though the buzz has been growing stronger, and that he was not ready to give up the “achievements” of the past 20 years.

"I assure you that as your president my focus is to prevent further instability, violence and displacement of the people," he said, as the Taliban launched a major offensive on the government-held northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and closed in on the capital city of Kabul.

Ghani said remobilising Afghan security and defence forces was his top priority, according to Tolo News. In many parts of the country, Afghan security personnel have either surrendered before the insurgents or changed sides, in a spectacular collapse of the military that the US helped build over two decades by pumping in billions of dollars. Afghan security forces outnumber the Taliban three to one, at least on paper.

Ghani said he will not allow "the imposed war" on Afghans to bring further killings, loss of the gains of the last 20 years, destruction of public property and continued instability. It was his first such speech since the recent Taliban gains that boast of capturing 18 of the country's 34 provincial capitals over two weeks in a blitzkrieg.

Meanwhile, the Taliban's brazen advances towards Kabul continued on Saturday as the insurgents seized another province just south of Afghanistan's capital and launched a multi-pronged assault on Mazar-I-Sharif that is defended by powerful former warlords, Afghan officials said. The militant regime, whose earlier rule was marked by an iron grip on media and communications, also took over the main radio station in the southern city of Kandahar, renaming it the 'Voice of Sharia'.

Several nations who had established diplomatic ties with Afghanistan's democratic regime after painstaking efforts of over 20 years, were scrambling to empty out their consulates and evacuate staff before the besieged capital finally fell to the Islamist insurgents.

Citizens on the other hand were practically abandoned to fend for themselves as they grappled with mixed emotions of confusion, fear and anger. Thousands walked miles and emptied out onto the streets of Kabul to escape fighting in their home cities. With Kabul's fate now hanging in balance, many said they were terrified for their future.

Taliban makes fresh gains in Logar

The insurgents have captured much of northern, western and southern Afghanistan in a breakneck offensive less than three weeks before the United States is set to withdraw its last troops, raising fears of a full militant takeover or another Afghan civil war. They are barely 11 kilometers (7 miles) south of the national capital, the seat of US-backed Ghani's democratic government.

The Taliban captured all of Logar province, detained its provincial officials and reached a district in the neighbouring Kabul province on Saturday, said Hoda Ahmadi, a lawmaker from Logar.

The Taliban also attacked Mazar-i-Sharif from several directions, setting off heavy fighting on its outskirts, according to Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for the provincial governor. There was no immediate word on casualties.

The Taliban have made major advances in recent days, including capturing Herat and Kandahar, the country's second- and third-largest cities. The Western-backed government is in control of a smattering of provinces in the centre and east, as well as Kabul in central and Mazar-i-Sharif in the north. The only other cities of any significance that have not been taken yet were Jalalabad, Gardez and Khost -- Pashtun-dominated provinces and unlikely to offer much resistance now.

Afghan forces collapse

The surrenders of government-ruled territories seem to be happening as fast as the Taliban can travel.

The swift offensive has resulted in mass surrenders, captured helicopters and millions of dollars of US-supplied equipment paraded by the Taliban on grainy cellphone videos. In some cities, heavy fighting had been underway for weeks on their outskirts, but the Taliban ultimately overtook their defensive lines and then walked in with little or no resistance.

Facing setback after setback, Afghan forces are aligning with influential warlords to withstand the Taliban's challenge, but that strategy too seems to be imploding.

This is especially troubling as the US and its NATO allies have spent the best part of the last 20 years training and equipping the Afghan security forces.

The Afghan government should, in theory, still hold the upper hand with a force outnumbering the Taliban at least on paper. Yet images of sandal-clad Afghan fighters overtaking city after city as troops armed with sophisticated weaponry retreat has vexed the Western world. But the answers perhaps lie in Afghan army and police's troubled history of high casualties, desertions and corruption from much before.

Read more here

Taliban seizes Kandahar radio station

The Taliban meanwhile released a video announcing the takeover of the main radio station in the southern city of Kandahar, renaming it the Voice of Sharia, or Islamic law.

In the video, an unnamed insurgent said all employees were present and would broadcast news, political analysis and recitations of the Quran, the Islamic holy book. It appears the station will no longer play music.

It was not clear if the Taliban had purged the previous employees or allowed them to return to work. Most residents of Kandahar sport the traditional dress favored by the Taliban. The man in the video congratulated the people of Kandahar on the Taliban's victory.

