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Politics

Stranded in Kabul, Afghanistan: A US Resident Runs Out of Choices

WASHINGTON – For more than a week, Samiullah Naderi, a legal permanent resident of the United States, waited days and nights with his wife and son outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, hoping to be let in so they could join one of the dozen of daily flights to America.

“It’s 15 meters away,” said Mr. Naderi, 23, known as Sammy, in a short telephone interview in halting English on Sunday evening while gunfire crackled in the background. “Maybe the Taliban will let me in – maybe.”

But on Monday, after he was told that no more people would be allowed to enter the airport gate, Mr. Naderi and his family returned to their apartment in Kabul with no clear route back to Philadelphia, where he has lived since last year.

“All flights are closed,” he said with an incredulous laugh. “I’m afraid.”

Mr Naderi is among at least hundreds of U.S. citizens, and possibly thousands of green card holders, stranded in Afghanistan at the end of a 20-year war that culminated not in a reliable peace but in a two-week military airlift that has been evacuated more than 123,000 people.

The evacuations continued during the last US military flight from Kabul, which departed Monday evening, when the Biden government pledged to aid up to 200 Americans who remain to flee a brutal life under Taliban rule.

“The bottom line: Ninety percent of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave could leave,” said President Biden on Tuesday. He said the US government had alerted Americans 19 times since March to leave Afghanistan.

“And there is no deadline for the remaining Americans,” he said. “We remain determined to get them out if they want to come out.”

About 6,000 Americans, the vast majority of them dual Afghan citizens, were evacuated after August 14, Foreign Secretary Antony J. Blinken said Monday. The State Department has not released any figures on how many permanent legal US citizens have also been evacuated or, as in the case of Mr Naderi, have not got a flight. Immigration and refugee organizations estimated that thousands were left.

Mr. Blinken described “an extraordinary effort to give Americans every opportunity to leave the country” when diplomats made 55,000 calls and sent 33,000 emails to US citizens in Afghanistan, and in some cases took them to Kabul airport.

“We have no illusion that all of this will be easy or quick,” Blinken said at the State Department headquarters in Washington. “This will be a very different phase from the evacuation that has just been completed. It will take time to deal with new challenges. “

“But we’ll stick with it,” he said.

Several members of Congress had called for the US military to remain in Afghanistan until American citizens, permanent residents and an estimated tens of thousands of Afghans eligible for special immigrant visas can be evacuated. But that weekend, lawmakers sounded resigned when they admitted that many would be left behind.

“Our team will continue to work to safely evacuate American citizens and Afghan allies and reunite families and loved ones,” said Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, on Twitter late Sunday evening. “I urge the State Department and the rest of our government to continue using every possible tool to get people to safety, deadline or not.”

Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, condemned the Biden government’s departure from Afghanistan as “insane” in an interview with ABC News “This Week” on Sunday.

“We have American citizens who are being left behind,” said Mr Sasse. “We have American green card holders who are being left behind. We have Afghan allies who are SIV owners, people who fought by our side, drivers, translators – people who actually fought with us. These people are people to whom we have made commitments. “

Updated

Aug. 31, 2021, 4:53 p.m. ET

The chaotic efforts to locate, contact and then bring American citizens to safety in Afghanistan are due to a lack of coordination within the US government, frustrated attempts at contact by the State Department and increasingly frequent warnings of possible attacks, the closings of airport gates and the Forced relocation of meeting places.

Aid groups in the United States helping American citizens and Afghans working with the U.S. government described a heartbreaking and dizzying process in which people trying to flee were diverted to pickup points across Kabul where they board buses or to join caravans drove to the airport, but were blocked on the way.

Some people reported that Taliban fighters took their American passports at checkpoints, the aides said. Others said they were harassed or beaten on the way to the meeting points and did not want to put themselves or their families in danger again. And some said they were turned back by American troops standing guard at the airport gate.

“Why can’t we get people out?” said Freshta Taeb, the US-born daughter of an Afghan refugee, who provides emotional counseling and translation services to Afghan immigrants in the United States, including those who have worked with the US military.

Ms. Taeb blamed the Biden administration for a military withdrawal, which she said “was carried out arbitrarily, carried out negligently”.

“It was time to make a plan and do what needed to be done to get these people out,” she said. “But it doesn’t look like there’s a strategy behind it.”

Understanding the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

Map 1 of 5

Who are the Taliban? The Taliban emerged in 1994 amid the unrest following the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including flogging, amputation and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here is more about their genesis and track record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who for years have been on the run, in hiding, in prison and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to govern, including whether they will be as tolerant as they say they are.

What is happening to the women of Afghanistan? When the Taliban was last in power, they banned women and girls from most jobs or from going to school. Afghan women have gained a lot since the Taliban was overthrown, but now they fear that they are losing ground. Taliban officials are trying to reassure women that things will be different, but there are indications that they have begun to reintroduce the old order in at least some areas.

Ross Wilson, who was the top US diplomat in Afghanistan and was on the last military flight to take off, said on Twitter Monday that “alleges that American citizens have been denied access to Kabul airport by embassy staff or Americans was refused ”. Forces are wrong. “

In Washington, officials are struggling to keep up.

Military officials had privately accused the State Department of moving too slowly to handle a crowd begging for evacuation. State Department officials, who faced a backlog of visa applications from Afghans during the Trump administration, initially focused on finding Americans and verifying their citizenship.

Officials said a small but unspecified number of U.S. citizens have signaled that they do not want to flee Afghanistan, give up their home, work or education, or refuse to leave relatives behind, including elderly parents who do not Americans were and otherwise no way out.

Foreign-born spouses of American citizens and their unmarried children under the age of 21 can immigrate to the United States after obtaining certain permits, a process that was accelerated for some Afghans during the evacuation. Extended family members such as parents, siblings and other relatives must go through an immigration process that could take “an extraordinarily long time”, according to Jenna Gilbert, director of the refugee agency at Human Rights First.

.

However, there are no plans to change visa requirements for extended family members who “need to travel to the US in a different way,” said Ned Price, the ministry spokesman, on Friday.

Kabul Airport is expected to be fully operational for some time without the American military, although the Biden government is relying on allies, including Turkey and Qatar, to take over some of the operations to facilitate small charter flights for people who are want to leave, said Mr Blinken. The State Department is also considering how to protect American citizens and high-risk Afghans from Taliban reprisals heading to one of several neighboring states and then seeking safe passage to the United States.

Mr Naderi said Tuesday he was not sure what to do but was considering leaving Afghanistan across the border with Pakistan or Tajikistan. As proof of his American residency, he presented a picture of his green card received last year and said he lived with his father in Philadelphia in hopes of relocating his wife and son to the United States. (The State Department declined to comment on his case, citing privacy concerns.)

