border

The announcement comes as undocumented people flee neighbouring Chile in anticipation of an immigration crackdown.

Peruvian President Jose Jeri has announced on social media that he will declare a state of emergency on the border with Chile, sparking concerns of a humanitarian crisis.

Jeri’s statement on Friday comes just more than two weeks before a presidential run-off takes place in Chile.

Leading far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast is facing leftist Jeannette Jara on December 14, and he has pledged to detain and expel migrants who are in Chile without documentation if he wins.

The campaign pledges have led to a surge in crossings into Peru, mostly by Venezuelans who long sought opportunity in Chile amid economic woes at home.

Jeri is himself a far-right leader. Formerly the head of Peru’s Congress, he succeeded his impeached predecessor, Dina Boluarte, in October.

He confirmed media speculation of the state of emergency in a brief post on the social media platform X.

“We ARE going to declare a state of emergency at the border with Chile to generate tranquility before the risk of migrants entering without authorisation,” Jeri wrote.

He further added that the influx could “threaten the public safety” of Peru’s population of about 34 million.

At least 100 people were at the border seeking to enter Peru on Friday, Peruvian police General Arturo Valverde told local television station Canal N.

Peruvian media have for days broadcast images of families seeking to cross the border from Chile.

This came shortly after candidate Kast filmed a campaign video at the border, warning undocumented people to leave before the country’s December 14 election.

Chile’s current left-wing president, Gabriel Boric, is limited by law to one four-year term at a time, though non-consecutive re-election bids are allowed.

The new president will be sworn in on March 11, 2026. Kast is considered the frontrunner going into December’s vote.

“You have 111 days to leave Chile voluntarily,” Kast said in his campaign video, referring to the inauguration.

“If not, we will stop you, we will detain you, we will expel you. You will leave with only the clothes on your back.”

Earlier this week, Peruvian President Jeri also visited the border and declared he would surge troops to the area.

About 330,000 undocumented people are estimated to live in Chile. It was not immediately clear how many had crossed into Peru in recent days.

Chilean Minister of Security Luis Cordero has criticised Kast’s campaign tactics, telling reporters that “rhetoric sometimes has consequences”.

“People cannot be used as a means to create controversy for the elections,” he said.

“Our main purpose is to prevent a humanitarian crisis.”

Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan escalated on Tuesday after the Taliban accused Pakistani forces of air strikes in eastern Afghanistan that killed nine children and a woman. Islamabad has not commented. The bombardments follow a series of recent attacks in Pakistan, which Islamabad attributes to militants operating from Afghan soil. Last month saw the deadliest confrontation between the two neighbors since the Taliban seized power in 2021, with dozens killed in air strikes and ground clashes along the 2,600 km (1,600-mile) border.

Accusations and Counter-Accusations

Pakistan claims that militants, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), are based in Afghanistan and launch attacks into its territory. Recent high-profile attacks include a suicide bombing in Islamabad that killed 12 civilians and bombings targeting paramilitary forces in Peshawar and Waziristan.

The Taliban administration denies sheltering Pakistani militants and says it does not permit Afghan soil to be used for attacks against other nations. A ceasefire signed in Doha in October collapsed after Kabul refused to provide written guarantees against militant activities, leaving Pakistan frustrated.

Who Are the Pakistani Taliban (TTP)?

Formed in 2007, the TTP is a jihadist organization based primarily in northwest Pakistan, drawing ideological inspiration from al-Qaeda. While historically allied with the Afghan Taliban, the TTP has carried out major attacks on markets, schools, military bases, and security forces in Pakistan. Despite repeated military campaigns, Pakistan has struggled to eliminate the group completely.

After the Taliban Took Power in Afghanistan

Initially welcomed by Pakistan in 2021, the Taliban’s return to power has not reduced cross-border threats. Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of harboring TTP fighters and Baloch insurgents seeking independence in western Pakistan. Pakistan also alleges that India is supporting these groups through Afghanistan a claim New Delhi denies.

Implications for the Region and the World

The renewed Afghanistan-Pakistan tensions threaten regional stability in South Asia. Persistent cross-border militancy could destabilize both nations, strain relations with neighboring India, and potentially create a vacuum for other extremist groups. Global powers, including the U.S., China, and the EU, face challenges in balancing security cooperation, counterterrorism efforts, and humanitarian concerns in a region critical for trade, energy routes, and counterterrorism strategy.

Analysis

This situation highlights how state fragility and ungoverned spaces fuel persistent conflict. Pakistan’s security concerns are genuine, but unilateral strikes risk escalating violence and civilian casualties. Meanwhile, the Taliban in Kabul faces the difficult task of balancing governance, legitimacy, and regional diplomacy while being accused of harboring militants. Globally, the crisis underscores the fragility of peace in border regions where militant groups exploit political and geographic fault lines, showing that even well-intentioned interventions can have unintended consequences if not coordinated carefully.

With information from Reuters.

Nov. 20 (UPI) — Charlotte, N.C., officials said Thursday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have left the city, but the Department of Homeland Security insisted that agents are still enforcing immigration law there.

Shortly after the Mecklenburg, N.C., County sheriff announced that agents had left Charlotte, the Trump administration pushed back.

