Pentagon unable to name boat strike casualties
The Pentagon has so far acknowledged 14 strikes
What happened
Defense Department officials on Thursday briefed House members about President Donald Trump’s ongoing military strikes on alleged cocaine smugglers off the coast of South America. But the White House pulled the lawyers scheduled to attend the classified briefing, limiting its utility, Democrats said afterward. Senate Democrats said that they were not invited to a separate intelligence briefing on the attacks held Wednesday for their GOP colleagues, in a breach of longstanding tradition.
Who said what
The Pentagon has acknowledged 14 strikes so far, killing 61 people. But the administration does not know their identities, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) told reporters after the briefing. “They said that they do not need to positively identify individuals on the vessel to do the strikes,” only “prove a connection” to one of the drug gangs Trump has targeted, even if that connection is “as much as three hops away.”
Most of the questions at the briefing “focused on the legal basis for the strikes,” amid “bipartisan allegations” that Trump’s team is “carrying out extrajudicial killings,” Axios said. But “they didn’t even show up with the lawyers,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.). And when lawmakers asked about the legal justification, “they just said that they can’t answer these questions because the lawyers aren’t here.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What next?
Lawmakers pressed the Pentagon briefers for a classified Justice Department memo laying out the legal argument for the strikes, but the officials “would not say when they would turn it over,” The New York Times said. The delay, a U.S. official told the Times, “was because the White House does not want to show members of Congress the memo.” But the pushback from House Republicans “suggests there is some bipartisan momentum for more oversight,” Politico said.
-
The most anticipated movies of 2026The Week Recommends If the trailers are anything to go by, film buffs are in for a treat
-
The biggest viral moments of 2025In the Spotlight From the Coldplay concert kiss cam to a celebrity space mission, these are some of the craziest, and most unexpected, things to happen this year
-
Environment breakthroughs of 2025In Depth Progress was made this year on carbon dioxide tracking, food waste upcycling, sodium batteries, microplastic monitoring and green concrete
-
Biggest political break-ups and make-ups of 2025The Explainer From Trump and Musk to the UK and the EU, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a round-up of the year’s relationship drama
-
Donald Trump’s squeeze on VenezuelaIn Depth The US president is relying on a ‘drip-drip pressure campaign’ to oust Maduro, tightening measures on oil, drugs and migration
-
US citizens are carrying passports amid ICE fearsThe Explainer ‘You do what you have to do to avoid problems,’ one person told The Guardian
-
Trump appears numerous times in new Epstein batchSpeed Read
-
Danes ‘outraged’ at revived Trump Greenland pushSpeed Read
-
‘Tension has been building inside Heritage for a long time’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
The MAGA civil war takes center stage at the Turning Point USA conferenceIN THE SPOTLIGHT ‘Americafest 2025’ was a who’s who of right-wing heavyweights eager to settle scores and lay claim to the future of MAGA
-
Why, really, is Trump going after Venezuela?Talking Points It might be oil, rare minerals or Putin