The Taliban have used mobile radio stations over the years, but have not operated a station inside a major city since they ruled the country from 1996-2001. At that time, they also ran a station called Voice of Sharia out of Kandahar, the birthplace of the militant group. Music was banned.

The background

The US invaded shortly after the 9/11 attacks, which al-Qaida planned and carried out while being sheltered by the Taliban. After rapidly ousting the Taliban, the US shifted toward nation-building, hoping to create a modern Afghan state after decades of war and unrest.

Earlier this year, President Joe Biden announced a timeline for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of August, stating that the US wasn't responsible for nation-building efforts, and that the safety and security of their homeland was primarily Afghan people's lookout. His predecessor, President Donald Trump, had reached an agreement with the Taliban to pave the way for a US pullout.

Biden's announcement set the latest offensive in motion. The Taliban, who have long controlled large parts of the Afghan countryside, moved quickly to seize provincial capitals, border crossings and other key infrastructure.

Tens of thousands of Afghans have fled their homes, with many fearing a return to the Taliban's oppressive rule. The group had previously governed Afghanistan under a harsh version of Islamic law in which women were largely confined to the home.

With inputs from agencies

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/3iKXmhj

#World

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Saturday, August 14, 2021

Census shows US is diversifying (AP) The U.S. became more diverse and more urban over the past decade, and the non-Hispanic white population dropped for the first time on record, the Census Bureau said Thursday as it released a trove of demographic data that will be used to redraw the nation’s political maps. The figures show continued migration to the South and West at the expense of counties in the Midwest and Northeast. The share of the non-Hispanic white population fell from 63.7% in 2010 to 57.8% in 2020, the lowest on record. White people continue to be the most prevalent racial or ethnic group, though that changed in California, where Hispanics became the largest racial or ethnic group, growing to 39.4% from 37.6% over the decade, while the share of white people dropped from 40.1% to 34.7%. “The U.S. population is much more multiracial and much more racially and ethnically diverse than what we have measured in the past,” said Nicholas Jones, a Census Bureau official. The share of children in the U.S. declined because of falling birth rates, while the share of adults grew, driven by aging baby boomers. Adults over age 18 made up more than three-quarters of the population in 2020, or 258.3 million people, an increase of more than 10% from 2010.

Migrants find themselves stranded abroad by new US policy (AP) Shortly after crossing the border in south Texas with her 5-year-old daughter, Karla Leiva of Honduras found herself on a chartered U.S. government flight, learning midair that she was headed to the provincial capital of Villahermosa in southern Mexico. Authorities there put her on a bus to Mexico’s southern border and on Thursday she sat on the patio of a migrant shelter in a remote Guatemalan border town. Her swift expulsion through three countries was part of a highly unusual partnership between the governments of the United States and Mexico that the Biden administration hopes will deter migrants from returning to the U.S. border. The U.S. government has intermittently flown Mexicans deep into Mexico for years to discourage repeat attempts, but flights that began last week from Brownsville, Texas, to Villahermosa and Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, appear to be the first time that Central Americans have been flown to Mexico.

Britain’s first mass shooting in more than a decade leaves 5 dead, plus suspected gunman (Washington Post) A 22-year-old gunman who posted YouTube videos filled with despair and self-loathing is suspected of killing five people, including his mother and a 3-year-old girl, in the first mass shooting in Britain in more than a decade, police said. Thursday night’s shooting rampage in the seaside city of Plymouth, in southwest England, stunned the country, which has some of the toughest gun laws in the world. Police confirmed that the suspect, identified as Jake Davison, held a license for the gun used. There was no immediate, clear motive, police said.

Italy may have seen Europe’s hottest day ever (NBC News) Europe may just have seen its hottest day ever. A temperature of almost 120 degrees Fahrenheit was reported in Sicily on Wednesday and, if verified, would be a record for the continent. The 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.84 Fahrenheit) temperature was recorded by Sicily’s agriculture-meteorological information service, SIAS, at the Syracuse station on the island’s southeast. The hottest verified temperature on the continent is 48 degrees Celsius, or 118.4 degrees Fahrenheit, in Greece on July 10, 1977. The high temperature reading came as a heatwave is baking parts of the Mediterranean and contributing to massive wildfires that have killed dozens of people.

Turkey combats Black Sea floods, death toll rises to 27 (Reuters) Emergency workers battled to relieve flood-hit areas of Turkey’s Black Sea region on Friday, as the death toll rose to 27 in the second natural disaster to strike the country this month. The floods, among the worst Turkey has experienced, brought chaos to northern provinces just as authorities were declaring wildfires that raged through southern coastal regions for two weeks had been brought under control. Torrents of water tossed dozens of cars and heaps of debris along streets, with bridges destroyed, roads closed and electricity cut to hundreds of villages.

