“If they’re able then to treat Sami in this way, it’s only a matter of time before they start to treat US citizens like that too.”
The wife of pro-Palestinian commentator and journalist Sami Hamdi told Al Jazeera that his detention by US immigration authorities poses a threat to every American citizen and visitor to the country.
Spanish police have detained 13 suspected members of Venezuela’s notorious Tren de Aragua crime gang, which has increasingly come under scrutiny as the United States actively targets and kills what it says are its cadres smuggling drugs on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
The arrests were made across five Spanish cities, police said on Friday. The gang was designated as a global “terrorist organisation” by the US earlier this year.
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Police said the arrests took place in Barcelona, Madrid, Girona, A Coruna and Valencia in an investigation into the group’s alleged efforts to expand its operations into Spain, where Venezuelans make up one of the largest immigrant communities.
Tren de Aragua was originally formed in Venezuelan prisons and has grown into one of Latin America’s most violent transnational criminal networks. The gang is linked to drugs, human trafficking and extortion.
As part of the operation, Spanish police said they seized synthetic drugs and cocaine and also dismantled two laboratories used to make “tusi” – a mixture of cocaine, MDMA and ketamine.
The arrests followed an investigation Spanish police opened last year after the brother of “Nino Guerrero,” the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang, was arrested in Barcelona, police said.
The infamous gang has been in the crosshairs of US President Donald Trump’s domestic immigration crackdown, with more than 200 alleged members deported from the US in March.
Trump has also used Tren de Aragua and other drug cartels to justify continued strikes on boats in South American waters.
More than 60 people have now been killed in the strikes since early September, with the US targeting at least 18 vessels – 17 boats and a semi-submersible – in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.
The latest strike on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea killed three men, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday.
The Trump administration has yet to make public any evidence that its targets were smuggling narcotics or posed any threat to the US.
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk has condemned the strikes as “extrajudicial killing”, while US lawmakers – mostly Democrats, but also several senior Republicans – have demanded clarity from the Trump administration on the legal basis for carrying out deadly attacks in international waters.
Turk called for the US to halt its attacks to “prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats”.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused Trump of seeking to destabilise his government through the attacks, as well as through a major military build-up of US naval forces in the region over recent months.
For the last 30 years, countries have been talking about climate change at the UN’s Conference of the Parties – or COP. As world leaders gather near Brazil’s Amazon rainforest for COP30, Al Jazeera’s Ruby Zaman looks at what’s been achieved in the last three decades.
Russia has called on Serbia to clarify public remarks made by right-wing populist ally President Aleksandar Vucic on the potential sale of mortar shells to the European Union amid concerns exports could wind up in Ukraine as Moscow’s war rages on.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday that Vucic’s comments required an explanation, noting that Serbia had promised Russia many times that its ammunition would not end up in Ukrainian hands.
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Vucic spoke of selling his country’s large stocks of ammunition to Europe in a televised interview with broadcaster Euronews that aired this week, confirming his readiness to start shipments even if they found their way to Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in 2022.
“We need to sell it to someone, and we’ll sell it to whomever we can in order to earn some money, but we’ll try to take care and not see that ammunition end up in a war zone. But it happens from time to time,” he said on The Europe Conversation show.
“At the end [of the day], we’ll have to pay our workers,” he added. “Tell me, is there something that is not rational?”
Last week, Vucic also told Germany’s Cicero magazine that he had offered his “friends” in the EU the opportunity to sign a purchase agreement for the large stockpiles of ammunition – in particular, mortar shells – produced in his country.
Asked directly whether he would sell to Ukraine, Vucic said: “The buyers can do what they want with it.”
Back in May, Russia said it had evidence that Serbian defence companies were supplying Ukraine with ammunition, in a rare rebuke of a country traditionally seen as an ally.
The Kremlin spoke out after media outlets reported that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Serbian ammunition had indirectly reached Kyiv via contracts with third countries.
Vucic’s recent comments appeared to signal a readiness to engage further with the EU in terms of security – albeit in a commercial capacity.
His country has been pursuing EU membership since 2009, but has simultaneously maintained strong ties with Russia.
On Tuesday, the European Commission presented its annual progress report on EU aspirants, giving Serbia a rap on the knuckles over high levels of “polarisation” in the country, which has been rocked by successive protests over the deadly collapse of a railway station roof that killed 16 people.
