The Taliban’s return to power could once again turn Afghanistan into a haven for terror groups operating in the region, former U.S. national security advisor John Bolton said on Thursday.
He said the U.S. had gone into Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban and the “sanctuary they had provided to Al Qaeda.”
The U.S. should have maintained its military presence in Afghanistan as long as the threat from terror groups existed, said Bolton who was national security advisor to Donald Trump from April 2018 to September 2019.
The Taliban’s return to power could once again turn Afghanistan into a haven for terror groups operating in the region, former U.S. national security advisor John Bolton told CNBC. As the U.S. withdrew its military presence ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline, the Taliban made lightning advances to seize control of more territory — despite being outnumbered by the Afghan military. President Joe Biden issued an order in April to completely withdraw about 3,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. Bolton said the U.S. had gone into Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban and the “sanctuary they had provided to Al Qaeda.” “We stayed there for an equally valid strategic reason,” said Bolton, who is widely considered a foreign policy hawk. “Which is to keep Taliban, Al Qaeda and other threatening terrorist groups from regaining a capability, to have a privileged sanctuary from which they could plan and direct attacks against the U.S. and our friends and allies.” The U.S. should have maintained its military presence in Afghanistan as long as the threat from terror groups remained, said Bolton, who was national security advisor to Donald Trump from April 2018 to September 2019. But critics point to the growing cost of America’s longest war, both in terms of the number of lives lost and the amount of money spent. In two decades of fighting, more than 6,000 Americans were killed, over 100,000 Afghans died and the United States spent more than $2 trillion on operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Biden this week defended his decision to pull out U.S. troops amid mounting criticism of his administration’s handling of the situation, as parts of Kabul descended into chaos following the government’s collapse.
“What Taliban-controlled Afghanistan provides is potential for a regime that enables terrorist groups — unlike other regimes which try and hunt them down and eliminate them,” Bolton said.
“They can now go to Afghanistan under Taliban and expect a more hospitable reception. I think that endangers us all,” he added.
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures fell on Thursday on concerns the Federal Reserve could begin to rein in its massive monetary stimulus, while energy stocks tracked a slide in oil prices to their lowest in about three months.
Minutes released on Wednesday from the Fed’s meeting last month showed officials felt the employment benchmark for decreasing support for the economy “could be reached this year”, sending the S&P 500 sliding 1% in its worst day in a month.
Concerns about the sudden tapering at a time when macroeconomic data was signaling a slowdown in U.S. economic growth have knocked Wall Street’s main indexes off record highs this week. With the S&P 500 still up more than 100% from its pandemic-lows hit in March 2020, investors have also said stocks might be due for a significant drop. Focus on Thursday will be on the Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims report, before turning to the Fed’s annual research conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, next week for any read about the central bank’s next steps. Many analysts expect the Fed to announce its plan to taper asset purchases as early as the Sept. 21-22 policy meeting. At 6:18 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 0.73%, S&P 500 e-minis lower by 0.65% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis off 0.53%. Shares of Robinhood Markets Inc tumbled 12% on Thursday, after the owner of the popular trading app warned a trading frenzy among small-time investors that boosted its second-quarter revenue would slow down in the coming months. Travel-related stocks including cruiseliners and airlines fell nearly 3% on fears the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus could spark more travel restrictions. Technology-related stocks Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Facebook Inc were among the smallest decliners in early trading. The stocks far outperformed the S&P 500 last year as their products saw higher demand during widespread COVID-19 lockdowns. Energy stocks Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp fell 1.6% as oil sank to its lowest since May 21, pressured partly by a stronger U.S. dollar and a surprise increase in U.S. gasoline inventories. Nick Note: IS this the start of the wipe out: Or is this the usual 5% correction? That is the question. If its the 5% we want to stand aside… And if its the start of the big one we want to jump in……
Equities on Wall Street traded lower in the premarket session on Thursday, as yesterday’s comments on tapering and the state of the economy by the United States Federal Reserve continue to move markets. Meanwhile, Cisco, Nvidia, and Robinhood all reported increases in their total revenues for the latest quarter, with Macy’s due to unveil its earnings report before the opening bell rings. In other news, US health officials stated that the country will start offering COVID-19 vaccine booster shots from September 20, as they assured the public that the vaccine is effective in preventing severe cases of the virus. Lastly, Afghanistan continues to dominate the news, with questions arising about the accuracy of the intelligence on the ground. The Dow Jones lost 1.00% or 350 points at 4:23 am ET. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 dropped 0.91% and 0.94% respectively a minute later. The euro fell 0.21% against the dollar at 4:25 am ET trading for $1.16869.
