The U.S. killed 14 people accused of smuggling drugs

The U.S. killed 14 people accused of smuggling drugs

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said today that U.S. troops had destroyed four more vessels that he accused of smuggling drugs. The strikes, which Hegseth said were carried out in the eastern Pacific, killed 14 people — the biggest one-day toll since the campaign began last month. One person survived, Hegseth added.

Many legal experts have said that the attacks violate U.S. law. Hegseth pushed back today: “These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al Qaeda, and they will be treated the same,” he said. Here’s a timeline of the strikes.

In other Trump administration news:

A federal judge admonished Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official who has become a face of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, for his agency’s use of force and tear gas in Chicago. The president found an easy rapport with Japan’s new leader during his visit to Tokyo. Japanese corporate leaders pledged U.S. investments in attempts to curry favor with Trump. The administration reinstalled a Confederate statue in Washington. A top counterterrorism official accessed F.B.I. files to investigate whether Charlie Kirk’s accused assassin had support from other people or countries, alarming the F.B.I.’s head.