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The United States has “only just begun” targeting alleged drug-trafficking boats, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted Tuesday, despite a growing outcry over strikes that critics say amount to extrajudicial killings.Hegseth and President Donald Trump’s administration have come under fire particularly over an incident in which US forces launched a follow-up strike on the wreckage of a vessel that had already been hit, reportedly killing two survivors.Both the White House and Pentagon have sought to distance Hegseth from that decision — which some US lawmakers have said could be a war crime — instead pinning the blame on the admiral who directly oversaw the operation.”We’ve only just begun striking narco boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, because they’ve been poisoning the American people,” Hegseth said during a Tuesday cabinet meeting.”We’ve had a bit of a pause because it’s hard to find boats to strike right now — which is the entire point, right? Deterrence has to matter,” Hegseth said.The Pentagon chief said he watched the first strike but “did not personally see survivors,” while also defending the second attack, saying it was the “correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat.”Earlier on Tuesday, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson insisted that the strikes were legal.The operations “are lawful under both US and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict,” she told a news conference.- Hegseth backs follow-on strikes -Wilson also repeated the White House’s assertion that Admiral Frank Bradley — who now leads US Special Operations Command — made “the decision to re-strike the narco-terrorist vessel,” saying the senior Navy officer was “operating under clear and long-standing authorities to ensure the boat was destroyed.””Any follow-on strikes like those which were directed by Admiral Bradley, the secretary 100 percent agrees with,” she added.Wilson spoke to a friendly audience, with dozens of journalists who refused to sign a new restrictive Pentagon media policy earlier in the year barred from the event.Trump’s administration insists it is effectively at war with alleged “narco-terrorists” and began carrying out strikes in early September on vessels it says were transporting drugs — a campaign that has so far left more than 80 dead.The follow-up strike that killed survivors took place on September 2 and would appear to run afoul of the Pentagon’s own Law of War Manual, which states that “orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.”Democratic senators have slammed the September 2 strikes, with Jacky Rosen and Chris Van Hollen saying the incident may be a war crime, and Chris Murphy accusing Hegseth of “passing the buck.”Trump has deployed the world’s biggest aircraft and an array of other military assets to the Caribbean, insisting they are there for counter-narcotics operations.Regional tensions have flared as a result of the strikes and the military buildup, with Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro accusing Washington of using drug trafficking as a pretext for “imposing regime change” in Caracas.Maduro, whose re-election last year was rejected by Washington as fraudulent, insists there is no drug cultivation in Venezuela, which he says is used as a trafficking route for Colombian cocaine against its will.

The United States will scale back certain drug-safety testing requirements on monkeys, federal regulators said Tuesday, marking the latest step by President Donald Trump’s administration to limit the use of animals in research.Under new draft guidance from the Food and Drug Administration, computer models, lab-grown mini-organs, and human studies will replace the use of non-human primates in testing monoclonal antibodies — lab-engineered proteins used to treat cancers, autoimmune conditions and other diseases.”We are delivering on our roadmap commitment to eliminate animal testing requirements in drug evaluation and our promise to accelerate cures and meaningful treatments for Americans,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a statement.The statement added that typical nonclinical programs involving monoclonal antibodies could include more than 100 macaque monkeys — apes are no longer used in any invasive research in the US — yet often do not yield human-approved treatments.The move was welcomed by animal-advocacy groups.Zaher Nahle, a former animal researcher who is now the senior scientific advisor for nonprofit Center for a Humane Economy, told AFP the move was an “important step.””These primates are not reliable in terms of predicting the toxicity, so you can get at least equal or better results in terms of your accuracy in predicting toxicology using other approaches,” he added.What’s more, he noted, studies show that more than 90 percent of drugs deemed safe and effective in animals fail to win approval for human use.The FDA’s announcement follows a report in the journal Science last month that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would close its primate labs.It “moves us one step closer to wiping out the federal government’s wasteful monkey business,” Justin Goodman of White Coat Waste Project told AFP.But the National Institutes of Health — the country’s primary biomedical research agency — remains a notable “outlier,” he added. According to public data, 7,700 primates are confined in federal government labs and breeding facilities, of which 6,700 are at NIH.Advocates of animal research have pushed back.”Poorly planned transitions — including premature study termination — can place animals at serious risk and may undermine years of scientific investment intended to strengthen public health preparedness and advance lifesaving medical progress,” advocacy group Americans for Medical Progress said after the CDC news was reported.Proponents of animal testing say the research has been indispensable for major medical advances, including vaccines for diphtheria, yellow fever, measles and Covid-19.Critics counter that decades-old laws have created regulatory lock-in, that publication incentives reward animal studies in top journals, and that a lucrative “animal-industrial complex” has helped entrench the status quo.

