GOLDEN TRIANGLE

Opium poppy farming hits 10-year high in war-torn Myanmar

Yangon (Myanmar) (AFP) – Myanmar's opium poppy cultivation has hit a decade-record level, the United Nations warned Wednesday, with early indications its heroin output is now being trafficked to Western markets.


Issued on: 03/12/2025 - FRANCE24

Myanmar has long ranked among the world's top opium poppy producers

 © STR / AFP

War-ravaged Myanmar is a hive of black market activity ranging from illegal mining to internet scamming and the manufacture of illicit drugs like methamphetamine and heroin.

The nation has long ranked among the world's top opium poppy producers, claiming the top spot after a 2022 Taliban government crackdown crushed the trade in Afghanistan.

Analysts say illicit activities are key income sources funding the civil war which has racked Myanmar since the military snatched power in a 2021 coup.

This year, opium poppies were farmed on more than 53,000 hectares (131,000 acres) of Myanmar's soil, a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report said, recording the largest territory since 2015.

The agency's yearly Myanmar Opium Survey said after the Afghanistan crackdown "there are emerging signs that heroin trafficked from Southeast Asia reaches markets traditionally not supplied from the region".

It cited a cumulative 60-kilogram (132-pound) haul of suspected Myanmar-origin heroin seized from airline passengers travelling from Thailand to the European Union in 2024 and early 2025.

While the scale is "not yet significant, the changed environment could encourage more cultivation and production of opium in Myanmar", it said.

Opium poppies were farmed extensively across Myanmar well before the civil war consumed the country.

But monitors say the conflict has supercharged black markets -- with a weak central government, industrial infrastructure destroyed by fighting, and soaring poverty spiking desperation.

Myanmar's junta has waged offensives this year ahead of an election slated to start on December 28 -- a vote dismissed by many observers as a ploy to disguise continuing military rule.

The UNODC report said while instability drives farmers towards tending opium poppy, "intensifying conflict and insecurity make it more difficult for them to care for their fields".

While opium poppy farms had expanded in size by 17 percent from 2024, it noted that this year's yield was largely static at around 1,000 tonnes.

© 2025 AFP

Democratic senators will seek to block Trump from using US forces to attack Venezuela

A group of Democratic senators who have repeatedly tried to rein in the Trump administration's aggression against Venezuela said on Tuesday that they will use a congressional vote to block a US attack on the country. “Unauthorized military action against Venezuela would be a colossal and costly mistake,” the senators said.


Issued on: 02/12/2025
By: FRANCE 24
Video by: Carys GARLAND

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks alongside President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting on December 2, 2025. © Andrew Caballero-Reynolds, AFP
08:11





A group of US senators who have repeatedly tried to rein in President Donald Trump’s aggression against Venezuela said on Tuesday they would file a new resolution to force a congressional vote on the issue if the administration carries out a strike within the country.

“Unauthorized military action against Venezuela would be a colossal and costly mistake that needlessly risks the lives of our servicemembers,” Democrats Tim Kaine of Virginia, Chuck Schumer of New York and Adam Schiff of California and Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky said in a joint statement.

“Should a strike occur, we will call up a War Powers Resolution to force a debate and vote in Congress that would block the use of US forces in hostilities against or within Venezuela,” they said.

Republican-led congressional committees have launched investigations of the US military campaign off the coast of Venezuela, the second time in recent days that members of Trump’s party have voiced concerns about one of his policy initiatives.

Last week, several Republican lawmakers harshly criticised the White House over its handling of a proposed Ukraine peace plan they said favours Russia.

Navy admiral authorised the second strike on stricken Venezuela vessel, White House says

On Venezuela, lawmakers cited concern about the administration conducting a months-long campaign without congressional approval as well as a report that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on September 2 ordered a second strike on a boat to kill survivors of a first strike, which could violate international law.
‘We may have a problem’

Senator Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican who is on the Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said he is still trying to ascertain the facts of the strike as well as the laws affecting it.

“But my understanding is that we may have a problem if you’re killing survivors in the water after a strike,” Rounds told reporters on Tuesday. “Once we get the facts, then we can start making determinations that need to be made.”

US troops have carried out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific in the past three months, killing at least 83 people as Trump escalates a military buildup against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Hegseth had authorised Admiral Frank Bradley to conduct the strikes on September 2. She said the strikes were conducted to protect US interests, took place in international waters and were in line with the law of armed conflict.

A few lawmakers have tried, and failed, repeatedly to force Trump to obtain Congress’ approval of the campaign, citing the Constitutional requirement that only Congress, not the president, has the power to declare war.

Trump’s Republicans in the Senate blocked a resolution in November that would have prevented him from attacking Venezuelan territory without congressional authorisation. In October, Senate Republicans blocked a resolution that would have stopped the boat strikes.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

White House Claims Trump ‘Has the Authority to Kill’ Survivors of Boat Strikes

One legal expert called the press secretary’s remarks “painful” to watch and warned of “how the reported patently illegal orders will affect US service members.”


This image was posted on social media by President Donald Trump and shows a boat that was allegedly transporting cocaine off the coast of Venezuela when it was destroyed by US forces on September 2, 2025.
(Photo: President Donald Trump/Truth Social)

Jessica Corbett
Dec 01, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

While continuing to deny that the Pentagon chief ordered those carrying out the first known US military strike on an alleged drug-running boat to “kill everybody” on board, the top White House spokesperson on Monday reiterated the administration’s position that President Donald Trump has the authority to take out anyone he deems a “narco-terrorist.”

Rights advocates, legal scholars, American lawmakers, and leaders from other countries have condemned the boat bombings in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean, which began on September 2, as murders, and rejected the Trump administration’s argument to Congress that the strikes are justified because the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

A week after the first bombing, the Intercept reported that people on board survived but were killed in a follow-up attack. The Washington Post provided more details on Friday, including that Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley ordered a second strike on two survivors to fulfill US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s alleged directive to kill everyone.

CNN also spoke with an unnamed source who confirmed Hegseth’s supposed edict—which the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, denied on Monday.

During Monday’s press briefing, NBC News White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez noted Trump’s “confidence” in Hegseth’s claim that he did not give an explicit order to kill everyone on the first vessel, and asked Leavitt, “Does the administration deny that that second strike happened, or did it happen and the administration denies that Secretary Hegseth gave the order?”

“The latter is true,” Leavitt said. She then read a statement that she often referred back to throughout the briefing:
President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war. With respect to the strikes in question on September 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Adm. Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Adm. 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.

“And I would just add one more point,” Leavitt continued, “to remind the American public why these lethal strikes are taking place: Because this administration has designated these narco-terrorists as a foreign terrorist organizations, the president has a right to take them out if they are threatening the United States of America, and if they are bringing illegal narcotics that are killing our citizens at a record rate—which is what they are doing.”

