| | | | | | | Presented By Facebook | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen ·Aug 22, 2021 | | Happy Sunday! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,193 words ... 4½ minutes. Edited by Jennifer Koons. | | | | | | 1 big thing — Kabul panic: U.S. enlists commercial planes | | A U.S. Marine calms an infant at Kabul airport on Friday. Photo: Sgt. Isaiah Campbell/U.S. Marine Corps via AP With criticism of President Biden mounting around the world, the Pentagon today ordered the emergency use of 18 U.S. commercial planes to transport Afghan evacuees after they've flown out of Kabul. - Under Civil Reserve Air Fleet powers going back to the Berlin Airlift after World War II, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin activated four planes from United ... three each from American, Atlas Air, Delta and Omni Air ... and two from Hawaiian Airlines. Go deeper.
- In a tragic sign of the mounting panic among those who fear being left behind, seven Afghan civilians died in a sweaty crush outside Kabul's airport.
🚨 What we're hearing: Fears are rising in Washington that many, many of the thousands of Afghans who helped the U.S. over the past 20 years — at great risk — will be prevented by the Taliban from escaping. Stampedes have been caused by Taliban fighters firing into the air to drive away those desperate to get out of the country, AP reports. - U.S. and British troops in full combat gear tried to control crowds — big enough to be seen in satellite photos — in 93° heat.
🥊 What they're saying: Tony Blair, the British prime minister who deployed troops to Afghanistan 20 years ago after the 9/11 attacks, writes on his website that it's "obvious that the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in this way was driven not by grand strategy but by politics": We did it in obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending "the forever wars" ... Russia, China and Iran will see and take advantage. ... The disarray of the past weeks needs to be replaced by something resembling coherence. |     | | | | | | 2. Biden recess plan omits Afghanistan | President Biden in the Situation Room yesterday. Photo: The White House The White House is downplaying Afghanistan during outside-the-Beltway events, hoping voters will pay more attention to President Biden's big spending plans, Axios' Alexi McCammond reports. - Why it matters: Democrats privately fear political blowback, even though the White House insists voters aren't talking about the Kabul calamity.
White House senior adviser Neera Tanden didn't mention Afghanistan once when we asked her how much the events of the past week will affect what Biden can accomplish on the Hill. - "We developed our plan around August [congressional] recess in July," she said. "We planned for a cadence of multiple events a week around Build Back Better and infrastructure and we have been operationalizing that plan and will continue to do so."
Behind the scenes: Since joining the White House in May as senior adviser to President Biden, Tanden has kept a low profile. But her role, after losing a confirmation fight to be Biden's budget director, is setting her up to have outsized power in helping sell the Biden agenda. | | | | | | | | 3. Henri hammers Northeast | | In Long Beach, N.Y. (Nassau County), the surf was up ahead of Hurricane Henri. Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images Tropical Storm Henri is on track to make landfall on eastern Long Island or in southeastern New England as soon as midday, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports. - Ferry service from Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket to the mainland is canceled until at least noon, stranding tourists waiting in cars.
Between the lines: Henri's winds weakened just below hurricane force. - However, the threats are the same: widespread power outages, coastal storm surge, and likely the biggest danger of all — inland flooding from torrential rains.
Keep reading. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images In Central Park, the "We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert," aired exclusively on CNN, started strong (above) but was cut short by pre-Henri rain during a Barry Manilow medley. | | | | | | | | A message from Facebook | | Internet regulations are as outdated as dial-up | | |  | | | | Facebook supports updated regulations, including four areas where lawmakers can make quick progress: - Reforming Section 230.
- Preventing foreign interference in our elections.
- Passing federal privacy law.
