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7:40 AM ET, August 16, 2021

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 Top Items: 
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
For Biden, Images of Defeat He Wanted to Avoid  —  President Biden will go down in history, fairly or unfairly, as the president who presided over a humiliating final act in the American experiment in Afghanistan.  —  Rarely in modern presidential history have words come back to bite …
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James Gordon Meek / ABC News:
Afghanistan's collapse: Did US intelligence get it wrong?  —  American intelligence sources say they correctly predicted the fall of Kabul.  —  As panicked Afghans watched Taliban fighters roll into the capital city of Kabul Sunday, sealing the collapse of the U.S.-backed government there …
Ben Smith / New York Times:
Afghans working for U.S. government broadcasters fear Taliban backlash.  —  More than a hundred journalists employed by the American government's own radio stations remain in Afghanistan as the Taliban take power, U.S. officials and Afghan journalists said Sunday.
Wall Street Journal:
‘Saigon on Steroids’: The Desperate Rush to Flee Afghanistan  —  Kabul airport descends into chaos as Afghan civilians besiege the terminal and Western countries scramble to evacuate personnel, in a dizzying coda to America's longest war  —  KABUL—The lucky few were already inside …
Discussion: CNN, Bloomberg, Insider and globalnews.ca
Craig Whitlock / Washington Post:
Afghan security forces' wholesale collapse was years in the making  —  In the summer of 2011, Army Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV made a round of public appearances to boast that he had finally solved a problem that had kept U.S. troops bogged down in Afghanistan for a decade.
Sarah Zheng / South China Morning Post:
China, Russia embassies stay put in Afghanistan as US and allies flee Taliban  —  Collapse of Afghan government sets off evacuation scramble but Beijing and Moscow have no current plans to remove staff Chinese embassy warns its nationals to stay indoors, take safety precautions and keep …
Discussion: RedState
Wall Street Journal:
Chaotic Afghanistan Pullout Caps Two Decades of Missteps  —  Successive U.S. administrations followed strategies that inadvertently fueled support for the insurgency and missed key windows to negotiate  —  WASHINGTON—In early July, President Biden stood in the East Room of the White House …
Michael Lee / Fox News:
Jen Psaki ‘out of the office’ as Biden remains silent on Taliban takeover of Afghanistan  —  The timing of Psaki's time off comes as Biden has faced criticism for remaining on vacation
Eltaf Najafizada / Bloomberg:
Chaotic Scenes Grip Kabul's Airport, With Reports of Deaths  — Panicked citizens crowd the airport in desperate bid to exit  — Taliban declare victory, prepare to announce new government  —  Desperate scenes played out at Kabul's international airport on Monday as thousands rushed …
Richard Haass / Project Syndicate:
America's Withdrawal of Choice  —  The swift fall of Kabul recalls the ignominious fall of Saigon in 1975.  Beyond the local consequences - widespread reprisals, harsh repression of women and girls, and massive refugee flows - America's strategic and moral failure in Afghanistan …
Julian Borger / The Guardian:
Taliban's Abdul Ghani Baradar is undisputed victor of a 20-year war  —  Return to power of movement's co-founder embodies Afghanistan's inability to escape history of conflict  —  Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban leader freed from a Pakistani jail on the request of the US less than three years ago …
John Podhoretz / Commentary Magazine:
All Biden Had to Do Was...Nothing  —  All Joe Biden had to do was nothing.  Had Joe Biden done nothing, Afghanistan would not have fallen to the Taliban today.  Had he just let the status quo continue, the status quo would have continued.  Afghanistan would have plodded along and we would have kept …
Discussion: RedState, Breitbart and Instapundit
Anatol Lieven / Politico:
Why the U.S. Should Have Predicted the Speed of Afghanistan's Collapse
Discussion: Washington Post
Associated Press:
Biden team surprised by rapid Taliban gains in Afghanistan
New York Times:
Taliban Takeover Could Extinguish U.S. Influence in Kabul
Discussion: Washington Post, CNN and New York Post
The Bulwark:
America Has a Moral Obligation to Get Our Translators Out of Afghanistan
Discussion: Associated Press
Kenneth C. Brill / The Hill:   Afghanistan: Can we build bipartisan agreement out of bipartisan failure?
Lindsay Kornick / Fox News:
Rep. Van Drew calls for Biden's resignation amid Taliban takeover in Afghanistan
Discussion: Breitbart
Financial Times:
Low morale, no support and bad politics: why the Afghan army folded
Discussion: Atlantic Council
Jeff Stein / SpyTalk:
Exclusive: U.S. Channel for Emergency Afghan Visas Crashes
United States Department of State:
Joint Statement on Afghanistan  —  The following is the text of a joint statement on Afghanistan initially released by the following: Albania, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark …
Discussion: RedState
RELATED:
Seth Moulton / U.S. Congressman Seth Moulton:
Moulton Statement on the Situation in Afghanistan  —  WASHINGTON — Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA) issued the following statement on Afghanistan:  —  To say that today is anything short of a disaster would be dishonest.  Worse, it was avoidable.  The time to debate whether we stay …
Krista Torralva / Dallas Morning News:
Texas Supreme Court blocks mask mandates in Dallas, Bexar counties  —  The entirely Republican court granted a temporary stay at the request of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Sunday.  —  Two days after a Dallas appeals court dealt Texas Gov. Greg Abbott …
RELATED:
Annie Linskey / Washington Post:
From Saigon to Kabul: Biden's response to Vietnam echoes in his views of Afghanistan withdrawal  —  The Debrief: An occasional series offering a reporter's insights  —  Two weeks before Saigon fell in April 1975, a 32-year-old Joe Biden was among the senators summoned to the White House …
Discussion: IJR, Politico and The Moderate Voice
RELATED:
Claire Giangravé / Religion News Service:
Cardinal Burke is placed on ventilator days after testing positive for COVID-19  —  VATICAN CITY (RNS) - A message from the Twitter account of Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a conservative prelate and outspoken skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccine, confirmed Saturday (Aug. 14) via Twitter …
Discussion: Raw Story and Mock Paper Scissors
Juan Williams / The Hill:
Trump's coup attempt should bar him from 2024 race  —  Let's agree — former President Trump is running again.  —  He has $100 million in his political war-chest.  His GOP rivals for the nomination, including top congressional Republicans, fear him.  —  One reason he might not run …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Lachlan Cartwright / The Daily Beast:
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Miami Herald:
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Discussion: Reuters
Associated Press:
Detainee says China has secret jail in Dubai, holds Uyghurs
Gavin Bade / Politico:
‘Lay out the strategy’: Corporate America grows impatient on Biden's China trade review
Discussion: Fox News
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Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
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Evan Drellich / New York Times:
Diamond Sports Group, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, says in 2025 it will stop carrying all but one of the 12 MLB teams it now televises

Joe Otterson / Variety:
WBD and All Elite Wrestling sign a multiyear deal, sources say worth $150M+ per year; AEW shows remain on TBS and TNT and stream live on Max in the US in 2025

 
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