In photos: Race to evacuate Afghanistan
25 August 2021
The U.S. and allied countries are "working around the clock" to evacuate people from Afghanistan ahead of next week's scheduled full United States military withdrawal from the country, per the New York Times.
The big picture: President Biden said Tuesday that over 70,000 people had been evacuated since the airlift began on Aug. 14 and that the U.S. and its allies were on pace to pull out from Afghanistan by the deadline. He's suggested that U.S. troops may remain beyond Aug. 31 to continue to help in evacuation efforts.
Afghan refugees are greeted by family living in the U.S. as they depart from a processing center for refugees evacuated from Afghanistan at the Dulles Expo Center on Aug. 24, 2021 in Chantilly, Virginia. Photo: Joshua Roberts/Getty Images
Refugees disembark from an evacuation flight after being airlifted from Kabul, at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base, near Madrid, Spain on Aug. 24. Photo: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP via Getty Images
Indian and Afghan evacuees from Kabul are escorted by members police to a bus bound for a quarantine center upon arrival at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India, on Aug. 24. Photo: T. Narayan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A plane takes off from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 24. Photo: Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
People who want to flee the country continue to wait around Kabul's airport on Aug. 24. Photo: Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A satellite image of packed scenes at Kabul's airport on Aug. 23 Photo: Maxar Technologies
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.