Troops Rush In (Independent UK, CNN, ABC News) U.S. troops in Afghanistan kept the Taliban at bay for two decades. It was America’s longest war. In the 1990s, the Taliban captured Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, after claiming the country as an Islamic state. They were forced out when U.S. troops invaded in 2001. On Thursday, Taliban fighters again took back that strategic southern city. Kandahar is the birthplace of their fundamentalist Islamic movement, and the 12th provincial capital out of the country’s 34 that the militants have seized in their week-long campaign. The initial U.S. projection for when the country’s capital of Kabul might fall under Taliban control was six to twelve months. A recent military analysis said Kabul could be isolated and captured in 30 to 90 days, but that timeline appears to be accelerating. There are also credible reports that the militants are executing Afghan troops who’ve surrendered. Taliban leaders have denied the accusations, but last month CNN obtained a video showing 22 unarmed members of an Afghan Special Forces unit being executed while trying to surrender. The Taliban now controls two-thirds of the country. The rapidly deteriorating security situation prompted a decision to send 3,000 troops back in to help evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. The Pentagon said one Army and two Marine infantry battalions will enter Afghanistan within the next two days to assist at the Kabul airport with the partial evacuation. The embassy has a staff of 4,000, including 1,400 Americans. Great Britain will also send 600 troops into the country to help support British nationals as they leave. As Western powers line up to leave, it’s difficult to overstate the tragedy of a situation where thousands have been killed, millions have become refugees, and trillions of dollars in resources have been burned only for Afghanistan to end up where it started 20 years ago.

Afghanistan’s rapid collapse is part of a long, slow U.S. defeat (Washington Post) The collapse seems so sudden. In the space of a few blistering summer months, Taliban forces have swept across much of Afghanistan. But the writing has been on the wall for a long time. As my colleague Craig Whitlock has revealed with his award-winning reporting on a cache of internal U.S. government documents scrutinizing the failures of the American war-making and nation-building efforts in Afghanistan, successive U.S. administrations recognized that the Taliban were not going to be easily vanquished, that the Afghan state was weak and riddled with corruption, and that muddling through without a coherent strategy was still preferable to admitting defeat. “The interviews and documents, many of them previously unpublished, show how the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump hid the truth for two decades,” Whitlock explained. “They were slowly losing a war that Americans once overwhelmingly supported. Instead, political and military leaders chose to bury their mistakes and let the war drift.” “The turning point came at the end of 2005, beginning of 2006 when we finally woke up to the fact that there was an insurgency that could actually make us fail,” one administration official later told government interviewers. “Everything was turning the wrong way at the end of 2005.” Almost a decade later, at the end of 2014, Obama attempted to hail the end of the American military mission in the country after years of counterinsurgency, declaring in a statement that “the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion.” But U.S. officials knew that there was little end in sight and the Obama administration, Whitlock reported, “conjured up an illusion.” Then came Trump, who loudly called for an end to costly U.S. military entanglements abroad. But he authorized an intensification of aerial bombing campaigns against Islamist militant targets that, according to one study, saw Afghan civilian casualties increase by about 330 percent. Biden, a veteran of the Obama years, now owns his own moment in Afghanistan’s tumultuous history, a tragedy many years in the making.

Australia capital’s lockdown until no more virus (AP) Australia’s capital Canberra will remain locked down until there are no more COVID-19 infections in the city, a government leader said on Friday. The Australian Capital Territory, which comprises Canberra and two villages, locked down for a week after a man tested positive on Thursday.

Processed foods (Food Dive) A new study published in JAMA found that 67 percent of U.S. children and teens’ diets come from ultra-processed foods, up 5.6 percentage points compared to the levels seen in 1999. Most of the increase came from ready-to-eat meals, which rose from 2.2 percent of daily calories to 11.2 percent of calories. Interestingly, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages like soda actually took a pretty considerable dip, falling from 10.8 percent of calories in 1999 to 5.3 percent in 2018.

