President Donald Trump expressed support on Tuesday for his national security adviser, Michael Waltz, after a magazine journalist said on Monday that Waltz had accidentally included him in a discussion of highly sensitive war plans on the messaging app Signal.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview.

U.S. senators were set to grill Trump’s top intelligence officials on Tuesday about the apparent breach, which triggered outrage and disbelief among Democrats and national security experts.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, said in a report on Monday that Waltz unexpectedly added him on March 13 to an encrypted chat group on the Signal messaging app coordinating U.S. action against the Yemen rebel group over its attacks on Red Sea shipping.

National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said the chat group appeared to be authentic. The White House said it was looking into how Goldberg’s number was added to the thread.

Democrats – and some of Trump’s fellow Republicans – called for an investigation of what appeared to be a major security breach. Classified and sensitive information is not supposed to be shared on commercial mobile phone apps, and unknown numbers – such as Goldberg’s – should not be included.

Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee were to question two of the administration officials on the chat – Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe – on Tuesday during the panel’s annual hearing on Worldwide Threats to U.S. Security.

In his opening statement, Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic vice chairman of the intelligence committee, said a military or intelligence officer who took similar action would be fired.”Yesterday, we stunningly learned that senior members of this administration, and according to reports, two of our witnesses here today, were members of a group chat that discussed highly sensitive and likely classified information that supposedly even included weapons packages, targets and timing and included the name of an active CIA agent,” he said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Goldberg of sensationalizing the story in a post on X and asserted that no war plans were discussed and no classified material was sent to the thread.In his article, Goldberg wrote that hours before the U.S. launched strikes against Yemen’s Houthis on March 15, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted operational details about the plan in the messaging group, “including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”

His report omitted the details out of national security concerns, but Goldberg termed it a “shockingly reckless” use of a Signal chat.SECURITY RISKS

It remained unclear why the officials chose to chat via Signal rather than the secure government channels typically used for sensitive discussions.

Signal has a “stellar reputation and is widely used and trusted in the security community,” said Rocky Cole, whose cybersecurity firm iVerify helps protect smartphone users from hackers.

“The risk of discussing highly sensitive national security information on Signal isn’t so much that Signal itself is insecure,” Cole added. “It’s the fact that nation states threat actors have a demonstrated ability to remotely compromise the entire mobile phone itself. If the phone itself isn’t secure, all the Signal messages on that device can be read.”Accounts that appeared to represent Vice President JD Vance, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ratcliffe, Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and senior National Security Council officials were assembled in the chat group, Goldberg wrote.

While some Democrats called for officials on the chat to lose their security clearances or resign, there was no immediate word on whether any official would face consequences.

White House officials and some fellow Republicans instead stressed that the attack on the Houthis had gone off without a hitch.

(Reuters)

South Korea’s constitutional court has dismissed the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, reinstating him as the country’s acting president.

Han took over as acting leader last December when President Yoon Suk Yeol was suspended from duties and impeached by parliament after he attempted to declare martial law.

However, Han only lasted two weeks in power before lawmakers voted to impeach him as well. Since then, South Korea has been led by deputy prime minister Choi Sang-mok.

South Korea has been roiled by political chaos since Yoon’s botched attempt to impose martial law.

Shortly after assuming the role of acting president, Han blocked the appointment of new judges to the constitutional court – something the opposition hoped would improve the odds of Yoon getting impeached.

As a result, they voted to impeach Han.

But on Monday, the judges ruled seven to one to strike down the impeachment.

“I thank the Constitutional Court for its wise decision,” Han said after the ruling was announced. “I will work to bring the government to order.”

South Korea remains on tenterhooks for another upcoming decision by the same court – on the impeachment of President Yoon.

Yoon was was impeached by parliament and suspended from his duties on 14 December- but this impeachment will only be made permanent if passed by the Constitutional Court. If the court overturns the impeachment, Yoon will return to his duties immediately.

Yoon’s court date has not yet been set for the verdict, but in recent weeks Seoul has seen swelling protests from Yoon’s supporters and opponents, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets of the nation’s capital last weekend.

(BBC News)

Flights have resumed at Heathrow Airport and a full service is expected on Saturday following an “unprecedented” loss of power caused by a nearby substation fire.

About 200,000 passengers were affected as flights were grounded throughout Friday, with inbound planes being diverted to other airports in Europe after flames ripped through the North Hyde plant in Hayes, west London, on Thursday evening.

The airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye apologised to stranded passengers and said the disruption was “as big as it gets for our airport” and that it could not guard itself “100%”.

The Met Police confirmed the fire was not believed to be suspicious.

The investigation will focus on the “electrical distribution equipment”, the force said.

British Airways announced eight of its long-haul flights had been cleared to leave Heathrow during Friday evening and it was “urgently contacting customers to let them know”.

Restrictions on overnight flights have also been temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, the Department of Transport said.

Passengers have been advised to contact their airlines for the latest updates.

Mr Woldbye said that a back-up transformer had failed meaning systems had to be closed down in accordance with safety procedures so that power supplies could be restructured from two remaining substations to restore electricity enough to power the airport.

Several airlines announced they would restart scheduled flights both to and from Heathrow, including British Airways, Air Canada and United Airlines.

An airport spokesperson said the first flights were focused on “repatriating the passengers who were diverted to other airports in Europe… and relocating aircraft”.

Mr Woldbye said: “I’d like to stress that this has been an incident of major severity. It’s not a small fire.

“We have lost power equal to that of a mid-sized city and our backup systems have been working as they should but they are not sized to run the entire airport.”

Asked if there is a weak point in Heathrow’s power system, he said: “You can say that but of course contingencies of certain sizes we cannot guard ourselves against 100% and this is one of them.

“I mean, short of anybody getting hurt, this is as big as it gets for our airport.”

“This is unprecedented,” he added.

Mr Woldbye went on to say the airport expected to return to “100% operation” on Saturday.

(BBC News)