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The US is leaving Afghanistan. The Taliban is gaining. What happens now?

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“Is the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan inevitable?”
That’s the question a reporter <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1413202372860469254?s=20">put to</a> President Joe Biden this week at a press conference on the US’s drawdown in Afghanistan.
“No, it is not,” Biden <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1413202372860469254?s=20">said</a>, noting that Afghan government troops greatly outnumber the Taliban and are “as well-equipped as any army in the world.”
That may be true, but numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. The Taliban has rapidly <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/9/taliban-afghanistan-border-crossing-iran">expanded its territorial control</a> over the last week and is closing <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/even-taliban-are-surprised-how-fast-they-re-advancing-afghanistan-n1272236">in on the capital, Kabul</a>. On Monday, more than <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/05/afghan-soldiers-flee-tajikistan-taliban/">1,000 Afghan soldiers reportedly fled into neighboring Tajikistan</a> to escape a Taliban advance. A US intelligence assessment has said the Afghan government <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/afghan-government-could-collapse-six-months-after-u-s-withdrawal-new-intelligence-assessment-says-11624466743">could fall in six months</a> once US and other international troops leave.
It makes it hard to see a Taliban takeover as anything other than extremely likely, if not truly inevitable. For that reason, it’s worth thinking about what it would actually mean if that were to happen. What does that look like? And how should the Biden administration respond?
I spoke with Madiha Afzal, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank and an expert on the region, to talk through some of these questions.
Afzal’s not necessarily convinced that a full Taliban takeover is imminent. “It could happen down the road, but not without some significant fighting,” she told me. But, she said, “The fundamental question facing the Biden administration is, whatever government setup emerges in Afghanistan, will it pose a threat to the US?”
Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.
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<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
I know it’s a very complicated situation on the ground in Afghanistan, but can you give a basic overview of the landscape right now as the US withdraws?
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
I think many of us feared that with withdrawal, without a peace deal between the Taliban and Kabul, the most likely outcome would be some kind of a civil war. Not necessarily an imminent Taliban takeover, but a civil war that could be a protracted one.
Now, given <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57748695">the losses</a> that Afghan security forces have suffered in the last few days after US forces <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bagram-afghanistan-airfield-us-troops-f3614828364f567593251aaaa167e623">departed the Bagram Air Base</a>, those rapid losses have led some to believe it’s only a matter of time before the Taliban takes over — and, in fact, that military takeover might be more likely, that the fight will soon move to provincial capitals and cities and the Afghan security forces will have the same kind of losses they’ve faced over the last few days.
But that may not necessarily be the case. It could be that the fight is stronger in Afghan cities, provincial capitals, certainly in Kabul. There’s also the question of what happens if the Taliban gets to Kabul and tries to take over Kabul. Does the US step in in some way? Do NATO forces step in some way? That’s a question that was raised, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/us/politics/afghanistan-airstrikes-us-troop-withdrawal.html">at least in some recent reporting</a>.
So I think the most likely outcome is fighting that will soon move to Afghanistan’s provincial capitals. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that a full Taliban takeover is imminent. It could happen down the road, but not without some significant fighting.
<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
As you said, it’s hard to know what will happen. But, from the US perspective, is that the key goal? To keep the central government and Afghan security forces intact? Or do you think the US government is thinking about the strategy differently as it leaves?
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
That thinking is probably still evolving as the US views what is happening. I think an eventual outcome, if one thinks about it — and this could be down the road — could be a part of Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban, and one part of it, perhaps, ruled by a government that is friendlier to the United States.
Would the US step in in some way to avoid Kabul being taken over by the Taliban? I think that’s a question. In all the discussions that the US has been having with Pakistan and other countries trying to establish the horizon counterterrorism capabilities, we don’t really have a satisfactory answer there, I think because nothing has really been decided.
With all those discussions, to me, the fundamental question facing the Biden administration is, whatever government setup emerges in Afghanistan, will it pose a threat to the US?
Even if it’s complete — let’s go to the extreme — even if it’s a complete Taliban takeover, does it pose a threat to the United States or not? The US doesn’t have to give it aid. The US doesn’t have to give it legitimacy. The US may even sanction it. It has certain tools. But if it exists, like it did in the 1990s, does it give haven to al-Qaeda? Does it allow its soil to be used to attack the United States?
That’s when this government becomes a problem for the United States. So if it’s a small part of Afghanistan, or a significant part of Afghanistan, that is being ruled by a Taliban government, again, the same question arises.
<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
So the question is not so much whether or not the Taliban will take over, but rather in what form, and if it acts like a rogue actor. But if the Taliban doesn’t, say, give safe harbor to terrorists, then the US may not be as concerned, even if that’s an uncomfortable position after 20 years of nation-building.
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
Exactly. President Biden has been talking about the terrorist threat from Afghanistan being a key concern. He <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/07/08/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-drawdown-of-u-s-forces-in-afghanistan/">alludes to that repeatedl</a>y, saying, basically, “Look, the terrorist threat has morphed, it has gone elsewhere.” So, at least for his administration, the central question around the Taliban’s ascendance would be: What kind of threat does it pose to the US?
<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
This may be an impossible question to answer, but do we have a sense of what the Taliban might do, learning the lessons of 20 years? Perhaps they’re less eager to host terrorists? Or maybe not?
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
The answer to that is probably a little bit mixed, and maybe not satisfactory because there is a lot we don’t know. The Taliban is good at rhetoric. It’s good at propaganda. What it says is not what actually happens.
We should be very wary when it comes to the Taliban. There’s also a divide between the Taliban political leadership — which seems to know how to use rhetoric and propaganda — versus rural Taliban or foot soldiers who a) believe in the same draconian, regressive forms of governance they did in the 1990s, and b) believe that they’ve won a jihadist victory. And this means you don’t compromise, going back to the way things were in the 1990s.
The Taliban political leadership isn’t fully clear on what it wants in terms of girls’ education, women going to work, and so on. It has just said it’s going to be in line with Islam.
I think we ought to be wary of how much the Taliban has changed. That being said, they seem to enjoy international legitimacy. Now, whether that’s just because they want to use that to make the US get out of Afghanistan and then essentially go back to the ways of the 1990s, that could be.
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/09/iran-and-russia-move-to-fill-diplomatic-vacuum-in-afghanistan">They’re on a diplomatic tour of sorts</a>, having just gone to Iran. They sometimes visit Pakistan. They’re making relationships with other countries, it seems, and countries beyond those they were in touch with in the 1990s.
So will they want to be a pariah state, isolated as they were in the ’90s? I’m not quite sure about that. They certainly want to fully take over Afghanistan at whatever cost. What they want after that, in terms of their relationship with other countries and their international status, that’s something where people think, “Maybe we can get them to moderate based on their desire for international legitimacy.”
