Markus Andrews

Afghanistan’s president vows to prevent ‘achievements’ of last 20 years going to wasteThe Taliban now controls more than two-thirds of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals and, after a further assault on Saturday morning, Kabul is within its reach.Pul-e-Alam – around 40 miles from the capital city – was overtaken with minimal resistance from residents, a local provincial council member told Reuters. Earlier today, Logar province was also captured and its officials detained, Hoda Ahmadi, a lawmaker from there, said. It comes as American soldiers arrived to help evacuate embassy personnel and other civilians. In a televised address, Afghanistan’s president vowed to prevent the “achievements” of the last 20 years going to waste. Meanwhile, a former head of the British Army has encouraged Boris Johnson to launch a humanitarian aid operation to alleviate the growing refugee crisis in Afghanistan. Lord Dannatt said the south Asian country was facing a “tragedy in the making” amid a rapidly increasing number of displaced people arriving in Kabul.Show latest update

1628952724US carries out air strikes in Kandahar – reportThe Americans have carried out air strikes just outside of Kandahar airport, according to local journalist Bilil Sarwary.“Scores of Taliban fighters” have been killed, he says, quoting security sources and a doctor at a local hospital.The militant group took control of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, on Friday. It is said to have been a major target for the Taliban because of its international airport, agricultural and industrial output.“Police commanders … are refusing to surrender. They are fighting in a corner of the airport, they say we need stronger guarantees to surrender,” Mr Sarwary also reports in the thread on Twitter, citing sources.Sam Hancock14 August 2021 15:521628951719Man who fled Taliban aged 12 discusses ‘betrayal’ of Afghan peopleSam Hancock14 August 2021 15:351628950898‘Only Afghans should decide their law,’ says Islam commentatorHere’s Roshan M Salih, editor of the Muslim news website 5Pillars, on why he believes the West should speedily accept Afghanistan’s incoming Taliban regime.“Afghanistan has suffered from decades of foreign intervention, first by the Russians and then by the Americans, the British and Nato. All these colonial interventions have devastated the nation, causing nothing but death and destruction. They were also doomed to failure from the start because only Afghans have the legitimacy to build their own country. I don’t speak for all Muslims but I know that many of us now hope and pray that peace and security will return to the country and the best way that can happen is for the Taliban to win quickly and control as much of the country as possible. I believe the negative reactions in the West to the Taliban’s advance are a lashing out after a huge, historic defeat. But taxpayers in the West should be furious at their governments for wasting so much money on an unwinnable war which has been nothing but a drain on national resources. Finally I would say that many Muslims disagree with the Taliban’s interpretation of some aspects of Islamic law – especially restrictions on women working, etc – and it is our hope that harsher aspects of Taliban rule from the Nineties will not be repeated. That said, only Afghans have the right to decide what law they live by in accordance with their religion and culture. Western liberalism cannot be imposed on the Afghans. We also are confident that the country will not be used as a base to attack the West. The signs are good that the Taliban have learned from previous errors and will have good relations with neighbouring countries. The international community should immediately recognise a new Taliban government and help it develop in a positive direction.”Sam Hancock14 August 2021 15:211628950208German army ‘must help save those stuck in Afghanistan’ – CDU leaderGermany’s conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor has called on the foreign ministry to quickly authorise German troops to assist in the departure of local helpers from Afghanistan.“The Bundeswehr have to save these people,” Armin Laschet said at an event earlier. “That’s the moral obligation after everything they have done for us.”It comes after foreign minister Heiko Maas said on Friday that Germany would bring forward charter flights originally planned for the end of August to evacuate non-essential embassy staff in Kabul as well as Afghan helpers.“We can’t watch them any longer being threatened by the Taliban and fundamentalists,” Mr Laschet proclaimed. He said the SPD-led foreign ministry had been too hesitant and should put forward a new parliamentary motion for a Bundeswehr mandate. More

