POLITICO Playbook: About Jim Jordan's other Jan. 6 call with Trump  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  There are just over 48 hours left before the deadline for U.S. forces to withdraw from Afghanistan.  — The State Department says there are roughly 250 Americans still in Afghanistan who want to leave the country, per a spokesperson.

Texas anti-mask ‘Freedom Defender’ Caleb Wallace dies at 30  —  A Texas man who led a group of “Freedom Defenders” against mask restrictions died of COVID-19 on Saturday at age 30.  —  Caleb Wallace left behind three children and a pregnant wife.  —  His wife, Jessica …

Health officials sticking with 8-month COVID booster shot timeline: Fauci  —  Biden said Friday that the administration is considering earlier boosters.  —  Public health officials are sticking with the recommendation that people get booster shots eight months after getting the COVID-19 vaccine …

98 Countries Pledge to Accept Afghans After U.S. Military Departs  —  A joint statement from the United States and other countries said that they had “received assurances from the Taliban” that people with travel documents showing they were clear to enter any of those countries could safely depart.

After 3-week COVID-19 battle, Daytona Beach talk radio host Marc Bernier dies  —  Marc Bernier, a talk radio host in Daytona Beach for 30 years, died after a three-week battle with COVID-19, WNDB and Southern Stone Communications announced on Twitter Saturday night.

Vaccine Refusers Don't Get to Dictate Terms Anymore  —  For months, institutions and companies have been drafting plans to aggressively promote vaccination or require it outright, and last week the FDA gave them license to click the “send” button.  The same day the agency granted full approval …

US says drone kills suicide bombers targeting Kabul airport  —  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. drone strike Sunday struck a vehicle carrying “multiple suicide bombers” from Afghanistan's Islamic State affiliate before they could target the ongoing military evacuation at Kabul's international airport, American officials said.

‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author JD Vance is running for Senate as a savior of the Rust Belt.  Insiders and experts say otherwise. … “I am not a senator, a governor, or a former cabinet secretary,” J.D. Vance wrote in the introduction of “Hillbilly Elegy,” his best-selling son-of-the-Rust-Belt-made-good memoir published in 2016.

MAGA Election Clerk Tina Peters Accused of Not Counting Ballots in Local Races  —  Before she was the subject of an FBI investigation, Stop the Steal diehard Tina Peters oversaw elections where ballots went uncounted or got lost in unsecured drop boxes.  —  Seated onstage at the most-hyped …

It's Time to Stop Rationalizing and Enabling Evangelical Vaccine Rejection  —  There is no religious liberty interest in refusing the COVID vaccine.  —  As the coronavirus's Delta variant rips through (mainly) the Southeastern United States, two things are becoming clear at once.

Afghanistan Evacuation Flights End as Reopened Banks Face Rush for Cash  —  Dwindling cash reserves pose an early challenge to a new Taliban administration; explosion rocks Kabul neighborhood  —  The international mass airlift effort out of Afghanistan was ending on Sunday as the country's banks opened …

There's chaos and risk in Afghanistan exit, but Biden critics are getting it mostly wrong  —  We have no ongoing security interest in Afghanistan, and we don't send troops everywhere to protect women and human rights.  We do that in other ways.  —  The intellectual dishonesty in critiques …

Biden tells some hard truths few want to hear  —  President Biden on Thursday mournfully delivered information to the country that was disagreeable to many Americans: There is no way to withdraw from a futile war without messiness.  The expectation that there would be no misery or casualties was a fantasy.

Romney blames both Biden and Trump for crisis in Afghanistan  —  Sen. Mitt Romney said Sunday morning that the current situation in Afghanistan is the direct result of decisions made by both the Trump and Biden administrations.  —  “If you focus on what we should do right now …

The storms of August: Biden's devastating month stokes midterm fears among Democrats  —  President Biden is mired in the most devastating month of his tenure in office — struggling to contain a deadly crisis in Afghanistan, an unyielding pandemic and other setbacks that have sent waves …