Asked by Gutierrez to confirm Bradley ordered the second strike, Leavitt did so, saying that “he was well within his right to do so.”



Multiple other reporters also inquired about the recent reporting, including Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, who said: “You said that the follow-up strike was lawful. What law is it that allows no survivors?”

Leavitt responded: “The strike conducted on September 2 was conducted in self-defense to protect Americans and vital United States interests. The strike was conducted in international waters and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.”

Noting that exchange on social media, former Congressman Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican, said: “This is not how self-defense works. Everyone understands that self-defense requires an immediate physical threat and proportionality. Repelling a missile attack with a missile is self-defense. Blowing up boats hundreds of miles from US shores is not. This isn’t complicated.”

“This is not how self-defense works... Repelling a missile attack with a missile is self-defense. Blowing up boats hundreds of miles from US shores is not.

Ryan Goodman, a former Pentagon special counsel who’s now a New York University law professor and Just Security coeditor-in-chief, also weighed in. “This has got to be one of [the] most painful responses to watch,” he said, also pointing out that “the ‘law’ Leavitt cites is utterly irrelevant (self-defense is non sequitur, it’s not armed conflict, and ‘no survivors’ is a crime).”

“Part of the pain in watching that response is knowing how the reported patently illegal orders will affect US service members,” Goodman added, referring to a new Just Security essay by Mark P. Nevitt, a retired judge advocate general who is now an associate law professor at Emory University.

Notably, Trump suggested last month that Democratic members of Congress who previously served in the US military and intelligence service and recently warned service members of their duty not to comply with illegal orders should be hanged. The Pentagon has since threatened to court-martial one of them: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a retired US Navy captain.

c by CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang about Hegseth’s reported spoken directive to kill everybody on the boat. Using Trump’s preferred term for the Defense Department’s leader, she said: “I saw that quoted in a Washington Post story. I would reject that the secretary of war ever said that. However, the president has made it quite clear that if narco-terrorists... are trafficking illegal drugs toward the United States, he has the authority to kill them, and that’s what this administration is doing.”

According to a CNN timeline, from September 2 to November 15, at least 22 US boat strikes killed 83 people and left two survivors who were initially taken onto a warship but ultimately returned to their home countries of Colombia and Ecuador.



So far, Congress has failed to advance war powers resolutions intended to stop Trump’s boat-bombing spree. However, since the Post reporting, top Democrats on both the US House and Senate Armed Services Committees have promised vigorous oversight.

Following Leavitt’s remarks on Monday, the New Republic‘s Greg Sargent said that “it’s doubly relevant that Adm. Bradley is in talks about briefing the House Armed Services Committee,” and pointed to his new interview with Congressman Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the panel’s ranking member.

The congressman told Sargent he will pressure GOP members of the committee, including Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), to “use whatever leverage is available to us to try to get answers,” including subpoenaing top civilian and military officials.

Smith also discussed the reporting during a weekend appearance on MS NOW. Posting a clip of it on social media Monday, he declared that “Americans want to live in a constitutional republic, not an authoritarian dictatorship.”

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on the chamber’s floor Monday that “I don’t think we have ever seen someone so unserious, so childish, so obviously insecure serving as secretary of defense as Pete Hegseth—and that should alarm every single one of us.”

Schumer called on Hegseth to release the tapes “that would show exactly what happened during these military strikes,” and to “come before the Congress to testify under oath about the nature of his order, the evidence supporting the strikes, and an explanation for what the goals are in Venezuela.”

Republicans Probe Alleged Hegseth Order to “Kill Everybody” as War Crimes Mount

“Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder,” one lawmaker said.

By Sharon Zhang ,

 Truthout

December 1, 2025

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrives for a briefing in the U.S. Capitol with Congressional leaders and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on military strikes against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, on Wednesday, November 5, 2025.Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call

Members of Congress have launched a bicameral, bipartisan effort to sharpen oversight of the Pentagon after a report on an alleged order by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “kill everybody” in the military’s boat strike campaign spurred widespread condemnation over the weekend.

The Republican-led Armed Services Committees in both the House and the Senate have announced that they are launching probes into the Department of Defense after The Washington Post reported on an alleged “double tap” strike on September 2, when the military first embarked on its Caribbean boat strike campaign.

On Friday, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) and ranking member Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) said that the “Committee has directed inquiries to the Department” following the report. They said the committee would be “conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts” surrounding the alleged strikes.

Further, in a joint statement Saturday, House committee chair Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) and ranking member Adam Smith (D-Washington) said that they “take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question.”

Experts have long said that the entire boat operation is illegal and amounts to war crimes and murder. Still, this marks a heel turn from previous remarks. Many Democrats have been critical of the boat strike operation, but Republicans have largely fallen in line thus far, despite the administration’s withholding of information from Congress regarding the aggression.

Related Story

Leavitt Says “All” Military Orders by Trump Must Be “Presumed to Be Legal”
The dubious claim comes despite officials within the administration saying that the boat strike operation is unlawful. By Sharon Zhang , Truthout  November 25, 2025

The statements followed a report that a Special Operations commander ordered a second strike on a vessel off the coast of Trinidad after the live drone footage showed that two people had survived the initial blast. The order was reportedly given in order to follow through with Hegseth’s spoken command in the operation, which “was to kill everybody,” one source told The Washington Post.

The strike was reportedly carried out by SEAL Team 6, under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which is responsible for some of the military’s most secretive operations.

The Intercept previously reported the “double tap” nature of the strike, but the latest revelations from the Post exposed JSOC’s supposed role in misrepresenting the strike to both the White House and members of Congress in closed door briefings. In those briefing materials, the military command said the second strike was “intended to sink the boat and remove a navigation hazard to other vessels.”

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts), a House Armed Services Committee member who was privy to one of these briefings, said this explanation is “patently absurd,” and the strike “blatantly illegal.”

“Mark my words: It may take some time, but Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder,” he said.

Hegseth has denied wrongdoing. Trump said that he “wouldn’t have wanted” a second strike, but said that “Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.”

Legal experts and lawmakers have raised concerns that American soldiers may be prosecuted for carrying out orders in the boat strike operation that they deem illegal under both domestic and international law. Even if the initial strike were legal, former military lawyer Todd Huntley told the Post that the second strike “would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime” since the occupants weren’t able to fight back.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) has vowed to reintroduce his War Powers legislation seeking to bar President Donald Trump from carrying out further strikes in the operation or against Venezuela unless the administration obtains congressional approval. In an interview with CBS on Sunday, the senator said that he believes he will get more support for the resolution, which has already failed to pass the Senate twice.

“We think the escalating pace and some of the recent revelations — so, for example, the recent revelation about the ‘kill everyone’ order apparently dictated by Secretary Hegseth — we do believe that we will get more support for these motions when they are refiled,” he said.