- Setting rules that allow people to safely transfer data between services.
| | | | | | 4. Pic du jour | | Photo: Nick Petrack/U.S. Forest Service via AP A rapidly growing wildfire rises in the background in northeastern Minnesota, where the U.S. Forest Service yesterday closed the popular Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. | | | | | | | | 5. Making the outdoors safe for people of color |  | | | Julius Crowe Hampton, Outdoor Afro leader, kayaks in Marina Bay Yacht Harbor in Richmond, Calif. Photo: Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images | | | | A national reckoning has drawn attention to the discrimination some people of color face during a run in the mountains or a walk on a trail, Axios' Russell Contreras reports. - Outdoor groups and businesses across the U.S. have launched campaigns and initiatives to transform how Black Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans engage with the outdoors.
- REI in April began a six-month pilot program to increase Black representation in its workforce, and has developed a long-term racial equity working plan.
The intrigue: Around 32% of campers are now people of color, a stark 17-point increase over the past five years, according to Kampgrounds of America, which is owned by Asian Americans. - Outdoor Afro, one of the largest networks of outdoor recreation for Black Americans, has grown in 12 years to more than 100 leaders in 56 cities.
- Latino Outdoors, a network for U.S. Latinos, reports a similar uptick in interest, with chapters opening up in Las Vegas, Arkansas and Connecticut.
- Native American running groups are also popping up.
Keep reading. | | | | | | | | 6. Facebook releases shelved report | | Facebook released a report showing the platform's most viewed link in Q1 was a news article about a doctor who died of natural causes two weeks after getting a COVID vaccine. - Why it matters: Facebook's release came a day after the N.Y. Times wrote (subscription) that the report had been shelved because executives feared it could make the company look bad.
- Earlier in the week, Facebook released a Q2 "Widely Viewed Content Report," which it said would be the first in a series.
Facebook's Andy Stone said in a Twitter thread accompanying the release that the mainstream news story about the doctor illustrates "just how difficult it is to define misinformation." - Stone cited a Harper's essay by BuzzFeed's Joe Bernstein, a 2021 Nieman Fellow, saying: "'Misinformation' and 'disinformation' are used casually and interchangeably ... In their crudest use, the terms are simply jargon for 'things I disagree with.'"
Read the Q1 report ... Read the Q2 report. | | | | | | | | 7. Cancer-testing deal closes despite antitrust fight | | Illumina president and CEO Francis deSouza at the Sun Valley media conference in July. Photo: Brian Losness/Reuters Illumina CEO Francis deSouza tells Axios' Dan Primack that his company isn't trying to defy U.S. or European regulators by closing its $7.1 billion purchase of cancer testing company Grail, despite doing so amidst ongoing government reviews. - Why it matters: Illumina argues that the merger could make early cancer detection more affordable and widely available, but there are concerns that it could be anticompetitive.
Backstory: Grail was developed inside of Illumina, but spun out in 2017. The two parties agreed to merge last September, to combine the maker of blood tests that can detect multiple cancers with the maker of gene sequencers upon which such tests were developed. - The FTC in March sued to block the deal.
- DeSouza says that even if legal challenges go on for years, he's prepared to wait rather than divest.
Keep reading. | | | | | | | | 8. 🛒 Stat du jour | | In 1962, shoppers wait to enter a Kmart. Photo: American Stock via Getty Images "Kmart last opened a new store in 2002; since then, it has all been closings," the N.Y. Times reports (subscription). - "When it merged with Sears in 2005, Kmart had 2,085 locations."
- Now, 17 remain open.
| | | | | | | | 9. 🗞️ Time capsule: 20 years to lose a war | | The New York Times Archives (@NYTArchives) tweeted this collage of America's longest war, told through front pages. | | | | | | | | 10. 1 smile to go | | Photo: Agnes Bun/AFP via Getty Images Giant panda Xiao Qi Ji (SHIAU-chi-ji), right, celebrates his first birthday with his mother, Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) , by eating a fruitsicle cake at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington yesterday. - "The base of the cake was made of frozen diluted grape juice and decorated with sweet potato, apple, carrot, pear, sugar cane, banana and bamboo," a Smithsonian release says.
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