A stranger helped a Jamaican athlete get to his Olympic race. He won gold. (Washington Post) As a star hurdler, Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment is familiar with overcoming barriers. But he was unprepared for a different kind of obstacle: getting lost in Tokyo on the day of his Olympic race, and rapidly running out of time to get there. The 31-year-old athlete posted a video this weekend on Instagram explaining how panic turned to hope after he met a “good Samaritan,” a volunteer working at the Games, who ultimately gave him money to take a taxi to the correct venue—where he won a gold medal in the men’s 110-meter hurdles on Aug. 5. Parchment, with gold medal in hand, went to find the stranger who had gone out of her way to help him—to thank her for helping him when he needed it the most. Parchment found Trijana Stojkovic, who was volunteering at the Olympics, telling her, “You were instrumental in me getting to the final that day.” He showed her his gold medal. “Really, you got this?!” she replied. Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism has since invited Stojkovic to the island. Jamaican officials branded Stojkovic a good Samaritan and said an “official invitation” from the minister of tourism had been extended for her to visit.

#headlines #news

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joseifworldblog · 3 years

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Afghanistan: US Marines arrive in Kabul to evacuate embassy staff while other countries close embassies as Taliban onslaught continuesU.S Marines on Friday, Aug 13 arrived in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, to help evacuate embassy staff as the Taliban continued its offensive sweep through the country. The battalions are expected to be fully in place by the end of the weekend, and will be capable of supporting the evacuation of several thousand people a day, both U.S. citizens and Afghan nationals.In another development, other countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Russia, the UK, France, Netherlands etc have ordered their citizens to leave the country while ordering their Diplomatic staff to return home in fear of the expected advance towards Kabul. The Taliban captured two of the country's largest cities in recent days with the Taliban trying to isolate Kabul before attacking the city in coming weeks, according to Defense Department spokesman, John Kirby. In response to the security situation, two battalions of Marines and a battalion of Army soldiers started arriving in the capital city on Friday to assist the State Department, Kirby told reporters at a Pentagon press briefing in Washington. Taliban militants captured Kandahar, the second-most populous city in the country, as well as the third-largest city of Herat. The insurgents have now seized at least half of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals, taking control of roughly two-thirds of the nation and encircling Kabul, where the U.S. Embassy is preparing to evacuate all its core diplomatic personnel. Kirby insisted the U.S. military were not surprised by the Taliban advancements, but noted that the Afghan National Army is better trained and equipped than the Taliban, thanks to decades of U.S. training and billions of dollars worth of American weapons. In addition to the deployment of three infantry battalions from the Marines to Kabul, a U.S. infantry brigade will be positioned on standby in Kuwait, Kirby said. Another 1,000-member unit comprising Army and Air Force personnel will deploy to Qatar to help process special immigrant visas for Afghan nationals #worldnews #aljazeera #unitedstates #reuters https://www.instagram.com/p/CSi8tJkIFxd/?utm_medium=tumblr

#worldnews #aljazeera #unitedstates #reuters

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letsjanukhan · 3 years

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Taliban Seize Kandahar, Prepare to March on Afghan Capital Kabul

KABUL—The Taliban completed the seizure of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city and the Islamist movement’s birthplace, and took into custody a warlord who organized the failed defenses of the western city of Herat. Combined with other advances, including the capture of the provincial capital of Helmand, the fall of these two major cities has given the Taliban full control of southern and…

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awamiitala · 3 years

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The Afghan Taliban tightened their territorial stranglehold around Kabul on Saturday, as refugees from the insurgents’ relentless offensive flooded the capital and US Marines returned to oversee emergency evacuations from Afghanistan.

With the country’s second- and third-largest cities having fallen into Taliban hands, Kabul has effectively become the besieged, last stand for government forces who have offered little or no resistance elsewhere.

Insurgent fighters are now camped just 50 kilometres (30 miles) away, leaving the United States and other countries scrambling to airlift their nationals out of Kabul ahead of a feared all-out assault.

Heavy fighting was also reported around Mazar-i-Sharif, an isolated holdout in the north where warlord and former vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum had gathered his virulently anti-Taliban militia.

The only other cities of any significance not to be taken yet were Jalalabad, Gardez and Khost — Pashtun-dominated and unlikely to offer much resistance now.

In Kabul, US embassy staff were ordered to begin shredding and burning sensitive material, as the first American troops from a planned 3,000-strong re-deployment started arriving to secure the airport and oversee evacuations.

A host of European countries — including Britain, Germany, Denmark and Spain — all announced the withdrawal of personnel from their respective embassies on Friday.

For Kabul residents and the tens of thousands who have sought refuge there in recent weeks, the overwhelming mood was one of confusion and fear.

Muzhda, 35, a single woman who arrived in the capital with her two sisters after fleeing nearby Parwan, said she was terrified for the future.

