News Wrap: U.S. boat strike backlash continues as lawmakers weigh in

John Yang:

Good evening. I'm John Yang. The shock waves from the contentious second strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean in September are still reverberating some three months later.

That second attack came about a half hour after a first strike appeared to have destroyed most of the boat. Today, lawmakers who were shown video of the attacks offered starkly different interpretations of what they saw.

Rep. Adam Smith (D) Washington: In the boat was adrift. It was going where the current was going to take it. And these two were trying to figure out how to survive.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R) Arkansas: They were not incapacitated. They were not in the water, surviving only because they had a life jacket or hanging to a plank of wood. They were sitting on that boat. They were clearly moving around on it.

John Yang:

At a defense forum in California Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the action.

PETE HEGSETH, Secretary of Defense: Fully support that strike. I would have made the same call myself. Those who were involved in 20 years of conflict, Iraq and Afghanistan or elsewhere, know that reattacks and restrikes of combatants on the battlefield happen often.

John Yang:

Hegseth wouldn't say if the video would be made public, saying the question is under review. Even as negotiators seek to end the war in Ukraine, Russia bombarded the country with overnight attacks. At least four people were killed and nearly a dozen others injured.

In Florida, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Ukrainian national security officials wrapped three days of talks this weekend about President Trump's peace plan. After the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more air defense systems, a request he's likely to repeat tomorrow when he meets with European leaders.

A massive fire at a popular nightclub in India has killed at least 25 people, including tourists. It was in North Goa, a popular area for tourists and nightlife, local police say it was touched off when a gas cylinder exploded. Officials said some of the 100 people on the dance floor rushed into the kitchen and got trapped along with staff.

Authorities said the club violated fire safety regulations and that action would be taken against club management and officials who allowed it to operate.