All of New Orleans without power after Hurricane Ida leaves ‘catastrophic transmission damage’  —  A slow-moving Hurricane Ida has left all of Orleans Parish customers without power due to “catastrophic transmission damage,” according to Entergy New Orleans.

Rockets fired at Kabul airport amid US withdrawal hit homes  —  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Rocket fire apparently targeting Kabul's international airport struck a nearby neighborhood on Monday, the eve of the deadline for American troops to withdraw from the country's longest war after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Inside Politico's Billion-Dollar Drama  —  From “son of” to mogul in his own right: Robert Allbritton just became the unlikeliest winner of the new media sweepstakes.  —  I was sitting in a bar next to John Harris, a former national editor of The Washington Post.

Biden's presidency of crises pushes White House to its limits  —  (CNN)President Joe Biden is confronting an extraordinary confluence of intensifying crises that are pushing a White House already mired in extreme challenges to the limit.  —  Washington is on edge for the tense final hours …

Biden Deserves Credit, Not Blame, for Afghanistan  —  America's longest war has been by any measure a costly failure, and the errors in managing the conflict deserve scrutiny in the years to come.  But Joe Biden doesn't “own” the mayhem on the ground right now.

Why California's recall election matters  —  True story.  —  I've had people come up to me to ask if I'm Larry Elder.  —  Yes, I have been mistaken for the far-right radio host.  —  Well, I guess we are Black men who appear on cable television and talk radio shows.

American University of Kabul students and alumni trying to flee were sent home.  —  Hundreds of students and alumni of American University of Kabul gathered at a safe house on Sunday and boarded buses in what was supposed to be a final attempt at evacuation on U.S. military flights, students and alumni said.

EU Set to Recommend Halting Nonessential Travel From the U.S.  —  The European Union action is in response to the increase in U.S. coronavirus cases  —  The European Union is set to recommend halting nonessential travel from the U.S. because of Covid-19, diplomats said on Sunday.

Right on Cue, the President's Mistakes Are Our Fault Again  —  You can tell a Democrat is president, because we're starting to see pieces blaming “us” for his mistakes.  In The Atlantic a couple of weeks ago, Tom Nichols wrote that “Afghanistan Is Your Fault.”

Pentagon prepared for ‘mass casualty’ attack at Kabul Airport hours before explosion  —  Just 24 hours before a suicide bomber detonated an explosive outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, senior military leaders gathered for the Pentagon's daily morning update on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

North Korea Appears to Have Restarted Yongbyon Nuclear Reactor  —  The reactor's apparent operations add to President Biden's foreign-policy challenges  —  North Korea appears to have resumed operation of its plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon in a move that could enable the reclusive country …

New polls suggest broad support for Democrats' voting rights bills  —  A majority of voters in seven states support elements of Democrats' voting legislation and passing such legislation without a filibuster-proof majority, according to a series of new state-level surveys.

Scoop: Former Israel ambassador joins U.S. Iran team  —  Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro has joined the State Department's Iran team as a senior adviser, a senior State Department official tells Axios.  —  Why it matters: Israel is pressing the Biden administration to start discussing a …

FBI suffers another black eye, admits it hid payments to informant in white supremacist case  —  The revelations come at a sensitive time for the FBI and Director Christopher Wray, who has insisted widespread problems revealed about the bureau's conduct in the now-discredited Russia collusion case …

What Taliban rule will look like in the new old Afghanistan  —  With U.S. troops departing Afghanistan after 20 years, it's now time for the Taliban to decide how it intends to run the country — and for the U.S. to decide how to work with that government.  —  The big pictures …

Trapped in Afghanistan, Rescued by Volunteers: How a Handful of Americans Freed 5,000 Afghans  —  From a lounge at the Willard Hotel in Washington, a group of men and women mobilized a global network to conduct a two-week military-style rescue operation  —  Zach Van Meter, a private-equity investor …