Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Wednesday. |
 | | Waiting to gain access to the international airport in Kabul on Wednesday.Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times |
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1. The U.S. mounted a furious push to evacuate American citizens and Afghan allies from Kabul, just six days before American troops are scheduled to complete their withdrawal. |
About 1,500 U.S. citizens remain in Afghanistan, 500 of whom are hoping to leave in the coming days, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. More than 4,500 Americans have been flown out since Aug. 14, Blinken said. Tens of thousands of Afghans who qualify for special immigration visas are also waiting to be evacuated, and more than 10,000 people were inside the airport Wednesday. Here's what it looks like on the ground. |
U.S. and allied planes have flown 19,200 people out of Kabul in the past 24 hours, officials said. |
Experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of Afghans will be targeted by the Taliban if they stay, including Afghan security forces, government officials and women's rights advocates. A Taliban spokesman told women to stay home because fighters had not been trained to treat them well. |
As the U.S. steps up its evacuation operation, the biggest immediate threat comes from an Islamic State affiliate known as the Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K. |
 | | Receiving a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in Southfield, Mich., on Monday.Emily Elconin/Getty Images |
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2. The case for vaccine booster shots is growing. |
 | | Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in his office in Jerusalem.Amit Elkayam for The New York Times |
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3. Israel's new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, will meet with President Biden at the White House tomorrow, and they're already at odds. |
In an interview with The Times, Bennett said he would oppose a new Iran nuclear deal and ruled out Palestinian peace talks, both key policies backed by Biden. Bennett said he would use the meeting to reset the tone of Israel's relationship with the U.S., which was rocky between Benjamin Netanyahu and Democratic administrations, and present a new strategic vision on Iran that included continued covert attacks. |
 | | Just $1.7 billion in funds intended to prevent eviction were disbursed in July.Micah Green for The New York Times |
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4. About 89 percent of federal funds to help renters avoid eviction during the pandemic has not been distributed. |
The $46.5 billion rental aid program continues to disburse money at a slow pace as the White House braces for a Supreme Court order that could strike down a new national moratorium on evictions. Just $5.1 billion has been distributed, according to the Treasury Department, which oversees the program. |
 | | A migrant encampment in Reynosa, Mexico, earlier this month.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times |
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 | | Source: NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information |
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5. The U.S., like most of the world, is becoming both drier and wetter in the era of climate change. It just depends on where you live. |
Heavy downpours caused devastating flash floods in central Tennessee, tearing apart houses and killing more than 20 people. New York City saw record-breaking rains last weekend. |
 | | "There is constant control and a culture of snitching," said Aleksei Navalny, seen in May. Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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6. We interviewed Aleksei Navalny, Russia's opposition leader, about life in prison. |
"Reading, writing or doing anything else" is prohibited, Navalny said of the forced screen time, a program that has replaced hard labor. "You have to sit in a chair and watch TV." And if an inmate nods off, he said, the guards shout, "Don't sleep, watch!" |
 | | Since 2016, OnlyFans has offered subscriptions to a feed of content too racy for Instagram.Cristian Hernandez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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7. OnlyFans, the subscription service that helped put X-rated material in the hands of its adult performers, reversed its decision to ban explicit content. |
The change was, in part, because of a backlash by creators who were beginning to leave the platform in numbers. The initial announcement last week led to some panic in the pornographic industry, one publicist said, as well as sadness that just as respect and empathy for sex workers was growing, a business they'd helped build was gearing up to cast them out. |
 | | The cast of "Chicago" goes in for a group hug.George Etheredge for The New York Times |
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8. "I've dreamed of this for 18 months, as we all have." |
That's Dan Micciche, the musical director of "Wicked," at the first rehearsal since Broadway shut down for the pandemic. In spaces around Manhattan, the casts and crews of Broadway shows are reconvening for the first time as they prepare to take the stage. We were there for some of those reunions. |
In St. Louis, a production of Tennessee Williams's "The Glass Menagerie" has become an immersive event. The open-air performance is staged at the apartment building where Williams once lived. "We're using fire escapes that he probably walked on," said the director. "It is very humbling and very daunting." |
 | | The asteroid Bennu, captured in 2018, may or may not collide with Earth in the 2100s.NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona |
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9. NASA said that an asteroid would have a close brush with Earth in the 2100s. How do we avoid the very unwelcome cosmic visitor? |
For almost 20 years, a team of researchers has been trying to answer that question. Using a specially designed gun owned by NASA, they've repeatedly fired projectiles at meteorites and measured how the space rocks recoiled and, in some cases, shattered. |
The preferred tactic for planetary defense is nudging an incoming asteroid aside. The way to do that, scientists generally agree, is to deliberately set up a collision between an asteroid and a much less massive object, altering the trajectory of the asteroid enough to pass by Earth harmlessly. "It may barely miss, but barely missing is enough," one physicist said. |
 | | Zara Rutherford just before taking off from an airport in Brussels last week.Thierry Centner |
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10. And finally, a young pilot goes for a big record. |
Zara Rutherford, 19, is trying to become the youngest woman to fly solo around the world. She left Belgium last week in a two-seat, 22-foot-long plane and plans to complete her journey by early November. Bad weather may be the biggest obstacle. |
Rutherford said that she saw her journey not only as a personal challenge — her longest flight until now was from Texas to Jordan — but also as a way of raising awareness about the gender gap in aviation, science and technology. Rutherford is scheduled to land tomorrow at Kennedy International Airport in New York, a rare destination for such a small plane. |
"It's definitely going to be the biggest airfield I will ever land at in my life," she said. |
| Marcus Payadue compiled photos for this briefing. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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