Tag: Middle

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Politics

All in or All Out? Biden Noticed No Center Floor in Afghanistan

All in or All Out? Biden Saw No Middle Ground in Afghanistan

Mr Biden hired Jake Sullivan, his national security advisor, to conduct an inter-agency inquiry into Afghanistan policy, which resulted in 10 departmental meetings, three cabinet-level meetings, and four meetings in the camp room attended by the president.

The Biden team considered other options, including maintaining a small troop presence for counter-terrorism operations or in support of the Afghan security forces, but argued that this was just “magical thinking” and would require more troops than was bearable. They debated whether to renegotiate the Trump deal to make further concessions, but the Taliban made it clear they would not return to the negotiating table and considered the Trump deal binding.

Mr Biden’s advisors also considered extending the withdrawal period until winter, after the traditional fighting season was over, to make the transition less dangerous for the Afghan government. The Afghanistan Study Group, a bipartisan, Congressional chartered body led by General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., a retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and which included Ms. O’Sullivan, recommended the deadline for the February May 1st extend out and seek better conditions.

But Mr Biden was warned by security experts that the longer it took for a decision to be announced, the aides said, the more dangerous it would get, so he only extended it until August 31.

Particularly influential on Mr Biden, aides said, were a series of intelligence assessments he had requested of Afghanistan’s neighbors and close neighbors, which revealed that Russia and China wanted the United States to remain stuck in Afghanistan.

At the end of the day, officials said that either option eventually led to one of the two ultimate alternatives – wholly out, as Mr. Trump had agreed, or preparing for a longer and more dangerous gun war with many other troops. Although not everyone in the room preferred Mr. Biden’s path, officials claimed everyone was heard.

“Biden faced basically the same problem as Trump,” said Vali Nasr, a senior adviser to Richard C. Holbrooke, Obama’s special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, “and his answer was the same – we’re not going.” To get back in, you have to we out. “

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Health

Waking Up within the Center of the Evening? Methods to Fall Again Asleep

Waking Up in the Middle of the Night? Ways to Fall Back Asleep

It is normal to wake up a few times during the night as the brain goes through various phases of deeper and lighter sleep. Older people too often have to get out of bed once or twice at night to use the toilet. Waking up at night is usually harmless. Most people have no problem getting back to sleep and may not even remember their nightly awakenings the next morning.

However, if you frequently wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble getting back to sleep, this could be an underlying problem. If this happens at least three times a week for at least three months, it could be chronic insomnia, said Dr. Kannan Ramar, a sleep specialist at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Two of the main causes of insomnia are stress and anxiety. If you wake up and look at the clock and then worry about getting rested for work the next day, paying your bills, or experiencing other life stresses, it could activate your sympathetic nervous system, called the fight-or-flight response . The adrenaline level, the so-called stress hormone, rises, increases the heart rate and leads to a state of increased excitement, which makes falling asleep particularly difficult.

“You might ask, ‘Is this the same time I woke up last night? Why does this always happen? ‘”Said Dr. Ramar. “These thoughts are not helpful in getting back to sleep.”

If you find you have been awake for 25 minutes or more, experts advise you to get up and do some quiet activity that calms your mind – all to suppress the stressful thoughts that were keeping you awake. Gentle stretches or breathing exercises can help, as can meditation, which has been shown in studies to help combat chronic insomnia. You can sit on the couch and knit or read a book or magazine in low light. Experts recommend not reading on smartphones, as the blue light these devices emit can suppress the production of melatonin, the hormone that makes us sleepy. However, you can pull out your phone to use a calming app like Calm or Headspace that is designed to help you sleep and meditate.

Finally, if you start to feel tired, go back to bed and try to doze off. Then, the next day, practice the following sleep hygiene habits to increase your chances of getting a sound sleep through the night.

  • Limit your evening alcohol consumption. In small amounts, alcohol can act as a sedative and make you fall asleep faster. But it can also cause you to wake up in the middle of the night as your body metabolizes it. Studies show that consuming alcohol before bed can lead to poor quality sleep.

