Trump says US military killed 11 in strike on boat in Caribbean - National & International News - WED 3Sep2025 -

Trump says US military killed 11 in strike on boat in Caribbean. Critics say strike likely violates international law.

Republican-led House Committee releases some Epstein files, most of which have long been public.

Trump says US military killed 11 in strike on boat in Caribbean. Critics say strike likely violates international law

President Trump claimed on Tuesday that the US military killed 11 people in a strike on a speed boat. Both Trump and the Department of Defense have released a video showing a small speed boat in open water, which then explodes and catches on fire. It’s not immediately clear where this strike took place, though Trump said it was in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility, which implies the Caribbean. The video appears to have been taken by a drone, but the US has recently dispatched war ships to the waters off Venezuela.

Trump claimed the boat was carrying drugs destined for the US and that the 11 people killed were members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. There has been no verification either of the identities of those killed, nor of what if anything was in their boat. Trump further repeated the claim that Tren de Aragua is directly controlled by the Venezuelan government and its President Nicolas Maduro, a claim denied by Venezuela and refuted by US intelligence.

International reaction

Legal experts say the strike may have violated international human rights and maritime law. Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized the strike, calling it an act of murder. Petro pointed out that lethal force was not necessary to interdict maritime drug trafficking. He said Colombia’s policy is to capture maritime drug traffickers alive since those piloting boats likely aren’t kingpins themselves, but rather “very poor young people”.

Venezuela’s reaction to the strike has so far been dismissive. Communications Minister Freddy Ñáñez questioned the video’s authenticity and suggested it could have been produced with AI.

One Caribbean leader, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, had some praise for the attack. She said she was “happy” that the US military was “having success” in their mission in the Caribbean. She added “I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all violently”. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed that Trinidad was the boat’s likely destination.

Appeals court rejects Trump’s use of Alien Enemies act to deport Venezuelans.

Republican-led House Committee releases some Epstein files, most of which have long been public

The House Oversight Committee has released about 33,000 pages’ worth of material from the Department of Justice files on late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Democrats on the committee have chastised the committee’s Republican leadership for helping DOJ to slow-walk releases of the files in dribs and drabs. Both Republican and Democrat members of the House have signed a discharge petition to force a vote on a resolution calling for all the files to be released, with victims’ information redacted. However, this petition will take time.

News outlets have trawled through the released files. They seem to contain little in the way of new information and most of have been in the public domain for years. Many of the documents pertain to the 2007 prosecution of Epstein. This case has long been controversial as it resulted in a sex crimes conviction for Epstein, but little in the way of punishment. The most extraordinary element was the inclusion of a non-prosecution agreement which shielded Epstein’s co-conspirators from prosecution.

This week’s release is only a fraction of the total volume of DOJ files on Epstein. In a recent ruling, one of the judges involved in the case said the DOJ’s Epstein files ran to about 100,000 pages in total. One of the few real revelations that has so far turned up in the release is the “missing minute” of footage from the Manhattan correctional facility from the night Epstein died. Attorney General Pam Bondi had previously claimed this footage did not exist.