WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Three U.S. Aegis guided-missile destroyers will arrive off the coast of Venezuela in the next 36 hours as part of an effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels, two sources briefed on the matter said on Monday.
President Donald Trump has wanted to use the military to go after Latin American drug gangs that have been designated as global terrorist organizations.
The sources said the ships are the USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham, and the USS Sampson.
A separate U.S. official told Reuters that in total, about 4,000 sailors and Marines are expected to be committed to the Trump administration&#8217;s efforts in the southern Caribbean region.
That U.S. official, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the additional commitment of military assets in the broader region would include several P-8 spy planes, warships, and at least one attack submarine.
The official said the process would be ongoing for several months and the plan was for them to operate in international airspace and international waters.
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The naval assets can be used to not just carry out intelligence and surveillance operations, but also as a launching pad for targeted strikes if a decision is made, the official added.
Venezuela&#8217;s communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Without referring to the warships, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday in an address that Venezuela will &#8220;defend our seas, our skies and our lands.&#8221; He alluded to what he called &#8220;the outlandish, bizarre threat of a declining empire.&#8221;
Trump has made cracking down on drug cartels a central goal of his administration as part of a wider effort to limit migration and secure the U.S. southern border.
The Trump administration in recent months has already deployed at least two warships to help in border security efforts and drug trafficking.
The Trump administration designated Mexico&#8217;s Sinaloa Cartel and other drug gangs, as well as Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua, as global terrorist organizations in February, as it stepped up immigration enforcement against alleged gang members.
The U.S. military has already been increasing its airborne surveillance of Mexican drug cartels to collect intelligence to determine how to best counter their activities.
(Reporting By Steve Holland and Idrees Ali; additional reporting by Vivian Sequera and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Chris Reese and Christian Schmollinger)

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U.S. Deploys Warships Near Venezuela To Combat Drug Threats, Sources Say

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Three U.S. Aegis guided-missile destroyers will arrive off the coast of Venezuela in the next 36 hours as part of an effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels, two sources briefed on the matter said on Monday.
President Donald Trump has wanted to use the military to go after Latin American drug gangs that have been designated as global terrorist organizations.
The sources said the ships are the USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham, and the USS Sampson.
A separate U.S. official told Reuters that in total, about 4,000 sailors and Marines are expected to be committed to the Trump administration&#8217;s efforts in the southern Caribbean region.
That U.S. official, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the additional commitment of military assets in the broader region would include several P-8 spy planes, warships, and at least one attack submarine.
The official said the process would be ongoing for several months and the plan was for them to operate in international airspace and international waters.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=summer&amp;utm_content=editorialsummersale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">End of Summer Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
The naval assets can be used to not just carry out intelligence and surveillance operations, but also as a launching pad for targeted strikes if a decision is made, the official added.
Venezuela&#8217;s communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Without referring to the warships, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday in an address that Venezuela will &#8220;defend our seas, our skies and our lands.&#8221; He alluded to what he called &#8220;the outlandish, bizarre threat of a declining empire.&#8221;
Trump has made cracking down on drug cartels a central goal of his administration as part of a wider effort to limit migration and secure the U.S. southern border.
The Trump administration in recent months has already deployed at least two warships to help in border security efforts and drug trafficking.
The Trump administration designated Mexico&#8217;s Sinaloa Cartel and other drug gangs, as well as Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua, as global terrorist organizations in February, as it stepped up immigration enforcement against alleged gang members.
The U.S. military has already been increasing its airborne surveillance of Mexican drug cartels to collect intelligence to determine how to best counter their activities.
(Reporting By Steve Holland and Idrees Ali; additional reporting by Vivian Sequera and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Chris Reese and Christian Schmollinger)

