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Taliban leaders are expected to announce their new government on Friday, two weeks since Kabul fell to the extremist militant group after 20 years of fighting the U.S. and its international and Afghan allies. Former prominent politicians say the U.S. and its allies have left the Afghan people at the mercy of the Taliban and an economic crisis. “We feel like it is 1996,” said Azra Jafari, an activist and politician who in 2008 became Afghanistan’s first-ever mayor when she was elected to represent the town of Nili in Daykundi Province....

Last Thursday, there was a 133-car pileup in Fort Worth that took the lives of six people. There was a fiery pileup Sunday afternoon in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma. Along the Texas Gulf Coast, all of the counties are in a freeze warning, and up to 2 inches of snow are expected in places like Galveston Beach. The temperature in Dallas had already dipped to 12 degrees by 7 p.m. local time Sunday, and they were expected to keep falling to just 7 degrees overnight with continual snowfall....

The former vice president’s average poll rating among Michigan primary voters was at 54 percent on Tuesday morning, according to the FiveThirtyEight tracker. His progressive rival Sen. Sanders (I-VT) was backed by just 32 percent of Michigan poll respondents on average, putting him 22 points behind Biden as Democratic voters went to the ballot box. The huge gap between the leading primary candidates in the state is partly the result of Biden securing big wins in nine Michigan polls released in the days leading up to Tuesday’s vote....

Gallup found that the mood of the nation is the worst it has been in any midterm election year since 1974—the year that Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency following the Watergate scandal and investigations. According to the new survey, just 13 percent of Americans were satisfied with the direction the U.S. is going and just 16 percent approve of the job Congress is doing. About 87 percent of Americans are now dissatisfied with the direction of the country and 82 percent disapprove of Congress....

Releasing details of its second quarter fundraising haul on Wednesday, the Biden campaign said it had raised a little more than $282 million between April and June. At the same time, the Trump 2020 campaign and Republican National Committee announced that they had raised $266 million over the same period, putting their haul $16 million behind the former vice president’s receipts. The Biden campaign and Democratic National Committee said they bagged a combined $141 million in June alone, the biggest single-month haul of the Democratic challenger’s campaign....

Biden’s approval rating plummeted in the months leading up to the midterms as economic woes, including inflation and high gas prices, struck the country—fueling concerns that Democrats could be wiped out during the midterms. However, Biden led the Democratic Party into a surprisingly strong election. Democrats held Senate control and lost only a handful of House seats, delivering Republicans a small majority that is already facing turmoil as Representative Kevin McCarthy struggles to unite the conference behind his speakership bid....

Biden launched @PresElectBiden on Thursday—just six days before the inauguration—amid an ongoing conflict with Twitter about handing over @POTUS and @WhiteHouse. “Folks — This will be the account for my official duties as President. At 12:01 PM on January 20th, it will become @POTUS. Until then, I’ll be using @JoeBiden,” the new account tweeted. That’s the only tweet the account has sent so far. It had garnered over 838,000 followers by the time of writing, far short of the 33 million following the current @POTUS account....

Known by his fans as the King of Mexican music, the ranchera star died after suffering a fall in August which later required surgery. Some of his major hits include the songs “Volver, Volver,” “Por Tu Maldito Amor,” and “El Rey.” He sold more than 65 million albums worldwide. Fernandez’s death was confirmed on his official Instagram page. “Rest in Peace Mr. Vicente Fernández,” the statement reads, translated from Spanish....

Biden fielded questions for roughly an hour on a range of topics, including the migrant surge at the U.S.-Mexico border, the legislative filibuster, voting rights and foreign policy challenges with China and Russia. The president has faced criticism for his delay in holding a formal press conference. It took place more than two months after he was sworn into office on January 20. According to an analysis conducted by CNN, 15 of Biden’s predecessors formally took questions from reporters 33 days into their presidencies....