“Wrong. Operation Charlotte’s Web isn’t ending anytime soon,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

CBP had agents in Charlotte for nearly a week, and DHS said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would continue to enforce laws in the city while also transitioning CBP agents to New Orleans.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, CBP has been in touch with officials in Louisiana about mobilizing and deploying agents to New Orleans after Thanksgiving, NBC News reported.

The Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement action known as “Operation Charlotte’s Web” resulted in the arrests of more than 250 people which prompted fear among residents and business owners, local media reported.

The Charlotte operation was the latest in a series of immigration enforcement actions in several large U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago, where many of those arrested did not have criminal records, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Local law enforcement and state leaders have pushed back on federal law presence in their cities, saying additional enforcement personnel are not necessary to police municipalities.

At least 250 Border Patrol agents are scheduled to begin arriving in New Orleans Friday, where officials have said they expect as many as 5,000 arrests, local media reported.

The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious, the Associated Press has found.

The predictive intelligence program has resulted in people being stopped, searched and in some cases arrested. A network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information, and an algorithm flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on where they came from, where they were going and which route they took. Federal agents in turn may then flag local law enforcement.

Suddenly, drivers find themselves pulled over — often for reasons cited such as speeding, failure to signal, the wrong window tint or even a dangling air freshener blocking the view. They are then aggressively questioned and searched, with no inkling that the roads they drove put them on law enforcement’s radar.

Once limited to policing the nation’s boundaries, the Border Patrol has built a surveillance system stretching into the country’s interior that can monitor ordinary Americans’ daily actions and connections for anomalies instead of simply targeting wanted suspects. Started about a decade ago to fight illegal border-related activities and the trafficking of drugs and people, it has expanded over the last five years.

The Border Patrol has recently grown even more powerful through collaborations with other agencies, drawing information from license plate readers nationwide run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, private companies and, increasingly, local law enforcement programs funded through federal grants. Texas law enforcement agencies have asked Border Patrol to use facial recognition to identify drivers, documents show.

This active role beyond the borders is part of the quiet transformation of its parent agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, into something more akin to a domestic intelligence operation. Under the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement efforts, CBP is now poised to get more than $2.7 billion to build out border surveillance systems such as the license plate reader program by layering in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

The result is a mass surveillance network with a particularly American focus: cars.

This investigation, the first to reveal details of how the program works on America’s roads, is based on interviews with eight former government officials with direct knowledge of the program who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media, as well as dozens of federal, state and local officials, attorneys and privacy experts. The AP also reviewed thousands of pages of court and government documents, state grant and law enforcement data, and arrest reports.

The Border Patrol has for years hidden details of its license plate reader program, trying to keep any mention of the program out of court documents and police reports, former officials say, even going so far as to propose dropping charges rather than risk revealing any details about the placement and use of their covert license plate readers. Readers are often disguised along highways in traffic safety equipment like drums and barrels.

The Border Patrol has defined its own criteria for which drivers’ behavior should be deemed suspicious or tied to drug or human trafficking, stopping people for anything from driving on backcountry roads, being in a rental car or making short trips to the border region. The agency’s network of cameras now extends along the southern border in Texas, Arizona and California, and also monitors drivers traveling near the U.S.-Canada border.

And it reaches far into the interior, affecting residents of big metropolitan areas and people driving to and from large cities such as Chicago and Detroit, as well as from Los Angeles, San Antonio and Houston to and from the Mexican border region. In one example, AP found the agency has placed at least four cameras in the greater Phoenix area over the years, one of which was more than 120 miles from the Mexican frontier, beyond the agency’s usual jurisdiction of 100 miles from a land or sea border. The AP also identified several camera locations in metropolitan Detroit, as well as one placed near the Michigan-Indiana border to capture traffic headed toward Chicago or Gary, Ind., or other nearby destinations.

Border Patrol’s parent agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said it uses license plate readers to help identify threats and disrupt criminal networks and are “governed by a stringent, multi-layered policy framework, as well as federal law and constitutional protections, to ensure the technology is applied responsibly and for clearly defined security purposes.”

“For national security reasons, we do not detail the specific operational applications,” the agency said. While the U.S. Border Patrol primarily operates within 100 miles of the border, it is legally allowed “to operate anywhere in the United States,” the agency added.

While collecting license plates from cars on public roads has generally been upheld by courts, some legal scholars see the growth of large digital surveillance networks such as Border Patrol’s as raising constitutional questions. Courts have started to recognize that “large-scale surveillance technology that’s capturing everyone and everywhere at every time” might be unconstitutional under the 4th Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches, said Andrew Ferguson, a law professor at George Washington University.

Today, predictive surveillance is embedded into America’s roadways. Mass surveillance techniques are also used in other countries, including authoritarian governments such as China and, increasingly, democracies in the United Kingdom and Europe in the name of national security and public safety.

“They are collecting mass amounts of information about who people are, where they go, what they do, and who they know … engaging in dragnet surveillance of Americans on the streets, on the highways, in their cities, in their communities,” Nicole Ozer, the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Democracy at UC Law San Francisco, said in response to the AP’s findings. “These surveillance systems do not make communities safer.”

