Here’s our latest news story on the news that Greg Abbott has tested positive:
Today's politics recap
- Roughly 11,000 “self-identified” US citizens still need to be evacuated from Afghanistan, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. The White House said earlier today that the Kabul airport is once again open and 3,500 US troops are now on the ground to assist evacuation efforts, after Taliban forces took control of the capital city.
- The state department encouraged American citizens still in Afghanistan to “shelter in place” until being contacted by the US embassy. Asked about US citizens who have had trouble getting to the Kabul airport due to safety concerns, state department spokesperson Ned Price said, “We tell them in our communications that their safety needs to be their top priority. If they feel that it is unsafe for them to make their way to the airport, they should not seek to do so.”
- The Pentagon said the speed of evacuation efforts “will pick up” in the coming days. Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor told reporters that the US military is looking to have a plane depart Kabul every hour, allowing for the evacuation of up to 9,000 people a day. According to Taylor, the US military has had “no hostile interactions, no attack and no threat by the Taliban” as evacuation efforts continue.
- National security adviser Jake Sullivan acknowledged the images coming out of Kabul over the past couple of days have been “heartbreaking”. Videos shared on social media have shown desperate Afghans trying to cling to US military planes as they leave the country. But Sullivan continued to defend Biden’s decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan, saying, “We were clear-eyed going in when we made this decision that it was possible that the Taliban would end up in control of Afghanistan.”
- Senate Democrats are calling on Joe Biden to help evacuate women leaders from Afghanistan. Two Democrats on the Senate foreign relations committee, chairman Bob Menendez and member Jeanne Shaheen, organized a letter signed by 44 other senators of both parties. The letter calls on the administration to “create a humanitarian parole category specifically for women leaders,” as well as journalists and human rights defenders, among others.
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Texas governor Greg Abbott’s office announced that he has tested positive for Covid-19. The announcement followed Abbott’s attendance at a packed, indoor GOP event, where an estimated 600 people were in attendance.
- Chicago is reinstating an indoor mask mandate, joining a growing list of cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington DC.“With the highly transmissible Delta variant causing case rates to increase, now is the time to re-institute this measure to prevent further spread and save lives,” Chicago health commissioner Allison Arwady said.
– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh
This town is the first in America to ban new gas stations – is the tide turning?
Emily Bit remembers a time when she didn’t feel the constant threat of climate change. Her family lives in American Canyon, in southern Napa county, California, a state now being hit by record high temperatures and devastating wildfires. “It didn’t used to be this bad,” she said.
These days her family has to evacuate their home every summer. Two of her friends lost their homes in Paradise, the town consumed by the 2018 Camp fire disaster, the deadliest in California history. Last year, a wildfire burned the nature reserve behind her local school until it was “entirely black. It was like something from a dystopian novel”.
She worries about her younger siblings, a 12-year-old sister and an eight-year-old brother. “What’s it going to be like in the future?” she asks. She wonders how responsible it would be for her to have children. Bit is 17.
Now, she and fellow student activists are working to break one big link in the fossil fuel chain that is driving climate change: gas stations. There are two proposed new gas stations in her town she wants scrapped. “We don’t need them,” she said.
Read more:
‘Masks work’: experts on how to navigate Delta when you’re vaccinated
The Covid-19 vaccine was supposed to bring life back to normal. Then came the Delta variant.
Real-world data collection continues, but it’s clear that the vaccines do offer significant protection against becoming infected by Delta. They offer even greater protection against severe illness: Among states that are reporting breakthrough cases of Covid-19, fully vaccinated people made up no more than 5% of overall hospitalizations.
Nonetheless, doctors and public health experts are now urging even the fully vaccinated to resume mask wearing and some social distancing measures. What those measures should look like may vary from person to person, depending on personal circumstances and community rates of vaccination and transmission.
Read our explainer, here:
Chicago is reinstating an indoor mask mandate, joining a growing list of cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington DC.
“With the highly transmissible Delta variant causing case rates to increase, now is the time to re-institute this measure to prevent further spread and save lives,” Chicago health commissioner Allison Arwady said in a statement. “We continue to track the data closely and are hopeful this will only be temporary and we can bend the Covid curve, as we’ve done in the past.”
Masking was already required at schools statewide.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month issued guidelines suggesting that even fully vaccinated people should mask up indoors if they live in areas with “substantial” or “high” coronavirus transmission.
Updated
Maya Yang reports:
A former Tennessee government official who was fired amid controversy over vaccine access for teenagers has denied sending herself a dog muzzle. She told authorities the muzzle was delivered anonymously, possibly as a warning to be quiet, after investigators determined it was ordered using her own credit card.
Dr Michelle Fiscus was previously the state medical director of vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization. She was fired in July, after sharing a memo that cited a state law about whether adolescents can obtain medical care, including Covid-19 vaccines, without parental permission.
The memo led Republican lawmakers to question whether Fiscus was challenging parental authority. She was fired over alleged failures to maintain good working relationships, ineffective leadership and management of the state’s vaccine program, and alleged attempts to steer state money to a nonprofit she founded.