Up to 8,000 asylum seekers will be sent to new “basic” accommodation centres, under government plans to end the use of hotels.Priti Patel has begun the bidding process for the new policy – first announced in March – revealing that nine centres are planned across England, but none in the rest of the UK.The number of places sought means the home secretary wants nearly three times as many as planned by Labour when it unveiled similar controversial plans 20 years ago.They were killed off by local opposition in Worcestershire, Hampshire, Nottinghamshire and Oxfordshire, where the centres were earmarked.Ms Patel’s plans are part of a hardline crackdown designed to stem the rise in cross-Channel crossings, which has seen more than 10,000 people make the life-threatening journey in small boats this year.Hotels are viewed as a “pull factor”, although they have been criticised by refugee support groups for leaving people without adequate shoes, clothing or suitable food in “dehumanising” conditions.Instead of moving asylum seekers to private housing, the tender seeks “new build” sites but also plans the renovation of pre-existing buildings.The Home Office will contract out transport, facilities management, security, catering and “wraparound services”, such as safeguarding, education and healthcare, a document says.Chris Philp, the immigration minister, said: “The New Plan for Immigration is the only credible long-term plan to fix the broken asylum system and bring the exploitation by people-smugglers to an end.“We will end the use of hotels for new arrivals. We plan to introduce new centres to provide basic accommodation for those who can’t be returned to a safe country.”The Independent reported that Ms Patel recently visited a controversial new “closed” asylum centre on the Greek island of Samos, prompting concern that she plans something similar.Campaigners have accused her of failing to tackle the root causes of the rise in crossings, preferring headline-grabbing measures that will do nothing to cut the journeys.The Home Office document says the nine centres will need to accommodate what it calls “service users” for up to six months.However, the average waiting time for a case to be decided has risen to more than a year, with many asylum seekers waiting far longer.Despite the stated policy, it appears the Home Office is still considering the limited use of hotels, if necessary.The document states it hopes to “facilitate networking and engagement between different partners, including landlords, hoteliers and other accommodation providers to facilitate new solutions”.New legislation will criminalise the 60 per cent of asylum seekers who currently reach Britain via unauthorised routes.Permanent protection will be denied and those individuals routinely assessed for removal instead, if countries agree to take them back – which remains a huge doubt. More

New government plans to cut carbon emissions have been attacked for “barely scratching the surface”, because they will replace just 60,000 gas boilers.Boris Johnson is poised to announce a four-fold boost to a £100m scrappage scheme to offer grants of £7,000 – instead of £4,000 – to homeowners willing to switch to heat pumps.The move follows fierce criticism of the delay to a promised heat and buildings strategy, which was due in July, with the crucial Cop26 summit in Glasgow now just 11 weeks away.It would hike the budget to £400m and run the scheme over three rather than two years – as well as providing higher grants – but is not yet thought to have been approved by the Treasury.Friends of the Earth described the planned programme as “a start”, but one falling far short of what is needed when 29 million UK homes must be upgraded.“What’s needed are concerted, comprehensive measures, not these half measures,” said climate spokesperson Connor Schwartz, adding: “This barely scratches the surface.“The pay-off of proper investment is that we will have warm homes that aren’t reliant on polluting gas. This means emissions will reduce significantly and there are plenty of long-term jobs in it.”Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat climate change spokesperson, said: “This scheme falls woefully short of the real needs of most families to get their homes to zero carbon in time for this climate emergency.“Meanwhile, this government is allowing homes to still be built that aren’t zero carbon –which is a scandal. The heating of all our homes needs to be zero carbon in the next 10 years.”The Clean Heat Grants, to be launched next April, are a small-scale replacement for the ill-fated £1.5bn Green Homes Grant – which was scrapped in March after just six months, because of low take-up.The plan, first reported by The Times and confirmed to The Independent, must be confirmed well in advance of the climate summit to avoid further criticism.Heat pumps cut carbon by extracting heat from the ground, water and air, but currently cost about £10,000 compared with only £1,000 for a gas boiler.Mr Johnson has set a target for 600,000 such pumps to be installed every year by 2028, but it is unclear how that can be achieved – with only about 35,000 installed annually at present.Replacing gas boilers is seen as essential to the UK’s legal commitment to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050, with home energy use accounting for 15 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions.However, although experts say new installations must be outlawed no later than 2035, that target may be downgraded to merely an “ambition”, in the delayed strategy next month. More

