
With wildfires blazing across the West, more counties are declaring states of emergency
CNN
As dozens of wildfires burn across the West, officials declared additional states of emergency for counties in California and Nevada while the nation's largest blaze in Oregon continued to swell Friday.
The Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon has scorched 400,389 acres since it was sparked by lightning on July 6, according to officials. It is 42% contained while more than 2,000 people in the surrounding areas remain under some form of an evacuation order. "Our firefighters have put in an incredible amount of hard work on this fire," Joe Hessel, an incident commander for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said in a statement Friday. "The fire continues to throw challenges at us, and we are going to continue to stay vigilant, work hard, and adapt."
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.