That’s the open question. I am severely skeptical of that.
<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
That makes me think of <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2020/2/29/21158939/us-taliban-sign-peace-deal-troops-afghanistan">the US peace deal with the Taliban</a>, brokered under the Trump administration, which seemed to give the Taliban the type of legitimacy it craved. Was that, in retrospect, a turning point for the Taliban? Did that have any influence?
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
Absolutely. I think the US-Taliban deal <a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/02.29.20-US-Afghanistan-Joint-Declaration.pdf">signed in Doha</a> gave the Taliban more legitimacy than anything until then. The Taliban has been building on that legitimacy since then. The fact that the Afghan government in Kabul wasn’t even party to that deal, that the US agreed with the Taliban on things that it then got the Afghan government to do, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-taliban-factbox/afghan-prisoner-release-what-it-is-what-it-means-for-peace-idUSKCN2550BS">such as the release of prisoners</a>. These are all things that really bolstered the Taliban, whether we like it or not.
And, in some sense, it’s become an actor that is much more confident in itself after that. People talk about Pakistan using its leverage over the Taliban. Well, a lot of other actors now have less leverage over the Taliban to get them to do what they want because the Taliban has been granted this international legitimacy, by the US more than anyone else.
<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
So from a US standpoint, do you try to leverage that? Now that you’ve had these negotiations with the Taliban, do you try to work the gears diplomatically and try to engage?
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
Sadly, I think an unconditional withdrawal basically makes the peace process redundant. The Taliban has shown that by its military strategy since.
Where our leverage existed was in this little time period that we had between the Doha deal being signed and our final withdrawal. So, to me, our troops — as cynical as that sounds — are where the leverage lay because that’s what the Taliban wanted. It wanted US troops to leave. But it didn’t have to grant the US anything. It didn’t have to do anything to get the troops to leave, so we lost that leverage by the unconditional withdrawal that the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/25/22402539/afghanistan-military-withdrawal-final-biden-september-11th">president announced in April</a>.
<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
So essentially the US said, “Do those things and we’ll leave.” And then they didn’t and we left anyway, but we still want them to do those things.
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
Exactly. So you can see how the incentives fall away for the Taliban.
<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
Does the US, do you think, still have to take the lead when it comes to the future of Afghanistan? Or do you think it will shift elsewhere, maybe to NATO or the United Nations?
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
I think the Biden administration has been trying to say, “Look, regional countries have a responsibility here, and they really need to step up.” Pakistan, Russia, China — obviously Turkey’s important, India. That’s where the Biden administration is pointing the finger. It depends on the outcomes. But I think there’s a serious credibility problem for the US if it just looks away.
President Biden has, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/07/08/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-drawdown-of-u-s-forces-in-afghanistan/">in terms of promising assistance</a>, basically said, “This is a new chapter where the partnership is not a military one, but we will be there for you in other ways.” I think the US feels some burden of responsibility and, I think, will not look away entirely — though the Biden administration would probably like to focus on other things.
I think this is an administration that does care about its perception in the world, and does not want to be thought of as abandoning Afghanistan. But whether that in practice has any major effect beyond — not necessarily lip service, but rhetorical support, we’ll have to see.
<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
I’m wondering if there is another way to protect some of the gains in Afghanistan, especially around human rights, but maybe not around the paradigm of a centrally functioning Afghan government. Is there such an approach for the US to take?
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
The US cannot be the one to sustain a centrally functioning government in Afghanistan. Again, Biden <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/us/politics/biden-afghanistan-withdrawal.html">talked about that quite candidly</a>, saying it’s very difficult. So how can those gains be protected? I think the US is banking on — kind of pun intended — assistance: security, financial, economic, humanitarian, all sorts of assistance. And that the Taliban will, militarily, face pushback.
So perhaps it is looking at some outcome where there could be a decentralized framework, where the cities have a different set-up versus the rural areas, and large swaths of the country are ruled by the Taliban.
All of this will really depend on how things go militarily — whether the Afghan security forces are really able to put up a fight in those areas. Because remember that many of the gains we talk about — schools, employment — these were felt and seen in the urban areas and not in the rural areas. So in some sense, the rural areas being taken over by the Taliban may get some measure of stability in whatever form because the fighting stops.
And so what happens to the urban areas? Is there a way for the US to help the Afghans hold on to those gains a little bit longer? There’s a segment of Afghan society that doesn’t want to let those gains go. I also know that many of them are leaving. It’s a very dynamic situation.
So that one is hard to talk about without knowing how things are going to go militarily. There is a bit of a wait-and-see approach because the assistance announced is what it is. Given that and given the fighting power of the Afghan security forces, can they put up a fight?
<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
Do you think there is any scenario where the US would recommit or intervene militarily in Afghanistan to do that?
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
That’s a big question — the million-dollar question. People have talked about, well, if an ISIS-like situation emerges, as with post-Iraq withdrawal and the rise of ISIS. That’s not what we are necessarily worried about in Afghanistan. I think the terrorism threat that emerges from Afghanistan will not be something we see in the short term. It’s not going to be quick.
The worry is that once the Taliban has taken over some parts of Afghanistan [and US troops have left], they start to let al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups do what they want, and then al-Qaeda regroups or other terrorist groups [get stronger], and then perhaps begin posing a threat to the United States. That’s the worry.
In that case, though, the US assumes counterterrorism capabilities are going to be enough. So, honestly, in this administration, I don’t really see that happening. I don’t see the US military becoming involved again in Afghanistan.
<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
It does seem very bleak, if I’m being honest. If there is a best-case scenario for Afghanistan right now, even against long odds?
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
Up to the US-Taliban deal signed in Doha, I thought maybe we could actually get a decent deal signed. That was a pretty bad deal to begin with. Once it was signed, things have just been downhill from there. So I thought things looked bleak in February 2020.
They look far worse now. I am wary enough of the Taliban that I don’t see any evidence that they will either go for a peace deal or change their ways, not want a military takeover. I think perhaps the hope — and hope is not a strategy — the hope lies in perhaps the Afghan government and security forces being able to muster something up to hold them back. And I’m very sadly watching with worry.
<h4>Jen Kirby</h4>
Even in that scenario, it seems as if it will just generate more fighting, more violence, which will be felt by the people of Afghanistan.
<h4>Madiha Afzal</h4>
That’s absolutely right. In the medium term, that just means bloodshed.
I can’t imagine what those in Afghanistan are thinking about the future. It requires a lot of bravery just to be there, just to continue to go on doing the jobs they’re doing. Women journalists in particular — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/world/asia/afghanistan-women-journalists.html">so many attacked in the last few months</a>. Going to school may mean you don’t go home. It’s just horrible.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22570391/afghanistan-taliban-biden-withdrawal">https://www.vox.com/22570391/afghanistan-taliban-biden-withdrawal</a>

