Gerald R. Ford

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,”

Oct. 24 (UPI) — The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is headed to the Caribbean Sea to escalate the nation’s military presence amid strikes on alleged drug-running vessels.

The carrier strike group currently is in the Mediterranean Sea and includes three destroyers, in addition to the aircraft carrier, NBC News reported.

“The enhanced U.S. force presence in the [Southern Command area] will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a social media post.

“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle [transnational criminal organizations],” he added.

The strike group will take about a week to cross the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Caribbean for its new deployment, where it will nearly double the number of vessels already deployed there.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the strike group to the Caribbean, where the U.S. military conducted its first nighttime strike on a vessel allegedly running drugs, he announced on Friday.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transitioning along a known narco-trafficking route and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth said in a post on X.

“Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters,” Hegseth said. “All six terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed.”

The nighttime strike was the third conducted this week, including one in the Pacific Ocean near Central America.

The strike also was the 10th conducted by the U.S. military against alleged drug runners, during which 43 reportedly have been killed while in international waters.

The United States has eight surface vessels, a submarine and about 6,000 sailors deployed in the Caribbean as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on drug running to the United States.

President Donald Trump previously notified Congress that the United States is engaged in conflict with drug cartels that send fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and other potentially deadly and illicit drugs to the nation.

The president also has designated several transnational gangs as terrorist organizations, including the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua.

Trump also has authorized the CIA to operate in Venezuela, where it is gathering intelligence on what the administration says is planned drug-smuggling to the United States.

The president is considering allowing strikes inside Venezuela to weaken President Nicolas Maduro‘s administration.

Trump has accused Maduro of profiting from Venezuelan drug smuggling to the United States and flooding the nation with deadly fentanyl and other narcotics.

The Trump administration recently raised to $50 million its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.

June 27 (UPI) — The Michigan legislature is nearing its July 1 deadline to approve its budget bills but the state House and Senate are at odds over anti-transgender and diversity, equity and inclusion provisions.

Earlier this month, the Republican majority in the Michigan House of Representatives passed budget bills that would penalize schools, universities and community colleges for allowing transgender girls and women to participate in girls’ and women’s sports.

Democrats, with a slim majority in the Senate, passed a different version of a budget proposal late last month. It does not include any such provisions or references to DEI initiatives and girls’ and women’s sports.

Michigan’s school aid budget bill will establish how much state funding public schools and institutions of higher learning will receive in the fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1. Since the two chambers passed different versions of the bill, they must find a compromise to send a final version to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer‘s desk.

“Ultimately, education funding bills need to be passed,” Jonathan Hanson, lecturer in public policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, told UPI.

“They have to work out some kind of compromise. How do you meet in the middle with respect to some of this language? It’s not immediately obvious how to compromise on those things.”

The house budget proposes withholding 20% of a school district’s discretionary funding if it is in violation of prohibitions on transgender athletes participating in female sports, having curriculum that “includes race or gender stereotyping” or funding “DEI initiatives.”

The same prohibitions apply to public universities and community colleges. Institutions in violation of these provisions could have 5% of monthly operations installments withheld by the state budget director.

The proposals cite President Donald Trump‘s executive orders “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” and “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” as supporting federal regulations.

Less than 1% of adults in the United States identify as transgender. A smaller fraction of a percent of minors identify as transgender.

Twenty-seven states have passed laws banning or restricting transgender athletes from participating in the sports that are consistent with their gender identity.

In the 2024-2025 school year, about 175,000 Michigan high school athletes participated in sports, according to the Michigan High School Athletic Association. Two transgender students held waivers to participate and both participated only in fall sports.

“It brings up a lot of ‘whys,'” Jay Kaplan, staff attorney with the ACLU of Michigan’s LGBTQ+ Project, told UPI. “Why this inordinate amount of focus? Why does this seem to be a priority?”

Kaplan explained that the athletic association’s waiver system is already a mechanism meant to address concerns people may have regarding student-athlete participation.

