Closing summary
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
Donald Trump used the traditional presidential Memorial Day speech at Arlington national cemetery to talk up his own plans and achievements. The president laid a wreath and paid tribute to fallen soldiers but also veered off into rally-style personal boasting and brief partisan attacks during the solemn event.
EU leaders expressed hopes for a quick deal to resolve the trade war with the US after Trump announced he was delaying his threatened 50% tariffs for the bloc until 9 July. The US president said on Sunday he would pause the border tax due to be imposed on 1 June, which he had announced two days earlier, after what he called a “very nice call” with European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.
Trump issued a pardon for a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted last year of federal bribery charges. Scott Jenkins, who had been the sheriff of Culpeper county, Virginia, was set to report to jail on Tuesday after he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs.
Trump also said he is considering taking a further $3bn of grant money away from Harvard University and giving it to trade schools across the US. Former president of Harvard and current professor Drew Gilpin Faust warned that American freedoms and democracy were at risk.
Trump suggested Russian leader Vladimir Putin had “gone crazy” after Moscow launched its third consecutive night of massive drone strikes against Ukraine, killing at least six people. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump railed against Putin while also criticising the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for calling out US inaction against Russia.
Former congressman Charles Rangel of New York died on Monday at the age of 94. An outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat who spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill, Rangel was a founding member of the Congressional Black caucus and the first African American to chair the powerful House ways and means committee.
The FBI will launch new investigations into the 2023 discovery of a bag of cocaine at the White House during Joe Biden’s term, and the leak of the supreme court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade in 2022. The FBI will also investigate pipe bombs discovered at Democratic and Republican party headquarters before the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.
The Trump family media company plans to raise about $3bn to spend on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, according to a Financial Times report. The Trump Media & Technology Group, which is behind the Truth Social app and controlled by the president’s family, aims to raise $2bn in fresh equity and another $1bn via a convertible bond, the paper said, citing sources.
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Former Virginia sheriff Scott Jenkins, who has been pardoned by Donald Trump, was convicted in December 2024 of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud and seven counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.
In a press release in March, acting US attorney Zachary T Lee said:
Scott Jenkins violated his oath of office and the faith the citizens of Culpeper County placed in him when he engaged in a cash-for-badges scheme. We hold our elected law enforcement officials to a higher standard of conduct and this case proves that when those officials use their authority for unjust personal enrichment, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable.
The release says that Jenkins accepted more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointing numerous northern Virginia businessmen as auxiliary deputy sheriffs within his department.
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Trump announces full pardon for Virginia sheriff convicted of bribery
Donald Trump has issued a pardon for a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted last year of federal bribery charges.
Scott Jenkins, who had been the sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, was set to report to jail on Tuesday after he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
Jenkins was convicted by a jury in December 2024 for accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump wrote:
Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ.
He said Jenkins was a “victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice” and a “wonderful person”, adding:
He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life.
Donald Trump honored the sacrifices of US military veterans in the traditional presidential Memorial Day speech at Arlington national cemetery, but also peppered his address on Monday with partisan political asides while talking up his own plans and achievements.
The US president laid a wreath and paid tribute to fallen soldiers and gave accounts of battlefield courage as tradition dictates, from prepared remarks, after saluting alongside his vice-president, JD Vance, and the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.
But Trump also veered off into rally-style personal boasting and brief partisan attacks during the solemn event.
Fallen soldiers’ valor “gave us the freest, greatest and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the earth … a republic that I am fixing after a long and hard four years. That was a hard four years we went through,” the US president said.
He continued with an anti-immigration statement that chimes with his agenda, though without directly mentioning his predecessor, Democratic president Joe Biden, who served between Trump’s first term and the Republican’s return to the White House this January.
“Who would let that happen? People pouring through our borders unchecked. People doing things that are indescribable and not for today to discuss,” Trump said.
It was a nod to his Truth Social platform on Monday morning, where he posted a tirade against judges who hold up his deportation aims, chiefly because of his ignoring due process obligations, as “monsters” and again attacked undocumented immigrants, using sweeping disparagements.
Full report here.
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US congressman Eugene Vindman said more a little earlier about Donald Trump’s seeming epiphany about Vladimir Putin’s ill-intent over Ukraine.