He returned to Afghanistan on August 10 to get immigration documents for his wife and son, said his father Esmail Naderi, who worked for several American military companies in construction and other fields from 2004 to 2015.

Five days later, the Taliban took power and the US embassy in Kabul was closed when diplomats were evacuated to the airport.

It was not possible to get the right visas for the family in time. “My situation is really bad at the moment,” said Samiullah Naderi on Tuesday.

Categories
Entertainment

All of the Pop Tradition References on Reservation Canine

The importance of pop culture on Reservation dogs is rooted in his name, which is an interpretation by Quentin Tarantinos Reservoir Dogs. “Pop culture is important because in these rural areas, especially now with the internet and everything, you have that,” said creator Sterlin Harjo Weekly entertainment. “You know the Wu-Tang clan, you know Tupac, you know all the movie references, you know Quentin Tarantino. Whether it’s a shot-for-shot remake or a cheeky character name, we’ve listed some of the biggest film and TV references in the series below.

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World News

Biden addresses finish of the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan

U.S. President Joe Biden gives a speech at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, United States, on Jan.

Kevin Lemarque | Reuters

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will address the U.S. public on Tuesday to mark the end of America’s long war in Afghanistan after the military completed an evacuation mission that brought tens of thousands of people to safety from the Taliban, albeit deadly were when terrorists killed several US soldiers and many Afghan civilians.

Biden’s speech, scheduled for 2:45 p.m. ET, will take place just 11 days before the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that sparked the US intervention in Afghanistan.

On Monday at 3:29 p.m. ET, one minute before midnight, the last C-17 cargo plane carrying US forces left Afghanistan in Kabul, effectively ending America’s 20-year military campaign in the country.

The Taliban, which was ousted by the US shortly after the 9/11 attacks, now control almost the entire country.

The withdrawal of US forces came after a whopping 17-day humanitarian evacuation of 123,000 people desperate to flee Taliban rule. Of the total evacuees flown from Kabul, 6,000 were US citizens.

Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie, the four-star commander of U.S. Central Command, said there had not been any Americans on board the last five flights from Kabul.

“We couldn’t get Americans out, this operation probably ended about 12 hours before we moved out. We’ll continue the operations and would have been ready to get them until the last minute, but none of them made it to the airport,” said McKenzie on Monday via video conference call in Qatar.

McKenzie, who oversees the U.S. military mission in the area, added that there were no evacuees at the airfield when the last C-17 took off. All US soldiers and Afghan troops who helped defend the airport were also blown from the air along with their families on Monday, the general said.

Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken said in a speech on Monday evening that fewer than 200 Americans are still seeking evacuation.

“Our commitment to you and all Americans in Afghanistan and around the world continues. The protection and well-being of Americans abroad remains the most important and long-lasting mission of the State Department,” said the country’s top diplomat on Monday.

“A new chapter of American engagement in Afghanistan has begun. It is one in which we will lead with our diplomacy. The military mission has ended. A new diplomatic mission has begun,” said Blinken.

Blinken added that the US has suspended its diplomatic presence in Kabul and will move those operations to Doha, Qatar.

“Time to End America’s Longest War”

U.S. Marines from 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, RCT 2nd Battalion 8th Marines Echo Co. take cover when a 500 pound bomb explodes on a site after the Marines hosted two days on July 3, 2009 in Main Poshteh, Afghanistan Have taken fire out of position.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images

During an April speech at the White House, Biden called for US combat troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September 11th.

The removal of approximately 3,000 American soldiers coincides with the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that sparked America’s entry into long wars in the Middle East and Central Asia.

“It is time to end America’s longest war. It is time for the American troops to come home, ”Biden said in his televised address in April from the Treaty Room of the White House, where former President George W. Bush announced military action against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in October 2001.

“I am now the fourth American president to head an American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats. I will not hand this responsibility over to a fifth,” said Biden, adding that the US mission will be solely devoted to providing assistance would go to Afghanistan and in support of diplomacy.

During his address, the president cited the military service of his own son – Beau Biden, who served in Iraq for a year and later died of cancer in 2015. He is the first president in 40 years to have a child serve in the US military and in a war zone.

The president said the US achieved its goals a decade ago when it killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda – the terrorist group that started the 9/11 attacks. Since then, the US’s reasons for staying in Afghanistan have become unclear as the terrorist threat has spread across the globe, Biden said.

“Given the terrorist threat that now rises in many places, it makes little sense to me and our leaders to deploy and concentrate thousands of troops in just one country, which costs billions each year,” said Biden. “We cannot continue the cycle of expanding or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan in order to create ideal conditions for withdrawal and expect a different outcome.”

U.S. Marines from Charlie 1/1 of the 15th MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) fill sandbags around their light mortar position at the front of a U.S. Marine Corps base, near a cardboard sign reminding everyone that Taliban forces are everywhere and anywhere in the south could be Afghanistan December 1st, 2001.

Jim Hollander | Reuters

Biden added that his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was coordinated with allies and coalition partners.

NATO secretary Jens Stoltenberg said from the headquarters of the alliance in Brussels that the withdrawal would be “orderly, coordinated and deliberate.”

“We went to Afghanistan together, we adjusted our stance together and we all agree that we should leave together,” said Stoltenberg.

The NATO mission in Afghanistan was launched after the alliance left after the 9/11 attacks.

The US and NATO launched their military campaign in the center of Afghanistan and the Pentagon in October 2001, weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Since then, around 2,500 US soldiers have died in the conflict, which also killed more than 100,000 Afghan soldiers, police officers and civilians. The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have cost US taxpayers more than $ 1.57 trillion since September 11, 2001, according to a Department of Defense report.

Now the Taliban are back in power.

Breathtaking Taliban advances

Taliban fighters sit over a vehicle on a street in Laghman province on August 15, 2021.

AFP | Getty Images

Shortly after his April address, Biden updated the schedule for the Pentagon’s massive task of removing soldiers and equipment from Afghanistan for August 31.

As the US and coalition forces accelerated their retreat, the Taliban made rapid strides on the battlefield, despite being vastly outnumbered by the Afghan military. In one weekend, the Taliban quickly captured five provincial capitals in Afghanistan, three in one day alone.

The Taliban occupied Bagram Air Force Base on August 15, a development that came less than two months after the US military handed over the once steadfast air base to the Afghan National Security and Defense Force.

In 2012, at its peak, Bagram looked through more than 100,000 U.S. soldiers. It was the largest US military facility in Afghanistan.

