Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou dissects the Trump administration's dramatic, legally unfounded escalation against drug cartels, declaring a formal armed conflict in order to unlock powers for indefinite detentions and lethal strikes—challenging international law amid last month's Caribbean boat attacks that claimed 17 Venezuelans.

• Trump's War on Cartels: The administration notifies Congress that it is formally designating cartels as “terrorist nonstate armed groups,” framing boat strikes as lawful warfare under international law. This determination allows the president to kill enemy fighters. Retired judge advocate Geoffrey S. Corn condemns this as an abuse of the law, arguing that drug smuggling are not armed attacks.

• Government Shutdown and Cuts: Trump meets budget director Russell Vought to slash "Democrat Agencies" amid the shutdown, freezing funds for Democratic-leaning states and accelerating 300,000 federal worker layoffs by year's end. Inspired by Project 2025, this inflicts partisan pain, with unions suing but courts allowing firings to proceed. Senator Patty Murray blasts treating workers as pawns, warning it deepens the $1.7 trillion funding freeze halting research and data reports.

• Tennessee Executions: The Supreme Court schedules dates for four inmates, including Christa Pike, the state's sole woman on death row for her 1995 torture slaying of fellow student Colleen Slemmer. Pike's team appeals for commutation citing her abusive childhood, undiagnosed bipolar and PTSD at age 18. This follows a lethal injection scandal revealing untested drugs in prior executions.

• Madagascar Protests: President Andry Rajoelina fires his cabinet to try to quell youth-led street protests in Antananarivo over crippling water cuts and power outages hindering studies and meals, yet demands for his resignation surge. Gen Z Madagascar mobilizes strikes using global youth symbols, amid clashes killing at least 22 per U.N. reports, exacerbated by poverty and Trump's new tariffs.

• Hamas Eyes Gaza Deal: Hamas prepares its demands for revisions to Trump's 20-point plan. Facing a three-to-four-day deadline or "pay in hell" threats, leaders in Istanbul, Doha, and Gaza navigate divisions. Analysts frame it as choosing between bad and worse.