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President Biden said on Tuesday that ending the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan "was designed to save American lives."

Why it matters: While Biden said he did not regret pulling U.S. troops from Afghanistan, he made a commitment to get Americans still in the country out even without a military presence.

Former Trump national security adviser Robert O'Brien spoke for over an hour with House Republicans on Tuesday, helping them develop their latest policy offensive on Afghanistan, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: O'Brien has increasingly been working with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to help House Republicans in their effort to regain the majority in 2022.

The largest block of House Republicans will try to use the annual markup of the federal defense spending bill starting Wednesday to message against any recognition of the Taliban's legitimacy, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: All of their proposed amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act are expected to fail, but it's part of a broader GOP messaging offensive to attack the Biden administration and Democrats over the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Republican members and aides tell Axios.

Two of the FDA's top vaccine regulators, Marion Gruber and Phil Krause, are leaving the agency, which was first reported by BioCentury.

Why it matters: The FDA appears to be increasingly rudderless at a crucial time in the pandemic. The agency still has no permanent commissioner and now is losing two highly regarded vaccine experts all while officials weigh full approval of the COVID-19 vaccines for adults, initial authorization for kids, and booster shots for many.

Firefighters in California continued to battle the swelling Caldor Fire, which had grown to more than 191,607 acres and was 16% contained on Tuesday morning.

Latest: "One of the complexities that we faced in this fire is firebrands can be picked up by winds ... and carried a great distance," said Tim Ernst, Cal Fire's operations section chief. "So, firefighters all night long were doing structure prep and structure defense" in and near the Tahoe Basin, he added.

Mike Richards will no longer serve as an executive producer of "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune," according to a statement from Sony executive Suzanne Prete.

Driving the news: The departure comes less than two weeks after Richards stepped down from his position as the new host of "Jeopardy!" over offensive comments he made in 2013 and 2014.

When Aileen Lee originally coined the term "unicorn" in late 2013, she was describing the 39 "U.S.-based software companies started since 2003 and valued at over $1 billion by public or private market investors."

Flashback: It got redefined in early 2015 by yours truly and Erin Griffith, in a cover story for Fortune, as any privately-held startup valued at $1 billion or more. At the time, we counted 80 of them.

Facebook plans to announce that it will de-emphasize political posts and current events content in the News Feed based on negative user feedback, Axios has learned. It also plans to expand tests to limit the amount of political content that people see in their News Feeds to more countries outside of the U.S.

Why it matters: The changes could reduce traffic to some news publishers, particularly companies that post a lot of political content.

Amazon is investing heavily in a new live audio feature that's similar to other live audio offerings like Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and Spotify's new live audio platform, sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: As with Amazon's efforts in podcasting and music subscriptions, the company sees live audio as a way to bolster the types of content it can offer through its voice assistant, Alexa, and its smart speaker products.

The powerful hurricane that plunged New Orleans into darkness for what could be weeks is the latest sign that U.S. power systems are not ready for a warmer, more volatile world.

The big picture: “Our current infrastructure is not adequate when it comes to these kinds of weather extremes,” Joshua Rhodes, a University of Texas energy expert, tells Axios.

About 70% of adults in the European Union are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said Tuesday.

Why it matters: The milestone makes the EU one of the world's leaders in inoculations, after an initially lagging vaccine campaign, the New York Times notes.

Jury selection begins today in USA v. Elizabeth Holmes, with the actual jury trial to get underway on Sept. 8.

Why it matters: Theranos was the biggest fraud in Silicon Valley history, putting both hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of patients' health at risk.

The debate over the media's role in Afghanistan's fall is intensifying, as experts look to understand how Americans were so blindsided by the Taliban's rapid rise to power.

Why it matters: "This is the least reported war since at least WWI," says Benjamin Hopkins, a historian of modern South Asia specializing in the history of Afghanistan at George Washington University.

Nearly all American renters can now be evicted, for the first time since March 2020 — and a white-hot housing market is making eviction much more attractive for landlords.

Why it matters: There's an enormous pool of federal money available to protect renters who have fallen behind. But it's not going to stop hundreds of thousands of households from being evicted.

School boards across Florida are reconsidering mandatory mask policies since a judge struck down Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order barring local classroom mandates.

Driving the news: The ruling paved the way for boards in Brevard, Charlotte, Lee, Lake, Volusia, and Osceola Counties to call meetings to talk about mask policies. At least two of them — Brevard and Lee — instituted mask mandates Monday.

