Booze + Weed = Industry Buz z | The Taliban’s ‘Moderate’

An outsider turned deputy political head, Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi is now central to ending the war … eventually.

Outside Moscow’s President Hotel in February, the deputy political head of the Taliban, Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi Ali Mardan Qul, voiced his grievances with a tilt in his eyebrows.

“Earlier, the Americans had told us only the Taliban wants withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan. But today, all Afghans have only one thing to say: We don’t need the existence of foreign forces in our country. The U.S. must leave,” the lean and long-faced Uzbek leader said deliberately, in broken but fluent English.

He was not loud or demonstrative. And yet the formal, bearded and bespectacled man radiated intensity.

Cannabis-infused drinks — alcoholic and nonalcoholic — are set to take over the beverage world.

Alcohol sales in the U.S. are in steady decline — they’ve gone down three years in a row. Experts say health and wellness concerns are turning people away. But brewers may finally have found the savior they’ve been desperately seeking.

Recreational cannabis use is legal in 11 of the United States, Guam and the District of Columbia. Now, a growing number of path-breaking brewers and other entrepreneurs are adding weed to beverages to offer healthier drinks than regular beer or wine — while retaining the high that consumers seek. In the process, they’re giving birth to an entirely new industry and offering major breweries a lifeline just when their business otherwise appears headed for rocky times.

China is the latest to posture against decentralized cryptocurrency, and it won’t be the last.

Recent news that China’s central bank was close to issuing its own cryptocurrency should have given few people cause for surprise. The People’s Bank of China launched its digital currency research lab in 2017, and work on the project has reportedly been going on for five years. It’s fair to assume that the announcement of the digital renminbi has been fast-tracked because of Facebook’s announcement of its Libra cryptocurrency.

Beijing’s reaction is not unprecedented in terms of approach; China is just one of a series of countries posturing against Libra and decentralized cryptocurrency in general. India has recently been mulling outlawing cryptocurrencies altogether. Anyone dealing with them can face a fine of up to $3.5 million and 10 years in jail. The European Union has also hit back hard against Libra. France’s finance minister says it is out of the question that Libra might one day become a sovereign currency. Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, says Libra will be subject to the highest standards of regulation.