Tuesday, August 17 top stories
It is Tuesday, August 17. Here are today’s top stories.
Here are several updates on the situation in Afghanistan.
The Taliban held their first-ever press conference today in Kabul. They said they are forming a new Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan. A Taliban spokesperson said they will make sure that anyone who has worked with the U.S. and allied forces as interpreters or other fields is kept safe. The spokesperson also said they would guarantee that women in Afghanistan will have the same rights as the past 20 years.
Many of us saw the chaotic videos of Afghans trying to get into a moving military plane as it took off from Kabul. Several people were crushed to death from the plane’s wheels and several died after they fell off when the plane was up in the air.
Yesterday afternoon an image was released showing about 640 Afghans inside of a U.S. Air Force C-17 plane. It is a record for the most people in this type of plane. If you study the picture, you can see that people are relaxed, relieved, and checking their phones. It is the opposite of what was going on at the airport.
A military spokesperson said those on the flight were safely evacuated to Qatar.
The Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. military is in touch with Taliban leaders and communicating multiple times a day. He said there have been no attacks from the Taliban.
Kirby said there will be about 4,000 U.S. troops remaining in Kabul to secure the airport and aid with evacuation efforts. The U.S. are evacuating 5,000 to 9,000 individuals a day using both commercial and military aircraft.
Kirby said he expects that U.S. troops will remain on the ground for the next couple of weeks.
The Biden administration has set a goal of a complete withdrawal by August 31. In his address yesterday, he said the previous president Donald Trump
made an agreement with the Taliban that U.S. forces would be out of Afghanistan by May 2021. You see an image here of the former Sec. of State Mike Pompeo with a Taliban official. This meeting took place November 21, 2020 in Qatar.
Biden said in his speech yesterday that he does not regret his decision to end America’s war fighting in Afghanistan.
Trump released a statement yesterday criticizing Biden. He said it’s the worst withdrawal operation in world history and that Biden has brought great shame to our country. Trump said Biden should resign in disgrace and that if he was president, the withdrawal process would have been totally different.
The war in Afghanistan started in October 2001 under former president George W. Bush. The Taliban held power over Afghanistan at the time and refused to extradite al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The U.S. and allied countries invaded Afghanistan and drove out the Taliban from power.
Now, almost 20 years later, the Taliban is back in power again. There is a lot of debate on whether the Biden administration made the correct decision to quickly withdraw U.S. troops.
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The man who created Sudoku, the popular numbers puzzle, passed away last week at the age of 69 from cancer. His name was Maki Kaji and he was Japanese. AP News explained that Sudoku became a global hit in 2004.
New Zealand is going into a national lockdown over one case of Covid-19 — the first case in the country in six months. The case was detected in Auckland and the city will be in lockdown for a week, while most of the country will be in a lockdown for three days. Prime Minister Ardern said schools, offices, and businesses must be closed with only essential services still in operation. She said that the strategy of “going hard and early” has worked for them before, so she is keeping the same approach.
News reports say that a male 16-year-old high school student in South Carolina died last Thursday from a Covid-19 infection. The student’s name was not released. The student attended a high school in Lancaster County. The school district reported that about 20 students and 20 staff tested positive for Covid-19 and is in quarantine. School starts on Monday. South Carolina is one of several U.S. states that is under a ban on mandating students to wear masks, so it is up to parents and students to decide to wear a mask.
The federal government has declared a water shortage on the Colorado River at Lake Mead. About 40 million people in the U.S. and Mexico use the river for their water supply. The water shortage declaration means there will be water supply cuts that will affect farmers in Arizona and people in Nevada. Federal officials said the water shortage is due to drought and climate change.
NBC News said the Hillsborough County Public Schools district in the Tampa, Florida area is dealing with a coronavirus crisis because over 5,000 students and hundreds of employees have either tested positive or may have been exposed to the virus. The school district is holding an emergency meeting to decide whether to impose mandatory face coverings or not.
The NFL team Las Vegas Raiders will require all fans at home games to show proof of Covid-19 vaccination through a mobile app. The fans will then be allowed to attend home games without a mask. They are the first team in the NFL to announce this kind of policy. The Raiders will provide vaccinations on-site and allow newly vaccinated fans to enter while wearing a mask. That’s their program.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-trump-trade-accusations-afghanistan
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58241619
https://www.live5news.com/2021/08/17/16-year-old-sc-boy-dies-covid-days-before-start-school/