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Coast Guard personnel exchanged gunfire with people on the Mexican side of the border, an encounter the U.S. military later cited as an example of increased illegal activity as hundreds of U.S. troops and their equipment were repositioned to Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and 500 Mexican Army and National Guard personnel were deployed to its side of the border.

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Coast Guard personnel were intercepting migrants crossing the Rio Grande River while working with other federal agencies when the initial gunshots came from the Mexican side of the border. Coast Guard personnel then returned fire, officials said on Friday, according to Stars and Stripes.

The exchange happened on Sept. 26 while federal agencies conducted joint operations near Garceno, a small town along the border in Starr County, Texas.

DHS SENDS OMINOUS WARNING AS MIGRANT CARAVAN HEADS TOWARD US-MEXICO BORDER FROM HONDURAS

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Coast Guard personnel exchanged gunfire with people on the Mexican side of the border. (Brenda Bazan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Coast Guard said it was investigating the incident alongside federal partners. It is unclear who fired the initial shots.

«No injuries to Coast Guard or other personnel were reported, and no damage to Coast Guard assets or equipment was reported,» the Coast Guard said.

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U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson said the embassy «is helping to coordinate with Mexican forces that are being deployed in the border area where shots were fired against elements of the United States Coast Guard.»

«Mexican military commanders will communicate directly with the U.S. forces deployed. Together, we intend to patrol both sides of our shared border, protect our communities, and disrupt the operations of criminal and terrorist organizations. Any threat from criminal or terrorist elements on either side of the border will be addressed swiftly,» he added.

The exchange happened on Sept. 26 while federal agencies conducted joint operations near Garceno, a small town along the border in Starr County, Texas. (Brenda Bazan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Coast Guard launched Operation River Wall in October 2025, deploying additional personnel, boats and other assets to patrol the river between the U.S. and Mexico. The Coast Guard said its forces would focus on approximately 260 miles of the Rio Grande along the U.S.-Mexico border.

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It was working closely with Border Patrol, the Pentagon and the Texas Military Department «to secure the border, disrupt illicit activity and protect the American people,» the Coast Guard said, according to Stars and Stripes.

«We will continue to leverage a layered, integrated approach to control, secure and defend the border that strengthens our collective ability to counter illicit activity and safeguard our personnel and the communities we serve,» the Coast Guard said.

TRUMP ADMIN’S LIST OF US-DESIGNATED ‘FOREIGN TERRORIST’ GROUPS IN LATIN AMERICA EXPANDS TO 21

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U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson said the embassy «is helping to coordinate with Mexican forces that are being deployed in the border area where shots were fired against elements of the United States Coast Guard.» (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The U.S. military said on Friday it had deployed hundreds of troops and their equipment to the Rio Grande Valley as part of planned preparations to address «historically observed seasonal increases in attempted illegal activity.»

«The Sept. 26 Coast Guard encounter is an example of this uptick in illegal activity,» the Joint Task Force-Southern Border said in a statement.

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Artificial intelligence is dramatically lowering the cost of political advertising, allowing campaigns to churn out attack ads, memes and other targeted messages at a pace that would have been prohibitively expensive just a few years ago.

In the political ad wars, campaign operatives can now use generative AI to produce in minutes or hours what once required days by a team of writers, voice talent, video shoots and production teams.

The shift is turning political creative from an expensive campaign asset into something much more affordable and closer to disposable content, potentially giving candidates and outside groups the ability to flood voters with more messages.

While the exact number is difficult to identify, the ad-tracking firm AdImpact had identified 29 campaign ads in federal and gubernatorial contests that disclosed using AI content, as of two weeks ago. Meanwhile, the Wesleyan Media Project, which also counted ads that did not make AI disclosures, has identified at least 164 AI-influenced ads this cycle.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST AI REPORTING AND ANALYSIS

But the jury is still out on whether the use of AI for campaign messaging can help produce the ultimate objective: an election victory.

«It certainly allows you to produce more content in varying styles and more cost effective,» veteran Republican consultant Jesse Hunt told Digital, as he pointed to the creative and economic appeals of using AI in political advertising.

Democratic strategist Chris Moyer said that «AI gives campaigns more tools for less cost. So there is a democratizing of the tools that campaigns used to have to spend valuable resources on….You can get access to things with a smaller budget.»

Will Ritter, a longtime Republican ad maker and media and political strategist, told Digital that the creative advertising and political strategy agency he co-founded, Poolhouse, «went from last cycle doing basically doing nothing with AI to most of our ads now have some AI component.»

