🇦🇫 For decades the Taliban’s leaders have been in the shadows. These are the militants now running Afghanistan. https://bloom.bg/2W7ozlk

🍄 Magic mushroom retreats are the new luxury ‘’trips.’’ It already appears there’s serious money to be made. https://bloom.bg/3y1XBZN

🇳🇱 Amsterdam looks the same but feels completely different. Here’s what it’s like to visit the city now. https://bloom.bg/2Xu6qyL

Hello, here’s what we’re following right now:

⛔️ OnlyFans is getting out of the pornography business. Starting in October, the company will prohibit creators from posting sexually explicit videos, removing a key source of income from sex workers on the site. https://bloom.bg/3j0f0xy

✈️ U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Singapore and Vietnam starting this weekend, looking to bolster economic and military cooperation in China’s backyard. It’s the Biden administration’s most high-profile trip yet to Asia. https://bloom.bg/3gk0oaB

🐅 And India wants to grow its tiger population by 35% to as many as 4,000 in the next decade. The initiative is called... Project Tiger. https://bloom.bg/3z2GM1X

🛢️Frackers in America’s largest oil field are letting massive amounts of natural gas spill into the atmosphere. Scientists and activists are trying to plug the leaks before they warm the planet further. https://bloom.bg/382ygUZ

🇦🇫 The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan has rattled Gulf states that are desperate to keep extremists at bay. This could have a big impact on the U.S. https://bloom.bg/3j4uL6w

🏢 Office workers are little closer to returning to their desks full-time. https://bloom.bg/3z3ZFSr

🇨🇳 It’s been just over a month, and China has once again squashed Covid-19, bringing its local cases down to zero https://bloom.bg/3D8Rer7

📈 Bitcoin tops $50,000 again as the crypto market continues its recovery from a rout just three months ago https://bloom.bg/3mjofLs

💉 The scientific data backing the need for Covid booster shots is building as delta continues to spread. Waning antibody levels are spurring some countries to offer a third shot. https://bloom.bg/3B7BT8H

🇦🇫 U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to push President Joe Biden to delay the departure of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. https://bloom.bg/3khlibB

💵 Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s monetary policy revolution seemed like a good idea at the time. It may have already passed its sell-by date. https://bloom.bg/2WaPMnf

🌏 Climate change is making China’s annual summer floods worse, and cities housing millions of people aren’t prepared. https://bloom.bg/3mpPzrx

🇺🇸 Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a speech in Singapore that defended the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan and accused China of intimidation over its claims in the South China Sea. https://bloom.bg/3gu9pOy

🪖 Meanwhile, China’s military has improved the accuracy and range of its ballistic missile force, the world’s largest, according to a U.S. Army report. https://bloom.bg/2Wg3Mfu

🏧 And in El Salvador, the government began installing Bitcoin ATMs, allowing citizens to convert the cryptocurrency into U.S. dollars and withdraw it in cash. https://bloom.bg/3DlQYFF

🇿🇦 South Africa’s unemployment rate surged to 34.4% in the second quarter. It's now the highest in the world. https://bloom.bg/3gsLUVM

💵 Hedge funds are hot again. But good luck finding one that’ll take your money. https://bloom.bg/388RJDr

🥤Milkshakes are off the menu in all McDonald’s British restaurants because of supply problems stemming from a shortage of truck drivers. https://bloom.bg/3keYHwi

🚢 Breaking: China fully reopens the world’s third-busiest port after a terminal’s two-week shutdown snarled supply chains. https://bloom.bg/3mtVBam

👂 Vice President Kamala Harris departed Singapore more than three hours late on Tuesday because of concerns of “an anomalous health incident” — a phrase used by the State Department to describe Havana Syndrome — in Hanoi, her next destination. https://bloom.bg/3mJIP87

🪨 China is making a risky bet on the Taliban, with an eye on Afghanistan’s $1 trillion in untapped mineral riches. https://bloom.bg/3kfCbTS

📦 The world's supply chain problems keep getting worse. A crunch thought to be temporary now looks like it will stretch well into next year. https://bloom.bg/3gAFMuR

👨‍💻 China’s internet is seeing a form of “cyber-Cultural Revolution,” where an ultra-loyal web army silences critics — often with government backing. https://bloom.bg/2Wodrkn

🪙 A video game is turning the jobless into crypto traders. Mark Cuban-backed Axie Infinity costs over $600 to join, but many players earn far more in tokens. https://bloom.bg/3mxXvqA

🇺🇸 The Supreme Court lifted the Biden administration’s moratorium on evictions, ending protections for millions of people who have fallen behind on rent payments during the pandemic. https://bloom.bg/3sONMxl

🏦 President Joe Biden’s advisers are considering recommending Jerome Powell for a second term as Federal Reserve chair with Lael Brainard as vice chair, sources say. https://bloom.bg/3mzpCph

💉 Patients face a much higher risk of developing blood clots from Covid-19 infections than they do from receiving the AstraZeneca or Pfizer shots, a large U.K. study shows. https://bloom.bg/3zokFDk

