memeorandum: The Afghan Army Collapsed Against the Taliban. Here's Why. (Sami Sadat/New York Times)

3:25 PM ET, August 25, 2021

Top Items:

In Kabul, Private Rescue Efforts Grow Desperate as Time to Evacuate Afghans Runs Out — Defense contractor Erik Prince charges $6,500 a person, other groups' planes leave Kabul empty — A disparate group of American veterans, military contractors, aid workers and former spies is scrambling …

Sami Sadat / New York Times:

The Afghan Army Collapsed Against the Taliban. Here's Why. — General Sadat is a commander in the Afghan National Army. — For the past three and a half months, I fought day and night, nonstop, in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province against an escalating and bloody Taliban offensive.

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Insider, The Drive, HotAir, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, The Moderate Voice, Digby's Hullabaloo, Associated Press, No More Mister Nice Blog, Forbes, Political Wire, RedState, NaturalNews.com and Foreign Affairs

David Leonhardt / New York Times:

A Better Afghan Policy — What would it have been? — What might a more successful exit from Afghanistan have looked like? — I have spent some time talking with colleagues and experts about that question, and it is a difficult one to answer. President Biden's exit certainly has not gone well.

Discussion: Washington Post, Insider, HotAir, Mexico News Daily and Politico

Washington Post:
Two Congress members make unauthorized trip to Kabul amid evacuation efforts

Discussion: The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Insider, Politico, HotAir, Axios, New York Times, Vanity Fair, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Townhall, Boston.com, CNN, Michigan Advance, Breitbart, Associated Press, Roll Call, Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, Defense One, New York Post, National Review, TheBlaze, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA, Daily Kos, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Outside the Beltway, Forbes, BizPac Review, Inside Higher Ed, The New Civil Rights Movement, Washington Times, IJR, 77 WABC, One America News Network, Fox News, CBS News, Slate, Boston Herald, The US Sun, NBC News, CNN, New York Times, New York Magazine, Balloon Juice, Forbes, Mediaite, Insider, NPR, RedState, National Review, New York Post, Politico, Representative Claudia Tenney, Fox News, Power Line, USA Today, Reuters, Politico, The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, Washington Examiner, Fox News, New York Post, CNN and Rasmussen Reports

Ben Smith / New York Times:
How Mexico Helped The Times Get Its Journalists Out of Afghanistan

Discussion: Washington Examiner, HotAir and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Joseph Klein / Front Page Magazine:
Biden's Gift to Global Jihadists: A Safe National Homeland

Discussion: HotAir, American Greatness, RedState, Washington Examiner, HotAir, Politico, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The White House, Human Events, BizPac Review, CNN, Washington Post, Power Line, RedState, New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News

Select Committee to Investigate …:

Select Committee Issues Sweeping Demand for Executive Branch Records — Bolton, MS—Today, Chairman Bennie G. Thompson announced the Select Committee's first round of demands for records as the committee expands its investigation into the January 6th violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and its causes.

Discussion: HuffPost, Insider, UPI, Washington Times and Raw Story

Christina Wilkie / CNBC:

Jan. 6 committee demands a huge trove of Trump White House records — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol formally demanded records related to at least 30 members of former President Donald Trump's inner circle. — The demand was part of a sweeping records request …

Discussion: NBC News, NPR and Becker News

CNN:
House committee seeks documents from agencies on January 6 Capitol attack, signaling massive investigative effort

Discussion: Washington Post and NBC News

Michael Luciano / Mediaite:
Kayleigh McEnany Says When Trump Was President, 'You Didn't See Crisis After Crisis'

Discussion: PRESS RUN

Leslie Josephs / CNBC:

Delta Air Lines is raising health insurance premiums for unvaccinated employees by $200 a month to cover higher Covid costs — Starting Nov. 1, unvaccinated Delta employees who have health insurance from the companywill face $200 monthly surcharges. — From Sept. 12 …

Discussion: Delta News Hub, HotAir, Axios, Morning Brew, UPI, The Guardian, Progress Pond, Raw Story and Axios

Content Lab U.S.:
Johnson & Johnson Announces Data to Support Boosting its Single-Shot COVID-19 Vaccine

Discussion: CNN, CBS News, Forbes, GovExec.com, Al Jazeera, KARK-TV, KTLA, New York Post, KFOR-TV, The Daily Caller, NPR, UPI, Washington Examiner, WPRI-TV and KRON4

Carl Zimmer / New York Times:
Second Dose of J. & J. Vaccine Gives Strong Boost, Company Reports

Discussion: ABC News, 6abc, Politico, Financial Times, HotAir, USA Today and STAT

JoNel Aleccia / Kaiser Health News:
These Governors Push Experimental Antibody Therapy — But Shun Vaccine and Mask Mandates

Discussion: WKMG, WND, Associated Press, New York Times, CNBC, Axios, TheBlaze, Centers for Disease Control …, New York Times and New York Post

Marina Villeneuve / Associated Press:

New NY governor adds 12,000 deaths to publicized COVID tally — ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul promised more government transparency on her first day in office and by day's end her administration had quietly delivered it by acknowledging nearly 12,000 more deaths in the state …

Zachary Evans / National Review:
New York Governor Adds 12,000 COVID Deaths to Predecessor Cuomo's Count

Discussion: Politico and Washington Examiner

Karen Pearlman / Los Angeles Times:

Students from San Diego County school district stranded in Afghanistan — At least 24 students from the Cajon Valley Union School District in El Cajon and 16 parents are stranded in Afghanistan after taking a summer trip abroad. — They are among thousands of individuals waiting to leave …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Examiner, New York Post, Townhall and Althouse

