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Sources: 8 People with Possible ISIS Ties Arrested in US

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 4: FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the FBI's proposed budget for the 2025 fiscal year on June 4, 2024 in Washington, DC. Samuel Corum/Getty Images/AFP
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 4: FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the FBI's proposed budget for the 2025 fiscal year on June 4, 2024 in Washington, DC. Samuel Corum/Getty Images/AFP
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Sources: 8 People with Possible ISIS Ties Arrested in US

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 4: FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the FBI's proposed budget for the 2025 fiscal year on June 4, 2024 in Washington, DC. Samuel Corum/Getty Images/AFP
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 4: FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the FBI's proposed budget for the 2025 fiscal year on June 4, 2024 in Washington, DC. Samuel Corum/Getty Images/AFP

Eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to ISIS have been arrested in the United States in recent days, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
The arrests took place in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles and the individuals, who entered the US through the southern border, are being held on immigration violations, said the people, who were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The nature of their suspected connections to ISIS was not immediately clear, but the individuals were being tracked by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, or JTTF. They were in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which made the arrests while working with the JTTF, pending proceedings to remove them from the country.
The individuals from Tajikistan entered the country last spring and passed through the US government's screening process without turning up information that would have identified them as potential terrorism-related concerns, said one of the people familiar with the matter.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a statement confirming the immigration-related arrests of “several non-citizens” but did not detail specifics. The agencies noted that the US has been in a “heightened threat environment.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said the US is facing accelerating threats from homegrown violent extremists as well as foreign terrorist organizations, particularly in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
He said at one recent congressional hearing that officials were "concerned about the terrorism implications from potential targeting of vulnerabilities at the border.”

The Biden administration in August said that it had detected and stopped a network attempting to smuggle people from Uzbekistan into the US and that at least one member of the network had links to a foreign terrorist group.
“The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security,” the agencies said.

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World

France’s Macron Slams Migrant ‘Return-Hubs’, EU Funding Push

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses a press conference during a European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium, 19 June 2026. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron addresses a press conference during a European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium, 19 June 2026. (EPA)
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France’s Macron Slams Migrant ‘Return-Hubs’, EU Funding Push

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses a press conference during a European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium, 19 June 2026. (EPA)
French President Emmanuel Macron addresses a press conference during a European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium, 19 June 2026. (EPA)

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday slammed the idea of creating deportation centers for irregular migrants outside the EU, saying Paris will oppose efforts to have the bloc fund them.

So-called "return hubs" outside the EU's borders are one of the main features of a tightening of migration rules criticized by human rights groups that won the final approval of the European Parliament this week.

"France does not support that policy," Macron told journalists after a summit of European leaders in Brussels, noting the new rules allowed for people to be sent to countries they had no ties to -- which could receive money in turn.

"I'm not sure that's the Europe we want. I'm not sure those are the fundamental principles on which our Europe was built. And I don't believe, for that matter, that it's effective. The proof is that, so far, I haven't seen anyone make it work."

France was in favor of stricter rules to boost returns of people with no right to stay to their country of origin, but would not be building return hubs, he added.

"I don't believe that this is either effective or in line with our principles," Macron said.

While other EU members were free to go ahead with such plans, Paris was against a move supported by many other member states to have EU money help pay for them, Macron said.

Proponents say return hubs -- which would serve either as the final destination or as transfer centers for those expelled -- could facilitate repatriations and act as a deterrent for would-be irregular migrants

But rights groups have criticized them as "legal black holes" that could see migrants stranded in limbo with little oversight.

Britain abandoned a scheme to deport undocumented migrants to Rwanda, while Italian-run facilities to process migrants in Albania have faced legal challenges and a slow uptake.

