North Carolina officials say US Border Patrol has ended Charlotte operation

Five days of immigration raids and protests have come to an end thanks to official North Carolina immigration officials’ signal that the city of Charlotte has recovered from its five-day crackdown.

Mayor of Charlotte Vi Lyles claimed on Thursday that the Democrat-led city’s border patrol appeared to have ended its crackdown.

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The U.S. Border Patrol’s operations in Charlotte appear to have ended. She wrote on social media, “I’m relieved for our community, the residents, businesses, and all those who were targeted and impacted by this intrusion.”

It is crucial that we come together as we move forward, not as separate groups divided by recent events but as a single Charlotte community.

Federal officials assured Sheriff Garry McFadden that “Operation Charlotte’s Web” had been completed and that no further operations would take place on Thursday, according to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office.

In Mecklenburg County, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will continue to operate as they have always, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department.

According to federal law, “ICE has full authority to detain, apprehend, and take into custody any undocumented immigrant.”

The operation began on November 15 when US President Donald Trump made the announcement that Charlotte would receive “surging resources.”

By praising local officials for adopting “sanctuary” laws that let undocumented people “roam free on American streets,” it justified the upsurge.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Wednesday that it had made more than 250 arrests as of Tuesday night during an update.

During the operation, immigration efforts expanded to Raleigh, the state capital, and other nearby cities.

However, Charlotte, the state’s largest city and a hub for tech businesses, had received a lot of resistance from residents. 300 people call Charlotte home, compared to 911.

For instance, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Manolo’s Bakery to protest raids that temporarily shut its doors to customers and employees. Another protest occurred outside a Border Patrol headquarters where Border Patrol agents had gathered.

In show of support for the immigrant community, students from East Mecklenburg High School, Northwest School of the Arts, and other schools also staged a walkout.

Local media reported a drop in school attendance of nearly 15% on Monday, but it was not known how many of those absences were caused by protests, concerns about immigration enforcement practices, or seasonal trends like the flu.

Locals in the Charlotte area recorded instances of car windows being smashed and people being hit to the ground and left bloody as a result of the rise in immigration operations.

A new wave of Border Patrol operations is anticipated in another southern city, New Orleans, as Charlotte’s surge of federal immigration enforcement operations settles. The “Swamp Sweep” is how that operation is referred to.

In addition, more immigration enforcement operations have been conducted in other Democratic-controlled cities, raising questions about the methods being used and the respectability of the laws being upheld.

Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, and Washington, DC are among those cities.

Sony, Warner and Universal sign AI music licensing deals with startup Klay

The world’s biggest music labels have struck AI licensing deals with a little-known startup named Klay Vision, the companies have said, the latest in a series of deals that underlines how the technology is shaking up the music industry’s business model.

Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, and their publishing arms, all signed separate agreements with Klay, according to an announcement posted on Warner’s website on Thursday.

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It comes a day after Warner inked two other deals involving artificial intelligence, with startups Udio and Stability AI.

There were few details released about the agreements or about Klay, which is based in Los Angeles, and what it does.

The deal terms will help Klay “further evolve music experiences for fans, leveraging the potential of AI, while fully respecting the rights of artists, songwriters, and rightsholders”, the announcement said. Klay has been working with the music industry on a licensing “framework for an AI-driven music experience” and has built a “large music model” trained only on licensed music.

AI-generated music has been flooding streaming services amid the rise of chatbot-like song generators that instantly spit out new tunes based on prompts typed by users without any musical knowledge. The synthetic music boom has also resulted in a wave of AI singers and bands that have climbed the charts after racking up millions of streams, even though they don’t exist in real life.

Warner, Universal and Sony had last year sued Suno and Udio, makers of two popular AI song generation tools, accusing them of exploiting the recorded works of artists without compensating them. But there are signs that the disputes are being resolved through negotiation.

Warner, which represents artists including Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa, said Wednesday that it resolved its copyright infringement litigation against Udio. The two companies said they’re teaming up to develop Udio’s licensed AI music creation service set to launch in 2026 that will allow users to remix tunes by established artists.

