Mexico, the Reuters news agency, and the NBC report are among the countries that President Donald Trump has suggested he might expand his unprecedented strikes against Latin American drug cartels.
“Would I launch strikes against drugs in Mexico?” That’s fine with me. Mexico is where I’ve been speaking. They are aware of my position, he told reporters on Monday at the Oval Office. “We’re putting up hundreds of thousands of dollars in the drug trade.” We know every route, so we’ve already stopped the waterways.
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Trump did not specify how or when such strikes might occur. Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, has previously stated that she opposes any such attacks on the soil of her country.
According to Jeff Garmany, an associate professor of Latin American studies at the University of Melbourne, Mexican opposition may not be heard when he says. There are a number of legal obstacles, some domestic and others international, that stand in the way. UN member states generally respect basic protocols of international diplomacy, he said, despite the fact that they may not be bound by the law.
Nothing about Trump’s second term suggests that he would abide by these rules and protocols, though. No, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump waited for Sheinbaum’s approval before starting a strike in Mexico, he continued.
Two weeks prior to Trump’s comments, NBC reported that the White House was getting ready for the first stages of a ground operation in Mexico that would be jointly conducted with US intelligence agencies. According to the report, drone strikes against cartel members and drug labs in Mexico will be the focus of the operation.
Trump made the suggestion that the US already has a shortlist of targets in his remarks on Monday at the White House. We are “knowing every route.” Trump told reporters, “We know the addresses of every drug lord.” They are aware of their address. Their front door is known to us. We are completely knowledgeable about each and every one of them.
Because cartels were abusing “hundreds of thousands” of Americans with drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, and fentanyl, he said the situation was “like a war.”
Due to the strength of the drug cartels there, Garmany told Al Jazeera, that US strikes in Mexico could probably amount to little. After declaring a “war” on drugs 20 years ago, the Mexican government has itself been at the center of a long-running, deadly conflict.
“Mexico’s cartels are some of the most powerful and organized criminal organizations in the world.” They are situated between the United States and the rest of Latin America in a unique geographic location with abundant resources. Carrying out targeted military strikes would be more effective as a PR stunt than anything else. One of the most lucrative illegal supply chains in the world won’t be stopped, he said.
Since taking office in January, Trump has relied on executive orders and legal provisions to justify military action against drug cartels without the support of Congress. In addition, the White House can use the designation of six drug cartels as a defense for national security.
At least 80 people have died as a result of the White House’s at least 20 strikes on ships reported to be transporting drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific since September, despite the fact that it hasn’t made any public evidence of their connections to drug cartels like Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua.
As a result of the Canadian government’s support for a motion to begin debating his first federal budget, which leaves the possibility of a second election in less than a year, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s minority government narrowly survived a confidence vote on Monday.
To advance the fiscal plan’s study, the Commons voted 169 to 168. The lopsided victory indicates that the budget will eventually be approved, even though additional votes are anticipated in the upcoming months.
The House of Commons voted to pass Budget 2025 tonight.
To protect our communities, give Canadians new opportunities, and strengthen Canada, it is now time to work together to realize this vision.
According to Carney, “It’s time to work together to deliver on this plan … to protect our communities, empower Canadians with new opportunities, and strengthen Canada,” according to Carney on X, arguing that his spending plan would help protect the economy from rising US tariffs.
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Carney has portrayed the budget as a “generational” chance to boost Canada’s economic viability and lower US trade reliance.
The proposal calls for the deficit to nearly double to 78.3 billion Canadian dollars ($55. 5 billion), with significant investments aimed at halting US trade restrictions and supporting housing and defense initiatives. The prime minister insists that a higher deficit spending is necessary to avert the effects of tariffs on US citizens. While the majority of bilateral trade is exempt from tariffs under a current North American trade agreement, US tariffs on steel, aluminum, and steel have hurt significant Canadian industries.
On October 7, 2025, US President Donald Trump, left, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meet in Washington, DC’s Oval Office.
Internal forecasts from Carney, a former central banker, indicate that “US tariffs and the associated uncertainty will cost Canadians about 1.8 percent of our GDP]gross domestic product.”