“I am crying day and night,” she told AFP. “I have turned down marriage proposals in the past… If the Taliban come and force me to marry, I will commit suicide.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply disturbed” by accounts of poor treatment of women in areas seized by the Taliban.

“It is particularly horrifying and heartbreaking to see reports of the hard-won rights of Afghan girls and women being ripped away,” Guterres said.

The scale and speed of the Taliban advance have shocked Afghans and the US-led alliance that poured billions into the country after toppling the Taliban in the wake of the September 11 attacks nearly 20 years ago.

Days before a final US withdrawal ordered by President Joe Biden, individual Afghan soldiers, units and even whole divisions have surrendered — handing the insurgents even more vehicles and military hardware to fuel their lightning advance.

‘No Imminent threat’

Despite the frantic evacuation efforts, the Biden administration continues to insist that a complete Taliban takeover is not inevitable.

“Kabul is not right now in an imminent threat environment,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Friday, while acknowledging that Taliban fighters were “trying to isolate” the city.

The Taliban offensive has accelerated in recent days, with the capture of Herat in the north and, just hours later, the seizure of Kandahar — the group’s spiritual heartland in the south.

Kandahar resident Abdul Nafi told AFP the city was calm after government forces abandoned it for the sanctuary of military facilities outside, where they were negotiating terms of surrender.

“I came out this morning, I saw Taliban white flags in most squares of the city,” he said.

Pro-Taliban social media accounts have boasted of the vast spoils of war captured by the insurgents — posting photos of armoured vehicles, heavy weapons, and even a drone seized from abandoned military bases.

In Herat, the Taliban captured long-time strongman Ismail Khan, who helped lead the defence of the provincial capital along with his militia fighters.

Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province, was the latest city to fall on Friday, putting the Taliban within striking distance of Kabul.

Helicopters flitted back and forth between Kabul’s airport and the sprawling US diplomatic compound in the heavily fortified Green Zone — 46 years after choppers evacuated Americans from Saigon, signalling the end of the Vietnam War.

The US-led evacuation is focused on thousands of people, including embassy employees, and Afghans and their families who fear retribution for working as interpreters or in other support roles for the United States.

Pentagon spokesman Kirby said that most of the troops shepherding the evacuation would be in place by Sunday and “will be able to move thousands per day” out of Afghanistan.

“Capacity is not going to be a problem,” he said.

Courtesy : DAWN

The post Taliban now 50km away from Kabul as US ramps up Afghan evacuations appeared first on Awami Itala.

#Arms #Afghanistan #Pakistan #United States

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adminnewstrust24 · 3 years

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The Taliban capture Kandahar, Afghanistan's second largest city, closer to Kabul; See where Taliban rule has happened

The Taliban capture Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city, closer to Kabul; See where Taliban rule has happened

The Taliban has got the biggest success so far between the withdrawal of NATO and US troops from Afghanistan. The Taliban on Friday captured Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, amid the ongoing bloody conflict in Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed on Friday that they had captured another provincial capital, Kandahar, according to the AFP news agency. Now only the capital Kabul remains from…

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#Afghan National Army #Afghan security forces #Afghanistan #Antonio Guterres #Kabul #NATO #Taliban rule #United Nations Chief #US

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harpianews · 3 years

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Afghanistan Crisis LIVE Updates: Taliban capture country's second largest city Kandahar, offensive towards Kabul

Afghanistan Crisis LIVE Updates: Taliban capture country’s second largest city Kandahar, offensive towards Kabul

Taliban Afghanistan occupied two major cities and a strategic provincial capital on Thursday, the country’s second and third largest after Kabul, further squeezing the embattled government just weeks before the end of a US military mission in Afghanistan. The seizure of Kandahar and Herat is the biggest prize ever for the Taliban, who have captured 12 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals as…

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#Afghanistan crisis #Afghanistan news #Afghanistan Taliban Crisis #afghanistan taliban latest news #current #harpianews #latest #news #taiban news today #Taliban Afghanistan Army #Taliban Afghanistan Live Updates #Taliban Afghanistan News #Taliban News #US Afghanistan News #US Afghanistan Taliban News #US-Afghanistan #world

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Friday, August 13, 2021

Canada plans vaccine record for outside travel (AP) Canada’s immigration minister says fully vaccinated Canadians will soon be able to get a government document that will certify their COVID-19 vaccine history for the purpose of international travel. The document, expected to be ready by the fall, will be digital, with an option for those who cannot or do not want a digital certificate. Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino says it will include data on the type of vaccines received, the dates and the location.

