Biden en route to Dover AFB to pay respects to slain service members
29 August 2021
President Biden and first lady Jill Bidenare en route to Dover Air ForceBase to pay respects to the 13 service members killed in last week's Kabul airport attack.
Why it matters: This is Biden's first visit as president to the Air Force base in Delaware to pay respects to fallen soldiers. The base serves as the initial transit place for U.S. service members killed overseas.
- The deadly blast on Thursday led to the first U.S. military casualties in Afghanistan in over a year, and marks the deadliest incident there in a decade, per Reuters.
- ISIS-K, the terrorist group’s affiliate in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack.
"The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others," Biden said in a statement on Saturday. "Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far."
- "I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have," Biden said in a statement on Saturday afternoon.
Go deeper: The U.S. service members who died in the Kabul blast
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.