First Thing: US military announces strike on Pacific boat that kills four, taking death toll to 99 people
UN condemns strikes as extrajudicial executions. Plus, Trump’s end-of-year ‘Bah! Humbug!’ addressGood morning.The US military has carried out another lethal strike on a vessel it claimed was engaged in drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific, according to the defense secretary, Pete...
<p>UN condemns strikes as extrajudicial executions. Plus, Trump’s end-of-year ‘Bah! Humbug!’ address</p><p>Good morning.</p><p>The US military has carried out another <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/17/military-strike-pacific-hegseth">lethal strike on a vessel</a> it claimed was engaged in drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific, according to the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.</p><p><strong>How do human rights groups view the airstrikes?</strong> The UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have described them as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/24/visual-guide-us-military-presence-caribbean">extrajudicial executions</a>. The family of one man killed in a bombing, from Colombia, have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/02/trump-caribbean-drug-boat-attack-complaint">filed a petition</a> with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that he was killed unlawfully on 15 September.</p><p><strong>What did the speech tell us?</strong> “This was not an address by a self-confident man dishing out Christmas presents to the nation,” Smith wrote. “It smacked of desperation from one who can feel the December windchill of opinion polls – a Reuters/ Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-approval-rating-slips-39-economy-weighs-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2025-12-16/">just 33%</a> of US adults approve of how Trump has handled the economy.”</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/18/first-thing-us-military-strike-pacific-boat">Continue reading...</a>
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