WASHINGTON (AP) — Families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike last October sued the federal government on Tuesday, calling the attack a war crime and part of an “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful U.S. military campaign.”
The lawsuit is thought to be the first wrongful death case arising from the three dozen strikes that the administration has launched since September on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The complaint will test the legal justification of the Trump administration attacks; government officials have defended them as necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the United States but many legal experts say they amount to a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.
The complaint echoes many of the frequently articulated concerns about the boat strikes, noting for instance that they have been carried out without congressional authorization and at a time when there is no military conflict between the United States and drug cartels that under the laws of war could justify the lethal attacks.
“These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification. Thus, they were simply murders, ordered by individuals at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command,” the lawsuit says.
The Defense Department said in an email that it does not comment on ongoing litigation.
The lawsuit was filed by the mother of Chad Joseph and the sister of Rishi Samaroo, two Trinidadian nationals who were among six people killed in an October 14 missile strike on a boat traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad. The men were not members of any drug cartel, the lawsuit says, but had instead been fishing in the waters off the Venezuelan coast and were returning to their homes in Trinidad and Tobago.
The two had caught a ride home to Las Cuervas, a fishing community where they were from, on a small boat targeted in a strike announced on Truth Social by President Donald Trump. All six people aboard the boat were killed.
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“These killings were wrongful because they took place outside of armed conflict and in circumstances in which Mr. Joseph and Mr. Samaroo were not engaged in activities that presented a concrete, specific, and imminent threat of death or serious physical injury, and where there were means other than lethal force that could have reasonably been employed to neutralize any such threat,” the lawsuit says.
The death toll from the boat strikes is now up to at least 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea, the U.S. military confirmed Monday. The figure includes 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September, with 10 others believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.
The lawsuit is the first to challenge the legality of the boat strikes in court, according to Jen Nessel, a spokesperson for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed the lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts on behalf of the families, along with the ACLU and others.
Nessel said in an email that the center also has a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking the release of the legal justification for the strikes.
NEW YORK (AP) — Pinterest plans to lay off under 15% of its workforce, as part of broader restructuring that arrives as the image-sharing platform pivots more of its money to artificial intelligence.
In a Tuesday securities filing, San Francisco-based Pinterest said it was making these cuts to support “transformation initiatives” — which include reallocating the company’s resources to AI-focused roles and prioritizing AI-powered products. It said it was also working to reshape its “sales and go-to-market approach.”
Beyond the coming layoffs, Pinterest said it will reduce office space. The company expects to complete its restructuring plan by the end of September, incurring pretax charges of $35 million to $45 million.
Pinterest’s job cuts are expected to impact hundreds of workers. As of the end of last year, Pinterest had a total headcount of about 5,200 employees, the company confirmed to The Associated Press.
Like other tech and social media companies, Pinterest has accelerated its integration of AI recently, particularly in consumer-facing offerings. In October, the company introduced AI-powered updates to users’ in-platform “boards” and unveiled Pinterest Assistant, which is also powered by AI and gives users shopping recommendations.
Pinterest isn’t the first company to turn to job cuts while pivoting spending to AI. Last fall, Amazon, for example, said it would cut about 14,000 corporate jobs (close to 4% of its workforce) as it ramped up AI investments while trimming costs elsewhere.
Shares of Pinterest fell more than 9% as of midday trading Tuesday.
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Chief Financial Officer Brian Dykes said during the company’s conference call on Tuesday that the job cuts will be made through a voluntary buyout offer for full-time drivers and through attrition.
UPS is also looking to close 24 buildings in the first half of the year and is evaluating additional buildings to close later in the year, he added.
UPS said in a regulatory filing in October that it had cut about 34,000 operational positions and closed daily operations at 93 leased and owned buildings during the first nine months of last year. The company also announced approximately 14,000 job cuts, mostly within management.
According to FactSet UPS employs about 490,000 workers.
In April UPS announced that it was looking to slash about 20,000 jobs and close more than 70 facilities as it drastically reduces the number of Amazon shipments it handles. The company said in January 2025 that it had reached a deal with Amazon, its biggest customer, to lower its volume by more than 50% by the second half of 2026.
CEO Carol Tome said during the conference call that by the end of 2025 UPS had reduced Amazon’s volume in its network by approximately 1 million pieces per day.
“We’re in the final six months of our Amazon accelerated glide down plan, and for the full year, 2026, we intend to glide down another million pieces per day, while continuing to reconfigure our network,” Tome said.
Shares of United Parcel Service Inc. rose 3.4% in afternoon trading.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Two Iranian-backed militias in the Mideast are signaling their willingness to launch new attacks, likely trying to back Iran, as officials acknowledged the arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier to the region Monday. President Donald Trump ordered the carriers to move to the Middle East as he threatened military action over its crackdown on nationwide protests.
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Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Monday hinted they were ready to resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. That came just after Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah paramilitary group, long supported by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, issued a direct threat late Sunday toward any attack targeting Iran, warning a “total war” in the region would be a result.
The statements came as the entire region is mired in a tense waiting game to see if Trump will strike. Kataib Hezbollah sat out from Israel’s 12-day war on Iran in June that saw the United States bomb Iranian nuclear sites, while the Houthis fired missiles at Israel during that period.
