Overview
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a boat in international waters in the Caribbean was struck Thursday, killing three people and causing no U.S. casualties.
- The operation was the 17th publicly announced since early September, with the acknowledged death toll now roughly 69 to 70.
- The White House has told Congress it deems traffickers unlawful combatants under Title 10, and officials say DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel approved maritime strikes tied to 24 groups but not land attacks.
- The Senate voted 51–49 to reject a bipartisan resolution requiring approval for direct strikes on Venezuela as lawmakers from both parties pressed for more transparency and oversight.
- U.S. naval forces are surging in the region, with the Ford carrier strike group set to arrive, as AP reporting identifies several people killed as low-level laborers moving cocaine toward Caribbean islands and Europe.