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MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russian forces have made a sudden thrust into eastern Ukraine near the coal mining town of Dobropillia, a move that may be designed to increase the pressure on Kyiv to give up land as the U.S. and Russian presidents prepare to meet.
Ukraine&#8217;s authoritative DeepState war map showed on Tuesday that Russian forces had advanced by at least six miles north in two prongs in recent days, part of their drive to take full control of Ukraine&#8217;s Donetsk region.
The advance is one of the most dramatic in the last year. DeepState said the Russians had surged forward near three villages on a section of the frontline associated with the Ukrainian towns of Kostyantynivka and Pokrovsk, which Moscow is trying to encircle by exploiting Kyiv&#8217;s lack of manpower.
&#8220;The situation is quite chaotic, as the enemy, having found gaps in the defense, is infiltrating deeper, trying to quickly consolidate and accumulate forces for further advancement,&#8221; DeepState said on its Telegram channel.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to discuss a possible deal to end the war in Ukraine when they meet in Alaska on Friday. Unconfirmed media reports say Putin has told Trump he wants Ukraine to hand over the part of the Donetsk region that Russia does not control.
There was no immediate comment on the advance from Moscow. Ukraine&#8217;s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, had ordered reinforcements to be deployed &#8220;to detect and destroy enemy sabotage groups that penetrate the line of defense,&#8221; Andriy Kovalov, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army, told Interfax-Ukraine.
He said Russia was using its numerical superiority to try to infiltrate Ukrainian defense lines in small groups and had made 35 attempts to push back Ukrainian units, suffering heavy losses in the process. Viktor Trehubov, another Ukrainian military spokesperson, played down the development, saying the infiltration did not amount to a breakthrough.
Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group, said the situation had escalated rapidly, with Russian forces infiltrating past Ukrainian lines to a depth of roughly 10 miles during the past three days.
&#8220;Forwardmost Russian units have reportedly reached the Dobropillia – Kramatorsk road T0514 and Russian infiltration groups have also been reported near Dobropillia proper,&#8221; he wrote on X.
<h3>RUSSIA MAY GAIN LEVERAGE FOR TRUMP TALKS</h3>
Tatarigami_UA, a former Ukrainian army officer whose Frontelligence Insight analysis tracks the conflict, posted: &#8220;In both 2014 and 2015, Russia launched major offensives ahead of negotiations to gain leverage. The current situation is serious, but far from the collapse some suggest.&#8221;
Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, said the Russians had been able to advance because of &#8220;a partial collapse in the front&#8221; due to Ukraine&#8217;s shortage of soldiers.
&#8220;This breakthrough is like a gift to Putin and Trump during the negotiations,&#8221; Markov said, suggesting it could increase pressure on Kyiv to cede some land to prevent the Russian army eventually taking the rest of Donetsk by force.
To do that, though, Russian forces would first need to take control of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka &#8211; which Russian military analysts call &#8220;fortress cities.&#8221;
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly pushed back against the idea of ceding territory to Russia, saying any peace deal must be a just one.
Bohdan Krotevych, former chief of staff of Ukraine&#8217;s Azov brigade and a National Guard lieutenant colonel, took to X late on Monday to warn Zelensky of the threat, saying the frontline in the area was &#8220;a complete mess.&#8221;
&#8220;The line of combat engagement as a fixed line does not actually exist,&#8221; he said.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn in Moscow. Additional reporting by Dan Peleschuk and Yuliia Dysa in Kyiv. Editing by Kevin Liffey and Giles Elgood.)

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Russia Makes Sudden Advance In Ukraine Days Before Trump-Putin Summit

