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   Thursday Briefing: How ‘America’s monster’ operated in Afghanistan
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               Justin Porter
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          Good morning.
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         <span>
          Today, I’m handing the newsletter over to my colleague Azam Ahmed, who writes about a hidden history of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
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          Plus,
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          three European countries recognize a Palestinian state.
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             <img alt="An Afghan man stands in the shadows against a metal door." class="css-8y44if" height="500" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2024%252F03%252F13%252Fmultimedia%252F23ambriefing-europe-nl%252F23am-asia-nl-top-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3MTY0NDA0NzguMDY0NTJ9:1sA0Zq:x8EfEJ8UiacF0Es5PWC2Pub26FahHA7HGseL6VJ_ZRk" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:0;line-height:0" width="500"/>
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              Fazul Rahman in Kandahar, Afghanistan, last year.
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             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em;padding-left:5px">
              Bryan Denton for The New York Times
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        <h2 style="color:#000;font:700 24px/31px nyt-cheltenham,georgia,serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <span>
          America’s monster
         </span>
        </h2>
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             <p style="font:13px/18px arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:.2px;color:#000;font:600 13px/18px arial,sans-serif;margin-bottom:0">
              By
              <a class="css-1ckldco" style="color:inherit;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid #ccc">
               Azam Ahmed
              </a>
             </p>
             <p style="font:13px/18px arial,sans-serif;letter-spacing:.2px;color:#000;margin-bottom:0">
              <span style="color:inherit">
               I covered the war in Afghanistan and went back after the Taliban took over.
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          General Abdul Raziq was one of America’s fiercest allies in the fight against the Taliban. He was young and charismatic — a courageous warrior who commanded the loyalty and respect of his men. He helped beat back the Taliban in the crucial battlefield of Kandahar, even as the insurgents advanced across Afghanistan.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          But his success, until his 2018 assassination, was built on torture, extrajudicial killing and abduction. In the name of security, he transformed the Kandahar police into a combat force without constraints. His officers, who were trained, armed and paid by the U.S., took no note of human rights or due process, according to a
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          Times investigation into thousands of cases
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         <span>
          . Most of his victims were never seen again.
         </span>
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Washington’s strategy in Afghanistan aimed to beat the Taliban by winning the hearts and minds of the people it was supposedly fighting for. But Raziq embodied a flaw in that plan. The Americans empowered warlords, corrupt politicians and outright criminals in the name of military expediency. It picked proxies for whom the ends often justified the means.
         </span>
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          I’ll explain in today’s newsletter how using men like Raziq drove many Afghans toward the Taliban. And it persuaded others, including those who might have been sympathetic to U.S. goals, that the U.S.-backed central government could not be trusted to fix Afghanistan. If there was ever any chance that the U.S. could uproot the Taliban, the war strategy made it much harder.
         </span>
        </p>
        <h2 style="color:#000;font:700 24px/31px nyt-cheltenham,georgia,serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <span>
          A savage campaign
         </span>
        </h2>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          My colleague Matthieu Aikins and I have covered Afghanistan for years. After America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, we were suddenly able to visit people and places that were off limits during the fighting. We traveled there, hoping to learn what really happened during America’s longest war.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Alongside a team of Afghan researchers, we combed through more than 50,000 handwritten complaints kept in ledgers by the former U.S.-backed government of Kandahar. In them, we found the details of almost 2,200 cases of suspected disappearances. From there, we went to hundreds of homes across Kandahar.
         </span>
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            <img alt="A government document and three passport photos of Salahuddin, a young man." class="css-8y44if" height="500" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2024%252F03%252F13%252Fmultimedia%252F23ambriefing-europe-nl-lede%252F23ambriefing-europe-nl-lede-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3MTY0NDA0NzguMDY0NjgyN30:1sA0Zq:ca3wiGgktSXpHArmyLKSdOapjXmmcKPk_QCwXzFmwJ4" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:0;line-height:0" width="500"/>
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             <span class="css-9ddn05" style="color:#666;font:normal 12px georgia,serif">
              The original missing-person complaint paperwork and passport pictures for Salahuddin, a rickshaw driver who disappeared in 2016.
