Southern Mexico started the cleanup process Thursday in the aftermath of Hurricane Erick, which slammed into its Pacific coast as a powerful Category 3 storm but weakened as it moved inland.In the tourist town of Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca state, residents and emergency personnel worked to drain flooded streets and clear debris left behind as the storm knocked over trees and street signs and buried boats under sand on the beach.Much of the town of about 30,000 people was left without electricity or cellphone coverage.The water “had never hit with this magnitude” in Puerto Escondido, 44-year-old merchant Luis Alberto Gil, whose shop was among those flooded, told AFP.No deaths or injuries were reported from Puerto Escondido or elsewhere in the storm zone.Erick weakened to a tropical storm as it moved across southern Mexico on Thursday.”Continued rapid weakening is forecast, and Erick will likely dissipate tonight,” the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory, issued at 2230 GMT.The center warned of heavy rainfall in the state of Guerrero, with the risk of life-threatening flooding and mudslides.Mexico sees major storms every year, usually between May and November, on both its Pacific and Caribbean coasts.In October 2023, Acapulco, a major port and beach resort in Guerrero, was pummeled by Hurricane Otis, a powerful Category 5 storm that killed dozens of people.Hurricane John, another Category 3 storm that hit in September last year, caused about 15 deaths.Acapulco was largely deserted Thursday, with shops boarded up and tourist boats grounded.

The Los Angeles Dodgers said Thursday the club barred federal immigration agents from the team’s stadium parking lot as a fresh wave of raids continued across America’s second-biggest city.The Dodgers, who have been criticized for their failure to comment publicly on the US government’s immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, said in a statement the team denied access to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who “requested permission to access the parking lots.” “They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization,” the statement said, adding that the team’s game later Thursday would go ahead as scheduled.Images and video shared on social media showed a line of unmarked trucks and masked agents at one Dodger Stadium entrance while protesters nearby chanted “ICE out of LA.”The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) later clarified that the agents at the venue were from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), not ICE. “This had nothing to do with the Dodgers. CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement,” a DHS statement said.The incident comes against a backdrop of heightened tensions in Los Angeles, which has become ground zero of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown across the United States.The city has seen scattered violence but mostly peaceful protests in recent weeks, ignited by an escalation in federal immigration sweeps that have targeted migrant workers in garment factories, car washes and other workplaces.Local media reported further raids across the city on Thursday targeting Home Depot stores, a home improvement retailer where day laborers often gather in parking lots seeking work.In addition to the mobilization of ICE agents, Trump has ordered the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines into the city in response to the protests — a move opposed by city leaders and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is a Democrat.The incident at Dodger Stadium on Thursday comes as the reigning World Series champions have faced criticism for their response to the immigration crackdown.The team has a heavily Latino fan base, with some claiming a sense of betrayal over the franchise’s failure to speak out against the ongoing raids.As of early Thursday, the Dodgers have made no formal statement in regard to the immigration raids across the city.- ‘100 percent betrayal’ -The team’s failure to condemn the immigration offensive came under scrutiny last weekend, when Latin American pop singer Nezza defied Dodgers officials and sang the US national anthem in Spanish before the team’s home game.Speaking outside Dodger Stadium on Thursday after federal agents had left the venue, one 27-year-old fan among a small group of protesters told AFP she felt let down by the team.”They’ve been very quiet since these ICE raids started, and I think it’s very hypocritical of them not to say anything when the majority of their fan base is the Latino population here in Los Angeles,” Paola, who asked only to be identified by her first name, told AFP.”It 100 percent feels like betrayal. I was born and raised here, I’ve supported them my whole life — for them not to come out and support us during these times is messed up.”Los Angeles Times sports columnist Dylan Hernandez has slammed the team’s response to the immigration crackdown.”The Dodgers boast that more than 40 percent of their fan base is Latino, but they can’t even be bothered to offer the shaken community any words of comfort,” Hernandez wrote. “How ungrateful. How disrespectful. How cowardly.”While the Dodgers have remained silent, the team’s popular outfielder Enrique Hernandez lashed out against the raids in a statement on Instagram.”I am saddened and infuriated by what’s happening in our country and our city,” wrote Hernandez, who is from Puerto Rico.”This is my second home. And I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and human rights.” 