The hesitancy to get fully involved shows the disarray still affecting Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” after facing attacks from Israel during its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
US carrier arrives in region
The threats came as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other guided missile destroyers in its strike group arrived in the region to “promote regional security and stability,” U.S. Central Command said Monday on social media.
Trump has said the ships are being moved “just in case” he decides to take action against Iran. He has already laid out two red lines for attack — the killing of peaceful protesters and Tehran conducting mass executions of those it has arrested in a massive crackdown over the demonstrations.
This photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet landing on the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean on Jan. 22, 2026. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Daniel Kimmelman/U.S. Navy via AP)
This photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows Aviation Ordnanceman 3rd Class Dianna Hernandez directs an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean on Jan. 21, 2026. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Daniel Kimmelman/U.S. Navy via AP)
This photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows Seaman Rafael Brito standing watch aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean on Jan. 22, 2026. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Angel Campbell/U.S. Navy via AP)
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This photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet landing on the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean on Jan. 22, 2026. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Daniel Kimmelman/U.S. Navy via AP)
A senior Iranian military official who spoke anonymously on Iran’s state TV dismissed the American threat as “an exaggeration” and noted that Iran had increased its military presence in response. The official added that the Lincoln’s presence was not a deterrent but an accessible target.
Threats from Iraq, Yemen, while Hezbollah stays mum
Iran projected its power across the Mideast through the “Axis of Resistance,” a network of proxy militant groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, and other places. It was also seen as a defensive buffer, intended to keep conflict away from Iranian borders. But it has collapsed after Israel targeted Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and others during the Gaza war. Meanwhile, rebels in 2024 overthrew Syria’s Bashar Assad after a yearslong, bloody war in which Iran backed his rule.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, one of Iran’s staunchest allies, refused to say how it planned to react in the case of a possible attack.
“During the past two months, several parties have asked me a clear and frank question: If Israel and America go to war against Iran, will Hezbollah intervene or not?” Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said via a video address to thousands of supporters gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs for a rally backing Iran.
He said the group is preparing for “possible aggression and is determined to defend” against it. But as to how it would act, he said, “these details will be determined by the battle and we will determine them according to the interests that are present.”
Iraqi and Yemeni militant groups were much more forthright in their threats, which were interpreted as support for Iran. A short video by the Houthis included images of a ship on fire, with the caption: “Soon.” It later aired footage Monday from its January 2024 attack in the Gulf of Aden on the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Marlin Luanda, one of over 100 ships attacked as part of a campaign the Houthis said pressured Israel over its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis halted their fire after a ceasefire in Gaza, though they’ve repeatedly warned they could resume fire if needed.
Meanwhile, Ahmad “Abu Hussein” al-Hamidawi of Kataib Hezbollah issued his own threat in a statement.
“We affirm to the enemies that the war on the (Islamic) Republic will not be a picnic; rather, you will taste the bitterest forms of death, and nothing will remain of you in our region,” he said.
The United Arab Emirates announced on Monday that it would not allow its airspace, territory or territorial waters to be used for military action against Iran. The UAE said it would stress dialogue and diplomatic resolutions.
Iran warns America not to attack
Iranian Defense Ministry spokesperson Gen. Reza Talaei-Nik renewed warnings Monday to both Israel and the U.S., saying any attack would “be met with a response that is more painful and more decisive than in the past.” Iranian state TV quoted Talaei-Nik as saying that threats required Iran “to maintain full and comprehensive preparedness.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei separately told journalists: “Regional countries fully know that any security breach in the region will not affect Iran only. The lack of security is contagious.”
Iran over the weekend unveiled a new banner in Tehran’s Enghelab Square threatening the Lincoln, showing an aircraft carrier strewn with bodies and streaked with blood with the warning: “If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind.” However, Iran is still reeling from the 12-day war in June in which its air defense systems were broadly destroyed, top military leaders killed, and its nuclear enrichment sites bombed by the U.S.
Two girls, not wearing the legally required headscarves, walk past a billboard depicting a damaged U.S. aircraft carrier with disabled fighter jets on its deck and a sign reading in Farsi and English, “If you sow the wind, you’ll reap the whirlwind,” at Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) Square in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
As a sign of concern over its airspace, Iran issued a notice to pilots Sunday that banned small private aircraft from flying in the country, with carve-outs for the oil industry and emergency medical flights.
Many Western airlines have started to avoid Iranian airspace entirely due to the tensions, though Gulf Arab carriers flying to Moscow still rely on the route. Iranian air defense troops in 2020 shot down a Ukrainian commercial airliner, killing 176 people on board.
Death toll rises from protest crackdown
The protests in Iran began on Dec. 28, sparked by the fall of the Iranian currency, the rial, and quickly spread across the country. They were met by a violent crackdown by Iran’s theocracy, the scale of which is only starting to become clear as the country has faced more than two-week internet blackout — the most comprehensive in its history.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Monday put the death toll at 5,973, with the number expected to increase. It says more than 41,813 people have been arrested.
The group’s figures have been accurate in previous unrest and rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest there in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Associated Press has not been able to independently verify the toll.
Iran’s government has put the death toll at a far lower 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces, and labeled the rest “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.
Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
This story has been corrected to note that the Houthis fired missiles on Israel during the 12-day war last June.
