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How the Taliban uses social media to seek legitimacy in the West, sow chaos at home

August 19, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — It seems like history may be repeating itself — the Taliban is once again in control of Afghanistan after 20 years of the War on Terror there.

The development is alarming and dismaying, despite (widely dismissed) assurances from the group — decried by the U.S. State Department as having “had one of the worst human rights records in the world” and giving safe harbor to al Qaeda — that they have changed.

One thing that is different since the last time the group was in power is its widespread adoption of social media and the power that having a largely unregulated propaganda platform brings.

The Taliban now has the ability to communicate directly with the rest of the world, as well as to control the narrative around events as it has been trying to do for years at home and abroad through a barrage of messages on social media. Experts say it effectively did an end around the Afghan government through its unrelenting publicity campaign, capitalizing on disinformation and a lack of media literacy.

While photos and videos emerging from Kabul from journalists and residents depict crisis and desperate attempts to flee, Taliban-controlled handles assure that the city is “completely stable and normal.”

Experts say the Taliban’s recent online broadcasting of messages that seem at odds with the ruthlessness and oppressive policies they were known for is part of a sophisticated social media strategy that is aimed at deceiving the West and vying for legitimacy on the international stage after the unexpectedly swift collapse of the Afghan government in recent days.

“The Taliban has had a social media strategy for many years now … they use multiple social media platforms to get their messages out,” Tom Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C., told ABC News. “They’re responding faster — more quickly than even the Afghan government did to events.”

“Another key point is that they are very attuned to Western ears and know how to play to journalists, know how to say things that sound appealing to Western ears, and that are quite deceptive,” he added.

A flood of messages

According to the World Bank’s most-recent data from 2017, only 11.4% of the population of Afghanistan were using the internet — a sharp increase from the 0% figure when the Taliban was last in power, but still lagging behind much of the rest of the world’s 49% benchmark. It also suggests that the Taliban’s target audience is actually outside of the nation.

Their local audience, meanwhile, is victim to Afghanistan’s dilapidated media infrastructure, which makes it difficult for fact-checkers on the ground to effectively counter false statements put out by the party in power. Moreover, as with many parts of the world, researchers have said poor internet literacy in the region compounds the risk of propaganda being taken for fact.

Joscelyn said the group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid — who held a widely-viewed press conference Tuesday — has been active on Twitter for years. The Taliban also issues messages online in multiple languages on a regular basis, Joscelyn said, including English, Arabic, Pashto and Urdu.

“In fact, I think they probably publish messages in more languages on daily basis than maybe even the [U.S.] State Department,” he said.

While crackdowns on extremism online have pushed many bad actors associated with terrorist groups to the fringes of the internet, the Taliban operates largely unhindered on Twitter. The U.S. State Department has not designated the Afghan Taliban as a terrorist group (a label that would more explicitly break policies), and private firms largely take their cues from the government on these matters, putting social media firms in often difficult-to-navigate situations. The high-profile decision of multiple platforms to ban former President Donald Trump, for example, drew ire from even vocal critics of Trump as the nation mulled over social media’s double-edged sword that some say democratizes free speech and others say weaponizes it.

In contrast to Twitter, Facebook says the Taliban has been banned on its platform for years under its “dangerous organizations” policies, citing how the U.S. sanctions the group as a terrorist organization despite not including them on the State Department’s separate list. Facebook said accounts maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban are removed, and a team of multilingual local experts are working to identify emerging issues on the platform.

“Facebook does not make decisions about the recognized government in any particular country but instead respects the authority of the international community in making these determinations,” the company told ABC News in a statement. “Regardless of who holds power, we will take the appropriate action against accounts and content that breaks our rules.”

Inexpensive and effective

Meanwhile, there are half a dozen Taliban officials active on Twitter, with a combined 1 million followers, according to data from Adrienne Goldstein, a research assistant at the German Marshall Digital Fund think tank. Their recent tweets largely seem to be trying to cast the Taliban as peaceful, stable, and overall more palatable to the West — messages that the group’s leaders have repeated in press conferences.

While many may assume their Tweets are rife with disinformation and propaganda, a September 2020 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Media Asia supported this by examining the Taliban’s use of Twitter and their attempts in framing what was unfolding in Afghanistan compared to information being put out by media outlets and advocacy groups.

The study, conducted in 2018, long before the current crisis, found that in the Taliban posted more messages on Twitter than the Ministry of Defense, and in more languages. Moreover, the analysis found vast discrepancies in what the Taliban said happened on Twitter and what media and civilian protection groups stated.

“Belligerents are actively using online platforms where they do not hesitate to frame and disseminate disinformation that suit their desired intention,” the study stated. “Observing discrepancy in terms of the number of casualties between the parties and mainstream media shows propagandistic traits.”

The study suggested that the Taliban has capitalized on social media in part because its use does not require advanced infrastructure or media expertise. Having comparatively limited resources, the Taliban makes up for it by posting and sharing online more often than the Afghan government did. The study warned of the potential dangers of their “disinformation” in a region where many are not equipped with media and information literacy.

Interestingly, the research also noted that during the Taliban’s previous governance from 1996 to 2001, internet use of any kind was strictly prohibited.

Calls for a crackdown

Joscelyn said the issue of vulnerability to disinformation extends outside of Afghanistan — and that’s something the Taliban capitalized on. “They know a lot of people are gullible, and that a lot of people will just repeat what they say without thinking.” He thus believes Twitter “should have been cracking down on the Taliban a long time ago.”

“I think they allowed the Taliban to develop a sophisticated social media ecosystem,” Joscelyn said. “I mean in a lot of ways, they were ISIS before ISIS in terms of the behavior and what they do, from suicide bombings to the oppression of women to the harsh Sharia law they’re going to implement.”

“All the nasty things that are associated with ISIS, the Taliban did before them and yet — if ISIS popped up on social media sites or Twitter feeds or Telegram channels, or any of these different platforms, generally they’re more receptive to shutting them down,” he added. “But with the Taliban, they’re allowed to exist for years on end with the same handles, same channels.”

Twitter told ABC News in a statement that they “remain vigilant” about the situation in Afghanistan in response to an inquiry about why these accounts are allowed to operate.

“The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly evolving, and we’re witnessing people in the country using Twitter to seek help and assistance,” the company said. “Twitter’s top priority is keeping people safe, and we remain vigilant. We will continue to proactively enforce our rules and review content that may violate Twitter Rules, specifically policies against glorification of violence and platform manipulation and spam.”

As the Taliban rapidly seized power, Joscelyn said the group’s social media strategy has helped contribute to the Afghan’s suffering by sowing disinformation that is repeated without question by global media outlets.

“They want to speak the West’s language to lull the West to sleep, and they’ve been very successful with that,” he said. “There are a lot of people who’ve been gullible and who have parroted Taliban talking points without any thought.”

Exhausted, stressed, drained: It’s ‘déjà vu’ for moms as school year begins amid COVID surge

August 19, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — When Tina Sherman, a mom of four sons in Wake County, North Carolina, thinks of sending her children back to school later this month, she can sum up the emotion of it all in two sentences.

“They are excited,” Sherman said of her sons, who span from first grade to high school. “I am exhausted.”

For nearly two years, Sherman has been at home working a full-time job while overseeing virtual learning for her son in high school, leading home schooling for her twin sons in middle school and adjusting back and forth between in-person and virtual learning for her youngest son, who is now entering first grade.

All four of her sons will be attending in-person school this year, but Sherman said she feels a dreaded sense of “deja vu” with COVID-19 cases on the rise in the United States.

