[table=72,][tr] The Latest: Mexico accepts its 1st group of Afghan refugees
    
    
    
    MEXICO CITY — Mexico has accepted its first group of refugees from Afghanistan.
    
    
    
    The five women and one man arrived Tuesday in Mexico City, where they were welcomed by Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard. Ebrard told the group, “Welcome to your home.”
    
    
    
    The refugees belong to a group involved in the field of robotics. They had to travel through six countries to reach Mexico. They fled Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the country earlier this month.
    
    
    
    Ebrard says Mexico will grant them “whatever legal status they consider best.” That could include giving them asylum or refugee status.
    
    
    
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    MORE ON AFGHANISTAN:
    
    
    
    — Taliban insist on airlift deadline amid new report of abuses
    
    
    
    — Biden decides to stick with Aug. 31 final pullout from Kabul
    
    
    
    — G-7 grapples with Afghanistan, an afterthought not long ago
    
    
    
    — UN rights chief warns of abuses amid Taliban’s Afghan blitz
    
    
    
    — Taliban takeover prompts fears of a resurgent al-Qaida
    
    
    
    — Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan
    
    
    
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    HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
    
    
    
    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says forces are on track to leave Afghanistan by his self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline but it will depend on Taliban cooperation.
    
    
    
    In an address to the nation Tuesday, the president said he is pushing U.S. forces to leave “the sooner the better” due to increasing threats from ISIS-K and other terror groups in Kabul. Biden says the threats are “real and significant challenges that we also have to take into consideration.”
    
    
    
    Biden says more than 70,000 people have been evacuated since Aug. 14. But there is tumult and violence outside Kabul’s airport making it difficult for Americans and their Afghan allies to reach safety.
    
    
    
    The president says that in a virtual Group of 7 meeting with world leaders, the nations were resolved to stand “shoulder to shoulder” to get people out of Afghanistan. But Biden’s decision to pull out forces by the deadline has received sharp criticism from at home and abroad
    
    
    
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    MOSCOW — Russia’s defense minister has voiced concern about the Taliban seizing a large number of weapons, including air defense missile systems, after sweeping over Afghanistan.
    
    
    
    Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday the Taliban has captured hundreds of combat vehicles along with a number of warplanes and helicopters.
    
    
    
    He expressed a particular worry about the Taliban obtaining more than 100 man-portable air defense missile systems.
    
    
    
    Shoigu noted that Afghanistan’s refugee problem is a cause for grave concern.
    
    
    
    The Russian defense chief voiced hope that the Taliban would move to form an inclusive government that would include all groups in the country.
    
    
    
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    ROME — Italy will offer Afghan citizens evacuated to Italy from their homeland the opportunity to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
    
    
    
    Premier Mario Draghi’s office said Tuesday he has asked the Italian army general in charge of the national vaccination program to work out a plan so evacuees of recent days can receive the vaccine. If they want a vaccine they will receive them at locations around the country.
    
    
    
    Right after they arrive in Italy, evacuees are issued humanitarian visas and are tested for COVID-19. Earlier in the day, Italian ministers told lawmakers that 2,659 Afghans have already reached Italy, and nearly 1,100 more were at Kabul airport awaiting Italian flights.
    
    
    
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    MADRID — Spain is receiving a new batch of 290 Afghan refugees on a commercial airplane that has flown from Dubai to a military airbase in the outskirts of Madrid.
    
    
    
    At least 130 more people are expected to travel later on Tuesday in two separate flights operated by the Spanish Air Force, the Defense Ministry said.
    
    
    
    The latest arrivals bring to more than 1,200 the number of people that Spain has evacuated from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
    
    
    
    They come as Defense Minister Margarita Robles acknowledged that Spain won’t be able to aid all the people it had planned to despite the ongoing frantic efforts to evacuate as many as possible.
    
    
    
    In an interview with Spain’s Cadena SER radio, the minister said that controls by Taliban forces and increasing tensions in Afghanistan were making it even more difficult for Afghans who worked for Spanish troops in the western city of Herat to travel to the Afghan capital, Kabul.
    
    
    
    “We are going to take out all the people that is possible. But there will be people that will remain for reasons that don’t depend on us, due to the situation there,” she said.
    
    
    
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    BRUSSELS — European Council President Charles Michel says a number of G-7 leaders raised concerns with U.S. President Joe Biden about the Aug. 31 deadline for getting their nationals and Afghan helpers out of Kabul.
    
    
    
    Michel says that “several leaders expressed concerns about the timing of August 31,” during Tuesday’s G-7 summit. He declined to tell reporters after the meeting what response Biden gave the leaders.
    
    
    
    According to an administration official, Biden plans to stick with his deadline for completing the U.S.-led evacuation from Afghanistan. The decision reflects in part the U.S. military’s concern about heightened security threats to the massive airlift that began 10 days ago.
    
    
    
    Michel says the EU remains concerned about European citizens and Afghan people who worked with them being able to safely reach Kabul airport.
    
    
    
    Michel says the EU “raised this issue with our American friends and partners” notably “the need to secure the airport, as long as necessary, to complete the operations; and second, a fair and equitable access to the airport, for all nationals entitled to evacuation.”
    
    
    
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    MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Moscow is strongly against any U.S. troops presence in the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations and also opposes American attempts to persuade them to host Afghan refugees.
    
    
    
    Speaking during Tuesday’s visit to Hungary, Lavrov noted that Russia and some of the Central Asian countries are members of a security pact stipulating that any foreign military presence in the region requires their common agreement.
    
    
    
    He added that the presence of U.S. troops in any of the region’s countries would expose it to a potential retaliatory blow.
    
    
    
    “Hosting troops from the U.S. which has openly declared an intention to keep Afghanistan in cross hairs and launch
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