
At least nine of the 20 largest US school districts are making masks optional for students
CNN
As the new school year quickly approaches, at least nine of the 20 largest school districts in the US are making masks optional for students in school while another nine are requiring masks.
Two districts remain undecided with just weeks left until schools plan to open their doors. With varying rules for indoors and outdoors, and with vaccines only available to children older than 12, back-to-school is not as clear cut as parents might have hoped it would be. And whatever the rules are today, the districts are making it clear that they will continue to change their guidance according to local public health conditions even after the school year starts.
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.

As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.









