WASHINGTON -The Trump administration rolled out a new app on Monday that will allow immigrants in the United States illegally to “self deport” rather than face possible arrest and detention, building on President Donald Trump’s deportation push.
FILE PHOTO: Colombians deported from the United States arrive at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection app, called CBP Home, will offer an option for someone to signal their “intent to depart,” the agency said.
“The CBP Home app gives aliens the option to leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return.”
Trump, a Republican, has vowed to deport record numbers of migrants in the U.S. illegally. Trump’s initial deportation numbers lagged the monthly average in fiscal year 2024 under Democrat Joe Biden, although Biden’s deportations included many recent border crossers.
The Trump administration has taken other steps that could pressure immigrants in the United States illegally to leave.
A Trump administration regulation set to take effect April 11 would require people lacking legal status to register with the federal government or face fines or jail time.
CBP Home replaces an app known as CBP One that was launched under Biden. The Biden-era app included a feature that allowed some one million migrants in Mexico to schedule an appointment to request entry at a legal border crossing.
Republicans criticized the Biden program, saying it facilitated mass migration to the United States and did not adequately vet migrants.
Trump shut down CBP One hours after taking office, leaving migrants with pending appointments stranded and unsure of next steps.
‘Apifo‘ou College, Tonga’s oldest high school, is organizing a reunion to celebrate 160 years.
The new chapel’s conceptual design.
Founded in 1865 by the French Marist Brothers at Ahopanilolo as St Stanislaus College, the biggest Catholic school has had different names since then.
In 1987, while it was known as St John’s High School, it merged with St Mary’s High School and was renamed Apifo‘ou College.
Another historical event marking the anniversary was the publication of the first book in English about the school’s history.
As Kaniva News reported recently, the new book has been recognized as a groundbreaking contribution to the history of the church and Tonga.
The book “Catholic Church in Tonga” focuses on its history, missionaries, and timeline and has been translated from French by Dr Felise Tāvō, an ex-student and former dux of Apifo’ou College.
The celebration is set to take place next month, April 24 until 28.
This year’s anniversary is all about gearing up to rebuild the school’s chapel, which was damaged by Tropical Cyclone Gita in 2018.
The program for the celebration:
Wednesday 24 April – Mass at the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate
Friday 25 April – 160th Anniversary Ball, to be held at the Hall in ‘Apifo’ou
Saturday 26 April – March from ‘Ahopanilolo to ‘Apifo’ou, AGM.
Monday 28 April, Mass at ‘Apifo’ou College to commemorate the day of Peter Sanele, the patron saint of the college.
At least 11 people were killed and 30 wounded, including five children, in an overnight attack on the town of Dobropillia, about 15 miles from the frontline in the Donestsk region of eastern Ukraine.
The attacks come as the Ukrainian war is at a critical point, with the United States having halted military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv as part of efforts to pressure it into accepting a peace agreement. The move has left Ukraine even more vulnerable to Russian attacks.
Trump has said he is “strongly considering large-scale banking sanctions and tariffs” on Russia until a “ceasefire and a final peace settlement agreement” with Ukraine is reached.
His statement comes after Moscow launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukrainian energy and gas infrastructure on Thursday.
In addition to those killed, the latest strikes injured more than 30 others, Zelensky said, including five children.
Authorities said that more people could be trapped under the rubble, with at least eight residential buildings in the area damaged in the attack.
The Ukrainian police service said a Russian ballistic missile, rockets and attack drones hit eight multi-storey buildings as well as a shopping centre and dozens of cars.
The Ukrainian president described the strikes as “a vile and inhumane tactic of intimidation that Russians often use.”
Zelensky has said he will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia next week ahead of negotiations between Kyiv and Washington. After that, his team will stay in Saudi Arabia “to work with our American partners,” he added, according to CNN.
A man from South Carolina, convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a blunt object, has become the first death row inmate in the US to be executed by firing squad in 15 years.
Brad Sigmon was declared dead at 6.08pm by on-site medical staff after three prison guards who volunteered for the grisly task fired at his heart with rifles from 15ft away.
Sigmon, 67, was convicted of murdering David and Gladys Larke with a baseball bat in 2001 before kidnapping his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint. She managed to escape as he shot at her.
He had requested death by firing squad over the other two state-approved methods of execution: electric chair and lethal injection.
Sigmon’s last meal was four pieces of fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits, cheesecake, and sweet tea, according to Daily Mail.
Now, it has been revealed that during his last words, Sigmon listed four Bible quotes that he said showed that ‘nowhere does God in the New Testament give man the authority to kill another man’.
‘I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty,’ he said through his attorney. ‘We are now under God’s grace and mercy.’
