Thousands of people marched in cities across the United States on Saturday to urge the Senate to pass voting rights legislation and put pressure on state legislatures to expand voting access, NBC reports.
Driving the news: The March On for Voting Rights took place in D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and other cities "to demand that elected officials protect democracy, denounce voter suppression and ensure fair, easy access to the vote for all through the passage of comprehensive federal legislation," per the group's website.
President Biden on Saturday said that he spoke with his national security team about the two ISIS-K targets who were killed during Friday night's airstrike.
What they're saying: "We discussed the strike that U.S. forces took last night against the terrorist group ISIS-K in Afghanistan," Biden said. "I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have."
The big picture: The blast led to the first U.S. military casualties in Afghanistan in over a year, and marks the deadliest incident there in a decade, per Reuters.
The Supreme Court has let stand a lower-court decision to reinstate the "Remain in Mexico" program, leaving Mexican authorities and asylum seekers on tenterhooks.
Why it matters: Thousands of claims that had been stalled by the so-called Migration Protection Protocols were advancing with applicants' return to the U.S.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told President Biden in their meeting on Friday at the White House that although he is against a U.S. return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, he isn’t going to publicly campaign against it like his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, two U.S. sources briefed on the meeting told Axios.
Why it matters: Biden and his senior advisers are veterans of the intense confrontations between Netanyahu and former President Obama on Iran.
Giving up the security of Bagram Air Field — and funneling everyone to Kabul's civilian airport — fueled the chaotic and deadly departure underway in Afghanistan, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) told Axios.
Why it matters: Moulton was lambasted for his secret trip to Kabul, but he brought along a former Marine infantry officer's perspective. What would he have done differently? "There's one very simple order, which would have been to start this evacuation months ago."
Web traffic, social engagement and TV ratings for conservative outlets are booming in response to the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan.
Why it matters: “I haven't seen this much sustained coverage from the right on a single topic since the early days of the pandemic in March and April of 2020, and those months produced huge traffic numbers for conservative media outlets,” said Howard Polskin, an expert on conservative media.
Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees will soon need to find new homes, and many countries are preemptively closing their doors.
Why it matters: The U.S. is leading what the White House calls one of the biggest airlifts in history as Afghans flee from Taliban rule. That exodus will quickly become a humanitarian crisis involving the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia and the Middle East.