  • Avoid consuming caffeine after 2 p.m. as it can linger in your body well into the evening. If you have a cup of coffee at 3:30 p.m., about a quarter of the caffeine may still be in your system 12 hours later.

  • Avoid napping late in the day as it can make it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep at night. Taking long naps will reduce what scientists call your homeostatic sleep drive, which is essentially the pressure on your body to fall asleep in the evening. If you want to take a nap during the day, do it in the morning or early afternoon and keep it short, no more than 30 minutes. “The closer you get to bedtime or the longer the nap, the more likely you are to get into trouble,” said Dr. Sabra Abbott, Assistant Professor of Neurology in Sleep Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.

  • Keep a strict sleep schedule. Waking up and going to bed at irregular times can mess up your body’s circadian rhythm, the innate 24-hour cycles that tell our bodies when to wake up and fall asleep, making it difficult to stay asleep. Try to get up at the same time each morning (aim to get at least 15 minutes of morning sun, which will help stop melatonin production) and go to bed at the same time in the evening. Studies show that people with irregular sleeping schedules are more likely to develop symptoms of insomnia.

  • If you get up to use the toilet frequently, try to limit the amount of water or other fluids you drink two to four hours before bedtime.

If these measures don’t help, a sleep specialist can assess whether you may have a more serious underlying problem, such as sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome, that needs medical attention. A sleep clinic could also put you in touch with a cognitive behavioral therapist who could help you identify and treat specific behaviors that could be causing your chronic insomnia.

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Politics

Blinken to go to Center East following Israeli-Palestinian violence

Blinken to go to Middle East following Israeli-Palestinian violence

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a news conference following meetings at the Danish Foreign Ministry, Eigtved’s Warehouse, in Copenhagen, Denmark, May 17, 2021.

Saul Loeb | Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to the Middle East this week on the heels of nearly two weeks of fighting between Israel and Palestinians, the White House said Monday.

“Following up on our quiet, intensive diplomacy to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, I have asked my Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, to travel to the Middle East this week,” President Joe Biden said in a statement, emphasizing that part of the trip will involve Blinken meeting with Israeli leaders “about our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”

Blinken will also focus on the U.S.-Palestinian relationship, which the Biden statement described as “our Administration’s efforts to rebuild ties to, and support for, the Palestinian people and leaders, after years of neglect.”

Israel’s security Cabinet voted Thursday to approve a tentative cease-fire after 11 days of fighting with Hamas in Israel and the Gaza Strip, the worst violence the area has seen since 2014. Negotiations leading to the cease-fire were led by Egypt, the only country with open communication lines with Israel and Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that governs the Gaza Strip.

Israeli airstrikes and internecine fighting killed more than 220 Palestinians in Gaza over 11 days, including more than 100 women and children. During that time Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel, killing 12 people, including two children.

Biden came under fire from human rights groups and progressive Democrats for perceived inaction as the conflict escalated and for his administration’s continued financial and military support for Israel. His administration has revived some support for Palestinians, restoring $235 million in U.S. aid — most of which will go to the UN’s refugee program for Palestinians — which was completely cut under the Trump administration.

The U.S. provides Israel with $3.8 billion annually in military aid. In early May before the fighting began, the Biden administration approved selling $735 million in precision-guided munitions to Israel — a sale that several progressive Democrats are now trying to halt.

A Palestinian woman carries her child amid the rubble of their houses which were destroyed by Israeli air strikes during the Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza May 23, 2021.

Mohammed Salem | Reuters

The violence in the blockaded Gaza Strip, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and several places in Israel was triggered by protests surrounding the threat of evictions of some Palestinians from their homes in east Jerusalem by the Israeli government.

The demonstrations, largely peaceful but including rock throwing, brought on a harsh Israeli response, such as firing stun grenades into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex during prayers in the holy month of Ramadan. In response, Hamas fired rocket barrages from Gaza into Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel.

Israel then launched airstrikes that the military said was targeted at Hamas, but in the process bombed multiple civilian homes as well as a building housing foreign media outlets including The Associated Press.

Israel has occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the 1967 war, building Jewish settlements that the majority of the international community considers illegal under international law. Israel rejects this.

