August 18, 2021: Taliban and Kabul evacuations, Biden, Caldor wildfire, COVID deaths, Haiti

August 18, 2021: Kabul evacuations, U.S. credibility, California wildfire, COVID deaths, Haiti

1. More than 2,200 diplomats and other civilians have been evacuated from Afghanistan on military flights, as efforts gathered pace to get people out after the Taliban seized the capital.

2. As the Taliban takes Kabul, Biden is scrambling to defend himself from a series of miscalculations that have damaged U.S. credibility.

3. California's wildfire crisis escalated as resurgent strong winds fanned the state's biggest conflagration, drove flames from a separate, smaller blaze into a rural mountain community and prompted widespread precautionary power shutoffs.

4. The United States reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, equating to around 42 fatalities an hour, according to a Reuters tally, as the Delta variant continues to ravage parts of the country with low vaccination rates.

5. Haitians left homeless by a devastating earthquake that killed about 2,000 people voiced anger over a lack of government aid as they spent a fourth night in the open.

#Kabul
#Afghanistan
#Evacuations
#JoeBiden
#WhiteHouse
#US
#California
#Wildfire
#DixieFire
#DeltaVariant
#Coronavirus
#COVID
#Haiti
#Vaccine
#News
#Reuters

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