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MILITARY VIRUS OUTBREAK MUSIC Democratic hawks Poll: Unvaccinated Mayer’s soft rock want to aim higher Americans unlikely paean more than on defense spending to ever get shots just nostalgia trip Page 3 Page 6 Page 12 US women’s soccer rebounds with rout of New Zealand ›› Olympics, Page 24 stripes.com Volume 80 Edition 70B ©SS 2021 CONTINGENCY EDITION SUNDAY,JULY 25, 2021 Free to Deployed Areas AFGHANISTAN Energy drinks, grilled cheese fueled pullout from Bagram BY CHAD GARLAND Stars and Stripes In the waning days of the U.S. presence at Bagram Airfield, Ma- rine Corps veteran Justin Mod- este knew the can of energy drink he had was valuable and rare. “Probably the remaining sup- ply of red Rip It in the country,” he wrote in a post shared to several Facebook groups where the base’s denizens bought, sold and traded various goods. “Act now to get your hands on the last few drops of this nectar from the gods. No low- ball offers, I know what I got.” The post included a photo of a short, opened 8-ounce can of the fruity energy drink that has fueled U.S. wartime operations since 2004 by the tens of millions and has become a staple for troops, veterans and contractors alike. His asking price: $500. “It was indeed my last can of Rip It,” Modeste said in a phone interview in early July about the photo he’d jokingly posted weeks earlier. He’d planned to snap the photo before popping the can’s top and downing half of it, “but I couldn’t wait to dig in.” Energy drinks and tobacco be- came hot commodities as base Vanishing gains SEE FUELED ON PAGE 5 In a city besieged by the Taliban, Afghan military advances disappear with forces stretched thin BY SUSANNAH GEORGE forces were halfway through an operation to “We are being asked to perform a job The Washington Post retake a sliver of territory along the city’s that we were not trained to do. My KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — The argument be- northern edge when a police unit that was or- tween Afghan security forces erupted two dered to establish checkpoints along the way men have been pulled into fighting a miles inside Taliban-controlled territory, refused to advance. war. This is not their responsibility. piercing the near-complete silence and threat- “Who are you from Kabul to give us orders?” That is for the Afghan army.” ening to unravel a night of modest gains in a a police commander said to a special forces of- Zabardast Safi city under siege. CHAD GARLAND/Facebook Around 3 a.m., a small team of elite special SEE VANISHING ON PAGE 4 Kunduz police chief Facebook user Rob Fisher shows off the last two Rip Its he was Above: Members of the elite special forces team KKA, or Afghan Special Unit, gather before a night mission in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on July 12. able to get his hands on at LORENZO TUGNOLI/The Washington Post Bagram Airfield in late 2020. PAGE 2 • STARS AND STRIPES • Sunday, July 25, 2021 BUSINESS/WEATHER Wall Street rallies to hit record-breaking highs EXCHANGE RATES Military rates South Korea (Won) 1153.40 Associated Press gains of better than 1% for the week, er at a torrid pace, with the question Switzerland (Franc) 0.9207 Euro costs (July 26) $1.15 Thailand (Baht) 32.92 NEW YORK — Stocks rallied to completely brushing aside the being how much growth will slow in Dollar buys (July 26) 0.8277 Turkey (NewLira) 8.5546 British pound (July 26) $1.34 records on Wall Street Friday, and sharp downturn that trimmed 1.6% upcoming months and years. A pre- Japanese yen (July 26) 107.00 (Military exchange rates are those available the Dow Jones Industrial Average off the S&P 500 on Monday. liminary report from IHS Markit on South Korean won (July 26) 1120.00 to customers at military banking facilities in the Commercial rates country of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Ger­ closed above the 35,000 level for the That drop was caused by worries Friday indicated U.S. manufactur- many, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Bahrain(Dinar) 0.3770 For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., pur­ first time, as the market continued about a potentially sharp slowdown ing growth may be unexpectedly Britain (Pound) 1.3751 chasing British pounds in Germany), check with Canada (Dollar) 1.2589 your local military banking facility. Commercial to roar back from its short-lived in the economy due to a fast-spread- accelerating in July, though growth China(Yuan) 6.4792 rates are interbank rates provided for reference Denmark (Krone) 6.3224 swoon at the start of the week. ing variant of the coronavirus. But in services industries looks to