The Full Belmonte, 8/21/21
President Biden was flanked today by (from left) Secretary of Defense Austin, Vice President Harris, Secretary of State Blinken and national security adviser Sullivan. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“After nearly a week of ambiguity, President Biden recommitted to extracting all U.S. allies from Afghanistan.
‘There’s no one more important than bringing American citizens out. I acknowledge that,’ Biden said. ‘But they’re equally important ... those SIVs [Special Immigrant Visa applicants] ... who, in fact, helped us, that were translators, that went into battle with us. ... We're doing all we can.’
Senators in both parties have pushed Biden to speed up the process of evacuating both SIVs and Americans.
When asked if the U.S. would be able to get everyone out by Aug. 31, Biden said: ‘I think we can get it done by then, but we’re going to make that judgment as we go.’
Taliban militants are allowing those with American passports to pass through their checkpoints. But Biden added that the U.S. is figuring out how to handle the "mad rush" of non-Americans attempting to cross.
After Biden spoke, NBC's Richard Engel — now in Qatar after reporting from Kabul — joined the network's live coverage to say Biden was describing an orderly process when the reality is ‘far more chaotic, difficult and dangerous.’
By the numbers: Biden said that 18,000 people have been evacuated since July — 13,000 since the military lift began on Aug. 14 and ‘thousands more’ in charter flights.” Read more at Axios
“KABUL — Groups of armed Afghans attacked the Taliban on Friday, driving Afghanistan's new rulers out of three northern districts, the first assault against the Islamist militants since they swept into Kabul last week and seized control of the government.
Local anti-Taliban commanders claimed in interviews they had killed as many as 30 of the group’s fighters and captured 20 in the takeover of the districts in Baghlan province, just over 100 miles north of the capital. Former Afghan service members were joined in the fight, they said, by local civilians. Images shared online showed celebrations as the red, green and black Afghan national flag — rather than the white flag of the Taliban — was raised over government buildings.” Read more at Washington Post
“As divisions emerge among some Republicans in Washington over how to handle the refugee crisis in Afghanistan, resettlement groups have been inundated with calls from ordinary Americans seeking to assist the waves of Afghan citizens who have begun arriving in the United States.
Several governors across the political spectrum have joined the effort with offers of aid and messages that refugees would be welcome in their states, a sharp contrast to some conservatives who warned that the crisis could spark an ‘invasion’ of unvetted refugees.
Even in Texas, a state divided over immigration policy, advocates say residents have shown strong support for the thousands of refugees expected to land there. A training session scheduled for volunteers Saturday had to be moved online because more than 200 people had signed up — despite the state being a covid hot spot.” Read more at Washington Post
“Facebook says it has added several security features to help people in Afghanistan control their accounts as fears rise of reprisals from the Taliban.
In a series of tweets late Thursday, Facebook’s head of security said the company had temporarily disabled the ability to view and search the friends lists of Facebook accounts inside Afghanistan. He also said the platform, which is seeing a proliferation of new Taliban accounts despite a ban on the group, had provided a tool to help Afghans quickly lock their accounts if they feared being targeted.
The unprecedented measures target one of the most fundamental Facebook features: the friends list. They represent a frank acknowledgment from the company, which has long touted its ability to connect the world, of the risks of having personal information available on social networks.” Read more at Boston Globe
“WASHINGTON – On a sunny June afternoon, Joe Biden concluded the initial phase of his first foreign trip as president by confidently declaring that America’s reputation was on the rebound on the world stage.
‘America’s back in the business of leading the world alongside nations who share our most deeply held values,’ Biden announced from a seaside resort in England, where he’d just wrapped up three days of meetings with some of the world’s most powerful leaders.
Biden assured reporters at the close of the Group of Seven summit that he’d made progress ‘in reestablishing American credibility among our closest friends.’
Just two months later, Biden’s own credibility is in question and his campaign to restore America’s reputation abroad is in doubt after the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the swift rout of the country’s American-backed government by Taliban insurgents.” Read more at USA Today
“Here Are the Shadowy Taliban Leaders Now Running Afghanistan
For decades the Taliban’s leadership structure has been in the shadows: Even before the U.S. invasion in 2001, little was known about how the group operates beyond the names of a few top leaders. Muneeza Naqviand Eltaf Najafizada provide a snapshot of the seven most influential men in the organization.” Read more at Bloomberg“China Embraces High-Stakes Taliban Relationship as U.S. Exits
When the Taliban took over Afghanistan the first time in 1996, China refused to recognize their rule and left its embassy shut for years. This time, Beijing was among the first to embrace the Islamist militants next door.Beijing is struggling at home to sell the Taliban as a suitable partner for a country waging a war on alleged Islamic extremism.” Read more at Bloomberg
“The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) long-awaited full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine could come as soon as next week, The New York Times and Politico reported on Friday, potentially expediting more decisions about mandates.
