Desperate Afghan women throw babies over razor wire, asking British soldiers to take them
You can hear a noise as you approach the high iron gates that are the only way into the compound that is the centre of the British airlift operation out of Afghanistan.
On either side of a narrow road, inside the walls of the compound in Kabul, exhausted British soldiers lie in the shade waiting for their turn to head back outside into the burning sun and the chaos once again.
The noise is the sound of shouting, it’s the noise of desperation.
Thousands of people are flooding towards this innocuous place that will, for some, be the gateway to freedom – and for many others, the end of a dream of escaping the Taliban.
The compound in Kabul is blockaded with razor wire
After two decades this is what it has come down to. A hasty retreat, a civilian evacuation… with the Taliban watching on.
As every day passes this relief operation gets more and more urgent and desperate, as the British military tries to move thousands of people out of Afghanistan in just days.
It’s a humanitarian mission in what feels like a war zone.
A makeshift barricade is all that separates two armies who have fought for 20 years.
The Taliban are just one metre away from the British soldiers – it’s a picture I never thought I would see.
We’ve watched as thousands converged on this base threatening to overwhelm the whole evacuation operation.
The Taliban have assisted in this. Up the road they are controlling the crowds of people trying to reach the British position.
Evacuees outside the compound waiting to be flown out of Afghanistan
Sometimes they fire into the air, making people stop.
They are a menacing presence.
Day and night families – often with tiny children – have risked their lives, ducking past gunfire at the gates of the civilian side of the airport; passing aggressive Taliban fighters, who occasionally beat and harass them.
In the night, the paratroopers blockaded the road with cars and razor wire.
A senior officer told me they had no choice because the situation was out of control, but said the blockade will live with some of his soldiers for the rest of their lives.
“It was terrible, women were throwing their babies over the razor wire, asking the soldiers to take them, some got caught in the wire,” he told me.
“I’m worried for my men, I’m counselling some, everyone cried last night.”
British soldiers at the compound in Kabul
It looks like chaos but there is a method, the soldiers call out for interpreters as different nationalities arrive at the barricade, including Afghans with a valid asylum case.
Passports and paperwork are then checked.
If they pass muster they’re directed to the entry gate to be processed. Some make it, others don’t.
The soldiers hate this but without the right paperwork they have to turn people away.
Terrified families – men, women and large numbers of children are sent back through the barbed wire.
We watched as one little girl, her parents and brothers were sent back.
Back into Afghanistan, back towards the Taliban.
It was heartbreaking.
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UK has ‘days’ to evacuate Britons
Fatima, not her real name, made it through the barricade clutching her daughter’s hand. She thinks she might have a case but doesn’t know who to speak to.
She is terrified, and in tears. Her husband joined the Taliban and took to beating her.
She and her four-year-old have nothing but a UN letter identifying them as victims.
“Afghanistan is Taliban. Taliban is terrorist. My husband is a terrorist Talib,” she explained to me.
She starts listing countries: “America, Canada, France, me and just my daughter…”
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Gunshots ring out at Kabul Airport
I asked if they’ll go anywhere. “Anywhere! Any country,” she said.
We mentioned her story to the officer in charge outside.
The soldiers have a reasonable degree of latitude in their decision making, and Major Steve White decided to enter her into the system.
“I can put her into the system, but I don’t know if the system will spit her out, but I can do that at least,” he told me.
He walked over to Fatima and, through another journalist who could translate, explained to her what he was going to do. She seemed confused, but we told her to follow him.
And he took her to the queue.
It was quite simply an act of human kindness in all this mayhem.
Fatima did make it inside. Major White may well have saved their lives, he’s certainly given them a chance of a better one.
But there are many sad stories as well.
Stuart Ramsay interviews a doctor who told him she and her family was scared
We met a doctor from Herat with her sister and her mother, and it would appear they had absolutely no rights to get through the gates.
They fled the Taliban and are now stuck.
They have hope but it seems hopeless.
“We don’t have brother, we don’t have father, you know that living in here is very difficult for us,” she told me.
She explained they were living in Herat but escaped to Kabul. Her uncle was part of the Taliban.
She said: “They want to obligate us into forced marriage. I am a doctor and my sister was working with women’s rights, she studied, and my mother is a teacher, my mother was a teacher…”
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I asked if they’re running away from certain danger.
“Yes, yes, we are scared, we are scared,” she said in tears.
I’ve reported on the Afghan war since it started. I’ve been on countless embeds with British and American soldiers, I’ve met with the Taliban, and I’ve seen pain and grief in Afghanistan for two decades.
