| AFGHANISTAN: Pressured on all fronts to extend the U.S. withdrawal deadline in Afghanistan beyond Aug. 31 to extract more people, Biden and his advisers have refused to discuss the prospects in public. Taliban leaders demanded that U.S. forces, now numbering 5,800, be out by this time next week. The Washington Post reports that CIA Director William Burns held an undisclosed meeting in Kabul on Monday with the Taliban’s de facto leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in the highest-level face-to-face encounter between the Taliban and the Biden administration since the militants seized the Afghan capital. The CIA declined to comment but the discussions likely involved the impending Aug. 31 deadline. The Hill: Biden is under growing pressure to extend his Afghanistan deadline. Instead of seeking more time, the United States picked up the pace of airlifting thousands of people out of the Kabul airport to eventually make their escape to international and U.S. airports for resettlement. The U.S. used special forces and helicopters to enter the capital city to pick up Americans and Afghans considered at risk if they attempted to make their way to the airport. U.S. officials said a military helicopter picked up 16 American citizens Monday and brought them onto the airfield (The Associated Press and The New York Times). The U.S. military reported its biggest day of evacuations on Monday, but deadly violence that has blocked many desperate evacuees from entering Kabul’s airport persisted, and the Taliban signaled they might soon seek to shut down the evacuation operations, according to the AP. The Biden administration worries about violence and is eager to shift the narrative at home and in international capitals from flawed withdrawal planning to images of brisk military evacuations taking place behind a safe zone wrapped in barbed wire and ringed with concrete walls. The Pentagon is releasing evacuation statistics that include tallies of progress in hours, days and weeks, often combining departed Americans and Afghans into one category called “people” or “personnel.” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday conceded the United States launched the military withdrawal without knowing how many Americans were in Afghanistan, as it’s their right not to register with the U.S. Embassy. He told reporters the administration does not know the exact number of U.S. passport holders eager to leave because it does not know exactly how many are in the country (The Washington Post). Armed Taliban fighters, now patrolling Kabul’s streets in fortified vehicles and battered Toyota pickup trucks (pictured below), told the United States there will be no extension beyond Aug. 31 (The Associated Press). A firefight outside Kabul’s airport killed an Afghan soldier early Monday. Afghanistan’s disintegrating economy could force the Taliban to negotiate, some analysts suggest. Banks are closed, cash and supplies are dwindling and foreign aid funds have been halted (The Wall Street Journal). 
© Getty Images Biden today will meet via video-conference with counterparts from the leading industrialized nations, led by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as the rotating head of the Group of Seven (G-7). The G-7 had not reckoned on dealing this summer with a collapsed Afghan government, revived Taliban threats, a refugee crisis and a resurgence of Afghan-based terror threats, and there is friction about the U.S. role in the current crisis (The Associated Press). Johnson and others, including French President Emmanuel Macron, are pushing Biden to extend his stated Aug. 31 deadline to ensure that all foreign nationals can get out as well as Afghans who worked for or otherwise supported the American-led NATO operation that temporarily defeated the Taliban in 2001, according to the AP and other outlets. Johnson may discuss the prospect of international economic sanctions aimed at the unelected rulers. The downside of such sanctions in Afghanistan is the potential to exacerbate humanitarian and refugee travails. House Intelligence Committee Democrats on Monday expressed doubts that the United States will be able to evacuate U.S. citizens and Afghan allies before next week’s deadline. “I think it's possible, but I think it's very unlikely given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated, the number of [Special Immigrant Visa holders], the number of others who are members of the Afghan press, civil society leaders, women leaders,” Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters (The Hill). 
© Getty Images ***** POLITICS: In New York, the administration of Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), the first female governor in Empire State history, began hours ago, bringing to a close the tenure of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in the process. To kick off her administration, Hochel (pictured below) appointed two women to helm her gubernatorial operations — Karen Persichilli Keogh to become secretary to the governor (the highest-ranking state appointed position) and Elizabeth Fine as her counsel — meaning that the three women will run the executive branch following Cuomo’s departure (The New York Times). The former governor on Monday issued a prerecorded farewell speech, labeling New York Attorney General Letitia James’s (D) report that details his sexual improprieties as a “political firecracker on an explosive topic” and saying that his resignation was the outcome of a “political and media stampede.” “There will be another time to talk about the truth and ethics of the recent situation involving me, but let me say now when government politicizes allegations and the headlines condemn without facts, you undermine the justice system, and that doesn't serve men, and that doesn't serve men or society,” Cuomo said. “The attorney general's report was designed to be a political firecracker on an explosive topic, and it worked. There was a political and media stampede,” he said (The Hill). As The Hill’s Reid Wilson writes, Cuomo’s swift exit — which also included a parting shot directed at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) — and crumbling of his support coalition in Albany offers an important lesson for any political leader: If they choose to rule by fear, they have to keep everyone afraid. “You can rule by fear, but the moment the fear is gone, you’re dead,” said one top Democratic strategist who dealt with Cuomo over the years. “The minute you stop being able to leverage the fear, all your enemies will combine.” 
© Getty Images > Turning back the clock: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is dusting off parts of his old election playbook ahead of the 2022 midterms, hoping to gin up additional support for Democrats’ economic agenda in Republican-held states. As The Hill’s Hanna Trudo reports, although progressives believe his upcoming stops in Iowa and Indiana are a net positive, his presence in GOP areas may present an issue for the party that still sustains intense attacks from the right and as the democratic socialist senator's surrogate strength has proved in recent weeks — as shown in the Democratic primary in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District — to have a limited impact on candidates' success. However, Nina Turner’s loss earlier this month is not dissuading his team. “The best way to right this ship is to find ways to serve the longstanding needs of the working class,” a source familiar with Sanders’ thinking told The Hill. “The more people know it the better.” The Hill: GOP sees Biden crises as boon for midterm recruitment. The Hill: Arizona elections officials launch bipartisan assault on GOP audit. CNN: Arizona's sham election “audit” report delayed after Cyber Ninjas CEO and others test positive for COVID-19. | 
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