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Here’s where things stand on Saturday, November 29.

Fighting

• Russian drones struck six locations in Kyiv’s city centre and eastern suburbs early on Saturday, injuring four people, as apartment buildings and other dwellings were hit, said the head of Kyiv’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko.
• Ukrainian forces are defending their positions and hunting down sabotage groups in the northeastern city of Kupiansk, despite Moscow’s claims that its troops are fully in control of the area, Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, said.
• Russia seized Kupiansk in the first weeks of its 2022 full-scale invasion, but Ukrainian troops recaptured it later that year. Russian President Vladimir Putin then claimed on Thursday that the city was “fully in our hands”. Syrskii swiftly rejected the claims, saying that “the scale of lies from the Russian leadership about the situation in Kupiansk is astonishing”.
• Russian forces cleared Ukrainian troops from 6,585 buildings in the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in the last week amid fierce fighting, the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed.
• Ukraine said its forces have hit Russia’s Saratov oil refinery and the Saky airbase in the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula. “A series of explosions was recorded, followed by a fire in the target area,” Ukraine’s military said regarding the refinery strike.
• Russian air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 136 Ukrainian drones overnight, Moscow’s Defence Ministry has said.

Ukrainian politics

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, a close ally who has headed Ukraine’s negotiation team at fraught United States-backed peace talks, has quit, hours after anticorruption agents searched his home. Yermak was leading Ukraine’s effort to push back against peace terms proposed by the US, which would satisfy many of Moscow’s territorial and security demands.
• Zelenskyy said he would consider a replacement for his chief of staff on Saturday. “Russia is eager for Ukraine to make mistakes. We won’t make any,” Zelenskyy said in a video address, calling for unity. “Our work goes on. Our struggle goes on,” he added.
• Investigations into high-level corruption, coming just weeks after Ukraine’s justice and energy ministers resigned amid a wide-reaching probe, have sparked public outrage and thrust government leadership into crisis at a time when the country is fighting for its very survival.

Ceasefire talks

• In a video address to the nation, Zelenskyy said that senior Ukrainian officials representing the military, intelligence and Foreign Ministry would soon participate in talks with Washington officials on how to end the conflict.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia expects to have information on the agreed points of a proposed peace plan by the time a US delegation arrives in Moscow next week. Peskov said that Moscow is working on the assumption that it is negotiating the plan solely with the US.

Sanctions

• A European Union spokesperson said that “intensive discussions” are ongoing, including with Belgium, on using frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine stay afloat. Belgium’s support for the plan is crucial as the assets the EU hopes to use are held by Belgium-based financial institution Euroclear.
• The talks come as Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever warned in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that using the assets could derail a Ukraine peace deal.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he saw the need to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine as “increasingly urgent” and hoped there would soon be an agreement.
• Russia will deliver agreed crude and gas supplies to Hungary according to existing contracts, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
• Blasts have rocked two vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet of sanctioned oil tankers in the Black Sea, near Turkiye’s Bosphorus Strait. The 274-metre-long (898 ft) tanker Kairos suffered an explosion and caught fire in the Black Sea while en route from Egypt to Russia, Turkiye’s Ministry of Transport said. It said emergency response vessels were immediately dispatched to the scene, and the 25 crew members on board were safely rescued.
• The Kairos was heading to Russia’s Novorossiysk port when it reported “an external impact” causing a fire 28 nautical miles (51.8km) off the Turkish shore, Turkiye’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs said.
• A second Russian tanker, Virat, was reportedly struck some 35 nautical miles (64.8km) offshore, further east in the Black Sea. The cause of the blasts was not immediately clear, but there have been incidents of ships hitting mines in the Black Sea in recent years.
• Russia has failed to win enough votes to rejoin the United Nations shipping agency’s governing council despite urging countries to back its nomination for a seat it lost in 2023. The outcome is a blow for Russia, which also failed to secure enough support in September to get elected to the UN aviation agency’s governing council, in another diplomatic rebuke of Moscow over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Regional security

• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to skip a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels next week, the Reuters news agency reports, citing two anonymous US officials, in a highly unusual absence of Washington’s top diplomat from a key transatlantic gathering at a crucial time for peace talks in Ukraine.
• US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau will represent Washington instead, said one of the officials. It was unclear why Rubio planned to skip the December 3 meeting. But his likely no-show comes as US and Ukrainian officials have been scrambling to narrow gaps over US President Donald Trump’s plan to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
• Poland has detained two Ukrainians and three Belarusians on charges of acting on the orders of foreign intelligence services, as Warsaw warns of Russian attempts to destabilise countries backing Kyiv. Poland says it has been targeted with arson and cyberattacks in what it calls a “hybrid war” waged by Russia to undermine support for Ukraine.
• Germany recorded its highest number of drone sightings over military bases in October, a senior intelligence official said, with a growing focus on naval installations. Previously, drones had often been spotted over army and air force bases, including those training Ukrainian troops.
• Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma, has resigned from parliament amid allegations that she lured 17 men to fight for Russia in Ukraine. Zuma-Sambudla was a lawmaker in the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) opposition party led by her father. MK officials said she resigned voluntarily and that her departure from the National Assembly and all other public roles was effective immediately.
• Putin will visit India on December 4-5 at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian state news agencies reported.