After the guards shot Sigmon, his arm started to tremble and strain ‘as if he was trying to break free from the restraints’, according to his lawyer Gerald ‘Bo’ King.
In a statement, he also added: ‘It is unfathomable that, in 2025, South Carolina would execute one of its citizens in this bloody spectacle.’
Since 1977 only three people had died by firing squad, all three of them in the state of Utah. The last to die had been Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010.
Ahead of Sigmon’s execution, anti-death penalty protesters held a rally outside the jail in the city of Columbia.
They held signs saying “all life is precious” and “thou shalt not kill”.
The state allows witnesses to observe the death from behind bulletproof glass, but the executioners are hidden from view to protect their identities.
South Carolina passed a law in 2023 requiring that the identities of the execution team members remain secret.
Sigmon received two death sentences for brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents, David Larke, 62, and Gladys Larke, 59, on April 27, 2001.
Having hatched a plan while high on crack cocaine the night prior, Sigmon showed up at the Larkes’ home with the intention of tying the couple up and kidnapping his ex Rebecca Armstrong at gunpoint.
Instead, Sigmon beat the Larkes to death with a baseball bat, hitting each of them nine times.
Sigmon then kidnapped Armstrong, but she managed to escape by jumping out of his moving car.
Sigmon confessed to the crime immediately.
He told jurors during his trial that he had no excuses for his behavior, but when Armstrong fell out of love with him something within him snapped.
‘Do I deserve to die? I probably do,’ he told jurors. ‘I don’t want to die. It would kill my mom, my brothers, and my sisters […] I just want to live for my family’s sake.’
COMMENTARY: Former Deputy Prime Minister Sāmiu Vaipulu could have told Parliament a lot more about how closely he has been involved in the crises surrounding Tonga’s domestic air services for the past 10 years.
Deputy Prime Minister Samiu Vaipulu
Hon. Vaipulu was speaking recently in the Parliament in response to a motion to stop the Hu’akavameiliku government from buying a new aircraft for its troubled Lulutai airlines. The purchase of the new aircraft in 2023 sparked considerable debate and controversy.
Hon. Vaipulu said he and other Cabinet Ministers made a proposal while they were ministers in the late Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa government to set up Lulutai airlines as a solution to the domestic airlines problems which ultimately stretched back to the shutting down of Royal Tongan Airlines.
The doomed national airlines’ flight services collapsed in 2004 before the government sided with the then Crown Prince Tupouto’a and created a one airline policy to give his Peau Vava’u airlines the sole right for the domestic air services, forcing the popular Fly Niu airlines out of the kingdom.
He said a decision by Parliament at the time to shut down the Royal Tongan Airlines caused a lot of trouble for travellers from outer islands.
What Hon. Vaipulu failed to say was the fact that the domestic airlines crisis after the fall of the Royal Tongan airlines venture and the closure of the airline Peau Vava’u in early 2007, had already been resolved after the New Zealand’s Pacific Chatham airline began serving Tongan domestic airlines in 2008.
This was four years after the Royal Tongan international flight services closed. The Peau Vava’u operation had caused many complaints and safety concerns about its 60 year old DC-3 aircraft as well as bad customer services and unexpected flight cancellations and schedule changes.
Chatham airlines started operation and servicing the domestic flights in April that year after the controversial Peau Vava’u airlines was shut down in January.
Domestic air services revival
Air Chatham came to the kingdom at the invitation of the Tongan government and revived domestic flight services.
It reached a point where the domestic services were described by the owner of Air Chatham Craig Emeny as “reliable and sustainable”.
“This has given the inbound tourist operators confidence to promote Tonga as a destination, and Tongan people have been provided with a safe and affordable airline with the lowest domestic seat cost per kilometre in the region”, Emeny said in a statement republished by Kaniva News on February 2013.
That article came after Emeny expressed his disappointment following an announcement by Hon. Vaipulu, who was then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Civil Aviation, that a new Chinese MA 60 aircraft would arrive in Tonga shortly as part of the government’s plan to set up a new airline to compete with Air Chatham.
Emeny said at the time he was concerned that “Tonga simply is not large enough to support two airlines”.
He also said Hon, Vaipulu “did not include or consider my airline in anyway”.
“I am not able to maintain financially viability in the Tonga market with the introduction of another airline operating a 50 seat (MA-60) and a 17 seat (Y12) aircraft in competition to me”.
After the arrival of the MA60 aircraft the government set up its new domestic airlines in partnership with Real Tonga in March 2013 and air Chatham withdrew its services from the kingdom. The MA60 proved to be a source of continuing controversy.
At the time Hon. Vaipulu said publicly that Real Tonga would provide cheaper airfares.
