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WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from both parties said Sunday that they support congressional reviews of U.S. military strikes against vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, citing a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of a Sept. 2 attack.

The lawmakers said they did not know whether last week’s Washington Post report was true, and some Republicans were skeptical, but they said attacking survivors of an initial missile strike poses serious legal concerns.

“This rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), when asked about a follow-up strike aimed at people no longer able to fight, said Congress does not have information that that happened. He noted that leaders of the Armed Services Committee in both the House and Senate have opened investigations.

“Obviously, if that occurred, that would be very serious and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Turner said.

Turner said there are concerns in Congress about the attacks on vessels that the Trump administration says are transporting drugs, but the allegation regarding the Sept. 2 attack “is completely outside anything that has been discussed with Congress, and there is an ongoing investigation.”

The comments from lawmakers during news show appearances come as the administration escalates a lethal maritime campaign that it says is needed to combat drug trafficking into the United States.

On Saturday, President Trump said the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela should be considered “closed in its entirety,” an assertion that raised more questions about the U.S. pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Maduro’s government accused Trump of making a ”colonial threat” and seeking to undermine the South American country’s sovereignty.

After the Post’s report, Hegseth said Friday on X that “fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.”

“Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,” Hegseth wrote.

Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and its top Democrat, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, said in a joint statement late Friday that the committee “will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”

That was followed Saturday by the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, and ranking Democratic member, Washington Rep. Adam Smith, issuing a joint statement saying the panel was committed to “providing rigorous oversight of the Department of Defense’s military operations in the Caribbean.”

“We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question,” Rogers and Smith said, referring to U.S. Southern Command.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), asked about the Sept. 2 attack, said Hegseth deserves a chance to present his side.

“We should get to the truth. I don’t think he would be foolish enough to make this decision to say, ‘Kill everybody, kill the survivors,’ because that’s a clear violation of the law of war,” Bacon said. “So, I’m very suspicious that he would’ve done something like that because it would go against common sense.”

Kaine and Turner appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” and Bacon was on ABC’s “This Week.”

Freking writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — The nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier arrived in the Caribbean Sea on Sunday in a display of U.S. military power, raising questions about what the new influx of troops and weaponry could signal for the Trump administration’s drug enforcement campaign in South America.

The arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford, announced by the U.S. military in a news release, marks a major moment in what the Trump administration says is an antidrug operation but has been seen as an escalating pressure tactic against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Since early September, U.S. strikes have killed at least 80 people in 20 attacks on small boats accused of transporting drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.

The Ford rounds off the largest buildup of U.S. firepower in the region in generations, bringing the total number of troops to around 12,000 on nearly a dozen Navy ships in what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dubbed Operation Southern Spear.

The Ford’s carrier strike group, which includes squadrons of fighter jets and guided-missile destroyers, transited the Anegada Passage near the British Virgin Islands on Sunday morning, the Navy said in a statement.

Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the Ford’s carrier strike group, said it will bolster an already large force of American warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.”

The administration has maintained that the buildup of warships is focused on stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S., but it has released no evidence to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were “narco-terrorists.” An Associated Press report recently found that those killed included Venezuelan fishermen and other impoverished men earning a few hundred dollars per trip.

President Trump has indicated military action would expand beyond strikes by sea, saying the U.S. would “stop the drugs coming in by land.”

The U.S. has long used aircraft carriers to pressure and deter aggression by other nations because their warplanes can strike targets deep inside another country. Some experts say the Ford is ill-suited to fighting cartels, but it could be an effective instrument of intimidation for Maduro in a push to get him to step down.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the United States does not recognize Maduro, who was widely accused of stealing last year’s election, as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. Rubio has called Venezuela’s government a “transshipment organization” that openly cooperates with those trafficking drugs.

Maduro, who faces charges of narco-terrorism in the U.S., has said the government in Washington is “fabricating” a war against him. Venezuela’s government recently touted a “massive” mobilization of troops and civilians to defend against possible U.S. attacks.

Trump has justified the attacks on drug boats by saying the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels while claiming the boats are operated by foreign terrorist organizations.

He has faced skepticism and opposition from leaders in the region, the United Nations human rights chief and U.S. lawmakers, including Republicans, who have pressed for more information on who is being targeted and the legal justification for the boat strikes.

Senate Republicans, however, recently voted to reject legislation that would have put a check on Trump’s ability to launch an attack against Venezuela without congressional authorization.

