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In the news today: The US military targeted another boat it said was carrying drugs from Venezuela; Israel’s military says its expanded operation in Gaza City has begun; and Russia engages in further tensions with NATO. Also, searchers discover a ‘ghost ship’ that sank in Lake Michigan 140 years ago.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro points at a map of the Americas during a press conference in Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday. (AP Photo/Jesus Vargas)

POLITICS

US military again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, Trump says

President Donald Trump said the U.S. military on Monday again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three aboard the vessel, and hinted that the military targeting of cartels could be further expanded. Read more.

What to know:

• Asked what proof the U.S. has that the vessel was carrying drugs, Trump replied, “We have proof. All you have to do is look at the cargo that was spattered all over the ocean — big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place.”
  
  

• The Trump administration has justified the military action as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. But several senators, Democrats and some Republicans, have questioned the legality of Trump’s action. They view it as a potential overreach of executive authority in part because the military was used for law enforcement purposes.
  
  

• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday lashed out at the U.S. government, accusing the Trump administration of using drug trafficking accusations as an excuse for a military operation whose intentions are “to intimidate and seek regime change” in the South American country. Speaking to Fox News earlier Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated that the U.S. doesn’t see Maduro as the rightful leader of Venezuela but as head of a drug cartel.

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• US and China reach a framework deal for the ownership of TikTok 

   

• Judge rules Trump administration illegally fired thousands of probationary workers

   

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• Patel to face Senate amid questions over probe into Charlie Kirk’s killing and internal FBI upheaval

   

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• Trump administration joins Republicans’ campaign to police speech in reaction to Kirk’s murder

   

• Stephen Miller says government will go after ‘vast domestic terror movement’

   

• Trump wouldn’t call Minnesota governor after Democrat was slain but now blames him for raised flags

   

• US judge won’t intervene in Trump administration’s deportations of West Africans to Ghana

   

• US designates Colombia as failing to cooperate in the drug war for first time in nearly 30 years

   

• A father nearly died by an assailant’s bullet. He’s one of many crime victims US wants to deport

   

• Shipping companies support a first-ever global fee on greenhouse gases, opposed by Trump officials

   

• Trump files $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times

   

• Arnold Schwarzenegger enters fight on US House control, urges vote against new California districts

   

• Wisconsin Democrat Kelda Roys launches run for governor against ‘extremists’

   

• Arthur Sze is appointed US poet laureate

WORLD NEWS

Israel’s military says its expanded operation in Gaza City has begun and warns residents to leave

The Israeli military began a ground offensive targeting Gaza City on Tuesday, slowly squeezing in on the Palestinian territory’s largest city. Residents still in the city were warned they must leave and head south. The push marks yet another escalation in a conflict that has roiled the Middle East as any potential ceasefire feels even further out of reach despite months of diplomacy. Read more.

What to know:

• While the military wouldn’t offer a timeline for the offensive, Israeli media outlets suggested it could take months.

   

• While Arab and Muslim nations denounced the strike at a summit Monday, they stopped short of any major action targeting Israel, highlighting the challenge of diplomatically pressuring any change in Israel’s conduct in the grinding Israel-Hamas war. Egypt, however, has begun to escalate its language against Israel, with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi describing Israel as “an enemy” for the first time in years in a fiery speech at the Qatar summit Monday.
  
  

• Overnight, families of the hostages still being held in Gaza gathered outside of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence, pleading with him to stop the Gaza City operation. Israel believes around 20 of the 48 hostages still held by the militants in Gaza are alive. Hamas has said it will only free remaining hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

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WORLD NEWS

Russia’s drones in Poland raised NATO concerns. Now its war games in Belarus add to tensions 

A swarm of Russian drones flies into Poland in what officials there regard as a deliberate provocation, NATO responds by bolstering the alliance’s air defenses on its eastern flank, and Moscow showcases its conventional and nuclear military might in long-planned exercises with Belarus, as it warns the West against sending foreign troops into Ukraine. These events — all taking place in the month since the U.S.-Russia summit meeting in Alaska failed to bring peace to Ukraine — have only heightened tensions in eastern Europe. Read more.

Why this matters:

• The latest sweeping drills, dubbed “Zapad 2025” — or “West 2025” — have worried NATO members Poland, Latvia and Lithuania that border Belarus to the west. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte referenced Moscow’s hypersonic missiles, noting that they shatter the notion that Spain or Britain are any safer than Russia’s neighbors of Estonia or Lithuania.
  
  

• When Russia first used the Oreshnik against Ukraine in November 2024, Putin warned the West it could use it next against allies of Kyiv that allowed it to strike inside Russia with their longer-range missiles. Russian state media boasted it would take Oreshnik only 11 minutes to reach an air base in Poland and 17 minutes to reach NATO headquarters in Brussels.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

• Zelenskyy calls for a European air defense system as Russian strike wounds 13 in Ukrainian city
  
  
• UK summons Russian ambassador over violation of NATO airspace and sends jets to Poland
  
  
• Poland detains 2 Belarusian citizens flying drone over president’s residence in Warsaw

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