A Spy For An Eye (CNN) Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Chinese tech giant Huawei and daughter of the company’s billionaire founder, was arrested on December 1, 2018, in Canada over allegations Huawei violated U.S. sanctions against Iran. She has been held under house arrest in Vancouver and still faces extradition to the U.S. At the time, it was feared her case threatened to ramp up tensions between the U.S. and China. Sure enough, almost immediately after Meng’s arrest, two Canadian businessmen, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, were detained in Beijing and charged with espionage. Spavor was a Beijing-based businessman who regularly traveled to North Korea. Kovrig is a former Canadian diplomat who worked for the International Crisis Group. Chinese officials have never disclosed any evidence against Spavor or Kovrig, or information relating to their trials, which were held behind closed doors in March. On Wednesday, over two years after being arrested, a Chinese court said Spavor had been found guilty of spying and illegally providing state secrets to foreign countries; he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The court also said Spavor would be deported, but didn’t specify whether it would be before or after he served his prison sentence. Kovrig was accused of “stealing sensitive information and intelligence through contacts in China since 2017,” but authorities have yet to announce Kovrig’s verdict or sentencing.

Northwest sizzles as heat wave hits many parts of US (AP) Volunteers and county employees set up cots and stacked hundreds of bottles of water in an air-conditioned cooling center in a vacant building in Portland, Oregon, one of many such places being set up as the Northwest sees another stretch of sizzling temperatures. Scorching weather also hit other parts of the country this week. The weather service said heat advisories and warnings would be in effect from the Midwest to the Northeast and mid-Atlantic through at least Friday. In Portland, tempertures neared 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) on Wednesday and the mercury could soar past the century mark Thursday and Friday. Authorities trying to provide relief to vulnerable people are mindful of a record-shattering heat wave earlier this summer that killed hundreds in the Pacific Northwest.

California requires vaccines, tests for teachers and staff (AP) California will become the first state in the nation to require all teachers and school staff to get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing, as schools return from summer break amid growing concerns about the highly contagious delta variant, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday. The new requirement affects California’s 320,000 public school teachers and tens of thousands of others—from cafeteria employees to cleaners and even school volunteers. Newsom had already issued a mask mandate that applies to teachers and students but until Wednesday had left the decision of whether to require vaccines up to local districts.

Cuban diaspora sends medicines to alleviate dire shortages (Reuters) Wheeling two trolleys piled high with medical supplies, Marilys Colarte waits at Madrid airport to take her precious cargo to Cuba, where vital medicines are running low. Colarte is part of a growing international network of volunteers from the Cuban diaspora who have been transporting tonnes of aid to the Caribbean island in recent months. Built under the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, Cuba’s universal public healthcare system is one of his revolution’s most treasured achievements but a deep economic crisis has seen shortages of medicines and other basic goods. The government largely blames U.S sanctions while its critics blame the inefficient state-run economy. Last month the shortages, along with power outages and a lack of civil liberties, prompted rare mass street protests. One of the measures the Cuban government took in response to the unrest was to allow travellers to bring in medicine, food and sanitary products without paying import duties. In the two weeks following that move, travellers brought in 112 tonnes of such goods via Havana international airport, Cuban customs said. Volunteers welcomed that move but said its impact was limited given the few flights operating to Cuba after the government restricted them due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Chaotic start to Castillo’s presidency (Washington Post) At his swearing-in ceremony on the 200th anniversary of Peruvian independence last month, Peru’s first campesino president condemned the “racial regime” imposed by the conquistadors that continues to divide Latin American societies today. The leftist president, a 51-year-old former schoolteacher from rural Peru, insisted it was time to “break with colonial symbols.” But now, just two weeks into his historic presidency, Castillo’s inexperience, and his appointment to senior government positions of Marxist hard-liners, some implicated in criminality, have left this country that went through three presidents in one month last year once again on the brink of a political meltdown. The trigger came the day after Castillo’s inauguration, when he appointed 42-year-old Guido Bellido, a confrontational congressman from his Free Peru party, as prime minister, a position for which even many on the left say he is unfit. Bellido is the target of a criminal investigation for allegedly “defending terrorism” with social media posts sympathetic to the Shining Path, the Maoist extremists who killed at least 28,000 Peruvians. Héctor Béjar, the 85-year-old foreign minister, who is reestablishing diplomatic relations with the Maduro regime in Venezuela, claims the Shining Path were “the work of the CIA.” The defense minister, Walter Ayala, was once fired from the police for allegedly helping a prisoner to escape and, separately, investigated for human trafficking. Meanwhile, Castillo is insisting on pushing ahead with plans to convene a constituent assembly, despite a lack of support in Congress and among the general public—and no clear constitutional path to doing so.