Violent attacks by “incels” such as Plymouth gunman Jake Davison will be treated as terrorism if the movement grows, a government adviser says.Police have been criticised for not treating the tragedy – which saw the gunman shoot five people and himself, after misogynistic social media posts calling himself an involuntary celibate – as terror-related.Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation for the Home Office, said whether or not a threat is categorised as terrorism is a “question of scale”.But he added: “If we see more of these sorts of attacks, then I have got no doubt that it will be treated more seriously as terrorism.”Incels, who typically blame women for a failure to form sexual relationships, are currently considered part of right-wing terrorism – but Mr Hall acknowledged they are “quite separate”.Davison said he was an “incel” and protested about not losing his virginity as a teenager, in a rambling video posted on YouTube three weeks agoOn a Reddit account, one post was titled “Why anti-gun people are evil & disgusting human filth”. He also described women as “very simple-minded and they ain’t all that bright”.Mr Hall, said there was no need to change the definition of terrorism, because the current description of violence used to advance an ideological cause is sufficient.He told BBC Radio 4 that an “isolated incident” crossing that threshold would probably not be treated as such because it might not make sense to “divert resources” to counter it.But he added: “If something reaches a scale where it affects, if you like, the national security of the country or the general sense of security, of the population, then you might want to.”Mr Hall added, on the incel threat: “It seems part of right-wing terrorism but it is not really. In fact, it is quite separate from it. It is a different sort of ideology.“The question is really one of choice. Do we want to start treating incels as potential terrorists?”Peter Fahy, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, agreed that many people believe misogynistic crimes are “not high enough” on the list of police priorities.But he added: “When we give high publicity to these cases, which is inevitable given the size of the tragedy, the trouble is it puts thoughts in other people’s minds. We must be careful we don’t build these people up too much.”Nazir Afzal, formerly chief crown prosecutor for the north west, also questioned why Davison was not on a police watchlist, saying he was “exactly the type of person the authorities should be keeping an eye on”.In his now-deleted posts, Davison set out his hopes for “making up” for missing out on a sex life as a teenager.He was a gun enthusiast who praised Donald Trump, and wrote regularly of his hatred for his mother, Maxine, who was the first person he shot dead.Neil Basu, Britain’s most senior counterterrorism officer, warned MPs a year ago that young people were being groomed online for terrorism, including “incel” alongside far-right and Islamist extremism. More

Deaths from drug and alcohol misuse hit a record high following sharp cuts to treatment services across the country, it has been revealed.An analysis by the House of Commons Library found that more than £100 million less was being spent per year on services between 2016-17 and 2019-20.In a record high, more than 11,000 people died from drug and alcohol-related diseases in England and Wales in 2020.In the years leading up to the peak, services were cut by 15 per cent, with sharper slashes to local council areas in particular.The Commons Library figures show that just 10 councils have been able to find the cash to increase resources for drug and alcohol misuse. Meanwhile, in four local authorities – South Tyneside, Wiltshire, Staffordshire, and Medway – cuts of more than 40 per cent were made to drug and alcohol misuse services. “Years of Tory cuts to vital public health services have seen sickness increase and health inequalities widen,” said Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow health secretary.“It’s unacceptable for public health services that tackle alcohol and drug addiction to be left so weakened because of deep cuts when we know that they can cause huge harm and death.“We need a new settlement for public health services, a clear target to reduce inequalities and action to minimise harm and help prevent so many dying from addiction.”In total, spending on services fell from £762m in 2016-17 to £690m in 2019-20. Government figures show that in 2020 a record number of 7,423 people in England and Wales died from diseases that were a direct consequence of alcohol with a further 4,561 people dying from causes related to drug poisoning.A government spokesperson said: “Any death due to substance misuse is a tragedy.“We are investing £148m to tackle the root causes of drug misuse including £80m for treatment and recovery – the largest investment in the drug treatment system for 15 years – as well as tightening controls on dangerous substances and we will bring forward an ambitious drug strategy later this year.“On top of that, we are backing local authorities, who know their communities best, with over £3.3bn in 2021-2022 to spend on public health services, including drug and alcohol treatment.” More

