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Afghanistan is a mess, despite vain attempts by Democrats and the media to spin it otherwise. We left behind a trove of weapons and intelligence secrets in our abandoned air bases and embassy. This was a gift to the Taliban, overnight making them one of the best equipped military forces in the world. They reminded America and the world of this fact by recreating the famous photo of US soldiers raising the American flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima. People were left behind as well, American civilians, contractors, and other support staff necessary for the 20-year war which President...

The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and the turmoil that has shocked ‎the world over has given the Iranian regime an opportunity to use it to ‎put pressure on the West, and especially the United States, to gain ‎more ground in the Vienna talks.‎ The Vienna talks have been stalled for almost two months now, and ‎with the change of government in Iran and the arrival of new President ‎Ebrahim Raisi, the prospect of a resumption and conclusion of these ‎talks seems darker than before.‎ The Iranian regime considers the fall of the Afghan government and ‎the Taliban's domination...

Fifty years ago, journalist Gary Allen set out to write a book to prove conservative anti-communists wrong. But while researching, he realized he had not seen the "hidden picture." There indeed was a conspiracy, shielded by a narrative advanced by liberal academia and the mainstream media, both actually in the service of an elite cabal that included Rockefeller, Ford, Morgan, Rothschild, Loeb, Kennedy, and Carnegie. No longer willing to dismiss "right-wing conspiracy theorists," he titled his book, published in 1971, None Dare Call It Conspiracy. It was a surprising bestseller: more than four million copies were sold during the 1972...

The current and former military members are getting people out "one at a time." Current and former U.S. military special operations and intelligence community operatives are using their own networks of contacts to get elite Afghan soldiers, intelligence assets and interpreters to safety as they've become increasingly disillusioned and fed up with the U.S. government-led evacuation effort in Kabul, ABC News has learned. One informal group, dubbed "Task Force Pineapple," began as a frantic effort last weekend to get one former Afghan commando into Hamid Karzai International Airport as he was being hunted by Taliban who were texting him death...

Police are painting rainbows on the side of their squad cars in a bid to beat online hate crimes and 'give confidence' to the LGBT+ community. Critics have said forces should be focusing on 'real' issues such as knife crime and that the colourful cars might seem less intimidating to the public. The cost of painting the cars, described as 'hate crime cars', is 'quite minimal' but are believed to give a 'huge impact' on the community.

People will put up with a little absentmindedness or occasional faux pas. But when creeping senility puts lives at risk and national interests in jeopardy, that’s entirely different. When it was clear Joe Biden’s victory would stand up, it was obvious to me that Biden’s mental troubles, to frame it gently, would result in him being out of office one way or another within six months of his swearing in. By then, the Trojan Horse would have served his purpose. Democrats would control all three branches of government and have pushed through many fundamental changes. Biden did his share. He...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is staring down the nine centrist lawmakers demanding an immediate vote on the bipartisan infrastructure package — all but daring them to sink President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. White House officials and congressional leaders have been pressing the nine throughout the weekend to withdraw their threat to vote against consideration of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package but the lawmakers aren't budging. “Right now, the position of the nine is we are not going to vote for the budget resolution until we get the BIF done,” Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-Ga.) told Axios, referring to the...

A US Air Force F-15 fighter jet shot down a drone said to have come from Iran after it was deemed a threat to troops stationed in eastern Syria Saturday. 'Coalition aircraft successfully engaged and defeated a UAS through air to air engagement in the vicinity of Mission Support Site Green Village,' US Army Colonel Wayne Marotto, who heads the US-led coalition against ISIS, told Reuters, using an acronym for an unmanned aircraft system. Fox News reporter Lucas Tomlinson said an F-15E shot the 'Iranian' drone, which flew 'too close' to the 900 US troops in the area,,,,

Houston hospitals have “reached a breaking point” amid a COVID-19 outbreak, which struck weeks after 150 hospital workers were fired by Houston Methodist hospital, one of several hospitals struggling.

