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WASHINGTON — At least1,500 American citizens remain inAfghanistan with just days left be-fore the scheduled U.S. withdraw-al from the country, but officials onWednesday acknowledged the re-ality that tens of thousands of Af-ghan allies and others at high riskof Taliban reprisals would be leftbehind.

The sound of gunfire, andclouds of tear gas and blacksmoke, filled the air around the in-ternational airport in Kabul, thecapital, as thousands of Afghansmassed at the gates on Wednes-day, desperate to escape ahead ofthe American military’s final de-parture on Aug. 31, after 20 yearsof war.

The U.S. Embassy warnedAmericans later in the day to stayaway from the airport and toldanyone outside the perimeter to“leave immediately.” The Britishand Australian governments is-sued similar warnings.

A senior U.S. official, who spokeon the condition of anonymity todescribe confidential assess-ments, confirmed that the UnitedStates was tracking a “specific”and “credible” threat at the air-port from the Islamic State affili-ate in Afghanistan, which has car-ried out dozens of attacks in re-cent years and is a rival of the Tal-iban.

As military and governmentcharter flights took off every 45minutes as part of an airlift, Bidenadministration officials said theyhad evacuated about 82,300 peo-ple since Aug. 14, the day beforeKabul fell to the Taliban. Around4,500 of them were American citi-zens, with 500 more expected todepart soon.

1,500 Citizens RemainIn Afghanistan as U.S.Intensifies Rush to Exit

Fears for the AfghanAllies Left Behind

By LARA JAKESand MICHAEL LEVENSON

Continued on Page A6

WASHINGTON — PresidentBiden, his aides and his allies inCongress face a Septembersprint to secure a legislativevictory that could define his

early presidency.Democrats are

racing the clockafter party leaders

in the House struck a deal thisweek to advance the two-trackapproach that Mr. Biden hopeswill deliver a $4 trillion overhaulof the federal government’s rolein the economy. That agreementsets up a potentially perilousvote on one part of the agenda bySept. 27: a bipartisan deal onroads, broadband, water pipesand other physical infrastruc-ture. It also spurred House andSenate leaders to intensify ef-forts to complete a larger, Demo-crats-only bill to fight climatechange, expand educationalaccess and invest heavily inworkers and families, inside thatsame window.

If the party’s factions canbridge their differences in time,they could deliver a signaturelegislative achievement for Mr.

Biden in SprintTo Lift EconomyAnd Presidency

By JIM TANKERSLEYand EMILY COCHRANE

Continued on Page A15

NEWSANALYSIS

TOWNER, N.D. — Darrell Ricestood in a field of corn he’d plantedin early June, to be harvested inthe fall and chopped up to feed thehundreds of cows and calves heraises in central North Dakota.

“It should be six, seven, eightfoot tall,” he said, looking down atthe stunted plants at his feet, theirnormally floppy leaves rolledtight against their stalks to con-serve water in the summer heat.

Like ranchers across the state,Mr. Rice is suffering through anepic drought as bad or worse thananywhere else in this season of ex-treme weather in the Western halfof the country.

A lack of snow last winter andalmost no spring rain have creat-ed the driest conditions in genera-tions. Ranchers are being forcedto sell off portions of herds theyhave built up for years, often atfire-sale prices, to stay in busi-ness.

Some won’t make it.“It’s a really bad situation,” said

Randy Weigel, a cattle buyer, whosaid this drought may force someolder ranchers to retire. “They’veworked all their lives to get theircow herd to where they want, andnow they don’t have enough feedto feed them.”

Since December, in the weeklymaps produced by the UnitedStates Drought Monitor, all ofNorth Dakota has been colored in

shades of yellow, orange and red,symbolizing various degrees ofdrought. And since mid-May, Mc-Henry County, where Mr. Riceranches and farms, has beensquarely in the middle of a swath

of the darkest red, denoting themost extreme conditions.

The period from January 2020to this June has been the driest 18months in McHenry and 11 othercounties in the state since modern

record keeping began 126 yearsago, according to the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Admin-istration.

“I’ve been ranching for 47 years

A State So Dry, Ranchers Are Selling Cows Before They StarveBy HENRY FOUNTAIN

A parched ranch in McHenry County, N.D., where months of drought have decimated cattle feed.BENJAMIN RASMUSSEN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A12

It was in the middle of summerin 1980 when developers raising apair of luxury condominium tow-ers in Surfside, Fla., went to townofficials with an unusual request:They wanted to add an extra floorto each building.

The application to go higherwas almost unheard-of for an am-bitious development whose con-struction was already well under-way. The builders had not men-tioned the added stories in theiroriginal plans. It was not clearhow much consideration they hadgiven to how the extra floorswould affect the structures over-all. And, most galling for town offi-cials, the added penthouses wouldviolate height limits designed toprevent laid-back Surfside frombecoming another Miami Beach.

At one point, the town buildingdepartment issued a terse stop-work order. But records show that

in the face of an intense campaignthat saw lawyers for the develop-ers threaten lawsuits and arguewith officials deep into the night,the opposition folded — and thedevelopers got their way.

Frank Filiberto, who was on theTown Commission at the time, re-called feeling as if the developersregarded him and the other offi-cials as “local yokels.”

“They were bullies,” Mr. Filib-erto said. “There was a lot of an-ger.”

Although there is no indicationthat the catastrophic collapse ofthe Champlain Towers Southbuilding in June was related to thetacked-on penthouse, the alter-ation was just one of many con-

tentious parts of a project that waspushed through by aggressive de-velopers at a time when the localgovernment seemed wholly un-prepared for a new era of soaringcondo projects.

Surfside had only a part-timebuilding inspector, George De-sharnais, who worked at the sametime for Bal Harbour, Bay HarborIslands and North Bay Village.Records show that the Surfsidebuilding department delegated in-spections of the towers back to theChamplain Towers builders, whotapped their own engineer to signoff on construction work. Thetown manager was unable to re-solve the penthouse issue be-cause, just as the issue came be-fore the city, he was arrested oncharges — later dismissed — ofpeeping into the window of a 13-year-old girl and abruptly re-signed.

The development team itselfhad a dubious record. The archi-

Collapsed Condo Was Troubled From the StartBy MIKE BAKER

and MICHAEL LaFORGIAA Financially Strapped

Town Felt Bulliedby Developers

A cleared lot in Surfside, Fla., where the Champlain Towers South condominium once stood. Ninety-eight people died in its collapse.JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A13

MOSCOW — Russia’s most fa-mous prisoner, the oppositionleader Aleksei A. Navalny, spendsmuch of his time tidying his cell-block, reading letters and visitingthe mess for meals, with porridgeoften on the menu.

But perhaps the most madden-ing thing, he suggested, is beingforced to watch Russian state TVand selected propaganda films formore than eight hours a day inwhat the authorities call an“awareness raising” program thathas replaced hard labor for politi-cal prisoners.

“Reading, writing or doing any-thing else” is prohibited, Mr. Na-valny said of the forced screentime. “You have to sit in a chairand watch TV.” And if an inmatenods off, he said, the guards shout,“Don’t sleep, watch!”

In an interview with The NewYork Times, his first with a newsorganization since his arrest inJanuary, Mr. Navalny talkedabout his life in prison, about whyRussia has cracked down so hardon the opposition and dissidents,and about his conviction that“Putin’s regime,” as he calls it, isdoomed to collapse.

Mr. Navalny started a major op-position movement to exposehigh-level corruption and chal-lenge President Vladimir V. Putinat the polls. He was imprisoned inMarch after he returned to Russiafrom Germany knowing he wasfacing a parole violation for a con-viction in a case seen as politicallymotivated. As was well chronicledat the time, he was out of the coun-try to receive medical treatmentafter being poisoned by Russianagents with the chemical weaponNovichok, according to Westerngovernments.

Mr. Navalny has not been en-tirely mute since his incarcerationin Penal Colony No. 2, just east ofMoscow. Through his lawyers,who visit him regularly, he hassent out occasional social mediaposts.

