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22 Aug, 47 tweets, 13 min read
1) Afghanistan thread for Sunday ;
A) Pentagon says formally seeking airlift help from commercial airlines, to relocate 🇦🇫 evacuees once they’re out of 🇦🇫;
B) Def Sec Austin activated initial stage of Civil Reserve Air Fleet program Sunday;
C) Def Sec asking for 18 aircraft: 3 each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines and Omni Air; 2 from Hawaiian Airlines; and 4 from United Airlines;
D) Pentagon Press Sec Kirby said those aircraft won’t directly fly into HKIA in Kabul;
E) This comes as US Embassy has issued a new security warning, telling citizens not to travel to Kabul airport unless instructed by US gov’t rep & as President Joe Biden warned he could not predict the outcome of one of the “most difficult airlifts in history”;
F) Tens of thousands of Afghans are racing to flee their country as the US warns of security threats at Kabul airport and the EU says it is “impossible” to evacuate everyone at risk from the Taliban;
G) Seven Afghan civilians have been killed in the chaos around HKIA, the British military said.
H) US, Spain agree to use of military bases in Spain for Afghan refugees;
I) Pakistan’s National Airlines suspends flights to Afghanistan;
J) British gov’t pushing for evac missions from 🇦🇫 to continue past an August 31 deadline;
K) Europe fears Afghan refugee crisis after Taliban takeover;
L) At least 20 deaths in past 7 days in & around Kabul airport during evac effort after Taliban’s takeover of Kabul;
M) Nearly two-thirds of Germans are in favour of granting protection in Germany to people from Afghanistan who are under threat from the Taliban, a survey by the opinion research institute YouGov has found;
N) British PM Johnson said he had called a G-7 Leaders’ Meeting on Tuesday, to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan and urged the international community to find ways to prevent it from escalating;
2) And from @TepiZep - “The German Defense Ministry just shared a clip of our evacuation ops leader in #Kabul , who confirmed that the panic was caused by the closure of several gates into the airport by the Taliban. Says we‘ll evacuate as long as we possibly can.”
3) He also tells Al Arabiya he won’t surrender the region under his control to the #Taliban.
4) Taliban puts blame on US for Kabul Airport chaos.
4) Closure of North and East Gates has relieved the pressure on these gates, Brigadier General Jens Arlt told reporters by phone.
5) Taliban commanders are set to meet former governors and bureaucrats in more than 20 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces over the next few days to ensure their safety and seek cooperation, an official of the group said on Sunday.
6) Maybe one day, a President will actually listen to and take onboard’s Austin recommendations concerning withdrawal.
7) Italy flew 211 Afghans out of Kabul, bringing the number of Afghan workers and their families who have been safely evacuated from Afghanistan by Italian missions to around 2,100, according to the Defense Ministry. Of those, 1,100 have been brought to Italy;
8) Germany MoD update from earlier today.
9) National security adviser Jake Sullivan on the threat of ISIS attacking the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan: "The threat is real. It is acute. It is persistent. And it is something that we are focused on with every tool in our arsenal.
10) Update on US evacuations.
11) Alternative methods of getting Americans to HKIA being executed on presently.
12) Reality is the US does (for now) rely on the whims of the Taliban to safely evacuate Americans. So, harsh warnings by Biden, Pentagon or other military brass on what “might happen”, just intended for domestic consumption.
13) Successful evacuation by Wall Street Journal concluded an effort by Journal, New York Times & Washington Post to get more than 200 people out of the country over the last week.