“Up to now, Putin has mainly got what he wanted from Trump in the US – chaos. I always said it would take three to six months [for Trump] to figure out that the Russians are not interested in peace,” Vindman, a Democrat representing Virginia in the House of Representatives, told CNN in an interview.
Vindman, who serves on the House armed services committee, said he was not surprised that instead of Trump admitting that he had read Putin inaccurately the US president was giving the impression that it was the Russian president who had suddenly changed.
“The Russians are not our friends and they [the Trump administration] need to pressure Russia,” Vindman said.
He said bipartisan resolve was building in the US House and Senate in support of Ukraine’s continued efforts to resist Russia and the need for a peace that Ukraine can accept.
Vindman first gained a national profile after he and his brother, Alexander Vindman, played a central role in Donald Trump’s first impeachment. The Vindman brothers, who both held senior roles on Trump’s national security council, were dismissed after raising concerns about the then president’s alleged efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Trump’s political rival, Democrat Joe Biden, who went on to beat him in the 2020 presidential election, and his son Hunter Biden. Eugene Vindman won a seat in Congress in the 2024 election last November, when Trump regained the White House.
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Freshmen member of Congress Eugene Vindman, who was fired by Donald Trump during his previous administration after playing a role in the president’s impeachment over efforts to extort Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has taken a wry look at Trump’s latest comments suggesting that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has suddenly “gone crazy” with his latest military attack on Ukraine.
Vindman also doubted that Russia wants peace, more than three years after it invaded Ukraine.
“They are not intimidated by Donald Trump, I’m not sure they take it [his comments] seriously,” the Virginia Democratic lawmaker told CNN on Monday.
He said Trump’s suddenly angry words about Putin after years of defending him are “right now, frankly, meaningless”.
Vindman said: “There has been no shift in Putin, he is the same person he has been for decades, what we are seeing is a very slow and painful learning process for this president [Trump].”
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After European trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said moments ago that he had a “good call” with the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, Šefčovič pledged that he would remain in “constant contact” with his American counterpart.
The two men spoke on the phone the day after Donald Trump delayed a threat to impose a 50% tariff on the European Union, after a phone call with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.
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EU leaders have expressed hopes for a quick deal to resolve the trade war with the US after Donald Trump announced he was delaying his threatened 50% tariffs for the bloc until 9 July.
The US president said on Sunday he would pause the border tax due to be imposed on 1 June, which he had announced two days earlier, after what he called a “very nice call” with Ursula von der Leyen.
The European Commission president persuaded Trump to delay the duties by more than a month to give the two sides more time to negotiate. Her chief spokesperson, Paula Pinho, said the pair had agreed “to fast-track the trade negotiations and to stay in close contact”. Von der Leyen initiated the call, the EU spokesperson said, adding “there was, it seems, a mutual intention to speak to each other”.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Monday he hoped Washington and Brussels could get to the lowest tariffs possible. “The discussions are advancing,” he told reporters during a trip to Vietnam.
There has been a good exchange between President Trump and President Von der Leyen and I hope we can continue on this road and return to the lowest possible tariffs that will allow for fruitful exchanges.
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who is deemed to have one of the closest relationships with the White House among EU leaders, was reported by local media to be trying to organise a meeting between Trump and European leaders in early June.
EU commissioner says he had 'good' call with US commerce secretary
The EU’s trade chief, Maroš Šefčovič, said he held “good” calls with the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer.
The EU Commission remains “fully committed to constructive and focused efforts at pace” towards an EU-US deal, Šefčovič wrote on X.
Šefčovič and Lutnick last spoke on Friday. Since then, Donald Trump has announced he will pause his threatened 50% tariffs on the EU until 9 July.
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FBI to reinvestigate 2023 White House cocaine find and leak of supreme court Dobbs draft
The FBI will launch new investigations into the 2023 discovery of a bag of cocaine at the White House during Joe Biden’s term, as well as into pipe bombs discovered at Democratic and Republican party headquarters before the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot by supporters of Donald Trump, and the leak of the supreme court’s draft opinion before the historic overturning of national abortion rights with the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.
Dan Bongino, a rightwing podcaster turned deputy director of the FBI, made the announcement on X, where he said he had requested weekly briefings on any progress in looking into the old cases.
The incidents have been popular talking points on America’s political right wing and among conspiracy theorists.
Bongino said that he and the FBI director, Kash Patel, had been evaluating “a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest” and had made a decision “to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases”.
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Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said she had a “candid” conversation with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about the US’s negotiations with Iran.
