
Virginia governor to sign bill allowing parents to opt out of school mask mandates
CNN
Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is slated to sign a bill Wednesday that allows parents to opt their children out of school mask mandates, his office announced.
The bill, Senate Bill 739, requires schools to comply no later than March 1 and also keeps schools open five days a week for in-person instruction.
The bill arrives amid a fight over Youngkin's executive order that effectively banned school districts from mandating masks. That effort was caught up in a flurry of legal challenges, and it's unclear how the new law will impact the ongoing litigation.

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.









