Axios

NIAID Director Anthony Fauci in an interview with CNN Tuesday pushed back on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R) claim last week that getting the COVID vaccine should be a personal choice that "really doesn't impact me or anyone else."

What he's saying: "When you're dealing with an outbreak of an infectious disease, it isn't only about you," said the nation's top infectious diseases expert. "There's a societal responsibility that we all have."

Britney Spears' father, Jamie Spears, filed a petition Tuesday to end the singer's conservatorship after 13 years, per NBC News.

Why it matters: It marks another significant victory for the singer, who has called the conservatorship "abusive" and previously said she was "extremely scared" of her father.

Civil rights groups filed a slew of lawsuits in Texas on Tuesday, kicking off what is expected to be an extensive legal battle mere hours after Gov. Greg Abbott signed controversial voting restrictions into law.

Why it matters: Critics have denounced the new law as a dangerous voter suppression bill that will disproportionately impact communities of color. The bill drove Texas House Democrats to flee the state in protest, but after enough returned to resume quorum, the legislation went to Abbott's desk.

President Biden said climate change and increasing extreme weather are a "code red," while surveying Hurricane Ida's devastation in New York and New Jersey on Tuesday.

Why it matters: Ida left more than 60 dead and caused "double-digit billion economic damage toll" in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast according to a report from insurance broker Aon, showing the increasing impact of human-caused climate change.

The Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday that it will invest $700 million in grant funding to help farmworkers, meatpacking workers and front-line grocery workers cover health and safety costs incurred due to COVID-19.

Why it matters: The program expands pandemic agriculture aid, which has until now largely benefited farm owners, to include the primarily immigrant, low-income workforce, Bloomberg reports.

New York City's chief medical examiner has identified two more 9/11 victims, just days before the country prepares to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks.

Why it matters: 40% of those who died in New York, or 1,106 victims, remain unidentified, per NBC New York. Identifications are still being made thanks to advances in DNA testing.

The Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday urged Congress to provide $6.4 billion for Afghan allies and partners and $14 billion for relief for natural disasters that took place prior to Hurricane Ida.

State of play: OMB is asking Congress to pass a short-term spending bill to provide more time for the full FY 2022 budget process to continue.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a sweeping voting bill on Tuesday, making it the latest state to approve stricter voting laws in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

Why it matters: The law rolls back early voting and adds new ID requirements, which critics say disproportionally impact voters of color.

Solugen, a Houston-based chemicals startup backed by top Silicon Valley investors, plans to open a new R&D facility outside of Texas because many of the state's social policies — including its new abortion ban — are making it difficult to recruit employees.

By the numbers: Solugen currently has about 115 employees, most of whom work out of its Houston headquarters. It plans to more than double its R&D capability over the next two years, representing around 100 jobs, with most of those expected to be located in a new facility that it will locate in either California or Massachusetts.

California voters' growing opposition to recalling Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is driven heavily by Latinos, according to new polling in the closing days of the election.

The big picture: A Public Policy Institute of California poll released last week found 66% of likely Latino voters saying they won't support the recall and just 27% saying they would — a shift from previous polls that suggested a tight race.

Farmworkers are 20 times more likely than other outdoor workers to die from the extreme heat that has gripped much of the U.S., and Latinos make up around 75% of farmworkers in the U.S.

Why it matters: In the U.S., extreme heat kills more people each year than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes, per the National Weather Service. About 700 people die from heat-related illnesses each year.

José Díaz-Balart, one of the few Latino anchors on U.S. television, is returning to MSNBC later this month to host a new show, the network announced Tuesday.

The big picture: The "Noticias Telemundo" anchor will take over daily the 10am ET hour on MSNBC for a show called "José Díaz-Balart Reports," beginning Sept. 27, as the network seeks to add more diverse voices.

Minnesota State Patrol officers deleted texts and emails following last summer's protests over the murder of George Floyd, according to a court transcript published last week.

Why it matters: The purge makes it "nearly impossible to track" the behavior of State Patrol officers, according to the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing the department on behalf of journalists who say they were targeted and harassed during the protests.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday denied reports that the Taliban is preventing Americans from flying out of Afghanistan from the Mazar-e-Sharif airport, according to Reuters.

Why it matters: The Taliban has been preventing the departure of at least four chartered evacuation flights from the airport for multiple days for unknown reasons.

The Federal Communications Commission wants to learn whether deals between landlords and internet service providers raise prices for apartment dwellers as part of the Biden administration's push on increasing competition in the economy.

Why it matters: Despite cities having more competition among broadband providers, those in apartment buildings can be stuck with one provider because of the arrangements.

President Biden is struggling with a Gordian knot on immigration that there's little he can do to untangle: The nation's broken system is making it harder than it should be to manage the Afghan refugee crisis — and the Afghan refugee crisis is making it harder to fix the system.

By the numbers: If the military’s task of adding 50,000 spots to bases by mid-September to temporarily house Afghan refugees sounds like a lot, consider that there have been more than 1.2 million undocumented border crossings since last October.

The goal of the COVID-19 vaccines was always to reduce death and severe illness. Even with the Delta variant, the vaccines are still doing that. But that message is getting lost, infectious disease and vaccine experts tell Axios.

The big picture: Two-thirds of the world isn't fully vaccinated. To return to some semblance of "normal," health authorities need to emphasize how the vaccines aren't failing and drastically increase global vaccine production.

The Human Rights Campaign announced late Monday that Alphonso David was being replaced as president following an investigation into his work in helping former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) respond to sexual harassment allegations.

Why it matters: The HRC is the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the U.S. and David was its first Black president. The HRC said its boards voted to remove him from the role "effective immediately, for violations of his contract with the Human Rights Campaign," the New York Times first reported.

New Orleans officials are investigating what Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Monday called "unacceptable" conditions in several senior apartments, after five people were found dead in the complexes in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

Driving the news: New Orleans Health Department teams discovered the bodies during wellness checks at senior apartment complexes, which found eight facilities unfit for occupancy, per a City of New Orleans statement Sunday.

El Salvador bought its first 400 bitcoins on Monday, and President Nayib Bukele pledged to buy "a lot more" ahead of adopting the cryptocurrency as legal tender.

Why it matters: El Salvador will become on Tuesday the first country to formally adopt bitcoin — marking the "biggest test" the digital currency has faced in its 12-year history, per Bloomberg.

U.S. officials helped an American citizen and family members escape Afghanistan via an "overland route" to a nearby country, AP first reported Monday.

Why it matters: This is the first report of an evacuation of a U.S. citizen across a land border since the full U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 31.

Richmond's Robert E. Lee statue will come down on Wednesday, days after the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the state could remove the 60-foot-tall monument.

Why it matters: The 130-year-old statue is "Virginia's largest monument to the Confederate insurrection," Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement Monday. "This is an important step in showing who we are and what we value as a Commonwealth."

Go deeper: Floyd's death set historic pace for Confederate removals