Crushed as far as the eye can see: Clock is ticking for thousands queuing to escape as Taliban beat Afghans with canes
Every day the scene outside the British evacuation camp changes, every day it seems to get worse and this day there is a new sense of desperation.
Collectively I think the thousands queuing outside in burning temperatures know that the clock is ticking on how long this airlift will go on for.
Nobody is saying it, but you can feel it.
I’ve had tears in my eyes most of this dreadful day.
British soldiers on containers, which have been put on the road to keep the gates of the UK compound clear
The narrow road that passes the compound, so often jammed with people right up to the doors of the entrance, is now blocked by two shipping containers.
It means that there is at least some breathing space for the soldiers to attempt to process people – although it’s still chaotic.
Beyond the containers and beyond a line of paratroopers standing behind riot shields, it is quite simply horrendous.
Thousands, maybe tens of thousands, crushed as far as the eye can see.
At the front, Taliban militants beat Afghans with canes.
Sergeant Major Daz Mcmahon says the experience has been tough for the British soldiers
There is nothing the civilians can do and nothing the paras can do – but hold the line.
I’ve seen many bad things, but right now I can’t think of anything worse.
It’s hard to put into words how desperate this is – but most of the people I have seen over the barricade will not get through.
Sergeant Major Daz Mcmahon has a British man’s passports – he clambers on to the shipping containers and calls him forward.
A Talib fighter lets him through, the sergeant major passes the passports back and tells him to wait.
The containers have been put on the road to keep the gates of the British compound clear, they’re trying to funnel people through, and even British passport holders wait their turn.
All the time soldiers are called up to reinforce the human wall beyond.
On this side of the containers, it’s better, but not by much. Again, thousands penned in as the identification process goes on.
Outside the compound, British and American troops are now working together trying to differentiate the countries the evacuees should be going to.
It’s organised, but there are so many people, it’s an almost impossible task. I asked Sgt Maj Mcmahon if the whole experience has been tough on his men, he lets out a deep breath, shakes his head and says yes.
I said to him it appears to ebb and flow, sometimes it’s quiet, most of the time it’s pandemonium.
“It’s often calm but then it gets very hot, and the people who cause the most trouble and agitate the crowd are probably the ones who don’t have the right paperwork,” he replied.
“We’re not gonna be here forever.”
A man who said he worked for the Americans for five years claimed he was looking for a military contact called Spencer
In the crowd we spot an Afghan man holding a banner with the name “Spencer” on it. I asked him who Spencer was.
He said he’d worked for the Americans for five years, and that “Spencer” was the military contact who had vouched for him.
He told us he was looking for Spencer, but he wasn’t sure if Spencer had come – or ever would.
He said: “Spencer is someone who’s supposed to get here and help us out. We’ve been in contact… but this is crazy, no-one is helping and I don’t know – if this keeps going, no-one will get help, we are requesting the government to fix this.”
We watch on as British soldiers spot a baby in danger, they take control
It’s hot, blisteringly hot. There are women and children everywhere you look. We watch on as British soldiers spot a baby in danger, they take control.
With a family in tow they make their way through to the British compound.
These are combat soldiers remember, but they also care about what’s happening to the people here.
Over the heads of the crowds of the evacuees, another transporter plane takes off. The sound is deafening, everyone looks up.
That’s what they’re here for – the flight to safety.
And in the midst of all this, sometimes, just sometimes, you see joy breaking out.
Wahid Zahid and his family are going to the UK
Wahid Zahid and his family are going to the UK – it’s been agreed.
He was a British military interpreter in Helmand Province, and tells us he got the call last night. He came straight to the airport with his wife and children.
He told us this is a happy day for him and his family.
He said: “I’m going to go to Britain, this is my first trip to Britain.”
“It was very scary, like a ‘zombieland’,” he told me, describing the scenes beyond the containers.
He can’t wait to get to Britain, and wants his children to grow to be engineers and doctors “to serve the Afghanistan people and also the British”.
