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Good morning. We’re covering the Taliban’s violent response to protesters and Israel’s Covid surge despite high vaccination rates. |
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The Taliban met their first protests with violence |
Afghanistan’s new rulers fired into the crowd in the northeastern city of Jalalabad and beat protesters and journalists. Demonstrators opposed to Taliban rule also took to the streets in Khost, in the southeast. Here are the latest updates. |
Al Jazeera reported that at least two people were killed and a dozen injured during the protests in Jalalabad, which was seized by the Taliban four days ago without much of a fight. Hundreds marched through a main shopping street, carrying flags of the Afghan Republic. |
In Kabul, the Taliban moved to form a government as President Ashraf Ghani surfaced in the United Arab Emirates, saying he had fled Afghanistan to avoid a lynching by the Taliban and vowed to return. |
Scramble to leave: Chaos erupted outside the airport in Kabul as more people tried to flee. A Taliban commander told crowds that the gate to the airport was closed except for foreigners and for people with documents. Inside, 5,000 U.S. troops were stationed to evacuate people. Afghan women who worked with the U.S. or international groups are frantically erasing any trace of those links for fear that they will be targeted by the Taliban. |
The view from Beijing: For China’s leaders, the chaotic scenes in Afghanistan have served as a vindication of their hostility to American might. But the Taliban could also create new geopolitical dangers and security risks. |
Difficult path for refugees: European countries were hesitating to take in Afghans after the surge in populism and the far right that followed the influx of Syrian refugees in 2015. |
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Israel’s Covid surge raises questions about vaccines |
Israel’s swift vaccination campaign quickly brought life back to normal. Coronavirus cases plummeted, and, by March, concerts and sporting events opened up to the vaccinated. |
But a fourth wave of infections is threatening to ruin Israel’s progress. The daily rate of new virus cases has more than doubled in the past two weeks, making Israel a rising hot spot. Some are blaming the new government for not taking action quickly enough. |
Restrictions were reinstated this week, and the government is considering a new lockdown. “The vaccinations were supposed to solve everything,” a public health expert said. Now, he said, it is clear that masks and crowd limits must be part of the approach. |
Details: Over 8,000 new cases were reported on Monday, a six-month high, Haaretz reported. And after many days of zero Covid deaths in June, at least 230 people have died from the disease so far this month. |
Explanations: It’s too soon to tell why things turned around so quickly, but experts say that Israel’s high rate of infections among early vaccine recipients indicates a waning of the vaccine’s protections over time. The highly-contagious Delta variant, now the primary version of the virus in Israel, may have also made the vaccine less effective. |
Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic. |
In other developments: |
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Floods and little help after Haiti’s quake |
The death toll from the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Saturday has reached 1,900, and 10,000 people are injured. These maps and photos show the devastation. |
And yet, in some parts of the country, like the village of Toirac, help seems distant. At least 20 people were killed there when a church collapsed, survivors said, and the area has yet to be visited by aid groups or emergency authorities. |
“We’re on our own,” said a 66-year-old farmer in Toirac who lost his wife and his house. |
Complicating rescue efforts was a deluge from Hurricane Grace.
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