🇺🇲🇦🇫 The first full-fledged reportage from inside the Kabul airport. CNN and Erin Burnett

🇫🇷 French Media, AFP News Agency on twitter:

#BREAKING
— "Taliban violating promises on Afghans' access to airport, says US State Department No. 2"

🇦🇫🇺🇲 The Pentagon has transferred the 621st Contingency Response Wing of the US Air Force from New Jersey to Kabul, whose tasks include preparing facilities (airfields) for receiving and dispatching aircraft as soon as possible.

The troops of this unit only recently left Afghanistan. They were the ones who "closed" the Bagram airbase.

🇦🇫🇺🇲 FOX News, citing official sources, reports that the military will at least have a hard time meeting the August 31 evacuation deadline set by Biden.

At the moment, reportedly, the Pentagon is only building up its forces at the Kabul airport, continuing the transfer of troops.

🇦🇫🇹🇷⚡ NATO member Turkey is open to cooperation with the Taliban - Erdogan

🇹🇷🇷🇺🇦🇫⚡ Erdogan said he expects to hold talks with Vladmir Putin on the situation in Afghanistan at the end of the week

🇦🇫🇺🇲⚡ New warning from U.S. Embassy Kabul: The United States government "cannot ensure safe passage" to the airport in Kabul for evacuation.

GOLDI-LOCKED OUT?! Afghanistan has 22 TONS of gold in a vault in New York, The Taliban can’t touch it, according to Quartz.

Biden’s administration has frozen the Afghanistan government’s holdings in US-based banks, which prevents the Taliban from having access to billions of dollars, which are part of the country’s foreign reserves.

According to published figures from Afghanistan’s central bank, 22 tons of gold with a value of $1.25 billion is being stored in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

DA Afghanistan Bank, is said to own $10 billion in reserve assets scattered throughout US banks according to data published by the bank, which is now essentially frozen and untouchable for the Taliban as of this week.

Subscribe to RT t.me/rtintl

🇺🇸🦅 American Independent Media, '@Breaking911' on August 17, 2021 on twitter:

"Sullivan:
— "The Taliban have informed us that they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport, and we intend to hold them to that commitment."

"...We are talking to them about what the exact timetable is for how this will all play out.""

🔗 Breaking911 (@Breaking911)

#Archive

🇺🇸🌐🗞 Washington Post | Opinion: The mujahideen resistance to the Taliban begins now. But we need help by Ahmad Massoud | 18-08-21
— "In 1998, when I was 9 years old, my father, the mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, gathered his soldiers in a cave in the Panjshir Valley of northern Afghanistan. They sat and listened as my father’s friend, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, addressed them. “When you fight for your freedom,” Lévy said, “you fight also for our freedom.”

My father never forgot this as he fought against the Taliban regime. Up until the moment he was assassinated on Sept. 9, 2001, at the behest of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, he was fighting for the fate of Afghanistan but also for the West.

Now this common struggle is more essential than ever in these dark, tense hours for my homeland."

https://archive.is/iWtDd

❗️Taliban seizes US military biometric devices which can identify Afghans who aided coalition efforts in country (Intercept)

An unidentified JSOC official told The Intercept, that the Taliban acquired biometrics equipment that contains data like iris scans and fingerprints of Afghans who aided the US and allies in country.

They told The Intercept that the portable devices could be used to access sensitive information from large, centralized military databases, and potentially expose those who helped resist the Taliban.

The International Rescue Committee estimates that over 300,000 Afghan civilians were involved with the American mission over the past two decades.

Subscribe to RT t.me/rtintl

🇺🇸🗞 CBS News Journalist, Eena Ruffini on twitter:

#BREAKING
— "Video of the North Gate at Kabul Airport via colleague 'Alana Anyse' (@/alanacbs on twitter) from Americans trying to access the airport."

🔗 Ruffini (@EenaRuffini)

⚡️NOW: Shots fired at the entrance of Kabul airport as people still attempt to get inside.

Subscribe to RT t.me/rtintl

🇦🇫🇺🇲🏳️ Joint work of the Taliban and the US military against Afghans at the northern gate of the Kabul airport. The situation is developing in these minutes.

🇫🇷💥 RIOTS AGAINST THE VACCINE PASSPORT IN FRANCE

👉🏻 Guadeloupe is a French overseas island in the Caribbean. For a fortnight the island has been facing a new lockdown.

ℹ️ The vaccine passport policy has created tensions, as well as the compulsory vaccination for civil servants in sensitive services (Guadeloupe is an island where many inhabitants are employed in public services).

🔥 In reaction to these health measures and to a generally difficult social context, demonstrations and riots broke out on the island.

📌 The Gendarmerie (a police unit composed of military personnel) had to deploy anti-riot units to regain control of certain streets.

🔗 Source : BFMTV (MSM)

"No democratic system" for Afghanistan - Taliban Council to rule?

Afghanistan may be ruled by a Taliban Council under the movement’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, according to senior member Waheedullah Hashimi.

"There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country,” Hashimi said. “We will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is sharia law and that is it.”

The Taliban's recruitment drive will also reach out to the Afghan Army they've waged war against for decades, especially pilots, to join "their brothers, their government".

Subscribe to RT: t.me/rtintl

🐍💰 ZeroHedge | Man Threatening Capitol With Bomb Is Tossing Dollar Bills From Truck While Communicating With Police Via White Board | 19-08-21
— "Meanwhile, at least one media report offered more colorful details about the would-be bomber. Apparently, he's sitting in a black pickup truck parked right in front of the Library of Congress building where he had been shouting about having "a bomb" while tossing dollar bills out of his window.

The Independent, a British newspaper with growing presence in Washington, offered a photo of the suspect along with witness comments. Other media reports claimed the man has a propane tank rigged as a bomb in his truck."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/capitol-hill-evacuated-amid-active-bomb-threat-near-library-congress

🐍💰 ZeroHedge | Times Square Evacuated Due To Possible Bomb Scare | 19-08-21
— "First a bomb scare in Washington, DC, and now there are reports of a bomb scare in Times Square (Midtown, Manhattan).

Local News PIX11 reports the NYPD bomb squad unit is headed to Times Square.

Live feeds from EarthCam show a police presence in Times Square has blocked city streets and evacuated the area. "

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/times-square-evacuated-due-possible-bomb-scare

🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈 HuffPost Journalist, Ryan J. Reilly on twitter:
— "“The revolution is on. It’s here… I’m ready to die for the cause.”

Here’s video from the man who said he’s got a bomb outside the Capitol."

🔗 Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly)