Live updates: Trump calls his Cabinet to meet amid scrutiny over boat strikes

President Donald Trump called his Cabinet to meet Tuesday morning as the administration insists that it was lawful for the U.S. military to kill survivors of its air strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea in September. Experts in the military code say this was clearly illegal, but The White House said Monday that Navy Vice Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley ordered the second strike and was “within his authority and the law.”

The military operation has come under bipartisan scrutiny, with lawmakers citing a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat.

Trump vigorously defended Hegseth on Sunday. “Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” Trump said. “And I believe him.” Bradley is expected to provide a classified briefing Thursday to lawmakers overseeing the military.

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Former Honduras president released from US prison after Trump pardon

Juan Orlando Hernández was serving a 45 year sentence for helping drug traffickers move some 400 tons of cocaine to the United States. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed Tuesday that he was released from a prison in Hazelton, West Virginia following a pardon from Trump.

“After almost four years of pain, of waiting and difficult challenges, my husband Juan Orlando Hernández RETURNED to being a free man, thanks to the presidential pardon granted by President Donald Trump,” his wife Ana García posted Tuesday.

Asked why he did it, Trump said Sunday that people in Honduras told him Hernández had been falsely accused in “a Biden administration set-up.”

The pardon injected a new element into Honduras’ presidential election, possibly helping the candidate from Hernández’ right-wing National Party as the vote count proceeded Tuesday.

War College professor emeritus says killing airstrike survivors is ‘clearly unlawful’

Michael Schmitt, a former Air Force lawyer and professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College, said it doesn’t matter whether the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels, as the Trump administration asserts — he says such a fatal second strike would have violated both peacetime laws and those governing armed conflict.

“I can’t imagine anyone, no matter what the circumstance, believing it is appropriate to kill people who are clinging to a boat in the water,” said Schmitt.

“It has been clear for well over a century that you may not declare what’s called ‘no quarter’ — take no survivors, kill everyone,” he said.

US envoy will meet Putin in Moscow

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss an embryonic peace plan that Washington hopes can bring about an end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine. Coinciding with Witkoff’s trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his country’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

Doctor says Trump’s MRI scan had ‘perfectly normal’ results

Trump’s doctor, Sean Barbabella, said the president had MRI imaging on his heart and abdomen in October as part of a preventative screening for men his age, according to a memo released by the White House on Monday. Barbabella said Trump’s physical exam included “advanced imaging” that is “standard for an executive physical” in Trump’s age group.