In response, Fiscus shared years of stellar performance evaluations and claimed her firing was politically motivated. Fiscus said she received the muzzle a week before her firing. Muzzles are used to stop dogs biting animals or people.
According to Fiscus, the muzzle was sent anonymously to her office through Amazon. Fiscus said she contacted Amazon to figure out the sender but the company refused to disclose the identity.
“At first, I thought that was a joke and contacted a few friends, and then, when no one claimed it, I realised that that was something that was sent to me as some kind of a message,” she said.
Fiscus reported the incident to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. She also told her husband: “They obviously didn’t know me, because they sent me a size three which is for beagles and I’m obviously a pit bull, which requires a size six.”
On Monday, a TDSHS report found that the muzzle was paid for with Fiscus’s credit card.
“Based on the information provided to us by Amazon via subpoena, and on information derived from interviews, there is no evidence to indicate that the dog muzzle was intended to threaten Dr Fiscus,” special agent Mario Vigil wrote.
In response, Fiscus tweeted: “I asked Homeland Security to investigate the origin … Hold tight. No, I didn’t send it to myself.”
Health officials in Texas said they have asked the federal government for five mortuary trucks, as Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise in the state.
A fourth wave of infections in the US, driven by the Delta variant, has overwhelmingly hospitalized and killed the unvaccinated.
The Texas request comes at a complex stage of the pandemic, when about half of Americans are fully vaccinated, vaccine mandates are increasingly common and an official announcement about Covid booster shots is expected in days.
Texas officials said they requested the trucks from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or Fema, as a “precaution”, given rapid and widespread Covid-19 transmission.
“We haven’t gotten any local requests but we want to be ready with the Covid cases in the state,” Chris Van Deusen, a spokesperson for the Texas health department, told NBC News. “We didn’t want to wait.”
Covid-19 deaths in Texas have tripled in the last two weeks, growing to 89 a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At the pandemic’s worst peak in the January, Covid-19 killed 351 people in Texas on average a day. More than 54,000 people in Texas have died of Covid-19.
Read more:
Here’s the Texas governor at a packed, unmasked indoor event yesterday:
.@GregAbbott_TX is at the Republican Club at Heritage Ranch meeting tonight! pic.twitter.com/oIuabG72lU
— Texans for Abbott (@AbbottCampaign) August 17, 2021
Greg Abbott has faced sharp criticism as coronavirus cases and deaths began to swell in Texas. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month recommended that even fully vaccinated people should wear masks indoors, he stood by his ban against mask mandates and issued an executive order banning local governments from issuing vaccine requirements.
Updated
Joe Biden spoke with Boris Johnson about Afghanistan, the White House said.
Per the White House:
They commended the bravery and professionalism of their military and civilian personnel, who are working shoulder to shoulder in Kabul on the evacuation of their citizens and Afghan nationals who assisted in the war effort. They also discussed the need for continued close coordination among allies and democratic partners on Afghanistan policy going forward, including ways the global community can provide further humanitarian assistance and support for refugees and other vulnerable Afghans. They agreed to hold a virtual G7 leaders’ meeting next week to discuss a common strategy and approach.
Until now, the president had not discussed the situation with any other world leaders since the Taliban took Kabul.
Texas governor who fought mask mandates tests positive for Covid-19
Texas governor Greg Abbott’s office announced that he has tested positive for Covid-19.
Governor Greg Abbott today tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. The Governor has been testing daily, and today was the first positive test result. Governor Abbott is in constant communication with his staff, agency heads, and government officials to ensure that state government continues to operate smoothly and efficiently. The Governor will isolate in the Governor’s Mansion and continue to test daily. Governor Abbott is receiving Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment.
Governor Abbott is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in good health, and currently experiencing no symptoms. Everyone that the Governor has been in close contact with today has been notified. Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott tested negative.
The announcement follows Abbott’s attendance at a packed, indoor GOP event, where an estimated 600 people were in attendance.
The governor has fought to maintain a ban against local mask mandates, even as coronavirus cases surge in his state. Several school districts and local governments have fought back, though the Texas Supreme Court temporarily upheld the governor’s ban.
Here’s more background on Abbott’s actions amidst the crisis in Texas:
Updated
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Roughly 11,000 “self-identified” US citizens still need to be evacuated from Afghanistan, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. The White House said earlier today that the Kabul airport is once again open and 3,500 US troops are now on the ground to assist evacuation efforts, after Taliban forces took control of the capital city.
- The state department encouraged American citizens still in Afghanistan to “shelter in place” until being contacted by the US embassy. Asked about US citizens who have had trouble getting to the Kabul airport due to safety concerns, state department spokesperson Ned Price said, “We tell them in our communications that their safety needs to be their top priority. If they feel that it is unsafe for them to make their way to the airport, they should not seek to do so.”
- The Pentagon said the speed of evacuation efforts “will pick up” in the coming days. Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor told reporters that the US military is looking to have a plane depart Kabul every hour, allowing for the evacuation of up to 9,000 people a day. According to Taylor, the US military has had “no hostile interactions, no attack and no threat by the Taliban” as evacuation efforts continue.