vox The US is leaving Afghanistan. The Taliban is gaining. What happens now?

“Is the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan inevitable?” That’s the question a reporter put to President Joe Biden this week at a press confe...

How American parents became obsessed with gender

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When I was pregnant with my first child, I agonized over my decision to find out the sex. I knew that anatomy does not indicate gender identity, but I was also impatient, ready for some forecast, however unreliable, of what the future might hold for me as a mother. Having grown up as a girl in America, I knew what gendered wars I might be up against if I were to have a daughter. I wanted to prepare myself for the fight. At my second-trimester ultrasound, I decided to find out.
But then things got weird. Nancy, the bubbly sonogram technician, projected the inside of me on a screen that covered an entire wall, dimming the lights, like we were in a movie theater. She kept saying, “That’s a cute baby!” I had no idea what she was looking at as she furiously clicked and numbered and measured different parts of the fuzzy gray blob on the screen. With much excitement, she proclaimed the fetus was a girl. She then printed a three-foot ream of black-and-white pictures, each with an unidentifiable area circled, which she folded and tucked into a white envelope with gold writing that reminded me, again, It’s a Girl!
It felt like I was supposed to do something with this information. I had never entertained the idea of throwing a gender reveal party, but I still surfed ideas on Pinterest. In one image I found, a couple stood, hands interlocked. Their white clothing, faces, and arms were splattered with pink from a staged paint fight, just one shade away from looking like they committed a murder together. But as I shared the news, there was a lot of excitement that did not line up with how I felt: After receiving one too many frilly infant dresses with animal prints, I quickly prohibited family and friends from giving me gendered clothing. I wondered how I had been sucked into such a clear affirmation of the gender binary.
American parents love fetal genitalia. This has become more evident with the number of gender reveal parties <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-gender-reveals-became-such-a-thing_n_5b4fa97be4b0b15aba8b3e46">increasing steadily</a> over the past decade. Usually, it’s more extreme ones that make the news: Such parties have already caused <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/gender-reveal-parties-four-dead-1580477">at least four deaths</a> this year, and one burned over 7,000 acres of my home state of California in 2020. Many more go off with less of a bang, like the <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/176133035413911098/">couple I found</a> on Pinterest getting silly-stringed by friends as the parents kissed, tangled in their boy kid bliss. There are more than 500,000 videos on YouTube like these. It’s safe to say these parents are a little less conflicted about their sonograms than I was.
Some parents revel in knowing their child’s gender because many still believe prenatal sex is an early indicator of a child’s character. Pregnancy is such a strange state of suspension, any scrutable glimpse of the future is attractive. As Christy Olezeski, director of the <a href="https://www.yalemedicine.org/departments/pediatric-gender-program">Yale Gender Program</a> told me, finding out a child’s prenatal sex can feel like “solving a mystery, a piece of comfort and a way to have an answer about a being [parents] have yet to know and learn about.”
Ultrasounds satiate that parental curiosity, but they also stoke it. Maybe this is why even parents like myself, who don’t identify as the type to photograph themselves on a deserted road consumed by a bubblegum-pink smoke grenade, cannot help but hem and haw over the decision of whether to find out the fetus’s sex before birth. For pregnant people, the politics of navigating the ultrasound, and the insight it promises, has become its own rite of passage, and it comes with some coercion.
“There is so much pressure from society,” Olezeski said, “to know the sex of the fetus.”
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I spoke with nearly 30 parents about their choice to learn their baby’s sex in pregnancy or wait. Some simply wanted to know the sex of their child before birth for practical reasons, like Jenny who identifies as an Ashkenazi Jew. She needed time to prepare for circumcision. She also felt waiting would make the final reveal a bigger deal in the minds of family members, something she wanted to avoid.
Those who had previously experienced reproductive losses or complications, meanwhile, thought finding out the sex of their baby could provide something beyond medical data, that knowing might lend some certainty to their budding story. Bronwen, a writer then living in the Bay Area, told me she created a whole “pro-con matrix,” analyzing the benefits and downsides of waiting or not. Ultimately, she found out at her ultrasound, hoping it would relieve some of the anxiety she felt after multiple miscarriages. Learning the sex represented “a kind of investment” rather than the “self-protective ‘this is a science experiment’” approach she had taken previously.
Co-founder of <a href="https://mothernation.com/?utm_source=googleads&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=rtx&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2tCGBhCLARIsABJGmZ7kAV3FOLYs4ddFh7HaA027h0fOC1pI1L8LHpf1TbbFN6cw7bXYCkoaAjZLEALw_wcB">MotherNation</a> Cait Zogby said she and her wife planned not to find out the sex before birth, but when Zogby learned she was pregnant with twins, she and her partner “very comically regressed to the reptilian part of the brain that needed to be reassured of survival. Knowing everything we could about who was in there gave us a sense of control,” however false, she said. She and her wife knew that sex did not correlate to gender, but Zogby was struggling with perinatal depression and felt naming — using family names that happened to be very gendered — was “an added avenue for connection.”
This idea that the revelation of a baby’s sex can feel like a surprise — welcome or not — is something I heard from many mothers, including those who waited for the big reveal until their baby was born. A Christian mother of four whose husband works in the church told me, “I think it just feels more special waiting longer,” that feeling of “holding your child with the news” is better “than simply being told.”
When I was pregnant, other women who opted to “wait” to find out the “gender” often repeated to me a similar line as a way to encourage me to do the same: “It is one of the last great surprises in life!” I was troubled by this rationale, which implies there are only two choices: early gratification or delayed. And what exactly is the revelation here? This logic seems to assume that to know the biological sex is to crown the baby as a person. But what does it say about our understanding of personhood that we feel the urge to assign a baby a gender before we can imagine them as human? And why are we so desperate for connection this early in the long game of parenting?
