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This week Erin, Loren, and Radha are joined by War on the Rocks’ new editor-in-chief Becky Zimmerman to talk about the talks that never were with the Taliban and catch up on the situation in Afghanistan more generally. The ladies then turn to the chaos in the UK, ongoing protests in Hong Kong, the release of classified information by the President (again!), MILCON spending for the border wall, and the Mattis book. Whew! After all that, the dive into pop culture with book and podcast rec’s for all.

Links

Afghanistan

• Erin Banco and Asawin Suebsaeng, “Trump and His Team Send Clashing Messages on US Troops in Afghanistan,” Daily Beast, August 30, 2019
• Mujib Mashal, “US Deal with Taliban Meets Afghan Resistance as Violence Intensifies,” New York Times, September 5, 2019
• Jennifer Jacobs, Nick Wadhams, and Eltaf Najafizada, “Trump Says He Canceled Secret Camp David Talks with the Taliban,” Bloomberg, September 7, 2019
• Mujib Mashal, “Taliban Talks Hit a Wall Over Deeper Disagreements, Officials Say,” New York Times, September 8, 2019
• “President Ghani’s Visit to Washington Postponed: Sources,” TOLO News, September 6, 2019

Brexit

• “How Bad is Boris Johnson? We Can’t Even Find the Words,” Globe and Mail, September 5, 2019
• Amanda Sloat, “Brexit Endgame: Boris Jonson Loses Control,” Lawfare, September 6, 2019
• “Brexit Extension: PM to ‘Test Law to Limit’ to Avoid Delay,” BBC News, September 8, 2019

Yemen

• “The Latest on the Situation in Yemen,” NPR, September 4, 2019

Hong Kong

• Mike Ives, Tiffany May, and Elaine Yu, “Hong Kong Protesters Return to Streets After Leader Announces Concessions,” New York Times, September 7, 2019

Saudi/UAE

• Aziz El Yaakoubi, David Evans, Ros Russell, and Tuqa Khalid, “Saudi Arabia, UAE Urge Yemen Government and Separatists to Halt Fighting,” Reuters, September 8, 2019

Iran

• Eric Adams, “Everything We Know About America’s Secret KH-11 Recon Satellites,” Popular Mechanics, September 6, 2019

MILCON

• Chantal Da Silva, “Here’s Every Military Construction Project in the US Being Pushed Back to Fund Trump’s Border Wall,” Newsweek, September 5, 2019