The federal agency is reportedly aiming to grant the full license to Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech on Monday, the Times reported, citing people familiar with the agency’s planning.
The Times reported that FDA regulators were trying to get the approval by Friday but more paperwork and negotiations needed to be completed. Sources warned that the authorization could be delayed past Monday.
The new timeline represents an acceleration from the plan to reach full approval for the Pfizer vaccine by Labor Day, as reported by The New York Times earlier this month.” Read more at The Hill
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its guidance for travelers who are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 to recommend they avoid cruise ships, regardless of vaccination status.
The new guidance applies to older adults, people with certain medical conditions and pregnant and recently pregnant people. Prior to Friday’s announcement, the agency recommended that only people who were not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 avoid cruise ships.
The change comes as the U.S. faces its fourth wave of COVID-19, driven by the delta variant. As of Friday, the country has reported 987,417 new cases and 6,037 virus-related deaths in the past week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The CDC's website says the virus that causes COVID-19 can spread easily between people in close quarters on ships, and the chance of getting COVID-19 on cruise ships is ‘high.’” Read more at USA Today
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
“The delta variant is sweeping through the country, with one in five intensive care units across the country at or above 95 percent capacity and seven states experiencing more hospitalizations than their prior peaks.” [Vox] Read more at NYT / Albert Sun and Giulia Heyward
“For health care workers, the new surge is overwhelming and draining, particularly given that the vast majority of hospitalizations they see are among unvaccinated people.” [Vox] Read more at Stat News / Lev Facher
“Forty-six states have seen double-digit growth in hospitalizations; nearly all the patients have contracted the delta variant and are unvaccinated. People who were finally getting care for non-Covid health conditions are being told to wait — again.” [Vox] Read more at Washington Post / Frances Stead Sellers, Ariana Eunjung Cha, Hannah Knowles, and Derek Hawkins
“In Louisiana, hospitals are so full of Covid patients that people with other conditions have had to be treated at home. Hospital personnel believe they are days away from having to refuse transport to hospitals.” [Vox] Read more at CBS News
“Florida, which has seen an explosion of cases, is also struggling with capacity. A viral photo of a clinic in Jacksonville shows patients waiting for monoclonal antibody therapy lying on the ground in pain, with the number of people exceeding the number of chairs.” [Vox] Read more at Florida Times-Union / Katherine Lewin
“Alabama has a net negative number of ICU beds, causing patient traffic jams as people who've had heart attacks or been in car accidents have to be diverted to other hospitals.” [Vox] Read more at Montgomery Advertiser / Melissa Brown
“Almost half the world’s 2.2 billion children are already at ‘extremely high risk’ from the impacts of the climate crisis and pollution, according to a report from Unicef. The UN agency’s head called the situation ‘unimaginably dire’.
Nearly every child around the world was at risk from at least one of these impacts today, including heatwaves, floods, cyclones, disease, drought, and air pollution, the report said. But 1 billion children live in 33 countries facing three or four impacts simultaneously. The countries include India, Nigeria and the Philippines, and much of sub-Saharan Africa.
The report is the first to combine high-resolution maps of climate and environmental impacts with maps of child vulnerability, such as poverty and access to clean water, healthcare and education. ‘It essentially [shows] the likelihood of a child’s ability to survive climate change,’ said Nick Rees, one of the report’s authors.” Read more at The Guardian
“As another day of wildfire fighting began in California on Friday, fire crews were seeing a few glimmers of hope. Smoke from the Caldor Fire raging southwest of Lake Tahoe had been helping to choke off the spread of flames, for instance, and the pace of evacuations was easing.
But the state’s battle against summer wildfires is far from over.
Many of the biggest blazes around California were still far less than 50 percent contained as of Friday morning. Fire crews were stretched precariously thin. The air quality around Sacramento and San Francisco, battered by wildfire smoke, was expected to remain poor. And officials warned that it could be days or weeks before people evacuated from the Caldor Fire were allowed back into their homes.
