Confirmation Hearings

President Joe Biden has announced that al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul. Biden is hailing the operation as delivering “justice” while expressing hope that it brings “one more measure of closure” to families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The president said in a Monday evening address from the White House that U.S. intelligence officials tracked al-Zawahri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family. The president approved the operation last week and it was carried out Sunday. Al-Zawahri and Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks.

The Supreme Court has taken a step that will allow new Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the court, to take part in a case that could lead to the end of the use of race in college admissions. Jackson had pledged during her confirmation hearing to sit out the case involving Harvard’s admissions policy because she was a member of the school’s board. The Harvard dispute had been joined to a similar lawsuit involving the University of North Carolina. The court on Friday split the case in two, allowing Jackson to hear arguments and vote in the North Carolina case. Harvard is a private institution, while North Carolina is a public university.