National Politics

By Geneva Sands and Evan Perez, CNN Some Afghans fleeing their home country have arrived in the United States without paperwork amid the rapid pace of evacuations, according to two sources familiar with the situation, prompting additional screening and causing long delays. There were Afghan nationals stuck at Washington Dulles International Airport — where evacuation

By Jim Sciutto and Tim Lister, CNN Concerns about security around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul have increased based on “a very specific threat stream” from ISIS-K about planned attacks against crowds outside the airport, a US defense official has told CNN. The US believes ISIS-K, which is a sworn enemy of the Taliban,

By Tierney Sneed, CNN A federal judge ordered sanctions Wednesday for Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and several other lawyers who worked on Trump-aligned lawsuits seeking to challenge the results of the 2020 election. US District Judge Linda Parker, of the Eastern District of Michigan, said the lawyers had “engaged in litigation practices” that were “abusive

By Michael Conte, CNN A baby girl born on a US military evacuation flight en route to Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Saturday has been named Reach after the call sign of the aircraft, according to the top US general in Europe. “We’ve had further conversations with the mom and the dad of the

By Tara Subramaniam During a press briefing Monday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan suggested a slowdown in approvals for the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program during the Trump administration contributed to the current delays in evacuating Afghans. Sullivan was asked whether the administration regrets “not moving quicker to evacuate more Afghan civilians

By Kevin Liptak, CNN When Israel’s prime minister visits the White House on Thursday, for the first time in 12 years, it will be someone other than Benjamin Netanyahu. That alone has lent the talks a sense of renewal, even though stark differences remain between President Joe Biden and his new counterpart, Naftali Bennett. Biden

By Sara Murray, CNN An election review in Pennsylvania is moving ahead — albeit on a murky path — amid infighting among state Republicans. Pennsylvania Senate President Jake Corman, a Republican, said in an interview with conservative radio personality Wendy Bell that hearings would begin this week on the election review issue. It’s unclear how

By Lauren del Valle and Devan Cole, CNN New York’s new governor said Wednesday that the state’s Covid-19 death toll now aligns with the count from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after the state added nearly 12,000 deaths that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration didn’t officially tally. The announcement by Democratic Gov.

By Lauren del Valle, CNN New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to appoint state Sen. Brian Benjamin as her lieutenant governor, according to a source familiar with the decision. Hochul is expected to make the announcement Thursday, according to the source. The selection comes as Hochul continues to build out her governing office. CNN

By Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood, CNN The woman and her two children had tried nearly a dozen times without success to get into Hamid Karzai International Airport for an evacuation flight out of Kabul to join her husband in the United States. This time, though, their connection inside the airport gates was able to

By Daniel Dale House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy made at least five false claims during a seven-minute Sunday interview on Fox News. McCarthy uttered inaccurate statements to host Maria Bartiromo about a wide variety of topics — oil prices, inflation, prisoners released in Afghanistan, the behavior of Democratic state legislators, and the content of an

By Jessica Schneider, Ellie Kaufman and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN The Pentagon is mandating that US military service members get fully vaccinated against Covid-19 immediately, after the Food and Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine this week. “After careful consultation with medical experts and military leadership, and with the support of the President, I

By Zachary Cohen, Ryan Nobles, Annie Grayer and Whitney Wild, CNN Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to invoke executive privilege in an effort to block the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot from obtaining a massive tranche of documents it’s demanding from several US government agencies, despite his successor having

By Betsy Klein, CNN The Biden administration is taking new steps to prevent evictions as the Covid-19 pandemic continues, the White House and Department of Treasury announced Wednesday. The new actions were announced a day before the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s Covid-related eviction moratorium. “If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue,

By Ella Nilsen, CNN An analysis from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office estimates that combined, the bipartisan infrastructure bill and $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill can meet the majority of President Joe Biden’s target to drastically slash emissions by the end of the decade. In a letter sent Wednesday to congressional Democrats, Schumer said

By Jeremy Herb, Ryan Nobles, Kristin Wilson and Annie Grayer, CNN House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t mince words Wednesday about her view of two House members’ clandestine trip to Afghanistan this week. “We don’t want anyone to think this was a good idea. There’s a real concern about members being in the region,” Pelosi said