Closing summary
We are wrapping up our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. We will be back on Saturday, as nationwide protests are planned. Here are some of Friday’s developments:
Donald Trump formally approved Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion bid for US Steel on Friday, signing an executive order to allow what Trump has called a “partnership” between the companies to move forward.
Tennessee state representative Justin Jones attended a hearing in Nashville on Friday for Kilmar Ábrego García, and accused the Trump administration of “drumming up these politicized charges”.
Trump claimed to have known “everything” about Israel’s overnight attack on Iran, but The Atlantic reported that Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week “he believed that a deal was still possible and didn’t want to risk a wider war”. While Trump insists a nuclear deal, to replace the 2015 one he scuttled during his first term, remain possible, an unnamed diplomat told the Atlantic: “Israel just killed their negotiators.”
The former Voice of America correspondent Steve Herman reports that the United States Agency for Global Media “urgently called back to work the staff of the Voice of America’s Farsi language service” on Friday.
Marcos Leao, the first civilian detained by US marines since Trump deployed troops to California, is an army veteran who was on his way to a Veterans Affairs office when he crossed a yellow-tape boundary.
Video posted on Instagram on Friday gives a sense of the anger in east Los Angeles over sweeps in which federal border patrol agents are stopping people on the streets and forcing them to prove that they are US citizens.
About 2,000 anti-Trump protests are planned across the United States on Saturday, timed to coincide with the military parade in Washington DC the president is throwing himself on the 250th anniversary of the US army’s founding, and his own 79th birthday.
Trump approves sale of US Steel to Japanese rival he opposed on campaign trail
Donald Trump formally approved Nippon Steel’s $14.9bn bid for US Steel on Friday, signing an executive order saying what Trump has called a “partnership” between the companies to move forward if the companies signed an agreement with the treasury department resolving national security concerns posed by the deal.
The companies later announced they had signed the agreement, fulfilling the conditions of Trump’s directive and effectively garnering approval for the merger.
“We look forward to putting our commitments into action to make American steelmaking and manufacturing great again,” the companies said in the statement, thanking Trump.
It remains unclear how the final deal is different from the takeover of the US company by the Japanese one that was blocked by then-president Joe Biden after the 2024 election, and which Trump had promised to stop in elected.
The Japanese financial news site Nikkei reported that Trump was simply “paving the way for the Japanese company to finalize its takeover of its American counterpart.”
One difference might be that the deal will give the US government a “golden share” in the company, a rarely used practice through which the government takes a stake in company.
“We have a ‘golden share’, which I control, the president controls,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “If that gives you total control, it’s 51% ownership by Americans.”
It was not immediately clear what structural element of the deal Trump was referring to, Reuters noted, but according to Trump the share means that Americans would have a 51% share in the ownership of the steelmaker.
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Trump reports earning $57m from crypto sales
As Reuters reports, Donald Trump filed the first public financial disclosure report of his second term on Friday, providing what he said was the latest information about his holdings, including income from his family’s foray into cryptocurrencies.
Trump reported earning $57.35m from token sales at crypto firm World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency firm that he launched during last year’s presidential campaign. He also reported holding 15.75bn “governance tokens” in the venture. A licensing deal involving a related industry, NFT collectibles, produced another $1.2m.
The annual report was signed as of 13 June, but it was not immediately clear what time period it covered.
The disclosure also showed the income from Trump’s properties in Florida.
Trump’s three golf-focused resorts in the state – Jupiter, Doral and West Palm Beach – plus his nearby private members’ club at Mar-a-Lago, generated at least $217.7m in income, according to the filing.
Earlier this week, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren said that Democrats should demand amendments to the Genius Act, a bill to regulate the $250 bn market for stablecoins, including one that would stop Trump “from lining his pockets with shady crypto deals”.
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Video shows border patrol officer asking US citizen detained in LA what hospital he was born in
Video posted on Instagram on Friday gives a sense of the anger in Los Angeles over sweeps in which federal border patrol agents are stopping people on the streets and forcing them to prove that they are US citizens.
Brian Gavidia, who owns El Guapo Auto Sales, and was wearing a t-shirt with the name of his small business, told Brittny Mejia of the Los Angeles Times that he was stopped and pushed against a fence by a border patrol agent in Montebello, in east Los Angeles county, on Thursday.
In video recorded by a friend, who was outraged by the incident and suggested Gavidia’s crime was “walking while brown”, the officer can be heard asking him to prove that he was born in the US by naming the hospital.
“I don’t know,” Gavidia said. “I was born here in the states, East LA bro, I just fucking showed you, I got real ID here”.
Gavidia told the Times he gave his real ID to the agent who never gave it back to him. On Instagram later, he accused the federal agents of racial profiling.
In a series of clips posted on Instagram by Gavidia, some of which were then posted on X by the journalist Pablo Manríquez, the LA native can be heard angrily denouncing the heavily armed federal agents as they swept through the neighborhood, stopping men they suspected on being undocumented immigrants.
"I'm American, Motherfucker!": East Los Angeles Latinos Run ICE Agents Off Their Block After Racial Profiling Incident pic.twitter.com/fbDqvStk4j
— Pablo Manríquez (@PabloReports) June 13, 2025
In an Instagram story, Gavidia also posted a clip from the 1985 Cheech Marin music video for Born in East LA, a parody of Born in the USA.
In the clip, when an immigration officer demands to know where Marin was born, he replies, I was born in East LA.
On Friday, Marin uploaded the poster for the 1987 movie of the same name that he starred in to his Instagram account. He wrote next to the image:
What I wrote as a comedy – ‘Born in East L.A.’ – nearly 40 years ago now feels like a documentary.
Back then, we used humor to spotlight the absurdities and heartbreak of immigration policy. Today, the story is even more real. It continues to affect families, friends, workers, and communities all over the country.
Immigrants have always been the sabor of our nation. Their resilience, culture, and contributions help define what it means to be proudly American.
#BornInEastLA #ProudlyAmerican
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Tennessee lawmaker accuses Trump administration of 'politicized charges' against Kilmar Ábrego García
Tennessee state representative Justin Jones attended a hearing in Nashville on Friday for Kilmar Ábrego García, the man returned to the US last week after being wrongfully deported to El Salvador.
At the hearing, Ábrego García pleaded not guilty to criminal charges of taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle migrants into the United States.
In a video statement posted on social media from outside the courthouse, Jones accused the Trump administration of “drumming up these politicized charges to characterize him as dangerous”.
“The cooperating witnesses” who testified against Ábrego García, Jones said, are “being offered deals in exchange for their testimony; they have conflicting testimony”.
“This trial is a politicized trial and its the weaponization of the government against one man,” Jones added.
Ábrego García’s lawyers told the judge that some government witnesses cooperated to get favors regarding their immigration status or criminal charges they were facing, the Associated Press reports. A federal agent acknowledged during his testimony that one witness was living in the US illegally with a criminal record and is now getting preferred status.
“He sounds like the exact type of person this government should be trying to deport,” federal public defender Dumaka Shabazz said. “They’re going to give all these other people deals to stay in the country just to get this one other person.”
“If Mr Ábrego García is so dangerous, this violent MS-13 guy, why did they wait almost three years to indict him on this?” Shabazz asked the judge. “Why wait until literally after the supreme court told them they denied him due process and they had to bring him back before they investigate him?”
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Civilian detained and released by marines is US army veteran who says 'they're just doing their job'
Marcos Leao, the first detained civilian by the US marines since Trump deployed troops to California, spoke to reporters after he was released.
Leao, an army veteran, said he was on his way to an office of the Department of Veterans Affairs when he crossed a yellow-tape boundary and was asked to stop, according to Reuters.
The 27-year-old, who gained his US citizenship through military service, said he was treated “very fairly”.
“They’re just doing their job,” said Leao, who is of Angolan and Portuguese descent.
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A little more background from Reuters on this unprecedented detainment:
The troops are authorized to detain people who pose a threat to federal personnel or property, but only until police can arrest them. Military officials are not allowed to carry out arrests themselves.