Amid a COVID-19 surge brought on by the more contagious delta variant and low vaccination rates, the number of pediatric cases of COVID-19 in the United States is rising, just as the school year begins.

In one Florida school district where there are no mask requirements, over 8,000 students have been isolated or quarantined just days into the new school year.

“I felt like I was barely hanging on by a thread at the end of school last year and now I’m thinking I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Sherman, who added she feels lucky to be able to work from home with her job at MomsRising, an advocacy organization. “I’m thinking of all the plans for ‘what if.’ There’s everything from a seven-day quarantine to [my kids] could be out of school for 24 days.”

“I don’t feel like the alarms are going off in the way that they should be,” she said.

While Sherman feels the nation’s leaders are not thinking as much as they should be about moms trying to balance their careers and their kids, it is all she and fellow moms talk about.

“At work, the conversation, no matter the meeting topic, goes to, ‘Are your kids back in school? How’s that going?'” she said. “I don’t know a mom who’s not experiencing it right now.”

MacKenzie Nicholson, a mom of a son entering third grade and daughter entering pre-K, lost her job with a nonprofit organization early in the pandemic. She spent the past year looking for a job while helping her son with virtual learning and caring for her daughter, whom she and her husband pulled from child care due to COVID-19 concerns and financial reasons.

“It was the most stressful time of my entire life,” said Nicholson. “I recall taking interviews locked in my office while my two kids sat downstairs fighting with each other. My last job interview ended with my 4-year-old on my lap because she fell and was upset.”

Nicholson landed a new job in July but now describes feeling whiplash as the delta variant takes hold and the school year remains in flux.

“I remember that call from my son’s school that they were sending kids home for a week and I remember saying to my husband after two days, ‘I can’t do this,’ and now it’s extended into a multiyear thing,” she said. “Now we’re thinking about the year going forward and I’m like, I don’t know if I can do it again.”

Describing the conversations she has with other moms, Nicholson added, “We’re still all on edge and everything we’re talking about to each other is, ‘Are you OK?'”

Nicholson is one of around 3.5 million moms of school-age children who left active work during the pandemic, shifting into paid or unpaid leave, losing their job or exiting the labor market all together, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

As of January 2021, around 10 million U.S. mothers with school-age children were not actively working — 1.4 million more than during the same period in 2020.

Among them, more than 700,000 moms have given up on work outside the home entirely and some may not return, according to Census Bureau data.

Karen Shrimpton, a mom of 12- and 8-year-old sons in San Francisco, quit her job last year after it became too much to balance her role at a small family business that had to suddenly go remote and change its business model and oversee virtual learning for her sons.

It was a hard decision for Shrimpton, who had just been able to rejoin the workforce after moving multiple times to support her husband’s career and then becoming a mom.

“I had been pretty unhappy as a stay-at-home mom and so then having had the opportunity to do something for myself, I knew what a backslide this was going to be,” Shrimpton said of exiting the workforce. “I don’t think I was naïve or ignorant about the decision. I made it with my back against the wall.”

With the prospect of both her sons back at in-person schooling this fall, Shrimpton said she has spent the past several months searching for a job, but now is slowing her search, realizing that her sons could be back home at any point.

“It’s just shock,” she said. “It’s like I can’t believe we haven’t managed to get to a better place than where we are.”

Working moms worked two full-time jobs

Economists say the two main reasons so many women have been forced out of the workforce over the past nearly two years are pandemic-related job loss in women-heavy industries and, not surprisingly, the burden of child care.

Child care was a second full-time job for moms of young kids during the pandemic, data shows.

Moms with children ages 12 and under spent, on average, eight hours a day on child care, while at the same time working an average of six hours per day in their jobs, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Moms have spent about three hours more per day than fathers on child care during the pandemic, and reduced their time spent working by 4 to 4.5 times more than fathers did because of child care, according to the analysis.

“What we know is that we were not doing a great job of supporting women and mothers with kids before the pandemic,” said Lauren Bauer, a fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution and the mother of a 9-year-old son. “The loss of child care didn’t actually affect most of the people with the youngest kids because it was already keeping people out of the labor market because it was unaffordable.”

“But the loss of elementary schools [that switched to virtual learning] was really consequential,” she added. “In places with higher levels of elementary school closures, moms were exiting the labor market. They couldn’t hold on, and they just left.”

Among working moms, single mothers, who typically have the highest level of employment, have suffered the most during the pandemic, according to Bauer.

“Single mothers were the breadwinners prior to the pandemic and they currently have the lowest rates of employment and they see the least recovery,” she said. “They’re struggling financially and have high rates of food insecurity. They’re having a hard time feeding their kids.”

Tina Carroll, a single mom in Denver, sent her 7-year-old son to Georgia the past two summers to stay with relatives because she lacked child care resources at home.

During the school year, she relied on a village of college students and a neighbor to help her son with remote learning as she worked in person at a local university.

Her son is now attending second grade in person, but Carroll said she is already bracing for him to be sent home at some point due to COVID exposure at school.

“I’m probably even more worried now because I don’t have an infrastructure set up for the instances when he has to come home,” she said. “I feel like I’m in the ring with COVID and I throw punches every day and I’m drained. I’m literally drained.”

Moms say they are not only feeling exhausted but also frustrated that they are facing the prospect of a third school year upended by COVID-19 with marginally more support in place than when the pandemic began.

When the U.S. Senate passed a $1.1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill earlier this month, absent were programs that would benefit working families, things like paid family leave and child care benefits.

Child care benefits, specifically subsidies, are included in a $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” package, which could pass Congress with only Democratic support. But the process is complicated, and could take weeks or even months to complete.

And while moms say the additional Child Tax Credit benefits delivered in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan have helped, they are not a permanent solution to families’ financial and child care needs.

“There’s been no investment in real short-term relief, because this [Child Tax Credit] money is not enough for mothers and families, and there’s also been no investment in long-term relief,” said Katherine Goldstein, a mother of three, journalist and host and creator of “The Double Shift,” a podcast that focuses on moms and work. “Building up our child care infrastructure, making family life much more affordable, more substantively better workplace policies, none of that has happened yet.”

“It’s kind of like we haven’t even accounted for the damage that has been done, and we’re being ask to go in for another round,” she said of moms. “Before COVID it was exhausting and overwhelming to be a parent in America, and now it’s just untenable.”

Bracing for a ‘second wave’ of women leaving the workforce

Last summer, as the economy began to reopen, women’s employment levels rose, but then as kids went back to school in September, the numbers dropped sharply again.

In September 2020, 865,000 women dropped out of the workforce, compared to 216,000 men, according to BLS data.

While moms are currently working at nearly the same rate as women without kids, economists say they fear another exodus of women from the workforce as the school year begins.

“Here we are on the cusp of another school year and we have the delta variant rising; we have kids under 12 who cannot even be vaccinated; and at the same time we have companies saying, ‘Everybody back in the office,’ and also schools saying, ‘Everybody back to school,'” said Alicia Sasser Modestino, an economist and associate professor at Northeastern University, who predicted in an op-ed last year that the pandemic would “set women back a generation.”

“I would call this the ‘second wave’ [of women leaving the workforce] where women who previously were able to hold onto their jobs working from home and maybe sleeping less or cutting corners and supervising kids while working from home, they no longer have that option at the same time that we’re probably going to see a lot of school disruption,” she said. “It’s going to be very difficult for moms to maintain any kind of continuity in the workplace.”

Sara Perschino, of New Hampshire, worked full-time from home while taking care of her daughters until November, when she lost her job. She has taken on only freelance work since then with her daughters’ school schedules still in flux.

Though her daughters, ages 4 and 7, will start in-person school later this month, Perschino said she, like so many other moms, is uncertain about the future as the full-time caregiving falls on her.

