Good afternoon, everyone. Credible reports have emerged indicating that U.S. military personnel likely violated international humanitarian law, specifically involving an alleged order by Pete Hegseth to fire on individuals in the southern Caribbean who were clinging to the side of a burning boat and posed no apparent threat to the United States.
Having spent years studying international law both as an undergraduate and in law school, I can say this with absolute clarity: if these reports are accurate, this conduct would align with what international law defines as denial of quarter, the unlawful refusal to accept the surrender of persons who are defenseless, incapacitated, or otherwise incapable of mounting a threat. In plain terms, it would constitute a war crime. And I break down exactly why.
Unsurprisingly, my work on this issue is making some people in powerful circles, including those near the White House, deeply uncomfortable. They would prefer I stay quiet. They would prefer the public never hear this analysis.
But I will not be silenced. And if you believe that exposing the truth matters, especially when it involves the highest stakes, then I am asking you to subscribe and support this work. Reaching millions with accurate, unflinching reporting is more important now than ever.
Here’s what you missed:
A Washington Post report described a Caribbean operation in which U.S. surveillance tracked a boat believed to be carrying drugs; according to two individuals with direct knowledge, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a spoken directive to “kill everybody,” leading SEAL Team 6 to strike the vessel and leave no survivors, even as two men clung to the burning, disabled boat.
Experts and officials say the suspected traffickers were not engaged in any armed conflict with the United States and posed no imminent threat; therefore, according to former Special Operations legal adviser Todd Huntley, killing them outside a lawful war context “amounts to murder.”
“Denial of quarter” refers to refusing to spare anyone’s life — including those unable to fight or attempting to surrender — and international humanitarian law explicitly prohibits such “no survivors” orders, treating them as a grave breach of the laws of war.
International humanitarian law forbids “denial of quarter,” a war crime under the Rome Statute, because it protects both active combatants from extermination threats and those hors de combat (wounded, sick, shipwrecked, or surrendering); past U.S. officials, including within the Obama administration, warned that targeted killing policies risked drifting toward a no-quarter posture, which would nullify the possibility of surrender and violate core IHL principles balancing military necessity with humanitarian restraint. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, however, and does not recognize the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over United States civilians.
Hegseth defended the first strike on Fox News, claiming he watched the live feed and that the boat’s occupants were members of the narcoterrorist group Tren de Aragua, but Pentagon officials have provided Congress with no specific identities of traffickers or leaders targeted; current and former military and DEA officials doubt that all 11 people on the first vessel were actually involved in drug trafficking.
Trump claimed he was canceling all executive actions not physically signed by President Biden by alleging the use of an “illegal” autopen, but the rationale is baseless—Biden wasn’t required to personally operate an autopen, and he cannot be charged with perjury because he made no statements under oath.
A 19-year-old Babson College student, Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, was detained at Boston Logan airport and deported to Honduras within two days despite a federal judge’s emergency order barring her removal; ICE claims she had a 2015 deportation order, but her attorney says she was unaware of it, believes the case was closed in 2017, and argues the government provided no proof—leaving her “heartbroken” and stranded with relatives abroad after her college plans were abruptly derailed.
Andriy Yermak, President Zelenskyy’s powerful chief of staff and lead negotiator in U.S.–Ukraine peace talks, resigned after Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau searched his home as part of a $100 million kickback investigation involving the state energy sector; the scandal threatens Ukraine’s political stability during sensitive negotiations, fuels Kremlin efforts to depict Kyiv as corrupt, and raises uncertainty about who will guide upcoming U.S.–Russia talks.
According to the Seattle Times, Indigenous actor Elaine Miles says ICE agents in Seattle detained her after claiming her federally recognized tribal ID “looked fake”; officers allegedly refused to verify it, attempted to seize her phone when she called the tribal office herself, then released her — an encounter critics call racial profiling and part of a broader pattern of Native Americans being wrongly swept up in immigration enforcement.
NBC reports that singer Ray J (Willie Ray Norwood Jr.) was arrested on Thanksgiving on suspicion of making criminal threats after LAPD responded to a domestic-violence and assault-with-a-deadly-weapon call; TMZ video appears to show him confronting Princess Love, allegedly brandishing a gun and issuing threats, though he denies pointing a weapon, and police recovered multiple firearms before releasing him on $50,000 bond.
See you in the morning.
— Aaron
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