The resolutions would be especially timely as the administration moves even further toward war. The U.S. has amassed a large amount of assets around Venezuela, and Trump declared on Saturday that the airspace above and around the country should be considered “CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”

As the U.S. aggression has mounted, however, so, too, have the legal concerns. In a joint statement following the report, a group of former military lawyers fired by the Trump administration said that the strike represents “war crimes” and could expose anyone involved in the strike to prosecution for murder.

“We call upon Congress to investigate and the American people to oppose any use of the U.S. military that involves the intentional targeting of anyone – enemy combatants, non-combatants, or civilians – rendered hors de combat (‘out of the fight’) as a result of their wounds or the destruction of the ship or aircraft carrying them,” the group said.

“We also advise our fellow citizens that orders like those described above are the kinds of ‘patently illegal orders’ all military members have a duty to disobey. Since orders to kill survivors of an attack at sea are ‘patently illegal,’ anyone who issues or follows such orders can and should be prosecuted for war crimes, murder, or both,” they went on.

'Wrong!' Trump warns troops not to be 'duped' by Dems telling them to follow Constitution

Daniel Hampton
December 1, 2025 

RAW STORY

President Donald Trump repeated his call for U.S. troops to obey him after six Democrats released a video urging U.S. military and intelligence personnel to defy illegal orders.

The six lawmakers, all with military or intelligence backgrounds, circulated a video online last month reminding service members that under U.S. law, they must disobey illegal orders and uphold the Constitution. The video sparked outrage on the right, who accused the lawmakers of urging troops to ignore orders in general from the president.

The group of lawmakers included Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), a former CIA analyst, and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a former Navy pilot and astronaut. It also included Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO), an Army veteran; Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), a Navy veteran; and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), an Air Force veteran.

Trump initially responded forcefully, denouncing the video, calling the lawmakers “traitors,” and labeling their message “seditious.” He suggested their conduct could be “punishable by death.”

On Monday night, Trump doubled down.

" Mark Kelly and the group of Unpatriotic Politicians were WRONG to do what they did, and they know it! I hope the people looking at them are not duped into thinking that it’s OK to openly and freely get others to disobey the President of the United States!"

WSJ warns Trump may have shot himself in the foot with strikes

Robert Davis
December 1, 2025 

RAW STORY

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board on Monday slammed President Donald Trump's strikes against alleged drug boats in international waters and argued the move could backfire on the president.

The Trump administration has conducted more than a dozen strikes against alleged drug boats since taking office, moves that have killed nearly 100 people. The strikes have inspired significant debate among legal experts and have seemed to split Trump's MAGA base.

The Journal's editorial board argued that Trump deserves "wide latitude" on the strikes, but added that Trump risks losing support for the strikes because he has offered scant evidence to support his claims that they are justified.

"Our view is that the Commander in Chief deserves legal latitude as part of his constitutional war powers," the editorial board wrote. "But that doesn’t extend to shooting the wounded in violation of U.S. and international rules of war. The Pentagon’s own law of war manual prohibits 'hostilities on the basis that there shall be no survivors.' Such excesses will also turn the public against allowing a President the power he may someday need to defend the country’s interests quickly."

"The drug-boat war is presenting questions of presidential power and America’s role in the world that will continue long after President Trump leaves Washington, and good for lawmakers who appreciate the stakes," the editorial board added.

Read the entire editorial by clicking here.

GOP senator demands answers after 'incompetent' White House backtrack on boat strikes

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gestures during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 9, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Thomas Kika

December 01, 2025 

ALTERNET

Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, became the latest notable figure on Monday to hit back against the White House's claims about the "double tap" boat strike, wondering to Semafor if Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was "incompetent" or "lying."

Last week, the Washington Post reported that on September 2, U.S. forces fired on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea, then fired on it again when it was determined that some of the occupants had survived. This reportedly came as the result of a directive from Hegseth to "kill them all." These strikes, claimed with little evidence to be drug traffickers, had already been a source of major controversy for the Trump administration, but this report saw many experts accusing Hegseth of a war crime and outright murder.

Despite of Pentagon press representative initially denying the entire story, White Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Monday that the double strike had occurred, but stressed that the direct order came from Admiral Frank M. Bradley, based on a directive from Hegseth. She also claimed repeatedly that the strikes were done in accordance with laws governing armed conflict.

This resulted in a tidal wave of renewed criticism, with many accusing the administration of trying to protect Hegseth by throwing Bradley "under the bus" for the incident. The critiques came from all sides as well, as Semafor reporter Burgess Everett relayed in a post to X about a conversation with Paul. The reporter described the Republican, who has emerged as a frequent detractor of President Donald Trump, "really fired up about this."

"Yesterday they said, ‘absolutely Pete says he didn't do it,'" Paul said, according to Everett. "And then today, they admit that he did it. You think there would be ramifications. Was he incompetent enough not to know that it happened? Or was he lying yesterday?"

Retired US Army JAG officer says Trump admin committed 'murder'

Retired U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG) officer Dan Maurer on CNN on December 1, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via CNN / YouTube)

Carl Gibson

December 01, 2025

ALTERNET

One former U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG) officer is accusing President Donald Trump's administration of committing "murder" in international waters.

During a Monday interview with CNN host Boris Sanchez, Dan Maurer — an associate law professor at Northern Ohio University — said the September 2, 2025 strike in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly signed off on the killing of survivors adrift after their boat was hit with a missile (which was carried out by Admiral Frank Mitchell Bradley) was a flagrantly illegal act. Maurer specifically scoffed at the administration's justification that the strike was legal under U.S. and international law.

"I can't be more clear about how clear the law is on this. The attack on shipwrecked crew members — whether they are narco-terrorists designated by the president or not, whether they're war criminals or not — it doesn't matter," he said. "Killing them while shipwrecked while they're hors de combat, they're out of the fight, is a war crime."

Maurer went on to say that because the U.S. is not in an officially designated armed conflict, the strike was simply an "extrajudicial killing," or more simply, "murder." He added that nothing in U.S. law or international humanitarian law sanctioned the act, and that it was incumbent on Congress to investigate the attack.

"If the reporting is in fact accurate, what Secretary Hegseth did was essentially condone, or at least order a murder. What Admiral Bradley did was condone or at least order a murder. And everyone down that chain of command who participated in, who planned, who executed that strike, including the second strike — allegedly killing the shipwreck survivors — committed a crime," he said. "Whether it's a war crime or simply an offense under federal law, crimes have been committed. And what's scary is that I doubt very much that there will be any kind of criminal accountability for any of those involved under this administration.

Sanchez pointed out that the administration argued that the strikes were necessary in order to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S., and that had those bots shipped drugs into the country then there could be potentially thousands of American deaths in the future. Maurer countered that the harm described was "not imminent" and did not justify a self-defense argument.

