Trump administration

The Trump administration plans to deport more than 150 Afghan immigrants to Afghanistan, a US official and a coalition of veterans and advocacy groups say. Dozens have been detained in Louisiana, and the first deportation flight could leave as early as Monday, 2 Nov, according to The New York Times. Because Washington has no diplomatic ties with the Taliban, the flights would be routed through Pakistan, which would oversee the expulsions. Pakistan has already expelled more than two million Afghan nationals since 2023, according to Reuters. The Department of Homeland Security declined to confirm operational details.

The US State Department has approved a possible sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine, valued at an estimated $2.1 billion. Canada, Germany and Norway are financing the purchase through the JUMPSTART programme, alongside Ukrainian national funds backed by an EU loan, with no US funds involved. Congress must still review the sale. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had waited almost a month for the decision. Officials report that a Russian drone strike killed at least 14 people on a rail platform in Dnipro on Thursday, and that one person died in Kyiv in a late-evening missile strike.