Experts disagree on whether or not American warplanes may be used to strike land targets inside Venezuela. Either way, the 100,000-ton warship is sending a message.

“This is the anchor of what it means to have U.S. military power once again in Latin America,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the Andes region. “And it has raised a lot of anxieties in Venezuela but also throughout the region. I think everyone is watching this with sort of bated breath to see just how willing the U.S. is to really use military force.”

Finley writes for the Associated Press.

Nov. 12 (UPI) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro has ordered the South American nation’s security authorities to cease sharing intelligence with the United States over the Trump administration’s continued attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean.

“An order is given to all levels of intelligence within the public security forces to suspend the sending of communications and other dealings with U.S. security agencies,” Petro said in the statement on X.

“This measure will remain in effect as long as the missile attacks on boats in the Caribbean continue.”

At least 75 people have been killed in 19 known U.S. military attacks targeting boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since Sept. 2. The Trump administration accuses the vessels of shipping narcotics for drug cartels that it has designated as terrorist organizations.

The attacks have drawn both domestic and international criticism and allegations of potential war crimes and extrajudicial killings perpetrated by the United States. Petro has also accused Trump of murder, saying one of the attacks in mid-September killed a fisherman named Alejandro Carranza.

The Trump administration has defended the strikes as necessary to protect Americans from the drugs the boats are allegedly bringing into the United States. President Donald Trump has also seemingly rejected the notion of seeking congressional approval for the strikes, stating last month that “I think we are just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country.”

The announcement Tuesday came on the heels of Petro recalling Colombia’s ambassador to Washington for consultations in response to a photo released by the White House on Oct. 21 in which Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair is seen holding a folder that contains photos of Petro and Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolas Maduro, in prison jumpsuits.

The actions are expected to further strain relations between the two allies, which have become fraught during the Trump administration. Petro has been a critic of the American leader’s hardline immigration and drug enforcement policies, and Trump has accused Petro of not doing enough to curb the manufacturing of drugs in the South American nation.

Trump has imposed sanctions on Petro and his immediate family members on accusations that Petro is permitting drug cartels to conduct their business without impediment.

Petro has rejected the accusations and, in turn, accused the Trump administration of lying. His administration maintains drug production is declining under Petro’s tenure.

“The fight against drugs must be subordinated to the human rights of the Caribbean people,” Petro said Tuesday.

After launch there was the question of how to fill the days at sea.

“In my case, you eat,” says Larter. “Honestly, I’ve never had, either before or since, such a sustained spell of magnificent eating.

“The stewards loved us. They’d bring these great trolleys of wonderful food, and they knew we’d eat it.”

With copious amounts of food available and an Ashes series to prepare for, the players had to keep fit.

“We’d have an exercise session in the morning, then there were badminton courts netted off for us. We’d shove weights about, and jump up and down and things like that,” says Larter.

The England management wanted to take things a stage further.

By chance, Dexter found that British athlete Gordon Pirie was on board. Pirie won 5,000m silver at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

“He was invited to organise us,” says Larter. “He turned up with his shorts on and decided the best exercise would be running around the boat.

“It’s quite a long way around one of those big boats, but I did what I was told.”

Not everyone in the touring party was as agreeable as Larter. Trueman, never shy of speaking his mind, had just bowled more than 1,100 overs in the English summer.

“Fred voiced an opinion which meant in no way was he running around,” says Larter. “That just wasn’t what we did to get fit. To get fit, we played cricket.

“Fred said he’d just bowled all those overs in the season, and he wasn’t going to run around a boat for anyone. The Gordon Pirie thing died off after that.”

For Larter, the trip was not just a first England tour, but a first time out of the country. On the upper deck he mixed with the wealthy travellers, lower down he encountered the Poms emigrating to a new life down under.

“We found the greatest reception came downstairs,” he says. “There were people emigrating or moving for all sorts of reasons. A lot of them were young, out to make new lives. It was interesting to meet them. There were more than a couple of decent bars and you could have a quiet pint.”

The journey was not a straight passage to Perth. Remarkably, England tuned up for a tour of Australia by hopping off in Sri Lanka to play a game in Colombo.

“We walked out on to the field and Ted Dexter said I would be opening the bowling,” says Larter.

“I marked out a run, ran in, and fell flat on my face. A real sprawler. I picked myself up, went back, came in again and did the same thing.