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Health

Conceivable center, excessive colleges will likely be mask-free within the fall: Fauci

Conceivable middle, high schools will be mask-free in the fall: Fauci

Dr. White House chief physician Anthony Fauci said it was conceivable that middle and high schools would be completely mask-free in the fall.

“If the children are vaccinated, chances are that this is actually a recommendation. We just have to wait and see,” said Fauci.

The director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday that more than half a million 12-15 year olds have received a Covid-19 vaccine to date – less than a week since the CDC approved it for public distribution.

Fauci told CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith that he predicts that the rules for vaccinated students will be different in different school districts in different states, given the power to do so by local authorities.

This week, the governors of Iowa and Texas signed laws banning school districts from requiring masks for students or employees. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said it was up to parents to decide whether their children should wear masks in public schools across the state.

Fauci told host Shepard Smith that he believes the US will meet President Joe Biden’s goal of 70% of adults in the US getting at least one dose of a Covid vaccine by July 4th. Fauci, in turn, said it was unlikely to see Covid-19 spike in the fall if people continue to be vaccinated.

“It’s in our power. We can stop it or just vaccinate it, and I think that’s what’s so frustrating when people don’t want to be vaccinated,” Fauci said. “We all want to go back to normal … There is an easy way to get there, and that is just a vaccination.”

The director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases also made it clear that currently, “we do not know” whether “we absolutely need booster vaccinations” because we do not know the durability of protection in relation to the disease vaccinations.

“We may have to get a booster shot at some point, but we don’t know when that is, whether it’s a year or more than a year. I think we should just be better prepared for it and that was that.” Point I was trying to make, “said Fauci.

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Politics

Violence Shakes Trump’s Boast of ‘New Center East’

Violence Shakes Trump’s Boast of ‘New Middle East’

WASHINGTON – President Donald J. Trump declared in September: “The beginning of a new Middle East.”

In the White House, Trump announced new diplomatic agreements between Israel and two of its Gulf Arab neighbors, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

“After decades of division and conflict,” said Trump, flanked by leaders from the region in a scene that was later repeated in his campaign ads, the Abraham Accords “laid the foundations for a comprehensive peace across the region.”

Eight months later, such peace remains a distant hope, especially for the most famous intractable conflict in the Middle East, that between Israel and the Palestinians. In fiery scenes all too reminiscent of the ancient Middle East, this conflict has entered its bloodiest phase in seven years and again criticizes Trump’s approach as it raises questions about the future of the accords as President Biden grapples with the role of United States facing looks now play in the region.

Mr Trump’s approach has essentially been to circumvent the challenge of easing tensions between Israel and the Palestinians in order to foster closer ties between Israel and some of the Sunni Arab states, largely based on their shared concerns about Iran.

The agreements he was involved in negotiating generally showed that some of Israel’s Arab neighbors showed less interest in helping the Palestinians, giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more leeway to pursue strategies that further exacerbated Israeli-Palestinian tensions .

“It was very difficult for anyone who knows the region to believe that the signing of the Abrahamic Accords would be a breakthrough for peace,” said Zaha Hassan, a visiting scholar for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which focuses on Palestinian issues specialized.

Vali Nasr, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said the agreements were “based on the idea that the Palestinian question is dead,” and rewarded Netanyahu’s tenacious approach to Israeli settlement activities in support of other expansive territorial claims.

“This was proof of his theory that you can have land and peace,” said Nasr.

Former Trump officials said the hyperbolic former president billed the Abraham Accords, which were later extended to Morocco and Sudan, but they were never seen as a means of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On the contrary, the deal, which expanded trade and normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and the four Arab states in whole or in part, instead acted as a reprimand for the Palestinians by showing that their cause no longer defined relations in the region.

Sunni Arab rulers, angry with the Palestinian leadership and tacitly allied with Israel against Shiite Iran for years, moved on.

Jason Greenblatt, who served as Trump’s Middle East Envoy through October 2019, argued that the current spasm of violence in and around Israel “underscores why the Abraham Accords are so important to the region”.