Noem, during an interview with Fox News on Monday, said:
President Trump specifically sent me here to have a conversation with the prime minister about how those negotiations are going and how important it is that we stay united and let this process play out.
Noem has been in Israel in the wake of the killing of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington last week, and met with Netanyahu on Sunday night in Jerusalem.
During the meeting, Noem expressed unwavering support for Netanyahu and the State of Israel, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.
A recent former president of Harvard University urged people to “speak out” in defense of “foundational threats” to values such as freedom, autonomy and democracy in the US, as those whose deaths for such causes in war were being honored on Memorial Day.
Drew Gilpin Faust, the first female president of Harvard, also warned on Monday of US constitutional checks and the rule of law being “at risk” under the current administration, even as Donald Trump issued a fresh threat against the elite university as it seeks to repel his assaults on its independence and funding.
Faust wrote in a guest opinion essay for the New York Times:
We are being asked not to charge into … artillery fire but only to speak up and to stand up in the face of foundational threats to the principles for which [the civil war dead] gave the last full measure of devotion. We have been entrusted with their legacy. Can we trust ourselves to uphold it?
She highlighted, in particular, the principles fought and died for by Union soldiers in the US civil war and the roles played by assassinated US president Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and leading Black civil rights leader of the 19th century.
“We must honor these men,” she wrote.
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The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, also paid tribute to former New York congressman Charles Rangel in a post on X.
Charlie Rangel was a phenomenal patriot, hero, statesman, leader, trailblazer, change agent & champion for justice.
The Lion of Lenox Ave was a transformational force of nature.
Harlem, NYC & America are better today because of his service. May he forever rest in power.
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The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, paid tribute to former US representative Charles Rangel, who died on Monday aged 94.
Rangel was a “great man, a great friend, and someone who never stopped fighting for his constituents and the best of America”, Schumer wrote in a post on X.
The list of his accomplishments could take pages, but he leaves the world a much better place than he found it.
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Former New York congressman Charles Rangel dies at 94
Former US representative Charles Rangel, a founding member of the Congressional Black caucus and chair of the house ways and means committee, died on Monday at the age of 94.
His death was confirmed in a statement provided by the City College of New York.
A Korean war veteran, Rangel defeated legendary Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 to start his congressional career and stepped down in 2016 after more than 45 years in office.
During that time, he was a founding member of the Congressional Black caucus, dean of the New York congressional delegation and, in 2007, the first African American to chair the powerful ways and means committee.
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On 13 April, Tess McGinley was working in her Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) cubicle in Los Angeles, calling people who had lost their homes in the January wildfires, when her team was told to stop what they were doing and leave the office immediately.
McGinley, a 23-year-old team leader for AmeriCorps, the US agency for national service and volunteerism, was helping Fema by reviewing wildfire survivors’ cases to ensure they received housing assistance.
Over the past six weeks, she and her seven teammates had reviewed more than 4,000 cases and made hundreds of calls to survivors. Now, even as the team drove home after their jobs were cut, their government phones kept ringing. “Survivors just kept calling us … And we weren’t able to help,” McGinley said.
“I think of one survivor calling over and over, getting my voicemail, and thinking that Fema has abandoned them,” she added.
Read the full story: Trump’s mass federal cuts disrupt LA wildfire recovery: ‘It’s coming tumbling down’
The Trump family media company plans to raise about $3bn to spend on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, according to a report.
The Trump Media & Technology Group, which is behind the Truth Social app and controlled by the president’s family, aims to raise $2bn in fresh equity and another $1bn via a convertible bond, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing sources.
The terms, timing and size of the company’s capital raise could still change, according to the report. The paper says:
The plan is the latest example of the Trump family’s push into cryptocurrency, which has sparked concerns about conflicts of interest. The president has vowed to make the US the ‘crypto capital of the world’.
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Trump says he's 'glad I missed that second term' because of America's 250th anniversary, World Cup and Olympics
Trump takes credit for the US hosting the 2026 Fifa soccer World Cup (alongside Canada and Mexico) and the 2028 Summer Olympics.
“We have the World Cup and we have the Olympics,” he says during his Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery.
“I have everything. Amazing, the way things work out. God did that – I believe that,” he says.
He does not, however, take credit for the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolutionary War, saying it “was not mine”.
I’d like to take credit, but I got the Olympics, I got the World Cup when I was president.
