Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Thursday.
1. The Taliban quashed protests, tightening their grip on Afghanistan.
Protesters took to the streets for a second day, this time marching in Kabul, near the presidential palace. At one demonstration in the city, about 200 people had gathered before the Taliban broke it up violently. In the eastern city of Asadabad, several people were killed when Taliban fighters fired on protesters waving the national flag.
In Washington, the Pentagon said that some 7,000 Americans and other evacuees, including Afghan allies of the U.S., had been airlifted from the airport in Kabul. U.S. fighter jets are flying over the city to secure the evacuations.
With the collapse in Afghanistan, Russia is signaling with military exercises on the Tajikistan border that it will be shielding Central Asia from potential violence.
2. Nursing homes have to decide: vaccinate staff or lose federal funding.
Roughly 540,000 nursing home employees, about 40 percent of the work force, have not received a coronavirus vaccine. President Biden requires all staff members to be vaccinated by Sept. 30 or those facilities could lose federal reimbursement, a vital source of income for many.
One nursing home administrator called the policy a “pretty big deal.” If a staff member does not want to be vaccinated, she said, they are putting nursing home residents at risk and need to go. But others fear the risk of losing employees who won’t comply is too great in an industry with high turnover amid a labor shortage.
Separately, three vaccinated senators said they had tested positive for the coronavirus, adding to the number of breakthrough cases among lawmakers.
More than 900,000 coronavirus patients were in hospitals across the U.S. this week. Here’s an update.
3. A man who claimed to have a bomb outside the Library of Congress surrendered to the police, after hours of negotiations.
The man, identified as Floyd Roy Roseberry, 49, drove a black pickup onto the sidewalk this morning. When the police arrived, Roseberry said he had a bomb and one of the officers said he appeared to have a detonator in his hand.
The police closed off several streets in Washington and sent alerts to congressional staff members, prompting evacuations. “As far as we can tell it was just his decision to surrender,” the Capitol Police chief said. He added that Roseberry’s truck, which held a propane gas container, would be examined for explosives.
In a Facebook video, Roseberry demanded to speak with President Biden or a representative and expressed grievances with Democrats.
4. Tropical Storm Henri is expected to strengthen into a hurricane by tomorrow and could reach the U.S. Northeast coast by Sunday or Monday.
Meteorologists are not yet sure of the path the storm will take over the weekend. “There’s a great deal of uncertainty on the track forecast and the intensity forecast that far out,” a spokesman for the Hurricane Center in Miami said. In Mexico, Hurricane Grace weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall near Tulum.
Separately, federal scientists said that the severe drought in the American West was likely to last into fall or longer.
5. The Federal Trade Commission refiled its antitrust case against Facebook, two months after a judge dismissed the original case.
The judge had said that the government did not provide enough evidence that Facebook was a monopoly in social media, dealing a blow to regulators’ efforts to rein in Big Tech. The agency resubmitted the suit, beefing up its accusations that the company was a monopoly that illegally crushed competition.
Separately, Facebook introduced a virtual-reality service called Horizon Workrooms, allowing employees using headsets to gather as if in-person.
6. A witness at the trial of R. Kelly told jurors that she was only 16 when the singer had sex with her and that he wanted her to dress even younger.
“He wanted me to put my hair up in pigtails and dress like a Girl Scout,” said Jerhonda Pace, 28, the first accuser to testify at the R&B singer’s criminal trial. Lawyers for Kelly cast the witness as a disgruntled and jealous fan.
The trial, which began on Wednesday, is set to last for four weeks. Several accusers are expected to testify about sexual, physical and psychological abuse inflicted by Kelly — and about the roles that members of his inner circle played in maintaining that system of torment, all while the R&B singer was at the pinnacle of his career.
7. Chuck Close, who found success with his large-scale Photorealist portraits and became one of the leading artists of his generation, has died at 81.
Close was not the first to make Photorealist paintings. But no one else had transformed photographs into paintings of such aggressive visual and psychological impact.
Toward the end of his life, he faced allegations of sexual harassment from several women who had come to his studio to pose. In 1988, he suffered a collapsed spinal artery, which initially left him paralyzed from the neck down. In the ensuing months of rehabilitation, he began to regain movement in his arms, and he was able to sit up and paint using brushes strapped to his hand.
8. America’s third-fastest-growing city was once a small cow town known for its German roots.
New Braunfels, Texas — in the thriving corridor between San Antonio and Austin — grew a whopping 56 percent over the last decade and added about 32,500 residents. In many ways, its expansion is the story of a changing America.
As the population boomed, with many newcomers arriving from big cities across Texas and states like California, Colorado and New York, the town also became more diverse. The Anglo population has dipped below 60 percent for the first time in recent decades, with Latinos accounting for about 35 percent of residents.
9. Are you ready for sentient robots at Disneyland?
The animatronics at Disney theme parks have been doing the same herky-jerky thing since the 1970s. The new robots are in a different league.
Our reporter met with a walking, talking, emoting Groot from “Guardians of the Galaxy.” And a new Spider-Man ride features an untethered Spidey robot hurled 65 feet into the air by a catapult.
“To me, that’s going to be next level,” a senior Disney executive said. “These aren’t just parks. They are inhabited places.”
10. And finally, lovesick sea snakes.
If you are ever scuba-diving and a six-foot-long sea snake comes storming out of the shadows, stay calm. The snake doesn’t want to bite you; it’s just looking to see if you might be a mate, according to a new study. Researchers suggest you let it slither right on up and lick you. And, definitely don’t try to fight that highly venomous reptile.
“I don’t know how you would say it other than the snakes have got their beer goggles on,” one of the authors of the study said. “Their hormones are skewing their behavior.”
Have a level-headed evening.
David Poller and Marcus Payadue compiled photos for this briefing.
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