Alexander Lukashenko’s visit comes shortly before military government holds national polls widely condemned as a sham.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has arrived in Myanmar on a goodwill visit seen as lending support to the Southeast Asian country’s military government in advance of a widely condemned national election set to be held next month.

Myanmar state media reported on Friday that Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the country’s self-installed de facto leader, met Lukashenko at the Presidential Palace in the capital, Naypyidaw.

“This visit demonstrated Belarus’s goodwill and trust towards Myanmar and marked a historic occasion. It is the first time in 26 years of diplomatic relations that a Belarusian Head of State has visited Myanmar,” military run outlet The Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

Lukashenko’s arrival at a military airport in Naypyidaw on Thursday night saw him welcomed by senior figures from Myanmar’s military government, including Prime Minister Nyo Saw, with full state honours and cultural performers.

After former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Lukashenko is only the second foreign leader to visit Myanmar since its military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government in a coup on February 1, 2021.

The Belarusian leader’s visit also comes just a month before the military is set to host national elections that many domestic and international observers have condemned as a sham. His visit is widely viewed as lending support to the polls, due to be held in late December, and which the military government has touted as a return to normalcy.

Following Lukashenko’s meeting with Min Aung Hlaing on Friday, The Global New Light also confirmed that Belarus plans to “send an observation team to Myanmar” to monitor the polls.

The leaders also agreed that “collaboration will also be strengthened in military technologies and trade”, a day after the Myanmar-Belarus Development Cooperation Roadmap 2026–2028 was signed in Yangon.

Belarus state media quoted Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxim Ryzhenkov as saying that Myanmar has “significant potential in various industrial sectors”, while Belarus has “expertise and modern technologies in mechanical engineering”.

“Myanmar plans to mechanise its agriculture, and we in Belarus produce a complete lineup of machinery and equipment. As our president says, no topics are off limits for our cooperation,” Ryzhenkov said.

Belarus’s government is widely regarded as authoritarian, with Lukashenko serving as the former Soviet state’s first and only president since the office was established in 1994.

Along with major backers China and Russia, Belarus is one of the very few countries that have continued to engage with Myanmar’s military leaders since the coup.

A popular protest movement in the immediate aftermath of the coup has since morphed into a years-long civil war, further weakening the Myanmar military’s control over the fractured country, where ethnic armed groups have fought decades-long wars for independence.

Preparing for the polls, military government census takers in late 2024 were only able to count populations in 145 of Myanmar’s 330 townships – indicating the military now controls less than half the country.

Other recent estimates place the military’s control as low as 21 percent of the country’s territory. Ethnic armed groups and the anti-regime People’s Defence Force – which have pledged to boycott and violently disrupt the upcoming polls – control approximately double that amount of territory.

Amid geographic limitations and raging violence, as well as the Myanmar military’s March 2023 dissolution of Aung San Suu Kyi’s hugely popular NLD, critics have pointed to the absurdity of holding elections in such circumstances.

Preparing for the polls, military leaders carried out a mass amnesty on Thursday, pardoning or dropping charges against 8,665 people imprisoned for opposing army governance.

Nov. 28 (UPI) — The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told staff Friday that it will pause all applications for asylum filed by migrants inside the United States in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.

On Thursday, the president announced he will “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.” Then Friday evening, all affirmative asylum applicants were paused.

Affirmative asylum applicants must apply for protection from USCIS asylum officers. Applications must be filed within a year of when migrants arrive in the United States. Defensive asylum applications are used when an applicant faces deportation.

U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in the attack, and U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition. They were both members of the West Virginia National Guard.

The suspect, Rahmanulla Lakanwal, 29, is hospitalized after being shot by another guard member. He is an immigrant from Afghanistan and will face a first-degree murder charge.

Lakanwal came to the United States in 2021 and got asylum in April, The Times reported. But it was not clear if it was affirmative asylum.

“USCIS has halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” said Joseph Edlow, director of the agency, in a statement Friday. “The safety of the American people always comes first.”

Asylum officers at USCIS were told to not approve, deny or close asylum applications received by the agency, according to CBS News.

Officers were told the pause applied to all USCIS asylum cases, which includes those filed by Afghans who arrived under a Biden administration effort. In-person appointments for asylum applicants would be canceled, at least for Monday. The appointments were for applicants to find out what decisions have been made on their cases.

Pause on visas and halting of asylum applications comes after shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC.

The US State Department has announced it is “immediately” pausing issuing visas for individuals travelling on Afghan passports to protect “public safety”, as President Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown intensifies in the wake of a deadly attack on two National Guard members.

The announcement on Friday came as United States immigration authorities said they are also halting decisions on all asylum applications for the foreseeable future.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed in a post on X on Friday that the State Department had “paused visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports”.

The move comes after authorities named Afghan national Rahmanaullah Lakanwal as the main suspect in Wednesday’s shooting in Washington, DC, which killed one National Guard member and left another in critical condition.

“The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people,” Rubio said.

President Trump’s State Department has paused visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports. 

The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people. https://t.co/HuR1Lj7F9t

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) November 28, 2025

Lakanwal is alleged to have ambushed West Virginia National Guard members Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe in an unprovoked attack as they patrolled near the White House.

On Thursday evening, the Trump administration confirmed that 20-year-old Beckstrom had died from her injuries, while 24-year-old Wolfe remains in critical condition.

The CIA confirmed this week that Lakanwal had worked for the spy agency in Afghanistan before emigrating to the US shortly after the withdrawal of Western forces from the country in 2021.

The office of US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, announced on Friday that the charges against Lakanwal had been upgraded to first-degree murder, along with two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.

In a separate announcement on Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Joseph Edlow said the agency had also paused all asylum decisions in the interest of the “safety of the American people”.

“USCIS has halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” Edlow said in a post on X.

A day earlier, Edlow said he had ordered “a full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern” at the direction of Trump.

The moves are the latest in a series of escalating restrictions imposed on immigration into the US at Trump’s urging.

Trump, who called the deadly Washington, DC, shooting a “terrorist attack”, has on several occasions over recent days attacked former President Joe Biden’s administration’s immigration policies, including the granting of visas to Afghan nationals who worked with US forces in Afghanistan.

Lakanwal came to the US under a Biden-era programme known as “Operation Allies Welcome”, following the US withdrawal in 2021.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump ordered authorities to re-examine all green card applications from 19 “countries of concern”, before saying he planned to suspend immigration from “all Third World countries”.

He did not define the term “Third World”, but the phrase is often used as a shorthand for developing countries in the Global South.

Trump also said that he would “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country”.

“[I will] denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity, and deport any foreign national who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western civilization,” he said.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has already taken aggressive measures to restrict immigration, announcing in October his administration would accept only 7,500 refugees in 2026 – the lowest number since 1980.

Nov. 28 (UPI) — Airplane manufacturer Airbus has announced a recall of its A320 planes for a software update to address an issue that contributed to a sudden drop in altitude of a JetBlue plane last month.

At least 15 passengers aboard the JetBlue flight were hospitalized after the plane suddenly dropped. It made an emergency landing in Tampa, Fla. It was headed to Newark, N.J.

Airbus said an analysis revealed intense solar radiation can corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls on the A320 family of aircraft. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency announced a requirement to address the issue.

The update may cause flight delays as airlines work to fix the issue, especially as Americans try to return home after the Thanksgiving holiday.

The setback appears to be one of the largest recalls affecting Airbus in its 55-year history. At the time Airbus issued its bulletin to the plane’s more than 350 operators, about 3,000 A320-family jets were in the air, The Guardian reported.

Fixing the issue mostly means reverting to earlier software, CNBC reported.

American Airlines, which is the world’s largest A320 operator, said about 340 of its 480 A320 planes need the fix. It said it expects these to be updated by Saturday, taking about two hours for each plane.

Colombian carrier Avianca said the recall affected more than 70% of its fleet, causing it to halt ticket sales for travel dates through Dec. 8.

“Buy now, pay later” has become a retail fixture seemingly overnight, and Cyber Monday is set to be the services’ biggest sales day yet. But as these payment options offer customers freedom and flexibility, are they also opening the door to a wave of unregulated debt?

Nov. 28 (UPI) — President Donald Trump posted that he plans to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in a U.S. court of trafficking drugs to the United States.

“I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez who has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly,” he posted on Truth Social Friday.

Trump also said in the post that he is supporting a conservative Honduran candidate as the Central American country prepares for election. He endorsed Tito Asfura, who is from the same party that Hernandez once led, the National Party.

In March 2024, Hernandez was convicted in a U.S. court of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. He served as president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022. He was extradited to the United States in April 2022.

He was sentenced by a U.S. judge to 45 years in prison for running a “narco-state” that helped send South American cocaine to the United States.

U.S. prosecutors said he built his political career on millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers in Honduras and Mexico. They also said he helped move at least 400 tons of cocaine to the United States and protected traffickers from extradition and prosecution, the Washington Post reported.

The post by Trump said, “If Tito Asfura wins for President of Honduras, because the United States has so much confidence in him, his Policies, and what he will do for the Great People of Honduras, we will be very supportive. If he doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results to a country, no matter which country it is. Tito will be a Great President, and the United States will work closely with him in order to ensure the success, with all of its potential, of Honduras! Additionally, I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez who has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly. This cannot be allowed to happen, especially now, after Tito Asfura wins the Election, when Honduras will be on its way to Great Political and Financial Success. VOTE FOR TITO ASFURA FOR PRESIDENT, AND CONGRATULATIONS TO JUAN ORLANDO HERNANDEZ ON YOUR UPCOMING PARDON. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE HONDURAS GREAT AGAIN!”

On Wednesday, Trump endorsed Asfura, called the opposition in Honduras “Narcoterrorists,” and compared them to Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

“Tito and I can work together to fight the Narcocommunists, and bring needed aid to the people of Honduras,” Trump said.

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.”

Nov. 28 (UPI) — The Israeli Defense Forces launched an attack on Beit Jinn in southern Syria, which killed 13 residents, including two children, and seriously wounded some Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli military described the event as an “exchange of fire” in Beit Jinn, where three of its soldiers were seriously injured. It also said it arrested three people associated with Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanon-based militant group.

The Washington Post reported that, according to their families, there were two girls, ages 4 and 17, and a 10-year-old boy killed.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry called it a “criminal attack carried out by an Israeli occupation army patrol in Beit Jinn. The occupation forces’ targeting of the town of Beit Jinn with brutal and deliberate shelling, following their failed incursion, constitutes a full-fledged war crime,” Al Jazeera reported.

Syrian civil defense said they weren’t able to enter the city to rescue the wounded because the IDF continues to target any movement.

Since the civil war in Syria overturned the Bashar al-Assad regime, the Israeli military seized a demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights and in Syria. It has also launched hundreds of air strikes across Syria, including in Damascus. Human Rights Watch has declared some operations war crimes.

Earlier this month, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met with President Donald Trump in the White House, and Trump paused all sanctions against the country for six months. But so far, Al-Sharaa has refused to normalize relations with Israel.

Nov. 28 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has announced that all orders signed by former President Joe Biden via autopen are “null and void,” and that if Biden tried to argue that he was involved, he would be charged with perjury.

The president posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday: “Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect. The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States. The Radical Left Lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him. I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally. Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

The president seemed to be arguing that the autopen was used by his staff without the input of Biden. It’s not clear who will validate the orders or under what legal authority he will cancel Biden’s orders.

Using the autopen is legal, according to an investigation in 2005 by the Justice Department under former President George W. Bush, which found that “the President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill to sign it within the meaning of Article I, Section 7.”

Trump has acknowledged using the autopen. He said in March that he has used it “only for very unimportant papers.”

In September, the White House unveiled a Presidential Walk of Fame, which posted portraits of past presidents. In Biden’s place, the White House showed a photo of an autopen signing his name.

Biden has denied that any decisions were made without him during his presidency.

“I made the decisions during my presidency,” Biden said in a statement. “I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”

Israel has carried out its deadliest incursion into southern Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. At least 13 people were killed in Beit Jinn. Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid reports Syrian officials reject Israel’s narrative and accuse it of violating international law.

Nov. 28 (UPI) — Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s chief of staff, resigned Friday after a raid on his home in a sweeping corruption scandal.

Yermak had led Ukraine‘s negotiating team in peace talks with the President Donald Trump administration. He was the most powerful political figure in Ukraine behind Zelensky.

“This is the perfect storm. There is a lot of uncertainty right now,” a Ukrainian official told Axios.

He was scheduled to travel to Miami on Saturday for talks with Trump’s team, but that meeting has been canceled.

On Friday, Hungarian President Viktor Orban met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in defiance of the rest of the European Union members. Orban said his visit was an attempt to secure Russian energy supplies for the winter for Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia.

Zelensky announced Yermak’s resignation and said he will appoint a new chief of staff soon.

No charges have been filed as of this writing.

“Russia really wants Ukraine to make mistakes. There will be no mistakes on our side,” Zelensky said in a video on X. “We do not have the right to ease the pressure. We do not have the right to retreat or to quarrel among ourselves. If we lose our unity, we risk losing everything.”

Investigators from Ukraine’s National Anti-corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office did the searches Thursday morning targeting Yermak, the Kyiv Post reported.

In a Telegram post, Yermak confirmed the searches.

“Today, NABU and SAPO are indeed conducting procedural actions at my home. There are no obstacles for the investigators,” he said.

Yermak said investigators were given full access to his apartment.

“My lawyers are on site, interacting with law enforcement officers. From my side, I am providing full assistance,” he added.

While officials have not confirmed why the searches were conducted, reporter Christopher Miller of the Financial Times said that his sources confirmed it was part of Operation Midas, an investigation into large-scale bribery in the energy sector in Ukraine.

NABU also confirmed the searches.

“NABU and SAPO are conducting investigative actions (searches) at the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. The investigative actions are authorized and are being carried out within the framework of the investigation. Details to follow,” the agency said on Telegram.

Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk resigned Nov. 12 after investigators uncovered that officials at the state nuclear energy company Energoatom had manipulated contracts to generate bribes and laundered about $100 million.

On Nov. 13, Zelensky sanctioned his former business partner Timur Mindich over his role in the scandal.

CME blamed the outage, which halted trading for more than 11 hours, on a cooling failure at a data centre in Chicago.

Global futures markets were thrown into chaos for several hours after CME Group, the world’s largest exchange operator, suffered one of its longest outages in years, halting trading across stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies.

By 13:35 GMT on Friday, trading in foreign exchange, stock and bond futures as well as other products had resumed, after having been knocked out for more than 11 hours because of an outage at an important data centre, according to LSEG data.

CME blamed the outage on a cooling failure at data centres run by CyrusOne, which said its Chicago-area facility had affected services for customers, including CME.

The disruption stopped trading in major currency pairs on CME’s EBS platform, as well as benchmark futures for West Texas Intermediate crude, Nasdaq 100, Nikkei, palm oil and gold, according to LSEG data.

‘A black eye’

Trading volumes have been thinned out this week by the United States Thanksgiving holiday, and with dealers looking to close positions for the end of the month, there was a risk of volatility picking up sharply later on, market participants said.

“It’s a black eye to the CME and probably an overdue reminder of the importance of market structure and how interconnected all these are,” Ben Laidler, head of equity strategy at Bradesco BBI, said.

“We complacently take for granted that much of the timing is frankly not great. It’s month-end, a lot of things get rebalanced.”

“Having said that, it could have been a lot worse; it’ll be a very low-volume day. If you’re going to have it, there would have been worse days to have a breakdown like this,” he said.

Futures are a mainstay of financial markets and are used by dealers, speculators and businesses wishing to hedge or hold positions in a wide range of underlying assets. Without these and other instruments, brokers were left flying blind, and many were reluctant to trade contracts with no live prices for hours on end.

“Beyond the immediate risk of traders being unable to close positions – and the potential costs that follow – the incident raises broader concerns about reliability,” said Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at trading platform IG.

A few European brokerages said earlier in the day they had been unable to offer trading in some products on certain futures contracts.

Biggest exchange operator

CME is the biggest exchange operator by market value and says it offers the widest range of benchmark products, spanning rates, equities, metals, energy, cryptocurrencies and agriculture.

Average daily derivatives volume was 26.3 million contracts in October, CME said earlier this month.

The CME outage on Friday comes more than a decade after the operator had to shut electronic trading for some agricultural contracts in April 2014 due to technical problems, which at the time sent traders back onto the floor.

More recently, in 2024, outages at LSEG and Switzerland’s exchange operator briefly interrupted markets.

CME’s own shares were up 0.4 percent in premarket trading.

United States President Donald Trump has sharply escalated his crackdown on immigration with an announcement of a “permanent pause” on migration from “all Third World Countries” late on Thursday.

The president’s remarks came a day after two National Guard members were shot – one of whom has since died from her injuries – in Washington, DC, on Wednesday. An Afghan national has been named as the primary suspect.

“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.

He did not specify what “third world” means and did not name any countries. But the phrase “third world” generally refers to Global South countries that are economically still developing or economically disadvantaged.

He also said “anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country”, will be removed from the US.

Trump added that all federal benefits and subsidies to “noncitizens” will end, and he will “denaturalise migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity, and deport any foreign national who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western civilisation”.

Earlier this year, Trump announced a ban on visas for citizens of 12 countries and restrictions for citizens of seven more. He has also introduced other restrictions on travel to the US throughout the year.

Here’s what we know.

What has the Trump administration said?

After Rahmanaullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, was arrested and named as the suspect in the shooting of the National Guard members on Wednesday, Trump called the shooting “an act of terror”.

In an address to the media on Wednesday night, he said: “We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden.”

Early on Thursday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced an indefinite immediate suspension “of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals”.

Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.

The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and…

— USCIS (@USCIS) November 27, 2025

USCIS Director Joseph Edlow then added on X that, “at the direction” of the president, he had ordered “a full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern”.

“The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies,” Edlow said.

Edlow’s office told US media that the countries for which citizens with green cards will be reviewed would be those on the Trump administration’s June travel ban list.

In June, to “protect the United States from foreign terrorists and other National security and public safety threats”, the Trump administration announced that foreign nationals from 19 countries would face a full travel ban or partial restrictions.

Countries with a full ban in place are Afghanistan, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Those with a partial ban in place – some temporary visas are still allowed – are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.

— USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow (@USCISJoe) November 27, 2025

On Thursday night, Trump said on Truth Social he would introduce a “permanent pause” on immigration from all “Third World Countries”.

What does a ‘permanent pause’ in immigration mean?

It is unclear.

“In ordinary English, ‘permanent pause’ sounds final, but under immigration law, the term has no defined meaning,” Abhishek Saxena, a New Delhi-based advocate practising in the Supreme Court of India who also handles international immigration consultations, told Al Jazeera.

“Practically, ‘permanent pause’ typically means an open-ended restriction with no stated end date, but not a legally irreversible condition,” he added.

According to the US Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the president may suspend the entry of immigrants for a fixed period, indefinitely or until the president modifies or lifts the proclamation. This can, however, be challenged. “If any indefinite pause is violating laws passed by US Congress, then such ban or pause can be challenged in a court,” said Saxena.

Roberto Forin, acting director of the Geneva-based Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), said the Trump administration’s vagueness over who these policies apply to and what he means by “permanently pause” or “Third World” is intentional.

“Keeping it undefined allows the administration to indiscriminately intimidate migrant communities in the US and around the world, while giving itself the prerogative to use this ban as another tool in its transactional approach to foreign policy,” Forin told Al Jazeera.

“I would expect the ban to disproportionately affect poorer countries, while sparing those that can offer something in exchange, such as natural resources or other strategic benefits,” he said.

“The objective of such announcements is to signal toughness, shift the narrative, instil fear and dehumanise migrants – regardless of the practical implementation and eventual legal outcomes,” he added.

How will people from such countries who are already living in the US be affected?

It is unclear how people from those countries will be affected until the names of the countries are listed and the immigration measure is implemented.

However, an August report by the Washington, DC-based American Immigration Council concluded that people from the 12 countries on Trump’s June 2025 full travel ban list will “not be able to see family members living abroad”.

“Under the June order, existing visas cannot be revoked, but those who need to leave the United States and renew their visas after they expire could be subjected to the ban instead of being allowed to return,” the report said.

Saxena said a restrictive immigration policy can indirectly affect people in the US in several other ways as well.

“Firstly, it will lead to increased scrutiny of pending applications. USCIS may subject applications from nationals of the affected countries to added background checks, longer security screening, or temporary holds,” he said.

“Secondly, history shows that when a country is placed under heightened security review, [visa] processing times frequently increase,” he noted.

“Lastly, although the government cannot revoke existing residency statuses arbitrarily, it may audit past immigration filings for fraud, misrepresentation, security concerns, or ineligibility under existing statutes,” he added.

Saxena said Trump’s announcement that he will pause immigration from “Third World Countries” would also likely prevent spouses, children, and parents who are abroad from entering the US until the proclamation is lifted.

“This creates long-distance separations, delays in family-based immigration petitions and interruption of family reunification programmes,” he said.

“However, people already inside the US cannot be separated from their families merely because a country is listed in a proclamation. Family-unity principles under the Constitution and the INA apply once a person is inside US territory,” he added.

What if you have a green card?

On Thursday, the Trump administration told journalists that it intends to re-examine all green cards held by people from the countries on the June 2025 travel ban list. However, it is not clear how the process will work or whether green cards could be revoked or even cancelled.

A green card is a US immigration document which allows an immigrant to permanently reside and work in the country.

US immigration judges have the power to revoke green cards and to deport people from the country if there are serious grounds, such as being found guilty of grievous crimes like murder or rape.

The government can also deport an immigrant on these grounds, including if they consider the person “a threat to public safety or if the person violates their visa”.

However, according to Saxena, the government “has no legal authority to revoke green cards without following due process. Any revocation must follow strict statutory procedures and satisfy due-process requirements.”

Last year, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency detained pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil on the “basis of his speech” while he was protesting against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza at Columbia University. Khalil was a permanent US resident at the time, but ICE accused him of omitting information on his green card application.

In September, a US immigration judge ordered that Khalil should be deported to Algeria or Syria, but this has not yet happened.

What other steps has Trump taken this year to restrict immigration?

Besides green card re-examinations and announcing travel bans on citizens of some specific countries, Trump also froze refugee admissions shortly after he resumed office in January.

“The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees,” the White House said in a statement in January.

Then, at the end of October, the Trump administration announced the lowest refugee admission cap in the country’s history, limiting entry to just 7,500 people for the fiscal year 2026.

On November 25, according to a memo seen by the Reuters news agency, the Trump administration ordered a review of all refugees allowed into the country under the previous Joe Biden administration, and recommended that their permanent residency applications be paused.

According to the memo, which was reportedly signed by USCIS chief Eldow, the status and applications of about 233,000 refugees who entered the US between January 20, 2021 and February 20, 2025, would be reviewed. The memo cited Trump’s January order on freezing refugee admissions due to national security as a reason.

The US has also cut foreign aid for refugees in host countries.

The Trump administration has also targeted skilled migrant workers in an effort to protect US citizens’ jobs. In September, it increased the application fee for H-1B visas to $100,000 per application. The visa is used by companies in the US hiring overseas workers.

In October, the US Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for the visa application fee rise, claiming it could harm businesses. The case is pending in the Washington, DC district court.

What does this mean for refugees generally?

“Taken together, these measures, especially if they trigger a ‘race to the bottom’ among governments, could have devastating consequences globally, including in countries already ravaged by conflict and violence,” Forin said.

“We see this happening in Europe as well, from the system the UK has tried to establish to outsource asylum procedures to Rwanda, to the centres Italy tried to set up in Albania, and none of these have worked, because they were blocked by courts at every step.”

“Unfortunately, they have all contributed to the dehumanisation of refugees and migrants, depicting them simply as a threat or a burden, rather than as human beings in need of protection or deserving of a chance at a better future,” Forin added.

Video shows funeral processions in Syria’s Beit Jinn, after Israeli raids and missile strikes killed at least 13 people. Violent clashes erupted after Israel claimed it entered the village to arrest members of the Jama’a Islamiya militant group.

Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak confirms search, saying he has offered ‘full cooperation’.

Anticorruption authorities in Ukraine have searched the home of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, as a major corruption investigation continues to roil the country and cause consternation among allies.

Andriy Yermak, who leads Kyiv’s negotiating team concurrently trying to hash out the terms of a United States-proposed plan to end the four-year war with Russia, confirmed his apartment was being searched on Friday and said he was fully cooperating.

“There are no obstacles for the investigators. They have been given full access to the apartment, and my lawyers are present on-site, cooperating with the law enforcement officers. From my side, there is full cooperation,” he said on social media.

In a joint statement, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office said the searches were “authorised” and linked to an unspecified investigation.

Earlier this month, the two anticorruption agencies unveiled a sweeping investigation into an alleged $100m kickback scheme at the state atomic energy company that ensnared former senior officials and an ex-business partner of Zelenskyy.

Friday’s searches come as the Ukrainian president faces growing pressure from the administration of United States President Donald Trump to agree to Washington’s proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Ukraine and its European allies had raised concerns that the Trump-backed plan comprised some elements that Russia has been actively pushing for, including that Ukraine cede additional territory and curtail the size of its military.

But a revised proposal has been put forward, and Kyiv has said it is open to negotiations.

The searches are also likely to worsen tensions between Zelenskyy and his political opponents amid the peace negotiations.

In a statement on Thursday, the European Solidarity opposition party criticised Yermak’s role as a negotiator and called on Zelenskyy for “an honest dialogue” with other parties.

‘Black Friday’

Viktor Shlinchak, a political analyst at the Kyiv-based Institute for World Politics, described the searches as a “Black Friday” for Yermak and suggested Zelenskyy may be forced to dismiss him.

“It looks like we may soon have a different head of the negotiating team,” he wrote on Facebook.

Yermak, 54, is Zelenskyy’s most important ally, but a divisive figure in Kyiv, where his opponents say he has accumulated power, gatekeeps access to the president and ruthlessly sidelines critical voices.

A former film producer and copyright lawyer, Yermak came into politics with Zelenskyy in 2019, previously working with him during the now-president’s time as a popular comedian.

He is widely considered the second-most influential man in the country and even sometimes nicknamed “vice president”.

The corruption investigation revolves around an alleged scheme involving Energoatom, the state-run nuclear power company that supplies more than half of the country’s electricity.

“That [case] has been swirling around Ukraine for several weeks now, rocking the government,” Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands reported from Kyiv on Friday. “The allegation is that some $100m … has gone through a kind of laundromat,” he explained.

Anticorruption investigators have said they suspect that Tymur Mindich, a one-time business partner of Zelenskyy, was the plot’s mastermind.

Mindich has fled the country, with any criminal proceedings against him likely to be carried out in absentia. Two top ministers have also resigned over the scandal.

Challands also noted that the inquiry comes after Zelenskyy’s government had tried in July to take away the Ukrainian anticorruption agencies’ independence and place them under the control of his prosecutor-general.

But the Ukrainian leader backtracked after mass public protests.

History Illustrated is a series of perspectives that puts news events and current affairs into historical context, using graphics generated with artificial intelligence.

16-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim is recovering after spending 9 months in an Israeli prison, for allegedly throwing rocks. The Palestinian American boy’s plight sparked widespread outrage and condemnation at Israel’s abuses in the occupied West Bank.

First American pope urges Catholic Church in Turkiye to serve the most vulnerable, including migrants and refugees.

Pope Leo XIV is set to join the leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians to celebrate the historic 1,700-year milestone since one of the early Church’s most important gatherings, on the second day of his visit to Turkiye.

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics began his day on Friday by joining a prayer service at Istanbul’s Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.

The first American pope has chosen the Muslim-majority Turkiye as his first overseas destination, to be followed by Lebanon in the coming days, as he seeks to be a bridge-builder and a messenger of peace amid raging global conflict.

In Istanbul, police shut down a main artery of the country’s largest city to allow Leo’s entourage to pass. After the church service, he was scheduled to visit a nursing home and meet with Turkiye’s chief rabbi.

Pilgrims packed into Holy Spirit church while dozens more waited excitedly in the courtyard outside in the hope of getting a glimpse of the pontiff, getting up before dawn to be in the front line.

“It’s a blessing for us, it’s so important that the first visit of the pope is to our country,” a 35-year-old Turkish Catholic, Ali Gunuru, told AFP news agency.

Catherine Bermudez, a Filipino migrant worker in Istanbul, told Al Jazeera that she was “very excited” to be chosen as one of the parishioners to greet the pope inside the church.

Visibly moved by his reception at the church, Leo could be seen smiling and looking much more at ease than on Thursday, encouraging his flock not to be discouraged, saying “the logic of littleness is the church’s true strength”.

“The church in Turkiye is a small community, yet fruitful,” he said in his address, urging them to give “special attention” to helping migrants and refugees staying in Turkiye who number nearly three million, most of them Syrians.

Next papal stop in Iznik

Later on Friday, the 70-year-old pontiff will head to Iznik to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a gathering of bishops who drew up a foundational statement of faith still central to Christianity today despite the separation of the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Leo will be flown by helicopter to Iznik where he has been invited by the Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, to join an ecumenical prayer service by the ruins of a fourth-century basilica.

“When the world is troubled and divided by conflict and antagonism, our meeting with Pope Leo XIV is especially significant,” Patriarch Bartholomew told AFP news agency in an interview.

Reports said that Turkish police removed Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot and seriously wounded Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1981, from Iznik on Thursday.

Agca – who was released from prison in 2010 – said he had hoped to meet the pope, telling reporters that “I hope we can sit down and talk in Iznik, or in Istanbul, for two or three minutes.”

Pope Leo is the fifth pontiff to visit Turkiye, after Paul VI in 1967, John Paul II in 1979, Benedict XVI in 2006 and Francis in 2014.

Sudan Doctors Network says military use of hospital is ‘a blatant violation of sanctity of medical institutions’.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have converted a large part of Al-Nuhud Hospital in West Kordofan in wartorn Sudan’s south into a military command centre and barracks since their takeover of the city more than five months ago, according to the Sudan Doctors Network.

The nongovernmental organisation said on Friday that the RSF, the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces’ (SAF) bitter rival in the brutal three-year civil war, has been preventing the hospital from fulfilling its essential role in providing healthcare for the population.

“This military use of the health facility constitutes a blatant violation of the sanctity of medical institutions and undermines civilians’ right to access treatment,” the statement on Facebook said, adding that some of the medical personnel in the city have been accused of cooperating with the military before fleeing the city.

“As a result, the hospital is suffering from a severe shortage of healthcare workers, leaving the remaining medical services extremely limited and unable to meet patients’ needs,” it added.

Since April 2023, the SAF and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediation has failed to end.

The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others, causing what the United Nations calls the world’s largest humanitarian disaster.

Fleeing the horrors of el-Fasher

Hundreds of Sudanese children have arrived in the town of Tawila in Sudan’s western Darfur region without their parents since the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the city of el-Fasher last month, a humanitarian group says.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Thursday that at least 400 unaccompanied children had arrived in Tawila but that the real number was likely much higher.

The RSF seized control of el-Fasher – the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state – on October 26 after an 18-month siege that cut residents off from food, medicine and other critical supplies.

The paramilitary group has been accused of committing mass killings, kidnappings and widespread acts of sexual violence in its takeover of the city. The Sudanese army has also been accused of committing atrocities during the war.

Washington’s truce proposal

The United States has recently presented Sudan’s warring parties with a proposal for a ceasefire, but neither side has formally accepted it.

The RSF unilaterally declared a cessation of hostilities on Monday in line with US wishes.

But on Tuesday, the SAF said it had repelled an attack on a base in Babnusa in West Kordofan state, the newest front line in the war.

Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan called on US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to bring peace to the country.

“The Sudanese people now look to Washington to take the next step: to build on the US president’s honesty and work with us – and those in the region who genuinely seek peace – to end this war,” Sudan’s de facto leader wrote in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal.

Attempts to broker peace between Burhan and his one-time deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, have repeatedly failed over the course of the war that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.

Trump took a public interest in the war for the first time last week, promising he would end it after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman urged him to get involved.