Axios

The Biden administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to suspend a lower court's order that would force the administration to reinstate one of President Trump's border policies, which left tens of thousands of migrants to await asylum hearings in Mexico.

Why it matters: Ending the controversial Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy was one of President Biden’s campaign promises, and he suspended the program on his first day in office. The administration has now brought thousands of impacted migrants into the United States — some of whom waited years in Mexico.

The Biden administration on Friday announced that its evacuation flights from Kabul can now land throughout the Middle East and Europe as Qatar has reached capacity, resulting in temporarily halted flights.

State of play: With the U.S. military's efforts to evacuate American citizens and at-risk Afghans from the country ramping up, and Qatar's al-Udeid air base at maximum capacity, the U.S. was scrambling for more places to take evacuees.

World soccer officials are working with different governments to establish an evacuation plan for athletes at risk in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control.

Why it matters: FIFPRO, the world soccer players' union, made the announcement Friday on Twitter after news of the death of 17-year-old Zaki Anwari, a member of Afghanistan's national youth soccer team, who died after falling from a U.S. military plane.

The U.S. and the U.K. imposed fresh sanctions on Russian officials and entities on Friday in response to the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which was carried out by Russian intelligence agents one year ago.

Why it matters: The West is seeking to maintain pressure on the Kremlin over its persecution of Navalny, who is serving out a three-year prison sentence for violating his parole while he recovered from the poisoning in Germany last year.

The Taliban are "intensifying the hunt-down" of individuals who worked with the Afghan government and its allied forces, conducting "targeted door-to-door visits" and arresting or threatening family members of "target individuals" unless they surrender, according to a confidential UN document obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: The Taliban have promised amnesty to their opponents and sought to cast themselves as more moderate than when they ruled in the 1990s. But reports of door-to-door searches and targeted killings, as well as this week's crackdown on protesters, have renewed fears the group will return to its brutal and repressive rule.

A C-17 cargo plane set a record by safely transporting 823 Afghan citizens — 200 more than originally thought — from the international airport in Kabul after the city was seized by the Taliban on Sunday.

Driving the news: A photo showing hundreds of Afghans cramped inside the plane went viral on social media this week. Instead of trying to force the refugees off, "the crew made the decision to go," a defense official told Defense One.

Food aid could run out for millions of people in Ethiopia's Tigray region this week due to hurdles imposed by Ethiopia's government making it difficult for aid workers to deliver food, the U.S. Agency for International Development said Thursday.

Driving the news: "This shortage is not because food is unavailable, but because the Ethiopian Government is obstructing humanitarian aid and personnel, including land convoys and air access," USAID administrator Samantha Power.

More than 356,000 people died from extreme heat-related causes in just nine countries in 2019, a death toll not only preventable but expected to grow as temperatures increase worldwide, a pair of studies published Thursday in The Lancet shows.

Why it matters: Though it's known heat stress can lead to stroke, organ and brain damage, the studies out of the University of Washington found it also causes a slew of specific morbidities including several types of heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Some 14 million people in Afghanistan are facing severe hunger following the Taliban's takeover, according to the head of the UN's food agency.

Why it matters: The country has already faced a severe drought — its second in three years — and COVID-19's social and economic impacts. The Taliban's siege has elevated the situation in Afghanistan from dire to catastrophic, World Food Program’s (WFP) country director Mary Ellen McGroarty said.