Pentagon announces another boat strike amid heightened scrutiny

Hello and thank you for joining us on the US politics live blog.

The US military conducted another deadly strike on a boat suspected of carrying illegal narcotics on Thursday, the Pentagon said, killing four men in the eastern Pacific as questions continue to mount over the legality such attacks.

US navy admiral Frank Bradley and the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Dan Caine, had appeared on Thursday before the House and Senate’s armed services and intelligence committees for a closed briefing about a particular attack on 2 September that has come under scrutiny over whether the military had been ordered to issue a second strike upon survivors after an earlier attack.

While both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Congress said that the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, had not ordered the military to kill surviving members of the 2 September attack, they clashed over whether the double strike was appropriate – particularly after video of the incident was played during Thursday’s closed briefing.

“What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service,” Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House armed services committee, said after exiting the meeting. However, he said that Bradley had “confirmed that there had not been a ‘kill them all’ order, and there was not an order to grant no quarter”.

Hegseth, who is also in hot water after a report by the Pentagon’s inspector general concluded that he had violated departmental policies when he shared secret information in a Signal messaging chat in March, has sought to downplay his own involvement in the 2 September attack. But the US southern command in Florida was clear in its social media post announcing the latest overnight strike that it had come “at the direction” of Hegseth.

In other developments:

The supreme court ruled on Thursday to allow Texas to use a redrawn that adds as many as five Republican-friendly congressional districts. Texas had redrawn its congressional map this summer as part of an effort that Donald Trump initiated to protect Republicans’ slim majority in the House ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

A federal vaccine advisory panel is expected to vote on Friday whether to change the longstanding recommendation that all newborns be immunized against hepatitis B. The panel advises the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A grand jury declined to indict Letitia James on Thursday, less than two weeks after judge ruled similar case against New York attorney general unlawful. James has been one of Trump’s top political foes ever since she successfully brought a fraud lawsuit against him in New York.

A man was arrested for planting pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic party headquarters on the eve of the January 6 insurrection.

A federal appeals court sided with the Trump administration on Thursday and paused a lower court’s order to end the administration’s deployment of national guard troops in Washington DC.

Updated at 08.21 EST

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Ilhan Omar says Trump made racist anti-Somali tirade because he ‘knows he is failing’

Richard Luscombe

Ilhan Omar, the Somali-born Minnesota congresswoman, has said Donald Trump is lashing out at her and her community with bigotry because he “knows he is failing”.

The US president dismissed Somali Americans earlier this week as “garbage” in a racist rant.

Omar, a Democrat, made the observation in a personal essay published by the New York Times (paywall) praising the resilience of Somali Americans and condemning the Trump administration for its promise to send federal agents to Minneapolis and elsewhere in her state for immigration enforcement raids.

“The president knows he is failing, and so he is reverting to what he knows best: trying to divert attention by stoking bigotry,” she wrote.

Omar pointed out that some of her Somali constituents voted for Trump. She suggested that the president’s racial animosity was ingrained, and resurgent now because of a failed domestic policy agenda.

While the president wastes his time attacking my community, my state, my governor and me, the promises of economic prosperity he made in his run for president last year have not come to fruition.

Ilhan Omar has been a constant target of Republicans since she arrived in Congress in 2019. Photograph: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

Trump delivered a second tirade against Somalis in general, and Omar in particular, following a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The congresswoman, who is a US citizen, “should be thrown the hell out of our country”, the president said. Using an inaccurate term for Somalis, he added: “Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain.”

Omar, 43, has been a constant target of Trump and Republicans since arriving Congress in 2019 as one of the first two Muslim women in the chamber. She asserted in her essay that Somali Americans remain resilient against the onslaught of attacks from the White House. But she added:

I am deeply worried about the ramifications of these tirades … What keeps me up at night is that people who share the identities I hold – Black, Somali, hijabi, immigrant – will suffer the consequences of [Trump’s] words.

Omar’s essay concluded:

We will not let Mr Trump intimidate or debilitate us. We are not afraid. After all, Minnesotans not only welcome refugees, they also sent one to Congress.

Updated at 09.54 EST

In other news, vice-president JD Vance is insisting that, amid a tonne of speculation online about missing rings and such, his marriage is just fine – in fact, it’s “as strong as it’s ever been”.

Asked whether he was frustrated by tabloid-style headlines about his wife Usha being spotted without her wedding ring on a number of occasions, Vance said in an interview with NBC News yesterday: “I think that we kind of get a kick out of it.” He went on:

With anything in life, you take the good with the bad. You accept that there are some sacrifices and there are some very good things that come along with it, too. But our marriage is as strong as it’s ever been, and I think Usha’s really taken to it, and it’s been kind of cool to see how she’s developed and evolved in this new role.

