As precious time ticks away on the United States' UN-sanctioned stint in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai continues to waffle on a deal that would allow around 10,000 American troops to stick around for 10 more years. The proposed agreement is "one of the most-important decisions in Afghanistan's recent history," says the BBC, but Karzai is pushing further provisions. He wants assurances raids on Afghan homes will cease, and for Afghan prisoners to be released from Guantanamo bay.
The Obama administration isn't having it, and Ambassador Susan Rice on Monday warned Karzai in stark terms to sign or be prepared to go it alone at the end of 2014.
And what are British officials harping at Afghanistan about? It's a quaint notion, really. They just want to make sure women aren't stoned to death as a halftime show at Afghani soccer games, is all. That's a throwback to Taliban times that has little likelihood of revival, but no one's taking any chances.
Plenty of people are still angry about a short-term deal reached Sunday to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The Saudis, a central bulwark against US oil shortages in past years, aren't too happy. And Israel has been howling that the agreement amounts to limp appeasement. But the NYT points out that's pretty much hypocrisy—the deal with Iran employs the same strategies Israel is using in its long-term strife with the Palestinians.
TAKE NOTE: Looks like Plan B and similar emergency contraceptives don't work in overweight or obese women. In Europe, boxes of these drugs will now include an explicit warning to that effect. In the US? Perhaps. The FDA is looking into it.
Where does lovely celebrity chef Nigella Lawson get all that talent and poise, anyway? Daily cocaine and pills, according to court testimony. IDEA: There should be a law that all such misdeeds are perfectly fine if you can make a decent bisque. Because what if you stopped using, and then your bisques were just terrible, you know? Bisque should be nine-tenths of the law.
Two weeks of intense climate negotiations in Poland are a wrap, y'all. And is your children's prosperous future assured? Hardly. In some ways, we're worse off than we were before the talks. Japan announced it was pulling back on ambitious emissions goals. Australia didn't even show up. China and India—countries where emissions are rising rapidly—refused to commit to any rollbacks, leading to a sort-of-infuriating segment on NPR this morning posing the question: Well, should the US even bother, then?
There's a new report on the Newtown shootings last year, and this is maybe the most-angered I've ever been by a story lead—from the Los Angeles Times: "The gunman who massacred 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was obsessed with mass murders and so mentally twisted that his mother planned to move him out of state so he could attend a special school, yet she had him living in a home with firearms and ammunition and gave him money to buy a gun for Christmas."
What do those suckers back East know about a pleasant Thanksgiving? It's going to be lovely around here.