Hello and welcome to the latest updates in US politics. We begin with the report that a small number of state military forces has begun guarding federal property in the Greater Chicago region and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.
Troop Information
An element of 200 Texas Guard troops were working in the Chicago area, as stated by a spokesperson for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the news agency on background basis in order to discuss operational details that have not been officially released.
The troops are in the city to secure US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and other government properties and law enforcement personnel, Northern Command stated publicly.
The forces, along with about three hundred Illinois personnel, had arrived Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles southwest of Chicago. All five hundred personnel are under the Northern Command and have been deployed for two months. The official wasn't able to quickly provide information about how the personnel were equipped.
Background Situation
It comes as Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's city leader, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, accusing them of not protecting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
"Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE personnel!" Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"
Both Johnson and Pritzker are Democrats. Trump's comments coincide with national guard troops have started deployment in the Chicago area at the direction of the federal administration, despite opposition from Illinois officials, including Pritzker and Johnson.
Other Updates
- The president announced that Hamas and Israel have accepted a provisional agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, and release captured individuals and Palestinian prisoners.
- Reports about the Gaza agreement was praised by Republican lawmakers, who urged Trump to be awarded the peace award this week, but received with greater caution by Arab-American communities.
- During presidential gathering, Trump seemed unfamiliar with the term 'Habeas Corpus' and deferred to his homeland security secretary. In May, Noem gave a wildly inaccurate definition of the fundamental legal concept that requires that the authorities provide a official justification for arresting and jailing people.
- All of the witnesses who contributed testimony at the White House "political discussion" organized by the administration on Wednesday were self-described independent journalists who might better be called partisan conservative social media influencers. The content producers cover leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more similar to political investigation than nonpartisan reporting.
- Senate Republicans voted down a military authorization measure that would have checked Trump's authority to use deadly military force against alleged narcotics traffickers after Democrats tried to oppose the government's extraordinary use of the armed forces to destroy boats in the Caribbean Sea.
- During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least one witness echoed Trump's inaccurate statement that significant amounts of people have been killed by left-wing radicals in the Oregon city. The accurate count of killings by self-described "antifa" radicals in Portland is: a single incident.