He says “in some ways I’m glad I missed that second term” because then he wouldn’t have been president for these milestones.
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Trump notes that this Memorial Day is “especially significant” because this year marks the 250th anniversary of the start of the American revolutionary war.
He says the first American patriots who fell on the field of battle gave us the “freest, greatest and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the earth”.
Trump says it is this republic that he is “fixing” after four “long and hard” years, during which he says people were “pouring through our borders unchecked” and “doing things that are indescribable”. He continues:
We’re doing so very well right now, considering the circumstances. We will do better than we’ve ever done as a nation, better than ever before. I promise you that.
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Trump delivers Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery
Donald Trump begins his remarks by thanking his vice-president, JD Vance, who he says has been doing a “terrific job”, and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who is also “doing very well” and is a “tough cookie”.
Trump says people are gathered today on Memorial Day to pay tribute to the “immortal deeds” of American warriors who “answered their nation’s call” and have “given their last breaths”.
“We will never ever forget our fallen heroes, and we will never forget our debt to you,” he says.
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Donald Trump has laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery and is expected to deliver remarks shortly at the cemetery’s amphitheater to commemorate Memorial Day.
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JD Vance is an Iraq war veteran and the US vice-president. On Friday, he declared the doctrine that underpinned Washington’s approach to international relations for a generation is now dead.
“We had a long experiment in our foreign policy that traded national defence and the maintenance of our alliances for nation building and meddling in foreign countries’ affairs, even when those foreign countries had very little to do with core American interests,” Vance told Naval Academy graduates in Annapolis, Maryland.
His boss Donald Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East signified an end to all that, Vance said: “What we’re seeing from President Trump is a generational shift in policy with profound implications for the job that each and every one of you will be asked to do.”
US foreign policy has previously zigged and zagged from isolation to imperialism. Woodrow Wilson entered the first world war with the the goal of “making the world safe for democracy”. Washington retreated from the world again during the 1920s and 1930s only to fight the second world war and emerge as a military and economic superpower.
Foreign policy during the cold war centered on countering the Soviet Union through alliances, military interventions and proxy wars. The 11 September 2001 attacks shifted focus to counterterrorism, leading to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq under George W Bush with justifications that included spreading democracy.
President Donald Trump is set to deliver remarks at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to commemorate Memorial Day.
Trump will participate in the traditional wreath-laying ceremony and speak at the cemetery’s amphitheater, in what has been a somber occasion for US presidents.
Hamas has agreed to a proposal by US special envoy Steve Witkoff for a Gaza ceasefire, a Palestinian official close to the group told Reuters on Monday. In the president’s most recent comments on the conflict and humanitarian crisis there Donald Trump had said “Israel, we’ve been talking to them, and we want to see if we can stop that whole situation as quickly as possible.”
My colleague Aneesa Ahmed has our Middle East crisis specific live blog here.
The FBI will launch new probes into the 2023 discovery of cocaine at the White House during president Joe Biden’s term and the 2022 leak of the supreme court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, FBI deputy director Dan Bongino has announced on X, Reuters reports.
Bongino also announced more resources for the FBI’s investigation into the placement of pipe bombs at the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee in Washington on 5 January 2021, the night before Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has drafted a plan to eliminate all limits on greenhouse gases from coal and gas-fired power plants in the United States, the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing internal agency documents.
The EPA argued in its proposed regulation that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from power plants that burn fossil fuels “do not contribute significantly to dangerous pollution” or to climate change because they are a small and declining share of global emissions, according to the NYT report.
The EPA also said that eliminating those emissions would have no meaningful effect on public health and welfare, the report added.
According to the United Nations, fossil fuels are by far the largest contributors to global warming, accounting for more than 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of carbon dioxide emissions.
Trump says he's considering taking $3bn in grants from Harvard and giving it to trade schools
President Donald Trump said on Monday he is considering taking $3bn of grant money away from Harvard University and giving it to trade schools across the United States.
His comments, which were made on Truth Social, come less than a week after his administration blocked Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students.
He wrote:
I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land. What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!
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French president Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Donald Trump had a “good exchange” and that he said he hopes they can get to the lowest tariffs possible.
“The discussions are advancing. There has been a good exchange between president Trump and president Von der Leyen and I hope we can continue on this road and return to the lowest possible tariffs that will allow for fruitful exchanges,” Macron told reporters during a trip to Vietnam.
