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Trump Says the U.S. Attacked Venezuelan Docks Where Drugs Are Loaded Onto Boats

President Trump said Monday that the U.S. recently carried out an attack on a dock area in Venezuela where drugs are loaded onto boats and trafficked across international waters, claiming that a “major explosion” had occurred.

“They load the boats up with drugs. So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area,” Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago resort in response to a question from a reporter. “It’s the implementation area. That’s where they implement and that is no longer around.”

Trump didn’t provide details of the alleged attack, which would represent a major escalation of the U.S. pressure campaign against Venezuela, but it was the second time in the past few days he had referred to such an operation in vague terms. He also declined to say whether the military or a U.S. intelligence agency was responsible for the attack.

“I know exactly who it was, but I don’t want to say who it was,” Trump said. “But it was along the shore.”

Last week, Trump said that the U.S. carried out an attack on what he called “a big facility,” suggesting the strike took place in Venezuela. Days later, there has been no independent confirmation from his administration or Venezuela that such an attack took place.

Trump publicly announced the strike during a radio interview that aired Friday, though his comments were imprecise and didn’t attract much immediate attention. In the days since, the White House, Pentagon and other government agencies haven’t offered any public details or corroboration that a strike took place.
“They have a big plant or a big facility where the ships come from,” Trump said during the Friday interview with John Catsimatidis, a billionaire Republican donor who hosts a show on a New York radio station. Trump didn’t say where the alleged attack took place and didn’t explicitly identify Venezuela as the target, but the remark came amid a discussion about the Trump administration’s campaign against the country. “Two nights ago we knocked that out,” Trump said, adding that “we hit them very hard.”

In August, the U.S. began a military buildup in the Caribbean to exert pressure on Venezuela’s strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Trump’s campaign against Maduro has relied on a mixture of ambiguity, public threats and insinuation to topple a regime the Trump administration has blamed for funneling deadly drugs into the U.S. The lack of official acknowledgment or amplification of the alleged attacks on the docks beyond Trump’s own brief comments departs from the White House’s strategy over the past several months to publish videos of boat strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers. U.S. Southern Command posted such a video on Monday after what it said was a strike on a drug boat, killing two people.

It remains unclear what site Trump was referring to, how extensive the damage was or if there were any casualties. Whether the attack was one carried out by traditional military assets or through some other means, such as a destructive cyber operation or a covert action led by the Central Intelligence Agency, is also uncertain.

The White House National Security Council didn’t respond to requests for comment about Trump’s remarks. The CIA declined to comment. U.S. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. forces in Latin America, also declined to comment, and the Pentagon referred questions to the White House. Venezuela’s regime, which over the years has frequently warned of impending U.S. attacks and criticized Washington’s policies toward the country, hasn’t publicly announced that any attack took place. It didn’t respond to requests seeking comment.

Several U.S. officials privately expressed surprise and confusion about Trump’s comments, though they acknowledged that it was possible that a clandestine attack had occurred without the knowledge of most officials.

Over the weekend, some Venezuelan open-source analysts speculated that Trump’s comments may have been in reference to a fire that broke out on Dec. 24 at an industrial park in the western city of Maracaibo. The private petrochemicals company that runs the facility, Primazol, however, denied any connection.

“We categorically reject the versions circulating on social media,” Primazol said early Monday. The company, which distributes chemicals and feed for the agriculture industry, attributed the fire at one of its warehouses to an unspecified accident. The blaze, it added, was controlled by firefighters and didn’t result in any injuries.

The U.S. hasn’t articulated a detailed explanation of its actions toward Venezuela, though Trump and other officials have asserted that the regime has sent drugs and migrants to the U.S. in an effort to directly hurt Americans. Venezuela isn’t a major producer of narcotics, though cocaine made in Colombia—the world’s biggest source of the drug—is transported by smuggling gangs through Venezuela en route to the U.S. and Europe. Other countries in the region—from Ecuador to Argentina, Mexico to Honduras—also serve as platforms for Colombian cocaine.

Read more: Trump Says the U.S. Attacked Venezuelan Docks Where Drugs Are Loaded Onto Boats - WSJ
Mobile police hoping for repeat of last year’s ‘smooth’ New Year’s Eve celebration

By Brendan Kirby

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Police are beefing up their presence downtown for the city’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration.

That will include officers in patrol vehicles and on foot; in uniform and in plain clothes.

Mobile police spokesman Blake Brown said police are hoping for a repeat of last year, which avoided bloodshed in the downtown area that marred the previous two celebrations.

“Last year was a very smooth year for us downtown,” he told FOX10 News. “This year, we’re hoping for the same. It is a family-friendly event. So we’re hoping folks do go down there, (that) it’s peaceful; it’s safe, and they have a good time. But again, doing it peacefully.”

The New Year’s Eve MoonPie drop was less than an hour away on Dec. 31 in 2022 when two men exchanged gunfire, wounding multiple people. It was just after midnight the following year when a shooting left a 19-year-old man dead. Neither shooting was at the MoonPie drop itself, but it has some folks’ attention, nonetheless.