‘We did everything right and had nothing to hide’

In February, Lorenzo Gutierrez Lugo, a driver for a small trucking company that specializes in transporting furniture, clothing and other belongings to families in Mexico, was driving south to the border city of Brownsville, Texas, carrying packages from immigrant communities in South Carolina’s low country.

Gutierrez Lugo was pulled over by a local police officer in Kingsville, a small Texas city near Corpus Christi that lies about 100 miles from the Mexico border. The officer, Richard Beltran, cited the truck’s speed of 50 mph in a 45 mph zone as the reason for the stop.

But speeding was a pretext: Border Patrol had requested the stop and said the black Dodge pickup with a white trailer could contain contraband, according to police and court records. U.S. Route 77 passes through Kingsville, a route that state and federal authorities scrutinize for trafficking of drugs, money and people.

Gutierrez Lugo, who through a lawyer declined to comment, was interrogated about the route he drove, based on license plate reader data, per the police report and court records. He consented to a search of his car by Beltran and Border Patrol agents, who eventually arrived to assist.

They unearthed no contraband. But Beltran arrested Gutierrez Lugo on suspicion of money laundering and engaging in organized criminal activity because he was carrying thousands of dollars in cash — money his supervisor said came directly from customers in local Latino communities, who are accustomed to paying in cash. No criminal charges were brought against Gutierrez Lugo and an effort by prosecutors to seize the cash, vehicle and trailer as contraband was eventually dropped.

Luis Barrios owns the trucking company, Paquetería El Guero, that employed the driver. He told AP he hires people with work authorization in the United States and was taken aback by the treatment of his employee and his trailer.

“We did everything right and had nothing to hide, and that was ultimately what they found,” said Barrios, who estimates he spent $20,000 in legal fees to clear his driver’s name and get the trailer out of impound.

Border Patrol agents and local police have many names for these kinds of stops: “whisper,” “intel” or “wall” stops. Those stops are meant to conceal — or wall off — that the true reason for the stop is a tip from federal agents sitting miles away, watching data feeds showing who’s traveling on America’s roads and predicting who is “suspicious,” according to documents and people interviewed by the AP.

In 2022, a man from Houston had his car searched from top to bottom by Texas sheriff’s deputies outside San Antonio after they got a similar tipoff from Border Patrol agents about the driver, Alek Schott.

Federal agents observed that Schott had made an overnight trip from Houston to Carrizo Springs, Texas, and back, court records show. They knew he stayed overnight in a hotel about 80 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.

At Border Patrol’s request, Schott was pulled over by Bexar County sheriff’s deputies. The deputies held Schott by the side of the road for more than an hour, searched his car and found nothing.

“The beautiful thing about the Texas Traffic Code is there’s thousands of things you can stop a vehicle for,” said Joel Babb, the sheriff’s deputy who stopped Schott’s car, in a deposition in a lawsuit Schott has filed alleging violations of his constitutional rights.

According to testimony and documents released as part of Schott’s lawsuit, Babb was on a group chat with federal agents called Northwest Highway. Babb deleted the WhatsApp chat off his phone but Schott’s lawyers were able to recover some of the text messages.

Through a public records act request, the AP also obtained more than 70 pages of the Northwest Highway group chats from June and July of this year from a Texas county that had at least one sheriff’s deputy active in the chat.

The chat logs show Border Patrol agents and Texas sheriff’s deputies trading tips about vehicles’ travel patterns — based on suspicions about little more than someone taking a quick trip to the border region and back.

In Schott’s case, Babb testified that federal agents “actually watch travel patterns on the highway” through license plate scans and other surveillance technologies. He added: “I just know that they have a lot of toys over there on the federal side.”

After finding nothing in Schott’s car, Babb said: “Nine times out of 10, this is what happens” — a phrase Schott’s lawyers claimed in court filings shows the sheriff’s department finds nothing suspicious in most of its searches.

Babb did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Bexar County sheriff’s office referred questions about the case to the county’s district attorney, who did not respond to a request for comment.

The case is pending in federal court in Texas. In an interview, Schott: said: “I didn’t know it was illegal to drive in Texas.”

Tau and Burke write for the Associated Press. Tau reported from Washington, Laredo, San Antonio, Kingsville and Victoria, Texas. Burke reported from San Francisco.

Army blames armed opposition groups for allowing scam centres to operate under their protection.

Myanmar’s military says it has raided an internet scam hub on the Thai border, arresting nearly 350 people, as part of a highly publicised crackdown against the booming black-market compounds.

The army on Wednesday blamed armed opposition groups for allowing scam centres to operate under their protection but said it had taken action after wresting back territorial control.

Myanmar’s military descended on the gambling and fraud hub Shwe Kokko on Tuesday morning, according to state-run The Global New Light of Myanmar.

“During the operation, 346 foreign nationals currently under scrutiny were arrested,” the daily reported. “Nearly 10,000 mobile phones used in online gambling operations were also seized.”

It said the Yatai firm of Chinese-Cambodian alleged racketeer She Zhijiang was “the entity involved” in running the Shwe Kokko area.

She was arrested in Thailand in 2022 and extradited last week to China, where he faces allegations of involvement in online gambling and fraud operations. She and his company, Yatai, were previously under British and US sanctions.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the border regions linking Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia have emerged as centres for online fraud.

