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U.S. allies have rapidly begun to wind down their evacuation operations from Kabul amidst heightened security concerns and ahead of the August 31 withdrawal deadline.

Driving the news: The U.S. is in control of Kabul's airport but plans to end its operation by Aug. 31, which the Taliban considers a red line, and needs time to evacuate its troops. Thursday's attack at the airport will only increase the urgency. In the meantime, allies including Canada, Germany and Poland have already ended their evacuations.

The big picture: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said earlier this week that the U.K. would be evacuating people "until the last moment." However it's possible that civilian evacuations will end a day earlier, in order to then evacuate British troops, reports the BBC.

  • Canada's ended its evacuation operations Thursday, according to acting chief of the defense staff General Wayne Eyre, Reuters reported.
  • French Prime Minister confirmed Thursday that France's evacuations would end on Friday evening.
  • On Tuesday Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said the country was in the "back end of this campaign now," even as reports surface of Australian visa holders not being able to enter the Kabul airport, per the Guardian.
  • Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo confirmed via Twitter Wednesday night ET that the country had ended its evacuation operations.
  • Poland also announced Wednesday evening ET that it had completed its last evacuation, according to the Associated Press.
  • The Czech Republic completed its operations last week, per AP.
  • Denmark made its final evacuation flight Wednesday, and Hungary ended its evacuations Thursday, per Reuters.
  • Turkey began evacuating its military troops from Afghanistan Wednesday, a process that will take up to 36 hours, Reuters reported.
  • Germany also ended its evacuation efforts Thursday, according to Deutsche Welle.

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.