As the Taliban approached the capital, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and western nations rushed to evacuate embassies amid a deteriorating security situation.

On August 15, the Taliban invaded Kabul and captured the presidential palace, marking the collapse of the US-NATO-backed Afghan government.

After the Taliban came to power, Biden defended his decision to withdraw US forces.

“I stand completely behind my decision. After 20 years I have learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw the US armed forces,” Biden told the Taliban one day after the fall of Afghanistan.

“American troops cannot and should not fight in a war and die in a war that the Afghan armed forces are unwilling to wage for themselves,” Biden said. “We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We couldn’t give them the will to fight for that future,” he added.

Biden ordered thousands of US soldiers to be sent to Kabul to help evacuate US embassy personnel and secure the perimeter of Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Thousands of Afghans rushed to the airport tarmac to flee Taliban rule.

Western forces carried out an immense humanitarian evacuation mission of Afghan nationals and civilians from third countries, a logistical masterpiece that spanned the globe and was pushed to its limits with looming security threats.

On August 26, an ISIS-affiliated suicide bomber detonated an explosive outside the gates of the airport, killing 13 US soldiers and more than 100 Afghans.

The last US casualties

U.S. Soldiers assigned to Joint Task Force-Crisis Response are pallbearers for soldiers killed in operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Aug. 27. US soldiers support the State Department in a non-combatant evacuation in Afghanistan.

1st Lt. Mark Andries | U.S. Marine Corps photo

The Pentagon on Saturday released the names of the 13 US soldiers who were killed in the suicide attack on Kabul airport. The attack, which is being investigated, killed 11 Marines, one Marine and one Army soldier.

On Sunday, the President and First Lady Jill Biden traveled to Dover Air Force Base to meet privately with the families of the fallen before watching the graceful handover of American flag-draped coffins from a C-17 military cargo plane to a vehicle .

A dignified transfer is a solemn process in which the remains of fallen soldiers are transported from an airplane to a waiting vehicle. It is carried out for every U.S. soldier killed in action.

The ceremony marked the first time Biden had participated in a worthy transfer since taking office.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley also attended the dignified transfer, along with chiefs of service for the US Marine Corps, the Army and the Navy.

The remains of the soldiers were flown from Kabul to Kuwait and then to Germany before arriving in Dover.

The fallen include:

Marine Corps Staff Sgt.Din T. Hoover, 31, from Salt Lake City, Utah

Marine Corps Sgt.Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, from Lawrence, Massachusetts

Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, from Sacramento, California

Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, from Indio, California

Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska

Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, from Rio Bravo, Texas

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, from St. Charles, Missouri

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, from Rancho Cucamonga, California

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California

Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, from Berlin Heights, Ohio

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee

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Politics

Trump will get little help from main Republican donors

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference announcing a class action lawsuit against major tech companies at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 07, 2021 in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Several of the Republican Party’s largest and most influential donors are signaling that, for the moment, at least, they have no plans to fund former President Donald Trump’s political operation.

Wealthy financiers like Stephen Ross and Larry Ellison have instead chosen to spend money on the GOP’s efforts to retake Congress in next year’s midterm elections or have supported potential 2024 presidential candidates like Sens. Marco Rubio from Florida and Tim Scott from South Carolina.

Donors are also concerned about how Trump’s organization is spending the mountains of money it has raised from smaller donations.

“Big money, sophisticated people just lose interest in this s — show,” said an adviser to longtime Trump ally in Silicon Valley. Many donors are tired of seeing the former president use his resources on rallies that often make false claims, including the fact that his election was stolen, this person said.

Trump hasn’t ruled out a 2024 presidential run, and he hasn’t made any official announcements. Its political action committees have raised large amounts of money through email and SMS appeals to supporters who frequently criticize President Joe Biden’s performance, most recently his handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Trump PACs had over $ 100 million available as of the first half of 2021. CNBC previously reported that its PACs spent nearly $ 8 million on legal fees and over $ 200,000 on Trump’s real estate earlier this year.

“Donors do not donate from the goodness of their hearts. And right now they are being asked to donate to an organization that has no other purpose than pumping money to someone who doesn’t need it and doesn’t use it,” said a Republican Strategist representing financiers on Wall Street: “They have better things to do.”

The donor advisors speaking to CNBC declined to be featured in this story to avoid retaliation from Trump and his supporters.

A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The pro-Trump Make America Great Again Action Super PAC, which raised over $ 1.5 million in July and August, is not without some wealthy donors, according to new federal electoral commission filings. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who is passionate about false claims about the 2020 election, is among the funders, as are businesswoman and former GOP Senator Kelly Loeffler, Texas bank director Andrew Beal and casino magnate Phillip Ruffin.

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But bigger Republican fundraising forces are instead focusing on efforts by House leadership Kevin McCarthy to retake the House of Representatives and funding pro-GOP redistribution efforts like the National Republican Redistricting Trust. Others support the re-election campaigns of potential presidential candidates in 2024 such as Scott, Rubio and Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis.

Several people who had previously supported Trump recently hosted a fundraiser for DeSantis’ 2022 gubernatorial campaign in the Upper Hamptons, Long Island. The invitation to the July event shows that the event co-hosts included former Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and billionaire investors Stephen Ross, John Paulson and Ken Griffin.

Paulson was one of the few Wall Street donors to support Trump’s 2020 presidential bid in the final phase of the campaign.

Stephen Ross, who also owns the Miami Dolphins, came under fire in 2019 when he hosted a fundraiser for Trump in the Hamptons. Ross and other directors of Related Cos. are investors in the luxury fitness brand Equinox. SoulCycle and Equinox distanced themselves from the Trump event when customers threatened to boycott.

Wilbur Ross and a Paulson representative did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Stephen Ross declined to comment.

Neither Oracle CEO Larry Ellison nor Oracle CEO Safra Catz made large sums of money available to Trump’s PACs after the election. Both helped raise money for Trump’s re-election campaign. Ellison’s California home was the site of a Trump fundraiser last year. However, in June of that year, Ellison donated $ 5 million to a super PAC that supported Scott’s re-election efforts in South Carolina.

A spokesman for Catz and Ellison did not respond to a request for comment.

The Republican Jewish Coalition, whose PAC supported Trump in last year’s elections, is co-hosting a New York fundraiser for Rubio’s 2022 re-election campaign in September, according to an invitation. The RJC’s board of directors includes a number of influential Republicans, including the co-founder of Home Depot , Bernard Marcus, former Trump adviser Jason Greenblatt and former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

Trump may also not be able to count on financial help from Miriam Adelson, a mega-donor and widow of the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who died earlier this year. The couple were among the few business leaders who supported Trump in the last election. They gave millions to a pro-Trump super PAC in the last few months of the campaign.

