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Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he left Kabul to prevent bloodshed as he denied reports he took large sums of money with him as he departed the presidential palace. Ghani, who confirmed he was in the United Arab Emirates, said he was in 'consultation' to return to Afghanistan after he met a barrage of bitter criticism by former ministers for leaving the country suddenly as Taliban forces entered the capital on Sunday. But the United States - Ghani's most important ally - reiterated today that it did not see Ghani as a player in the region, after the ousted president...

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Texas law on Wednesday that bans the most common abortion procedure used during second-trimester pregnancies. A majority of the 14 judges sided with the 2017 Texas law, overturning an earlier decision by the same court to block it. The legislation would stop doctors from the standard dilation and evacuation method which employs forceps to remove the fetus without the use of an injection or suction. Abortion activists say it outlaws the safest method for women in the second trimester to terminate a pregnancy. Under the law, medical professionals will now be...

"..Biden did this to celebrate on September 11th when in actuality the celebration is our enemies and the fact that we already have the Taliban flag flying over our Obama-Biden built $1 Billion U.S. Embassy in Kabul.."

After the humiliating exit of American troops, the US Treasury has frozen $9.4 billion of Afghanistan‘s Central Bank reserves.The Taliban’s declaration that it had taken control of Afghanistan on Monday put central bank watchers around the world on alert. The nation’s central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank, held $9.4 billion in international reserves as of April, according to the International Monetary Fund.International observers are concerned about what the Taliban would do with the funds if it got its hands on the central bank’s assets.Christopher Manion on Twitter: "@M_S_Billingslea With your experience, you might be able to direct us to sources that...

This was tonight’s prayer service at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We were supposed to have a Bible Study, but the Lord directed us to pray. A prayer for our country and those in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

“The fact that all organisms are nearly equally fit has profound implications for the evolution and persistence of life on Earth,” said James H. Brown, a physiological ecologist at the University of New Mexico, referring to a “New Evolutionary Law” proposed by evolutionary theorist and palaeobiology pioneer, Leigh Van Valen. Van Valen argued that evidence from fossil record data shows that the probability of extinction within any group remains es­sentially constant through time. Van Valen described this phenomenon as “The Red Queen Hypothesis”. The first hypothesis , which he labeled the law of constant extinction states that the probability of...

....The unit, previously unveiled by the Taliban in promotional material, are reportedly highly trained and equipped with state-of-the-art military equipment... ...According to a report from India Today, the Badri 313 prepares like any other special forces commando unit, employing tactical and attack training in undisclosed locations run by the Taliban... ...Questions will surely be raised over how the Taliban have come into possession of such high-tech military equipment, with some suggesting that they have stolen or seized it from departing U.S. troops or defeated Afghan soldiers....

Former President Donald Trump says that he is "very proud" of the COVID-19 vaccine and would "love" to see more people get vaccinated. Trump boasted that he had purchased "billions and billions of dollars" worth of vaccine doses in advance while serving as president and gently urged his followers to take the vaccine during a Wednesday interview on Newsmax TV's Greg Kelly Tonight. The former president said that the vaccine had prevented the COVID-19 pandemic death toll, which currently stands at over 4.3 million worldwide, from matching the even worse toll of up to 100 million people who died during...

The next time that Israel will be accused of harming the "innocent", Do remember this picture of a senior Hamas member, Who arrived today in Gaza, where there are riots, near the fence with Israel, Holding a little child on his hands, using her as a human shield. https://t.co/05X3SRbosd— יבגני זרובינסקי (@ivgiz) March 30, 2018

Alpine School District announced a chemistry teacher at Lehi High School is no longer employed at the school Wednesday after a student's recording of her sharing political opinions in class circulated on social media. The teacher begins by voicing her exhaustion with the pandemic and concern over coronavirus variants, saying she'd be proud if a student chose to get vaccinated. She then goes on to say she hates former President Donald Trump, adding that he "sucks," and urges her students not to watch Fox News. Utah County is one of the most conservative areas in the state. In a statement...

