WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration is reconsidering plans for immigration raids in Chicago next week after details were leaked, Mr. Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan told the Washington Post in an interview on Saturday.

The new administration “hasn’t made a decision yet,” said Mr. Homan, the former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE), according to the report. “We’re looking at this leak and will make decision based on this leak,” he added.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Officials and rights advocates had said Mr. Trump’s administration would launch sweeps in multiple US cities almost as soon as he takes office on Monday, with Chicago considered a likely first location.

Dulce Ortiz, president of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told Reuters that as many as 200 ICE agents were expected to start raids in the Chicago area on Monday at 5 a.m., aiming to catch people heading into work or starting their day.

The enforcement had been expected to continue for several days, she said. An ICE spokesperson referred questions to the Trump transition team, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reuters reported Friday that agents would also conduct raids in New York and Miami. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that ICE would stage a week-long operation in Chicago with potentially hundreds of agents.

Mr. Trump said in an NBC News interview on Saturday that launching the mass deportations he promised in his election campaign would be a top priority. But he declined to identify the cities targeted or when deportations would start.

“It will begin very quickly,” said Mr. Trump. “We have to get the criminals out of our country.”

Mr. Homan himself had appeared to confirm the raids earlier on Saturday, telling Fox News that “targeted enforcement operations” would quickly pursue some of what he said were 700,000 migrants who are in the US illegally and under deportation orders. He indicated the efforts would occur in several cities.

“President Trump has been clear from day one … he’s going to secure the border and he’s going to have the deportation operation,” Mr. Homan told Fox News ahead of Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

Mr. Homan said the agency had carefully planned the operation and identified specific individuals for enforcement.

“Every target for this operation is well-planned, and the whole team will be out there for officers’ safety reasons,” he said.

Asked how the detention operations would be received in so-called sanctuary cities, which have pledged not to use city resources for federal immigration raids, Mr. Homan said sanctuary city policies were “unfortunate.”

In the case of targeted individuals who are already in local jails, he said the cities’ stance creates a threat to public safety. Cities would “release that public safety threat back into the community….and force (ICE) officers into communities,” Mr. Homan said.

He urged public officials of those cities to assist in the deportation raids, but added, “We’re going to do this, with or without their help. They are not going to stop us.”  — Reuters

LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Southeast Asian foreign ministers hold a closed-doors retreat in Malaysia on Sunday, as the country hosts its first meeting as chair of the regional bloc ASEAN amid an intensifying civil war in Myanmar and confrontations in the South China Sea.

Malaysia takes its turn as rotating chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as the bloc contends with Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea and a faltering ASEAN peace process for Myanmar, where the ruling military plans to hold an election this year.

Malaysia is committed to addressing regional issues, but expectations on Myanmar and the advancing of talks on an ASEAN-China code of conduct for the South China Sea should be measured, a top official said.

“To say that we will have a solution immediately is going to be very ambitious,” Malaysian foreign ministry secretary general Amran Mohamed Zin told a media briefing ahead of the retreat on Langkawi island.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since early 2021 when its military overthrew an elected civilian government, triggering pro-democracy protests that morphed into a widening armed rebellion that has taken over swathes of the country.

Despite being battered on multiple frontlines, its economy in tatters and dozens of political parties banned, the junta is pushing to hold an election this year, which critics have widely derided as a sham to keep the military in power through proxies.

ASEAN has so far failed to implement a “Five-Point Consensus” peace plan unveiled months after the coup, which prescribes dialogue and an end to hostilities, and it has yet to discuss a common position on the election.

“Everybody wants to help Myanmar … engagements have happened and will continue under Malaysia’s chairmanship,” Mr. Amran said.

‘TENTATIVE PROGRESS’
Each ASEAN member state has a role to play in ensuring the South China Sea is a “sea of peace and trade”, Mr. Amran said, adding tentative progress has been made towards creating a code of conduct with China, which claims sovereignty over most of the strategic waterway.

The South China Sea, a conduit for about $3 trillion of annual ship-borne trade, has been the site of heated standoffs in the past two years between ASEAN member the Philippines and China, a major source of the region’s trade and investment.

Vietnam and Malaysia have also made protests over the conduct of Chinese vessels in their exclusive economic zones, which Beijing says are operating lawfully in its territory.

The Philippine foreign minister on Saturday told Reuters it was time to start negotiating thorny “milestone issues” for the protracted code, including its scope and whether it can be legally binding.

