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UFO Report: No Sign Of Aliens, But 143 Mystery Objects Defy Explanation

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The U.S. government report is the most substantial public effort to date to address decades of speculation about UFOs and whether the government had a role in concealing information.

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marquis myers

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More than three weeks after fleeing Kabul by helicopter as the Taliban swept through the capital, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a statement late Wednesday in apology to his fellow countrymen.

"I owe the Afghan people an explanation for leaving Kabul abruptly on August 15 after Taliban unexpectedly entered the city," Ghani began, in a letter posted to his Twitter account that was written only in English.

Three days after his speedy departure and amid apocalyptic scenes of panic at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport as desperate Afghans tried to flee the country, Ghani resurfaced in the United Arab Emirates, whose government confirmed it had welcomed him and his family on humanitarian grounds.

"I left at the urging of the palace security who advised me that to remain risked setting off the same horrific street to street fighting the city had suffered during the Civil War of the 1990s. Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life, but I believed it was the only way to keep the guns silent and save Kabul and her 6 million citizens," the former academic and World Bank official, who had been Afghanistan's president since 2014, wrote.

In what some are seeing as an attempt to avoid accountability, Ghani said, "Now is not the moment for a long assessment of the events leading to my departure," adding that "I will address them in the near future."

Taliban forces had made a series of stunning advances across the country of 39 million in the wake of the Biden administration and NATO announcing a full departure of U.S. and coalition forces by the end of August.

Amid the exodus of foreign troops, the Taliban were able to declare near complete control of the country within 10 days of seizing their first provincial capital. This was despite being vastly outnumbered by the Afghan military, which has been assisted by U.S. and coalition forces for the last 20 years.

Denying taking millions in cash with him

Ghani has been accused of engaging in and profiting from rampant corruption. Rumors abounded among Afghans and analysts that the 72-year-old took millions of dollars in cash with him when he left, and Russian state media reported the same. Ghani in his letter denied the accusations.

"I must now address baseless allegations that as I left Kabul I took with me millions of dollars belonging to the Afghan people. These charges are completely and categorically false. Corruption is a plague that has crippled our country for decades and fighting corruption has been a central focus in my efforts as president."

U.S. and former Afghan officials, including those who worked closely with Ghani, allege numerous instances of corruption and bribery within Ghani's office and family, and independent investigations have concluded that Ghani gave lucrative contracts to immediate family members. Ghani has denied the accusations.

"I welcome an official audit or financial investigation under UN auspices or any other appropriate independent body to prove the veracity of my statements here," Ghani wrote in his Sept. 8 statement.

Analysts and many U.S. veterans of the war in Afghanistan note that the corruption in the Afghan government and in its military's leadership often meant that money meant for soldiers' salaries instead went to lining the pockets of senior officials. They told CNBC that the Afghan military's rapid surrenders to the Taliban stemmed in part from a total lack of confidence that Ghani and the government in Kabul would support them.

"I offer my profound appreciate and respect for the sacrifice of all Afghans, especially our Afghan soldiers and their families, through the last forty years," Ghani wrote in his letter's closing paragraph.

"It is with deep and profound regret that my own chapter ended in similar tragedy to my predecessors - without ensuring stability and prosperity. I apologize to the Afghan people that I could not make it end differently. My commitment to the Afghan people has never wavered and will guide me for the rest of my life."

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Weeks after fleeing Afghanistan, former President Ashraf Ghani issues 'explanation' statement to Afghan people

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More than three weeks after fleeing Kabul by helicopter as the Taliban swept through the capital, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a statement late Wednesday in apology to his fellow countrymen. "I owe the Afghan people an explanation for leaving Kabul abruptly on August 15 after Taliban unexpectedly entered the city," Ghani began, in a letter posted to his Twitter account that was written only in English.

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Best Rappers of All Time: Billboard/Vibe count down hip-hop’s greatest MCs in honor of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary.

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The Premier Online Magazine for Black Men

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By Gary Johnson, Black Men In America.com (Originally published July 14, 2019)

I was sitting in my office having a discussion about music. The subject of rap music came up and the conversation evolved to who are the greatest rappers ever. For the record, I have never been a fan of rap music. I appreciate the art form, but I have not spent a lot of my hard earned dollars on that genre. I own approximately 1,200 albums, cassette tapes and CD's. I would estimate that less than 8 artists in my collection are rappers.

In order to have this conversation, I realized that I needed a "common definition" for rap music. I studied several sources (Internet, Dictionary, Encyclopedias). Here's what I discovered:

Rap music, also referred to as Hip Hop music, is a music genre developed in the United States by inner-city Black and Latinos in the Bronx borough of New York City in the early 1970's. It consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted.

Ranking rappers was like watching a drunk driver (the conversation was all over the place). Later that evening I went to the Barbershop and raised the topic with the fellas in the chairs. There was very little agreement. I believe part of the difficulty in rating rappers is that many of the rappers are gone, and some are still in the game. In addition, times and influences change.

I decided to go to the Internet and read how music experts ranked the top rappers. Going to the Internet made things worst. There is no consistency in the rankings. The great thing about this topic is that most of the lists by folks in my office and the Barbershop are reasonable. The lists by organizations such as Medium.com, Billboard.com, The Cheat Sheet and LiveAbout.com are very interesting reads.
What have I learned?

1. Rap music is an oxymoron, because rap is not musical.

2. Rating rappers is a "high stakes" game. There's rap, hip-hop and "real rap."

3. No one group will ever come to agreement on a list. If you're lucky, you might get a small group to come to consensus on a list, but all that means is that they don't agree with the list, but they can live it, if they have to.

4. The top 5 richest rappers (according to Forbes magazine) are:

5. After listening to dozens of people rank rappers, I learned that any ranking or list of rappers that does not include: Tupac, Snoop Dogg, NAS, Eminem, Jay-Z or Notorious B.I.G aka Biggie is highly questionable and suspect.

OK, back to our search for the best Top 10 List of the Best Rappers Ever.

Here's a "sample plate" of organizations and their rankings. You can visit their websites if you want to compare their rankings against your list or ours. Keep in mind, you can't get that time back.

- One of the factors that Brad Callas used to rank rappers was album sales.

- Billboard is arguably the world's most famous authority on music. And yet, Tupac Shakur, perhaps the most influential rapper ever globally, was left off the list. Let that sink in for a minute. Wow!

The Cheat Sheet - This organization used the following criteria for their list: voice, storytelling ability, creativity, and general influence through the microphone.

- This sites ranking criteria includes artists who were or have been active for at least 10 years and have released at least two albums. They were evaluated for originality, longevity, lyrics, cultural impact, flavor, battle skills, body of work, poetic value, substance, versatility, vocal presence, live performance, flow, delivery, and influence.

After two days of conversations all over the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia (DMV), I consulted Black Men In America.com's resident rap expert Comms 2.0. , who grew up on rap music and knows the "rap game" better than any of us.

Before we display the big reveal, know that we believe that our " Top 10″ list will stand up against any list developed or endorsed by any music or cultural organization in the world.

I asked our own Comms 2.0 to explain his logic or criteria. Comms said, "My criteria was pretty simple. I was looking for what I believed to be the most iconic, influential rapper or rap group of all time. These are artists that lyrically or stylistically changed the game of rap."

OK folks, there you have it. The time has come for the "Big Reveal."
This is the "Top 10 Greatest Rappers" as ranked by "Comms 2.0" for Black Men In America.com: 10. Public Enemy 9. Kanye West 8. Jay-Z 7. NAS 6. Snoop Dogg 5 Run-DMC 4. N.W.A. 3. Eminem
2. Tupac/Notorious B.I.G - I don't know how you can put either of these artists over the other. Truly game changers for the development of a rap culture. East Coast vs West Coast and a lyrical sounds that had never been heard before.

one may be surprised by this choice, but without the 1. Sugarhill Gang - Sugarhill Gang we would not have the artists or music we have today.

The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group. Their 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight" was the first rap single to become a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright, Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson, and Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien, were assembled into a group by producer Sylvia Robinson, who founded Sugar Hill Records with her husband, record producer Joe Robinson. On November 11, 2014, Big Bank Hank died at the age of 58 after a long battle with cancer.

That's it! That's the list! Of course this is a hotly debated topic. There is a subjective, intangible element that elevates some rappers over others.

Who is on your list? Join the debate and enter the conversation. Scroll down and click on the "Comments" icon and tell us your Top 10. Or reply to any of our social media outlets and tell us your list of top rappers of all time.

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By Gary Johnson, Black Men In America.com (Originally published July 14, 2019) I was sitting in my office having a discussion about music. The subject of rap music came up and the conversation evolved to who are the greatest rappers ever. For the record, I have never been a fan of rap music.

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Sha'Carri Richardson celebrates winning the Women's 100 Meter final on day 2 of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials on June 19 in Eugene, Oregon. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

It took Sha'Carri Richardson 10.86 seconds to win the Women's 100-meter dash at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. But it's the weeks since the positive marijuana test that ended up excluding her from the Tokyo Games that feel too fast to process.

In a blink, Richardson has become a symbol of why athletes occupy such a unique space in the American imagination. Great athletic competitors are some of the last stars who emphasize the difference between themselves and ordinary people. As much as that quality makes them extraordinary, it can also be turned against them.

Richardson's trip across the Olympic stage has been meteoric, and not just because of the way her orange hair streamed behind her on the track. Her trajectory was brilliant, and over too soon for reasons that strike many observers as profoundly unfair. Unlike Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds, who relied on performance-enhancing drugs to dominate their sports, Richardson used marijuana for relief from what she described as "emotional panic" following her biological mother's death. Richardson wasn't making a false claim to excellence: She made the sort of decision any 21-year-old might have made in painful, high-pressure circumstances.

The dilemmas that famous people in all professions face, and the imperfect solutions they seek, are a lot more visible now than they were in previous generations. In part, that's to the credit of a less-compliant press. But stars themselves have also traded in mystery for accessibility. Why cultivate a mystique like Greta Garbo when it's possible to make millions influencing on Instagram? Why let a studio or a label shape and license your image when you can launch a lingerie or makeup company yourself?

But there is a difference between watching an elite athlete like Richardson with awe and relating to celebrities such as the Kardashian-Jenner family, the modern masters of this art. Their hit reality franchise revealed that no amount of money can prevent a partner from straying, ward off depression or guarantee a glowing pregnancy. But for the right price, fans can buy the "waist trainers," butt-boosting jeans and makeup that the family sells as the nongenetic keys to their good looks.

Athletes get endorsement deals, too, but there's a distinction: There is nothing any of us can buy that will let us feel what it's like to run as fast as Richardson, to dunk like LeBron James or to defy gravity like champion gymnast Simone Biles - except maybe a virtual reality headset.

When it comes to great athletes, astonishment, not relatability, is the point.

To watch Biles add new moves to her incredible repertoire is to witness something highly unusual: an athlete shifting an entire sport with the power of her own distinctive excellence.

There are plenty of people who hate quarterback Tom Brady. But it's hard to deny the willpower and wiliness that have allowed him to continue to excel at what, by the standards of professional football, is an advanced age.

