
Nikki Haley tests the Iowa waters while the base yearns for Trump
CNN
Nikki Haley took top billing at the Republican Party of Iowa's Lincoln Dinner Thursday night, decrying what she called Democrats' "socialist" agenda and calling for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as she became the latest potential 2024 contender to lay her marker in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
But Haley and the other Republicans eying the White House are facing one very big hurdle: former President Donald Trump hasn't moved on, and neither have his voters. Haley, a former South Carolina governor, made no allusion to her potential White House ambitions during her speech to the party faithful, focusing squarely on the 2022 midterm elections as she criticized President Joe Biden as "weak" on China and played up her experience collaborating with Trump as his former ambassador to the United Nations.
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.









