Donald Trump has reportedly given a secret directive to the Pentagon to use the military to target Latin-American drug cartels that his administration has designated terrorist organisations.
The order “provides an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels”, according to the New York Times, which first reported the directive, citing people familiar with the matter. A US official later confirmed the signing of the directive but said military action did not appear imminent and it was unclear exactly what type of operations they would carry out.
The order has forced Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum to calm fears in her country of a US invasion. The directive potentially opens the door for unilateral American military assaults across Latin America, an unprecedented escalation of tactics by a US administration in the region.
Trump has made going after Latin American drug-trafficking organizations a priority of his administration: in February, the state department designated seven organized crime groups as foreign terrorist organizations, including five powerful cartels in Mexico.
Meanwhile, Trump is planning a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday next week to discuss the war in Ukraine, and said that ending the conflict would have to involve “some swapping of territories”.
Mexico rejects US ‘invasion’ as Trump orders military to target cartels
President Sheinbaum has rejected the idea that the US might invade Mexico after reports of Trump’s secret directive to the military.
“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with their military,” she said during a daily news conference on Friday. “We cooperate, we collaborate, but there will be no invasion. It’s off the table, absolutely off the table.”
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Trump to meet Putin to discuss war in Ukraine
Trump has said he will meet with Putin to discuss the war on Friday next week in Alaska, saying that an end to the three-and-a-half-year war would have to involve “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” Ukraine and Russia.
Trump made ending the war in Ukraine part of his election campaign and boasted that he would be able to end the conflict in his first 24 hours in office. In more than six months, however, he has failed to prove he has any leverage with his Russian counterpart, who has ignored Trump’s deadlines and continued to strike Ukraine.
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Trump ambassador to Israel taunts British PM
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has launched an undiplomatic attack on Keir Starmer, comparing Israel’s war in Gaza to the allied bombing of Dresden after the British prime minister criticized the Israeli security cabinet’s decision to expand the war in Gaza.
“So Israel is expected to surrender to Hamas & feed them even though Israeli hostages are being starved?” Huckabee wrote on social media in response to a post by the British prime minister calling for an immediate ceasefire and lamenting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as well as the fate of the remaining Israeli hostages being held by Hamas.
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Texas house again fails to meet quorum
The Texas House of Representatives reconvened without the necessary number of lawmakers to conduct business on Friday, the deadline set by top state Republicans before the Democrats who have left for blue states face arrest or removal from office.
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No contempt for Trump officials over deportations
An appeals court on Friday tossed out a judge’s finding of contempt against the Trump administration in a case over the notorious deportations of Venezuelans from the US to an El Salvador prison without due process.
The decision from a divided three-judge panel based in the nation’s capital vacates a finding from US district judge James Boasberg.
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Trump demands $1bn from UCLA to restore federal funding
The Trump administration is seeking a $1bn settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles, a White House official said Friday. The administration suspended $584m in federal research funding over allegations of civil rights violations related to antisemitism and affirmative action following protests on campus in 2024.
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Kristi Noem responds to South Park episode
South Park’s recent satirical depiction of Kristi Noem as having undergone a defective cosmetic procedure and shooting dogs has rankled the US homeland security secretary, she said in a new interview.
“It’s so lazy to just constantly make fun of women for how they look,” Noem remarked on Thursday’s episode of the Glenn Beck Program podcast – a little more than a year after her disclosure in a memoir that she shot and killed her family’s dog on a farm.
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What else happened today:
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Donald Trump ordered federal officers to start patrolling Washington DC, launching what the White House is calling a seven-day crackdown on “violent crime”.
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The justice department has issued two subpoenas to Letitia James, the New York attorney general who Trump has repeatedly criticized, according to reports.
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The price of gold futures soared to a record high after it emerged that the US would put tariffs on imports of 1kg bars, in a further trade blow to Switzerland.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 7 August 2025.
