Greetings and welcome to the latest developments in US politics. We begin with the news that a small number of National Guard troops has started protecting government facilities in the Chicago area and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.
Troop Information
An element of two hundred Texas military personnel were working in the Chicago area, as stated by a spokesperson for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the news agency on condition of anonymity in order to reveal operational details that have not been officially released.
The military personnel are in the city to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and other federal facilities and police officers, Northern Command said online.
The forces, along with about 300 from Illinois, had reached on Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles southwest of Chicago. All 500 troops are under the military command and have been deployed for two months. The official wasn't able to immediately offer information about how the personnel were equipped.
Political Context
It comes as Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's mayor, and JB Pritzker, the state governor, accusing them of not protecting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
"The city's mayor should be in prison for not protecting ICE personnel!" Trump wrote on his social media platform on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"
Both the mayor and governor are Democrats. Trump's remarks coincide with state military forces have begun arriving in the Chicago area at the order of the federal administration, despite objections from Illinois officials, including the governor and mayor.
Other Updates
- The president announced that Hamas and Israel have agreed to a tentative deal to cease hostilities in Gaza, and release Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
- Reports about the Middle East deal was praised by Republican lawmakers, who called on Trump to be awarded the peace award this week, but greeted with more trepidation by Arab-American communities.
- During White House event, Trump seemed unfamiliar with the term 'Habeas Corpus' and referred to Kristi Noem. In May, Noem gave a wildly inaccurate explanation of the core legal principle that requires that the authorities provide a official justification for arresting and jailing people.
- All of the participants who provided statements at the White House "political discussion" hosted by the administration on Wednesday were self-described independent journalists who might more accurately described as partisan conservative social media influencers. The content producers cover liberal demonstrations in a partisan fashion, more similar to opposition research than nonpartisan reporting.
- Senate Republicans voted down a military authorization measure that would have checked Trump's authority to use lethal armed action against suspected drug smugglers after opposition party tried to counter the administration's extraordinary use of the armed forces to destroy boats in the Caribbean.
- During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least one witness echoed Trump's false claim that significant amounts of people have been killed by political extremists in the Oregon city. The accurate count of fatal incidents by political activists in Portland is: a single incident.
