| Welcome to The Daily 202 newsletter! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1968, Moscow sent troops into Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring." Turn on CNN or any other cable TV news, and you're likely to see images of the chaotic evacuation of Afghanistan, or debates about how President Biden has handled (or mishandled) getting American civilians out of there. But head to local news, especially newspapers, and the landscape changes and changes dramatically. They're not ignoring the plight of the tens of thousands of U.S. citizens, or Afghan civilians entitled to apply for visas to come here. But it's rarely the top story. Instead, the biggest headlines belong to the pandemic. The coronavirus has killed more than 625,000 people in the United States. The delta variant over the past few months has sent cases soaring, driven thousands into hospitals and swollen the death toll. Americans are fighting in school board meetings and courts and legislatures and governors' offices and sometimes in the streets over what to do about it. It's a huge public-health story, an economics story, a science story, a national security story, a parenting story, a story about social mores, and, yes, a politics story. At the risk of being coarse, let's talk about that last bit. Whether this dynamic benefits President Biden isn't entirely clear. Here's an observation from my friend Peter Baker, who covers the White House for the New York Times: Would Biden rather talk about the pandemic, when polls show the public generally approves of his approach (though that number has slipped) and sides with him in some high-profile fights with Republicans? Cases, hospitalizations and deaths have risen, driven by the unvaccinated. Or would he rather talk about Afghanistan, given Americans have strongly supported withdrawing but the scenes of chaos in Kabul could come with a political price? One reason a phenomenon like the pandemic is a political nightmare for a White House is it's a deeply emotional national — okay, international — story easily told at the local level. No White House is perfectly equipped to keep track of, never mind push back against, every local TV affiliate or newspaper piece that raises hackles at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Here's a sampling of what Americans woke up to this morning, courtesy of the Newseum's "Today's Front Pages" website. The Miami Herald front page this morning has two foreign policy stories: One is about new sanctions on Cuban officials, another about the situation in Haiti in the aftermath of a major earthquake. There's no Afghanistan piece on the front page. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's big headline is "Doctors plead with public to get shots." The front page also includes a piece on highway toll lanes, job growth, the death of a high school science teacher from the coronavirus. But all the way down on the front page is a "Protests erupt for 2nd day in Afghanistan" nugget that does not refer to Biden or the evacuation. The Boston Globe leads with a piece by its own Jess Bidgood: "Biden blamed for Afghan refugees' plight." But the splashiest front-page story is about Latino-driven population growth, and the coronavirus still gets more real estate than the evacuation. The Dallas Morning News has a photograph of Afghan protesters against the Taliban and a nod to a new poll showing roughly two-thirds of Americans say the war wasn't worth fighting. But most of the front page is how schools are responding to the coronavirus, vaccines, deleted police files, border spending, and Republican election legislation. "Afghans keep up protests against Taliban" greets you at the Los Angeles Times, which also has a large "reporter's essay" entitled "Surreal brush with militants. Journalists are roughed up, then offered an energy drink." Mask-wearing and actress Scarlett Johansson's lawsuit against Walt Disney are there too. The Arizona Republic has a big piece on the Arizona Coyotes hockey team, an article about the 2020 election "audit," a tax hike for education — but also a small nod to a smiling boy getting evacuated from Kabul. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has not one but two Afghanistan headlines, one about the frenetic efforts to evacuate Americans, another entitled "Afghan fight not longer rational, Biden says." But coronavirus sits at the top of the front page. In my home state of Vermont, Afghanistan doesn't appear on the front page of the Burlington Free Press, which splashes a search for a new police chief in the Green Mountain State's largest city, and efforts to help LGBTQ teens. You get the point. In some ways, "you care about things most of the public doesn't care about" is as much a journalism business model as a critique. Most Americans don't toss and turn at night wondering about points of congressional procedure, or constitutional fights over war powers, or French foreign policy, or, at least based on newspaper front pages this morning, about what might happen to the estimated 10,000-15,000 Americans thought to be in Afghanistan when Kabul fell to the Taliban. Until they do, and then our experts and obsessives get to shine. It's just worth considering what Americans are seeing from their local news media, which polls show enjoys greater trust than national outlets. | | | What's happening now Biden will address the situation in Afghanistan at 1 p.m. Eastern. Tune in to our live coverage here. The Texas Supreme Court rejected Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) ban on school mask mandates — for now. "The court, whose justices are elected and currently all Republicans, cited a provision of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure for why the request was denied. The one-sentence order provided no additional details," Meryl Kornfield and Timothy Bella report. To start your day with a full political briefing, sign up for our Power Up newsletter. | | | More on Afghanistan Biden will speak about the ongoing military evacuations amid chaos at Kabul's international airport. - Biden is expected to speak at 1 p.m. in the East Room of the White House amid intense criticism of the evacuation effort. "It is unclear whether he will take questions from reporters. The only time he has done so in recent days was for an ABC interview recorded Wednesday during which Biden stood firm in his defense of the U.S. military withdrawal and said some level of chaos was unavoidable," John Wagner reports. "Before his remarks, Biden and Vice President Harris are scheduled to meet with national security advisers 'to hear intelligence, security, and diplomatic updates on the evolving situation in Afghanistan,' the White House said in an advisory."