The Taliban has won.
Watching on as soldiers carried babies towards the gates of the compound, I can’t help but think what a waste this has been.
And once again a small contingent of soldiers are dealing with the mess.
World
Donald Trump refuses to rule out military force over Panama Canal and Greenland – as he warns NATO to spend more
US president-elect Donald Trump has refused to rule out military or economic action to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland – as he said he believes NATO spending should be increased to 5% per member state.
Speaking at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, Mr Trump made a series of sweeping claims on what his policies could look like when he takes office on 20 January.
He said he believes NATO spending should be increased to 5% per member state, while he also declared US control of Greenland and the Panama Canal as vital to American national security.
The 78-year-old Republican also spoke of relations with Canada, as well as addressing his position on the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.
Sky News takes a look at some of the key claims brought up during the conference.
NATO
Mr Trump claimed “nobody knows more about NATO than I do”, before adding: “If it weren’t for me, NATO wouldn’t exist right now.
“I raised from countries that weren’t paying their bills, over $680bn. I saved NATO, but NATO is taking advantage of us.”
The president-elect also said members of NATO should be contributing 5% of their GDPs (gross domestic product) to defence spending – the previous target has been 2%.
Donald Trump speaking at Mar-a-Lago. Pic: Reuters
Greenland and Panama Canal
Asked if he can reassure the world he won’t resort to military action or economic coercion in trying to get control of the areas, he said: “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two.”
“But, I can say this, we need them for economic security.”
He didn’t add any further detail around Greenland – which he has recently suggested the US should own or control – but he said the Panama Canal “was built for our military”.
He said the canal was “vital” to the country and China was “operating” it.
Mr Trump criticised the late Jimmy Carter for his role in signing over the Panama Canal to Panama during his presidency, saying it’s “a disgrace what took place” and “Jimmy Carter gave it to them for one dollar.”
Canada
A day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he was stepping down, Mr Trump said he believed the US’ northern neighbour should become the 51st US state.
He mocked Mr Trudeau by calling him “governor” rather than prime minister.
He argued the US and Canada combined would amount to an “economic force” that would “really be something”.
“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” Mr Trudeau responded.
Israel-Hamas war
Israel has been waging a 15-month war on the militant group ruling Gaza, Hamas, since they launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October which saw 1,200 people massacred and about 250 taken hostage, many of whom remain in captivity.
Mr Trump said: “If those hostages aren’t back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East.”
Nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza, according to Hamas-run health officials in the enclave.
Analysis: Trump’s warning risks becoming less threatening
Ukraine war
Referring to Russia’s ongoing full-scale war against its smaller neighbour, Mr Trump said a “big part of the problem” was Russian President Vladimir Putin had said for many years he did not want Ukraine involved with NATO.
“Somewhere along the line [outgoing President Joe] Biden said you can join NATO,” he said.
“Well, then Russia has NATO right on their doorstep.
“When I heard the way Biden was negotiating I said ‘you are going to end up in a war’ and it turned out to be a war.”
Asked if he would commit to keep supporting Ukraine during negotiations with Moscow, Mr Trump quipped: “Well, I wouldn’t tell you if that were the case.”
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Mr Trump win’s certified by rival Kamala Harris
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Offshore drilling
Mr Trump repeated one of his favourite phrases from the campaign trail, “drill, baby, drill”.
On Monday, outgoing President Biden moved to ban new offshore oil and gas developments along most US coastlines.
But Mr Trump, who has vowed to boost domestic energy production, said he will undo it.
“We’re going to be drilling a lot of other locations,” he said.
The public articulation by Donald Trump of a new desired target for NATO allies to spend 5% of national income on defence will surely plunge governments across Europe into crisis mode – not least here in the UK.
Britain presents itself to the world and in particular to the United States as the biggest defence spender in Europe and NATO’s most powerful European military.
Yet Sir Keir Starmer has not even managed to set out a timeline for what he describes as a “path to 2.5%” of GDP being invested in his armed forces, up from just over 2% today.
If the prime minister merely sticks to this pledge, he risks being viewed by the new administration as woefully unambitious and not credible on defence.
Then there is the extraordinary threat by Mr Trump to seize Greenland by force if necessary, even though this valuable piece of territory belongs to a fellow NATO ally in the form of Denmark.
The move – were it to happen – would demonstrate the limitations of the alliance’s Article 5 founding principle.
