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White House reveals winter COVID-19 plans, more free tests
The Biden administration is again making some free COVID-19 tests available to US households as it unveils its contingency plans for potential coronavirus surges this winter.
After a three-month hiatus, the administration is making four rapid virus tests available through covidtests.gov starting Thursday, a senior administration official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the program, Associated Press reported.
COVID-19 cases have shown a marked increase after the Thanksgiving holiday, and further increases are projected from indoor gathering and travel around Christmas and New Year’s.
The administration is putting personnel and equipment on standby should they be needed to help overwhelmed hospitals and nursing homes, as was necessary in earlier waves of the virus. So far, there have been no requests for assistance, but surge teams, ventilators and personal protective equipment are ready, the official said.
The Biden administration is also urging states and local governments to do more to encourage people to get the updated bivalent COVID-19 vaccines, which scientists say are more effective at protecting against serious illness and death from the currently circulating variants, AP reported.
The administration is reiterating best practices to nursing homes and long-term care facilities for virus prevention and treatment and is urging administrators as well as governments to encourage vulnerable populations to get the new shots.
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Four members of one family killed in Helmand in Pakistan airstrike
The family, originally from Ghazni province, reportedly operated a small restaurant in the area.
Four members of a family were killed and seven others wounded in an airstrike in Safar area of Garmser district in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province, according to local reports.
The family, originally from Ghazni province, reportedly operated a small restaurant in the area.
The bodies of those killed and the wounded were transported by helicopter to Ghazni province for burial and medical treatment, according to the reports.
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UNAMA acting chief visits Islam Qala border to assess support for returnees
UN launched a $529 million response plan aimed at assisting around 2.7 million Afghans expected to return from Iran and Pakistan between April and December 2026.
Georgette Gagnon, UNAMA’s acting head, visited western Afghanistan, including the Islam Qala border crossing, to see firsthand UN efforts to support millions of Afghans returning from neighboring Iran and Pakistan.
Earlier this year, the UN launched a $529 million response plan aimed at assisting around 2.7 million Afghans expected to return from Iran and Pakistan between April and December 2026.
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Trump: Unlike Afghanistan, US took all equipment from Iraq
Trump said the withdrawal from Iraq marked the end of what he described as a costly military involvement, adding that he had set a clear mission and instructed commanders to complete it without allowing the US presence to become permanent.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday compared the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq with the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying military equipment had been left behind in Afghanistan, while US forces leaving Iraq took their equipment with them.
Speaking at a White House event, Trump referred to the final departure of US-led coalition forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq, which marked the end of the US military mission against Daesh in Iraq.
“I said, take a little longer. Take everyone. We left all of the equipment, if you remember, in Afghanistan. Everything was left behind,” Trump said.
“I said, ‘I want every screw taken. If there’s a screw lying on the ground, take it. If we have a canvas tent, take it.’ We took everything,” he added.
He also mentioned the August 2021 attack at Kabul airport that killed 13 US soldiers.
Trump said he had become acquainted with the families of the US service members killed in the attack and also highlighted those who were seriously wounded.
“What happened to those—to their children should never have been allowed to happen,” he said, adding that 48 wounded service members were severely injured and “never get mentioned.”
Trump said the withdrawal from Iraq marked the end of what he described as a costly military involvement, adding that he had set a clear mission and instructed commanders to complete it without allowing the US presence to become permanent.
The US military announced on Wednesday that its forces and equipment had completed an orderly departure from Erbil Air Base, formally ending Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. The US-led mission began in 2014 to fight Daesh after the group seized large areas of Iraq and Syria. The US is continuing its counter-Daesh mission in Syria from a headquarters in Jordan.
Trump said the US had entered Iraq to fight the Islamic State and that the group no longer controlled a territorial “caliphate.”
“We came to fight a caliphate, and there is no longer a caliphate, so we are going home indeed,” he said.
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