US keeping distance as Afghan forces face Taliban rout
WASHINGTON (AP) — Afghan government forces are collapsing even faster than U.S. military leaders thought possible just a few months ago when President Joe Biden ordered a full withdrawal. But there’s little appetite at the White House, the Pentagon or among the American public for trying to stop the rout and it probably is too late to do so.
Biden has made clear he has no intention of reversing the decision he made last spring, even as the outcome seems to point toward a Taliban takeover. With most U.S. troops now gone and the Taliban accelerating their battlefield gains, American military leaders are not pressing him to change his mind. They know that the only significant option would be for the president to restart the war he already decided to end.
The Taliban, who ruled the country from 1996 until U.S. forces invaded after the 9/11 attacks, captured three more provincial capitals Wednesday, giving them effective control of about two-thirds of the country. The insurgents have no air force and are outnumbered by U.S.-trained Afghan defense forces, but they have captured territory with stunning speed.
John Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said the Afghans still have time to save themselves from final defeat.
“No potential outcome has to be inevitable, including the fall of Kabul,” Kirby told reporters. “It doesn’t have to be that way. It really depends on what kind of political and military leadership the Afghans can muster to turn this around.”
CDC urges COVID vaccines during pregnancy as delta surges
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged all pregnant women Wednesday to get the COVID-19 vaccine as hospitals in hot spots around the U.S. see disturbing numbers of unvaccinated mothers-to-be seriously ill with the virus.
Expectant women run a higher risk of severe illness and pregnancy complications from the coronavirus, including perhaps miscarriages and stillbirths. But their vaccination rates are low, with only about 23% having received at least one dose, according to CDC data.
“The vaccines are safe and effective, and it has never been more urgent to increase vaccinations as we face the highly transmissible delta variant and see severe outcomes from COVID-19 among unvaccinated pregnant people,’’ CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.
The updated guidance comes after a CDC analysis of new safety data on 2,500 women showed no increased risks of miscarriage for those who received at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine before 20 weeks of pregnancy. The analysis found a miscarriage rate of around 13%, within the normal range.
The CDC’s advice echoes recent recommendations from top obstetrician groups. The agency had previously encouraged pregnant women to consider vaccination but had stopped short of a full recommendation. The new advice also applies to nursing mothers and women planning to get pregnant.
Overwhelmed by COVID-19: A day inside a Louisiana hospital
JEFFERSON, La. (AP) — Before the latest surge of the coronavirus, Louisiana neurologist Robin Davis focused on her specialty: treating patients with epilepsy. These days, as virus patients flood her hospital in record numbers, she has taken on the additional duties of nurse, janitor and orderly.
“I was giving bed baths on Sunday, emptying trash cans, changing sheets, rolling patients to MRI,” said Davis, who has been coming in on her days off to provide some relief to overworked nurses at Ochsner Medical Center in the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson.
The rapidly escalating surge in COVID-19 infections across the U.S. is once again overwhelming hospitals, especially in hot spots such as Louisiana, which hit a record number of coronavirus hospitalizations last week. Nearly 2,900 virus patients are currently hospitalized — and state health officials say the number of cases may not peak for several more weeks. Louisiana has the country’s fourth-lowest vaccination rate, with just a little more than 37% of residents fully inoculated.
On a recent day at Ochsner, health care providers rushed up and down halls, throwing on and taking off protective clothing every time they entered a new area of the building. In dozens of ICU rooms, patients lay pallid and motionless, tubes down their throats, as beeping machines pumped drugs into their system and ventilators forced air into their weakened lungs. Health care contractors brought in from other hospitals quickly familiarized themselves with a new environment as they rushed to ease the load of the overtaxed staff.
“We’re trying to provide the most consistent care we can, but to do that we need more hands,” Davis said. “One of the biggest issues for our nurses is, the volume of patients is such that we’re having to create beds that didn’t previously exist. We’re having to find providers that weren’t previously put in place.”
Huge California fire grows; Montana blaze threatens towns
GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — California’s largest single wildfire in recorded history continued to grow Wednesday after destroying more than 1,000 buildings, nearly half of them homes, while authorities in Montana ordered evacuations as a wind-driven blaze roared toward several remote communities.
The dangerous fires were among some 100 large blazes burning across 15 states, mostly in the West, where historic drought conditions have left lands parched and ripe for ignition.
Burning through bone-dry trees, brush and grass, the Dixie Fire has destroyed at least 1,045 buildings, including 550 homes, in the northern Sierra Nevada. Newly released satellite imagery showed the scale of the destruction in the small community of Greenville that was incinerated last week during an explosive run of flames.
The Dixie Fire, named after the road where it started on July 14, by Wednesday morning covered 783 square miles (2,027 square kilometers) and was 30% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. At least 14,000 remote homes were still threatened.
The Dixie Fire is the largest single fire in California history and the largest currently burning in the U.S. It is about half the size of the August Complex, a series of lightning-caused 2020 fires across seven counties that were fought together and that state officials consider California’s largest wildfire overall.
Biden’s complicated new task: keeping Democrats together
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden overcame skepticism, deep political polarization and legislative gamesmanship to win bipartisan approval in the Senate this week of his $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
But as the bill moves to consideration in the House alongside a $3.5 trillion budget that achieves the rest of Biden’s agenda, the president is facing an even more complicated task. He must keep a diverse, sometimes fractious Democratic Party in line behind the fragile compromises that underpin both measures.
If Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress hope to succeed with what they’ve called a two-track legislative strategy, the months ahead will almost certainly be dominated by a tedious balancing act. With exceedingly slim majorities in Congress, Biden can’t afford many defections in a party whose members include moderates and progressives.
