Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Thursday. |
 | | President Biden was by turns defensive about his decision to leave Afghanistan and angry at his critics.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times |
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1. President Biden defended the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan as the Taliban gain ground. |
In a half-hour speech, Biden said that the U.S. could no longer afford the human cost or strategic distraction of fighting the war in Afghanistan and that Afghanistan's government and forces must be responsible for their own future. |
"We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build," Biden said. All U.S. combat troops will be out of the country by Aug. 31. |
As U.S. troops leave, the situation on the ground is increasingly dire. Over two months, the Taliban have seized at least 150 of Afghanistan's 421 districts. Biden seemed to recognize that reality when he said, "The mission hasn't failed — yet." |
 | | A worker sanitizing a street as coronavirus cases spike in Guatemala City.Moises Castillo/Associated Press |
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2. The Delta variant can sidestep the body's immune defenses, according to a new study. But the fully vaccinated are still protected. |
Blood samples from just 10 percent of people immunized with one dose of the AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were able to neutralize the Delta and Beta variants. But a second dose boosted that number to 95 percent. |
The global death toll of the pandemic has now surpassed four million, and seven of the 10 countries with the highest death rates over the past week were in South America. Scientists are also watching the Lambda variant, which is spreading rapidly through parts of the continent, but it is not clear how much of a risk it poses. |
 | | A crowd surrounded a police car transporting two suspects in the assassination.Valerie Baeriswyl/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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3. A manhunt for the assassins of Haiti's president was underway as the crisis deepened. |
Haiti's police chief said that six suspects had been arrested and three bodies recovered, "visibly foreigners," as well as five vehicles believed to have been used in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. At least one of the suspects is an American citizen. |
Since the assassination early Wednesday, a power struggle has emerged between two competing prime ministers. Claude Joseph, the country's interim prime minister, has taken command of the police and army and declared martial law. But two days before Moïse's death, the president appointed a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, who was supposed to take up the role this week. Henry is claiming the right to run the government. Here are our latest updates. |
 | | Dade Phelan, the Texas speaker of the House, gaveled open the special session.Eric Gay/Associated Press |
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The bills will be debated in the Legislature's special session in the coming days. They largely resemble those from the Republicans' initial attempt to pass a sweeping voting bill, but do not include two of the most contentious provisions: a limitation on Sunday voting and a provision making it easier to overturn an election. |
The bills are the first new pieces of voting legislation to be introduced by a state legislature since the Supreme Court's decision to uphold voting restrictions in Arizona. |
 | | Stocks fell broadly as traders turned cautious following a series of record highs for major U.S. indexes.Mark Lennihan/Associated Press |
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5. Anxiety over the bumpy economic recovery roiled financial markets. Stocks fell and bond yields dropped. |
"There's growing concern on how robust the economic recovery will be," said a market analyst. "The virus spread in other countries is starting to suggest we won't have a strong second half of the year." |
 | | Maura Healey, right, Massachusetts's attorney general, announced the agreement with Purdue Pharma in Boston. Brian Snyder/Reuters |
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The states, including Massachusetts and New York, agreed to drop opposition to a bankruptcy plan of the company, the maker of OxyContin. Under the deal, Purdue and the Sackler family, the company's owners, will release millions of documents and pay an additional $50 million. |
More than 3,000 plaintiffs, including cities and states, who sought to hold Purdue and the Sackler family responsible for their role in the opioid epidemic will vote on the settlement. The plan would shield the company and the family from further lawsuits for misleading marketing of OxyContin, the painkiller seen as initiating a wave of opioid addiction that has led to the deaths of more than 500,000 Americans. |
 | | The writer and naturalist Dara McAnulty near his home in Northern Ireland.Ellius Grace for The New York Times |
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7. A teenager is fast becoming one of Britain and Ireland's most acclaimed nature writers. |
The diary entries are frank about the effects of autism on McAnulty's life. "Dandelions remind me of the way I close myself off from so much of the world," he writes, "either because it's too painful to see or feel, or because when I am open to people, the ridicule comes." |
For another take on the natural world, Michael Pollan's new book, "This Is Your Mind on Plants," elevates a series of big questions about drugs, plants and humans that are likely to leave readers thinking in new ways, writes our reviewer. |
 | | Lil Nas XShikeith for The New York Times |
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8. Lil Nas X wants to be not just a pop star but also a visibly gay one — founded on genuine pride and comfort. |
The world first met Nas as the Gen Z, social-media maestro behind "Old Town Road." But the difference between the Nas of "Old Town Road" and the one heard now, both in musical approach and in self-depiction, is that coming out as gay for Nas was a recalibration. |
 | | The contestant Sreethan Gajula, 14, from Waxhaw, N.C., ahead of the finals in Orlando.Scott McIntyre for The New York Times |
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9. The Stanley Cup finals, the N.B.A. championship and tonight, the Scripps National Spelling Bee. |
Eleven students will compete in the finals, which have pitted kids against orthographical nightmares for almost a century. The national contest is making its return after being called off in 2020 because of the pandemic. The Times, which has covered spelling bees for almost 150 years, will report live on the spellers and the words they face. |
 | | Children playing Tencent at a mall in Handan, China.China Stringer Network/Reuters |
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10. And finally, turn off that video game. The Midnight Patrol is watching. |
In 2019, China imposed a cybercurfew barring children and teenagers from playing games between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. This week, the Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent introduced new features, called Midnight Patrol, that use facial recognition technology to enforce the rule. |
The rollout set off a debate on Chinese internet platforms about the benefits and privacy risks of the technology. China is not the only country seeking to rein in screen time. Last year, Kagawa Prefecture in Japan asked parents set screen time limits on children and teenagers. |
| David Poller compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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