Amazon Web Services launched its in-house-built Trainium3 AI chip on Tuesday, marking a significant push to compete with Nvidia in the lucrative market for artificial intelligence computing power.The move intensifies competition in the AI chip market, where Nvidia currently dominates with an estimated 80- to 90-percent market share for products used in training large language models that power the likes of ChatGPT.Google last week caused tremors in the industry when it was reported that Facebook-parent Meta would employ Google AI chips in data centers, signaling new competition for Nvidia, currently the world’s most valuable company and a bellwether for the AI investment frenzy.This followed the release of Google’s latest AI model last month that was trained using the company’s own in-house chips, not Nvidia’s.AWS, which will make the technology available to its cloud computing clients, said its new chip is lower cost than rivals and delivers over four times the computing performance of its predecessor while using 40 percent less energy.”Trainium3 offers the industry’s best price performance for large scale AI training and inference,” AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in Las Vegas. Inference is the execution phase of AI, where the model stops scouring the internet for training and starts performing tasks in real-world scenarios.Energy consumption is one of the major concerns about the AI revolution, with major tech companies having to scale back or pause their net-zero emissions commitments as they race to keep up on the technology.AWS said its chip can reduce the cost of training and operating AI models by up to 50 percent compared with systems that use equivalent graphics processing units, or GPUs, mainly from Nvidia.”Training cutting-edge models now requires infrastructure investments that only a handful of organizations can afford,” AWS said, positioning Trainium3 as a way to democratize access to high-powered AI computing.AWS said several companies are already using the technology, including Anthropic, maker of the Claude AI assistant and a competitor to ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. AWS also announced it is already developing Trainium4, expected to deliver at least three times the performance of Trainium3 for standard AI workloads.The next-generation chip will support Nvidia’s technology, allowing it to work alongside that company’s servers and hardware.Amazon’s in-house chip development reflects a broader trend among cloud providers seeking to reduce dependence on external suppliers while offering customers more cost-effective alternatives for AI workloads.Nvidia puzzled industry observers last week when it responded to Google’s successes in an unusual post on X, saying the company was “delighted” by the competition before adding that Nvidia “is a generation ahead of the industry.” 

A former Honduran president convicted of helping to smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States has left prison after being pardoned by President Donald Trump, his wife said Tuesday.Juan Orlando Hernandez was released from a West Virginia prison on Monday and was “once again a free man,” his wife announced on social media. He had been sentenced last year to more than four decades behind bars.Trump’s pardon — issued as the US military carries out a controversial campaign against alleged drug traffickers in Latin America — has provoked fierce criticism from his political opponents and bewilderment by some allies.The ex-president’s release also comes as Hondurans await final results from Sunday’s razor-close presidential election, in which Trump backed the candidate of Hernandez’s right-wing party.Hernandez’s pardon came as a surprise, given Trump has made an ostensible war against Latin American drug trafficking a centerpiece in his turbulent second term.A large contingent of US military forces are deployed in the Caribbean to pressure Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro, whom the Trump administration has designated as part of a drug cartel.US forces are regularly blowing up small boats alleged to be carrying drugs, despite international experts saying the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.Trump is also deeply involved in the Honduran election, where authorities say the result remains too close to call after a preliminary vote count.Trump is backing right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura, who holds a paper-thin lead. Trump warned late Tuesday there would be “hell to pay” if Honduras tries “to change the results.”Rixi Moncada, the ruling party candidate in Sunday’s election who is trailing far behind her right-wing rivals, accused Trump of “interventionist” meddling. – Alleged cartel links -Hernandez, who is from the same party as Asfura, led the Central American nation from 2014 to 2022.He was accused by US prosecutors of years-long efforts to aid drug cartels, including Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel — designated by the Trump administration this year as a terrorist organization.Hernandez was extradited just weeks after leaving office, convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison.Trump said last week that Hernandez “has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly.”Hernandez’s wife Ana Garcia de Hernandez posted on social media that the release on Monday “was a day we will never forget.””After almost four years of pain, waiting, and difficult trials, my husband Juan Orlando Hernandez is once again a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump.”- ‘Doesn’t make any sense’ -The pardon came under fire from US lawmakers.”Trump is illegally blowing up boats in the Caribbean — supposedly to stop drugs coming into the US. Yet he pardons the former president of Honduras who was convicted of sending cocaine to the US,” Democratic Senator Ed Markey posted on X.”It doesn’t make any sense. Whatever Trump is doing in Venezuela, it’s not about drugs.”Senator Bill Cassidy, from Trump’s Republican Party, also slammed Trump’s move.”Why would we pardon this guy and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States?” he asked on X.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday defended Trump, depicting Hernandez as the victim of prosecutorial overreach under former president Joe Biden.”He was opposed to the values of the previous administration and they charged him because he was president of Honduras,” Leavitt said.

