After 20 years and billions of dollars spent by the US to bolster a free and democratic Afghanistan, the Muslim fundamentalist Taliban have taken control of the presidential palace after the country’s president Ashraf Ghani fled to Tajikistan. Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said there is agreement for a  peaceful transfer of power. “The city’s security is guaranteed. There will be no attack on the city,” he said.

  US forces are rushing to evacuate thousands of American personnel and Afghan nationals who have worked for the Americans. The airport is mobbed with people waiting to get on airplanes. Five people are reported to have been killed at the airport today.

  President Biden sent in 1,000 more troops to help protect the evacuation as American helicopters ferried between the airport and the now-abandoned US embassy compound, bringing the number to 4,000.

  Taliban gunmen posed for video inside government offices. One of them said in English that he has spent eight years imprisoned by the US in Guantanamo Bay.

  Abdullah Abdulla, former chief executive of the Afghan government, criticized Ghani for running away. “That the former president of Afghanistan has left the country and its people in this bad situation, God will call him to account and the people of Afghanistan will make their judgment,” Abdullah said in a video.

  This has happened after the expense of billions of dollars and 20 years of US occupation and training of an Afghan army of 300,000. Only a month ago, President Biden called it “extremely unlikely” that the Taliban would take complete control.

  Kabul fell with no fighting. The Taliban said in a statement, “The Islamic Emirates ordered its forces to enter the areas of Kabul city from which the enemy has left because there is risk of theft and robbery.”

  The Washington Post reports that the Taliban have not only fought their way, but paid their way to victory. Susannah George reports that once the US announced a complete withdrawal, Afghan forces became resigned to an ultimate collapse, making deals, taking payoffs, and surrendering their weapons. She reports that systematic corruption was taking pay from security forces, robbing them of the will to fight. George writes, “Some Afghan forces realized they would soon no longer be able to count on American air power and other crucial battlefield support and grew receptive to the Taliban’s approaches.”

  CNN’s Clarissa Ward did an amazing report visiting a former US base overtaken by the Taliban. Left behind were military trucks and pickups, as well as the names and unit markers of American soldiers who once served there decorating walls. All evidently for nothing. 

  Shrouded in black yet still showing her face, Ward interviewed a Taliban leader who said their goal is to have Muslim law rule the entire world. He said they have the time and patience to make it happen. 

The Haiti Quake: At least 1,300 people are dead, and probably more, after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Haiti over the weekend. Close to 3,000 are reported injured.

  The quake pancaked buildings, erupted roads, broke water lines, and even damaged hospitals. Small mountain towns were cut off by landslides. It occurred even as the country was still reeling from a presidential assassination last month. 

  The earthquake struck in the center of the long peninsula of Haiti that stretches west of Port-au-Prince. The cities of  Les Cayes and Jeremie report that people are caught under rubble. Among those reported dead is the former mayor of Les Cayes, Gabriel Fortuné, whose hotel collapsed. No news was coming out of Petit Trou de Nippes, the epicenter of the quake, because the phones are down. 

Covid Nation: The fight against Covid-19 has turned into a national civil rights argument.

  In liberal Los Angeles, protests turned violent after the City Council voted to require proof of vaccination for anyone entering an indoor public space. A brawl erupted outside city hall and one man was stabbed.

  The country is averaging nearly 93,000 new cases a day. More than 470,000 new cases in the past 28 days have been in Florida, 298,000 in Texas.

  The Texas Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates may stand for now. Hospitalizations for Covid-19 are up 400 percent in Texas over the past month, but Abbott says you can’t require anyone to wear a mask to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

  Some Texas school districts are bucking the governor’s order.

  In Florida, a school board member at the seventh-largest school district in the country said Gov. Ron DeSantis’s handling of COVID-19 has caused “panic” and “chaos” among parents and school staff.

  “Our governor is the mad king of the COVID era,” Jessica Vaughn told Business Insider. “It feels like a nightmare I can’t wake up from.” 

The Spin Rack: Tennis star Roger Federer will be skipping the US Open for his fourth knee surgery since 2015. His future is in doubt. — The first of two federal trials is set to begin this week for singer, songwriter and producer R. Kelly, who’s accused in two indictments of abusing 11 girls and women, making child pornography, and paying off victims.  He’s been previously accused and acquitted in trial. 

Bingeworthy: “White Lotus,” on HBO, the television hit of the summer, wrapped up last night with a scene that broke new ground in filmed entertainment.

  Actor Murray Bartlett, who played the manager of the White Lotus hotel in Hawaii told the Daily Beast, “When I got the script, I thought, ‘Oh this isn’t going to be that bad.’ And then when I saw it I was like, ‘Oh my god.’”

  And that’s all we’re going to tell you. 

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