Washington (Dispatches) - Amid the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden’s approval rating slid to just 43% in the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. That is down 6 percentage points from a survey conducted in July and is the lowest mark for Biden in the poll since taking office. The decline is principally due to independents — just 36% of them approve of the job he’s doing, a 10-point drop. That a majority of independents now disapprove of his performance is bad news for Biden and Democrats. They’re a key swing group, one Biden won in 2020 but who now think he’s off track.

***
LONDON (Dispatches) -UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace admitted that he believes the United States is no longer a superpower, while also acknowledging that his home country does not fit the bill either. Wallace’s remarks came during an interview with Spectator magazine in which the government official discussed how the two allies handled the Afghanistan pullout.

***
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Sputnik) - Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Friday that his country needs a nuclear power plant, and the issue should be analyzed in detail. “In my address to the Kazakh people, I directed that the possibility of creating a nuclear energy sector in Kazakhstan should be comprehensibly explored. It is necessary to adequately assess the needs of the state, citizens and businesses. Personally, I think that it is time to analyze this issue in depth, as Kazakhstan needs nuclear power plant,” Tokayev said in a video speech at the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia’s Vladivostok.

***
ABUJA (Dispatches) - Nigerian police say gunmen have abducted more than 70 students in the country’s northwest, in the latest in a series of school attacks targeting pupils. Zamfara state police spokesman Mohammed Shehu said in a statement that a large group of attackers stormed the Government Day Secondary School in the remote village of Kaya, seizing 73 students. “The abduction followed the invasion of the school by large numbers of armed bandits,” he added.

***
BERLIN (Dispatches) - German environmental groups have announced a legal offensive against car giants Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW to force them to reduce emissions faster, emboldened by recent court victories in favor of climate protection. Greenpeace Germany and Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) on Friday said they have sent a claim letter to the three carmakers asking them to commit to more ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions, including ending production of fossil-fuel cars by 2030. If they do not respond to the letter in the coming weeks and halt their “illegal behavior”, the NGOs said they are ready to file lawsuits in court.