Today's INTERNATIONAL story

US kills 11 in strike on alleged drug boat off Venezuela

What happened
President Donald Trump said yesterday that U.S. naval forces amassed in the southern Caribbean had destroyed a "drug-carrying boat" in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, killing 11 people. In a social media post with footage of a speedboat erupting in flames, Trump claimed the people killed in the strike were "positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists" transporting illegal drugs to the U.S.

Who said what
The White House "did not immediately explain how the military determined that those aboard the vessel were Tren de Aragua members," The Associated Press said, and the black-and-white video Trump shared "did not show any large or clear stashes of drugs inside the boat."

The strike was an "astonishing departure from traditional drug interdiction efforts," which focused on "seizing drugs and identifying suspects to build a criminal case," The New York Times said. John Feeley, a former U.S. ambassador to Panama, told The Wall Street Journal that the Coast Guard had long led maritime drug interdictions with a mandate "to preserve life," and the U.S. doesn't "just shoot up boats like Netflix likes to pretend."

What next?
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters yesterday that Trump "is very clear that he's going to use the full power of America" to "take on and eradicate these drug cartels" wherever they are and "and wherever they're operating." At a news conference late Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had warned Trump that Rubio "wants to stain your hands with blood" by pushing an invasion and coup.

Today's TECH Story

Google avoids the worst in antitrust ruling

What happened
A federal judge in Washington, D.C, yesterday rejected the government's request to break up Google, after having ruled last year that the company's search engine was an illegal monopoly. But Judge Amit Mehta did order more modest changes, including instructing Google to share some of its search data with "qualified competitors" and barring it from paying tech companies to make its search engine, AI chatbot or Android Play Store "exclusive" services on their smartphones, computers or other devices.

Who said what
Mehta's opinion was the "most consequential antitrust decision on Big Tech's business practices since a federal judge's failed bid to break up Microsoft in the early 2000s," Politico said. The Justice Department had asked Mehta to force Google to sell its Chrome browser, share expansive data on its search infrastructure and impose other sanctions.

In his ruling, Mehta said he needed to craft antitrust remedies "with a healthy dose of humility," especially given the rise of a competitive generative AI market that could eclipse Google's search dominance without government intervention. Unlike most cases, the court here was "asked to gaze into a crystal ball and look to the future," he said. "Not exactly a judge's forte."

What next?
Gabriel Weinberg, the CEO of search competitor DuckDuckGo, called Mehta's remedies "a nothingburger." But Vanderbilt University antitrust law expert Rebecca Haw Allensworth said the changes ordered for Microsoft, also initially considered weak, had opened the internet to competitors, including Google. Given likely appeals, "it could take years" before Google "is required to act on the ruling," Reuters said.

It's not all bad

After learning how to snowboard and running the Boston Marathon, blind athlete Kristie Colton is now training to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. The California resident was diagnosed with degenerative blindness as a child. With her friend Jungyeon Park, Colton founded the nonprofit Vorden Initiative to teach sighted individuals ways they can assist visually impaired people. Park and another friend, Grace Eysenbach, will serve as her guides up Kilimanjaro, a "really once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Colton told the Los Angeles Times.

Under the radar

Quit-smoking ads are being snuffed out

In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started Tips From Former Smokers, the "first national campaign sponsored and funded by a federal agency with the goal of educating the public about the harmful effects of smoking and encouraging quitting," said the CDC. This program, which highlighted the experience of real smokers and their health problems, proved extremely effective. But the Tips ads are slated to end in late September due to the Trump administration's CDC cuts.

Tobacco is still the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the U.S., accounting for about 490,000 deaths per year, according to the American Lung Association. More than 16 million Americans live with a disease caused by smoking.

A July 2024 study estimated that the Tips campaign generated close to 2.1 million additional calls to tobacco quitlines between 2012 and 2023. "This isn't a budget cut or a way to make the government more efficient," a CDC staffer who worked in the Office on Smoking and Health said to CBS News. "Ending the Tips campaign is a decision that will cost people their lives and American taxpayers millions of dollars in health care costs."

Some 72% of Americans believe that advertisements "aimed at reducing smoking or encouraging people to quit smoking are important," according to a recent poll by Ipsos. Ending the campaign "will eliminate the biggest national megaphone to encourage people to take the first step," said CBS News.

Tobacco use rates "will increase among youth, and fewer adults will quit," a former CDC employee told NBC News. "Because of that, people will die."

On this day

September 3, 1967

Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right-hand side. It was one of the largest logistical changes in the country's history. Today, the vast majority of countries drive on the right-hand side, with the exception of the U.K. and Commonwealth nations like Australia.

TODAY'S newspaperS

'We're going in'

"Judge rules that deploying troops to L.A. is illegal," the Los Angeles Times says on Wednesday's front page. "We're going in," the Chicago Sun-Times says, quoting President Donald Trump's vow to send troops to Chicago. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker "braces city for federal incursion," the Chicago Tribune says. "Some ICE agents are citing burnout," says USA Today. "MAHA factions spar over goals," The Wall Street Journal says. "Trump warns losing tariffs would be dire," The New York Times says. "House panel releases first batch of Epstein files," The Washington Post says. "Dozens of Epstein victims will attend Washington rally today," says the Miami Herald. "Man charged in boy's fatal shooting" after doorbell prank, says the Houston Chronicle.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Cat got your ear

A French woman was fined $130 after her cat, Monet, allegedly meowed too much and too loudly while traveling on a high-speed train between Vannes and Paris. The cat owner, identified as Camille, said Monet "meowed a bit" at the beginning of the ride, and she was ticketed because another passenger complained. Rail operator SCNF said Camille was asked to move to another car with "many empty seats," which would have "helped ease tensions," and was fined after refusing.

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.