"These drugs are flowing eventually into the United States, where they were sold illegally, bought illegally, used illegally. Not all of them result in deaths, nor do guns purchased illegally and then sold legally or illegally," he said. "... Frankly, the administration treats using the military kind of like they're playing Call of Duty where there are no constraints, there are no rules, there is no responsibility, and there is no accountability. But there are rules in warfare. There are rules in using force, whether it's a police action or a wartime action. And this administration has systematically ignored those rules, downplayed their importance and denigrated the rule of law."

Watch the segment below:

Trump's legal argument to justify strikes 'does not support' current operations: GOP rep

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) on CNN on December 1, 2025

 (Image: Screengrab via CNN / YouTube)

Carl Gibson

December 01, 2025  

ALTERNET

One high-ranking Republican member of the House of Representatives is now saying that President Donald Trump's administration is acting outside its own established legal boundaries, if recent reporting about a September strike is to be believed.

The Washington Post reported recently that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered Admiral Frank M. Bradley to carry out a secondary strike on survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat the U.S. military destroyed on September 2, 2025. If true, that would likely be a violation of rules 46 and 47 of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), which ban "no-quarter" orders and firing on anyone who is considered hors de combat ("out of the fight"), respectively.

In a Monday segment on CNN, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) — who sits on the House Armed Services Committee and who used to chair the House Intelligence Committee — told host Erin Burnett that his committee is currently making inquiries about the attack with the Department of Defense. He added that if the report is true, it would directly conflict the administration's own legal justification for the strikes themselves.

"The legal opinion that was provided to Congress and the justification that the administration is utilizing ... does not support the operations ... of this second strike," Turner said. "So that's why we have to give it critical review to determine what actually happened, because it's very serious here, as to the divergence between the legal justification that the department was operating under and then what could have occurred here."

In addition to Turner's committee, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) also announced in a joint statement that their committee would be conducting its own inquiry with the Pentagon. Turner called the allegations "very serious," and further denounced Hegseth for making light of it in a cartoon he posted to his official X account.

"I was obviously very disappointed and I thought it was very inappropriate that a cartoon would be used in this manner of something that's obviously very serious," Turner said.

Watch the segment below:

White House confirms admiral ordered 2nd strike on alleged drug boat


By AFP
December 1, 2025


Since the initial strikes in early September, over 20 more vessels have been targeted in the Caribbeana and eastern Pacific, including this boat in mid-September - Copyright US President Donald Trump's TRUTH Social account/AFP HANDOUT

W.G. DUNLOP

A US admiral acting under the authority of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a “double-tap” military operation 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 alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific has already been questioned, and reports of the follow-up attack on survivors have triggered further accusations of a possible war crime.

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.

President Donald 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 the second strike on the survivors.

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.

US media reported last week that an initial September 2 strike left alive two people 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’ –



Hegseth has insisted that the strikes — so far conducted in international waters — are legal, saying in a recent post on X that the military action is “in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.”

However, 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 another lawmaker from the party, 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 a news conference.

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 Navy officer.

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.

'Oh boy': Hegseth stuns as he hurls admiral under the bus on bombshell kill order

Daniel Hampton
December 1, 2025 
RAW STORY

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stunned observers Monday night with his decision to distance himself from a controversial military strike that reportedly killed people who survived the administration's initial strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.

The strike in question occurred on Sept. 2 and targeted suspected drug boats near Venezuela. Hegseth was reported to have been directly involved in the controversial operation. After the initial strike, survivors were found clinging to wreckage.

A source with direct knowledge claimed Hegseth gave an order to "kill everybody," which the military carried out. The strike led to significant political fallout, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) notably refusing to directly back Hegseth earlier Monday. Additionally, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) accused Hegseth of being a "known liar" on CNN, and retired Rear Adm. William Baumgartner described it as a "tremendous failure in planning."

The White House has shifted its narrative, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt eventually confirming that Admiral Frank M. "Mitch" Bradley ordered the second strike, claiming it was "well within his authority."

And on Monday night, Hegseth himself appeared to point the finger at Bradley.

"Let’s make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since. America is fortunate to have such men protecting us. When this @DeptofWar says we have the back of our warriors — we mean it," he wrote on X.

Observers were taken aback by the Defense secretary's post, with many social media critics likening it to Hegseth throwing Bradley under the bus.

CNN reporter Haley Britzky flagged Hegseth's specific phrasing.

“And the combat decisions he has made," she said.

Sam Stein of The Bulwark wrote on X, "Hegseth putting the decision all on Bradley even as he defends the decision."

Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic, mocked on X, "Let's make one thing crystal clear: That guy over there is the guy you want."

CNN's Natasha Bertrand noted on X, "Hegseth again distancing himself from responsibility over the Sept 2 strike, emphasizing that it was a combat decision Adm. Bradley made— but that he supports."

Dan Pfeiffer, Co-host of Pod Save America, wrote on X, "And the blame shifting has begun..."

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) simply wrote on X, "oh boy."

"Admiral, you’re a stand-up guy. Be a real shame if you spoke up and something happened to your pardon," mocked social media user Ryan Clarke on X.

Former Republican Travis McColley wrote on X, "Quick reminder to all in the administration. They will have your back until you no longer have value. You will not know when that is approaching, but you will know when it happens."

Fox host accuses Trump's Pentagon chief of throwing top military official under the bus

Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume on Fox Business on September 16, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via Fox Business / YouTube)

Carl Gibson

December 01, 2025  

ALTERNET

Fox News host Brit Hume may be a longtime colleague of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (who was a former part-time weekend host on the network), but that didn't stop him from taking a jab at President Donald Trump's top military official.

On Monday, as blowback continues to escalate in response to a Washington Post report about Hegseth supposedly ordering that two survivors of a destroyed boat be killed, Hegseth posted a statement to his official X account that appeared to praise Admiral Frank M. Bradley. While the Post's sources said Hegseth gave the order to "kill everybody," the White House clarified that Adm. Bradley — the commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) — is the one who actually approved the secondary strike on September 2, 2025 that killed the two survivors.

"Let’s make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100 percent support," Hegseth posted. "I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since. America is fortunate to have such men protecting us."

The statement was almost immediately scrutinized by various journalists, experts and commentators, including Hume. The conservative network's chief political analyst quote-posted Hegseth and argued the defense secretary was demonstrating "how to point the finger at someone while pretending to support him."

Atlantic contributor Tom Nichols — who is also a retired professor at the U.S. Naval War College — also piled on, tweeting: "'Let's make one thing crystal clear: That guy over there is the guy you want.'"

