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KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Hurricane Melissa intensified to Category 5 strength Monday as it neared Jamaica with up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) of rain and a life-threatening storm surge. Melissa is forecast to make landfall on the island Tuesday and cross Cuba and the Bahamas through Wednesday. Melissa was centered about 130 miles (205 kilometers) south-southwest of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 315 miles (505 kilometers) south-southwest of Guantánamo, Cuba, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The hurricane was expected to make another landfall later Tuesday in eastern Cuba. A hurricane warning was in effect for Granma, Santiago...

The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, in the latest escalation and buildup of military forces in the region, the Pentagon announced Friday.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to U.S. Southern Command to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a social media post.Deploying an aircraft carrier is a major escalation of military power in a region that has already seen an...

Donald Trump has ordered the world's largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean in a major escalation in his war on narco-terrorists from Venezuela. USS Gerald R. Ford is joining the deployment of US Southern Command, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on Friday. The 1,090-ft vessel — which can carry more than 75 warplanes — moves as part of a carrier strike group that includes a cruiser, three destroyers and nine aircraft squadrons. It will 'will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle' the cartels, Parnell said in a statement. The 100,000-ton warship joins...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered an aircraft carrier strike group currently stationed in Europe to the Caribbean region amid a massive buildup of US military forces in the region. The Gerald R. Ford strike group and its associated air wing are being sent to “dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations and counter narco-terrorism,” Pentagon Press Secretary Sean Parnell said in a statement posted on X. The Ford group docked near the harbor of Split, Croatia on October 21. That would leave the ships more than 5,000 miles from the Caribbean, meaning it would take days for the group to be in...

In recent hours, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) sources have reported a series of unprecedented flights carried out by U.S. Air Force (USAF) B-1B Lancer strategic bombers over the Caribbean — a region far from their usual deployment areas in Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific. The aircraft, identified by the callsigns “BAT-21” and “BAT-22,” took off from the state of Florida accompanied by three KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft (“MAINE-11,” “MAINE-12,” and “MAINE-13”), following a flight path that crossed Bahamian airspace heading south. Although the specific purpose of the exercise or operation has not been confirmed, such flights are typically...

A U.S. military drone strike in the Caribbean on a drug smuggling vessel Thursday left two to three survivors, a U.S. official tells Fox News. The partially submerged vessel, described by the source as "big," was operating in international waters when it was hit. The U.S. military launched search and rescue assets, including a rescue helicopter, but it is not clear if any of the survivors were rescued, the official said. The extent of their injuries was not immediately known, the official added. As Reuters first reported, Thursday's incident marks the first known instance of survivors since U.S. forces began...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday the Department of Defense is forming a new counternarcotics joint task force in order to “crush” drug cartels in the Caribbean Sea. Hegseth said the new task force, established at the direction of President Trump, will operate in the U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) area of responsibility. “At the President’s direction, the Department of War is establishing a new counter-narcotics Joint Task Force in the @SOUTHCOM area of responsibility to crush the cartels, stop the poison and keep America safe,” Hegseth said in a post on the social platform X. “The message is clear: if...

Thanks to oil, Venezuela was once the wealthiest country in the region — before becoming the continent’s poorest, ravaged by corruption and feckless economic policy. And amid the economic decline, high-ranking government officials became conspicuously wealthy. But how? According to U.S. indictments, former government officials, and regional experts, officials linked to the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and members of Maduro’s government built a massive drug syndicate — while most of the country increasingly struggled to find food to eat, or medicine to care for the sick. “Venezuela was a narco state several years ago, but it has become darker and...

The rich and famous appeared to have few qualms about palling around with Jeffrey Epstein following the disgraced financier’s 13-month prison stay for soliciting sex from an underage girl, with boldface names appearing on his schedule such as Chris Rock, David Blaine, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon, and the former CEO of one of Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casinos. That’s according to a tranche of emails obtained by The Daily Beast, which reveal others who showed up on Epstein’s dance card as having included music industry titan Tommy Mottola, Wendi Murdoch, Russian supermodel Irina Shayk, late comedian...

WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Friday that the US military carried out a third strike against alleged drug traffickers affiliated with a terror organization — killing “3 male narcoterrorists.” “On my Orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump posted on Truth Social. The president did not say which terror group was targeted or which nation the vessel originated from.

President Donald Trump confirmed that the U.S. military carried out another strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug vessel, following his recent announcement that we would wage war against narco-terrorists "poisoning" our citizens.In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump said that, "On my Orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.""Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage en route to poison Americans," he added. READ MORE:Trump Administration Just Put a Massive...

Venezuela on Friday accused the United States of waging an “undeclared war” in the Caribbean and called for a UN investigation of American strikes that killed over a dozen alleged drug traffickers on boats in recent weeks. Washington has deployed warships to international waters off Venezuela’s coast, backed by F-35 fighters sent to Puerto Rico in what it calls an anti-drug operation. “It is an undeclared war, and you can already see how people, whether or not they are drug traffickers, have been executed in the Caribbean Sea. Executed without the right to a defence,” Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez...

President Donald Trump announced Monday that U.S. military forces carried out a second strike against suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers, escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas amid a broader crackdown on the international drug trade. In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics … The Strike resulted in 3 male terrorists killed in action. No U.S. Forces...

US forces conduct another airstrike targeting a reported smuggling vessel in the southern Caribbean

A man fishing in waters off the coast of Costa Rica reeled in an unusual catch -- the first documented orange shark. Garvin Watson reeled in the 6-foot, 6-inch nurse shark while casting his line near Tortuguero National Park in August 2024. "[It was] incredible," Watson told USA Today. "We couldn't believe what we had in front of us, an orange shark that looked like an alien." Watson, owner of the Parismina Domus Dei Hotel, shared photos of his catch on the business' Facebook page.

There probably isn't a more useful policy aim for the U.S. than taking out Venezuela's socialist regime. President Trump has hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan illegal aliens, including many criminals who have wrought mayhem, to deported and sending back to a democracy will be a lot easier. Venezuela's regime has served as a useful catspaw to multiple anti-American dictators, including China's oligarchs, the Russian regime, and the Iranian mullahs to keep the U.S. in check, propping up the otherwise bankrupt regime in power to harass the U.S. They've threatened and attempted to destabilize their neighbors. And close to President Trump's...

A strike carried out by US forces on a boat in the Caribbean Sea - which the White House says killed 11 drug traffickers - may have violated international human rights and maritime law, legal experts have told BBC Verify.President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that US forces destroyed a vessel which he said had departed from Venezuela. He said the boat was operated by the Tren de Aragua cartel and was carrying drugs bound for the US.US defence officials have so far declined to offer details on the strike, footage of which Trump shared on Truth Social, including what...

Drone footage of US forces conducting a lethal strike on a reported smuggling vessel in the Southern Caribbean earlier today The U.S. military, ordered by Trump, carried out a strike in international waters destroying a Venezuela drug boat with 11 Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists aboard

BREAKING: President Donald Trump says U.S. shot out a "drug-carrying boat" coming from Venezuela, says more details coming soon.pic.twitter.com/nBGLjiDaQv— AZ Intel (@AZ_Intel_) September 2, 2025

President Donald Trump released a video Tuesday that showed the U.S.'s lethal strike on a vessel involved in the drug trade that was coming out of Venezuela. In the same Truth Social post, the president revealed that 11 Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists were killed in the attack. He initially announced the strike from the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon. 'You'll see that we just, over the last few minutes literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat,' Trump told reporters. The president said he had just been briefed on the matter by the chairman...