Since her husband’s death, Adelson has privately told her allies that she has no immediate plans to use much of her money in politics for the time being. That could change as the midterms approach. Records show that in June, Adelson contributed $ 5,000 to the Stand for America PAC, a committee formed by potential 2024 contender and former Trump United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

A spokesman for Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands company declined to comment.

Another major Trump and GOP financier is in legal hot water. Investor Tom Barrack was arrested for illegally lobbying then President Trump on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. Barrack has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Even if he had no issues with the Feds, Barrack had hinted that he might not have supported Trump, his longtime friend, for a run in 2024.

“Today it looks like it’s a campaign of division that I’m not interested in,” Barrack told Bloomberg News before he was arrested.

A Barrack spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah were huge supporters of Trump during the 2016 campaign, but there is no indication that they will endorse him in 2024. CNBC reported in 2018 that the Mercers were planning to cut their financial support for Trump.

Records show that the Mercers did not write major checks to Trump’s PACs after his presidency.

For the time being, they are banking on a new face in GOP politics: “Hillbilly Elegy” author and venture capitalist JD Vance, who, after criticizing the ex-president, has taken several nationalist positions in the style of Trump in the past.

Robert and Rebekah Mercer together donated $ 150,000 to a Super PAC in March that supports Vance’s candidacy for the Ohio Senate seat, vacated by retiring Republican Rob Portman.

Mercers representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

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World News

An Experimental H.I.V. Vaccine Fails in Africa

An advanced H.I.V. vaccine trial in Africa has been shut down after data showed the shots offered only limited protection against the virus, researchers announced on Tuesday.

The vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson, is one in a long line found to offer little defense against H.I.V., one of medicine’s most intractable adversaries. One candidate vaccine even increased the risk of infection.

Another trial was halted last year in South Africa after a different experimental vaccine failed to offer sufficient protection. Some 1.5 million people were infected with H.I.V. worldwide in 2020, and 38 million are living with the infection.

Scientists were dismayed by the most recent failure.

“I should be used to it by now, but you’re never used to it — you still put your heart and soul into it,” said Glenda Gray, the principal investigator of the trial and chair of the South African Medical Research Council. Dr. Gray has been working to develop an H.I.V. vaccine for more than 15 years.

Entirely new approaches may be needed. This month, Moderna announced that it would test a vaccine based on the mRNA platform used to devise the company’s coronavirus vaccine.

The trial, called Imbokodo, tested an experimental vaccine in 2,600 young women deemed at high risk of H.I.V. infection in five sub-Saharan African countries. Women and girls accounted for almost two-thirds of new H.I.V. infections in the region last year.

The trial was funded by Johnson & Johnson, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.

The vaccine relied on an adenovirus called Ad26, modified to carry fragments of four H.I.V. subtypes into the body in hopes of provoking an immune response that might defend against infection.

Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, an advocacy group that lobbies for AIDS prevention and treatment, said the cancellation of the trial was a “reality check” amid excitement about new vaccine technologies.

“It’s a grand reminder that H.I.V. is a pathogen unlike any other in its complexity,” he said. “We know the platform worked, but what do we put in it? Because this virus is infecting the exact same immune system that we’re trying to boost with a vaccine.”

Participants in the Imbokodo trial, which began in 2017, were given two initial shots and two boosters over the course of a year. Researchers tracked the numbers of new infections in the placebo and vaccine groups from the seventh month (one month after the third vaccination) through the 24th month.

Over two years, 63 of 1,109 participants who received the placebo were infected with H.I.V., compared with 51 of 1,079 participants who received the vaccine — giving the vaccine an efficacy rate of 25 percent.

Earlier studies, including one carried out in Thailand, had indicated that the kind of antibodies this vaccine provoked might be sufficient to offer good protection from H.I.V. for at least an initial period of time.

“But in South Africa, the higher rates of H.I.V. incidence means you need something much more potent,” Dr. Gray said. “The kind of immune responses that were induced were just not enough to stop the high attack rates we see in Africa.”

When the disappointing data showed a low efficacy rate, guidelines set up before the trial dictated it should be shut down. A vaccine that offered only 25 percent protection risked giving women a “false sense of security,” Dr. Gray said.

But a parallel trial that uses a different iteration of this vaccine will continue, Johnson & Johnson said. It is being tested on men who have sex with men and transgender people, in eight countries including Poland, Brazil and the United States.

That study, called Mosaico, is testing the vaccine against different subtypes of H.I.V. in different populations, and could produce different efficacy results.

Dr. Gray said that the lesson from the failed trial lies in figuring out why it worked for the 25 percent of people who were protected and not for the others, and then trying to translate those clues into a recipe for a future vaccine.

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Politics

Blinken Says American Diplomats Have Left Kabul

WASHINGTON — American diplomats have left Afghanistan, and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul will remain closed, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Monday, after the military announced that it had completed its withdrawal from the country.

The disintegration of diplomacy was a stunning turnabout from plans to stay and help Afghanistan transition from 20 years of war and to work toward peace, however tenuous, with a government that would share power with the Taliban. This month, Mr. Blinken had pledged that the United States would remain “deeply engaged” in Afghanistan long after the military left.

But with the Taliban firmly in control, what was one of the largest U.S. diplomatic missions in the world will for now be greatly scaled back, based in Doha, the Qatari capital, and focused largely on processing visas for refugees and other immigrants.

“Given the uncertain security environment and political situation in Afghanistan, it was the prudent step to take,” Mr. Blinken said in remarks at the State Department.

He sought to portray the departure as a “new chapter of America’s engagement with Afghanistan.”

“It’s one in which we will lead with our diplomacy,” Mr. Blinken said, commending the U.S. diplomats, troops and other personnel who had worked at the embassy, which just last month had employed around 4,000 people — including 1,400 Americans.

Left uncertain was whether American efforts to stabilize the Afghan government would continue — the main thrust of years of painstaking work and negotiations with leaders in Kabul that were supported by billions of dollars in American taxpayer funding.

Instead, Mr. Blinken said that any engagement with the Taliban — a longtime U.S. enemy that seized power when President Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan on Aug. 15 — “will be driven by one thing only: our vital national interests.”

Exactly four weeks earlier, on Aug. 2, Mr. Blinken had left little doubt that the Biden administration intended to keep the U.S. Embassy in Kabul open.