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Our cultural obsession with attempting to identify sex and gender in pregnancy all goes back to the ultrasound, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/01/ultrasound-woman-pregnancy/514109/">itself born</a> of the sonar technology used to surveil U-boats in World War I and developed further in the next World War. By the 1980s, the surveillance of pregnant people’s bodies had become routine medical practice, as the technology allowed doctors to check for congenital and placental issues. But it also nurtured another embryonic idea: the new vision of the fetus as child.
The ultrasound eventually commingled with capitalism and mainstream psychology to create the color-coded gendered consumerism that has likewise become routine in America. For centuries, white dresses and long hair <a href="https://jezebel.com/the-history-of-pink-for-girls-blue-for-boys-5790638">were the norm</a> for kids under 6 in most Western countries; white clothes were easy to bleach. In the early 20th century, American clothing companies pushed pastels — debating blue for blue-eyed babies, pink for brown-eyed ones, among other arrangements — and by the 1940s, manufacturers and retailers had <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-did-girls-start-wearing-pink-1370097/">arbitrarily</a> settled on pink for girls and blue for boys. In the 1980s, clothing corporations saw the information parents gleaned from the sonogram as a chance to expand into a catalog of not just apparel but matching baby gear. Late capitalism took it from there.
The ultrasound also forever transformed the way we think about maternal bonding. In her book <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fthe-public-life-of-the-fetal-sonogram-technology-consumption-and-the-politics-of-reproduction%2F9780813543642&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Ffirst-person%2F22569143%2Fparents-gender-ultrasound-sonogram" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://bookshop.org/books/the-public-life-of-the-fetal-sonogram-technology-consumption-and-the-politics-of-reproduction/9780813543642\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/first-person/22569143/parents-gender-ultrasound-sonogram\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22333184__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://bookshop.org/books/the-public-life-of-the-fetal-sonogram-technology-consumption-and-the-politics-of-reproduction/9780813543642","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/first-person/22569143/parents-gender-ultrasound-sonogram","xcust":"___vx__p_22333184__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>The Public Life of the Fetal Sonogram</a>, Janelle Taylor says the idea that the sonogram could help pregnant women learn to love their babies was initially based on a 1982 study led by ultrasound advocate Stuart Campbell, even though the word “bonding” never appears in his study. The study instead examined how the sonogram “influences compliance with health-care recommendations” and how it might change women’s “ambivalent attitudes” about pregnancy. (Interestingly, the study excluded women who were considered high risk, which Taylor suggests shows that the medical community had other interests besides improving maternal health.)
The Campbell study came on the heels of a decade of heated abortion debate. A year later, an unsupported opinion letter written to the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine — which suggested that ultrasounds might help women bond with their babies and therefore decide not to abort — further shifted the frame of maternal health, inadvertently spoon-feeding anti-abortionists a new tactic. The wider medical community also began referencing the NEJM letter as a “study” that provided proof of the ultrasound’s magic, investigating how women bond with their babies in pregnancy rather than during childbirth or in the postpartum period.
While 1970s theories of maternal-infant bonding were embraced by the natural birthing movement, maternal-fetal bonding theories rested on the assumption that women — in the era of legalized abortion — couldn’t be trusted to love their babies without the assistance of technology and medical professionals. As Taylor writes, the more radical suggestion was “that emotional and social ties between a mother and child might form in an altogether new manner — not through physical and social interaction, but through spectatorship.”
Anti-abortion legislation, like that in effect in <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/requirements-ultrasound#">Tennessee and Kentucky</a>, which mandate abortion providers both “display” and “describe” fetal imaging, still use the hyperreality of the ultrasound to strong-arm women into reconsidering their medical decisions. As the late cultural theorist Lauren Berlant <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/303603">argued</a>, the ultrasound elevated the fetus to the level of “supercitizen” — a celebrity whose rights conservatives often argue override the rights of pregnant people.
Today, the 18- to 20-week anatomy scan is recommended for most pregnant people, but all the gender talk is optional. For those with cash to burn (advanced ultrasounds are generally not covered by insurance and can cost up to several hundred dollars), <a href="https://www.fairwarning.org/2020/05/ultrasound-businesses-peddle-fetal-photos/">3D and 4D ultrasound</a> packages promise keepsake images of your fetus in what is obviously pretty dismal lighting. These advanced ultrasounds are considered <a href="https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/avoid-fetal-keepsake-images-heartbeat-monitors">unsafe by the Food and Drug Administration</a> but are still paired with in-office or out-of-office purchases like <a href="https://www.anewconception.com/pages/3d-4d-ultrasound-packages-starting-at">DVDs set to music</a>, plush toys that <a href="https://www.amazon.com/My-Babys-Heartbeat-Bear-Ultrasound/dp/B077XNTPG5" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://www.amazon.com/My-Babys-Heartbeat-Bear-Ultrasound/dp/B077XNTPG5?ascsubtag=[]vx[p]22333184[m]m-placeholder[s]s-placeholder[t]w[c]c-placeholder[r]r-placeholder[d]d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":99,"subtag_delim_length":2,"subtag_key":"ascsubtag","subtag_data":{"ascsubtag":"[]vx[p]22333184[m]m-placeholder[s]s-placeholder[t]w[c]c-placeholder[r]r-placeholder[d]d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>play the fetal heartbeat</a>, custom <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0730-7659.2004.00319.x?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false">photo albums</a>, and “<a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsneakpeektest.com%2Fearly-at-home-baby-gender-blood-test%2F&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Ffirst-person%2F22569143%2Fparents-gender-ultrasound-sonogram" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://sneakpeektest.com/early-at-home-baby-gender-blood-test/\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/first-person/22569143/parents-gender-ultrasound-sonogram\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22333184__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://sneakpeektest.com/early-at-home-baby-gender-blood-test/","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/first-person/22569143/parents-gender-ultrasound-sonogram","xcust":"___vx__p_22333184__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>sneak peek</a>” blood tests that determine sex as early as nine weeks.
