In other news, school officials in Houston have joined the growing list of districts defying Governor Greg Abbott's orders against masks.
Meanwhile, the FDA has authorized coronavirus booster shots from Moderna and Pfizer for people who are immunocompromised.
Finally, the Pentagon is rushing 3,000 troops to Afghanistan to secure the partial evacuation of the American embassy.
The State Department said the embassy will continue functioning, but Thursday’s dramatic decision to bring in thousands of additional U.S. troops is a sign of waning confidence in the Afghan government’s ability to hold off the Taliban surge. The announcement came just hours after the Taliban captured the western city of Herat as well as Ghazni, a strategic provincial capital south of Kabul. The advance, and the partial U.S. Embassy evacuation, increasingly isolate the nation’s capital, home to millions of Afghans.
This week ended a little shorter than it began, but it felt good to back into the swing of things. Both chambers of Congress are now on recess so I can't promise that next week will be as eventful, but I'll do my best to keep up with anything that does happen. I am also back to full health after fighting off a lingering infection for over a week.
Being unable to sleep for several nights and eating very little for a couple days threw me off several routines I had maintained for over a year. I had been eating a salad every single day, eating up to 100 grams of protein, and maintaining an exercise schedule 5 days per week. I'm not quite back to that yet, but that's the goal. The whole experience was sobering. I am in very good physical shape, but still vulnerable.