British military planes never leave Kabul empty, according to the British defence minister, in response to reports of some flights leaving without any evacuees on board. The UK was “absolutely ploughing through the numbers,” Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the BBC on Aug. 19, following stories of Taliban checkpoints at the airport hampering the movement of Afghans and expats to the planes. Wallace gave the example of the most recent flights, which he said carried 115 and 138 apiece. Many of the flights out of the country were at full capacity, he said. “I can’t vote for the other nations, but our planes never leave empty,” he said. “If we have spaces on them, we offer them up to other nations. We took out some NATO interpreters recently, we’ve taken out some people from other neighbouring states within Europe.” According to Wallace, between seven and 10 RAF planes were taking off every …