Polls opened Tuesday for a US election once seen as a Republican formality that has instead turned into a test of Donald Trump’s popularity — and a warning shot for a party already rattled by its razor-thin majority in Congress.Trump is not on the ballot in the state’s 7th House District, but his presence is unmistakable in a race unfolding on turf he won by 22 points in 2024 — making it one of the safest Republican seats.Republicans still expect to hold the district, but the fear of a narrow win hangs over what should have been a sleepy contest, with polls showing the race uncomfortably close.A Democratic upset — or even a narrow Republican win — would jolt Washington and deepen Republican fears of losing the House in 2026. With only a two-vote cushion on the floor, party lawmakers say the consequences of voter apathy could be dire.”Special elections are strange animals and anything can happen. And when you’re in a deep-red district, sometimes people assume that the Republican, the conservative, will win,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told a news conference in Washington.”You cannot assume that, because anything can happen. So we encourage everybody to go out there and make that happen. The people are fired up.”The Republican cold sweats come amid a run of Democratic momentum. Just weeks ago, the party swept major races in Virginia and New Jersey and won the New York mayoralty, a string of victories widely interpreted as a rebuke to Trump’s return to power.The party has noticed — and so has Trump.The president held a tele-rally Monday alongside Johnson, who campaigned throughout the day with the Republican candidate, Matt Van Epps. “HE WILL BE A GREAT CONGRESSMAN and, unlike his Opponent, he cherishes Christianity and Country Music,” Trump posted soon after polls opened.Van Epps, a West Point graduate and retired special-operations helicopter pilot, is running as an unwavering Trump loyalist focused on law-and-order, border security and low taxes. – Steep drop -He faces Democratic state representative Aftyn Behn, a former social worker who has pushed progressive legislation on grocery-tax relief, rural health care, abortion access and marijuana reform.Republicans have zeroed in on Behn’s social-media posts from the 2020 racial-justice protests, in which she amplified “defund the police” slogans and shared a message appearing to justify burning down a police station. Tennessee’s 7th District — stretching from Nashville’s Music Row through affluent suburbs and down to conservative rural counties — normally delivers Republicans around 60 percent of the vote. But the latest Emerson College/The Hill poll shows Van Epps at 48 percent to Behn’s 46 percent, well within the margin of error. Early polls in October had Van Epps up by as many as eight points, but also flagged elevated Democratic enthusiasm.Republican insiders now predict a five-point Van Epps win — a steep drop from former congressman Mark Green’s 2024 landslide — and concede that anything tighter would be alarming. A loss, however unlikely, would electrify Democrats and force Republican strategists to rethink their entire 2026 defense map.Early voting is expected to have favored Behn thanks to energized younger voters and Nashville turnout, while election-day voting should lean more Republican, especially in rural counties. Both parties have flooded the district with cash and operatives, with Van Epps and his outside backers spending $3.5 million on ads, according to Punchbowl News, while Democratic groups invested $2.4 million.

Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday for high-stakes talks on ending the war in Ukraine.The meeting — preceded by days of frenzied diplomacy from Florida to Geneva to Abu Dhabi — comes as Washington said it was “very optimistic” about ending Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.But Kyiv and its European allies worry that Witkoff, who has been criticised for his dealings with the Kremlin, will yet cede ground to Moscow.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Ireland on Tuesday, shoring up European support, with the US-Russia meeting coming at a critical point for Kyiv.Russian forces have advanced fast in November in eastern Ukraine, and Kyiv has been rocked by graft scandals that ended with the resignation of its top negotiator — Zelensky’s right-hand man.Moscow has also stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, with Zelensky accusing the Kremlin of trying to “break” his country.In Ireland, Zelensky was briefed by Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov returning from Florida, who said “significant progress” was achieved in US talks but that more work was needed on “challenging” issues. Zelensky has said he still expects to discuss key issues with the US president, including on territory, security guarantees and Ukraine’s reconstruction.On Tuesday he said Moscow’s real motivation for the US talks was to ease Western sanctions, rather than pursue peace.Putin has demanded that Kyiv surrender territory Moscow claims as its own for any deal to be possible.The diplomatic push comes as Kyiv said that fighting was ongoing in Pokrovsk, the eastern Ukrainian town that Moscow has tried to seize for months — despite Moscow claiming one day earlier that it had seized the town and planted a flag in its centre. The fall of Pokrovsk would be a symbolic win for Moscow, which calls the city by its Soviet name Krasnoarmeysk. On the eve of the Witkoff meeting, Putin put on military attire as his commanders told him it had been taken.”We all understand just how important” the capture is, Putin said Monday. Last week, he repeated that Moscow was intent on capturing the rest of the Donetsk region by force if Kyiv does not give up land that it controls. – ‘Serious pressure’ -Putin ordered the full-scale military assault on Ukraine in February 2022 — calling it a “special military operation”. Kyiv and its European allies say the war is an unprovoked and illegal land grab that has resulted in a tidal wave of violence and destruction.Tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel have been killed since the war began, while millions of Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes.Europe has worried that Washington — which has backed Kyiv with funding and weapons — and Moscow will strike a deal over its head or force Ukraine into making unfair concessions. “I am afraid that, you know, all the pressure will be put on the weaker side, because that is the easier way to stop this war when Ukraine surrenders,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned Monday. An original 28-point US plan last month hewed so closely to Moscow’s demands that it prompted accusations that Russia was involved in drafting it — which Washington denied.Bloomberg had last month reported that Witkoff had helped coach Russian officials on how Putin should speak to Trump.Much of the diplomacy in recent days has been aimed at giving greater weight to Ukraine’s interests in any deal. French leader Emmanuel Macron has said the coming days could be “decisive” for Kyiv and for Europe.The talks came after Russia escalated its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine throughout November, according to an AFP analysis. Moscow launched a total of 5,660 missiles and long-range drones at Ukraine last month, daily reports published by Kyiv’s air force showed, marking a two percent increase over the previous month.”This is serious pressure, not only psychological but also physical pressure on our population,” Zelensky has said.

A US admiral acting under the authority of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a second strike that targeted survivors of an initial attack on an alleged drug smuggling boat, the White House said Monday.The legality of the Trump administration’s deadly strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific has been questioned, and reports of the follow-up attack on survivors triggered further accusations of a possible war crime.Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro has accused Washington of using drug trafficking as a pretext for “imposing regime change” in Caracas and rejected a “slave’s peace” for the region, amid mounting fears of US military action.A total of 11 people were killed in the two strikes in early September, the first in a months-long military campaign that has so far left more than 80 dead.Trump’s administration insists it is effectively at war with alleged “narco-terrorists,” and the White House said Admiral Frank Bradley, who currently leads US Special Operations Command, had acted legally and properly in ordering a second strike.Bradley “worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists.Hegseth “authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,” she said.With pressure on the Pentagon chief, Hegseth appeared to stress the decision was Bradley’s.”I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since,” he posted Monday evening on X, calling Bradley “an American hero.”Some military personnel under the condition of anonymity told the Washington Post that this is “protect Pete bulls—.”Another military official told the publication that Leavitt’s statement “left it up to interpretation” who was responsible for the second strike and implored the White House to provide more clarity.”We will eventually find out what really happened,” promised Republican Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who has opened an investigation into the matter.Democrats also pounced on the issue, with Senator Chris Murphy accusing Hegseth of “passing the buck.””Both Republicans and Democrats are coming to the conclusion that this was an illegal, wildly immoral act, and he is shifting the blame,” Murphy told broadcaster CNN.Congressman Mike Turner, a Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said lawmakers have yet to be briefed on the “double-tap” strike.”People have been very concerned about how these strikes have been operated,” Turner said on the same news broadcast.US media reported last week that an initial September 2 strike left two people alive who were killed in a subsequent attack to fulfill Hegseth’s orders, but Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell insisted that “this entire narrative was false.”Subsequent strikes that left survivors were followed by search-and-rescue efforts that recovered two people in one case and failed to find another later in October.- ‘Over the line’ -The military action on September 2 would appear to run afoul of the Pentagon’s own Law of War Manual, which states: “For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.”Democratic Senators Jacky Rosen and Chris Van Hollen have said the September 2 strikes may be a war crime, while Senator Mark Kelly called Monday for Congress to investigate.”I’m concerned that if there were, in fact, as reported, survivors clinging to a damaged vessel, that that could be over a line,” the former fighter pilot and astronaut told reporters.Kelly was one of six lawmakers who released a video last month saying “illegal orders” can be refused — a move that infuriated Trump and sparked a Pentagon probe into the “potentially unlawful comments” by the retired US Navy officer.