Nor is he being actively muz-zled by the Kremlin. When askedabout Mr. Navalny’s social mediapresence on Tuesday, Mr. Putin’sspokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, saidthat it was “not our business” ifMr. Navalny spoke out.

But the written exchange of

NAVALNY IS GIVENPROPAGANDA DIET

First Interview From JailWith Critic of Putin

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

Continued on Page A10

Just days after the Talibantook Kabul, their flag was flyinghigh above a central mosque inPakistan’s capital. It was anin-your-face gesture intended to

spite the defeatedAmericans. But itwas also a sign ofthe real victors in

the 20-year Afghan war.Pakistan was ostensibly Amer-

ica’s partner in the war againstAl Qaeda and the Taliban. Itsmilitary won tens of billions inAmerican aid over the last twodecades, even as Washingtonacknowledged that much of themoney disappeared into unac-counted sinkholes.

But it was a relationship rivenby duplicity and divided interestsfrom its very start after 9/11. Notleast, the Afghan Taliban theAmericans were fighting are, inlarge part, a creation of Paki-stan’s intelligence service, theI.S.I., which through the courseof the war nurtured and pro-tected Taliban assets insidePakistan.

In the last three months as theTaliban swept across Afghani-stan, the Pakistani militarywaved a surge of new fightersacross the border from sanctuar-ies inside Pakistan, tribal leadershave said. It was a final coup degrâce to the American-trainedAfghan security forces.

“The Pakistanis and the I.S.I.think they have won in Afghani-stan,” said Robert L. Grenier, aformer C.I.A. station chief inPakistan. But, he warned, thePakistanis should watch whatthey wish for. “If the AfghanTaliban become leaders of apariah state, which is likely,Pakistan will find itself tethered

Pakistan Has FutureRiding on Taliban

By JANE PERLEZ

Continued on Page A8

NEWSANALYSIS

You can get those fashionable little bagspretty much everywhere. So how did asupposed environmental solution be-come part of the problem? PAGE D4

THURSDAY STYLES D1-6

A New Line on Cotton TotesLia Coryell often questioned if life witha debilitating disease was worth living.She found the answer. PAGE B8

SPORTS B7-10

An Archer Finds ‘My People’Gov. Kathy C. Hochul selected Brian A.Benjamin, a state senator from Harlem,as lieutenant governor. PAGE A18

NATIONAL A11-19

Hochul Chooses Her No. 2

Farhad Manjoo PAGE A23

OPINION A22-23 A nagging hamstring injury is still tootender for the 23-time Grand Slamsingles champion. PAGE B7

Williams Will Miss U.S. OpenA beloved ranching community inNorthern California faces destructionby America’s largest wildfire. PAGE A11

Returning Home to FlamesReporting from the author of a bookabout “Jeopardy!” thrust the game showinto a period of uncertainty. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

She Had All the Answers

The country’s foreign minister led aneffort to take in Afghans who workedfor The New York Times, and theirfamilies, Ben Smith writes. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

How Mexico Aided JournalistsDespite their opposing views on Iran,Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett,wants President Biden to supportcovert Israeli operations againstTehran’s nuclear program. PAGE A10

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

Seeking Help on Spy Missions

Trying to fend off investigations into thepandemic’s origins in China, Beijing ispromoting baseless theories that theUnited States may be the true source ofthe coronavirus. PAGE A4

China Floats Covid Falsehoods Delta Air Lines will charge unvaccinat-ed workers more for health insurance, amove mired in legal doubts. PAGE B1

A Thorny Vaccination Tactic

G.O.P. DIVIDE The resettlement of Afghan allies in the U.S. is revealinga schism between the party’s anti-immigrant wing and others. PAGE A9

SNEAK PEEK Two members of Congress went to Kabul to see the evac-uation process for themselves. They got bipartisan rebukes. PAGE A9

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 59,162 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2021

Today, becoming partly cloudy, hot,humid, high 91. Tonight, partlycloudy, warm, low 76. Tomorrow, hu-mid, afternoon thunderstorms, high90. Weather map is on Page B10.

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