- National security adviser Jake Sullivan acknowledged the images coming out of Kabul over the past couple of days have been “heartbreaking”. Videos shared on social media have shown desperate Afghans trying to cling to US military planes as they leave the country. But Sullivan continued to defend Biden’s decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan, saying, “We were clear-eyed going in when we made this decision that it was possible that the Taliban would end up in control of Afghanistan.”
- Senate Democrats are calling on Joe Biden to help evacuate women leaders from Afghanistan. Two Democrats on the Senate foreign relations committee, chairman Bob Menendez and member Jeanne Shaheen, organized a letter signed by 44 other senators of both parties. The letter calls on the administration to “create a humanitarian parole category specifically for women leaders,” as well as journalists and human rights defenders, among others.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
The Democratic chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, Bob Menendez, is demanding a “full accounting” of how Taliban forces were able to take control of Afghanistan so quickly.
“After two decades of blood and treasure including thousands of American and Afghan lives, I am horrified and saddened by the chaos engulfing Afghanistan,” Menendez said in a new statement.
“I am disappointed that the Biden administration clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid U.S. withdrawal. We are now witnessing the horrifying results of many years of policy and intelligence failures.”
Horrified & saddened by the chaos engulfing Afghanistan. These recent events are the culmination of a series of mistakes made by Republican & Democratic administrations over the past 20 years. Read my full statement: https://t.co/6EOkArHCjo
— Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SFRCdems) August 17, 2021
The committee chairman acknowledged that the US government’s focus right now should be on “the immediate and vital necessity of evacuating Americans as well as those vulnerable Afghans, especially women, journalists, and civil society activists who spent the past twenty years advocating for a more democratic Afghanistan who the Taliban is targeting right now”.
He went on to say, “The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will continue fulfilling its oversight role with a hearing on U.S. policy towards Afghanistan, including the Trump administration’s flawed negotiations with Taliban, and the Biden administration’s flawed execution of the U.S. withdrawal. The Committee will seek a full accounting for these shortcomings as well as assess why the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces collapsed so quickly.”
Menendez’s statement comes one day after Mark Warner, the Democratic chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, pledged to “ask tough but necessary questions about why we weren’t better prepared for a worst-case scenario involving such a swift and total collapse of the Afghan government and security forces”.
It had just started raining at the White House on Monday when a group of reporters, the Guardian included, were summoned and led past a Secret Service agent, along a red carpet in a windowless corridor, up a staircase and into the elegantly appointed East Room.
It was hardly the first Joe Biden speech on this spot but it was probably the most important. The president had flown back from Camp David to address the catastrophe unfolding in Afghanistan after his decision to withdraw US forces.
What followed over 19 minutes was a robust defence of the strategic reasons America was ending its longest war – but rather less detail on how the departure was executed.
While he acknowledged the scenes in Afghanistan were “gut-wrenching” and said the collapse of its government “did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated”, Biden was defiant, unabashed and certain of himself.
He declared that “the buck stops with me” but pointed the finger elsewhere, including at Afghans he said were unwilling to fight. There was little by way of contrition, humility or shades of grey.
It was proof again that the oldest American president ever elected still has the capacity to surprise.
US citizens in Afghanistan encouraged to 'shelter in place' until contacted by embassy
American citizens still in Afghanistan are encouraged to “shelter in place until and unless you receive a communication from the US Embassy,” state department spokesperson Ned Price said.
During his press briefing this afternoon, Price said the first group of American citizens were notified overnight with information about where and when to go to the Kabul airport to be evacuated back to the US.
State Dept. Press Secretary Ned Price's message to civilians trying to reach Kabul airport: "Shelter in place until and unless you receive a communication from the U.S. Embassy." He says they should not travel if they feel unsafe, and U.S. "will continue to do all we can" pic.twitter.com/TdVoPAkrhY
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 17, 2021
A reporter noted that some US citizens have said they received information from the state department but were unable to get to the airport due to safety concerns, as the Taliban takes over Kabul.
“We tell them in our communications that their safety needs to be their top priority. If they feel that it is unsafe for them to make their way to the airport, they should not seek to do so,” Price said.
“We will continue to do all we can to -- and we will continue to be in touch with them, I should say -- to provide clear guidance about when and how they should make their way to the airport compound.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said today that there are about 11,000 “self-identified” US citizens who remain in Afghanistan as evacuation efforts continue.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine has more details on House Democrats’ new voting rights bill:
The new bill will also clarify Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Rep. Terri Sewell said, after a supreme court decision earlier this year that weakened the law.
A significant obstacle remains in the way to passing the bill - the filibuster, the Senate rule that requires 60 votes before a bill can advance.
Democrats, who control 50 Senate seats, have been unable to advance voting rights legislation, but some believe they may be able to get either bipartisan support to pass the bill. I
If not, some say, denying landmark civil rights legislation could provide the impetus for getting rid of the filibuster. Sewell noted on Tuesday that Joe Manchin, a critical swing Democratic senator, had already publicly supported the legislation.
“We feel very confident that we will have the votes on the democratic side in order to pass it,” she said. “Frankly, if there’s any reason to revise or reform the filibuster it is to protect our democracy.”
