hello, this is bbc news with joanna gosling. the headlines. the us military says one of its drones has taken out an islamic state group planner, following thursday s attack which killed as many as 170 people at kabul airport. the uk s evacuation in afghanistan reaches its final stages. the head of britain s armed forces told the bbc the number of people left behind would be in the high hundreds. we ve done an extraordinaryjob to evacuate as many as we have, but i m afraid it s absolutely heartbreaking that we can t bring everybody out. a recipe for covid chaos government plans for schools are criticised by education unions who fear a rise in coronavirus infections. britain s lorry driver shortage the business secretary has rejected a temporary loosening of immigration rules and told companies to employ uk based staff. hurricane ida is approaching louisiana forcing the evacuation of high risk areas. and at the paralympics its two gold medals and two world records for
after the taliban takeover. 90 people were killed, mostly afghan civilians, and 13 us military personnel. a local branch of islamic state called is k or isis k said they carried out that attack. throughout the week, about 100,000 people were evacuated but thousands more have been left behind. there is a huge refugee crisis in the making and a possible humanitarian disaster in afghanistan as money runs out and food disappears. it couldn t be much worse, or could it? justin, let s start with you. you know afghanistan well. you used to be in contact regular with the taliban. they are a highly organised group of people but to what extent was it inevitable that afghanistan would fall to them and fall so quickly? well, when i was covering afghanistan, the government held most of the urban centres and the taliban held most of the countryside. so if you just looked at the area of the country controlled by the taliban, it controlled more than the government. and this was in the period
the final uk evacuation flight purely for afghan nationals has left kabul airport the ministry of defence has confirmed in the last few minutes. the us military says one of its drones has taken out an islamic state group planner, following thursday s attack which killed as many as 170 people at kabul airport. a recipe for covid chaos government plans for schools are criticised by education unions who fear a rise in coronavirus infections. britain s lorry driver shortage the business secretary has rejected a temporary loosening of immigration rules and told companies to employ uk based staff. hurricane ida is approaching louisiana forcing the evacuation of high risk areas. and at the paralympics its two gold medals and two world records for the british cycling couple husband and wife lora and neil fachie now on bbc news, weather world nick miller and sarah keith lucas ask if recent environmental disasters could mark a turning point in the world s approach to clim
good afternoon. the pentagon has said the us remains in regular communication with the taliban but there has been no change in what it described as the enemy s situation despite extensive security threats. it comes after the us embassy advised its citizens not to travel to kabul airport until asked to because of security issues outside its gates. the us says its helped 2,500 american nationals to leave the city over the past week. outside the airport, there are scenes of panic and chaos. us forces are firing shots into the air in an attempt to control the crowds, and images on social media show soldiers dealing with bodies. a pentagon spokesmen says he can t rule out the possibility of american troops going outside of kabul airport to get people. meanwhile, the taliban s co founder and head of its political wing, mullah abdul ghani baradar, has arrived in kabul. a taliban official are the group is making progress in forming a government in afghanistan and aiming to improve