| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Friday, August 20, 2021 by Farouq Suleiman | Hello Here's what you need to know. NATO pledges to speed evacuations from Afghanistan, scientists question evidence behind U.S. COVID-19 booster shot and Elon Musk says Tesla is likely to launch a humanoid robot prototype next year. | | | | | Today's biggest stories  Evacuees from Afghanistan disembark from a Spanish military plane at Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, August 20, 2021. Ministry of Defense of Spain/Handout via REUTERS AFGHANISTAN More than 18,000 people have been flown out of Kabul since the Taliban took over Afghanistan's capital, a NATO official said. The group pledged to redouble evacuation efforts as criticism of the West's handling of the crisis mounted.
President Biden is brushing off criticism of his administration's chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal because he and his aides believe the political fallout at home will be limited, according to White House allies and administration officials.
No One Left Behind, a charitable organization that for years has helped relocate at-risk Afghans, has emerged as a central node in the growing informal network striving to evacuate people from Kabul. The group has raised more than $2.5 million for charter flights through a GoFundMe campaign.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reiterated its call to neighboring countries to keep their borders open to allow people to seek asylum in light of what a spokesperson for the organization called the "evolving crisis".
Actions or words? Beaten, homes raided, turned away from work for being a woman: the complaints made by some Afghan journalists in recent days are sowing doubt about assurances made by their new Taliban rulers that media could remain independent. |  Pro-Trump protesters storm the U.S. Capitol, January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton U.S. The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result, according to four current and former law enforcement officials.
U.S. officials, citing data showing waning protection against mild and moderate illness from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines more than six months after inoculation, said boosters will be made widely available starting on Sept. 20. Some experts questioned the focus on booster shots when around 30% of eligible Americans have yet to get even a first vaccine dose.
Residents in Fordyce, Arkansas, will readily tell you the schools, their students, staff and, of course, the football teams, helped lead many in this deeply conservative area to reconsider their positions on COVID-19 vaccines.
A key prosecution witness against R. Kelly at his sex-abuse trial testified that the R&B singer videotaped their sexual activity when she was 16 and insisted she dress like a Girl Scout. |  Locals help Team Rubicon's disaster-response team load a truck with supplies from a U.S. Army helicopter. Les Cayes, Haiti, August 19, 2021. REUTERS/Ricardo Arduengo WORLD A drip of foreign aid began to reach more rural areas of southwestern Haiti, arriving five days after a powerful earthquake killed more than 2,000 and flattened tens of thousands of buildings into rubble.
Nations from Australia to Vietnam announced more drastic curbs and longer lockdowns for citizens, as authorities struggle to rein in outbreaks of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
From Seoul to Paris, and Moscow to Bangkok, concerned citizens around the world are lining up for shots as COVID-19 case numbers swell. That might ease pressure on stretched hospitals, but it comes with a hangover - a severe shortage of blood donors.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pushed for an immediate ceasefire and unrestricted aid access in Ethiopia's Tigray region, where he said millions of people needed help and women had suffered "unspeakable violence."
Malaysia's king appointed Ismail Sabri Yaakob as prime minister, returning the job to a party tainted by graft accusations as the southeast Asian nation grapples with a COVID-19 surge and an economic slump. | | | BUSINESS Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said the electric automaker will probably launch a "Tesla Bot" humanoid robot prototype next year, designed for dangerous, repetitive or boring work that people don't like to do.
More than a decade on from the financial crisis, regulators are spooked that some companies at the heart of the financial system are too big to fail. But they're not banks. They are tech companies.
Chinese regulators are considering pressing data-rich companies to hand over management and supervision of their data to third-party firms if they want U.S. stock listings, sources said, as part of Beijing's unprecedented scrutiny on private-sector firms. Seeking to protect online user data privacy, China's National People's Congress passed a new personal data privacy law that will take effect starting November 1.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said he would pursue changes to his blank-check acquisition company Pershing Square Tontine Holdings to address "the overhang" of a lawsuit filed against it this week. | | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Drought a 'wake up call' as bee colonies shrink There was barely a buzz in the air as beekeeper John Miller pried the lid off one of several "bee boxes" in Gackle, North Dakota, where a scorching drought has devastated bee colonies and, in turn, threatens U.S. food crops. | | | | And finally… Elon Musk's satellites beam internet into Chilean boy's life  For decades, the inhabitants of Sotomo, 620 miles south of Santiago, have survived by catching mussels and fish to sell at market. Now, it is one of two places in Chile to be chosen for a pilot project run by SpaceX's Chief Executive Elon Musk to receive free internet for a year. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
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