A person wounded in a bomb blast outside the Kabul airport arrives at a hospital.
“Thirteen US service members and at least 90 Afghans were killed in a pair of bombing attacks outside the airport in Kabul where thousands of people had gathered in recent days to escape Taliban rule. Right after the explosions, gunmen opened fire on service members and civilians. At least 140 people were injured in the attack, including 18 US service members. US officials had warned that the chaotic and violent exit from Afghanistan could make the area vulnerable to renewed terrorist activity, and Biden said the risk of an attack was one of the reasons he was adhering to the August 31 withdrawal deadline, despite the deteriorating situation on the ground.
Who is behind it: ISIS in Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, claimed that an ISIS militant carried out the suicide attack but has not provided evidence to support the claim. This branch of the ISIS terror group first emerged in Syria and Iraq, and Afghanistan-based cells have been carrying out devastating suicide attacks in the country since 2016. The group is a sworn enemy of the Taliban. In the hours and days before the attack, US officials said they were aware of a ‘very specific threat stream’ from the group. At the time, US diplomats ordered all Americans away from some airport gates.
What the situation on the ground is like now: The US is pressing forward with evacuations, including the roughly 1,000 Americans still in Afghanistan. Gen. Kenneth ‘Frank’ McKenzie, head of US Central Command, says there are still ‘extremely active threat streams against the airfield.’ He also says the US military is using attack helicopters and other aircraft to defend the airport. Biden said he would authorize whatever military leaders need, including more troops, to complete the mission. Meanwhile, scenes of carnage, rescue and grief continue to unfold in the attacks’ aftermath.
What comes next: The attack has focused more scrutiny on Biden, who was already being criticized for what some considered a hasty and disorganized exit from Afghanistan. Republican adversaries have vowed Biden will face a ‘reckoning’ over the attack. Biden defended his decision to stick to the troop withdrawal timeline and his withdrawal plan in general, saying, ‘It was time to end a 20-year war.’ More existential questions lie ahead, like what the US’ moral obligation is to an Afghanistan left vulnerable to terrorism and how the US should recognize the rising Taliban rule there.” Read more at CNN
“The Supreme Court has blocked the Biden administration’s eviction moratorium, which was extended at the beginning of August to provide continued relief during the pandemic. Landlord groups balked at the extension, and the Supreme Court decided such a move would require new legislation. The White House said because of the ruling, families will face more evictions and more dangers from Covid-19.” Read more at CNN
“The Texas house of representatives has passed a sweeping elections bill that would prohibit 24-hour and drive-through voting, block election officials from sending out absentee ballot applications, impose new identification requirements on mail-in ballots, and give more leeway to partisan poll watchers at voting sites.
The bill – which passed on a 79-37 mostly party-line vote – now moves to the Texas senate, which has already passed a similar version. The senate can either concur with the house legislation or produce a final version using a conference committee. After that, it will go to the desk of Texas governor Greg Abbott, who is likely to swiftly approve it.
The legislation comes amid a nationwide effort by Republicans, who control state government in Texas, to enact legislation that imposes new restrictions on voting access. The Texas bill exploded into the national spotlight after Democrats in the state legislature repeatedly blocked it by walking out of the state legislature, denying Republicans the ability to move forward with legislative business. The standoff, which lasted a little over a month, ended last week when enough Democrats returned to the state capitol to allow the process to move forward.
Many of the provisions in the Texas bill are aimed at Harris county, Texas’ most populous county, and home of Houston, a Democratic stronghold. Harris County election officials took several steps to make voting amid the pandemic easier. Those measures included adopting drive-through and 24-hour voting. The majority of voters who used both processes in 2020 were either Black, Hispanic or Asian, according to an estimate by the Texas Civil Rights Project. About 127,000 people used the process.” Read more at The Guardian
“Tropical Storm Ida is heading toward the US Gulf Coast and could develop into a hurricane by the time it arrives. The system is now threatening the Caribbean with winds of 40 mph. It will impact Cuba today before likely reaching the US by Sunday. Residents in Louisiana, where the storm is forecast to hit, are preparing for potential rains and hurricane-force winds.” Read more at CNN
“Experts studying the origins of the coronavirus for the World Health Organization warned Wednesday that the inquiry had ‘stalled’ and that further delays could make it impossible to recover crucial evidence about the beginning of the pandemic.
‘The window is rapidly closing on the biological feasibility of conducting the critical trace-back of people and animals inside and outside China,’ the experts wrote in an editorial in the journal Nature. Several studies of blood samples and wildlife farms in China were urgently needed to understand how COVID-19 emerged, they said.
