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Oct. 8 (UPI) — Pope Leo XIV reportedly opposed U.S. mass deportation efforts after meeting with El Paso, Texas, Bishop Mark Seitz and members of the Hope Border Institute on Wednesday.

The pope hosted Seitz, institute members and others in Vatican City to discuss the Trump administration’s efforts to deport potentially millions of “migrants” who no longer have legal standing to remain in the United States, according to the Holy See Press Office.

Seitz said the meeting was to enable Pope Leo to see and hear the “stories and fears of our immigrant sisters and brothers from across our country,” USA Today reported.

The meeting included showing a four-minute video of migrants recounting their experiences amid the Trump administration’s efforts to deport those without legal standing to remain in the United States.

“He watched the whole thing, and his eyes at the end were filled with tears,” Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute, told Politico.

“As the meeting came to an end, he said, ‘You stand with me, and I stand with you, and the church will continue to accompany and stand with migrants.'” Corbett said.

The Vatican has not confirmed that Pope Leo made those comments, but many U.S. Catholic leaders have denounced the Trump administration’s deportation of an estimated 2 million “migrants.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Oct. 1 rejected claims that those being deported are subject to “inhumane treatment” and said the Trump administration is enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.

The Hope Border Institute is an El Paso-based non-profit that says its mission is “pursuing justice at the U.S.-Mexico border.”

While the pope reportedly stands with Seitz and the Hope Border Institute, Vatican City enforces its borders and punishes illegal crossings by fining and imprisoning offenders for between one and four years, according to the Catholic News Agency.

SEOUL, Sept. 29 (UPI) — The top diplomats of North Korea and China met in Beijing and agreed to develop bilateral ties while resisting “hegemonism” and “unilateralism,” both countries said Monday.

The first one-on-one meeting between North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, took place on Sunday.

“China is ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the DPRK in international and regional affairs, oppose all forms of hegemonism, and safeguard the common interests of both sides and international fairness and justice,” Wang said, according to a readout by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

“The current international landscape is marked by changes and turbulence, and power politics and bullying acts cause grave harm,” Wang added.

The remarks appear to be directed at the United States, with whom China is locked in a global economic and military competition. North Korea, meanwhile, has long characterized Washington as a hostile, hegemonic power seeking to dominate the Korean Peninsula.

The ministry’s readout quoted Choe as saying that the North is “willing to closely cooperate with China in multilateral affairs, jointly resist unilateralism and power politics, and promote a fairer and more just world order.”

The meeting comes less than a month after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Beijing to attend a military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, where he held his first summit with Xi in six years.

The relationship between the two longtime allies has shown signs of warming after widespread speculation of a rift over Pyongyang’s growing military alignment with Moscow.

North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said that Wang and Choe reached a “complete consensus” in their discussions on regional and international issues.

Choe relayed a message from Kim Jong Un, who said that “the friendship between North Korea and China remains unchangeable” and that further strengthening ties between Beijing and Pyongyang was the North’s “unwavering position.”

Interest has been swirling over what sort of delegation China will send to North Korea for the 80th anniversary of the founding of its ruling Workers’ Party of Korea on Oct. 10.

Satellite imagery analyzed by Seoul-based SI Analytics shows that the North is preparing for its largest-ever military parade to mark the occasion. In a report released last week, analysts said that new weapons will likely be unveiled, including the Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile, cruise missiles, tanks and AI-enabled attack drones.

Russia has already announced that its second-in-command, Dmitry Medvedev, will attend. It is unclear whether Xi himself will make his first visit to North Korea since 2019.

Chinese leader pledges $280m in aid to members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation at summit in Tianjin.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged regional leaders to oppose “Cold War mentality” at a gathering of a security bloc that Beijing has touted as an alternative to the Western-led international order.

In a speech to attendees of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit on Monday, Xi said that member states are facing increasingly complicated security and development challenges as the world becomes “chaotic and intertwined”.

“Looking back, despite tumultuous times, we have achieved success by practising the Shanghai spirit,” Xi said.

“Looking to the future, with the world undergoing turbulence and transformation, we must continue to follow the Shanghai spirit, keep our feet on the ground, forge ahead, and better perform the functions of the organisation.”

Calling for an “equal and orderly multipolarisation” of the world, Xi said the bloc should work towards the creation of a “more just and equitable global governance system”.

The Chinese leader said Beijing would provide 2 billion yuan ($280m) in aid to member states this year and a further 10 billion yuan ($1.4bn) of loans to an SCO banking consortium.

“We must take advantage of the mega-scale market… to improve the level of trade and investment facilitation,” Xi said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko are among the more than 20 world readers attending the two-day SCO summit, which opened on Sunday in China’s northern city of Tianjin.

Established in 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation began as a grouping of six Eurasian nations – China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – but has since expanded to comprise 10 permanent members and 16 dialogue and observer countries.

Analysts say that China intends to use the gathering to promote an alternative to the United States-led global order and repair ties with India amid a shifting geopolitical environment under US President Donald Trump.