According to the United Nations, these areas have generated billions of dollars through the trafficking of hundreds of thousands of people coerced into working in scam compounds.

China pressure

Myanmar’s military government has long been accused of turning a blind eye but has trumpeted a crackdown since February after being lobbied by key military backer China, experts say.

Additional raids beginning last month were part of a propaganda effort, according to some monitors, choreographed to vent pressure from Beijing without badly denting profits that enrich the military government’s militia allies.

Since a 2021 coup led to a civil war, Myanmar’s loosely governed borderlands have proven fertile ground for scam hubs, which analysts say are staffed by thousands of willing workers as well as people trafficked from abroad.

In October, the military arrested more than 2,000 people in a raid on KK Park, an infamous scam centre on the border with Thailand.

In September, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned more than 20 companies and individuals in Cambodia and Myanmar for their alleged involvement in scam operations.

After a surge in Border Patrol activity in North Carolina’s largest city over the weekend, including dozens of arrests, Gov. Josh Stein said the effort is “stoking fear,” not making Charlotte safer.

The Trump administration has made the Democratic city of about 950,000 people its latest target for an immigration enforcement surge it says will combat crime, despite fierce objections from local leaders and downtrending crime rates. Charlotte residents reported encounters with federal immigration agents near churches, apartment complexes and stores.

“We’ve seen masked, heavily armed agents in paramilitary garb driving unmarked cars, targeting American citizens based on their skin color, racially profiling, and picking up random people in parking lots and off of our sidewalks,” Stein said in a video statement late Sunday. “This is not making us safer. It’s stoking fear and dividing our community.”

Stein acknowledged that it was a stressful time, but he called on residents to stay peaceful. If people see something wrong, he said they should record it and report it to local law enforcement.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, has said it was focusing on North Carolina because of so-called sanctuary policies, which limit cooperation between local authorities and immigration agents.

Several county jails house immigrant arrestees and honor detainers, which allow jails to hold detainees for immigration officers to pick them up. But Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, does not. Also, the city’s police department does not help with immigration enforcement. DHS alleged that about 1,400 detainers across North Carolina had not been honored, putting the public at risk.

Gregory Bovino, who led hundreds of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in a similar effort in Chicago, documented some of the more than 80 arrests he said agents had made in social media posts on Sunday. He posted pictures of people the Trump administration commonly dubs “criminal illegal aliens,” meaning people living in the U.S. without legal permission who allegedly have criminal records. That included one of a man with an alleged history of drunk driving convictions.

The activity has prompted fear and questions, including where detainees would be held, how long the operation would last and what agents’ tactics — criticized elsewhere as aggressive and racist — would look like in North Carolina.

However, some welcomed the effort, including Mecklenburg County Republican Party Chairman Kyle Kirby, who said in a post Saturday that the county GOP “stands with the rule of law — and with every Charlottean’s safety first.”

Bovino’s operations in Chicago and Los Angeles triggered lawsuits over the use of force, including widespread deployment of chemical agents. Democratic leaders in both cities accused agents of inflaming community tensions. Federal agents fatally shot one suburban Chicago man during a traffic stop.

Bovino, head of a Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, and other Trump administration officials have called their tactics appropriate for growing threats on agents.

Tareen, Witte and Dale write for the Associated Press. Tareen and Dale reported from Chicago. Witte reported from Annapolis, Md.

WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a Trump administration appeal that argues migrants have no right to seek asylum at the southern border.

Rather, the government says border agents may block asylum seekers from stepping on to U.S. soil and turn away their claims without a hearing.

The new case seeks to clarify the immigration laws and resolve an issue that has divided past administrations and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Under federal law, migrants who faces persecution in their home countries may apply for asylum and receive a screening hearing if they are “physically present in the United States” or if such a person “arrives in the United States.”

Since 2016, however, the Obama, Biden and Trump administrations responded to surges at the border by adopting temporary rules which required migrants to wait on the Mexican side before they could apply for asylum.

But in May, a divided 9th Circuit Court ruled those restrictions were illegal if they prevented migrants from applying for asylum.

“To ‘arrive’ means ‘to reach a destination,’” wrote Judge Michelle Friedland, citing a dictionary definition. “A person who presents herself to an official at the border has ‘arrived.’”

She said this interpretation “does not radically expand the right to asylum.” By contrast, the “government’s reading would reflect a radical reconstruction of the right to apply for asylum because it would give the executive branch vast discretion to prevent people from applying by blocking them at the border.”

“We therefore conclude that a non-citizen stopped by U.S. officials at the border is eligible to apply for asylum,” she wrote.

The 2-1 decision upheld a federal judge in San Diego who ruled for migrants who had filed a class-action suit and said they were wrongly denied an asylum hearing.

But Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer urged the Supreme Court to review and reverse the appellate ruling, noting 15 judges of the 9th Circuit joined dissents that called the decision “radical” and “clearly wrong.”

In football, a “running back does not ‘arrive in’ the end zone when he is stopped at the one-yard line,” Sauer wrote.