Macron also said tariffs were not the right way to solve trade imbalances.
A weekend telephone call between US president Donald Trump and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen gave “new impetus” to trade talks, an EU spokesperson said on Monday.
After the conversation, Trump dropped his threat to impose 50% tariffs on imports from the European Union next month, restoring a 9 July deadline to allow for talks between Washington and the 27-nation bloc to produce a deal.
The EU spokesperson said von der Leyen had initiated the call, Reuters reported.
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President Donald Trump has once again spent his morning ranting and raving on his own social media network Truth Social.
In an attempt to frame his posts as marking Memorial Day and posting in all-caps, he resorted to incoherent name-calling.
The current president of the United States of America wrote:
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS, WHO ALLOWED 21,000,000 MILLION PEOPLE TO ILLEGALLY ENTER OUR COUNTRY, MANY OF THEM BEING CRIMINALS AND THE MENTALLY INSANE,THROUGH AN OPEN BORDER THAT ONLY AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WOULD APPROVE, AND THROUGH JUDGES WHO ARE ON A MISSION TO KEEP MURDERERS, DRUG DEALERS, RAPISTS, GANG MEMBERS, AND RELEASED PRISONERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, IN OUR COUNTRY SO THEY CAN ROB, MURDER, AND RAPE AGAIN — ALL PROTECTED BY THESE USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY. HOPEFULLY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, AND OTHER GOOD AND COMPASSIONATE JUDGES THROUGHOUT THE LAND, WILL SAVE US FROM THE DECISIONS OF THE MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL. BUT FEAR NOT, WE HAVE MADE GREAT PROGRESS OVER THE LAST 4 MONTHS, AND AMERICA WILL SOON BE SAFE AND GREAT AGAIN! AGAIN, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY, AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Follow-up posts included heaping praise on his own policy of tariffs and yet again claiming that the “golden age” of America is right around the corner.
Donald Trump has a long and colorful history with the Islamic State. He incorrectly blamed the founding of IS on his predecessor, said its infamous leader “died like a dog” while announcing his assassination, and rallied an international coalition that successfully ended its so-called caliphate.
So far, in his second presidency, his administration has much less to do with IS. But the terror group has still benefited from him.
Experts tell the Guardian that IS is capitalizing on Trump’s dismantling of the international order, his affinity for Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel, and most of all – his most controversial cabinet appointment – in its recruitment propaganda.
In the US, IS supporters consuming that online messaging have become bona fide security threats in recent months, with a string of incidents dating back to before the presidential election.
On New Year’s Day in New Orleans, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a 13-year veteran of the US army, used a truck to kill fourteen partygoers in the name of IS. Earlier in May, Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, 19, an ex-national guardsman, was arrested and charged with plotting a mass shooting at a military base near Detroit, on behalf of the group.
“The January 1 New Orleans attack and subsequent IS-linked arrests in the country demonstrate the continued influence the organization can project into the US,” said Lucas Webber, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, who has tracked the terrorist group for several years.
“These incidents also highlight how IS leverages the online space through social media and messaging applications to spread its ideology and inspire supporters to plot attacks.”
This year’s summer months promise to be among the hottest on record across the United States, continuing a worsening trend of extreme weather, and amid concern over the impacts of Trump administration cuts to key agencies.
The extreme heat could be widespread and unrelenting: only far northern Alaska may escape unusually warm temperatures from June through August, according to the latest seasonal forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
Indeed, summer-like weather has already begun for many parts of the country.
In International Falls, Minnesota – the self-proclaimed “icebox of the nation” – temperatures in the 90s arrived in early May, more than a month before the earliest previously known occurrence. A hundred miles south, the hot and dry weather helped fanned early-season wildfires burn out of control, forcing Governor Tim Walz to call in the national guard.
Across the western US, the latest Noaa update reports that a lack of springtime precipitation and very warm temperatures means this winter’s ample snowpack is rapidly melting – raising the threat of summertime drought and wildfires. Drier than normal weather has also intensified ongoing drought in Florida and the mid-Atlantic states.
Meanwhile, experts fear widespread cuts to staff and reduced funding for federal science, forecasting resources, and disaster response agencies will hamper efforts to keep people safe.
A Georgia police officer resigned from his job on Friday after erroneously pulling over a teenager, causing her to spend more than two weeks in a federal immigration jail, and leaving her facing deportation.