A top university in the United States has declined to oppose President Donald Trump’s travel ban on Iran after a call to action by its Iranian students.

In a letter last month, the group of students called on the University of Texas at Austin to denounce Trump’s “sweeping and discriminatory” ban, take “immediate legal action” against the measure, and reaffirm support for Iranian students and scholars.

The letter, authored “on behalf of the newly admitted Iranian students”, was sent to interim university President Jim Davis on July 21, weeks after Trump signed an executive order banning citizens from 12 countries, including Iran.

“This Proclamation undermines the very principles upon which UT Austin stands. Iranian students and scholars have long been integral to the university’s academic and research excellence, particularly in STEM fields,” the letter said.

In the letter, the group noted that the university’s department of civil, architectural and environmental engineering was named after Fariborz Maseeh, an Iranian-American entrepreneur and philanthropist, in a “testament to the enduring legacy of Iranian American contributions to education, innovation, and public service”.

“This is a moment that calls for bold and principled action,” the letter said.

“UT Austin has long benefited from Iranian students’ academic contributions. It must now stand in their defense. Failing to act not only jeopardizes the futures of individual students – it risks diminishing the ethical and intellectual standing of the institution itself.”

Al Jazeera obtained the letter through a public records request.

Despite the students’ plea, neither the university nor Davis have made any public comment on the ban.

Davis’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year, 81 Iranians studied at the University of Texas at Austin, according to the university’s website, almost all of whom were graduate students.

The University of Texas at Austin is considered among the most prestigious tertiary institutions in the US, placing 30th in US News and World Report’s 2025 university rankings.

“After months of preparation and acceptance into the world’s leading research institutions, we now face the heartbreaking possibility of being denied entry for a long time,” an Iranian student, who was involved in the letter, told Al Jazeera, requesting anonymity.

The student said many members of a 1,500-person Telegram group of Iranian students that they belong to have reported being stuck in prolonged post-interview administrative processing.

A few of them have been refused visas, while others have chosen to skip visa interviews on the understanding that they would be denied a visa, the student said.

Prior to the ban, many of them would have already undergone extensive security vetting to obtain a student visa.

Apart from Iran, Trump’s travel ban also applies to Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

The student said Iranians were facing “collective punishment” by the Trump administration.

“People must not be equated with their governments,” the student said.

“Such blanket measures are neither reasonable nor fair, and they undermine the very principles of justice, academic freedom, and equal opportunity that the United States has long stood for.”

More than 12,300 Iranian students studied in the US during the 2023-2024 academic year, up from 10,812 a year earlier, according to the US State Department.

July 21 (UPI) — Several hundred current and former NASA employees, including at least four retired astronauts, backed a letter that opposes the Trump administration’s significant cuts to the federal space agency.

The letter, which included 131 signatures and 156 unnamed ones out of “fear of retaliation,” is titled “The Voyager Declaration.” It is named after the two NASA spacecraft exploring space when they launched in 1977 from Florida.

The retired astronauts who signed the letter include Cady Coleman, Steve Swanson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger and John Herrington.

Scientists outside NASA, including 20 Nobel Prize winners, also have given their support for the agency that was found in 1958 before the first unmanned satellite launched.

The letter was addressed to Sean Duffy, who was named interim NASA administrator on Juy 10 and continues to serve as Transportation Secretary.

He replaced acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro, a long-time agency employee.

“In light of your recent appointment as Interim NASA Administrator, we bring to your attention recent policies that have or threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security, and undermine the core NASA mission,” the letter reads.

They urged Duffy to oppose a 24% budget reduction and 31% workforce cuts as proposed by the Trump administration.

Out of the 17,000-plus NASA employees, 2,600 have lost their jobs, according to Politicio. And at least $117 million in NASA grants already have been canceled.

Congress sets U.S. spending.

Workers at other federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency, have penned similar letters opposing cutbacks.

“The consequences for the agency and the country alike are dire,” the letter says.

The signers of the letter cited wasteful efforts affecting the workforce.

“Major programmatic shifts at NASA must be implemented strategically so that risks are managed carefully,” the letter reads. “Instead, the last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA’s workforce.

“We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety, scientific advancement, and efficient use of public resources. These cuts are arbitrary and have been enacted in defiance of congressional appropriations law.”

The letter lays out several things on which the letter writers say, “we dissent”:

• Changes to NASA’s Technical Authority
• Closing of missions appropriated by Congress
• “Indiscriminate” cuts to NASA science and aeronautics research
• “Non-strategic staffing reductions”
• Canceling of NASA participation in international missions
• Termination of contracts and grants “unrelated to performance”
• Elimination of programs for supporting NASA’s workforce

The Technical Authority was established in wake of the 2003 Columbia shuttler disaster that killed seven astronauts. It allows workers in all levels of the agency to voice concern outside a usual chain of command.

