In public, the White House says it is confronting Venezuela to curb drug trafficking. Behind the scenes, gaining access to the country’s vast oil reserves is a priority.
Oil drilling equipment in Cabimas, Venezuela. The country has about 17 percent of the world’s known oil reserves, nearly four times the amount in the United States.
In public, the White House says it is confronting Venezuela to curb drug trafficking. Behind the scenes, gaining access to the country’s vast oil reserves is a priority.
Oil drilling equipment in Cabimas, Venezuela. The country has about 17 percent of the world’s known oil reserves, nearly four times the amount in the United States.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed congressional leaders on Tuesday about the monthslong military campaign targeting people suspected of being drug traffickers at sea.
Adm. Frank M. Bradley, left, the top Special Operations commander, showed senior lawmakers a more complete video of the Sept. 2 strike and described his decision to order follow-up strikes during classified sessions on Thursday.
Congress is focusing on two deaths in one strike. But nine other people died in that same attack, and the United States has killed 87 in all. Were any of those killings legal?
Two survivors of the attack were said to struggle to cling to the boat before a second strike. After the briefing with lawmakers, the military disclosed a boat strike on Thursday that killed four people.
On orders from President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the U.S. military has attacked 21 boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, killing 83 people.
The suggestion that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or his officials targeted shipwrecked survivors has been galvanizing because that would apparently be a war crime even if one accepts Trump officials’ broader argument for the strike campaign.
Former officials said the C.I.A. diligently assessed those who partnered with its forces, like the man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington.
John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, said the man accused of shooting two National Guard members, an Afghan who had worked with U.S. forces during the war in his country, “should have never been allowed to come here.”
President Trump said days earlier that the United States could “very soon” expand its campaign of killing people at sea suspected of drug trafficking to attacking Venezuelan territory.
Another Guard member was in critical condition. The suspect is an Afghan man who once served in a paramilitary unit that worked with U.S. forces, officials said.
National Guard members gather outside the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner after the body of West Virginia National Guard soldier Sarah Beckstrom was transported to the facility on Nov. 27, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Venezuela doesn’t play a large role in the drug trade to the United States, so what is motivating the massive military buildup? Julian E. Barnes, who reports on intelligence and international security, discusses the issues with our senior writer Katrin Bennhold.
Lessons of the long war against terrorism appear to have been cast aside as the Trump administration attacks boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific that it says are carrying drugs.
The C.I.A. and an Afghan intelligence official said that the shooter had been part of an Afghan “partner force,” known as a Zero Unit, trained and supported by the agency in the southern province of Kandahar.
Officials called the shooting a targeted attack by a man from Afghanistan who entered the U.S. in 2021. President Trump vowed to redouble the government’s efforts to deport migrants.
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