Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report, where we’ve gone trans-Atlantic this week. Rishi is in Lisbon attending Web Summit, keeping an eye on Europe’s—and China’s—tech scene there (more on that below) while enjoying some excellent Portuguese seafood.
Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: A growing international backlash to Trump’s Caribbean boat strikes, more power for Pakistan’s army chief, and some conversations around EU-U.S. tech fights.
Allies Seeking Distance
The escalating U.S. operation against alleged drug trafficking vessels near Latin America, which is widely believed to be linked to an effort to foster regime change in Venezuela, is gradually beginning to face international pushback—including from top allies of Washington.
This week, CNN reported that the United Kingdom has stopped sharing intelligence with the United States about suspected drug boats in the region over concerns about the legality of the strikes. If confirmed, this would mark a major rebuke of the U.S. operation from its closest ally in the world.
When contacted for a comment on the report, the White House directed SitRep to recent comments from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “It’s a false story. It’s a fake story,” Rubio told reporters on Wednesday in response to a question on the matter.
“We have very strong partnerships with the U.K. and other countries,” Rubio added. “Again, nothing has changed or happened that has impeded in any way our ability to do what we’re doing, nor are we asking anyone to help us with what we’re doing.”
After the CNN report emerged, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that he had ordered Colombia’s security forces to suspend intelligence sharing with the United States until the strikes stop. “The fight against drugs must be subordinated to the human rights of the Caribbean people,” Petro said in a post on X. Petro has been among the sharpest critics of the strikes, raising tensions between Washington and Bogotá.
Colombia, long regarded as an important U.S. ally in South America, is the world’s top producer of cocaine, and the two countries have collaborated on counternarcotics efforts for years; the move to suspend intelligence sharing is a big sign that such cooperation is breaking down amid President Donald Trump’s Latin America intervention.
It didn’t stop there. At a G-7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Canada this week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the boat strikes are breeding instability in the region and “violate international law.” In an apparent effort to distance her government from the U.S. operation, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand told reporters at the meeting that Ottawa has “no involvement.”
Dubious justifications. Since early September, the United States has conducted 19 strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific, killing at least 75 people. The Trump administration has said that the strikes have targeted “narcoterrorists” transporting illicit and deadly substances to the United States but has not provided hard evidence to back up these assertions.
Critics of the strikes, including members of Congress and top legal experts, have said that the operation is illegal under both domestic and international law—rejecting the Trump administration’s effort to portray drug traffickers as enemy combatants who can be targeted with lethal force. Congress has not authorized the operation, but legislative efforts to stop the strikes from continuing and block Trump from taking action in Venezuela have fallen short.
Experts on Latin America and counternarcotics operations have also emphasized that using lethal force against suspected drug vessels is unlikely to put a significant dent in the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States. Such factors, combined with the scale of the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, have increased speculation that the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for an operation to bring down Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Amid the U.S. military buildup and reports that Trump is privately considering what options to take against the Maduro regime, Venezuela has ordered a massive mobilization of its military forces.
Though there is growing global criticism of the U.S. operation, including from the United Nations, the response in Latin America itself has been fairly disjointed so far. John has more on that here.
On the Button
What should be high on your radar, if it isn’t already.
MBS in D.C. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (commonly referred to by his initials, MBS) is set to visit Washington next week for the first time since 2018, where he will reportedly be feted with a lavish dinner and could secure a defense pact with the United States. Trump’s rolling out of the red carpet for Mohammed bin Salman is all the more striking given that U.S. intelligence agencies previously determined that the crown prince personally approved the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. (The Biden administration determined in 2022 that Mohammed bin Salman has legal immunity for that killing.)
Military man. Pakistan’s parliament voted to vastly expand the remit of its already powerful army chief on Wednesday, putting him in charge of all three branches of the military and giving him legal immunity for life. Field Marshal Asim Munir, only the second person in Pakistan’s history to attain that rank, will assume the newly created title of chief of defense forces from his current role as chief of the army staff, bringing the country’s navy and air force under his command.
Ukraine audit. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced on Thursday that the government will conduct an audit of all state-owned enterprises. The move comes amid a corruption scandal that has engulfed the country, even as it fights to retain control of the eastern city of Pokrovsk from invading Russian forces.
Ukrainian anti-corruption watchdogs on Monday accused at least a dozen people of conspiring to embezzle $100 million from Ukraine’s energy sector, the result of a monthslong investigation that implicated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s former business partner. Zelensky said he would support the probe and called on the country’s energy and justice ministers to resign, which Svyrydenko said they had done.
Snapshot
Irish President Catherine Connolly takes part in an inspection of an honor guard following her inauguration ceremony, at Dublin Castle in Dublin on Nov. 11. Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images
Hot Mic
European tech regulations have long rankled the United States’ biggest tech companies, who say they are overly onerous and stifle innovation. The Trump administration, and particularly Vice President J.D. Vance, has amplified that argument, and it seems to have at least partially landed. The European Union is preparing amendments to its landmark EU AI Act next week that aim to simplify the legal requirements of tech companies operating in Europe, EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen said at Web Summit.
Although the details of the proposed amendments have not been finalized, some European officials and politicians cautioned against bending too far to Trump and Big Tech. “The voices from the United States are getting increasingly loud,” Michael O’Flaherty, the commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, the continent’s main human rights watchdog, told Rishi onstage at Web Summit. And O’Flaherty rejected the U.S. tech companies’ complaint: “It’s not a zero-sum game between good regulation and innovation,” he said, using China as an example of a case where innovation and heavy regulation coexist.
Michael McNamara, an Irish member of European Parliament who co-chairs the parliament’s AI working group, echoed the call for Europe to be more confident in standing up to Washington on tech. “Our purpose is not just to facilitate companies,” he said. “That is certainly important in the world in which we live … but so is the protection of fundamental rights of our citizens, so is the protection of European regulation, and regulating your markets is a key facet of sovereignty.”
Put on Your Radar
Sunday, Nov. 16: Chile holds a general election.
Tuesday, Nov. 18: Trump hosts Mohammed bin Salman at the White House.
Germany hosts a summit on European digital sovereignty in Berlin.
Friday, Nov. 21: G-7 interior and security ministers meet in Ottawa.
Saturday, Nov. 22: South Africa hosts a G-20 leaders’ summit.
By the Numbers
$2 billion: How much it could cost to officially rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War, according to a report from NBC News that cited six people who had been briefed on the numbers. Changing the department letterhead and signage alone could require around half that amount. Trump signed an executive order with the name change in September, and his administration has been using it informally, but officially changing the name would require an act of Congress.
This Week’s Most Read
- Trump Should Oust Maduro by Matthew Kroenig
- Toppling Maduro Without Boots on the Ground by Ryan C. Berg
- Trump’s Russia Sanctions Are Really Putting the Hurt On by Keith Johnson
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
One of the oft-repeated fears about artificial intelligence is the possibility of creating out-of-control killer robots (think Terminator or I, Robot). But if they’re anything like the humanoid robot that Russian company AIDOL demoed this week at a tech showcase in Moscow, humanity seems safe for now. The Russian bot staggered onstage to the Rocky theme song before faceplanting and hurriedly being carried off by human handlers while their colleagues unsuccessfully tried to cover the stage with a black cloth. Rishi did witness a more agile robot made by Chinese firm Unitree at Web Summit, but its “killer” movements were restricted to dance moves.