Electronic device searches by U.S. border officials are on the rise, data shows.

‘Judiciously and responsibly’

Searches typically involve an officer manually perusing the contents of a device, not including any information that is stored remotely. Mobile data, WiFi and other connections are disabled before a search begins, CBP notes.

In cases where there is “reasonable suspicion of a violation of law … or a national security concern,” border agents may conduct an advanced search, which uses external equipment to “review, copy, and/or analyze” a device’s contents.

In the past two fiscal years, between nine and 10 per cent of all searches have been advanced, on average.

CBP says that all travellers are obligated to “present their electronic devices and the information resident on the device in a condition that allows for the examination,” if asked. Failure to comply, such as by withholding a passcode or fingerprint, does not automatically disqualify a foreign national from entry to the United States, though the agency says the device may be taken into custody anyway, and noncompliance may factor into the final decision to allow or deny entry.

“CBP has established strict guidelines, above and beyond prevailing legal requirements, to ensure that these searches are exercised judiciously and responsibly and are consistent with the public trust,” its FAQ reads. “Admissibility determinations are made based on the totality of the circumstances.”
Traveller concerns

Phone searches and other additional screening at U.S. borders have sparked concerns in recent months amid the Trump administration’s renewed scrutiny on immigration.

In April, Canada updated its travel advisory for the United States, warning that visitors should “expect scrutiny at ports of entry, including of electronic devices.”

“Comply and be forthcoming in all interactions with border authorities,” the advisory reads. “If you are denied entry, you could be detained while awaiting deportation.”

According to CBP, searching devices helps to uncover a variety of criminal activity, including terrorism, child exploitation, human and drug trafficking, smuggling and illegal immigration, as well as “additional information relevant to admissibility of foreign nationals under U.S. immigration laws.”

But some have raised fears that criminality isn’t the only factor to cause issues at the border.

In March, a French scientist on his way to Houston was turned away following a search of his smartphone and laptop. The issue, according to one French cabinet minister, arose out of messages found on the phone that referenced “his political opinion on the policies of the Trump administration.”

In an interview with CTV News earlier this year, Vancouver immigration lawyer Cindy Switzer warned of the power that border agents wield.

“The issue is that border officers have full discretion in order to grant somebody admission,” she said. “They can deny somebody admission for any reason.”

With flies from CTV News Vancouver’s Ben Miljure and AFP

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics-fy2023

North Korea accuses South of ‘serious provocation’ over border warning shots. Ko Jong Chol, vice chief of the North Korean People’s Army’s General Staff, noted that Tuesday’s warning shots coincided with the South Korea-U.S. summertime military drills and accused Seoul of deliberately trying to raise tensions.

Shortly after Ko’s statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed it had fired warning shots Tuesday afternoon at North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the military demarcation line in the central border region while carrying out unspecified construction work. The South’s military said the soldiers returned to North Korean territory without incident and that the North didn’t return fire.

In recent months, South Korea’s military has occasionally used loudspeaker warnings and fired warning shots to repel North Korean soldiers crossing the military demarcation line. The incidents were largely seen as accidental as North Korean troops build anti-tank barriers, plant mines and carry out other work to reinforce border defenses amid heightened tensions.

Ko said the North Korean soldiers were conducting a “barrier project to permanently block the southern border,” as part of broader efforts of “completely separating” the territory between the Koreas, when the South responded with an audio warning and warning shots. Ko said the North had informed U.S. forces in the South of their plans for the border work on June 25 and July 18 to prevent accidental clashes.

“As the commanding officer responsible for the southern border management and security, I strongly demand (the South) to immediately stop the dangerous provocation aimed to make the fortification project in the southern border necessary for defending our sovereignty an excuse for escalation of tension,” Ko said in a statement.

Animosity between the Koreas is running high now as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to flaunt his military nuclear capabilities and align with Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Citing the expansion of South Korea-U.S. military exercises and the hard-line policies of Seoul’s previous conservative government, Kim last year declared that North Korea was abandoning its long-standing goals of a peaceful unification between the Koreas and ordered the rewriting of the North’s constitution to mark the South as a permanent enemy.

Kim’s government has so far dismissed the diplomatic overtures by Seoul’s new liberal president, Lee Jae Myung, who said last week that Seoul would seek to restore a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement aimed at reducing border tensions, while urging Pyongyang to reciprocate by rebuilding trust and resuming dialogue.

Kim Tong-hyung, The Associated Press

Air defenses destroyed 10 Ukrainian drones in the skies over three Russian regions on Friday evening, Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"Between 8:50 p.m. #Moscow time (GMT +3) and midnight on August 22, air defenses on duty destroyed 10 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, four each over the Rostov and Krasnodar regions, and two over the Belgorod Region," the statement reads.

