President Trump on Monday signed an executive order designating the street drug fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.
"The manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, primarily performed by organized criminal networks, threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our borders," the order declared.
During an event in the Oval Office, Trump said the carnage fentanyl has caused in American families is worse than U.S. deaths in many wars.
"Two to three hundred thousand people die every year, that we know of, so we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction," Trump said.
In fact, Trump's numbers are wildly inflated. According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl killed roughly 48 thousand people in the U-S last year - a 27 percent drop from the year before.
Experts also say fentanyl would be difficult to use as a weapon of mass destruction. There is only one documented incident worldwide, in 2002, where the Russian government weaponized fentanyl in gas form. There have been no cases reported in the U.S.
The Heritage Foundation, an influential rightwing thinktank currently mired in controversy over its president’s apparent apology for extremism, has appointed as a director the founder of a secretive all-male network of Christian nationalist fraternal lodges.
The US military has launched a fresh round of deadly strikes on foreign vessels suspected of trafficking narcotics.
President Donald Trump took aim at another media outlet on Monday by filing a $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC.
An arrest has been made in the killing of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer.
Germany’s foreign ministry on Saturday denounced Israel’s approval of a new plan that would see over 750 settler housing units built in the occupied West Bank, amid growing international concern over its violations of international law.