The officer, Leslie O’Neal, was employed at the police department in Dalton, a small city more than an hour north of Atlanta.
His arrest of college student Ximena Arias-Cristobal not only led to a domino effect that could lead to her deportation – it also engendered anger and criticism, especially given the circumstances of her immigration-related detention.
Though Dalton’s municipal government did not provide any information about why O’Neal resigned, his wife posted his resignation letter on Facebook, which said he believed the local police department did not adequately defend him.
“The department’s silence in the face of widespread defamation has not only made my position personally untenable but has also created an environment where I can no longer effectively carry out my duties within the city of Dalton without fear of further backlash from the community,” O’Neal wrote in the letter.
The Trump administration has continued releasing people charged with being in the country illegally to non-governmental shelters along the US-Mexico border after previously telling those same organizations that providing immigrants with temporary housing and other aid may violate a law used to prosecute smugglers.
Border shelters, which have long provided lodging and meals before offering transportation to the nearest bus station or airport, were rattled by a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) that raised “significant concerns” about potentially illegal activity and demanded detailed information in a wide-ranging investigation.
Fema suggested shelters may have committed felony offenses related to bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the US.
“It was pretty scary. I’m not going to lie,” said Rebecca Solloa, executive director of Catholic Charities of the diocese of Laredo, Texas.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) continued to ask shelters in Texas and Arizona to house people even after the 11 March letter, putting them in the awkward position of doing something that Fema appeared to say might be illegal. Both agencies are part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and have also been accused of withholding funds from organizations, in addition to asking them to hand over names of those they’ve helped and implying that some charities are human-smuggling operations.
Top Republicans threaten to block Trump’s spending bill if national debt is not reduced
Donald Trump has been warned by fiscal hawks within his own party in the US Senate that he must “get serious” about cutting government spending and reducing the national debt or else they will block the passage of his signature tax-cutting legislation known as the “big, beautiful bill”.
Ron Johnson, the Republican senator from Wisconsin who rose to prominence as a fiscal hardliner with the Tea Party movement, issued the warning to the president on Sunday. Asked by CNN’s State of the Union whether his faction had the numbers to halt the bill, he replied: “I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit.”
Trump has invested a large portion of his political capital in the massive package. It extends the 2017 tax cuts from his first administration in return for about $1tn in benefits cuts including reductions in the health insurance scheme for low-income families, Medicaid, and to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) food stamps.
The bill squeaked through US House by just one vote on Thursday. It now faces a perilous welcome in the upper legislative chamber.
US demanded South Korea resolve trade imbalance in recent talks, media reports say
The United States demanded that South Korea resolve the large trade imbalance between the countries during recent trade talks, South Korean media reported on Monday.
The US repeatedly raised the issue of the trade imbalance in the commodity sector and both countries agreed it was necessary to address it, broadcaster YTN and the Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed South Korean trade official who was part of the trade delegation.
South Korea earned a $55.6bn surplus from trade with the US in 2024, up 25% from 2023 and a record high, according to Korea Customs Service data.
The two countries held technical consultations about trade in Washington last week, Reuters reported.
They also discussed non-tariff measures as well as economic security, digital trade, the origin of goods and commercial considerations, the official cited by media said, adding that Washington made specific requests for the first time.
The phone call on Sunday between European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Donald Trump gave trade talks between the two blocks a new impetus, a European Commission spokesperson said on Monday.
Trump backed away from 50% tariffs on EU imports from 1 June after the call. The spokesperson said the call was initiated by von der Leyen, but declined to give any details of the discussion between the two leaders.
EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič will have a call with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on Monday afternoon, the Commission said.
Federal judges are discussing a proposal that would shift the armed security personnel responsible for their safety away from the Department of Justice (DoJ) and under their own control, as fears mount that the Trump administration is failing to protect them from a rising tide of hostility.
The Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday that the idea of creating their own armed security detail emerged at a meeting of about 50 federal judges two months ago. A security committee at the twice-yearly judicial conference, a policymaking body for federal judges, raised concerns about the increasing number of threats against judges following Trump’s relentless criticism of court rulings against his policies.
Under the current system, federal judges are protected by the US marshals service, which is managed by the justice department. According to Wall Street Journal, those participating at the March conference expressed worries that Trump might instruct the marshals to withdraw security protection from a judge who ruled against him.
