Top Items:
Vivian Salama / Wall Street Journal:
Confidential State Department Cable in July Warned of Afghanistan's Collapse — About two dozen State Department officials in Kabul sent an internal memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken — WASHINGTON — About two dozen State Department officials serving at the embassy in Kabul sent …
Discussion:
emptywheel, Politico, Townhall, Balloon Juice, The Stream, BizPac Review, Summit News, Breitbart, The Lid, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Power Line, New York Post, Patterico's Pontifications, Sputnik News, The Last Refuge, Forbes, CNN, The Gateway Pundit, TheBlaze, The Daily Beast, Becker News, HotAir, RedState, ABC News and NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
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Patrick Reilly / New York Post:
Oklahoma mom of 11 rescues members of Afghan all-girls robotics team — An Oklahoma mother of 11 flew to Afghanistan earlier this month to rescue 10 members of the country's all-girls robotics team, and hoping to save more as the Taliban takes power in Kabul.
Discussion:
NBC News, The Hill and The Intellectualist
New York Times:
How News Organizations Got Afghan Colleagues Out of Kabul — The evacuation of those who worked for outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post came after a global rescue effort stretching from the Pentagon to Qatar. — For hours, they waited on the tarmac in the relentless heat …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal and The Intercept, more at Mediagazer »
New York Times:
Live Updates: Biden to Address Afghan Crisis as Desperation Builds at Kabul Airport — President Biden will speak on Friday amid intense criticism of the evacuation effort. A 17-year-old boy was identified as one of the Afghans who fell from a U.S. military plane as it lifted off.
Discussion:
Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, more at Mediagazer »
Michael Crowley / New York Times:
Trump's Deal With the Taliban Draws Fire From His Former Allies — The former president and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, are attacking President Biden over Afghanistan even as their own policy faces harsh criticism. — WASHINGTON — Days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 …
Discussion:
Metro.co.uk, Washington Examiner, coldfury.com and Daily Kos
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
The Best and Brightest never recovered from Vietnam. Will Biden's team fare better? — The Afghanistan disaster has rocked the Biden administration's foreign policy team, which may need months to regain its sense of balance and momentum. — Senior officials don't have time or emotional bandwidth …
James Jay Carafano / New York Post:
Call Afghanistan what it is: The worst hostage crisis in American history
Call Afghanistan what it is: The worst hostage crisis in American history
Discussion:
CBS News and The Daily Signal
German Election / DW.COM:
Relative of DW journalist killed by the Taliban — Journalists and their families are in grave danger in Afghanistan. The Taliban have no compunction about carrying out targeted killings as the case of a DW journalist shows. — Taliban fighters hunting a DW journalist have shot dead …
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Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times:
Encounter with the Taliban: Punched, detained — then offered an energy drink — FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT AND PHOTOGRAPHER — When I headed out to work, it had been five days since the Taliban took over Kabul. And it was Independence Day, a national holiday, when Afghans celebrate their country's independence from Britain in 1919.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast
Carla Marinucci / Politico:
Elder's ex-fiancee said he brandished a gun at her — PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Alexandra Datig, the former fiancee and longtime radio producer for California GOP gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder, says she broke off an 18-month engagement with the conservative talk show host in 2015 …
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CNN:
‘Women exaggerate the problem of sexism’: Top California recall candidate Larry Elder has a long history of making disparaging remarks about women
‘Women exaggerate the problem of sexism’: Top California recall candidate Larry Elder has a long history of making disparaging remarks about women
Discussion:
Politico and Sacramento Bee
Joe Hoft / The Gateway Pundit:
California Rigging the Governor Election Against Larry Elder and Those Who Voted for Recall
Reuters:
Biden's Afghanistan policy counts on issue fading in importance for war-weary voters — President Joe Biden is brushing off criticism of his administration's chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal because he and his aides believe the political fallout at home will be limited, according to White House allies and administration officials.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, CNN, Daily Kos, Louder With Crowder, Ace of Spades HQ and Real Clear Politics
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Reuters:
White House backtracks after Biden appears to say US would defend Taiwan against China
White House backtracks after Biden appears to say US would defend Taiwan against China
Discussion:
Sputnik News, Latest and Fox News
Josh Lederman / NBC News:
What is the ‘Biden doctrine’? Afghanistan pullout offers clues
What is the ‘Biden doctrine’? Afghanistan pullout offers clues
Discussion:
Security, Cigars & FUD and MSNBC
Reuters:
Taliban are rounding up Afghans on blacklist - private intel report — The Taliban have begun rounding up Afghans on a blacklist of people they believe have worked in key roles with the previous Afghan administration or with U.S.-led forces that supported it, according to a report by a Norwegian intelligence group.
