Tuesday morning news - August 17, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Taliban takeover leads to chaos in Kabul » Chaos in Afghanistan.

AUDIO: [Sound of Kabul]

A tragic scene at the Kabul airport on Monday underscored the desperation of Afghans trying to flee the country after a Taliban takeover.

Thousands flooded onto the tarmac, trying to force their way onto American C-130s departing from Kabul.

AUDIO: [Sound of Kabul]

Some even grabbed onto the sides of the plane, holding on even as it departed. And as it took off into the sky, they plunged to their deaths.

At least seven people died in the chaos.

Hours later, President Biden addressed the crisis from the White House, telling Americans ...

BIDEN: I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces.

For the current crisis, he blamed past administrations and the Afghan military for not standing up to the Taliban.

He said America went into Afghanistan with clear goals:

BIDEN: Get those who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001, and make sure al-Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again. We did that.

But Republicans note that the country is now back in the hands of the very same group that fostered al-Qaeda.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell called it “a stain on the reputation” of the United States.

MCCONNELL: What we have seen is an unmitigated disaster.

Even some within the president’s own party say Biden made a historic mistake. Former secretary of state under President Obama, Leon Panetta told CNN…

PANETTA: You know, in a lot of ways, I think of John Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs. You know, it unfolded quickly. The president thought that everything would be fine and that was not the case. But President Kennedy took responsibility.

The Pentagon said it was deploying another 1,000 American troops to help secure the airport. President Biden says he remains committed to getting American citizens and U.S. allies safely out of Afghanistan.

Rescuers continue search for survivors in Haiti » In Haiti, rescuers are racing against time as they search for survivors of a powerful earthquake. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

AUDIO: [SOUND OF HAITI]

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Workers used an excavator on Monday to move twisted piles of concrete and scrap metal—where a hotel once stood.

But hopes of finding anyone alive in the rubble are dimming.

The hotel was just one of many buildings that crumbled to the ground in the town of Les Cayes during Saturday’s 7.2 magnitude quake.

More than 1,400 people are dead. And tens of thousands of people are now homeless, many sleeping outside in soccer fields.

Adding insult to injury, tropical depression Grace on Monday dropped heavy rain on top of the already devastated country, triggering mudslides. That made it even tougher for rescuers to clear already impassable roads.

Haiti already was struggling with the pandemic, a presidential assassination, and a worsening wave of gang violence.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Grace cuts across Caribbean as Fred drenches southeastern U.S. » After dumping heavy rain on Haiti, tropical depression Grace continued to cut a westward path.

Stacy Stewart with the National Hurricane Center…

STEWART: Tropical storm warnings up for parts of Cuba. We also have a tropical storm watch up for Jamaica where you could see some of those winds.

From there, it could hit Cancun, Mexico on Thursday. And then it will likely spin over the Gulf of Mexico where it’s expected to gain strength before hitting the Gulf Coast of Northern Mexico and possibly South Texas as a tropical storm and maybe even a hurricane.

Meantime, in the southeastern United States, the remnants of what was Tropical Storm Fred are drenching the region.

Fred made landfall Monday afternoon in the Florida Panhandle around Apalachicola, packing winds of 65 miles per hour. The storm knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses.

T-Mobile investigating hack of user data » T-Mobile says it is investigating a leak of its data after someone took to an online forum offering to sell the personal info of cellphone users. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has that story.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Company officials said Monday that it has confirmed there was unauthorized access to “some T-Mobile data.” They said they’re still determining the scope of the breach and who was affected, but they’re confident that they have now locked out the hacker.

Vice’s Motherboard reported that someone who posted in an underground forum was offering to sell personal data from more than 100 million people.

The report says the data includes Social Security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, and other information.

T-Mobile, which is based in Washington state, became one of the country’s largest cellphone service carriers after buying rival Sprint last year.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org.

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