Today's News: August 31, 2021

US completes Afghanistan withdrawal as final flight leaves Kabul

Last flight signifies the ‘end of the nearly 20-year mission’ in Afghanistan, top United States general says.

Al Jazeera – The final US military flight has left the Afghan capital, the Pentagon has announced, officially ending the United States’s 20-year war in Afghanistan after a chaotic evacuation effort.

General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, said that the US evacuated 79,000 people from Kabul, including 6,000 American citizens, since August 14, a day before the Taliban took control of the city.

“I’m here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan,” McKenzie told reporters during a news briefing at the Pentagon on Monday.

“Tonight’s withdrawal signifies both the end of the military component of the evacuation but also the end of the nearly 20-year mission that began in Afghanistan shortly after September 11, 2001.”

The Taliban took over Afghanistan earlier this month after a blistering offensive, reaching Kabul on August 15 as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and government forces collapsed.

Afghanistan is ‘a free nation’: Taliban celebrates US defeat

Taliban congratulates Afghans on their victory after the withdrawal of the last US soldier, says it wants good relations with Washington.

Al Jazeera – The Taliban are celebrating their return to power after they took charge of Kabul airport following the departure of the last US troops from Afghanistan.

The Afghan group said on Tuesday Afghanistan is now a “free and sovereign” nation as it hailed the exit of US troops, describing their departure as a “historic moment”.

The Taliban now controls Kabul airport. How will it run it?

The Taliban wants Turkey to operate the airport as it controls security, but the next steps to revive the transport hub are still unclear.

Al Jazeera – With the Taliban in control of Kabul’s airport after the United States completed its withdrawal, the focus will now shift from the chaotic Western evacuation operation of the past two weeks to the group’s plans for the transport hub.

The airport’s symbolism was underlined on Tuesday when the Taliban’s top spokesman stood on its runway and declared victory over the US. But what happens next remains unclear.

The group has repeatedly said they would not accept any foreign military presence in the country after August 31.

“Our fighters and special forces are capable of controlling the airport and we do not need anyone’s help for the security and administrative control of the Kabul airport,” Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi told AFP on Monday.

However, Michael Kugelman, a South Asia specialist at the Wilson Center think-tank in Washington, said a foreign security presence would be necessary if airlines were to return, and that a deal could yet be struck.

“You’re looking at a very volatile environment security-wise,” he told AFP.

“There are all kinds of alarm bells … for commercial airlines that I imagine would not be comfortable getting into the airport.”

Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the Financial Times newspaper his country is urging the Taliban to accept foreign help.

Greek PM fires public-order minister after wildfires destroy a quarter of a million hectares of woodland

RT – Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has fired the country’s minister for public order as part of a cabinet reshuffle in response to criticism over the government’s handling of a series of wildfires during the summer.

The decision to remove Minister for Public Order and Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis from his post comes after rampant wildfires destroyed over a quarter of a million hectares of pine forest in August, damaging homes and businesses, threatening Athens and claiming the lives of two people.

Chrysochoidis will be replaced by former interior minister Takis Theodorikakos, while the country’s health minister, Vassilis Kikilias, is being moved to the tourism post, replacing Harry Theoharis.

The cabinet reshuffle follows a public apology from the prime minister over delays and breakdowns in communication that hampered the country’s official response to the devastating wildfires, with Mitsotakis pleading to make amends to prevent another such catastrophe.

China shuts down American Chamber of Commerce in southwestern city of Chengdu

RT – The American Chamber of Commerce in Southwest China has confirmed with reporters that the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs has ordered it to close down.

On Tuesday, officials from the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Southwest China told media that Chinese authorities had instructed them to cease operations in Chengdu.

The officials said they had been told to “no longer carry out any activities in the name of the American Chamber of Commerce in Southwest China.”

On Tuesday, the official website for AmCham in Southwest China was down.

The chamber’s chairman, Benjamin Wang, told Reuters that they were in discussion with Chinese authorities over the future direction of the business advocacy group, but said they had not yet been given specific reasons for the forced closure.

Wang said that China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) was seemingly imposing a law that restricted countries with a presence in China to maintain only one official chamber of commerce.

State instructs teachers to exclude role of Islam in 9/11 attacks

WND – As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, teachers in Virginia schools are being instructed to avoid connecting the attacks to Islam and instead focus on “anti-Muslim racism.”

The state’s Department of Education hosted a speaker described as an “education leadership scholar” who alleged that anti-Muslim sentiment rises around the anniversary of the attacks targeting the nation’s political, military and economic centers that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The speaker, Amaarah DeCuir, delivered a PowerPoint presentation that stated school and classroom 9/11 commemorations “are sites for increased anti-Muslim racism,” the Daily Wire reported.

“This year’s 20th anniversary commemorations will likely result in heightened risks of racist discourse, threats, and violence targeting Muslim students in schools and society,” it states. “Educators are well-positioned to disrupt these risks by centering the socio-emotional needs of Muslims in their commemoration plans.”

