Defiant Biden stands ‘squarely’ behind decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan despite Taliban takeover

Published

3 years ago

August 16, 2021

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Joe Biden says he stands “squarely” behind his decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan.

The US president spoke after the Taliban entered Kabul and swept to power in the country – 20 years after they were removed in the US-led invasion.

Mr Biden said the US mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to be nation-building.

“I stand squarely behind my decision,” he said – though he did admit the collapse of the Afghan government was quicker than anticipated.

He said the rapid end of the Afghan government only vindicates his choice to end the conflict.

He blamed the Taliban’s takeover on Afghan political leaders who fled the country and the Afghan army’s unwillingness to fight.

The president has also blamed his predecessor, Donald Trump, for empowering the Taliban and leaving them “in the strongest position militarily since 2001”.

“American troops cannot and should not be fighting the war, and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” Mr Biden added.

The US leader has downplayed the prospect of an ascendant Taliban for months while arguing that Americans of all political persuasions have tired of a 20-year war.

As the Taliban regained control, the US, the UK and other countries scrambled to evacuate their citizens and local allies.

Mr Biden warned the Taliban not to interfere with the US evacuation effort, threatening “devastating force, if necessary”.

Thousands of Afghans rushed into Kabul’s main airport, plunging it into chaos.

Some were so desperate to escape the Taliban that they held on to a military jet as it took off, and fell to their deaths, with senior US military officials claiming seven people died in the chaos.

A US official said soldiers had fired in the air to deter people trying to force their way onto the military flight that was set to take US diplomats and embassy staff out of the fallen city.

Another US official later said forces protecting the airport in Kabul had killed two gunmen in separate incidents.

A third official described the crowd trying to get onto the tarmac at the airport as “out of control”.

And other images showed people dragging children over barbed wire fences, climbing on to an airbridge that allows people to walk on to an aircraft from a terminal and on to the undercarriage housing of a military plane taxiing along the runway.

Other footage distributed by Afghan media and on social media was said to show at least one person falling from the undercarriage of a military plane that had taken off.

A Pentagon spokesman said on Monday night that the airfield at Kabul’s airport had reopened after a pause during the day.

He added that it would be wrong to conclude that the military did not view the Taliban overrunning Afghanistan, including Kabul, as a “distinct possibility”.

The Taliban is expected to announce that Afghanistan is now the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, under Sharia law.

Taliban officials have declared war in Afghanistan is over and it is in charge of 90% of government buildings, amid allegations of revenge killings, brutal tactics, and some looting and lawlessness.

President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday as the Islamists began to enter Kabul virtually unopposed – despite ongoing but short-lived resistance elsewhere – saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed.

Afghanistan’s ambassador to the UN said on Monday that the body’s Security Council must “use every means at its disposal to call for an immediate cessation of violence” in his country, and “respect for human right and international humanitarian law”.

He urged all members of the United Nations not to recognise any administration that achieves power by force or government that is not inclusive.

At a meeting of the UN Security Council convened following the Taliban’s apparent victory, official Afghan ambassador Ghulam Isaczai said: “I’m speaking for millions of Afghan girls and women who are about to lose their freedom… thousands of human rights defenders, journalists, academics, civil servants… whose lives are at risk… thousands of internally displaced people who are in desperate need of shelter and protection.

“We are extremely concerned about the Taliban not honouring their commitments… We’ve witnessed time and again how Taliban have broken their promises in the past. We have seen gruesome images of Taliban mass executions, of military personnel and targeted killings of civilians in Kandahar and other big cities.”

The UK’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Monday evening that the UK government was “surprised by the scale and the pace” with which the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

He revealed that 150 British nationals would be arriving back in the UK in the early hours of the morning, with a further 350 Britons and Afghan nationals arriving in the coming days.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson intends to host a virtual meeting of G7 leaders and has stepped up efforts to evacuate UK nationals and others from Kabul.

Number 10 said he spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday about how the two countries could work together to recognise any future Afghan government, as well as try to prevent a humanitarian and refugee crisis.

Many other countries which have been involved in the efforts to rebuild the country amid two decades of war with the Taliban have also started pulling out their diplomatic staff and continued attempting to evacuate their civilians and Afghans who had helped them.

Among the countries planning to pull out staff was Russia, which launched an invasion in 1979 and fought mujahideen including members of the Taliban during a 10-year war. It came as the Taliban deployed guards to the Russian embassy.

The first group of evacuated Britons and embassy staff arrived at RAF Brize Norton on Sunday night, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.

There were reported to be 4,000 Britons in Afghanistan and the UK has said it plans to ramp up efforts to evacuate up to 1,500 people from Afghanistan a day.

US

Cardi B ‘wasn’t going to vote’ until Harris entered race – as National Guard activated in US state ‘in case of election violence’

Published

3 hours ago

November 2, 2024

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Cardi B 'wasn't going to vote' until Harris entered race - as National Guard activated in US state 'in case of election violence'

Cardi B has said she was not planning to vote in the US election this year, but Kamala Harris taking over as the Democratic nominee changed her mind.

