Pentagon says Afghan evacuations will continue through August 31
The Hindu
Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the United States would stick to its deadline of withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan by August 31
The Pentagon rejected reports on Thursday that they are preparing to end evacuations from Afghanistan before this weekend, saying the operations from Kabul airport will continue until August 31. “Evacuation operations in Kabul will not be wrapping up in 36 hours. We will continue to evacuate as many people as we can until the end of the mission,” Defence Department Spokesman John Kirby said. Key U.S. allies France, Canada, Hungary, the Netherlands and others already announced they had or would soon halt their evacuation flights, and Germany was also expected to carry out its last flights by Friday, amid intelligence that suicide bombers were threatening the Kabul airport.
In , the grape capital of India and host of the Simhastha Kumbh Mela every 12 years, environmental concerns over a plan to cut 1,800 trees for the proposed Sadhugram project in the historic Tapovan area have sharpened political fault lines ahead of local body elections. The issue has pitted both Sena factions against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra. While Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief, and Uddhav Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena (UBT), remain political rivals, their parties have found rare common ground in Tapovan, where authorities propose clearing trees across 34 acres to build Sadhugram and a MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) hub, as part of a ₹300-crore infrastructure push linked to the pilgrimage.