Former Fox News, CNN and MSNBC journalist David Shuster accused Hegseth of "stabbing the admiral in the back," and suggested the Pentagon leader "try taking some responsibility." Vinny Green, who is the former chief operating officer of fact-checking website Snopes, responded to Hegseth's post with a GIF of South Park character Eric Cartman getting thrown under a bus.

"Wow. You cook up a cruel and ineffective strategy based on illegal extrajudicial killings (i.e. murder), force the military to carry it out based on a nonsensical [White House] legal interpretation, then throw the commander under the bus at the first blowback. Incredible," wrote Max Hoffman, who is a foreign policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

Hegseth just sent a 'chilling signal' to the Defense Department: senator

Matthew Chapman
December 1, 2025 
RAW STORY

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave a "chilling" message to all the generals working beneath him in his response to the exploding scandal over the killing of unarmed shipwreck survivors, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told CNN's Erin Burnett on Monday's edition of "OutFront."


The killings, first reported last week, have been widely condemned by experts as war crimes. Hegseth's response has been twofold: to categorically stand by the order, but also to claim that it wasn't even his order in the first place.

"So Secretary Hegseth has just posted something that I wanted to ask you about," said Burnett. "He said: 'Let’s make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since. America is fortunate to have such men protecting us. When this @DeptofWar says we have the back of our warriors — we mean it.'"

"Okay, let me just translate this into, he's pinning this on Bradley, okay?" said Burnett. "He's saying that that's — that's what that's about, right? I mean, where do you see this heading?"

"He is passing the buck," said Murphy. "He sort of sees the freight train that is coming, right? That both Republicans and Democrats are coming to the conclusion that this was an illegal, wildly immoral act. And he is shifting the blame. It's the opposite of the buck stops here. And, boy, it's a chilling signal to everyone in the chain of command that the Secretary of Defense does not have your back."

"Now, in this case, it seems likely that he actually did give the order that he gave the order to kill everyone on that boat, and those in the chain of command were simply following his orders," Murphy added. "But he is basically telling everyone, all of his generals, all of the professional staff at the Department of Defense, that I'm going to save myself if things get tough. And that's just devastating for American national security."

Trump defense secretary crossed 'a bright legal line': constitutional law expert

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gestures as he meets with El Salvador Defense Minister Rene Merino Monroy at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 16, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

Thomas Kika

December 01, 2025 

ALTERNET

The White House on Monday confirmed prior reports that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed U.S. forces to fire a second time on survivors of an initial strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea. Writing for the New Republic, former U.S. Attorney and constitutional law expert Harry Litman accused Hegseth of breaking a "foundational" rule of warfighting and crossing a "bright legal line."

The Trump administration has been engaged in a widely criticized campaign of strikes on boats in the Caribbean, claiming with little to no evidence that the crafts are linked to Venezuelan drug smuggling. According to a report from the Washington Post, on September 2, U.S. forces fired a second time against survivors of an initial strike, in line with an order from Hegseth to "kill them all." Such a strike would, according to legal experts, very likely amount to a war crime, with U.S. laws specifically singling out attacks on "shipwrecked" individuals as a clear example of an unlawful military action.

White Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday confirmed that the strike occurred, but also appeared to pass direct blame from Hegseth to a subordinate officer, Admiral Frank M. Bradley, and insisted that the strikes were conducted in accordance with laws governing armed conflicts.

In his piece from Monday, Litman characterized this incident in unsparing terms, calling the reports "like something out of Apocalypse Now" and arguing that the "the second strike appears to cross one of the clearest lines in the law of armed conflict."

"The Defense Department’s Law of War Manual prohibits declaring 'no quarter,' forbids conducting operations 'on the basis that there shall be no survivors,'" Litman wrote. "And states unequivocally that 'persons placed hors de combat [out of the fight] may not be made the object of attack,' including those incapacitated by shipwreck, unless they commit a fresh hostile act or attempt escape.

"This rule is foundational," he stressed.

Litman further wrote that the Trump administration's efforts to investigate six Democratic lawmakers over a video urging military members to disobey "unlawful orders," when contrasted against the reports about the second boat strike, create a grim reminder of some of the darkest chapters in U.S. history, when the government opted to go after people who spoke about official misconduct rather than the misconduct itself.

"It’s an all too familiar — and invariably regretted — story in American constitutional life," Litman wrote. "From World War I sedition prosecutions to McCarthy-era investigations to parts of the post-9/11 surveillance apparatus, some of the country’s worst civil liberties violations began with the assumption that dissent was a threat. In nearly every case, the government insisted at the time that extraordinary circumstances justified extraordinary measures. In nearly every case, history delivered a harsher verdict."

'It's a confession': Conservative lawyers call new Hegseth comment an 'admission of guilt'

David McAfee
November 30, 2025 
RAW ST0RY


Pete Hegseth (Reuters)

Pete Hegseth was put on notice over the weekend by two conservative lawyers, including a former prosecutor, who said the Defense Secretary's defense to a major new scandal "makes no legal sense" and is not really "a defense."

Observers' eyebrows were raised after it was reported by the Washington Post in a bombshell story that Hegseth ordered the killing of two survivors of one of controversial drug vessel bombings. Some analysts questioned whether it was murder, or even a war crime.

Former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, who served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, recently said he has no love for the “craven video” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and five Democrats released to the public advising military members to ignore illegal orders. At the same time, McCarthy suggested President Donald Trump’s executive power abuses in reacting to it represent a whole “new level” of threat.

Now, in an essay late Saturday night, the conservative weighed in on Hegseth's new scandal.

"If this happened as described in the Post report, it was, at best, a war crime under federal law. I say 'at best' because, as regular readers know, I believe the attacks on these suspected drug boats — without congressional authorization, under circumstances in which the boat operators pose no military threat to the United States, and given that narcotics trafficking is defined in federal law as a crime rather than as terrorist activity, much less an act or war — are lawless and therefore that the killings are not legitimate under the law or armed conflict," the attorney wrote.

McCarthy goes even further, suggesting that, "even if you buy the untenable claim that they are combatants, it is a war crime to intentionally kill combatants who have been rendered unable to fight. It is not permitted, under the laws and customs of honorable warfare, to order that no quarter be given — to apply lethal force to those who surrender or who are injured, shipwrecked, or otherwise unable to fight."

He continued, writing, "The operation, led by SEAL Team 6, was directed from Fort Bragg, N.C., by Admiral Frank M. 'Mitch' Bradley, then the head of Joint Special Operations Command. Admiral Bradley is said to have ordered the attack against the two survivors of the first strike in order to comply with Hegseth’s directive to kill the boat’s operators."

While Bradley reportedly claimed "the survivors were still legitimate targets because they could theoretically call other traffickers to retrieve them and their cargo," and Hegseth issued a response saying these were always meant to be deadly attacks, McCarthy isn't sold.