Michael Jordan remains an object of fascination almost 20 years after his retirement from the NBA because of the combination of physical gifts and mental toughness that made him a standout among standouts. No matter how much Gatorade wanted to convince consumers that they could "Be Like Mike," the ad that originated the slogan acknowledged that the aspiration was pure fantasy.

But this sense of wonder has a corresponding downside, both for athletes and for the fans who marvel at their abilities. It's all too easy to equate physical excellence with superior morality.

The revulsion that follows when athletes inevitably fail to live up to that standard can be both a product of that irrational expectation - and a correction to it. But professional associations can also invoke that expectation to punish athletes for the very thing that would make them highly marketable in another context: their humanity.

That's what happened to Richardson.

The World Anti-Doping Agency's rationale for treating marijuana like a logistical or moral danger to sport isn't exactly overwhelming. Getting high a week before a race won't make a runner wobble out of their lane, and pot is increasingly legal and accessible. If the issue is nerves, the organization doesn't ban selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as Zoloft that might have helped Richardson if she'd had a crisis in time to get on a properly calibrated anti-anxiety regimen. Instead, she's been denied the professional opportunity of a lifetime because of an attempt to manage a normal human reaction to tragedy.

The only good news in this mess is that Richardson will still have a career to return to after her suspension. She's set her sights on the 2022 World Championships and Nike will continue to sponsor her. Maybe Richardson's continued excellence can make clear that humanity doesn't detract from athletes' awe-inspiring feats: Their ability to rise where others might stumble and sink only make those achievements more impressive.

Dana Milbank: Toyota vies to become Official Car of Insurrectionists. Will Oath Keepers swear their brand loyalty?

Karen Attiah: Nikole Hannah-Jones just dunked on UNC. But for Black journalists and educators, the game is still rigged.

Jerry Brewer: An outdated policy brought Sha'Carri Richardson more of what she was trying to avoid: Pain

Megan McArdle: The delta variant is sending the world a warning

Updated July 7, 2021

More about the Tokyo Olympics

The Tokyo Olympics begin officially July 23 with the Opening Ceremonies and end August 8. Here's what you need to know about the Games.

Many familiar names are headed to Tokyo, including Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd of the U.S. women's soccer team, swimmer Katie Ledecky and gymnast Simone Biles. Get ready for all the events by reading about who has qualified for Team USA.

Nursing mothers will be among the athletes after organizers changed their policy to allow infants who are breastfeeding to join competitors in Tokyo.

Japan has declared a state of emergency in Tokyo during the Games to combat rising coronavirus cases in the capital. Olympic organizers had already banned spectators from the marathon event.

Have questions about the Olympics? Ask The Post. And sign up for our Olympics newsletter, which will have a daily viewing guide and highlights.

Show More Show Less Today's Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning.

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Opinion | Sha'Carri Richardson reminds us that we shouldn't equate physical excellence with superior morality

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It took Sha'Carri Richardson 10.86 seconds to win the Women's 100-meter dash at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. But it's the weeks since the positive marijuana test that ended up excluding her from the Tokyo Games that feel too fast to process.

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Sha'Carri Richardson celebrates winning the Women's 100 Meter final on day 2 of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials on June 19 in Eugene, Oregon. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

It took Sha'Carri Richardson 10.86 seconds to win the Women's 100-meter dash at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. But it's the weeks since the positive marijuana test that ended up excluding her from the Tokyo Games that feel too fast to process.

In a blink, Richardson has become a symbol of why athletes occupy such a unique space in the American imagination. Great athletic competitors are some of the last stars who emphasize the difference between themselves and ordinary people. As much as that quality makes them extraordinary, it can also be turned against them.

Richardson's trip across the Olympic stage has been meteoric, and not just because of the way her orange hair streamed behind her on the track. Her trajectory was brilliant, and over too soon for reasons that strike many observers as profoundly unfair. Unlike Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds, who relied on performance-enhancing drugs to dominate their sports, Richardson used marijuana for relief from what she described as "emotional panic" following her biological mother's death. Richardson wasn't making a false claim to excellence: She made the sort of decision any 21-year-old might have made in painful, high-pressure circumstances.

The dilemmas that famous people in all professions face, and the imperfect solutions they seek, are a lot more visible now than they were in previous generations. In part, that's to the credit of a less-compliant press. But stars themselves have also traded in mystery for accessibility. Why cultivate a mystique like Greta Garbo when it's possible to make millions influencing on Instagram? Why let a studio or a label shape and license your image when you can launch a lingerie or makeup company yourself?

But there is a difference between watching an elite athlete like Richardson with awe and relating to celebrities such as the Kardashian-Jenner family, the modern masters of this art. Their hit reality franchise revealed that no amount of money can prevent a partner from straying, ward off depression or guarantee a glowing pregnancy. But for the right price, fans can buy the "waist trainers," butt-boosting jeans and makeup that the family sells as the nongenetic keys to their good looks.

Athletes get endorsement deals, too, but there's a distinction: There is nothing any of us can buy that will let us feel what it's like to run as fast as Richardson, to dunk like LeBron James or to defy gravity like champion gymnast Simone Biles - except maybe a virtual reality headset.

When it comes to great athletes, astonishment, not relatability, is the point.

To watch Biles add new moves to her incredible repertoire is to witness something highly unusual: an athlete shifting an entire sport with the power of her own distinctive excellence.

There are plenty of people who hate quarterback Tom Brady. But it's hard to deny the willpower and wiliness that have allowed him to continue to excel at what, by the standards of professional football, is an advanced age.

Michael Jordan remains an object of fascination almost 20 years after his retirement from the NBA because of the combination of physical gifts and mental toughness that made him a standout among standouts. No matter how much Gatorade wanted to convince consumers that they could "Be Like Mike," the ad that originated the slogan acknowledged that the aspiration was pure fantasy.

But this sense of wonder has a corresponding downside, both for athletes and for the fans who marvel at their abilities. It's all too easy to equate physical excellence with superior morality.

The revulsion that follows when athletes inevitably fail to live up to that standard can be both a product of that irrational expectation - and a correction to it. But professional associations can also invoke that expectation to punish athletes for the very thing that would make them highly marketable in another context: their humanity.

That's what happened to Richardson.

The World Anti-Doping Agency's rationale for treating marijuana like a logistical or moral danger to sport isn't exactly overwhelming. Getting high a week before a race won't make a runner wobble out of their lane, and pot is increasingly legal and accessible. If the issue is nerves, the organization doesn't ban selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as Zoloft that might have helped Richardson if she'd had a crisis in time to get on a properly calibrated anti-anxiety regimen. Instead, she's been denied the professional opportunity of a lifetime because of an attempt to manage a normal human reaction to tragedy.

The only good news in this mess is that Richardson will still have a career to return to after her suspension. She's set her sights on the 2022 World Championships and Nike will continue to sponsor her. Maybe Richardson's continued excellence can make clear that humanity doesn't detract from athletes' awe-inspiring feats: Their ability to rise where others might stumble and sink only make those achievements more impressive.

Dana Milbank: Toyota vies to become Official Car of Insurrectionists. Will Oath Keepers swear their brand loyalty?

Karen Attiah: Nikole Hannah-Jones just dunked on UNC. But for Black journalists and educators, the game is still rigged.

Jerry Brewer: An outdated policy brought Sha'Carri Richardson more of what she was trying to avoid: Pain

Megan McArdle: The delta variant is sending the world a warning

Updated July 7, 2021

More about the Tokyo Olympics

The Tokyo Olympics begin officially July 23 with the Opening Ceremonies and end August 8. Here's what you need to know about the Games.

Many familiar names are headed to Tokyo, including Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd of the U.S. women's soccer team, swimmer Katie Ledecky and gymnast Simone Biles. Get ready for all the events by reading about who has qualified for Team USA.

Nursing mothers will be among the athletes after organizers changed their policy to allow infants who are breastfeeding to join competitors in Tokyo.

Japan has declared a state of emergency in Tokyo during the Games to combat rising coronavirus cases in the capital. Olympic organizers had already banned spectators from the marathon event.

Have questions about the Olympics? Ask The Post. And sign up for our Olympics newsletter, which will have a daily viewing guide and highlights.

Show More Show Less Today's Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning.

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Opinion | Sha'Carri Richardson reminds us that we shouldn't equate physical excellence with superior morality

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It took Sha'Carri Richardson 10.86 seconds to win the Women's 100-meter dash at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. But it's the weeks since the positive marijuana test that ended up excluding her from the Tokyo Games that feel too fast to process.

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"I am human," Sha'Carri Richardson tweeted. Credit... Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Sha'Carri Richardson, the 21-year-old American sprinter whose breakout victory in the 100-meter dash at the U.S. track and field Olympic trials in Oregon last month transformed her into an overnight star, posted a plaintive message on Twitter on Thursday afternoon: "I am human."

What she was referring to became clear when news broke that the United States Anti-Doping Agency was suspending her for a month, after she tested positive for marijuana. Richardson says she used the drug after a reporter told her about the death of her biological mother. (Recreational marijuana is legal in Oregon, where she was at the time.) Now, she's out of the 100-meter dash at the Tokyo Olympics.

In her tweet, Richardson pointed out the obvious, and yet it needed to be said: She is human. Olympians are capable of superhuman feats of athleticism - but does that mean we must punish them when they prove to be fallible like the rest of us, after all?

Sometimes it seems that way. The best athletes in the world are already under extraordinary pressure to perform - but we require extraordinary conduct from them in parts of their lives that have nothing to do with their sports.

Of course, marijuana is a banned substance. Athletes are responsible for everything they put in their bodies and for ensuring they comply with the rules. Richardson knew it might jeopardize her Olympic future.

"I'm not making an excuse or looking for any empathy," Richardson told the "Today" show Friday morning as she apologized to her fans, her family and her sponsors. She acknowledged that the news of her mother's death had thrown her, and she explained the pressure of having to "go in front of the world and put on a face and hide my pain." She added, "I know that I can't hide myself, so at least in some type of way I was just trying to hide my pain."

It is devastating to think of the lengths that our best athletes go to handle their pain. Tiger Woods, who tested positive for marijuana, pain medications and sleep drugs when he was arrested for driving under the influence in 2017, said he was suffering from insomnia and pain from his fourth back operation. Suzy Favor Hamilton, a nine-time N.C.A.A. champion, suffered from depression after she retired from her athletic career; it led to scandal after the revelation that she was working as an escort. Olympian Raven Saunders talked recently about wanting to drive off the road two years after the 2016 Olympics. Michael Phelps has been public about his mental health struggles for years. (A photo of him smoking marijuana was published in 2009; he lost a sponsorship from Kellogg's.)

We don't just expect our Olympians to be incredible athletes. We expect them to be role models and to adhere to impossibly high levels of self-discipline, work ethics and sportsmanship that have nothing to do with their actual job. Women, especially women of color, face even higher expectations.

Gwen Berry, a track and field Olympian who is facing criticism from conservative lawmakers for turning away from the American flag on the medal podium during the national anthem at the Olympic trials, told me Richardson was being held to an impossible standard.

