Few words can describe the feeling of despair and anger I felt as I read the papers on Tuesday morning.
The testimonial given by a Foreign Office whistleblower brought back all the memories of the Afghanistan crisis and mapped out in detail a series of failures when our focus should have been on Afghan women and girls we had a moral obligation to help.
The stark and swift western withdrawal from Afghanistan was a failure of statecraft and a complete failure of leadership.
I spent chaotic days and nights taking phone calls at all hours from women and girls desperately trying to flee the Taliban.
They had spent decades rebuilding their country into a place where women and girls could live without fear. They were judges, journalists, politicians, mothers. None of them had committed a crime, but, in the eyes of the Taliban, they were the enemy.
The emails and calls continued to flow in. My young team worked overtime, days and nights and weekends, trying to stem the flow and direct people to the right places.
Pass all details on to the Foreign Office, we were told. Gather the data and send it to us, and we will do everything we can to get the most at-risk women and girls out of Afghanistan and into safety.
During one phone call with a female politician’s family, I heard the bomb at Kabul airport explode in the background. They were risking life and limb responding to the changing information they were receiving on how to be extracted out of Afghanistan.
It is soul-destroying to think now that nothing was being done
Still the messages, calls, FaceTime, emails kept coming. Friends of friends of friends now got in touch, asking if we could do anything at all. They had already sent through their passport information, data, location – at great personal risk – so why was no response coming? Every night they hid in their homes, fearing the door would be kicked in and they would be dragged out by the Taliban.
I kept asking my team: "Have we sent this on? Are we sure? Have we checked?" We were having conversations like "Are they reading our emails" because it doesn't make sense that we keep being told "the right people will be extracted. Send us the information and they will be helped" and nothing was happening. We didn’t even know where to direct these women and girls – to the airport? To the border?
Raphael Marshall’s testimony now paints a picture of what we had begun to suspect at the time.
The Foreign Office was not reading our emails. It was not processing them fast enough. There was a lack of leadership at the top.
In his evidence, Marshall says that “between Saturday 21 August and Wednesday 25 August, there were usually over 5,000 unread emails in the inbox at any given moment, including many unread emails dating from early in August”.
Specifically, he says that “in 100s if not 1000s of cases emails from MPs were also unread”.
Yet, we were repeatedly told, the women and girls were being processed and looked after. This was the assurance I tried to give them on the phone. It is soul destroying to think now that nothing was being done.
So what can our Government do to try and restore credibility and show what Global Britain is fundamentally about?
Three things need to happen.
First, we can work with international partners to draw up a list of women and girls we have left behind who urgently and desperately need our help to stay alive – for the future of Afghanistan and for the security of our country. Translators, journalists, lawyers, aid workers, politicians, community leaders, teachers, women and their families – the list needs to be comprehensive and thorough.
Second, the Home Office urgently needs to get the Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme up and functioning.
And, finally, I want to see a top-down assessment of how this monumental failure of leadership and statecraft took place. We cannot afford to ever have something like this happen again.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8
Power: 503hp at 6,000rpm
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Results
2.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 1,700m; Winner: AF Mezmar, Adam McLean (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer).
3pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 2,000m; Winner: AF Ajwad, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel.
3.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 1,200m; Winner: Gold Silver, Sam Hitchcott, Ibrahim Aseel.
4pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 1,000m; Winner: Atrash, Richard Mullen, Ana Mendez.
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GAC GS8 Specs
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Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
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Price: From Dh149,900
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Lexus LX700h specs
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Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Miguel Cotto world titles:
WBO Light Welterweight champion - 2004-06
WBA Welterweight champion – 2006-08
WBO Welterweight champion – Feb 2009-Nov 2009
WBA Light Middleweight champion – 2010-12
WBC Middleweight champion – 2014-15
WBO Light Middleweight champion – Aug 2017-Dec 2017
Batti Gul Meter Chalu
Producers: KRTI Productions, T-Series
Director: Sree Narayan Singh
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyenndu Sharma, Yami Gautam
Rating: 2/5
INDIA SQUAD
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammad Siraj and Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper)
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
