The Department of Defense is expanding a militarized zone along the southern U.S. border where troops are authorized to detain people who enter illegally for possible federal prosecution on charges of trespassing in a national defense area.

The Air Force announced Monday the annexation of a serpentine 250-mile stretch of the border in Texas amid a buildup of military forces under President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the border. A Defense Department official said the Navy also has been instructed to establish a new national defense area at the border. The official didn’t provide further details.

The newly designated national defense area on land and water along the Rio Grande spans two Texas counties and runs alongside cities including Brownsville and McAllen. It will be treated as an extension of Joint Base San Antonio. The Air Force said it’s prepared to install warning signs immediately against entry to the area.

The military strategy was pioneered in April along a 170-mile stretch of the border in New Mexico and expanded to a swath of western Texas in May. Hunters, hikers and humanitarian aid groups fear that they will no longer have access.

Ukrainian forces halt Russian advance

Ukrainian forces have halted Russia’s recent advance into the northern Sumy region and have stabilized the front line near the border with Russia, Ukraine’s top military commander said Thursday.

Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said that Ukrainian successes in Sumy have prevented Russia from deploying about 50,000 Russian troops, including elite airborne and marine brigades, to other areas of the front line.

His claim couldn’t be independently verified, and Russian officials made no immediate comment.

Months of U.S.-led international efforts to stop the more than three years of war have failed. Amid the hostilities, the two sides have continued swaps of prisoners of war agreed on during recent talks between their delegations in Istanbul.

Russia’s Defense Ministry and Ukrainian authorities said another exchange took place on Thursday.

EU leaders focus on helping Ukraine

European Union leaders on Thursday called for even greater efforts to help meet Ukraine’s pressing military needs, and expressed support for the country’s quest to join their ranks, but they made little headway with new sanctions against Russia.

At a summit in Brussels, the leaders said it was important to deliver more “air defense and anti-drone systems, and large-caliber ammunition, to help Ukraine, as it exercises its inherent right to self-defense, to protect its citizens and territory against Russia’s intensified daily attacks.”

They also underlined the need to help support Ukraine’s defense industry, which can make weapons and ammunition more quickly and cheaply than its European counterparts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the meeting via videolink.

U.S. approves $30M for new Gaza aid group

The State Department said Thursday that it had approved $30 million in funding for a fledgling aid distribution system in the Gaza Strip backed by Israel and run mostly by American contractors, which has seen deadly violence erupt near its sites.

Thomas Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, said at a news briefing that the new group running the food distribution centers, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, was “absolutely incredible and should be commended and supported.” He called on other countries to follow suit and contribute funding to the group, which has been criticized by the United Nations and many humanitarian organizations.

Pigott declined to say whether the U.S. funding had already been distributed.

Mexico decries U.S. bank sanctions

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded sharply Thursday to U.S. government sanctions to block transfers from three Mexican financial institutions, saying Washington hasn’t shown evidence of its allegations of money laundering.

Shortly after, Mexico’s banking authority announced that it was temporarily taking over management of two of the institutions, CIBanco and Intercam Banco, to protect creditors.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced the sanctions Wednesday on the two banks, as well as on the brokerage Vector Casa de Bolsa, alleging that they had facilitated millions of dollars in money transfers for Mexican drug cartels.

Sheinbaum said during her morning news briefing Thursday that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump had showed no evidence proving that the institutions carried out any money laundering, despite repeated requests for such evidence.

Refugee agreements signed with 2 countries

Guatemala and Honduras have signed agreements with the United States to potentially offer refuge to people from other countries who otherwise would seek asylum in the United States, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday at the conclusion of her Central America trip.

The agreements expand the Trump administration’s efforts to provide the U.S. government flexibility in returning migrants not only to their own countries, but also to third countries as it attempts to ramp up deportations.

Noem described it as a way to offer asylum-seekers options other than coming to the United States. She said the agreements had been in the works for months. with the U.S. government applying pressure on Honduras and Guatemala to get them done.

Report: Calif. bombing suspect took own life

A Washington state man facing terrorism charges related to the bombing of a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, Calif., died after jumping off a balcony inside a federal detention facility in Los Angeles, according to sources familiar with the incident.

Daniel Park, 32, was found unresponsive at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, officials said.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has yet to announce a determined cause of death. Two sources, not authorized to discuss the death, told the Los Angeles Times that information gathered shows Park climbed onto a surface and then jumped off a high balcony, fatally injuring himself. TMZ.com first reported the cause of death.

No one else was injured and no further details on the cause of death were immediately available.

Ex-N.Y. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy dies at 81

Former U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who successfully ran for Congress in 1996 as a crusader for gun control after a mass shooting on a New York commuter train left her husband dead and her son severely wounded, has died. She was 81.

News of her death was shared Thursday by several elected officials on her native Long Island. Details about were not immediately available.

McCarthy went from political novice to one of the nation’s leading advocates for gun control legislation in the aftermath of the 1993 Long Island Rail Road massacre.

McCarthy announced in June 2013 that she was undergoing treatment for lung cancer. She announced her retirement in January 2014.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul directed flags on all state government buildings to be flown at half-staff in honor of the congresswoman on Friday.

— From news services