"When you are a young Black athlete and when you come from hardship, the first thing you need is people to support you and not just capitalize off you, off your potential," Berry said. "She made a bad decision because of pain, because of trauma, and she's a girl - she still needs help. Instead she's being punished."

Part ofthe issue is the rules themselves. Anti-doping policies at the national and world levels, while well-meaning and intended to catch cheaters, are complex, and they are often outdated. The World Anti-Doping Agency's prohibition of marijuana is more than a decade old; marijuana has gained more acceptance since and is legal in many states.

It's also worth noting - though it wasn't the issue in Richardson's case - that tests are now so sensitive, they can pick up trace amounts of banned substances from unexpected sources, as small as a picogram, or a trillionth of a gram. That means contamination in our food or prescribed drugs can lead to positive tests for athletes who did nothing more than take a perfectly allowable medication or eat meat from animals treated with a growth steroid. It's becoming increasingly challenging to avoid banned substances and still live in the real world. (I've wondered how many of us mortals would pass a doping test if we took one today.)

The World Anti-Doping Agency made reforms in May, but the system often presumes that athletes are guilty - excluding them from competition, often for long stretches - until they can prove themselves innocent. That's not how justice should work.

Like many Black public figures, Richardson is celebrated when she succeeds, but many people are quick to pass judgment when there's the slightest transgression. Richardson grew up navigating adversity that is either ordinary or extraordinary, depending on where you fall on the American inequality gap - but she persevered. When she signed her professional contract, she said her first thought was taking care of her family.

For Black athletes, Berry said, the pressure to be perfect is intense. "If we aren't, we get everything taken from us," she said. "We have to work twice as hard in society and in athletics. We're not respected otherwise." She added, "We have no room for error. We have no room to grieve. We are not supported. And that's the problem. It's because we are not equal."

Richardson has accepted the ban, so anyone rooting for the rules should be satisfied. But a system that punishes athletes for being human is not a just system.

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Opinion | Why We Hold Olympic Athletes to Such Ridiculous and Cruel Standards

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Sha'Carri Richardson, the 21-year-old American sprinter whose breakout victory in the 100-meter dash at the U.S. track and field Olympic trials in Oregon last month transformed her into an overnight star, posted a plaintive message on Twitter on Thursday afternoon: "I am human."

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The Taliban effectively sealed their control of Afghanistan on Sunday, pouring into the capital, Kabul, and meeting little resistance as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the government collapsed, and chaos and fear gripped the city, with tens of thousands of people trying to escape.

The insurgents' return to power, two decades after they were ousted, came despite years and hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the United States to build up the Afghan government and its defense forces. In a lightning offensive, the Taliban swallowed dozens of cities in a matter of days, leaving Kabul as the last major redoubt of government control.

On Sunday evening, former President Hamid Karzai announced on Twitter that he was forming a coordinating council together with Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the Afghan delegation to peace talks, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Hesb-i-Islami party, to manage a peaceful transfer of power. Mr. Karzai called on both government and Taliban forces to act with restraint.

But the Taliban appeared to ignore his appeal and advanced into the city on its own terms.

The Taliban's lead negotiator in talks with the government, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, congratulated all of Afghanistan for the victory. "Now it will be shown how we can serve our nation," he said. "We can assure that our nation has a peaceful life and a better future."

Mr. Baradar made the comments in a video posted on social media, surrounded by other members of the Taliban delegation to the talks in Doha, Qatar.

"There was no expectation that we would achieve victory in this war," he said. "But this came with the help of Allah, therefore we should be thankful to Him, be humble in front of Him, so that we do not act arrogantly."

Al Jazeera reported that it had interviewed Taliban fighters who were holding a news conference in the presidential palace in Kabul. The fighters said they were working to secure Kabul so that leaders in Qatar and outside the capital could return safely. Al Jazeera reported that the fighters had taken down the flag of Afghanistan.

As it became clear that Taliban fighters were entering Kabul, thousands of Afghans who had sought refuge there after fleeing the insurgents' brutal military offensive watched with growing alarm as the local police seemed to fade from their usual checkpoints.

The U.S. Embassy warned Americans to not head to the airport in Kabul after reports that the facility was taking fire, and said that the situation was "changing quickly." Late Sunday, the U.S. State Department said that all embassy personnel had been evacuated.

President Ghani released a written statement on Facebook saying he had departed the country to save the capital from further bloodshed.

"If I had stayed, countless countrymen would have been martyred and Kabul city would have been ruined," he wrote, "in which case a disaster would have been brought upon this city of five million."

At 6:30 p.m. local time, the Taliban issued a statement that its forces were moving into police districts in order to maintain security in areas that had been abandoned by the government security forces. Taliban fighters, meeting no resistance, took up positions in the city, after Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, posted the statement on Twitter.

"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 statement said. The Taliban had been ordered not to harm civilians and not to enter individual homes, it added. "Our forces are entering Kabul city with all caution."

As the sun set behind the mountains, the traffic was clogged as crowds grew bigger, with more and more Taliban fighters appearing on motorbikes, police pickups and even a Humvee that once belonged to the American-sponsored Afghan security forces.

Earlier in the afternoon, Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal announced that an agreement had been made for a peaceful transfer of power for greater Kabul, and that his forces were maintaining security.

Mr. Mirzakwal later announced a 9 p.m. curfew in the capital, and called on its residents to go home.

Mr. Ghani left Kabul in a plane with his wife, Rula Ghani, and two close aides, and arrived in Uzbekistan, according to a member of the Afghan delegation in Doha, Qatar, that has been in peace negotiations with the Taliban since last year. The official asked not to be named because he did not want to be identified speaking about the president's movements.

It could not be confirmed that Mr. Ghani was in Uzbekistan, and there were reports that he had gone to other countries. Muslem Hyatt, a former Afghan military attaché, said Mr. Ghani had traveled through Uzbekistan and landed in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.

In negotiations being managed by Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Ghani had been set to travel to Doha on Sunday with a larger group to negotiate the transfer of power, but flew instead to Uzbekistan, the peace delegation member said.

With rumors rife and reliable information hard to come by, the streets were filled during the day with scenes of panic and desperation.

"Greetings, the Taliban have reached the city. We are escaping," said Sahraa Karimi, the head of Afghan Film, in a post shared widely on Facebook. Filming herself as she fled on foot, out of breath and clutching at her head scarf, she shouted at others to escape while they could.

"Hey woman, girl, don't go that way!" she called out. "Some people don't know what is going on," she went on. "Where are you going? Go quickly."

Christina Goldbaum, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Carlotta Gall, Ruhullah Khapalwak, Sharif Hassan, Jim Huylebroek, Najim Rahim, and Lara Jakes contributed reporting.

Panic gripped the Afghan capital, Kabul, Sunday as Taliban fighters started arriving in the city, inmates broke out of the main prison on the east side of the city, and the American-backed government appeared to crumble.

By the afternoon, President Ashraf Ghani was reported to have fled. And as American forces focused their energies on evacuation flights for embassy staff and other personnel, Afghan government officials were shown in video footage accepting a handover of power to their Taliban counterparts in several cities.

Early in the day, senior Afghan politicians were seen boarding planes at Kabul airport. Bagram Air Base was taken by Taliban forces midday Sunday as was the provincial town of Khost in eastern Afghanistan, according to Afghan media reports. The fall of Khost was part of a domino-like collapse of power of astonishing speed that saw city after city fall in just the last week, leaving Kabul as the last major city in government hands.

Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal announced in a video statement in the early afternoon that an agreement had been made for a peaceful transfer of power for greater Kabul and sought to reassure residents, saying that the security forces would remain in their posts to ensure security in the city.

"As the minister of interior, we have ordered all Afghan National Security Forces divisions and members to stabilize Kabul," he said in a video statement released on the Facebook page of the ministry at 2 p.m. local time. "There will be no attack on the city. The agreement for greater Kabul city is that under an interim administration, God Willing, power will be transferred."

But residents seemed unconvinced by their leaders' assurances. In the center of the city people were pictured painting over advertisements and posters of women at beauty salons, apparently preparing for a takeover by the fundamentalist Taliban who do not allow images of humans or animal life, and have traditionally have banned music and the mixing of the sexes.

Residents confirmed that police had abandoned many of their posts or changed into civilian clothes. The Taliban denied rumors that their chief negotiator, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was already in the capital and preparing to take over control at the Interior Ministry.

Throughout the day, surreal scenes played out as it appeared ever more clear the Taliban were taking over.

The insurgency has long had its own power structure of shadow governors appointed for every province, and Sunday it was clear who was in control in strategic areas. The governors and tribal and political leaders who had been in power were shown in videos formally handing control to their Taliban counterparts in the strategic cities of Kandahar, the main stronghold of the south, and in Jalalabad, the main city of the east.

But in Kabul fears of the city being overrun were running high after a breakout of prisoners, many of them members of the Taliban, from the main prison at Pul-i-Charkhi.

"Look at this, the whole people are let free," a man said as he filmed a video footage of people carrying bundles walking away from the prison, posted on Facebook. "This is the Day of Judgment."

The breakout seems to have been by the prisoners from the inside, rather than an attack by Taliban forces from the outside.

Some Afghans still found room for humor amid the chaos: "Taliban have reached Kabul airport ... their speed is faster than 5G," one resident of Kabul posted on Facebook.

But others fled, though it is unclear where they could go with the Taliban in control of so much of the country.

"Greetings, the Taliban have reached the city. We are escaping," said Sahraa Karimi, the head of Afghan Film, in a post shared widely on Facebook. Filming herself as she fled on foot, out of breath and clutching at her head scarf, she called on passers-by to get away.

The former president Hamid Karzai and other leaders tried to step into the vacuum, and announced they were not leaving. Mr. Karzai, who has been involved in discussions with the Taliban for an interim government, posted a video on his Facebook page of himself with his daughters in his garden as helicopters sounded overhead.

"My dear residents of Kabul, I want to say that I and my daughters and family are here with you," he said. "We are working with the leader of the Taliban to resolve the difficulties of Afghanistan in a peaceful way."

Abdullah Abdullah, who has led recent talks with the Taliban also made a video statement from his garden.

"The last few days have been very hard for our countrymen all over the country," he said. He called on the Taliban to negotiate "so that the security situation does not deteriorate and our people do not suffer further."

As news broke that the president had left the country, Vice President Amrullah Saleh, a former head of intelligence who has been fighting against the Taliban from the 1990s, tweeted that he would not surrender.

Yet the Afghan security forces seemed to be melting away. Abdul Jabar Safi, head of the Kabul Industrial Park, an area of hundreds of factories and businesses, said business owners were trying to fend off looters with a few pistols and rifles left them by the government guards.

"We want the Taliban to reach us as soon as possible so they can secure the area," he said when reached by telephone. "We are in touch with the Taliban and they have assured us that until they reach the industrial park we must keep the security of the park by ourselves."

Officials at the National Museum of Kabul on the western side of Kabul also appealed through a western official for help, saying that police guards had abandoned their post outside the museum and that they feared the museum, which was badly looted in the 1990s, would fall prey again to thieves.

Correction:

KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. embassy warned Americans not to head to the airport in Kabul because of a situation that was "changing quickly" after the Taliban entered the city on Sunday.

