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Taliban meet with Afghan leaders at presidential palace to negotiate transfer of power

15 August 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Afghan government officials and Taliban leaders on Sunday are holding talks at the presidential palace in Kabul, as the militant group pushes for an "unconditional surrender."

State of Play: Taliban forces surrounded the capital city on Sunday morning, hours after capturing the key eastern city of Jalalabad.

  • The Taliban said in a statement it had told fighters to not harm civilians and to "stay at the gates of Kabul" until "the transition takes place."
  • Matin Bek, chief of staff to President Ashraf Ghani, tweeted as the Taliban advanced on Afghanistan's capital, "Don’t panic! Kabul is safe!"

What else is happening: Helicopters are landing near the U.S. Embassy to conduct "rapid shuttle-run flights," per AP.

  • A U.S. Embassy official told Reuters on Sunday morning, "We have a small batch of people leaving now as we speak, a majority of the staff are ready to leave ... the embassy continues to function. The embassy continues to function."

What they're saying: The U.S. Embassy in Kabul tweeted that it had "conveyed to the Taliban reps" in Doha, Qatar, where on-and-off peace talks have been taking place, that any action that put American personnel "or our mission at risk" would be met with a "swift" and "strong" response from the U.S. Defense Department.

  • "Amb. Tracey Jacobson is in charge of a whole-of-government effort to process, transport, & relocate SIV applicants & other Afghan allies," the embassy added.

The big picture: President Biden on Saturday ordered 1,000 more troops to secure an airlift of U.S. Embassy personnel and Afghan allies as the Taliban closed in on the Afghan capital. Marines were assisting with airlift efforts.

Go deeper:

Editor's note: This article will be updated with relevant new developments as they occur.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly 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.