World

EU Leaders Squabble Over Outreach to Moscow as Ukraine War Rages on

European Council President Antonio Costa speaks during a press conference at the end of European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium, 19 June 2026. (EPA)
European Council President Antonio Costa speaks during a press conference at the end of European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium, 19 June 2026. (EPA)
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EU Leaders Squabble Over Outreach to Moscow as Ukraine War Rages on

European Council President Antonio Costa speaks during a press conference at the end of European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium, 19 June 2026. (EPA)
European Council President Antonio Costa speaks during a press conference at the end of European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium, 19 June 2026. (EPA)

European Union leaders have been unable to agree on setting up a back-channel with Moscow to ensure that the bloc’s interests are protected should progress be made in negotiations to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, some of them said on Friday.

European Council President Antonio Costa, who chaired their two-day summit, had directed his office to reach out to the Kremlin and proposed a senior official to make contact. Costa said his aim was not to mediate or set up a parallel negotiating track to the one led by the United States, which is making little progress.

Debate has been swirling around Europe in recent months about whether to appoint a mediator for talks with Russia to help get things moving again, but this has been largely rejected as many believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be unlikely to negotiate anyway.

Instead, the 27 EU countries have focused on concessions that Russia should make to secure peace.

Speaking to reporters, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said the leaders had failed to resolve their differences over the approach overnight. “Europe is unable to agree even on whether there will be negotiations or who will lead them,” he said.

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said that “opening up a channel is not a mistake in our view, and I trust António Costa.”

“What was very clear last evening is that any negotiations would have to be first and foremost between Ukraine and Russia, but there are no indications that Russia is coming to the table at all,” he said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stressed that peace negotiations must ultimately be conducted by Ukraine, Russia, Europe and the US.

“Who speaks for the European Union is something we don’t need to decide on today,” he said. “We will decide on that when talks come about.”

He added that Costa has “an important to role to play” as president of the European Council, representing the EU, preparing and organizing summits, and “we don’t need to make decisions going beyond that at the moment.”

Merz highlighted efforts to coordinate diplomacy by the so-called E3 group of countries — Germany, France and Britain — a format that he said came about “at the explicit wish of Ukraine.”

Putin has tried to cut out Europe and Kyiv from negotiations with the US over Ukraine’s future. But the Kremlin said on Friday it was “ready for contact” with Europe, on the condition it abandon its desire to talk to Moscow from the position of force.

At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov argued that the EU can not be an impartial peace broker. He again rejected Western claims that Moscow was harboring plants to attack Europe as “provocation” and “nonsense” while warning that Europe’s military buildup poses growing security threats.

“A direct confrontation between NATO and Russia could rapidly escalate into an exchange of nuclear strikes, with catastrophic consequences,” Lavrov said in an essay released by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

As the leaders left their meeting overnight, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever joked that Costa would be the envoy to Moscow.

“I was just talking about you, António,” De Wever said while laughing and shaking Costa’s hand. “I was full of praise, saying you are the only one who can represent us and that we will send you to Moscow.”

Margus Tsahkna, foreign minister of Estonia — a nation on the EU’s eastern flank that has faced drone incursions and was once occupied by the Soviet Union — said that “Europe must not assume the role of a neutral mediator” and instead buttress Ukraine’s position to “force the Kremlin into serious negotiations.”

World

UK's Starmer Renews Vow to Fight any Leadership Challenge

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to the members of the media on the sidelines of the G7 summit, in Thonon-les-Bains, France, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to the members of the media on the sidelines of the G7 summit, in Thonon-les-Bains, France, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)
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UK's Starmer Renews Vow to Fight any Leadership Challenge

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to the members of the media on the sidelines of the G7 summit, in Thonon-les-Bains, France, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to the members of the media on the sidelines of the G7 summit, in Thonon-les-Bains, France, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer renewed his vow Friday to fight any challenge to his Labor party leadership, after his rival carved a path to Downing Street by winning a key by-election, AFP reported.

"If there is a contest then yes I will run, I will stand. I've said repeatedly, I'm not going to walk away from that," he told reporters in London after Andy Burnham was elected an MP in a northwest English constituency.