🔗 Share this article

Hello and welcome to the latest updates in US politics. We begin with the report that a small number of National Guard troops has begun guarding federal property in the Chicago area and assisting law enforcement in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.

Deployment Details

An unit of two hundred Texas military personnel were working in the Chicago area, according to a representative for the US Northern Command, who communicated with the Associated Press on background basis in order to discuss mission specifics that have not been officially released.

The military personnel are in the urban area to secure US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and other federal facilities and law enforcement personnel, Northern Command said online.

The forces, along with about 300 from Illinois, had reached on Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, approximately 90 kilometers southwest of Chicago. All 500 troops are under the Northern Command and have been activated for 60 days. The spokesperson wasn't able to immediately offer details about how the troops were armed.

Background Situation

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 failing to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.

"Chicago Mayor should be in jail for not protecting ICE personnel!" Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker also!"

Both the mayor and governor are Democrats. Trump's remarks come as national guard troops have started deployment in the Greater Chicago region at the direction of the Trump administration, despite opposition from state authorities, including Pritzker and Johnson.

Other Updates

• Donald Trump declared that the conflicting parties have agreed to a provisional agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, and free captured individuals and Palestinian prisoners.
• News of the Middle East deal was praised by GOP legislators, who called on Trump to be given the Nobel Peace prize this week, but greeted with more trepidation by Arab-American communities.
• During White House event, Trump seemed unfamiliar with the term 'Habeas Corpus' and deferred to Kristi Noem. In May, the secretary gave a wildly inaccurate definition of the core legal principle that mandates that the authorities provide a public reason for arresting and jailing people.
• All of the participants who contributed testimony at the White House "political discussion" hosted by the president on Wednesday were identified as freelance reporters who might better be called political content creators. The influencers report on leftwing protests in a highly political manner, more akin to political investigation than nonpartisan reporting.
• GOP senators voted down a military authorization measure that would have limited Trump's authority to use lethal armed action against alleged narcotics traffickers after opposition party tried to counter the government's extraordinary use of the military to destroy boats in the Caribbean Sea.
• During the White House "political discussion" 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 correct number of killings by self-described "antifa" radicals in Portland is: one.