First Thing: US military announces strike on Pacific boat that kills four, taking death toll to 99 people

UN condemns strikes as extrajudicial executions. Plus, Trump’s end-of-year ‘Bah! Humbug!’ addressGood morning.The US military carried out another lethal strike on a vessel it claimed was engaged in drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific, according to the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, as Trump further ratcheted up pressure on Venezuela, accusing the country of taking US oil.How do human rights groups view the airstrikes? The UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have described them as extrajudicial executions. The family of one man killed in a bombing, from Colombia, have filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights saying he was illegally killed on 15 September.What did the speech tell us? This was not an address by a self-confident man dishing out Christmas presents to the nation,” Smith wrote. “It smacked of desperation from one who can feel the December windchill of opinion polls – a Reuters/ Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed just 33% of US adults approve of how Trump has handled the economy.” Continue reading...