| CORONAVIRUS: This evening, Biden will take another turn at cajoling, lauding and pleading with Americans to take seriously the infectious delta version of COVID-19 and the opportunity to get first, second and soon third doses of vaccines to be able to work, attend school, travel, eat out, enjoy sports and, best of all, avoid hospital ICUs this fall and winter. The school year in many states has become something of a science experiment in which new infections send hundreds of young students in some school systems into quarantine before they’ve gotten past the early chapters in new textbooks. Seeking to restore some of the goodwill he nurtured while managing the government’s pandemic response before he stumbled into another surge of COVID-19 and the much-criticized U.S. pullout from Afghanistan last month, the president tonight is expected to highlight six “new steps,” including initiatives tied to vaccine mandates and safety in schools, according to the White House. CNN reported that the president’s speech will emphasize mandates that have decreased the number of unvaccinated Americans, protections for vaccinated individuals including through booster doses, the importance of keeping U.S. schools open this fall with increased COVID-19 testing and masking, patient care and treatment needs in hospitals and continued federal funding during the pandemic. The government previously said it does not have the federal authority to mandate vaccinations in schools, but it has encouraged colleges, universities, private employers, and state and local officials to go that route. Biden previously touted as national models the federal vaccine mandates in some agencies and the U.S. military. The New York Times: In his speech, Biden is expected to push for broad COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The administration this month had initially envisioned a program for booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines beginning on Sept. 20 — on the theory that vaccine-created immunity wanes in individuals over a relatively short time, especially among the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. The administration’s booster dose promotion has been criticized as confusing, premature, globally inequitable and not backed by sufficient clinical evidence, according to naysayers inside the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and among some U.S. public health experts. The Hill’s Peter Sullivan and Amie Parnes report the many cross currents Biden and his pandemic response team are navigating as the country experiences the latest surge of COVID-19 infections, which many Americans had hoped were a thing of the past. Hospital beds in many states are filled with unvaccinated patients sick with the delta variant, including children and babies. States report shortages of physicians, nurses and hospital workers. The U.S. is recording roughly 150,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day, and about 1,500 fatalities a day, up from an average of 300 deaths each day just a few months ago. Biden, like many officials, worries about the spread of the virus during the new school year, the cumulative economic impact of virus variants that never entirely disappear, and regions of the country where the unvaccinated remain too numerous. Axios: In the past two weeks, COVID-19 infection rates held steady but hospitalizations rose and the seven-day rolling average of fatalities climbed 29 percent. Vaccine hesitancy has persisted in many communities, along with public (and partisan) hostility toward vaccine requirements, resistance to tests and behavioral precautions, and outright brawls at school board meetings, in governors’ mansions and in courthouses over who has the authority to mandate or ban vaccinations, masks and other requirements during a public health crisis. 
© Getty Images The Wall Street Journal: A delta wave peaks in some states while others brace for what’s next. The Hill: Global COVID-19 vaccine deliveries will fall 30 percent, according to an estimate from COVAX, the international cooperative that provides vaccine doses to poor countries. Under the most likely forecast, COVAX between January and February would reach 2 billion doses available for delivery. State, city developments: The return to in-person work for New York state employees has been postponed more than a month to October (Spectrum News 1). … New mask rules are in place for New York state-owned buildings (NY State of Politics). … Thirty Chicago businesses received citations for violating the city’s indoor mask mandate (Chicago Tribune and Eater Chicago). … Idaho hospital patients are in hallways amid a surge of COVID-19 infections and rationed care (Yahoo News). ***** AFGHANISTAN: One day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was unaware of efforts by the Taliban to block chartered flights trying to depart with evacuees out of Mazar-e-Sharif, he assailed the Taliban for doing just that. Blinken said during a press conference Wednesday at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany that the U.S. government has “made clear” to the Taliban that “these charters need to be able to depart,” despite objections from the Taliban that evacuees do not have proper documents to depart. “Those flights need to be able to leave, and the United States government, State Department — we are doing everything we can to help make that happen,” he said. “Those flights need to move. I pointed out some of the complications that are there, but those flights need to move” (Fox News). The administration this week invited widespread criticism from lawmakers, refugee advocates and humanitarian organizations that its efforts at diplomacy with the Taliban have created confusion and are harming rather than helping specific Americans and Afghan allies who are still trying to leave Afghanistan by air and land. “While there are limits to what we can do without personnel on the ground, without an airport with normal security procedures in place, we are working to do everything in our power to support those flights, and to get them off the ground. That's what we've done. That's what we will continue to do,” Blinken said. Axios: Biden hired attorney and former U.S. Ambassador Lee Wolosky, who advised former President Obama on unsuccessful efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, to lead on legal issues tied to the resettlement of Afghan evacuees. CNN: Small crowds of Afghan women in Kabul who have protested in the streets have been dispersed by Taliban fighters wielding sticks and whips, according to some video evidence. The fighters also lashed a number of journalists who covered a demonstration, according to witnesses and social media accounts. 
© Getty Images More administration headlines: The Justice Department is preparing to sue Texas over its restrictive abortion law, perhaps filing today (The Wall Street Journal). … Biden asked 18 appointees to military academy boards who were named by his predecessor to resign by Wednesday evening, or be fired. Some refused (The Associated Press). … The administration plans tougher measures aimed at meatpacking companies it says are responsible for high meat prices in stores (Reuters). | 
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