The U.S. Keeps Killing Venezuelans on Boats. Is That Legal? | The Daily
Trump’s strikes on drug boats appear to be illegal. These military men and women are likely breaking the law by following orders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYAwwZDLUy4
Tag: foreign affairs
Donald Trump Is Not a Peace President
“The two Trump administrations have launched as many airstrikes at overseas targets as any other administration. Although childish and superficial, his renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War doesn’t telegraph a love of peace. Nor does his authorized strike on a Venezuelan boat in the Caribbean. His policies in the Middle East have amounted to little more than giving Israel the greenlight to do as it pleases. Then there were his attacks on nuclear sites in Iran and his constant threats to send troops to root out cartels in Mexico.
Whether or not you agree with these policies, they don’t adhere to any principled non-interventionist philosophy. And that takes us back to Russia and Ukraine. The problem with appeasement is that it emboldens the aggressor rather than secures lasting and just peace. No serious person is calling for American troops in Ukraine, but Trump’s insistence on blaming Ukraine and not pushing Russia for serious concessions has escalated the conflict.”
https://reason.com/2025/09/19/donald-trump-is-not-a-peace-president/
Trump touts Israel’s approval of his Gaza peace plan. Hamas has not agreed.
This “peace deal” is a demand for Hamas’s surrender. Hamas surrendering may bring peace, but I generally wouldn’t call a demand for surrender a ‘peace deal’.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/29/trump-touts-peace-plan-for-israel-hamas-has-not-agreed-00584857?cid=Connatix&nid=00000150-1596-d4ac-a1d4-179e288b0000&nname=illinois-playbook&nrid=00000164-8481-d4a7-a5fc-9ecfc4730000
US sanctions wife of Brazilian judge who oversaw Bolsonaro prosecution
Trump is using U.S. sanction power to punish those who prosecute people Trump likes politically. This isn’t an act of justice, but an act of defending those who try to coup democracies. He did something similar when he pardoned the January 6th attackers who tried to end U.S. democracy.
“The U.S. announced new sanctions on the wife of Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Monday, the latest move in the Trump administration’s effort to object to the prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted de Moraes for overseeing the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who was convicted of organizing a coup to remain in office following his electoral loss to now-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022. A panel of Supreme Court justices, including de Moraes, voted earlier this month to sentence the far-right populist leader, an ally of Trump’s, to a 27-year prison sentence.
…
The Brazilian government called the move “a new attempt of undue interference in Brazilian internal affairs,” accusing the U.S. government of pursuing “the politicization and distortion” of the Magnitsky Act.
“This new attack on Brazilian sovereignty will not achieve its goal of benefiting those who led the failed coup attempt, some of whom have already been convicted by the Supreme Federal Court. Brazil will not bow to this latest aggression,” Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/22/bolsonaro-prosecution-us-sanctions-00575122
Ukrainian F-16 Pilots Just Did the IMPOSSIBLE Overnight
Ukraine’s F-16s are helping it shoot down missiles that ground-based defenses and Ukraine’s Soviet aircraft have trouble with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ-IA0GLvqY
USA Hits India & China
Trump’s H1b Visa 100k fee will increase the cost of doing business in America, which means a smaller economy and less jobs. It also incentivizes companies to offshore labor rather than use people in the U.S. who spend some of their salaries in-country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOpw1nTJzxI
Update from Ukraine | Putin’s new Provocation! Ruzzian Fighter jets Violated NATO airspace
Russian jets violated NATO airspace in Estonia with minimal consequences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV2OTIBtjSw
Another Military Strike on a Speedboat Confirms Trump’s Policy of Murdering Suspected Drug Smugglers
“Although Trump frames his unprecedented use of the U.S. military to summarily execute drug suspects as “self-defense,” it plainly does not fit that description. By his own account, he has unilaterally decided to impose the death penalty on alleged drug traffickers for the sake of deterrence. That policy represents a stark departure from both military norms and criminal justice principles.
…
The Trump administration “has not even seriously tried to present a legal argument to justify the premeditated killing of the people aboard these two vessels,” former State Department lawyer Brian Finucane told The New York Times. “The U.S. president does not have a license to kill suspected drug smugglers on that basis alone.”
Rear Adm. Donald J. Guter, who served as the Navy’s top judge advocate general from 2000 to 2002, concurred. “Trump is normalizing what I consider to be an unlawful strike,” he said.
…
Trump does not claim the men whose deaths he ordered were engaged in literal attacks on the United States. The justification in both cases was that the targets were “transporting illegal narcotics,” which Trump dubiously equates with violent aggression.”
https://reason.com/2025/09/16/another-military-strike-on-a-speedboat-confirms-trumps-policy-of-murdering-suspected-drug-smugglers/
China’s New Military Equipment Revealed – The PLA Parade and its Modernisation Speed Run
China is modernizing their military, including their nuclear weapons. Their military is getting very high tech very quickly. China is no longer just copying other people’s technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRts6IVMelA
Update from Ukraine | Escalation Ruzzia sends more Drones to NATO | Ukraine Hits Big Refinery
Update from Ukraine | Escalation Ruzzia sends more Drones to NATO | Ukraine Hits Big Refinery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu5gEEgHsCg