President Biden isn't inclined to fire any senior national security officials over the chaos in Kabul unless the situation drastically deteriorates or there's significant loss of American life, people familiar with the matter tell Axios. Why it matters: Dismissing national security advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin or CIA Director William Burns would be tantamount to admitting a mistake, and the president stands by his decision. While acknowledging the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has been “messy” and the Taliban captured the country quicker than he anticipated, Biden is deeply committed to his policy, the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that his country won’t accept Afghan refugees because he doesn’t want to deal with “militants” masquerading as asylum-seekers. The Russian strongman slammed Western nations for placing Afghan refugees in countries even near his border while their US and European visas are being processed. “Does that mean that they can be sent without visas to those countries, to our neighbors, while they themselves don’t want to take them without visas?” Putin raged to the Russian TASS news agency. “Why is there such a humiliating approach to solving the problem?’ He said he will not accept...

The shooting near the military side of the airport came as the Taliban sent fighters to the north of the capital to eliminate pockets of armed resistance to their lightning takeover earlier this month. The Taliban said they retook three districts that fell the day before and had surrounded Panjshir... ....Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group's forces have surrounded nearby Panjshir, the only one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces yet to fall to the militants.

HANOI, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Vietnamese soldiers on Monday were deployed on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City to help enforce a lockdown in the country's business hub, which has become the epicentre of its worst coronavirus outbreak so far during the pandemic. Panic-buying broke out at supermarkets in the city of nine million people over the weekend ahead of the tighter lockdown, which started on Monday and prohibits residents from leaving their homes....

Sen. Ron Johnson called out the Biden administration’s health agencies Sunday for shortcutting the usual safety reviews in a rush to give final approval to COVID-19 vaccines, including failing to account for thousands of deaths and adverse reactions among people worldwide who got the shots. In a letter to the administration’s top health officials, the Wisconsin Republican warned against the Food and Drug Administration’s pending approval of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, which is expected Monday. He said the fast-track decision appeared more political than scientific since it skipped the usual formal advisory committee meeting and did not fully account for the...

Australia must start to learn to live with COVID-19 when higher vaccination targets are reached, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday (Aug 23), despite concerns in some states about the impact of a surge in cases in Sydney. With over half of all Australians stuck in weeks-long lockdowns to curb the highly infectious Delta strain, Morrison said the country had to move forward and start reducing restrictions as more people became vaccinated. "(Lockdowns) cannot go on forever. This is not a sustainable way to live in this country," he said during a televised media conference in Canberra.

A photo of a Florida woman experiencing painful COVID-19 symptoms went viral this week after she was discovered lying on the floor of a monoclonal antibody treatment facility in Jacksonville. The widely circulated picture produced shock and outrage as the state continues to grapple with an unprecedented spike in infections, hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus. A nurse enters a monoclonal antibody site, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021, at C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier) The photo was taken at a downtown library which has been converted into a treatment center to support the scores of sick patients...

I'm looking to repaint a small steel toy. It's nearly 50 years old, and some of the paint separated while in storage and fell off. I'd like to repaint it, and thought of brushed-on model paint as the best solution. However, model paint is usually sold near plastic models. So, the question for model builders: can these paints (like Testor enamel) be used for steel parts, or is there something more suited? Thanks :)

A recipe for vegetable soup has been shared by Sri Lankan Facebook users alongside a claim it will "cure" Covid-19 infection within three days. The claim is false: medical professionals said there is no evidence the purported remedy can cure Covid-19. SNIP The text in the post reads: "This Soup recipe was taught by Wickramaarachchi indigenous medicine doctor. I gave this soup to all the neighbouring children when they tested positive and they were all cured. "Radish, carrots, cabbages, pumpkins, beets - take them all in equal amounts and add 12 peppercorns. "Its okay to mix in curry leaves. Do...

HAIR loss is a normal part of the ageing process with its cause to be down to a number of factors. However, men who are more prone to androgen alopecia could have an increased risk of COVID-19 severity says latest study.Findings presented at EADV’s Spring Symposium suggest that men with genetic characteristics that are sensitive to the male sex hormone androgen are more likely to experience severe COVID-19 disease. Researchers have discovered the novel biomarker to identify male COVID-19 patients most at risk for ICU admission. Due to the disproportionate number of men hospitalised with COVID-19, researchers were driven to...