“I’d lost my land legs. They weren’t going where I wanted, because I’d been on the boat.

“Ted came across and said ‘what’s wrong?’. I said they don’t work! He took me off. Barry Knight had to finish the over.

“We were entertained and looked after by the British Army. They put on a big barbecue on the beach for us. How do you get to that from a small town in Suffolk? On the beach in Sri Lanka with all of these nice people. It was an eye-opener, just being there.”

Malaysian search and rescue teams discovered five more bodies off the coast of Langkawi Monday after a boat packed with mostly refugees from Myanmar capsized. Police and maritime officials say 21 bodies have been recovered so far.

Authorities say rescue operations are under way to locate survivors on a boat that sunk, with two others missing.

One body has been found and dozens of others are missing after a boat carrying about 90 undocumented migrants sank near the Thailand-Malaysia border, officials said.

The Malaysian maritime authority on Sunday said at least 10 survivors were found, while the status of two other boats carrying a similar number of people remains unknown.

The incident is believed to have happened near Tarutao Island, just north of the popular Malaysian resort island of Langkawi.

“A boat carrying 90 people is believed to have capsized” three days ago, local police chief Adzli Abu Shah told reporters, adding that rescue operations were under way to locate the survivors.

Among the survivors found in the waters were three Myanmar nationals, two Rohingya refugees, and a Bangladeshi man, while the body was that of a Rohingya woman, state media agency Bernama reported, quoting Abu Shah.

The Malaysia-bound people initially boarded a large vessel, but, as they neared the border, they were instructed to transfer onto three smaller boats, each carrying about 100 people, to avoid detection by the authorities, the police chief was quoted as saying.

Dangerous crossings

Malaysia is home to millions of migrants and refugees from other parts of Asia – many of them undocumented, working in industries including construction and agriculture.

Members of the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority periodically flee predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, where they are seen as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship, and subjected to abuse. Nearly a million Rohingya refugees live in cramped camps across southern Bangladesh.

Many of these refugees attempt maritime crossings to relatively affluent regional countries such as Malaysia and Thailand, facilitated by human trafficking syndicates. But the trips often turn hazardous, leading to frequent capsizing.

In one of the worst incidents in December 2021, more than 20 people drowned in several capsizing incidents off the Malaysian coastline.

Nov. 2 (UPI) — The United States killed three people in its latest strike against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced.

Hegseth said in a post to social media Saturday that American forces conducted a kinetic strike against the vessel in international waters.

He said three “narco-terrorists” were on board and all three were killed.

“These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home — and they will not succeed,” he said. “The department will treat them exactly how we treated Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them and kill them.”

At least 64 people have now been killed by the U.S. in 15 strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean since they began in September.

The strikes have been celebrated by families who have lost their children to fentanyl poisoning, some of whom recently rallied in the nation’s capital for a day of remembrance.

“One boat, two boat, three boat — boom!” a mother who lost her 15-year-old son to Percocet laced with fentanyl told Fox News is how she feels about the strikes on boats allegedly transporting drugs to the United States. “Who did it? Trump did it!”

President Donald Trump in September told reporters that he had authorized the CIA to operate in Venezuela during the summer as the Pentagon was directing a slow military buildup in the waters off the South American country.

On Oct. 24, weeks into the anti-drug trafficking campaign, Hegseth directed the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to transit to the Caribbean. The group includes three destroyers, in addition to the aircraft carrier.

There already were eight naval surface vessels, a submarine and roughly 6,000 soldiers deployed to the area before the strike group was ordered there from the Mediterranean.

Trump, who notified Congress that he was engaged in conflict with drug cartels, has said in recent weeks as the naval presence has grown that he is considering whether to allow strikes inside Venezuela to combat the cartels and weaken Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro‘s administration.

But the strikes have raised concerns of escalating an conflict that could to war with Venezuela and Colombia, according to reports.

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., filed a bipartisan bill that aims to prevent the Trump administration from entering a full-throated war with Venezuela.

Critics of the Trump administration’s actions have expressed that only Congress can declare war.

On Friday, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said they violate international law and amount to extrajudicial killings.

“Under international human rights law, the intentional use of lethal force is only permissible as a last resort against individuals who pose an imminent threat to life,” High Commissioner Volker Türk said.

“Based on the very sparse information provided publicly by the US authorities, none of the individuals on the targeted boats appeared to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others or otherwise justified the use of lethal armed force against them under international law,”