Amid a rancorous debate about whether a laboratory incident could have started the pandemic, the editorial amounted to a defense of the team’s work and an appeal for follow-up studies. A separate report by U.S. intelligence agencies into the pandemic’s origins was delivered to President Joe Biden on Tuesday, but did not offer any new answers about whether the virus emerged from a lab or in a natural spillover from animals to humans.
The international expert team, sent to Wuhan, China, in January as part of a joint inquiry by the WHO and China, has faced criticism for publishing a report in March that said a leak of the coronavirus from a lab, while possible, was ‘extremely unlikely.’” Read more at Boston Globe
“The CDC issued a health advisory yesterday warning doctors and the public about the ‘rapid increase’ in prescriptions for the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin. Calls to poison control centers about the drug have increased threefold compared to the number of similar calls before the pandemic, the CDC said. One doctor in Arkansas is being investigated after he admitted he’s prescribed the drug thousands of times to patients despite warnings.” Read more at CNN
Administering a dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine at a mobile clinic near Moshav Dalton in northern Israel in February. Credit...Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is associated with an increased risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, a large new study from Israel confirms. But the side effect remains rare, and Covid-19 is more likely to cause myocarditis than the vaccine is, scientists reported on Wednesday.
The research, which is based on the electronic health records of about two million people who are 16 or older, provides a comprehensive look at the real-wold incidence of various adverse events after both vaccination and infection with the coronavirus.
Although the study did not break down the myocarditis risks by age or by sex, the median age of people who developed the condition after vaccination was 25, and 19 of the 21 cases were in males, the researchers reported.
In addition to myocarditis, the Pfizer vaccine was also associated with an increased risk of swollen lymph nodes, appendicitis and shingles, although all three side effects remained uncommon in the study. Coronavirus infection was not associated with these side effects, but it did increase the odds of several potentially serious cardiovascular problems, including heart attacks and blood clots.” Read more at New York Times
“Seven US Capitol Police officers are suing former President Trump and some far-right entities, saying they should be held responsible for the events of January 6 and ultimately put police in danger with their misinformation and provocations. Among the defendants are alleged members of the far-right extremist groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. The suit is the latest in a long string of legal actions that aim to hold Trump liable for the insurrection.” Read more at CNN
“The Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt, a pro-Trump rioter who stormed the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection, publicly revealed his identity Thursday in an exclusive interview with ‘NBC Nightly News.’
Michael Byrd, a 28-year veteran with the Capitol Police, said he only fired his gun that day as a ‘last resort,’ and that he was trying to protect about 60 to 80 House members and staff who were sheltering beyond the glass doors of Speaker’s Lobby outside the House chamber.
‘Once we barricaded the doors, we were essentially trapped where we were,’ Byrd told ‘NBC Nightly News’ host Lester Holt. ‘There was no way to retreat. No other way to get out.’
Babbitt was among a group of supporters of former president Donald Trump who made their way into the Capitol on Jan. 6 to try to stop the certification of President Biden’s election victory. The pro-Trump mobs overran the Capitol complex in a violent siege that ultimately resulted in five deaths.” Read more at Washington Post
“The massive Caldor Fire continues to grow , inching closer to Lake Tahoe and prompting the first evacuation warnings to those inside the Lake Tahoe basin. The wildfire has grown to at least 213 square miles on a trek that has also destroyed the small town of Grizzly Flats. The edge of the Caldor Fire was less than 15 miles southwest of the lake Thursday, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES satellite published by Google. Ongoing damage assessments have counted 637 homes, businesses and other structures destroyed so far. Another 17,000 structures were still in danger.” Read more at The Guardian
The Caldor Fire burns on both sides of Highway 50 about 10 miles east of Kyburz, California, as the fire pushes east prompting evacuation orders all the way to Echo Summit. The Caldor Fire, the nation's top priority for firefighting resources, grew to more than 213 square miles southwest of Lake Tahoe but containment remained at 12%, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.Sara Nevis, AP Images
“NEW YORK (AP) — The chief executive of the sexual harassment victims’ advocacy group Time’s Up resigned Thursday amid outrage over revelations that its leaders advised former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration after he was first accused of misconduct last year.
Time’s Up CEO and president Tina Tchen said in a statement that she’s ‘spent a career fighting for positive change for women’ but was no longer the right person to lead the #MeToo-era organization.
‘I am especially aware that my position at the helm of TIME’S UP has become a painful and divisive focal point, where those very women and other activists who should be working together to fight for change are instead battling each other in harmful ways,’ she wrote.
The group’s chief operating officer, Monifa Bandele, will serve as interim CEO.