They provided no financial details on their agreement, which includes Warner’s recording and publishing businesses, but it will create “new revenue streams for artists and songwriters, while ensuring their work remains protected”.

It’s similar to an agreement that Universal Music Group signed last month with Udio, which triggered a backlash because Udio stopped users from downloading the songs they created.

Udio said it will remain a “closed-system” as it prepares to launch the new service next year. If artists and songwriters choose to let their works be used, they’ll be credited and paid when users remix or cover their songs, or make new tunes with their voices and compositions, the companies said.

Warner announced this week that it was working with Stability AI to create “professional-grade tools” for musicians, songwriters, and producers.

Palestinians ‘squeezed’ as Israel moves beyond ‘yellow line’ in Gaza City

Dozens of Palestinian families are “besieged” in northern Gaza, local authorities say, as the Israeli military has repositioned its forces deeper into the enclave in violation of a United States-brokered ceasefire agreement.

Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Thursday that Israeli forces and tanks had advanced about 300 metres (984 feet) beyond the so-called “yellow line” in eastern Gaza City.

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“The fate of many of these families remains unknown amidst the shelling that targeted the area”, the office said, adding that the expansion of the yellow line shows a “blatant disregard” for the ceasefire deal.

Set out in the agreement between Israel and Hamas, the yellow line refers to an unmarked boundary where the Israeli military repositioned itself when the deal came into effect last month.

It has allowed Israel, which routinely fires at Palestinians who approach the line, to retain control over more than half of the coastal territory.

Reporting from Gaza City on Thursday, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said Israeli soldiers were seen placing yellow blocks and signs to identify the new deployment line, deeper into the city’s eastern neighbourhood of Shujayea.

“But the entire boundary has not been marked, so many Palestinians do not know exactly where it is”, Khoudary said.

“With this latest advancement in Gaza City’s Shujayea, more Palestinians are unable to reach their homes. People say this is a cage, as they’re being pushed and squeezed into the western parts of Gaza”.

The Israeli military has not publicly commented on the reports that it has gone beyond the yellow line in violation of the ceasefire.

‘ When will this nightmare end? ‘

The move comes amid a surge in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip that have sown fear across the war-ravaged enclave.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said on Thursday morning that at least 32 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours and another 88 were wounded.

Medics said an Israeli air strike on a house in Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis, killed three people, including a baby girl, and wounded 15 others.

Israel has violated the truce nearly 400 times since it came into force on October 10, according to an Al Jazeera analysis.

A displaced Palestinian man, 36-year-old Mohammed Hamdouna, told the AFP news agency that people are being killed daily in continued shelling.

“We are still living in tents. He claimed that all the basic necessities of life are still missing because the cities are rubble, crossings are still closed, and there are still no crossings.

Lina Kuraz, a 33-year-old resident of Tuffah east of Gaza City, also told AFP that she was concerned about the resumption of the war.

US tariffs cast shadow over Nuevo Leon’s steel industry in Mexico

Monterrey, Mexico – For nearly the whole year, only one of the five machines at a metal products workshop in Apodaca, Nuevo Leon, in northern Mexico, has been operational. The small business was forced to drastically reduce its production capacity after United States President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium.

“It affected us greatly,” Jose David Garcia Torres, chief of operations at Maquinados Bera, told Al Jazeera. “Many companies decided to halt production, and our services were no longer needed. We were stopped for months, literally doing nothing.”

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The US initially implemented 25 percent tariffs on steel imports in March and doubled that to 50 percent in June. In the first seven months of the year, the latest data available, Mexican steel and aluminium exports to the US fell 29 percent and 21 percent, in value, respectively, according to data from the US Department of Commerce.

Tariff negotiations are continuing after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Trump spoke by phone on October 25. A 90-day extension of tariff pause on most items other than steel, copper and aluminium, expected to expire on October 31, was extended for “a few more weeks”, Sheinbaum said.

