President Donald Trump has called himself the “peace president,” but throughout his second term in office, he has demonstrated an ongoing willingness to use the military in overseas operations. Incursions in Ecuador, Iran and Venezuela represent the most recent ones the U.S. has engaged in, but several more countries became entangled with the U.S. military once Trump reentered the White House.

Somalia
Since February 2025, just weeks after taking office, Trump has been “conducting strikes in Somalia to target ISIS and al-Shabaab,” said NewsNation. There have been “more than 100 strikes launched, mostly using drones.” 

Somali officials seem receptive to the military usage. The operation “reinforces the strong security partnership” between Somalia and the U.S. in “combating extremist threats,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on X. 

Iraq
In March 2025, the military “conducted a precision airstrike” in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, that killed the Islamic State’s second-in-command, Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, according to the U.S. Central Command. And after the Iran war broke out last month, Trump administration officials had “discussions with Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq and northwestern Iran about potentially arming groups opposed to the Iranian regime,” said NBC News. This would be the latest in a decadeslong saga of military action between the U.S. and Iraq.

Yemen
From March to May 2025, the U.S. “launched naval and airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in what was code-named Operation Rough Rider,” said Time. This was, up to that point, Trump’s largest military operation of his second term. The strikes were aimed at a variety of Houthi targets in the country, including “radar systems, air defenses, and missile and drone launch sites” in response to the Houthis attack on international ships in the Red Sea.

At least one of these attacks by the U.S. “caused dozens of civilian casualties and significant damage to port infrastructure,” said Human Rights Watch, and the event should be “investigated as a war crime.” This assault, in the town of Hodeidah, targeted the port through which 80% of Yemen’s humanitarian assistance arrives.

After being the focus of an aggressive legislative push to mitigate their access to health care in the last few years, transgender prisoners now face a similar offensive. President Donald Trump has instated a new policy for the federal incarceration system, one that mirrors an outdated, controversial practice.

Trying to ‘cure’ trans prisoners
The Trump administration released its new policy outlining how transgender people in Bureau of Prisons custody will be treated. Approximately 2,200 trans people held in federal prisons will be denied access to gender-affirming health care, be “subjected to constant misgendering by staff” and have items like binders, bras and makeup confiscated, said the Transitics Substack.

The policy will impose treatment targeting “psychological distress/dysphoria” through talk therapy and “psychotropic medication” like antidepressants until the gender dysphoria diagnosis is considered “resolved,” said the Transitics Substack. The new policy designates gender dysphoria as a mental illness that requires “routine mental health care.” Under the new rules, federal prisons “won’t just medically and socially detransition trans people en masse,” they will “actively try to ‘cure’ them of their gender dysphoria.” The policy has been compared to conversion therapy, a dangerous practice recognized by the United Nations as a form of torture.

‘Not just cruel but reckless’
Even before the latest policy, gender-affirming care was inconsistent for trans prisoners. Denying hormones to “people in distress” and withdrawing them from people who are “stable undermines safe facility operations,” Alix McLearen, who authored earlier versions of the Bureau of Prisons’ transgender policy manuals, said to the Marshall Project. “From a corrections management perspective, this is not just cruel but reckless.”

Prisoners in Georgia are suing state officials over the state’s policy, which is similar to the federal one. If the new federal prison policy is implemented, and it’s “not enjoined, people will die,” Chinyere Ezie, an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the Georgia suit, said to the Marshall Project. People will die from suicide or will “die or be severely hurt from castration attempts.” Those who don’t lose their lives will “experience the very extreme physiological symptoms of hormone therapy withdrawal,” in addition to “psychological symptoms, including depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation.”

A man tries to clean up plastic waste washed ashore by monsoon waves at Jimbaran Beach on Bali. The Indonesian island is facing one of the worst rainy seasons in recent history, with widespread flooding and landslides.
Lana Priatna / AFP / Getty Images

The cold months may have been rough for some, but as winter finally comes to a close, it’s the perfect time to look back at some of the podcasts that kept us company indoors. True crime remained a tried-and-true genre for podcasts fans, along with other thrilling shows that included a deep dive into an uncomfortable era of American history.

History for the Reckoning (Independent)
History for the Reckoning digs into moments in history that have been misremembered, “whether by accident or through deliberate censure,” said Podcast Review. The debut season focuses on the “forced removal and incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans following Executive Order 9066,” said Podcasting Today. The first guest on the show is actor, writer and activist George Takei, best known for portraying Lieutenant Sulu in the “Star Trek” franchise. (Spotify, Apple Podcasts)

Safe to Drink (New Hampshire Public Radio)
This four-part series chronicles the struggles of a New Hampshire town that discovers its water is contaminated with forever chemicals, known as PFAs. When a local man has the water tested, the result “sets off this chain reaction that leads to the United States Environmental Protection Agency stepping in” and “telling the town not to drink the water,” host Mara Hoplamazian said to NPR. (NHPR, Spotify, Apple Podcasts)

Something About Cari (NBC News)
Keith Morrison of “Dateline” leads this examination of the disappearance of Cari Farver in America’s heartland. Farver’s disappearance led to a “chain of events so unexpected that it challenged every assumption about what had really happened.” (NBC News, Spotify, Apple Podcasts)