“I’ve had a lot of conversations with my friends and other people in the community about how this [pandemic] has highlighted that women are still doing the bulk of caregiving responsibilities,” she said. “We’re having these conversations more globally now, so I think it’s reassuring for families to see they weren’t the only ones struggling with this, and to see that it’s not just them, that there are systemic barriers to be able to have thriving careers and successful families.”

“I’m exhausted,” she added. “I think every working mom is exhausted right now.”

The “great resignation,” as Sasser Modestino calls the exit of women from the workforce during the pandemic, came just after women hit a historic milestone in the U.S.

In January 2020, women held over half of all jobs in America for just the second time in history.

Helping women reach that level again in the workforce will take months of record job gains and, according to Sasser Modestino, will require help from employers, the government and women’s loved ones at home.

“We know that the longer you take out of the labor market, your skills depreciate and the harder it is to get back in down the road,” she said. “If you think that talent is distributed equally across men and women, then we should really be concerned that we’re seeing women leave the labor force in droves because we’re losing that talent now.”

Kate Dando Doran, a mom of two in Colorado, said that in addition to exhaustion and stress, one of the most frustrating things of working full time while also caregiving has been watching her career be unwittingly disrupted.

“I’ve worked very hard to get where I am and want very much to do a good job,” said Dando Doran, who has spent the 17 months working at her dining room table alongside her 3- and 5-year-old kids. “I work early in the mornings and late at night to make up time. You don’t want it to ever be, ‘Oh, she’s busy, she’s focusing on her kids.'”

At the same time, Dando Doran said she constantly worries about the impact the pandemic is having on her children, describing one particular moment in the past year that she said nearly crushed her.

“At one point I was pushing my daughter on the swing while answering email and she said, ‘Mommy, can you please put your phone away and be with me?'” Dando Doran recalled. “This has been exhausting and hard for everyone.”

Afghanistan updates: Taliban fighters harass Afghans seeking to enter Kabul airport

August 19, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Chaos has enveloped Kabul after Afghanistan’s government’s collapsed and the Taliban seized control, all but ending America’s 20-year campaign as it began: under Taliban rule.

As the crisis intensifies, with images from Kabul showing Afghans storming the airport tarmac and climbing onto military planes after the U.S. assumed control of the airport, President Joe Biden briefly left Camp David to address the nation from the White House on Monday.

Biden returned to Washington on Wednesday and sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for an exclusive one-on-one interview at the White House, the president’s first interview since the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Pentagon said that 6,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to the country’s capital as the military races to evacuate people from an increasingly chaotic Kabul. Despite criticism, the Biden administration is sticking by its decision to withdraw troops from the country, though he told Stephanopoulos the stay might extend beyond the original Aug. 31 date if it takes longer to get all Americans out of the country.

Here are some key developments. All times Eastern:

Aug 18, 9:22 pm
US troops will stay until all Americans are out of Afghanistan, even if past Aug. 31 deadline: Biden

In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, President Joe Biden said the U.S. is committed to getting every American out of Afghanistan — even if it means potentially extending the mission beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for a total withdrawal.

“We’ve got like 10 to 15,000 Americans in the country right now. Right? And are you committed to making sure that the troops stay until every American who wants to be out is out?” Stephanopoulos asked Biden.

“Yes,” Biden replied.

The president cautioned that his focus is on completing the mission by Aug. 31, but when pressed by Stephanopoulos, conceded the mission could take longer.

Aug 18, 7:16 pm
Congressional leaders calling for briefings

Top Republican Leaders Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell are calling on the Biden administration for a “Gang of Eight” classified briefing on Afghanistan.

The so-called “Gang of Eight” includes the top House and Senate leaders, including the heads of the intel committees in both the House and Senate.

Separately, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also requested three briefings on Afghanistan in the coming days, according to a source. They include a briefing by phone Friday for all members, a classified, in-person briefing Tuesday and a similar “Gang of Eight” briefing.

-ABC News’ Mariam Khan

Aug 18, 2:14 pm
State Department alerts Americans it ‘cannot ensure safe passage’ to airport

The State Department has directed American citizens to the airport in Kabul for departing evacuation flights — but with a stark warning.

“The United States government cannot ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai International Airport,” the agency said in an alert to American citizens still in Afghanistan.

“The security situation in Kabul continues to change quickly, including at the airport,” the agency added.

As many as 11,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans are still desperately trying to leave the country, ABC News Senior Foreign Correspondent Ian Pannell has reported.

-ABC News’ Cindy Smith

Aug 18, 1:44 pm
Biden, Harris briefed by top Pentagon officials

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby confirmed to reporters that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris received a briefing on Afghanistan at the White House on Wednesday.

The White House said the group, which also included Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie and CIA Director William Burns, discussed “efforts to accelerate evacuations” and “to facilitate safe passage to HKIA [Hamid Karzai International Airport].”

The readout from the White House also said the group discussed “monitoring for any potential terrorist threats in Afghanistan.”

-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky

Aug 18, 1:30 pm
Senior intel official: Afghan government ‘unraveled even more quickly than we anticipated’

A senior U.S. intelligence official acknowledged to ABC News that the “rapid collapse” of the Afghanistan government “unraveled even more quickly” than U.S. intelligence officials had anticipated.

“We consistently identified the risk of a rapid collapse of the Afghan government. We also grew more pessimistic about the government’s survival as the fighting season progressed. This was less an issue of Afghan military capabilities and more a reflection of Afghan leadership, cohesion and willpower,” the official told ABC News. “That said, the Afghan government unraveled even more quickly than we anticipated.”

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani and his family fled Kabul on Sunday as the Taliban moved closer to the presidential palace and then claimed the formation of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”

-ABC News’ Cindy Smith

Aug 18, 1:09 pm
Pentagon responds to distressing scenes outside airport in Kabul

Ahead of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley holding a briefing at 3 p.m., Pentagon press secretary John Kirby spoke to reporters on Wednesday about the distressing scenes outside the airport in Kabul.

He said U.S. military officials were aware of reports that Taliban fighters are not letting Afghans through to the airport and that’s one reason the top American commander in Kabul, Adm. Peter Vasely, has reached out to his Taliban counterpart.

Asked what more can be done to ensure safe passage of Afghans to the airport, Kirby said only that the Pentagon is working “very hard” on the issue.

“I don’t have a specific next step for you,” he said. “We are in communication with the Taliban. We want to see this process go more smoothly.”

Kirby also confirmed incidents overnight in which some American troops providing security at the perimeter of the airport fired their weapons in the air as part of “crowd control measures.”

He said the U.S. goal to evacuate 5,000 to 9,000 individuals a day can be accomplished “when we’re at full throttle.”

Aug 18, 11:51 am
One Afghan family’s harrowing account of getting to Kabul’s airport

“Khan,” a computer scientist who worked with a U.S. contractor on the mission in Afghanistan and whose name is being withheld to protect his identity, boarded a U.S. military aircraft on Wednesday with his 3-year-old son and wife, who is 35 weeks pregnant, according to his lawyer.

It was their third attempt to reach the Kabul airport after they picked up their Special Immigrant Visas on Saturday, hours before the U.S. embassy shuttered.

The chaos on Sunday kept them away, and on Tuesday, there were too many Taliban fighters to get close to the gates. Khan spent several hours on Wednesday trying to reach multiple gates.

The north gate was mobbed, with U.S. troops firing warning shots into the air or deploying tear gas to disperse the crowds, according to his lawyer, who was on FaceTime with him.