Materials-related stocks led the losses as the Fed’s move to eventually raise rates, along with a current campaign by China to tamp down metals prices, took the air out of a surge in commodity prices this year. Losses in the overall market were tame however and the S&P 500 was still just 1% below an all-time high as the central bank still maintained its asset-buying program, which some investors argued would support equities some more in the short term. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 400 points, weighed down by 4% losses in Dow Inc. and Caterpillar as most commodity prices took a hit for a second day. The S&P 500 fell about 0.5%. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3% as investors huddled in some Big Tech stocks with Tesla and Snowflake up about 2%. Shopify and Twilio gained more than 5%. The closely-watched Federal Reserve meeting Wednesday spurred a sell-off in equities after the central bank moved up its timeline for rate hikes, seeing two increases in 2023. The Fed also hiked its inflation forecast to 3.4% for the year, a percentage point higher than the FOMC’s forecast in March. Materials stocks were weaker Thursday as higher rates may further deflated big commodities rally in 2021. China is also cracking down on the commodities surge to ease inflation fears. Freeport-McMoRan led materials stocks lower, down about 7%. Copper futures were off by 5%. U.S. oil prices fell more than 2.7% and dipped below $70 per barrel, while the international benchmark fell nearly 3%. Bank stocks rolled over as the 10-year yield gave up its post-Fed gains and then some. The rollover in commodities dragged on yields. “Commodities have been a popular investment in the last year as investors have been adding some portfolio protection against inflation. So many investors were probably overexposed going into the Fed meeting and the U.S. dollar’s response is forcing some reconsideration,” Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at the Leuthold Group, told CNBC. Hedge fund legend David Tepper told CNBC’s Scott Wapner that the Fed did a good job on Wednesday and that “the stock market is still fine for now.” The S&P 500 is less than 0.8% from an all-time high. The Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims rose last week to 412,000, up from the previous week’s 375,000. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected jobless claims of 360,000. Nick Note: Forget the hype this decision is Powell and Powell’s alone decision to make. As you are seeing the market is spooked and rightly so….the markets will lose thousands and thousands of points when he pulls the trigger…
The progress in vaccination against COVID-19 in the United States is likely to continue to reduce the impact of the pandemic on the economy but risks to the outlook are still present, the United States Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) said in minutes from its July meeting released on Wednesday.
The minutes showed that many participants noted uncertainty is “quite high” as the spread of the Delta variant of the virus and a slowdown in vaccinations are “posing downside risks to the economic outlook.”
The FOMC also noted that most participants believe tapering “could be appropriate” before the end of the year but stressed that tapering does “not amount to a tightening of the stance of monetary policy.” Meanwhile, others noted it would be better to wait until 2022 to reduce asset purchases. Nick Note: It is obvious the Fed is starting to realize its caught between run away inflation and the coming slowdown because of the pandemic. I think they broke out the Champaign too soon.
