Summary
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The Pentagon was reportedly aware there were survivors after a September attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, but the US military still carried out a follow-up strike, according to a new Associated Press report.
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Troubles are continuing to mount for defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who faces growing scrutiny and criticism over his handling of the September boat strike and a Pentagon report that found his use of the Signal app violated policy. Democratic senator Mark Warner has called for his resignation while Republican senator Lisa Murkowski reiterated that Hegseth does not have her support.
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Donald Trump continued his xenophobic attacks on Somali immigrants, telling reporters on Wednesday that “those Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country” and that congresswoman Ilhan Omar should be “thrown the hell out”.
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The US Institute of Peace has been renamed in Donald Trump’s honor amid a months-long battle for control over the thinktank. The state department announced Wednesday that it had renamed the Washington DC non-profit the “Donald J Trump Institute of Peace”.
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Donald Trump pardoned entertainment executive Tim Leiweke this week, continuing his spate of pardons that has in recent days included the Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar and the ex-president of Honduras.
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Trump described the US-Russia meeting on Tuesday that included Vladimir Putin and the US president’s son-in-law as “reasonably good” despite a lack of progress. A source told the Associated Press that Trump aides planned to meet with a top Ukrainian negotiator in Miami on Thursday for additional peace talks.
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The immigration crackdown in New Orleans got under way Wednesday. The operation has sent fear through the region’s Latino community and prompted businesses to close.
The Pentagon was reportedly aware there were survivors after a September attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, but the US military still carried out a follow-up strike, according to a new Associated Press report.
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Troubles are continuing to mount for defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who faces growing scrutiny and criticism over his handling of the September boat strike and a Pentagon report that found his use of the Signal app violated policy. Democratic senator Mark Warner has called for his resignation while Republican senator Lisa Murkowski reiterated that Hegseth does not have her support.
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Donald Trump continued his xenophobic attacks on Somali immigrants, telling reporters on Wednesday that “those Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country” and that congresswoman Ilhan Omar should be “thrown the hell out”.
n
The US Institute of Peace has been renamed in Donald Trump’s honor amid a months-long battle for control over the thinktank. The state department announced Wednesday that it had renamed the Washington DC non-profit the “Donald J Trump Institute of Peace”.
n
Donald Trump pardoned entertainment executive Tim Leiweke this week, continuing his spate of pardons that has in recent days included the Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar and the ex-president of Honduras.
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Trump described the US-Russia meeting on Tuesday that included Vladimir Putin and the US president’s son-in-law as “reasonably good” despite a lack of progress. A source told the Associated Press that Trump aides planned to meet with a top Ukrainian negotiator in Miami on Thursday for additional peace talks.
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The immigration crackdown in New Orleans got under way Wednesday. The operation has sent fear through the region’s Latino community and prompted businesses to close.
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The Pentagon was aware there were survivors after a September attack on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, but the US military still carried out a follow-up strike, according to a new Associated Press report, based on two people familiar with the matter.
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The AP’s sources, who spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the rationale for the second strike was that it was necessary to sink the vessel.
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It is still unclear who ordered the strikes and whether Hegseth was involved, one of the AP sources said. Those questions are expected to be discuss at a classified congressional briefing on Thursday with Adm Frank Bradley, the commander whom the Trump administration says ordered the second strike, the outlet reported.
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Trump administration officials have defended the follow-up strike by arguing that the complete destruction of the boat was the objective and that the Pentagon had internal legal approval to carry it out. Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said in a briefing on Monday: “Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed, and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”
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Our earlier coverage:
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Mark Warner, a Democratic senator, has called for Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, to resign or be fired after an inspector general report found he violated departmental policies when he shared secret information in a Signal chat about a planned airstrike in Yemen.
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The Senate intelligence committee vice-chair spoke out this afternoon, saying in a statement that an “objective, evidence-based investigation by the Pentagon’s internal watchdog leaves no doubt: Secretary Hegseth endangered the lives of American pilots”.
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The inspector general report relates to an infamous Signal group in March about an airstrike in Yemen against Houthi fighters, which became public when a journalist from the Atlantic was added to the chat. The chat on the messaging app also included JD Vance; the CIA director, John Ratcliffe; and the then-national security adviser, Mike Waltz, but the report did not scrutinize their conduct.
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“By sharing classified operational details on an unsecure group chat on his personal phone, he created unacceptable risks to their safety and to our operational security,” Warner said in his statement. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Pete Hegseth should resign, or the president must remove him at once.”
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The report noted that the inspector general is aware of “several other Signal chats” Hegseth used for official business, “underscoring that this was not an isolated lapse”, Warner said. “It reflects a broader pattern of recklessness and poor judgment from a secretary who has repeatedly shown he is in over his head.”
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Our earlier coverage of the Pentagon report:
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One day after talks with Russia and the US ended without a Ukraine peace deal, Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the meeting between the two US envoys and Vladimir Putin was “reasonably good”.
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Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, met with the Russian president in Moscow on Tuesday for five hours. A Kremlin aide reported after the meeting that the parties were “neither further nor closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine”.
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On Wednesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Russians “very strongly” want to make a deal to end the war, but that it was unclear what would happen next.
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“What comes out of that meeting I can’t tell you because it does take two to tango,” Trump said.
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A source told the Associated Press that Trump aides planned to meet with a top Ukrainian negotiator in Miami on Thursday for additional peace talks.
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