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6:35 AM ET, August 16, 2021

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 Top Items: 
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.
more at Mediagazer »
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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 …
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 …
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
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 …
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 …
The Bulwark:   America Has a Moral Obligation to Get Our Translators Out of Afghanistan
Financial Times:
Low morale, no support and bad politics: why the Afghan army folded
Discussion: Atlantic Council
Isaac Chotiner / New Yorker:
How America Failed in Afghanistan
Discussion: Bloomberg and Atlantic Council
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
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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
Associated Press:
Biden team surprised by rapid Taliban gains in Afghanistan  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and other top U.S. officials were stunned on Sunday by the pace of the Taliban's nearly complete takeover of Afghanistan, as the planned withdrawal of American forces urgently became a mission to ensure a safe evacuation.
Annie Linskey / Washington Post:
From Saigon to Kabul: Biden's response to Vietnam echoes in his views of Afghanistan withdrawal
Discussion: Politico, IJR and The Moderate Voice
Lindsay Kornick / Fox News:
Rep. Van Drew calls for Biden's resignation amid Taliban takeover in Afghanistan
Discussion: Breitbart
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
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Jeff Stein / SpyTalk:
Exclusive: U.S. Channel for Emergency Afghan Visas Crashes
U.S. Embassy / U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan:
Security Alert - U. S. Embassy Kabul, Afghanistan
ABC News:
Afghanistan updates: Another 1K US troops heading to Kabul, bringing total to 6,000
RELATED:
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 …
Laura Reiley / Washington Post:
Biden administration approves largest increase to food assistance benefits in SNAP program history  —  Benefits will rise by 25 percent on average, an infusion of cash that advocates say better reflects the modern cost of a basic diet.  —  The Biden administration has approved the largest increase …
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
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 …
 
 
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 More Items: 
John Eligon / New York Times:
In Zambia Election, Opposition Leader Storms to Decisive Win Over President
Discussion: Al Jazeera
Kenneth C. Brill / The Hill:
Afghanistan: Can we build bipartisan agreement out of bipartisan failure?
 Earlier Items: 
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Elder Ignores Mainstream Media in First Online Press Conference
NBC News:
‘Easy money’: How international scam artists pulled off an epic theft of Covid benefits
 

 
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Reuters:
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