#UNSC to hold emergency meeting on Nord Streams on August 26 at Russia’s request — envoy.

Russia will be drawing attention to how the German investigation is being delayed and how non-transparent it has been for the Security Council, Dmitry Polyansky emphasized.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will hold an emergency meeting on the sabotage on the Nord Streams gas pipelines next Tuesday at Russia’s request, Dmitry Polyansky, the country’s Acting Permanent Representative to the global body, announced.

"Amid reports about the arrest of a suspect in organizing terror attacks on the Nord Streams in September 2022, Russia has requested an emergency UNSC meeting. We will be drawing attention to how the German investigation is being delayed and how non-transparent it has been for the Security Council. Panama which holds the [rotating] presidency of the [UN] SC [this month] has scheduled it for 4:00 p.m. New York time (8:00 p.m. GMT) on August 26," the Russian diplomat wrote on his Telegram channel.

On Thursday, a 49-year-old Ukrainian man, Sergey Kusnetsov, was arrested in Italy on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued in Germany. He is suspected of complicity in organizing the attack on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in September 2022. German prosecutors alleged that he was part of a group that planted explosives on the gas pipelines near Bornholm as they consider him to be one of the coordinators of the attack.

The detainee rejected a proposal for voluntary extradition to Germany. He claimed that he was in Ukraine at the moment the Nord Streams were blown up. He may face up to 15 years behind bars in Germany where he should stand trial.

On September 26, 2022, three strings of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines sustained enormous damage. The latter had not yet been put into operation. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Moscow is certain that the Nord Stream sabotage was carried out with US support. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has opened an investigation into an act of international terrorism.

What is a famine and who declares one?

Famine is now occurring in Gaza City, according to the world’s leading authority on food crises.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification released an analysis Friday, saying more than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, suffering widespread starvation and preventable deaths.

It’s the first time the IPC has confirmed a famine in the Middle East, where Israel has been in a brutal war with Hamas since the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

People in Gaza rely almost entirely on outside aid to survive because Israel’s military offensive has wiped out most capacity to produce food inside the territory.

“I am speechless that in 2025, we are facing starvation on the planet,” said Dr. Mark Manary at Washington University in St. Louis, an expert on childhood malnutrition. “It’s got to be a wake-up call.”

Manary said if food were made widely available, it would take around two or three months for the region to recover from the famine.

Here’s a look at what famine means and how the world finds out when one exists.
What is famine?

“Famine is, in plain language, not having enough to eat,” Manary said.

IPC, the leading international authority on hunger crises, considers an area to be in famine when three things occur: 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or essentially are starving; at least 30% of children suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height; and two adults or four children per every 10,000 people are dying daily of hunger and its complications.

Famine can appear in pockets — sometimes small ones — and a formal classification requires caution.

Last year, experts said a famine was ongoing in parts of North Darfur in Sudan. Somalia, in 2011, and South Sudan, in 2017, also saw famines in which tens of thousands of people were affected.
Who declares a famine?

The short answer is, there’s no set rule.

While the IPC says it is the “primary mechanism” used by the international community to analyze data and conclude whether a famine is happening or projected, it typically doesn’t make such a declaration itself.

Often, UN officials or governments will make a formal statement, based on an analysis from the IPC.

In Gaza, the World Health Organization said malnutrition among children “is accelerating at a catastrophic pace,” with more than 12,000 children identified as acutely malnourished in July alone. That’s the highest monthly figure ever recorded.
What happens to people trapped in a famine?

When people don’t have enough to eat, Manary said, the first thing that happens is the body uses up its reserves.

“So we have about three days’ worth of carbohydrates ... and sometimes even months’ worth of fat that we can keep in our body in storage,” he said. “These are used up. And then the body still needs to keep working. So it starts breaking down less essential parts of the body. So you see, like, people become very thin.”

In a sense, he said, people’s muscles are being eaten by their own bodies to keep them going.

“The body is eating all of itself up in order to try to survive,” he said.

At some point, he said, that process breaks down and a stressor like an infection can kill the person.
How do starving people recover?

If they start eating, Manary said, their risk of dying drops quite a bit in just a week. But it sometimes takes a couple of months for someone to recover completely.

When a famine is declared, governments and the international aid community, including the UN, can potentially unlock aid and funding to help feed people en masse.

Because this famine is human-caused, “it can be halted and reversed,” the IPC report said. “The time for debate and hesitation has passed, starvation is present and is rapidly spreading.”