             </span>
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em;padding-left:5px">
              Bryan Denton for The New York Times
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          We tracked down nearly 1,000 people who said that their loved ones had been taken or killed by government security forces. We corroborated nearly 400 cases, often with eyewitnesses to the abductions. We also substantiated their claims with Afghan police reports, affidavits and other government records they had filed. In each of the forced disappearances, the person is still missing.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Even at the time, U.S. officials grasped Raziq’s malevolence. “Sometimes we asked Raziq about incidents of alleged human rights abuses, and when we got answers we would be like, Whoa, I hope we didn’t implicate ourselves in a war crime just by hearing about it,” recalled Henry Ensher, a State Department official who had held multiple posts on Afghanistan. “We knew what we were doing, but we didn’t think we had a choice,” Ensher said.
         </span>
        </p>
        <h2 style="color:#000;font:700 24px/31px nyt-cheltenham,georgia,serif;margin:0 0 10px">
         <span>
          The cost
         </span>
        </h2>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          It would be too simple to say that Raziq’s tactics were entirely in vain. They worked in some respects, reasserting government control in Kandahar and pushing insurgents into the hinterlands. Raziq earned the admiration of many who opposed the Taliban. More than a dozen U.S. officials said that without him the Taliban would have advanced much faster.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          But Raziq’s methods took a toll. They stirred such enmity among his victims that the Taliban turned his cruelty into a recruiting tool. Taliban officials posted videos about him on WhatsApp to attract new fighters.
         </span>
        </p>
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            <img alt="Abdul Raziq in traditional Afghan attire with his hands clasped at his waist, as a man in camouflage stands a few feet behind him." class="css-8y44if" height="500" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2024%252F03%252F13%252Fmultimedia%252F24ambriefing-europe-nl-lede-4%252F24ambriefing-europe-nl-lede-4-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3MTY0NDA0NzguMDY0ODYwM30:1sA0Zq:OY3SuLXehvy9Z866jEknZfIhJUmn5GGZSCrVWHqchOg" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:0;line-height:0" width="500"/>
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            <span class="css-14c9rv6" style="width:83%;max-width:500px;display:inline-block;text-align:left">
             <span class="css-9ddn05" style="color:#666;font:normal 12px georgia,serif">
              Abdul Raziq at his home in Kandahar City in 2015, shadowed by one of his many bodyguards.
             </span>
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em;padding-left:5px">
              Bryan Denton for The New York Times
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Many Afghans came to revile the U.S.-backed government and everything it represented. “None of us supported the Taliban, at least not at first,” said Fazul Rahman, whose brother was abducted in front of witnesses during Raziq’s reign. “But when the government collapsed, I ran through the streets, rejoicing.”
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Even some who cheered Raziq’s ruthlessness lamented the corruption and criminality he engendered — a key part of why the Afghan government collapsed in 2021. After Raziq’s death, his commanders went further. They extorted ordinary people and stole from their own men’s wages and supplies. “What they brought under the name of democracy was a system in the hands of a few mafia groups,” said one resident of Kandahar who initially supported the government. “The people came to hate democracy.”
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Historians and scholars will spend years arguing whether the U.S. could have ever succeeded. The wealthiest nation in the world had invaded one of its poorest and had attempted to remake it by installing a new government. Such efforts elsewhere have failed.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          But U.S. mistakes — empowering ruthless killers, turning allies into enemies, enabling rampant corruption — made the loss of its longest war at least partly self-inflicted. This is a story Matthieu and I will spend the coming months telling, from across Afghanistan.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-style:italic">
          Read
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-style:italic">
          Azam’s investigation
         </a>
         <span style="font-style:italic">
          , and
         </span>
         <span style="font-style:italic;font-weight:700">
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-style:italic">
          watch him explain
         </a>
         <span style="font-style:italic">
          how it came together.
         </span>
        </p>
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             <span class="css-9ddn05" style="color:#666;font:normal 12px georgia,serif">
              Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party is behind in most polls.
             </span>
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em;padding-left:5px">
              Stefan Rousseau/Press Association, via Associated Press
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               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle;font-weight:700">
                Britain:
               </span>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                snap general election for July 4
               </a>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                , months earlier than expected.
               </span>
              </li>
             </ul>
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             <ul class="css-14t63jt" style="color:#333;font:10px georgia,serif;text-align:left;padding-left:50px">
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle;font-weight:700">
                Middle East:
               </span>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                Spain, Norway and Ireland said that they would
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                recognize an independent Palestinian state
               </a>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                amid the growing toll of the war in Gaza.
               </span>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle;font-weight:700">
                New Caledonia:
               </span>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                President Emmanuel Macron of France is scheduled to arrive today
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                for talks with pro-independence leaders in the French territory
               </a>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                after deadly protests.