Last month, a spokesperson for the second lady explained to outlets that ran stories, including the Daily Mail and People, that she is “a mother of three young children, who does a lot of dishes, gives lots of baths, and forgets her ring sometimes”.

In his interview yesterday, the vice-president added:

There are certainly ways in which it’s difficult on the family. I’m not going to pretend that it isn’t. But it’s the sacrifice that we signed up for.

JD and Usha Vance in the Rose Garden of the White House on 14 October. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/ReutersShare

Updated at 09.59 EST

Elsewhere, in a bid to revitalize his presidency amid sinking approval ratings, Donald Trump “next week will kick off a year of heavy stateside travel focused on selling his economic agenda ahead of the midterms”, Axios reports, with the cost of living set to be the defining issue for those elections.

Americans are deeply unhappy with a wide array of things under the second Trump administration, with the president accused of not doing enough to address high prices, and also under fire for things like his handling of the Epstein files and his so-called war on “narco-terrorists” in the Caribbean. There is also criticism that he’s prioritized foreign affairs and neglected the pocketbook issues that helped him get re-elected.

With Republicans in danger of losing control of the House next November, Trump will kick off his new push in the battleground of northern Pennsylvania. Axios reports that he will “aggressively push back against criticism over the cost of everyday essentials – indeed an issue that helped propel him to victory over Kamala Harris last year”. Recent heavy losses for the party in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City have all focused on affordability.

Trump has been growing visibly irritated with criticism of his economic policies, repeatedly insisting that everything is getting cheaper and calling the affordability issue a “hoax” and “con job” he blames on Democrats. He’s also floated a number of policies (which have been criticized as being economically unsound) including $2,000 tariff rebate checks and 50-year mortgages.

According to Axios, after Pennsylvania, Trump may hold another event this month with additional ones expected after New Year’s Day.

Many Americans are unhappy that Donald Trump is not doing enough to address the high cost of living. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/APShare

Updated at 09.46 EST

One of the arguments defense officials have been quietly pushing in response to heavy criticism of the killing of the two survivors in a second strike on 2 September, is that they were legitimate targets because they appeared to be radioing for help or backup.

But Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the GOP chair of the Senate intelligence committee, admitted to CNN this morning that he didn’t see evidence of the men on the boat trying to use a radio to call for help.

He went on to defend the second strike, saying:

They were clearly not incapacitated. They were not distressed.

They were trying to get the boat back up and to continue their mission of spreading these drugs all across America.

That’s what they were doing and that’s why Admiral Bradley ordered the second strike.

Per my last post, others who saw the video said the individuals were in clear distress and clung to the wreckage for more than an hour.

CNN reported yesterday that Bradley told lawmakers during congressional briefings that the two men killed in the strikes did not appear to have radio or other communications devices, citing sources with direct knowledge of his briefings.

Updated at 09.08 EST

US airstrike survivors clung to boat wreckage for an hour before second deadly attack, video shows

Joseph Gedeon and Chris Stein in Washington and agencies

Two men who survived a US airstrike on a suspected drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean clung to the wreckage for an hour before they were killed in a second attack, according a video of the episode shown to senators in Washington.

The men were shirtless, unarmed and carried no visible radio or other communications equipment. They also appeared to have no idea what had just hit them, or that the US military was weighing whether to finish them off, two sources familiar with the recording told Reuters.

The pair desperately tried to turn a severed section of the hull upright before they died. “The video follows them for about an hour as they tried to flip the boat back over. They couldn’t do it,” one source said.

The video of the attack on 2 September was seen by senators behind closed doors on Thursday amid growing concern that the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, and other officials who ordered the attack may have committed a war crime.

A social media post by Donald Trump shows a boat carrying alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean in September. Photograph: US President Donald Trump’s TRUTH Social account/AFP/Getty Images

Jim Himes, a Democratic congressman who saw the video on Thursday, described it as “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service”.

You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel.

Describing those on board as “bad guys” who “were not in the position to continue their mission in any way”, Himes added:

Any American who sees the video that I saw will see the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors.

Here’s the full report:

ShareDonald Trump to speak at World Cup final draw ceremony

Donald Trump will be speaking at today’s World Cup final draw ceremony at the Kennedy Center, Politico reports, where he will also be receiving Fifa’s inaugural peace prize.

The Fifa World Cup trophy outside the White House on 2 December. Photograph: Michael Regan/FIFA/Getty Images

Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mexican president, and Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, are also expected to attend the ball-draw ceremony that will determine which countries will face off in the first group stage matches – but only Trump will be receiving the peace prize, according to Politico.

Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa and a Trump ally, announced the creation of what some are calling football’s version of the Nobel peace prize – just weeks after the Trump was snubbed for the real thing.

My colleagues are running a dedicated live blog on the ceremony here:

Updated at 08.32 EST