Dozens of US military aircraft are no longer on the tarmac at a major US base in Qatar, satellite images show — a possible move to shield them from eventual Iranian air strikes, as Washington weighs whether to intervene in Tehran’s conflict with Israel.Nearly 40 military aircraft — including transport planes like the Hercules C-130 and reconnaissance aircraft — were parked on the tarmac at the Al Udeid base on June 5, according to images published by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by AFP.In an image taken on June 19, only three aircraft are visible.The US embassy in Qatar announced Thursday that access to the base would be limited “out of an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing regional hostilities,” and urged personnel to “exercise increased vigilance.”The White House says US President Donald Trump will decide sometime in the next two weeks whether to join ally Israel’s strikes on Iran. The Islamic republic could then respond by striking US bases in the region.Mark Schwartz, a former lieutenant general in the US Army and a defense researcher at the Rand Corporation, said the personnel, aircraft and installations at Al Udeid would be “extremely vulnerable” given its “close proximity” to Iran.Schwartz, who served in the Middle East, told AFP that even shrapnel could render the aircraft “non-mission capable.””You want to reduce risk to US forces, both personnel and equipment,” he said.The planes that have left the tarmac since early June could have been moved to hangars or to other bases in the region. A US defense official would not discuss the specific positioning of assets but told AFP: “We remain committed to maintaining operational security while executing our mission with the highest level of readiness, lethality and professionalism.”US forces in the Middle East have been mobilized since Israel’s first strikes on Iran nearly a week ago, with an additional aircraft carrier en route and significant aircraft movement.An AFP analysis of open source data tracking aircraft positioning showed that at least 27 military refueling planes — KC-46A Pegasus and KC-135 Stratotanker planes — traveled from the United States to Europe from June 15-18.Twenty-five of them were still in Europe as of late Wednesday, with only two returning to American soil, the data showed.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday he had given social media platform TikTok another 90 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned in the United States.”I’ve just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025),” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, putting off the ban for the third time. A federal law requiring TikTok’s sale or ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump’s January inauguration.The Republican, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media, has previously said he is fond of the video-sharing app.”I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said in an NBC News interview in early May. “If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension.”TikTok on Thursday welcomed Trump’s decision.”We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users,” the platform said in a statement.- Digital Cold War? -Motivated by a belief in Washington that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration, with ByteDance having made no attempt to find a suitor.TikTok “has become a symbol of the US-China tech rivalry; a flashpoint in the new Cold War for digital control,” said Shweta Singh, an assistant professor of information systems at Warwick Business School in Britain.Trump had long supported a ban or divestment, but reversed his position and vowed to defend the platform — which boasts almost two billion global users — after coming to believe it helped him win young voters’ support in the November election.The president announced an initial 75-day delay of the ban upon taking office. A second extension pushed the deadline to June 19. He said in May that a group of purchasers was ready to pay TikTok owner ByteDance “a lot of money” for the video-clip-sharing sensation’s US operations.Trump knows that TikTok is “wildly popular” in the United States, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday, when asked about the latest extension. “He also wants to protect Americans’ data and privacy concerns on this app, and he believes we can do both things at the same time.” The president is “just not motivated to do anything about TikTok,” said independent analyst Rob Enderle. “Unless they get on his bad side, TikTok is probably going to be in pretty good shape.”- Tariff turmoil -Trump said in April that China would have agreed to a deal on the sale of TikTok if it were not for a dispute over his tariffs on Beijing.ByteDance has confirmed talks with the US government, saying key matters needed to be resolved and that any deal would be “subject to approval under Chinese law.”Possible solutions reportedly include seeing existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company.Additional US investors, including Oracle and private equity firm Blackstone, would be brought on to reduce ByteDance’s share in the new TikTok.Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally.Uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok’s valuable algorithm.”TikTok without its algorithm is like Harry Potter without his wand — it’s simply not as powerful,” said Kelsey Chickering, principal analyst at Forrester.Despite the turmoil, TikTok has been continuing with business as usual.The platform on Monday introduced a new “Symphony” suite of generative artificial intelligence tools for advertisers to turn words or photos into video snippets for the platform.