The US government said on Wednesday it plans to make Covid-19 vaccine booster shots widely available to all Americans starting on 20 September as infections rise from the Delta variant of the coronavirus. The White House is prepared to offer a third booster shot starting on that date to all Americans who completed their initial inoculation at least eight months ago, the US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. The White House pandemic response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said the coronavirus vaccine booster shots will be free for all Americans. “It will be just as easy and convenient to get a booster shot as it is to get a first shot today,” Zients said. The booster shots initially will be given primarily to healthcare workers, nursing home residents and older people, all of whom were among the first groups to be vaccinated in late 2020 and early 2021, the department said. Top US health officials said in a joint statement that they based their decision to offer boosters on data showing that the protectiveness of Covid-19 shots currently authorized in the United States begins to diminish in the months after the shots are given. The officials included Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, as well as the heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. “The available data make very clear that protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection begins to decrease over time … and in association with the dominance of the Delta variant, we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease,” the officials said. “We conclude that a booster shot will be needed to maximize vaccine-induced protection and prolong its durability,” they added. The officials said that they expect that people who received Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine will also need boosters. US health officials previously authorized a third dose of vaccines from Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc for people with weak immune systems. The broader booster program follows mounting evidence that protection from the vaccines wanes after six or more months, particularly in older people with underlying health conditions. Vaccinations have been widely available in the United States, unlike many other countries, and yet the Delta variant has caused what health experts describe as a pandemic of the unvaccinated as a significant number of people choose not to get inoculated. Even with the announcement on boosters, Zients said the Biden administration remained committed to convincing more Americans to get their first vaccine dose. “This remains a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Zients said in a briefing on Wednesday morning. The new Covid-19 cases also include a number of people who have been vaccinated, though they are far less likely to experience severe disease or death than the unvaccinated. In recent weeks, several other countries have also decided to offer booster shots to older adults as well as people with weak immune systems, including Israel, France and Germany. The decision announced by the US officials represented a shift from the optimism of health authorities in May in curbing the pandemic when Biden set a goal to vaccinate 70% of American adults with at least one dose by 4 July. That goal was achieved about a month late. Daily cases in the United States soared from fewer than 10,000 in early July to more than 150,000 in August as the far more infectious Delta variant took hold. More than 1 million Americans had independently sought an extra vaccine dose before the official decision on boosters was announced, according to federal data. “This remains a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Zients said in a briefing on Wednesday morning. The new Covid-19 cases also include a number of people who have been vaccinated, though they are far less likely to experience severe disease or death than the unvaccinated. In recent weeks, several other countries have also decided to offer booster shots to older adults as well as people with weak immune systems, including Israel, France and Germany. The decision announced by the US officials represented a shift from the optimism of health authorities in May in curbing the pandemic when Biden set a goal to vaccinate 70% of American adults with at least one dose by 4 July. That goal was achieved about a month late. Daily cases in the United States soared from fewer than 10,000 in early July to more than 150,000 in August as the far more infectious Delta variant took hold. More than 1 million Americans had independently sought an extra vaccine dose before the official decision on boosters was announced, according to federal data. Nick Note: They have got themselves a problem here. By not being honest with the masses upfront and letting them know the vaccines was not the begin all end all but a reoccurring event this would be a lot easier. They had a hard enough time to get people vaccinated in the first place… Now they got to convince then to get three shots and in February a forth…….. You can understand why simple people and antivaccers are angry and confused……..
TEL AVIV, Aug 18 (Reuters) – A third dose of Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech’s (22UAy.DE) COVID-19 vaccine was found to be 86% effective in people aged over 60, an Israeli healthcare provider said on Wednesday, citing initial results from a study of thousands of members. Israeli HMO Maccabi, which covers around a quarter of the country’s 9.3 million population, compared results from 149,144 people aged over 60 who received their third dose at least a week ago against those from 675,630 more who had received only two doses, between January and February.
Some 37 people tested positive for coronavirus after their third jab, compared with 1,064 positive cases among those who had received only two doses, Maccabi said in a statement. The comparison groups had similar demographic profiles, it added.
Maccabi did not provide any information on the severity of the 37 positive cases, or whether they had any underlying conditions. The Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO) did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pfizer has said that its vaccine’s efficacy drops over time, and that a third dose showed significantly higher neutralising antibodies against the initial SARS-CoV-2 virus as well as against the Beta and highly infectious Delta variants. Israel began administering third Pfizer doses last month to confront a surge in local infections driven by the Delta variant. Some 1.1 million eligible Israelis – people over 50, healthcare workers, and others – have received their third dose. The United States and several European countries are expected to begin offering boosters to the elderly and people with weak immune systems, and some are considering whether to make a third dose available more widely. Nonetheless, Israeli health officials worry that cases will continue to mount given that another 1.1 million Israelis – around 11% of the population – remain unvaccinated. Severe cases have also continued to climb, mostly among the unvaccinated. Health ministry data released on Wednesday, based on data per 100,000 people, showed 172 serious cases among unvaccinated people over 60, compared with 21 serious cases among vaccinated individuals in the same age group. Dr. Anat Ekka Zohar of Maccabi said that the third dose “has again proved its effectiveness,” and had “demonstrated protection (against) the Delta variant”. “The triple dose is the solution to curbing the current infection outbreak,” she said. Nick Note: If you have not had your booster shot and you had your first and second vaccine your protection after 6 months is down to 30%…. pretty much nothing. Two weeks after your 3rd booster shot your protection is approaching 90%. Unless the 5G towers take you to Area 51 because your nanobots ratted you out…. It could happen….