«The good news is that it’s really cool technology. It allows a lot of people to make stuff. You can make almost anything,» Ritter said.

But he added, «You still need to able to know what you’re doing with the tools.»

Pointing to his agency, Ritter noted «we have professionals who know how to use and integrate them, and they also know the point of this is to have a good ad that can be done faster and cheaper now but still maintains the main point, which is to communicate a message, not to show off cool visual tech.»

Campaign veterans say that if you’re not using AI to produce messaging content and other key tasks, including voter outreach, you are already behind the eight ball, and that will only increase going forward.

«We are running the most organized and sophisticated congressional campaign in the country, and we utilize every legitimate tool that helps our team improve productivity. Any campaign that doesn’t would be foolish,» Ciro Riccardi, a top campaign adviser for Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, told Digital.

POLL: VOTERS QUESTION WHETHER AI’S PROMISE OUTWEIGHS ITS RISKS

Lawler is running for re-election in a key swing district in New York City’s northern suburbs that Democrats are targeting as they aim to win back the House majority. Lawler’s campaign is one of hundreds of campaigns across the country that have reported spending on AI technology vendors in their Federal Election Commission (FEC) disclosure reports.

While spending by campaigns on AI is expected to increase, Riccardi noted that Lawler’s 2026 re-election team will «spend more money on pizza for volunteers» than it will on AI tools.

But are AI-generated ads helping candidates win at the ballot box?

Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve of Massachusetts grabbed attention in February with an AI-generated radio ad that used an AI-generated version of Gov. Maura Healey’s voice in which the Democratic governor made disparaging comments about her administration and the economy.

«We have one of the highest electricity rates in the nation,» the AI-generated voice said in the spot. «Thanks to me slapping on excessive fees to fund my climate agenda.»

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The deepfake – an AI-generated video, image, or audio recording created or altered using artificial intelligence to make a real person appear to say or do something they never actually did –  raised questions about the legal limits of AI technology in elections. Thirty-one states have enacted laws regulating political deepfakes, but the Federal Election Commission has not implemented any AI rulemaking.

The attention surrounding the Shortsleeve ad did appear to boost the business executive and former acting general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in his bid to win the GOP gubernatorial nomination. He was defeated in the September primary in a landslide by former medical device executive Mike Minogue.

In Los Angeles, reality TV star and online influencer-turned mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt used AI-generated videos that went viral to significantly boost his visibility and his campaign’s online momentum.

The videos, which Pratt shared and reposted, humorously and dramatically portrayed him as a superhero saving a dystopian, burning Los Angeles, while depicting incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass and other officials as villains.

The videos grabbed millions of views on social media platforms like X, TikTok, and Instagram, and appeared to help to turn Pratt from a longshot mayoral candidate into one of the three top contenders.

But the AI-generated messaging wasn’t enough to help Pratt, a Republican who ran for mayor as an independent, advance to the general election in the blue-leaning city. Pratt was eliminated as he came in third in the city’s June 2 primary.

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The National Republican Senatorial Committee earlier this year targeted Democratic Senate nominee in Texas state Rep. James Talarico with a ad showing an AI-generated version of the candidate reading controversial old social media posts.

Meanwhile, an AI-generated image of former Rep. Mike Rogers, the GOP nominee in battleground Michigan’s Senate race, as a super hero figure rescuing people from a collapsing building, went viral.

Whether such AI-generated messaging in the Michigan and Texas Senate races made an impact is uncertain, and the electoral outcomes in the two showdowns won’t be determined until next month.

Campaign veterans point to positives and negatives when it comes to AI-generated content.

«AI has really revolutionized the industry and the groups and companies, I think like, like ours that are taking advantage of the tools and are willing to take risks will be the ones that have the most success,» Ritter said.

«There are so many things we can do now – save time,» Ritter added. «It’s a huge opportunity but you still need people who can use the tools correctly and you have to some restraint.»

But he said, «Spencer Pratt made some unbelievable cool ads we’ve never seen before. They went super viral. Then he came in third.»

«The people that win tend have a message that resonates and is communicated clearly and consistently and just getting attention doesn’t do the whole job,» Ritter emphasized.

Moyer warned that as AI «becomes more widespread, there’s going to be a lot more cynicism and doubt that ads are actually real. The tactic used to be ‘just put opponents in their own words to make an ad against them.’ Now I think a lot of voters are really skeptical – ‘did he or she really say that or are they making it up.’»

Hunt, a veteran of presidential and statewide campaigns, highlighted that «authenticity is incredibly important.»

