Overview

• Nearly 60 U.S.-based human rights, faith and policy organizations urged lawmakers to stop what they call unauthorized and illegal boat strikes that have killed more than 20 people since September.
• Senators Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff said a War Powers Resolution is headed to the Senate floor on Wednesday to force a vote blocking further lethal attacks on vessels in the Caribbean.
• The administration has acknowledged four strikes on suspected smuggling boats off Venezuela, marking the first lethal U.S. military operations in the Caribbean in decades.
• Officials defend the campaign as counternarcotics, while reporting points to a secret directive and a classified legal opinion and experts note terrorism designations do not themselves authorize overseas military force.
• Defense leaders vow the strikes will continue and President Trump has floated shifting operations to land, as rights groups and analysts warn of humanitarian fallout and a wider regional conflict.