US News

• DC Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered all city employees to get vaccinated or weekly covid tests. [Link]
• Senator Rand Paul had a second video taken down by YouTube for ‘covid misinformation’ and cannot post for a week. [Link]
• The NSA awarded a contract worth up to $10 billion to Amazon Web Services. The project is secret and operates under the codename “windandstormy.” Microsoft is challenging AWS winning the contract in court. [Link]
• The Senate passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending bill. [Link]
• Biden will hold a virtual global democracy summit in December. [Link]

Great Power

• Belarus is ordering the US to cut its embassy staff to five. [Link]
• Taiwan is set to launch its largest annual military drills in September. [Link]
• A group of US retailers say US tariffs on China are hurting their business. [Link]

Afghanistan

• Two more Afghan provincial capitals fall to the Taliban. The group now controls eight of the capital cities. [Link]
• The EU estimates the Taliban control 65% of the country. [Link]
• Reuters reports US intelligence is estimating that Kabul could be isolated in 30 days and fall in 3 months. [Link]
• Biden says he does not regret his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. [Link]
• The US Envoy to Afghanistan traveled to Qatar to warn the Taliban they will face international isolation if they take Afghanistan by force. [Link]
• Some foreign contractors who worked for the US war effort in Afghanistan are now stuck in Dubai. [Link]

Middle East

• Israeli officials call for international action against Iran. [Link]
• US Customs agents seized tiles that were being exported for a mosque in Iran. The US claims the tiles violate sanctions. [Link]
• Iran is demanding Iraq remove Iranian Kurdish militants from Iraqi Kurdistan. [Link]
• At least 13 Houthi fighters were killed by Saudi airstrikes in central Yemen. [Link]

Ethiopia 

• Ethiopia’s president calls on all fighting-age men to join the army or militia to take up arms against Tigray. [Link]