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8:45 AM ET, August 18, 2021

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 Top Items: 
Mike Pence / Wall Street Journal:
Biden Broke Our Deal With the Taliban  —  It's a foreign-policy humiliation unlike anything our country has endured since the Iran hostage crisis.  —  'The likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country [of Afghanistan] is highly unlikely," …
RELATED:
Chris Kahn / Reuters:
Biden approval drops to lowest of 7-month presidency after Taliban takeover  —  President Joe Biden's approval rating dropped by 7 percentage points and hit its lowest level so far as the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed over the weekend in an upheaval that sent thousands of civilians …
David Rohde / New Yorker:
Trying—and Failing—to Save the Family of the Afghan Who Saved Me  —  Twelve years ago, Tahir Luddin helped us both escape after we were kidnapped by the Taliban.  Now I am struggling to get his family out of Kabul.  —  In the middle of March, I texted my friend Tahir Luddin …
The Intercept:
The Taliban Have Seized U.S. Military Biometrics Devices … The Taliban have seized U.S. military biometrics devices that could aid in the identification of Afghans who assisted coalition forces, current and former military officials have told The Intercept.
New York Times:
Intelligence Warned of Afghan Military Collapse, Despite Biden's Assurances  —  Even as the president was telling the public that Kabul was unlikely to fall, intelligence assessments painted a grimmer picture.  —  WASHINGTON — Classified assessments by American spy agencies over the summer painted …
Washington Post:
Taliban strikes conciliatory tone, consolidates power as de facto leader returns to country … At a wide-ranging news conference in Kabul on Tuesday, Taliban leaders in Afghanistan offered conciliatory messages, met with skepticism by experts, promising not to discriminate against women …
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Halted Dollar Shipments to Afghanistan to Keep Cash Out of Taliban's Hands  —  U.S. officials are also blocking Taliban from Afghan government accounts managed by the Fed and U.S. banks  —  WASHINGTON—The Biden administration last week canceled bulk shipments of dollars headed …
Yaroslav Trofimov / Wall Street Journal:
Taliban Block Routes to Kabul Airport, Hampering Evacuations From Afghanistan  —  Residents in eastern city of Jalalabad stage first protest against Taliban rule  —  Afghans and Westerners stranded in Kabul after Sunday's Taliban takeover started trickling into the city's U.S.-controlled airport …
Discussion: Anadolu Ajansı … and Townhall
Jerry Dunleavy / Washington Examiner:
From prison to power: Taliban leaders go from jail, to negotiating table, to Kabul  —  Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund returned to Afghanistan after nearly two decades on Tuesday, a reversal of fortune that saw him go from Taliban co-founder to prisoner in Pakistan to negotiator in Qatar to a now-central figure in Kabul.
Discussion: Vox, The Moderate Voice and Axios
New York Times:
The Taliban respond with force to an outpouring of public anger.  —  Even as the Taliban took their first steps to create a functioning government, they faced the first street protests on Wednesday against their takeover of Afghanistan, with demonstrations in at least two cities.
Washington Post:
Withdrawal from Afghanistan forces allies and adversaries to reconsider America's global role
Discussion: Townhall and BizPac Review
Samuel Chamberlain / New York Post:
Trump calls Afghanistan collapse ‘most humiliating’ moment for US
Ayaan Hirsi Ali / UnHerd:
Biden's most heartless betrayal
Jeff Stein / Washington Post:
Biden administration freezes billions of dollars in Afghan reserves, depriving Taliban of cash
Office of the Texas Governor:
Office Of The Governor Statement Concerning Governor Abbott  —  Office of the Governor Communications Director Mark Miner today issued a statement after Governor Greg Abbott tested positive for COVID-19:  —  “Governor Greg Abbott today tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
RELATED:
Patrick Svitek / The Texas Tribune:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tests positive for COVID-19  —  He spoke Monday night at a GOP event in Collin County, later tweeting photos of him addressing a maskless crowd.  Less than three hours before his diagnosis was announced Tuesday afternoon, he tweeted pictures of a meeting with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan.
Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:
Pope Francis Encourages Covid Vaccines in Media Campaign  —  “Getting the vaccines that are authorized by the respective authorities is an act of love,” the pope says in a video from the Ad Council.  —  Getting vaccinated against Covid-19 is “an act of love,” Pope Francis says in a public service ad …
RELATED:
New York Times:
The School Culture Wars: ‘You Have Brought Division to Us’  —  From mask mandates to critical race theory and gender identity, educators are besieged.  “You are just trying to keep everything from collapsing,” one official said.  —  July and August are supposed to be the quietest months of the school year.
