War in Afghanistan

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, on Saturday announced he won’t seek re-election in 2026 and instead endorsed his twin brother, Troy Nehls, to replace him. File Photo by Sarah Silbiger/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 29 (UPI) — Rep. Troy Hehls, R-Texas, on Saturday announced he will not seek re-election in 2026 and will retire from Congress and focus on his family.

Nehls, 57, since 2021 has represented Texas’ 22nd Congressional District, which is situated southwest of Houston and includes parts of Sugar Land, Richmond and Rosenberg, among other Texas communities.

“I have made the decision, after conversations with my beautiful bride and my girls over the Thanksgiving holiday, to focus on my family and return home after this Congress,” he said Saturday in a post on X.

“Before making this decision, I called President Trump personally to let him know of my plans,” he continued.

“President Trump has always been a strong ally for our district and a true friend, and I wanted him to hear it from me first,” Nehls added.

“Serving this country in the military, serving our community in law enforcement and serving this district in Congress has been the honor of my life.”

Nehls enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1988 and earned two Bronze Stars while serving in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

He joined the Richmond (Texas) Police Department in 1994 and was elected sheriff of Fort Bend County in 2012, before winning the 2020 House election.

His announced retirement is among several made recently by Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb. and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Nehls’ twin brother, Trever Nehls, already announced his candidacy for the seat and has been endorsed by Troy.

Flowers and an American flag are seen on Thursda at the scene where two West Virginia National Guard members were shot near the White House in downtown Washington, D.C. An Afghan national who worked with the CIA in his native country has been arrested in connection with the shooting. One of the victims has died. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo

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.

Nov. 27 (UPI) — Foreign nationals from 19 nations of concern will undergo reviews of their visas following Wednesday’s attack on two National Guard members in Washington.

President Donald Trump has ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials to review the visas held by individuals from those nations.

“At the direction of [the president], I have directed a full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said on Thursday in a social media post.

“The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount,” Edlow continued in another post.

“The American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies,” he said. “American safety is non-negotiable.”

Edlow on Wednesday announced USCIS has stopped all processing of immigration requests from Afghan nationals after West Virginia National Guard members Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot about two blocks from the White House while patrolling the capital.

The suspect, Rahmanulla Lakanwal, 29, is an Afghan national who entered the United States in 2021 through the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome that was intended to protect Afghans who assisted the U.S. military.

Trump and others in his administration have accused the Biden administration of improperly vetting visa applicants.

When asked which nations’ citizens will undergo additional scrutiny, USCIS officials directed NBC News to the president’s related executive order made in June.

The Trump administration identified a dozen nations as national security and public safety risks and potential sources of terrorism and suspended or limited visa approvals for their respective citizens.

They include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Eritrea. They also include Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The Trump administration also identified seven nations for partial suspension of visa approvals.

Those are Barundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Tofo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

Nov. 26 (UPI) — Two West Virginia National Guardsmen have been hospitalized in critical condition and a suspect is hospitalized after a targeted shooting near the White House on Wednesday afternoon.

The Guardsmen and the shooter were taken to nearby hospitals after the shooting occurred about two blocks northwest of the White House at 2:15 p.m. EST on Wednesday, WTTG reported.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey earlier said the two Guardsmen were killed, but he later backtracked and affirmed they are in critical condition.

The suspect has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who is a citizen of Afghanistan, the New York Post, NBC News and Newsweek reported.

The FBI said it is investigating the attack as a possible act of terrorism.

Lakanwal is a lone gunman who ambushed the two National Guardsmen when he came from around a corner and started shooting, said Jeffrey Carroll, MPD executive assistant chief, who addressed media during a news conference.

The National Guard members were on “high-visibility patrol … when a suspect came around a corner, raised his arm with a firearm and discharged at the National Guard members,” Carroll said.

Other National Guardsmen were nearby and intervened.

Carroll said there was “some back and forth” between the suspect and National Guard members, who were able to subdue him until local police arrived moments later.

At a news conference afterward, FBI Director Kash Patel called the targeting shooting “an attack on a federal law enforcement officer” and said it will be treated as such at the federal level.

He said the FBI, Secret Service, other federal agencies and local police will work together to investigate the shooting, which he called a “matter of national security.”

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said local officials will “join with the FBI director in ensuring that the MPD investigates and the U.S. attorney prosecutes this case to the fullest extent of the law.”

There are no other suspects in the shooting, authorities said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump was briefed on the matter, and White House staff are monitoring the situation.

The president afterward expressed his support for the two wounded Guardsmen.

“The animal that shot the two National Guardsmen, with both being critically wounded, and now in two separate hospitals, is also severely wounded,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

He said the suspect “will pay a very steep price” for the shooting that so far lacks a known motive.

“God bless our great National Guard and all of our military and law enforcement,” the president said. “These are truly great people.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the president has ordered him to deploy 500 more National Guard members to the capital, The New York Times reported.

About 2,100 National Guard members already are deployed in the capital.

The shooting occurred at the intersection of 17th Street and H Street Northwest.

Nov. 24 (UPI) — At least three officers of Pakistan’s Federal Constabulary were killed Monday and 12 people, including civilians, were injured in a suicide bombing at the force’s regional headquarters in Peshawar in the northwest of the country.

Two loud explosions were heard coming from the compound at about 8:10 a.m. local time, with an official saying five security officials and seven civilians had been injured.

Calling it a “foiled terrorist plot,” authorities said two armed attackers were shot dead before they were able to enter the building.

“Initially, three militants tried to attack the headquarters. One terrorist blew himself up at the gate, while two others tried to enter the premises but were gunned down by FC personnel,” Peshawar Capital City Police Officer Mian Saeed Ahmad told reporters.

Ahmad said authorities were already on high alert due to the security situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province where Peshawar is located, which borders Afghanistan, and where the Pakistan Taliban, also known as Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan, has carried out a series of deadly attacks.

A TTP splinter group called Jamatul Ahrar said it carried out the attack.

“The perpetrators of this incident should be identified as soon as possible and brought to justice,” said Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The Federal Constabulary is a national paramilitary police force responsible for internal security as well as tackling organized crime and drug production and trafficking.

Monday’s attack came two weeks after a suicide bomber killed 12 people and injured 36 after detonating a car bomb outside a court building in Islamabad, which Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Asim blamed on the TTP and its backers in Afghanistan.

The government said the Taliban regime in Kabul backs the TTP, which has been waging a campaign of violence against Shiite Muslims in Pakistan and launching attacks against Pakistan’s military and government in a bid to replace the secular state with an Islamic one.

Tensions escalated in early October when Pakistan mounted airstrikes on TTP targets in Kabul and three other cities. The Taliban responded by launching deadly attacks along its border with Pakistan in which 23 soldiers were killed and at least 29 were injured.

Pakistan carried out retaliatory strikes that officials said killed 200 Taliban-backed Afghan militants and claimed Pakistani forces had destroyed Afghan terrorist training camps.

In September, six soldiers were killed in an attack on an FC compound in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district, 100 miles southwest of Peshawar. Five militants that authorities said belonged to the TTP were killed in the ensuing firefight.

The TTP is proscribed by the United States and Britain, among others, as a foreign terror organization.

Nov. 6 (UPI) — Opium production has dropped sharply in Afghanistan, but trafficking in the region is on the rise, according to a Thursday report by the United Nations.

The report, by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said a little over 25,000 acres are being cultivated now, down from almost 31,000 acres in 2024.

The report said production has fallen by a third to 296 tons, and farmers’ income from opium production has dropped almost in half over the same period.

The report stressed the need to continue to eradicate efforts with support for alternative livelihoods and demand-reduction methods.

“While many growers have switched to cereals and other crops, worsening drought and low rainfall have left over 40% of farmland barren,” the report said.

Effects from the climate have been exacerbated by an influx of 4 million Afghans returning from other countries, which has created increased competition for jobs and put pressure on other sectors of the economy.

The report said these factors have made opium production an attractive alternative.

While cultivation has fallen, optimum trafficking is on the rise as the demand for synthetic drugs made from the plant continues to increase.

Seizures in and around Afghanistan are up 50% compared to 2024, driven largely by an uptick in methamphetamine use, the report said.

Synthetic opium-based drugs are relatively easy to produce and harder to detect than pure opium, which has also contributed to the increase in demand.

“The dynamics of supply and trafficking involve both Afghan and international actors,” said Georgette Gagnon, Deputy Special Representative in charge of the UN political mission in the country.

“Addressing this challenge requires collaboration among key stakeholders,” Gangnon added.

The report calls for counternarcotics strategies that extend beyond opium, including synthetic drug manufacturing and transportation, as well as prevention methods.

Nov. 6 (UPI) — The Trump administration has moved to end deportation protections for those from South Sudan as the United Nations warns the country is on the brink of war.

Amid President Donald Trump‘s crackdown on immigration, the Department of Homeland Security has targeted countries that have been given Temporary Protected Status, which is granted to countries facing ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters or other extraordinary conditions.

TPS enables eligible nationals from the designated countries to live and work in the United States legally, without fear of deportation.

DHS announced it was ending TPS for South Sudan on Wednesday with the filing of a Federal Register notice.

The termination will be in effect Jan. 5.

“After conferring with interagency partners, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem determined that conditions in South Sudan no longer meet the TPS statutory requirements,” DHS said in a statement, which explained the decision was based on a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services review of the conditions in South Sudan and in consultation with the Department of State.

South Sudan was first designated for TPS in November 2011 amid violent post-independence instability in the country, and the designation has been repeatedly renewed since.

The Trump administration has sought to end TPS designations for a total seven countries: Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Nepal, Venezuela and now South Sudan. Court challenges have followed, with decisions staying, at least for now, the terminations for all of the countries except for Afghanistan and Cameroon, which ended July 12 and Aug. 4, respectively.

The move to terminate TPS for South Sudan is also expected to be challenged in court.

The announcement comes a little more than a week after the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan warned the General Assembly that the African nation is experiencing escalating armed conflict and political crisis, and that international intervention is needed to halt mounting human rights violations.

A civil war erupted in South Sudan in December 2013, just two years after the country gained independence — a conflict that came to an end with a cease-fire in 2018.

Barney Afako, a member of the human rights commission in South Sudan, said Oct. 29 that the political transition spearheaded by the cease-fire agreement was “falling apart.”

“The cease-fire is not holding, political detentions have become a tool of repression, the peace agreement’s key provisions are being systematically violated and the government forces are using aerial bombardments in civilian areas,” he said.

“All indicators point to a slide back toward another deadly war.”

The DHS is urging South Sudanese in the United States under TPS to voluntarily leave the country using the U.S. Customs and Border Protection smartphone application. If they do, they can secure a complimentary plane ticket, a $1,000 “exit bonus” and potential future opportunities for legal immigration.