The Latest: Judge orders senior Border Patrol official to meet her daily to discuss use of force

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U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis on Tuesday ordered a senior U.S. Border Patrol official to meet her daily “to hear about how the day went” after weeks of confrontations between immigration agents and the public in the Chicago area.

The immigration sweeps from Operation Midway Blitz have produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force.

Ellis also asked Border Patrol’s Greg Bovino to submit by Friday all use-of-force reports from Border Patrol agents involved in the operation from Sept. 2 through Tuesday.

The courtroom on Tuesday gave the feeling of a principal’s office as Ellis detailed examples of incidents where she felt her previous order restricting the use of force, including tear gas, was not being followed.

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Nvidia will partner with the Department of Energy to build seven AI-powered supercomputers, its CEO Jensen Huang announced Tuesday in the nation’s capital city.

Huang, speaking at Nvidia’s developer’s conference, said the partnership will help advance the country’s science and technology research.

The United States and China are chief rivals in an economic race that bets on tech innovations as a chief driver of growth. An AI supercomputer can be used to train large and complicated models needed in developing artificial intelligence capabilities.

Democratic officials across the U.S. filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to force the Trump administration to replenish benefits in the SNAP food assistance program.

The Department of Agriculture said last week that the debit cards used by beneficiaries won’t be loaded in November due to the government shutdown.

A group of attorneys general and governors for 25 states and the District of Columbia contend in the filing in federal court in Massachusetts that the administration is legally required to use a contingency fund to pay for continuing benefits. They focus on a contingency fund with roughly $5 billion — enough to pay the benefits for more than half a month.

About 1 in 8 Americans use SNAP to help buy groceries. Beneficiaries, food banks and states have been scrambling to figure out how to make sure they’ll have access to food even if the program is paused.

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis on Tuesday ordered a senior U.S. Border Patrol official to meet with her daily “to hear about how the day went” after weeks of confrontations between immigration agents and the public in the Chicago area. Ellis also asked Greg Bovino to submit by Friday all use of force reports from Border Patrol agents involved in Operation Midway Blitz from Sept. 2 through Tuesday.

The courtroom Tuesday gave the feeling of a principal’s office as Ellis detailed examples of incidents where she felt her previous order restricting use of force, including tear gas, was not being followed.

She spoke intensely about weekend reports that Border Patrol agents disrupted a children’s Halloween parade with tear gas on the city’s Northwest side, saying one of the reasons she called Bovino to court is “so that kids can feel safe walking to the store or walking to school.”

“These kids, you can imagine, their sense of safety was shattered on Saturday,” Ellis said. “And it’s going to take a long time for that to come back, if ever.”

▶ Read more about developments from the court hearing

Democrats insist that before they agree to fund the government, Republicans must agree to extend federal subsidies for health care plans offered through the Affordable Care Act marketplace — otherwise health insurance costs will soar for millions of Americans next year.

The window for enrolling in ACA health plans begins Saturday. In past years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has allowed Americans to preview their options about a week before open enrollment.

As of Monday, Healthcare.gov appeared to show 2025 health insurance plans and estimated prices, instead of next year’s options. CMS was expected to temporarily bring back all its workers furloughed during the shutdown, in part to manage the ACA open enrollment period.

Twenty-eight senators, mostly Democrats, signed a letter urging Trump’s administration to let ACA enrollees start previewing their options.

American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley wants lawmakers to vote for closure on H.R. 5371, which would end the federal government shutdown for roughly three weeks.

“As president of the largest federal employee union, I cannot countenance the sight of workers I represent standing in food lines. It should trouble the conscience of every member of Congress and indeed every American,” Kelley said in his letter to lawmakers.

“Whether they are declared excepted workers or are furloughed – a designation they do not choose – federal workers are for the most part not being paid. Yet their obligations remain to pay mortgages and monthly rents, credit card bills and childcare, and gasoline and automobile loans.”

A federal judge in Chicago began her questioning of Bovino on Tuesday by detailing examples of what she called excessive use of force in recent weeks, including during a weekend children’s Halloween parade on Chicago’s Northwest side.

