Taliban to take Kabul within three months

Kabul could be cut off by the Taliban within a month and overrun in three, US intelligence chiefs have predicted after militant gains cut the odds of the Afghan government’s survival. A Taliban blitz across northern Afghanistan, in which nine provincial capitals have fallen, has prompted the US to revise already bleak predictions. Events have surpassed earlier forecasts that Ashraf Ghani’s government could be overrun in six months to a year, an American official said.

TONY BLAIR’S target for half of school leavers to attend university is no longer fit for purpose, his son has said – claiming that the former prime minister agrees with him.

Euan Blair, who runs Multiverse, a start-up aiming to get young people into apprenticeships, said the target was out of date and “has not worked out”.

Set out in 1999, the policy was continued by subsequent governments and officially abandoned last year.

Critics have argued that it led to a proliferation of “Mickey Mouse” degrees and lured undergraduates into racking up large debts without a meaningful increase in their salary prospects.

Euan Blair, 37, said: “The belief was the more people go to university, the more people can access great opportunities, the more we would transition people fairly from full-time education to full-time employment. It has not worked out that way.”

He added: “A pretty stark statistic is only 4 per cent of those on free school meals make it to a Russell Group university. Lots of students [end up] in jobs deemed to be low skilled that would not need a degree in the first place.”

Asked if his father agreed, Mr Blair said: “He does.” Tony Blair’s most recent comments suggest he continues to support the policy. In June he set out an Education 2030 plan with Lord Adonis, one of his former ministers, calling for more pupils to go to university.

The education department estimates that 50.2 per cent of all 18 to 30-yearolds will have attended university or some form of higher education.