Upshot - best sources of credible news moving forward, is MENA based media and/or European media.
14) Evacuation update.
15) As media outlets leave, keep track of individuals who also have been posting credible reports.
16) “There was complete chaos at the (Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport). We had a very difficult time getting out of there. I am just so glad to be in Turkey," Ersin Karaduman, owner of a construction firm in Afghanistan, told reporters in Istanbul.
17) While the buck stops w/President Biden, the actual weight falls on the shoulders of Cabinet members and Military brass.
18) PT - Secretary Blinken tells Fox News that in the last 24 hours, they have evacuated nearly "8,000 people on about 60 flights."
19) Ministry of Defence update.
20) AQ in Kabul.
21) From one of the voices/leaders of Afghan resistance.
22) Embarrassing.
23) 🧵
24) According to Abdul Kahar Balchi, checkpoints outside the airport premises were under the control of the militants, while those inside were controlled by US forces. “They are in constant contact with each other," the spokesman added.
25) Resistance leader Ahmad Massoud (see the prior points 3 and 21 above) has vowed his forces won’t surrender to the Taliban. And the Taliban going to call the bluff, going to check him and his forces out apparently.
26) DHS and State in crosshairs.
27) FT - Biden says many countries are making offers to resettle Afghans and he's taken calls from world leaders on it. (For a while this week, some world leaders complained they couldn't Biden to answer their calls.)
28) More from President Biden today.
29) All is not well, among local staff at the US Embassy in Kabul.
30) Taliban say “hundreds” of fighters heading to Panjshir Valley, one of few Afghanistan areas Taliban doesn’t control. Ahmad Massoud (whose forces control Panjshir) told Reuters that while he hoped for talks w/Taliban, his forces ready to fight if Taliban tried to takeover;
31) Price pressure, banks still closed, ATMs emptied.
32) I wonder how common this frustration might be ?
33) Evacs update.
34) Dynamic hasn’t changed.
35) Qatar playing an understated, but key role on the ground in Kabul.
36)(A) Taliban Spox Dr. Suhail Shaheen said: "It's a red line. President Biden announced that on 31 August they would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it that means they are extending occupation while there is no need for that."
36(B) He added: "If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations - the answer is no. Or there would be consequences”.
37) The PM will use an emergency G7 summit of the world's most powerful leaders to appeal to the president to delay the 31 August deadline to tackle the chaos and mayhem at Kabul airport.
38) President Biden isn't inclined to fire any senior national security officials over the chaos in Kabul unless the situation drastically deteriorates or there's significant loss of American life.

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More from @fredwalton216

fred walton Profile picture
24 Aug
1) Coronavirus live news: Hawaii governor wants to curb travel; Israel boosters ‘beating Delta’ theguardian.com/world/live/202…
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fred walton Profile picture
24 Aug
1) Afghanistan thread for Tuesday August 24.

It is unlikely that there will be an extension to the evacuation window from Kabul airport beyond August 31, according to the UK’s Defense Minister.
2) All hands on deck, US evacuations “could” be in the home stretch.
3) Leaders of the Group of Seven countries were set to discuss on Tuesday whether to seek an extension to a Aug. 31 deadline for the evacuation of thousands of people trying to flee Afghanistan and whether to recognize or sanction a Taliban government.

But note point 1 ☝🏾
Read 54 tweets
fred walton Profile picture
23 Aug
1) 🇦🇫 thread highlights Aug 23;
A) No extension to Aug 31 foreign troop withdrawal deadline;
B) Germany looking at evacs after Kabul airport closes;
C) Qatar an ‘impartial mediator’ amid Afghanistan evacuations: FM;
D) Taliban name Haji Mohammad Idris Acting Head of Central Bank;
E) Iran resumes fuel exports to Afghanistan after Taliban request;
F) UK not set on hard deadline for evacuation: PM’s spokesperson;
G) US military evacs 10.4K over 24 hours Sunday. Since Aug 14, US evacs 37K people out of Afghanistan, or helped with their evac;
H) French Mins to travel to UAE to discuss Afghanistan;
I) Putin says vital to prevent spillover of ‘radical Islam’ from Afghanistan;
J) Taliban forces recapture 3 districts in northern Afghanistan that fell to local militia groups last week, according to a Taliban spokesman;
Read 68 tweets
fred walton Profile picture
23 Aug
1) Coronavirus live news: WHO chief criticises booster campaigns; China says it has zero new cases theguardian.com/world/live/202…
2) UK government has agreed to a contract for 35M more doses of Pfizer/BioNTech💉, delivery from 2nd half of next year. Vaccine stockpiling criticisms made, as other countries need first doses for their residents. UK gov’t acknowledged it was “future-proofing” w/its surplus;
3) US FDA poised to give full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech
💉 later today, in the hopes it will facilitate further 💉 mandates and an increase in take-up rates – despite an absence of long-term data of the jab’s efficacy and safety;
Read 69 tweets
fred walton Profile picture
23 Aug
Midnight Magic - Beam Me Up (Jacques Renault Remix)
US FUTs theme music for Monday !
via @YouTube
Midnight Magic- Beam Me Up
“Walking the Midnight Streets”
M.A.R.R.S. - Pump Up The Volume (Extended Pump Up Mix)
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fred walton Profile picture
22 Aug
1) Coronavirus live news: UK public to be offered antibody tests for first time; Iran reports record daily deaths theguardian.com/world/live/202…
2) Iran reported record daily covid deaths today, with 684 deaths recorded. Sunday’s total passes 655 deaths recorded Aug 16, taking the cumulative toll to 102,038, according to IRNA. 36,419 cases were also identified;
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Read 33 tweets

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