On Saturday, about 100,000 protesters marked the first anniversary of the tragedy at Novi Sad railway station, which had been undergoing renovation work. The event acted as a lightning rod for widespread frustrations over high-level corruption, with protesters calling on Vucic to step down.
On Wednesday night, government protesters called a counterprotest outside Serbia’s parliament in Belgrade, attended by senior government ministers. Supporters arrived from outside the city on buses, reportedly organised by Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party.
The European Commission report also called out “Serbian media outlets” and “political office holders” for promoting “an anti-EU narrative”, even as the country eyes accession.
Last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Serbia to “get concrete” about its proclaimed goal of joining the bloc.
“We live in a fractured world with a widening gap between democracies and autocracies,” von der Leyen said at a joint news conference with Vucic. “And you know very well where the European Union stands.”
Serbia remains the only country in Europe that has not imposed sanctions on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.
Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as United States President Donald Trump, has been a reluctant and often divisive force within the EU as it pushes for punitive measures against Russia.
Mass cancellations of flights in the United States are causing havoc for travellers after the government ordered a reduction in the flight schedule due to a lack of air traffic controllers.
The reduced flight schedule, set to begin on Friday, comes as the US continues with its longest-ever government shutdown, which began on October 1, after Congress was unable to agree on a federal funding bill.
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On Thursday night, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a phased-in reduction plan, which sets out that airlines must cut 4 percent of domestic flights from 6am EST (11:00 GMT) on Friday and gradually increase to 10 percent by November 14.
So far, no international flights have been affected by the planned cancellations.
According to an estimate by the aviation analytics firm Cirium, about 1,800 flights are being cancelled – a reduction of 268,000 seats.
Here’s what we know about the cancellations:
Since the October 1 government shutdown, now the longest in history, there has been no sign of the Republicans and Democrats ending their standoff over healthcare funding and agreeing on a new funding bill. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers, including air traffic controllers, have been furloughed or are working unpaid.
While federal workers have received back pay following the end of previous government shutdowns, President Donald Trump has threatened to sack many of them altogether if the Democrats do not agree to sign off on the funding bill.
So far, 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 security screeners have been required to work without pay as they are classified as essential workers, so they will not receive payment until the shutdown is lifted.
However, in an attempt to alleviate pressure on the already overworked industry, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the decision to reduce flights now, before the busy Thanksgiving season at the end of the month.
In a post on X on Thursday night, Duffy said the decision to reduce flights was not about politics but about “assessing the data and alleviating building risk in the system as controllers continue working without pay”.
.@USDOT has many responsibilities, but our number one job is safety.
This isn’t about politics – it’s about assessing the data and alleviating building risk in the system as controllers continue working without pay.
It’s safe to fly today, tomorrow, and the day after because… pic.twitter.com/YRrq5sdy4T
“I’d love to pay them, but I can’t,” he added in a later post.
I don’t have access to money to pay air traffic controllers during this shutdown. Congress has said there is no money. I’d love to pay them, but I can’t.
My message to Democrats is to sit down, figure it out, and not hold the American people hostage- especially when they want to… pic.twitter.com/up2peizyZn
Yes.
“It’s safe to fly today, tomorrow, and the day after because of the proactive actions we are taking,” Duffy wrote in a post accompanying a wider statement.
The statement also cited FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, who said the agency would “not hesitate to take further action” to alleviate pressure on workers.
“We are seeing signs of stress in the system, so we are proactively reducing the number of flights to make sure the American people can fly,” Bedford said, adding that they were monitoring the situation.
It remains unclear how long the cancellations will continue.
Forty of the country’s busiest airports have cancelled flights, including:
The last government shutdown in January 2019, during Trump’s first term as president, lasted for 35 days.
On that occasion, travel was temporarily suspended at New York’s LaGuardia airport when several air traffic workers who had been required to work without pay failed to turn up, calling in sick instead. The travel suspension at LaGuardia led to delays at other major airports, including in Philadelphia and Atlanta.
This action, along with other staffing issues, prompted Trump to agree to temporarily end the shutdown. The government shutdown formally ended in February.
International flights will not be cancelled.
It is unclear exactly which domestic flights are affected, however. Katy Nastro, a travel analyst at Going, the flight-finder website, told ABC News that “less full flights to smaller cities, or flights with more limited schedules to begin with, are most likely on the chopping block”.
