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from Rolling Stone
Two decades, trillions of dollars, and hundreds of thousands of lives after the United States ousted the Taliban from power following 9/11, the Islamic militant group has retaken control of Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the nation on Sunday as Taliban insurgents entered the capital city of Kabul, marking the collapse of the government the U.S. spent the past 20 years attempting to remake. As the Taliban moved into Kabul, officials said they expect a complete transfer of power, Reuters reported, and Afghan political leaders are working with the Taliban to try to ensure the transition is peaceful. The Taliban is expected to announce the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the presidential palace, according to the Associated Press. The name is the same one used prior to the U.S. removing the Taliban from power after 9/11.
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
In an effort to boost recruitment, Spokane County Detention Services will now offer signing bonuses of up to $10,000 for some new hires. Ideally, the agency would have 321 employees running the Spokane County Jail and Geiger Corrections Center. Right now, 297 employees are operating the two facilities and staff are working overtime to make up for the 24 vacant positions. ... Spokane County Detention Services isn’t the only public safety agency having a hard time attracting employees and going to great lengths to hire. The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office is in the midst of a well-publicized effort to hire more officers, offering $15,000 hiring bonuses and taking out billboard space in cities such as Denver, Portland and the Seattle area. Five-figure signing bonuses might seem extreme, but many officials argue they have to offer more incentives because they’re in a bidding war for a limited pool of public safety workers.
In the 1940s, Clark Gable was the King of Hollywood. Millions of people around the world knew and loved him from his iconic roles in films like “Gone With the Wind,” “Mutiny on the Bounty” and “It Happened One Night.” Gable, with his trademark mustache, probably couldn’t have walked down a busy street anywhere in America without being recognized. But in early January 1943, the 41-year-old Gable, a star even among stars, walked onto Fort George Wright in Spokane as a common soldier, ready to train as an aerial gunner alongside teenagers before heading overseas to fight in World War II.
The Biden administration has approved a significant and permanent increase in the levels of food stamp assistance available to needy families—the largest single increase in the program’s history. Starting in October, average benefits for food stamps (officially known as the SNAP program) will rise more than 25 percent above pre-pandemic levels. The increased assistance will be available indefinitely to all 42 million SNAP beneficiaries.
Thousands of Northern California homes were threatened Sunday by the nation’s largest wildfire and officials warned the danger of new blazes erupting across the West was high because of unstable weather. Thunderstorms that moved in starting Friday didn’t produce much rain but whipped up winds and generated lightning strikes across the northern Sierra where crews were battling the month-old Dixie Fire. Extreme heat returned Sunday with temperatures expected to top 100 degrees. ... Gusts of up to 50 mph on Saturday pushed flames closer to Janesville, a town of about 1,500 people just east of Greenville, the small gold rush-era community decimated by the fire 10 days ago.
Warning of tough days ahead with surging COVID-19 infections, the director of the National Institutes of Health said Sunday the U.S. could decide in the next couple weeks whether to offer coronavirus booster shots to Americans this fall. Among the first to receive them could be health care workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans. Dr. Francis Collins also pleaded anew for unvaccinated people to get their shots, calling them “sitting ducks” for a delta variant that is ravaging the country and showing little sign of letting up.
Known for its coastlines, mountains and the state that was “first in flight,” North Carolina has also developed a more dubious reputation recently: as a regional destination for adults who want to marry children. State lawmakers are nearing passage of a bill that could dampen the state’s appeal as the go-to place to bring child brides — but would still leave it short of a national push to increase the age to 18. The proposed legislation would raise the minimum marriage age from 14 to 16 and limit the age difference between a 16-year-old and their spouse to four years. ... Two-thirds of the marriage applications in Buncombe County last year that involved at least one person under 18 originated from people who lived outside of North Carolina, Reisinger said, noting that a 49-year-old man and 17-year-old girl recently came from Kentucky seeking a license.
The chop of U.S. military helicopters whisking American diplomats to Kabul’s airport punctuated a frantic rush by thousands of other foreigners and Afghans to flee to safety as well, as a stunningly swift Taliban takeover entered the heart of Afghanistan’s capital. The U.S. was pouring thousands of fresh troops into the country temporarily to safeguard what was gearing up to be a large-scale airlift. It announced late Sunday it was taking charge of air-traffic control at the airport, even as it lowered the flag at the U.S. Embassy.
America’s top general said Sunday that the United States could now face a rise in terrorist threats from a Taliban-run Afghanistan. That warning comes as intelligence agencies charged with anticipating those threats face new questions after the U.S.-backed Afghan military collapsed with shocking speed. Less than a week after a military assessment predicted Kabul could be surrounded by insurgents in 30 days, the world on Sunday watched stunning scenes of Taliban fighters standing in the Afghan president’s office and crowds of Afghans and foreigners frantically trying to board planes to escape the country. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators on a briefing call Sunday that U.S. officials are expected to alter their earlier assessments about the pace of terrorist groups reconstituting in Afghanistan, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.
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. The speed of the Afghan government’s collapse and the ensuing chaos posed the most serious test of Biden as commander in chief, and he was the subject of withering criticism from Republicans who said that he had failed. Biden campaigned as a seasoned expert in international relations and has spent months downplaying the prospect of an ascendant Taliban while arguing that Americans of all political persuasions have tired of a 20-year war, a conflict that demonstrated the limits of money and military might to force a Western-style democracy on a society not ready or willing to embrace it.
