CNN – National

By Madeleine Fitzgerald, Paul P. Murphy and Susannah Cullinane, CNN “There was an explosion. And just like that, she’s gone.” Friends and family of Nicole L. Gee say the 23-year-old Marine killed at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, last week died doing what she loved — helping people. Gee was one of 13 US service

By Lauren Lee, CNN Hurricane Ida made landfall on August 29 near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, as an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph, the National Hurricane Center says. Ida’s arrival came on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and was described by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards as “one of the

By Christina Maxouris, CNN Four young siblings who had been hiding alone in an apartment in Afghanistan’s capital reunited with their mother on Monday evening in Albany, New York, marking the end of a frantic, days-long rescue mission to get them to safety. “My children are now safe,” Suneeta told CNN Saturday morning, while her

By Sonia Moghe, CNN About 25 miles outside of Chicago in the village of Olympia Fields sits a mansion that R. Kelly once lived and worked in. The home was also the site of his studio called the “Chocolate Factory,” which operated from about 2004 to 2010, according to testimony during Kelly’s federal trial in

By Omar Jimenez, CNN During the Fourth of July weekend, Jacob Blake says he called 911 over what he later realized was an anxiety attack. The fireworks triggered what he felt had been a crescendo of pain over a difficult and turbulent year, particularly when it came to gun violence. Blake was in the Chicago

By Amir Vera and Kevin Dotson, CNN As football season kicks off this weekend, stadiums across the Southeastern Conference (SEC) return to full capacity with eager and nostalgic fans who might have missed games due to the pandemic. Dania Kalaji, a 20-year-old junior at the University of Georgia, told CNN that one of the reasons

By Faith Karimi, CNN The fourth-graders walk up to a full-length mirror — one after the other — at a school in southwest Atlanta. “I’m smart!” a girl in braids says. “I’m a good person!” a boy donning a mask adds. A bespectacled boy follows with, “I’m strong and independent,” before hurriedly walking away. In

By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN If Cesar Chavez were alive today, he’d be fighting for Latino voters but also African Americans and Asian Americans and members of the LGBTQ community — anyone marginalized by efforts to curb voting rights and access to the polls, the labor hero’s grandson says. “I feel like it’s not a

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN Last year’s hurricane season devastated parts of Louisiana with no reprieve. In August 2020, Hurricane Laura made landfall in Louisiana as a category 4, triggering a “catastrophic” storm surge of up to 18 feet above ground level. The storm killed dozens of people in the state and inflicted $17.5 billion in

By Scottie Andrew, CNN Visitors to New York’s Christopher Park this week were greeted by the bust of Marsha P. Johnson, stoic yet softly smiling. She’s wearing a tiara on her head, designed to loop live flowers through. It evokes a famous photograph of Johnson, beaming with a crown of brilliant blooms strewn through her

By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN When Medgar Evers and Jimmie Lee Jackson were killed amid a yearslong battle for voting rights, it brought a sense of doom and darkness over the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Evers, a NAACP field secretary and civil rights leader who organized voter registration drives, boycotts and protests against

By Eric Levenson, CNN Vaccination rates in America vary widely between blue and red states, between urban and rural populations and between those with college degrees and those without. But perhaps no demographic factor shows as stark of a difference as age. Nearly 92% of adults over 65 have had at least one vaccine dose

By Rebekah Riess, CNN Fast food restaurant chain Bojangles will close all stores for two Mondays to give staff a “well-deserved break” following the challenges the restaurant industry has been facing during the pandemic, the company said. All company-owned stores will close August 30 and September 13 to allow 8,000 staff members and managers time

By Steve Almasy and Rebekah Riess, CNN Almost 16 years to the date after Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed the city’s flood protection system, New Orleans is bracing for another potentially dangerous storm. Hurricane Ida was moving into the Gulf of Mexico on Friday as a Category 1 hurricane but forecasters say it could hit the Gulf

Claudia Dominguez, CNN Brandon Theesfeld pleaded guilty Friday in the murder of Ole Miss student Ally Kostial, Lafayette County Circuit Court Assistant Court Administrator Kathy Sturdivant confirmed to CNN. Theesfeld was sentenced to life in prison by Circuit Court Judge J. Kelly Luther, Sturdivant confirmed. Theesfeld showed some emotion when he admitted to his involvement