DeCuir presented a list of teaching standards that are “in” and “out.”

“In” is “acknowledgment of anti-Muslim racism.”

“Out,” among others things, are the “false assumption of Muslim responsibility for 9/11” and “American exceptionalism.”

She said examples of “harmful teaching” on 9/11 include “reducing 9/11 instruction to death counts and fear mongering,” “teaching about Islam and/or Muslims” and “amplifying the extremists and extremist acts of 9/11.”

DeCuir also insisted teachers should not be “demanding the condemnation of 9/11” or “reproducing a single, American narrative that marginalizes other students.”

The Daily Wire noted DeCuir’s bio from American University describes her as an education scholar who “focuses on the intersections of leadership, gender, and diverse cultural contexts to advance social justice.”

On Twitter, she called on “antiracist” educators to help “disrupt” the current education of 9/11.

Hurricane Ida traps Louisianans, shatters the power grid

AP – Rescuers in boats, helicopters and high-water trucks brought hundreds of people trapped by Hurricane Ida’s floodwaters to safety Monday and utility repair crews rushed in, after the furious storm swamped the Louisiana coast and ravaged the electrical grid in the stifling, late-summer heat.

Residents living amid the maze of rivers and bayous along the state’s Gulf Coast retreated desperately to their attics or roofs and posted their addresses on social media with instructions for search-and-rescue teams on where to find them.

More than 1 million homes and businesses in Louisiana and Mississippi — including all of New Orleans — were left without power as Ida, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. mainland, pushed through on Sunday.

The damage was so extensive that officials warned it could be weeks before the power grid was repaired.

Signed as Law: Ohio Takes Step Toward Treating Gold and Silver as Money

The Tenth Amendment Center – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a bill into law exempting gold and silver bullion and coins from sales tax. The new law will relieve some of the tax burdens on investors, and it will also eliminate one barrier to using gold and silver in everyday transactions, a foundational step for people to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

House Bill 110 (HB110) – the 2022-2023 budget appropriations bill – was introduced back in February. Provisions in the omnibus bill repeal the sales tax on gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion and coins.

DeWine signed the appropriations bill on June 30. The provisions relating to sales tax on precious metals go into effect. Oct. 1

The state previously exempted the sale of gold and silver bullion from the sales tax, but the legislature passed a bill levying a sales tax in 2019. According to the Sound Money Defense League, small businesses, coin conventions, income tax revenues, and investment activity began exiting the state due to the tax.

Rep. Kris Jordan (R) and Rep. Riordan McClain (R) pushed for the tax repeal.

“These efforts are common sense. We should not be taxing money,” Jordan said.

Victory! Lawsuit Proceeds Against Clearview’s Face Surveillance

Electronic Frontier Foundation – Face surveillance is a growing menace to racial justice, privacy, and free speech. So EFF supports laws that ban government use of this dangerous technology, and laws requiring corporations to get written opt-in consent from a person before collecting their faceprint.

One of the worst offenders is Clearview AI, which extracts faceprints from billions of people without their consent and uses these faceprints to help police identify suspects. For example, police in Miami worked with Clearview to identify participants in a recent protest. Such surveillance partnerships between police and corporations are increasingly common.

Clearview’s faceprinting violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which requires opt-in consent to obtain someone’s faceprint. As a result, Clearview now faces many BIPA lawsuits. One was brought by the ACLU and ACLU of Illinois in state court. Many others were filed against the company in federal courts across the country and then consolidated into one federal courtroom in Chicago. In both Illinois and federal court, Clearview argues that the First Amendment bars these BIPA claims. We disagree and filed an amicus brief saying so in each case.

Face surveillance is a growing menace to racial justice, privacy, and free speech. So EFF supports laws that ban government use of this dangerous technology, and laws requiring corporations to get written opt-in consent from a person before collecting their faceprint.

Last week, the judge in the Illinois state case rejected Clearview’s First Amendment defense, denied the company’s motion to dismiss, and allowed the ACLU’s lawsuit to move forward. This is a significant victory for our privacy over Clearview’s profits.

China bans kids from playing online video games during the week

CNN – China has barred online gamers under the age of 18 from playing on weekdays and limited their play to just three hours most weekends, marking a significant escalation of restrictions on the country’s massive gaming industry.

Starting this week, minors will be allowed only an hour of play time between 8 pm and 9 pm on Friday, weekends and public holidays, according to a statement from Chinese media watchdog — the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) — that was posted by state news agency Xinhua on Monday.

The move represents a huge tightening of earlier limits set by the agency in 2019, which had restricted play to 90 minutes on weekdays and three hours on weekends for children. Authorities said that the restrictions were put in place to help prevent young people becoming addicted to video games.

The NPPA noted this week that the rules were being issued “at the beginning of the new [school] semester, putting specific requirements for preventing the addiction to online games, and protecting the healthy growth of minors.”

Harvard Epidemiologist Says the Case for COVID Vaccine Passports Was Just Demolished

New research found that natural immunity offers exponentially more protection than COVID-19 vaccines.

