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Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
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world lead
Experts question timing, motivations of North Korea hostages release
(CNN) - North Korea released two American hostages over the weekend and the former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea does not think the timing is coincidental.
"The timing is clearly that they want to kind of take the edge off the summit meeting between President Obama and [Chinese President] Xi Jinping to try to give those in China some ammunition to say, 'look, the North Koreans are doing something. Can't you Americans talk to them?,'" says former ambassador Christopher Hill, referring to world leaders currently gathered for an economic summit in Beijing.
world lead
GOP Congressman: Withdrawing troops from Iraq in 2011 hurt intelligence gathering today
(CNN) - Republican Congressman Peter King says withdrawing troops from Iraq in 2011 hurt U.S. intelligence gathering capabilities, which is why the U.S. is unable to determine whether or not the latest airstrikes effectively targeted key ISIS leaders.
"We have very little intelligence at all in Iraq. That's one of the hazards, one of the results, of taking all our troops out in 2011. That pretty much effectively ended both defense intelligence, central intelligence. We have virtually no intelligence on the ground at all," King, the Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, told CNN's Jake Tapper.
politics lead
New senator: GOP-controlled Senate can't be a 'different brand of inaction'
Senator-Elect Thom Tillis says producing quick results is the smartest thing the Republican Party can do to lay the groundwork for the 2016 presidential race.
money lead
Led Zeppelin and the promises and pitfalls of band reunions
It's news that has Led Zeppelin fans dazed and confused.
A report in the British newspaper The Daily Mirror claims that Zeppelin front man Robert Plant ripped up a contract worth $800 million for the band to reunite.
It's a heart-breaker no doubt, not just for Zeppelin fans, but for Virgin Atlantic mogul Richard Branson, who reportedly made the offer.
world lead
Why did North Korea release U.S. hostages now?
(CNN) - Right now, Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller are getting adjusted to life back in the U.S., after – in Bae's case – years in North Korea, including at a labor camp. Both men returned to their families over the weekend.
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