💉 New Zealand reports its first death believed to be linked to the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine. https://trib.al/a7xz2pK

🇨🇳 🇺🇸 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi calls on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to work with the Taliban government and stop pressuring Beijing over the virus origin probe. https://trib.al/UnBX3j7

₿ And FOMO remains alive and well in the cryptocurrency world. Lesser-known crypto coins like Cardano and Avalanche are outperforming in the wake of recent rallies staged by industry leaders Bitcoin and Ether. https://trib.al/TBKKJrX

🏭 Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired a high-level meeting that approved action on everything from monopolies to pollution as part of his push to improve the lives of the population. https://bloom.bg/3DH78cO

💉 Moderna's Covid vaccines generated more than double the antibodies of Pfizer-BioNTech shots in new research comparing immune responses. https://bloom.bg/3jx4T3L

👨‍💻 Calls for a probe of Covid’s origins plunged Australia into a hacking nightmare. Experts say any nation could be at risk if they annoy China enough. https://bloom.bg/2YbCTdH

🇦🇫 The departure of the last U.S. military plane from Afghanistan has left the region facing uncertainty, with the Taliban seeking to control a nation shattered by two decades of war. https://bloom.bg/3gNPRVo

😷 When Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent probe into the origins of Covid-19, Chinese bots swarmed on to Australian government networks in a massive and noisy attack. https://bloom.bg/3sYUlgK

🆘 Apple is planning to add satellite features to iPhones for emergencies, allowing users to send texts to first responders and report crashes in areas without cellular coverage. https://bloom.bg/3jvx9nl

💼 Business travel as we’ve known it is a thing of the past. A Bloomberg survey of 45 large companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia shows 84% plan to spend less sending staff around the world. https://bloom.bg/2WIezj1

👛 For a glimpse of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vision of “common prosperity,” look to Alibaba’s home province. Zhejiang, home to some of China’s most successful private companies, is piloting policies to reduce inequality. https://bloom.bg/3BoGsvg

⌚ The upcoming Apple Watch with a larger screen is posing manufacturing challenges that will likely result in shipment delays or limited supplies. https://bloom.bg/3DyAMRi

📱 Apple will let media apps avoid a 30% commission on downloads and in-app subscriptions as it settles a long-standing dispute. https://bloom.bg/3BE7MWF

😷 Kidney damage is the latest side effect identified in Covid “long haulers.” Painless and silent, the ailment can occur among non-hospitalized patients, escalating with the severity of infection, a study finds. https://bloom.bg/3kLa8MD

🏢 Conjured out of nothing and ignored by almost everyone, China’s gleaming “ghost cities” sat empty for years. Now they’re finally filling up. https://bloom.bg/3gV2ZYJ

🌀 The remnants of Hurricane Ida ripped through New York, New Jersey and across the Northeast early on Thursday morning, triggering tornadoes, thunderstorms, and torrential rain. https://bloom.bg/2V8ngm2

💉 The EU says there’s no need for Covid-19 vaccine booster shots, though people with weakened immune systems may be offered a third dose. https://bloom.bg/38zxS0r

🇪🇺 WhatsApp has been fined $266 million for failing to be transparent about how it handled personal information. https://bloom.bg/3kG8WtC

💉💰 Wealthy people in some of Asia’s Covid-19 hotspots are nabbing booster shots even as most people remain unvaccinated. https://bloom.bg/3jGFPat

🇸🇬 The world’s largest crypto exchange Binance must stop offering services regulated in Singapore after a potential breach of local payment rules. https://bloom.bg/3yHiTfF

⌚ And here’s everything we know so far about the next Apple Watch. https://bloom.bg/3yAH7rK

🇸🇬 Singapore will hit pause on its reopening plans after a recent rise in Covid cases and plans to start vaccine boosters. https://bloom.bg/3zHtQiv

💉 Scientists behind the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Covid-19 shot are using the same technology to try to develop a therapeutic cancer vaccine. https://bloom.bg/3BJ02mh

🇵🇱 Poland’s controversial media law has angered the U.S., but it may say more about the battle by one man to keep power. https://bloom.bg/2YoRZg1

🦠 The pandemic’s summer resurgence is slowing the global economic recovery as the delta variant dogs efforts to rev up factories, offices and schools. https://bloom.bg/3l1MFXH

🛑 Crypto exchange Binance is going to stop offering some products in Singapore after regulators said the company may be in breach of local payment rules. https://bloom.bg/3h1dhqv

➡️ 🍃And these are the biggest environmental risks facing the world’s largest cities. https://bloom.bg/3h1die3

🇨🇳 Billionaire investor George Soros criticized BlackRock’s China push “a tragic mistake,” calling it a risk to clients and U.S. security interests in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. https://bloom.bg/2WQhTbH

₿ El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. It bought 400 coins worth about $20 million ahead of the rollout. https://bloom.bg/3jOE3nJ

✈️ And Hong Kong will start allowing visitors from China to enter without quarantine from Sept. 15. https://bloom.bg/3DSRKdu