USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has pledged firmly to bring all Americans home from Afghanistan — and all Afghans who aided the war effort, too — as officials confirmed that U.S. military helicopters flew beyond the Kabul airport to scoop up 169 Americans seeking to evacuate.

Biden’s promises came Friday as thousands more Americans and others seeking to escape the Taliban struggled to get past crushing crowds, Taliban airport checkpoints and sometimes-insurmountable U.S. bureaucracy.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 20 (APP): The U.N. refugee agency says millions of Afghans caught in deteriorating situation in Afghanistan are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance and protection and must not be forgotten by the international community.

“UNHCR remains concerned about the risk of human rights violations against civilians in this evolving context, including for women and girls”, Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, said.

20 Aug 2021; MEMO: Fifty-three House Democrats have warned of the grim humanitarian situation in Gaza in a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which they denounced Israel's collective punishment of Palestinians in the besieged enclave and the occupation state's banning of essential material that are vital to ease Palestinian suffering.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- UN humanitarians said Thursday that the relief crisis in Afghanistan is deteriorating rapidly, with 12.2 million people acutely food insecure.

While thousands of people are reported fleeing, or attempting to flee, through Kabul airport, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 735,000 people returned to the country this year from Iran, Pakistan and other countries and are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Another 550,000 people became internally displaced since January.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has given new urgency to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tour of southeast Asia, where she will attempt to reassure allies of American resolve following the chaotic end of a two-decade war.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Millions of students in Florida, Texas and Arizona are now required to wear masks in class as school boards in mostly Democratic areas have defied their Republican governors and made face coverings mandatory.

The three states are all hot spots in the nation’s recent COVID-19 surge, and defiant boards in Miami, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix and other urban areas argue that requiring masks protects students, teachers and staff from contracting and spreading the virus as many pediatric hospitals fill.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is struggling to pick up the pace of American and Afghan evacuations at Kabul airport, constrained by obstacles ranging from armed Taliban checkpoints to paperwork problems. With an Aug. 31 deadline looming, tens of thousands remained to be airlifted from the chaotic country.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Three Albuquerque police officers were shot and another was injured while responding to a robbery Thursday, leaving law enforcement officials and elected leaders frustrated as New Mexico’s largest city continues to grapple with a record-setting year of deadly violence.

PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — Dry and windy weather dogged firefighters’ efforts to contain destructive fires that are devouring the bone-dry forests of drought-stricken Northern California on Thursday.

An estimated 11,000 firefighters were on the lines of more than a dozen large wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and other buildings, forced thousands of people to flee communities and filled skies with smoke.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Authorities combing areas of North Carolina flooded by the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred said Thursday that two people have been found dead and about 20 were unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, Fred — now a post-tropical cyclone — was pushing through New York and New England with drenching rains, and Tropical Storm Henri was sending dangerous waves onto East Coast beaches. Forecasters said Henri will likely strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches the northeastern U.S. early next week.