MA60 troubles
Controversy surrounded the MA60, after it was revealed that it had a troubling safety record.
Since 2009, MA60 aircraft have been involved in 11 incidents, including three of them in the two months before the Tongan gift.
A month before it arrived in Tonga, Myanmar grounded its MA60 planes for safety checks after two crash landings.
The New Zealand government suspended millions of dollars in tourism aid to Tonga over concerns about the safety of its domestic airline service.
The New Zealand government also issued a travel warning to New Zealanders about flying on the aircraft.
Hon. Vaipulu was removed from the Minister of Civil Aviation in 2014 after a report to the International Civil Aviation Organisation was found to have errors. The details of the report were not released to the media.
The government’s initiative with Real Tonga failed in many respects, including failures to fulfil Hon. Vaipulu’s promise of cheaper fares.
There were lots of ongoing complaints about customer service issues, flight schedules unexpected changes and cancellations. Real Tonga finally ceased operation in 2020 after the government took back its aircrafts.
Hon. Vaipulu, who had supported the setting up of Real Tonga, proposed to the Tu’i’onetoa government that it be closed down and Lulutai airlines be established in 2020.
Hon. Vaipulu is now trying to defend the purchase of a new aircraft for the troubled Lulutai airlines, even though many in the House are unconvinced it will improve domestic services.
Lulutai has caused a lot of trouble to the tourism industry by providing uncertain flight services and reaching the point where it has only been able to survive because Australia has been paying Fiji airlines to run Tonga’s domestic services.
Vaipulu rejects king’s advice
As Kaniva News reported previously in 2021 the king said the government should not run businesses, a statement opposed at the time by Hon. Vaipulu.
“A question was raised in the Cabinet whether the king’s concerns included the government’s operating the Lulutai Airlines,” Vaipulu said in Tongan.
He also said: “I told the Prime Minister Lulutai Airlines is our means of transportation from Tonga to Vava’u. It is the responsibility of the government to create that route so we can use it. As a result, the aircraft must fly in that route we have prepared. And that’s the answer to His Majesty.”
The government has announced that military personnel would soon join police in addressing the country’s drug crisis.
A photo apparently taken at eastern Vava’u purported to show what appeared to be a vessel lowering its crane into the sea. Photo/Vava Lapota (Neiafu Town Officer)
Piveni Piukala, the Minister for Police, said the move was part of the Ministry’s new efforts to combat drug trafficking and transnational crime.
He said that the army will assist the police solely in a patrol capacity.
Mr Piukala said he received photographs of vessels lowering their cranes into deep waters in the Vava‘u islands.
The Minister did not provide any details of those photographs, but he was implying that this may be one of the means utilized for smuggling illicit drugs into the country.
Meanwhile, Neiafu, Vava’u town officer Vava Lapota, shared photos purported to show a ship with what appeared to be its crane being lowered into the sea. Kaniva News was unable to verify the authenticity of the image.
The revelation follows cocaine packages that washed up on beaches on Vava’u in 2021.
In 2012, Tongan authorities seized more than 200kg of cocaine destined for Australia from a yacht stranded on an uninhabited atoll with a badly decomposed body on board.
Mr Piukala said the government has reactivated the Illicit Drugs Response Team, which was established to address drug-related issues. The team last convened in January 2024.
Installation of CCTV cameras at borders, airports, and wharfs was underway, he said.
Tonga’s efforts at sea borders come after New Zealand authorities discovered a strange pink-and-black pontoon bobbing back and forth in international waters near the Cook Islands in February 2023. It was found that the jetsam was 81 bales of cocaine, held together with fishing nets and floating on a bed of yellow buoys, New Lines Magazine reported.
According to the New Zealand Police, at the time, the 3.5-ton cache was worth $290 million.
They believed if the haul remained undiscovered it would have been picked up by a second vessel to be smuggled onward.
The report by the New Lines Magazine said Mexico’s two biggest organized criminal groups, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, are also alleged to have conscripted local political leaders into a trade worth tens of billions of dollars.
Former government officials are expected to hold a press conference next week at the Parliament to address allegations surrounding Lulutai Airlines.
Prime Minister Aisake Eke (L) and Dr Viliami Latu
The meeting follows the Eke government’s concerns over the purchase of the TOP$15 million twin otter aircraft in December 2023.
Just over a year after the purchase, the Minister for Public Enterprises, Mr Piveni Piukala, said the aircraft’s two engines would be replaced next month. It is understood that the plane will need to address other significant maintenance issues.
The minister said it would cost millions to do this maintenance.
Mr Piukala said he was concerned regarding the aircraft’s multiple groundings due to technical issues.
