Author: Jonathan Landay
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Russia orders wider evacuation of occupied southern Ukraine
KYIV/MYKOLAIV, Ukraine • Russia told civilians on Tuesday to leave an area along the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in the Ukrainian province of Kherson, a major extension of an evacuation order that Kyiv says amounts to the forced depopulation of occupied territory. Russia had previously ordered civilians out of a pocket it controls…
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Russia tells U.N. Ukraine plans ‘dirty bomb,’ West dismisses allegation
NEAR KHERSON FRONTLINE, Ukraine • Russia on Tuesday took its case to the U.N. Security Council that Ukraine is preparing to use a “dirty bomb” on its own territory, an assertion dismissed by Western and Ukrainian officials as misinformation and a pretext for intensifying the war. Moscow sent a letter detailing the allegations to the…
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A year after Biden’s Afghanistan exit, accountability in short supply
WASHINGTON • As weary U.S. military planners wrapped up the evacuation and pullout from Afghanistan one year ago, officials across the government steeled themselves for intense public scrutiny into how America’s longest war ended in shambles with the Taliban retaking power. But as the United States marks the first anniversary of the withdrawal this month,…
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Report: U.S. diplomats, spies may have been hit by electromagnetic energy
WASHINGTON • Some of the 1,000 U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers hit by a mysterious illness known as Havana syndrome could have been targeted by electromagnetic energy pulses, according to a report to U.S. intelligence leaders released on Wednesday. “Pulse electromagnetic energy, particularly in the radio frequency range, plausibly explains” the ear pain, vertigo, and…
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Pentagon bracing for more attacks after troops killed at Kabul airport
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -American forces in Kabul were bracing for more Islamic State attacks while winding up their evacuation mission, U.S. officials said, as the number of U.S. troops killed in Thursday’s suicide bomb attack rose to 13. A U.S. official told Reuters the number of U.S. personnel killed was likely to rise even higher. More…
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Biden’s vow to airlift Afghan allies meets ticking clock, risky rescue
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s pledge to evacuate thousands more at-risk Afghans who worked for the U.S. government will run into the cold reality of a fast-closing window of time, insecurity all over Afghanistan and major logistical hurdles. As one U.S. official told Reuters “too many things have to go 100 percent correctly” to…