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"Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life," he said, adding that he was sorry he "could not make it end differently". Mr. Ghani abruptly left Afghanistan as Taliban militants advanced on the capital on 15 August. He said he had not intended to abandon his people but "it was the only way". He also again denied the "baseless" allegations that he had traveled to the UAE with about $169m (£123m). In a statement shared on Twitter on Wednesday, Mr Ghani said he had no choice but to leave the country in order to avoid widespread violence. "I left at the urging of the palace security, who advised me that to stay risked setting off the same street-to-street fighting the city had suffered during the civil war of the 1990s," he wrote, adding that he did so to "save Kabul and her six million citizens". He said he had devoted 20 years to helping Afghanistan become a "democratic, prosperous and sovereign s...

(CNN)This is a week President Joe Biden would like to forget. But Republicans won't let that happen anytime soon. Consider the body blows he took this week: 1. The US ended its military presence in Afghanistan on Tuesday. While Biden spoke several times this week in an attempt to spin the withdrawal, the suicide bomber who took 13 American military lives last week and those of at least 170 others, coupled with the overall chaos of the pullout, reflected very poorly on him and his administration. 2. The economy -- plagued by the coronavirus Delta variant -- stalled badly last month. Just 235,000 jobs were created in August, the lowest number in more than six months. (Economists had expected more than 700,000 jobs to be created in August.) 3. Sen. Joe Manchin, a critical moderate Democrat from West Virginia, said Thursday that he believed his party needed to take a "strategic pause" in its efforts to pass a $3.5 trillion stimulus package that Biden has cast as nec...

US President Joe Biden has defended his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan - a move which led to Taliban militants returning to power. Staying longer was not an option, Mr Biden said in an address to the nation, a day after the end of a 20-year US presence in Afghanistan. He praised troops for organising an airlift of more than 120,000 people wishing to flee the Taliban regime. The Islamist militants have been celebrating what they call a victory. US-led troops went into Afghanistan in 2001, ousting the Taliban in the wake of the devastating 9/11 attacks, blamed on al-Qaeda - a militant jihadist group then based in the Asian country. Mr Biden has been widely criticised - at home and by his allies - over the abrupt manner of the US withdrawal, which led to the unexpected collapse of the Afghan security forces US troops had trained and funded for years. President Biden deployed nearly 6,000 troops to seize control of the airport to co-ordinate the evacuation of...

HACIENDA HEIGHTS, Calif. — Brenda and Leo Ortiz had paid enough attention to the news from Afghanistan that it was hardly a surprise when their 11-year-old son asked them a question: How could so many Americans be killed last week? Ms. Ortiz, 41, tried her best to explain, giving their son a brief history lesson on Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and ISIS. But by Saturday, Ms. Ortiz was focused on more personally pressing matters. Her three children were completing their first month of in-person schooling since the start of the pandemic. She said she was saddened by the deaths of Americans. But she wondered aloud how she could possibly focus on a crisis on the other side of the world when there was more than enough to worry about in the United States, in her own backyard. “I don’t think it was ever going to be easy to leave,” Ms. Ortiz said while watching her children play soccer in their recently resumed league at a park in the Los Angeles County community of Hacienda Heights. “A...

By Peter Baker As the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan capping an ill-fated 20-year war turned uglier and deadlier in recent days, President Biden has stood by his decision but at the same time repeatedly singled out one person in particular to blame: his predecessor. Because President Donald J. Trump struck an agreement with the Taliban last year to pull out, Mr. Biden has insisted that he had no choice but to abide by the deal he inherited or send tens of thousands of American troops back to Afghanistan to risk their lives in a “forever war.” It was, in other words, all in or all out. But that reductionist formula has prompted a profound debate over whether the mayhem in Kabul, the capital, was in fact inevitable or the result of a failure to consider other options that might have ended in a different outcome. The unusual confluence of two presidents of rival parties sharing the same goal and same approach has led to second-guessing and finger-pointing that may p...

People have been sleeping in makeshift camps after fleeing their homes US President Joe Biden has said he does not regret his move to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, as Taliban militants continue to make rapid advances. Mr Biden urged Afghanistan's leaders to unite and "fight for their nation". A US-led military campaign began in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks on American soil - but now most of the foreign troops have pulled out. The Taliban group has now seized nine of the country's 34 provincial capitals, and are threatening more. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Mr Biden said the US was keeping the commitments it had made to Afghanistan, such as providing close air support, paying military salaries and supplying Afghan forces with food and equipment. But he said: "They've got to fight for themselves." #joebiden #troops #president #taliban #war #home #afghanistan #country #homes #biden #asia #camp #sleeping #world...

As President Biden’s September deadline for ending the long war in Afghanistan approaches, a bipartisan coalition in Congress is stepping up efforts to ensure that Afghans who face retribution there for working alongside American troops and personnel are able to immigrate to the United States. The group of Republicans and Democrats, many of them military members or veterans who have worked with translators, drivers and fixers in Afghanistan and other combat zones, is racing to put in place legislation to help the “Afghan allies,” as they are often called, before American troops go home, leaving those allies unprotected against revenge attacks by the Taliban. The lawmakers want to make it easier for the Afghans to qualify for special visas, to expedite the process of obtaining one, and to get them out of Afghanistan as soon as possible while they await authorization to live legally in the United States. #congress #worldlynewsonline #president #effort #afghanistan #helping #asia #vi...

Border with Mexico President Biden pledged on Friday to Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, that the United States would support a safe future for Afghanistan, a country increasingly threatened by a violent insurgency as American and international troops withdraw. The Biden administration has assured Afghanistan’s leaders that it will continue to provide security, diplomatic and humanitarian assistance, even as the Taliban advances on Afghan government forces. #afghanistan #update #ghani #insurgency #harris #unitedstates #updates #biden #ashrafghani #liveupdate #liveupdates #presidentbiden #asia #mexico #united