Belarus denies entry to US ambassador, cuts US Embassy staff (AP) Belarus on Wednesday rescinded its permission for the U.S. ambassador’s appointment and told the U.S. to cut its embassy staff in retaliation for Washington’s sanctions. President Joe Biden’s administration slapped Belarus with new sanctions Monday, the anniversary of last year’s election in Belarus that was denounced by the opposition as rigged. The new U.S. sanctions target Belarus’ giant potash producer that has been a top revenue earner for the country, the Belarusian National Olympic Committee and 15 private companies with ties to Belarusian authorities. Foreign Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz on Wednesday denounced the U.S. action as “blatant and openly hostile” and announced the decision to rescind an earlier agreement for the appointment of Julie Fisher as the U.S. ambassador to the country.

Mediterranean wildfires (Foreign Policy) Nations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea continue to battle wildfires exacerbated by extreme heat across the region. At least 65 people have been killed following blazes in Algeria, while Greece evacuated 20 villages as firefighters enter a tenth day combatting fires in the Peloponnese region. In Italy, authorities say they launched more than 3,000 operations in Sicily and Calabria on Wednesday alone. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has declared three days of mourning for the country’s dead.

Taliban press advance after capturing 2 major Afghan cities (AP) Afghanistan’s rapidly-advancing Taliban insurgents entered a western provincial capital, an official said Friday, hours after they captured the country’s second and third largest cities in a lightning advance just weeks before America is set to end its longest war. The seizure of Kandahar and Herat marks the biggest prizes yet for the Taliban, who have taken 12 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals as part of a weeklong blitz. While the nation’s capital, Kabul, isn’t directly under threat yet, the losses and the battles elsewhere further tighten the grip of a resurgent Taliban, who are estimated to now hold over two-thirds of the country and continue to press their offensive. With security rapidly deteriorating, the United States planned to send in 3,000 troops to help evacuate some personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Separately, Britain said about 600 troops would be deployed on a short-term basis to support British nationals leaving the country, and Canada is sending special forces to help evacuate its embassy.

The Biologist Who Wasn’t (Foreign Policy) Chinese state media outlets are quietly removing references to a source named Wilson Edwards, a supposed Swiss biologist and U.S. coronavirus conspiracy whistleblower, after the Swiss Embassy publicly pointed out Edwards does not exist. Edwards appears to be the invention of a minor Chinese propaganda outlet, subsequently copied by others—a practice that is unfortunately common in the state media ecosystem. The fake source is part of a recent trend in Chinese state media to blame the coronavirus pandemic on a leak from Fort Detrick, the site of a key U.S. Army biological research laboratory. Those conspiracy theories have gained force in the media in recent months, partially in response to surged interest in Wuhan lab leak theories among the U.S. public and U.S. President Joe Biden endorsing further investigation. Theories that COVID-19 originated in the United States seem to have been successfully sold to much of the Chinese public; around 53 percent of those polled in March 2020 said they believed the virus was a U.S. bioweapon. However, they have gained little global traction. Chinese attempts to shape the overcrowded pandemic conspiracy space—from cartoons to rap—have appeared bumbling and inept. But if Beijing ups its game, it might find more takers in developing countries with existing suspicions of the United States.

Lebanese central bank effectively ends fuel subsidy (Reuters) Lebanon’s central bank said it would offer credit lines for fuel imports based on the market price for the Lebanese pound from Thursday, effectively ending a fuel subsidy that has drained its reserves since the country descended into financial crisis. The move, announced late on Wednesday, means fuel prices will rise steeply: One Lebanese broadcaster cited figures showing the price of unsubsidised 95 octane gasoline at more than four times the subsidised price. It will spell more hardship for the growing number of people in poverty in a country whose currency has lost more than 90% of its value in less than two years, in what the World Bank has described as one of the sharpest depressions in modern history.

Grocery shopping moving online (Morning Consult) Before the pandemic, 84 percent of consumers shopped for groceries mostly in person, 7 percent shopped mostly online, and another 7 percent did each about equally. Now, the percentage who shop in person is down to 70 percent, with 16 percent now shopping mostly online, and 12 percent splitting evenly. The shift was most acutely seen among millennials of all stripes, of whom 25 percent shop for groceries mostly online, 18 percent split evenly, and just 56 percent are mostly in-store.

