Politics this week

Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s president, fled to the United Arab Emirates as Kabul, the Afghan capital, was captured by the insurgents of the Taliban. A chaotic evacuation of Western personnel and some of their Afghan associates followed from Kabul airport, where at least seven people died in the tumult. President Joe Biden defended the decision to withdraw American security forces from the country and blamed the Afghan government for lacking “the will to fight”.