“These budgetary provisions, they can be challenged as discriminatory,” Kaplan said. “Our message to these legislators is, ‘Do your job.’ What’s your plan for affordable housing? What’s your plan to bring more businesses to the state and improve the economy?”

The Republican sponsors of the proposals in the house, Rep. Tim Kelly and Rep. Gregory Markkanen, did not respond to requests for comment.

“Our local schools have been asking for the freedom to use state funding how they please, free of overregulation and burdensome government mandates,” Rep. Joseph Pavlov, R-District 64, said in a statement. “Now, thanks to the new budget plan House Republicans have put together, schools are getting exactly that in record amounts of funding. This will go a long way in turning around the decline in educational performance our state has seen for a long time now.”

Kaplan said the political makeup of the legislature and the governor’s office offers some assurance that provisions like the anti-trans house school budget proposal will fail in Michigan. Next year’s midterm elections will be crucial in determining if that level of assurance continues.

“We’re fortunate in Michigan,” Kaplan said. “We’ve done a lot of hard work. The LGBTQ community and allies, we’ve all worked together. Michigan has some very good policies for the LGBTQ. We have explicit civil rights for the LGBTQ. If anyone is singled out, we’re going to challenge it.”

Democrats have a 19 to 18 majority in the Senate with one seat — Senate District 35 — vacant. Whitmer, a Democrat, has the authority to call a special election for the vacant Senate seat, which she has not done.

Republicans took a 58 to 52 majority in the House in the 2024 election. Democrats held a majority in the House chamber since 2023.

Michigan will elect a new governor in 2026 as Whitmer will reach her term limit.

“What we’re seeing from the Republican side is the incorporation of national Republican policy coming from the White House regarding things like DEI initiatives and trans athletes,” Hanson said. “The fact that this is entering into state budget policies and money is tied to focusing on a minority group that is really small, it makes it seem like they’re focusing on things that aren’t really problems,”

June 16 (UPI) — The Nimitz aircraft carrier group was rerouted from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East, joining the USS Carl Vinson. The move comes amid airstrikes between Israel and Iran.

Also, the Defense Department is moving aircraft to the European and Central Command theaters if needed to support U.S. bases in the region, the Navy Times reported.

And other ships, including Navy destroyers, are also headed to the region, a U.S. official told NBC News. Those ships, which are now based in U.S. European Command, include ballistic missile defense, or BMD, capabilities. Some destroyers are now stationed off Israel’s coast in the Mediterranean.

“Over the weekend, I directed the deployment of additional capabilities to the United States Central Command Area of Responsibility, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted Monday on X. “Protecting U.S. forces is our top priority and these deployments are intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region.”

The Nimitz was scheduled to go to the Middle East but officials canceled a stop in Vietnam, NBC News reported. The George Washington carrier group is operating in the Philippine Sea.

The Nimitz strike group could reach the Middle East later this week, an official told Politico. The exact location hasn’t been disclosed.

The carrier was sailing in the South China Sea and has made its way through the Strait of Malacca, which connects the Andaman Sea and the South China Sea and is about 1,200 miles from Iran.

The Vinson has sailed in the Arabian Sea, and it has partnered with the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group to hit Houthi targets in Yemen, as well. Its home port is San Diego.

President Donald Trump hasn’t said whether the United States will join Israel against Iran.

“We’re not involved in it,” Trump said during an interview with ABC News. “It’s possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved.”

Israel’s aircraft have mainly been targeting nuclear facilities, including the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant built into a mountain and buried deep underground.

The Nimitz carrier group has about 5,000 sailors and Marines, including aircraft crews. Assigned destroyers are Wilbur, Gridle, Meyer and Higbee

The aircraft carrier was commissioned in 1975 and the home port is in Bremerton, Wash.

All but three of the 11 active U.S. aircraft carriers are in homeports now.

The Vinson and Nimitz are among the 10 in an older carrier class. The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier is only one commissioned in the new class.