Dominic Raab has said he did not call Afghanistan’s foreign minister when he was on holiday as he was prioritising securing Kabul airport so that evacuation flights could depart. Amid mounting criticism over the speed of his response to the Taliban’s takeover, the foreign secretary said in a statement on Friday the government has been
Politics
Ministers”blindsided themselves” by ignoring a warning eight months ago about the implications of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. A report submitted to the government in January laid out how the US pull-out risked undermining the Afghan government and allowing the country to descend into civil war. But the Conservative chair of the International Relations
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been criticised for being too busy to speak with Afghanistan’s foreign minister as the country descended into chaos. Mr Raab has been accused of failing to ask Hanif Atmar for urgent assistance in evacuating Afghan interpreters who had worked for UK military personnel during the 20-year conflict in the country.
Ministers are continuing their scramble for a co-ordinated international response to the crisis in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s dramatic takeover. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday night resumed his series of calls with world leaders following the fall of the central Asian country to the extremist group. He spoke with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi,
President Joe Biden tells ABC News that there was no way out of Afghanistan “without chaos ensuing,” contradicting what the White House has said about pulling troops out of the country for the last several months. CNN’s chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins reports. #CNN #News
CNN’s Clarissa Ward reports on the hurdles Americans and Afghans are facing trying to get to Kabul’s airport as Taliban fighters attempt to block access with gunfire and violence. #CNN #News
The collapse of Afghanistan’s government happened faster “than even the Taliban predicted”, the prime minister has told MPs, but he denied the UK had been caught “unawares”. Opening a recalled session of parliament to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan, Boris Johnson claimed it was “not true” to say the UK was “unprepared” for or “did
The UK will take up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghans over the coming years as part of a resettlement plan, following the Taliban takeover of their country. Under the new bespoke scheme – modelled on the UK’s seven-year programme to resettle Syrian refugees – the prime minister has promised thousands of Afghans who are most in
The situation at Kabul airport is “stabilising”, Dominic Raab has said, after crowds rushed to flee the city. The foreign secretary admitted he was taken by “surprise” at the speed of the Taliban’s advance over the weekend, but vowed the efforts of veterans in the conflict “wasn’t all for nothing”. It comes as scenes of
CNN’s Clarissa Ward is in Afghanistan after the government collapsed and the Taliban took over the country. #CNN #News
Boris Johnson is set to announce a bespoke resettlement scheme for those “most in need” in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s dramatic takeover of the country, Downing Street has said. Number 10 said the prime minister and his government were finalising details of a specific scheme to allow Afghans to claim asylum in the UK. The
CNN’s Jamie Gangel previews a new book from journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa detailing the final days of Trump’s presidency and the transition to the Biden administration. #CNN #News
Carrie Johnson has told other pregnant women there is nothing to worry about, after getting her second COVID-19 vaccine. The prime minister’s wife, who is due to give birth to her second child in December, said she got her second jab on Saturday and was “feeling great”. Mrs Johnson, 33, said she was concerned about
British filmmaker Ken Loach has said he has been kicked out of the Labour Party for supporting others who have been expelled. The 85-year-old lifelong socialist said there was a “purge” and a “witch-hunt” in the party as he criticised Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. He wrote on Twitter: “Labour HQ finally decided I’m not
Joanna Lumley has called on the government to meet the “brave and loyal” Gurkha veterans who are currently on hunger strike opposite Downing Street over their pensions. Protesters have been camped in Whitehall for nine days now. According to the Support Our Gurkhas website, the hunger strikers are campaigning for equal pensions for Gurkhas who
Parliament will be recalled next week over the situation in Afghanistan, as the prime minister called a second emergency Cobra meeting later this afternoon to discuss the crisis. MPs will return to Westminster on Wednesday to debate the government’s response to the crisis, with Taliban fighters having entered the capital Kabul after a lightning advance
Retired Sgt. Gerald Keen describes the challenges Afghan interpreter Rahim Haidary, who is currently in Canada after working with the US Army in Afghanistan, is facing in his attempts to find safety in the US. #CNN #News
The US Geological Survey said it’s likely that casualties are “high” after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck near Haiti Saturday morning. “High casualties are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” according to the USGS. Haiti’s Civil Protection told CNN there have been fatalities and damage. The earthquake was about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) northeast of
The “vast bulk” of British citizens in Afghanistan will be brought back to the UK over the “next few days”, Boris Johnson has said. Efforts will also be stepped up to relocate Afghans to the UK who have assisted the military operation over the past 20 years, the prime minister said. The prime minister spoke
A former US military base is now in the hands of the Taliban as the future of Afghanistan is unclear. CNN’s Clarissa Ward reports exclusively from what remains of Combat Outpost Andar in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province. #CNN #News