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BBC:
Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to door manhunt, report says
Afghanistan: Taliban carrying out door-to door manhunt, report says
Discussion:
New York Post and Agence France-Presse
Matthew Rosenberg / New York Times:
Hunted by the Taliban, US-Allied Afghan Forces Are in Hiding
Hunted by the Taliban, US-Allied Afghan Forces Are in Hiding
Discussion:
The American Conservative, The Hill, The Daily Caller and Washington Post
Dave Lieber / Dallas Morning News:
If North Texas runs out of ICU hospital beds, doctors can consider a patient's vaccination status — This would be a big change in health care, but doctors have yet to announce it. So The Watchdog does it for them. — North Texas doctors have quietly developed a plan that seeks to prepare …
Discussion:
Forbes, New York Times, HotAir, Patterico's Pontifications, Ace of Spades HQ and Raw Story
CNN:
I live in Texas and I am really angry — Gov. Abbott tests positive for Covid-19 after months of blocking mask mandates — Stephen I. Vladeck is the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Court at the University of Texas School of Law, a CNN contributor and an expert on the role of the federal courts in the war on terrorism.
Discussion:
The Texas Tribune, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth and WGN-TV
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James Barragán / The Texas Tribune:
After a nearly six-week exodus over GOP voting bill, enough Democrats return to Texas House to resume work — Democrat Reps. Garnet Coleman, Armando Walle and Ana Hernandez were the latest to rejoin the House on Thursday, narrowly clinching a quorum. — Copy link
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Mac Stipanovich / Tampa Bay Times:
Ron DeSantis has ‘made a monumental mess of masking in public schools’ | Column — Several school districts are doing the right thing despite the governor's threats, writes columnist Mac Stipanovich. — Ron DeSantis is a governor uninterested in actually governing …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Bob Christie / Associated Press:
Appeals court orders Arizona Senate audit records released — PHOENIX (AP) — An appeals court on Thursday rejected an effort by the Arizona Senate to keep secret records of its ongoing review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County that are in the possession of the contractors conducting the recount.
Discussion:
Arizona Mirror, Arizona Republic and The Hill
Amnesty International USA:
Taliban responsible for brutal massacre of Hazara men - new investigation — Taliban fighters massacred nine ethnic Hazara men after taking control of Afghanistan's Ghazni province last month, Amnesty International said today. — On-the-ground researchers spoke to eyewitnesses …
Zachary Faria / Washington Examiner:
Democrats increasingly embrace censorship from the government and Big Tech: Poll — The pandemic, and the lies and incorrect information that have come from health officials and politicians, have done little to convince Democrats that censorship is a terrible idea. In fact, more Democrats support censorship now than in 2018.
Discussion:
The Western Journal
Alexei Navalny / The Guardian:
Only action against corruption can solve the world's biggest problems — In a message from his prison cell, the jailed Russian opposition activist calls for the west to take sanctions against oligarchs — xactly one year ago, I did not die from poisoning by a chemical weapon …
Discussion:
Amnesty International and Radio Free Europe/Radio …
Rachel Ramirez / CNN:
Rain fell at the normally snowy summit of Greenland for the first time on record — An example of meltwater flowing across the Greenland ice sheet in 2007. As the ice melts, the meltwater pools into rivers of runoff that flow toward lower elevations and into the ocean, resulting in the ice sheet losing mass.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Raw Story, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth and Sputnik News
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
OnlyFans to Block Sexually Explicit Videos Starting in October — OnlyFans is getting out of the pornography business. — The company will prohibit users from posting any sexually explicit conduct, starting in October. Creators will still be allowed to post nude photos and videos …
Discussion:
Axios, The Daily Beast, The Verge, CatholicVote org, National File, Slate, Gizmodo, Sputnik News, Mashable, Forbes, The A.V. Club, KRON4, TechCrunch and Hollywood Reporter, more at Mediagazer »
Daily Mail:
Fox News' Greg Gutfeld is crowned new king of late night television after he scores 220K MORE viewers than Colbert's Late Show on CBS — Comedian Greg Gutfeld's show pulled in the most viewers during Tuesday's late night time slot with about 2.12 million — Gutfeld! debuted in April …
Kate Storey / Esquire:
Inside Clarissa Ward's 19-Hour Days Reporting From Kabul — When CNN's Clarissa Ward approached a Taliban fighter on the streets of Kabul on Wednesday, a gunshot rang out behind her. If you saw this on Anderson Cooper's nightly show, you might have missed her flinch. It was brief. Subtle.
Mark Niesse / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Almost all eligible Georgians are registered to vote, data shows — Federal election report: 95% of voting-age Georgians registered — Georgia now has one of the highest voter registration rates in the nation, with 95% of citizens over 18 years old signed up to vote, according to federal election data released this week.
Discussion:
@richlowry, Breitbart, The Intellectualist, RedState and Twitchy
Adam S. Minsky / Forbes:
Biden To Automatically Cancel $5.8 Billion In Student Loans For Over 300,000 Disabled Borrowers — The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it will be automatically wiping out the federal student loan debt for 323,000 borrowers. — The administration will be cancelling borrowers …
Discussion:
New York Post