He said federal immigration law “does not grant aliens throughout the world a right to enter the United States so that they can seek asylum.” From abroad, they may “seek admission as refugees,” he said, but the government may enforce its laws by “blocking illegal immigrants from stepping on U.S. soil.”

Immigrants rights lawyers advised the court to turn away the appeal because the government is no longer using the “metering” system that required migrants to wait for a hearing.

Since June 2024, they said the government has restricted inspections and processing of these non-citizens under a different provision of law that authorizes the president to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of alien” if he believes they would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

The government also routinely sends back migrants who illegally cross the border.

But the solicitor general said the asylum provision should be clarified.

The justices voted to hear the case of Noem vs. Al Otro Lado early next year and decide “whether an alien who is stopped on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border ‘arrives in the United States’ within the meaning” of federal immigration law.

A top Border Patrol commander touted dozens of arrests in North Carolina’s largest city Sunday as Charlotte residents reported encounters with federal immigration agents near churches and apartment complexes.

The Trump administration has made the Democratic city of about 950,000 people its latest target for an immigration enforcement surge it says will combat crime, despite fierce objections from local leaders and data showing declining crime rates.

Gregory Bovino, who led hundreds of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on a similar operation in Chicago, went on social media to document some of the arrests he said numbered more than 80 in Charlotte. He posted pictures of people the administration commonly dubs “criminal illegal aliens,” in reference to people living in the U.S. without legal permission who are alleged to have criminal records. That included one of a man with an alleged history of drunk driving convictions.

“We arrested him, taking him off the streets of Charlotte so he can’t continue to ignore our laws and drive intoxicated on the same roads you and your loved ones are on,” Bovino wrote on X.

The effort was dubbed “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” a play on the title of the beloved E.B. White children’s book, which isn’t about North Carolina — and whose story of friendship and solidarity with a seemingly doomed farm animal would appear antithetical to the federal crackdown.

The flurry of activity immediately raised questions, including where detainees would be held, how long the operation would run and what agents’ tactics that have been heavily criticized elsewhere would look like in North Carolina.

Bovino’s operations in Chicago and Los Angeles triggered a series of lawsuits and investigations over questions about use of force, including wide deployment of chemical agents. Democratic leaders in both cities said that agents’ presence inflamed community tensions and led to violence. During the Chicago area operation, federal agents fatally shot one suburban man during an attempted traffic stop.

Bovino and other Trump administration officials have called the use of force an appropriate response to growing threats on agents’ lives.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Customs and Border Patrol, did not respond to inquiries about the Charlotte arrests. Bovino’s spokesman did not return a request for comment Sunday.

Elsewhere, Homeland Security has not offered many details about who it is arresting. For instance, in Chicago, the agency provided names and details on only a handful of its more than 3,000 arrests in the metro region from September to last week. In several instances U.S. citizens were handcuffed and detained during operations, and dozens of demonstrators were also charged, often in community clashes over arrests or protests.

By Sunday, reports of CBP activity were “overwhelming” and difficult to quantify, Greg Asciutto, executive director of the community development group CharlotteEast, said in an email.

“The past two hours we’ve received countless reports of CBP activity at churches, apartment complexes and a hardware store,” he said.

City Councilmember-elect JD Mazuera Arias said federal agents appeared to be focused on churches and apartment complexes.

“Houses of worship. I mean, that’s just awful,” he said. “These are sanctuaries for people who are looking for hope and faith in dark times like these and who no longer can feel safe because of the gross violation of people’s right to worship.”

Tareen, Witte and Dale write for the Associated Press. Tareen and Dale reported from Chicago, Witte from Annapolis, Md.

Nov. 16 (UPI) — A senior Border Patrol official said Sunday that 81 “illegal aliens” have been rounded up in raids in Charlotte, N.C., in an operation dubbed “Charlotte’s Web.”

Federal agents arrived in the city Saturday to launch the operation, with businesses closing in the city as people began to be arrested and detained in local neighborhoods.

“Illegal aliens with criminal histories and warrants don’t hang out in front of big box hardware stores? Well, then how did we find this illegal alien from Honduras there?” Greg Bovino, commander-at-large of the agency, said on social media in a post that included a photo of a crying woman he detained in Charlotte.

Bovino said another person he arrested, from Honduras, had been ordered to leave by an immigration judge in April.

“Guess he didn’t get the word, so we let him know…that he’s gotta go,” Bovino wrote.

Overall, he said that his team had arrested 81 people since arriving in Charlotte on Saturday, and that “many” — but not all — of them had significant criminal and immigration history.

“This was done in about five hours!” Bovino said. “Stay tuned to social media to take a look at who we apprehended.”

Charlotte is the latest in a string of cities across the country, including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, where federal agencies have staged similar raids as part of immigration enforcement.

The raids have been criticized for their scope and nature, with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week issuing a statement that it opposes “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.”

“Human dignity and national security are not in conflict,” the group said. “Both are possible if people of good will work together.”

White House Border Czar Tom Homan, who has championed the city-by-city immigration raids and round-ups, called the bishops “wrong” in comments at the White House on Friday, noting that he is a lifelong Catholic.

“A secure border saves lives,” Homan told reporters outside the West Wing. “We’re going to enforce the law and by doing that we save a lot of lives.”