House Democrats formally introduce new voting rights bill
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
House Democrats on Tuesday formally introduced a long-awaited bill that would update critical provisions of the Voting Rights Act. The bill, which would place certain jurisdictions with repeated instances of voting discrimination under federal oversight, is expected to move quickly in Congress, with a vote in the US House next week.
The legislation would update a formula at the heart of the 1965 Voting Rights Act requiring certain places in the US to get federal approval before they enact any election change.
Today, with enormous pride and endless gratitude for those who marched here before me, I will be standing at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama to announce the introduction of #HR4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, in the 117th Congress. pic.twitter.com/DYmwzORMg0
— Rep. Terri A. Sewell (@RepTerriSewell) August 17, 2021
The previous formula, which had been repeatedly reauthorized by Congress, was struck down by the US supreme court in 2013, when the court said it was outdated. Civil rights groups and voting experts have decried that ruling as extremely damaging to democracy, saying it gives a green light to states that want to discriminate.
The new formula would look at states and localities over the previous 25 years and put them under federal supervision if courts have found at least 10 voting rights violations, at least one of them on a statewide basis. If there are no statewide violations, states are allowed up to 15 violations. The idea is to keep preclearance, as the process is called, targeted towards states that are currently engaging in voter discrimination.
Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat, unveiled the legislation at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, the sight of the brutal Bloody Sunday March in 1965 that provided the impetus for the Voting Rights Act. The new bill has been formally named the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in honor of John Lewis, the voting rights icon who was nearly killed on Bloody Sunday.
Psaki: 11,000 'self-identified' US citizens in Afghanistan
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that there are about 11,000 “self-identified” US citizens remaining in Afghanistan, who still need to be evacuated.
But Pentagon press secretary John Kirby had previously put that number somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000, demonstrating the interagency confusion within the Biden administration as Kabul evacuation efforts continue, a Politico editor noted.
An example of interagency confusion: Psaki said there are 11,000 "self-identified" Americans in Afghanistan, while the Kirby said earlier their guess is between 5,000 and 10,000.
— Blake News (@blakehounshell) August 17, 2021
Updated
Neither national security adviser Jake Sullivan nor White House press secretary Jen Psaki would offer a firm commitment on the US military continuing evacuation efforts past 31 August if some American citizens are still in the country.
When a reporter pressed Sullivan again on whether he could commit to getting all US citizens safely out of Afghanistan, he replied, “That’s what we’re doing right now. We have asked them all to come to the airport to get on flights and take them home. That’s what we intend to do.”
.@weijia asks if U.S. can offer "any guarantee" that troops will help evacuate Americans and allies who are still in Afghanistan after August 31
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 17, 2021
Psaki: "Our focus right now is on doing the work at hand and on the task at hand, and that is day by day" https://t.co/XvdB9mvIYm pic.twitter.com/RPmT6fFAO0
After Psaki took over the podium, a journalist again asked whether US troops would remain in Afghanistan past the end of the month if the evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies has not been completed.
“Our focus right now is on doing the work at hand and on the task at hand, and that is day by day getting as many American citizens, as many SIV applicants, as many members of vulnerable populations who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and out on planes,” Psaki said.
“And we’re going to do that in expeditious fashion. That is the focus of the president, of our secretary of defense, of our secretary of state and everybody on our national security team. So that is where we will keep our efforts.”
According to Psaki, there are currently about 11,000 “self-identified” US citizens remaining in Afghanistan, although she acknowledged that may not account for all Americans still in the country.
Updated
Joe Biden “has not yet spoken with any other world leaders” since the Taliban took Kabul on Sunday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
Sullivan noted that he, secretary of state Antony Blinken and several other senior administration officials have been “engaged on a regular basis with foreign counterparts” and will continue to do so.
“Right now, the main issue is an operational issue. It’s about how we coordinate with them to help them get their people out,” Sullivan said.
Multiple reporters pressed Jake Sullivan on whether US troops will remain in Afghanistan past August 31 if there are still American citizens and vulnerable Afghans in the country.
Joe Biden had previously said that all US troops would leave Afghanistan by the end of August, but the administration has now sent several thousands of troops to Kabul over the past several days to assist evacuation efforts.
Jake Sullivan says he's "not going to comment on hypotheticals" about what U.S. troops will do if all Americans and Afghan allies aren't evacuated by Biden's August 31 deadline@weijia: "So you can't commit to bringing back every American?" https://t.co/XvdB9mvIYm pic.twitter.com/r9MFoMOHlV
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 17, 2021
“So I’m not going to comment on hypotheticals,” Sullivan said. “What I’m going to do is stay focused on the task at hand, which is getting as many people out as rapidly as possible. And we will take that day by day.”
A reporter followed up by asking, “So you can’t commit to bringing back every American?” Sullivan ignored the question and moved on.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan was asked about the Taliban’s pledge to help get US citizens and vulnerable Afghans seeking to leave the country to the Kabul airport.
“Taliban have informed us that they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport, and we intend to hold them to that commitment,” Sullivan said.
The reporter asked, “Do you believe them?” Sullivan did not directly answer, instead taking a question from another journalist, who asked about a deadline for evacuation efforts.
“We believe that this can go until the 31st,” Sullivan said. “We are talking to them about what the exact timetable is for how this will all play out. And I don’t want to negotiate in public on working out the best modality to get the most people out in the most efficient way possible.”