The U.S. housing market may have hit a wall in July, Commerce Department data indicated Wednesday, as housing starts tumbled to a four-month low despite softer lumber prices improving employment prospects. July housing starts fell 7% from the previous month to an annualized rate of 1.534 million units, well shy of the Street consensus forecast of 1.6 million and June’s pace of 1.65 million. Multi-family starts plunged 13.1%, the data indicated, while single-family home starts were down 4.5% to an annualized rate of 1.111 million. Permits for new construction were up 2.5%, however, to an annualized rate of 1.635 million as lumber prices fell to the lowest levels since July of last year and supply-chain disruptions eased. Curiously, the permits improvement contrasted sharply with data from the National Association of Home Builders, which noted Tuesday that homebuilder sentiment fell to a 13-month low as buyers faced “sticker shock” linked to higher constructions costs. “The drop in starts was only marginally bigger than we expected; a clear correction was always likely after the unexpected jump in June,” said Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics. “The increase in permits is a surprise, but note that the entire increase is due to an 11.2% leap in the volatile multi-family component; Single-family permits fell by 1.7%, the fourth straight decline, following the downshift in new home sales.’
“Homebuilders are still catching-up. But the signal from the fall in sales is unambiguous; both permits and starts are likely to fall over the next few months,” he added. “Housing demand has reverted to its pre-COVID level, so construction activity needs to drop further.”
U.S. equity futures were little-changed following the data release, with contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average indicating a 70 point opening bell decline and those linked to the S&P 500 priced for a 7 bump to the downside.. Nick Note: More and more signs of the impending doom. Then economy will be shutting down. Market bulls are ignoring the warning at their own peril…….
(Reuters) -The United States reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, equating to around 42 fatalities an hour, according to a Reuters tally, as the Delta variant continues to ravage parts of the country with low vaccination rates. Coronavirus-related deaths have spiked in the United States over the past month and are averaging 769 per day, the highest since mid-April, according to the Reuters tally President Joe Biden’s administration confirmed on Tuesday evening it planned to extend requirements for travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and train stations until mid-January. Like many other countries, the Delta variant has presented a major challenge. The Reuters tally from state data on Tuesday showed 1,017 deaths, taking the death toll from the pandemic to just under 623,000 people, the highest number of deaths officially reported by any country in the world. The last time the United States recorded more than 1,000 deaths on a daily basis was in March. U.S. officials have started to accelerate vaccinations in the face of the renewed threat, with the seven-day average of doses given increasing by 14% in the past two weeks, according to figures from Our World in Data While governments and businesses initially offered incentives such as cash and prizes for getting vaccinated, the surge in cases has caused some companies and states to mandate vaccines if workers want to keep their jobs and not face routine testing. However, U.S. hospitals continue to flood with new patients as COVID-related hospitalizations have increased by about 70% in the past two weeks. The United States has reported more than 100,000 new cases a day on average for the past twelve days, a six-month high, according to a Reuters tally.
The U.S. South remains the epicenter of the latest outbreak, with Florida reporting a record of nearly 26,000 new cases last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among the new cases was Texas Governor Greg Abbott, whose state is engulfed in a fourth COVID surge. Abbott tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday but so far has no symptoms of the illness, his office said. The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 is rising across the country and were 1,834 as of Tuesday morning, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a trend health experts attribute to the Delta variant being more likely to infect children than the original Alpha strain.
Top Biden administration health officials concluded that most Americans will soon need coronavirus booster shots after reviewing a raft of new data from the Centers for Disease Control that showed a worrying drop in vaccine efficacy over time, four administration officials told POLITICO.
The evidence, compiled by federal scientists over the past several months, showed a decline in the initial round of protection against Covid-19 infection that’s coincided with a resurgence in cases driven by the more contagious Delta variant.