There were hours when it seemed like Khan and his family wouldn’t be able to get through, forcing him to consider trying alone and leaving them behind, his lawyer told ABC News’ Conor Finnegan, but “ultimately, it was his persistence that got them in.”

Once inside the airport, the process was efficient, his lawyer said. Two of her clients and their families were on flights within 30 minutes of being processed and entering the airport.

But the chaos outside is horrific, and Afghans are receiving conflicting correspondence from the U.S. embassy — some being told to shelter in place, others given specific instructions on which gates to proceed to — but that situation changing rapidly too, his lawyer said.

Aug 18, 11:01 am
Taliban seen forcefully patrolling area near Kabul airport

Thousands were still outside the airport in Kabul as the U.S. continues its evacuation efforts Wednesday and the Taliban patrolled the surrounding streets, only allowing foreigners through and occasionally firing warning shots, ABC News Senior Foreign Correspondent Ian Pannell reported.

The Taliban on Tuesday promised an “amnesty” for those who worked with the U.S. government and said it would allow for their safe passage to the airport, but on the ground on Wednesday, members of the Taliban were seen whipping Afghan civilians.

As many as 11,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans still are desperately trying to leave the country. The U.S. said late Tuesday it had evacuated 3,200 people from Afghanistan including all U.S. Embassy personnel except for a core group of diplomats. Officials have said they plan to launch one flight per hour to hopefully evacuate up to 9,000 people each day.

Still, the situation remains tense across Afghanistan, with the international community paying close attention to the Taliban’s every move.

Outside of Kabul, about 90 miles away in the eastern city of Jalalabad, anti-Taliban protesters were met with violence from fighters after replacing the Taliban flag in the city’s main square with the Afghan national flag, The Associated Press reported.

Aug 18, 9:58 am
Former Afghan president in United Arab Emirates on ‘humanitarian grounds’

The United Arab Emirates Foreign Ministry has confirmed in a statement that former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani is in the United Arab Emirates, days after fleeing his home country.

Ghani and his family left Kabul on Sunday as the Taliban surged closer to the presidential palace. The Taliban ultimately overtook the building and has claimed the formation of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”

Aug 18, 8:39 am
Few answers from Biden administration on Afghanistan despite pressure

Days removed from the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and after a lengthy news conference with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, there is still little clarity on how conditions degraded so quickly in Afghanistan.

When ABC News Correspondent Stephanie Ramos asked Sullivan about reports that Biden administration officials were informed the Taliban could overwhelm the country, the national security adviser denied seeing it.

“I’m not actually familiar with the intelligence assessments you’re describing,” said Sullivan.

The administration plans to conduct an evaluation of the calamity once evacuations are completed.

“We’ll look at everything that happened, in this entire operation, from start to finish, and the areas of improvement where we can do better,” Sullivan told reporters Tuesday. “Where we can find holes or weaknesses and plug them as we go forward” that analysis will be shared.

Lawmakers are also putting pressure on the Biden administration for answers. Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee penned a letter to Biden demanding withdrawal plan details, plainly accusing the president of not having a concrete plan.

“For months, we have been asking you for a plan on your withdrawal from Afghanistan. You failed to provide us with one and based on the horrific events currently unfolding in Afghanistan, we are confident that we never received your plan because you never had one,” the letter reads. “The security and humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Afghanistan could have been avoided if you had done any planning.”

Aug 18, 7:52 am
Trauma injuries on the rise in Afghanistan, WHO warns

Months of violence in Afghanistan “have taken a heavy toll” on the country’s people and fragile health system, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday.

“As a result of the recent conflict, trauma injuries have increased, requiring scaled up emergency medical and surgical services,” Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, the WHO’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said in a statement.

In July, some 13,897 conflict-related trauma cases were received at 70 WHO-supported health facilities in Afghanistan, compared with 4,057 cases during the same time last year, according to the WHO.

In Kabul and other areas where people have fled to seek safety and shelter, field reports indicate rising cases of diarrhea, malnutrition, high blood pressure, COVID-19-like symptoms and reproductive health complications. The country’s hospitals were already facing shortages in essential supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic, Al-Mandhari said.

Attacks on health care infrastructure and staff also remain a major challenge. From January to July, 26 health facilities and 31 health care workers were affected, while 12 workers were killed, according to the WHO.

“Delays and disruptions to health care will increase the risk of disease outbreaks and prevent some of the most vulnerable groups from seeking life-saving health care,” Al-Mandhari said. “There is an immediate need to ensure continuity of health services across the country, with a focus on ensuring women have access to female health workers.”

“The people of Afghanistan need support and solidarity today more than ever,” he added. “The gains of the past 20 years cannot be turned back.”

Aug 18, 7:40 am
ABC to interview Biden Wednesday

Biden will sit down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos one-on-one on Wednesday at the White House for the president’s first interview since the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The interview will air on ABC’s World News Tonight on Wednesday and Good Morning America on Thursday.

Aug 18, 6:23 am
Taliban delegation meets with former Afghan president in Doha

A high-level Taliban delegation has met with Afghanistan’s former president, Hamid Karzai, and the head of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, in Qatar’s capital and assured them of security, a Taliban source told ABC News on Wednesday.

The Taliban has said there is a general amnesty for all in Afghanistan, including former government officials, and that no one should flee the country.

Aug 18, 5:51 am
UK to take in 20,000 Afghan refugees over 5 years

The United Kingdom announced Tuesday a plan to welcome 20,000 Afghan refugees over five years.

The resettlement program will prioritize women, children and religious minorities.

“We have an enduring commitment to the Afghan people, and we will honour it,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter. “A new resettlement scheme will create a safe and legal route for those in most need to come and live safely in the UK.”

While addressing members of parliament on Wednesday morning, Johnson said his government has so far secured the safe return of 306 U.K. nationals and 2,052 Afghan citizens as part of the resettlement program, with a further 2,000 applications for Afghan nationals completed “and many more being processed.” An additional 800 British troops will be deployed to Afghanistan’s main international airport in Kabul to “support this evacuation operation,” according to Johnson.

“We are proud to bring these brave Afghans to our shores — and we continue to appeal for more to come forwards,” he said.

Aug 17, 11:55 pm
US Embassy destroyed some Afghans’ passports during evacuation

Last week when the U.S. Embassy in Kabul ordered staff to destroy sensitive material, including documents, passports were destroyed as well.

During the evacuation, embassy personnel destroyed the passports of Afghans that had been submitted for visa processing, according to a Democratic lawmaker’s office.

Rep. Andy Kim, D-NJ, has been compiling requests for assistance for Afghans on the ground, with his office funneling pleas for help through an email address. In the email’s response note, obtained by ABC News, it says, “Passports that were in the Embassy’s possession have been destroyed. Currently, it is not possible to provide further visa services in Afghanistan.”

A State Department spokesperson acknowledged that was true, but called it “standard operating procedure” during an evacuation and said it “will not prevent people who are otherwise eligible for evacuation from traveling.

Aug 17, 9:38 pm
House Armed Services Committee Republicans request Biden’s plan for Afghanistan

Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to Biden requesting information about his “plan” for Afghanistan.

“The security and humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Afghanistan could have been avoided if you had done any planning. Pretending this isn’t your problem will only make things worse. We remain gravely concerned the void left in Afghanistan will be rapidly filled by terror groups. The Taliban now control the country. Al Qaeda used Afghanistan to plot and execute the 9/11 attacks and other acts of terrorism,” the letter continues. “You cannot let this happen again.”

Notably, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. — a member of the committee — has also signed the letter.

Cheney appeared on ABC’s This Week Sunday and said that Biden “absolutely” bears responsibility for the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan, as does former President Donald Trump and his administration.