Lulutai Airlines has approached the government for another $7 million subsidy to revive the company. However, the Minister said the government was assessing the possibility of winding it up due to its inability to meet financial obligations.
The news follows serious concerns among public servants after revelations that Lulutai had borrowed millions of their retirement funds.
The Minister said that the Cabinet was considering asking the king to use his authority to establish a royal commission to investigate the aircraft purchase.
The aircraft acquisition has been controversial from the outset, with former Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku facing serious allegations of secrecy and lack of transparency.
We contacted Hu’akavameiliku for comment at the time.
Meeting
Former Cabinet Minister Dr Viliami Latu sent an email this evening inviting the media to a press conference scheduled for next Monday 10, at 11am in the Parliament conference room.
Mr Latu said most of those hosting the meeting were former government members.
He said their work involved directly with the Lulutai Airlines, and it was important for them to clarify issues related to the company.
Customs have seized more than 36 kilograms of methamphetamine found in unaccompanied bags at Auckland International Airport yesterday.
A number of plastic-wrapped, vacuum-sealed parcels tested positive for methamphetamine. (Source: NZ Customs)
The two bags arrived on March 5 on a flight from Los Angeles and were referred to Customs for inspection.
A search of both bags identified several plastic-wrapped, vacuum-sealed parcels which tested positive for methamphetamine.
It is estimated the amount of methamphetamine would have had a street value of up to $13.5 million and caused around $37.9 million in potential harm and cost to New Zealand.
Customs Auckland Airport manager Paul Williams said it was an example of collaboration by agencies and stakeholders to combat the smuggling of illicit drugs.
“Criminals are trying to get drugs through our airport in increasingly large volumes, but our intelligence and partnership networks are alert to their tactics.
“Customs will continue to work across the industry to secure the supply chain, and our team will act swiftly to identify and stop risks as part of our focus of protecting the border.”
China has warned the US it is ready to fight “any type” of war after hitting back against President Donald Trump’s mounting trade tariffs.
President Xi Jinping’s China faces the prospect of a trade war with Donald Trump’s US
The world’s top two economies have edged closer to a trade war after Trump slapped more tariffs on all Chinese goods. China quickly retaliated imposing 10-15% tariffs on US farm products.
“If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” China’s embassy said on X, reposting a line from a government statement on Tuesday.
It is some of the strongest rhetoric so far from China since Trump became president and comes as leaders gathered in Beijing for the annual National People’s Congress.
On Wednesday, China’s Premier Li Qiang announced that China would again boost its defence spending by 7.2% this year and warned that “changes unseen in a century were unfolding across the world at a faster pace.” This increase was expected and matches the figure announced last year.
Leaders in Beijing are trying to send a message to people in China that they are confident the country’s economy can grow, even with the threat of a trade war.
China has been keen to portray an image of being a stable, peaceful country in contrast to the US, which Beijing accuses of being embroiled in wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
China may also hope to capitalise on Trump’s actions relating to US allies such as Canada and Mexico, which have also been hit by tariffs, and will not want to ramp up the rhetoric too far to scare off potential new global partners.
The Premier’s speech in Beijing on Wednesday emphasised that China would continue to open up and hoped to attract more foreign investment.
China has, in the past emphasised that it is ready to go to war. Last October, President Xi called for troops to strengthen their preparedness for war as they held military drills around the self-governing island of Taiwan. But there is a difference between military preparedness and a readiness to go to war.
Beijing is to increase military spending by more than 7% this year
The Chinese embassy in Washington’s post quoted a foreign ministry statement in English from the previous day, which also accused the US of blaming China for the influx of the drug fentanyl
“The fentanyl issue is a flimsy excuse to raise US tariffs on Chinese imports,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said.
“Intimidation does not scare us. Bullying does not work on us. Pressuring, coercion or threats are not the right way of dealing with China,” he added.
The US-China relationship is always one of the most contentious in the world. This post on X has been widely shared and could be used by the China hawks in Trump’s cabinet as evidence that Beijing is Washington’s biggest foreign policy and economic threat.
Officials in Beijing had been hopeful that US–China relations under Trump could get off to a more cordial start after he invited Xi to his inauguration. Trump also said the two leaders had “a great phone call” just a few days before he entered the White House.
There were reports that the two leaders were due to have another call last month. That did not happen.
Xi had already been battling persistently low consumption, a property crisis and unemployment.
China has pledged to pump billions of dollars into its ailing economy and its leaders unveiled the plan as thousands of delegates attend the National People’s Congress, a rubber-stamp parliament, which passes decisions already made behind closed doors.
China has the world’s second-largest military budget at $245bn but it is far smaller than that of the US. Beijing spends 1.6% of GDP on its military, far less than the US or Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
However, analysts believe China downplays how much it spends on defence.