“Is it going to be easy?” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday. “Absolutely not. But if past is prologue, we got a chance — a decent chance.”
The intra-party jockeying began even as the Senate was putting the finishing touches on its overnight voting marathon that didn’t end until nearly dawn Wednesday. In a letter to leadership, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of two high-profile moderate senators, expressed misgivings about the size of the $3.5 trillion package.
Cuomo resigns: What we know, what we don’t and what’s next
NEW YORK (AP) — After months of holding on to power amid sexual harassment allegations and defying calls to resign, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo abruptly did just that Tuesday. With Cuomo on his way out, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul is ascendant.
We take you through the major players, what’s happened this week and what’s next for Cuomo, Hochul and the state of New York:
REMIND ME — WHAT WAS CUOMO ACCUSED OF?
Cuomo was under investigation for several things, but the prevailing issue leading to his resignation concerned sexual harassment allegations that ranged from inappropriate comments to groping. An investigative report released last week said he sexually harassed 11 women, many of whom had worked for him or the state. Other issues in play in a state Assembly impeachment probe: how his administration handled data on COVID-19-related deaths in nursing homes, his $5 million pandemic leadership book deal and whether friends and relatives were given special access to COVID-19 tests early in the pandemic.
CUOMO SAID HE WASN’T GOING ANYWHERE. WHY DID HE RESIGN NOW?
New census data expected to reveal a more diverse America
Almost 120 years ago, African American domestic workers settled in the Como neighborhood of Fort Worth, Texas, where they held Fourth of July parades, patronized shops on Horne Street and lived for several generations in what seemed like a small town within the big city.
But many young families started moving away at the end of the last century, leaving behind small frame houses ready for renovation. An economic boom in Fort Worth helped make that possible. Hispanics who came from Mexico and Central America to work in construction, manufacturing and service jobs moved in, refurbished the homes and helped revitalize the area.
The new arrivals have changed not only the Como neighborhood but surrounding Tarrant County, one of a growing number of places in the U.S. where white residents no longer make up the majority. No racial or ethnic group does.
New data from the Census Bureau due to be released Thursday will map the scope of that demographic transformation over the last decade. The numbers are expected to show that dozens of counties across 18 states, largely in the South and Southwest, are now less than 50 percent white, and no racial or ethnic group makes up a majority. The non-Hispanic white population is expected to shrink for the first census on record.
The estimates suggest that about 113 million people — a third of all Americans — now live in a plurality county.
Tokyo’s Olympic fears give way to acceptance, to a point
TOKYO (AP) — When the Tokyo Olympics began during a worsening pandemic in Japan, the majority of the host nation was in opposition, with Emperor Naruhito dropping the word “celebrating” from his opening declaration of welcome.
But once the Games got underway and local media switched to covering Japanese athletes’ “medal rush,” many Japanese were won over. They watched TV to cheer on Japanese athletes in an Olympics that ended Sunday with a record 58 medals for the home nation, including 27 gold.
There are still worries that Japan will pay a price for hosting these Games; recent days have seen record numbers of virus cases. But for now, among many, a sense of pride and goodwill is lingering.
“Having the games in the middle of the pandemic didn’t seem like a good idea, and I did wonder if they should be canceled,” said Keisuke Uchisawa, 27, an office worker. But the medal haul, he said, was “very exciting and stimulating. Once the Games started, we naturally cheered the athletes and simply enjoyed watching them.”
His wife Yuki, a medical worker, worried especially about the pandemic. But she began cheering when she noticed patients at her hospital beaming as they watched the Games. “I saw the power of sports, and I thought it was wonderful,” she said. “Athletes made outstanding performances, and we wanted to cheer for them.”
Higher but still slim odds of asteroid Bennu slamming Earth
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The good news is that scientists have a better handle on asteroid Bennu’s whereabouts for the next 200 years. The bad news is that the space rock has a slightly greater chance of clobbering Earth than previously thought.
But don’t be alarmed: Scientists reported Wednesday that the odds are still quite low that Bennu will hit us in the next century.
“We shouldn’t be worried about it too much,” said Davide Farnocchia, a scientist with NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who served as the study’s lead author.
While the odds of a strike have risen from 1-in-2,700 to 1-in-1,750 over the next century or two, scientists now have a much better idea of Bennu’s path thanks to NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft, according to Farnocchia.
“So I think that overall, the situation has improved,” he told reporters.
‘Jeopardy!’ producer Richards named host; role for Bialik
LOS ANGELES (AP) — After weeks of guest hosts on “Jeopardy!” that included celebrities from TV, sports and journalism, the daily syndicated quiz show chose its executive producer, Mike Richards, as the successor to beloved host Alex Trebek.
But after fan backlash to a selection process that recently turned messy, producer Sony split the pie by naming another guest host, actor Mayim Bialik, as emcee for “Jeopardy!” prime-time and spinoff series, including a new college championship.
In a nod to “Jeopardy!” devotees, longest winning-streak champion Ken Jennings will return as a consulting producer.
Richards will retain executive producing duties for “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune,” Sony Pictures Television said in a statement Wednesday. The studio also appeared to deflect the idea that it was bowing to the dismay that some fans expressed when word leaked last week that Richards would be the pick.
“We knew early on that we wanted to divide the hosting responsibilities and it became very clear that Mike and Mayim were the undeniable choices. They were both at the top of our research and analysis,” said Ravi Ahuja, Chairman of Global Television Studios for Sony Pictures. “We took this decision incredibly seriously.”
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