Overview

• NBC reports the Pentagon is developing options for strikes inside Venezuela that focus on drone attacks against cartel leaders and narco‑laboratories.
• Sources say operations could begin in the coming weeks, though President Trump has not approved any plan.
• The Defense Department declined to comment on the reported planning.
• Bloomberg reports Maduro, via Richard Grenell, offered to help locate leaders of the Tren de Aragua gang, which the White House rejected as it deems his government illegitimate.
• Recent U.S. actions include August redeployments of warships and thousands of troops to the Caribbean and the destruction of at least two suspected drug‑running speedboats, with Trump stating at the UN that the U.S. will keep striking cartel‑linked vessels.