Free Republic

...This year, DTE cut electricity to Owens and thousands more in Michigan, despite receiving a $220m bailout made available through Cares Act tax changes during the pandemic. Nor is DTE alone: a new analysis of 16 large electric utilities found they collectively received a $1.25bn bailout, but still cut power to nearly 1 million struggling customers in the US between February 2020 and June 2021. ...The companies received enough funding to forgive their customers’ debt hundreds of times over, but instead many handed out executive bonuses and increased shareholder dividends: DTE bumped investor payouts from $714m to nearly $800m over...

The emergency meeting of G7 nations on Tuesday – called by Boris Johnson as this year’s chair of the G7 – is in essence a gathering of the vanquished but faces a threefold agenda: how to ensure as many Afghans as possible can leave Kabul, and whether the US is prepared to stay beyond the original 31 August deadline for the withdrawal of all US forces; how a resettlement programme can be coordinated for the medium term; and finally, how to encourage the Taliban to form an inclusive government, including by threatening sanctions or withholding recognition. But each country will...

While President Joe Biden faults Afghanistan's leaders and soldiers for their own defeat, Afghan National Army officers, who vainly fought to save Kabul, say their defeat was manufactured in Washington, D.C.,,, ...These Kabul-based military officers point the finger of blame in the other direction. The U.S. made it all but impossible for the Afghans to fight, said one Afghan National Army lieutenant colonel.... ...While the Afghan Army had one of Central Asia's largest fleet of choppers, he said, virtually all the mechanics and maintenance crew were U.S. contractors, many of which were withdrawn months ago. Helicopter repair facilities and spare-parts...