“What we’re watching right now in Afghanistan is what happens when America withdraws from the world,” Cheney told ABC This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “So everybody who has been saying, ‘America needs to withdraw, America needs to retreat,’ we are getting a devastating, catastrophic real-time lesson in what that means.”

Two women dead after shooting at Indiana factory: Sheriff’s office

August 19, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(FRANKFORT, Ind.) — The two people shot dead Wednesday at an NHK factory in Frankfort, Indiana, were employees of the company — a grandmother and granddaughter who were arriving for their shift, according to the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office.

The alleged suspect, 26-year-old Gary C. Ferrell, was an employee at the factory is in custody, authorities said.

Ferrell is believed to have finished his shift before shooting 21-year-old Promise Mays and 62-year-old Pamela Sled, Clinton County Sheriff Rich Kelly said at a press briefing Wednesday evening.

The sheriff’s office said 911 calls came in at 4:15 p.m. local time. Shortly after, it warned residents to avoid the area due to the “active scene.”

When deputies showed up, Ferrell jumped in a car and drove away from the scene, but was tracked down by police about a minute later, authorities said. Ferrell crashed his car after a high-speed pursuit and was taken into custody. He was not injured in the minor accident, Clinton County Sheriff Richard Kelly said.

An investigation is ongoing and the sheriff had no information on a motive. Kelly said they could not provide other information about the relationship between Ferrell and the victims.

The shooting took place in the parking lot of NHK Seating of America in Frankfurt, Indiana. The plant manufactures seats and seating parts for a Subaru plant in nearby Lafayette.

“Please avoid the area of our new NHK,” the sheriff’s office wrote shortly after the incident began. “This is an active scene.”

2 women dead after shooting at Indiana factory: Sheriff’s office

August 18, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(CLINTON COUNTY, Ind.) — Two people are dead following a shooting in a parking lot outside a factory in Indiana, according to the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office.

The alleged suspect is in custody, authorities said.

Both victims were women, law enforcement said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, and all three were employees at the plant.

The sheriff’s office said the call came in at 4:15 p.m. local time. Shortly after, it warned residents to avoid the area due to the “active scene.”

The suspect jumped in a car after the shooting and drove away from the scene, but was tracked down by police about a minute later, authorities said. The suspect crashed his car and was taken into custody. He was not injured in the minor accident, Clinton County Sheriff Richard Kelly said.

An investigation is ongoing and the sheriff had no information on a motive. Authorities were still working to contact the next of kin of those who were killed and will not release information on the victims until they do so.

The shooting took place in the parking lot of NHK Seating of America in Frankfurt, Indiana. The plant manufacturers seats and seating parts for a Subaru plant in nearby Lafayette.

“Please avoid the area of our new NHK,” the sheriff’s office wrote shortly after the incident began. “This is an active scene.”

ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.

Family of man allegedly shot over loud music wants company who employed alleged shooter charged

August 18, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — The family and attorney of a Black man shot to death by a security guard, allegedly over a dispute about loud music, are demanding Kroger and the third-party security guard company it employed to also face charges.

Alvin Motley Jr., 48, was at a Kroger gas station in Memphis, Tennessee, with his girlfriend on Aug. 7 when Gregory Livingston, who is white, allegedly approached him about the volume of music coming from their car. After the initial argument between Motley and Livingston, Motley walked toward the security guard holding a beer can and a lit cigarette asking Livingston, “Let’s talk like men,” according to the affidavit. Shortly after, Livingston shot Motley in the chest, prosecutors said.

Motley’s attorney Ben Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday that Kroger must be charged alongside Livingston and Allied Universal for facilitating the contract that resulted in the death of Motley. Livingston has been charged with second-degree murder.

“Kroger, you can’t pass the buck saying that this is an issue for the Motley family or the security company. It’s an issue for your company. … You have a duty to provide safety and have qualified employees and contractors who won’t kill Black people over loud music,” Crump said.

Crump and Sharpton called on the civil rights community to play loud music in front of Kroger grocery chain stores across the country in protest of Motley’s death.

A Kroger spokesperson said in an email statement that after an internal review of the incident, Kroger made the decision to end its relationship with Allied Universal Security in Memphis.

“We are deeply saddened, extremely angry and horrified by this senseless violence. At Kroger, nothing is more important to us than the safety of our associates and customers, and our hearts are with the Motley family and we stand with them in their calls for justice,” a Kroger spokesperson told ABC News.

When asked, Kroger did not respond specifically to Crump’s comments. Allied Universal has not responded to requests for comment from ABC News.

Crump and Sharpton said the shooting was racially motivated.

“I cannot imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and these were young white men listening to rock and roll or country music, nobody would say it was justified to kill them,” Crump said at Wednesday’s press conference. “So if you can’t justify killing them over music, you can’t justify killing us over hip hop music.”

Livingston’s attorney, Leslie Ballin, told ABC News that the shooting was neither racially motivated nor about loud music.

“Let it be known that we do not agree that this incident was about loud music,” Ballin said. “I don’t know of any facts that would lead to the conclusion that this event was racially motivated. If there are such facts, I’m ready to be educated.”

The surveillance footage at the Kroger gas station allegedly captured the incident but has not yet been released to the family or the public. Ballin said he objects to the release of any evidence, including the video footage, in fear that it could contaminate a potential jury pool.

Livingston’s attorneys requested their client’s $1.8 million bail be reduced, claiming the amount is excessive and therefore unconstitutional.

“My son was truly my best friend and I’ll forever hold him in my thoughts,” Alvin Motley Sr. said during the press conference before his son’s memorial Wednesday. “I just want justice for my son.”

COVID-19 live updates: mRNA vaccine efficacy dropped ‘significantly’ in nursing homes

August 18, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 623,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 59.4% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing Wednesday. All times Eastern:

Aug 18, 6:50 pm
J&J looking into booster of its single-dose vaccine

Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday it is “engaging” with the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health authorities on a booster of its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine.

The company said it “will share new data shortly regarding boosting” with its vaccine, which one study suggests provides immunity for at least eight months.

The statement comes after the Biden administration said Wednesday it is preparing to roll out booster shots of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines to more Americans next month.

Aug 18, 6:29 pm
California to require proof of vaccination or negative test for large indoor events

People attending large-scale indoor events in California soon will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test, state officials announced Wednesday.

The new rules apply to indoor events with more than 1,000 people beginning Sept. 20. Tests must be administered within 72 hours of the event.

Currently, attendees have to self-attest to either having the vaccine or a negative test to attend events with more than 5,000 people.

Health officials pointed to the highly transmissible nature of the delta variant in updating the rules.

Aug 18, 5:11 pm
Biden will issue memo to block Republican anti-mask efforts in schools

President Joe Biden plans to issue a memo to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona Wednesday to counter the Republican governors who have blocked mask mandates in their states.

“Some state governments have adopted policies and laws that interfere with the ability of schools and districts to keep our children safe during in-person learning, with some going as far as to try to block school officials from adopting safety protocols aligned with recommendations from the CDC,” according to a fact sheet released by the White House Wednesday.

Biden’s memo will ensure the department of education “is doing everything it can to prevent anything from standing in the way of local leaders and school leaders taking steps to keep all students safe in full-time, in-person learning, without compromising students’ health or the health of their families or communities,” the fact sheet continues.

-ABC News’ Justin Gomez

Aug 18, 5:16 pm
Biden to announce nursing homes must require employee vaccination to get federal funding

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to require nursing homes participating in Medicare or Medicaid to have all workers be vaccinated for COVID-19, a Biden administration official confirmed to ABC News Wednesday.