Conversely, there has been some resistance to ultrasounds within the <a href="https://www.mamanatural.com/baby-ultrasound/">natural birthing movement</a>, primarily framed as a response to unnecessary medical intervention in pregnancy and childbirth. Others just cannot be bothered with the gender spectacle: A woman who asked to be called Anne, a researcher on military and security issues, said she waited to know the sex, hoping to avoid being inundated with pink or blue stuff. She had complications in pregnancy and “had to work hard to remain ignorant.” When her daughter was born, the pink stuff came rolling in anyway.
For Dani McClain — who in her book <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbookshop.org%2Fbooks%2Fwe-live-for-the-we-the-political-power-of-black-motherhood%2F9781568588544&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Ffirst-person%2F22569143%2Fparents-gender-ultrasound-sonogram" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://bookshop.org/books/we-live-for-the-we-the-political-power-of-black-motherhood/9781568588544\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/first-person/22569143/parents-gender-ultrasound-sonogram\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22333184__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://bookshop.org/books/we-live-for-the-we-the-political-power-of-black-motherhood/9781568588544","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/first-person/22569143/parents-gender-ultrasound-sonogram","xcust":"___vx__p_22333184__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>We Live for the We</a> writes about her experience navigating <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/10260">racial disparities in health care</a> — decisions like whether to trust the white doctor who told her she needed a Caesarean were complex. But the choice to find out her baby’s sex before birth was straightforward, she told me: “I asked the doctors and nurses to not tell me what they were seeing on the ultrasound. I didn’t want to know and didn’t want to deal with other people’s projections about what a baby’s sex means.”
Lillian Rivera, director of family programming at <a href="https://genderspectrum.org/">Gender Spectrum</a>, told me many of us engage with cultural norms, like finding out the prenatal sex of our baby, unconsciously. It is often easier to just fall in line — buying into the idea of what is “male” or “female” is comfortable for many, even if we understand the world is not black and white and gender is not assigned at birth or during a sonogram. Even when we know we’re playing out roles that don’t fit us, and that may never fit our children, the ultrasound is now so intricately woven into other cultural practices — like baby showers, decorating the nursery, and gender reveals — we feel compelled by these rites of passage.
In his memoir of nonbinary parenthood, <a href="https://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/the-natural-mother-of-the-child/">The Natural Mother of the Child</a>, Krys Malcolm Belc writes about his “shame of wanting to know the baby’s sex.” Belc documents his experience finding out his child’s sex in a 4D/HD ultrasound facility that carried “pink and blue frames and souvenirs” — a place that did not reflect his and his partner’s beliefs. As he writes, “The machine told us we could know something this way.” In the end, however, Belc found, “The ultrasound pictures didn’t matter, those words — I’M A BOY — didn’t matter. My mother had a single ultrasound when pregnant with me, and she did not find out whether I was a boy or a girl. What difference would it have made if she did? The image would have been as wrong as the doctor who delivered me.”
<hr class="p-entry-hr" />
We are far from living in a “gender neutral” world, and maybe that is why the “to wait or not to wait” decision to find out the baby’s sex is fraught for so many parents: We sense the ongoing struggle on the horizon. Ultimately, though, as parents, it matters less what we do in the ultrasound appointment or with the “surprise” at birth than what we do with the information we are offered there. Technology cannot teach us to love any more than the first meeting with our baby can. Only moving through the world with our child can do that.
When I was pregnant with my second child, I asked for the morphological details, yet again. I had acquiesced to a lot of mainstream aspects of parenting by then, including those gendered gifts, each of which filled my daughter’s world with suppositions about who she could or could not be. Friends and family had also stopped worrying about my approval: They simply mailed pink clothes, pink dolls, pink clothes for the doll, pink strollers for the well-dressed dolls. I was not untroubled by that, but I had thrown up my hands in some ways, especially as my daughter started to express an interest in feminized things, including dolls. She relished the pretend-play work of care, tending to a filthy, never-clothed baby doll. She covered the baby’s little mythical cuts (which were apparently all over her body) with Band-Aids, wearing a Doc McStuffins coat as doctor. But she soothed her baby’s silent cries dressed plainly, lugging bags filled with indiscriminate collections of stuff, as Mom.
As she began the hard work of identifying with the world of gender, my daughter also discounted some gendered norms all on her own. For years, she was totally uninterested in pink. And when, at the grocery store, strangers said, “Hi, princess,” she gripped me. “Mommy,” she would say. “I’m not a princess. Why do they always call me that?”
“I don’t know,” I would say. But I did.
My daughter came with me to my second ultrasound appointment, her body tumbling on my face as the technician studied what she saw. The aesthetics of this ultrasound were more subdued; the room was cold, small, and dimly lit so we could see the television-size screen next to the table. My daughter had brought a dirty, yellow stuffed duck, which she now waved around for her sibling to see. “Look my ducky,” she said, imagining her sibling as baby, as friend. Neither of us knew that child yet, but my daughter was sure that we would.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/first-person/22569143/parents-gender-ultrasound-sonogram">https://www.vox.com/first-person/22569143/parents-gender-ultrasound-sonogram</a>