Bovino himself also has faced criticism for his confrontational manner of arresting people for deportation.

The Project on Government Oversight last week issued a report analyzing four years of federal data that said Bovino has presided over a “disproportionate” amount of use-of-force incidents compared to the amount of assaults they’ve faced.

Meanwhile, Bovino has emerged as a central figure in President Donald Trump‘s crackdown on immigration.

Bovino’s trip to Charlotte comes after raids in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood in recent weeks, in which he ordered his agents to tear-gas civilians.

After the raids in Chicago, he and his team took selfies at Anish Kapoor‘s Cloud Gate, the sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor colloquially known as the “bean.”

In comments to Urgent Matter, Kapoor likened Bovino and his team to “Nazis” for “intimidating the people they seem to be immigrants.”

“I am deeply horrified and saddened that U.S. Border Patrol has chosen to rally in front of Cloud Gate for their self-congratulatory photo-opp,” Kapoor said.

Nov. 15 (UPI) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents initiated enforcement of federal immigration laws in Charlotte, N.C., on Saturday.

Many businesses on Central Avenue in the eastern portion of Charlotte closed as federal agents began making arrests and detained people in local neighborhoods, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Local officials expressed their support for migrants in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

“We want people in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to know we stand with all residents who simply want to go about their lives contributing to our larger community,” Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles and Mecklenburg County Commission Chairman Mark Jerrell and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education Chairwoman Stephanie Sneed said in a joint statement.

“Our region has thrived and grown because our strength lies in our diversity and our collective commitment to each other and to this community,” they said.

“Let us all — no matter our political allegiance — stand together for all hard-working and law-abiding families.”

The local officials said the arrival of the CBP agents unnecessarily created “fear and uncertainty in our community.”

Federal agents have most recently been deployed to Chicago, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement spent the past month enforcing immigration law amid opposition from protesters and others.

The Charlotte Observer reported a man saying the federal agents smashed a window on his vehicle, and another said agents aimed a rifle and threatened to shoot him after he followed them.

CBP agents also allegedly broke the window of another man’s vehicle and took his keys after stopping him twice in 10 minutes, but the man did not say if he was following the agents as they went about their work.

Local officials earlier said the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department does not participate in immigration enforcement and asked community members to stay peaceful amid the immigration enforcement action, according to NBC News.

North Carolina is not a sanctuary state, and state law prevents local governments from declaring themselves to be sanctuaries for those who have illegally entered or otherwise remained in the United States.

The federal immigration enforcement effort in Charlotte prompted Asheville, N.C., Mayor Esther Manheimer to suggest the city could be next, WLOS reported.

The UN Security Council says further extensions would hinge on real progress between Sudan and South Sudan.

The United Nations Security Council has voted to renew a UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), the peacekeeping mission in the oil-rich disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan, for another year.

A 12-0 vote late on Friday, which saw Russia, China and Pakistan abstain, extended the mission until November 2026, but warned that progress on ending bloody fighting in the region would be crucial to any potential future extensions.

The United States submitted the draft resolution that renewed the mandate, which was due to expire on November 15, and said it “negotiated this draft in good faith, asking only for reasonable and common-sense benchmarks for this mission”.

Friday’s resolution stated that further renewal would be based on “demonstrable progress” by Sudan and South Sudan, including the creation of a joint police force for Abyei and the complete demilitarisation of the region, as agreed upon by the two sides in 2011 when South Sudan gained independence.

The 4,000 police and soldiers of UNISFA are tasked with protecting civilians in the region plagued by frequent armed clashes.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is now tasked with presenting a report by August 2026 on whether Sudan and South Sudan have made any tangible progress, which would also enable the Security Council to assess the consequences of reducing the peacekeeping force.

“These benchmarks will help describe the mission’s impact and provide a critical tool to hold host governments accountable for measurable progress,” said US representative Dorothy Shea.

UNISFA is a small but politically sensitive mission, operating in a region where clashes have displaced thousands and humanitarian access has often been constrained by a lack of security and dangerous road conditions.

Unrest in the disputed area with South Sudan also continues at a time when Sudan is devastated by a civil war that erupted in April 2023, when two generals started fighting over control of the country.

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been committing atrocities in Darfur and other regions, have also been active in Abyei.

Explosives reportedly detonate during forensic investigation as part of probe into earlier blast in India’s capital New Delhi.

At least seven people have been killed and 27 more injured after a cache of confiscated explosives detonated in a police station in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city.

The stockpile exploded late on Friday night at a police station in the Nowgam area in the south of Srinagar.

Most of those killed were policemen and forensic team officials who were examining the explosives at the time of the detonation, unnamed sources told Indian broadcaster NDTV. Two officials from the Srinagar administration also died in the blast.

With five people still in critical condition, the death toll could continue to climb, according to the media outlet.

“Not a terror attack. Police say it’s a very unfortunate incident,” NDTV’s senior executive editor Aditya Raj Kaul said in a post on social media.

“The blast happened when a forensics team and the police were checking the explosive material stored at the police station,” he said.

