A contractor paid by the American-led coalition to build roads in Afghanistan was also a middleman who passed out money from a Russian spy agency to Taliban-linked militants after they killed U.S. troops, U.S. and Afghan officials told The New York Times.

Rahmatullah Azizi's name has appeared in U.S. intelligence reports about the alleged Russian bounty program, the Times reports, and he went to Russia multiple times to collect "hundreds of thousands of dollars." Afghan officials told the Times payments of up to $100,000 per killed soldier were offered to the Taliban-linked militants for U.S. and coalition targets.

Azizi, said to be in his 40s, is a former small-time drug smuggler. Several of his friends and neighbors told the Times that in recent years, Azizi started to flaunt his wealth, purchasing a four-story villa and traveling with bodyguards, but they had no idea how he made his money. An Afghan official confirmed he was the target of a raid six months ago; several of his associates and relatives were arrested, but he slipped out of Afghanistan and is likely in Russia. At his house in Kabul, authorities found half a million dollars in cash.

For years, U.S. and Afghan officials have maintained that Russia was secretly trying to undermine the U.S. in Afghanistan by helping the Taliban. In 2019, the U.S. concluded that Russia was sending bounty money to the Taliban at the same time the United States was negotiating with the militants over withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, the Times reports, and some of the attacks believed to be linked to the plot were carried out when the Trump administration was asking Russia to participate in the peace talks.

Russia and the Taliban have denied the existence of the covert bounty scheme, and President Trump and the White House have claimed that multiple reports that he was briefed on the matter are false. Catherine Garcia

At 14, Benjamin Kagan isn't old enough to get the coronavirus vaccine — but he can help those who are eligible secure appointments.

Due to a limited number of appointments, getting signed up has been hard for most people, and it's even more daunting for those who don't have access to a computer or have a slower internet connection. After making appointments for his grandparents, Kagan, a Chicago resident, was inspired last month to start Chicago Vaccine Angels, a group where volunteers secure appointments for people in need of assistance.

It hasn't been easy, the tech-savvy high schooler said. Kagan has to be on his computer at midnight, ready to get in a virtual line, and "it's incredibly complicated to navigate even for myself," he told CBS Chicago, adding, "If you're not on the ball and getting them as soon as they are released, they're gone." It's worth it, though — since launching Chicago Vaccine Angels, Kagan has helped more than 119 people, mostly seniors, get appointments. Catherine Garcia

After interviewing 79 witnesses and reviewing numerous documents, the Department of Defense inspector general has issued a review of the time Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) spent as physician to the president, finding that Jackson made inappropriate comments about a female subordinate and drank alcohol while on trips with the president, violating policy.

CNN obtained a copy of the report on Tuesday, a day before its expected release. Jackson, who served as the top White House doctor during the Obama and Trump administrations, was elected in November to represent Texas' 13th Congressional District, and is on the House Armed Services subcommittee. The investigation into his conduct began in 2018, and the report says that the probe was "limited in scope and unproductive" because former President Donald Trump's White House counsel demanded on being present during all interviews with White House Medical Unit employees.

The report states 56 of the witnesses who worked with Jackson said they "personally experienced, saw, or heard about him yelling, screaming, cursing, or belittling subordinates." He was described as a "dictator," "control freak," and "crappy manager," and only 13 witnesses had anything positive to say about him, CNN reports.

While on trips with the president, the White House physician is not allowed to drink for 24 hours before the president's arrival until two hours after the president leaves. Witnesses said they observed Jackson drinking during two overseas trips with former President Barack Obama — in Manila in 2014 and in Bariloche, Argentina, in 2016. In Manila, witnesses said Jackson was intoxicated and made lewd comments about a female subordinate, with one person stating they also spotted him "pounding" on the door to her room while saying "I need you" and "I need you to come to my room."

In a statement, Jackson told CNN the report was politically motivated, and accused Democrats of using it "to repeat and rehash untrue attacks on my integrity." He also denied "any allegation that I consumed alcohol while on duty." Catherine Garcia

More than 300 years after it was mailed, a letter sent from one cousin to another in the Netherlands has finally been opened — virtually.

Jana Dambrogio, a conservator with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries, told NPR that before the gummed envelope was invented in the 1830s, people would secure their letters via "letterlocking," using intricate folds, creases, slits, and holes to transform the piece of paper into a package. While some archivists have used scissors to cut locked letters, Dambrogio worried about what is lost "when we open the unopened."