- "The United States has rushed troops and diplomatic reinforcements to the Kabul airport in recent days to speed up visa processing for Afghans. American commanders are negotiating daily with their Taliban counterparts — the former insurgents they battled for nearly two decades — to ensure that evacuees can reach the airport. But the reassurances from Washington belie the fear and futility on the ground," the New York Times's Shashank Bengali, Lara Jakes, Annie Karni and Kenneth P. Vogel report. "Thousands are waiting fearfully outside the airport gates, where Taliban soldiers have attacked people with sticks and rifle butts. As Afghans clutching travel documents camped outside amid Taliban checkpoints and tangles of concertina wire, anxious crowds were pressed up against blast walls, with women and children being hoisted into the arms of U.S. soldiers on the other side."
- "Earlier this week, an elite team of French police officers entered the capital's Green Zone, where French nationals and vulnerable Afghans were sheltering on the grounds of the country's embassy. They transported the people to Kabul airport for evacuation, the police confirmed," Katerina Ang, Jennifer Hassan, Erin Cunningham and Andrew Jeong report. "There have also been reports of British paratroopers leaving the airport to rescue British nationals and local allies, although it isn't immediately clear whether these efforts continued after the Taliban takeover. Germany has announced it will bring in two helicopters on Saturday to access hard to reach people in need of evacuation in Kabul."
- "Critics of the Biden administration have asked why the more numerous U.S. forces have not followed suit. The United States has dedicated its 5,000-plus troops to maintaining security at the airport."
- "About 3,000 people were evacuated Thursday from Kabul's international airport on U.S. military flights, the White House said in a statement early Friday," Wagner reports. "That figure included about 350 U.S. citizens who were flown out on the 16 flights, the White House said. It said the other evacuees included family members of U.S. citizens, applicants for the special immigrant visa program and their families, and other 'vulnerable Afghans.'"
- "During an appearance on CNN Friday morning, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said the White House is focused on doing 'everything that we can to ensure that we're able to get more people into the airport in an orderly manner' but would not discuss what additional steps the military might take beyond its work at the airport itself. 'Of course, the images that we see are heartbreaking,' she said. 'They're appalling. It is a scary moment. It is unacceptable to the president. He has directed his team to move as quickly as possible,'" Wagner writes.
- "The U.S. Air Force crew that made a split-second decision to allow hundreds of fleeing Afghans onto a C-17 transport plane said Friday that the actual number of evacuees was 823, including 183 children," Erin Cunningham reports.
 A baby is handed over to U.S. troops at the perimeter wall of the Kabul airport. (Omar Haidari/Reuters) | The Taliban have begun rounding up Afghans on a blacklist. - "The Taliban have begun rounding up Afghans on a blacklist of people they believe have worked in key roles with the previous Afghan administration or with U.S.-led forces that supported it, according to a report by a Norwegian intelligence group," Reuters reports. "The report, compiled by the RHIPTO Norwegian Center for Global Analyses and seen by Reuters, said the Taliban were hunting individuals linked to the previous administration, which fell on Sunday when the Islamist militant movement took Kabul."
Facebook plans to roll out enhanced security features in a bid to protect Afghan users. - "The tech giant confirmed Thursday that it has temporarily 'removed the ability to view and search the 'Friends' list for Facebook accounts in Afghanistan' to prevent the Taliban from being able to snoop on the associates of others," Jennifer Hassan reports. "Earlier this week, Facebook said it had banned the Taliban and all related content from its platforms, saying it considers the extremist Islamist group to be a terrorist organization."
The Taliban barred female news anchors from state television. - "Several female presenters for Afghan state television have said this week that Taliban fighters barred them from working, ordering them out of the office in an ominous sign of the group's views on the role of women in public life," Erin Cunningham reports. "The incidents contrast sharply with remarks made by senior Taliban officials, who have said they will allow women to participate in government and public life. ... The head of UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural agency, urged the Taliban on Friday to protect journalists and allow the media to operate freely."
| | | Quote of the day "President Biden could have delayed this to wait for a political settlement — for even just another month, just get the political settlement first. They could have come to a deal," Fawzia Koofi, the first woman to serve as vice president of the Afghan legislature, told the Guardian. "We all want international forces to leave," Koofi said. "It's not sustainable … but this is so untimely for the U.S. to have chosen now, in the middle of negotiations and before we get a settlement." | | | The pandemic Testing is up in the Washington region, but experts say it's still not enough. - "As people return to work and school amid a surge in the pandemic, tests are more available than ever at clinics, pop-up sites, doctor's offices, urgent care and pharmacies, resulting in an overall increase in testing from last year, when tests were harder to access. But public health experts say governments must do more to make tests available and accessible. If people don't know whether they are infected, they won't isolate — and they will continue to spread the virus. With a positive diagnosis, they can say home and avoid infecting others," Jenna Portnoy and Ovetta Wiggins report.
