Good morning, everyone. It’s the weekend—but the news cycle hasn’t slowed for a moment. This morning, I’m tracking rapidly escalating pressure on Pete Hegseth, who is now facing bipartisan calls to resign over the crisis unfolding in the Southern Caribbean. Several sources indicate his removal may be closer than previously believed. At the same time, Donald Trump is lashing out at Fox News and has once again personally targeted a female reporter—this time Kaitlan Collins.
Before I continue: if you’re able, please consider subscribing. This morning, as I sat with my coffee thinking back on the past 11 months, I found myself genuinely overwhelmed by what we’ve built together. I’m grateful—and I’m proud.
Subscribe
To everyone who reads every day—thank you. To everyone who believes in this mission and believes in my work—thank you. And to every subscriber who makes this possible—thank you.
Your support is what keeps this reporting alive. It fuels the stories that powerful institutions would prefer you never see, and it gives us the resources to push forward with the major investigations we’re preparing for the year ahead.
Here’s what you missed:
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces intense bipartisan pressure to resign over a Caribbean campaign of extrajudicial boat strikes that killed at least 87 people, including a follow up strike on visible survivors, with lawmakers, experts and watchdogs calling his leadership reckless, questioning the legality and strategic logic of the operations and criticizing shifting explanations about who ordered the attacks.
CNN reports that Adm. Frank Bradley told lawmakers the September 2 boat hit in the controversial double tap strike had been planning to rendezvous with a larger vessel bound for Suriname rather than the United States and that although US intelligence indicated the shipment was likely destined for European rather than US markets he argued the drugs might still reach the US which he said justified lethal action even as the boat had already turned around after spotting US aircraft.
The Atlantic reports that Trump’s maritime campaign of lethal strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats is likely to worsen the cartel problem because the militarized approach has killed more than 80 people without affecting the major Mexican and Colombian cartels, is straining key regional alliances, is reducing intelligence flows essential to counter-drug work and appears intertwined with Trump’s long-standing desire to weaken Venezuela’s Maduro government rather than a strategy that would meaningfully disrupt fentanyl or cocaine routes into the United States.
A separate inspector general report found Hegseth shared classified Yemen strike details on his personal Signal app, violated record keeping rules and contributed to chaotic internal management at the Pentagon, yet Trump continues to defend him and the Republican controlled Senate makes meaningful consequences unlikely.
The National Park Service will eliminate free entry on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth in 2026 while adding “patriotic fee-free days” including Donald Trump’s birthday, part of an executive order directing the agency to reduce DEI initiatives and prioritize “America-first” policies such as a new $100 surcharge on many foreign visitors, with free days now limited to US citizens and residents and officials saying the changes ensure taxpayers receive priority access while international tourists cover more of the system’s costs.
Trump woke up furious at Fox News for allowing Pete Schiff a “known Trump hater” to appear on Fox & Friends.
Despite claiming that he is solving the affordability crisis, NBC News reports growing Republican anxiety that the party is mishandling voters’ affordability concerns as high prices persist and Trump dismisses the issue as a “hoax,” with lawmakers and strategists warning that poor messaging, limited policy results, internal disagreements and Trump’s low approval rating could jeopardize their congressional majorities in the midterms, even as leaders urge patience and promise future economic relief that many members doubt voters will feel in time.
Trump lashed out at CNN and once again attacked a female reporter, this time Kaitlan Collins (he spelled her name wrong), calling her “stupid and nasty.”
Arizona Representative Adelita Grijalva says she was pepper sprayed during a protest in Tucson that confronted an ICE raid, though DHS denies she was directly targeted, while videos show chaotic clashes between agents and demonstrators, local officials condemn the use of force, and Arizona Democrats rally around Grijalva who argues that if agents treat a member of Congress this way the public should worry about how they treat vulnerable community members.
The Guardian has confirmed that a last minute seed ban added to the US spending bill will sharply restrict cannabis seed sales by banning any viable seed from a plant that could exceed 0.3 percent total THC, reversing years of permissive policy and prompting growers, geneticists and industry experts to warn that the rule is unworkable because seed legality cannot be determined before plants mature and will destroy the diverse US cannabis genetics market.
According to the New York Times, ICE arrested visiting Harvard law professor Carlos Portugal Gouvea after the State Department revoked his visa following an incident in which he fired a pellet gun near a synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur, an event the Trump administration labeled antisemitic even though local police and the synagogue said there was no evidence of antisemitic intent, and Gouvea, who said he was shooting at rats.
The Guardian reports that vaccine experts are alarmed after a Trump-appointed ACIP panel dominated by longtime anti-vaccine activists voted to weaken the hepatitis B recommendation, a move they say will confuse families, undermine access, erode trust in the entire childhood vaccine schedule and endanger vulnerable children, while panel members promoted debunked misinformation about vaccine safety amid falling vaccination rates and a worsening US measles outbreak.
A former senior DEA official, Paul Campo, was indicted on charges that he and associate Robert Sensi conspired to traffic cocaine and launder millions for the CJNG cartel by converting cash to cryptocurrency, planning real estate schemes and attempting to purchase 220 kilograms of cocaine from what they believed was a cartel partner but was actually a government source.
A federal judge condemned the Trump administration for “blatant lawlessness” after it illegally deported Faustino Pablo Pablo to Guatemala despite an immigration court’s finding that he faced a high risk of torture there, ordering the government to bring him back by December 12 and noting this case mirrors a series of other unlawful deportations in which the administration removed people even when court orders or settlements barred it, underscoring a pattern of defying judicial protections for migrants.