The government has cut the price of NHS coronavirus tests for travel by £20 amid criticism of the costs being imposed on holidaymakers.Travellers, including people who have been fully vaccinated, are having to shell out hundreds of pounds on PCR tests – a requirement that has been deterring people from going abroad.Under the price cut, the cost of a travel test from NHS Test and Trace will be reduced from £88 to £68 for one test and from £170 to £136 for two.People returning to the UK, even from countries on the green list, have to take a test before they depart for England and a test two days after they arrive.The requirement means testing is often more expensive than flights, accommodation, or both combined – putting foreign holidays out of the reach of millions who would normally travel on a budget.The NHS tests are advertised alongside private providers as an option for returning holidaymakers. And there are even more requirements for people returning from amber list countries and those who have not been fully vaccinated, while people returning from red list countries must pay thousands to stay in hotel quarantine. The government says it will review the list of private travel testing providers and clamp down on “misleading pricing”, while a wider Competition and Markets Authority review of the market for PCR testing is ongoing.NHS Covid-19 tests are free for domestic purposes but any required for travel must be paid for.The government says the tests, which sit in addition to any arrival and departure requirements imposed by the country being visited, are required to keep possible new vaccine-resistant variants out of the UK.But Munira Wilson, Liberal Democrat health spokesperson slammed the government, saying: “It is disgraceful that private companies are profiteering from the pandemic, and this announcement does nothing to stop that.”“The health secretary is merely tinkering around the edges. He needs to stop the dithering and finally introduce a price cap for PCR tests.“This is a slap in the face for all those who are desperate to see their families abroad for the first time since the start of the pandemic, and those who have saved up for a holiday.”Announcing the £20 price cut, the health secretary said: “I know how much people have looked forward to their summer holidays and that the cost of PCR testing can be a barrier to that. That is why I am determined to protect consumers and hardworking families from exploitative practices and ensure high-quality tests are available at a reasonable price. “I am pleased to announce that with immediate effect we’re slashing the price of day two and eight tests from NHS Test and Trace by a fifth – this will benefit people right across the UK. “I’ve also ordered my department to urgently review the list of private providers on gov.uk to ensure pricing is clearer and transparent. Any provider found to be misleading the public will be kicked off.“Too many providers are acting like cowboys and that needs to stop. The public should be allowed to enjoy their summer holidays without having to face excessive costs or anxiety.” More

Priti Patel has lost the security minister brief at the Home Office less than 24 hours after she reportedly took it over on a “permanent footing”.The government has been without a security minister for over a month since James Brokenshire stepped down for health reasons, and had not filled the crucial position with another MP.Ms Patel, the home secretary, was this morning reported to have personally taken charge of the brief following wrangling about who should replace Mr Brokenshire.A Home Office spokesperson, asked if Ms Patel was now holding the security minister brief, said: “The home secretary is responsible for all areas of Home Office business, including those related to national security.”But on Friday evening Downing Street announced: “The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of the Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP as a minister of state (minister for security) in the Home Office.”The security minister holds an extensive brief, with responsibilities including counterterrorism, serious and organised crime, extradition, cybercrime, economic crime, hostile state activity, and royal and VIP protection. It also covers natural disaster relief and online harms.Labour’s shadow security minister Conor McGinn had said on Friday afternoon, prior to the announcement of Mr Hinds being appointed to the role, that the lack of a separate minister was a “clear sign that the Conservatives don’t take the safety of our citizens seriously enough”.He had added: “Getting rid of a specific, day-to-day, senior government minister responsible for security and counterterrorism when Britain’s national security is under threat 24 hours a day, seven days a week is an abdication of responsibility.“From the chaos in the Channel to the Police Federation declaring no confidence in her, the home secretary is clearly struggling to deliver on her current responsibilities. It is unwise that she takes on an additional role.” More

