Today's News: August 17, 2021

New Zealand Locked Down After One Coronavirus Case Reported

Breitbart – New Zealand entered a strict three-day national lockdown Tuesday after a single case of coronavirus was detected in Auckland, the first locally transmitted example in six months.

The last community outbreak in the South Pacific nation was in February and New Zealand has reported just 26 virus deaths nationally since the pandemic began.

Despite that virus-free stretch, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed she would move to Alert Level Four on the presumption the Delta variant has been isolated, saying it was important for the country to “go hard and go early.”

Level Four means reducing contact between people to the bare, essential minimum with the closing of schools, offices and all businesses with only essential services remaining operational.

“As we’ve seen overseas, particularly in Sydney, unnecessary trips outdoors can spread the virus,” the former president of the International Union of Socialist Youth said.

There is no immediate link between this case and any possible breach of the New Zealand border.

“We will not be able to identify if this is a case of the Delta variant until genome sequencing comes back tomorrow,”Ardern said.

As Taliban enter Kabul, Afghanistan president flees country

CS Monitor – Afghanistan’s embattled president left the country Sunday, joining his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan.

The Taliban fanned out across the capital, and a group of fighters entered the presidential palace in Kabul. 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 Taliban official earlier said the group would announce the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the palace, but those plans appeared to be on hold. That was the name of the country under Taliban rule before the militants were ousted by U.S.-led forces after the 9/11 attacks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The militants had earlier moved into a city gripped by panic, where helicopters raced overhead throughout the day to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents, and the American flag was lowered. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out.

Afghans fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women’s rights rushed to leave the country as well, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings. The desperately poor — who had left homes in the countryside for the presumed safety of the capital — remained in their thousands in parks and open spaces throughout the city.

US must complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan by September 11, Taliban spokesperson says

RT – A senior spokesperson for the Taliban has warned that the US military personnel in Afghanistan must be gone by September 11, after Washington redeployed soldiers to watch over the evacuation.

The US must remove all its troops from Afghanistan by September 11, Suhail Shaheen, a member of the Taliban’s political office and negotiation team in Qatar, told Sky News.

Shaheen said the militants remain committed to not attacking US servicemen, and their immediate goal is to maintain security and prevent incidents around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Breitbart – President Joe Biden repeatedly condemned the idea of “nation-building” in Afghanistan during his speech on Monday, but in 2003 he defended the idea of standing with the Afghan people.

During a February hearing that year on rebuilding Afghanistan in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden warned the United States needed to stay involved in the country.

“In some parts in the administration, nation-building is still a dirty phrase but the alternative to nation-building is chaos,” Biden said, warning that the ensuing chaos only generated more terrorists, warlords, and drug trafficking.”

The Senate hearing took place with Interim President Hamid Karzai, where Biden defended the idea of staying in the country.

“The facts make one thing very clear, we have a great deal of work left to do in Afghanistan and a continued obligation to the men sitting in front of us to allow them to be able to do the work that needs to be done,” Biden said.

Biden warned that when warlords and drug traffickers took over a country, it became a haven for terrorism.

“That’s what happened under the Taliban and I believe if we’re not careful it’s going to happen again,” he said.

Massive US military cargo plane transports fleeing Afghans

CNN – As scores of Afghans are desperate to flee the country, a photo shows a massive military cargo plane carrying about 640 Afghan people from Kabul to Qatar Sunday.

The US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft has been operated by the United States and its allies for nearly three decades.

Thousands evacuated in southern France as wildfire spreads

Al Jazeera – Thousands of people in southern France have been evacuated as a wildfire rages near the plush resort of Saint-Tropez, the fire service has said.

About 750 firefighters and water-dropping aircraft battled the blaze in difficult conditions with high temperatures and strong winds.

Vax or Jail? The Dilemma Facing Some Americans

Activist Post- Brandon Rutherford was recently presented with a dilemma in an Ohio courtroom: get vaccinated or face incarceration.

The 21-year-old was sentenced to two years probation for fentanyl possession by Judge Christopher Wagner of Hamilton County, Ohio on August 4, but his sentence came with a twist: he was ordered to get a COVID vaccine as a condition of his probation.

