Franco Ordoñez
Franco Ordoñez is a White House Correspondent for NPR's Washington Desk. Before he came to NPR in 2019, Ordoñez covered the White House for McClatchy. He has also written about diplomatic affairs, foreign policy and immigration, and has been a correspondent in Cuba, Colombia, Mexico and Haiti.
Ordoñez has received several state and national awards for his work, including the Casey Medal, the Gerald Loeb Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism. He is a two-time reporting fellow with the International Center for Journalists, and is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and the University of Georgia.
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The White House wants $24 billion in new aid to help recovery from recent wildfires and hurricanes. President Biden also asks for $6.4 billion to resettle vulnerable Afghans in the U.S. -
President Joe Biden traveled to Louisiana yesterday to survey the damage from Hurricane Ida. The trip comes as the administration seeks to move on from the chaos of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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U.S. troops have left Afghanistan, ending America's longest war. Biden has detailed outreach efforts to Americans in Afghanistan.
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This was Biden's first visit as president to honor dead service members and comfort their relatives. The fallen service members included 11 Marines, an Army soldier and a member of the Navy.
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Thursday, President Biden pledged the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan will go on after an attack by ISIS-K killed 12 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghan civilians.
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Speaking about the Taliban's ousting of the U.S.-backed Afghan government, Biden acknowledged, "The truth is this did unfold more quickly than we anticipated."
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On day when things are moving and changing very quickly in Afghanistan, we turn now to NPR correspondents Jackie Northam, Franco Ordonez and Greg Myre for the latest.
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President Biden said several days ago that he did not regret his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. The speed with which the Taliban have swept through is not what he had said to anticipate.
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President Biden claimed the Taliban would not immediately take over Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal but that appears to be what is happening.
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U.S. troops are on a temporary mission to help evacuate American civilians as the Taliban encircles the capital of Kabul, but President Biden says he does "not regret" pulling the U.S. out by Aug. 31.