Tory MP criticises US and UK plans to evacuate nationals from AfghanistanBoris Johnson has ruled out a “combat solution” to the growing crisis in Afghanistan saying it “is not one that we would be pursuing right now.” He said the UK will use its other methods, such as “our diplomatic, our political, our overseas development aid budget” to try to ensure Afghanistan does not again become a hub for international terrorism.The Prime Minister also said efforts would be made to help Afghans who helped the UK in the last two decades to come back along with the “vast bulk” of UK embassy officials.It comes as a number of Western countries, including the US, Denmark, Norway, France and Germany, are scrambling to bring their citizens home. Washington is rushing 3,000 fresh troops to Kabul Airport to help with a partial evacuation of the US Embassy and Norway, Denmark and Switzerland will evacuate their embassies. France has repeatedly called for its citizens in the country to return to France.Show latest update

1628837048Good morning, and welcome to The Independent’s rolling UK politics coverage. Stay tuned as the situation in Afghanistan worsens and British troops are sent in to get citizens out. Sam Hancock13 August 2021 07:441628837385US and UK Afghanistan troop deployment ‘sign of failure,’ says Tory MPSending troops into Afghanistan “to keep the door open as you leave is a sure sign of failure”, a Tory MP, who is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, has said.The UK announced on Thursday it would deploy 600 troops on a short-term basis, while the US has vowed to send 3,000 of its own to Afghanistan.Retweeting news of the American deployment, Conservative Tom Tugendhat said: “A hasty exit is not a sign of success. Needing reinforcements to keep the door open as you leave is a sure sign of failure.”Mr Tugendhat, who has been vocal critic of the troop withdrawal, spoke of his own time serving with the armed forces in Afghanistan, and said “the decision to withdraw is like a rug pulled from under the feet of our partners”.Announcing the troop deployment, defence secretary Ben Wallace said last night: “I have authorised the deployment of additional military personnel to support the diplomatic presence in Kabul, assist British nationals to leave the country and support the relocation of former Afghan staff who risked their lives serving alongside us.“The security of British nationals, British military personnel and former Afghan staff is our first priority. We must do everything we can to ensure their safety.”In a lengthy thread on Twitter, Mr Tugendhat explained why he was “taking the news from Afghanistan badly”.Sam Hancock13 August 2021 07:491628837635Patel to ‘take on security minister role permanently’Priti Patel will take on the security minister’s responsibilities permanently following James Brokenshire’s departure from the role last month, according to reports first published in The Times and The Daily Telegraph.Tory MP Mr Brokenshire announced his resignation on 7 July, telling Boris Johnson that his recovery from lung cancer treatment was “taking longer than anticipated” following a resurgence of the illness he was first diagnosed with two years ago.On Friday, it was reported that the home secretary would take over his vacated brief permanently after covering the role for more than a month.It follows Labour’s claim the arrest of a British man in Berlin on suspicion of spying for Russia earlier this week raised “questions” about the PM’s failure to fill the post. Shadow security minister Conor McGinn had said it “beggars belief” that the role had yet to be filled five weeks on, and criticised the moved as “just the latest security lapse from a prime minister and government that can’t be trusted with national security”. More