This is Your Week. A harrowing journey to safety.

USA TODAY

Government data did not report 17,100 deaths from police violence from 1980 to 2018, according to new research. You're about to start hearing more about an oil spill off California's coast. And Star Trek's William Shatner will become the oldest person in space.

I'm Alex, and this is Your Week, a Monday newsletter that helps you make the most of your USA TODAY subscription by surfacing the best stories of the week.

In today's edition, I feature an excerpt from a USA TODAY freelancer's harrowing journey out of Kabul. I encourage you to read more of her story – and you'll be hearing directly from our Editor in Chief about it tomorrow.

But first, the news and how it affects you

THE DEBT CEILING | This week in Washington revolves around the debt ceiling. Lawmakers are at odds over raising the federal borrowing limit, which allows the U.S. government to make good on its financial obligations. The debt ceiling stands at $28.4 trillion. The national debt, meanwhile, is $28.43 trillion. Will it default for the first time? Here's how this could impact your finances.

ELECTIONS | As former President Donald Trump ponders another campaign, his supporters and some Republican lawmakers in pivotal states are trying to make it easier to challenge and perhaps overturn future elections, analysts say, setting the stage for a crisis of democracy after the votes are tabulated in November of 2024. (Related: Donald Trump’s favorability ratings are his highest in any Iowa Poll.)

THE PANDEMIC | Every day is another social circumstance to navigate in the world or COVID. USA TODAY's Connie Schultz has some prescient advice for those of us at our wit's end – or simply needing to move on: "Stop dueling with people who disappoint you, move on and take deep breaths."

Excerpt: A harrowing escape from Afghanistan

When Afghanistan fell to the Taliban mid-August, Fatema Hosseini knew staying meant certain death. But the escape nearly killed her.

As a journalist for one of Afghanistan's leading news agencies and a freelance reporter for USA TODAY, Fatema investigated corruption and gave a voice to women. For this, she was in danger.

Kim Hjelmgaard, an international correspondent for USA TODAY who worked with her, knew this too. He reached out to Fatema almost immediately. He, alongside editors from USA TODAY, immediately started working their contacts in the U.S. military and Congress as well as European diplomats, aid workers and journalists. It was Lt. Alex Cornell du Houx who answered his request for help. He had contact with a Ukrainian war hero who provided hope: a seat on a flight from Kabul to Kyiv.

On her journey to the airport in Kabul, Fatema faced gunfire, a Taliban whip, tear gas and, horrifically, a sexual assault.

This is Fatema describing the moment she met Ivan, the Ukrainian special forces soldier who assisted Fatema, at the airport and secured her passage to safety:

I could try to go home but had nothing to go back to. The Taliban would beat me or kill me or own me. There was nothing to repair. We have organizations devoted to women’s rights, but the culture and corruption are too entrenched to allow true gains. Women like me take all the risks. Our progress was not real. It was a bubble that popped.

The phone rang. It was Ivan, telling me to meet up with a guy who would take me closer. After a few minutes of searching I found him. He took me to a place where many Ukrainian families were waiting to get through the gate. I saw the Ukrainian flag rise from the foreign troops’ side. “It’s time to move,” I said, and pushed forward.

There was no solid wall, only a wire fence, so the NATO troops feared a suicide bomber, and when we got too close to the wires, both the Taliban and foreign troops opened fire. When I looked behind me, I saw only one family. The rest were gone. I don’t know where.

Closer to the wire, closer to the Taliban. One tried to push me back. I looked at him directly, just a man about my age, with dark eyes like mine. The words poured out before I could stop them. “We might be the same age, but God, you are so violent. You don’t need to beat people up, you don’t need to kill them. These are our people.”

He looked as if he were listening, but he was getting mad. He shoved me. But all my fear was gone.

“Look at those troops on the other side,” I told him.“They are waiting for me and watching us now. If you beat me up, they will come after you.”

He let me closer to the wires, where I stood as tall as I could, lifted my hands to the sky and screamed,

“Ivan! Ivan! It's Fatema! It’s Fatema!”

He was standing right in front of me on the other side of the fence, and sent one of his forces outside to get me. This soldier half carried me, half dragged me, and I stepped over God knows how many on the way through the gate.

I encourage you to take the time to read the entirety of Fatema's story, or you can listen to it here. This is not Fatema's first byline, and it won't be her last.

"I want to go and meet the Afghan refugees in the camps and tell their stories," Fatema said. "And I want to find the other Afghan journalists out there who are covering these stories. I can be a bridge. Maybe together we can change the history, because Afghanistan's repeating itself again and again. Someone has to stop this, right?"

This is Your Week. A harrowing journey to safety.

But first, the news and how it affects you

Excerpt: A harrowing escape from Afghanistan

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