The Taliban told U.S. that "they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport, and we intend to hold them to that commitment," Sullivan says
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 17, 2021
"We are talking to them about what the exact timetable is for how this will all play out" https://t.co/XvdB9mvIYm pic.twitter.com/0ox0beoC0S
Another reporter pressed national security adviser Jake Sullivan on why the Biden administration was not better prepared for the possibility of a rapid Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
The journalist noted that the White House has received widespread criticism for how the troop withdrawal has been executed, leading to the chaotic situation at the Kabul airport seen over the past couple of days.
“We were clear-eyed going in when we made this decision that it was possible that the Taliban would end up in control of Afghanistan,” Sullivan said. “
Now as the president said in his remarks yesterday, we did not anticipate that it would happen at this speed, though we were planning for these potential contingencies.”
“We made the judgments we made based on the information we had at the time, while preparing for the alternative contingency.”
— The Recount (@therecount) August 17, 2021
— National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on the Afghanistan pullout and flying more troops in to evacuate Americans and allies. pic.twitter.com/x4dKso5BxM
The national security adviser argued the administration had taken steps to prepare for a potential Taliban takeover, noting that US citizens in Afghanistan were urged to leave the country for weeks.
“Many chose to stay right until the end, and that was their choice,” Sullivan said.
“The point I’m making is that, when a civil war comes to an end with an opposing force marching on the capital, there are going to be scenes of chaos. There are going to be lots of people leaving the country. That is not something that can be fundamentally avoided.”
He added, “The fact is that, we made the judgments we made based on the information we had at the time, while preparing for the alternative contingency.”
One reporter asked national security adviser Jake Sullivan about Joe Biden’s comment yesterday that “the buck stops with me” in terms of fallout from the US troop withdrawal in Afghanistan.
“He’s taking responsibility for every decision the US government took with respect to Afghanistan because as he said, ‘the buck stops’ with him. I am also taking responsibility and so are my colleagues,” Sullivan said.
“Now at the same time, that doesn’t change the fact that there are other parties here responsible as well, who have taken actions and decisions that helped lead us to where we are.”
Sullivan said the Biden administration’s job now is to “focus on the task at hand,” namely the effective evacuation of US citizens and vulnerable Afghans from Kabul.
Images from Kabul airport 'have been heartbreaking,' Sullivan says
White House press secretary Jen Psaki is now holding her daily briefing, and she is joined by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who is providing an update on the situation in Afghanistan.
Sullivan noted that Joe Biden received a briefing this morning on ongoing evacuation efforts at the Kabul airport, and he said US troops “have now secured” the airport, allowing flights to continue.
“We’re in contact with the Taliban to ensure the safe passage of people to the airport,” Sullivan said, expressing his gratitude for troops who have helped get people out of Afghanistan in the past few days.
The national security adviser acknowledged the severe consequences of the US troop withdrawal on the Afghan people, saying, “The images from the past couple of days at the airport have been heartbreaking.”
Videos taken at the Kabul airport yesterday showed desperate Afghans clinging to US military planes as they departed, with several people then falling to their deaths.
A judge this morning “appeared skeptical” of an effort to dismiss a $2.7bn lawsuit alleging Fox News hosts and guests made defamatory claims about the voting technology firm Smartmatic during coverage of the 2020 US presidential election, Reuters reports from court in Manhattan.
During oral arguments, New York state judge David Cohen made comments sympathetic to Smartmatic, a small company that sued Fox and two of Donald Trump’s former lawyers, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, after the attorneys falsely accused it of rigging votes against the former president.
The judge questioned whether there was any basis whatsoever for claims Powell and Giuliani made about Smartmatic on Fox News, such as that the company was banned in Texas.
“How is that not defamatory?,” the judge said. “Did any evidence ever come to light that Smartmatic was banned in Texas?”
The judge asked whether former host Lou Dobbs ever attempted to ascertain proof of this claim. For Fox Corp, the lawyer Paul Clement responded that those allegations were made during an interview Dobbs conducted with Giuliani, and that Fox News had a constitutional right to report on newsworthy claims made by Trump’s lawyers.
The judge noted that experts have rejected the conspiracy theory that the election was hacked, adding that even Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted Powell for failing to back the theory with evidence.
The judge asked whether that should have made Fox News reconsider the accuracy of its reporting. Clement said Fox was merely reporting on newsworthy claims made by Trump’s legal teams, not endorsing the theories.
Fox News, Giuliani and Powell have all separately been sued for defamation by another voting software company, Dominion Voting Systems. Last week, a judge denied a bid by Powell and Giuliani to dismiss the claims against them.
Smartmatic’s technology was only used in one place for the presidential election: Los Angeles county, which Biden won.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Senate Democrats are calling on Joe Biden to help evacuate women leaders from Afghanistan, after Taliban forces took control of Kabul. Two Democrats on the Senate foreign relations committee, chairman Bob Menendez and member Jeanne Shaheen, organized a letter signed by 44 other senators of both parties. The letter calls on the administration to “create a humanitarian parole category specifically for women leaders,” as well as journalists and human rights defenders, among others.
