Good morning.
The final collapse of the 20-year western mission to Afghanistan took only a single day as Taliban gunmen entered the capital, Kabul, on Sunday, President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and the US and other coalition countries abandoned their embassies in panic.
As the Taliban took control of the city and installed themselves in the presidential palace, thousands of Afghans and foreign nationals surged on to the tarmac at Kabul airport seeking a place on a flight out of the country. Meanwhile, Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban leader freed from a Pakistani jail at the request of the US less than three years ago, has emerged as an undisputed victor of the 20-year war.
Questions will be asked as to how the whole country has in effect been overrun in a matter of weeks when the Taliban have 80,000 troops in comparison with a nominal 300,699 serving the Afghan government. It is a tale of two armies, Patrick Wintour writes, one poorly equipped but highly motivated ideologically, and the other nominally well equipped, but dependent on Nato support, poorly led and riddled with corruption.
How did we get here? Here is a quick recap of the events in Afghanistan from 2001 when President George W Bush launched his “war on terror” in response to 9/11.
What has happened this year? Here is a look at the lightning offensive that began in May when Nato began a final withdrawal of its mission in Afghanistan.
Keep up to date with the latest developments in Kabul with our liveblog.
At least 1,297 dead in Haiti earthquake as death toll climbs
The death toll from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti has climbed sharply, with at least 1,297 dead and more than 5,700 injured. The updated figures from Haiti’s office of civil protection follow a previous count of 724 dead.
People in the Caribbean nation rushed into the streets to seek safety and to help rescue those trapped in the rubble of collapsed homes, hotels and other structures. Saturday’s earthquake struck the south-western part of the poor nation, almost razing some towns and triggering landslides that hampered rescue efforts in two of the hardest-hit communities.
On Sunday as rescue workers searched collapsed buildings for survivors, and aid workers raced to provide food, water and shelter to those forced from their homes, many of the region’s hospitals were swamped with seriously wounded patients.
The disaster added to the plight of Haitians who were already grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, a presidential assassination and a wave of gang violence.
The epicentre of the quake was about 78 miles west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, the US Geological Survey said.
A partial survey of structural damage found at least 860 destroyed homes and more than 700 damaged.
The widespread damage could worsen by early next week, with Tropical Storm Grace predicted to reach Haiti, bringing torrential rain.
The prime minister, Ariel Henry, declared a one-month state of emergency for the whole country.
US could see 200,000 Covid cases a day again: ‘Unvaccinated are sitting ducks’
Covid-19 case numbers in the US could soon return to 200,000 a day, a level not seen since among the pandemic’s worst days in January and February, the director of the National Institutes of Health said on Sunday.
The US is currently averaging about 129,000 new infections a day, a 700% increase from the beginning of July, and that number could jump further in the next couple weeks, Dr Francis Collins said on Fox News Sunday.
“I will be surprised if we don’t cross 200,000 cases a day in the next couple of weeks, and that’s heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in that space again,” Collins said.
Collins pleaded anew for unvaccinated Americans to get their shots, calling them “sitting ducks” for a Delta variant that is ravaging the country and showing little sign of letting up.
How many people have been vaccinated? Nearly 51% are fully vaccinated while about 90 million people have not had a single dose of the vaccine.
Does the vaccine protect against the Delta variant? People remain highly protected from Covid-19, including the Delta variant, but federal health officials have been actively looking at whether extra shots may be needed.
In other news …
California voters will decide on 14 September whether the governor, Gavin Newsom, gets to keep his job. With weeks to go, the governor has started to argue his case, as Republican challengers including the talkshow host Larry Elder and the reality star Caitlyn Jenner attempt to channel pandemic upheaval and deep political partisanship into an unlikely upset.
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has called a snap election, gambling that voters will reward his administration’s handing of the coronavirus pandemic with a parliamentary majority as he pulls the plug on a two-year minority government. On Sunday morning Trudeau met with the governor general, Mary Simon, to request she dissolve parliament – a request she approved.
Florida’s governor declared a state of emergency for the state’s Panhandle region as Tropical Storm Fred moved through the Gulf of Mexico yesterday and parts of the Caribbean were preparing for the impact from Tropical Storm Grace. Fred was forecast to move across the Gulf before reaching the coast tonight or tomorrow morning, forecasters said. They said people from Alabama to the central Florida Panhandle should monitor the system’s progress.
Residents around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were paid to show support for natural gas trucks at community hearings, a joint investigation by the Times and the news outlet Floodlight in partnership with the Guardian has found. Their comments at public meetings and press conferences bolstered successful industry lobbying for trucks that run on natural gas.
Stat of the day: only 40% of prison officers are fully vaccinated across California’s prisons
Several major California law enforcement agencies are reporting Covid-19 vaccination rates that are significantly lower than those of the general population, and seven state prisons have disclosed that less than a third of their officers are vaccinated. A Guardian review of vaccine data shows only 16% are vaccinated at one facility. Some of the state’s lowest law enforcement vaccination rates exist in the highest-risk settings. The California prison system has experienced repeated catastrophic Covid-19 outbreaks that have infected nearly 50,000 people behind bars, resulting in 235 deaths.
Don’t miss this: ‘Let them be kids!’ Is ‘free-range’ parenting the key to healthier, happier children?
Now more than ever, children are cooped up indoors and monitored 24/7. But how can they build confidence and social skills if adults never let them out of their sight? This safety-at-all-costs style of child-rearing is one many parents will be familiar with, even if the anxieties are different – and the pandemic may have highlighted it for many, or made it worse. From a child’s perspective, the past year and a half of lockdowns, closed schools and playgrounds has given a message: the outside world is dangerous; stay away from other people. It’s safest at home. If we are starting to emerge from the pandemic, now may be a good opportunity to rethink what kind of childhood we want for our children.
Climate check: it’s now or never – scientists warn time of reckoning has come for the planet
Heatwaves and the heavy rains that cause flooding have become more intense and more frequent since the 1950s in most parts of the world, and climate change is now affecting all inhabited regions of the planet. Drought is increasing in many places and it is more than 66% likely that numbers of major hurricanes and typhoons have risen since the 1970s. “If there was still a need for a proof that climate changes is caused by human activities, then this is the report that provides it,” said Prof Corinne Le Quéré of the University of East Anglia. And the consequences of humanity’s massive act of atmospheric interference are now clear: what is hot today will become hotter tomorrow; extreme floods will become more frequent, wildfires more dangerous and deadly droughts more widespread. In short, things can only get worse.
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Last Thing: how the 1996 Olympics inspired a generation of female athletes
In 1996, the sheer domination by America’s female athletes was the story of the summer in the US. US gymnastics’ Magnificent Seven – with the likes of Kerri Strug and Dominique Dawes – captured the first-ever team gold for the US. Legendary softball players such as Lisa Fernandez and Dot Richardson represented the US in their sport’s Olympic debut, also taking gold. The swimmer Amy Van Dyken, speedster Gail Devers and a plethora of athletes in individual sports added to America’s hefty dose of hardware. To take a deeper examination into the summer of 1996, Togethxr has released a six-part podcast series, Summer of Gold, in which the host Michelle Kwan speaks with 20 athletes from that summer and the younger generation they inspired.
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