After Palestinian leaders finally rejected a January 2020 Trump peace plan that proposed the creation of a Palestinian state under conditions heavily geared towards Israeli demands, the accords deliberately severed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from Israel’s relations with the Arabs World, said Greenblatt.

They “have taken the Palestinians’ veto power to move the region forward,” he added.

Others noted that before agreeing to the agreements, the United Arab Emirates had given Mr. Netanyahu a pledge to halt a possible annexation of parts of the West Bank, which had the potential to spark a major Palestinian uprising. (Trump officials also opposed such annexation, and Mr Netanyahu may still not have enforced it.)

Dennis Ross, a former Middle East peace negotiator who served under three presidents, described the deals as an important step for the region but said the violence in Israel’s cities and Gaza Strip shows how “the Palestinian issue still holds a cloud over the people Israel’s relations can throw “its Arab neighbors.

“The idea that this was ‘Peace in Our Time’ obviously ignored the one existential conflict in the region. It wasn’t between Israel and the Arab states, ”said Ross.

Most analysts say the deals – which Biden government officials say they want to support and even expand to more nations – can survive the current violence. After all, officials involved in drafting the agreement said no one had the illusion that such clashes were a thing of the past.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Updated

May 15, 2021 at 10:43 a.m. ET

But images of Israeli police raids against Arabs in Jerusalem and air strikes that topple skyscrapers in Gaza are clearly causing nuisance.

In a statement last week, the UAE Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” Israel’s proposed evictions in East Jerusalem and a police attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, where Israeli officials said Palestinians had been storing stones throwing them at the Israeli police.

Last month, the UAE also denounced “acts of violence by right-wing extremist groups in occupied East Jerusalem” and warned that the region “could slide into new levels of instability in ways that threaten peace”.

Bahrain and other Gulf states have condemned Israel in similar tones. In a statement by the United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister, Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, on Friday “all parties”, not just Israel, were urged to exercise restraint and pursue a ceasefire.

A former Trump official argued that public pressure from countries like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on Israel after the agreements carried more weight than was the case from newly official diplomatic partners. However, none of the governments involved in the agreements play a major role in efforts to achieve a ceasefire – a responsibility that has historically been assumed by Egypt and Qatar.

“It is the non-Abraham Convention Arabs who will really play a central role in ending this fire,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Israeli-Arab adviser among six state secretaries.

At an event held by the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC last month, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the Biden administration “welcomes and supports” the Abraham Accords and that “Israel’s group of friends will grow even larger” next year. “

But with dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries since then, most of them Palestinians, analysts say the prospect of other Arab nations joining the accords is poor.

“I would say it is very, very unlikely that anyone else will join the deal,” said Nasr. “It will lose a lot of dynamism and energy.”

A nation seen as a potential candidate, Saudi Arabia, has imposed some of the strongest condemnations against Israel in the past few days. A statement by the Saudi Foreign Ministry called on the international community to “hold the Israeli occupation responsible for this escalation and immediately stop its escalation measures, which violate all international norms and laws”.

Some Biden analysts and government officials say the deals were the culmination of a four-year Trump policy that included and empowered Mr. Netanyahu and isolated the Palestinians. Mr Trump’s approach, they said, nearly stifled hopes for the two-state solution pursued by several previous American presidents and tipped the balance of power between official Palestinian leaders and Hamas extremists in Gaza.

Ilan Goldenberg, a former Obama administration official, admitted that Israel had clashed with the Palestinians even under democratic governments, which had chosen a more balanced approach to the conflict than Trump’s nakedly pro-Israel stance.

And he said opportunistic rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel after the outbreak of Jewish-Arab violence in Jerusalem were not Trump’s fault.

But Mr Goldenberg argued that the current violence against Internecine in Israel “is at least partially driven by the fact that the Trump administration supports extremist elements in Israel every step of the way,” including the Israeli settlement movement.

In November 2019, for example, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo changed longstanding US policy by stating that the US did not view Israeli settlements in the West Bank as a violation of international law. (The Biden government intends to reverse this position once a government attorney review is completed.)

