On 7 October this year, it will be 20 years since the US and the UK launched Operation Enduring Freedom. This was the start of what we now know of as the War in Afghanistan.

The operation may not have done much for freedom, but it has certainly endured, despite President Obama giving the operation a name change in 2014. In fact, it is the longest war that the US has ever been involved in. Longer than Vietnam. Longer even than the two world wars combined. It has cost the lives of tens of thousands of Afghan civilians, and hundreds of American and British soldiers. The Watson Institute at Brown University puts the overall death toll at over 157,000 and counting.

And for what? The continued impoverishment of one of the poorest nations on the planet? A territory which is held by roughly the same antagonists in the same proportions as it was held 20 years ago? Rarely have so many given so much for so little.

That grim 20th anniversary approaching in October was never meant to be reached, however. Under the conditions of the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan, struck between the Trump administration and the Taliban on 29 February last year, the 2,500 US and the 6,500 NATO troops still based in Afghanistan were slated to be fully withdrawn by 1 May this year.

But that now looks increasingly unlikely to happen. President Joe Biden’s administration, rather predictably given its hawkish inclinations, is currently reviewing the Trump deal, with US secretary of state Anthony Blinken wanting to ‘retain some capacity to deal with any resurgence of terrorism, which is what brought us [to Afghanistan] in the first place’. And NATO, too, has refused to announce or confirm a troop departure date. ‘While no ally wants to stay in Afghanistan longer than necessary’, said NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg last week, ‘we will not leave before the time is right’.

(Read more.)

Join Los Angeles County Sheriff Villanueva Station Captain Bobby Wyche and City of Industry Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Council-members
🔵 TODAY 🔵 2-4 P.M. for a virtual town hall meeting regarding your community concerns. To register for this FREE event, visit https://bit.ly/3o1nEMl

London, UK -- This happened in Rainham yesterday. Rainham is a suburban town in East London, England. A young teenager detained by civilians for carrying a massive knife after hearing of recent criminal activity involving knives happening in the area.

LA County Sheriffs: This morning LASD Lomita Station responded to a roll-over collision in which Tiger Woods was injured. Please see our statement.

Los Angeles – Golfer Tiger Woods was hospitalized after his car rolled over Tuesday in the Rancho Palos Verdes area, authorities said. The crash was reported just after 7 a.m. when sheriff’s officials responded to a single-vehicle rollover traffic collision on the border of Rolling Hills Estates and the Rancho Palos Verdes, according to an LASD statement Sheriff’s officials say the car was traveling northbound on Hawthorne Boulevard at Blackhorse Road when it crashed and sustained “major damage”. The driver – later identified as Woods – had to be extricated from the vehicle with the “jaws of life” and was then transported to Harbor UCLA Medical Center. Woods has been recovering from a fifth microdiscectomy surgery on his back with hopes of playing professionally later this year.

Two Milwaukee teenagers beat a defenseless, homeless Hmong woman with tree branches, gang-raped, stomped, body slammed, and kicked her, and filmed themselves laughing while they did it all, a newly filed criminal complaint alleges, according to Wisconsin Right Now.

They are accused of raping Ee Lee with such brutality that a veteran sexual assault nurse told police she had never seen an injury so bad.

All of this happened as other “kids” stood around watching, according to the complaint. The victim, Ee Lee, an apparent stranger to the teenagers who happened upon her sitting on a blanket in Washington Park, later died from severe head wounds. The complaint charges Kamare R. Lewis, 17, and Kevin T. Spencer Jr., 15, as adults, reported Wisconsin Right Now.

“They beat her extremely severely about the head. EL was so impaired when they finally finished beating her and sexually assaulting her that she was unable to talk or breathe,” the complaint says.

On Jan. 12, the mother of an eyewitness named KA called police and said her son might have a video authorities were interested in that was sent but later deleted by Lewis. She told police the video showed “two boys beating a lady, hitting her in the face, and her face was bloody.” She also said it looked like a “lot of little kids (were) standing around” during the attack.

(Read more.)

The Los Angeles Police Department's South Traffic Division detectives are asking for the public's help in providing any information that would lead to the identification and arrest of the driver involved in a hit and run traffic collision which killed a 66-year-old woman. On February 2, 2021, around 5:50 p.m., South Traffic officers responded to a hit and run traffic collision that occurred at Main Street and 97th Street. A vehicle traveling southbound on Main Street struck a woman walking westbound outside of the crosswalk south of 97th Street. The suspect continued southbound on Main Street and made a left turn eastbound on 98th Street. The driver of the vehicle failed to stop and render aid or identify themselves as required by California law. The investigation is still ongoing. Anyone with information about this incident is requested to call South Traffic Division Detectives, at (323) 421-2500. During non-business hours, or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247).

From Inbox -- Another day in Brazil ...

Fans describe the hilly terrain where the car crash involving Tiger Woods occurred this morning.

Texas -- When it hits 75 Degrees in Dallas 👀

BREAKING! Attorney General Letitia James has announced the grand jury findings in the Daniel Prude case in Rochester New York finds all seven of the RPD police officers are found not guilty.