The Liberals relied on abstentions from a number of opposition members who were reluctant to start early elections, a few seats short of a majority in the 343-seat House of Commons. If Canadians were to be re-elected, recent polls suggested that Carney’s Liberals would continue to rule.
After campaigning on a promise to challenge Washington’s protectionist stance, Carney was elected to a full term in April. The official opposition’s Conservative Party has been grappling with internal divisions since its defeat, and Pierre Poilievre will have to go through a formal evaluation of his performance very soon.
The fiscal package is described as a “credit card budget,” which is a sharp criticism of the government’s spending plans.
The NDP, a left-leaning party party, has also voiced its concerns about the proposal’s insufficient response to housing, housing, and rising costs for many Canadian families.
NDP interim leader Don Davies explained why two of its MPs ultimately abstained, explaining that the party accepted that blocking the budget would bring the nation back into a flimsy election cycle.
He claimed that it was “clear that Canadians do not want an election at this time because the Trump administration is still threatening us.”
Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne remarked, “Parliamentarians decided to put Canada first.”
New Delhi, India – Shima Akhter, 24, was in the middle of football practice when her friend stopped the session to break some news for her: Sheikh Hasina, the fugitive former prime minister of Bangladesh, had been sentenced to death.
To the University of Dhaka student, it felt like a moment of vindication.
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Several of Akhter’s friends were killed in a crackdown on protesters by Hasina’s security forces last year before Hasina finally quit office and fled Bangladesh. The International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka, which tried the 78-year-old leader for crimes against humanity, sentenced Hasina to death after a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on the uprising last year.
“The fascist Hasina thought she could not be defeated, that she could rule forever,” Akhter said from Dhaka. “A death sentence for her is a step towards justice for our martyrs.”
But, Akhter added, the sentencing itself wasn’t enough.
“We want to see her hanged here in Dhaka!” she said.
That won’t happen easily.
Hasina, who fled Dhaka as protesters stormed her home in August 2024, remains far from the gallows for now, living in exile in New Delhi.
Hasina’s presence in India despite repeated requests from Bangladesh to hand her over has been a key source of friction between the South Asian neighbours over the past 15 months. Now, with Hasina formally convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death, those tensions are expected to rise to new heights. Even though India is eager to build a partnership with a post-Hasina Dhaka, several geopolitical analysts said they cannot envision a scenario in which New Delhi turns the former prime minister over to Bangladesh to face the death penalty.
“How can New Delhi push her towards her death?” former Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty said.
Police scuffle with a demonstrator during an attempt to demolish the residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s first president and father of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka on November 17, 2025 [Munir Uz Zaman/AFP]
‘Highly unfriendly act’
Hasina, Bangladesh’s longest serving prime minister, is the eldest daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the war for independence from Pakistan in 1971.
She first became prime minister in 1996. Defeated in the 2001 election, she was out of power until she won again in 2009. She remained in office for 15 years after that, winning elections that opposition parties often boycotted or were banned from contesting in amid a broader hardline turn. Thousands of people were forcibly disappeared. Many were killed extrajudicially. Torture cases became common, and her opponents were jailed without trials.
Meanwhile, her government touted its economic record to justify her rule. Bangladesh, which former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had once called a “basket case” economy, has in recent years witnessed rapid gross domestic product growth and has outpaced India’s per capita income.
But in July 2024, a student protest that initially began over government job quotas for descendants of those who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan escalated into a nationwide call for Hasina to go after a brutal crackdown by security forces.
Student protesters clashed with armed police in Dhaka, and nearly 1,400 people were killed, according to estimates by the United Nations.
Hasina, a longtime ally of India, fled to New Delhi on August 5, 2024, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as interim leader. Yunus’s government has since moved to build closer ties with Pakistan amid tensions with India, including over Dhaka’s insistence that New Delhi expel Hasina.
On Tuesday, Dhaka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised the pitch against New Delhi further. The ministry cited an extradition agreement with India and said it was an “obligatory responsibility” for New Delhi to ensure Hasina’s return to Bangladesh. It added that it “would be a highly unfriendly act and a disregard for justice” for India to continue to provide Hasina refuge.