Time is running out for this evacuation there is no doubting that – it’s just a matter of how long.
Not everyone who should go will go. The majority in the streets outside the container barricade will not.
Very soon they’re on their own.
The COP29 climate talks have reached a last ditch deal on cash for developing countries, pulling the summit back from the brink of collapse after a group of countries stormed out of a negotiating room earlier.
The slew of deals finally signed off in the small hours of Sunday morning in Azerbaijan includes one that proved hardest of all – one about money.
Eventually the more than 190 countries in Baku agreed a target for richer polluting countries such as the UK, EU and Japan to drum up $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations both curb and adapt to climate change.
It is a far cry from the $1.3trn experts say is needed, and from the $500bn that vulnerable countries like Uganda had said they would be willing to accept.
But in the end they were forced to, knowing they could not afford to live without it, nor wait until next year to try again, when a Donald Trump presidency would make things even harder.
Bolivia’s lead negotiator Diego Pacheco called it an “insult”, while the Marshall Islands’ Tina Stege said it was “not nearly enough, but it’s a start”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said: “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps.”
The funding deal was clinched more than 24 hours into overtime, and against what felt like all the odds.
The talks were rocked from the start by the incoming presidency of climate denier Mr Trump, the moment Argentina’s team were recalled back to Buenos Aires by their right-wing president and a controversial letter that sent shockwaves through the United Nations.
Pic: AP
The fraught two weeks of negotiations pitted the anger of developing countries who are footing the bill for more dangerous weather that they did little to cause, against the tight public finances of rich countries.
A relieved Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, climate envoy for Panama, said there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Just hours ago, the talks almost fell apart as furious vulnerable nations stormed out of negotiations in frustration over that elusive funding goal.
They were also angry with oil and gas producing countries, who stood accused of trying to dilute aspects of the deal on cutting fossil fuels.
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Climate-vulnerable nations storm out of talks
The UN talks work on consensus, meaning everyone has to agree for a deal to fly.
A row over how to follow up on last year’s pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” was left unresolved and punted into next year, following objections from Chile and Switzerland for being too weak.
A draft deal simply “reaffirmed” the commitment but did not dial up the pressure in the way the UK, EU, island states and many others here wanted.
Saudi Arabia fought the hardest against any step forward on cutting fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change that is intensifying floods, drought and fires around the world.
Governments did manage to strike a deal on carbon markets at COP29, which has been 10 years in the making and will allow countries to trade emissions cuts.
‘Not everything we wanted’
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The UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the deal is “not everything we or others wanted”, but described it as a “step forward”.
“It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition, which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis,” he added.
“Today’s agreement sends the signal that the clean energy transition is unstoppable.
“It is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century and through our championing of it we can help crowd in private investment.”
Protesters at the summit in Baku. Pic: AP
Read more:
Azerbaijan president hails oil and gas as ‘gift from God’
UN climate summits ‘no longer fit for purpose’
The Azerbaijan team leading COP29 said: “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator.
“We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.”
At least 20 people have been killed and 66 injured in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
The attack destroyed an eight-storey residential building and badly damaged several others around it in the Basta neighbourhood at 4am (2am UK time) on Saturday.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack and has not commented on the casualties.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack – the fourth targeting the city centre this week.
A separate drone strike in the southern port city of Tyre this morning killed two people and injured three, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The victims were Palestinian refugees from the nearby al Rashidieh camp who were out fishing, according to Mohammed Bikai, spokesperson for the Fatah Palestinian faction in the Tyre area.
Israel’s military warned residents today in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs that they were near Hezbollah facilities, which the army would target in the near future. The warning, posted on X, told people to evacuate at least 500 metres away.
The army said that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 3,670 people have been killed in Israeli attacks there, with more than 15,400 wounded.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
Read more:
No 10 indicates Netanyahu would be arrested
‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike
Meanwhile, six people, including three children and two women, were killed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Some 44,176 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
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