Adib Zalkapli, managing director at geopolitical research firm Viewfinder Global Affairs, said there was political will in Malaysia to push for a political resolution for Myanmar, but concrete progress on rules for the South China Sea was unlikely under Malaysia’s chairmanship.

“It remains an issue that the claimant states have to manage and contain, to ensure it does not unnecessarily escalate,” Mr. Adib said. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — TikTok stopped working in the United States late on Saturday and disappeared from Apple and Google app stores ahead of a law that takes effect on Sunday requiring the shutdown of the platform used by 170 million Americans.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after he takes office on Monday, a promise TikTok cited in a notice posted to users on the app.

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned,” the message notified users trying to use the app late on Saturday night.

Even if temporary, the unprecedented shutdown of TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, is set to have a wide-ranging impact on US-China relations, U.S. domestic politics, the social media marketplace and millions of Americans who depend on the app economically and culturally.

The United States has never banned a major social media platform. The law passed overwhelmingly by Congress gives the incoming Trump administration sweeping authority to ban or seek the sale of other Chinese-owned apps.

Other apps owned by ByteDance, including video editing app CapCut and lifestyle social app Lemon8, were also offline and unavailable in US app stores as of late Saturday.

“The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate,” Mr. Trump told NBC. “If I decide to do that, I’ll probably announce it on Monday.”

It was not clear if any US users could still access the app, but it was no longer working for many users, and people seeking to access it through a web application were met with the same message that TikTok was no longer working.

TikTok, which has captivated nearly half of all Americans, powered small businesses and shaped online culture, warned on Friday it would go dark in the US on Sunday unless President Joseph R. Biden’s administration provided assurances to companies such as Apple and Google that they will not face enforcement actions when a ban takes effect.

MOVE TO ALTERNATIVES
Under the law passed last year and upheld on Friday by a unanimous Supreme Court, the platform had until Sunday to cut ties with its China-based parent or shut down its US operation to resolve concerns it poses a threat to national security.

Mr. Biden’s White House reiterated on Saturday that it was up to the incoming administration to take action.

“We see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment on the White House statement.

The Chinese embassy in Washington on Friday accused the US of using unfair state power to suppress TikTok. “China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” a spokesperson said.

Uncertainty over the app’s future had sent users — mostly younger people — scrambling to alternatives including China-based RedNote. Rivals Meta and Snap have seen their share prices rise this month ahead of the ban, as investors bet on an influx of users and advertising dollars.

“This is my new home now,” wrote a user in a RedNote post, tagged with the words “tiktokrefugee” and “sad.”

Minutes after TikTok’s US shutdown, other users took to X, formerly called Twitter.

“I didn’t really think that they would cut off TikTok. Now I’m sad and I miss the friends I made there. Hoping it all comes back in just a few days,” wrote @RavenclawJedi.

‘HAIR ON FIRE’ MOMENT
NordVPN, a popular virtual private network, or VPN, allowing users to access the internet from servers around the world, said it was “experiencing temporary technical difficulties.”

Web searches for “VPN” spiked in the minutes after US users lost access to TikTok, according to Google Trends.

Users on Instagram fretted about whether they would still receive merchandise they had bought on TikTok Shop, the video platform’s e-commerce arm.

Marketing firms reliant on TikTok have rushed to prepare contingency plans in what one executive described as a “hair on fire” moment after months of conventional wisdom saying that a solution would materialize to keep the app running.

There have been signs TikTok could make a comeback under Mr. Trump, who has said he wants to pursue a “political resolution” of the issue and last month urged the Supreme Court to pause implementation of the ban.

TikTok chief executive officer  Shou Zi Chew plans to attend the US presidential inauguration and attend a rally with Mr. Trump on Sunday, a source told Reuters.

Suitors including former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt have expressed interest in the fast-growing business that analysts estimate could be worth as much as $50 billion. Media reports say Beijing has also held talks about selling TikTok’s US operations to billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk, though the company has denied that.

US search engine startup Perplexity AI submitted a bid on Saturday to ByteDance for Perplexity to merge with TikTok US, a source familiar with the company’s plans told Reuters. Perplexity would merge with TikTok US and create a new entity by combining the merged company with other partners, the person added.

Privately held ByteDance is about 60% owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock and General Atlantic, while its founders and employees own 20% each. It has more than 7,000 employees in the US. — Reuters