| Biden pledges to continue airlift as US braces for more attacks |
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US President Joe Biden says the airlift from Kabul will continue, despite a jihadist attack that's thought to have killed at least 90 people - including 13 US service personnel - and wounded 150. "We must complete this mission and we will," he says. More than 100,000 people have been evacuated from Kabul but many more are rushing to flee Taliban rule ahead of an agreed 31 August deadline for US forces to leave. And US Gen Frank McKenzie says forces are braced for more attacks on the airport.
At about 18:00 local time yesterday, the first bomb targeted Abbey Gate, where US and British forces have been processing people entering the airport. Minutes later, the second blast occurred at a hotel used by British officials to process Afghans hoping to travel to the UK. Here's what we know about the attacks. Responsibility was claimed by IS-K, the regional branch of Islamic State - read more about the group below. And Mr Biden is warning them: "We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay." Keep abreast of developments in Afghanistan via our live page. | |
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| UK continues 'flat out' on evacuation |
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| With more than 1,000 British troops remaining at Kabul airport, Boris Johnson says evacuation operations will continue, with the UK working "flat out" until "the last moment". The prime minister suggests "the overwhelming majority of those eligible" have been flown out - 13,146 so far, according to Ministry of Defence figures. But many more - including interpreters who worked for the British military, UK embassy guards and those who worked with international organisations - are clamouring not to be left behind. Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has told Reuters news agency it rescued three Afghan families whose contact details were left behind at its Kabul embassy. The Times had said it found identifying documents scattered there as Taliban fighters patrolled. | |
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| Vaccine complications dwarfed by virus risks |
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| The Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine does raise the risk of blood clots and another serious condition - but the likelihood of such problems is much lower than it would be after suffering Covid. That's according to a study of more than 29 million people who received a first dose and nearly 1.8 million infected with the virus. The research, led by the University of Oxford, found the risk of a blood clot after a coronavirus infection was 200 times higher than after receiving the vaccine. And while, for every 10 million people vaccinated, an extra 107 would be hospitalised or die from thrombocytopenia - which can cause internal bleeding - that was nearly nine times lower than the risk following an infection. There were similar findings relating to strokes. | |
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| |  | | | IS-K - or to give it its more accurate name, Islamic State Khorasan Province - is the regional affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) group that is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is the most extreme and violent of all the jihadist militant groups in Afghanistan.
It was set up in January 2015 at the height of IS's power in Iraq and Syria, before its self-declared caliphate was defeated and dismantled by a US-led coalition. It recruits from both Afghan and Pakistani jihadists, especially defecting members of the Taliban who don't see that organisation as extreme enough. | |
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| | Frank Gardner | Security correspondent | |
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| | | | A photograph of two Afghan women, their faces bloodied, arriving at hospital in Kabul after the attacks on those trying to flee the country, appears on several front pages. The Metro describes the scene at the airport as a "bloodbath". The Daily Telegraph calls it "America's deadliest day in a decade", with 13 US military personnel confirmed to be among those killed. According to the Guardian, many of those in the area at the time were hoping to arrange their passage to the UK. Read the full review. | |
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| | | Retail UK loses 83% of department stores over five years |
| | | | | | Supermarket Man charged with contaminating supermarket goods |
| | | | Festivals Drug supply issues and low tolerance add to overdose fears |
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| If you do one thing today |
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| If you listen to one thing today |
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| If you read one thing today |
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| Need something different? |
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| What did you do during your summer holidays? Benyamin Ahmed has quite a tale to tell his teacher when he sits down to write the traditional first-week-of-term essay. While others were camping in Devon, playing football in the park, or infuriating their parents with too much screen time, the 12-year-old Londoner amassed nearly £300,000 by creating and selling digital art. Here's how he did it.
And here's another story that wouldn't sound out of place as a plotline in Grange Hill. Pupils at one Aberdeenshire were so outraged by one of their favourites being scrubbed from the dinner menu, they petitioned for its reinstatement - and ended up forcing a council U-turn. Find out which pudding they consider the "best in the world" and how their (very polite) protest won the day. | |
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| | | 1979 The Queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, dies when an IRA bomb destroys his boat. Watch our archive report from County Sligo, Ireland. |
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