“Our partnership with the people of Afghanistan will endure long after our service members have departed,” he said then. “We will keep engaging intensely in diplomacy to advance negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban with the goal of a political solution, which we believe is the only path to lasting peace.”

As many as 200 American citizens, and tens of thousands of Afghans, were left behind in a two-week military airlift that Mr. Blinken called one of the largest evacuation efforts in U.S. history. He demanded that the Taliban keep its word and allow them to leave safely once they had exit documents in hand.

Understand the Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan

Card 1 of 5

Who are the Taliban? The Taliban arose in 1994 amid the turmoil that came after the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including floggings, amputations and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here’s more on their origin story and their record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who have spent years on the run, in hiding, in jail and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to govern, including whether they will be as tolerant as they claim to be.

What happens to the women of Afghanistan? The last time the Taliban were in power, they barred women and girls from taking most jobs or going to school. Afghan women have made many gains since the Taliban were toppled, but now they fear that ground may be lost. Taliban officials are trying to reassure women that things will be different, but there are signs that, at least in some areas, they have begun to reimpose the old order.

More than 123,000 people were evacuated from Kabul in recent weeks, including about 6,000 Americans.

Mr. Blinken also said that the United States would closely watch the Taliban’s efforts to stanch terrorism in Afghanistan, as the group has said it will do, and would continue to work with the international community to provide humanitarian aid to millions of Afghans who need food, medicine and health care after decades of war and political instability.

He struck a resolute tone about the diplomatic retreat, and in reminding Americans about the cost of the conflict.

America’s longest war, with its casualties and the resources that were sunk into it over the past 20 years, “demands reflection,” Mr. Blinken said.

“We must learn its lessons, and allow those lessons to shape how we think about fundamental questions of national security and foreign policy,” he said. “We owe that to future diplomats, policymakers, military leaders, service members. We owe that to the American people.”

Categories
Entertainment

5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Trumpet

In der Vergangenheit haben wir die fünf Minuten gewählt, die wir spielen würden, damit sich unsere Freunde in klassische Musik, Klavier, Oper, Cello, Mozart, Komponisten des 21. Streichquartette, Tenöre, Brahms, Chormusik, Schlagzeug, Sinfonien und Strawinsky.

Jetzt wollen wir diese neugierigen Freunde davon überzeugen, die Trompete zu lieben. Wir hoffen, Sie finden hier viel zu entdecken und zu genießen; Hinterlasse deine Favoriten in den Kommentaren.

Der musikalische Begriff „Intrada“ suggeriert eine Fanfare, Musik, die einen Eingang markiert. Dieses 1947 vom Schweizer Komponisten Arthur Honegger geschriebene Buch fängt die vielen Persönlichkeiten der Trompete ein: edel und bombastisch, verschmitzt und meditativ. Hakan Hardenberger gleitet nahtlos zwischen diesen Stimmungen und treibt die Energie durch das ausgelassene Finale.

Hier ist mein leidenschaftlicher Ruf, die Trompete zu verstehen! Sehen Sie das Ausrufezeichen? Das macht eine Trompete. Es unterstreicht Emotionen. Mein Trompetenlehrer Bill Fielder fragte immer: “Was ist die Trompete?” Ich würde einen Moment nachdenken und eine enzyklopädische Antwort anbieten wie „Ein Metallinstrument mit … bla, bla, bla“. Dazu sagte Mr. Fielder: “Es ist ein Spiegel Ihres Geistes.”

Normalerweise würde ich Sie einladen, Miles Davis’ „Porgy and Bess“ zu hören, eine klassische Zusammenarbeit zwischen Miles und Gil Evans. Dieses Album bereitete die Bühne für Leute, die anders über Orchester und Jazz denken. Aber während ich dies schreibe, war gestern der 16. Jahrestag des Hurrikans Katrina. Mein Song „Funeral Dirge“ vom Album „A Tale of God’s Will“, der ursprünglich für den Soundtrack von Spike Lees erstem Katrina-Dokumentarfilm „When the Levees Broke“ komponiert wurde, verfolgt mich noch heute. Eigentlich habe ich nicht das Gefühl, dass ich es komponiert habe. Ich habe das Gefühl, es würde mir zugeschrieen: mein persönlicher Ruf, meine Heimatstadt New Orleans zu hören und zu weinen.

Leichen schweben. Leichen auf Autos. Leichen im Gras. Leichen an Orten, die ich kannte. Leichen in Vierteln, in denen ich aufgewachsen bin. Ich habe diese Leichen in den Rohaufnahmen von Spikes Dokumentarfilm gesehen. Eine Leiche, die ich im Video nicht gesehen habe, war die eines alten Freundes aus der Nachbarschaft, der starb, als er versuchte, den Menschen zu helfen, auf ihren Dächern zu bleiben, während darunter die Fluten tobten. Ich habe noch nie so viel geweint, Tränen vergossen für die vielen Leichen, die ich sah, und die vielen, vielen anderen, die ich nicht sah. Dieses Klagelied ist mein Tribut an diese tapferen, tapferen, gefallenen Helden. Gott segne diese Seelen von Katrina – und heute diese Seelen von Ida.

Konventionelle Weisheit besagt, dass Louis Armstrongs Höhepunkt mit seinen bahnbrechenden Aufnahmen aus den späten 1920er und frühen 30er Jahren erreicht wurde. Glauben Sie es nicht! Er blieb bis weit in die Mitte des Jahrhunderts eine starke kreative Kraft, und seine Aufführung von „Dear Old Southland“ im Rathaus von 1947 zeigt, wie er sein Verständnis einer Melodie weiter vertiefte.

Diese Duo-Interpretation mit dem Pianisten Dick Cary beginnt als ein Geständnis mit steifer Oberlippe; die einleitenden Trompetenlinien deuten auf einen Redner hin, der auf sanfte Weise etwas Traurigkeit anvertraut. Aber schließlich löst sich der Versuch, den Schein aufrechtzuerhalten, auf, als Armstrong Schwärme von aufgewühlten Gefühlen aussendet. Die strahlende Sicherheit seiner Technik – Noten biegen, nach neuen Höhepunkten greifen – verleiht dieser sich entwirrenden unverwechselbaren Würde. Und der kurze Hinweis des Endes auf eine schreitende, sonnigere Zukunft bietet einen weiteren Blick auf die Formbarkeit einer Seele.

Am besten lernt man ein Instrument kennen, indem man dafür schreibt. Es ist, als würde man jemanden gut kennenlernen; Sie lernen ihre Stärken, ihre Schwächen. Die Trompete hat einen sehr begrenzten Tonumfang: Dieses Stück mit vier Trompeten zu schreiben war wie im Gefängnis, weil der Tonumfang so klein ist; Es ist wie vier Leute in einem kleinen Raum. Aber innerhalb dieser zweieinhalb Oktaven kann es wirklich klettern. Wenn Sie von A nach C gehen, ist es, als würden Sie vom Keller in den Himmel gehen.