The death toll from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti climbed to 1,297 on Sunday, a day after the powerful temblor turned thousands of structures into rubble and set off frantic rescue efforts ahead of a potential deluge from an approaching tropical storm. Saturday’s earthquake also left at least 5,700 people injured in the Caribbean nation, with thousands more displaced from their destroyed or damaged homes. Survivors in some areas were forced to wait out in the open amid oppressive heat for help from overloaded hospitals. Yet the devastation could soon worsen with the coming of Tropical Depression Grace, which is predicted to reach Haiti on Monday night. The U.S. National Hurricane Center demoted the tropical storm to a depression Sunday, but forecasters warned that regardless, Grace still posed a threat to bring heavy rain, flooding and landslides.
Rural America lost more population in the latest census, highlighting an already severe worker shortage in the nation’s farming and ranching regions and drawing calls from those industries for immigration reform to help ease the problem. The census data released last week showed that population gains in many rural areas were driven by increases in Hispanic and Latino residents, many of whom come as immigrants to work on farms or in meatpacking plants or to start their own businesses.
A brush fire propelled by wind near Ford grew to 1,500 acres Sunday evening and prompted immediate evacuations for residents living on or near Corkscrew Canyon and Happy Hill Road. A “primary structure, three barns and a shed” had burned as of 6 p.m., according to Stevens County Fire District No. 1. A shelter had been established at Wellpinit High School, according to the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office.
There are plenty of places to turn for accurate information about COVID-19. Your physician. Local health departments. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control. But not, perhaps, your local government’s public comment session.
A three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is expected to rule this week on whether a moratorium against evictions imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will stand. The court late Saturday set an expedited schedule following an appeal by Alabama and Georgia realtors of a Friday ruling by U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich. The judge refused landlords’ request to put the Biden administration’s new eviction moratorium on hold, though she ruled that the freeze is illegal. In issuing her ruling, Friedrich said her “hands are tied” by an appellate decision from the last time courts considered the evictions moratorium in the spring.
The Taliban swept into Afghanistan’s capital Sunday after the government collapsed and the embattled president joined an exodus of his fellow citizens and foreigners, signaling the end of a costly two-decade U.S. campaign to remake the country. Heavily armed Taliban fighters fanned out across the capital, and several entered Kabul’s abandoned presidential palace. Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman and negotiator, told the Associated Press that the militants would hold talks in the coming days aimed at forming an “open, inclusive Islamic government.”
A year ago, few students prepared for an in-person first day of school. During the course of the school year, vaccines became more readily available and evidence showed in-person learning was not a risk to most, setting the state up for a completely in-person school year this fall. Washington students are now preparing for a school year back in person five days a week, expected by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and Gov. Jay Inslee’s office. But as the highly contagious delta variant causes outbreaks across the country and as the vaccine is not yet available for kids under 12, the COVID-19 risk in schools remains high.
Indonesia’s most active volcano erupted Monday with its biggest lava flow in months, sending a river of lava and searing gas clouds flowing more than 2 miles down its slopes on the densely populated island of Java. The volcano, in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, is the most volatile of more than 120 active volcanoes in the country, and is one of the most active worldwide.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani slipped out of his country Sunday in the same way he had led it in recent years — a lonely and isolated figure. Ghani quietly left the sprawling presidential palace with a small coterie of confidants — and didn’t even tell other political leaders who had been negotiating a peaceful transition of power with the Taliban that he was heading for the exit. Abdullah Abdullah, his long-time rival who had twice buried his animosity to partner with Ghani in government, said that “God will hold him accountable” for abandoning the capital,
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau triggered an election Sunday as he seeks to capitalize on Canada being one of the most fully vaccinated countries in the world. Trudeau announced the election would be held on Sept. 20 after visiting the governor general, who holds a mostly ceremonial position representing Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. ... Trudeau is seeking to win a majority of seats in Parliament. His Liberal Party fell just short of that two years ago and must rely on the opposition to pass legislation.
As the Taliban mass at the gates of Kabul, they are promising a new era of peace in Afghanistan, with amnesty for those they have been battling for two decades and a return to normal life. But Afghans who remember the Taliban’s brutal rule and those who have lived in areas controlled by the Islamic militants in recent years have watched with growing fear as the insurgents have overrun most of the country while international forces withdraw.
At least 800 people were evacuated in Spain as forest fires blazed Sunday in two regions, with extremely dry conditions worsening the risk of more wildfires during the hottest weekend of the year so far.
Japan marked the 76th anniversary of its World War II surrender on Sunday with a somber ceremony in which Prime Minister Yosihide Suga pledged for the tragedy of war to never be repeated but avoided apologizing for his country’s aggression. Suga said Japan never forgets that the peace the country enjoys today is built on the sacrifices of those who died in the war. “We will commit to our pledge to never repeat the tragedy of the war,” he said in his first speech at the event since becoming prime minister. Suga did not offer an apology to the Asian victims of Japanese aggression across the region in the first half of the 20th century — a precedent set by the country’s previous leader, Shinzo Abe, who was frequently accused of trying to whitewash Japan’s brutal past.
At a COVID-19 vaccination site in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, tempers flared among those waiting for scarce AstraZeneca jabs, with some accusing others of trying to jump the queue. Nurses intervened, telling them the accused had been waiting since the previous day and averting violence in what has become a tense atmosphere as Ugandans jostle for vaccinations. In the aftermath of a brutal wave of infections driven by the delta variant, many Ugandans seeking a first dose of vaccine are competing with hundreds of thousands who have waited months for a second dose. But the country now has only 285,000 shots donated by Norway. The delta surge has touched off a vaccination rush across Africa that the slow trickle of donated doses can’t keep up with, compounding the continent’s vaccine disadvantage compared with the rest of the world. The urgency to obtain a second dose across much of the world’s least vaccinated continent contrasts sharply with rich countries now beginning to authorize third doses.
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