be Egypt (Pound) 15.6702 when buying currency. All figures are foreign The S&P 500 index climbed 44.31, the S&P 500 has since climbed four slowing more than economists ex- Euro 0.8500 currencies to one dollar, except for the British Hong Kong (Dollar) 7.7683 pound, which is represented in dollars­to­ or 1%, to 4,411.79 to top its prior all- straight days, as big companies re- pected. Hungary (Forint) 305.62 pound, and the euro, which is dollars­to­euro.) Israel (Shekel) 3.2689 time high, set early last week. The ported better profits than expected The yield on the 10-year Treasury Japan (Yen) 110.42 INTEREST RATES Dow rose 238.20, or 0.7%, to and as investors once again saw any gave up some of its gain following Kuwait(Dinar) 0.3009 Norway (Krone) 8.8764 Prime rate 3.25 35,061.55, and the Nasdaq compos- dip in stocks as merely a chance to the release of the report, but it still Philippines (Peso) 50.21 Interest Rates Discount rate 0.75 Poland (Zloty) 3.88 Federal funds market rate 0.09 ite gained 152.39, or 1%, to 14,836.99. buy low. rose to 1.27% from 1.26% late Thurs- Saudi Arabia (Riyal) 3.7509 3­month bill 0.05 All three indexes finished with The economy continues to recov- day. Singapore (Dollar) 1.3599 30­year bond 1.90 WEATHER OUTLOOK SUNDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST SUNDAY IN EUROPE MONDAY IN THE PACIFIC Misawa 72/69 Kabul Seoul 97/59 92/75 Baghdad 115/82 Tokyo Drawsko Osan Kandahar Mildenhall/ 92/75 83/70 107/73 Pomorskie Busan Lakenheath 80/62 82/77 67/59 Iwakuni Kuwait City Bahrain 81/76 Brussels Zagan Sasebo 114/94 95/91 Ramstein 82/63 86/76 Guam 71/62 74/62 84/81 Riyadh Lajes, 111/84 Doha Azores Stuttgart 106/89 70/67 73/64 Pápa Aviano/ 92/71 Vicenza 82/65 Naples 88/71 Okinawa Morón 81/78 95/64 Sigonella Rota 98/64 The weather is provided by the Djibouti 79/66 Souda Bay American Forces Network Weather Center, 89/83 79/75 2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. TODAY IN STRIPES American Roundup ...... 11 Books .......................... 14 Comics .........................15 Crossword ................... 15 Music ..................... 12-13 Opinion ........................ 17 Sports .................... 18-24 Sunday, July 25, 2021 • STARS AND STRIPES • PAGE 3 MILITARY Many Dems seek bigger defense budget BY JOHN M. DONNELLY billion specifically for the Defense CQ-Roll Call Department, although appropri- WASHINGTON — The Senate ators would make the final call on Armed Services Committee’s how much of the money is deliver- move to authorize significantly ed. more defense spending next year The Armed Services Commit- than President Joe Biden wants tee disclosed only one vote tally demonstrates that there’s still a from its closed proceedings, the sizable number of Democratic 23-3 vote on final approval, but did hawks in the Senate willing to not say how individual lawmakers challenge the party’s dovish pro- voted. gressive wing. But congressional aides said At the committee’s markup this that when it came time to vote on week of the fiscal 2022 National final approval of the bill, Warren Defense Authorization Act, Okla- again voted “no.” homa’s James M. Inhofe, the rank- So, too, did Republicans Tom ing Republican, offered an Cotton of Arkansas and Josh Haw- amendment to authorize $25 bil- ley of Missouri. Cotton and Haw- lion more than Biden requested ley were concerned about a provi- (and $37 billion more than what sion that would require women for was appropriated for the current the first time to register for the fiscal year), aides said. draft. The committee has made little Inhofe’s amendment ratified information about the closed mar- what senators on the panel had de- kup public. But aides disclosed cided long before Wednesday. Friday that a separate vote was JOSE LUIS MAGANA/AP Otherwise, the committee would held on the total amount of fund- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D­Mass., was the only member of the Senate Armed Services Committe to vote not have been ready to allocate the ing, and they also revealed the fi- against the plan to add $25 billion to President Joe Biden's defense budget request. additional billions for specific de- nal tally: 25-1. fense programs. That vote, with only Massachu- discretionary budget, between de- fense budget increase proposed lion for national defense programs Much of the boost went toward setts Democrat Elizabeth Warren fense and nondefense spending. It by Biden was too large, will face a in fiscal 2022 at the Pentagon and programs that top generals and objecting, sends a powerful mess- also indicates that the loud voices struggle in their own party.

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