defends his decision to flee the countryjust before the taliban take—over, saying he did it to prevent the destruction of kabul. days after launching into orbit,it�*s the "make or break" moment for the james webb space telescope as it starts to unfold its tennis court—sized sunshield. the number of daily new cases of covid—19 recorded in the uk has reached a new high. figures published in the last half hour show that there were 189,213 new positive cases recorded — although it's not clear exactly how much the figures have been affected by reporting delays over the christmas period.