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WASHINGTON: A new US strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat killed two people, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday, announcing Washington’s first such attack on a vessel in the Pacific Ocean.
The strike — which Hegseth announced in a post on X that featured a video of a boat being engulfed in flames — brings the total number to at least eight, leaving at least 34 people dead.
“There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no US forces were harmed in this strike,” Hegseth said of Tuesday’s action in the eastern Pacific.

“Just as Al-Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice,” he wrote.
President Donald Trump’s administration has said in a notice to Congress that the United States is engaged in “armed conflict” with Latin American drug cartels, describing them as terrorist groups as part of its justification for the strikes.
“The president determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States,” said the notice from the Pentagon, which also described suspected smugglers as “unlawful combatants.”
But Washington has not released evidence to support its assertion that the targets of its strikes are drug smugglers, and experts say the summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers.

- Regional tensions -

There were survivors of a US strike for the first time last week, but Washington chose to repatriate them rather than put them on trial for their alleged crimes.
Ecuador released one after finding no evidence that he had committed a crime, while authorities in Colombia said the other — who “arrived with brain trauma, sedated, drugged, breathing with a ventilator” — would face prosecution.
The US military campaign — which has seen Washington deploy stealth warplanes and Navy ships as part of what it says are counter-narcotics efforts — has fueled tensions with countries in the region.
This is especially the case with Venezuela, where the buildup of US forces has sparked fears that the ultimate goal is the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington accuses of heading a drug cartel.
The United States has not specified the origin of all the vessels it has targeted, but has said that some of them came from Venezuela.
Meanwhile, a public feud between Trump and Colombia’s leftist leader Gustavo Petro intensified in recent weeks over the Republican president’s deadly anti-drug campaign.
Trump on Sunday vowed to end all aid to the South American nation — a historically close US partner and the world’s leading cocaine producer — and branded Petro, who has accused the US president of murder, as an “illegal drug dealer.”
But just days later, the Colombian president met with the top US diplomat in his country to discuss counter-narcotics efforts, with Bogota’s foreign ministry saying the two sides “reaffirmed the commitment of both parties to improve drug fighting strategies.”

BEIRUT: Forget colorful leaves. Any caregiver knows that the real signs of fall are kids with coughs, sneezes and sniffles.
Autumn marks the start of respiratory virus season, when colds, flu and other bugs start circulating — especially among the very young.
A recent study confirmed what many families intuitively know: The littlest students harbor the most germs.
Children in pre-kindergarten and elementary school showed highest rates of virus detection compared with older students and staff, according to research published in the journal Pediatrics.
“Young children can have up to 10 respiratory viruses a year as their immune systems are introduced to different infections for the first time,” said Dr. Jennifer Goldman, a pediatrician at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, who co-led the study.
Younger kids were more likely to have virus detected
Goldman and her colleagues analyzed nasal swabs and symptom reports from more than 800 students and staff in a large school district in Kansas City from November 2022 to May 2023.
They found that overall, more than 85 percent of all participants had at least one respiratory virus detected during that time and more than 80 percent had an episode of acute respiratory illness — though not necessarily at the same time.
More telling, 92 percent of pre-K and elementary school kids had a virus detected, compared with about 86 percent of middle school students, about 77 percent of high school students and 76 percent of staff.
The pre-K kids, ages 3 to 5, had the highest rates of actual illness, too, the study found.
Most of the viruses were the kinds that cause the common cold, including rhinovirus, which was found in 65 percent of participants, and types of seasonal coronavirus detected in about 30 percent. The virus that causes COVID-19 was found in about 15 percent of those studied.
Study confirms the experiences of pediatricians who are parents
The new study provides a baseline look at the burden of viruses in school settings, Goldman said.
It also confirms the real-world experience of pediatricians who are parents, like Dr. Nicole Torres of the University of Miami Health System.
“I can say this for my own children, who are now in their teens: They were sicker when they were younger,” she said.
The study also squares with older research that found that young kids play a key role in spreading respiratory viruses at home. Dr. Carrie Byington was co-author of a University of Utah study, published in 2015, that recruited 26 households to take nasal samples from everyone living in a home, every week, for a year.
That study found that children younger than 5 had virus detected for half of the weeks of the year, recalled Byington, who is now with the University of California, San Diego.
“And if you live in a household with multiple children, that proportion just goes higher, so it can appear as if someone is always sick,” she said.
How to prevent illness — or at least try to
Preventing illness in children at school or at home can be tough, experts acknowledge.
Being up to date on vaccinations for COVID-19 and influenza is important, they said. So is frequent handwashing, learning to cover coughs and keeping hands away from the eyes, nose and mouth. Cleaning and sanitizing frequently touched surfaces and objects and optimizing fresh air are also key.
When little ones do get sick, the best treatment is often supportive care like extra fluids and rest. In serious cases, medical providers may recommend medications to reduce fever or antiviral drugs.
It can take a couple weeks, however, for lingering symptoms like coughs to completely resolve. By then, the child may well have another cold.
“I do tell parents of younger children to expect them to be ill once every month, every month and a half,” Torres said. “It’ll seem that way.”