Evening Briefing: Afghan cities fall to the Taliban

August 13, 2021

By Remy Tumin

Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Friday.

A Taliban fighter stands guard over surrendered Afghan security forces in Ghazni, southwest of Kabul, on Friday.Gulabuddin Amiri/Associated Press

1. Afghan cities are falling to the Taliban with stunning speed.

The Taliban now effectively control much of Afghanistan after seizing Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, on Friday morning, as well as the cultural hub of Herat and Kandahar, the country's second-largest city. Only three major Afghan cities — the capital, Kabul, Jalalabad and Mazar-i-Sharif — remain under government control.

The Pentagon said Taliban forces were seeking to isolate Kabul, taking over border crossings, highways and lines of revenue. With the government's forces on the verge of a complete collapse, the Biden administration and Britain dispatched troops to help evacuate their citizens from Kabul. Thousands of Afghans are also trying to flee the country.

The Taliban's advances have made it clear: America's 20-year effort to turn the Afghan military into an independent fighting force has failed.

The U.S. and others want neighboring Pakistan, a longtime sanctuary for the Taliban, to push harder for peace. But many Pakistanis see a Taliban victory as inevitable, and some, including former military officials, are publicly cheering for one.

Continue reading the main story

Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week.Sarah Silbiger for The New York Times

2. Nine moderate House Democrats won't back a vote on a budget plan until an infrastructure bill is passed.

It's a major rift that threatens the carefully choreographed, two-track effort by congressional Democrats and the Biden administration to enact both a trillion-dollar, bipartisan infrastructure deal and an even more ambitious — but much more partisan — $3.5 trillion social policy bill.

Continue reading the main story

The nine House members have the ability to block consideration of the budget blueprint. Speaker Nancy Pelosi had already promised progressives that she would not bring the infrastructure bill to a vote in the House until the Senate passed the social policy bill.

Separately, a gallery is selling Hunter Biden's artworks for as much as $500,000 apiece, raising questions about whether the works might attract buyers seeking to curry favor with the Biden White House.

A pop-up vaccination clinic in Miami last week.Saul Martinez for The New York Times

3. A panel advising the C.D.C. endorsed the F.D.A.'s authorization of a third vaccine dose for immunocompromised people.

The move gives more backing to doctors and patients considering the opportunity for extra protection. It comes a day after drug regulators authorized booster shots for people with solid organ transplants and others with similarly weakened immune systems.

Over the past week, an average of roughly 125,800 coronavirus cases has been reported each day in the U.S., an increase of 76 percent from two weeks ago.

The Delta variant is bringing Iran to its knees. The official death toll is around 600 a day, but frontline doctors told The Times that the real daily figure was closer to 1,000.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo after his resignation announcement on Tuesday.Seth Wenig/Associated Press

4. The New York State Assembly will suspend its impeachment investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo following his resignation over sexual harassment allegations.

Carl Heastie, the speaker of the Assembly, said the inquiry was now moot, since its main purpose was to determine whether Cuomo should remain in office. Heastie also said that lawmakers did not have the constitutional authority to impeach a governor who was no longer in office. Some Democratic lawmakers had pushed for an impeachment vote to hold Cuomo accountable — and potentially bar him from running for state office in the future.

Cuomo's resignation will take effect on Aug. 24. Here are the top six issues facing New York's next governor, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Cooling off in the Salmon Springs Fountain in Portland, Ore.Nathan Howard/Getty Images

5. Another summer heat wave is scorching the U.S., though cooler weather is expected over the weekend.

On Friday, temperatures were expected to reach 98 degrees in Philadelphia and 101 degrees in Portland, Ore. The Pacific Northwest's latest round of sweltering temperatures further exposed how communities built for mild summers were grossly unprepared for the extreme heat stoked by a warming climate.

In the West, a new study links air pollution from wildfire smoke to higher rates of coronavirus cases and deaths. And in a region where dark skies frequently draw stargazers, wildfire smoke spoiled the recent Perseid meteor shower.