“They had David Friedman” – Mr. Trump’s ambassador in Jerusalem – “literally tear down walls of holy places with a sledgehammer and say it was Israeli,” Goldenberg said.

Mr Trump also moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and officially recognized the city as Israel’s capital. This enraged the Palestinians, who had long expected East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state they are building.

“Trump opened the door to Israel to accelerate house demolition and settlement activities,” Ms Hassan said. “And when that happens and you see Israel affecting it, you see the Palestinian resistance.”

Former Trump officials note that expert predictions of a Palestinian outbreak never materialized during Mr Trump’s tenure, particularly after the embassy moved, and suggest that Biden’s friendliness toward the Palestinians – including restoring that of Mr Trump canceled humanitarian aid – Trump – has encouraged them to challenge Israel.

Even some Trump administration officials said Mr Trump and others’ suggestions that the agreements represented peace in the Middle East were exaggerated.

“During my time in the White House, I always urged people not to use that term,” Greenblatt said.

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World News

Biden has a historic alternative within the Center East to foster progress

Biden has a historic opportunity in the Middle East to foster progress

President Biden’s long experience in the Senate and White House taught him that the Middle East could be quicksand for his ambitions as president.

So it was no accident that his goals in the Middle East were modest, aimed at avoiding resource-damaging distractions from his national ambitions and international priorities: recharging the US economy and recruiting European and Asian allies to deal with China.

The old logic was that US withdrawal from Middle Eastern affairs would leave a dangerous vacuum. The new thought was that by distancing you can promote greater independence.

What surprised Biden government officials is how quickly historical opportunities have emerged. A positive series of loosely related events in the region provides the best opportunity to allay tension, end conflict, build economic progress and advance Middle East integration.

Their combined effect should be to induce the Biden government to recalibrate their “do-no-harm” approach to the region and raise their ambitions. First, it should focus on the four leading indicators of change and examine how to build on them.

  • First, the region’s two bitterest opponents, Saudi Arabia and Iran, are holding secret talks to resolve the region’s arson conflict.
  • Second, this week Turkey added Egypt to its list of countries it seeks to ease tension with – including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
  • Third, the signatories of last year’s Abraham Accords continue to build on their historic normalization agreement. The United Arab Emirates and Israel will open free trade talks next month.
  • Finally, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq are holding trilateral talks to deepen their economic ties and highlight the potential for growth-enhancing regional integration.

To support all of this, it would not require the military engagement, endless commitments, or costly investments that have piqued Americans in the region.

What it takes is an increased level of diplomatic and economic creativity and the dusting of history books to examine how the US helped Europe end centuries of post-WWII conflict and build the institutions and cooperative habits that continue to exist today Have consisted.

The process should begin by examining the dynamics of what is unfolding, staying away from what is working well, and engaging where that would support fragile progress.

Given the financial and reputational cost of their disputes, countries that have long been at odds are speaking – Saudi Arabia with Iran, Turkey with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates with Qatar, and Israel with any number of Arab states, and other emerging combinations.

Warring parties in Libya and Yemen are looking for ways to de-escalate, even though they are far from solutions. Leaders have stepped up their efforts for economic growth and recognized the needs of a well-educated, emerging generation who understand global standards.

Most fascinatingly, Saudi Arabia and Iran have had secret talks since January, apparently without US involvement, and mediated by Iraq.

In a dramatic change of tone, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said: “We do not want the situation with Iran to be difficult. On the contrary, we want it to flourish and grow because we have Saudi interests in Iran, and they do also.” Iranian interests in Saudi Arabia designed to promote prosperity and growth in the region and around the world. “

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has many reasons to change course. Among them was the shock of a sophisticated Iranian attack on Saudi oil facilities in September 2019 that cost Riyadh around $ 2 billion.

Not only did the event uncover the kingdom’s vulnerability and Iran’s growing capabilities, but it also cast doubts about US security guarantees, even from a friend as close as President Donald Trump, who did not reciprocate Riyadh.

