This is the image capture released by US Central Command of Maj. Gen Chris Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, boarding a C-17 cargo plane at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. He is the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan after nearly twenty years of war.
Soldiers guard the perimeter of Hamid Karzai airport in Kabul as rescue flights continue to take off from Afghanistan. President Biden announced today that over 70,000 people have been airlifted out of the war-torn country since the complete Taliban takeover on August 15th. However, President Biden doubled down and declared that the United States was ready and on pace to meet the August 31st withdrawal deadline from the country.
A Taliban fighter stands outside the Governor's House in Ghazni City following the capture of the area earlier this month.
Nightfall in Kabul at the end of one of the longest and most arduous weeks in recent memory.
An Israeli firefighting plane douses the surrounding hillside of Jerusalem after a major forest fire engulfed the area. Numerous homes have been evacuated and the Israeli government has reached out to European partners for assistance in controlling the massive blaze. Fire and Rescue commissioner Dedi Simchi described the fire as largest in Israel since the 2010 Carmel forest fires. Nearly 5,000 acres of forest have been engulfed within the past 48 hours. Arson or human neglect are the suspected causes of the blaze.
A very sad day. President Ashraf Ghani has fled to Tajikistan and the government of Afghanistan has now officially surrendered to the Taliban. After nearly twenty years, the US war in Afghanistan is officially over.
By the end of the day, Taliban fighters had taken the Afghan presidential palace and announced that they have taken control of the country.
Below -- An American military helicopter lands atop the US embassy in Kabul to assist in evacuating personnel and infrastructure. The US flag has already come down. My thoughts are with the people of Afghanistan.
Leon Kopelman, the last known surviving fighter from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, has passed away at the age of 97. Kopelman was born in Poland in 1924 and the Jewish Combat Organization, the ZOB, during his time in the Warsaw ghetto. He later joined the Polish resistance and continued to fight the Nazis. After the war he immigrated to Israel, where he also served as a soldier in the IDF during the War of Independence in 1948. May his memory be a blessing.
Over the past several days, Taliban forces have captured additional Afghan territory and fought their way closer and closer towards the capital of Kabul. Following the decision by the US government to withdraw all American forces from the country, there has already been a sharp U-turn to prevent Afghanistan from increasingly falling to the Taliban. Today, the US has announced the deployment of a 3,000 American soldiers to solidify the capital and ensure that the US embassy is protected. It remains to be seen how the coming weeks will play out. The Afghan army has yet to show it is capable of holding off a widespread Taliban advance without the support of western coalition forces. These are indeed very dire times.
Below, the military side of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul from June '21.
No player has ever meant more to a club than Leo Messi has for Barcelona. Best of luck to an ultimate legend no matter what the future brings.
View of the Atlantic Coastline from Plum Island on Massachusetts's North Shore.
A car drives along a road in northern Israel as a fire from a rocket attack burns in the surrounding hillside near Kiryat Shmona. Three rockets were fired from Lebanon by Palestinian-based terror groups at towns in the northern Israel earlier today.
The recently renovated and landscaped Place de la Nation in Paris's 12th arrondissement. The view is from the roof of the new youth hostel Les Piaules.
