President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., to Joint Base Andrews, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump called his Cabinet to meet Tuesday morning as the administration insists that it was lawful for the U.S. military to launch a secondary strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea in September. Experts in the military code say this was clearly illegal, but The White House said Monday that Navy Vice Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley ordered the second strike and was “within his authority and the law.”

The military operation has come under bipartisan scrutiny from lawmakers after The Washington Post reported that that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed two survivors on the boat.

Trump vigorously defended Hegseth on Sunday. “Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” Trump said. “And I believe him.” Bradley is expected to provide a classified briefing Thursday to lawmakers overseeing the military.

The Latest:

Pentagon answers questions from influencers who agreed to new press access rules

Most of the Pentagon’s press corps turned in their access badges rather than submit to new rules restricting what they can report.

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson is holding Tuesday’s event with “invited press only” able to ask any questions. It’s also being broadcast on the Pentagon’s website, among other places.

The Pentagon’s last on-camera press briefing was in June after U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. This briefing comes amid increasing scrutiny of U.S. military strikes against alleged drug boats off Venezuela and reports that survivors of one attack were killed in what may have been a criminal act.

Several conservative news outlets and internet influencers agreed to the new press policy. Virtually all other media organizations declined to go along over concerns it will restrict them to reporting what Hegseth approves.

Trump urges voters in Tennessee to back Republican congressional candidate

The president on social media called GOP candidate Matt Van Epps “phenomenal” and a “MAGA Warrior” who “cherishes Christianity and Country Music.”

Trump has repeatedly criticized the Democratic candidate, state Rep. Aftyn Behn, for comments she made about Nashville during a 2020 podcast in which she said “I hate country music.”

Behn, who represents Tennessee’s biggest city, which is considered the home of country music, said the GOP is trying claim she hates Nashville, and she’s “not going to take the bait.”

“I’ve cried no less than 10 times in the Country Music Hall of Fame — the girl that just goes to the Ryman to hang out” she posted Nov. 20 in a Facebook video. “They’re panicking because we’re close to winning. Eyes on the prize, y’all. Let’s go.”

? Read more about Tuesday’s congressional election in Tennessee

Abortion opponents coming before the Supreme Court in challenge to state investigation

A faith-based pregnancy center will ask the justices on Tuesday to block a state investigation into whether it misled people to discourage abortions.

The facilities often known as “crisis pregnancy centers” have been on the rise since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority overturned abortion as a nationwide right in 2022. Most Republican-controlled states have been enforcing bans or restrictions on abortion, and some have steered tax dollars to the centers, which generally provide prenatal care and encourage women to carry pregnancies to term.

Many Democratic-aligned states have sought to protect abortion access and some have investigated whether pregnancy centers mislead women into thinking they offer abortions. New Jersey’s attorney general Matthew Platkin sent a subpoena to First Choice Women’s Resource Centers for donor information. First Choice argues the investigation is baseless and the demand for donor lists threatens its First Amendment rights.

Former State Department lawyer: The term for this is ‘murder’

Brian Finucane, now a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, said the U.S. is not in an armed conflict with drug cartels, and “the term for a premeditated killing outside of armed conflict is murder.

“Murder on the high seas is a crime,” he said. “Conspiracy to commit murder outside of the United States is a crime. And under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 118 makes murder an offense.”

The Pentagon’s own manual on the laws of war describes a scenario similar to the Sept. 2 boat strike when discussing when service members should refuse to comply with unlawful orders: “For example,” the manual says, “orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.”

Former Honduras president released from US prison after Trump pardon

Juan Orlando Hernández was serving a 45 year sentence for helping drug traffickers move some 400 tons of cocaine to the United States. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed Tuesday that he was released from a prison in Hazelton, West Virginia following a pardon from Trump.

“After almost four years of pain, of waiting and difficult challenges, my husband Juan Orlando Hernández RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump,” his wife Ana García posted Tuesday.

Asked why he did it, Trump said Sunday that people in Honduras told him Hernández had been falsely accused in “a Biden administration set-up.”

The pardon injected a new element into Honduras’ presidential election, possibly helping the candidate from Hernández’ right-wing National Party as the vote count proceeded Tuesday.

War College professor emeritus says killing airstrike survivors is ‘clearly unlawful’

Michael Schmitt, a former Air Force lawyer and professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College, said it doesn’t matter whether the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels, as the Trump administration asserts — he says such a fatal second strike would have violated both peacetime laws and those governing armed conflict.

“I can’t imagine anyone, no matter what the circumstance, believing it is appropriate to kill people who are clinging to a boat in the water,” said Schmitt.

“It has been clear for well over a century that you may not declare what’s called ‘no quarter’ — take no survivors, kill everyone,” he said.

US envoy will meet Putin in Moscow

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss an embryonic peace plan that Washington hopes can bring about an end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine. Coinciding with Witkoff’s trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his country’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

Doctor says Trump’s MRI scan had ‘perfectly normal’ results

Trump’s doctor, Sean Barbabella, said the president had MRI imaging on his heart and abdomen in October as part of a preventative screening for men his age, according to a memo released by the White House on Monday. Barbabella said Trump’s physical exam included “advanced imaging” that is “standard for an executive physical” in Trump’s age group.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025