Steve Israel / The Hill:
Do not underestimate Kathy Hochul  —  As summer winds down, the most frequently asked questions in New York are:  — A) What happened to the Mets?  — B) Mask or no mask?  —  The first three engender hot debate.  The fourth requires an understanding of New York politics to answer.
Rudy Takala / Mediaite:
Twitter Says Taliban Spokesman Will be Allowed to Remain if He Doesn't Get Too Violent  —  Twitter is refusing to join its peers in the social-media world in prohibiting the Taliban from using its platform.  —  Asked on Tuesday whether Twitter would join Facebook, TikTok and other tech companies …
Ron Faucheux / Washington Examiner:
Are the wheels coming off the Biden administration?  —  When we look back at the first year of Joe Biden's presidency, will August of 2021 stand out as the time the wheels came off?  —  Despite the Senate passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, a substantial legislative accomplishment …
Discussion: CNBC and Crooks and Liars
NBC4 Washington:
DC Tunnel History Site Flagged Suspicious Activity Before Capitol Insurrection  —  The founder and administrator of an obscure website about underground infrastructure in Washington, D.C., saw a sudden and suspicious spike in traffic in the days before the U.S. Capitol insurrection.
Discussion: The Hill and Raw Story
Kate Murphy / Raleigh News & Observer:
UNC Chapel Hill Journalism School Dean Susan King resigning  —  The dean of UNC-Chapel Hill's Hussman School of Journalism and Media is stepping down after nearly a decade leading the school.  —  Susan King announced that this will be her last year as dean in her weekly email newsletter to journalism faculty.
Discussion: The Progressive Pulse
Zach Montellaro / Politico:
‘Center of the maelstrom’: Election officials grapple with 2020's long shadow  —  DES MOINES, Iowa — The nation's secretaries of state used to be little-known, wonky bureaucrats who operated in near-anonymity.  But after the 2020 election, they are now on the frontlines of the battle over trust in American democracy.
Shelly Kittleson / Politico:
In the Taliban's Birthplace, White Flags, Jailbreaks and Fears of Revenge  —  In the final days before Afghanistan's second-largest city fell to the Taliban, residents worried about the incoming “terrorists” and the country's cycles of brutality.  —  Taliban fighters stand on a vehicle in Kandahar on August 13, 2021.
Jesús A. Rodríguez / Politico:
What Kamala Harris' Law School Years Reveal About Her Politics  —  The signs in downtown San Francisco that day, outside of the University of California Hastings College of the Law, might as well have been plucked from today's racial justice protests.  “Rise Above Racism,” “Should This Still Be Happening? …
Reuters:
U.S. reports more than 1,000 COVID deaths in single day  —  The United States reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, equating to around 42 fatalities an hour, according to a Reuters tally, as the Delta variant continues to ravage parts of the country with low vaccination rates.
Washington Post:
Durham grand jury explores theory someone presented FBI with fabricated evidence in 2016 Russia probe  —  Special counsel John Durham — the prosecutor examining the origins of the FBI's investigation into a possible conspiracy between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Michael Anton / The American Mind:
Afghanistan: Doomed from the Start
Anita Sircar / Los Angeles Times:
Op-Ed: As a doctor in a COVID unit, I'm running out of compassion for the unvaccinated. Get the shot
Democracy Docket:
Court Dismisses Right-Wing Group's Counterclaims in Georgia Voter Intimidation Suit
Kelly Weill / The Daily Beast:
QAnon 'Queen's' Followers Are Sending Insane Anti-Vaxx Notes to Hospitals
Discussion: Raw Story
United States Department of State:
Department Press Briefing - August 16, 2021
 Earlier Items: 
Jacquelynn Kerubo / New York Times:
What Gentrification Means for Black Homeowners
Wall Street Journal:
The Democratic Food-Stamp Boom
Paul Blest / VICE:
How to Actually Get a Trump Voter Vaccinated
Discussion: Raw Story
Bill Glauber / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
And now there are 11: Steven Olikara officially enters crowded Democratic primary for U.S. Senate
Discussion: The Hill
Georgia Slater / People.com:
CNN's Abby Phillip Welcomes First Baby, Daughter Naomi Angelina, with Husband Marcus Richardson
Discussion: TheGrio
Seth Barrett Tillman / THE NEW REFORM CLUB:
What I Learned About the United States After Ten Years in Ireland