#headlines #news

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joseifworldblog · 3 years

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#worldnews #aljazeera #unitedstates #reuters

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abhay121996-blog · 3 years

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Taliban Claims To Capture Kandahar, Afghanistan's Second Largest City Divya Sandesh

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Taliban Claims To Capture Kandahar, Afghanistan's Second Largest City

Kandahar is the twelfth provincial capital out of Afghanistan’s 34 that the Taliban insurgents have taken in their weeklong blitz that swept over much of Afghanistan

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plusorminuscongress · 3 years

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New story in Politics from Time: U.S. Sends 3K Troops to Kabul to Evacuate Some Embassy Staff

WASHINGTON (AP) — With security rapidly deteriorating in Afghanistan, the United States is sending in an additional 3,000 troops to help evacuate some personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, officials said Thursday.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said one Army and two Marine infantry battalions will enter Afghanistan within the next two days to assist at the Kabul airport with the partial embassy evacuation.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said diplomatic work will continue at the Kabul embassy.

“Our first responsibility has always been protecting the safety and the security of our citizens serving in Afghanistan, and around the world,” Price said at a State Department briefing, calling the the speed of the Taliban advance and resulting instability “of grave concern.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Price insisted Thursday’s move shouldn’t be seen as encouraging an already emboldened Taliban and said, “We are committed to supporting Afghanistan and its people. That commitment remains.”

But the move suggests a lack of confidence by the Biden administration in the Afghan government’s ability to provide sufficient diplomatic security in Kabul as a series of provincial capitals have fallen to a Taliban offensive this week.

Kirby said an additional 1,000 members of an Army-Air Force task force were going to the Gulf country of Qatar to help with visa processing for the ongoing evacuation of former translators and other Afghans who had worked with Americans in Afghanistan.

And an Army brigade combat team of up to 4,000 troops from North Carolina’s Fort Bragg was going to Kuwait to be on standby in case more troops were needed for the embassy mission.

Kirby stressed the new deployments were a temporary mission focused only on the embassy drawdown and helping the State Department accelerate the visa processing for Afghan translators and others, not a move to get involved in the war again.

The U.S. has withdrawn most of its troops and formally ends its role in the war on Aug. 31. The Pentagon had kept about 650 troops in Afghanistan to support U.S. diplomatic security, including at the airport.

Afghan government forces are collapsing even faster than U.S. military leaders thought possible just a few months ago when President Joe Biden ordered a full withdrawal.

The Taliban, who ruled the country from 1996 until U.S. forces invaded after the 9/11 attacks, captured three more provincial capitals Wednesday and two on Thursday, the 10th and 11th the insurgents have taken in a weeklong sweep that has given them effective control of about two-thirds of the country. The insurgents have no air force and are outnumbered by U.S.-trained Afghan defense forces, but they have captured territory, including the country’s third-largest city, Herat, with stunning speed.

In a new warning to Americans in Afghanistan, the second it has issued since Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Thursday again urged U.S. citizens to leave immediately. The advisory was released before the announcements in Washington about further reducing already limited staff at the embassy.

The United States continues to support the Afghan military with limited airstrikes, but those have not made a strategic difference thus far and are scheduled to end on Aug. 31. Biden could continue airstrikes beyond that date, but given his firm stance on ending the war, that seems unlikely.

The most recent American military assessment, taking into account the Taliban’s latest gains, says Kabul could be under insurgent pressure by September and that the country could fall entirely to Taliban control within a couple of months, according to a defense official who discussed the internal analysis Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

Military officials watching the deteriorating situation said that so far the Taliban haven’t taken steps to threaten Kabul. But it isn’t clear if the Taliban will wait until they have gained control of the bulk of the country before attempting to seize the capital.

The security of the U.S. diplomatic corps has been talked about for months, even before the Taliban’s battlefield blitz. The military has long had various planning options for evacuating personnel from Afghanistan. Those options would largely be determined by the White House and the State Department.

A key component of the options would be whether the U.S. military would have unfettered access to the Kabul international airport, allowing personnel to be flown systematically out of the capital. In a grimmer environment, American forces might have to fight their way in and out if the Taliban have infiltrated the city.

—

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

By ROBERT BURNS, MATTHEW LEE and ELLEN KNICKMEYER / Associated Press on August 12, 2021 at 04:04PM

#Time #politics #PlusOrMinusCongress #±Congress #Indega±#IndegaPlusOrMinus #TimeMag #TimeMagazine

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