Belem Iliana Vasquez Galan, an economics professor at Colegio de la Frontera, a research institute in Monterrey, told Al Jazeera that these recent tariffs have a broad reach, encompassing all products containing steel and aluminium.

“It’s not just the steel industry but also the automotive industry, the production of electronic goods, machinery, everything that includes some steel, aluminium or copper,” she said.

Nuevo Leon’s governor, Samuel Garcia, declared at a September trade show that the state’s steel and aluminium industry has been affected by tariffs applied under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the US president to impose tariffs for national security interests. At the event, Garcia pledged support for major companies like Nemak and Ternium, which Al Jazeera couldn’t reach for comment.

In recent years, Nuevo Leon, known as Mexico’s industrial powerhouse, has grandly announced significant foreign investments, rebranding itself as a leading city in nearshoring. This was largely driven by the announcement of the construction of a Tesla Gigafactory in March 2023. This project, which brought immense pride to the region and the country, is now widely considered cancelled after Tesla CEO Elon Musk put it on hold in July 2024 due to uncertainty over trade policies between Mexico and the US and in the lead-up to the US elections that year. The Mexican government insists it is merely on hold.

This uncertainty has significantly impacted small companies that once believed the influx of foreign investment would benefit them directly.

“If they’re receiving all those investments, I think it’s more for larger companies. We, the workshops, are more abandoned,” Garcia Torres said.

Previously, high production demand in Nuevo Leon had benefitted small workshops like Maquinados Bera, even those not directly connected to large corporations. “Before, it was like, ‘I have so much work, I’m at capacity.’ People would call you to offer work, not to ask for it,” Garcia Torres added.

Jorge Rodriguez, who runs a metalworks workshop in Cadereyta, a predominantly agricultural and livestock municipality 40km (25 miles) southeast of Monterrey, agreed there was a slowdown in orders in the months leading up to the presidential elections in both countries. However, work came to a standstill at the beginning of this year after Trump’s tariff announcements and the resulting climate of uncertainty.

“Purchase orders have decreased significantly,” he said. “The companies I work for export their products. Their [exports] almost completely stopped, and I no longer manufacture anything for them.”

Emmanuel Loo, Nuevo Leon’s deputy economy secretary, insisted the impact on the state’s industry has been minimal. Loo told Al Jazeera he views this new climate as an opportunity to strengthen local supply chains and increase global competitiveness.

“What we’ve seen is a reorganisation of the steel production chain, in which Nuevo Leon industries have purchased from local industries,” Loo added.

Made in Nuevo Leon

For some small businesses, tariffs meant halting production for large companies, such as machining bushings, pins for hoppers or creating all the fixtures and tooling needed to bend and assemble products. These businesses had to shift their focus to local individual demand and, in some cases, lay off workers.

Rodriguez told Al Jazeera that local demand has always existed, but industrial demand was so high that small businesses like his never prioritised it. This year, these smaller orders became their lifeline.

“The money is in the industry, and it was good. But then the industry stopped, and we needed those people with smaller requests. They are smaller jobs, but ultimately they add up – 10, 15 orders – and then you can start paying salaries again,” he said.

Maquinados Bera also sustained itself through small orders. Garcia Torres explained that, like some other businesses, it had to diversify its production and make machine parts it wasn’t accustomed to. “There was a person who asked us to make grills, and so we made them,” he said.

The Nuevo Leon government promotes local products, job creation and entrepreneur connections through its Made in Nuevo Leon initiative. Loo emphasised that the state is promoting tax incentives for companies that use local supply chains as well as loans for small and medium-sized businesses to invest in equipment and integrate into global value chains of key sectors like the automotive and high-tech industries.

However, Vasquez said, integrating local small and medium-sized companies into global supply chains has always been challenging. Foreign companies’ high requirements in terms of both quantity and delivery time remain difficult for small businesses to meet.

“Integration generally occurs solely for employment. In other words, the only benefit foreign companies bring is job creation,” she said.

