Archive September 3, 2025

Despite concerns about the legality of such attacks and the sovereignty of Latin American countries, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has declared that military attacks on alleged drug traffickers will “happen again.”

Rubio said the US would continue to coordinate security with nations like Mexico during a press conference on Wednesday, but that the US would not be hesitant to take drastic measures on its own.

His remarks came in response to President Donald Trump’s statement that a ship had been blown up in the Caribbean Sea by the US&nbsp the day before.

No specifics were provided about the small boat’s identification as a drug-smuggling vessel coming from Venezuela. Apparently, all 11 of the passengers passed away.

Rubio viewed the airstrike as a shift in the US’s ongoing “war on drugs” strategy.

“The United States has long established intelligence that made it possible for us to detach and stop drug boats,” he said. And we succeeded in doing that. Additionally, it is ineffective. Rubio remarked that interdiction is ineffective.

When you blow them up and when you get rid of them, what will stop them?

Rubio then explained that Trump had personally authorized the attack. Rubio claimed that it was heading for the US because it was in the south of the Caribbean Sea at the time of the attack.

We blew it up, according to the president, rather than interdicting it. Rubio added that it will happen again. “Maybe it’s taking place right now. I don’t know”.

Rubio’s visit to Mexico City comes as the Trump administration attempts to work closely with the country, but concerns have risen abroad as a result of its aggressive foreign policy.

Latin American countries have struggled to balance Trump’s increasingly vehement threats with the need for working relationships with the US.

According to experts, international law, which forbids military action on ships sailing through international waters, makes it likely that attacks like Tuesday’s boat bombing are prohibited.

Rubio continued, arguing that the course of action was necessary to safeguard America’s well-being.

You pose an immediate threat to the United States if you’re sailing on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl, or whatever, according to Rubio.

Armed organizations around the world frequently assumed that these organizations, which are frequently linked to armed or fighting groups, pose a direct threat to US national security. That defense has not previously been used as a pretext for military operations against drug trafficking, which have been deemed criminal.

However, that approach has changed with Trump’s second inauguration.

Trump has pushed for emergency powers since taking office in January based on the idea that there are “invasions” of US-based criminal organizations in Latin America.

Additionally, he has referred to a large number of these organizations as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

Despite being concerned about its legitimacy, reports emerged in August that Trump had signed an order authorizing military strikes against cartels and other drug-smuggling operations. This fueled fears that the US would launch military strikes in Latin America in response to concerns about sovereignty.

Mexico, the US’s southern-most immediate neighbor, has seen a rise in these concerns.

Mexico and the US both issued a joint statement expressing respect for “sustainability and territorial integrity” as a result of Rubio’s visit.

Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, has also repeatedly fought to unmask concerns that the Trump administration might act unilaterally on Mexican soil. Trump, by contrast, has not ruled out such a possibility.

According to Al Jazeera’s John Holman, Rubio’s visit was intended to “smooth the feathers” and ease Mexican tensions.

“There was a lot of enthusiastic praise,” she said. However, Holman explained that President Trump has stated repeatedly that the US is “very happy to send its military down into the country to fight drug cartels” despite the fact that he has been saying it before.

“The Mexican foreign minister repeatedly said, “Yes, we’re going to work with the United States,” in a very diplomatic way, saying everyone in their own jurisdiction, really wasn’t touched on in this meeting.”

Rubio and other US officials have, however, emphasized that the US will continue to work with Mexico on security and drug control, despite the US’s pressure to take a more aggressive stance.

On Fox and Friends, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that “we have assets in the air, assets in the water, and assets on ships because this is a very serious mission for us, and it won’t stop with just this strike.”

As the US militarizes its combativeness of criminal organizations, some nations in the region are skeptical.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said, “I, along with the majority of the country, am pleased that the US naval deployment is succeeding in their mission.”

As the tech giant doubles down on artificial intelligence, Salesforce has cut another 4, 000 jobs from its customer service team despite delivering solid financial results.

The customer service division at Salesforce saw its headcount drop from 9, 000 to 5, 000 as a result of the most recent layoffs. Currently, according to reports, AI agents are in charge of about one million customer conversations.

CEO Marc Benioff justified the cuts in a recent episode of The Logan Bartlett Show by saying he “needs less heads” because Salesforce invests heavily in AI throughout its operations.

After shedding 1, 000 people in February, Benioff claimed that AI was already completing 30% to 50% of the work, which he referred to as efficiency gains&nbsp.

The Slack owner reported on Wednesday that revenue for the quarter ended on July 31 was up 10% over the same period last year. Additionally, the company announced a $20 billion stock buyback plan increase.

These results reflect the success of our customers, including those at Pfizer, Marriott, and the US Army, who are transforming into agent-centric businesses, where workers and AI agents collaborate to reimagine workflows, increase productivity, and deliver customer success, according to Benioff.

We delivered strong returns, increased operating margins, and added the most value for our customers and shareholders while meeting all of our financial goals for the 10th consecutive quarter.

However, the business software provider also predicted that client spending on its enterprise cloud products would drop below Wall Street expectations due to macroeconomic uncertainty and the company’s revenue decline.

Following the bell, the San Francisco, California-based business’ shares dropped by more than 4% in trading.

Despite seeing countless people lose their jobs, Benioff, whose annual salary was $55 million, has openly embraced automation as a pillar of Salesforce’s future. He calls the recent year of AI expansion “the eight most exciting months of my career,” insisting that the aggressive replacement of people with machines is worthwhile.

Salesforce does not recently do this. In early 2023, Benioff oversaw a large-scale layoff of 7, 000 workers, or 10% of the global workforce, but later that year, the&nbsp, cloud computing triumvirate hired 3, 000 workers.

A contradictory message

“Just recently, [Salesforce] downplayed the threat to jobs that AI poses. Important questions are raised by the most recent action regarding sector trust. Tech consultant Waseem Mirza told Al Jazeera, “It’s very harmful and creates a climate of fear in the industry’s wider workforce.”

Benioff echoed that soft line in July, claiming that AI would “augment” rather than “augment” people. He doubled down on that assurance in a post on X just one day before the layoffs were announced.

Our agentic future is not predetermined. We diminish ourselves if AI takes the place of human judgment, creativity, and empathy, he wrote.

This sends a powerful message to the tech sector, which has experienced the most recent layoffs fueled by AI, and could cause a sector-wide copycat effect, Mirza said.

“We will see the disruption continue, and it is growing day by day.”

Salesforce is not the only one. In July, Recruit Holdings, the parent company of Indeed and Glassdoor, cut 1,300 jobs as a result of its AI shift. In the first quarter of this year, Krana fired 40% of its workforce. In April, Duolingo announced that it would no longer employ contractors and would instead use artificial intelligence.

These reductions can be understood as a means of maximising efficiency and ultimately shareholder value, according to “internally]at Salesforce.” However, there is a chance that when junior positions are cut too deeply, they could undermine their own future talent pool, which would be detrimental strategically, according to Fabian Stephany, assistant professor for AI and Work at the University of Oxford.

The industry is largely supportive of that concern. CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, stated earlier this year to the media that AI could eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar positions.

Between October 2022 and July 2025, workers in “highly exposed” fields saw a 13% relative decline in employment opportunities. The impact is even more amplified in particular in technology. According to new research from Stanford University, employment opportunities for software engineers have decreased by 20%.