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More than four months into the Taliban’s reign, the Biden administration has largely taken a middle line between these two options. While U.S. officials have met with the Taliban on several occasions since the summer and remain open to the prospects of a business-like relationship, the White House is also using financial tools to force Afghanistan’s de-facto government to change its ways. Washington remains adamant that the Taliban need to establish an inclusive government, allow women and girls equal access to education, stop repressing its former Afghan government opponents and ease up on human rights abuses....

Preseason games mean something to the guys who are playing in them, and the people who work at the arena, and the media that covers day-to-day events of the teams that are involved, and some of the people in the stands. For me — whose job consists in no small part of stuff like writing about a Mighty Ducks reunion — they mean nothing. I must create my own meaning....

With his New York accent and even more pronounced New York attitude, Scheck assaulted Fung for five days. Fung seemed halting and his testimony contradictory. Scheck confronted Fung with his statements before a grand jury last summer in which he said he, and not rookie criminalist Andrea Mazzola, had collected most of the blood evidence. Then Scheck displayed videotape of Mazzola, a key defense target who is expected to testify this week, collecting the glove found at 875 South Bundy (Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo), and other critical pieces of evidence....

Lewis will turn 35 just before the Games begin July 19. To compete in one more Olympics required a whole new source of motivation. It was not enough that this would be his fifth Olympic team (including the 1980 team that boycotted Moscow). Not enough that he might join a handful of American Olympians to win medals at four Games. Not even enough that two more Olympic golds would run his total to 10, topping distance runner Paavo Nurmi (The Flying Finn) on track and field’s all-time list....

Years ago the Dutch-born Verhoeven made a splashy Hollywood entrance with two thrilling, inventive sci-fi pictures, ““RoboCop’’ and ““Total Recall.’’ Then he formed an unholy alliance with Joe Eszterhas and unleashed ““Basic Instinct’’ and ““Showgirls.’’ ““Troopers’’ is a welcome U-turn, but though Verhoeven rehashes ““RoboCop’’ gimmicks –parodying newscasts, splashing cybertext across the screen–there’s no soul in this machine. The dewy cast of unknowns has nothing to do but wait to get their brains sucked out by bugs....

Consider Ed Rollins, the Republican consultant who had bragged about–and then denied–doling out money to hold down the black vote in the recent gubernatorial election in New Jersey. When he showed up in Newark last week to talk to federal officials, he was engulfed by a media horde worthy of a Buttafuoco photo op. He escaped afterward in star style, by sneaking through a loading dock. Then there’s James Carville, the Democratic consultant whom Rollins had bested in the New Jersey race....

Major League Baseball is aware of the incident that began when the club’s strength and conditioning coach, Michael Henriques, installed the camera on July 24. League and MLB Players’ Association sources told Yahoo that Henriques wanted to observe players working out and rehabilitating injuries while the team traveled. MORE: MLB trade deadline 2016: Winners easier to spot than losers “This was the misguided action of one employee,” A’s vice president Billy Beane said....

The core of this contention rests on the idea that Trump was a strong leader who Russian President Vladimir Putin would have never dared crossed. The notion that Trump would have shown so much strength as to have deterred Russian aggression requires that we forget both who Trump is and what he did as president. Even a cursory look at these two things will yield ample evidence which suggests that the former president would have been neither capable nor willing to do anything to stop Ukraine’s invasion....

Trump and Wallace have had a heated past and have criticized one another publicly. In an April 12 tweet, the president said that Wallace would never be his father Mike Wallace, a journalist and one of the original correspondents for CBS’ 60 Minutes. He died in 2012. “Somebody please explain to Chris Wallace of FOX, who will never be his father (and my friend), Mike Wallace, that the phone conversation I had with the president of Ukraine was a congenial and good one....

On the same day that U.S. military commander Gen. David H. Petraeus was telling reporters that offenses made possible by a surge in American and Iraqi forces means “levels of violence and casualties are significantly reduced and hope has been rekindled in many Iraqi communities,” local media reports say Maliki will be treated in England for exhaustion According to newscasts on the popular Sharkiya television station, an unidentified person close to Maliki says the prime minister has been having problems with his blood pressure and diabetes and will undergo cardiac-related tests....

Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill sat under the same hot white lights at the United States Senate, a damaged man and an injured woman demanding justice. Two parallel lives that had looked exemplary suddenly collided over an ugly story of sexual harassment. Poised and intelligent, Hill said that when she had worked for Thomas a decade earlier, he harassed her with barnyard talk of porn flicks, group sex, bestiality and his own sexual prowess....

There’s enough irony in all this to make a Robert Altman movie. “I’ll Do Anything” is itself a behind-the-scenes look at the machinations of movie development, from cutthroat casting to test-screening hell. Nolte plays Matt Hobbs, an unemployed actor who will “do anything” to get a part. What he gets is custody of his 6-year-old daughter, Jeannie (Whittni Wright), the kind of child who slaps herself to make everyone think she’s being beaten....

Though editorial oversight for each media organization will remain independent, the aim is to provide readers, Web surfers and viewers a flow of the kind of strong, groundbreaking journalism they’ve come to expect from NEWSWEEK and our new allies. A major part of the relationship will be the launch of NEWSWEEK.MSNBC.com, scheduled for early 2000. Starting immediately, MSNBC.com will carry editorial content from NEWSWEEK.com and NEWSWEEK magazine in various sections through the site....

The vaccine, called Corbevax, was just granted an emergency use authorization in India, and the researchers behind the vaccine hope that it will be used as an affordable option in other countries with lower vaccination rates. “The researchers are giving up their intellectual property rights to make the means to do this available to all countries and, most importantly, to low-income and middle-income countries,” Thomas Russo, MD, professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York, told Verywell....

Chavez won his elections in 1999–from the presidency to the constitutional referendum–by playing us-vs.-them politics. Sounds like traditional Latin populism, right? The votes attracted by Peron in Argentina, Mexico’s PRI, Christian Democrats in Chile or Liberals and Conservatives in Colombia included rich and poor; town and country; young and old; white, brown and black (where relevant); men and women. Not so in Venezuela. Chavez has split society into pro- and anti-Chavistas ideologically and politically, but his sympathizers are not divided....

New York police are stepping up collars of drug dealers, squeezing them for leads on the source of the “hot shots” (deadly doses). So far, there have been no arrests. While new to the Northeast, fentanyl has been linked to more than 100 deaths in California over the last 10 years. It may have come to the New York area as part of an attempt to widen the market with a more intense “designer” substitute for heroin....

For most players, the rules in the Nuzlocke Challenge don’t go much further than a content creator on Twitch or YouTube who showcases these extra difficult runs. That being said, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s debut might be the perfect time for players to give the challenge a try and see how it can help them better bond with the new Pokemon in the game, as well as improve the familiar mechanics for longtime fans....