___

Laura Ungar And Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

IN BRIEF: What is known about overnight #Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian regions
Nineteen drones were downed over the Bryansk Region, eleven over the Volgograd Region, eight over the Rostov Region, seven over the Voronezh Region, three each over the Belgorod and Oryol Regions, two UAVs over the Kursk Region, and one over the Republic of Crimea.

Air defense forces shot down and intercepted 54 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over Russian regions overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

The Russian Defense Ministry repelled a massive drone attack on the Volgograd Region, Governor Andrey Bocharov stated. Localized fires broke out at the sites where the debris fell.

TASS has compiled the main facts about the drone attack.
Attack on Russian regions

· Throughout the night, from 11 p.m. Moscow Time on August 21 to 7 a.m. Moscow Time on August 22, air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 54 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, the Defense Ministry reported.

· Nineteen drones were downed over the Bryansk Region, eleven over the Volgograd Region, eight over the Rostov Region, seven over the Voronezh Region, three each over the Belgorod and Oryol Regions, two UAVs over the Kursk Region, and one over the Republic of Crimea.
Aftermath of the attacks

· The Russian Defense Ministry repelled a massive drone strike on the Volgograd Region, Bocharov reported.

· Due to the falling debris of unmanned aerial vehicles in the southern part of the city, in the area of Udmurtskaya and Jack London Streets, localized fires of dry vegetation broke out, Bocharov specified.

· Air defense forces also repelled a drone attack in the Millerovsky, Tarasovsky, and Kamensky districts of the Rostov Region, Acting Governor Yuri Slyusar, reported.

· Grass ignited in several locations where debris fell in the Rostov Region; the fires were promptly extinguished.

· According to preliminary data, there were no casualties in the #Volgograd and Rostov Regions.

· Restrictions on airport operations were introduced in Volgograd, Saratov, Samara, and Kaluga. They have since been lifted.

#Hamas to face 'gates of hell' in Gaza until it accepts Israel’s terms — defense minister
Israel Katz also announced that the authorities had approved the Israel Defense Forces’ operational plan against Hamas in #Gaza.

The "gates of hell" will open for the Palestinian radical movement Hamas in Gaza and will remain open until the radicals accept Israel's conditions and release all hostages, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

"Soon, the gates of hell will open over the heads of the murderers and rapists of Hamas in Gaza [and will remain open] until they agree to Israel's terms for ending the war, the main ones being the release of all hostages and disarmament," he wrote on his X page, commenting on the Israeli decision to approve army plans to crush the radical movement in Gaza.

"If they [Hamas] do not comply, Gaza, the capital of Hamas, will become Rafah and Beit Hanoun (cities where Israeli military operations have already been carried out - TASS)," Katz added.

The defense minister also announced that the authorities had approved the Israel Defense Forces’ operational plan against Hamas in Gaza. "We have approved the IDF's plan to defeat Hamas in Gaza with intensive fire, evacuation of residents, and ground maneuvers," Katz stated.
IDF plan for Gaza

On August 21, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the Gaza Strip, where he recorded a video statement announcing that he was there to approve the army's plan for Gaza. Netanyahu also said that he had instructed his team to begin negotiations immediately on the release of all hostages and the end of the war in Gaza on terms acceptable to Israel. According to Netanyahu, defeating Hamas and freeing all hostages will happen simultaneously.

On August 20, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz approved a plan to capture Gaza City. According to the Kan state broadcaster, the operation was codenamed "Gideon's Chariots II."

#Canada absent in multi-nation call to protect Gaza journalists, allow foreign media. #OTTAWA — Canada has taken the rare step of not signing onto a multi-country statement that demands Israel stop banning foreign journalists from entering Gaza and that local journalists be protected in the Palestinian territories.

Canada co-founded the Media Freedom Coalition in 2020 and has signed dozens of statements on issues in Hong Kong, Sudan and previously the West Bank.

But Ottawa is not among the 27 countries singing a call for Israel to allow “independent foreign media access” into Gaza, and for journalists to be protect across Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The only other time Canada did not sign a multi-country statement from the coalition was during the 2021 election campaign, and Global Affairs Canada did not have an immediate response when asked why it’s not part of today’s letter.

The statement comes after Canada and others condemned Israel for deliberately killing Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif, after claiming he had led a cell of Hamas.

Canada is also condemning Israel’s approval of plans to build settlements that would restrict Palestinian access to Jerusalem and separate the city from the West Bank, in a separate joint statement today.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2025.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

Attack on #Colombian police helicopter leaves at least 8 dead, president says. An attack on a Colombian National Police helicopter Thursday killed at least eight people and injured several others, according to President Gustavo Petro.