Ellis said she has seen video recordings of agents using force without giving proper warnings to protesters beforehand, and carrying out operations without wearing badges.

Bovino said he has “instructed all agents under my command to place an identifier conspicuously on their uniform.”

Bovino also said that he himself has not received a body worn camera or received the four-hour training for using them.

“I suspect if you asked for one, you could probably get one easily,” the judge told him. She asked him to get a camera and complete the training by Friday.

A federal judge in Chicago on Tuesday morning began her questioning of the senior Border Patrol official who has become the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown by reading aloud her own oath, and his, before they each took their positions.

“Even though the words of the oath we each took is different, it’s the same oath,” U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said. “We both agree to support and uphold the Constitution.”

Bovino took the stand Tuesday to answer questions about the federal enforcement operation in the Chicago area, which has produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force. Bovino himself is accused of throwing tear gas canisters at protesters.

Congressional leaders are pointing to the shutdown’s impact on many Americans, but there’s no movement toward negotiations as they try to blame the other side.

“This week, more than any other week, the consequences become impossible to ignore,” said Rep. Lisa McClain, chair of the House Republican Conference.

“Now government workers and every other American affected by this shutdown have become nothing more than pawns in the Democrats’ political games,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the Trump administration made an intentional choice to pause Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, calling it an “act of cruelty.”

Trump has justified the killings in air strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. He has called it an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, relying on the same legal authority the Bush administration used to declare a war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

But as the air strikes continue, a debate in Congress has escalated over the limits of presidential power. The attacks have happened without any legal investigation, hard evidence or a traditional declaration of war from Congress.

Meanwhile, the unusual U.S. naval buildup off South America has stoked fears that Trump could invade Venezuela and try to topple President Nicolás Maduro, who faces U.S. charges of narcoterrorism.

▶ Here is a timeline of related events

“I don’t see a path for that,” the Republican speaker said at the Capitol.

Johnson said the country doesn’t allow it, and amending the Constitution would take a decade and be too time consuming.

Mike Johnson chided Democratic senators, saying they backed themselves “into a corner” over what’s now Day 28 of the second longest shutdown.

Johnson, who has refused to call the House into session, said during his daily press conference at the partly closed Capitol that Democrats have “political cover” now that the largest federal workers union has urged them to reopen government.

Democrats are holding out until Republicans agree to preserve health care subsidies for millions of Americans who face skyrocketing insurance premiums.

A Department of Homeland Security statement says Border Patrol agents were “impeded by protesters” during a targeted enforcement operation in which one man was arrested.

“Operation Midway Blitz” has masked, armed agents in unmarked trucks patrolling Chicago neighborhoods. Residents have protested in ways big and small against what they see as their city under siege.

DHS says its agents are being terrorized: “Our brave officers are facing a surge in increase in assaults against them, inducing sniper attacks, cars being used as weapons on them, and assaults by rioters. This violence against law enforcement must END. We will not be deterred by rioters and protesters in keeping America safe.”

Parents and teachers in Chicago say children were traumatized when immigration agents threw tear gas canisters just outside an elementary school this month.

Drivers were following their unmarked SUV, laying on their horns to warn people that immigration agents were present in the historically Hispanic Logan Square neighborhood. Parents and caregivers rushed to protect the kids in the chaos.

Now, even U.S. citizens and people with permission to live or work in the United States say they’re living in fear, questioning their children’s safety and their future.

▶ Read more about the impact of the ICE crackdown on entire communities.

Food banks and pantries were already struggling after federal program cuts this year, but now they’re bracing for a tsunami of hungry people if a pause in federal food aid to low-income people kicks in this weekend as the federal government shutdown persists.

They were already struggling after federal program cuts this year. Now, SNAP benefits are set to pause Nov. 1. It’s the latest in a string of hardships placed on charitable food services. Food banks and pantries across the country are concerned about meeting the growing need. Some states are trying to fill the gap, but others lack resources to help.

The Trump administration said it won’t use a roughly $5 billion contingency fund to keep food aid flowing, and that it won’t reimburse states that temporarily cover the costs.