Amid the extreme weather, many Republicans in Congress no longer deny that Earth is heating because of fossil fuels. But instead of backing efforts to cut emissions, they want to spend billions to cope with extreme weather.

Subscribe Today

We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times with this special offer.

The truck of Christopher Jacobs, who was killed in a police shooting in Pippa Passes, Ky.Morgan Hornsby for The New York Times

6. Rural police killings don't get the same scrutiny as those in cities.

As police shootings became a flash point in U.S. cities, The Marshall Project and the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting spent a year examining little-publicized killings by the police in rural areas.

Officers in rural areas fatally shot about 1,200 people from 2015 through 2020, while in cities there were at least 2,100 such deaths. Reporters found that incidents in rural areas mirrored many of the dynamics of police shootings in cities, seldom leading to indictments or prosecutions of the officers involved.

Getting the scoop at Blue Marble Ice Cream's Upper West Side location.Cole Wilson for The New York Times

7. It has never been a better time to eat ice cream — or a more cutthroat time to sell it.

By providing stay-at-home comforts during the pandemic, the $7 billion industry grew 17 percent in 2020. Artisan ice cream is growing even faster than the mainstream and is considered the industry's future. But the spoils of success have heightened competition in the $10-a-pint world.

"Everyone's like: 'I'm going to be the next Talenti. I'm going to be the next Halo Top.' But it's one in 1,000, right?" an industry veteran said.

The wedding industry is also seeing a boom, roaring back after a pandemic-induced slump, leading to booked-up venues and vendors — and providing an additional jolt to the U.S. economy.

Nico Ali Walsh, a grandson of Muhammad Ali, trains in Las Vegas.Wade Vandervort/Las Vegas Sun, via Associated Press

8. "For me, success is legacy."

A boxer with a famous name is making his debut on Saturday: Nico Ali Walsh, a grandson of Muhammad Ali. He's fighting to find the balance between honoring his grandfather's name and establishing his own.

Looking ahead to the U.S. Open: The year's final Grand Slam tournament begins in less than three weeks. Many of the biggest names in tennis, including Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Serena Williams, are skipping the usual hardcourt warm-up tournaments. Their absence has some players wondering: Is it time for new stars?

It takes about 200 flowers to yield 1 gram of saffron.Bryan Gardner for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

9. Nothing in the world of food compares to saffron's unique fragrance and flavor. Thankfully, you only need a little of the world's priciest spice to flavor a dish.

Harvesting saffron from the flowers of the Crocus sativus plant is extremely laborious, hence its high cost — it takes about 200 flowers to produce 1 gram of saffron. The food contributor Naz Deravian offers a time-honored method to make it last: Grind the threads with a small pinch of sugar or salt to create a powder, then add a few spoonfuls of boiling water to create a saffron water.

Fermented foods like yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha have long been dietary staples in many parts of the world. Now a new study has found that fermented foods increased the diversity of gut microbes and led to lower levels of inflammation throughout the body.

Subway riders in Tokyo are treated to jingles that vary by station.Jeff Roberson/Associated Press

10. And finally, stand clear of the closing doors, please.

That's the phrase New York City subway riders hear right before a "ding-dong" pings and the doors close. Montreal's signature "doo-doo-doo" alert has the same intervals as the opening for Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man." In Paris, a simple "A" note plays as the doors shut. In Rio de Janeiro, the subway's door jingle pays homage to bossa nova.

Door chimes may seem like a dull background track to daily commutes. But if you listen closely, you'll notice regional patterns and distinctions.

"I think the appeal is the simplicity," one train jingle enthusiast said. "You wonder, how can there be so many different variations of beeps? And then you listen, and they're all so different."

Have a harmonic weekend.

David Poller compiled photos for this briefing.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Want to catch up on past briefings? You can browse them here.

What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com.

Here is today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. If you're in the mood to play more, find all our games here.

Continue reading the main story