"Neither Hegseth’s statement nor the explanation attributed to Bradley... makes legal sense," the former prosecutor wrote. "The laws of war, as they are incorporated into federal law, make lethal force unlawful if it is used under certain circumstances. Hence, it cannot be a defense to say, as Hegseth does, that one has killed because one’s objective was 'lethal, kinetic strikes.'"

Conservative attorney George Conway shared McCarthy's essay and wrote, "Indeed, it's a confession and admission of guilt to heinous crimes."

Read the full piece here (subscription required).

Venezuela president 'provoked' Trump by singing John Lennon's Imagine: conservative

WAS IT HIS SINGING OR THE SONG?!

David Edwards
December 1, 2025


Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro gestures as he takes part in a march with young members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in Caracas, Venezuela, November 13, 2025. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria

Conservative pundit Walter Curt argued that President Donald Trump should invade Venezuela after the country's president, Nicolás Maduro, sang John Lennon's "Imagine" as a call for peace.

"I believe that an attack on a drug cartel stronghold on the ground in Venezuela is imminent," Real America's Voice host Jake Novak told Curt on Monday before playing a clip of Maduro singing a line from "Imagine."

"Let it be known across the world, though, that a sure way to provoke military action is to sing John Lennon's 'Imagine,' which I think is actually necessary," Curt argued. "The moment I saw this, but whenever this first came out, I said, all right, double the bounty, send the Marines."

"I think there's a major play we're making down there for the entire region by going out of Venezuela," he noted. "Everyone seems to forget that Venezuela also has, you know, the world's largest oil reserves."

"But, you know, any time you're singing John Lennon's 'Imagine,' I think you should immediately be invaded by the Marines, paratroopers. Send 'em all."

Frustration in Indonesia as flood survivors await aid

Tukka (Indonesia) (AFP) – Officials in Indonesia and Sri Lanka battled Wednesday to reach survivors of deadly flooding in remote, cut-off regions as the toll in the disaster that hit four countries topped 1,300.


Issued on: 03/12/2025 - FRANCE24

Damage to infrastructure including many broken bridges is making relief work in Indonesia difficult © AMANDA JUFRIAN / AFP

In Indonesia, there is growing frustration among survivors of catastrophic flooding and landslides over the pace of the rescue effort and aid delivery.

Humanitarian groups said the scale of the challenge was almost unprecedented even for a country that has faced no shortage of natural disasters.

Monsoon rains paired with two rare tropical storm systems, sometimes known in the region as cyclones, dumped record deluges across Sri Lanka, and parts of Indonesia's Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week.

In Indonesia, the toll hit 753 on Wednesday, but the number of missing also increased to 650.

The rising figures reflect information that is only trickling in as many regions remain either physically cut off by flood damage or isolated by electricity and communications failures, or both.

"It's very challenging logistically to respond," said Ade Soekadis, executive director of Mercy Corps Indonesia, an aid group.

"The extent of the damage and the size of the affected area is really huge."

The group is hoping to send hygiene equipment and water both from Jakarta and locally.

He said reports of food and water shortages were already "very concerning" and the situation will be "more problematic as time goes by".

'Like an earthquake'

At an evacuation centre in Padan, 52-year-old Reinaro Waruwu told AFP he was "disappointed" in the government's immediate response and the slow arrival of aid.

In some areas of Indonesia, the floodwaters have yet to recede © YT HARIONO / AFP


"Some waited a day and night before receiving help, so they couldn't be saved," he said, surrounded by evacuees sitting on mats on the floor in the hall-turned-shelter.

"I am frustrated, it doesn't need to be said twice. The response was not quick," he added.

Like many, he described the arrival of floodwaters and landslides as a disaster without precedent.

"It came like an earthquake.. I thought 'Well, if I am going to die, then so be it,'" he said, beginning to sob heavily.

He managed to escape the rising waters, but his neighbours were buried alive in debris.

Traumatised, he could not even eat on arrival, and since then food has been patchily available, though vegetables arriving on Tuesday offered a "semblance of hope", he said.

Nearby, Hamida Telaumbaunua, 37, described watching her entire kitchen swept away by floodwaters.

"My heart... this was the first time I experienced such a flood," she said.

Her home was lost entirely, along with everything but the few possessions she took when she left.

Some of the worst-hit areas in Sri Lanka are the central tea-growing regions where landslides carrying away hills © Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP


"It's hard to think about what lies ahead. Maybe as long as we're still here, it's okay, but later... I don't know what will happen."

The weather system that hit Indonesia also brought heavy rains to Thailand, killing at least 176 people, and Malaysia, where two people were killed.
Sri Lanka 'open' for tourists

Though floods are common in Asia during monsoon season, climate change is making heavy rain events more frequent because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture.

Warmer oceans can also turbocharge storm systems.

A separate weather system, Cyclone Ditwah, brought torrential rain and deadly floods and landslides to much of Sri Lanka last week.

At least 465 people were killed, and authorities have estimated the disaster's cost at up to $7 billion.

"Our initial estimate is that we will need about six to seven billion dollars for the reconstruction," said Prabath Chandrakeerthi, the Commissioner-General of Essential Services.

Chandrakeerthi said existing laws that allow a person to be declared dead only after being missing for six months could be shortened to expedite the issuance of death certificates.

The government has said it will offer 25,000 rupees ($83) to families to help clean their homes. Those who lost homes will receive up to $8,000.

Over 1.5 million people have been affected, with over 200,000 in state-run shelters.

Despite the disaster, the tourism-reliant country welcomed a luxury cruiseliner to Colombo port on Tuesday, authorities said.

The arrival sends "a clear message to the world: Sri Lanka is safe, open, and ready to embrace visitors once again," the country's tourist board said.

burs-sah/kaf

© 2025 AFP

How deforestation turbocharged Indonesia’s deadly floods


By AFP
December 2, 2025


Experts, environmentalists and even government officials have pointed to the role of deforestation in Indonesia's deadly floods

 - Copyright AFP CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN

Marchio Gorbiano and Dessy Sagita

The deadly flooding that has killed hundreds in Indonesia was largely the result of monsoon rains and a rare tropical storm. But something else may have played a role: deforestation.

Environmentalists, experts and even Indonesia’s government have pointed to the role forest loss played in flash flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages and stranded residents on roofs.

Forests help absorb rainfall and stabilise the ground held by their roots, and their absence makes areas more prone to flash flooding and landslides.

Indonesia is regularly among the countries in the world with the largest annual forest loss.

Mining, plantations and fires have caused the clearance of large tracts of the country’s lush rainforest over recent decades.

In 2024, over 240,000 hectares of primary forest was lost, and that was less than the year before, according to analysis by conservation start-up The TreeMap’s Nusantara Atlas project.

“Forests upstream act as a protective barrier, a bit like a sponge,” explained David Gaveau, founder of The TreeMap.