▶ Read more about how food banks are handling this crisis

He said announced that the U.S. military carried out three strikes Monday in the waters of the Eastern Pacific against 4 boats suspected of carrying drugs. He said Mexican search and rescue authorities “assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue” of the sole survivor but didn’t say if that person would stay in their custody or be handed over to the U.S.

Hegseth posted footage of the strikes to social media in which two boats can be seen moving at speed through the water. One is visibly laden with a large amount of parcels or bundles. Both then suddenly explode and are seen aflame.

The third strike appears to have been conducted on a pair of boats that were stationary in the water alongside each other. They appear to be largely empty with at least two people seen moving before an explosion engulfs both boats.

Hegseth said “the four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics.”

A longtime U.S. law enforcement agent secretly tried to recruit Nicolas Maduro’s pilot to join a plot to capture the Venezuelan leader and deliver him into U.S. custody to face drug trafficking charges. Details of the plot are emerging as the Trump administration exerts increasing pressure, deploying a naval strike force to the Caribbean and doubling the bounty for Maduro’s arrest to $50 million.

The untold saga of how the agent tried to flip the pilot has all the elements of a Cold War spy thriller — luxury private jets, a secret meeting at an airport hangar, high-stakes diplomacy and the delicate wooing of a key Maduro lieutenant. More broadly, the scheme reveals the extent — and often slapdash fashion — to which the U.S. has for years sought to topple Maduro.

▶ Here are some key takeaways from the AP’s report on US plot to recruit Maduro’s pilot

After China signed an expanded version of a free trade agreement Tuesday with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Premier Li Qiang pitching expanded economic ties with Beijing as an alternative to Trump’s protectionist policies.

Li Qiang told an ASEAN-China summit meeting that closer cooperation could help overcome global economic uncertainties. “Pursuing confrontation instead of solidarity brings no benefit” in the face of economic coercion and bullying, he said.

Toshimitsu Motegi held a telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Tuesday and expressed “serious concern” over Beijing’s rare earths export controls.

Their talks came hours after Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi signed a rare earths cooperation agreement, showcasing the coordination between the allies amid the U.S.-China rare earths dispute ahead of Trump’s expected talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a regional summit in South Korea.

The United States and China are not going to resolve all the issues that divide them before presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet Thursday in Busan, South Korea.

But they are likely to make enough progress on China’s stranglehold on strategic minerals, American export controls and other nettlesome problems to calm financial markets and prevent their rivalry from doing much more economic damage for now.

“They’re trying to get to some kind of détente,” said Jeff Moon, a former U.S. trade official and diplomat who now runs the China Moon Strategies consultancy. “There’s no pretense that they’re going to reach a grand bargain that solves everything in the relationship.’’

▶ Read more about what’s on the table — and what’s not — for the U.S.-China meeting

Amazon has about 350,000 corporate employees and a total workforce of approximately 1.56 million. The cuts announced Tuesday amount to about a 4% reduction in its corporate workforce, which doubled during the pandemic as millions stayed home and boosted online spending. The company previously cut 54,000 jobs since 2023 and the downsizing may not be over.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a statement that the layoffs “represent a deep cleaning of Amazon’s corporate workforce.”

Many retailers are pulling back on seasonal hiring this year due to uncertainty over the U.S. economy and tariffs. Amazon Inc. said this month, however, that it would hire 250,000 seasonal workers, the same as last year’s holiday season.

▶ Read more about how Amazon is changing it’s workforce to accelerate AI investments

The Federal Reserve will almost certainly cut its key interest rate on Wednesday and could signal another cut in December as it seeks to bolster hiring. A cut could bring down borrowing costs for mortgages and auto loans. Since Fed chair Jerome Powell strongly signaled in late August that rate cuts were likely this year, the average 30-year mortgage rate has fallen to about 6.2% from 6.6%, providing a boost to the otherwise-sluggish housing market.

Still, the Fed is navigating an unusual period for the U.S. economy and its future moves are harder to anticipate: Hiring has ground nearly to a halt, yet inflation remains elevated, and the mostly solid growth is heavily dependent on massive tech company investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure. The central bank is assessing these trends without most of the government data it uses to gauge the economy’s health.

▶ Read more on the Fed’s efforts to support the U.S. economy without the usual data