With a team of researchers, Dambrogio was able to take a locked letter and read it, without disturbing anything. The letter, written in 1697, was found in The Hague in an old postmaster's trunk. Inks at that time contained high amounts of metal, so the team used an X-ray scanner that can create 3D images of teeth to make a 3D image of the letter. The writing showed up "as a very bright region on the scan," like a bone would appear on an X-ray, Amanda Ghassaei of Adobe Research told NPR.

Because it was folded so many times, the letter had several layers close together, making the words look jumbled. The team had to "find a way to manipulate that data and actually virtually unfold it so that we could get it into a flat state," Ghassaei said. Success came after the researchers used a brute-force algorithm, and they discovered that the letter was sent to request an official death certificate for a relative.

The folding pattern included an arrow shape, and is "quite beautiful," Dambrogio told NPR. She finds it "thrilling" that the note can be read "without tampering with the letter packet, leaving it to study as an unopened object." Catherine Garcia

The Senate confirmed Cecilia Rouse on Tuesday to become chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Rouse, a labor economist and former dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, is the first Black person to serve in the role. She was confirmed with a vote of 95-4.

Rouse served on the council during the first Obama administration, in the wake of the Great Recession. During her confirmation hearing, Rouse said economists often "focus on average outcomes instead of examining a range of outcomes. One of my priorities as chair will be to try to understand how policies will impact all in our country, as we strive to ensure the economy works for everyone."

There are too many people who have "slipped through our frayed safety net into hardship and hopelessness," Rouse added. "And structural inequities that have always existed within our economy have not just been exposed, but exacerbated, their impact more devastating than ever before." Catherine Garcia

For her next act, Kayleigh McEnany is heading to Fox News to serve as a contributor — a hire that was met with groans inside the network's newsroom, several employees told The Daily Beast.

McEnany was former President Donald Trump's final press secretary, known for being wrong on everything from COVID-19 ("We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here," she stated in February 2020) to the presidential election (she asserted that Trump had a "one in quadrillion chance" of losing to President Biden). The Daily Beast's Justin Baragona and Diana Falzone — a former FoxNews.com reporter who settled a disability and gender discrimination lawsuit with the network — spoke with multiple Fox News staffers who said bringing McEnany on board was "upsetting" because several employees have been let go.

"It's truly disgusting that they fired hard-working journalists who did care about facts and news reporting only to turn around and hire a mini-Goebbels," one person told The Daily Beast. Fox News is "quickly becoming a very scary place and quite dangerous for our democracy," they added. "It's not even conservative news anymore. They've plunged into an alternate reality where extremist propaganda is the only course on the menu."

The Fox News audience "loves Kayleigh," another staffer told The Daily Beast, and the network's decision to hire her isn't shocking because "they have shown they don't give a damn about facts and real news." McEnany has "name recognition, notoriety, and an obvious willingness to say anything her employer desires," a third Fox News employee said. "The viewers are morons."

Fox News is trying to woo back viewers who didn't like that on election night, the network correctly projected that Biden would win Arizona. Many called for boycotts of Fox News, and switched over to conservative Newsmax. Fox News ratings dipped, with the network finishing in third place for the first time in two decades, The Daily Beast reports. To correct this, two new conservative opinion shows have been added to the lineup.

"They are grasping at straws on how to keep the viewership they built and fueled over the last four plus years with Trump at the forefront," one staffer said. "It has become about keeping viewers and they will do anything to do that, including blatantly lying and selling their souls and integrity to the devil." Fox News did not respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment. Catherine Garcia

The White House announced on Tuesday evening it withdrew the nomination of Neera Tanden as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

In a statement, President Biden said he accepted Tanden's request to have her name withdrawn, adding that he has "the utmost respect for her record of accomplishment, her experience, and her counsel, and I look forward to having her serve in a role in my administration. She will bring valuable perspective and insight to our work."

The White House also released a letter from Tanden, who wrote that she appreciated Biden's support, but it "now seems clear that there is no path forward to gain confirmation, and I do not want continued consideration of my nomination to be a distraction from your other priorities."

Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, faced criticism from Republican senators who accused her of having made "thousands of negative public statements" about people like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). After Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced last month that he would not be backing Tanden, she needed the support of at least one Republican in order to win confirmation. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she was considering whether to vote for Tanden, and on Tuesday told reporters she was still undecided. Catherine Garcia