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Portrait of the week: the Taliban take Afghanistan

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Parliament was recalled after the rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, returned from a foreign holiday on Sunday. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, declared as Kabul fell: ‘We don’t want anybody bilaterally recognising the Taliban.’ But Mr Raab said that Britain recognised states, not governments. Britain sent an extra 300 soldiers to help extract British citizens and people such as interpreters now in danger. Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, wept when he said on the radio that some people for whom Britain had responsibility ‘won’t get back’ from Afghanistan. The government announced what it called a ‘bespoke’ scheme to settle 5,000 Afghans in Britain in the coming year, with another 15,000 in five years. Lily Cole apologised for posting a picture of herself on Instagram in a burka with the caption: ‘Let’s embrace diversity on every level.’

In the seven days up to the beginning of the week, 613 people had died with coronavirus, bringing the total of deaths (within 28 days of testing positive) to 130,894. (In the previous week deaths had numbered 637.) In a week, numbers remaining in hospital rose a little from 5,715 to 5,875. Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine was approved by the UK medicines regulator for use in children aged 12 to 17, joining Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine. Ultra Electronics, a supplier to the Royal Navy, agreed to a £2.6 billion takeover by Cobham (owned by an American company since 2019), which said it would ‘offer legally binding and enforceable commitments to HM Government’ on security and jobs. The number of job vacancies rose to 953,000 in the three months to July. The annual rate of inflation fell from 2.5 per cent in June to 2 per cent in July.

Jake Davison, 22, shot dead five people in Plymouth and then shot himself.

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