Officials initially weighed sending survivors of U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling to a notorious prison in El Salvador, to keep them away from American courts.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

A former secretary of homeland security on the illegality of Trump’s boat strikes.

Did Pete Hegseth break the law after authorizing Venezuelan boat strikes? The Times Opinion editor, Kathleen Kingsbury, argues that there are multiple reasons the strikes were legally dubious.

Did Pete Hegseth break the law after authorizing Venezuelan boat strikes? The Times Opinion editor, Kathleen Kingsbury, argues that there are multiple reasons the strikes were legally dubious.

Rare pushback from his party and troubling poll numbers reflect the newly precarious situation in which Trump finds himself.

Federal lawmakers have ample powers to uncover and end administration abuse.

Latin Americans have proved surprisingly acquiescent to U.S. aggression — but that won’t last forever.

Readers respond to a guest essay about America’s fentanyl problem. Also: A dark echo at Penn.

The administration’s drug war rhetoric seems like a pretext. But a pretext for what?

Trump’s show of force toward Venezuela has created a disastrous political trap — for Venezuelans most of all.

The response to a new visa for skilled foreign workers has caught even the Chinese government by surprise.