The Posse Comitatus Act generally forbids the U.S. military, including the National Guard, from taking part in civilian law enforcement.
Trump could take a more far-reaching step by invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow troops to directly participate in civilian law enforcement.
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Reuters wire photos identify the detained man as Marcos Leao, a 27-year-old veteran.
It is unclear if he is still in US custody.
Reuters images showed US marines apprehending a civilian, restraining his hands with zip ties and then handing him over to civilians from the Department of Homeland Security.
The zip ties are visible in the below Reuters photo:
And another angle of the arrest outside the Wilshire Federal Building:
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When Reuters asked about the incident, US military’s northern command spokesperson said active duty forces “may temporarily detain an individual in specific circumstances”.
“Any temporary detention ends immediately when the individual(s) can be safely transferred to the custody of appropriate civilian law enforcement personnel,” the spokesperson told Reuters.
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US marines carry out first known detention of civilian in Los Angeles
Marines deployed to Los Angeles detained a civilian on Friday, the US military confirmed to Reuters after being presented with the news wire’s images.
This is the first known instance of active-duty troops deployed by Donald Trump detaining a civilian.
The incident took place at the Wilshire Federal Building, where marines took charge of the mission to protect the building earlier on Friday, in a rare domestic use of US troops after days of protests over immigration raids.
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Trump asked Netanyahu to hold off airstrikes on Iran earlier this week – report
While Donald Trump claimed earlier Friday to have known “everything” about Israel’s overnight attack on Iran, that doesn’t mean he fully supported it.
The Atlantic is reporting that Trump called Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week and said “he believed that a deal [with Iran] was still possible and didn’t want to risk a wider war”.
“When Netanyahu raised the possibility of a pre-emptive strike, Trump said he preferred the diplomatic route,” the Atlantic reported Friday afternoon.
The article also points out that Netanyahu’s attack drastically imperils Trump’s ability to cut a deal with Iran, and spoke to an unnamed diplomat who said, “Israel just killed their negotiators.”
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Voice of America Farsi journalists reportedly called back to work following Israeli attack on Iran
The former Voice of America correspondent Steve Herman reports that the United States Agency for Global Media “urgently called back to work the staff of the Voice of America’s Farsi language service” on Friday. “All had been on paid admin leave for the past three months with the rest of VOA’s silenced journalists.”
VOA’s White House bureau chief, Patsy Widakuswara, told Herman she hopes the agency, which recently announced a plan to get rid of all but two Persian speakers, “is beginning to realize the giant self-inflicted wound” it created. “They should bring us all back so we can respond to breaking news in all parts of the world. This is exactly why you don’t smash first and think later,” Widakuswara added.
Last week, Kari Lake, the former Arizona news anchor and failed Maga political candidate who is now running the agency, notified Congress that she planned to shrink Voice of America, a congressionally funded network that provided reporting to countries with limited press freedom for decades, from about 1,400 journalists and staff to less than 20. That plan kept just two Farsi-speakers on staff.
A look at the VOA Farsi YouTube channel shows that, since Israel’s attack on Iran began, the understaffed broadcaster has produced no original reporting at all. Instead, subscribers to the channel have been served copies of video of strikes posted on X, and two Farsi-language videos from the Israeli military, intended to explain and justify the strikes.
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Republican-led House oversight committee opens investigation into handling of LA protests by Newsom and Bass
Representative James Comer, the Republican chair of the the House oversight committee announced on Friday that he is launching an investigation into what he called “the violent riots in Los Angeles”.
As a first step, Comer and his Republican colleague Clay Higgins, who leads a subcommittee on federal law enforcement, sent letters to California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, and the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles Mayor, Karen Bass.
The letters, sent to local officials still dealing with ongoing protests against the federal immigration crackdown, demand that they provide the committee with “documents and communications between their offices, as well as between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies related to the riots and sources of weapons used by rioters”.