#BREAKING: J&K Police Top Officials tell me that the massive blast at Nowgam Police Station around 11:20pm tonight happened when FSL team along with Police and Tehsildar were inspecting the large Ammonium Nitrate explosive which was confiscated earlier. Casualties in the blast.… pic.twitter.com/67U143jOFg

— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) November 14, 2025

The huge blast comes days after Monday’s deadly car explosion in New Delhi, which killed at least 12 people near the city’s historic Red Fort and which officials have called a “terror” incident.

The explosion in the Indian capital occurred just hours after police arrested several people and seized explosive materials as well as assault rifles.

Police said the suspects were linked to Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), a Pakistan-based group that is seeking to end Indian rule in Kashmir, and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a Kashmir offshoot linked to JeM.

Police in Indian-administered Kashmir also detained more than 650 people as part of their investigation following the New Delhi car blast.

According to reports, the Nowgam police station, where the blast took place on Friday, had led an investigation into posters that were displayed around the area by JeM, warning it would carry out attacks on security forces and “outsiders”.

Police said their investigation into the posters exposed a “white-collar terror ecosystem, involving radicalised professionals and students in contact with foreign handlers, operating from Pakistan and other countries”.

Police also recovered nearly 3,000kg (3 tonnes) of ammonium nitrate, a commonly used material in bomb making, saying the armed group was stockpiling enough explosives to carry out a major attack in India.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and both claim the Himalayan territory.

The two countries have fought three wars over Kashmir since the nations were partitioned in 1947, and tensions remain high between New Delhi and Islamabad over the status of the territory.

Thailand says ‘hostility … has not decreased’ and deal on hold until Cambodia meets unspecified demands.

Thailand has suspended the implementation of a United States-brokered peace agreement with neighbouring Cambodia after a landmine blast near their border injured two of its soldiers.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said after Monday’s incident that all action set to be carried out under the truce will be halted until Thailand’s demands, which remain unspecified, are met.

“The hostility towards our national security has not decreased as we thought it would,” Anutin asserted. He did not elaborate on what Thailand’s demands were.

There was no immediate response from the Cambodian government.

Simmering

Thailand and Cambodia signed a ceasefire on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia last month after territorial disputes between the two Southeast Asian countries led to five days of border clashes in July.

Those hostilities killed at least 43 people and displaced more than 300,000 civilians living along the border.

The Thai army said in a statement that Monday’s mine explosion in Sisaket province injured two soldiers.

Thai Defence Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit said the army is still investigating whether the mine was newly laid.

Thailand has previously accused Cambodia of laying new mines in violation of the truce, a charge that the Cambodian government denies.

Similar landmine explosions have occurred both before and since the deal, and tension has simmered.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Thailand should release 18 Cambodian soldiers, and both sides must begin removing heavy weapons and land mines from the border.

Natthaphon said Thailand will postpone the release of the Cambodian soldiers, initially scheduled for this week.

The two sides have reported some progress on arms removal, but Thailand has accused Cambodia of obstructing mine clearance.

Cambodia said it’s committed to all terms of the truce and urged Thailand to release its soldiers as soon as possible.

Complex issues

Thailand and Cambodia agreed to a truce mediated by Malaysia in July after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs.

The dispute is among eight conflicts that Trump has taken credit for resolving, although critics have noted that the peace deals he has helped to initiate often implant swift and simplistic ceasefires, leaving complex issues behind the conflicts unresolved and likely to reignite hostilities.

While the Thai-Cambodian truce has generally held since July 29, both countries have traded allegations of ceasefire breaches.

Analysts said a more comprehensive peace pact adjudicating the century-long territorial dispute at the core of the conflict is needed.

Nov. 8 (UPI) — One or more people fired shots at Customs and Border Protection agents, who were carrying out law enforcement activities in a southwestern Chicago neighborhood on Saturday.

The agents were in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood as part of the Operation Midway Blitz operation to enforce federal immigration laws in the sanctuary city when an unidentified male in a black Jeep fired shots at the agents and then fled in his vehicle.

The number of shots fired was not announced.

“This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of violence and obstruction,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X.

“Over the past two months, we’ve seen an increase in assaults and obstruction targeting federal law enforcement during operations,” the post continued.

“These confrontations highlight the dangers our agents face daily and the escalating aggression toward law enforcement. The violence must end.”

The incident occurred near 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue when agents detained a young woman, which drew the attention of protesters who demanded CBP release her, according to WLS-TV.

As protesters followed the CBP caravan in which the woman was detained, the man in the black Jeep fired shots at the agents.

Some protesters also threw bricks and a paint can at the agents’ vehicles, CBS News reported.

The Chicago Police Department arrived on the scene to clear it and restore order.

No arrests have been made, but federal law enforcement is continuing to search for the driver of the black Jeep.

Chicago Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez said the CBP agents “came out of their vehicles pointing their weapons” and “used tear gas on people,” WLS-TV reported.

After Chicago police arrived, one police officer was struck by a vehicle and taken to a local hospital for treatment. His condition was not reported.

The Chicago Police Department said there were no reports of anyone being struck by gunfire.

CBP agents continued their law enforcement activities near 26th and Pulaski and deployed tear gas to fend off protesters as they detained another person.

Many protesters used whistles and car horns to warn others of the CBP activities during an afternoon attempt to detain a man and his niece near 25th and Sawyers.