Karen Pearlman / San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego County students, parents stranded in Afghanistan

Stephen Groves / Associated Press:

Prosecutor: South Dakota AG to take plea deal in fatal crash — PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will avoid a trial and take a plea deal for misdemeanor traffic charges in a crash last year in which he hit and killed a man who was walking along a rural highway, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Discussion: The Hill and Raw Story

Tom Kludt / Vanity Fair: “I Did Not Know It Was a Man”: The Surreal Story of How a Deadly Crash Upended South Dakota Politics

Politico:

Secret Service warned Capitol Police about violent threats 1 day before Jan. 6 — Just a day before the Jan. 6 riot, the Secret Service warned the U.S. Capitol Police that their officers could face violence at the hands of supporters of former President Donald Trump, according to new documents reviewed by POLITICO.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, IJR, Political Wire and Mediaite

Matt Taibbi / TK News:

Enough is Enough: Antifa Attacks Reporter in Portland — Antifa's influence may be exaggerated, but it's not a mythical Snuffleupagus, either, as they showed in attacking reporter Maranie Staab from our partner News2Share this past weekend. — This past Sunday, while covering a protest in Portland …

Christopher Bedford / The Federalist: You Don't Need To Go To Kabul To See The End Of American Order. It's Right Here Among Us

Daniel Dale / CNN:

Fact check: Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy makes at least 5 false claims in 7-minute Fox News interview — This is what Trump said about US' evacuation of Afghan allies — Washington (CNN)House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy made at least five false claims during a seven-minute Sunday interview on Fox News.

Emily Brooks / Washington Examiner:
Hard-line conservatives press McCarthy to whip votes against infrastructure bill

Discussion: CNBC, Raw Story and ABC13

David Dayen / American Prospect:

Infrastructure Summer: The Gottheimer Gang's Pointless Standoff — Conservative Democrats got a guarantee that the House would vote on the infrastructure bill by late September. But that changes nothing about the process. — The problem for the Gottheimer gang is they simply …

Discussion: Common Dreams, email.punchbowl.news, NBC News, USA Today, Raw Story and Indian Country Today

Matthew Cooper / Washington Monthly:
House Democratic Moderates Have Reason to Boast

Discussion: The Stream, Washington Post, No Labels and Washington Times

New York Times:

A Taliban spokesman urges women to stay home because fighters haven't been trained to respect them. — When the Taliban were last in power, Afghan women were generally not allowed to leave their homes except under certain narrowly defined conditions. Those who did risked being beaten, tortured or executed.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

CNN:
Taliban tell Afghan women to stay home from work because soldiers are ‘not trained’ to respect them

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Jane Margolies / New York Times:

Offices Dangle Beehives and Garden Plots to Coax Workers Back — The latest perks include harvesting honey and digging in the dirt, part of a growing effort to give employees access to fresh air, sunlight and plants. — The investment company Nuveen has spent $120 million renovating …

Discussion: Althouse

Alan I. Abramowitz / Sabato's Crystal Ball:

How Donald Trump Turned Off Swing Voters in 2020 — KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE — The number of swing voters — those who change their minds between presidential elections — has been declining over time. — However, there are still some swing voters, and they can be decisive …

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Democrats just launched a missile at the GOP's fortress of minority rule — Behind all the messy maneuvering in Congress right now is a hidden story: To an underappreciated degree, Democrats just launched a broadside against the edifice of minority rule that Republicans are busy constructing …

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Post and Washington Times

Associated Press:

‘Pain compliance’: Video shows trooper pummeling Black man — MONROE, La. (AP) — Graphic body camera video kept secret for more than two years shows a Louisiana State Police trooper pummeling a Black motorist 18 times with a flashlight — an attack the trooper defended as “pain compliance.”

Discussion: Raw Story and Forbes

Wall Street Journal:

CIA, U.S. Troops Conduct Missions Outside Kabul Airport to Extract Americans, Allies — Risky operations include helicopter lifts as evacuation window closes — WASHINGTON—The Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military are conducting extraction operations to rescue Americans using helicopters …

Discussion: Washington Times and Fox News

Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:

In First Interview From Jail, an Upbeat Navalny Discusses Prison Life — Russian political prisoners today are subjected to “psychological” pressure, said the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, who is forced to watch state TV for more than eight hours a day.

Ian Millhiser / Vox:

The Supreme Court's stunning, radical immigration decision, explained — The Court's decision on Trump's “Remain in Mexico” policy upends decades of precedent warning that judges shouldn't mess with foreign affairs. — The Supreme Court handed down an order Tuesday evening that makes no sense.

Emma Colton / Fox News:

Former California Democratic majority leader endorses Larry Elder in campaign against Gov. Newsom — The California recall election will be held on Sept. 14 — Larry Elder reveals how he's going to fix California — The former Democratic majority leader for the California state Senate …

Discussion: Politico, Washington Examiner, Reason, TheBlaze, The Daily Caller, Breitbart, Raw Story and BizPac Review

Quinnipiac University Poll:

Florida Voters Give Governor DeSantis Mixed Grades, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Nearly 6 In 10 Don't Want DeSantis To Run For President In 2024 — mail_outline — With Florida currently struggling with one of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the country, slightly more than half of voters …

Discussion: The Hill

Marion Koopmans / Nature:

Origins of SARS-CoV-2: window is closing for key scientific studies … Marion Koopmans is head of the Department of Viroscience at Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. — You can also search for this author in — PubMed Google Scholar — Peter Daszak is president …