Foundation for Economic Freedom – Anewly published medical study found that infection from COVID-19 confers considerably longer-lasting and stronger protection against the Delta variant of the virus than vaccines.

“The natural immune protection that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers considerably more of a shield against the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to a large Israeli study that some scientists wish came with a ‘Don’t try this at home’ label,” the Scientific American reported Thursday. “The newly released data show people who once had a SARS-CoV-2 infection were much less likely than vaccinated people to get Delta, develop symptoms from it, or become hospitalized with serious COVID-19.”

Put another way, vaccinated individuals were 27 times more likely to get a symptomatic COVID infection than those with natural immunity from COVID.

A Death Blow to Vaccine Passports?

The findings come as many governments around the world are demanding citizens acquire “vaccine passports” to travel. New York City, France, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec and British Columbia are among those who have recently embraced vaccine passports.

Meanwhile, Australia has floated the idea of making higher vaccination rates a condition of lifting its lockdown in jurisdictions, while President Joe Biden is considering making interstate travel unlawful for people who have not been vaccinated for COVID-19.

Vaccine passports are morally dubious for many reasons, not the least of which is that freedom of movement is a basic human right. However, vaccine passports become even more senseless in light of the new findings out of Israel and revelations from the CDC, some say.

Harvard Medical School professor Martin Kulldorff said research showing that natural immunity offers exponentially more protection than vaccines means vaccine passports are both unscientific and discriminatory, since they disproportionately affect working class individuals.

“Prior COVID disease (many working class) provides better immunity than vaccines (many professionals), so vaccine mandates are not only scientific nonsense, they are also discriminatory and unethical,” Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist, observed on Twitter.

Nor is the study out of Israel a one-off. Media reports show that no fewer than 15 academic studies have found that natural immunity offers immense protection from COVID-19.

Moreover, CDC research shows that vaccinated individuals still get infected with COVID-19 and carry just as much of the virus in their throat and nasal passage as unvaccinated individuals

“High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus,” CDC Rochelle Director Walensky noted following a Cape Cod outbreak that included mostly vaccinated individuals.

These data suggest that vaccinated individuals are still spreading the virus much like unvaccinated individuals.

Anthony Fauci Discusses Coronavirus Booster Shots Every Five Months

Breitbart – Dr. Anthony Fauci is reportedly discussing booster shots for the Chinese coronavirus every five months, President Joe Biden said on Friday, days after Fauci said there is no way to accurately predict when the U.S. will get control of the pandemic as long as there are 90 million unvaccinated individuals who are eligible to get the vaccine yet continuing to refuse the jab.

“The question raised is should it be shorter than eight months? Should it be as little as five months? That’s being discussed. I spoke with Dr. Fauci this morning about that,” Biden said on Friday during an Oval Office visit with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

This week, Fauci seemingly blamed unvaccinated Americans for pandemic woes in the U.S. When asked by NPR’s Mary Lousie Kelly where the U.S. is in terms of the arc of the pandemic, Fauci suggested it is wholly contingent on the number of unvaccinated Americans who get the jab in the coming weeks.

“Do you think we’re near the peak, or are we looking at another possible wave with the arrival of cooler weather and kids back to school and people out and about?” she asked.

“Mary Louise, honestly, it’s going to depend totally on how effective we are in getting people vaccinated,” Fauci said, calling out the millions of Americans who, up to this point, have refused to get the jab for a variety of reasons — from personal concerns to unknown long-term side effects.

“You can’t have 90 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not vaccinated and expect that you can make a good prediction about where we’re going to be,” he began, preemptively blaming unvaccinated Americans for triggering more mutant strains of the Chinese virus.

“Because when you have people unvaccinated to the extent that they are unvaccinated, you have the possibility of the virus continuing to circulate, mutating, forming more variants and getting us back into another situation similar to or worse than delta,” Fauci said, predicting that the U.S. could “start to really get some good control” over the virus as we enter the new year:

If all things go the way we want them to go and we’re really successful with this BLA that we just discussed over the last couple of minutes and we get really the overwhelming majority of the people vaccinated, I think as we get into the fall and the winter, we could start to really get some good control over this as we get into 2022.

Fauci also spoke favorably of vaccine mandates, predicting that there will be “organizations and enterprises and companies” which will “feel much more empowered now to mandate vaccines” following the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the Pfizer vaccine.

“The Pentagon, colleges, universities and even major organizations of places of employment, large corporations may say, this is it. If you want to work for us, you’ve got to be vaccinated,” Fauci said:

So I think you’re going to see a lot more mandates and hopefully a combination of people who, on their own, decide because of this stamp of approval that they want to get vaccinated, combined with the mandates that we may be able to make a big dent in that 90 million people or so who are eligible but not vaccinated.

During a Monday appearance on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, Fauci endorsed vaccine mandates yet again, stating he respects “people’s freedom” but immediately adding that “the time has come” and “enough is enough.”