Should Rutherford fail to comply, he could be sent to jail for up to 18 months.

“I’m just a judge, not a doctor, but I think the vaccine’s a lot safer than fentanyl, which is what you had in your pocket,” Wagner told Rutherford.

Wagner gave Rutherford 60 days to get vaxxed and said, “You’re going to maintain employment. You’re not going to be around a firearm. I’m going to order you, within the next two months, to get a vaccine and show that to the probation office.”

The judge only knew Rutherford’s vaccination status in the first place because he questioned him when he arrived in court wearing a mask—a rule Wagner put in place for any unvaccinated people in his courtroom.

Rutherford was outraged by the mandate.

“Because I don’t take a shot they can send me to jail? I don’t agree with that,” he said. “I’m just trying to do what I can to get off this as quickly as possible, like finding a job and everything else. But that little thing (COVID vaccine) can set me back.”

The judge’s order created a stir, prompting Wagner to issue a response.

“Judges make decisions regularly regarding a defendant’s physical and mental health, such as ordering drug, alcohol, and mental health treatment,” he wrote in a statement. He also said it was his responsibility to “rehabilitate the defendant and protect the community.”

Wagner is not the only Ohio judge to take such actions. He joined judges in Franklin and Cuyahoga counties who made similar demands.

Fox News face broadcasts plan to ban Trump from run in 2024

END – Fox News political analyst Juan Williams published a commentary piece on Monday arguing former President Donald Trump should be barred from running for the White House in 2024 because of his connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion.

The power, Williams claimed, rests with Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“Garland has the power to rule out another Trump run by citing ‘section 3 of the 14th amendment, which bars anyone from holding office who “engaged in insurrection,” against the U.S.,’ Robert Reich, the former Labor secretary, recently wrote in The Guardian,” Williams wrote in The Hill.

“So, yes, there is a case to be made that Trump committed crimes against America,” he added.

Williams cited a Washington Post article to argue that Trump’s “attempted coups cannot be ignored.”

“‘The bottom line is this: Now that Trump is out of office, the DOJ’s view that sitting presidents cannot be indicted no longer shields him. Attempted coups cannot be ignored,’ wrote lawyers Laurence Tribe, Barbara McQuade and Joyce White Vance in a recent column in The Washington Post,” Williams wrote.

“If Garland’s Justice Department is going to restore respect for the rule of law, no one, not even a former president can be above it,” Williams added.

He concluded, “Yes, Garland has the power to stop Trump from running again. It is time to use it.”

In another piece published by The Hill on Aug. 9, Williams argued, “Former President Trump and his disciples in the GOP are really putting the ‘con’ in modern conservatism these days.”

Addressing Trump’s recent fundraising reports, Williams claimed, “Trump’s fundraising haul exceeded the sums raised by his party’s House and Senate campaign groups. As an individual, he was basically on pace with the Republican National Committee.”

Despite attacks by Williams and others who claim Trump should not run for president in 2024, the former president continues to make moves that indicate he’s planning a comeback.

Two recent hires by Trump are driving speculation that he is gearing up to launch another presidential campaign in 2024.

CNN correspondent says there’s ‘clearly big holes’ in Twitter policy, as Taliban use network while Trump is banned

RT – CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan has criticized Twitter’s policy on deplatforming, arguing there are “clearly some big holes” if the Taliban is allowed to use the social network but former President Donald Trump cannot.

After the Taliban took over Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul, O’Sullivan pointed out that “the former President of the United States is banned from Twitter but the Taliban is not.”

“Whether you agree with deplatforming or not, there’s clearly some big holes in the company’s policy,” he observed.

Texas judge rules county can keep mask mandate in place

The Hill – A Texas judge ruled Monday that the Bexar County’s mask mandate can stay in place, despite a Sunday Texas Supreme Court ruling that sided with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) that prohibited such mandates.

A day after the Texas high court upheld Abbott’s ban on mask mandates, State District Judge Antonia Arteaga approved the county’s Aug. 10 public school mask requirement.

“My thoughts continue to be with those children in our schools that don’t have access to the vaccine, but must attend school, coupled with the dire situation right here in Bexar County hospitals, and where we currently find ourselves,” Arteaga said regarding her ruling, according to the Texas Tribune .