Amid those anxieties, the idea surfaced that federal judges should form their own armed security force. That would involve bringing the US marshals service under the direct control of the head of the judiciary, Chief Justice John Roberts.
The Kremlin on Monday said that US president Donald Trump’s claim that Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” might be due to emotional overload, but thanked the US leader for his assistance in launching Ukraine peace negotiations.
Trump said Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” by unleashing the largest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine and said he was weighing new sanctions on Moscow, though he also scolded Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“We are really grateful to the Americans and to president Trump personally for their assistance in organising and launching this negotiation process,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the Trump remarks about Putin.
“Of course, at the same time, this is a very crucial moment, which is associated, of course, with the emotional overload of everyone absolutely and with emotional reactions.”
Trump warns attempts to conquer all of Ukraine will lead to ‘downfall’ of Russia
Donald Trump has warned that if Vladimir Putin attempts to conquer all of Ukraine, it will lead to the “downfall” of Russia, while also criticising Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a Sunday night post on Truth Social.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump wrote in a social media post, adding, “I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”
Earlier on Sunday the US president told reporters that was he was “very surprised” that his Russian counterpart had intensified the bombardment of Ukrainian cities despite the US president’s efforts to broker a ceasefire.
Pressed by a reporter to say if he was now seriously considering “putting more sanctions on Russia”, Trump replied: “Absolutely. He’s killing a lot of people. What the hell happened to him?”
In his post on Sunday night, Trump also criticised Zelenskyy, saying the Ukrainian president was “doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does.”
“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.”
Trump delays EU tariffs until 9 July after 'very nice call' with von der Leyen
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you all the latest news lines throughout the day.
Donald Trump has announced that he will pause his threatened 50% tariffs on the European Union until 9 July, after a “very nice call” with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.
The European Commission president announced in a social media post that she had spoken with Trump and secured the delay to give the two sides more time to negotiate.
European assets rallied on Monday, Reuters reported. The euro hit its highest level against the dollar since 30 April, while European shares surged and were poised to recoup the previous session’s losses.
“Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” von der Leyen wrote. “To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.”
Brussels and Washington have been locked in negotiations in a bid to avert an all-out transatlantic trade war, after Trump’s tariff threat on Friday dramatically raised the stakes.
Trump warned he would impose 50% tariffs on all of the bloc’s imports into the US, saying “discussions with them are going nowhere”, adding that the tariffs would be applied from 1 June. Trump claimed he was “not looking for a deal”, repeating his longstanding view that European states had “banded together to take advantage of us”.
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In other news:
President Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” by unleashing the largest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine and said he was weighing new sanctions on Moscow, though he also scolded Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump posted the remark on Truth Social as sleeping Ukrainians woke to a third consecutive night of Russian aerial attacks, listening for hours to drones buzzing near their homes and eruptions of Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire.
The United States demanded that South Korea resolve the large trade imbalance between the countries during recent trade talks, South Korean media reported on Monday. The US repeatedly raised the issue of the trade imbalance in the commodity sector and both countries agreed it was necessary to address it, broadcaster YTN and the Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed South Korean trade official who was part of the trade delegation.
Trump said on Sunday his tariff policy was aimed at promoting the domestic manufacturing of tanks and technology products, not sneakers and T-shirts. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One in New Jersey, Trump said he agreed with comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on 29 April that the US does not necessarily need a “booming textile industry” – comments that drew criticism from the National Council of Textile Organizations. “We’re not looking to make sneakers and T-shirts. We want to make military equipment. We want to make big things. We want to do the AI thing with computers,” Trump said.
Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday he has written to US president Donald Trump to organise a meeting between the United States and the Asean regional bloc. Malaysia is chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations grouping this year.
Hong Kong’s education bureau has called on the city’s universities to “attract top talent” by opening their doors to those affected by the Trump administration’s attempt to ban Harvard from enrolling international students. Last week the Trump administration revoked Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, effectively banning the university from accepting foreign students.
Federal judges are discussing a proposal that would shift the armed security personnel responsible for their safety away from the Department of Justice and under their own control, as fears mount that the Trump administration is failing to protect them from a rising tide of hostility. The idea of creating their own armed security detail emerged at a meeting of about 50 federal judges two months ago, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Trump has been warned by fiscal hawks within his own party in the US senate that he must “get serious” about cutting government spending and reducing the national debt, or else they will block the passage of his signature tax-cutting legislation known as the “big, beautiful bill”.
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