- "Overall, community transmission in the United States is high, and on Thursday the seven-day case rate per 100,000 people was about 281 with a positivity rate at nearly 10 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Compared with the hardest-hit states — such as Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, where the seven-day average number of cases per 100,000 exceeds 600 — locally there are much fewer infections."
Apple is delaying its employees' returning to offices across the world until at least January 2022. - "The tech giant was due to welcome employees back in offices by early September, before pushing the date back to mid-October. That date has been further delayed to next year, Bloomberg News reported. It's the latest sign that return-to-work plans for major U.S. companies could become more complex because of concerns over rising coronavirus cases and the delta variant," Adela Suliman reports. "Unlike Google and Facebook, Apple does not yet have a coronavirus vaccine mandate in place for its staff."
NYPD officers will need to be vaccinated or wear a mask on duty — or face discipline. - "Officers who are found to be unvaccinated and unmasked while on duty will face disciplinary action, the department announced in a bulletin first reported by the New York Post. The order is set to go into effect Sept. 13," Bryan Pietsch reports. "Less than half of NYPD officers are vaccinated, a spokesperson for the department told Reuters."
| | | Lunchtime reads from The Post - "As Biden urges global warming action, courts shape climate policy at home," by Dino Grandoni and Steven Mufson: "On Monday, the Interior Department said it would heed a Louisiana federal judge and resume federal oil and gas leasing, which will drive up carbon emissions. On Wednesday, however, another federal judge blocked a controversial oil project planned for Alaska's North Slope, effectively keeping fossil fuels in the ground. And on Thursday, the administration said it would conduct a comprehensive review of coal leasing on federal lands — but keep holding auctions in the meantime."
- "Texas can ban standard procedure used during second-trimester abortions, federal court rules," by Emily Wax-Thibodeaux: "The decision was hailed as a major victory by antiabortion advocates, even as doctors warned it could leave women less safe. And it comes as the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in another case, whether Mississippi can ban abortions after 15 weeks. The decision in that case could have far-reaching implications, further curbing the constitutional right granted under 1973's landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. The Texas ruling on Wednesday could also end up in front of the Supreme Court, law experts predicted."
- "Boebert pushed to loosen drilling rules. She failed to disclose her husband's income from energy consulting," by Isaac Stanley-Becker: "When Lauren Boebert, the gun-toting Republican firebrand, was running for Congress last year, she traced her income to Shooters Grill, a restaurant she and her husband own in Rifle, Colo. She suggested her husband also did some consulting, listing "Boebert Consulting — spouse" on her candidate form, but identified his income source as 'N/A.' Only now, with Boebert not just in Congress but on the House Natural Resources Committee, has she revealed that her husband made $478,000 last year working as a consultant for an energy firm."
| | | … and beyond | | | Hot on the left "The Texas House reached a quorum Thursday for the first time since July, clearing the way for new voting restrictions to pass after a record-breaking Democratic boycott had stalled the bill for weeks, creating a standoff with Republicans who sought the arrest of absent members," Eva Ruth Moravec and Elise Viebeck report. "The House had a quorum as of 6:13 p.m. local time after several more Democrats returned to the floor. House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) gaveled the session to order and welcomed one of the Democrats — Rep. Garnet Coleman — by name, inviting him to deliver the opening prayer. The majority-Republican chamber quickly referred the voting-restrictions bill to committee, bringing the measure one step closer to passage." | | | Hot on the right California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder (R) said employers should be allowed to ask women if they plan to have children. Elder, a conservative radio show host who's in the long list of candidates who could unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in the state's second recall election in history, suggested that venture capitalists have the right to ask women this to "protect" their "investment," Andrea Salcedo reports. He first made the comments in 2002, and they resurfaced last week. He stood by his belief when questioned by a reporter this week, telling the AP that "Government should not be intruding into the relationship between employer and employee." | | | Roads expansion, visualized The Federal Highway Administration estimates a $435 billion backlog of rehabilitation needs, while an analysis of agency data by The Washington Post shows a fifth of the nation's major roads, were rated in poor condition in 2019. Yet more than a third of states' capital spending on roads that year, $19 billion, went toward expanding the road network rather than chipping away at the backlog. | | | Today in Washington Biden will deliver remarks on the Afghanistan evacuation at 1 p.m.; Harris will attend. At 2 p.m., Biden will leave D.C. en route to Wilmington, Del. At 9:15 p.m., Harris will depart D.C. en route to Singapore. | | | In closing | Seth Meyers judged some Republicans' statements on mask and other coronavirus mandates:  | | | And "Jeopardy!" announced this morning that Mike Richards, the show's executive producer, will step down as its new host days after he was named to the post. Richards "came under fire after the Ringer published an in-depth report that revealed he made disparaging remarks about women, Jewish people and Haiti," Emily Yahr reports. Sony Pictures Television "will now resume the search for a permanent syndicated host." Twitter was quick with jokes: | LeVar Burton, a fan favorite to host the show after a guest stint, must have woken up to the news: |  | | | | | | |
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