vox How American parents became obsessed with gender

When I was pregnant with my first child, I agonized over my decision to find out the sex. I knew that anatomy does not indicate gender iden...

Richard Branson’s trip to space is about convincing others to come along

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British businessman and billionaire Richard Branson has tried a lot of things in his life, from crossing the Atlantic by powerboat in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/04/25/business/richard-branson-virgin-atlantic-challenger-ii/index.html">record time</a> to attempting to travel the world via hot air balloon (before <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-23-sp-638-story.html">crash landing)</a>. But his upcoming feat might be his most notable yet: traveling to space — and possibly beating fellow billionaire and space startup founder Jeff Bezos in the process.
This Sunday morning, Branson will join <a href="https://www.virgingalactic.com/articles/virgin-galactic-announces-first-fully-crewed-spaceflight/">five other people</a> on Virgin Galactic’s first full-crewed flight to space. If all goes according to plan, they’ll travel <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/richard-bransons-virgin-galactic-flight-kick-starts-space-tourism-11625832000">more than 50 miles above</a> the Earth’s surface on the VSS Unity spaceplane, an airplane-like vehicle that will be carried by a mothership before reaching what NASA <a href="https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1413521627116032001">considers</a> to be the border between outer space and Earth. The goal is to demonstrate that <a href="https://www.virgingalactic.com/articles/virgin-galactic-announces-first-fully-crewed-spaceflight/">space tourism</a> really is possible, and during the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-09/branson-revives-daredevil-persona-at-70-with-historic-space-shot">estimated 90-minute trip</a>, riders will experience weightlessness and see stunning views of Earth.
The company is planning to livestream the flight on its <a href="http://virgingalactic.com/">website</a>, as well as on <a href="https://twitter.com/virgingalactic?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClcvOr7LV8tlJwJvkNMmnKg">YouTube</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/VirginGalactic/">Facebook</a>, beginning at 9 am ET.
Space tourism has long been an aspiration of Branson’s. The British businessman, whose terrestrial ventures through the Virgin Group include everything from a record company to air travel, founded Virgin Galactic back in 2004, just as the private space industry was starting to become competitive. In 2000, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22522644/jeff-bezos-astronaut-blue-origin-spacex">founded</a> Blue Origin, and two years later, Elon Musk founded SpaceX. For more than a decade, these private companies have been racing each other, launching test flights and preparing to send humans — including civilians — to space. At the same time, NASA has increasingly turned to these private space firms for its own work, including help with <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/nasa_supported_payloads_to_get_lift_from_blue_origin">delivering payloads</a>, <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/22/1004291/virgin-galactic-nasa-launched-new-program-train-private-astronauts-iss/">training astronauts</a>, and even <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/as-artemis-moves-forward-nasa-picks-spacex-to-land-next-americans-on-moon/">returning to the moon</a>.
“If you’re going to get people to pay to do this, most people aren’t going to pay to do that if there’s a relatively good chance that they’re going to die,” Janet Bednarek, an aviation historian at the University of Dayton, told Recode. “I think that’s in part why Branson is going on this flight. It’s signaling that this is now safe.”
If Branson successfully launches on Sunday, it will be a new milestone for Virgin Galactic, and one that will move humanity even closer to the age of commercial space tourism.
While SpaceX and Blue Origin have a range of other goals, including <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/26/21267533/elon-musk-spacex-demo-2-falcon-9-iss-manned-launch">delivering payloads</a> to the International Space Station, Virgin Galactic has stood out for its long-time focus on space tourism: the idea that people will be willing to dole out a lot of money for the opportunity to travel to space. “We hope to create thousands of astronauts over the next few years and bring alive their dream of seeing the majestic beauty of our planet from above, the stars in all their glory, and the amazing sensation of weightlessness,” Branson <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/27/branson.space/">proclaimed back</a> in 2004.
At the time, Branson <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/27/branson.space/">predicted</a> the company could send five-person trips to space for just $200,000, and that thousands of astronauts could be sent to space in the coming years. In 2019, Virgin Galactic became the first space tourism <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2019/10/28/taking-flight-virgin-galactic-goes-public-in-space-tourism-first">firm to go public</a>, and in June, the company received the first-ever operator license from the Federal Aviation Administration, meaning that it now has permission to <a href="https://www.space.com/virgin-galactic-faa-operator-license-passengers">fly paying customers</a>. Branson has also launched Virgin Orbit, a parallel company that launches <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/9/26/21457530/elon-musk-spacex-starlink-satellite-broadband-amazon-project-kuiper-viasat">satellites, where SpaceX</a> is also competing.
Sunday’s launch will mean Branson and Virgin Galactic have come out ahead of Bezos and Musk in the private space race. While Branson has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-with-blue-origins-jeff-bezos-2021-7">insisted</a> he’s not trying to beat Bezos and Blue Origin to get to space first, he did announce his July 11 flight just hours after the Amazon CEO <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/richard-bransons-plan-to-beat-jeff-bezos-to-outer-space">said he would take off</a> on July 20. Bezos seems at least slightly piqued by Branson changing his launch date: On Friday, Blue Origin <a href="https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1413521627116032001">questioned</a> whether Sunday’s Virgin Galactic flight will really make it to space, since the flight isn’t technically crossing the internationally recognized border, the Kármán line, about <a href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/where-space">12 miles higher</a> than the NASA-recognized border.
Virgin Galactic’s journey to commercial space tourism has had its share of serious setbacks. In 2014, a test flight of the company’s SpaceShipTwo <a href="https://www.space.com/27629-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-crash-full-coverage.html">crashed</a>, killing one co-pilot and leaving the other seriously injured. (The National Transportation Safety Board later attributed the crash to a co-pilot error and “failure to consider and protect against the possibility that a single human error could result in a catastrophic hazard.”) The Virgin Group, the broader conglomerate that includes the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/richard-branson-races-jeff-bezos-to-space-as-covid-19-hits-business-back-on-earth-11625753740">airline Virgin Atlantic and the gym Virgin Active</a>, have also had to overcome the financial challenges of the pandemic.
The space flight effort faces the question of profitability too. “There’s a limited number of people who can actually afford to do this,” Bednarek told Recode. “If you’re going to go to scale, you also have to figure out how to bring the cost down, and that’s very difficult to do.”
Earlier this month, Branson <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/03/richard-branson-space-tourism-market-has-room-for-20-companies.html">said</a> he thinks there’s enough demand for space travel for at least 20 different companies to compete in the industry. Thus far, the company says <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/bransons-virgin-galactic-gets-faa-approval-fly-people-space-2021-06-25/">at least 600 people</a> have made reservations for future Virgin Galactic flights, at a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/600-people-have-reserved-250000-tickets-to-fly-to-space-with-virgin-galactic-including-celebrities-like-tom-hanks-leonardo-dicaprio-justin-bieber-and-lady-gaga/articleshow/84281007.cms">ticket price estimated to cost as much as $250,000</a>. Last year, Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said he thought the company could eventually bring in $1 billion a year in revenue and make spaceflight happen regularly, though he noted that the company would need more <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/06/virgin-galactic-each-spaceport-is-1-billion-annual-revenue-opportunity.html">space planes and motherships</a> to reach that goal.
And even if we’re still a ways off from widespread space tourism, Branson will soon have company: In just a few days, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22522644/jeff-bezos-astronaut-blue-origin-spacex">scheduled to journey to space</a> for about <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/new-shepard/">11 minutes</a> in a BlueOrigin rocket, alongside other riders, including his <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-mark-bezos-jeff-bezos-brother-space-flight-2021-6">brother Mark Bezos</a> and a still-unnamed auction winner who bid <a href="https://gizmodo.com/a-mysterious-bidder-just-paid-28-million-to-fly-to-spa-1847088584">$28 million</a> for a seat on the flight.
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
From the beginning, New Shepard was designed to fly above the Kármán line so none of our astronauts have an asterisk next to their name. For 96% of the world’s population, space begins 100 km up at the internationally recognized Kármán line. <a href="https://t.co/QRoufBIrUJ">pic.twitter.com/QRoufBIrUJ</a>
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) <a href="https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1413521627116032001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2021</a></blockquote>
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SpaceX, meanwhile, is scheduled to launch its first “<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210201005905/en/World%E2%80%99s-First-All-Civilian-Mission-to-Space-Will-Usher-in-New-Era-of-Commercial-Space-Exploration">all-civilian</a>” flight later this year. On board will be pilot and billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who founded the payments processor company Shift4Payments.
Only a few hundred humans have been to space, but that number seems to be accelerating pretty quickly.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22570789/richard-branson-elon-musk-jeff-bezos-spacex-blue-origin-virgin-galactic">https://www.vox.com/recode/22570789/richard-branson-elon-musk-jeff-bezos-spacex-blue-origin-virgin-galactic</a>