The new rule, which will impact more than 15,000 nursing homes and 1.3 million workers, will go into effect in late September. Nursing homes that don’t comply could lose federal funding.

-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett

Aug 18, 2:33 pm
NYC restaurant owners sue city over indoor vaccine mandate

A group small businesses in New York City is suing the city on the grounds that its new indoor vaccine mandate will severely impact their “business, life savings, and livelihood,” according to a lawsuit filed in Richmond County Supreme Court Tuesday.

The plaintiffs also took issue with the fact the the mandate does not permit medical or religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination.

New York City’s first-in-the-nation mandate, which went into effect Tuesday, applies to everyone 12 and older and includes nearly every public indoor activity, from gyms to bowling alleys to movie theaters to concert venues and more, according to the city.

The plaintiffs include Deluca’s Italian Restaurant in Staten Island, Pasticceria Rocco in Brooklyn and Staten Island Judo Jujitsu.

Aug 18, 12:36 pm
All but 2 states reporting high community transmission

All but two states — New Hampshire and Vermont — are reporting high community transmission, according to federal data.

U.S. hospitalizations are now at the highest point in over six months, with more than 91,000 COVID-19 patients currently in hospitals, according to federal data. More than 11,200 patients are being admitted to the hospital each day, the most since January.

Pediatric COVID-19 related admissions per capita have climbed to the highest point of the pandemic and are now nearly six times higher than on July 4.

-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Aug 18, 11:53 am
Delta likely contributed to vaccine’s waning protection: Murthy

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy announced at Wednesday’s White House briefing, “Having reviewed the most current data, it is now our clinical judgment that the time to lay out a plan for COVID-19 boosters is now.”

Murthy said protection against mild disease has decreased, likely a combination of waning vaccine protection over time and the strength of the delta variant, and that the administration is “concerned” that protection could continue to erode.

“Even though this new data affirms that vaccine protection remains high against the worst outcomes of COVID, we are concerned that this pattern of decline we’re seeing will continue in the months ahead, which could lead to reduced protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death,” Murthy said.

“That is why, today, we are announcing our plan to stay ahead of this virus by being prepared to offer COVID-19 booster shots to fully vaccinated adults 18 years and older,” Murthy said. “They would be eligible for their booster shot eight months after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Modern mRNA vaccines.”

The boosters are set to begin Sept. 20, but Murthy emphasized that this is pending FDA authorization and also reiterated that does not yet apply to J&J recipients.

-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslet

Aug 18, 11:27 am
How New York City botched COVID-19 response: Report

New York City botched its COVID-19 response, according to an investigation conducted by Scott Stringer, the city’s comptroller, who released findings from his inquiry Wednesday.

According to Stringer, key emergency response agencies, including the health department and the NYPD, were intentionally excluded from communications and decision-making “when time was of the essence.”

The comptroller also described persistent confusion about the chain of command between agencies and a significantly delayed response to the pandemic.

Officials waited until late February to even begin planning for a worst-case scenario, despite knowing about the impending crisis in January. Stringer called on the mayor, as well as the future mayor, to conduct a thorough review of the city’s emergency planning process.

“We cannot erase the mistakes of the past,” he said. “But we can make sure we are prepared for future emergencies.”

-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky

Aug 18, 11:14 am
mRNA vaccine efficacy dropped ‘significantly’ among nursing home residents: CDC

A new CDC analysis found that Pfizer and Moderna vaccine efficacy dropped “significantly” among nursing home residents from March to July, as the delta variant became the predominant strain in the United States.

Researchers analyzed weekly reports from thousands of nursing home facilities in the U.S. and found that mRNA vaccines were roughly 75% effective against preventing any infection in late winter/early spring of 2021, early in the mass vaccination rollout and prior to the emergence of the delta variant. By summer of this year, effectiveness against any infection had dropped to 53%.

Crucially, this doesn’t mean vaccines aren’t working for nursing home residents, but the significant drop in effectiveness from March to July may support the use of booster doses for them, according to the CDC report.

A second analysis found that the mRNA vaccines are holding up well against hospitalizations for COVID-19. The research, which was conducted across 21 U.S. hospitals, found that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines remained between 84% and 86% effective against potential hospitalizations from March to July of this year. A third analysis, conducted in New York State, found that all three authorized vaccines remained more than 90% effective at preventing hospitalization from early May to late June.

-ABC News’ Sony Salzman, Eric Strauss

Aug 18, 11:06 am
Leading public health officials lay out plan for boosters

The U.S. is prepared to offer booster shots for all Americans beginning the week of Sept. 20, top health officials announced Wednesday. Starting eight months after a person’s second dose, they are eligible for a booster.

“At that time, the individuals who were fully vaccinated earliest in the vaccination rollout, including many health care providers, nursing home residents, and other seniors, will likely be eligible,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC; Janet Woodcock, acting FDA commissioner; Dr. Vivek Murthy, surgeon general; Francis Collins, director of the NIH; and Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID, said in a joint statement.

The data behind the decision is expected to be released at 11 a.m. EST during the White House COVID briefing, but public health officials said it’s clear that vaccines are waning over time and “we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease.”

With regard to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, officials stressed that more data will be released in the next few weeks. “We will keep the public informed with a timely plan for J&J booster shots,” they said.

-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett

Aug 18, 10:09 am
El Paso mask mandate goes into effect after judge blocks Abbott

A mask mandate in El Paso, Texas, which, took effect at 12:01 Wednesday, requires people 2 and older to cover their faces in indoor public spaces. Failure to comply with the new rule is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of $500.

The mandate comes after a judge blocked Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order late Tuesday night, which had forbid masks mandates in the state of Texas. The news comes also within hours of Abbott, who is fully vaccinated, testing positive for COVID-19.

Aug 18, 8:33 am
CDC advisory committee to discuss extra vaccine doses, booster shots

An advisory committee to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet next week to discuss additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including booster shots.

The meeting is scheduled for Aug. 24.

Aug 18, 5:21 am
New Zealand confirms 1st case of delta variant in growing cluster

New Zealand’s first instance of COVID-19 transmission in six months has been identified as the highly contagious delta variant.

“We are dealing with a delta variant,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced during a press conference in Wellington on Wednesday. “Our case has originated in Australia.”

The case, which was detected in the community on Tuesday, prompted New Zealand to immediately impose a nationwide lockdown. More community cases have emerged since then, with the cluster growing to 10 by Wednesday afternoon, according to data from New Zealand’s Ministry of Health.

Ardern said genomic sequencing has linked the initial case to an outbreak of the delta variant in neighboring Australia’s New South Wales state.

“Now, the job we have is to work through how and when it got here,” she said.

It’s the first time that the island nation of 5 million people has confirmed the presence of the delta variant, which was initially identified in India last October. At least 148 countries around the globe have reported cases of the delta variant, according to the World Health Organization.

It’s also the first time in more than a year that New Zealand has had a snap level four lockdown, the highest level of restrictions.

In total, the country has reported 2,936 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including 26 deaths, according to health ministry data.

Aug 18, 3:55 am
Chicago reinstates indoor mask mandate amid rising cases

Everyone in Chicago who is 2 years of age and older must wear a face mask indoors starting Friday, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Chicago health officials announced the reinstatement of the indoor mask mandate on Tuesday, after the Windy City saw its daily average of newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases surpass 400 — a metric that moves the city from “substantial risk” to “higher risk.”

“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,” Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, 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.”

During a press conference Tuesday, Arwady noted that other COVID-19 metrics, such as the city’s test positivity average and hospitalizations, remain at “lower risk.”

“A high case count does not automatically translate to a high hospitalization count and a high death count,” she told reporters, “and we’re hopeful that having the mask in place for everybody will get us through delta while we keep working on getting folks vaccinated.”

