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Welcome to Talking Feds, a round table that brings together prominent figures from government

law and journalism for a dynamic discussion of the most important topics of the day.

I'm Harry Littman. It's been a week of stresses and challenges to the

country from Afghanistan to Austin, Texas, and many places in between.

The US military no longer has boots on the ground in Afghanistan for the first time in 20 years,

and almost simultaneous with its withdrawal, the Taliban filled the breach and regained power.

In a prime time speech to the country, President Biden insisted that the wind up of the war

had been a success, even as Republicans pilloried the effort. Secretary Stateni Blinken said that

the withdrawal marks a new chapter of America's engagement in which we will lead with diplomacy.

But how that will work, and the possible international repercussions of having

essentially given up on the longstanding effort to defeat the Taliban remained to be seen.

The US Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision by the five most conservative justices declined to stay

a draconian abortion law in Texas that is flatly irreconcilable with the court's governing

precedents. Democrats cried foul and revived proposals to change the court's structure

and to pass federal legislation to protect abortion rights.

In the January 6th, select committee flexed its muscles with document requests that

attended a probing review of the possible involvement in the insurrection of Republican leaders

such as Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan. To size up and analyze these turbulent developments at

home and abroad, we have a great panel of leading voices from government, journalism,

and the private sector, all returning guests to talking feds. And they are.

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