How it ended: This image, made through a night-vision scope, shows the final American soldier to depart Afghanistan after America's longest war.

Driving the news: Army Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, who was coordinating the evacuation, boarded a C-17 cargo plane that lifted off from Kabul at 3:29 p.m. ET on Monday.

Long-quiet Apple employees are beginning to speak their minds. In recent weeks they've talked publicly about experiences with harassment and discrimination, concerns about business decisions, and objections to policies that some feel open their personal lives to corporate scrutiny.

Why it matters: Employee activism has been on the rise across Silicon Valley, but until recently, Apple workers have largely avoided public criticism of their employer.

The number of U.S. kids who are homeschooled has nearly doubled during the pandemic.

Why it matters: Some parents have lost faith in traditional schools, others fear exposing their kids to the coronavirus — and the broad exodus could further weaken America's struggling public education system.

The percentage of Republicans who say they trust national news organizations has been cut in half over the past five years, according to a new study from Pew Research Center.

Why it matters: The party's trust in media starting dropping when President Trump took office, but has plummeted much more dramatically in the Biden era.

The launch next month of the first all-civilian mission to orbit is an ambitious test for a burgeoning space industry's futuristic dream of sending many more ordinary people to space in the next few years.

Why it matters: Companies and nations envision millions of people living and working in space without having to become professional, government-backed astronauts. Those hopes are riding on SpaceX's next crewed mission, called Inspiration4.

The media deal frenzy is coming for Washington, giving longtime owners and investors in political publications a way to finally cash out.

Why it matters: The post-Trump era has been a traffic nightmare for political publications, but business is soaring right now, thanks to a few hot-button issues being debated by a new, divided Congress.

In part one of How it Happened: The Next Astronauts, Axios space reporter Miriam Kramer traces how a multi-day orbital mission to space without professional astronauts came together in just a matter of weeks.

• Kramer takes listeners back to February of 2021, to a press call where SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made a stunning announcement.

A shortage of medical-grade oxygen in COVID hotspots like Florida is rippling through the economy, crimping manufacturing and intensifying a shortage of truck drivers.

Why it matters: It’s the latest example of the supply chain chaos that’s developed in the pandemic economy. Oxygen suppliers like Airgas have diverted all their supply to hospitals, leaving industrial customers in a lurch — and potentially putting themselves in legal jeopardy for breaching contracts, sources tell Axios.

A huge reason why the pandemic response — or the lack of one — feels so chaotic right now is that the U.S. doesn't have a well-defined goal, experts recently argued in a pair of op-eds.

Why it matters: Policy decisions and individual behavioral choices should ideally be aligned in pursuit of an agreed-upon outcome, but as of now, we don't have one.

Vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. is showing signs of crumbling, according to the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.

• Fewer adults than ever now say they won't take the shot, and in the past two weeks there has been a sharp increase in the share of parents who plan to get their younger kids vaccinated as soon as it's allowed.

The Pentagon tweeted a photo of the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan, with the caption "ending the U.S. mission in Kabul."

The big picture: The moment marks the end of America's longest war after nearly 20 years of military involvement in Afghanistan. Taliban fighters were pictured with American equipment moving into Kabul's international airport soon after the U.S. troops left.

The deadly former Hurricane Ida was bringing heavy rains, "dangerous" flash flooding, storm surge and extreme winds as the tropical depression moved northeast across Mississippi overnight.

Threat level: "Ida will continue to produce heavy rainfall tonight through Tuesday morning across portions of southeast Louisiana, Mississippi, and western Alabama, resulting in considerable flash and urban flooding and significant river flooding impacts," the National Hurricane Center warned.

Florida's Department of Education announced Monday it has withheld funds from two districts that defied Gov. Ron DeSantis' order banning mask mandates in schools.

Driving the news: Amid a surge of COVID-19 cases largely driven by the Delta variant, several Florida school districts have implemented mask mandates, despite threats from the Republican governor and state officials to withhold funds for doing so.

A federal judge on Monday tossed out a Trump administration rule that rolled back protections for streams, marshes and wetlands across the U.S.

Why it matters: Environmental and tribal groups have pushed the court to vacate the rule, which the Biden administration has kept in place while coming up with its own protections policy. The new ruling will expand protections for drinking water supplies for millions of Americans and thousands of wildlife species, per the Washington Post.