Monday, Aug. 2

• As a Taliban offensive in Afghanistan escalated following the United States’ ground troop withdrawal, the State Department announced it is expanding its Afghan refugee program, taking at-risk Afghan citizens who worked with the U.S. and its allies against the Taliban by opening up eligibility beyond the roughly 20,000 applicants already in line.

· Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to resolve the political turmoil in Myanmar triggered by the military coup there recently worsened after coup leader Min Aung Hlaing extended the deadline for new elections, a move the U.S. claims is a ploy to buy military leaders time to grab more power.

· A regional official from the National Labor Relations Board recommended redoing a landmark Amazon union election in Alabama where employees had voted against organizing their warehouse, with concerns focused on how the ballots were collected.

Tuesday, Aug. 3

· Washington, D.C.’s police department announced that two more police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol committed suicide, bringing the confirmed total to four.

· Iraq’s culture and foreign ministries confirmed that the U.S. has begun its process of returning more than 17,000 ancient artifacts, including priceless relics like a clay tablet with a newly discovered portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh, taken out of Iraq following the 2003 invasion.

· Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said continuing a ground war in Afghanistan “has no legitimacy,” instead calling for a diplomatic solution. “Ultimately for Afghanistan to have peace and stability there needs to be a negotiated political settlement that has broad support in Afghanistan and broad support in the region and beyond,” Khalilzad said.

· The Pentagon was placed on temporary lockdown after gunshots were fired near one entrance of the building. The Associated Press reported that a police officer was stabbed to death at a transit station at the Pentagon and the knifing suspect was in turn shot by law enforcement and died at the scene.

· At President Joe Biden’s request, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new, 60-day moratorium on rental evictions, days after the former eviction moratorium expired at the end of July. The moratorium expiration triggered widespread protest from the public and Congressional representatives. According to various media outlets, an estimated 6.5 million households are presently facing eviction for unpaid rent in the country. The new moratorium faced criticism from right wing lawmakers.

Wednesday, Aug. 4

• Customs and Border Protection issued an order to stop any shipments in American ports from a Fiji longliner operated by a Chinese national after credible evidence emerged that the ship operators use slave labor on board.

· Former President Donald Trump filed a legal challenge against a Justice Department order that his tax returns be turned over to the House Ways and Means Committee, arguing that the committee lacks a legitimate basis for seeking his federal tax returns.

· The Turkish government criticized the U.S.’s Afghan refugee program after it was revealed the U.S. planned to use third party countries like Turkey to resettle thousands of Afghans, which Turkish officials said would cause a “great migration crisis” in the region.

· The Pentagon announced a State Department-approved potential sale of howitzer artillery systems to Taiwan for self-defense in a deal valued up to $750 million, drawing condemnation from China, which claims Taiwan as its own.

Thursday, Aug. 5

• Biden announced a new policy providing “safe haven” from China to thousands of Hong Kong citizens living the in U.S. for the next 18 months. Biden said China “has continued its assault on Hong Kong’s autonomy, undermining its remaining democratic processes and institutions, imposing limits on academic freedom, and cracking down on freedom of the press.”
• The White House’s COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said the seven states with the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates — Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi — accounted for half of the country’s new cases and hospitalizations in the last week, even though these states together make up less than a quarter of the U.S. population.

· In his latest climate action, Biden signed an executive order setting a target for half of all new vehicle sales by 2030 to be zero-emissions vehicles.

· The Justice Department opened an investigation into whether the Phoenix, Arizona, police department unlawfully killed peaceful protesters and violated the rights of homeless people, the third such federal investigation of law enforcement in a major city under the Biden administration.

· Biden called the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol an insurrection instigated by “terrorists” that was “a violent attempt to overturn the will of the American people, to seek power at all costs, to replace the ballot with brute force. To destroy, not to build. Without democracy, nothing is possible. With it, everything is.”

Friday, Aug. 6

• The State Department announced it imposed visa restrictions on 50 family members of Nicaraguan lawmakers, prosecutors and judges “who have directly contributed to measures adopted by the Government of Nicaragua that do not meet the conditions for transparent, free, and fair elections to which all [Organization of American States] member states have committed under the Inter-American Democratic Charter,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

· The Biden administration extended a freeze on federal student loan debt collection through the end of January 2022. The extension is said to be the last one, as the federal government seeks ways to bolster the economy.

· Federal prosecutors charged two Myanmar citizens in a plot to attack and possibly assassinate the country’s United Nations ambassador, Kyaw Moe Tun, who has refused orders by the military government to quit.

Saturday, Aug. 7

· The Senate voted to advance Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure package, which would provide more federal funds for public works programs, in a rare show of bipartisanship, although it was quickly stalled by opponents who slowed forward progress on the bill by refusing to yield the 30 hours of debate required before the next procedural vote.

· The New York Times reported that Jeffrey Rosen, acting attorney general during the Trump administration, told the Justice Department and congressional investigators that one of his deputies tried to help Trump subvert the results of the 2020 election.

Sunday, Aug. 8

· No news to report.