Political analysts in India, however, pointed out to Al Jazeera that an exception exists in the extradition treaty in cases in which the offence is “of a political character”.
“India understands this [Hasina’s case] to be political vindictiveness of the ruling political forces in Bangladesh,” said Sanjay Bhardwaj, a professor of South Asian studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
In New Delhi’s view, Bhardwaj told Al Jazeera, Bangladesh is today ruled by “anti-India forces”. Yunus has frequently criticised India, and leaders of the protest movement that ousted Hasina have often blamed New Delhi for its support of the former prime minister.
Against this backdrop, “handing over Hasina would mean legitimising” those opposed to India, Bhardwaj added.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her ceremonial reception at India’s Rashtrapati Bhavan Presidential Palace in New Delhi on June 22, 2024 [Reuters]
‘India’s equations need change’
India said in a Ministry of External Affairs statement that it has “noted the verdict” against Hasina and New Delhi “will always engage constructively with all stakeholders”.
India said it “remains committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh, including in peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country”.
Yet the relationship between New Delhi and Dhaka today is frosty. The flourishing economic, security and political alliance that existed under Hasina has now morphed into ties characterised by mistrust.
Chakravarty, the former Indian high commissioner, said he does not expect that to change soon.
“Under this government [in Dhaka], the relationship will remain strained because they will keep saying that India is not giving us Hasina back,” Chakravarty told Al Jazeera.
But he said Bangladesh’s elections scheduled in February could offer a new opening. Even though Hasina’s Awami League is banned from contesting and most other major political forces – including the biggest opposition force, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party – are critics of New Delhi’s, India will find it easier to work with an elected administration.
“We cannot carry on like this, and India needs an elected government in Dhaka,” Chakravarty said of the tense ties between the neighbours. “India should wait and watch but not disturb the other arrangements, like trade, in goodwill.”
Sreeradha Datta, a professor specialising in South Asian studies at India’s Jindal Global University, said India has been caught in a bind over Hasina but is not blind to the popular resentment against her in Bangladesh.
In an ideal scenario, she said, New Delhi would like to see the Awami League back in power in Bangladesh at some point in the future. “She [Hasina] is always the best bet forward for India,” Datta told Al Jazeera.
But the reality, she said, is that India needs to accept that Bangladesh is unlikely to ever give Hasina another chance. Instead, India needs to build ties with other political forces in Dhaka, Datta said.
“India never had a good equation with any of the other stakeholders there. But that has to change now,” Datta said.
“Currently, we are at a very fragile point in the bilateral relations,” she added. “But we have to be able to move past this particular agenda [of Hasina’s extradition].”
Even if India and Bangladesh are no longer allies, they need to “have civility towards each other”, Datta said.
A man demands capital punishment for Hasina before the verdict is announced on November 17, 2025, in Dhaka [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]
Dividends of clinging to Hasina
Bangladesh and India share close cultural ties and a 4,000km (2,485-mile) border. India is Bangladesh’s second biggest trading partner after China. In fact, trade between India and Bangladesh has increased in recent months despite the tensions.
But even though India has long insisted that its relationship is with Bangladesh and not with any party or leader in Dhaka, it was been closest with the Awami League.
After a bloody war of independence in 1971, Hasina’s father took power in East Pakistan, renamed Bangladesh, with India’s help. For India, the breakup of Pakistan solved a major strategic and security nightmare by turning its eastern neighbour into a friend.
Hasina’s personal relationship with India also goes back nearly as far.
She first called New Delhi her home 50 years ago after most of her family, including Rahman, was assassinated in a military coup in 1975. Only Hasina and her younger sister, Rehana, survived because they were in Germany.
Indira Gandhi, then India’s premier, offered the orphaned daughters of Rahman asylum. Hasina lived at multiple residences in New Delhi with her husband, MA Wazed; children; and Rehana and even moonlighted at All India Radio’s Bangla service.
