War group

President Biden Joe Biden Four members of Sikh community among victims in Indianapolis shooting Overnight Health: NIH reverses Trump's ban on fetal tissue research | Biden investing .7B to fight virus variants | CDC panel to meet again Friday on J&J On The Money: Moderates' 0B infrastructure bill is a tough sell with Democrats | Justice Dept. sues Trump ally Roger Stone for unpaid taxes MORE ’s decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by September would be a historic achievement closing a 20-year chapter of U.S. history that saw more than 2,300 troops killed and cost upward of $1 trillion. But big questions remain about what Afghanistan will look like when U.S. troops are gone, as well as how the United States will ensure its interests in the region are met and continue to support the Afghan government non-militarily. Here are five questions about Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal. ADVERTISEMENT Will the Taliban take over? This has been … [Read more...] about Five questions about Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan

TAIPEI - A surge in naval maneuvers in the South China Sea by Western allies this year is keeping China from any further expansion into the contested waters, analysts say. Vessels from Australia, France, Japan and the United States have sent ships to the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea in 2018. They believe the sea rich in fisheries and fossil fuel reserves to be an international waterway, but China claims about 90 percent of it and has militarized several key islets. The foreign military exercises, naval ship passages and ports of call, along with one U.S. B-52 flyby have effectively stopped China from pushing ahead with expansion that’s also opposed by five other maritime claimants in Asia, experts believe. “You take a realist perspective of power, and it’s a way of ensuring the South China Sea is permanently contested,” said Alan Chong, associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “So, the Chinese will issue angry statements and so … [Read more...] about Surge in South China Sea Naval Exercises in 2018 Vexes Beijing

Washington will demonstrate “enduring” support for Afghanistan even after the U.S. withdraws its troops from the country later this year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during an unannounced visit to Kabul on Thursday. “The reason I’m here … is to demonstrate literally, by our presence, that we have an enduring and ongoing commitment to Afghanistan,” Blinken said during a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on April 15. “Even when our troops come home, our partnership with Afghanistan will continue,” America’s top diplomat vowed . The U.S. said Wednesday it plans to completely withdraw all 2,500 of its remaining troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, and that it will begin the process on May 1. The administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump had scheduled the Afghan troop withdrawal to be completed by May 1, 2021, meaning the new withdrawal deadline proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday serves as an extension of … [Read more...] about Antony Blinken to Afghan President: U.S. Will Stay Even When Troops Leave

For more than a century, Gullah-Geechee people have held fast to their land at the water’s edge on the Sea Islands of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Descendants of chattel slaves from West Africa, generations of Gullah-Geechee have not only survived, but thrived here — nurturing a distinctive culture with deep ties to the African homeland. Today, the Gullah-Geechee’s hold on the land is loosening. Some threats have been brewing for decades , including the juggernaut of development and a system of property law that is cruelly stacked against them. Now, the rising seas and powerful storms of a warming planet pose an unprecedented threat. Unless the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) changes its policies for providing disaster assistance, climate change may be what finally drives the Gullah-Geechee from their home. That would be a disastrous outcome — for the land and people of the Lowcountry and for the nation as a whole. The Gullah-Geechee are bound up with the … [Read more...] about FEMA: Don’t drive the Gullah-Geechee from their land

People who have lost loved ones to OxyContin leave pill bottles in protest outside the headquarters of Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family. Photo: Jessica Hill/AP/Shutterstock/Jessica Hill/AP/Shutterstock In the annals of America’s worst families, there are horrors to behold. Everyone knows the Trumps, and maybe the Mercers, who funded Breitbart News and Parler , the app where planning for the Capitol riot took place. Stephen Miller seems determined to compete with them. They must all make space for the Sacklers, whose role in America’s opioid crisis ranks them among history’s most notable entries. For all the attention the Sacklers have garnered, however, their history as a family remains under-scrutinized. From afar they resemble a collective entity, not a grouping of individuals responsible for individual misdeeds. That will soon change. Empire of Pain , Patrick Radden Keefe’s new history of the Sackler clan, does not locate a moral conscience anywhere in the … [Read more...] about Philanthropic Monsters