Closing summary
This concludes out live coverage of the second Trump administration for the wek, but we will be back on Monday. Here are the latest developments:
A CDC advisory panel voted to abandon the decades-old recommendation that all babies get vaccinated against hepatitis B within the first 24 hours of life, in a major win for health secretary and vaccine-skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr.
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, video shown to senators showed.
The US admiral who directed an attack on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean on 2 September told lawmakers this week that the small boat destroyed by the US military is a series of strikes was moving narcotics to a larger vessel bound for the South American nation of Suriname, not the United States, two sources with direct knowledge of the testimony told CNN.
New video of a US coast guard mission to disable a boat used by suspected drug smugglers, and arrest the suspects at sea, raises doubt about why lethal strikes on similar boats by the Pentagon, of questionable legality, are even necessary.
The man charged with planting two pipe bombs near the Democratic and Republican party headquarters the night before the January 6 attack on the US Capitol told the FBI he believed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
Adelita Grijalva, Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, said she was pepper-sprayed by an “aggressive” federal agent during an ICE raid outside a Mexican restaurant in Tucson. Her office released video to substantiate the claim.
The White House intensified its online spat with Sabrina Carpenter on Friday by posting video of the pop star that had been altered to make it seem as if she told a Saturday Night Live cast member of Cuban/Dominican descent, Marcello Hernández, that she was going to arrest him for being “too illegal”. In the original clip, Carpenter said she had to arrest someone for “being too hot”.
US government video of drug smugglers being arrested by coast guard raises questions about need for lethal strikes by military
As the Pentagon presses ahead with a campaign of lethal strikes on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, the US coast guard released video on Friday, of US forces disabling a boat with gunfire and arresting suspected smugglers, which suggests that lethal strikes might be unnecessary.
According to a report from Fox News, the coast guard video posted online Friday shows a sniper from the service’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron “utilizing disabling fire against a go-fast vessel as it completes a drug interdiction mission for Operation Pacific Viper.” The video also appears to show coast guard officers boarding the disabled boat and detaining the crew.
Over 20,000 pounds of cocaine seized by the crew of USCGC Cutter Munro — the largest at-sea interdiction in 18+ years.
— U.S. Coast Guard (@USCG) December 5, 2025
Through #OperationPacificViper, @USCG has accelerated counter-narcotics operations across the Eastern Pacific and delivered historic results in the fight… pic.twitter.com/eQkCHeZDzW
According to homeland security, over 20,000 pounds of cocaine was seized in the mission which took place in the eastern Pacific, the same area where the Pentagon conducted a lethal strike this week, killing four suspected drug smugglers.
The fact that the coast guard is able to stop smugglers, and arrest them, raises questions about why the Pentagon’s legal strikes, which might be illegal, are necessary.
An earlier coast guard video, shared by homeland security in September, similarly showed the arrest of suspected traffickers with 5,500 pounds of cocaine northeast of the Galápagos Islands on 10 September, at the same time that the Pentagon was conducting a series of lethal strikes in the Caribbean.
CARTEL CRACKDOWN.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) September 18, 2025
Operation Pacific Viper continues @USCG’s efforts to protect the Homeland, counter narco-terrorism and disrupt the Transnational Criminal Organizations and cartels seeking to produce and traffic illicit drugs into the United States. pic.twitter.com/OpI01rTOuh
Likewise, in May, another coast guard video shared online showed a small-boat crew interdicting a suspected drug-smuggling vessel while on patrol the eastern Pacific on 17 April. In that operation too, arrests were made, but no missiles were launched and the suspects were not killed.
Updated