Witnesses at the civilian domestic terminal said they had heard occasional gunshots and said thousands of people had crammed into the terminal and filled the parking lots, desperately seeking flights out.

"The security situation in Kabul is changing quickly including at the airport," the embassy said in a statement. "There are reports of the airport taking fire; therefore we are instructing U.S. citizens to shelter in place."

Late Sunday, the State and Defense Departments issued a statement saying the U.S. was working to secure control of the airport and to speed up the evacuation using civilian and military flights.

"Tomorrow and over the coming days," the statement said, "we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the U.S. mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals."

The Taliban entered Kabul on Sunday, completing the near total takeover of Afghanistan two decades after the American military drove them from power. A frenzied evacuation of U.S. diplomats and civilians kicked into high gear last week, while Afghans made a mad dash to banks, their homes and the airport. Crowds of people ran down the streets as the sound of gunfire echoed in downtown Kabul.

Helicopter after helicopter - including massive Chinooks with their twin engines, and speedy Black Hawks that had been the workhorse of the grinding war - touched down and then took off loaded with passengers. Some shot flares overhead.

On Saturday, President Biden accelerated the deployment of 1,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to aid in the evacuation. On Sunday, orders went out to deploy another 1,000, temporarily bringing the U.S. presence there to 6,000, according to a Pentagon official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and was granted anonymity.

Those being evacuated over the weekend included a core group of American diplomats who had planned to remain at the embassy in Kabul, according to a senior administration official. They were being moved to a compound at the international airport, where they would stay for an unspecified amount of time, the official said.

The runway of the airport was filled with a constellation of uniforms from different nations. They joined contractors, diplomats and civilians all trying to catch a flight out of the city. Those who were eligible to fly were given special bracelets, denoting their status as noncombatants.

For millions of Afghans, including tens of thousands who assisted the U.S. efforts in the country for years, there were no bracelets. They were stuck in the city.

Hundreds of people swarmed to the civilian side of the airport in the hopes of boarding planes out, but by evening scores were still waiting inside the terminal and milling around on the apron amid the constant roar of planes taking off from the adjacent military air base. A long line of people waited outside the check-in gate, unsure if the flights they had booked out of the country would arrive.

While President Biden has defended his decision to hold firm and pull the last U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by Sept. 11, his administration has become increasingly worried about images that could evoke a foreign policy disaster of the past: the fall of Saigon at the end of the conflict in Vietnam in 1975.

Fahim Abed, Fatima Faizi, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Christina Goldbaum, Sharif Hassan, Jim Huylebroek, Najim Rahimand Lara Jakes contributed reporting.

As their homeland fell once again into the hands of the Taliban, more than 300 Afghan Americans went to the White House on Sunday to make their frustrations known.

Demonstrators, some with young children and babies in strollers, spilled into Lafayette Square, wielding signs that read "Help Afghan kids" and "America betrayed us."

Some held up the flag of Afghanistan. Others draped it over their shoulders. They stood in a circle around organizers who used bullhorns to get their message out.

"We want justice," they declared.

Among those attending the three-hour protest was Sohaila Samadyar, a 43-year-old banker in Washington, who was there with her 10-year-old son. Ms. Samadyar, who immigrated to America in 2000, said she wanted to raise awareness about Afghans still stuck in the country, like her brother and sister in Kabul.

Ms. Samadyar said that she had voted for President Biden in November, but that she now regretted that decision, "disappointed" in his handling of the war.

"He has basically disregarded the Afghan community," she said. "It's unbelievable how fast everything has changed."

Yasameen Anwar, a 19-year-old sophomore in college, drove about three hours from Richmond, Va., with her friends and sister to attend the protest. Ms. Anwar said she was concerned about the future of women and children in Afghanistan.

"Before, when America was in Afghanistan, there was hope in that we were fighting the Taliban and that they could finally be defeated after 20 years," Ms. Anwar said. "But by the Biden administration completely stepping out, it's giving them no hope anymore."

A first-generation Afghan American, Ms. Anwar said she had always dreamed of visiting her family's home country. She now doubts that she will be able to go.

"It just seems like we're never going to get peace," Ms. Anwar said.

As the U.S. raced to evacuate personnel from its embassy in Kabul, human and refugee rights groups sharply criticized the Biden administration for not moving faster to relocate America's Afghan allies from a country where they are at risk of lethal Taliban reprisals.

"The Biden administration has taken too long to create a process that ensures safety for Afghans who served with American military and civil society actors," Jennifer Quigley, senior director for government affairs at Human Rights First, said in a statement. "As Afghanistan's military and political leaders abandon their posts, the United States risks abandoning allies who stood with us, who translated for and protected our troops."

"Unless there is a swift and meaningful effort to evacuate the thousands of allies and their families to the United States or a U.S. territory, we will have broken our promise to leave no one behind," she added.

Congress created the Special Immigrant Visa program to allow Afghans who worked with the Americans over the past 20 years to relocate to the United States. The State Department has given eligibility to tens of thousands of people and their families, and some have been flown out of Afghanistan.

But the rate of evacuation has not matched the speed of the Afghan government collapse. "If evacuation flights continue at their current pace, it would take until March 2023 to evacuate all the eligible Afghans out of the country," Ms. Quigley said.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced that Afghans who are not eligible for the program - including ones who worked for U.S.-based media organizations and nongovernmental organizations - could apply for high-priority refugee status.

But U.S. officials said those Afghans, who may number in the tens of thousands, must first leave the country under their own auspices merely to begin an application process that can take more than a year. With the Taliban in control of cities, highways and border crossings, it may now be too late for many of them to leave.

Correction:

The fall of Kabul follows days in which one urban center after another fell to the insurgents with astonishing speed, often with little or no resistance, leaving the government in control of nothing but fast-shrinking pockets of the country.

The insurgents took Mazar-i-Sharif, in the north, late on Saturday, only an hour after breaking through the front lines at the city's edge. Soon after, government security forces and militias - including those led by the warlords Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Muhammad Noor - fled, effectively handing control to the insurgents.

On Sunday morning, the Taliban seized the eastern city of Jalalabad. In taking that provincial capital and surrounding areas, the insurgents gained control of the Torkham border crossing, a major trade and transit route between Afghanistan and Pakistan. They took over Bagram Air Base, which had been the hub of U.S. military power in the country until the Americans handed control of it back to Afghan forces six weeks earlier.

Later on Sunday, Taliban fighters began taking up positions in Kabul, the capital - the last major city that had been under government control - as government forces melted away and the president fled the country.

The Taliban offensive, which started in May when the United States began withdrawing troops, gathered speed over the past week. In city after city, the militants took down Afghan government flags and hoisted their own white banners.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken acknowledged on Sunday that the offensive had moved faster than U.S. officials had expected.

Despite two decades of war with American-led forces, the Taliban have survived and thrived, without giving up their vision of creating a state governed by a stringent Islamic code.

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in the 1990s, movie theaters were closed, the Kabul television station was shut down and the playing of all music was banned. Schools were closed to girls.

Despite many Afghans' memories of years under Taliban rule before the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, the insurgents have taken control of much of the country in recent days with only minimal resistance.

Their rapid successes have exposed the weakness of an Afghan military that the United States spent more than $83 billion to support over the past two decades. As the insurgents' campaign has accelerated, soldiers and police officers have abandoned the security forces in ever greater numbers, with the cause for which they risked their lives appearing increasingly to be lost.

The speed of the Taliban's advance has thrown exit planning into disarray. While many analysts had believed that the Afghan military could be overrun after international forces withdrew, they thought it would happen over months and years.

President Biden has accelerated the deployment of an additional 1,000 troops to Afghanistan to help get American citizens out. He made it clear that he would not reverse his decision to withdraw all combat forces.

"I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan - two Republicans, two Democrats," Mr. Biden said on Saturday afternoon. "I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth."

With their seizure of Jalalabad on Sunday, followed hours later by their entry into Kabul, the capital, the Taliban effectively took control of Afghanistan. Planes departing the airport in Kabul were filled with people fleeing the country.

The United Nations' leader and the Security Council appealed on Monday for an end to hostilities in Afghanistan, humanitarian aid to the country and the creation of a representative government that will protect the rights of women, prevent human rights abuses and keep the country from once again becoming a haven for global terrorist plots.

The 15-member Security Council held an emergency meeting on the rapidly escalating chaos a day after Kabul and the government fell to Taliban forces. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres and diplomats conveyed alarm but also tacitly acknowledged that the Taliban effectively controlled Afghanistan and the era of foreign military intervention was over.

The Council statement, agreed by consensus, called for "an immediate end to the violence in Afghanistan, the restoration of security, civil and constitutional order, and urgent talks to resolve the current crisis of authority in the country and to arrive at a peaceful settlement through an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned process of national reconciliation."

As terrified Afghans flocked to the airport in Kabul, rushing the runway and clinging to U.S. military airplanes scrambling to airlift Americans and Afghan allies, Mr. Guterres said the U.N. remained committed to providing aid and other services in Afghanistan. About 18 million people in the country, half of its population, currently need humanitarian assistance.

"At this grave hour, I urge all parties, especially the Taliban, to exercise utmost restraint to protect lives and to ensure that humanitarian needs are met," Mr. Guterres said in his prepared remarks.

He urged all other countries "to be willing to receive Afghan refugees and refrain from any deportations."

Ghulam Isaczai, Afghanistan's ambassador to the U.N., said Kabul residents reported the Taliban had already started searching houses, registering names. He said people were living "in absolute fear right now."

While Council members spoke of their concerns that the rights gained for women and girls, journalists and activists would be lost and terrorist groups would shelter in the country, there was little sign of a plan for preventing those fears from becoming reality.

Afghan leaders who have remained in the country, including Hamid Karzai, the former longtime president, say they want to negotiate formation of a government with the Taliban, but it is not clear that the victorious insurgents have any interest in compromise.

Afghanistan surged toward the top of U.N. humanitarian priorities over the past few weeks as it became increasingly clear that the Afghan government was collapsing. On Friday, Mr. Guterres said the country was "spinning out of control."

It remains unclear how the United Nations will regard the Taliban should the militant movement declare itself the legitimate power in Afghanistan and demand a seat in the 193-member organization. Many countries have condemned the Taliban's brutality and would probably not recognize such a declaration.

The United Nations employs roughly 3,000 employees who are Afghan and about 720 international staff members in Afghanistan, although roughly half of the international employees have been working outside the country since the coronavirus pandemic started. U.N. officials have said that there are no plans to evacuate any staff members from the country.

The Taliban have pledged not to interfere in U.N. aid operations, but they attacked a U.N. office in the western city of Herat on July 30, and a local security official guarding the office was killed.

A group of 26 U.N. human rights experts issued a joint statement on Monday saying it was unacceptable for countries to sit on the sidelines as a group labeled terrorists by the Security Council takes over Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan is a test case for the value of the U.N. Charter, and the commitment of States to prevent the scourge of terrorism from destroying rights-bearing societies and values," the statement said.

It was his first day as the Taliban-appointed mayor of Kunduz, and Gul Mohammad Elias was on a charm offensive.