Alaska Airlines said most cancellations will affect high-frequency routes, to allow travellers to be accommodated with minimal disruption.
The Department of Transportation said airlines would be required to issue full refunds to travellers whose flights had been cancelled, but secondary costs, including food and hotel accommodation, would not be covered unless a delay or cancellation was within the control of the carrier.
The CEO of Frontier Airlines, Barry Biffle, recommended that travellers buy backup tickets with another airline to avoid being stranded or missing an essential trip if the flight gets cancelled.
Todd Curtis, founder of Airsafe, an aviation safety website, told Al Jazeera that the shutdown was having a significant impact on workers.
“If there’s not enough staff, there’s procedures in place. What’s a more important issue, and this was handed out by the secretary of transportation, is fatigue because of staffing issues. Controllers have been asked to work six-day [work]weeks [with] mandatory overtime. Even under the best of circumstances, this is a difficult job,” Curtis explained.
Travellers facing disruption voiced anger about the cancellations.
At Reagan national airport in Arlington, Virginia, Sandy Humes, a passenger, told Al Jazeera that she almost cancelled her trip due to the airline cancellations.
“I don’t even know what’s gonna happen, [but] then I just decided, all right, we’re just gonna go for it and see what happens. But it’s just unexpected. I’m just sick of it. It’s like, what about us?” Humes said.
At the same airport, Vic Seested told Al Jazeera that the lack of information was “disappointing”.
“It means that Valentina, my youngest, my nine-year-old, was looking forward to see[ing] me for our date night, and now I may not see her,” he said.
As well as flight cancellations, the shutdown could also affect more than 42 million Americans who receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP), also known as food stamps.
The government had planned to freeze payments altogether for the scheme when its funding ran out at the end of October, but on Monday, a federal judge halted that decision and said the Trump administration must provide the programme with emergency funds, at least partially.
Officials will use $4.65bn from the Department of Agriculture’s contingency fund to support roughly half of SNAP participants’ “current allotments”. Despite this, some families may not receive benefits for several weeks, US media reported this week.
When the Republican and Democratic members of Congress approve the bill and funding is released for government services.
Tom Davis, a Republican South Carolina state senator, told Al Jazeera that while the Republicans and the Democrats have got into standoffs before, “somebody always blinks”.
“Traditionally, you pass what’s called a clean contingency resolution. You continue last year’s funding levels until the new levels are agreed to. Democrats have done this 12 times under President [Joe] Biden, but they refuse to do it under President Trump. So [that’s] where we are at this point, and Republicans are not going to swallow the spending increase,” he said, referring to the extension of healthcare benefits that Democrats are insisting on.
A European naval force is en route to help a ship that was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia, as another vessel narrowly escaped a similar attack, with piracy surging again in the region.
The European Union’s Operation Atalanta said on Friday that its assets were “close” to the Hellas Aphrodite, a Malta-flagged tanker which was seized by pirates the previous day.
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The attackers used machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) to board the vessel.
In its statement on Friday, Operation Atalanta said it was “ready to take the appropriate action and to respond respectively to this event”.
The rescue attempt comes amid fears for the safety of the 24 mariners on board the Hellas Aphrodite, which was carrying gasoline from India to South Africa when it came under attack.
Tracking data showed that the ship was more than 1,000km (620 miles) off the Somali coast, according to The Associated Press news agency.
The private security firm Ambrey said Thursday’s assault appeared to have been carried out by the same group of Somali pirates who recently captured an Iranian fishing boat, which they have subsequently been using as a base for their operations.
As the EU naval force neared the Hellas Aphrodite on Friday, the British military’s UK Maritime Trade Operations centre (UKMTO) said another vessel had been unsuccessfully targeted by pirates on Friday.
In an alert published on X, UKMTO, which urged ships in the area to “transit with caution”, said the captain of a liquified natural gas tanker reported a boat approaching its stern, 528 nautical miles (equivalent to about 980km) southeast of Eyl, Somalia.
“The small craft fired small arms and RPGs towards the vessel,” it said, noting that the larger ship escaped by increasing its speed.
After piracy off the Somali coast peaked in 2011 with 237 attacks, the threat receded as a result of international naval patrols and the strengthening of the Somali government.