Wer hätte gedacht, dass Licht, das Licht berührt, mit Verständnis verbunden ist, dass Inspiration und Kreativität im Herzen und in der Seele eines wahren Künstlers verbunden sind? Miles Davis’ „Calypso Frelimo“ zu hören, war für mich ein inspirierter Moment der Musik als Kunst.

Das Stück beginnt auf einem erschreckend intensiven Niveau. Zuerst das Trompetensolo, wunderschön inspirierte Musik mit lang- und kurz wechselnden Klängen, brüllende Glissando-Multiphonics, durchsetzt mit nuancierten Mikro-Sonics: pure melodische Entwicklung mit einer kreativen Bandbreite, die von Emotionen gepaart ist, und genau das richtige Maß an Raum und Stille, die perfekt gewölbt sind eine weite, stille Umgebung auf mysteriöse Weise, ohne Anstrengung.

Als ich zum ersten Mal eine Aufnahme von Mahlers Symphonie Nr. 3 hörte, war ich fasziniert von der Metamorphose des Trompetenklangs zum beredten, fernen Timbre des Posthorns, das im dritten Satz aus dem Off tritt. Dies war Leonard Bernsteins Version mit dem New York Philharmonic, mit John Ware als Solo, und als sehr junger Trompeter, der mit kommerzieller und afrokubanischer Musik aufgewachsen war, hatte ich noch nie eine so einfache und doch ergreifende Melodie gehört. Es war eines der Hörerlebnisse, das meine frühe Karriere als Sinfonieorchester-Musiker am stärksten beeinflusst hat.

Kenny Dorham (1924-72) erregte mit Gabriel-ähnlicher Kraft und Bravourtechnik keine Aufmerksamkeit. Als Liebling von Jazzkennern verführte er die Zuhörer mit der gefühlvollen Wärme, dem farbenfrohen Witz und der zurückhaltenden Weisheit des angesagtesten Lebemanns der Szene. Alles an seiner Herangehensweise an Trompete und Improvisation war ausdrucksstark, entspannt und persönlich. Die gesprenkelten Schlieren seines dämmrigen Tons und die flirtende Sprungkraft, die er 1959 zum Standard „I Had the Craziest Dream“ bringt, lassen Ihr Herz schnurstracks treffen. Seine improvisierten Phrasen mit lässigem Charme verzaubern mit raffinierten melodischen und rhythmischen Reimen und pikanter Tonwahl. Er erzählt eine Geschichte, lädt Sie in seinen Traum ein – in den Sie sich nicht nur in die Trompete, sondern auch in den Mann mit dem Horn verlieben.

Jedes Jahr kommt der „Messias“ und jedes Jahr, fast am Ende, kommt der Moment, den Atem anzuhalten. Viele Aufführungen von Händels klassischem Oratorium finden heute auf historischen Instrumenten statt, und die Barocktrompete ist ein unhandliches Tier: lang, gerade und ohne die Ventile, die es Spielern moderner Trompeten ermöglichen, Töne zuverlässig zu treffen. Auch wenn es hoffentlich nicht danach klingt, ist der schwebende, engelhafte, königliche Solopart, der diese Bass-Arie krönt, eine gnadenlose Prüfung des Könnens, da der Spieler den Tag des Gerichts ankündigt – und seinen eigenen erträgt.

1958 beauftragte mein Vater, der Dirigent Felix Slatkin, den Komponisten Leo Arnaud, Stücke zu schaffen, die das damals neue Audioformat Stereo demonstrieren sollten. Unter Verwendung verschiedener Militärfanfaren sowie Originalmelodien enthielt “Bugler’s Dream” das, was als “The Olympic Fanfare” bekannt wurde. Der Track wurde auf einem Capitol Records-Album namens “Charge!” und wurde mehrfach neu aufgelegt.

Mit Trompeten aller Größen und der Aufteilung der Musiker auf zwei verschiedene Studios, gab es einfach keine bessere Möglichkeit, nicht nur die neue Technik, sondern auch das unglaubliche Können der 26 Spieler zu zeigen. Wenn Sie die Trompete nach dem Hören nicht lieben, empfehle ich den Track, der die 12 Dudelsackspieler enthält.

Die Trompete ist eine Länge des unmöglichen Lotens – körperlich anstrengend und launisch – und das Spielen beinhaltet einen Akt der illusorischen Kontrolle. Trompeter geben im besten Fall einen Teil dieser Täuschung auf, und ihre Unvollkommenheit lässt den Hörer in ein Geheimnis einweihen: die Menschlichkeit des Musikers. Sie streben nach etwas Essentiellem und das Scheitern, es zu erreichen, zeigt ihre wahre Virtuosität. Was Ron Miles auf „Witness“ erreicht, erfordert, dass er über seine erstaunliche Technik hinausgeht, und der herzzerreißende Klang, der aus seinem Brechen der Illusion entsteht, ist die Trompete in ihrer grundlegendsten Form: verletzlich, virtuos und echt.

Nicht weniger als 14 Trompeten (und 11 weitere Blechbläser) lodern mächtig durch das Fanfarenfinale von Janaceks Sinfonietta. Das Werk wurde 1926 anlässlich der Eröffnung eines Massenturnfestivals geschrieben, das teils Fitness-Bonanza, teils Explosion des tschechischen Nationalstolzes war. Ein Lobgesang der Streitkräfte klingt schrecklich, aber Janacek hat etwas Lokales – ein Porträt seiner Heimatstadt Brünn – und Universales geschaffen. Die Musik spiegelt nicht reaktionären Jargon wider, sondern wilde Befreiung.

Johnny Coles malt ein Spektrum der Klangfarbenmöglichkeiten der Trompete vom Feinsten: sanfte Blues, goldene Buttertöne und dreiste Orangen, die eine zarte Unterseite des Horns offenbaren. Er lässt leicht vergessen, dass die Trompete als Instrument der Fanfare und des Krieges geboren wurde. Aber letztendlich ist es die Ausdrucksbreite, die ich hier am meisten liebe, die Räume, die übrig bleiben, um diese Farben zum Vorschein zu bringen. Und während Coles’ harmonische Konturen hauptsächlich innerhalb der Linien gleiten, bringen die flüchtigen Momente, in denen die Trompete nach draußen schlüpft – verschmierend, geschwungen, hochfliegend – eine purpurfarbene Schönheit hervor, die den Blues in einer weiblichen Form erklingen lässt.

