The U.S. economy grew at a 4% annualized pace in the last quarter of 2020, meaning the economy shrunk by -3.5% for the full year, the government said on Thursday.
Why it matters: One of the last major economic report cards of the Trump era shows a sharp slowdown in growth compared to the previous quarter, as the pandemic got worse and government aid petered out.
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President Biden is attempting to navigate between calls from allies to extend the Kabul airlift operation beyond Aug. 31 and warnings from the Taliban that doing so would cross a red line.
Driving the news: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to push for an extension beyond the end of August at a virtual G7 meeting tomorrow, which he will chair.
The big picture: As they conduct those operations amid scenes of chaos that the Biden administration arguably precipitated, and failed to anticipate, NATO allies are grappling with their own reliance on American power.
What they’re saying: “You look at the scenes at the Kabul airport, and what I see is the United States securing an airfield at the risk of several thousand U.S. troops to facilitate not just the evacuation of Americans but…third-country nationals from friends and foes alike,” Sullivan said today from the White House podium.
Coordination with the Taliban is vital to the U.S. airlift operation. The militants have pledged to give Americans safe passage to the airport and to also let eligible Afghans through, though some are still reportedly being turned back.
The other side: Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said that it will “provoke reaction” and “consequences” if Biden reneges on his deadline.
What to watch: The Taliban has said it intends to keep the airport open beyond Aug. 31 and allow Afghans who want to leave the country to do so.
U.S. officials seemed to speak with newfound confidence about the evacuation efforts after announcing this morning that the U.S. had evacuated 10,400 people in the previous 24 hours, and 37,000 since the airlift began on Aug. 14.
Breaking it down: The vast majority of those are Afghan nationals. The White House and Pentagon both said "several thousand" Americans had been evacuated without offering more precise numbers.
The evacuees are being housed temporarily on U.S. bases in Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Italy, Germany and Spain — as well as New Jersey, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The evacuation operation has in some cases been extended beyond the airport, Sullivan said: “We have developed a method to safely and efficiently transfer groups of Americans onto the airfield.”
Donations to the Republican Attorneys General Association dipped considerably in the months following the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol, records show.
Driving the news: Large companies that gave in the past — such as Amazon, Walmart, Visa, Capital One, Johnson & Johnson and CocaCola — didn't donate to RAGA in the first six months of this year. Another prior donor, Facebook, said it paused its political giving program altogether.
