U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks resigned on Thursday.

 “We thank U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks for his decades of service to this country and congratulate him on his second retirement after returning to serve during one of the most challenging periods for border security,” said U.S. Customs & Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott in a statement.

“During his time as Chief, the border was transformed from chaos to the most secure border ever recorded. We wish him and his family well,” Scott said.

Fox News first reported that Banks was resigning from Border Patrol effective immediately.

“It’s just time,” Banks said, according to an X post by Fox congressional correspondent, Bill Melugin.

“I feel like I got the ship back on course. From the least secure disastrous chaotic border to the most secure border this country has ever seen,” Banks said, according to Melugin. “Time to pass the reigns, 37 years its time to enjoy the family and life.”

Banks’ resignation came six weeks after The Washington Examiner, citing six unnamed sources described as current and former Border Patrol employees, reported that Banks had “bragged” to co-workers while in his previous management role at Border Patrol about paying for sex with prostitutes while traveling abroad.

CNBC has requested comment from CBP about those allegations and whether they played a role in Banks’ resignation.

A CBP spokesperson told the Examiner, in its report, that “these allegations date back more than a decade and were reviewed years ago.”

“The matter was closed,” the CBP spokesperson said in a statement quoted by the news outlet. “CBP takes allegations regarding misconduct seriously. We cherish the public’s trust and work tirelessly to uphold the rule of law and hold ourselves accountable.”

Controversy over enforcement actions by Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement led to a partial shutdown of DHS from February to late April after congressional Democrats refused to approve funding for the parent agency due to concerns about immigration enforcement. A deal that ended the shutdown did not include funding for ICE and CBP.

Eaton on Tuesday order CPB to calculate the cost of bringing in shipmenting into the United States without assessing a tariff, and told the agency to make refunds to importers who had paid the IEEPA tariffs with interest.

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Cambodia is struggling to recover its tourism sector, as geopolitical tensions and its growing reputation as a cybercrime hub keep tourists at bay.

Once a key driver of the country’s economy, the industry has dwindled to make up 9.4% of its gross domestic product in 2024, compared to 12.1% in 2019, according to data from the tourism ministry released Monday.

Cambodia has been under international scrutiny after reports that it is a central hub for scam center operations. Profits from those illicit activity were reportedly tied to its political elites, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in June 2025.

The Southeast Asian country has also been clashing with its neighbor Thailand over a decades-old border dispute, which erupted into sustained armed conflict throughout 2025 until both sides came to a ceasefire on Dec. 27, 2025.

Prior to that, the two countries had agreed to a ceasefire in June 2025, but fighting had reignited in early December.

Tourism numbers from the Asia-Pacific region to Cambodia suffered the most with a drop of 20% year on year in 2025, according to the ministry.

“The scam center issue resonates a lot more in East Asia, people hear about it a lot more. People in the U.S. and Europe hear less about the scam centers,” said Stephen Higgins, managing partner at Mekong Strategic Capital.

Within the region, the biggest drop in visitorship was from Thailand, which fell over 50%, amid ongoing border tensions.

South Korean tourists plunged 20.6%, after Seoul in October 2025 imposed the most severe tier of its four-level travel warning system, effectively banning travel to parts of Cambodia “where employment fraud and detention have surged”, according to a Google translation of the foreign ministry’s statement.

That follows the death of a South Korean student who was lured into working in a scam compound in Cambodia, and allegedly died after being tortured.

Chinese travelers to Cambodia bucked the wider trend, rising 41.5% in December, but was still less than half of pre-pandemic tourism numbers. That’s another blow to the struggling tourism sector as China is one of the key markets for high-spending tourists in Cambodia, according to ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office’s report in August last year.

China has put pressure on Cambodia to crack down on scam hubs, according to a WeChat post by the Chinese embassy in Cambodia in January, adding that its scam haven reputation risked damaging bilateral relations between the two countries.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in a vehicle on Thursday afternoon in Portland, Oregon, a senior federal official said.

