
Afghan leaders set to meet Biden at White House at pivotal moment for their nation
CNN
President Joe Biden meets Afghanistan's leaders at the White House on Friday at a precarious moment for their country: US troops are withdrawing, the coronavirus is raging, the Taliban are making territorial gains and American intelligence assesses the government they run could fall in a matter of months.
The talks, wedged into Biden's schedule on a Friday afternoon before he departs for Camp David, aren't likely to change those dynamics. The President is intent on ending America's longest war and the White House says his timeline for a troop withdrawal isn't changing. Instead, Biden hopes to reassure President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, head of the Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation, that American humanitarian and security assistance will continue. And he'll press the two men to unite the country's fragile government as it comes under threat from the Taliban.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.

Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.

Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.