Last Sunday, the insurgents seized control of the city in northern Afghanistan, which was in shambles after weeks of fighting. Power lines were down. The water supply, powered by generators, did not reach most residents. Trash and rubble littered the streets.

The civil servants who could fix those problems were hiding at home, terrified of the Taliban. So the insurgent-commander-turned-mayor summoned some to his new office, to persuade them to return to work.

But day by day, as municipal offices stayed mostly empty,Mr. Elias grew more frustrated - and his rhetoric grew harsher.

Taliban fighters began going door to door, searching for absentee city workers. Hundreds of armed men set up checkpoints across the city. At the entrance to the regional hospital, a new notice appeared on the wall: Employees must return to work or face punishment from the Taliban.

The experience of those in Kunduz offers a glimpse of how the Taliban may govern, and what may be in store for the rest of the country.

In just days, the insurgents, frustrated by their failed efforts to cajole civil servants back to work, began instilling terror, according to residents reached by telephone.

"I am afraid, because I do not know what will happen and what they will do," said one, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. "We have to smile at them because we are scared, but deeply we are unhappy."

Nearly every shop in Kunduz was closed. Shopkeepers, fearing that their stores would be looted by Taliban fighters, had taken their goods home. Each afternoon, the streets emptied of residents, who feared airstrikes as government planes buzzed in the sky. And about 500 Taliban fighters were stationed around the city, staffing checkpoints on nearly every street corner.

At the regional hospital, armed Taliban members were keeping track of attendance. Out of fear, one health worker said, female staff members wore sky-blue burqas as they assisted in surgeries and tended to wounds from airstrikes, which still splintered the city each afternoon.

A high school student in Kabul, Afghanistan's war-scarred capital, worries that she now will not be allowed to graduate.

The girl, Wahida Sadeqi, 17, like many Afghan civilians in the wake of the U.S. troop withdrawal and ahead of a Taliban victory, keeps asking the same question: What will happen to me?

The American withdrawal, which effectively ends the longest war on foreign soil in United States history, is also likely to be the start of another difficult chapter for Afghanistan's people.

"I am so worried about my future. It seems so murky. If the Taliban take over, I lose my identity," said Ms. Sadeqi, an 11th grader at Pardis High School in Kabul. "It is about my existence. It is not about their withdrawal. I was born in 2004, and I have no idea what the Taliban did to women, but I know women were banned from everything."

Uncertainty hangs over virtually every facet of life in Afghanistan. It is unclear what the future holds and whether the fighting will ever stop. For two decades, American leaders have pledged peace, prosperity, democracy, the end of terrorism and rights for women.

Few of those promises have materialized in vast areas of Afghanistan, but now even in the cities where real progress occurred, there is fear that everything will be lost when the Americans leave.

The Taliban, the extremist group that once controlled most of the country and continues to fight the government, insist that the elected president step down. Militias are increasing in prominence and power, and there is talk of a lengthy civil war.

Over two decades, the American mission evolved from hunting terrorists to helping the government build the institutions of a functioning government, dismantle the Taliban and empower women. But the U.S. and Afghan militaries were never able to effectively destroy the Taliban, who sought refuge in Pakistan, allowing the insurgents to stage a comeback.

The Taliban never recognized Afghanistan's democratic government. And they appear closer than ever to achieving the goal of their insurgency: to return to power and establish a government based on their extremist view of Islam.

Women would be most at risk under Taliban rule. When the group controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it barred women from taking most jobs or receiving educations and practically made them prisoners in their own homes - though this was already custom for many women in rural parts of the country.

"It is too early to comment on the subject. We need to know much more," Fatima Gailani, an Afghan government negotiator who is involved in the continuing peace talks with the Taliban, said in April. "One thing is certain: It is about time that we learn how to rely on ourselves. Women of Afghanistan are totally different now. They are a force in our country - no one can deny them their rights or status."

More than a hundred journalists employed by the American government's own radio stations remain in Afghanistan as the Taliban take power, U.S. officials and Afghan journalists said Sunday.

"Journalists are being left behind," said Rateb Noori, the Kabul bureau news manager of Radio Azadi, in a telephone interview from Kabul on Sunday.

The station, a branch of the U.S. government's Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty services, formerly called Radio Free Afghanistan, broadcast through the day Sunday, including airing an interview with a Taliban spokesman. Its sister station, Voice of America, reported on Sunday that one of its reporters "was in the passport office when everyone was told to leave immediately and go home."

The Afghans working for the U.S. government broadcasters in Kabul and around the country have long been targets of the insurgents, who killed a journalist with Radio Free Afghanistan in a targeted bombing in November. They are among the most exposed of hundreds of Afghans who have worked with American news organizations since the arrival of U.S. troops in 2001, and media organizations have been scrambling to help local employees evacuate. The U.S. government made journalists eligible for a visa program that could allow them to leave the country. They have yet to be evacuated and the window to do so is closing quickly.

The acting interim chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees the broadcasters, said in an email to staff Sunday that the agency is "doing everything in our power to protect" journalists and "will not back down in our mission to inform, engage, and connect Afghans in support of freedom and democracy."

The president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Jamie Fly, said in a text message that the service is "doing everything possible to make sure they can safely continue their work."

Mr. Noori, who was awake late on Sunday because he was worried about looters at his home, said there was no protection and little certainty - including whether the stations will continue to broadcast Monday.

"Everybody is locked down in their homes, and no one knows what happens tomorrow," he said.

Afghan journalists have little to do but rely on early Taliban promises that they will not attack members of the news media.

"Having experience last time of their role in Afghanistan, I think they cannot keep their promises - they cannot control their people," he said. "I'm just hoping that we can survive for a while, and then let's see if we have a way out to any neighboring country," Mr. Noori said.

Mujeeb Angaar, who worked for Radio Free Afghanistan from 2010 to 2013 before fleeing the country, said in a telephone interview from his home in Canada that he was told by the Taliban at the time that he "should be killed, because you work for Jews, you work for the CIA."

The American-backed services "will be the first target," he said.

Having sent thousands of troops to Afghanistan during two decades of conflict, Britain is one of the biggest losers from a Taliban takeover that has humiliated the United States and its allies and left thousands stranded.

Estimates vary, but about 3,000 Britons are thought to be in Afghanistan. Officials say they are confident that the citizens can be evacuated as part of an airlift expected to involve hundreds each day. They are less sure about being able to provide a safe exit to all of the Afghans who aided the British and whose lives could now be at risk.

Time is critical, because once the U.S. withdraws the remainder of its forces, there will be no way of safely having planes land and take off.

One option to speed up the process is to initially fly people leaving Kabul to a safe Middle Eastern country rather than repatriating them directly to Britain.

On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson chaired a meeting of an emergency committee in Downing Street after cutting short his vacation. Britain's Parliament is also being recalled from its summer recess to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan on Wednesday amid growing alarm about the humanitarian and strategic consequences of the Taliban's advances.

The last time Parliament was recalled for an emergency session to discuss a similar foreign policy question was in 2014, during a crisis in Iraq.

In the past two decades, 150,000 British military personnel have served in Afghanistan, mainly in Helmand Province, though combat missions ended in 2014, leaving behind a small contingent for support work.

In all, 457 British personnel died in Afghanistan, and on Monday, amid the chaotic scenes in Afghanistan, the front-page headline of one tabloid newspaper, the Daily Mail, read: "What the hell did they all die for?"

Last month, Britain announced the withdrawal of its remaining forces from Afghanistan to coincide with the American military's pullout, though it said last week that it was sending an additional 600 military personnel to help with the evacuation.

This weekend, about 370 embassy employees and British citizens were flown out of the country, the British defense ministry said.

Britain's defense secretary, Ben Wallace, acknowledged on Monday that some of those who aided the United States and its allies in the last two decades in Afghanistan risked being abandoned to their fate under the Taliban.

"It's a really deep part of the regret for me that some people won't get back," he told LBC Radio, his voice breaking with emotion. "Some people won't get back, and we will have to do our best in third countries to process those people."

Asked why he felt it so personally, Mr. Wallace started his reply by saying that it was because of his experience as a soldier. But he then added: "Because it's sad, and because the West has done what it has done and we have to do our best to get people and stand by our obligations and 20 years of sacrifice is what it is."

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20-Year U.S. War Ending as It Began, With Taliban Ruling Afghanistan

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The Taliban effectively sealed their control of Afghanistan on Sunday, pouring into the capital, Kabul, and meeting little resistance as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the government collapsed, and chaos and fear gripped the city, with tens of thousands of people trying to escape.

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Credit... Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

The Atlanta artist, whose new album "My Turn" is out Friday, discusses how he has remained so low-key while earning more than 11 billion streams worldwide.

Credit... Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

ATLANTA - Between the summer of 2016, when the Atlanta rapper Lil Baby got out of prison on drug and gun charges, and the end of 2018, when he solidified himself as a formidable presence in hip-hop, he released seven full-length bodies of music, resulting in a pile of smash singles that have gone platinum a combined 12 times over.

An inescapable presence on rap radio who's racked up even more street-level hits, Lil Baby, 25, has since been nominated for a Grammy, banked corporate sponsorships and performed alongside international stars like Drake, DaBaby and Travis Scott, in addition to his ubiquitous local cohort of Gunna, Future, Migos and Young Thug.

All told, songs by Lil Baby, who had never rapped before his two-year incarceration, have been streamed more than 11 billion times around the world. Yet, as he'll proudly insist - and his barber will attest - the reserved rapper is known even now to jump in an Uber or pull up to Chick-fil-A all alone, loud jewelry gleaming. The concept of celebrity still makes him bristle, and his public appearances remain limited to the ones that pay handsomely.

"People don't think I'm as big as I am because I don't really talk about it," he said recently. "Most people are acting like more than what they are, I'm acting like less than what I am."

Balancing flash and restrained grace was something Lil Baby, born Dominique Jones, learned from his neighborhood notoriety before music, when he was known as a local hustler (and dice aficionado) before committing to rap for a safer income stream. After the torrent of music that certified his arrival, the rapper took last year off, in the sense that he did not release an album or mixtape, though an endless stream of guest verses and a few one-off singles kept him relevant.

On Friday, he will return officially with the album "My Turn," 20 tracks that can't help but sound like a victory lap, with production by Tay Keith and Three 6 Mafia's DJ Paul, plus appearances by Lil Wayne, Lil Uzi Vert and the up-and-comers Rylo Rodriguez and 42 Dugg, artists Lil Baby has signed to his own 4 Pockets Full label.

A sneakily intricate rapper whose lyrics are often camouflaged by disarming singsong flows and a gravelly Southern drawl, Lil Baby has largely moved on from the open wounds of his earlier, bittersweet work. But a push-and-pull between his rough-edged youth and sparkling new reality remains.