It’s still unclear who is behind the attack in the Antioquia department.

In his most recent comments Thursday, Petro attributed it to the 36th Front of the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), dissidents of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a leftist guerrilla group.

However, earlier, he suggested the powerful criminal syndicate Gulf Clan might be involved, noting the attack came after the seizure of 1.5 tons of cocaine in the Urabá region of Antioquia.

“We have the unfortunate news of eight police officers dead and eight injured in the helicopter whose mission was to transport personnel to eradicate coca leaf crops in Amalfi,” Petro wrote on his X account.

National Police Director Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán described the incident as a “terrorist act” and said police units are in the area treating the wounded.

The helicopter was supporting the manual eradication of illicit crops when it was allegedly attacked by a drone, Antioquia Gov. Andrés Julián Rendón said, adding two uniformed officers were injured.

The governor posted a video that appears to show the helicopter crashing into a hill.

Rendón warned that both the Gulf Clan and dissidents of FARC operate in the area, and noted the national government has been unable to agree on who is responsible for the attack.

“(We) have always known that these are FARC dissidents in charge of Calarcá: that’s their modus operandi, allied with the ELN,” he said, referring to the leftist guerrilla group National Liberation Army. “Coordination within the national government is urgent. This is a matter of life and death.”

Woman arrested after allegedly posting threats against Trump on social media.

A woman from Indiana has been arrested by U.S. federal authorities after allegedly threatening U.S. President Donald Trump with kidnapping and murder through social media.

According to an Aug. 18 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Nathalie Rose Jones, 50, asked U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a social media post to “please arrange the arrest and removal ceremony of POTUS Trump as a terrorist on the American People from 10-2pm at the White House on Saturday, August 16th, 2025.”

Jones is alleged to have written on Aug. 6 that “I am willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea with Liz Cheney and all The Affirmation present.”

According to the press release, the woman submitted to a voluntary interview with the U.S. Secret Service on Aug. 15, where she called Trump a “terrorist” and a “Nazi”.

The D.C. Attorney’s Office also said she had a “bladed object” which would be used to “carry out her mission of killing” Trump, her motive being to “avenge all the lives lost during the COVID-19 pandemic” for which she blamed the presidents’ policies and vaccine stance.

The woman joined a protest in the U.S. capital, which marched around the White House complex on Aug. 16, investigators said.

“Following the march, the U.S. Secret Service interviewed Jones for a second time, during which she admitted that she had made threats towards President Trump during her interview the previous day,” the press release said.

In the second interview, she denied having any present desire to harm Trump. However, law enforcement arrested her and she confirmed to be behind the threatening social media posts.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office identified an account on Instagram and Facebook labelled “Nath.Jones” that was posting threatening messages towards the U.S. president.
Not the first time Trump has been targeted

Trump has faced multiple threats against his life since entering the world of politics. In July 2024 at a rally in Butler, Penn., then-Republican candidate Trump was shot at by Thomas Matthew Crooks, who fired eight shots at the rally in the direction of Trump.

One rally attendee was killed, two others were wounded and Trump’s ear was grazed before the shooter was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Following the incident in Butler, another potential assassin was intercepted by U.S. authorities, this time in Florida. Ryan Wesley Routh, a 58-year-old from Florida, was apprehended by Secret Service agents after being seen with a rifle at Trump International Golf Club.

“After the agent fired a service weapon in the direction of the rifle, a witness saw a man later identified as Routh fleeing the area of the tree line. Routh was later apprehended by officers from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, in coordination with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office,” a press release from the U.S. Justice Department wrote.

A British citizen attempted take the firearm from a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer at a Trump rally in June 2016. He was sentenced to a year and one day in prison.

Michael Steven Sandford, a 20-year-old from England overstayed his tourist visa and took shooting lessons at a Las Vegas gun range with a 9mm Glock pistol. The day after his lessons, Sandford attended a Trump rally and grabbed a Las Vegas police officer’s 9mm Glock handgun and attempted to retrieve it from the officer’s holster.

He was immediately arrested and pleaded guilty to the charges laid against him.

In 2017, a man from North Dakota stole a forklift in order to “harm the president by flipping (his) limo with the forklift”, the Associated Press reported.

Forty-two-year-old Gregory Lee Leingang entered the presidential motorcade with his stolen forklift in Mandan, according to AP. However, “the forklift got stuck in a gated area and Leingang fled on foot.”

Leingang pleaded guilty to attempting to enter a restricted area with a restricted #weapon.