The incident also required the attention of the Chicago Police Department after someone used a vehicle to ram a CBP vehicle.

The Entry/Exit System (EES) is being rolled out across European countries

Travellers heading to Europe are being warned to be ready for major changes at airports as a new digital border system rolls out. With the changes starting in October, some will have already experienced the new system, while others won’t have.

The Entry/Exit System (EES) is gradually replacing traditional passport stamps across European countries and an expert is urging Brits to research the requirements and allow extra time for airport checks. Paul Paddock, CEO of Post Office Insurance at Post Office, has addressed four crucial questions about the new system to help British holidaymakers travel with confidence.

What is the EES?

Paul explained: “The Entry/Exit System (EES) is a new digital border control system for non-EU nationals entering the Schengen Area for short stays (up to 90 days in any 180-day period). It replaces manual passport stamping with electronic registration, improving border security and efficiency.

“Brits travelling to countries such as Spain, Portugal and Greece will now need to be prepared to have their passports scanned and biometric data taken at border control the first time they enter.”

What data is being collected and for how long?

Paul said that biometric information, including facial images (for all travellers) and fingerprints (for visa-exempt travellers only), will be collected. The system will also record passport information, entry and exit dates and locations, plus duration of stay. Information will be retained for three years for standard visits or five years if travellers overstay their permitted time.

Are there any exemptions to the EES?

Paul explained: “The EES does not apply to EU/EEA/Swiss citizens, non-EU nationals with specific residence permits and Monaco, Andorra, San Marino and Vatican nationals. Ireland and Cyprus are not part of the Schengen area where the system applies, so UK nationals travelling there will continue to be checked and stamped manually. Children under 12 will only have their facial image taken, not their fingerprints.”

How does EES work?

Paul said: “Travellers entering for the first time will undergo biometric registration at border kiosks or e-gates. This includes the system capturing a facial image, fingerprints (if visa-exempt), passport details and entry/exit information.

“For subsequent visits, the process will be faster due to the data already being stored. It’s important to note that no pre-registration is required – registration happens at the border during your first entry.

“Passengers may be impacted by facing longer queues initially due to biometric data collection, a process expected to take several minutes per person. Passengers should be encouraged to plan contingency options if travelling on a tight schedule (alternative routes or transport), as any teething problems or incomplete information could cause delays to miss flights, ferries, or connections.”

Preparing for EES border checks

Paul suggests this checklist:

1. Verify your passport expiry date (must remain valid for at least 3 months beyond your trip for EU destinations and be less than 10 years old)

2. Familiarise yourself with your destination airport’s EES setup (anticipate biometric checks)

3. Keep crucial travel documents at hand, including passports, travel insurance, accommodation confirmation, and proof of onward or return journey

Afghan official says four Afghan civilians were killed and five others wounded in border clashes.

Talks in Istanbul between Pakistan and Afghanistan are at a deadlock, Islamabad said, a day after both sides accused each other of mounting border clashes that risked breaching a ceasefire brokered by Qatar.

The update on the talks by Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Friday came after an Afghan official said four Afghan civilians were killed and five others wounded in clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces along their shared border despite the joint negotiations.

There was no immediate comment from Kabul about the Pakistani claim.

In a statement thanking Turkiye and Qatar for mediating the talks, Tarar maintained that the Afghan Taliban has failed to meet pledges it made with the international community about curbing “terrorism” under a 2021 Doha peace accord.

Tarar said that Pakistan “will not support any steps by the Taliban government that are not in the interest of the Afghan people or neighboring countries.” He did not elaborate further, but added that Islamabad continues to seek peace and goodwill for Afghans but will take “all necessary measures” to protect its own people and sovereignty.

Ali Mohammad Haqmal, head of the Information and Culture Department in Spin Boldak, blamed Pakistan for initiating the shooting. However, he said Afghan forces did not respond amid ongoing peace talks between the two sides in Istanbul.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said Afghanistan initiated the shooting.

“Pakistan remains committed to ongoing dialogue and expects reciprocity from Afghan authorities”, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said.

The ministry said the ceasefire remained intact.

Andrabi said Pakistan’s national security adviser, Asim Malik, is leading the Pakistani delegation in the talks with Afghanistan. The Afghan side is being led by Abdul Haq Wasiq, director of general intelligence, according to Mujahid.

He said that Pakistan had handed over its demands to mediators “with a singular aim to put an end to cross-border terrorism,” and that “mediators are discussing Pakistan’s demands with the Afghan Taliban delegation, point by point.”

Strained ties

Islamabad accuses Kabul of harbouring armed groups, particularly the Pakistan Taliban (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP), which regularly claims deadly attacks in Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban deny sheltering the group.

Many Pakistan Taliban leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan since the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in 2021, further straining ties between the two countries.

Turkiye said at the conclusion of last week’s talks that the parties had agreed to establish a monitoring and verification mechanism to maintain peace and penalise violators.

Fifty civilians were killed and 447 others wounded on the Afghan side of the border during clashes that began on October 9, according to the United Nations. At least five people died in explosions in Kabul that the Taliban government blamed on Pakistan.

The Pakistani army reported 23 of its soldiers were killed and 29 others wounded, without mentioning civilian casualties.