“The concern that Biden will be overly nice with Iran,” says Kirsten Fontenrose of the Atlantic Council, “while he is withdrawing from the region and de-prioritizing bilateral relations is currently of crucial importance to Saudi’s calculations.”

Turkey, which is economically and politically isolated, has also repaired fences with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel – who were aware of Istanbul’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups they consider extremist.

Building on last year’s historic Abraham Accords, a senior Middle East official says Israel and the UAE will begin talks next month on a free trade agreement, just one of many efforts to capitalize on the dynamic of normalized relations.

The UAE continued to function as an oversized regional elixir for economic modernization and political moderation, and this week liberalized its residency requirements to attract wealthy expats. They have set themselves the goal of doubling their GDP within the decade, particularly through technological investments.

Separated and inspired by the Abraham Accords, officials from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Greece and Cyprus met against the backdrop of the Eastern Mediterranean in April to deepen their cooperation on everything from energy to fighting the pandemic.

Taken alone, these indicators may appear poor rather than transformative. Tie them together and build on them more methodically, and the Middle East could be the beginnings of such de-escalation of conflict, economic cooperation and institution-building that Europe enjoyed after World War II.

With security threats growing in the Horn of Africa and new uncertainties about the future of Afghanistan, the US wants to be able to invite more stable partners in the Middle East to better address growing uncertainties elsewhere in its wider neighborhood.

Nobody should expect the Middle East in the short term to have its own equivalent of the European Union, NATO or the CSCE, the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, where talks between rival Cold War factions take place.

Nor should the US be expected to play the galvanizing role it played when it had half of global GDP, much of Europe was in ruins, and the Soviet Union rose as an adversary.

Still, it would be wrong to underestimate the positive potential influence of the US.

The Trump administration’s support for the Abraham Accord helped fuel growing collaboration among its signatories: Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

The government of Biden has approved the agreements, most recently in a conversation between President Biden and the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed Bin Zayed. However, Biden administrators should invest more in building the agreements.

President Biden’s resumption of negotiation efforts with Iran, his focus on human rights issues and his reluctance to feed the divisions in the region will also play a positive role as long as negotiators do not set the bar too low to lift sanctions against Tehran.

What the Biden administration must avoid is hearing the false conclusion of some analysts that US withdrawal from the region would accelerate progress. What is needed instead is consistent support for the region’s growing modernization and moderation forces, which have won but are still a long way off.

Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist, and President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of America’s most influential think tanks on global affairs. He worked for the Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as foreign correspondent, assistant editor-in-chief and senior editor for the European edition of the newspaper. His latest book – “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place in the World” – was a New York Times bestseller and has been published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredKempe and subscribe here to Inflection Points, his view every Saturday of the top stories and trends of the past week.

More information from CNBC staff can be found here @ CNBCOpinion on twitter.

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World News

U.S. sends extra firepower to Center East as troops withdraw from Afghanistan

U.S. sends more firepower to Middle East as troops withdraw from Afghanistan

A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle, piloted by a member of the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, takes off from Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates on April 30, 2021 in support of regional security operations.

Staff Sgt. Zade Vadnais | U.S. Air Force photo

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has augmented its military assets in the Middle East as US-NATO coalition forces begin the daunting task of withdrawing from Afghanistan.

This week, two more US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers arrived at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, bringing the total number of B-52s ready to respond to a Taliban attack to six.

“We have made it extraordinarily clear that protecting our armed forces and the forces of our allies and partners is also a priority in the withdrawal. This is a top priority,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday.

“We have made plans to introduce additional ground force capabilities to make sure again that this is safe and orderly,” added Kirby. The Pentagon also expanded the operation of a US Navy strike group in the area and deployed a dozen F-18 fighter jets to provide additional support.

Kirby has previously said that U.S. Central Command, the combatant command that oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East, will continue to assess the need for additional military capabilities as U.S. and coalition forces advance.

A B-52H Stratofortress aircraft assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, arrives at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar on May 4, 2021.

Staff Sgt. Greg Erwin | U.S. Air Force photo

“The president has decided to end America’s involvement in our longest war, and we are going to do just that. And so far, in less than a week, the drawdown is going according to plan,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday .

“We’re focused on making sure we can roll back our resources, our troops, and our allies in a safe, orderly, and responsible manner,” Austin said, adding that the Department of Defense is planning on hoping for support from Congress in the future to provide financial assistance to Afghan armed forces.

Last week, the White House confirmed that US troops had begun withdrawing from Afghanistan and that the Pentagon was proactively deploying additional troops and military equipment to protect the armed forces in the area.

“Potential opponents should know that if they attack us as we retreat, we will defend ourselves. [and] our partners, with all the tools at our disposal, “White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling on Air Force One.

“While these measures will initially lead to an increase in the armed forces, we continue to advocate evicting all US military personnel from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021,” she said, adding that the Biden administration is unifying Intended “safe and responsible” exit from the war-torn country.

The crew assigned to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar carry their gear into a C-17 Globemaster III assigned to the Joint Base in Charleston, South Carolina on April 27, 2021.

Staff Sgt. Kylee Gardner | U.S. Air Force photo

In April, Biden announced a full withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, ending America’s longest war.

The removal of approximately 3,000 US soldiers coincides with the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks that spurred America’s entry into protracted wars in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Biden’s withdrawal schedule breaks with a proposed deadline agreed with the Taliban by the Trump administration last year. According to this agreement, all foreign armed forces should have left Afghanistan by May 1st.

Since Biden’s decision to leave the country, the US has removed the equivalent of approximately 60 C-17 Globemaster loads from Afghanistan, according to an update from Central Command. More than 1,300 pieces of equipment that will not be handed over to the Afghan military have also been handed over to the Defense Logistics Agency for destruction.

The US has also officially handed over a facility to the Afghan military. So far, Central Command estimates the US has completed between 2% and 6% of the withdrawal process.

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Business

Biden’s Proposals Intention to Give Sturdier Assist to the Center Class

Biden’s Proposals Aim to Give Sturdier Support to the Middle Class

Skeptics have warned of government overreach and the risk that deficit spending could trigger inflation, but Mr Biden and his team of economic advisors have adopted the approach nonetheless.

“It’s time for the economy to grow from the bottom towards the middle,” Biden said in his speech to a joint congressional session last week, an indication of the idea that wealth does not flow down from the rich, but flows away from an educated and well-educated person paid middle class.

He underscored the point by highlighting workers as the dynamo that drives the middle class.

“Wall Street didn’t build this country,” he said. “The middle class built the country up. And the unions built the middle class. “

Of course, the economy that pushed millions of post-war families into the middle class was very different from the present one. Manufacturing, construction and mining jobs, formerly seen as the backbone of the workforce, have declined – as have unions, which fought aggressively for better wages and benefits. Currently, only 1 in 10 workers are union members, while around 80 percent of jobs in the US are in the service sector.

And it is expected that these types of jobs in healthcare, education, childcare, disabled and elderly care will continue to grow at the fastest pace.

However, most of them do not pay middle-income wages. That doesn’t necessarily reflect their worth in an open market. Salaries for teachers, hospital workers, lab technicians, child minders, and nursing home workers are largely set by the government, which collects taxpayers’ money to pay their salaries and sets reimbursement rates for Medicare and other programs.

They are also jobs that are held by significant numbers of women, African Americans, Latinos, and Asians.

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Health

Empty Center Seats on Planes Reduce Coronavirus Danger in Examine

Empty Middle Seats on Planes Cut Coronavirus Risk in Study

Leaving the center seats vacant during a flight could reduce passenger exposure to coronavirus in the air by 23 to 57 percent. This is what researchers reported in a new study that modeled how aerosolized virus particles spread in a simulated aircraft cabin.

“Next is always better in terms of exposure,” said Byron Jones, a mechanical engineer at Kansas Sate University and co-author of the study. “It’s true in airplanes, it’s true in cinemas, it’s true in restaurants, it’s true everywhere.”

However, the study may have overestimated the benefits of having empty center seats by ignoring the wearing of masks by passengers.