               </span>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle;font-weight:700">
                West Bank
               </span>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                : An Israeli military raid into the city of Jenin continued for a second day. Palestinian officials said
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                at least eight civilians had been killed.
               </a>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle;font-weight:700">
                Iran:
               </span>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader,
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                led funeral prayers
               </a>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                for President Ebrahim Raisi.
               </span>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle;font-weight:700">
                Trial:
               </span>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                Guo Wengui, a Chinese property developer accused of defrauding thousands of people in the U.S. and abroad of more than $1 billion, went
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                on trial
               </a>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                in New York.
               </span>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle;font-weight:700">
                Singapore Airlines:
               </span>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                Passengers on board the London-to-Singapore flight that encountered deadly turbulence recounted
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                what happened.
               </a>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle;font-weight:700">
                Science
               </span>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                : Elon Musk’s first human experiment with a brain implant developed flaws, but the patient, who is paralyzed,
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                has few regrets
               </a>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                .
               </span>
              </li>
             </ul>
            </td>
           </tr>
          </tbody>
         </table>
        </div>
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              MORNING READ
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            <a>
             <img alt="a photo of older people on a bus. many women wear head-scarves and hold bags. others are looking out the window. they look weather-beaten and sad. " class="css-8y44if" height="500" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2024%252F05%252F22%252Fworld%252F23am-briefing-europe-one-image%252F23am-briefing-europe-one-image-jumbo.jpg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZzdGF0aWMwMS5ueSIsInRpbWUiOjE3MTY0NDA0NzguMDY1NzQ1OH0:1sA0Zq:j9lEcY0hgEZ9YSQ5y1FV7T-g5t_1-nltdb2dktzRs2A" style="display:inline-block;width:83%;max-width:500px;height:auto;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:0;line-height:0" width="500"/>
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            <span class="css-bcxqfb" style="width:83%;max-width:500px;display:inline-block;text-align:right">
             <span style="margin:0;font:11px/11px georgia,serif;color:#888;letter-spacing:.01em;padding-left:0">
              Emile Ducke for The New York Times
             </span>
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          The photographer Emile Ducke took this picture of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s advance in the Kharkiv region. One woman, looking out the window, left without her husband. “He didn’t want to leave,” she said.
         </span>
        </p>
        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span>
          Others had stuffed belongings into whatever bags they could. There was no time.
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          Read the stories behind this image
         </a>
         <span>
          .
         </span>
        </p>
        <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:100%">
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            <h3 style="color:#000;font:700 17px/25px arial,sans-serif;margin:5px 0 30px 0;letter-spacing:.2px">
             <span style="font-weight:700">
              CONVERSATION STARTERS
             </span>
            </h3>
           </td>
          </tr>
         </tbody>
        </table>
        <div style="margin:0 auto;max-width:600px;width:100%">
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              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle;font-weight:700">
                Proud “sellouts”:
               </span>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                U.S. campuses may seem as if they’re full of idealistic activists. But many students are focused on
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                securing a high-paying corporate job
               </a>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                — not on protesting the war in Gaza.
               </span>
              </li>
             </ul>
            </td>
           </tr>
          </tbody>
         </table>
        </div>
        <div style="margin:0 auto;max-width:600px;width:100%">
         <table>
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             <ul class="css-14t63jt" style="color:#333;font:10px georgia,serif;text-align:left;padding-left:50px">
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle;font-weight:700">
                San Francisco’s hot new tourist attraction:
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                Driverless cars
               </a>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                .
               </span>
              </li>
              <li style="margin:0 0 10px 0;line-height:27.5px">
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle;font-weight:700">
                Supernova or coronavirus:
               </span>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                A scientist celebrates the “visual synonyms” between microscopic and massive images.
               </span>
               <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                Can you tell the difference
               </a>
               <span style="font-size:17px;line-height:25px;vertical-align:middle">
                ?
               </span>
              </li>
             </ul>
            </td>
           </tr>
          </tbody>
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        <p style="font:normal 17px/25px georgia,serif;color:#333;margin:0 0 15px">
         <span style="font-weight:700">
          Mauricio Pochettino departs:
         </span>
         <span>
          An exit that undermines
         </span>
         <a class="css-sdwaa1" style="color:#286ed0;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline">
          Chelsea’s long-term plan
         </a>
         <span>
          .
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          Play
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          That’s it for today’s briefing. Thank you for spending part of your morning with us, and see you tomorrow. — Justin
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