He said that while AI has leveled to playfield to a degree, campaign ads have «got to feel as real as possible and you do not sacrifice that by going the most cost effective route because the cheapest does not always mean the most persuasive, the most meaningful, the most memorable.»

politics, campaigning, elections, technology, tech, midterm elections

El físico italiano Carlo Rovelli propone en Sobre la igualdad de todas las cosas que la mecánica cuántica relacional permite pensar el universo como una trama de procesos, perspectivas y vínculos, sin propiedades fijas ni un punto de referencia absoluto. El investigador, que dirige un grupo de investigación sobre gravedad cuántica en Marsella, extiende principios de la física hacia una visión en la que “electrones y mentes, piedras y leyes, juicios y galaxias no difieren esencialmente en su naturaleza”.

El libro desarrolla esa idea en seis capítulos, presentados como lecciones, y reúne referencias que van desde Francis Bacon, los murciélagos y el conductismo hasta Henri Bergson y el big bang. Su índice refleja el alcance de una obra que combina física, filosofía, tradiciones antiguas y preguntas sobre la experiencia humana.

Rovelli, autor del éxito internacional Siete breves lecciones de física, sostiene que los sistemas físicos adquieren propiedades solo en relación con otros sistemas físicos. Nada permanece inmóvil y no existe un centro fijo alrededor del cual todo lo demás se desplace.

La primera lección parte de la teoría de la gravedad cuántica relacional para cuestionar la noción de un mundo formado por objetos con rasgos permanentes. La realidad estaría compuesta por relaciones entre sistemas, y esas relaciones cambiarían de acuerdo con la perspectiva desde la que se las observe.

La linealidad es otro de los supuestos que el físico pone en discusión. En lugar de buscar un fundamento final de las cosas, plantea aceptar una circularidad sin término último: cada explicación remite a otra, sin alcanzar una base definitiva.

El mundo tampoco estaría hecho de cosas aisladas, sino de procesos. “Incluso una piedra es un proceso”, afirma Rovelli, quien incluye a los seres humanos dentro de esa condición cambiante.

El tiempo forma parte de esa transformación. No transcurre a la misma velocidad en todos los lugares y el conocimiento de cualquier fenómeno solo puede ser parcial, porque depende de la posición desde la que se observa.

La consecuencia puede resultar inquietante. “La imagen resultante de la realidad es perturbadora. Todo hecho es solo un hecho relativo a otra cosa, e incluso el hecho de que un hecho sea relativo a otra cosa es, a su vez, relativo. No existe un nivel de base”, escribe el autor.

Sin embargo, esa falta de certeza no invalida la experiencia humana. “Nada de esto nos impide describir el mundo desde una perspectiva. La nuestra”, señala Rovelli, aunque la física obliga a reconocer que existen otras miradas posibles.

La propuesta se inscribe en una corriente que concibe el mundo como un conjunto de relaciones interconectadas. El enfoque dialoga con trabajos del micólogo Merlin Sheldrake, la botánica Robin Wall Kimmerer, el fisiólogo Denis Noble y el escritor de naturaleza Robert Macfarlane.

La importancia otorgada a la perspectiva y a las relaciones en la física coincide con cambios intelectuales en la antropología social, la ecología y la biología. Esas disciplinas cuestionan la idea de que los seres humanos observan la naturaleza desde afuera y proponen comprenderlos como parte de ella.

Rovelli se distancia de aspectos de la Ilustración asociados con la certeza, la linealidad y una confianza excesiva en la razón. Frente a esos principios, propone asumir “la ágil ligereza de la circularidad, la complejidad, la ambigüedad, las metáforas, las emociones, la aceptación de la incertidumbre y el cambio”.

El físico tampoco considera que la cultura humana sea inferior o incompatible con las ciencias exactas. Observa que el término “conciencia” reemplazó a “alma” por parecer más científico, aunque ambos conceptos conservan una dimensión imprecisa.

Mientras se reconozca que los procesos físicos sostienen todo lo existente, Rovelli no ve impedimentos para “hablar tranquilamente del alma y las emociones, como hablamos de las mesas, incluso si las mesas son conjuntos de átomos”.

La explicación de conceptos como la gravedad cuántica de bucles y la granularidad del espacio-tiempo exige una base previa de física. Aun así, el libro presenta una reflexión coherente sobre la realidad y concluye que los seres humanos son sistemas físicos que danzan entre otros sistemas físicos: el mundo “es nuestro hermano de sangre”.

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