In dieser Aufnahme fasziniert mich, wie die Trompete die Botschaft des Liedes so klar wie der Text ausdrückt. In meiner Karriere habe ich aus erster Hand gesehen, wie die Kompositionen von Gabriella Smith, die Poesie von Paul Simon und die Kraft von Justin Vernons Stimme eine Vielzahl von Gefühlen so direkt ausdrücken können. Wenn Sie Musik als die Vermittlung komplexer menschlicher Emotionen von einem Künstler an einen Hörer durch Klang denken – und wenn Sie klassische Musik im weiteren Sinne der amerikanischen Tradition betrachten –, macht das niemand besser als Louis Armstrong. Was mich anfangs an die Trompete zog und mich immer wieder anzieht, ist die Ähnlichkeit des Klangs mit der menschlichen Stimme, sowohl in seinen Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten als auch in seinen Produktionsmitteln: Atem, Schwingung, Projektion.

Alessandro Ignazio Marcellos Konzert in c-Moll war ursprünglich ein Oboenkonzert, wurde aber seitdem für andere Instrumente adaptiert, und eine seiner bekannteren Aufnahmen zeigt Tine Thing Helseth auf der Piccolo-Trompete. Als ich dieses Stück zum ersten Mal hörte, war ich in der sechsten Klasse. Ich wusste damals nicht, was eine Piccolo-Trompete ist, aber ich wusste, dass ich irgendwann in meiner Karriere einen Punkt erreichen wollte, an dem ich in der Lage sein würde, ein so reichhaltiges und interessantes Stück wie dieses zu spielen.

Leroy Anderson, der Meister der leichten Orchesterminiatur, erinnerte sich daran, dass sein 1949er Stück „A Trumpeter’s Holiday“ seinen Ursprung hinter den Kulissen eines Boston Pops-Konzerts hatte. Der große Trompeter Roger Voisin, damals Rektor der Pops, beklagte sich, dass Trompetenwerke dazu neigten, laut, martialisch und triumphierend zu sein. Voisin schlug Anderson vor, etwas anderes zu schreiben.

Das Ergebnis war dieses sanfte Schlaflied. Natürlich war es immer noch ein Trompetenstück, so dass Anderson nicht umhin konnte, jazzige Passagen einfließen zu lassen: Die betörende Melodie hat eine leicht sprunghafte Tonwiederholung, auch wenn das Orchester im Hintergrund eine einlullende Stimmung beibehält, und einen Mittelteil wird unruhig und synkopiert in einem Moment des Unfugs.

Als Kind, das Geige spielt, schätzte ich die Trompete langsam, die wie andere Blechblasinstrumente temperamentvoll und ausdrucksresistent wirkte – insbesondere im Vergleich zu Streichern. Wie falsch ich lag. Nehmen Sie den Donnerstagsteil von Karlheinz Stockhausens siebentägigem Opernzyklus „Licht“. Das Drama des zweiten Akts, „Michaels Reise um die Erde“, entfaltet sich mit den Figuren, die mit Instrumenten dargestellt werden, nicht mit Singstimmen. In diesem Ausschnitt liefern sich Michael (dargestellt von einer Trompete) und Eva (ein Bassetthorn) ein Duett, das kokett, witzig und – entgegen meiner naiven Annahme – voller Menschlichkeit ist.

Categories
Politics

America ends its longest battle, finishes Kabul withdrawal

A handout photo of a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul.

Handout | Getty Images News

WASHINGTON – America’s longest war is over.

The United States has ended its withdrawal efforts from the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced on Monday, effectively ending a two-decade conflict that began not long after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Following the Pentagon’s announcement, President Joe Biden thanked the American military in a statement Monday evening and said he would speak to the nation on Tuesday afternoon about his decision not to extend the U.S. mission in Afghanistan beyond August 31.

“In the past 17 days, our forces conducted the largest airlift in US history, evacuating over 120,000 US citizens, citizens of our allies and Afghan allies of the United States,” the president said in the statement.

“They did it with unmatched courage, professionalism and determination. Now our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has come to an end.”

In the last week of the withdrawal, ISIS-K terrorists killed 13 US soldiers and dozens of Afghans in an attack outside the airport. US forces hit back and launched strikes to thwart other attacks.

The last C-17 military cargo aircraft left Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday afternoon Eastern Time, according to U.S. Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, last two weeks.

McKenzie, who oversees US military operations in the region, said the Taliban had no direct knowledge of the timing of the US military’s departure, adding that local commanders “have chosen to keep this information very limited” .

“But they were very helpful and useful to us when we shut down,” McKenzie said of the Taliban.

McKenzie said there were no Americans on the last five flights from Kabul.

“We couldn’t get any Americans out, this operation probably ended about 12 hours before we moved out. We’ll continue the operations and would have been ready to get them until the last minute, but none of them made it to the airport,” said McKenzie .

The four-star general added that there were no more evacuees at the airfield when the last C-17 took off and confirmed that all US soldiers and troops of the Afghan armed forces and their families were also flown out of the air on Monday.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said later Monday that fewer than 200 Americans are still seeking evacuation.

“Our commitment to you and all Americans in Afghanistan and around the world continues. The protection and well-being of Americans abroad remains the most important and long-lasting mission of the State Department,” said the country’s top diplomat in an evening address.

Early Monday, US and Allied forces evacuated 1,200 people from the Afghan capital on 26 military cargo plane flights in 24 hours, according to the latest White House figures.

About 122,800 people have been evacuated since the end of July, including about 6,000 U.S. citizens and their families.

“A new chapter of American engagement in Afghanistan has begun. It is one in which we will lead with our diplomacy. The military mission has ended. A new diplomatic mission has begun,” said Blinken.

Blinken added that the US has suspended its diplomatic presence in Kabul and will move those operations to Doha, Qatar.

“We will remain vigilant in monitoring threats ourselves and maintain robust counter-terrorism capabilities in the region to neutralize those threats if necessary – as we have done in recent days through striking ISIS brokers and even threats in Afghanistan and locations around the world.” Environment have demonstrated the world in which we have no armed forces on the ground, “said Blinken.

The Taliban are returning to power

Taliban fighters patrol the Wazir Akbar Khan district in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday, August 18, 2021.

Rahmat Gül | AP

The US began its war in Afghanistan in October 2001, weeks after the 9/11 attacks. Back then, the Taliban offered refuge to al-Qaeda, the group that launched the devastating terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Since then, around 2,500 US soldiers have died in the conflict, which also killed more than 100,000 Afghan soldiers, police officers and civilians.