vox Richard Branson’s trip to space is about convincing others to come along

British businessman and billionaire Richard Branson has tried a lot of things in his life, from crossing the Atlantic by powerboat in recor...

Criminal In Louisiana Breaks Into Home And Attacks Woman, Her Twelve Year Old Son Then Shoots The Intruder And Saves His Mother’s Life

<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" readability="32"><a href="https://shoebat.com/2021/07/10/criminal-in-louisiana-breaks-into-home-and-attacks-woman-her-twelve-year-old-son-then-shoots-the-intruder-and-saves-his-mothers-life/le-blanc/" rel="attachment wp-att-144167"><img alt="" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144167" class="wp-image-144167" height="542" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 551px) 100vw, 551px" src="https://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/le-blanc.jpg" srcset="https://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/le-blanc.jpg 830w, https://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/le-blanc-300x295.jpg 300w, https://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/le-blanc-768x755.jpg 768w" width="551" /></a>
Brad LeBlanc was shot by a 12 year old boy after he broke into his home
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A criminal in Louisiana named Brad LeBlanc broke into a home and physically attacked a woman before her 12 year old son shot and killed him. According to  <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/12-old-boy-defending-mother-190300013.html">Yahoo! News</a>:
<blockquote readability="28.413098236776">
A 12-year-old boy in <a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/louisiana" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ylk="slk:Louisiana" data-rapid_p="13">Louisiana</a> fatally shot an armed intruder who was threatening his mother inside their home, <a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/law-enforcement" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ylk="slk:local authorities" data-rapid_p="14">local authorities</a> said.
The boy feared for his mother’s life when he used a <a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/guns" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ylk="slk:hunting rifle" data-rapid_p="15">hunting rifle</a> to shoot 32-year-old Brad LeBlanc, who broke into their home located east of Clinton on June 30, according to a July 1 report from the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office.
“Witnesses stated that a perpetrator forced entry into the home at this address to perform a home invasion. The perpetrator was in possession of a firearm. At some point during this incident the perpetrator was fatally shot by a resident of the home,” the department wrote in a <a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.facebook.com/East-Feliciana-Parish-Sheriffs-Office-100616915493146" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ylk="slk:statement" data-rapid_p="16">statement</a>.
First responders were dispatched to the scene, and CPR was administered to LeBlanc before he was transported to a local medical facility. He was <a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.wafb.com/2021/07/02/12-year-old-killed-armed-burglar-during-home-invasion/?fbclid=IwAR0FGGJHhRBQsICQGformLPv6FaqU03hza5Ykwl8BZ6sXUeDpsS7d_ZwxI0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ylk="slk:pronounced dead" data-rapid_p="17">pronounced dead</a> at the hospital by the East Feliciana Parish Coroner.
“I don’t know what you tell a kid at that age. I’ve tried to reflect myself when my kids were 12-years-old, or maybe when I was 12-years-old, what I know is a very horrific incident. He’s really a hero for taking care of his mother,” Sheriff Jeff Travis told the Washington Examiner.
</blockquote>
We also read in <a href="https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/brad-leblanc-was-fatally-shot-by-12-year-old-boy-during-home-invasion">Oxygen</a>:
<blockquote readability="31.577557755776">
A 12-year-old boy allegedly shot and killed an armed intruder who had physically threatened his mother during an attempted burglary at the family’s home last month.
<a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/communities/east_feliciana/article_80cf91e4-db84-11eb-8100-7f187e6b71ab.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brad LeBlanc</a>, 32, was fatally shot at a home near Clinton, Louisiana on June 30, according to the East Feliciana Sheriff’s Office, Baton Rouge daily newspaper.
Witnesses alleged that LeBlanc, who was in possession of a handgun, came across a woman outside her property the night of the shooting. A physical struggle ensued, which carried into the woman’s home. The woman’s son drew a hunting rifle and opened fire on LeBlanc, defending his mother, authorities said.
Emergency responders, who arrived on-scene shortly after, attempted life-saving measures. LeBlanc was rushed to Lane Regional Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead by the East Feliciana Parish Coroner. LeBlanc is from Vidalia, Louisiana, investigators said.
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source <a href="https://shoebat.com/2021/07/10/criminal-in-louisiana-breaks-into-home-and-attacks-woman-her-twelve-year-old-son-then-shoots-the-intruder-and-saves-his-mothers-life/">https://shoebat.com/2021/07/10/criminal-in-louisiana-breaks-into-home-and-attacks-woman-her-twelve-year-old-son-then-shoots-the-intruder-and-saves-his-mothers-life/</a>

armageddon Criminal In Louisiana Breaks Into Home And Attacks Woman, Her Twelve Year Old Son Then Shoots The Intruder And Saves His Mother’s Life

Brad LeBlanc was shot by a 12 year old boy after he broke into his home A criminal in Louisiana named Brad LeBlanc broke into a home and ...

