Overview
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the latest strike hit a vessel in international waters, killing three people, bringing the publicly acknowledged death toll to roughly 70 since early September.
- The White House has told Congress it treats traffickers as unlawful combatants under Title 10, and officials said DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel approved maritime strikes tied to multiple groups but not proposed land operations.
- An Associated Press investigation identified several of the dead as low-level laborers or small-time criminals and found boats were often ferrying cocaine to nearby islands rather than fentanyl bound for the United States.
- UN human-rights officials, backed by the Secretary-General, say the boat strikes likely violate international law and should stop, while the Pentagon maintains its intelligence confirms the targets were narco‑terrorists.
- The Senate narrowly rejected a measure to require approval for strikes on Venezuela as the U.S. concentrates significant naval power in the region, including the approaching Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group.