Fact check: Biden claims al Qaeda is 'gone' from Afghanistan. Then the Pentagon confirms it's still there
CNN
Defending the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said at the White House on Friday: "Look, let's put this thing in perspective. What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point, with al Qaeda gone? We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al Qaeda in Afghanistan as well as -- as well as -- getting Osama bin Laden. And we did."
Facts First: Biden's claim that al Qaeda is "gone" from Afghanistan is false -- as his own administration acknowledged soon afterward. Following Biden's remarks, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters, "We know that al Qaeda is a presence, as well as ISIS, in Afghanistan, and we've talked about that for quite some time." Biden has correctly said in previous prepared remarks, including a speech on Monday, that al Qaeda has been "degraded" in Afghanistan; the terror group is widely viewed as having been substantially weakened by the 20-year US-led war. But Biden clearly went too far on Friday when he said -- while offering impromptu answers to reporters' questions -- that the group does not exist in Afghanistan at all.
When the Supreme Court, led by Justice Neil Gorsuch, ruled in 2020 that federal law protected transgender workers from discrimination, the justices appeared to launch a new era of rights for a historically shunned group.
Cuba’s leader has pushed back on US President Donald Trump’s demand that the Caribbean nation “make a deal” with Washington, as Trump said Havana would be cut off from the Venezuelan oil and money that it’s relied on for decades.
Hundreds of Border Patrol officers are mobilizing to bolster the president’s crackdown on immigration in snowy Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday, as tensions between federal law enforcement and local counterparts flare after an ICE-involved shooting last week left a mother of three dead.
A suspect has been arrested after a fire tore through Beth Israel, the only synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, on Saturday, leaving the congregation forced to rebuild from the ashes — again.
The Smithsonian has taken down details about President Donald Trump’s impeachments from an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery,
President Donald Trump is weighing a series of potential military options in Iran following deadly protests in the country, two US officials told CNN, as he considers following through on his recent threats to strike the country should they use lethal force against the Iranian people.
Nationwide outcry over the killing of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent spilled into the streets of cities across the US on Saturday, with protesters demanding the removal of federal immigration authorities from their communities and justice for the slain Renee Good.
Since early December the US Coast Guard and other military branches have boarded and taken control of five oil ships that had previously been sanctioned, all either accused of being in the process of transporting Venezuelan oil or on their way to take on oil that has been subject to US sanctions since President Donald Trump began a pressure campaign against the leadership of the country during his first term.
This high school sophomore is aiming for a Supreme Court upset in transgender sports case
A Virginia man accused of plotting with his family’s au pair to kill his wife and another man, who had been lured to the home via a sexual fetish website, is set to face trial this week.
Miami’s exile politics forged Marco Rubio’s worldview. Now they’re shaping Trump’s foreign policy.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute said the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be transferred, shared, or revoked, following remarks by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado suggesting she might give her 2025 award to US President Donald Trump.
In every city where President Donald Trump’s immigration agents have arrived in force, they’ve been trailed by people who seek to monitor or protest their activities, often in close quarters.