Over A Billon Marine Life Gets Wiped Out By Heat Wave In Pacific Northwest

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The heatwave that has hit the Pacific Northwest has killed hundreds of people and devastated marine life of which over billion was wiped out, as we read on <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/postapocalyptic-movies-heat-wave-killed-140818297.html">Yahoo! News</a>:
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Dead mussels and clams coated rocks in the Pacific Northwest, their shells gaping open as if they had been boiled. Sea stars were baked to death. Sockeye salmon swam sluggishly in an overheated Washington river, prompting wildlife officials to truck them to cooler areas.
The combination of extraordinary heat and drought that hit the Western United States and Canada over the past two weeks has killed hundreds of millions of marine animals and continues to threaten untold species in freshwater, according to a preliminary estimate and interviews with scientists.
“It just feels like one of those postapocalyptic movies,” said Christopher Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia who studies the effects of climate change on coastal marine ecosystems.
To calculate the death toll, Harley first looked at how many blue mussels live on a particular shoreline, how much of the area is good habitat for mussels and what fraction of the mussels he observed died. He estimated losses for the mussels alone in the hundreds of millions. Factoring in the other creatures that live in the mussel beds and on the shore — barnacles, hermit crabs and other crustaceans, various worms, tiny sea cucumbers — puts the deaths at easily over 1 billion, he said.
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There have been other stories like this. In Florida, literally tons of dead fish had to be collected off of St. Pete Pier:
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source <a href="https://shoebat.com/2021/07/10/over-a-billon-marine-life-gets-wiped-out-by-heat-wave-in-pacific-northwest/">https://shoebat.com/2021/07/10/over-a-billon-marine-life-gets-wiped-out-by-heat-wave-in-pacific-northwest/</a>

armageddon Over A Billon Marine Life Gets Wiped Out By Heat Wave In Pacific Northwest

The heatwave that has hit the Pacific Northwest has killed hundreds of people and devastated marine life of which over billion was wiped ou...

Air Defences Installed At Kabul Airport As Taliban Gain Ground

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Air Defences Installed At Kabul Airport As Taliban Gain Ground" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/taliban-generic-650_625x300_1530457303276.jpg" title="Air Defences Installed At Kabul Airport As Taliban Gain Ground" /></div>
The insurgents have routed much of northern Afghanistan in recent weeks. (File)
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Kabul:
Afghanistan's Kabul airport has been fitted with an air defence system to counter incoming rockets, officials said Sunday, as the Taliban pressed on with a blistering offensive across the country.
Washington and its allies are due to end their military mission in Afghanistan at the end of next month, even as the insurgents say they now control 85 percent of the country -- a claim impossible to independently verify and disputed by the government.
The Islamic fundamentalist group's rapid gains in recent weeks have raised fears about the security of the capital and its airport, with NATO keen to secure a vital exit route to the outside world for foreign diplomats and aid workers.
"The newly installed air defence system has been operational in Kabul since 2:00 am Sunday," the interior ministry said in a statement. "The system has proven useful in the world in repelling rocket and missile attacks."
Interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian told AFP it had been installed at the airport, though officials did not offer details about the type of system or who had installed it.
The Taliban have regularly launched rockets and mortars at government forces across the countryside, with the jihadist Islamic State group (IS) carrying out similar strikes on the capital in 2020.
IS also claimed responsibility for a rocket attack this year at Bagram Air base, the biggest US military facility in the country, which was recently handed over to Afghan forces.
Over the years the US military installed several C-RAMs (Counter Rocket, Artillery and Mortar Systems) across its bases, including at Bagram, to destroy incoming rockets targeting the facilities, a foreign security official and media reports said.
The C-RAMS includes cameras to detect incoming rockets and alert local forces.
- From bad to worse -
Turkey has promised to provide security for Kabul airport once US and NATO troops leave next month.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkey and the United States had agreed on the "scope" of how the airport would be managed under the control of Turkish forces.
Taliban militants have waged a rapid offensive across the country, but mostly in the northern and western provinces, since early May, when the final US troops began leaving Afghanistan.
India on Sunday became the latest country to evacuate diplomats as the security situation deteriorates, with its foreign ministry saying it was pulling staff from its consulate in southern Kandahar, where the Taliban are fighting with Afghan forces on the edge of the city.
A security source added that around 50 Indian personnel, including around six diplomats, were brought home.
Last week Russia announced it had closed its consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, while China also evacuated 210 nationals from the country.
The fighting has led some veteran warlords to deploy militiamen to counter any attacks.
In the western province of Herat, where the Taliban this week captured a key border crossing with Iran, veteran warlord Ismail Khan mobilized his fighters in the provincial capital.
Pakistan's envoy to Kabul called on the international community to help strengthen Afghanistan's security forces, warning that deploying militia to fight the Taliban could worsen the situation in the violence-wracked country.
"If things translate into some kind of warfare between militias and Taliban, it will be dangerous," Mansoor Ahmad Khan said in an interview with AFP on Saturday.
"Therefore, it is important that Afghan government's capacity to defend these attacks and these security challenges is strengthened."
The Afghan government has repeatedly dismissed the Taliban's gains as having little strategic value, but the seizure of multiple border crossings and the taxes they generate will likely fill the group's coffers with new revenue.
The insurgents have routed much of northern Afghanistan in recent weeks, and the government holds little more than a constellation of provincial capitals that must largely be reinforced and resupplied by air.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/afghanistan-air-defences-installed-at-kabul-airport-as-taliban-gain-ground-2484103">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/afghanistan-air-defences-installed-at-kabul-airport-as-taliban-gain-ground-2484103</a>

news world Air Defences Installed At Kabul Airport As Taliban Gain Ground

The insurgents have routed much of northern Afghanistan in recent weeks. (File) Kabul: Afghanistan's Kabul airport has been fitted ...