National Politics

By Sara O’Brien and Paul LeBlanc, CNN A California judge ruled Friday that the costly and controversial 2020 ballot measure exempting firms like Uber and Lyft from having to classify their gig workers in the state as employees rather than as independent contractors is unconstitutional. Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Uber-owned Postmates bankrolled Proposition 22,

By Christina Carrega, CNN The Justice Department targeted more than 300 protesters by charging them with federal crimes for their roles during the civil unrest last summer after the murder of George Floyd, according to a new report from The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of Black advocacy groups. The report found that more

By Oren Liebermann, CNN The US military used helicopters to evacuate a group of Americans from a hotel near Kabul’s airport, according to a Pentagon spokesman who provided new details about the mission that was first revealed by President Joe Biden in his speech on Friday. The 169 Americans were retrieved after another country informed

By Daniel Dale, CNN Defending the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said at the White House on Friday: “Look, let’s put this thing in perspective. What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point, with al Qaeda gone? We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of

By Jeremy Herb, Lauren Fox, Priscilla Alvarez, Jennifer Hansler and Geneva Sands, CNN On Capitol Hill, congressional offices have transformed their constituent services into a desperate attempt to get vulnerable Afghans and US citizens into the Kabul airport. Nongovernmental groups and newly formed ad hoc volunteer organizations have worked around the clock to identify Afghans

By Holmes Lybrand and Tara Subramaniam, CNN The blame game over rising cases of Covid-19 continues along largely partisan lines, with Democrats attacking GOP governors who have banned measures like mask mandates and vaccine passports, and Republicans blaming the Biden administration’s border policy for the uptick in cases. The attacks heated up Thursday when Texas

By Lauren Dezenski, CNN This week, President Joe Biden defended his handling of the situation in Afghanistan as conditions deteriorated rapidly amid Taliban control. On Thursday, a bomb threat at the US Capitol reinforced fears of terrorism within America’s own borders. Monday US resumes operations at Kabul airport after US forces kill two armed men

By Marshall Cohen The Justice Department told a judge on Friday that Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio should get three months in jail for burning a Black Lives Matter flag in December and bringing high-capacity rifle magazines to Washington, DC, days before the US Capitol riot. Prosecutors also said they want the judge to order

By Jeff Zeleny, Kaitlan Collins and Maegan Vazquez, CNN President Joe Biden on Friday announced his intention to nominate Rahm Emanuel as ambassador to Japan and Nicholas Burns as ambassador to China. The two top diplomatic positions have been in the works for months but made official only in a late-afternoon announcement by the White

By Tierney Sneed, CNN The landlords who are challenging the Biden administration’s eviction moratorium asked the Supreme Court on Friday to block it. The request was filed Friday evening with Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees matters arising from the circuit court where the litigation is playing out. Earlier Friday, the US Court of Appeals

By Hannah Rabinowitz and Marshall Cohen A Tennessee man who was a deputy sheriff on January 6 and wore his sheriff’s vest to the US Capitol is now behind bars after being charged in one of the most notorious police assaults from the insurrection. Authorities said they arrested Ronald McAbee, 27, on Tuesday after a

By Ellie Kaufman, CNN The US military cargo plane whose hold was filled with Afghans evacuating their country captured in a now famous photo flew more than 800 people on board, far more than originally confirmed by the US Air Force, according to the crew who flew the mission. The C-17 US military cargo plane

By Nicole Gaouette, Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood and Oren Liebermann, CNN Chaotic scenes played out at Kabul airport again on Friday as thousands desperate to leave Afghanistan sought to reach evacuation flights, a backlog developed as the US briefly ran out of places to fly them and President Joe Biden pledged to Americans trapped in

By Christina Carrega, Marshall Cohen and Tierney Sneed, CNN The Justice Department has charged Capitol bomb threat suspect Floyd Ray Roseberry with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to use an explosive device, a judge said Friday. The charges were unsealed during Roseberry’s first court appearance in DC District Court. Roseberry,

By Gregory Krieg, CNN As the number of new coronavirus cases in his state soars, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is betting that an aggressive campaign against mandatory mask-wearing in schools will harden the Republican base ahead of his expected re-election bid next year — and make him a GOP star nationwide as the party’s 2024

By Kate Sullivan and Kevin Liptak, CNN President Joe Biden on Friday tried to put an optimistic face on the chaotic evacuations taking place at Kabul’s airport as American forces scramble to remove US citizens and vulnerable Afghans from Afghanistan. In remarks at the White House, Biden sought to project calm at the end of