Now the Taliban are back in power.

In the final weeks of a planned exodus of foreign troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban achieved a number of shocking successes on the battlefield.

The Taliban occupied Bagram Air Base, a sprawling and once staunch US military facility, less than two months after US commanders handed it over to the Afghan National Security and Defense Force.

In 2012, at its peak, Bagram looked through more than 100,000 U.S. soldiers. It was the largest US military facility in Afghanistan.

As the Taliban approached the capital, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and western nations rushed to evacuate embassies amid deteriorating security conditions.

Biden ordered thousands of US soldiers to be sent to Kabul to help evacuate US embassy staff and secure the airport.

Meanwhile, thousands of Afghans swarmed over the airport tarmac to flee Taliban rule.

Although the Afghan military, long supported by US and NATO coalition forces, is vastly outnumbered, the Taliban captured the presidential palace in Kabul on August 15.

In April, Biden ordered the full withdrawal of about 3,000 US troops from Afghanistan by September 11th. He later announced an updated schedule that said the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan would end by August 31.

After the Taliban takeover, Biden defended his decision that the US would leave the war-torn country.

“I am fully behind my decision. After 20 years I have learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw the US armed forces,” said Biden a day after the Taliban collapsed Afghanistan.

“American troops cannot and should not fight in a war and die in a war that the Afghan armed forces are unwilling to wage for themselves,” Biden said. “We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We couldn’t give them the will to fight for that future,” he added.

Last US casualties in the war in Afghanistan

In this U.S. Air Force image, flag-draped transfer cases line the interior of a transport aircraft prior to a graceful transfer at Dover Air Force Base, Del. The fallen soldiers were killed while assisting evacuations in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Jason Minto | US Air Force

The Pentagon on Saturday released the names of the 13 US soldiers killed after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive near the gates of Kabul airport.

The August 26 attack that killed 11 Marines, one Marine and one Army soldier is currently under investigation.

On Sunday, the President and First Lady Jill Biden traveled to Dover Air Force Base to meet privately with the families of the fallen before watching the graceful handover of American flag-draped coffins from a C-17 military cargo plane to a vehicle .

A dignified transfer is a solemn process in which the remains of fallen soldiers are transported from an airplane to a waiting vehicle. It is carried out for every U.S. soldier killed in action.

The remains of the soldiers were flown from Kabul to Kuwait and then to Germany before arriving in Dover.

On Sunday, Biden took part in a dignified transfer for the first time since taking office.

United States President Joe Biden will attend the dignified transfer of the remains of a fallen soldier at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware on August 29, 2021

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley also attended the dignified transfer, along with U.S. Marine Corps Commander Gen. David Berger, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday and US Air Force Col. Chip Hollinger, who oversaw the military logistics of the transfer.

The fallen include:

Marine Corps Staff Sgt.Din T. Hoover, 31, from Salt Lake City, Utah

Marine Corps Sgt.Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, from Lawrence, Massachusetts

Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, from Sacramento, California

Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, from Indio, California

Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska

Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, from Rio Bravo, Texas

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, from St. Charles, Missouri

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, from Rancho Cucamonga, California

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California

Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, from Berlin Heights, Ohio

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee.

Categories
World News

Information exhibits China manufacturing unit exercise progress slowed in August

SINGAPORE – Asia Pacific stocks fell mainly in trading on Tuesday as August data showed slower growth in Chinese factory activity.

In mainland China, the Shanghai composite lost 0.75% while the Shenzhen stake lost 1.674%.

China’s factory activity grew more slowly in August compared to the previous month, data released on Tuesday showed. The official purchasing managers’ index for manufacturing was 50.1 in August compared to 50.4 in July.

PMI values ​​above 50 indicate expansion, while those below this value indicate contraction. The PMI readings are sequential and represent a monthly expansion or contraction.

Hong Kong-listed Tencent and Netease stocks fell amid regulatory concerns. They fell 3.18% and 3.46%, respectively, in the city by Tuesday afternoon. It came after new rules released Monday by China’s National Press and Publication Administration showed plans to limit the time people under the age of 18 spend playing video games to just three hours a week.

Hong Kong’s broader Hang Seng index fell 1.43%.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was up 0.57% while the Topix index was up 0.32%. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.61%.

Elsewhere in Australia, the S&P / ASX 200 climbed 0.38%.

MSCI’s broadest index for Asia Pacific stocks outside of Japan fell 0.46%.

CNBC Pro Stock Pick and Investment Trends:

Overnight in the States, the S&P 500 rose 0.43% to 4,528.79 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.9% to 15,265.89. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, dropping 55.96 points to 35,399.84 points.

Currencies and oil

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of its competitors, hit 92.573 after falling above 93.0 last week.

The Japanese yen was trading at 109.86 per dollar, weaker than yesterday against the greenback below 109.8. The Australian dollar was trading at $ 0.7304 and largely held gains after rising below $ 0.72 last week.

Oil prices were lower during Asian trading hours, with international benchmark Brent crude futures falling 0.4% to $ 73.12 a barrel. US crude oil futures declined 0.51% to $ 68.86 a barrel.

– CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal and Lauren Feiner contributed to this report.

Categories
Entertainment

Watch a Scary Story Come to Life in ‘Candyman’

In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

“Want to hear a scary story?”

That enticing question (or horrifying one, depending on your point of view) begins this scene from the new “Candyman” (now in theaters), which is both a continuation and a reimagining of Bernard Rose’s 1992 horror film.

The update is directed by Nia DaCosta and co-written by Jordan Peele (with DaCosta and Win Rosenfield). It still involves the menacing figure who comes after you if you say his name five times in front of a mirror, but this scene reaches back to the story of the original film.

Brianna (Teyonah Parris) and her brother, Troy (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), are both hanging out one evening with their boyfriends when Troy turns down the lights and turns up the dread to tell a story. It concerns Helen Lyle, one of the main characters (played by Virginia Madsen) from the earlier film, and how one day she just “snaps.” Killings and snow angels in blood ensue.

Troy’s story retraces the steps of the earlier film’s narrative, with some embellishments. Rather than flashing back to footage from the 1992 movie, moments are depicted with shadow puppetry. Narrating the sequence, DaCosta said that she wanted each shadow puppet segment to “be specific to the teller” because she saw it as “someone’s way of thinking about the story. It’s not necessarily the truth.” In this scene, hands move the puppets to convey a sense of how the storyteller, Troy, is also manipulating his tale.

Read the 2021 “Candyman” review.

Read the review of the 1992 film.

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