A Chicago park advocacy group asked the Supreme Court to block construction on former President Obama’s presidential library, on the same day that shovels broke ground on the project. Protect Our Parks and several other plaintiffs made the 11th hour plea to the high court Monday over environmental concerns, according to The Hill. The group asked the court to issue an emergency halt on construction in the city’s Jackson Park on the South Side, claiming that federal, state and local governments broke the project into smaller pieces to sidestep a full environmental assessment, according to the report. The emergency request...

During Wednesday’s briefing by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CBS national security reporter Jennifer Griffin asked the two about the decision to abandon Bagram Air Base in the weeks leading up to Afghanistan’s collapse. That decision has proven to be crucial, as it left Afghanistan with no U.S. military support and now leaves the civilians stranded there with one option: to try to get to the Kabul international airport through Taliban checkpoints. The U.S. government issued a statement saying that it cannot guarantee their safety and that even if they...

Chris Miller now says talk of a full withdrawal was a “play” to convince a Taliban-led government to keep U.S. counterterrorism forces. President Donald Trump’s top national security officials never intended to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, according to new statements by Chris Miller, Trump’s last acting defense secretary. Miller said the president’s public promise to finish withdrawing U.S. forces by May 1, as negotiated with the Taliban, was actually a “play” that masked the Trump administration’s true intentions: to convince Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to quit or accept a bitter power-sharing agreement with the Taliban, and to...

It is painful to see people attempting to flee their own country on the wings of foreign military airplanes. But the sudden shift in politics in Afghanistan has made fleeing the country an easier option than staying back amidst collapsing infrastructure. With the Taliban now in charge of the capital city of Kabul, it is also now in charge of the mineral deposits in the country, which include cobalt, iron ore, copper, and rare elements like lithium. Early in 2020, Ashraf Ghani, the Afghanistani President, now in exile, had termed these mineral deposits a curse. The areas with rich natural...

On this date in 1937, intellectual Kita Ikki (Kita is the family name) was executed by the Japanese military government for inspiring a failed coup d’etat the previous year. A onetime socialist turned radical nationalist, Kita — born Kita Terujiro — preached a doctrine of authoritarian national restoration around some socialist-sounding communitarian purpose, coupled with an unapologetic imperialism. His Outline Plan for the Reorganization of Japan (the translation is from a reader, Sources of Japanese Tradition, partially excerpted here) argues that in the wake of Europe’s self-immolation in World War I, initiative lay with the Land of the Rising Sun...

The Wife and I are gonna be in northern Virginia and western Maryland for about a week and a half in mid-September. Because of my love of the Civil War, we are gonna visit Monocacy, Gettysburg, Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley and likely Harpers Ferry. We may or may not hit Antietam. I've already seen it once before. The Wife is surprisingly supportive of visiting these battlefields but I also am gonna throw in a winery visit and possibly head up to Hershey Pa. I need some advice from people familiar with the areas I've described. AFAIK, we're gonna use...

KEY POINTS * Johnson & Johnson's vaccine won't capture nearly as much market share as Pfizer and Moderna this year. * The company's vaccine has been at a disadvantage due to a perceived lower efficacy rate. * Its effectiveness against the delta variant could lead to an increase in demand. Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE:JNJ) COVID-19 vaccine has had some challenges this year. From production issues to some disquieting reports of blood clots possibly being linked to the vaccine, it hasn't been the success the company was likely hoping it would be at this stage. Vaccines from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna...

French RAID operators (police special forces) have been making runs in Kabul to retrieve French citizens and others and get them safely to the airport. Chapeau! https://t.co/B0DjvNbuGh— Andrew Lebovich (@tweetsintheME) August 18, 2021

Covid vaccine from US biotech company, Novavax may get a nod from the Indian drug regulator even before the vaccine is approved in the US. The company and its partner Serum Institute of India (SII) had, on August 5, applied for an emergency use authorisation with the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) and regulatory bodies in Indonesia and the Philippines. India has said any vaccine, which has approval from stringent regulatory bodies like the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK, among others, would be approved for use...