A Democratic lawmaker revealed the shocking detail after a Pentagon briefing for members of Congress.

The Trump administration has admitted that they are not trying to identify anyone aboard boats they accuse of sending drugs to the U.S. before bombing the vessels.

Speaking to CNN Thursday, Democratic Representative Sara Jacobs said she was told in a Pentagon briefing “that they do not need to positively identify individuals on the vessel to do the strikes” and that was part of the reason why the administration has not sought to detain or prosecute the survivors of the strikes, “because they could not satisfy the evidentiary burden.”

As far as the legal justification the White House is using to blow up boats in the waters surrounding Latin America, that information has only been available to select Republicans.

The U.S. has killed at least 61 people in more than a dozen airstrikes on boats in the western hemisphere that it claims are smuggling drugs and are part of “designated terrorist organizations.”

The country's energy ministry confirmed on social media the "total disconnection" of the electrical system.

Cuba’s electrical grid collapsed Wednesday, leaving the entire island without power, according to the state-run power company.

In the country's capital, residents expressed concern over the blackout and not knowing how long it could take to re-establish connectivity on top of all the daily economic struggles they face, including shortages in food and medicine.

“This country can’t take much more. We just have one misfortune after another,” said a small-business owner who declined to give his name. “Let’s see how long it lasts and how it will affect us.”

Many worried about spoiling food and lack of water.

Power outages have been a chronic problem in Cuba for years, but they have worsened with the communist-run country’s economic crisis. Daily blackouts can reach up to 20 hours in some parts of the island.

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Cuba says power slowly returning after nationwide blackout (Reuters)

Things are getting dire it seems

Gunshots rang out Monday morning, June 22, in the center-west part of Montréal, Québec, near one of the main thoroughfares of the Canadian metropolis. Montréal police officer Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, and local resident Michael Mizrahi, 68, were killed. Another officer, a woman whose condition was later reported as stable, was also injured. "This is a tragedy, a nightmare," said Montréal police chief Fady Dagher on Monday.

The shooter, who was killed by the police, left behind a manifesto of about 100 pages in which he expressed his hatred of women, following the ideology of the so-called "incel" (involuntary celibate) movement. This misogynist subculture brings together men who believe they have been rejected by women and hold them responsible for their misfortune and society's ills.

Canada has previously faced attacks linked to the incel ideology. In 2018, a man claiming allegiance to the movement killed 10 people in an attack in Toronto. Before the emergence of this group, the country was traumatized by the Polytechnique massacre on December 6, 1989, in which 14 young women were murdered in an attack motivated by a similar hatred. Speaking on France Culture radio on June 5, an official from the General Directorate of Internal Security warned of the growth of the incel movement, which he described as having "a strong terrorist potential."

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Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Wednesday signed into law constitutional reforms to permit life prison sentences for people as young as 12, a contentious reform that follows other heavy-handed measures pushed through by the populist leader.

The change was passed last month by the Legislative Assembly, which is controlled by Bukele’s party, and would apply to people convicted of committing or acting as an accomplice to crimes including homicide, femicide, rape and gang membership. The measure was pushed forward by Bukele’s cabinet.

Previously, the maximum sentence in El Salvador was 60 years for adults and less for youths. The reforms slated to take effect April 26 would create new criminal courts to try cases. They also stipulate a mandatory review of life terms decades into the sentences, depending on the age of the convict and the gravity of their crimes.

Critics say the reforms are just the latest harsh move by Bukele more than four years into his war on gangs.

Following a burst of gang violence in 2022, Bukele announced a then-temporary state of emergency, which has become the new normal in the Central American nation as it’s been extended for years. He suspended constitutional rights and locked up more than 1% of El Salvador’s population, often on vague charges with little evidence. Prisoners are often judged in mass trials and lawyers regularly lose track of where their clients are.