“The canopy captures some of the rain before it reaches the ground. The roots also help stabilise the soil. When the forest is cleared upstream, rainwater runs off rapidly into rivers creating flash floods.”

– ‘Prevent deforestation’ –

Environmentalists have long urged the government to better protect the country’s forests, which are a key carbon sink, absorbing planet-warming carbon dioxide.

Indonesia’s forests are also home to enormous biodiversity and some of the world’s most threatened species, including orangutans.

And in the wake of the flooding, even the country’s president urged action.

“We must truly prevent deforestation and forest destruction,” President Prabowo Subianto said Friday as the scale of the disaster began to emerge.

“Protecting our forests is crucial.”

The floods carried not only collapsed hillsides and torrents of mud, but also timber that fuelled speculation about the link between deforestation and the disaster.

On one beach in Padang, AFP saw workers dressed in orange using chainsaws to break up massive logs strewn along the sand.

The forestry ministry is reportedly investigating claims of illegal logging in affected areas, and Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni called the disaster a chance to “evaluate our policies”.

“The pendulum between the economy and ecology seems to have swung too far towards the economy and needs to be pulled back to the centre,” he said over the weekend.

That is a message environmentalists in Indonesia have long delivered.

In one of the worst-affected areas, Batang Toru, “there are seven companies operating along the upstream region,” said Uli Arta Siagian, forest and plantation campaign manager for conservation group Walhi.

“There is a gold mine that has already cleared around 300 hectares of forest cover… the Batang Toru Hydropower Plant has caused the loss of 350 hectares of forest,” she told AFP.

Large tracts of forest have also been converted into palm oil plantations.

“All of this contributes to increasing our vulnerability.”

– Protection and restoration –

Sumatra, where the flood damage was concentrated, is particularly vulnerable because its river basins are relatively small, explained Kiki Taufik, head of Greenpeace Indonesia’s forest campaign.

“The massive change in forest cover is the main factor in the occurrence of flash floods,” he told AFP, accusing the government of “recklessly and carelessly” granting permits for mines and plantations.

Deforestation rates in Sumatra are among the highest in Indonesia, according to Herry Purnomo, country director at the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF).

Losing forest also raises flooding risks because soil washes into rivers, raising the riverbed and reducing the capacity of waterways to absorb sudden torrential downpours, he said.

Two things are needed, added Herry, a professor at IPB University in Bogor: “Prevent deforestation, avoid it, and also carry out restoration.”

 Hundreds of thousands of Asia flood survivors face food and fuel shortages

Hundreds of thousands of people stranded by the violent floods that have swept through in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia were on Tuesday facing increasingly alarming shortages of food and fuel. More than 1,300 have been killed in the torrents triggered by monsoon rains and cyclones.


Issued on: 02/12/2025 
By: FRANCE 24

Governments and aid groups on Tuesday worked to rush aid to hundreds of thousands stranded by deadly flooding that has so far killed at least 1,338 people: 744 in Indonesia, 410 in Sri Lanka, 181 in Thailand and three in Malaysia.

Torrential monsoon season deluges paired with two separate tropical cyclones last week dumped heavy rain across the region.

Climate change is producing more intense rain events because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, and warmer oceans can turbocharge storms.

The floodwaters have now largely receded, but the devastation means hundreds of thousands of people are now living in shelters and struggling to secure clean water and food.


READ MORELooting reported as Indonesia and Sri Lanka battle deadly floods

In Indonesia's Aceh, one of the worst-affected regions, residents told AFP that survivors who could afford to were stockpiling supplies.

Mud surrounds a mosque in a flood-affected area in Meureudu, in Indonesia's Aceh province © Chaideer Mahyuddin, AFP


"Road access is mostly cut off in flood-affected areas," 29-year-old Erna Mardhiah said as she joined a long queue at a petrol station in Banda Aceh.

"People are worried about running out of fuel," she added from the line she had been in for two hours.

The pressure has caused skyrocketing prices.

"Most things are already sky-high ... chillies alone are up to 300,000 rupiah per kilo ($18), so that's probably why people are panic-buying," she said.

On Monday, Indonesia's government said it was sending 34,000 tons of rice and 6.8 million litres of cooking oil to the three worst-affected provinces, Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra.

"There can be no delays," Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said.
Food shortage risk

Aid groups said they were working to ship supplies to affected areas, warning that local markets were running out of essential supplies and prices had tripled already.

Governments and aid groups are working to ship supplies to affected areas across Indonesia and Sri Lanka © Chaideer Mahyuddin, AFP


"Communities across Aceh are at severe risk of food shortages and hunger if supply lines are not reestablished in the next seven days," charity group Islamic Relief said.

A shipment of 12 tonnes of food from the group aboard an Indonesian navy vessel was due to arrive in Aceh on Tuesday.

A million people have evacuated from their homes, according to the disaster agency.

Survivors have described terrifying waves of water that arrived without warning.

In East Aceh, Zamzami said the floodwaters had been "unstoppable, like a tsunami wave".

"We can't explain how big the water seemed, it was truly extraordinary," said the 33-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

People in his village sheltered atop a local two-storey fish market to escape the deluge and were now trying to clean the mud and debris left behind while battling power and telecommunications outages.

A storm brought heavy rains across all of Sri Lanka, triggering flash floods and deadly landslides that killed at least 390 people © Ishara s. Kodikara, AFP


"It's difficult for us (to get) clean water," he told AFP on Monday.

"There are children who are starting to get fevers, and there's no medicine."

The weather system that inundated Indonesia also brought heavy rain to southern Thailand.
Colombo floodwaters recede

A separate storm brought heavy rains across all of Sri Lanka, triggering flash floods and deadly landslides.

Some of the worst-hit areas in the country's centre are still difficult to reach.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared a state of emergency to deal with what he called the "most challenging natural disaster in our history".

Unlike his Indonesian counterpart, he has called for international aid.

Sri Lanka's air force, backed by counterparts from India and Pakistan, has been evacuating stranded residents and delivering food and other supplies.

In the capital Colombo, floodwaters were slowly subsiding on Tuesday.

The speed with which waters rose around the city surprised local residents used to seasonal flooding.

"It is not just the amount of water, but how quickly everything went under."

Rains have eased across the country, but landslide alerts remain in force across most of the hardest-hit central region, officials said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Flooding Kills 1,000+ Across South Asia as Climate Crisis Fuels More Extreme Rain

“We need to confront climate change effectively,” Indonesia’s president said.


People wade through a flooded road on November 30, 2025, in Sumatra, Indonesia.
(Photo by Li Zhiquan/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Dec 01, 2025
COMMON DREAMS


More than 1,100 people across South Asia have died after torrential rains fueled by warming temperatures caused widespread flooding and landslides in recent days.