- The Kabul airport is once again open and 3,500 US troops are now on the ground in Afghanistan, the White House said this morning. Flights from Kabul were delayed yesterday, as desperate Afghans crowded the tarmac in the hopes of boarding a departing plane. “Today, U.S. military flights are taking off from HKAI with American citizens and U.S. Embassy personnel on board,” a White House official told the press pool. “Yesterday, we evacuated more than 700 people, including 150 American citizens.”
- The Pentagon said the speed of evacuation efforts “will pick up” in the coming days. Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor told reporters that the US military is looking to have a plane depart Kabul every hour, allowing for the evacuation of up to 9,000 people a day. Taylor also noted that the US military has had “no hostile interactions, no attack and no threat by the Taliban” as evacuation efforts continue.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
HR McMaster, Donald Trump’s second national security adviser, has criticised the “capitulation agreement” reached with the Taliban by the Trump administration – but also its implementation by the Biden administration, leading to the fall of the Afghan government and chaotic scenes in Kabul.
“The Taliban violated this so-called agreement,” McMaster told NBC on Tuesday. “It was an agreement between us and the Taliban that was embarrassing. It was basically, you know, ‘If you don’t fire on us, we will not take action against you.’ And so we left kind of our Afghan allies hanging.
“We did conduct some strikes during that period of time … but I think what is really heartbreaking about this is we abandon[ed] our allies and we actually empowered the Taliban on our way out, on the idea that we would have to adhere to an agreement that the Taliban was breaking.
“Remember, after we signed that capitulation agreement, the Taliban intensified an assassination campaign, killing journalists, killing any women political leaders and judges, bombing, you know, girls’ schools, attacking a maternity hospital. I mean, do we really think that the Taliban was adhering to the agreement? Of course they weren’t. And we’ve seen that in dramatic fashion now.
“So, of course, I think it’s a false claim, right, that we had no other option” but to withdraw.
McMaster, an army general celebrated for his roles in the Gulf and Iraq wars who also deployed to Afghanistan, was national security adviser in 2017 and 2018, before Trump fired him. He is now a member of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
“War is a contest of wills,” he said. “And we did everything we could, it seemed, really across the last two administrations to deliver psychological blows to the Afghans that landed, I think, even harder than the Taliban’s physical blows landed on them.
“Telling them that we’re going to withdraw, making concession after concession with the Taliban, not even allowing the Afghan government to participate in what became our capitulation agreement with the Taliban. You know, forcing the Afghanistan government to release 5,000 of the some of the most heinous people on Earth who immediately went back to terrorising the Afghan people.”
All that, he said, meant the rapid fall of Afghanistan “should not have come as a surprise at all”.
Further reading:
Women can work 'according to the principles of Islam,' Taliban spokesperson says
The Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, has just wrapped up his first press conference since the group took control of Kabul on Sunday.
Facing reporters for the first time, Mujahid received questions about how the Taliban would treat Afghans who worked with US forces and whether Afghan women would continue to enjoy the rights they have gained over the past twenty years.
“Women can work. They can go to the schools. They can work in schools. They can work in hospitals,” Mujahid said, according to a translation. “They will be allowed to work according to the principles of Islam.”
"We respect them"
— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 17, 2021
The Taliban says Afghan "women will be allowed to work" and it will guarantee their rights "within the limits of Islam."
Some experts, however, remain wary of the group's intentions despite such claims. Read more: https://t.co/uPrVg4HJWS pic.twitter.com/J1DWvmDlcp
On the issue of Afghans who assisted American troops in recent years, Mujahid’s translator said, “We are assuring the safety of all those who have worked with the United States and allied forces, whether as interpreters or any other field that they have worked with them.
“As for their talents and their skills, we do not want them to leave the country. We want them to serve their own homeland.”
Taliban leaders have been working to present a more moderate face as they take control of Afghanistan, but many Afghans who have previously lived under Taliban rule are deeply skeptical that the group has actually changed its ways.
The Guardian’s Afghanistan live blog has more details on the press conference. Follow along here:
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Last time the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan – in 1996 – there was never any question of what form of government they would install and who would rule the country. They were filling a vacuum, and Mullah Mohammed Omar, the reclusive cleric who had led the movement since its beginnings two years earlier, took charge.
Then, Kabul was a shattered husk, with a tiny hungry, scared population, almost no economic activity, no telephones and public transport provided by ancient Russian-made cars or 1970s buses once driven from Germany. The Taliban could impose whatever they wanted.
But circumstances are different today. Since the Taliban were ousted by a US-led military coalition after the 9/11 attacks of 2001, Afghanistan’s capital has been transformed into a bustling, crowded, traffic-choked metropolis of 5 million. The rest of the country has changed immensely too. The task facing the new de facto head of state is vastly more challenging and complex.
But who will this ruler be? The most likely candidate is the current supreme leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, a 60-year-old Islamic legal scholar who took over when his predecessor, Akhtar Mansour, was killed in a US drone strike near the Afghan-Pakistan border in 2016.
Read the full report:
Afghan vice-president declares himself 'caretaker President' after Ghani flees
The first vice-president of Afghanistan is declaring himself to be the country’s “caretaker president,” after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as Taliban forces approached Kabul.
