Good morning. We'll start with the bombing in Kabul — and then look at the air-quality crisis in the Western U.S. |
| THE LATEST FROM AFGHANISTAN |
 | | A victim of one of the bombings in Kabul is taken to a hospital.Victor J. Blue for The New York Times |
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- Evacuation flights resumed this morning from Kabul, less than a day after a suicide attack killed scores of Afghan civilians and at least 13 U.S. troops outside the airport. Our live briefing has the latest.
- The bombs went off near a crowd of families at the airport gates trying to get onto evacuation flights, as these maps show.
- For President Biden, the attack was just the sort of tragedy that he had pledged to avoid. Read more from Michael Shear, one of our White House correspondents.
- ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on behalf of its Afghan affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan. Eric Schmitt — a longtime national security reporter — has written an overview of ISIS-K.
- As the U.S. left Afghanistan, the C.I.A. expected to shift its focus from counterterrorism to traditional spycraft against China and Russia. The explosions upended those plans.
- Many Afghans who helped U.S. forces are now in danger. One of them, an interpreter the Americans called "Mikey," spoke to The Times about his battle to get his family out alive.
- From Foreign Affairs magazine: Corruption and bureaucracy have undermined U.S. efforts to train other countries' militaries, Rachel Tecott writes.
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| PHOTOS: THE WESTERN AIR CRISIS |
 | | Smoke from the Caldor fire fills the air above Lake Tahoe in Nevada. The fire started more than 70 miles southwest of the lake on Aug. 14 and is now just a dozen miles away.Max Whittaker for The New York Times |
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"We have had smoke in the sky literally since the third week of July," Amy Ginder, a 47-year-old resident of Reno, said. "We have been inhaling toxins for five weeks now. You can't be outside. You can't breathe. You can't see the sun." |
In response, Ginder has stopped jogging outdoors. "If it were just this summer, you'd just suck it up and move on," she said. "But it isn't. It's the realization that this is our future." |
Smoke-clogged air has become a regular part of life in the American West. Climate change has increased the frequency of droughts, extreme heat and, by extension, large wildfires. The smoke then drifts across large parts of the Pacific Coast and Mountain West. Sometimes, it even reaches the East Coast. |
"This is what climate change looks like," said Daniel Swain, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. |
To help document the West's growing crisis of air quality, I want to use part of today's newsletter to show photographs from the region. A couple of them come from the mountain resort of Lake Tahoe (and I recommend this story about the area, by my colleagues Thomas Fuller and Shawn Hubler). |
One measure of the problem: In several places yesterday — including Bend, Ore.; an area north of Sacramento; and Lake Tahoe — air pollution reached levels that can damage lungs when people spend time outdoors. Phil Abernathy, a Lake Tahoe resident who decided to flee the area in search of cleaner air, told The Times that simply inhaling can feel like a "sizable man is standing on my chest." |
 | | Preston Fischer walks along Lake Tahoe in Nevada. Although August is the peak of the tourist season, many restaurants and shops are closed.Max Whittaker for The New York Times |
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 | | Smoke from California wildfires obscures casinos along the Strip in Las Vegas.Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun, via Associated Press |
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 | | Cattle graze in Driggs, Idaho, with the Tetons shrouded in haze beyond. It is unclear what effect exposure to smoke has on cattle and dairy production.Natalie Behring for The New York Times |
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 | | People swim in Lake Tahoe near Sand Harbor Beach. The smoke in Tahoe has led to school closures and cancelled sports events.Andy Barron/Reno Gazette Journal, via Imagn Content Services |
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Jeremiah M. Bogert Jr., a Times photography editor, selected these photos. |
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- Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of losing their homes after the Supreme Court ended the Biden administration's eviction moratorium.
- The Capitol Police officer who fatally shot a Jan. 6 rioter revealed his identity. In an interview, Lt. Michael Byrd said pulling the trigger had been a "last resort" that prevented the mob from killing lawmakers.
- The Justice Department will close the troubled Manhattan jail where Jeffrey Epstein died.
- The chief executive of Time's Up, an anti-harassment charity, resigned over her close ties to Andrew Cuomo. (Here's the back story.)
- Vaccine uptake has risen across the U.S. — most sharply in places hit hard by the Delta variant.
- Spike Lee released a new final cut of his 9/11 documentary series that removes all interviews with conspiracy theorists.
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Lives Lived: Inge Ginsberg fled the Holocaust, helped U.S. spies during World War II, wrote volumes of poetry and late in life became the frontwoman for a heavy metal rock band. She died at 99. |
A new generation of dance |
The world of competitive dance is more than the drama and sequins seen on reality shows like "Dance Moms." Competitions and conventions have molded performers who went on to join elite dance programs and companies, as well as pop stars like Britney Spears and Beyoncé. |
Still, the influential events have long been criticized for exclusionary costs, high-pressure environments and the sexualization of children. "I see how much my kids benefit from these events," Siara Fuller, an artistic director, said. "But some competitions haven't evolved at all in 15, 20 years." |
A new generation is attempting to reform the dance community, especially regarding issues of gender, predatory behavior and race, Margaret Fuhrer writes in The Times. Some are developing their own conventions to create a safer, more inclusive environment: The Embody Dance Conference, for example, features seminars for dancers on antiracism and mental health, and does not divide its students by gender in classes. Olivia Zimmerman, its founder, hopes other events can adapt such a model. "This isn't proprietary," she said. "We're not trying to make money off 'being the change.' I want everyone to follow suit, so that in five years, we're just another convention." — Sanam Yar, a Morning writer |
 | | David Malosh for The New York Times |
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The pangram from yesterday's Spelling Bee was handout. Here is today's puzzle — or you can play online. |
Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you Monday. — David |
Matthew Cullen, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com. |
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