*The Taliban Attacks | FBI Agent Fired | Fat Monks

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” – Sun Tzu

(Unfortunately Not) The Last of the Taliban: Taliban Insurgents continue to battle the government for control of the capital, Kabul, but they’ve already taken over most of the rural areas in Ghazni Province. On Friday the rebels staged a vicious attack on a commando base 90 miles west of Ghazni City. By Monday the Taliban had driven government forces from 16 of the province’s 18 districts. Afghan troops in the city, supported by some American ground forces as well as military airstrikes, continued to hold government buildings, the police headquarters and prison, and military bases. Officials and residents disputed Taliban claims that government facilities had fallen, but they did say the buildings were under constant attack.

Ghazni City’s 270,000 residents have been enduring choking smoke and gunfire barrages over the past four days. Some were able to escape, but others live too close to the embattled government buildings; they fear starvation if the fighting continues much longer. Shops and businesses have closed, and the UN’s acting humanitarian coordinator warned of an approaching crisis. Food is running low; telecommunications networks and the electricity supply are down, which has impacted the water supply. The hospital director reported Sunday that 113 bodies had been brought in, and 142 people had been wounded; most of the dead were uniformed members of security forces.

– Less Meditation, More Repetitions: Add to the list of Endangered Speciesoverweight Buddhist monks. The waistlines of Thailand’s monks have expanded so much the country’s Public Health Department is urging laypeople to offer healthier alms to the monastics as they roam the streets each morning, in Buddhist tradition, collecting their meals. (NYT)

– Yo Ho, Uh Oh: Don’t go looking for Johnny Depp in these pirates of the Caribbean. The rule of law is breaking down and spots in the Caribbean are becoming more dangerous than they’ve been in years. Observers say that, particularly in the waters off a collapsing Venezuela, it’s a criminal free-for-all along the coast. (WaPo)

– No Pardon For This Turkey: It’s an American gun fight, and Turkey’s armed with a knife. President Trump has increased tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum, sending Turkish lira further into free fall. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had hoped to swap an American clergyman held in Ankara since 2016 for a Turkish banker sentenced to 32 months in a US prison, but Trump wasn’t having it. (WaPo)

– Guantanamo Buds: In 2004 an American National Guardsman became fast friends with a Muslim detainee from Africa while guarding him for nine months in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The US government held the detainee for 14 years without ever charging him with a crime. The detainee wrote a memoir while in prison that became a bestseller in the US. The detainee was released in 2016 and returned home to Mauritania. In May the guardsman flew to Mauritania to visit his old friend, and the two picked up where they left off. (NPR)

– This Week in Real Life Supervillain News: Have you heard of tax havens? They are countries that have lower than average tax rates. They also allow companies to operate with an above average level of secrecy. Unsurprisingly, some people have been abusing these tax havens. It is being reported that certain corporations are using tax havens to hide deforestation and illegal fishing efforts. (Guardian)

– Amazon Prime Has Got Nothing On This: Nestled at the top of Mt. Fuji’s incredible summit lives Japan’s most famous post office. It is standard practice for anyone who makes the trek up the mountain to send a letter just for the post mark. Last year, the office collected 12.1 million yen ($109,000) from about 97,000 pieces of mail. Now you’re probably wondering, “how do they take the 97,000 pieces of mail down the mountain?” If you guessed, “a giant bulldozer” you would be correct. (NYT)

Fickling on Falling: Bloomberg opinion writer David Fickling, in considering what causes empires to fall, postulates that making grand investments in unproductive regions have resulted in previous empires foundering. In modern-day China’s Belt and Road initiative, Fickling sees echoes of a similar drive by the USSR to develop Siberia, a goal that ultimately helped precipitate that country’s collapse. In the 1950s Moscow was directing a China-style economic torrent that saw the Soviet economy growing faster than that of any other country except Japan. A tsunami of capital was poured into Siberia to develop gas fields, coal mines and aluminum plants despite the fact only a fraction of the country’s population lived there. Productivity declines in the 1970s and 1980s dragged down the entire Soviet economy. The country finally broke into 15 independent states in late 1991.

Similarly, China’s burgeoning growth has seen staggering sums of money allocated to its Belt and Road initiative, an open-ended framework for an estimated $1.5 trillion of infrastructure projects over the next decade across Southeast Asia, South Asia and Central Asia. Beijing is spending even greater sums domestically. But like the USSR in the 1970s, China is coming to the end of a long labor-force boom that has lasted 50 years. Several ambitious projects, like Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port, or the China-Myanmar pipeline, have failed to accomplish even semi-adequate returns on investment. The risk for President Xi Jinping is that such misdirected spending could gradually undermine the productivity growth that has accounted for China’s current strength.

– Several Huge Mistakes: The Paul Manafort Story: The New York Times walks us through the trajectory of Paul Manafort’s life—from “the son of a blue-collar, small-town mayor to a jet-setting international political consultant to Trump campaign chairman and now to prisoner in an Alexandria, Va., jail awaiting a jury verdict—(it’s) a tale of greed, deception and ego.” (NYT)

– But His Texts: The question on the minds of everyone in the United States: what is the grand prize for the winner of Trump’s new season of The Apprentice? Is it a job at Trump Tower? A shot at being Barron’s babysitter? A trip to Hawaii? A shot at being Eric’s babysitter? Unfortunately for the now former Deputy Assistant FBI Director, Peter Strzok, (who was fired in this week’s episode after text messages of him criticizing Trump were uncovered) he will not be winning the mystery prize. (NPR)

– To Boldly Go Where No Walmart Has Gone Before: Remember when Walmart would move into a town and eat up all the local retailers? There’s places even Walmart wouldn’t go. Enter Dollar General, targeting rural towns and damaged inner-city neighborhoods; DG has more outlets across the country than McDonald’s has restaurants, and it’s sharing its growth strategy: “we went where they ain’t.”(Guardian)

– “Are rich people more likely to lie, cheat, steal? Science explains the world of Manafort and Gates: What is about money that makes people do bad things?” (WaPo)

– “The Rise of the Promotional Intellectual” Check out my lectures on Biodiversity on my SoundCloud! (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

– “After 17 Days And 1,000 Miles, A Mother Orca’s ‘Tour Of Grief’ Is Over: After carrying her deceased baby for at least 17 days and 1,000 miles, an orca mother has shown signs of returning to normal.” It’s the feel sad story of the summer! (NPR)

– “Treating Teen Depression Might Improve Mental Health Of Parents, Too: When a teen’s symptoms of depression improve as a result of treatment, it’s more likely that their parent’s mood lifts, too, new research shows.” It’s the feel sad feel good story of the summer! (NPR)

– “Finding new music in the algorithm age: Six people working in the music world tell us how they do it.” (The Outline)

– “‘Hipster kryptonite’: will CDs ever have a resurgence?” It’s really the only way to listen to our NSYNC b-sides…which is what we call our Backstreet Boys CDs. (Guardian)

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