The WAP rapper appeared at a Harris campaign rally on Friday, becoming the latest celebrity to endorse the vice president for Tuesday’s election following the likes of Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Bruce Springsteen and Eminem.

At the rally in Milwaukee in the swing state of Wisconsin, the singer said she would be voting for the Democratic nominee because she is “not delusional”, while branding Republican contender Donald Trump a “bully”.

Follow latest US election updates

“She’s passionate, compassionate… and most of all she is not delusional,” Cardi B said about the vice president, who took over as the Democratic presidential candidate after US President Joe Biden dropped out.

Cardi B went on to refer to Mr Trump as a “bully” and said about the Republican presidential candidate: “He said he’s gonna protect women whether they like it or not.

“If his definition of protection is not the freedom of choice… then I don’t want it,” she said.

“I’m not giving Donald Trump a second chance.”

Both Mr Trump and Ms Harris have been making the most of their last few days of campaigning, visiting swing states in a bid to get voters on their side in what is set to be a nail-bitingly close race.

The Republican nominee spent his day in Michigan and Wisconsin – calling on voters to “make America great again” by voting him in.

Mr Trump is currently being investigated by Arizona’s top prosecutor over comments he made about Liz Cheney, one of his most vocal Republican critics, when he said on Thursday she would not be a “radical war hawk” if she was in a war herself and had guns “trained on her face”.

“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face,” Mr Trump said during an event with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

The suburbs of Atlanta could tell us a lot about where the US election is going

In the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, there’s a hugely tight race afoot that could tell us a lot about where this election goes.

As I walk through the leafy streets of Cobb County, I see the signs of change everywhere.

This suburb is home to an exodus from Atlanta – one that’s brought more diversity, more affluence and more nuance.

Four years ago, it delivered a rare win for Joe Biden in a southern state that hadn’t backed a Democrat for president in nearly 30 years.

Georgia turned out to be the biggest swing for the party in 2020. Now, Kamala Harris wants to hold on to that momentum, but it won’t be easy.

Some cast suburbia as staid, sleepy and slow.

Keep reading here.

During his rally in Michigan last night, Mr Trump also engaged in an exchange with a heckler who shouted something unintelligible, before he stopped speaking and said: “You want to marry me?”

“She wants to marry me what the hell?”

That was met by a whooping before Mr Trump said: “Let me ask the [former] first lady if that would be ok… it’s OK with me but let me get permission”.

Meanwhile in Washington, the state governor has said he is “activating” members of the National Guard to be on standby in case of violence surrounding the upcoming election.

Governor Jay Inslee said he made the decision after he received information and concerns regarding potential violence.

The order is set to go into effect Monday and last until midnight on Thursday.

Ms Harris is expected to defeat Mr Trump in the state.

Ballot boxes were set on fire there earlier in the week, with hundreds of votes thought to have been damaged.

US

America does exit polls differently to the UK – here’s how and why

Published

7 hours ago

November 2, 2024

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America does exit polls differently to the UK - here's how and why

There are two main differences between election coverage in the UK and the United States.

Last July, at 10pm, Sky News’ exit poll graphic predicted a Labour landslide and a massive defeat for the Conservatives.

Confirmation of this forecast was a long time coming since constituency results are only announced by local returning officers once all votes have been counted.

US election latest: Data reveals potentially decisive trends in two swing states

Americans do things differently and for good reason. Polling stations close much earlier in the east than they do in the west. When voting has hours to go in some states, they’ve already started counting elsewhere.

There is a “wait for it” moment when voting closes in west coast states and the broadcasters can reveal the national exit poll headline, but this won’t tell us the winner.

Instead, it will tell us the types of people who have voted for Harris or Trump and the issues that dominated the outcome.

So far, one-nil to the UK, I think. But, here comes the next bit.

Instead of postponing announcements about votes until every last one has been accounted for, each state then begins releasing figures as and when votes are being counted.

And they do so in such a way where we can compare this time with previously. Not for them declarations in sports halls with dodgy microphones but rather running tallies for precincts (think our local council wards) and counties (ranging from tiny to huge).

It’s these data that US broadcasters such as NBC will use to “call” each state’s vote for president. The television networks are big players in the US election drama.

Over 160 million votes will be cast in the election, more than five times the number cast in our general election last July.

And while the outcome of our election was in no doubt once the broadcasters’ exit poll revealed Labour had won a landslide majority, that will be far from the case in the battle for the presidency.

As in the UK, a consortium of US broadcasters, comprising NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN, form the national election pool.

This commissions the consumer research company, Edison Research, to survey voters in over 600 polling places as people exit their polling station.

The survey also includes telephone interviews with people casting a ballot before 5 November. Once completed, the US exit poll will have obtained responses from over 20,000 voters, a similar number that were collected for the general election.

Two surveys of voters, therefore, but now important differences in their purpose become clear.

The UK version is entirely focussed on predicting the distribution of seats among the competing parties and, thereby, the winner and its likely House of Commons majority. Over recent elections it has proved pretty good at achieving this task.

