Testimony on boat strikes
Admiral Frank Bradley, a Navy SEAL who now leads U.S. Special Operations Command, was scheduled to brief lawmakers on Capitol Hill today about the second strike on a boat in the Caribbean last September in which survivors of a first strike on the boat were killed. Defense Secretary Hegseth and President Trump have pointed fingers at Bradley, denying that it was Hegseth who ordered the second strike to kill everyone, which would be a war crime or murder. Trump, when questioned by reporters about why the U.S. has not released video of the second strike after having released video of the first strike, promised that the video would be released but didn’t say when.
Convicted drug trafficker thanks Trump
Honduras’ former President Juan Orlando Hernández thanked Donald Trump for his presidential pardon that freed him from federal prison where he was supposed to spend 45 years behind bars for drug trafficking. Hernández expressed what he termed “profound gratitude” to Trump. Both Republican and Democratic members of Congress have criticized Trump’s decision to pardon someone with a drug trafficking conviction when his administration claims to be focused on disrupting drug trafficking in Latin America and has been staging military strikes. “Don’t understand why he is being pardoned,” Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said. Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar told CNN she felt Trump’s pardon sent a mixed message and she “would have never done that.”
Immigration raids arrest people with no criminal records
The Trump administration’s campaign against immigrants has led to new action by ICE agents in Minnesota and Louisiana. While the administration says it is targeting the most violent criminals, local leaders say the raids have led to arrests of many people who have no criminal history. Sources tell CNN that agents in Minnesota are targeting Somali immigrants after Trump referred to Somalis in the state as “garbage” who should “go back to where they came from.” The Department of Homeland Security also said it intends to make at least 5,000 arrests in Louisiana.
Epstein photos and videos released
House Democrats on Wednesday released photos and videos from Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, shining new light on what was once the epicenter of the late convicted sex offender’s decades of abuse of young girls and women. The content shows several bedrooms and what looks like a dentist’s chair in a room with masks on the wall. One photo appears to capture a study featuring a blackboard. Scribbled on it are words like “power,” “deception,” “plots” and “political.” The disclosure comes on the heels of President Trump signing into law a bill compelling the Justice Department to release all the Epstein-related documents in its possession. The Justice Department was given a 30-day deadline for the release.
Putin threatens to seize more Ukrainian territory
Russian President Vladimir Putin said his troops would seize Donetsk, part of what it calls New Russia in Ukraine by military or other means, digging in on one of his key demands in peace negotiations. Putin arrived in New Delhi today. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are traveling to the U.S., where they have been invited to hold talks with their American counterparts on a plan to end Moscow’s war, a Ukrainian source with knowledge of the situation told CNN. The Institute for the Study of War in a report says that Russian forces would only be able seize the entire Donetsk region if they fight until August 2027 at the current rate of their advance.
Alarm about vaccines policy
Former public health officials are sounding the alarm about significant changes to the country’s vaccine policy under the Trump administration. Two public letters this week — one from former commissioners of the Food and Drug Administration and another from former leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — warn that health leadership spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a panel of recently appointed advisers is putting the public’s health at risk with a haphazard approach to vaccine science. The letters come ahead of a pivotal CDC meeting this week, where the committee handpicked by Kennedy is set to make a major change to the childhood vaccine schedule, potentially delaying a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine given to newborns by weeks or even years.
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