US Politics

OpinionAfghanistanThe Guardian view on the G7’s great game: the Taliban rules in KabulEditorialOrdinary Afghans will pay the highest price for the west’s defeated ambitions Tue 24 Aug 2021 14.01 EDTLast modified on Tue 24 Aug 2021 14.58 EDTIt speaks volumes about the world today that a US president was more worried about the Taliban looking weak than about his western allies. Britain, France and Germany asked Joe Biden to continue evacuating civilians from Kabul past his self-imposed deadline of 31 August. But the US rejected these requests. Mr Biden wanted to end the chaotic TV scenes from Afghanistan that hurt his domestic poll ratings. But he also accepted that Kabul’s new rulers could not afford to look weak in front of their rival Isis, which is looking for an opportunity to embarrass its Taliban peer.The west’s airlift will therefore be over by next Tuesday. It is the Afghan people who will pay the highest price for the west’s defeated ambitions for their country. They now face living under Taliban rule for a second time. There is no guarantee that a grinding civil war is over. The scale of the west’s failure is not just that the world’s biggest economies will almost certainly fail to evacuate all those who were employed by its armies and diplomats. It is that we have let down a generation of urban Afghans, especially women, who grew up believing that their lives would be better than their parents’.Afghanistan faces a series of crises that would tax the most able technocrats. Yet at the country’s helm is the world’s most obscurantist leadership. Covid has a long way to run in Afghanistan, but only 2% of the population has been vaccinated. The Taliban struggle with the idea of female doctors working in hospitals, let alone how to tackle coronavirus. A drought has caused famine in rural parts of the country, but Afghanistan’s new rulers see humanitarian work as the preserve of charities rather than the state.The Taliban have no experience of legislating within a sophisticated political and legal framework, especially one of the kind modelled on western democracies. When they last ran the country, a cash economy did not exist. In the Afghan central bank, more than two decades ago, the Taliban installed military commanders. One died on the battlefield while still the bank’s governor.The west’s economic model for Afghanistan was, at best, a work in progress. The country has become dependent on international assistance, while poverty rates have increased from a third of the population to more than a half. Unless something extraordinary happens, foreign aid will dry up, leaving the Taliban not only unable to pay for government salaries but also without the resources to cover Afghanistan’s import bill. With the US refusing to hand over Kabul’s dollar reserves, the Afghan currency is likely to collapse in value, sparking a price spiral. Inflation and scarcity are not exactly solid foundations on which to base the stability of a regime.One cannot import development, only encourage it from within. Two Asian countries that have risen by throwing off outside rule – Vietnam and Bangladesh – show that it is possible to wean a country off foreign aid in a substantial way by creating an industrial base. The new Kabul regime is more likely to fall back on opium production, confirming its global pariah status while further diminishing the nation’s productive capacity.Afghanistan’s complexity – its patchwork of ethnicities, traditions and minimal governance – makes it hard to understand. The G7 might be able to use a carrot-and-stick approach with the Taliban. It could offer cash in return for the group respecting human rights or threaten sanctions if Kabul breaks promises. The world, ultimately, will have to adjust to American interest in Afghanistan assuming more conventional proportions. Washington, in the future, will monitor jihadist threats from afar and seek to preserve political balance in Kabul. What has disappeared is the latest attempt to impose a new Afghan society on top of an old one.TopicsAfghanistanOpinionTalibanJoe BidenSouth and Central AsiaCoronavirusUS politicsForeign policyeditorialsReuse this content More

DemocratsTensions flare in Capitol as moderate Democrats hold up Biden budget planHouse leaders offer potential compromise by setting date to consider moderates’ $1tn package of road and public works projects A More

Kathy HochulKathy Hochul sworn in as first female governor of New York stateFormer lieutenant governor Hochul, 62, who replaces Andrew Cuomo, says she ‘wants people to believe in our government again’ Ed Pilkington in New York@ More

OpinionUS politicsCan a socialist live in a $2.7m mansion?Arwa MahdawiHasan Piker, a leftwing commentator with a huge online following, has attracted criticism after buying an expensive new home. But shouldn’t the left be concentrating on other things, such as getting into power? Tue 24 Aug 2021 09.48 EDTLast modified on Tue 24 Aug 2021 13.32 EDTHasan Piker, AKA Hasan the Hun, AKA “woke bae”, has bought a house. If you’re extremely online then you’ll know exactly what this means and already have a strong opinion about it. If you are a normal, well-adjusted, human being then you will have no idea what I’m talking about. So, in brief: Piker is a 30-year-old dude who has gained a massive following through leftwing political commentary on the streaming service Twitch. Spending several hours a day ranting about politics on the internet hasn’t just earned him more than a million followers, it’s also made him a lot of money: Piker has just bought a $2.7m (£1.9m) house with a swimming pool in West Hollywood. Cue screams of “class traitor” and “hypocrite!”Piker’s new pad has drawn a lot of criticism from fans who think he has betrayed his socialist values. It has also drawn predictable ire from the rightwing media, who have used the story to try to prove socialists don’t have any values. There is nothing conservatives love more than an opportunity to write a story along the lines of “FRAUD: self-proclaimed socialist buys something!” They seem to think that you can’t possibly critique capitalism if you own any sort of property. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example has been criticised by rightwing commentators for owning a nice jacket and a Tesla; Bernie Sanders has been slammed for owning three houses; Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter and self-described Marxist, has been dubbed a hypocrite for buying multiple houses.Look, if you’re making a living through socialist politics then you shouldn’t be surprised if people raise an eyebrow when you shell out millions of dollars on property. That said, I don’t really care about Piker’s fancy new house. There is a strain of purity politics on the left that means that nobody seems to be able to do anything correctly. Had Piker bought a more modest house in a cheap neighbourhood, for example, he would probably have been accused of being a gentrifier. Instead of wasting all its time in-fighting, the left really ought to exert its energy building a broader base and trying to actually get into power. Let Piker enjoy his fancy new pool. There are bigger fish to fry.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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President Biden urged Americans to come forward to receive the Pfizer vaccine after it received FDA approval. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is trying to finish its licensing process for the drug as soon as Monday.
The president spoke directly to Americans who have said they would wait to get vaccinated until one of the vaccines received full FDA approval. ‘It has now happened,’ Biden said. ‘The moment you’ve been waiting for is here. It’s time for you to go get your vaccination – and get it today’

Full FDA approval of Pfizer Covid shot will enable vaccine requirements More