Morning Brief: Vance Addresses Marines For Corps Birthday, US Repatriates Alleged Drug Traffickers, Durand Line Goes Quiet

Trump framed the operation on Truth Social as a strike against narcoterrorists. He called it a legitimate act of war and tied the cartels to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Administration officials say the broader effort aims to cut lines financed or protected by factions loyal to Caracas. They have not put public evidence on the table that connects this specific boat to state operatives. Six strikes since early September have killed at least twenty-nine suspected smugglers, mostly on speedboats and submersibles. These two survivors are the new variable. The choice to repatriate rather than bring federal charges drops this campaign squarely into untested legal ground. For years, maritime interdictions looked like law enforcement. You chase, hail, board, seize, and file cases. These missions look more like expeditionary warfare with a drug target. Think post 9 /11 authorities repurposed for the Caribbean. If traffickers are enemy combatants, what are the rules when they end up alive on your deck? Who owns their custody? What due process applies once the shooting stops? Is GITMO still open? The White House’s answer for now is to hand them back to Bogotá and Quito. Both governments have kept quiet in public while coordinating transfer timelines behind the scenes. That buys Washington time and avoids a courtroom that could pry open targeting policies, intelligence sources, and rules of engagement. It also sets a precedent. Future survivors will expect the same ride home in shackles instead of a trip to a U.S. courthouse. This campaign is built to break smugglers’ confidence at sea. It is working in the most final sense possible. The open question is whether the legal architecture can keep pace with the tactics. If the next team lives to talk, the United States will need answers that fit both the battlefield and the bench.   The Trump administration is moving the survivors from this week’s strike on a drug trafficking submarine to their home countries and not to the United States.https://t.co/YWcaiWp8po pic.twitter.com/s6OTU4wFzB — NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) October 18, 2025 Guns Go Quiet on the Durand Line, For Now The guns finally went quiet between Pakistan and Afghanistan after a week that looked like it might spin into something worse. Thirteen hours in a Doha conference room produced what artillery could not. An immediate ceasefire, confirmed by Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, with Qatar and Türkiye sitting in the middle to keep both sides honest. Both capitals say they will respect sovereignty and territorial lines, stop firing on posts and civilians, and cut support to militants. On paper, that is tidy. In practice, it lives or dies on whether commanders along the frontier enact the orders. A permanent joint mechanism, overseen by the mediators, will investigate claims and monitor compliance. Think of it as a field umpire with a whistle and a notebook. This truce follows the hardest punch either side has thrown since the United States left Afghanistan in 2021. The spark came on October 10. Pakistani outposts in Kurram and North Waziristan were hit, Islamabad says, and twenty-three Pakistani troops were killed. Pakistan struck back from the air against targets in Kandahar and Kabul provinces, accusing the Taliban government of sheltering Tehrik i Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Kabul answered that Pakistani aircraft crossed into Afghan airspace and hit civilian areas, which produced dozens of casualties. That is the kind of blood debt that lingers at the platoon level. The Doha accord is not limited to silence on the line. It sets a date for structured talks in Istanbul on October 25 to hammer out a real security framework. Islamabad called the deal a step toward durable peace. Mujahid labeled it a brotherly understanding built on mutual respect. Qatar’s foreign ministry cast it as a foundation for stability. The language is diplomatic, but the subtext is simple. Both sides want a pause long enough to see if they can trade fire for process. Call the ceasefire fragile and you will be right. Civilians along the frontier have already paid in displacement and fear. Turkish and Qatari diplomats will watch the verification piece in the coming weeks, and the next seven days will tell you if battlefield momentum has truly been arrested. If the guns stay silent, Istanbul becomes the next fight, only with suit coats and translation headsets. For now, commanders on both sides get a chance to reset sights, stack sandbags, and wait for orders that do not start with open fire. Peace is not a slogan out here. It is the absence of funerals.   When Qatar enters the negotiations. It mostly won’t end well. And you know who is behind it. For now, Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/Dj5ZKmtLML — Saikiran Kannan | 赛基兰坎南 (@saikirankannan) October 19, 2025