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil&#8217;s Supreme Court put former President Jair Bolsonaro under house arrest on Monday ahead of his trial for an alleged coup plot, underscoring the court&#8217;s resolve despite escalating tariffs and sanctions from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the target of U.S. Treasury sanctions last week, issued the arrest order against Bolsonaro. His decision cited a failure to comply with restraining orders he had imposed on Bolsonaro for allegedly courting Trump&#8217;s interference in the case.
Bolsonaro is on trial before the Supreme Court on charges he conspired with allies to violently overturn his 2022 electoral loss to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Trump has referred to the case as a &#8220;witch hunt&#8221; and called it grounds for a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods taking effect on Wednesday.
The U.S. State Department condemned the house arrest order, saying Moraes was using Brazilian institutions to silence opposition and threaten democracy, adding the U.S. would &#8220;hold accountable all those aiding and abetting sanctioned conduct.&#8221;
It did not provide details, though Trump has said the U.S. could still impose even higher tariffs on Brazilian imports.
The Monday order from Moraes also banned Bolsonaro from using a cell phone or receiving visits, except for his lawyers and people authorized by the court.
A press representative for Bolsonaro confirmed he was placed under house arrest on Monday evening at his Brasilia residence by police who seized his cell phone.
Bolsonaro&#8217;s lawyers said in a statement they would appeal the decision, arguing the former president had not violated any court order.
In an interview with Reuters last month, Bolsonaro called Moraes a &#8220;dictator&#8221; and said the restraining orders against him were acts of &#8220;cowardice.&#8221;
Some Bolsonaro allies have worried that Trump&#8217;s tactics may be backfiring in Brazil, compounding trouble for Bolsonaro and rallying public support behind Lula&#8217;s leftist government.
However, Sunday demonstrations by Bolsonaro supporters — the largest in months — show that Trump&#8217;s tirades and sanctions against Moraes have also fired up the far-right former army captain&#8217;s political base.
Bolsonaro appeared virtually at a protest in Rio de Janeiro via phone call to his son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, in what some saw as the latest test of his restraining orders.
Moraes said that the former president had repeatedly made attempts to bypass the court&#8217;s orders.
&#8220;Justice is blind, but not foolish,&#8221; the justice wrote in his decision.
On Monday, Senator Bolsonaro told CNN Brasil that Monday&#8217;s order from Moraes was &#8220;a clear display of vengeance&#8221; for the U.S. sanctions against the judge, adding: &#8220;I hope the Supreme Court can put the brakes on this person (Moraes) causing so much upheaval.&#8221;
The judge&#8217;s orders, including the restraining orders under penalty of arrest, have been upheld by the wider court.
Those orders and the larger case before the Supreme Court came after two years of investigations into Bolsonaro&#8217;s role in an election-denying movement that culminated in riots by his supporters that rocked Brasilia in January 2023. That unrest drew comparisons to the January 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol after Trump&#8217;s 2020 electoral defeat.
In contrast with the tangle of criminal cases which mostly stalled against Trump, Brazilian courts moved swiftly against Bolsonaro, threatening to end his political career and fracture his right-wing movement. An electoral court has already banned Bolsonaro from running for public office until 2030.
Another of Bolsonaro&#8217;s sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian congressman, moved to the U.S. around the same time the former president&#8217;s criminal trial kicked off to drum up support for his father in Washington. The younger Bolsonaro said the move had influenced Trump&#8217;s decision to impose new tariffs on Brazil.
In a statement after the arrest on Monday, Congressman Bolsonaro called Moraes &#8220;an out-of-control psychopath who never hesitates to double down.&#8221;
Trump last month shared a letter he had sent to Bolsonaro. &#8220;I have seen the terrible treatment you are receiving at the hands of an unjust system turned against you,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;This trial should end immediately!&#8221;
Washington based its sanctions against Moraes last week on accusations that the judge had authorized arbitrary pre-trial detentions and suppressed freedom of expression.
The arrest could give Trump a pretext to pile on additional measures against Brazil, said Graziella Testa, a political science professor at the Federal University of Parana, adding that Bolsonaro seemed to be consciously provoking escalation.
&#8220;I think things could escalate because this will be seen as a reaction to the Magnitsky sanction&#8221; against Moraes, said Leonardo Barreto, a partner at the Think Policy political risk consultancy in Brasilia, referring to the asset freeze imposed on Moraes last week.
(Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Additional reporting by Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Writing by Andre Romani and Brad Haynes; Editing by Kylie Madry, Leslie Adler and Lincoln Feast)
&nbsp;

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Brazil’s Bolsonaro Arrested, Adding To Tensions With Trump

BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The European Union will suspend its two packages of countermeasures to U.S. tariffs for six months following a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump, a Commission spokesperson said on Monday.
The E.U.-U.S. agreement leaves many questions open, including tariff rates on spirits, and Trump&#8217;s executive order last week setting tariffs on most E.U. goods at 15%, which did not include carve-outs such as for cars and car parts.
E.U. officials have said they expect more executive orders to follow soon.
&#8220;The E.U. continues to work with the U.S. to finalize a Joint Statement, as agreed on 27 July,&#8221; the spokesperson said in a statement.
&#8220;With these objectives in mind, the Commission will take the necessary steps to suspend by 6 months the E.U.’s countermeasures against the U.S., which were due to enter into force on 7 August.&#8221;
The retaliatory tariffs are in two parts: one in response to U.S. steel and aluminium duties, and the other to Trump&#8217;s baseline and car tariffs.
(Reporting by Julia Payne; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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E.U. To Suspend Retaliatory Tariff On U.S. For Six Months As Massive Trade Deal Is Finalized

