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As America’s longest war comes to a screeching halt, the post-mortem examination on what went wrong over 20 years of conflict begins.
The US Congress has already promised investigations into how the Taliban were able to seize Afghanistan so quickly and why President Joe Biden botched the withdrawal that has left thousands of Afghans rushing to flee the country.
The ultimate failures of Washington's two decades of Afghanistan efforts were overseen by four US presidents, but it is the Biden administration that now owns the crisis.
Here is a look at some of the key US figures involved in recent events.
Joe Biden
Mr Biden is a long-time critic of the Afghanistan war who, as vice president, disagreed with Barack Obama’s 2009 decision to “surge” tens of thousands of US troops into the country.
Any attempt to prop up Afghanistan’s deeply corrupt government would merely mean “prolonging failure,” he said at the time, according to journalist Bob Woodward’s book Obama’s Wars.
Now Mr Biden has taken a career-defining gamble on what happens next in Afghanistan.
If the Taliban establish some sort of effective governance and respect hard-won gains for women and minorities, the president may be at least partially vindicated in his decision to end the war.
But if the hardliners do not meet promises to moderate, if they start killing former members of President Ashraf Ghani's government and military, or if they allow terror groups to operate with impunity, Mr Biden faces enormous backlash.
As vice president, he saw first-hand what happened after the US troop pull-out from in Iraq in 2011.
Mr Obama had to reverse the withdrawal in 2014, sending thousands of US forces back into Iraq as ISIS rampaged across the country and the national army collapsed.
Mr Biden on Wednesday insisted the Afghanistan withdrawal was always going to end in bedlam.
"We're gonna go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow, there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens," he told ABC News.
Antony Blinken
From 2009 to 2013, Mr Blinken served as deputy assistant to Mr Obama and as national security adviser to then-vice president Mr Biden.
During his tenure in the Obama administration, he helped to craft US policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran's nuclear programme.
Mr Blinken, seen as a quiet professional with less of the bombast of his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, will now be remembered for repeatedly reassuring Americans that the Afghan conflict would not end like the Vietnam War.
Even as Afghanistan's security forces were collapsing last week, he glumly repeated the assertion that the situation “is manifestly not Saigon”.
The reference relates to the chaos in the former South Vietnamese capital in 1975 as America lost that war.
But if anything, the images of desperate Afghans clinging to the side of a taxiing US C-17 cargo plane are even worse.
Jake Sullivan
Jake Sullivan, Mr Biden’s National Security Adviser, admitted that the events in Afghanistan had unfolded with, “unexpected speed".
Mr Sullivan, 44, started his career of service as an assistant in the Obama administration.
One of his former colleagues, Brett Bruen, who was Mr Obama's director of global engagement, wrote an opinion piece in USA Today saying that Mr Sullivan should be the sacrificial lamb as the Biden administration unpicks the events of recent weeks.
“Biden wanted out of Afghanistan. It was on Sullivan to figure out how to achieve the president’s goal while ensuring we avoided potential pitfalls and problems. That’s clearly not what happened," Mr Bruen wrote.
Lloyd Austin
Lloyd Austin was the commanding general of US forces in Iraq as they wound down their presence there in 2011.
He was opposed to a total US withdrawal and had argued for thousands of troops to remain to train and assist the Iraqi security forces.
A decade later, he is the Secretary of Defence as the Afghanistan crisis unfolds.
He has had to send thousands of extra troops into Afghanistan in recent days just to make sure the remaining US forces can leave safely, and to help extract thousands of US citizens and Afghans desperate to flee.
The Pentagon has even had to ask the Taliban to protect civilians heading to the airport.
Zalmay Khalilzad
Mr Khalilzad, the US special envoy on Afghanistan under former president Donald Trump, was kept in the job by the Biden administration and will face scrutiny for his role in the final years of the war.
Critics including Mr Biden have said the 2020 deal he negotiated with the Taliban surrendered too much US leverage and paved the way for the situation today.
Not only did the accord completely cut out the government led by Mr Ghani at the time, it awarded the Taliban broad concessions, including the withdrawal of all US troops, in return for only vague commitments and actions.
For instance, it mandated Mr Ghani’s government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners before peace talks even got under way. In return, the Taliban had to release only 1,000 pro-Ghani captives.
Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage
Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid
Stars: Abdulaziz Almadhi, Mohammed Al Akkasi, Ali Al Suhaibani
Rating: 4/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
if you go
The flights
The closest international airport to the TMB trail is Geneva (just over an hour’s drive from the French ski town of Chamonix where most people start and end the walk). Direct flights from the UAE to Geneva are available with Etihad and Emirates from about Dh2,790 including taxes.
The trek
The Tour du Mont Blanc takes about 10 to 14 days to complete if walked in its entirety, but by using the services of a tour operator such as Raw Travel, a shorter “highlights” version allows you to complete the best of the route in a week, from Dh6,750 per person. The trails are blocked by snow from about late October to early May. Most people walk in July and August, but be warned that trails are often uncomfortably busy at this time and it can be very hot. The prime months are June and September.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
BEACH SOCCER WORLD CUP
Group A
Paraguay
Japan
Switzerland
USA
Group B
Uruguay
Mexico
Italy
Tahiti
Group C
Belarus
UAE
Senegal
Russia
Group D
Brazil
Oman
Portugal
Nigeria
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
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The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 582bhp
Torque: 730Nm
Price: Dh649,000
On sale: now
Brief scores
Barcelona 2
Pique 36', Alena 87'
Villarreal 0
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EKelsey%20Mann%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%C2%A0Amy%20Poehler%2C%20Maya%20Hawke%2C%20Ayo%20Edebiri%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E4.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
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%3Cp%3EMercedes-Benz's%20MBUX%20digital%20voice%20assistant%2C%20Hey%20Mercedes%2C%20allows%20users%20to%20set%20up%20commands%20for%3A%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Navigation%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Calls%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20In-car%20climate%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Ambient%20lighting%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Media%20controls%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Driver%20assistance%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20General%20inquiries%20such%20as%20motor%20data%2C%20fuel%20consumption%20and%20next%20service%20schedule%2C%20and%20even%20funny%20questions%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EThere's%20also%20a%20hidden%20feature%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20pressing%20and%20holding%20the%20voice%20command%20button%20on%20the%20steering%20wheel%20activates%20the%20voice%20assistant%20on%20a%20connected%20smartphone%20%E2%80%93%20Siri%20on%20Apple's%20iOS%20or%20Google%20Assistant%20on%20Android%20%E2%80%93%20enabling%20a%20user%20to%20command%20the%20car%20even%20without%20Apple%20CarPlay%20or%20Android%20Auto%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Fatima Al Darmaki is an Emirati widow with three children
She has received 46 certificates of appreciation and excellence throughout her career
She won the 'ideal mother' category at the Minister of Interior Awards for Excellence
Her favourite food is Harees, a slow-cooked porridge-like dish made from boiled wheat berries mixed with chicken
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