After six years in exile, Hasina returned to Bangladesh to lead her father’s party and was elected to the prime minister’s office first in 1996 before her second, longer stint started in 2009.
Under her rule, ties with India flourished, even as she faced domestic criticism over brokering deals with Indian firms seen as unfair for Dhaka.
When she was ousted and felt the need to flee, there was little doubt about where she would seek refuge. Ajit Doval, India’s national security adviser, received her when she landed on the outskirts of New Delhi.
“We did not invite Hasina this time,” said Chakravarty, who dealt with Hasina’s government briefly in 2009 when he was high commissioner. “A senior official received her naturally because she was the sitting prime minister, and India allowed her to stay because what other option was there?”
“Can she go back to Bangladesh, more so now when she is on a death sentence?” he asked, adding, “She was a friendly person to India, and India has to take a moral stand.”
Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst based in Washington, DC, said Hasina’s presence in India would continue to “remain a thorn in the bilateral relationship” going forward but enabled “India to stay true to its pledge to remain loyal to its allies”.
However, theoretically, there could be longer term political dividends too for New Delhi, Kugelman argued.
Unlike other analysts, Kugelman said Hasina’s political legacy and the future of her Awami League cannot be written off completely.
Hasina leads an old dynastic party, and a look at South Asia’s political history reveals that dynastic parties “fall on hard times and for quite some time, but they don’t really shrivel up and die”, Kugelman said.
On December 19, YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul will take on former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in a professional match.
Eight three-minute rounds of the heavyweight matchup will take place at the Kaseya Center in Miami, and it will be available for streaming on Netflix.
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The 28-year-old Paul, who has a 12-1 record (7 KOs) and last fought in a fight in June when he unanimously defeated former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, will have to face the most difficult fight of his career.
This is not an AI simulation, the author says. Paul told Netflix, “This is Judgement Day. “A professional heavyweight fight with a legendary world champion.”
Every doubt disappears when I defeat Anthony Joshua, and no one can deny me the chance to fight for the title. This is what you wanted, haters!
Joshua, 36, has not yet competed since losing to Daniel Dubois in an IBF title fight in September 2024, despite the two-time unified heavyweight world champion and Olympic gold medalist.
Joshua said, “Jake or anyone can get this work. No retribution. I took a break, and now I’m back with a big show. I have a great opportunity here.
I’m about to break the internet over Jake Paul’s face, whether you like it or not, and I’m here to do massive numbers, fight big fights, and break every record while remaining composed, collected, and cool.
On December 24, 2023, Anthony Joshua celebrates defeating Otto Wallin at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
As he continues to face growing unease from Americans over the cost of living, US President Donald Trump has defended his administration’s record on lowering prices.
Trump praised the return of inflation to “normal” levels in a speech to McDonald’s franchise owners and suppliers on Monday, while promising to keep price growth at a low level.
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Trump said, “We have it down to a low level, but we’re going to get it a little lower.”
We aspire to perfection.
The Republican president blamed former US President Joe Biden for the economy’s failure and reiterated his regular claim that Americans were “damn lucky” that he won the 2024 election.
“No one has done the pricing we’ve done,” said the spokesperson. Trump claimed that “we took control of a mess.”
In spite of persistent affordability concerns, Trump, whose 2024 presidential campaign focused a lot on living costs, has struggled to appeal to Americans.
In a Reuters poll conducted this month, 66 percent of respondents said Trump had not lived up to their expectations for affordability, while 63 percent said the same about the economy in general.
Popular disinformation has been used to explain why Republicans lost in early this month’s off-year elections in several states, including New Jersey and Virginia.
Trump signed an executive order on Friday to lower duties on 200 food products, including beef, bananas, coffee, and orange juice, despite repeatedly lowering the impact of his tariffs on prices.
In an effort to address affordability concerns, Trump has also made mention of tariff-funded $2, 000 rebate checks and the introduction of 50-year mortgages.
Although inflation has significantly decreased since Biden’s administration’s four-decade high of 9.1%, it still is significantly below the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent.
In October, the inflation rate increased to 3 percent, marking the first time since January, despite the fact that many analysts had anticipated a higher figure as a result of Trump’s trade talks.