Tchen’s resignation comes after the Aug. 9 departure of the organization’s chair, Roberta Kaplan. Both women had been the target of ire from Time’s Up supporters over the idea they had offered any help to Cuomo, who resigned Monday, three weeks after an investigation overseen by New York’s attorney general concluded he sexually harassed at least 11 women.
The report detailed Cuomo’s attempt to discredit his first public accuser, Lindsey Boylan, after she accused him last December of making inappropriate comments, but before she explicitly detailed allegations of unwanted touching and kissing.
Text messages obtained by The Washington Post show that Tchen initially discouraged other Time’s Up leaders from making any public comment about Boylan’s allegations. Later, top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa asked Kaplan — her attorney — to review a letter the governor’s supporters intended to circulate attacking Boylan’s credibility.” Read more at AP News
“BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Apple has agreed to let developers of iPhone apps email their users about cheaper ways to pay for digital subscriptions and media by circumventing a commission system that generates billions of dollars annually for the iPhone maker.
The concession announced late Thursday, which covers emailed notifications but does not allow in-app notifications, is part of a preliminary settlement of a nearly 2-year-old lawsuit filed on behalf of iPhone app developers in the U.S. It also addresses an issue raised by a federal court judge who is expected to soon rule on a separate case brought by Epic Games, maker of the popular video game Fortnite.” Read more at AP News
“FORT PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg pleaded no contest Thursday to a pair of misdemeanor traffic charges over a crash last year that killed a pedestrian, avoiding jail time despite bitter complaints from the victim’s family that he was being too lightly punished for actions they called ‘inexcusable.’
Circuit Judge John Brown had little leeway to order jail time. Instead, he fined the state’s top law enforcement official $500 for each of the two counts and ordered him to pay court costs of $3,742. Brown also ordered the Republican attorney general to ‘do a significant public service event’ in each of the next five years near the date of Joseph Boever’s death — granting a request from the Boever family. But he put that on hold after Ravnsborg’s attorney objected that it was not allowed by statute.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Another round of aid to Haiti. The United States has said it will provide another $32 million in aid to Haiti to help those affected by the earthquake earlier this month. In the past, Washington and the international community have been criticized for providing aid without supporting state building and strengthening local communities.
U.S. Agency for International Development chief Samantha Power seemed to address such concerns on Thursday. ‘Perhaps the most important lesson [from 2010] is that no development agency and no army or diplomatic corps can just import a perfect humanitarian response from afar,’ Power said, citing the need for local expertise.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Staying home | New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern extended a national lockdown through Aug. 31 as a coronavirus outbreak continues to grow, but she said some restrictions outside the largest city Auckland will be eased next week. Meanwhile, Malaysia became Southeast Asia’s Covid-19 hotspot, reporting a record 24,599 new cases yesterday. That eclipsed Indonesia and Thailand, where infections have ebbed.” Read more at Bloomberg
“President Joe Biden's first face-to-face meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the White House was postponed until Friday following deadly explosions outside Kabul's airport . The president's meeting with Bennett, who took office in June, was originally scheduled for Thursday. Before arriving in Washington, Bennett made clear the top priority of the visit was to persuade Biden not to return to the Iran nuclear deal, arguing Tehran has already advanced in its uranium enrichment, and that sanctions relief would give Iran more resources to back Israel’s enemies in the region.” Read more at USA Today
“MANILA — He rules a nation of 110 million racked by a drug war, a persistent communist insurgency, and a spiraling pandemic. Yet he is often absent from public view, regularly sleeps until the afternoon, and makes rambling televised speeches that drag into the early hours of the morning.
Now, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is firming up plans to remain in power beyond next year when his single-term limit expires, much as Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey stayed at the helm through constitutional maneuvering.
‘You really want it? Then I will run for vice president,’ Duterte said in one of his characteristic late-night discourses this week. ‘Then I will continue the crusade. I'm worried about drugs and insurgency.’” Read more at AP News
“Lives Lived: Inge Ginsberg fled the Holocaust, helped U.S. spies during World War II, wrote volumes of poetry and late in life became the frontwoman for a heavy metal rock band. She died at 99.” Read more at New York Times
“Politico, the Washington news site that has prospered for years as Beltway professionals gobbled up its scoops and inside-baseball-style reporting, will have a new owner.
The German publishing giant Axel Springer agreed to buy Politico in a deal announced on Thursday that could shake up the Washington media scene.
Springer will take control of Politico and its sister site, Politico Europe, as well as Politico’s tech news site, Protocol, a relatively new venture, the companies said. The deal, expected to close by the end of the year, is valued at more than $1 billion, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The New York Times reported last week that Politico’s owner, Robert Allbritton, was seeking $1 billion for the deal. The companies did not publicly disclose financial terms.” Read more at New York Times