The United States military has killed 170 people at sea since September and never shown the world a single piece of evidence of their criminality.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called the strikes extrajudicial killings and demanded they stop. So did the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The ICC’s former chief prosecutor concluded they likely constitute crimes against humanity. Senators tried twice to force a vote on authorization and lost both times. The administration’s response to all of it was the next missile.
Interdiction once meant something. Sailors boarded vessels, documented evidence, and built cases tried in courtrooms. The four-star admiral who ran Southern Command questioned whether the strikes were legal, and Hegseth forced him into early retirement. The admiral who ordered a second missile into survivors in the water got promoted. Even if the government had evidence against every one of them, alleged drug traffickers are still entitled to due process. Call your representatives through Resistbot and 5 Calls and demand an immediate halt to Operation Southern Spear until Congress authorizes it.
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Trump fires all six members of the Presidio Trust board, the federal entity managing San Francisco's national park that has been financially self-sustaining since 2013.
Today’s GovBrief News
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Source: The Associated Press
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Source: The Hill
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IBM pays $17 million to settle Trump administration's first Civil Rights Fraud Initiative case while denying it ever engaged in the DEI practices it agreed to end.
Source: Ars Technica
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U.S. military kills two more people in its 50th boat attack targeting alleged drug traffickers in the eastern Pacific, raising the known death toll to 170.
Source: UPI
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Federal judge dismisses Trump's defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal over a sexually suggestive letter gifted to Jeffrey Epstein but gives him two weeks to refile.
Source: NOTUS
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FBI arrests California man shot seven times by ICE immediately upon hospital discharge while he was still unable to sit up, his attorney says.
Source: KTVU Los Angeles
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Minnesota prosecutors investigate ICE agents for potential kidnapping and false imprisonment after a U.S. citizen was detained in his underwear during Operation Metro Surge.
Source: USA Today
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Source: Houston Public Media
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Noem's former deputy Troy Edgar returns as DHS second-in-command after Trump withdraws his ambassador nomination, never having officially resigned the role.
Source: NOTUS
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Rep. Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Rep. Gonzales (R-Texas) announce departures from Congress ahead of bipartisan expulsion votes planned for this week over separate sexual misconduct allegations.
Source: The Washington Post [gift link]
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Source: The Independent
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Source: The Hill
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Source: Newsweek
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Source: CBS News
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