The data looked at vaccine effectiveness in individuals across age groups, with varying medical conditions and who received the shot at different times. It was presented to White House Covid-19 task force officials at a meeting Sunday. “This is what moved the needle,” one senior administration official said, describing the CDC data and the decision to urge boosters.
That data — which is set to be made public later this week — brought a swift end to a debate over when to administer boosters that has raged within the administration for months, and spurred the buildout of a plan for distributing the additional shots in a matter of weeks.
The Biden administration is now expected to formally announce its strategy within days, following a series of meetings throughout the weekend focused on concerns that Americans’ immunity against Covid-19 was not only fading, but dropping faster than anticipated in the face of the Delta variant. Officials are still finalizing the details of the booster plan, and the government is not expected to begin offering third shots from Pfizer and Moderna until mid-September at the earliest. The Food and Drug Administration must first authorize the booster shots, and the CDC will need to formally recommend that people get them eight months after completing their initial vaccination round. But the move represents an acceleration of a process that had proceeded cautiously, as officials hunted for clear signs that the vaccines’ immunity was waning. The plan for now doesn’t call for boosters for recipients of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Federal officials are awaiting results of a study by the drugmaker on the effectiveness of administering two J&J doses. The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for comment. Inside the administration, some health officials had long argued that boosters would be needed as soon as fall, and should be given pre-emptively to ensure that people’s protection against Covid-19 remained high. Others, including officials at the CDC, were more skeptical, contending the data did not yet show a need for boosters — and questioning whether the administration should wait until it became clear that protection from severe infections that could cause hospitalization or death was wearing off.
Yet top health officials coalesced around the more immediate need amid growing indications that the Delta variant could significantly set back the nation’s progress against the pandemic.
Data from Israel had found that the Pfizer vaccine’s ability to prevent severe disease and among older people first vaccinated in January had declined over time. And a study released last week by the Mayo Clinic found the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against mild infections had fallen — though it was still performing well in preventing hospitalization. Against that backdrop, it was the CDC’s own similar findings that proved the deciding factor. The agency’s study gave officials a high-resolution view of the extent to which protection was declining for different groups. The administration’s emerging booster plan will rely on roughly 100 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines that are available immediately, according to two senior officials with knowledge of the situation. The government has contracted for an additional 400 million shots to be distributed as needed following the announcement, they added. Administration officials downplayed the decision to exclude for now of J&J vaccine recipients, noting that vaccine was not authorized until late February and that recipients would not be eligible for a booster until October. Still, the decision to forge ahead with third shots of Pfizer and Moderna is likely to invite backlash both at home and abroad. The World Health Organization has urged developed countries to hold off on booster shots over fears that a new round of mass vaccinations will make it even more difficult for lower-income countries to get access to initial supplies of the vaccines. “Administration of booster doses will exacerbate inequities by driving up demand and consuming scarce supply while priority populations in some countries, or subnational settings, have not yet received a primary vaccination series,” the WHO said in an Aug. 10 statement. Biden officials are confident they can fulfill their vows to be an “arsenal of vaccines” for the world while sending Americans back for more because of their surplus of shots and expectation that many more are on the way, an administration official said. It would also be virtually impossible to stop people from seeking boosters if drug makers apply for approval and they’re deemed effective — an FDA determination that cannot take into account factors such as worldwide need. Health officials have closely watched the nation’s case numbers for signs that the increase might peter out, similar to the sudden drop-off in infections seen in the U.K. But that hope has dimmed with each passing day, especially amid a spate of reports of outbreaks among children and teachers as schools reopen in some states. Now, with nearly 30 percent of the country still unvaccinated and growing evidence of Covid-19’s transmissibility, administration officials are opting to take action however they can to try to blunt what many fear will be a brutal autumn. “It’s a combination of Delta being a particularly nasty variant that’s very contagious and the fact that, unsurprisingly, vaccine protection does gradually wane over time,” National Institute of Health Director Francis Collins said Tuesday on the Hugh Hewitt Show. “We don’t want to wait until it’s like, oh, too late.” Nick Note: Its already too late for millions of Americans even if they do not know it yet. They have almost no protection from the Delta variant even if they have been vaccinated Twice. Don’t be a victim get your 3rd booster shot. I am told if you get a prescription its not that hard to find a shot. Avoid the coming long lines and shortages.