That fire has grown to more than 68,000 acres since it began over the weekend, according to Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency. It remained completely uncontained Thursday, even though more than 650 people were fighting it. The fire has destroyed more than 100 structures and still threatens about 7,000 others.” Read more at Boston Globe
“SAN FRANCISCO — A California judge ruled unconstitutional a ballot measure from last November defining Uber and Lyft drivers as independent contractors, throwing fresh uncertainty into the status of the hundreds of thousands of app-based workers.
In a ruling issued Friday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch declared that Proposition 22 is “unenforceable,” arguing several sections of the measure are unconstitutional under California state law. They included a section that required a seven-eighths legislative supermajority to amend the measure, which defied the legislature’s amendment power under the state constitution, according to the judge.” Read more at Washington Post
“The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest union, has appointed Liz Shuler as its new president, the first woman to hold the position.” [Vox] Read more at Politico / Eleanor Mueller
“The Biden administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to overturn a lower court's order that it revive the Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers at the southern border to stay in Mexico while their applications are processed.
The Department of Justice filed an application for an immediate stay of a judge's order to reinstate the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy. The order is set to go into effect after midnight Saturday.” Read more at The Hill
“A federal appeals court on Friday rejected an effort to block the Biden administration's new eviction moratorium, likely teeing up the lawsuit for the Supreme Court.
A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously denied an emergency motion filed by two chapters of the National Association of Realtors to halt the eviction ban.
The brief, unsigned decision comes a week after U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, rejected the groups' effort to block the moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” Read more at The Hill
“When Facebook this week released its first quarterly report about the most viewed posts in the United States, Guy Rosen, its vice president of integrity, said the social network had undertaken ‘a long journey’ to be ‘by far the most transparent platform on the internet.’ The list showed that the posts with the most reach tended to be innocuous content like recipes and cute animals.
Facebook had prepared a similar report for the first three months of the year, but executives never shared it with the public because of concerns that it would look bad for the company, according to internal emails sent by executives and shared with The New York Times.
In that report, a copy of which was provided to The Times, the most-viewed link was a news article with a headline suggesting that the coronavirus vaccine was at fault for the death of a Florida doctor. The report also showed that a Facebook page for The Epoch Times, an anti-China newspaper that spreads right-wing conspiracy theories, was the 19th-most-popular page on the platform for the first three months of 2021.
The report was nearing public release when some executives, including Alex Schultz, Facebook’s vice president of analytics and chief marketing officer, debated whether it would cause a public relations problem, according to the internal emails. The company decided to shelve it.” Read more at New York Times
“As colleges and universities welcome students back to campus, some schools are using disciplinary actions as a way to promote adherence to COVID protocols, Axios' Erin Doherty reports.
A nationwide surge of coronavirus cases, largely from the Delta variant, is driving questions about how best to reopen campuses safely.
Quinnipiac University will fine students weekly for failing to submit their vaccination status, per CNN. Additionally, students who don't fulfill the vaccine requirement will lose access to WiFi.
U.Va. disenrolled 238 students for failing to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or file an exemption, according to The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot.
Other schools — including West Virginia Wesleyan College and Birmingham-Southern College — are imposing ‘Covid fees’ to help pay for testing and quarantining accommodations.” Read at Axios
Mike Richards. Photo: Daytime Emmy Awards 2021 via Getty Images
“Mike Richards, who was named the new co-host of ‘Jeopardy!’ nine days ago, announced he's stepping down after derogatory comments he made about women and Jewish people resurfaced.” Read more at Axios
“Topps has been synonymous with trading cards, particularly baseball cards, for 70 years.
That era will soon be over. Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association are ending their licensing agreement with Topps in favor of a deal with Fanatics, the up-and-coming sports collectible brand. The loss of baseball rights also led to the abrupt cancellation on Friday of a plan for Topps to go public, casting its future into question.
The company, which also owns Bazooka gum, announced a deal in April to merge with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, run by Mudrick Capital. The $1.3 billion merger was set to go to a shareholder vote next week.
Topps and Mudrick announced Friday morning that the deal was off, a day after they were notified that the baseball contracts will not be renewed when they expire in 2022 for players’ images, which the players’ union controls, and 2025 for team logos, which Major League Baseball controls.
Andy Redman, executive chairman of Topps, said in a statement that the company had been left in the dark by its negotiating partners at the league and the players’ union.” Read more at New York Times
“James W. Loewen, a sociologist and civil rights champion who took high school teachers and textbook publishers to task for distorting American history, particularly the struggle of Black people in the South, by oversimplifying their experience and omitting the ugly parts, died on Thursday in Bethesda, Md. He was 79.” Read more at New York Times