By Jeremy Herb, Haley Britzky, CNN

(CNN) — As undersecretary of the Navy, Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain and former Republican Senate candidate in Virginia, was supposed to have a broad portfolio as the service’s No. 2 civilian, which included personnel issues and safeguarding the Navy’s “warfighter ethos.”

But in reality, Cao was often cut out of decision-making by his boss, Navy Secretary John Phelan, one source familiar with the situation told CNN, who said Phelan put Cao “in a box”

Cao was isolated from Navy decision making and wasn’t allowed to represent Phelan in official meetings that Phelan didn’t attend, something a typical undersecretary would do, the source said.

That all changed following Pehlan’s sudden ouster as Navy secretary by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week. Cao is now in the job on an acting basis. He learned about his promotion from the Pentagon front office, which called him in and said, “Ok, you’re it — we made a change,” according to the source.

“He’s quickly coming up to speed on all the things he wasn’t allowed to be involved in,” the source added.

A decorated special operations officer, Cao takes over as the Navy’s top civilian at a time when the service is playing a critical role in stopping Iranian ships from traversing the Strait of Hormuz. As the 2024 Republican nominee against Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, Cao championed Trump and Hegseth’s attacks on social issues and opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Cao immigrated to the US as a child after his family fled Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

After retiring from the Navy in 2021, he ran for Congress as a Republican in 2022 and challenged Kaine in 2024, where he had a penchant for making controversial statements.

“When you’re using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we want,” Cao said at a 2024 debate with Kaine in response to a question about military recruiting. “What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat ’em and ask for seconds. Those are young men and women that are going to win wars.”

In a statement after his appointment as acting secretary, Cao said that he would focus on advancing the Navy’s shipbuilding priorities — the very issue that contributed to Phelan’s firing.

“I remain fully committed to accomplishing the core mission of the Department of the Navy as a premier warfighting organization and providing unwavering support to our warriors downrange,” Cao said.

Phelan, a businessman and friend of Trump’s who fundraised for his campaign, was removed as Navy secretary following tensions with Hegseth that had stretched on for months. Hegseth believed Phelan was moving too slowly on implementing shipbuilding reforms and was also irked by Phelan’s direct communication with Trump, which Hegseth viewed as an attempt to bypass him, CNN previously reported.

It’s unclear whether Cao will be nominated to take over as Navy secretary permanently.

In a statement to CNN, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Cao “brings battle-tested leadership to the Navy’s highest office” and that he “embodies the relentless grit and America First vision required to maintain America’s maritime superiority.”

After immigrating to the US in 1975, Cao and his family then moved to West Africa, where his father served as a USAID agricultural specialist, according to his Navy biography. Cao returned to Virginia when he was 12.

He then enlisted in the Navy in 1989 and became an officer after graduating from the US Naval Academy in 19

By Jeremy Herb, Haley Britzky, CNN

(CNN) — As undersecretary of the Navy, Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain and former Republican Senate candidate in Virginia, was supposed to have a broad portfolio as the service’s No. 2 civilian, which included personnel issues and safeguarding the Navy’s “warfighter ethos.”

But in reality, Cao was often cut out of decision-making by his boss, Navy Secretary John Phelan, one source familiar with the situation told CNN, who said Phelan put Cao “in a box”

Cao was isolated from Navy decision making and wasn’t allowed to represent Phelan in official meetings that Phelan didn’t attend, something a typical undersecretary would do, the source said.

That all changed following Pehlan’s sudden ouster as Navy secretary by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week. Cao is now in the job on an acting basis. He learned about his promotion from the Pentagon front office, which called him in and said, “Ok, you’re it — we made a change,” according to the source.

“He’s quickly coming up to speed on all the things he wasn’t allowed to be involved in,” the source added.

A decorated special operations officer, Cao takes over as the Navy’s top civilian at a time when the service is playing a critical role in stopping Iranian ships from traversing the Strait of Hormuz. As the 2024 Republican nominee against Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, Cao championed Trump and Hegseth’s attacks on social issues and opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Cao immigrated to the US as a child after his family fled Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

After retiring from the Navy in 2021, he ran for Congress as a Republican in 2022 and challenged Kaine in 2024, where he had a penchant for making controversial statements.