Amrullah Saleh said on Twitter, “Clarity: As per d constitution of Afg, in absence, escape, resignation or death of the President the FVP becomes the caretaker President. I am currently inside my country & am the legitimate care taker President. Am reaching out to all leaders to secure their support & consensus.”
Clarity: As per d constitution of Afg, in absence, escape, resignation or death of the President the FVP becomes the caretaker President. I am currently inside my country & am the legitimate care taker President. Am reaching out to all leaders to secure their support & consensus.
— Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) August 17, 2021
In the meantime, Taliban leaders are working to form a new government to officially take control of Afghanistan after seizing the capital city.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki and national security adviser Jake Sullivan are holding a briefing this afternoon, and they will likely be asked whether the Biden administration recognizes Saleh as the acting leader of Afghanistan.
A reporter asked Pentagon press secretary John Kirby about how many people died yesterday after trying to cling to a US military plane taking off from the airport in Kabul.
Videos that circulated widely on social media showed several Afghans holding onto the aircraft and then falling to their deaths as the plane took off.
Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby says he doesn’t have “a firm number” of casualties related to people clinging to the military aircraft leaving the Afghanistan airport.
— The Recount (@therecount) August 17, 2021
Kirby deflects a question about a report of human remains found on the wheel of the U.S. military plane. pic.twitter.com/wg0T16nHpz
Kirby said he did not have “a firm number” about how many people had died, but he noted the Air Force is examining the issue and will provide an update “later today”.
Asked specifically about the report that an Afghan civilian’s remains were found on the plane’s wheel, Kirby again directed questions to the Air Force.
One reporter asked Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor what the US military is doing to help vulnerable Afghans who have had trouble making their way to the Kabul airport after the Taliban took control of the city.
The reporter noted that there have been reports of some special immigrant visa applicants getting beat up on their way to the airport.
Taylor replied that the US military is entirely focused on ensuring evacuation flights are able to take off, and he directed questions about problems in reaching the airport to the state department.
“Our mission right now is that securing of the airfield to allow those that come onto the airfield to quickly be put on aircraft and evacuated,” Taylor said.
The US military has had “no hostile interactions, no attack and no threat by the Taliban” as evacuation efforts continue in Kabul, Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor told reporters.
“We remain vigilant. We also have not experienced any additional security incidents at [the Kabul airport],” Taylor added.
NEW: Pentagon official: "We have had no hostile interactions, no attack, and no threat by the Taliban. We remain vigilant. We also have not experienced any additional security incidents at [Hamid Karzai International Airport]." https://t.co/JQWOureI81 pic.twitter.com/GBAwJZk6w2
— ABC News (@ABC) August 17, 2021
In his remarks yesterday, Joe Biden warned that the US military would deliver a “forceful” response if the Taliban attempts to interfere with evacuation efforts.
“If they attack our personnel or disrupt our operation, the US presence will be swift and the response will be swift and forceful,” Biden said. “We will defend our people with devastating force if necessary.”
US hopes to evacuate up to 9,000 people a day from Kabul, Pentagon says
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby is now holding a briefing alongside Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor to provide an update on evacuation efforts in Kabul.
Taylor said the speed of evacuation efforts “will pick up,” and US military leaders are hoping to have a flight take off from Kabul every hour in the days ahead.
"The speed of evacuation will pick up," Pentagon officials says at briefing on situation in Afghanistan.
— ABC News (@ABC) August 17, 2021
"We are confident we have taken the right steps to resume safe and orderly operations at the airport." https://t.co/JQWOureI81 pic.twitter.com/su0DWzGZGX
If the military can achieve that level of efficiency, it would mean the US can evacuate somewhere between 5,000 and 9,000 people a day.
“But we are mindful that a number of factors influence this effort and circumstances could change,” Taylor said. “We will keep you updated.”
Taylor added that military leaders are “confident we have taken the right steps to resume safe and orderly operations at the airport,” where there was chaos yesterday as desperate Afghans tried to forcibly board departing planes.
The White House said this morning that the Kabul airport is once again open and flights are able to land and depart.
Kabul airport is open with 3,500 US troops on the ground, White House says
The Kabul airport is once again open, and there are now 3,500 US troops on the ground to assist evacuation efforts in Afghanistan, the White House said this morning.
“The Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKAI) is open, and flights are able to land and depart, including on the civilian side,” a White House official told the press pool.
“As of this morning, there are 3,500 troops on the ground at HKAI. Today, U.S. military flights are taking off from HKAI with American citizens and U.S. Embassy personnel on board. Yesterday, we evacuated more than 700 people, including 150 American citizens.”
More US troops are expected to arrive in Afghanistan today, as evacuation efforts continue after Taliban forces took Kabul on Sunday.
Senate Democrats call on Biden to evacuate leading Afghan women
Two Democrats on the Senate foreign relations committee, chairman Bob Menendez and member Jeanne Shaheen, have organized a bipartisan letter urging the Biden administration to protect Afghan women after Taliban forces took Kabul.