Following days of unprecedented cyclone conditions, people across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand have been left with their homes destroyed and forced to flee for their lives. A separate cyclone in Sri Lanka has left hundreds more dead.
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Trump’s Climate Policies Could Cause Mass Death of Global Poor, Analysis Warns

The worst devastation has been seen in Indonesia, where Cyclone Senyar has claimed over 500 lives as of Sunday. On the island of Sumatra, rescue teams have struggled to reach stranded people as roads have been blocked by mudslides and high floodwaters. Many areas are still reportedly unreachable.

As Reuters reported Monday, more than 28,000 homes have been damaged across the country and 1.4 million people affected, according to government figures. At least 464 were reported missing as of Sunday.

Other countries in the region were also battered. In Thailand, the death toll was reported at 176 as of Monday, and more than 3 million people are reported to be affected. The worst destruction has been in the southern city of Hat Yai, which on November 21 alone experienced 335mm of rain, its single largest recorded rainfall in over 300 years.

At least two more have been killed in Malaysia, where nearly 12,000 people still remain in evacuation centers.

Sri Lanka has witnessed similar devastation in recent days from another storm, Cyclone Ditwah, that formed around the same time as Senyar. Floods and mudslides have similarly killed at least 330 people, and destroyed around 20,000 homes, while leaving around a third of the country without electricity. More than 200 people are missing, and over 108,000 are in state-run shelters, officials say.

Work has begun in Indonesia to restore damaged roads, bridges, and telecommunication services. But after he visited survivors in Sumatra, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said that the work will extend beyond merely recovering from the storm.

“We need to confront climate change effectively,” Prabowo told reporters. “Local governments must take a significant role in safeguarding the environment and preparing for the extreme weather conditions that will arise from future climate change.”

Southeast Asia was top-of-mind for many attendees at last month’s COP30 climate summit in Brazil. As Winston Chow, a professor of urban climate at Singapore Management University and part of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told the Straits Times, this is because the region “is highly vulnerable to climate change.”

“As a whole, it faces multiple climate risks and hazards, such as rising temperatures, sea-level rise, increasing droughts and floods, and the intensification of extreme events like typhoons,” he continued.

In recent years, the region has been hit by annual devastating heatwaves, resulting in record-shattering temperatures. In Myanmar, where temperatures exceeded 110°F last April, Radio Free Asia reported that 1,473 people died from extreme heat in just one month.

Floods have likewise grown more deadly in recent years. Just this month, floods killed dozens more people in Vietnam, and a pair of typhoons killed hundreds more in the Philippines and forced over a million people to evacuate their homes.

While it’s difficult to determine the extent to which any one disaster was caused by climate change, in aggregate, they are growing more intense as the planet warms.

“As the world’s oceans and atmosphere warm at an accelerating rate due to the rise in greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, tropical cyclones are expected to become more intense,” explained Steve Turton, an adjunct professor of environmental geography at CQUniversity Australia in The Conversation on Sunday. “This is because cyclones get their energy from warm oceans. The warmer the ocean, the more fuel for the storm.”


According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, October 2025 was the third-warmest October on record globally and had above-average tropical cyclone activity.

“The warming atmosphere is supercharging the global water cycle, and peak rainfall rates are increasing,” Turton said. “When more rain falls in a short time, flash flooding becomes more likely.”

At COP30, protesters from across Southeast Asia assembled to demand action from global leaders. On November 10, shortly after her home in Manila was battered by a pair of typhoons, 25-year-old activist Ellenor Bartolome savaged corporations and world leaders who have continued to block global action to reduce fossil fuel usage.

“It gets worse every year, and for every disaster, it is utterly enraging that we are counting hundreds of bodies, hundreds of missing people... while the elite and the corporations are counting money from fossil fuels,” she told attendees as they entered the conference.

Ultimately, many climate activists and scientists left the conference enraged yet again, as the final agreement stripped out all language related to fossil fuels.

Adaptation Finance Low-Balled, Glaring Omission of Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels in New COP30 Text

Friday November, 21 2025, 
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)


BELÉM, Brazil - The annual UN climate talks, COP30, are entering their final hours after a fire briefly shut down the venue yesterday. Early this morning, the COP Presidency released a raft of new negotiations text including an updated version of Brazil’s Mutirão, an overarching political package for climate outcomes put forward by the Presidency. Despite its omission from the latest text, there is increasing support for a roadmap for a transition away from fossil fuels, endorsed by over 80 countries. Also this morning, Colombia led a press conference presenting the Belém Declaration on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, highlighting the growing number of countries at COP30 calling for a global just transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.

Below is a quote from Dr. Rachel Cleetus, senior policy director for the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who is on the ground at COP30.

“The new texts released this morning are disappointing across the board and the Mutirão text is much weaker than the earlier version. The COP Presidency must intensify its efforts to bridge differences, including in open and transparent plenaries in these final hours, to secure an ambitious outcome at COP30.

“The lack of finance for a clean energy transition and adaptation from richer nations—a critical part of the Paris Agreement—remains an ongoing obstacle to securing bold and fair outcomes. Political leaders from wealthier countries must show a willingness to meet their responsibilities instead of once again forcing those least responsible for the climate crisis into an inequitable compromise.

“Adaptation finance, which is a top priority for climate vulnerable nations coming into this COP, has been low-balled yet again. Lower income countries are unjustly enduring blow-after-blow from climate impacts caused primarily by heat-trapping emissions from rich nations, impacts that will worsen as the world overshoots 1.5 C of global warming. A strong outcome on funding for adaptation is essential to restore trust and deliver a fair outcome at COP30.

“The Mutirão text has completely dropped mention of a roadmap for a just transition away from fossil fuels, a glaring omission of an urgent call championed here by more than 80 countries. Fossil fuels are the root cause of the climate crisis and there is no credible pathway to meet science-based climate goals without a fast, fair, funded phaseout of fossil fuels. Lower income nations cannot make this transition rapidly, nor can they close the vast energy poverty gap that millions suffer from today, without funding from richer countries. Public finance is essential.

“More and more countries are demanding a just transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy to protect people and the planet while building thriving economies. The Belém Declaration led by Colombia is a bold complement to the roadmap nations are calling to include in the Mutirão, setting a high bar for ambition. How we make the transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy is crucial to ensuring this transition serves the needs of people, not fossil fuel interests bent on extracting profits. In addition to ramping up renewable energy and energy efficiency, a just transition must include support for workers currently dependent on fossil fuels for their livelihoods and for communities suffering from fossil fuel pollution.

“At COP28 in Dubai, nations agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. Now at COP30, billed as the ‘implementation COP,’ world leaders must secure a just transition package that sets the world firmly on a path to turn that commitment into reality within this critical decade and beyond.”


The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.