The agent fired shots after “the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over” Border Patrol agents who “were conducting a targeted vehicle stop,” said Homeland Security Department Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a post on X.

“Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired defensive shots,” McLaughlin said. “The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene.”

“The passenger of the vehicle and target is a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring and involved in a recent shooting in Portland,” McLaughlin said.

“The vehicle driver is believed to be a member of the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua,” she said.

The shooting occurred a day after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman, Renee Nicole Good, as she was driving away in an SUV in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

McLaughlin and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have accused Good of engaging in “domestic terrorism,” and claimed that she intentionally tried to run over ICE agents after blocking a residential street.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other Democratic officials have said those claims are false, pointing to videos of the shooting.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, whose city has become a focus point for immigration enforcement actions by the Trump administration, in a statement, said, “Just one day after the horrific violence in Minnesota at the hands of federal agents, our community here in Portland is now grappling with another deeply troubling incident.”

“We cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts,” Wilson said.

“Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘full force’ threatened by the administration has deadly consequences,” he said.

“As Mayor, I call on ICE to end all operations in Portland until a full investigation can be completed.”

Portland Police, in a statement, said they responded to a report of a shooting on Southeast Main Street, in the city’s Hazelwood neighborhood.

“Officers confirmed that federal agents had been involved in a shooting,” the statement said. “Portland Police were not involved in the incident.”

“At 2:24 p.m., officers received information that a man who had been shot was calling and requesting help in the area of Northeast 146^th Avenue and East Burnside,” police said.

“Officers responded and found a male and female with apparent gunshot wounds,” the statement said.

“Officers applied a tourniquet and summoned emergency medical personnel. The patients were transported to the hospital. Their conditions are unknown.”

“Officers have determined the two people…

Thailand’s king has approved the dissolution of parliament, deepening political instability in the Southeast Asian nation ahead of an attempt by the U.S. to salvage a fragile ceasefire with Cambodia.

In a royal decree published Friday, King Maha Vajiralongkorn endorsed a request by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to dissolve parliament after his minority government failed to reach an agreement with the majority opposition People’s Party on proposed constitutional changes.

Under Thai law, a general election must be held within 45 to 60 days of the decree.

The opposition had reportedly threatened to file a motion of no confidence after Anutin’s government pushed to expand the powers of elected lawmakers under a planned constitution overhaul.

In a post on Facebook late Thursday, Anutin said he would “return power to the people.”

The political turmoil came as the Southeast Asian nation has been locked in a large-scale spat with Cambodia over long-disputed border claims. Tensions escalated this week as fierce clashes broke out at several locations along the border, which have reportedly killed at least 20 people and left dozens of civilians injured.

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to speak with the leaders of the two countries soon, with Anutin saying the call has been scheduled for 9:20 p.m. Thailand time on Friday (8:20 a.m. Eastern).

Anutin, who assumed office in September after Paetongtarn Shinawatra was dismissed by Thailand’s Constitutional Court for an ethics violation related to the Cambodia dispute, has taken a tougher stance in the border clashes, a move that could fuel nationalist support for his conservative Bhumjaithai party ahead of the election.

Dissolving parliament would not affect Thailand’s military operations along the frontier, Anutin told local media outlets Friday.

Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy has grappled with tepid growth this year, expanding just 1.2% in the third quarter as the extended political turmoil, tariff uncertainty with the U.S. and border conflicts weighed on confidence.

Thailand’s benchmark SET Index, ranked among the world’s worst-performing equity gauges for 2025, has lost around 10% so far this year. The baht has been relatively resilient, strengthening over 7% this year against the greenback amid weakness in the dollar.

The latest tensions followed the collapse of a fragile ceasefire brokered in July by Trump, who threatened to halt trade talks with the two countries unless they ended the fight.

Thailand’s top diplomat,…