On a recent weekday afternoon in the studio, he was direct and thoughtful in between fielding FaceTime calls from Gunna and his label boss; getting a haircut; and enjoying a box of Atlanta wings (with a full bottle of supplemental sauce). These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

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Credit... Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

In 2017, when your career was first taking off, you told me were still itching to get back to the streets When did it click that rap was your life? . Did you make the right decision sticking with music, or is there part of you that still misses your old life? There are a lot of rappers today that are big characters on social media, constantly saying controversial things, getting into beefs. Have you consciously avoided that path?
I don't miss my old life at all. Period. Now, I get a thrill from my old life sometimes, if I see some stuff, but as far as missing it? Not at all. Honestly, I ain't even make a choice. I didn't choose to get out the streets. Whatever I had going on, it came to an end at the time when I started to move up rapping. But I thank God that it happened like that, because I got more focused on rap and that's how I became what I am today.

I still have some of those moments now. Every day. I'm to the point where I can't go nowhere without someone knowing me. From the bank to church to the doctor, the gas station, anywhere. The weirdest places. Old women, old men. It's serious. And with the amount of money I get, I know it's serious.

Hell yeah. That ain't me, though! To me, that's gimmicks - clout. I ain't for that. My following came from me, not like some old viral stuff. I don't even know how to do that.

You haven't really leaned into stardom - you don't do a lot of interviews, you're not popping up everywhere.
I just ain't into it. I'm low-key bigger than the people who do that. One day maybe. Probably not, though. I don't got a thrill for it. Fashion show in Paris, like ... cool [ shrugs]. I think I got that from prison. Like, just, you're there, but you're not there. It's a mental thing: "I'm in here, and I just got to get through it." When I got out, it was the same thing. I'm just there, but I'm not there. Even for good stuff. It keeps me going.

Credit... Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

When you see the direction a lot of young guys have gone recently, from the deaths of XXXTentacion, Juice WRLD and Mac Miller to 6ix9ine, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Kodak Black being in and out of jail, does that make you worry for your generation of rappers?
Yeah, but at the same time, there's a generation of people going through that. I know people who get killed - my personal people - people in and out of jail, my family, my brothers. That's what really goes on in life. Rap is just a reflection of real life. I know like 10 or 12 people who died in Atlanta off the fake drugs going around. It's an everyday thing for me. And I know I ain't going out like that.
You've been pretty open about your struggles with [the codeine drink] lean. Do you worry about the people around you?

I drink a little bit here and there, this and that, so I can't be too hard on you. But if you are just like, obsessive, I'm going to be on you. I ain't really for that. To the point now where I stopped putting it in my music.
You're rapping less about doing drugs?
I'm trying. Because I done rapped about drugs that I don't even take. People think I take 'em and then people take 'em thinking I take 'em. Like popping Percs [Percocet]. I don't pop Percs - period. Every now and then, I used to take a half of one, but I say it in my raps because I might pop one and that's what's going on.
What did you want to accomplish on "My Turn," that you didn't on previous projects?
Due to the fact that I haven't dropped in a year - and the year that I didn't drop was the year that I blew up - this is a whole different me. This a whoooole different everything.
There's a line about how going back to the hood gives you chills.
It's like when you see an ex-girlfriend or something, that feeling you get from 'em. You left on bad terms, but you remember the good parts about it. It can never be no more, but it's one of them things. Ethereal.

Credit... Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

Did you ever foresee rap as a path for you?
I never saw me being a rapper. A big-dog dope boy, that's it. Not even just a dope boy. That's why I ain't got no tattoos, because I always knew I was going to run my money up, and I was going to have to go sit in front of some people to do something with my money. And I didn't want them to look at me like a dope boy. I had to keep my appearance straight. I literally said, "When I sit down in front of these white folks, I don't want to have no tattoos." In a way, it's still that today. Because when I'm sitting in these meetings, I don't have tattoos on my face. I know they'd have to think something if I've got tattoos on my face.

Have you ever met another rapper with no tattoos?
Nope.
What was it like being at the Grammys? Sharon Osbourne saying your name was pretty surreal.
I just want to put on a suit and take a picture more than anything. But I'm happy to just be a part of stuff like that. People in prison - stuff like that is probably on nobody's minds until someone like her is saying my name at the Grammys. My old roommate is still in prison and I've been out for a few years and I done went through all this.
Are you confident that you'll never be back there?
Too confident. No way. I'd die before I go to jail. That's all I needed to see. And it's different being a celebrity getting in trouble [than] a regular person getting in trouble. If I went to prison right now, I'd be lit. Prison now wouldn't even faze me, honestly. But in my mind, I ain't even dumb enough to think like that. I trained myself to think about how it was then. Hell nah, I'll never go back.
What areas do you need to improve in, musically or as a man?
[ Whistles] My kids. And my attitude. So many people try to get me that I got into this defensive shell. If there's a disagreement, I'm getting defensive. That's the biggest thing I'm working on right now. I have so much going, I just get angry. Stressful. It seems like I got money to please everybody else.
What are your remaining ambitions for music? Do you want to be on pop songs alongside Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez types?
I want to be on some boss [expletive]. I don't care about my own music. I really want to own a label - like Def Jam, though. Like Roc Nation. I'd rather go that way, where I manage a Selena Gomez and get 10 percent off of it. Where I'm not even on the scene no more. That's my mind-set. Boy, if I can pop two artists right now, I'm down to slow up on what I got going on, straight up. Why wouldn't I? I can make the same money and I don't have to be catching all these planes.

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Lil Baby Might Be Rap's Most Reluctant New Star

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The Atlanta artist, whose new album "My Turn" is out Friday, discusses how he has remained so low-key while earning more than 11 billion streams worldwide. Credit...

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Credit... Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

The Atlanta artist, whose new album "My Turn" is out Friday, discusses how he has remained so low-key while earning more than 11 billion streams worldwide.

Credit... Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

ATLANTA - Between the summer of 2016, when the Atlanta rapper Lil Baby got out of prison on drug and gun charges, and the end of 2018, when he solidified himself as a formidable presence in hip-hop, he released seven full-length bodies of music, resulting in a pile of smash singles that have gone platinum a combined 12 times over.

An inescapable presence on rap radio who's racked up even more street-level hits, Lil Baby, 25, has since been nominated for a Grammy, banked corporate sponsorships and performed alongside international stars like Drake, DaBaby and Travis Scott, in addition to his ubiquitous local cohort of Gunna, Future, Migos and Young Thug.

All told, songs by Lil Baby, who had never rapped before his two-year incarceration, have been streamed more than 11 billion times around the world. Yet, as he'll proudly insist - and his barber will attest - the reserved rapper is known even now to jump in an Uber or pull up to Chick-fil-A all alone, loud jewelry gleaming. The concept of celebrity still makes him bristle, and his public appearances remain limited to the ones that pay handsomely.

"People don't think I'm as big as I am because I don't really talk about it," he said recently. "Most people are acting like more than what they are, I'm acting like less than what I am."

Balancing flash and restrained grace was something Lil Baby, born Dominique Jones, learned from his neighborhood notoriety before music, when he was known as a local hustler (and dice aficionado) before committing to rap for a safer income stream. After the torrent of music that certified his arrival, the rapper took last year off, in the sense that he did not release an album or mixtape, though an endless stream of guest verses and a few one-off singles kept him relevant.

On Friday, he will return officially with the album "My Turn," 20 tracks that can't help but sound like a victory lap, with production by Tay Keith and Three 6 Mafia's DJ Paul, plus appearances by Lil Wayne, Lil Uzi Vert and the up-and-comers Rylo Rodriguez and 42 Dugg, artists Lil Baby has signed to his own 4 Pockets Full label.

A sneakily intricate rapper whose lyrics are often camouflaged by disarming singsong flows and a gravelly Southern drawl, Lil Baby has largely moved on from the open wounds of his earlier, bittersweet work. But a push-and-pull between his rough-edged youth and sparkling new reality remains.

On a recent weekday afternoon in the studio, he was direct and thoughtful in between fielding FaceTime calls from Gunna and his label boss; getting a haircut; and enjoying a box of Atlanta wings (with a full bottle of supplemental sauce). These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Image

Credit... Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

In 2017, when your career was first taking off, you told me were still itching to get back to the streets When did it click that rap was your life? . Did you make the right decision sticking with music, or is there part of you that still misses your old life? There are a lot of rappers today that are big characters on social media, constantly saying controversial things, getting into beefs. Have you consciously avoided that path?
I don't miss my old life at all. Period. Now, I get a thrill from my old life sometimes, if I see some stuff, but as far as missing it? Not at all. Honestly, I ain't even make a choice. I didn't choose to get out the streets. Whatever I had going on, it came to an end at the time when I started to move up rapping. But I thank God that it happened like that, because I got more focused on rap and that's how I became what I am today.

I still have some of those moments now. Every day. I'm to the point where I can't go nowhere without someone knowing me. From the bank to church to the doctor, the gas station, anywhere. The weirdest places. Old women, old men. It's serious. And with the amount of money I get, I know it's serious.

Hell yeah. That ain't me, though! To me, that's gimmicks - clout. I ain't for that. My following came from me, not like some old viral stuff. I don't even know how to do that.

You haven't really leaned into stardom - you don't do a lot of interviews, you're not popping up everywhere.
I just ain't into it. I'm low-key bigger than the people who do that. One day maybe. Probably not, though. I don't got a thrill for it. Fashion show in Paris, like ... cool [ shrugs]. I think I got that from prison. Like, just, you're there, but you're not there. It's a mental thing: "I'm in here, and I just got to get through it." When I got out, it was the same thing. I'm just there, but I'm not there. Even for good stuff. It keeps me going.

Credit... Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

When you see the direction a lot of young guys have gone recently, from the deaths of XXXTentacion, Juice WRLD and Mac Miller to 6ix9ine, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Kodak Black being in and out of jail, does that make you worry for your generation of rappers?
Yeah, but at the same time, there's a generation of people going through that. I know people who get killed - my personal people - people in and out of jail, my family, my brothers. That's what really goes on in life. Rap is just a reflection of real life. I know like 10 or 12 people who died in Atlanta off the fake drugs going around. It's an everyday thing for me. And I know I ain't going out like that.
You've been pretty open about your struggles with [the codeine drink] lean. Do you worry about the people around you?

I drink a little bit here and there, this and that, so I can't be too hard on you. But if you are just like, obsessive, I'm going to be on you. I ain't really for that. To the point now where I stopped putting it in my music.
You're rapping less about doing drugs?
I'm trying. Because I done rapped about drugs that I don't even take. People think I take 'em and then people take 'em thinking I take 'em. Like popping Percs [Percocet]. I don't pop Percs - period. Every now and then, I used to take a half of one, but I say it in my raps because I might pop one and that's what's going on.
What did you want to accomplish on "My Turn," that you didn't on previous projects?
Due to the fact that I haven't dropped in a year - and the year that I didn't drop was the year that I blew up - this is a whole different me. This a whoooole different everything.
There's a line about how going back to the hood gives you chills.
It's like when you see an ex-girlfriend or something, that feeling you get from 'em. You left on bad terms, but you remember the good parts about it. It can never be no more, but it's one of them things. Ethereal.

Credit... Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

Did you ever foresee rap as a path for you?
I never saw me being a rapper. A big-dog dope boy, that's it. Not even just a dope boy. That's why I ain't got no tattoos, because I always knew I was going to run my money up, and I was going to have to go sit in front of some people to do something with my money. And I didn't want them to look at me like a dope boy. I had to keep my appearance straight. I literally said, "When I sit down in front of these white folks, I don't want to have no tattoos." In a way, it's still that today. Because when I'm sitting in these meetings, I don't have tattoos on my face. I know they'd have to think something if I've got tattoos on my face.

