Classroom door ideas for beginning of the year

Since Donald Trump was elected in 2016 on a pledge to end endless wars, he has compensated for the drawdown of U.S. ground forces — there are around 10,000 in Afghanistan, down from a peak of more than 100,000 in 2010-11 — by loosening restrictions on airstrikes. The ramped-up air war was intended to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table with the U.S., which finally happened in February, when the two sides set conditions for the U.S. withdrawal. But experts say the airstrikes and resultant spike in civilian deaths only help the Taliban’s cause and undermine a central government the U.S. has spent billions of dollars propping up over almost two decades. In areas where “people are not politically connected, they will support whoever can keep them safest,” says Andrea Prasow, the Washington, D.C., director of Human Rights Watch. “And when the U.S. is killing civilians, it’s not the U.S. and it’s not the Afghan government that can keep … [Read more...] about America’s Longest War Takes a Deadly New Turn

The bloodshed is not likely to end anytime soon. Intra-Afghan talks are faltering, and the Taliban are gaining on the battlefield. Some Afghans cling to the hope that the Biden administration will follow a more conditions-based approach to U.S. withdrawal. Biden has promised to end America’s “forever wars” and was against Obama’s surge, but U.N. and Afghan officials say the Taliban actively maintain their alliance with Al Qaeda, in violation of the peace deal. Without an enduring U.S. presence, many predict that talks will collapse and that the country could once again plunge into chaos, as it did when the Soviet army departed. “If we see a total disengagement of the international community, the naturally ensuing result will be a state of civil war,” says Davood Moradian, the director of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies. The Taliban, he says, would be just one of many warring factions. “We have already seen this reality in Libya, … [Read more...] about Highway to Hell: A Trip Down Afghanistan’s Deadliest Road

Related Story International Insider: BBC Studios' Stuttering CEO Search; BAFTA Voting; Netflix's UK Reality Show Binge But but but: The headline growth in subs masked something International Insider spotted in the detail of Netflix’s shareholder letter. Netflix’s subscriber growth actually slowed in EMEA, despite skyrocketing streaming during lockdown and record levels of investment in the UK, where it spent $1B on shows including The Crown and The Witcher. Europe, Middle East and Africa subs rose 29% to 66.7M in 2020, which was a contraction on the growth rate of 37% the year before, when Netflix first started breaking out territory-specific data. By contrast, the U.S., Canada, and Asia-Pacific all grew at a faster rate than in 2019. It begs the question: Have we hit peak Netflix in some international territories? … [Read more...] about International Insider: Netflix By Numbers; Cannes Question Marks; Epic Games’ Movie Push; Bye-Bye ‘Peaky Blinders’

It’s been a minute since Avengers: Age of Ultron, the first MCU movie to really feature Wanda and the only one to really feature Pietro, who died saving Hawkeye and a kid during the evacuation of Sokovia. The movies have so many other characters and conflicts to deal with that there hasn’t been room for Wanda or anyone else to mourn, or even discuss, Pietro. But losing your twin brother — especially when the two of you had long been each other’s only family after everyone else was killed by a Stark bomb — isn’t something you just let go of, any more easily than losing a lover. So when Wanda and Geraldine(*) are talking about the new twins, and Wanda recalls her own twinhood, it’s startling — a reference to a long-forgotten character in the franchise, but also the most significant intrusion of Wanda’s real life into this fantasy/prison/whatever. Geraldine blurts out a reference to Ultron killing Pietro, and this is even worse than … [Read more...] about ‘WandaVision’ Recap: Sibling Revelry

What’s Going On: The Detroit Mix1. What’s Going On2. What’s Happening Brother3. Flyin’ High (In The Friendly Sky)4. Save The Children5. God Is Love6. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)7. Right On8. Wholy Holy9. Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) … [Read more...] about Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ Gets 50th Anniversary Digital Reissue