“I know I’m safe at home,” said McIntosh resident Caitlin Thomas,” explaining her plans for New Year’s Eve. “We usually do a little something with the kids, but I’d rather be home and know that we’re taken care of. I would be able to relax and enjoy it.”

Young children are the only thing keeping Star Kelly away from downtown this New Year’s Eve.

“I always am really aware of my surroundings everywhere I go, so I’ve never felt in danger going down there,” she said. “We’ve always had a really good time, and so it wasn’t a big deal for us.”

There are a few wrinkles to the security plan this year. Brown said this will be the first New Year’s Eve that the city is using traffic barriers first used during last Mardi Gras season.

“Those are meant to stop a vehicle,” Brown said. “So if the vehicle is coming at whatever rate of speed up to those bollards at that intersection, that bollard is meant to serve as almost a brick wall, so that vehicle will be stopped right there at that bollard, won’t go any further. ’Cause, again, downtown – especially on New Year’s Eve – we’ll have a lot of folks that’ll be walking the streets, walking the sidewalks.”

One change that this year that people should keep in mind is that some streets have been turned from one-way into two-way streets. It’s part of a traffic reorientation plan that went into effect earlier this year.

“You’ll notice that a lot of the red lights are gone,” Brown said. “You’ve got four-way stops now. So that’s something to keep in mind this year when you are attending celebrations.”

Last year’s MoonPie drop drew about 8,000 people. There were about 10,000 for the full day of events. Brown said police are prepared for a crowd five times that size, if necessary.

Read more: Mobile police hoping for repeat of last year’s ‘smooth’ New Year’s Eve celebration
Alabama awarded $203M for rural health care in 2026

The Trump administration will distribute more than $203 million to Alabama to strengthen its rural healthcare system next year.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced awards on Monday for all 50 states as part of the Rural Health Transformation Program, which was created under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The $50 billion fund, which will last five years, is intended to offset the deep Medicaid cuts in the legislation.

Out of the 50 states, Alabama’s 2026 allocated amount ranks 24th at $203.4 million. Exactly how the funds will be spent is still to be determined.

Gov. Kay Ivey said she was “very pleased” to see Alabama awarded hundreds of millions for the first year of the program.

“After President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law in July, Alabama got to work preparing for this program so we could hit the ground running once our state’s new comprehensive rural health strategy was approved,” Ivey said in a statement.

“Now that it has been approved, we will take the next steps to ensure our citizens and communities benefit for generations. Making America Healthy Again begins in rural America, and I look forward to being able to improve health care across Alabama.”

Across the country, the awards range from $147 million to $281 million. Texas, Alaska and California will receive the largest allocations next year. New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island were awarded the least amount.

Over the five years, half of the $50 billion will be doled out evenly among the 50 states. The other half of the fund will be distributed based on a state’s needs, such as the rural population, a state’s health care policies and an application’s proposed initiatives, according to the CMS Notice of Funding Opportunity.

“This will be the one and only time perhaps you’ll ever hear me celebrate that some of our health outcomes are as poor as they are,” Alabama Hospital Association President and CEO Danne Howard told Alabama Daily News. “Because we have so many issues, our score was higher, which allowed us more opportunity from the CMS allocation.”

More than 1.6 million Alabamians, or 32%, live in rural counties.

In its application, Alabama requested about $900 million over five years to integrate its rural health care system across the state, expand access to maternal care and bolster its rural workforce.

It included 11 initiatives that involve improving electronic health records and IT capabilities, boosting telehealth services, and supporting EMS services.

Many of the initiatives include establishing “regional hubs” to provide IT and cybersecurity support, telehealth services, maternal and fetal health care and cancer detection screenings, among other services.

The Alabama Legislature is expected to pass legislation during its upcoming 2026 session to support the implementation of the program, according to the project narrative. The state’s plan allows for entities to “apply” for funding to help meet the outlined initiatives to transform rural health care, with funding to those entities set to be distributed toward the end of fiscal year 2026.

Howard said hospitals are eager to be involved in the state’s process of divvying up the money.

“There are a lot of different things in the Black Belt that might not be needed or might be different in north Alabama, so input from those providers on what things would be most helpful to them will be critically important for making sure that we get the biggest bang for our buck,” Howard told ADN.

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., praised the initiative in a social media post.

“This historic funding will help strengthen maternal and obstetric care, address the root causes of chronic disease, improve health care outcomes, and expand telehealth services for families across our state,” Britt said.

The federal dollars will come at a critical time for the state’s rural hospitals, with 48% of them at immediate risk of closing as of December, according to the Center for Health Care Quality and Payment Reform.

Earlier this month, Ivey signed an executive order establishing the Alabama Rural Health Transformation Advisory Group to track the progress and implementation of the state’s program.

Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, Senate Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, Sens. Greg Albritton, Clyde Chambliss, Donnie Chesteen, Bobby Singleton, and Reps. Anthony Daniels, Jamie Kiel, Rex Reynolds and Pebblin Warren will be members.

The director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs and the division chief of ADECA’s Federal Initiatives and Recreation Division will also be a part of it.

“Now the real work begins into making those decisions on how we can best make some not just transformative, but some sustainable changes in our health care delivery system,” Howard told ADN.

Alabama awarded $203M for rural health care in 2026 - Alabama Daily News