Have you ever met another rapper with no tattoos?
Nope.
What was it like being at the Grammys? Sharon Osbourne saying your name was pretty surreal.
I just want to put on a suit and take a picture more than anything. But I'm happy to just be a part of stuff like that. People in prison - stuff like that is probably on nobody's minds until someone like her is saying my name at the Grammys. My old roommate is still in prison and I've been out for a few years and I done went through all this.
Are you confident that you'll never be back there?
Too confident. No way. I'd die before I go to jail. That's all I needed to see. And it's different being a celebrity getting in trouble [than] a regular person getting in trouble. If I went to prison right now, I'd be lit. Prison now wouldn't even faze me, honestly. But in my mind, I ain't even dumb enough to think like that. I trained myself to think about how it was then. Hell nah, I'll never go back.
What areas do you need to improve in, musically or as a man?
[ Whistles] My kids. And my attitude. So many people try to get me that I got into this defensive shell. If there's a disagreement, I'm getting defensive. That's the biggest thing I'm working on right now. I have so much going, I just get angry. Stressful. It seems like I got money to please everybody else.
What are your remaining ambitions for music? Do you want to be on pop songs alongside Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez types?
I want to be on some boss [expletive]. I don't care about my own music. I really want to own a label - like Def Jam, though. Like Roc Nation. I'd rather go that way, where I manage a Selena Gomez and get 10 percent off of it. Where I'm not even on the scene no more. That's my mind-set. Boy, if I can pop two artists right now, I'm down to slow up on what I got going on, straight up. Why wouldn't I? I can make the same money and I don't have to be catching all these planes.

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Lil Baby Might Be Rap's Most Reluctant New Star

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The Atlanta artist, whose new album "My Turn" is out Friday, discusses how he has remained so low-key while earning more than 11 billion streams worldwide. Credit...

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The new reality of UFOs: An interview with journalist Leslie Kean

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The past few years have seen a big change in how UFOs are perceived, both by the public and by government officials.

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Report on U.F.O. Sightings

U.F.O.s were once a taboo topic for the U.S. government, but not anymore. A long anticipated report was released.

A still image taken last year shows part of an unclassified video taken by Navy pilots. Credit... U.S. Department of Defense

When spooky things appear in the sky, witnesses have often been reluctant to report them for fear of mockery by others, especially in the halls of government.

These days, fewer people are laughing.

Unidentified flying objects, or unidentified aerial phenomena as the government calls them, have been taken more seriously by U.S. officials in recent years, starting in 2007 with a small, secretly funded program that investigated reports of military encounters.

The program, whose existence was first reported by The New York Times in December 2017, was revived by the Defense Department last summer as the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force.

The department said the task force's mission was to "detect, analyze and catalog" sightings of strange objects in the sky "that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security." Service members were newly encouraged to speak up if they saw something, with the idea being that removing the stigma behind reporting something weird would provide the authorities with a better idea of what's out there.

Then, late last year, President Donald J. Trump signed a $2.3 trillion appropriations package that included a provision inserted by lawmakers: They asked the secretary of defense and director of national intelligence to submit an unclassified report on what the government knows about U.F.O.s.

An unclassified version of that report was released on June 25. (The report said the government still has no explanation for nearly all of the scores of unidentified aerial phenomena reported over almost two decades and investigated by the Pentagon task force.)

With the public asking more questions about U.F.O. s, more officials appear willing to answer them.

"There are a lot more sightings than have been made public," John Ratcliffe, the former director of national intelligence, told Fox News in March. Quite a few of them, he said, "are difficult to explain."

John Brennan, the former director of the C.I.A., said on a podcast last year that some of the unexplained sightings might be "some type of phenomenon that is the result of something that we don't yet understand and that could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life."

The lead-up to the report's release has seen quite a bit of mainstream media attention in recent weeks, including a 13,000-word article in The New Yorker in April, and a segment on CBS's "60 Minutes."

Kenneth Arnold, shown in 1966, reported seeing nine circular objects near Mount Rainier in 1947. Descriptions of the objects injected the phrase "flying saucers" into the popular imagination. Credit... U.S Department of Defense

The first thing to know is that "U.F.O." doesn't automatically mean "alien." As its name indicates, U.F.O. refers to any aerial phenomenon with no immediate explanation. Though reported sightings take place frequently around the world, a vast majority of them turn out to be things like stars, satellites, planes, drones, weather balloons, birds or bats.

The modern history of U.F.O. sightings is generally considered to have started on June 24, 1947, when Kenneth Arnold, a private pilot from Idaho, reported seeing nine circular objects traveling at supersonic speeds near Mount Rainier. Newspapers described them as "flying saucers," a term that captured the popular imagination. Though Mr. Arnold appeared to be a credible witness, government officials were skeptical.

Nonetheless, the government began a classified study, called Project Sign, out of concern that such objects could be advanced Soviet weapons. That was followed by Project Blue Book, which reviewed about 12,000 cases from 1952 to 1969, 701 of which could not be explained. It ended with a report saying U.F.O.s were not worth further study. As far as is publicly known, there were no more official government efforts to study U.F.O.s until the one established in 2007, called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.

Sightings of unidentified objects in the United States have risen during the coronavirus pandemic, as people spending long days at home turned to sky gazing. Reports increased about 15 percent last year to more than 7,200, according to the National U.F.O. Reporting Center. As in other years, almost all of them had earthly explanations, the center said.

Video

In November 2004, two Navy fighter jets from the U.S.S. Nimitz were off the coast of San Diego when they encountered a whitish, oval-shaped craft of similar size hovering above the sea, which was churning in an unusual way. As one of the jets began a circular descent to get a closer look, the object - which had no wings or obvious means of propulsion - ascended toward it, then zipped away.

"It accelerated like nothing I've ever seen," Cmdr. David Fravor, one of the pilots, told The Times in 2017.

Commander Fravor told a fellow pilot that night that he had no idea what he had seen: "It had no plumes, wings or rotors and outran our F-18s."

But, he added, "I want to fly one."

Other cases include a spinning disk that was seen hovering above O'Hare Airport in Chicago in 2006, and two "sunlight-colored" objects reported by a professional pilot in England in 2007, as The New Yorker reported.

A video of the Nimitz incident, along with two from 2015, was officially released by the Defense Department last year. More recently, the department confirmed that video and images leaked to a documentary filmmaker had been taken by Navy personnel in 2019 and were being investigated by the task force.

A U.F.O. display in Rachel, Nev., the closest town to Area 51. "U.F.O." doesn't automatically mean "alien." As its name indicates, U.F.O. refers to any aerial phenomenon with no immediate explanation. Credit... John Locher/Associated Press

Calls for transparency are growing in Washington, including from a bipartisan political action committee that was launched last month.

One key backer of U.F.O. research efforts has been Harry Reid, the former Democratic senator from Nevada, who as Senate majority leader secured $22 million in funding to create the 2007 program.

In an essay for The Times this month, Mr. Reid said he had been interested in U.F.O.s since attending a conference in 1996 (to the consternation of his staff, who told him to "stay the hell away" from the topic). He said the program was necessary because "an unofficial taboo regarding the frank discussion of encounters could harm our national security and stymie opportunities for technical advancement."

There is support for U.F.O. research among current senators as well, including Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, who added the language to the appropriations package requesting the government report.

Mr. Rubio told "60 Minutes" that there should be a process by which reports of U.F.O.s are "cataloged and constantly analyzed, until we get some answers."

"Maybe it has a simple answer," he said on the program. "Maybe it doesn't."

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Why Are We All Talking About U.F.O.s Right Now?

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Report on U.F.O. Sightings U.F.O.s were once a taboo topic for the U.S. government, but not anymore. A long anticipated report was released. When spooky things appear in the sky, witnesses have often been reluctant to report them for fear of mockery by others, especially in the halls of government.

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A decadeslong search for aliens

While the scientific community has almost entirely avoided engaging with UFOs, a much more mainstream search for intelligent aliens and their technology has been going on for decades.

The search is motivated by the fact that astronomers have, to date, discovered over 4,400 planets orbiting other stars. Called exoplanets, some are close to the Earth's mass and at just the right distance from their stars to potentially have water on their surfaces - meaning they might be habitable.

Astronomers estimate that there are 300 million habitable worlds in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and each one is a potential opportunity for life to develop and for intelligence and technology to emerge. Indeed, most astronomers think it very unlikely that humans are the only or the first advanced civilization.

This confidence has fueled an active search for extraterrestrial intelligence, known as SETI. It has been unsuccessful so far. As a result, researchers have recast the question "Are we alone?" to "Where are the aliens?" The absence of evidence for intelligent aliens is called the Fermi paradox. First articulated by the physicist Enrico Fermi, it's a paradox because advanced civilizations should be spread throughout the galaxy, yet we see no sign of their existence.

The SETI activity has not been immune from scientists' criticism. It was starved of federal funding for decades and recently has gotten most of its support from private sources. However, in 2020, NASA resumed funding for SETI, and the new NASA administrator wants researchers to pursue the topic of UFOs.

In this context, the Pentagon report is welcome. The report draws few concrete conclusions about UFOs and avoids any reference to aliens or extraterrestrial spacecraft. However, it notes the importance of destigmatizing UFOs so that more pilots report what they see. It also sets a goal of moving from anecdotal observations to standardized and scientific data collection. Time will tell if this is enough to draw scientists into the effort, but the transparency to publish the report at all reverses a long history of secrecy surrounding U.S. government reports on UFOs.

I don't see any convincing evidence of alien spacecraft, but as a curious scientist, I hope the subset of UFO sightings that are truly unexplained gets closer study. Scientists are unlikely to weigh in if their skepticism generates attacks from "true believers" or they get ostracized by their colleagues. Meanwhile, the truth is still out there.

This story was originally published with The Conversation. Read the original story here.

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Pentagon UFO report: No confirmed aliens, but the government wants to

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While the scientific community has almost entirely avoided engaging with UFOs, a much more mainstream search for intelligent aliens and their technology has been going on for decades. The search is motivated by the fact that astronomers have, to date, discovered over 4,400 planets orbiting other stars.

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Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) talks about removing military troops from Afghanistan during a news conference April 14 on Capitol Hill. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) says he believes the United States "will be going back into Afghanistan" despite the recently declared end of nearly two decades of American military presence in the country.

Graham, in an interview Monday with the BBC, predicted a looming clash between the Taliban and extremist groups such as the Islamic State would necessitate American military action in the country. "We will be going back into Afghanistan," Graham said. "We'll have to, because the threat will be so large."

He saidthat Afghanistan "will be a cauldron for radical Islamic behavior," presenting the United States with only two options: "You can say that's no longer my problem ... or hit them before they hit you."

What is ISIS-K? Here's what the Taliban takeover means for al-Qaeda and the Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate.