Trump, who is well-known for his adoration of McDonald’s, praised the fast-food chain for a significant portion of his speech on Monday, branding it an example of his economic agenda.
From the cashier starting her first job to the franchisee opening their first location to the young family in a drive-through line, “Together we are fighting for an economy where everyone can win.”
Trump also expressed his “special thanks” to the fast-food chain for introducing more affordable menu options, including the reintroduced extra value meals, which were phased out in 2018 and are $5 or $8.
On Tuesday, November 18, 2018, this is how things are going.
Fighting
Three people were killed and three children were hurt in a Russian missile attack on Balakliia, eastern Ukraine, according to a regional military official in the Kharkiv region’s Telegram on Monday.
Vladyslav Haivanenko, the acting head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, wrote on Facebook that at least two people were killed and three were hurt in the Russian shelling of the Nikopol district in the Ukrainian region.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, three villages were taken by Russian forces in three regions of Ukraine on Monday, according to the RIA news agency. Hai and Platonivka in the Donetsk and Dvorichanske in the Kharkiv regions are the villages.
36 Ukrainian drones were destroyed overnight by Russia’s air defense forces, according to RIA reporting on Monday, citing daily data from the Defense Ministry.
According to Ukraine’s emergency services, a Russian attack in Odesa, in southern Ukraine, sparked fires at energy and port infrastructure facilities on Monday.
According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, the attack forced Romania to leave a border village and damaged port equipment and several civilian vessels, including one carrying liquefied natural gas.
According to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional administration, a 68-year-old man has died after being injured in a Russian drone attack in the Kherson region of Ukraine.
According to Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, an electrical substation required for nuclear safety has been damaged by a military attack that left two Ukrainian nuclear power plants running at reduced capacity for ten days.
Following a two-day suspension of its oil loadings, the Russian port of Novorossiysk, according to the Kremlin, resumed export activities on Monday.
On November 17, 2025, a firefighter stands outside an apartment complex in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, where Russian missiles were fired.
military assistance
At France’s Velizy-Villacoublay Air Base, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to purchase 100 French-made Rafale warplanes over the course of ten years.
According to the Interfax news agency, Macron claimed Alstom, France’s rail transport company, and Ukrainian Railways have signed a 475 million euro ($551 million) contract to deliver 55 electric locomotives to Ukraine.
Regional security
After an explosion on a Polish railway track on a route to Ukraine over the weekend, Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski reported on Monday that one confirmed and one likely act of sabotage took place on Polish railways.
The likelihood that those responsible for the sabotage were acting at the people’s volition, according to Polish Special Services Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, who spoke at the same press conference. Despite not naming Russia, he appeared to be pointing the finger at Russia.
diplomacy and politics
Macron expressed confidence in Zelenskyy’s ability to improve Ukraine’s anticorruption record and implement reforms to ensure its accession to the EU during a joint press conference in Paris.
During a state visit to China on Monday, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil stated that China “should work together to end the conflict in Ukraine” and that “China can play a key role.”
China will continue to contribute to the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, he said in his response.
The Kremlin confirmed on Monday that a possible prisoner-of-war exchange with Ukraine was taking place, but it would not provide more details.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s summit is anticipated to take place in Russia, according to Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin.
Peskov added that Moscow was very opposed to a bill that Trump claimed Republicans in the US were working on that would impose sanctions on all nations that conduct business with Russia.
Russian’s website added former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov and prominent economist Sergei Guriev to its list of “extremists and terrorists” on Monday, according to the watchdog’s website.
Economy
In a letter to EU members on Monday, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, stated that the bloc had three options for helping Ukraine meet its financing needs: “Support… financed by member states via grants, a limited recourse loan funded by the union borrowing on the financial markets or a limited recourse loan linked to the cash balances of immobilized assets.”
Five sources with knowledge of the process told the Reuters news agency that the Chevron oil company is considering options to purchase foreign assets from the Russian oil company Lukoil after the US Department of the Treasury approved potential buyers talking to Lukoil about foreign assets.