“When you’re using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we want,” Cao said at a 2024 debate with Kaine in response to a question about military recruiting. “What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat ’em and ask for seconds. Those are young men and women that are going to win wars.”

In a statement after his appointment as acting secretary, Cao said that he would focus on advancing the Navy’s shipbuilding priorities — the very issue that contributed to Phelan’s firing.

“I remain fully committed to accomplishing the core mission of the Department of the Navy as a premier warfighting organization and providing unwavering support to our warriors downrange,” Cao said.

Phelan, a businessman and friend of Trump’s who fundraised for his campaign, was removed as Navy secretary following tensions with Hegseth that had stretched on for months. Hegseth believed Phelan was moving too slowly on implementing shipbuilding reforms and was also irked by Phelan’s direct communication with Trump, which Hegseth viewed as an attempt to bypass him, CNN previously reported.

It’s unclear whether Cao will be nominated to take over as Navy secretary permanently.

In a statement to CNN, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Cao “brings battle-tested leadership to the Navy’s highest office” and that he “embodies the relentless grit and America First vision required to maintain America’s maritime superiority.”

After immigrating to the US in 1975, Cao and his family then moved to West Africa, where his father served as a USAID agricultural specialist, according to his Navy biography. Cao returned to Virginia when he was 12.

He then enlisted in the Navy in 1989 and became an officer after graduating from the US Naval Academy in 19

By Hira Humayun, CNN

(CNN) — In the hyper-masculine world of Latin-American drug cartels, it is sometimes the women you need to watch.

That’s how the Mexican military hunted down one of the world’s most-wanted traffickers – Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes – in a daring operation earlier this year that included special forces storming his hideout in Jalisco state.

Among the eye-catching details of that raid – which provoked a wave of retaliatory violence across the country that left several American tourists stranded – is how the military finally tracked down a man who had been on the run for years, was wanted by both Mexican and US authorities, and had a $15 million bounty on his head.

They simply tracked one of his lovers, who inadvertently led them to a cabin in the mountains of Tapalpa in western Mexico, where one of the most notorious criminals of his generation was hiding out.

While authorities have kept the details surrounding the mystery woman deliberately sparse, her involvement in one of Mexico’s most significant anti-drug operations in recent years underscores the role of women in the inner circles of Latin America’s drug cartels.

It is an underworld that, though colored by a strong culture of machismo, has women carving out roles at all levels of the hierarchy – from trophy wives to smuggling operatives to criminal masterminds.

And while hitmen and foot soldiers still tend to be men, it is often women who are best-suited to the logistical and financial sides of cartel operations, experts say – especially if they are married to bosses and have front-row seats to the action.

“If you are the wife of a senior cartel boss, you are likely read into their logistics, their operations, their strategies,” said Henry Ziemer, an expert on organized crime at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “So, when your husband is captured or killed, it’s possible that you’re able to take over a large chunk of the business.”

The ‘Queen of Cocaine’

One of Latin America’s most colorful female crime bosses was Colombia’s “Queen of Cocaine” Griselda Blanco, the focus of Netflix’s series “Griselda,” who had no fewer than three husbands (all partners in her criminal enterprises) during her ascent to notoriety in the Miami drug wars of the 1970s and 80s.

At the height of her power, Blanco, also known as “the godmother,” was responsible for shipping multi-ton shipments of cocaine from Colombia to Miami, according to authorities. Linked to the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel, she was the mastermind of dozens of killings, according to Miami-Dade investigators – and was reputedly every bit as violent, if not more so, than her male counterparts. Infamous for running a network of gunmen known as the Pistoleros, she had a penchant for drive-by shootings – one of which killed a toddler.

“Even by the context of how hits were taken out in the cartels across the Americas in the 70s and 80s, she’s still pretty ruthless,” Claire White, director of education at The Mob Museum in Las Vegas, told CNN.

But violence wasn’t Blanco’s only way of wielding power. Like other female crime bosses, her real prowess was organizing the logistics and financial aspects of her cartel’s empire, reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Adept at money laundering and overseeing distribution ope

By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — To speak, or not to speak?

That is the question criminal defendants face at trial.

In three recent high-profile criminal trials, the defendant answered that question with a firm yes and took the stand to give their side of the story. It’s a rare, risky move – and the strategy did not result in an acquittal in any of the cases.