Graham has long advocated for an aggressive campaign against the Islamic State. But public polling shows that the American public has little appetite for prolonging the conflict.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll last week found that Americans overwhelmingly supported President Biden's decision to end the war in Afghanistan, though they disapproved of how he executed the withdrawal. The last time a majority in a Post-ABC News poll said the war was worth fighting was in late 2009, and then just a narrow 52 percent majority said so, with Republicans more likely than Democrats or independents to say the war, which began under Republican President George W. Bush, was worth the cost.

The United States will maintain "robust counterterrorism capabilities" in the region, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken,after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside Kabul airport, which killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 170 Afghan civilians who were desperately trying to flee the country.

The United States hit back in a drone strike in Kabul, which the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley told reporters was targeting an "imminent" threat posed by the Islamic State's offshoot in Afghanistan. Ten Afghan civilians in a northwestern Kabul neighborhood - eight of them children ages 18 and younger - were killed in the attack, family members told The Post.

Graham, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, praised the former Republican president's actions in Afghanistan and in the Middle East in the same interview, after previously calling for Biden's impeachment over the withdrawal.

Graham has visited Afghanistan several times, including with Biden in 2009, more than a decade earlier.

"The Taliban are not reformed, they're not new," Graham said. "They're going to give safe haven to al-Qaeda who have ambitions to drive us out of the mid-east writ large, and attack us because of our way of life."

He also compared the Afghan conflict to ongoing fighting in Syria and Iraq, which continue to draw in American troops, largely due to the presence of Islamic State.

The Islamic State offshoot is deemed a more extreme rival of the Taliban by regional experts, who say the Taliban could try to root out the group, although others remain skeptical.

Critics of the withdrawal, including some top Democrats, have said that the Biden administration failed to adequately prepare. Images of chaos outside Kabul's main airport made global headlines as the United States rushed to evacuate its troops and nationals.

On Tuesday, Blinken told a news conference in Doha that nearly 100 U.S. citizens still remain in Afghanistan, including dual nationals.

Today's Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning.

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Lindsey Graham says United States 'will be going back' into Afghanistan

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Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) says he believes the United States "will be going back into Afghanistan" despite the recently declared end of nearly two decades of American military presence in the country. Graham, in an interview Monday with the BBC, predicted a looming clash between the Taliban and extremist groups such as the Islamic State would necessitate American military action in the country.

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Nearly two years ago, the Washington Post published the Afghanistan Papers, sensitive materials revealing how Afghan forces were unable to hold back the Taliban.

Those government documents revealed the deep problems in the war in Afghanistan-from bureaucratic corruption to poorly trained soldiers. They also validated research being conducted by University of Chicago scholar Austin Wright, which examined declassified military records.

"The data showed that even though Taliban violence was reduced, they were still present and had freedom of movement," said Wright, an assistant professor at the Harris School of Public Policy. "They weren't being beaten; they had chosen to withdraw."

The results of that research, Wright said, suggested that U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan would almost certainly be messy and violent. What he didn't anticipate was just how quickly the Afghan government would collapse after U.S. troops departed-surrendering to the Taliban in a matter of days.

An expert on the political economy of insurgent violence, Wright said the Taliban's rapid takeover of traces back to prior missteps by the U.S. government. In the following Q&A, he discusses where the U.S. went wrong, and why military involvement in Afghanistan might not be over.

The plan to withdraw from Afghanistan didn't just occur over the past few months. What unfolded here?

The overall transition should be considered in three phases. What we've just seen is the third phase, which is the final drawdown. The first phase was the scheduled commitment that the Obama administration made with President Hamid Karzai in 2010, where political and operational military authority would be transitioned from the U.S. to local Afghans. The second phase was the physical withdrawal of U.S. troops down from roughly 140,000 to 10,000. And this year, we saw the third phase.

In the first phase, there were significant reductions in Taliban violence-which made it appear that local Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) were actually quite effective. And that was very surprising. Then, during that second phase, our data showed that violence skyrockets, immediately reversing the gains from phase one.

This suggested that the phase one reduction in violence was strategic, and the Taliban were just holding back their fighting capacity until the troops physically withdrew. This was the first sign, evident back in 2017, that there was something very unusual happening. The idea that the war effort was going well, and that we had a strong partner in ANSF-maybe wasn't an accurate assessment.

Were you surprised by how chaotic the final withdrawal was?

The part that was surprising is how quickly the Taliban won the last 25% of the country: the Northern resistance areas and the capital of Kabul. What analysts may have missed was the impact that mass-scale surrender can have at the end of the process. In this instance, it created its own momentum. And in these "cascades of surrender," there were maybe 65-70% of ANSF soldiers in and around Kabul in the North who see the dominoes falling around them. And then they're suddenly realizing: "Maybe my best option is to just stand down completely. Maybe this government is not viable, and in a few weeks, the government will have absolutely no leverage whatsoever over the Taliban."

To the extent that the U.S. government could have done better-how should we think about that? Four different administrations have been involved in prosecuting this war.

This entire process really came to a head under the Trump administration. Trump wanted to meet with the Taliban at Camp David right around this time in 2019, around the time of the anniversary of 9/11. He was focused on the "art of the deal" and he didn't realize how short-sighted his approach was. One of the things that the Taliban requested-which the Trump administration folded on-was that they would not negotiate with the United States if the elected Afghan government was present.

So what does this do? Well, it means that the United States abandoned the democratically-elected government of Afghanistan for the "art of the deal." Without the active involvement of the Afghan government-and without a sustained commitment to supporting the elected Afghan government-it set the stage for a very messy final withdrawal.

What about Biden?

So Trump leaves office, and nothing is fully resolved. Biden moves back the line in the sand to the end of August. Biden is in a difficult spot when meeting with Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, because one of the things that Ghani understandably requests is that the United States not begin to evacuate people. Ghani anticipates that if the U.S. begins to evacuate people as the Taliban moves in, there will be this cascade - which is exactly what ends up happening. A cascade of people would overwhelm the airport, overwhelm the borders, because the United States will have signaled that it doesn't believe that the Afghan government can sustain its war effort. There was no easy answer.

Couldn't the U.S. have just gotten people out of there quietly?

The Biden administration could have ignored Ghani and said, "We'll do it in secret. We'll find a way to start moving people out while avoiding a public scandal, but we need to get this process started." But that might have triggered the collapse of the Afghan government anyway. A lot of parties bear blame, but it's important to recall that the failure of this settlement with the Taliban emerged under the terms determined by the Trump administration, which was hunting for a quick win and not thinking about the long game.

But could the Biden administration have better handled the final withdrawal?

The Biden administration has failed the Afghan allies who were deployed on the front lines alongside American soldiers and reconstruction teams. Many people who were engaging in incredibly risky support to the U.S. mission are still waiting to figure out if they're going to be able to exit the country-even though they filed for exit years ago.

This is because of how broken the U.S. system is for transporting people out. By law, the process is only supposed to take nine to 12 months, but the average duration from application to exit is three years. The Biden administration, for example could have used its executive power to mandate the evacuation and providing emergency support, temporarily streaming the process for relocating Afghans. Another piece of leverage the administration could have used more effectively was the holdings of the Afghan Central Bank, or reconsidered the shutdown of Bagram Air Base.

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What went wrong in Afghanistan? Policy expert examines U.S. missteps

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Nearly two years ago, the Washington Post published the Afghanistan Papers, sensitive materials revealing how Afghan forces were unable to hold back the Taliban. Those government documents revealed the deep problems in the war in Afghanistan-from bureaucratic corruption to poorly trained soldiers.

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U.S. sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson has been suspended for one month after testing positive for marijuana, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced Friday morning.

The positive test result invalidates Richardson's performance at the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, where she won the women's 100-meter dash, and will prevent the 21-year-old from competing in her signature event at the Tokyo Olympics later this month. It is unclear if she will be selected for the women's 4x100 relay team.

Richardson issued an apology on NBC's "Today" show on Friday morning.

"I want to take responsibility for my actions," she said on NBC. "I know what I did. I know what I'm supposed to do. I know what I'm allowed not to do, and I still made that decision."

Richardson said on the show that she ingested marijuana after an interview with a reporter in which the reporter informed her that her biological mother had died. She said it was a heavy emotional burden for her on the eve of her first Olympic trials, where she was considered the heavy favorite, and that it sent her into a state of "emotional panic."

"It's never been a steroid. It will never be a steroid," Richardson said.

Marijuana is legal in Oregon, where the Olympic trials were held, but it is prohibited in-competition under World Anti-Doping Agency rules. Testing positive for the drug carries a minimum punishment of a one-month suspension.

According to USADA, Richardson's positive test result came from a sample collected at the Olympic trials on June 19, when she ran a 10.86 in the final to qualify for her first Olympic appearance. The Dallas native accepted the terms of her provisional suspension, which began June 28.

"The rules are clear, but this is heartbreaking on many levels," USADA CEO Travis Tygart said in a statement. "Hopefully, her acceptance of responsibility and apology will be an important example to us all that we can successfully overcome our regrettable decisions, despite the costly consequences of this one to her."

USA Track & Field called the situation "incredibly unfortunate and devastating for everyone involved."

"Athlete health and well-being continue to be one of USATF's most critical priorities," the organization said, "and we will work with Sha'Carri to ensure she has ample resources to overcome any mental health challenges now and in the future."

Known for her style on the track and fiery personality, Richardson had been considered a strong contender to win gold in the women's 100 in Tokyo. Her season-best time of 10.72 seconds is the second-fastest time in the world this year.

In the wake of Richardson's positive test, Jenna Prandini, who finished fourth in the 100 at trials, will replace Richardson in the 100 meters in Tokyo. Javianne Oliver and Teahna Daniels, who were second and third respectively, are also on the team. Gabby Thomas is penciled in as the alternate in the event.

A USATF spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for a comment Friday about the possibility that Richardson could still be selected as a member of the women's 4x100 relay team for Tokyo.

While the competitors in individual events are automatically chosen based on their performances at the Olympics trials, USATF has discretion in selecting the members of its relay teams. Competition in the women's 4x100 begins Aug. 5, after the conclusion of Richardson's suspension.

Richardson said on the "Today" show that she would be grateful for an opportunity to compete on the relay team, but she also acknowledged that, at 21, she also plans to have many other Olympic appearances still ahead of her. She'll be back.

"I would just say, don't judge me. Because I am human," Richardson said. "I'm you, I just happen to run a little faster."
Contributing: Tom Schad

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Sha'Carri Richardson won't run 100-meter dash at Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for marijuana

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U.S. sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson has been suspended for one month after testing positive for marijuana, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced Friday morning. The positive test result invalidates Richardson's performance at the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, where she won the women's 100-meter dash, and will prevent the 21-year-old from competing in her signature event at the Tokyo Olympics later this month.

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Sha’Carri Richardson, a Track Sensation, Tests Positive for Marijuana (Published 2021)

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Richardson, a gold-medal favorite in the women’s 100 meters, was suspended for a month, putting in doubt an appearance at the Tokyo Olympics.

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Afghanistan | Today’s latest from Al Jazeera

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Stay on top of Afghanistan latest developments on the ground with Al Jazeera’s fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated maps.

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Best Rappers of All Time: Billboard/Vibe count down hip-hop’s greatest MCs in honor of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary.