Category: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration can resume rapidly deporting immigrants to countries other than their own, the Supreme Court agreed Tuesday.

The one-page emergency ruling was unsigned and gave no vote count, as is typical in such cases. Although the justices cleared the way, for now, for the swift removals to continue, the court also announced that it would fast-track the case and hear oral arguments about it in December, setting up a final ruling on the issue next year.

The court’s three liberal justices noted that they would have denied the government’s request to resume the deportations.

The decision was a victory for the administration, which has made sending immigrants to so-called third countries, including those that have faced allegations of human rights abuses, a major part of its mass deportation efforts.

The deportation flights had been blocked in recent weeks, however, after a federal court ruled the administration could not deport migrants to third countries unless they were given an opportunity to contest their removals, including to voice concerns that they might be persecuted or tortured abroad.

The justices’ ruling means that the administration can, for now, continue its program and conduct rapid deportations including to countries such as Equatorial Guinea, where U.S. deportees were hooded, bound, and beaten by police, according to reporting by the New York Times.

The Supreme Court had weighed in previously on the administration’s efforts to send immigrants to third countries.

In May 2025, the Trump administration asked the justices to step in and clear the way for third-country deportations after a federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily blocked the administration from sending people to countries not their own — in that case South Sudan — without the chance to object.

In a one-paragraph ruling, the court’s conservatives allowed the administration to continue the deportations over the noted dissents of the three liberals.

Since then, the Trump administration has continued to deport immigrants under the program, including to authoritarian countries with histories of human rights abuses. So far, the administration has sent more than 25,000 people to third countries as part of its mass deportation efforts, according to a social media post by James Percival, the top lawyer at the Department of Homeland Security. Among the countries were Liberia, Equatorial Guinea, Costa Rica, Honduras, and the Central African Republic.

Some immigration and human rights experts have asserted that the third-country deportations may be part of a broader strategy by the Trump administration to encourage immigrants lacking legal status to leave on their own, rather than face the fear of being sent to a country where they have no ties.

In his brief, Solicitor General D. John Sauer characterized the third-country deportation program as “an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens.”

Sauer wrote that the appeals court ruling had “created substantial logistical problems with ongoing removal operations,” including canceled deportation flights and disrupted delicate diplomatic negotiations with other countries.

Lawyers for a group of immigrants challenging their removals said in a brief that the Trump administration had ignored “the significant harm resulting from deporting thousands of longtime U.S. residents, many with no criminal history, to third countries without regard to the persecution or torture they face there.”

They argued that the Trump administration could avoid any delays in its deportation program simply by “providing the notice and opportunity to be heard that the law requires.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Tuesday banning local, state, and federal law enforcement officers from using gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to people.

The ban on shock gloves will take effect next year and remain in place until 2030. It comes weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to equip its officers with the gloves, which are designed to gain compliance from combative individuals. Last month, the agency awarded a nearly $17 million contract to buy 6,000 pairs.

“Trump has put his political interests above the health, safety, and livelihood of American families,” Newsom said in a statement. “California is taking action to strengthen transparency, accountability, and oversight around immigration enforcement in our state.”

The law is the latest example of how Democratic-led states have been pushing back against President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts since he took office last year. In California, lawmakers passed at least two dozen bills this year seeking to fortify immigrants’ rights, restrict cooperation with federal immigration agents, and tighten regulations on immigrant detention facilities, among other things.

Nationwide, 17 states with Democratic-led legislatures have passed a total of more than 100 pro-immigrant bills this year, according to an Associated Press analysis using the bill tracking software Plural. The most common purpose is to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agents.

Democratic California Assemblymember LaShae Sharp-Collins said she introduced the shock-gloves legislation to “put a pause” on law enforcement’s use of the devices while the state examines their potential risks. The law requires the state’s Justice Department to study their safety and report to lawmakers by 2029.

“There’s a lot of unrest and a lot of uncertainty,” she said in an interview. “A lot of people are scared.”

The law will again test the state’s authority to restrict federal agents amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. A federal judge earlier this year blocked the state’s first-in-the-nation law barring federal officers from wearing face coverings, deeming it too selective because it applied to local and federal law enforcement but exempted state officers.

Lawmakers passed a new bill this year to make the ban apply to all officers. Newsom signed that legislation.

Kevin Johnson, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, said courts are likely to ultimately rule that the state cannot bar federal officers from wearing shock gloves or face coverings. The laws are well-intentioned, he said, but likely conflict with the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which generally sets federal law as supreme over conflicting state law.

“The state has very limited, if any, powers in dictating to the federal government how its officers are armed,” he said.

California law enforcement groups broadly opposed the ban.

Sacramento Sheriff Jim Cooper, a Democrat and former state lawmaker, said banning shock gloves “really makes no sense” because they are among the nonlethal tools officers can use if necessary.

“When the federal government does something, the state Legislature wants to ban it,” he said at a news conference. “They’re making our job harder.”

Sharp-Collins said ICE’s plan to use shock gloves was the catalyst for the ban. But she cited their use by other officers, including a case in which a Kentucky family alleges a man died after being tased and shocked with the gloves dozens of times while in law enforcement custody in 2024.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who wrote last year’s mask ban, also authored this year’s measure to expand it to state officers.

“California must use every available tool to stand up for our communities under attack from ICE’s secret police terror campaign,” he said in a statement after it passed the Legislature.

CAIRO — Mediators are working with Iran and the United States on trying to broker a deal to end the fighting and open the Strait of Hormuz, three regional officials and two U.S. officials told the Associated Press, but major hurdles remain between the sides.

The indirect talks come as the conflict, which is entering its eighth month, has caused global economic damage and badly battered Iran. Multiple efforts to allow safe shipping on one of the world’s most crucial waterways have failed.

The officials divulged that the behind-the-scenes efforts continue even after U.S. President Donald Trump initially said he spurned an Iranian proposal to reopen the strait in a week if the U.S. agreed to lift its blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian assets, and waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi — who stayed in New York after last week’s gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly — will meet with Qatari mediators Monday about the latest discussions, Iranian state media reported Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei as saying.

Despite Trump’s often bellicose rhetoric, he is open to pursuing a nonmilitary resolution to the conflict if one can be achieved, a senior U.S. official said.

But the Trump administration will not reach a deal with Tehran until nuclear issues are addressed, another U.S. official said. Trump is willing to grant sanctions relief to Iran, along with the release of some frozen funds, for concrete progress on nuclear issues, and while Iran has indicated it is flexible on nuclear issues, the sides are far apart on timing and which side makes the first moves, the official said.

All the officials were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity about the behind-the-scenes diplomatic negotiations.

Deal would first reopen strait and lift U.S. blockade

Two of the regional officials speaking to the AP confirmed that mediators are working with both sides on a proposal that would include reopening the strait and lifting the U.S. blockade, and then removing sanctions.

According to the draft text being discussed, the strait would reopen in accordance with a separate deal that Iran has been discussing with Oman, on the other side of the strait, and it would include no tolls — something Tehran has pursued. That deal seeks to temporarily manage shipping traffic on what was seen as an international waterway before the war.

One regional official said the U.S. is seeking Iranian concessions on nuclear issues that include allowing inspectors to enter the country. Under the memorandum of understanding the two sides signed in June that collapsed within days, Iran’s nuclear program was meant to be discussed over a 60-day period.

The U.S. officials say the United States is skeptical about whether Iran can be persuaded to ultimately reach Trump’s conditions for a deal and would be serious about any promises it makes, especially after it broke the interim deal by firing on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. officials feel their position is getting stronger as Tehran feels the impact of sanctions.

Iran’s latest proposal seeks faster action

While Iran’s latest proposal echoes the June deal, a key difference is speed.

Araghchi told a closed-door meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly last week that Tehran had pitched the deal as benefiting Trump in the midterm elections. Araghchi later told journalists that “the seven-day timeline will start as soon as the United States accepts this plan.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also planned to meet Araghchi on Monday in a bid to help mediators, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

Both the U.S. and Iran have been hurting economically — the U.S. from high oil prices as Iran attacks ships on the strait, and Tehran from the naval blockade and a growing number of U.S. sanctions that bottle up its oil sales. Brent crude, the international standard, is above $108.

For months, the two sides have been trying to outlast the other, while regional countries endure missile and drone attacks as Tehran claims to target U.S. military assets in the region.

Reflecting Iran’s impatience, a rare statement on Monday attributed to the theocracy’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei noted the “painful blows” that enemy forces have received near the strait. “Before long, the Arabian Sea, too, will be rid of them,” the statement added.

Tehran’s latest proposal again sought to end the fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon. But a new front has emerged in recent weeks as Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are now perched on another crucial waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. That has further pressured global energy markets.

Iran argues that the Houthis have their own demands, and that their conflict with neighboring Saudi Arabia is separate from the U.S.-Iran war, but Iranian officials said they are willing to help in finding a settlement between the Houthis and the Saudis, one of the officials said.

DOROHUSK, Poland — Three times in one day, phones lit up across this Polish border community with a warning: A drone or a missile could cross from Ukraine, and residents should stay vigilant in case they might need to take cover.

Above the village of Dorohusk in eastern Poland, vapor trails cut across the pale blue sky and military helicopters rumbled overhead. Just 1.24 miles away, traffic at the border crossing into Ukraine was suspended three times, and staff were even evacuated once.

The alerts and disruptions on Thursday came as the Associated Press was visiting the village. They reflected a new reality along Poland’s eastern frontier, where the war in Ukraine — now 4½ years old — has felt increasingly close.

Russia isn’t at war with Poland, but over the past few years European leaders say it’s mounted a series of so-called hybrid attacks to pressure to pressure adversaries in the West and NATO that include sabotage, disinformation, and cyberattacks. Poland is worried that the drones or missiles strikes could spill over from Ukraine, whether by accident or as part of a Russian strategy of ambiguous attacks.

The anxiety intensified after two Russian drones exploded on the Ukrainian side of the Dorohusk-Yahodyn crossing in the early hours of Sept. 13. The explosions could clearly be heard in Dorohusk.

“There is new restlessness and fear because you could hear those explosions very well on that night in our village,” said Wojciech Sawa, the Dorohusk mayor. “We had never had something like that before. This was the first time the sirens wailed.”

Poland is preparing for a more serious Russian hybrid attack

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned on Sept. 17 that Russia was planning hybrid strikes with drones or rockets on European countries supporting Ukraine, among them Poland, and regions bordering Ukraine would be especially vulnerable in the coming months. Other European leaders and intelligence services have shared his warnings that Russia is likely to step up its hybrid campaign.

In Dorohusk, people have lived in the shadow of the war for years. They watched Ukrainian refugees flee across the frontier in the early days of Russia’s 2022 invasion and, this July, had a Russian missile pass through airspace in eastern Poland before crashing some 56 miles inside the country.

But the recent drone attacks and the Polish government’s efforts to prepare the population for further serious incidents have brought a new sense of apprehension — and also confusion — among locals.

Kids in border regions have to evacuate when sirens sound

Jarosław Wójcicki, the Dorohusk school’s director, said staff, including the school psychologist, now discuss with students “practically every day” how to stay safe.

The school had to be evacuated once so far and Wójcicki showed the two rooms in the basement of the school building where the kids took cover. Windows had been boarded up to avoid glass shards hurting anyone in case of an explosion.

“The older children had no problem at all, without showing any particular emotion,” the director said. “You could see a little fear among the younger children, but they were well looked after by their teachers.”

Wójcicki is responsible for the safety of hundreds of children who travel from nearby villages to attend school in Dorohusk, and his voice wavered as he described the extent of the task.

Poland’s Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz visited the Dorohusk-Yahodyn border crossing on Sept. 22 and announced new air defense elements were being brought to the border region. He added that Patriot batteries were deployed in the two Polish regions bordering Ukraine, including the one where Dorohusk is located.

More work to be done on civil preparedness

While the government’s warnings are stark, even communities closest to Ukraine are still catching up on civil defense preparedness.

“We are at the beginning of the process of building civil resilience and the resilience of the state to threats,” said Mirosław Sokal, head of resident safety for the city of Lublin, west of Dorohusk. “We have to remember that over the past 40 years we thought we would be living in peace.”

He said, given the lack of more solid infrastructure, Poles should respect one minimal rule when there’s an air threat: get inside and put two walls between them and any window.

Sawa, the Dorohusk mayor, said villagers typically live in individual homes with basements and that is the obvious place to hide in case of air threats. “If I don’t have a basement myself, my neighbor likely does,” he said.

But people on the streets of Dorohusk seemed more confused about their options in case of a real attack.

“For now, I sleep well at night, so I don’t really hear it,” said Irena Popek, a woman in her 80s. If planes are coming, she said, her basement was not an option as it was flooded. ”I simply have nowhere to hide, and that’s it.”

Renata Pastuszo, a local shop employee, said she continued working through the recent siren alarm because it’s better to keep a positive spirit in front of the Russian threat.

Krzysztof Rulka, another resident, complained that alerts were now coming too often, leaving people confused about their meaning.

“If someone told me that a drone was going to explode in the center of Dorohusk, then I would know what to do,” he said. “But this kind of confusion — there’s an air attack somewhere in Ukraine — well, what am I supposed to do now? Run to Germany?”

BUNIA, Congo — The number of confirmed cases of Ebola virus in Congo has surged past 8,000, as the country runs out of health workers to contain the deadly disease.

Congo announced an outbreak on May 15, caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no known treatment or vaccine, and has struggled to contain it.

The latest data from Congo’s health ministry released Sunday showed that 8,067 cases have been confirmed, with 3,901 deaths as of Sept. 26 across 63 health zones in seven of the country’s 26 provinces, with a fatality rate of more than 48%.

“The continuously high crude case fatality ratio, and especially the continuously high rate of deaths occurring in communities, highlights the seriousness of the disease and the persistent challenges in timely case detection and access to early and adequate patient care,” the World Health Organization said in its latest report.

It means that a large percentage of those infected were dying, without taking into account factors like delays in seeking help or hidden cases.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday that the outbreak has begun to have an impact on other essential services in the hot spots as resources are mobilized toward fighting Ebola. According to OCHA’s report, routine primary healthcare services fell by 13% between April and June in Ituri province alone.

“The indirect impact of the outbreak reflects both reduced health service availability — as a result of staffing and operational pressures — and reduced demand, as fear of infection and isolation discourages care-seeking,” OCHA said.

Last week, WHO said that Congo was running out of health workers to contain the disease. Health workers have complained about delayed or missing payments, triggering several strikes. According to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 50 health workers have died since the outbreak was announced.

Some areas have shown signs of improvement, with fewer confirmed cases in the past several weeks, including in Ituri province and Haut-Uele, but officials say the disease is spreading further in other areas, expanding its geographical reach.

According to data from the Africa CDC, the current outbreak has outpaced the two-year West Africa regional outbreak in terms of spread in the same time. By week 19, the regional outbreak between 2014 and 2016 recorded 3,781 cases, while the current outbreak recorded 7,840. WHO said that it’s on track to surpass the regional outbreak, which killed 11,000 people.

Containment efforts have been hamstrung by insecurity, displacement, a health workers’ strike, and intense population movements.