Top Stories this AM: Wrenching video shows the struggle to escape Kabul; get ready for US COVID numbers to climb; new NY gov. not ruling out vax mandate

Good morning and welcome to your weekday morning roundup of the top stories you need to know.

For more daily and weekly briefings, sign up for our newsletters here.

What's going on today:

• Get ready for COVID numbers to rise. National Institutes of Health director predicts the US will see 200,000 new daily COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks. The highly infectious Delta variant has been rapidly spreading amongst Americans with low vaccination rates, especially in Southern states.
• "We are all banging our heads in shame." The Afghan Embassy in India sent out a tweet calling Afghan President Ashraf Ghani a "traitor" who "screwed and f---ed everything up." In a now-deleted tweet, the official account of the Afghan Embassy said Ghani's legacy "will be a stain on our history."
• The damage done by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. Photos, videos show Haitians scrambling to find survivors of the 7.2-magnitude earthquake as Tropical Depression Grace approaches. Haitians still reeling from the destruction caused by Saturday's earthquake are scrambling to find survivors before heavy rainfall reaches the island.
• Biden's "Saigon moment." Videos show chaotic scenes at the Kabul airport as the Taliban retakes power in Afghanistan and thousands flee. Videos from the Kabul airport showed chaos as thousands of civilians desperately tried to flee the country after the Taliban took the city. It's being called "Biden's Saigon moment"
• Who's who among the Taliban's ruling class. The Taliban has long been run by secretive figureheads and commanders jockeying for power. Here's who made it into the inner circle that retook Afghanistan. The secretive Taliban leadership is headed by a supreme leader and three deputies - a mix of leaders of old and the sons of famed insurgents.
• Vax mandates are on the table in NY. Incoming New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she's not ruling out a statewide vaccine mandate "I'll be looking at the possibility of mandates, but not saying they're in or out until I know all the facts," Lt. Gov. Hochul told CNN Sunday.
• That's all for now. See you tomorrow.