Russia hedged its bets on Afghanistan through both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, but with Uzbekistan decisively holding the stronger hand, it appears Russia is ready to move forward with the Taliban as well.
Biden screwed up, as did those who voted for him.
Taliban met with Uzbekistan FM Kamilov. Muttaqi told him the Taliban remain committed to the agreed upon plan. Uzbekistan remains committed to it’s pledges in transit, energy, and trade.
Uzbekistan was the first country to establish direct contacts with the Taliban and is one of their partners guiding this process.
Kamilov interview discussing Afghanistan, sharing insights and expectations from the Uzbek perspective.
Democrats need to pass that trillion dollar infrastructure bill. I need my bailout.
What they fear most is what they can’t control, long tail risk.
Finland joins Sweden and Denmark, pauses Moderna shots for young men due to elevated risks of heart inflammation.
The Chamber of Commerce helped fortify the election in favor of Joe Biden. You can read all about it in Time magazine.
The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election.
https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
A well-funded cabal of powerful people, not rigging, but fortifying the election.
Costs will need to be imposed.
Anas Haqqani visited the tombs of Mahmud of Ghazni in Ghazni, and Mirwais Hotak and Ahmad Shah Durrani in Kandahar.
Afghanistan is an Islamic country, but it has a national identity.
Biden approval down to 38%, from a high of 50% in February.
His coronavirus approval continues to carry him despite also being at a low of 48%, down from 65% in May, largely due to vaccination authorization under Trump in January and approval for adults in April.
One of Trump’s mistakes was not getting the vaccine out the door before the election, resulting in the entire benefit of its development going to sleepy Joe. Too bad.
As vaccinations are mandated across schools, and side effect (adverse reactions) stories among children begin to come out, his numbers will come down faster here too. Israeli data also suggests boosters won’t help him with delta, so he’ll need to come up with a new trick.
In a Department of Defense Medicare cohort study of 5.6M Medicare beneficiaries 65 years and older, a group that is 80% vaccinated, 71% of COVID cases occurred in fully vaccinated individuals; breakthrough cases.
60% of COVID hospitalizations occurred in fully vaccinated individuals, which made up 80% of the total.
Prior natural COVID infection conferred a major additional protective benefit.
Breakthrough infections after 6 months increase risk of hospitalization, whether due to delta immune escape or waning immunity addressed with 6 month boosters in perpetuity remains to be seen.
Case-fatality rate down to 4% from 12% pre-vaccination, not 100% protective as some claimed, but an improvement.
DOD comes through with numbers CDC won’t release.