Apple on Monday said the head of its artificial intelligence team is stepping down, and the effort is to be led by a veteran engineer from Google and Microsoft.The plan for Apple senior vice president of Machine Learning and AI Strategy John Giannandrea to retire early next year comes after the tech giant stumbled in efforts to show it was not being left behind on the technology.Giannandrea will serve as an advisor to Apple during his remaining time with the company, according to the iPhone maker.”We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in a post announcing the news.Researcher Amar Subramanya has joined Apple as a vice president and will lead in “critical areas,” including AI foundation models and machine learning, according to the company.Subramanya was most recently a corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, prior to that spending 16 years at Google where he was head of engineering for the Gemini digital assistant before leaving, Apple said.Apple cited Subramanya’s experience integrating AI into features and products as “important to Apple’s ongoing innovation and future Apple Intelligence features.”Giannandrea joined Apple in 2018, heading the company’s AI efforts. Apple early this year delayed the release of an improved Siri digital assistant and is now promising it for next year.Meanwhile, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other tech rivals have been releasing ever-improved AI models and features in a fierce race to lead in the technology.Apple has been under pressure to show it is not being left behind when it comes to artificial intelligence, with the potential to change how people engage with the internet and computers.Cook cited AI as “central to Apple’s strategy” and said Subramanya will bring “extraordinary AI expertise” to his role reporting to senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi.”Craig has been instrumental in driving our AI efforts, including overseeing our work to bring a more personalized Siri to users next year,” Cook said.On a recent earnings call, Cook touted the latest Apple devices and the tech giant’s custom chips and efforts to enhance products and services with artificial intelligence.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to hold talks in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss the Trump administration’s controversial proposal to end the war in Ukraine.The meeting comes after Washington said it was feeling confident about the plan, following talks with Ukrainian negotiators in Florida.”I think the administration feels very optimistic,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.Meanwhile Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was seeking support from European allies, who fear that the US plan — drafted without input from Kyiv or Europe — reads like a wishlist for Moscow.But Ukraine’s negotiator Rustem Umerov said “significant progress” had been achieved in the Florida talks, even though more work was needed on “challenging” issues.Zelensky arrived in Ireland Monday night for an in-person briefing from Umerov after talks in Paris with President Emmanuel Macron.He was greeted on the tarmac by Prime Minister Micheal Martin, who posted on social media “Our support for the people of Ukraine as they defend their freedom and democracy remains unwavering.”More than three-and-a-half years into Russia’s large-scale offensive in Ukraine, an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed that the Russian army last month made its biggest advance in Ukraine since November 2024.The situation for Kyiv has been further complicated by a corruption scandal that has rocked Zelensky’s inner circle and forced the dismissal last week of his top negotiator and chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.”We are expecting a conversation with the president of the United States on key issues that are quite challenging,” Zelensky said in Paris.He said Russia had stepped up missile and drone strikes on his country to “break” the will of Ukrainians.”This is serious pressure, not only psychological but also physical pressure on our population,” Zelensky said.Macron said the current moment “could be decisive for the future of peace in Ukraine and security in Europe.”Zelensky insisted Russia should not receive any concession that “it could consider as a reward for this war.””The aggressor must pay for the aggression,” he said.Zelensky and Macron spoke by telephone to Witkoff and Umerov in Florida, the Elysee Palace said, while Zelensky’s talks in Paris also included phone conversations with other European leaders, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The flurry of communication continued with a call between Macron and Trump later Monday in which they discussed “next steps in the mediation efforts” and the French president “particularly emphasised the central importance of security guarantees necessary for Ukraine”, according to the Elysee.