Ghislaine Maxwell has been transferred from a Florida prison to a lower-security facility in Texas to continue serving her 20-year sentence for helping the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said on Friday.
Maxwell&#8217;s move from FCI Tallahassee, a low-security prison, to the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, comes a week after she met with Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said he wanted to speak with her about anyone else who may have been involved in Epstein&#8217;s crimes.
Maxwell&#8217;s lawyer, David Markus, confirmed she was moved but said he had no other comment. Spokespeople for the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The BOP classifies prison camps such as Bryan as minimum security institutions, the lowest of five security levels in the federal system. Such facilities have limited or no perimeter fencing. Low-security facilities such as FCI Tallahassee have double-fenced perimeters and higher staff-to-inmate ratios than camps, according to the bureau.
Asked why Maxwell was transferred, BOP spokesperson Donald Murphy said he could not comment on the specifics of any incarcerated individual&#8217;s prison assignment, but that the BOP determines where inmates are sent based on factors including &#8220;the level of security and supervision the inmate requires.&#8221;
Blanche&#8217;s meeting with Maxwell came as President Donald Trump faces pressure from both his base of conservative supporters and congressional Democrats to release more information from the Department of Justice&#8217;s investigations of Maxwell and Epstein.
The Department is seeking court approval to release transcripts of law enforcement officers&#8217; testimony before the grand juries that indicted Maxwell and Epstein. Such transcripts are usually kept secret. Two federal judges in Manhattan are weighing the government&#8217;s requests.
Lawyers for Maxwell, Epstein, and their alleged victims are due to share their positions on the potential unsealing with the judges in filings on Tuesday.
Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty.
Neither Markus nor Blanche has provided detailed accounts of what they discussed. Markus has said Maxwell would welcome relief from Trump, who has said he had not thought about whether to pardon her.
Maxwell was found guilty in 2021 of recruiting and grooming girls for Epstein to abuse. She had pleaded not guilty and is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn her conviction.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward in Washington and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Daniel Wallis, Rod Nickel)

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Ghislaine Maxwell Moved From Florida Prison To Lower-Security Facility

A magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off Russia&#8217;s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, generating a tsunami of up to 4 metres (13 feet), damaging buildings and prompting evacuation warnings in the area and across most of Japan&#8217;s east coast, officials said.
&#8220;Today&#8217;s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,&#8221; Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app, adding that a kindergarten was damaged.
A tsunami with a height of 3-4 metres (10-13 feet) was recorded in parts of Kamchatka, Sergei Lebedev, regional minister for emergency situations said, urging people to move away from the shoreline of the peninsula.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow at a depth of 19.3 km (12 miles), and was centred 126 km (80 miles) east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000 along the coast of Avacha Bay. It revised the magnitude up from 8.0 earlier.
The Japan Weather Agency upgraded its warning, saying it expected tsunami waves of up to 3 metres (10 feet) to reach large coastal areas starting around 0100 GMT. Broadcast NHK said evacuation orders had been issued by the government for some areas.
Factory workers and residents in Japan&#8217;s northern Hokkaido evacuated to a hill overlooking the ocean, footage from broadcaster TBS showed.
&#8220;Please evacuate quickly. If you can move quickly to higher ground and away from the coast,&#8221; a newscaster on Japanese public broadcaster NHK said.
The U.S. Tsunami Warning System also issued a warning of &#8220;hazardous tsunami waves&#8221; within the next three hours along some coasts of Russia, Japan, Alaska and Hawaii. A tsunami watch was also in effect for the U.S. island territory of Guam and other islands of Micronesia.
Hawaii ordered evacuations from some coastal areas. &#8220;Take Action! Destructive tsunami waves expected,&#8221; the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management said on X.
An evacuation order for the small town of Severo-Kurilsk, south of the Kamchatka peninsula, was declared due to the tsunami threat, Sakhalin Governor Valery Limarenko said on Telegram.
Several people sought medical assistance following the quake, Oleg Melnikov, regional health minister told Russia’s TASS state news agency.
&#8220;Unfortunately, there are some people injured during the seismic event. Some were hurt while running outside, and one patient jumped out of a window. A woman was also injured inside the new airport terminal,” Melnikov said.
“All patients are currently in satisfactory condition, and no serious injuries have been reported so far.”
The Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences said it was a very powerful earthquake.
&#8220;However, due to certain characteristics of the epicentre, the shaking intensity was not as high &#8230; as one might expect from such a magnitude,&#8221; it said in a video on Telegram.
“Aftershocks are currently ongoing &#8230; Their intensity will remain fairly high. However, stronger tremors are not expected in the near future. The situation is under control.”
Kamchatka and Russia&#8217;s Far East sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region that is prone to major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
(Reporting by Anusha Shah Nilutpal Timsina and Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru, Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Satoshi Sugiyama in Tokyo; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Stephen Coates)

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Powerful Quake Causes Tsunami, Endangering U.S., Russia, And Japan

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President Trump hosts world leaders at the White House, former Attorney General Bill Bar sits for a closed-door deposition on Jeffrey Epstein, and New Mexico’s governor deploys the National Guard. Get the facts first with Evening Wire.

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