Made in Nuevo Leon has a lot in common with Plan Mexico, an initiative launched in January by Sheinbaum to boost Mexico’s global economic competitiveness and strengthen the domestic market. Analysts see a key challenge in ensuring domestic production finds a domestic market.

“So how are you going to tell a company that currently allocates, let’s say, half of its exports to other markets to now sell in Mexico when there’s no market or when prices aren’t competitive?” Vasquez asked.

The challenges of creating conditions for domestic market growth in Mexico are intensifying as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) comes up for review next year. Loo told Al Jazeera in early October that the Nuevo Leon government is working with the US government to ensure Mexican aluminium and steel are treated equally under USMCA rules of origin, allowing them to be exported to the United States “virtually tariff-free”.

“This is what we’re trying to do, not because the industry is being affected but because it’s a great area of ​​opportunity and competitiveness for Mexico as a country and region and for the steel and aluminium companies in our state,” he added.

Mexico’s integral role in US supply chains highlights the interwoven need for stronger supply chains.

“We are at a crucial point in US-Mexico relations because the Mexican economy has always depended on the US economy and, through it, on international trade and foreign investment,” Vasquez said.

To protect its domestic industry, Mexico has applied temporary tariffs of up to 25 percent on steel imports from countries without a free trade agreement, such as China, Mexico’s second biggest trading partner after the US, a move many view as an attempt to placate Trump, as the US has been involved in a deep trade war with China.

Vasquez asks, “But how can Mexico benefit if it is also closing its doors to trade with the United States? In other words, it is neither allowing an agreement with China nor increasing its trade relationship with the United States.”

Meanwhile, Garcia Torres and Rodriguez are beginning, albeit cautiously, to see glimmers of hope after months of uncertainty. All machines are now operating at Maquinados Bera. Although the orders are still minimal, they are starting to hear more about large companies returning to their previous production rhythms.

At least 41 dead as heavy rain, flooding and landslides hit central Vietnam

Authorities in Vietnam say at least 41 people have been killed in a barrage of torrential rain, flooding and landslides, as rescue crews worked to save stranded people from the rooftops of submerged homes.

Rainfall exceeded 150cm (60 inches) over the past three days in several parts of central Vietnam, a region home to a key coffee production belt and the country’s most popular beaches.

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At least 41 people have been killed across six provinces since Sunday, while the search was continuing for nine others, the environment ministry said on Thursday.

More than 52,000 houses were flooded, and nearly 62,000 people were evacuated from their homes, while several major roads remained blocked due to landslides, and one million customers were left without electricity.

A suspension bridge on the Da Nhim River in Lam Dong province was swept away on Thursday morning, the VietnamNet newspaper reported.

Photos taken by the AFP news agency also showed hundreds of cars underwater as flooding inundated entire city blocks in Nha Trang, a popular tourist spot on the coast.

Local business owner Bui Quoc Vinh said his ground-floor restaurants and shops were under about a metre (3.2 feet) of water in the city.

“I am worried about our furniture in my restaurants and shops, but of course I cannot do anything now,” he told AFP.

“I don’t think the water is going to recede soon, as the rain has not stopped.”

The national weather forecast agency has warned of more flooding and landslides on Friday, with heavy rain set to continue in the region.

Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung told the leaders of three flood-affected provinces – Khanh Hoa, Dak Lak and Gia Lai – to mobilise the army, police and other security forces to “promptly relocate and evacuate people” to safe areas, according to a government statement.

Meanwhile, state media reported that rescuers using boats in Gia Lai and Dak Lak pried open windows and broke through roofs to assist residents stranded by high water on Wednesday.

People wade through floodwaters near inundated vehicles in Nha Trang on November 20, 2025 [AFP]

Photographs shared in state media reports showed residents, including children, sitting on the roofs of flooded houses and calling for help via social media platforms.

“Any group out there please help! We’ve been sitting on the roof since 10pm last night, including kids and adults,” a resident of Khanh Hoa province posted on a local Facebook page.

Natural disasters have left 279 people dead or missing in Vietnam and caused more than $2bn in damage between January and October, according to the national statistics office.