Welcome to Bombshell. I'm Erin Simpson. I'm Lauren DeYoung-Schelman. And I'm Rada Anggar. And we are back from a bit of summer break. I hope everyone is enjoying the punishing heat and oppressive humidity that is, at least the

east coast at the moment. I guess out west there are fires and assorted other fun things. So that's

better? You know, it's actually not better because we can breathe on the east coast. So barely. But it is

Labor Day weekend and we have lots and lots of things to discuss and also an

announcement Lauren do you want to tell us what's happening later this week so on thursday of this

week rata and i will be hosted by the army navy club in downtown dc to do a live show uh 530 p m army navy club i'll have a reception 6 p. a live show. 5.30 p.m. Army Navy Club, I'll have a reception, 6 p.m. live show with some very special guests.

If you are a member, please come and please bring guests who cannot otherwise get themselves into this very exclusive venue.

And we will be delighted to see any and all of you.

I have so much fO. I can't even

describe it. Aaron's going to be in like Utah. It's going to be an amazing trip to Utah.

Right. But it's definitely not going to be a live show at the Army Navy Club with you two

lovelies. So have all the fun. Yes, indeed. We're going to start with keeping up foreign relations.

We have just the three of us again this week, and we have quite a bit to plow through

as we kind of work through a couple of things that have been on some previous weeks to-do lists,

starting with Afghanistan, which has been, which has had quite a month.

It's actually been a very interesting few weeks in Afghanistan, and we're doing that in keeping up foreign relations and not White House mayhem, because it's actually the Afghan

side of this that's driving events at this point, not so much our policy discussions. I know. We can't

really have a Kabul mayhem. I mean, we could, but we need somebody else to really keep track of all of that.

So, you know, I think first what caught most people's attention in the last few weeks was a series of not just spectacular attacks, but although there was one in Kabul that was quite deadly, but also a number of Taliban offensives against key cities kind of across the country, many of which

were done simultaneously. And the one that caught most people's attention was the attack in Ghazni

City. There was a write-up in Time or Newsweek that sort of detailed, it was an almost an

accidental embed that detailed some of what the American Special Forces troops there were doing.

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