By contrast, the US version is much less concerned about predicting the winner (and there are very good reasons for taking this approach) and more interested in the campaign issues that mattered to voters, how they viewed the candidates and what factors motivated them to make their choices.

The survey identifies key demographic characteristics for each respondent – men or women, age, ethnic heritage, and educational qualifications.

Combined with questions relating to their choice for president this time around, their usual partisan preference, Democrat, Republican or none of the above, the survey data enables a considered and detailed analysis of what kinds of voters made what kinds of choices and their reasons for doing so.

Broadcast organisations, including Sky News, will use the 2024 exit poll to highlight differences between men and women voters in relation to the abortion issue.

The poll will also show how the economy ranked among voters and whether Donald Trump’s stance on low taxation gained or lost him votes among different social groups. Did Kamala Harris’s association with the Biden administration and the challenges of illegal immigration prove to be a positive or a negative in her bid for the White House?

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All very interesting, but aren’t we all tuning in to see who’s won? While the US exit poll can, in theory, be used for this purpose it is unwise to do so in what is proving to be an extremely close race.

Sky’s tracker of national polls shows the Democrat blue line and the Republican red line moving ever closer together but with Harris currently marginally ahead. But even if she loses the national vote, the polls would still be within the margin of error.

Of course, she could yet win more votes than Trump and still lose the election, as Hillary Clinton discovered when she lost to him in 2016. Winning votes is necessary, but it’s where those votes are and the available number of electoral college votes that matters the most.

Trump beat Clinton because his votes were better distributed than hers. History could be repeated.

Releasing precinct-level voting numbers as counting progresses is essential to US election coverage. The national election pool employs over a thousand researchers to collect votes from each of the 50 states.

Additionally, NBC News will augment these figures with more detailed analysis prior to making its call for each state and the electoral college votes for Harris or Trump. The first to reach 270 college votes wins.

Professor John Lapinsky of Pennsylvania University leads NBC’s decision desk.

Although the broadcasters have pooled resources to bring us the exit poll, each will independently analyse the actual voting figures as they become available.

Lapinsky and his team on behalf of NBC will call the state for either Harris or Trump only when they are satisfied that the leading candidate’s vote is sufficiently large that he or she cannot be overtaken.

This a big moment for each broadcaster, especially when the race is likely to be close and where social media may be playing a significant role in stoking accusations and counter-accusations of a fraudulent election.

With so much at stake, these decisions will take time and patience.

Our July election was done and dusted in time for the breakfast bulletins. It could be days of counting, recounting and legal appeals before we know the winner of the 2024 presidential election.

US

US election: The elderly couple whose marriage has been tested by Trump

Published

1 day ago

November 1, 2024

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US election: The elderly couple whose marriage has been tested by Trump

When they made America truly great its backbone was forged in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The steel for 80% of Manhattan’s skyscrapers, many of the US Navy’s battleships, and even the entire San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, all came from its blast furnaces in the hills north of Philadelphia.

Its mammoth steel plants stretched for almost five miles.

They lie empty and unused, now a huge open-air museum for guided tours led by former plant workers like Don Young.

US election latest: ‘We’re gonna have to lock them up,’ Trump says after suing CBS for $10bn

The 87-year-old has been married to Barbara for 20 years, but their marriage has been tested in recent months, as have many others in the most divisive presidential election in living memory.

Both Republicans, she is for Donald Trump, he is emphatically not.

Mr Trump, I pointed out, claimed he could make America great again. Did he believe him?

“No, I do not believe him. My wife does,” he said. “I’ve seen the rise of dictators in history.

“As much as I am a studier of the history of industry, I’m also a studier of the history of politics and world politics. And, you know, Mr Trump’s campaign literally, literally mirrors that of Adolf Hitler.”

His wife sees Mr Trump completely differently: “I absolutely do not agree with that. And I’m sorry to hear my husband say this. And I actually believe we have seen what President Trump can do and how our country was when he was in office.”

Trump ‘is the future for America’, Ms Young says

Their town has recovered from the collapse of Bethlehem Steel. But it’s the state of America that worries Ms Young now.

And it is Mr Trump who can save it, she said.

“He is the future for America,” she said. “I don’t want to see people coming over our border. We’ve had women murdered and raped by illegal immigrants. Who wants their children dead as a result of fentanyl, which comes over the border?”

Trump is ‘going to run America into the ground’

Her husband’s view is diametrically opposed.

“I think he’s going to run America into the ground because he does not observe any of the Democratic norms that his predecessors have,” he said.

“He didn’t observe them when he was in office. And so that’s just a window on what will happen in this coming term.”

Pennsylvania will likely determine presidential election result

Their marriage mirrors the state of play in the place they live in.

Pennsylvania is on a knife edge, say the polls, split right down the middle and the outcome here will likely determine the result on election day in this most important of swing states.

They can agree on one thing. They cannot wait for this election to be over.

Mr Young said their marriage can survive a Trump victory. Ms Young thinks so too.

The closest, nastiest, most divisive presidential election in living memory will be over soon. The bitterness and division that has plagued it less so in this deeply polarised country.