US forces killed 14 people in strikes that destroyed four alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday, bringing the death toll from Washington’s controversial anti-narcotics campaign to at least 57.The United States began carrying out the strikes — which experts say amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers — in early September, and has now destroyed at least 14 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific.In three strikes carried out Monday in international waters, 14 “narco-terrorists” were killed and one survived, Hegseth said in a post on X — making it the deadliest day of the US campaign so far.”The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics,” he said.”We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them,” Hegseth said of drug traffickers.But Washington has yet to make public any evidence that its targets were smuggling narcotics or posed a threat to the United States.The Pentagon chief’s post included video of the strikes, the first of which targeted two stationary boats that appeared to be moored together, while the others hit vessels that were speeding across open water.Hegseth said that US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) immediately started searching for the sole survivor of the strikes, and that Mexican authorities “accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue.”- Galapagos base? -He did not specify what happened to the survivor or if the person was found, and SOUTHCOM referred a question on the survivor to Mexico.Mexico’s Navy said it was searching some 400 nautical miles (740 kilometers) southwest of the port of Acapulco.The announced drug interdiction operation has seen a major US military buildup around Latin America.The US has deployed seven US Navy warships as well as F-35 stealth warplanes, and ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group to the region, bringing a massive increase in firepower.The unusually large US military presence in the Caribbean is coming face to face with Hurricane Melissa, requiring some assets to be moved to safety.Washington has also carried out multiple shows of force with B-52 and B-1B bombers flying near Venezuela’s coast, the most recent of which took place on Monday.Regional tensions have flared as a result of the strikes and the military buildup, with Venezuela saying the United States is plotting to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, who has accused Washington of “fabricating a war.”Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa, a staunch US ally, meanwhile said Tuesday that his country could host a foreign military base in the famed Galapagos Islands that could be used to combat drug and fuel trafficking, as well as illegal fishing.Noboa did not specify which country could establish the base in Ecuador, a major hub for cocaine trafficking, but has talked of “various countries,” including the United States.

Ferocious winds and torrential rain tore into Jamaica Tuesday as Hurricane Melissa made landfall, the worst storm ever to strike the island nation and one of the most powerful hurricanes on record.The extremely violent Category 5 system was still crawling across the Caribbean, promising catastrophic floods and life-threatening conditions as maximum sustained winds reached a staggering 185 miles per hour (295 kilometers per hour).”This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation!” warned the US National Hurricane Center, urging residents to stay sheltered and as far from windows as possible, including during the brief calm offered by the storm’s eye.Melissa’s sustained wind speed was even more potent than most of recent history’s big storms, including 2005’s Katrina, which ravaged the US city of New Orleans.”For Jamaica it will be the storm of the century so far,” said Anne-Claire Fontan of the World Meteorological Organization.Seven deaths — three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic — have already been blamed on the deteriorating conditions, but officials were concerned that many people were ignoring pleas to get to safety.”Jamaica this is not the time to be brave,” local government minister Desmond McKenzie told a briefing.He lamented that many of the country’s approximately 880 shelters were still in large part empty.Surges in seawater combined with rainfall — which will likely be measured in feet, not inches — could trigger deadly floods and landslides.”Keep Safe Jamaica,” posted Olympian sprinter Usain Bolt, one of Jamaica’s most famous figures, on X.Ishack Wilmot, who was hunkered down with family in Kingston, told AFP they were safe and dry for now but had lost electricity and water overnight.”The winds are up and gusting,” he said. “Even though we are away from the eye, it’s still really intense and loud.”- Lumbering giant -The Jamaican Red Cross, which was distributing drinking water and hygiene kits ahead of infrastructure disruptions, said Melissa’s “slow nature” made the anxiety worse.The hurricane had quickened slightly but had been lumbering along at a human walking pace, meaning there it could linger over the tropical island renowned as a tourist destination.Usually, “you anticipate that maybe within four hours it would be gone… but Melissa is not looking like that,” Red Cross spokesperson Esther Pinnock told AFP.Melissa was set to strike nearby eastern end of Cuba late Tuesday after pummeling Jamaica.The mammoth storm appeared set to wreak devastation on the scale of some of the worst hurricanes in recent memory like Katrina, Maria or Harvey.Scientists say human-driven climate change has exacerbated massive storms and increased their frequency.Meteorologist Kerry Emanuel said global warming was causing more storms to rapidly intensify as Melissa did, raising the potential for enormous rains.”Water kills a lot more people than wind,” he told AFP.The last major hurricane to impact Jamaica was Beryl in July 2024 — an abnormally strong storm for the time of year.”Human-caused climate change is making all of the worst aspects of Hurricane Melissa even worse,” said climate scientist Daniel Gilford.

Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise,” billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has said in a long memo in which he argued that tackling global disease and poverty will help prepare the planet’s poorest for a warming world.The missive was seen as a pivot by the 70-year-old Microsoft co-founder, a major backer of green technologies through his Breakthrough Energy organization, and comes days ahead of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, whose leadership Gates praised for placing climate adaptation and human development high on the agenda.Gates acknowledged that critics may charge him with hypocrisy because of his significant carbon footprint or argue the memo was a “sneaky way of arguing that we shouldn’t take climate change seriously.”But he said that while climate change will have “serious” consequences, “people will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.”Gates’s memo outlined his “Three tough truths about climate”: climate change will not end civilization, limiting temperature is not the best measure of progress, and health and prosperity are the strongest defenses against climate destabilization.He also pointed to significant progress in cutting emissions to date and said he was optimistic future technology innovation would pave the way for more.While the planet is dangerously off course in meeting the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting long-term warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Gates argued that rather than fixating on the precise figure, the world should strengthen its resilience.For most of the world’s poor, he added, poverty and disease remain the more pressing problems, he added.”Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world’s poorest countries,” he said.That means, for example, less focus on limiting extremely hot and cold days, and more on ensuring “fewer people live in poverty and poor health so that extreme weather isn’t such a threat to them.”Looking ahead, Gates said a key climate strategy should be to reduce the so-called green premium — the cost difference between clean and dirty ways of doing something — to zero for materials such as cement, steel, and jet fuel.He compared the memo to one he wrote at Microsoft 30 years ago urging the company to put the internet at the heart of everything it did.Likewise, he said, the climate community needs a “strategic pivot” at COP30 and beyond.”Prioritize the things that have the greatest impact on human welfare,” he said.Critics said Gates’ essay lacked substance and posed a false choice between climate action and reducing human suffering.”Mr. Gates has set up a false frame that pits improving lives against science-based temperature and emissions goals. In fact, the two are intrinsically connected,” Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists told AFP.”The warming climate is directly undermining poverty eradication and human development goals around the world.”Hurricane Melissa, a climate change-fueled monster storm, is just the latest example of the deadly and costly consequences of climate change for nations already struggling with complex humanitarian challenges.”Transitioning away from fossil fuels will bring health and economic benefits while disrupting the “malign influence” of Big Oil on the future of the planet, she added.