“It’s important for us to know how aerosols spread in airplanes,” said Joseph Allen, a ventilation expert at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health who was not involved in the study. But he added, “I am surprised that this analysis is now being published and it makes a big statement that the center seats should be left open as a risk mitigation approach if the model does not take into account the effects of masking. We know that masking is the most effective measure to reduce emissions from inhalation aerosols. “

Although scientists have documented several cases of coronavirus transmission on airplanes, airplane cabins are generally low risk environments as they tend to have excellent ventilation and filtration.

Still, concerns about the risk of air travel have swirled since the pandemic began. Planes are tight environments, and full flights make social distancing impossible. As a precaution, some airlines have started keeping the center seats free.

The new paper, published Wednesday in the Weekly Report on Morbidity and Mortality, is based on data collected at Kansas State University in 2017. In this study, the researchers sprayed a harmless aerosol virus through two mock aircraft cabins. (One was a five-row section of an actual single-aisle aircraft, the other a model of a wide-bodied double-aisle aircraft.) The researchers then monitored how the virus spread in each cabin.

For the new study, researchers from the state of Kansas and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used the 2017 data to model how passenger exposure to a virus in the air would change if each middle seat was in one 20-row entrance cabin would remain open.

Depending on the specific modeling approach and the parameters used, keeping the middle seats empty reduced the overall load on the passengers in the simulation by 23 to 57 percent compared to a fully occupied flight.

“Some airlines have been working with a vacant seat policy and this study supports the effectiveness of this intervention in conjunction with other existing measures,” a CDC spokesman said in a statement emailed.

This reduction in risk resulted from increasing the distance between an infectious passenger and others, as well as reducing the total number of people in the cabin, reducing the likelihood that an infectious passenger would be on board at all.

The laboratory experiments on the spread of viruses in aircraft cabins were conducted several years before the current pandemic began and did not take into account any protection that wearing masks could provide.

Masking would reduce the amount of virus infectious passengers release into cabin air and would likely reduce the relative benefit of keeping the center seats open, said Dr. All.

Dr. Jones agreed. “In general, I would think that wearing a mask would make this effect a lot less pronounced,” he said. He also noted that mere exposure to the virus does not mean that anyone will be infected by it.

“To what extent a reduction in exposure could reduce the risk of transmission is not yet known,” said the CDC spokesman.

The cost-benefit analysis is difficult for airlines. However, from a purely health perspective, keeping the center seats open would be helpful to create a buffer between an infectious person and others nearby, according to Alex Huffman, an aerosol scientist at the University of Denver who was not involved in the study . “Removal is important, both for aerosols and for droplets,” he said.

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Health

Open center seats might cut back Covid publicity of maskless passengers

Open middle seats could reduce Covid exposure of maskless passengers

View of the cabin of a Delta flight between Minneapolis and Baltimore on April 25, 2020.

Sebastien Duval | AFP | Getty Images

Passenger exposure to the virus that causes Covid-19 could be reduced by more than half if the center seats on airplanes were left open, according to a new study published Wednesday.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kansas State University used laboratory models to find that passenger exposure to SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, could be reduced by between 23% in large and narrow-body aircraft and 57% when airlines leave middle seats open – Even if they don’t wear masks.

The study comes after airlines have spent much of the last year promoting increased on-board cleaning procedures and filtration to reassure travelers worried about flying during the pandemic. The demand for travel has recovered somewhat since then, as more people are vaccinated against Covid-19.

U.S. airlines, including JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines, limited the capacity on board their aircraft at the start of the pandemic, but have since abolished the policy, citing hospital-grade filtration and other safety measures to limit the risk of exposure on board. Delta Air Lines plans to end the lockdown of the center seats next month, the last U.S. carrier to make the change. However, capacity caps were halted over the Easter weekend as staff shortages resulted in dozens of flight cancellations.

The researchers’ study did not look at wearing masks on flights, which became an airline and federal government policy during the pandemic.

However, they cited a New Zealand case study which stated that “some of the virus aerosol is given off by an infectious masked passenger, so distancing might still be useful.”

They used a surrogate virus to stand up for SARS-CoV-2 in the air.