- ‘Highest’ pressure -Washington’s initial 28-point proposal to halt the war would have seen Kyiv withdraw from territory it still controls in its eastern Donetsk region and the United States de facto recognise the Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk regions as Russian.After talks in Geneva, the United States updated the original blueprint, but the current contents remain unclear.EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas expressed concern over the planned Putin-Witkoff meeting, saying she feared “all the pressure will be put on the weaker side, because that is the easier way to stop this war when Ukraine surrenders.”Macron emphasised that “there is currently no finalised plan on the territorial issues, strictly speaking. It can only be finalised by President Zelensky”.He also hailed new US sanctions on the Russian energy industry as a “game changer”, saying that in the next weeks he expected pressure on the sector to be “the highest since the beginning of the war”.- Biggest advance in a year -The diplomatic push comes as the war — which has killed tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel and displaced millions of Ukrainians — shows no sign of easing.Russia claimed on Monday to have captured Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub that Ukraine had been defending.A Russian missile attack killed four people and wounded nearly two dozen others on Monday in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor said.By the end of November, the Russian army controlled, fully or partially, 19.3 percent of Ukrainian territory, according to the analysis of data from the ISW, which works with the Critical Threats Project.burs-sjw-sct/tc/mtp

A son of the infamous Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman pleaded guilty Monday in a Chicago court to drug trafficking charges in a deal that would see him cooperate with US prosecutors for a reduced sentence.Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of four sons of the jailed Sinaloa cartel leader, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise — reversing the original not guilty stance he took after his July 2024 arrest in Texas, court filings showed.Under the plea deal filed with the court and seen by AFP, prosecutors agreed that the judge could spare him life imprisonment on the drug charges — depending on his level of cooperation.”Defendant understands that the decision to depart from the applicable guideline sentence…the mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment, rests solely with the Court,” the filing said.Guzman Lopez, who will be sentenced by the judge in the case at a later date, must also pay an $80 million charge representing the proceeds of his crimes.Another of his three brothers, Ovidio Guzman — as part of a plea deal struck in exchange for a reduced sentence — pleaded guilty in July 2025 to conspiracy related to drug trafficking and two counts of participating in the activities of a criminal enterprise.Ovidio Guzman also admitted that he and his brothers, known as “Los Chapitos,” had taken over their father’s operations within the cartel.The 68-year-old “El Chapo” is serving a life sentence at a supermax federal prison in Colorado following his 2016 arrest and 2019 conviction.”Based upon facts now known to the government, defendant has clearly demonstrated a recognition and affirmative acceptance of personal responsibility for his criminal conduct,” the plea deal said.Guzman Lopez was involved in the shipment of “hundreds or thousands of kilograms” of cocaine, heroin, meth and marijuana from Mexico to the United States, the filing added.- Trump war on drugs -In July 2024, Joaquin Guzman Lopez initially pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering, and weapons possession.He was taken into custody that month when he arrived in Texas aboard a small private plane, along with the co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael “Mayo” Zambada.Zambada claimed to have been misled about the destination and abducted by Guzman Lopez to be handed over against his will to the United States.Following the arrest, clashes intensified between two factions of the cartel, headed respectively by the Guzman brothers and Zambada.The infighting led to approximately 1,200 deaths in Mexico and around 1,400 disappearances, according to official figures.Washington accuses the Sinaloa cartel of trafficking fentanyl to the United States, where the synthetic drug has caused tens of thousands of overdose deaths in recent years, straining relations with Mexico.The Sinaloa cartel is one of six Mexican drug-trafficking groups that US President Donald Trump has designated as global terrorist organizations.In its aggressive policy against drug cartels, the Trump administration announced additional sanctions against “Los Chapitos” in June for fentanyl trafficking and increased the reward to $10 million for each of the fugitive brothers.The two other “Chapitos” — Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar — have also been indicted on drug trafficking charges in the United States but remain at large.