In addition to Menendez and Shaheen, 44 senators from both parties signed on to the letter, which was sent to secretary of state Antony Blinken and secretary of homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Joined by @SenatorShaheen & 44 of our colleagues in urging the Admin to act swiftly to support & evacuate Afghan women leaders facing unparalleled danger following the Taliban’s violent seizure of Kabul. Our bipartisan letter to @SecBlinken @SecMayorkas: https://t.co/spug0ayGQl
— Senate Foreign Relations Committee (@SFRCdems) August 17, 2021
Among the signers of the letter were majority leader Chuck Schumer, progressive senator Bernie Sanders and Republican senator Lisa Murkowski.
“We strongly urge you to create a humanitarian parole category specifically for women leaders, activists, human rights defenders, judges, parliamentarians, journalists, and members of the Female Tactical Platoon of the Afghan Special Security Forces and to streamline the paperwork process to facilitate referrals to allow for fast, humane, and efficient relocation to the United States,” the senators said.
“We and our staff are receiving regular reports regarding the targeting, threatening, kidnapping, torturing, and assassinations of women for their work defending and promoting democracy, equality, higher education, and human rights. ...
“We greatly appreciate your efforts to help save the lives of Afghans who have advanced U.S. and Afghan joint interests over the last generation, standing for peace, democracy, and equality. We are all in agreement that we owe them our unqualified support.”
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In his speech yesterday, Joe Biden attempted to address questions about why the US did not attempt to get more vulnerable Afghans out of the country earlier.
The Biden administration has been trying to get Afghans who assisted the US military over the past 20 years evacuated through the special immigrant visa program, but the president has claimed many eligible Afghans did not want to participate.
“I know that there are concerns about why we did not begin evacuating Afghans – civilians sooner,” Biden said yesterday.
“Part of the answer is some of the Afghans did not want to leave earlier – still hopeful for their country. And part of it was because the Afghan government and its supporters discouraged us from organizing a mass exodus to avoid triggering, as they said, ‘a crisis of confidence’.”
But advocates say the first part of Biden’s answer does not hold water. One CEO of a group that works with interpreters in conflict zones told the Daily Beast, “In my 10-plus years plus advocating on this issue, I have yet to encounter an Afghan interpreter who wants to remain in his country.
“It is just too dangerous. In fact, it was dangerous with the troops there. Since interpreters were the face of the coalition, they have been a priority target of insurgents from the get-go. The White House’s argument does not make any sense.”
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Senior British politicians have called on the government to repudiate Joe Biden’s comments on Afghanistan, saying the UK should have the courage to criticise the manner of the US withdrawal.
A defiant US president insisted on Monday night that he stood squarely behind his decision to pull forces out of Afghanistan rapidly. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces. That’s why we’re still there. We were clear-eyed about the risk.”
Biden said the chaotic scenes in Kabul of Afghans clinging to planes as they took off showed why withdrawal had been necessary. “We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future,” he said.
The remarks drew anger and regret from a number of senior Conservatives, including Theresa May’s former chief of staff Gavin Barwell.
“After [Biden’s] speech last night, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee,” he tweeted. “The US will remain a key ally where its vital interests are involved, but neither Democrats nor Republicans any longer believe the US should be the world’s policeman.
“The lesson for Europeans is clear. Whoever is president, the US is unlikely to offer the same support that it used to in parts of the world where its vital interests are not involved.”
Joe Biden has said that US troops in Kabul would stay long enough to evacuate American citizens and eligible Afghan allies, and warned the Taliban there would be a “devastating” response to any attempt to attack or disrupt the operation.
The US president made a televised address from the White House after a day of chaos at Kabul airport following the fall of the Afghan capital to the Taliban, in which seven people were killed during the rush towards the sole remaining exit route out of the country.
As insurgents took control of the city, declaring victory after 20 years of war, tens of thousands of Afghans who have been promised resettlement in the west because of their past work with or for the US, Britain and their allies remained trapped in the country and in fear for their lives, amid reports of reprisal killings.
Biden admitted his administration had been caught by surprise by the speed of the Taliban victory, which he attributed to lack of leadership from Ashraf Ghani’s ousted government and a lack of will to fight in the Afghan armed forces.
“We gave them every chance to determine their own future. What we couldn’t not provide them was the will to fight for that future,” he said.
Biden to give TV interview after Afghanistan speech fails to quell concerns
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
Joe Biden will give an exclusive interview to ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos tomorrow, as evacuation efforts continue in Kabul after Taliban forces took the capital city on Sunday.
I’m sitting down with President Biden on Wednesday for an exclusive interview. What would you ask him?
— GeorgeStephanopoulos (@GStephanopoulos) August 16, 2021
The interview comes after Biden delivered a speech on the situation in Afghanistan, once again defending his decision to withdraw all US troops from the country.
“I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden said in his remarks yesterday. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces. That’s why we were still there.”
But many questions remain over why the Biden administration did not more adequately prepare for the safe evacuation of US citizens and vulnerable Afghans before most troops left the country.
Images of desperate Afghans crowding the tarmac at Kabul international airport and cramming into cargo planes to escape the country have now spread around the world, and all eyes have turned to Biden with the same question: why did this have to happen in this way?
Biden will have another chance to answer that question tomorrow. Stay tuned.
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