Kabul has Fallen 8/15/21

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.

Jim Huylebroek/NYT

Leon Kopelman Z"L

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.

Leon Kopelman family

Afghanistan 8/12/21

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.

Kiyana Hayeri/NYT

Messi

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.

BBC/Getty Images

Plum Island, Mass

 View of the Atlantic Coastline from Plum Island on Massachusetts's North Shore.

Robin Lubbock/WBUR

Scalzi Bridge

View over Venice's Scalzi Bridge.

August 2021

Giulia Marchi/NYT

Kiryat Shmona 8/4/21

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.

Twitter screencap