Spanish Police Launch Operation to Clear Ceuta Migrants off Beach
Spanish riot police fired rubber bullets into the air and struck people with batons on Friday as they began an operation to clear thousands of migrants off beaches in the North African enclave of Ceuta and move some of them into temporary housing.
Spain estimates 10,000 migrants remain in the tiny territory. More than 72,000 crossed into the enclave from Morocco at the end of July in an unprecedented border rush, although most later left, Reuters said.
The authorities have built new temporary housing inside the enclave's port to hold 1,700 people. NGOs say thousands remain unhoused and have been sleeping rough in camps.
Friday's operation to clear the beaches began shortly before 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and involved both riot police and the Spanish military.
Migrants who had spent the night waiting on the beach in hope of a place in temporary shelter initially applauded as the march got under way, but tussles later broke out as they competed for the limited number of places available.
Footage from state broadcaster TVE showed crowding and jostling as people struggled to enter the designated route. Police fired rubber bullets into the air and struck several migrants with batons before the situation calmed down and the operation resumed.
Later footage showed mostly adult men carrying belongings, walking in small groups under police escort along a route of just over 1 km (0.6 miles) from the El Trampolin beach to the port.
The vast majority of the migrants are men and boys. The temporary housing is built only for adult men, so minors are being separated and housed separately.
Three NGO leaders told Reuters that authorities had been too slow to provide migrants with minimum shelter required under the European migration pact, and that reception centers opened so far could not accommodate those still sleeping on the streets.
One NGO estimated that about 4,000 migrants remained outdoors on Ceuta's beaches and pavements, meaning the new center would not be sufficient to clear makeshift camps in public areas. Two NGO leaders said officials probably expect most migrants to return voluntarily to Morocco.
Iran Says Received US Response to Its Proposal to End War
Iranian authorities said on Wednesday they received the official US response to their proposal to end the Middle East war, state media reported, days after US President Donald Trump rejected the plan.
"At today's cabinet meeting, the American side's proposal was presented to President Masoud Pezeshkian by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi," government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani told the official IRNA news agency, without specifying the content of the reply.
After seven months of conflict, indirect talks between the United States and Iran resumed last week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, said AFP.
Iran said it has put forward seven conditions for ending hostilities and reopening the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for oil and gas exports.
The strait lies at the heart of the conflict between the United States and Iran, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.
Tehran imposed a blockade on Hormuz after the war started, prompting Washington to respond with its own blockade on Iranian ports.
While not all conditions have been made public, Iran is notably demanding a ceasefire across the Middle East, including in Lebanon, where its ally Hezbollah has been battling Israeli forces.
It is also demanding the unfreezing of Iranian assets abroad, the lifting of sanctions on its oil sector and an end to the US naval blockade.
Trump rejected the proposal when speaking to the press on Saturday, but Tehran had been awaiting an official response via Qatari mediators.
Fighting has subsided in recent weeks, though Tehran has continued to target ships in the strait.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the country's military, said on Wednesday that they have been striking small vessels that try to pass through the strait.
"We have been striking ships for quite some time now -- specifically the small vessels I mentioned that attempt to pass. We block their passage, yet the US has not retaliated for a while," Guards spokesperson Hossein Mohebi told state TV.
The US, meanwhile, has stepped up its economic warfare against Iran, imposing sanctions on Iranian airlines and vowing to take a hard stance against foreign companies that provide them with assistance.
US Supreme Court Lifts Limits on Third-country Deportations
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted restrictions on the deportations of immigrants to countries that are not their own, while agreeing to hear the issue on its merits in December.
The conservative-dominated high court granted an emergency request by the Trump administration to suspend a lower court ruling that restricted, but did not outright ban, so-called "third-country removals."
The lower court had said people targeted with deportation must be given effective notice ahead of time about where they are being sent to allow them to raise concerns about potential persecution, said AFP.
The three liberal justices on the nine-member bench said they would not have granted the administration's request.
President Donald Trump campaigned on promises to expel millions of undocumented migrants from the United States and has taken several actions aimed at speeding up deportations since returning to the White House in 2025.
The Trump administration has defended third-country deportations as necessary since the home nations of some of those who are targeted for removal sometimes refuse to accept them.
In a brief to the Supreme Court, opponents of lifting the restrictions argued that the lower court ruling did not fully block all third-country deportations, "it simply requires them to do so lawfully."