It is supposed to guarantee that all allies would come to the defence of any member state which is under armed attack.
But what about if the aggressor is also meant to be an ally?
The president-elect also appeared to dash any hope of Ukraine being offered membership to the alliance anytime soon – a core request of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Instead, Mr Trump sounded sympathetic to Vladimir Putin’s absolute opposition to such a move.
He said he would meet the Russian president after taking office – reiterating a promise to end the war in Ukraine, though again without spelling out how.
The outbursts came in a lengthy press conference on Tuesday that marked the starting shot in what could be a make-or-break test for NATO – an alliance of transatlantic friends that rose from the ashes of the Second World War.
Read more:
Trump speaks on Canada, Gaza and reversing Biden ban
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European members of NATO, as well as Canada, already took a battering the last time Mr Trump was in the White House – and rightly so.
The US had for far too long largely bankrolled the security of Europe, while the majority of its allies – including the UK – reaped the so-called “peace dividend” that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, swapping expenditure on defence for peacetime priorities such as economic growth, healthcare and education.
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From 2019: Was this the most awkward NATO summit ever?
Mr Trump made clear during his first term his displeasure about what he saw as Washington being ripped off and vowed to make Europe take its fair share of the burden.
He even warned member states that the US would not come to the aid of an ally that was not hitting at the very least a minimum NATO spending targeting of 2% of GDP – something they had previously pledged to do by 2024 but were slow to deliver on.
Such language electrified allies in a way that even Putin’s initial 2014 invasion of Ukraine, with the annexation of Crimea and attacks in the east of the country, had not.
Yet, with the threat from Russia growing in the wake of its full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, coupled with conflict in the Middle East and the challenge posed by China, it has become clear that this heightened level of expenditure by allies was still far short of what is required to rebuild militaries across Europe that have been hollowed out over decades.
Read more from Sky News:
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Mark Rutte, the new secretary general of NATO, set the stage for what is expected to be another push to ramp up investment when he delivered a landmark speech last month in which he called on allies to return to a “war mindset” and “turbocharge” defence spending.
He said this was to counter growing threats, but observers said it was also a pre-emptive response to the anticipated demands of the next Trump administration.
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‘Ukraine needs more arms, less talking’
Either way, it poses a huge challenge for all allies, in particular for Sir Keir Starmer.
He and Rachel Reeves face a choice: change course when it comes to their top priorities of economic growth, hospital waiting lists and new housing and instead invest more in defence or defy what will doubtless be growing demands from the United States to spend billions of pounds more on the UK armed forces – and maybe even leave the country in a position whereby the US would not come to its aid if attacked.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allied militias are committing genocide in Sudan while waging war against the army for control of the country, Joe Biden’s US administration has determined – two weeks before leaving office.
In a statement sharing the designation on Tuesday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the RSF and its aligned militias had “systematically murdered men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis” and “deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence”.
He announced that Washington would impose sanctions on RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and seven RSF-owned companies located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo. File pic: AP
The UAE is credibly accused of backing and arming the RSF – something it has strenuously denied.
When reached for comment by Reuters, the RSF rejected these measures and said: “America previously punished the great African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, which was wrong.
“Today, it is rewarding those who started the war by punishing (RSF leader) general Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, which is also wrong.”
The RSF has been fighting Sudan’s army for territorial control of the country since war erupted in the capital, Khartoum, in April 2023.
The ensuing devastation has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis ever recorded – with over 11 million people forced out of their homes, tens of thousands dead, and 30 million in need of humanitarian assistance.
Sudan, Africa
In December 2023, Mr Blinken announced that both warring parties had committed war crimes, but that the RSF in particular had committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
He mentioned this precedent in this latest announcement, adding: “Today’s action is part of our continued efforts to promote accountability for all warring parties whose actions fuel this conflict.
“The United States does not support either side of this war, and these actions against Hemedti and the RSF do not signify support or favour for the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces).
“Both belligerents bear responsibility for the violence and suffering in Sudan and lack the legitimacy to govern a future peaceful Sudan.”
Read more from Sky News:
Sudan’s history faces erasure
Farmers in Sudan on verge of mass starvation
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From November: RSF attacks farming villages leaving dozens dead
This comes twenty years after then US secretary of state Colin Powell described the conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, as a genocide in 2004.
Back then, RSF leader Hemedti was heading up a lesser-known Janjaweed militia that was carrying out state-sanctioned atrocities against civilians.
He was not held accountable then, and many wonder if this latest designation will have any impact on the actions of forces on the ground.
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