Taliban takes over half of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals

US dispatches 3,000 troops to help evacuate Americans still in the country. [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [View in your browser]( [Top of The World]( --------------------------------------------------------------- What The World is following Taliban takes over half of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals [A Taliban fighter stands guard over surrendered Afghan security members forces in the city of Ghazni, southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 13, 2021.] Credit: Gulabuddin Amiri/AP Afghanistan As the Taliban continues its takeover of large swaths of Afghanistan, the group completed its sweep of the country’s south on Friday, with [18 provincial capitals]( now under its control — including Kandahar, Herat and Lashkar Gah. A weekslong battle in Helmand province left hospitals filled with injured civilians. The latest takeover brings the Taliban even closer to the Afghan capital, Kabul. In response, the US has dispatched [3,000 troops]( to help evacuate Americans who are still in the country. The move comes weeks before the planned full withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan, and following two decades of war. Venezuela The Venezuelan government and its opposition are opening talks in Mexico on Friday in an attempt to find solutions to economic and social crises gripping the country. The last round of negotiations were held between 2017 and 2019. This time ,the talks are being [brokered by Norway](. President Nicolás Maduro appears to have the upper hand this time, since the opposition has weakened and fractured. Opposition coalition leader, Juan Guaidó — who the US and other countries recognize as the country’s legitimate leader — is calling for a plan for massive imports of COVID-19 vaccines along with a “[National Salvation Agreement](” that would include the government, its local allies, the opposition and the international community. Ethiopia President Joe Biden is sending his special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, to Ethiopia to push for an end to nine months of internal conflict. Continued fighting between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has raised concerns of a worsening famine and humanitarian disaster along with reports of increased [violence against hundreds of women and girls](. The UN says that a total of 400,000 people are at [risk of famine]( in the Tigray region. Feltman will also travel to Djibouti and the United Arab Emirates in an attempt to promote stability in the Horn of Africa. --------------------------------------------------------------- From The World [One of Iraq’s oldest Christian communities struggles with religious diversity]( [Iraqi Christian children prepare for their First Communion in Bartella.]( Credit: Rebecca Collard/The World Bartella, a historically Christian town of about 15,000 people, is one of the world’s oldest Christian communities — [but Christians here are now a minority.]( 🎧 All the children in this class, and their families, fled when ISIS took the town in 2014. Many of their families sought refuge in the Kurdish areas of Iraq. Now, they are back, but more than half of the Christians from Bartella never returned. 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Steeve Valcourt of the band [spoke to host Marco Weerman 🎧 about Haiti, music and their new album]( "Leave the Bones." 🎶[We made a Spotify playlist with some music from Lakou Mizik]( — and other artists that we've featured on the show. 🎶 [A screen grab of a tweet from the Jamaica Ministry of Tourism] Credit: Michael Sipe Jr. --------------------------------------------------------------- In case you missed it from The World --------------------------------------------------------------- - [‘We hope to show the other side of Haiti’]( - [Jamaican hurdler thanks volunteer who helped him win gold at the Olympics]( - [Census releases new findings from 2020 census]( - [What does the climate’s best-case scenario look like?]( - [Alibaba reckons with its culture of misogyny]( - [South African effort to rescue a vanishing click language]( - [Sheep moonlight as archaeologists at historic Irish graveyard]( - [Caribbean migrants try dangerous land route through Colombia]( - [The Taliban-Pakistan relationship]( - [Taliban in Herat]( Don't forget to subscribe to The World's Latest Edition podcast using your favorite podcast player: [RadioPublic](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Stitcher](, [Soundcloud](, [RSS]( [The World logo]( [The World on Facebook]( [The World's Twitter account]( [Donate]( | [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [Edit your subscription]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [View in your browser]( Top of the World is written weekday mornings by the team at [The World](. 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