Masks will be required citywide in all indoor public settings, including bars, restaurants, gyms, hair salons, private clubs and common areas in residential buildings. As with previous mask mandates, the face coverings can be temporarily taken off for certain activities that require their removal, such as eating and drinking or for facials and beard shaves.

Masks can also be removed by employees in settings that are not open to the public, such as office cubicles, so long as the individuals are static and maintaining at least 6 feet from others. The face coverings remain mandatory on public transportation as well as in educational, health care, correctional and congregate settings.

The new mandate does not include capacity limits at public places, and masks will remain optional in outdoor settings.

“We are not anticipating, at this point, adding additional business restrictions. However, we’re watching what happens with these metrics,” Arwady told reporters. “Our goal is to remain open but careful.”

Aug 17, 11:40 pm
‘What we’re dealing with now is completely different,’ says pulmonologist who lost 3 patients in week

An Alabama doctor is seeing young, healthy patients die from COVID-19 amid the surge of the delta variant.

Dr. Jenna Carpenter, a pulmonary care physician at Marshall Medical South in Guntersville, Alabama, has lost three patients under the age of 40 in the past week from complications related to COVID-19, she told ABC Huntsville, Alabama, affiliate WAAY.

“The young man I lost this week was perfectly healthy,” she said. “He wasn’t overweight. He did not have any known medical issues and that was a tragedy.”

The worst phone call the physicians have to make is to inform family members that their loved one has taken a turn for the worst, Carpenter added.

“In our heart we know this is going to be the last time these folks talk to their families,” she said.

The state currently has more ICU patients than beds, and frontline workers are also getting sick from the highly contagious variant, WAAY reported.

“Last week we were down to 35 or 40 ICU beds. Now we are down at the single digits,” Dr. Don Williamson, a former state health officer who is now the president and CEO of the Alabama Hospital Association, told the station. “It doesn’t matter if it is six or two, we could even be negative ICU beds.”

Aug 17, 9:26 pm
Mass vaccine site for booster shots opens in Detroit

Detroit has opened a mass vaccine site for boosters at its convention center.

The TCF Center has played an integral role for Detroit residents during the pandemic, first acting as a mass testing site, a field hospital and eventually a mass vaccination site.

It is currently the only location in the city to get a third booster shot.

Biden says he did not see a way to withdraw from Afghanistan without ‘chaos ensuing’

August 18, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, and the president’s first since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, President Joe Biden stood firm in his defense of the United States’ withdrawal, but asserted for the first time that he believes the chaos was unavoidable.

“So you don’t think this could have been handled — this exit could have been handled better in any way, no mistakes?” Stephanopoulos asked Biden.

“No, I don’t think it could have been handled in a way that, we’re gonna go back in hindsight and look — but the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens. I don’t know how that happened,” Biden replied.

“So for you, that was always priced into the decision?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“Yes,” Biden replied, but then amended his answer.

“Now exactly what happened, I’ve not priced in,” he said. “But I knew that they’re going to have an enormous — Look, one of the things we didn’t know is what the Taliban would do in terms of trying to keep people from getting out. What they would do. What are they doing now? They’re cooperating, letting American citizens get out, American personnel get out, embassies get out, et cetera, but they’re having — we’re having some more difficulty having those who helped us when we were in there.”

Biden’s decision to withdraw has led to scenes of pandemonium in Afghanistan, with as many as 11,000 Americans and tens of thousands of endangered Afghans scrambling to evacuate the country. Scenes of civilians swamping planes on the runway at the Kabul airport, desperate for escape, have triggered bipartisan criticism that the Biden administration handled the hasty exit poorly.

Biden grew defensive when Stephanopoulos referred to the scenes of distress.

“We’ve all seen the pictures. We’ve seen those hundreds of people packed in a C-17. We’ve seen Afghans falling –“

“That was four days ago, five days ago!” Biden interjected, although the photo Stephanopoulos referred to, of hundreds of evacuees packed into a C-17 cargo plane, was taken Monday.

“What did you think when you first saw those pictures?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“What I thought was, we have to gain control of this. We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did,” Biden said.

The U.S. said late Tuesday it has successfully evacuated 3,200 people from Afghanistan, including all U.S. Embassy personnel, except for a core group of diplomats at the Kabul airport. Officials have said they hope to ramp up to being able to evacuate 9,000 people each day.

But the U.S. government is not currently providing American citizens in Afghanistan with safe transport to the airport, and it remains unclear how many will be able to safely reach the airport, as Taliban checkpoints continue to harden.

Despite the reality in Afghanistan, Biden was adamant in defending his decision.

“When you look at what’s happened over the last week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution or judgment?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“Look, it was a simple choice, George,” Biden said. “When you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government, get in a plane and taking off and going to another country; when you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained, up to 300,000 of them, just leaving their equipment and taking off — that was, you know, I’m not, that’s what happened. That’s simply what happened. And so the question was, in the beginning, the threshold question was, do we commit to leave within the timeframe we set, do we extend it to Sept. 1, or do we put significantly more troops in?”

Biden noted that violent attacks in Afghanistan had paused in recent months due to a deal negotiated by the Trump administration with Taliban leaders that was predicated upon an eventual U.S. withdrawal.

“I hear people say, well you had 2,500 folks in there and nothing was happening. You know, there wasn’t any more — but guess what, the fact was, that the reason that wasn’t happening, was the last president negotiated a year earlier that he’d be out by May 1st and that the return, there’d be no attack on American forces. That’s what was done. That’s why nothing was happening,” Biden said.

“I had a simple choice. If I said, ‘we’re gonna stay,’ then we’d better be prepared to

Haiti faces multiple crises following deadly 7.2 magnitude earthquake

August 18, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(HAITI) — Luria Civil’s wails could be heard outside of the cemetery. As shovels scraped dirt onto her daughter’s grave, she chanted and sobbed.

She lost two children after Saturday’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. Her house had collapsed on top of her and her family, she told ABC News. She, her husband, and her severely wounded son, who was medevacked to port au Prince, survived. But she still had to dig her two other children, now lifeless, out of the rubble.

The scenes across Haiti are devastating. Coffins strapped to the backs of motorbikes are being driven out of earthquake battered villages. Boulders the size of bulldozers are blocking roads. Landslides following Tropical Storm Grace have reshaped the landscape, mutating sides of mountains.

The death toll in Haiti, now at 1,941, keeps climbing, according to the Haiti Office of Civil Protection. While search and rescue teams on the ground keep pushing forward, hoping to find more survivors and provide much needed medical help, ABC News reports that thousands are still sleeping under tents, surgeries are being performed outdoors and hospitals in rural areas are in desperate need of the basics, including water, electricity, gloves and donated blood.

While Saturday’s earthquake is not as devastating as the 2010 earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people, Haiti is facing multiple crises as the same time. The country has been reeling from the assassination of its president, leaving the government politically unstable. The coronavirus vaccination rate is less than 0.1%. And experts say gang violence is at its worst in two decades, according to the Associated Press.

Following the earthquake, United States response teams were activated, but due to the tropical storm, they had to suspend their critical operations on Monday, according to U.S. Agency for International Development Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs Assistant Administrator Sarah Charles.

“The safety and security of our partners and our operations is of the utmost importance, but our top priority really is getting assistance and assistance at scale to people,” Charles said. She later added that “the [Disaster Assistance Response Team] is now on the ground working to urgently assess needs and deliver life-saving assistance.”

Both USAID DART and the elite Fairfax County’s Urban Search and Rescue team are now on the ground in Haiti, helping local and international efforts to provide food, medical care, shelter, and search and rescue efforts.

