National Politics

By Liz Stark, CNN The US Department of Education sent letters Friday to the Republican governors of Texas and Florida, as well as Florida school administrators, amid an escalating battle between the White House and state officials over school mask guidance as the Delta variant surges. In the new letters to Govs. Ron DeSantis of

By Lauren Dezenski, CNN This week, more public and private entities rolled out Covid-19 vaccine mandates as the Delta variant continued its spread. Meanwhile, the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated as more cities fell to the Taliban amid the US departure.  Monday ‘Final warning’: Lawmakers, Biden administration sound alarm over UN climate report and urge swift

By Tami Luhby, CNN The August child tax credit payment is in the mail — or headed directly to your bank account. The Internal Revenue Service has sent more than $15 billion to the parents of roughly 61 million children, the agency said Friday. The second monthly installment of the beefed-up credit — up to

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN James Hormel, the first out gay person to serve as a US ambassador and a San Francisco philanthropist, has died at the age of 88. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday announced Hormel’s passing. Hormel served as US ambassador to Luxembourg from 1999 to 2000, weathering homophobic attacks and fierce opposition

By Gregory Krieg and Lauren del Valle, CNN New York state lawmakers will halt the impeachment investigation against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned this week and will leave office on August 25, state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie announced on Friday afternoon. In a statement, Heastie said Cuomo’s resignation effectively eliminated the central question

By Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood, CNN The US Embassy in Kabul is instructing personnel to destroy sensitive materials as well as items “which could be misused in propaganda efforts,” according to a management notice sent Friday to embassy staff, seen by CNN and described by another source familiar. The notice about “Emergency Destruction Services”

By Liz Stark and Tami Luhby, CNN The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s funeral assistance program has distributed more than $1 billion to those who have lost loved ones to Covid-19 since the application process began in mid-April, the agency announced Friday. Matthew Redding, deputy director of FEMA’s Individual Assistance division, noted the “very somber milestone”

By Manu Raju and Alex Rogers, CNN It’s the Democrats’ doomsday scenario: California Gov. Gavin Newsom loses his recall race this fall, and a Senate vacancy is later filled by a GOP governor. And the 50-50 Senate, currently controlled by Democrats, is run again by Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell. It’s a scenario that Democrats

By Tierney Sneed and Ariane de Vogue, CNN A federal judge in Washington, DC, on Friday allowed the Biden administration’s revised eviction moratorium to remain in place, but acknowledged the moratorium faces an uncertain legal future. US District Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a request from various landlord associations that she block the moratorium. Though the

By Whitney Wild, CNN The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit on behalf of two photojournalists who say police hit them with chemical irritants and stun grenades while they covered racial justice protests in Washington, DC, last year. The lawsuit against the District of Columbia government and eight unnamed police officers alleges the

By Melanie Zanona and Manu Raju, CNN Sen. Rand Paul just got temporarily kicked off YouTube for an inaccurate tirade against masks. Sen. Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, has been airing ads that urge people to go out and get the vaccine. The two Kentucky Republicans now perfectly exemplify the national divide over how to handle a

By Manu Raju and Daniella Diaz, CNN Nine Democratic House moderates are threatening to withhold their support for their party’s must-pass budget resolution until Speaker Nancy Pelosi changes course and instead allows their chamber to first vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan the Senate approved this week. The threat, outlined in a letter

By Tierney Sneed, CNN A “disgrace to our country.” “The tyranny we rejected.” “An embarrassment to every American.” In presiding over the cases of hundreds of people accused of breaching the US Capitol on January 6 in support of then-President Donald Trump, federal judges have not held back when describing the unprecedented nature of the

By Katie Bo Williams, Natasha Bertrand and Alex Marquardt, CNN The Biden administration is receiving regular intelligence reports indicating Russian efforts to interfere in US elections are evolving and ongoing, current and former officials say, and in fact, never stopped, despite President Joe Biden’s warnings to Russian President Vladimir Putin over the summer and a

By Phil Mattingly, CNN In touting the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill hours after it passed the Senate with 19 Republican votes on Tuesday, President Joe Biden took a moment to needle his critics. “From the time I announced my candidacy, bringing the country together and doing things in a bipartisan way was characterized as a

By Natasha Bertrand, Phil Mattingly, Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler, CNN The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated faster than President Joe Biden and his most senior national security officials had anticipated, leaving the White House rushing to stave off the worst effects of a Taliban takeover. The Biden administration launched a dramatic series of