The letter was dedicated to the Columbia astronauts, as well as Gus Grissom, Ed White And Roger Chaffee, who died aboard Apollo 1 at the launch pad in 1967, and seven killed in the 1987 Challenger explosion.

“Their legacies underpin every conversation about our shared commitment to safety and dissenting opinions at NASA,” the letter reads.

Monica Gorman, an operations research analyst at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told The New York Times: “We’re afraid of retaliation.”

She added: “I’m already at risk of losing my job, and I’d rather speak out and try to save something at NASA, rather than just hide under my desk until I get laid off. But I am scared.”

Ella Kaplan, who also works at Goddard, as a contractor for website administratipon, signed the letter.

Kaplan told Nature.com she doesn’t expect Duffy to read the entire letter but the declaration is “about getting our dissent out to the public and saying, ‘Hey — this is what’s happened at NASA, and this is not OK.'”

NASA spokesman Bethany Steven told Nature.com that NASA is not interested in sustaining “lower-priority missions.”

“We must revisit what’s working and what’s not so that we can inspire the American people again and win the space race,” she said.

Makenzie Lystrup, Goddard’s direct since 2023, resigned, effective Aug. 1, after the letter was released, according to an internal email obtained by CNN.

NASA, with the retirement of the shuttle in 2011, mainly relies on SpaceX, a private company, to send astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASA is leading the Artemis program to send humans to the moon again in a few years. The agency is working with SpaceX, Blue Origin and Intuitive Machines as well as foreign public agencies.

A coalition of groups including environmental activists and Native Americans advocating for their ancestral homelands converged outside an airstrip in the Florida Everglades on Saturday to protest the imminent construction of an immigrant detention center.

Hundreds of protesters lined part of U.S. Highway 41 that slices through the marshy Everglades — also known as Tamiami Trail — as dump trucks hauling materials lumbered into the airfield. Cars passing by honked in support as protesters waved signs calling for the protection of the expansive preserve that is home to a few Native tribes and several endangered animal species.

Christopher McVoy, an ecologist, said he saw a steady stream of trucks entering the site while he protested for hours. Environmental degradation was a big reason why he came out Saturday. But as a south Florida city commissioner, he said concerns over immigration raids in his city also fueled his opposition.

“People I know are in tears, and I wasn’t far from it,” he said.

Florida officials have forged ahead over the last week in constructing the compound dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” within the Everglades’ humid swamplands.

The government fast-tracked the project under emergency powers from an executive order issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis that addresses what he casts as a crisis of illegal immigration. That order lets the state sidestep certain purchasing laws and is why construction has continued despite objections from Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and local activists.

The facility will have temporary structures such as heavy-duty tents and trailers to house detained immigrants. The state estimates that by early July, it will have 5,000 immigration detention beds in operation.

The compound’s proponents have said its location in the Florida wetlands — teeming with alligators, invasive Burmese pythons and other reptiles — makes it an ideal spot for immigration detention.

“Clearly, from a security perspective, if someone escapes, you know, there’s a lot of alligators,” DeSantis said Wednesday. “No one’s going anywhere.”

Under DeSantis, Florida has made an aggressive push for immigration enforcement and has been supportive of the federal government’s broader crackdown on illegal immigration. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has backed Alligator Alcatraz, which Secretary Kristi Noem said will be partly funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Native American leaders in the region have seen the construction as an encroachment onto their sacred homelands, which prompted Saturday’s protest. In Big Cypress National Preserve, where the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport is located, 15 traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages remain, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites.

Others have raised human rights concerns over what they condemn as the inhumane housing of immigrants. Worries about environmental effects have also been at the forefront, as groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of the Everglades filed a lawsuit Friday to halt the detention center plans.

“The Everglades is a vast, interconnected system of waterways and wetlands, and what happens in one area can have damaging impacts downstream,” Friends of the Everglades executive director Eve Samples said. “So it’s really important that we have a clear sense of any wetland impacts happening in the site.”

Bryan Griffin, a DeSantis spokesperson, said Friday in response to the litigation that the facility was a “necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a preexisting airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment.”

Until the site undergoes a comprehensive environmental review and public comment is sought, the environmental groups say construction should pause. The facility’s speedy establishment is “damning evidence” that state and federal agencies hope it will be “too late” to reverse their actions if they are ordered by a court to do so, said Elise Bennett, a Center for Biological Diversity senior attorney working on the case.

The potential environmental hazards also bleed into other aspects of Everglades life, including a robust tourism industry where hikers walk trails and explore the marshes on airboats, said Floridians for Public Lands founder Jessica Namath, who attended the protest. To place an immigration detention center there makes the area unwelcoming to visitors and feeds into the misconception that the space is in “the middle of nowhere,” she said.

“Everybody out here sees the exhaust fumes, sees the oil slicks on the road, you know, they hear the sound and the noise pollution. You can imagine what it looks like at nighttime, and we’re in an international dark sky area,” Namath said. “It’s very frustrating because, again, there’s such disconnect for politicians.”

Seminera writes for the Associated Press.