The number of injured and homeless keeps rising, too, according to the Haitian agency. More than 9,900 people have been injured, and even more are left homeless. The earthquake left much of the countryside damaged, destroying more than 7,000 homes and damaging nearly 5,000.

The teams on the ground said they haven’t rescued any people still alive and trapped in buildings.

“We have not yet since found any signs of persons alive trapped in buildings,” John Morrison, the public information officer for Fairfax County’s Urban Search and Rescue team, said on Tuesday’s media call. He caveated his statement by adding that in previous earthquakes, his rescue team has managed to save people 8-10 days after a building collapse.

Getting supplies to the people of Haiti is a priority, officials said.

As of Tuesday evening, “the U.S. Coast Guard has flown 72 sorties [trips], saved 67 people, and assisted 89 people,” according to a USAID spokesperson. “They have also transported 143 medical and search and rescue staff, including members of the USAID DART, and 5,500 pounds of medical supplies into the area.”

“Food, healthcare services, safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation, and shelter are all priority needs,” Morrison added.

Following the 2010 earthquake, USAID has been working closely with partners on the ground in Haiti for years to make sure local response capabilities can be immediately activated in case another disaster strikes, including being able to immediately provide food and types of shelter, officials said. Charles indicated that this pre-planning allowed USAID local partners to respond quickly following Saturday’s earthquake.

While USAID is already working with international organizations to provide significant humanitarian needs in Haiti, they hope to receive more help in the upcoming days and weeks, according to Charles.

The Pentagon announced Monday that eight U.S. military helicopters would be sent to assist in Haiti. Two U.S. Navy ships, seven more Coast Guard cutters, two reconnaissance aircraft, and four field hospitals are also being sent. This military equipment arrived on Wednesday morning, officials said.

This isn’t the first crisis Haiti has faced this summer. Just last month, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, which left the country in a political upheaval.

“We continue to work closely with Haiti’s interim government to assist with the investigation into the assassination,” State Department’s Western Hemisphere Affairs Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Laura Lochman said on a media briefing call Tuesday. She also emphasized the U.S. government’s support in finding and creating Haitian-led solutions that are in the interest of the Haitian people.

“The United States stands ready to offer all appropriate assistance, and we’ll continue to work closely with our Haitian partners to determine how we can best support recovery efforts,” Lochman later added.

While teams on the ground are working non-stop, there just isn’t enough aid to go around.

“It’s just pure chaos,” Canadian paramedic Brian Johnston told ABC News. Johnston said he and Haitian medics know that if anyone has a cardiac arrest or internal bleeding in rural, countryside towns, “they’ll die here.”

Luria Civil took ABC News to what was left of her house. During the walk, she pointed to her neighbors’ homes, now all flattened. A set of twins were killed in the house next door.

A crowd had gathered around her home. When asked where they were sleeping, they all said, “outside on the street.”

ABC News’ Conor Finnegan, Luis Martinez, Matt Gutman, and Brandon Baur contributed to this report.

1 Afghan family’s harrowing account of getting to Kabul’s airport

August 18, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(KABUL, Afghanistan) — It was on the third attempt that “Khan,” his pregnant wife and their 3-year old son made to get to Kabul’s international airport — the most harrowing yet, but finally successful.

Khan, whose real name ABC News is not using for his security, made it on a U.S. military flight out of Afghanistan on Wednesday, according to his U.S. lawyer, fleeing the Taliban takeover and the threats its fighters had made against him for years because of his service to the U.S.

Tens of thousands of Afghans remain behind in anguish and fear. The Biden administration has promised to evacuate “as many Afghans as we possibly can for as long as we can,” in the words of State Department spokesperson Ned Price, but the task remains immense and chaotic — not least because Taliban fighters continue to block access to the airport.

It’s unclear how many Afghans the administration is committed to evacuating, where they be brought to safety and who qualifies for a coveted seat on military and chartered flights.

Khan, a computer scientist by training who worked for a U.S. defense contractor alongside his brother “Mohammad,” had spent years waiting for a special immigrant visa.

After waiting 10 years for a visa, Mohammad finally learned last December that he was granted approval. Less than a month later, he was gunned down on his way to work, his 10-year old son by his side in the car. Khan was supposed to travel with them but had to run errands that morning in January.

He has spent recent months in hiding, receiving death threats by phone and text message and waiting for his family’s special immigrant visas to be finalized. On Saturday, hours before the U.S. Embassy in Kabul closed its doors, he and his family were able to pick up their visas.

But that is only half the battle. For U.S. citizens and Afghans with visas, reaching the airport and getting inside has been a nearly impossible task.

The State Department has informed a tranche of American citizens and Afghan visa holders to travel to the airport, warning in capital letters that they “cannot guarantee your security as you make this trip,” according to the embassy email notice.

Khan and his family made their first attempt on Sunday and tried again Tuesday, but there were too many Taliban fighters pushing back crowds to even get close.

On Wednesday, they tried a different approach, nearing a gate on the north side, only to encounter U.S. troops trying to disperse crowds by shooting into the air and using tear gas, according to Khan’s U.S. lawyer Julie Kornfeld from the International Refugee Assistance Project, who was FaceTiming with him during the episode.

IRAP has filed several petitions to order the State Department to evacuate all Afghans who have applied for special immigrant visas and their families — some 100,000 Afghans in total, the legal advocacy group estimates.

“The timing could not be more urgent. Now that the Afghan government has collapsed and the Talban have taken over, time is quickly running out. We need to get as many people on flights out of the country before it is too late, and the U.S. has a legal and a moral obligation to do so,” said Becca Heller, IRAP’s executive director.

Heller called on the U.S. government to secure safe passage to Kabul’s airport for Americans and Afghans like Khan. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that the U.S. had an agreement with the Taliban to ensure safe passage, but several Afghans on the ground have told ABC News they have been blocked. In some cases, Taliban fighters beat back crowds with chains or by firing sporadic gunfire into the air.

But with their visas in hand, Khan and his family were determined to get through to the airport, according to Kornfeld, who told ABC News, “Ultimately, it was his persistence that got them in.”

In the hours when it seemed like it wouldn’t happen, Kornfeld said they considered other options, including Khan leaving his pregnant wife and son behind to see if he could push ahead and come back to get them — an agonizing decision, she said.

“It’s a dynamic situation. Things are rapidly changing on the ground, and one client’s success story of where the access points are is not going to hold up,” Kornfeld added.

Once inside, the process was more efficient, she added, with two of her clients and their families on flights within 30 minutes of entering the airport and being processed. Sullivan said Tuesday that since the U.S. military was able to secure the airport late Monday, more evacuation flights have been flowing in “one after another, hot unloading and hot offloading,” he told reporters.

But outside the airport, chaos continues to reign.

An alert from the U.S. embassy late Wednesday advised U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, or green card holders, they “should consider” travelling to the airport — sparking crowds of people rushing there again.

Crowds broke into the compound on Monday, rushing the tarmac and surrounding a U.S. military aircraft that was preparing for takeoff. Several civilians died in the incident, and the U.S. military eventually had to clear 15,000 people from the tarmac, according to a defense official.

“The unwillingness of the U.S. government to protect our allies after they sacrificed their safety and in many cases their lives is a historically unprecedented failure that only a sustained attempt to hold the airport and meaningfully evacuate people can begin to remedy,” said Heller.

The U.S. has surged diplomatic personnel, doubling the number of consular officers and dispatching former ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass to the airport to coordinate the chaotic evacuation effort even as all but a core team from the U.S. embassy were evacuated from the compound Tuesday.

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