Speaking at a CNN town hall in Cincinnati on Wednesday, President Biden said the decision would be led by scientific data, but added that he expected the rollout to begin between the end of August and October. Asked by moderator Don Lemon, “When will children under 12 be able to get vaccinated?” the president said he hoped it would be “soon.” Pressed for a specific timeline, Biden said: “My expectation talking to the group of scientists we put together, over 20 of them plus others in the field, is that some time, maybe in the beginning of the school year, at the end of August, beginning September, October, you’ll get a final approval saying the FDA said ‘No, this is it....

According to a survey by Morning Consult Political Intelligence, which tracks the approval rating for governmental leaders in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States on a weekly basis, Biden currently places sixth, with an approval rating of 44 percent. The independent data intelligence company, founded in 2014, bases its approval ratings for all 13 countries on a seven-day moving average of adult residents in each country, with sample sizes varying by country....

While in office, Trump had a red button on his desk that was said to alert a butler to bring him Diet Coke. Some Twitter users are shocked that Biden had the button removed, while others are shocked that the “Diet Coke button” may have even existed in the first place. Trump’s love for Diet Coke has been well-documented, as is the rumor that he supposedly has 12 of the drinks a day....

The latest poll from Gallup shows Biden’s approval is now at a new low of just 43 percent, while 53 percent now disapprove of him. That’s the first time a majority of respondents in a Gallup poll have disapproved of the president. Poll tracker FiveThirtyEight, which tracks Biden’s popularity based on analysis of a wide range of polls and its own system of pollster ratings, gave Biden an average disapproval of 49 percent on September 22....

When the voting rights act named after the late Rep. John Lewis passed the House of Representatives in a 220 to 210 vote on Thursday last week, Democrats began to fear that the Senate GOP would block the bill with the filibuster. Under the filibuster rule, at least 60 senators have to vote in favor of ending debate on a bill, a process know as cloture. If a minority group of at least 41 senators refuses to vote for debate on a bill to end, they can effectively block it indefinitely....

The president delivered the speech at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and took the opportunity to point out that American democracy was born in the city. While the speech was seen in advance as part of Biden’s pitch for Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, the president issued a stark warning about the future of democracy and painted Trump as an existential threat. Here are the highlights of Biden’s speech....

The court voted 5-4 in the middle of the night to deny an emergency appeal from abortion providers aimed at blocking the law, signed in May by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, from taking effect. However, the court indicated that their vote may not be the final action on the law, the AP reported. Biden announced that he and the administration would initiate a “whole-of-government effort” in response to the Supreme Court decision and consider “what steps the federal government can take to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions as protected by Roe....

Biden’s official Twitter account sent a tweet about the then former vice president going “toe-to-toe” with Putin on February 21, 2020, and saying the Russian president didn’t want Biden to win the White House. On Monday—two years to the day that tweet was sent—Putin formally recognized the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) and ordered Russian troops to the regions for what he described as “peacekeeping functions....

The former vice president told donors on a Sunday call that he would be looking at a group “in excess of six or seven people” before deciding who will be on his ticket, Politico reported. He also said that he wanted to avoid “any snafu” resulting from his choice of running mate, adding that background checks would “have to be prepared” by his campaign within “a matter of weeks.”...

Buck’s departure leaves a gaping hole in Fox’s coverage. The 53-year-old had been a fixture at the network, doubling as its lead NFL and MLB play-by-play commentator. As a result, the cost of acquiring Buck was hefty. ESPN reportedly traded the rights to a Big Ten football broadcast to sign Buck, who had a year remaining on his Fox contract. Such was the network’s desire to reunite the team that has called six Super Bowls together....

The poll, released by Suffolk University in partnership with The Boston Globe and WBZ, found 42 percent of polled Massachusetts voters favored Kennedy ahead of the state’s Democratic primary. Sen. Markey was backed by 36 percent of voters surveyed for the poll published on Sunday night, putting him just outside its margin of error going into the September 1 contest. Rep. Kennedy, 39, launched his Senate primary challenge against Markey in September last year, saying it was “not the time for waiting” or “sitting on the sidelines” in a video announcing his campaign....