In Afghanistan, an Unceremonious End, and a Shrouded Beginning  —  The last American flight from Afghanistan left behind a host of unfulfilled promises and anxious questions about the country's fate.  —  The end of the United States' longest war was unceremonious — trash blowing across …

The Hard Covid-19 Questions We're Not Asking  —  Dr. Allen is the director of the healthy buildings program at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and has studied how Covid-19 spreads in indoor spaces.  Dr. Jenkins is an associate professor at Boston University School of Public Health and an infectious-disease epidemiologist.

Federal judge throws out Trump administration rule allowing the draining and filling of streams, marshes and wetlands  —  A federal judge on Monday threw out a major Trump administration rule scaling back federal protections for streams, marshes and wetlands across the United States …

Rep. Madison Cawthorn falsely suggests elections are ‘rigged,’ says there will be ‘bloodshed’ if system continues on its path  —  Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) on Sunday falsely suggested that elections in the United States are “rigged” and said there will be “bloodshed” if the country's electoral system continues on its current path.

Trump acolytes poised to push out Senate dealmakers  —  If Senate Republicans seem conservative now, just wait until next year.  The 2022 midterms could usher in a wave of full-spectrum MAGA supporters who would turn the GOP conference an even deeper shade of red — and make the Senate a lot more like the fractious House.

Forest Service officials confirm all California national forests to temporarily close  —  All of California's national forests will be closed beginning late Tuesday.  —  The closures will go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday and stay in place until the same time on Sept. 17 …

The Density Divide and the Southernification of Rural America  —  The Old North/South Split Lives on in the Urban/Rural Divide  —  When I was a kid, the accents changed.  Driving north from central Iowa through the corn toward Minnesota, the dialect would gradually get a little Fargo …

Laurence Tribe: If Garland doesn't prosecute Trump, the rule of law is “out the window”  —  Eminent constitutional law expert: If Biden and Garland won't go after Trump, country is in “desperate trouble”  —  If American democracy were a hospital patient, the diagnosis would be “critical”.

Partisan divides in media trust widen, driven by a decline among Republicans  —  In just five years, the percentage of Republicans with at least some trust in national news organizations has been cut in half - dropping from 70% in 2016 to 35% this year.  This decline is fueling the continued widening …

FBI: Texas shooter possibly inspired by foreign terrorists  —  GARLAND, Texas (AP) — Investigators are looking into whether a Texas man was inspired by foreign terrorists when he killed a Lyft driver in a Dallas suburb and later opened fire in the police station of another suburb where officers fatally shot him.

Twitter Permanently Bans Former NYT Journalist Alex Berenson  —  We previously discussed how Twitter's growing censorship program has targeted former New York Times journalist and author Alex Berenson who is an outspoken critic of the government's scientific claims and response to the pandemic.

The I-word looms: McCarthy faces internal pressure to go harder at Biden on Afghanistan  —  The House GOP leader has resisted an impeachment call, and the Freedom Caucus isn't going there yet.  But some see the debate as inevitable.  —  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) …

AOC, Tlaib, Pressley call on Biden to dump Powell as Fed chair  —  Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley on Monday called for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to be replaced, stepping up the pressure on President Joe Biden as he draws closer to a decision on the government's most important economic post.

The Intolerable Wait for a Kids' Vaccine  —  Julie Swann, an engineer who studies health systems and models infectious disease at North Carolina State University, leads a team of researchers who recently tried to simulate how the Delta variant of the coronavirus could move through schools in various scenarios.

After Afghanistan, War's Idealists Must Accept Defeat  —  As the Western occupation of Afghanistan has come to an end, TV news is broadcasting harrowing scenes of death and destruction, citizens in fear, allies abandoned, and dreams dashed.  —  While the cynicism of key leaders has been exposed …

Axios-Ipsos poll: Vaccine hesitancy may be crumbling  —  Vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. is showing signs of crumbling, according to the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.  — Fewer adults than ever now say they won't take the shot, and in the past two weeks …

No, the Taliban did not seize $83 billion of U.S. weapons  —  “ALL EQUIPMENT should be demanded to be immediately returned to the United States, and that includes every penny of the $85 billion dollars in cost.”  — Former president Donald Trump, in a statement, Aug 30