Brendan Banfield, accused of killing his wife and another man in an elaborate scheme with the family’s au pair, was found guilty of double murder despite his testimony denying any plot. Colin Gray, the father of a teenage Georgia school shooter, was found guilty of murder and manslaughter even as he pleaded he did not have warnings about his son’s violent plans.

Gerhardt Konig, the Hawaii doctor accused of trying to kill his wife on a hike, was convicted of attempted manslaughter after he claimed she attacked him first. That represented a partial victory for him, as the jury rejected a more serious attempted murder charge.

All three men await sentencing.

The results of those cases underscore the risks and challenges of testifying in your own defense. Defense attorneys generally recommend against taking the stand, wary of subjecting a defendant to a rigorous cross-examination from the prosecution.

“I don’t like to do it. I don’t think it’s advisable,” said CNN legal analyst and defense attorney Joey Jackson. “I think it’s troubling and problematic, and I think that the pitfalls oftentimes outweigh the realities of having your guy get on the witness stand.”

Elyse Hershon, a criminal defense attorney based in Boston, similarly highlighted the risks of putting a layperson defendant on the stand.

“It’s always dangerous to expose your client to cross-examination because usually they are someone who has not testified before, is not involved in the law or government or is a trained witness,” she said. “So when a trained prosecutor gets up to cross-examine them, it can get disastrous pretty quickly. And once your client is on the stand, there’s not a lot you can do as their defense lawyer to protect them.”

Still, there are exceptions to the rule, particularly when a defendant claims self-defense.

There are examples on each side of the coin. Notably, the teenager Kyle Rittenhouse in his 2021 murder trial and Robert Durst in his 2003 murder trial testified in their own defense and were found not guilty. Perhaps longer is the list of those who decided to testify and were then convicted, among them Jodi Arias, former police officer Kim Potter and South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh.

The decision is ultimately up to the defendant. Attorneys can offer their advice and recommendation, but by law the person on trial gets the final say.

“You can be like, ‘Don’t take the stand,’ and they’re like, ‘No, I’m taking the stand,’ and you have to let them because it’s their right,” Hershon said.

The drawbacks of testifying

When a defendant takes the stand, they first answer questions from their own attorney, who will ask straightforward and open-ended prompts to get them to tell their side of the story.

But then comes cross-examination. Over hours or even days of scrutiny, defendants may contradict them

UC SANA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - Nate Vargas slugged two of the Gauchos season-high 4 home runs and ace Jackson Flora stayed undefeated on the mound in an 8-3 UCSB win over Cal State Fullerton.

Vargas launched a solo home run in the third inning and a two-run blast in the eighth inning for his first multi-homer game of his career. Vargas, who knocked in four runs, leads UCSB with six home runs this year.

Xavier Esquer smacked a 2-run shot in the third inning while William Vasseur ripped a solo home run in the fifth.

Flora is now 8-0 on the season after allowing just one run in six inning as he lowered his ERA to 0.78 which leads the nation. He scattered 7 hits and struck out 8.

"(Flora's sweeper) has always been good," began UCSB head coach Andrew Checketts. "They were heavy right-handed today, they had one left-hander in there; he didn't look like he had as good of a feel for the changeup today, so we were pretty heavy with that sweeper to get ahead. He did a good job of landing it, finishing guys off with it. He throws a little bit of a harder slider/cutter, which was good."

"I've always been pretty good at supinating and spinning the ball, so it's pretty easy for me to manipulate the ball going to my glove side," Flora said. "With some work last year, it's gotten better this year, just being able to separate it into two different pitches and work it. When hitters see spin, if they see the big breaker first and they see spin again they might think it's the big breaker again and then all of the sudden it's the short one, or they have to be geared up for a hard fastball and a hard slider, that doesn't allow them to be comfortable guessing pitches or guessing speeds. So, somewhere between the heater and the sweeper, that's been pretty effective and it's probably my favorite pitch — the hard slider — to throw, so I like it."

UCSB improves to 27-12 on the year and 13-6 in the Big West. The Gauchos are in a 3-way tie for first place with Cal Poly and UC San Diego.

(UCSB Athletics supplied the quotes).

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