Hurricane Ida Makes Landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 Storm  —  Powerful winds knocked out power and storm surge flooded low-lying areas as the storm menaced New Orleans.  Officials said it was too late to evacuate and urged residents to hunker down.  —  Here's what you need to know:

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.

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.

Ed Asner, Emmy-Winning Star of ‘Lou Grant’ and ‘Up,’ Dies at 91  —  Best known as the gruff newsman he first played on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” he was also a busy character actor and a political activist.  —  Ed Asner, the burly character actor who won seven Emmy Awards …

Chris Wallace slams McConnell's desire for ‘full-scale war’ after he calls Afghanistan a ‘complete success’  —  Fox News host Chris Wallace questioned Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell about his desire to fight an endless war in Afghanistan.  —  During an appearance on Fox News Sunday …

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 …

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 …

Joint Statement on Afghanistan Evacuation Travel Assurances  —  The text of the following statement was released initially by the Governments of the United States of America, Albania, Australia, Belgium, Belize, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Canada, Central African Republic, Colombia …

‘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.

Joe Biden ‘holds grudges’ and will punish Britain for Afghanistan criticism, allies say  —  British Cabinet insiders were quoted as suggesting the US president ‘looked gaga’ and described him as ‘doolally’  —  Joe Biden “will remember” comments about his mental acuity emanating from senior figures …

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.

Generator failure at Thibodaux hospital prompts scramble to move ICU patients  —  The partial loss of generator power Sunday at a Louisiana hospital in the path of Hurricane Ida sent doctors and nurses scrambling to keep patients breathing as they moved them to a different area.

Ron DeSantis Chief of Staff Adrian Lukis exiting administration  —  After nearly three years of serving the Governor — first as a Deputy Chief of Staff and then Chief of Staff — Adrian Lukis is leaving the administration, likely in mid-September, with an announcement about the move to come some time after Labor Day.

On Afghanistan Withdrawal, NYT's Peter Baker Turns to Raytheon Board Member for Independent ‘Analysis’  —  An object lesson in how routinely corrupt “national security” reporting is.  —  Imagine a world where reporters are prevented from seeking “expert”—ostensibly independent—analysis …

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.

Five Decades Later, Medicare Might Cover Dental Care  —  In the large budget bill now in Congress, supporters of the measure see a rare opportunity to advance a popular policy.  —  Tens of millions of older Americans who cannot afford dental care — with severe consequences for their overall health …

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 …

Afghanistan Live Updates: U.S. Carries Out Another Strike in Kabul  —  Here's what you need to know:  —  The U.S. carries out strike against an explosive-laden vehicle in Kabul, an official says.  —  A U.S. military drone strike blew up a vehicle laden with explosives in Kabul on Sunday …

'The far Left have won and taken over America's elite institutions - we need to start again'  —  Journalist and culture war warrior Bari Weiss tells Zoe Strimpel her plan to help the US fight the ideological rot enveloping it  —  Bari Weiss has always seemed to be the sort of person …

How the number of Americans in Afghanistan went from 15,000 to 6,000  —  “National security officials in the Biden administration told a bipartisan group of Senate staffers on Tuesday that about 10,000 to 15,000 U.S. citizens remain in Afghanistan, according to two Senate aides.”

Mom of Marine who died in Kabul attack: Biden voters ‘killed my son’  —  The mother of a US Marine killed in Thursday's terror bombing outside Kabul's airport claimed that Americans who voted for President Biden “just killed my son.”  —  Kathy McCollum, whose 20-year-old son, Rylee …

Time to rethink Biden's anti-American energy policies  —  There's little room for nuance when it comes to President Biden's energy policy.  The Biden administration appears to be working from one of two realities.  The more charitable interpretation suggests administration officials …

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.