Donald Trump declares the U.S. in ‘armed conflict’ with Caribbean drug cartels

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Good evening and welcome to your daily news briefing from The Independent.

Donald Trump declared the U.S. was in an 'armed conflict' with Caribbean drug cartels; comedian Dave Chappelle said free speech in America was under attack while onstage in Saudi Arabia; and Customs and Border Protection ponied up $7.5 million for night vision goggles while 750,000 furloughed federal workers go without pay amid a U.S. government shutdown.

Top stories

1 | War on drugs: Trump declares US is in 'armed conflict' with Caribbean cartels

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2 | Dave Chappelle says free speech is under attack in America – while on stage in Saudi Arabia

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3 | Customs and Border Protection to spend $7.5M on night vision goggles as 750,000 federal employees go unpaid

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4 | Months after telling Zelensky to say thank you, JD Vance demands gratitude from Joy Reid

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5 | France's Macron and Albanian leader caught laughing at Trump's repeated confusion over where he thinks he's ended wars

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The Big Question 

It is extremely unlikely that Trump's allies and a Republican-dominated Congress would vote to oust him. The president has the ironclad allegiance of his Cabinet and Vice President JD Vance, who would effectively have to agree with their political opponents that the president can no longer serve.

But prominent Democrats claim the president is unfit for office, that his cognitive health is in decline, and that a speech to military leaders this week all but endorsed the idea of active-duty troops fighting civilians in U.S. cities.

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WATCH 

AOC gives Bronx school group a tour of the Capitol after shutdown

STAT OF THE DAY

36

Age at which James Richards was

diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, aged 36.

"The last thing on my mind was breast cancer;

I'd never heard of a man getting it," Richards said.

Read more

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"We thought it was going to eat her"

Maria Torro, 80, was walking with her family just before 11 a.m. on September 21 in Coconut Creek, Florida, when a 145-pound pit bull mix lunged at her, knocking her to the ground before repeatedly biting her.

"I was panicking. I was hysterical. I literally cried and we called 911 right away," Torro's granddaughter, Diana Atehortua, told Local10.

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