National Politics

By Kylie Atwood and Jeremy Herb, CNN There are currently about 80 Americans in Afghanistan who want to leave the country, but evacuation flights have been grounded by the Taliban for about a month, according to a State Department official and two congressional sources familiar with the matter. It is unclear when the flights will

By Tami Luhby, CNN Medicare has proposed covering the controversial and costly Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm only for those enrolled in qualifying clinical trials, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Tuesday. The draft decision, the latest step in the drug’s contentious path to market, would have far-reaching consequences both for millions of Alzheimer’s patients

By Steve Contorno, CNN Painting himself and his state as the antidote to closed schools, government mandates and Big Tech overreach, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday delivered an election-year State of the State speech that emphasized the deepening divide between Republican and Democratic leadership during the pandemic. DeSantis opened his remarks by declaring Florida

By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter Justice Stephen Breyer participated in oral arguments remotely on Tuesday after a “false positive” Covid-19 test, the Supreme Court announced. A court spokeswoman said that the senior liberal justice took a rapid test Tuesday morning prior to oral arguments and received a positive result. A second rapid

By Dan Merica, CNN Both President Joe Biden and Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams are citing a scheduling issue to explain why the state’s most prominent voting rights activist will not be attending the Democratic president’s speech on the topic in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon. Abrams, who used her 2018 gubernatorial loss to Republican

By Whitney Wild, CNN US Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger and House Sergeant at Arms William Walker are working to identify officers with extremist views who could impact security at the Capitol, they told lawmakers on Tuesday. The comments come a year after the deadly Capitol insurrection, which put a spotlight on the law enforcement

By Lauren Fox, CNN House Democrats are in limbo. Members say they need moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia to make it clear what he actually stands for before they can begin retooling their Build Back Better plan in a way that would actually have a chance of getting through the US Senate.

By Jessica Schneider, CNN The Justice Department is establishing a new domestic terrorism unit to combat the threat that has more than doubled in the past two years, the head of the agency’s National Security Division said Tuesday. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that the newly formed unit

By Ella Nilsen, CNN The US Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it will begin enforcing regulations that require coal-fired power plants to clean up their coal-ash waste — the toxic byproduct of burning coal to generate electricity. There are approximately 500 unlined coal-ash ponds in the United States, according to the EPA, which can leak

By Veronica Stracqualursi and Jennifer Hansler, CNN The United States, NATO allies and Russia are all “committed to dialogue” ahead of Wednesday’s high-stakes meeting to discuss Russia’s military buildup along the Ukrainian border, US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said Tuesday. “I think right now, folks feel that both the allies and the Russians, including

By Daniel Dale, CNN Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a significant false claim on Friday about Covid-19’s impact on children. Sotomayor made the remark during a Friday hearing about the legality of the Biden administration’s attempt to require large employers to force workers to be vaccinated for the virus or undergo weekly testing. Here

By Liz Stark, CNN The Biden administration is calling on government agencies to strengthen their policies against inappropriate political influence when it comes to the science that guides decision-making, according to a new report. The report was written by the administration’s interagency scientific integrity task force and first obtained by CNN on Tuesday. It found

By Chandelis Duster and Betsy Klein, CNN The US is providing $308 million in humanitarian aid for the people of Afghanistan, the National Security Council announced Tuesday, as well as additional Covid-19 vaccine doses. The humanitarian assistance and vaccines come months after the US completed its military withdrawal from the country. The Biden administration has