The deeply partisan letters accuse the governor and mayor of having “falsely claimed that state and local law enforcement had protests under control”, and attack them for supposedly defending undocumented criminals and rioters. “You have also made it clear that you intend to block the objectives of the federal government, and defend aliens, regardless of their immigration status, criminal activity, anti-American views, or incitement to riot”, the letters addressed to both Newsom and Bass claim.
The letters also demand all “records and communications, including video and dispatch logs, regarding the source of weapons (including rocks and cinderblocks)” hurled at officers during the protests, apparently signaling that the lawmakers plan to investigate the debunked conspiracy theory that stones were covertly supplied to protesters by shadowy forces.
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'We must not be dragged into another Netanyahu war', Bernie Sanders says
Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, has denounced what he calls Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “illegal unilateral attack on Iran” and warned that the US “must not be dragged into another Netanyahu war”.
Here is the statement released by Sanders on Friday afternoon:
The world is more dangerous and unstable as a result of the extremist Netanyahu’s government ongoing defiance of international law.
First, he uses the starvation of children in Gaza as a tool of war, a barbaric violation of the Geneva Conventions. Now, his illegal unilateral attack on Iran risks a full-blown regional war. These strikes also directly contravened the express wishes of the United States, which was seeking a diplomatic resolution to the long-standing tensions around Iran’s nuclear program. Talks were planned for Sunday, but Netanyahu chose instead to launch an attack.
The U.S. must make it clear that we will not be dragged into another Netanyahu war. Along with the international community we should do everything possible to prevent an escalation of this conflict and bring the warring parties to the negotiating table.
Trump and Netanyahu spoke today amid the Israel-Iran conflict, White House official says
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu spoke earlier today amid the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, a White House official has confirmed.
It comes amid reports that the US has helped shoot down Iranian missiles that were headed toward Israel. Two officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, did not provide further information about the defensive operation.
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The day so far
Donald Trump is scrambling to present Israel’s strikes on Iran, which he publicly claimed he did not want on Thursday, as a means of continuing his efforts to convince Tehran to negotiate a nuclear deal. Trump has been walking a tightrope as he claims that he was fully aware of Israel’s plans to launch massive airstrikes against Iran while continuing to distance the US from those strikes and deny Washington took any active role in the preparations. Fears of a full-scale war in the region are very much real, with Israel declaring its strikes on Iran were “just the beginning”, and Iran launching retaliatory missiles on Israel. Follow all our latest coverage on the crisis here.
Federal troops continued to be on duty in the streets of Los Angeles after a series of court rulings, and more arrived today along with 200 marines. The marines have been protecting the Wilshire Federal Building since noon local time. Maj Gen Scott Sherman had earlier said the marines “will focus on the protection of federal property and personnel”, and would not be performing law enforcement activities. The relieved national guard members would then focus on protecting federal agents, Sherman said.
Millions of people are expected to turn out to protest on Saturday at roughly 2,000 sites nationwide in a demonstration dubbed “No Kings”, against growing opposition to what critics see as Trump taking actions on the brink of authoritarianism. Demonstrations are expected in places including Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York City, Minneapolis and Houston.
The mass nationwide protests are timed to coincide with the president’s controversial military parade in Washington DC tomorrow to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the formation of the US army, and coincidentally his 79th birthday. There are also predictions of as many as 200,000 protestors at the parade itself.
Kilmar Ábrego García, the man who the Trump administration unlawfully deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March, pleaded not guilty in a Tennessee court today. He faces criminal charges of taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle migrants into the US. He is also expected to contest a bid by federal prosecutors to have him detained pending trial.
A federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked the state department from implementing an agency-wide reorganization plan that includes 2,000 layoffs. US district judge Susan Illston said her May ruling barring federal agencies from laying off tens of thousands of employees at the direction of Trump applies to the planned overhaul announced by the state department last month.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from implementing parts of his sweeping executive order overhauling federal elections, including by requiring voters to prove they are US citizens and barring states from counting mail-in ballots received after election day.
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US judge blocks state department's planned overhaul, mass layoffs
A federal judge in California has temporarily blocked the state department from implementing an agency-wide reorganization plan that includes 2,000 layoffs.
US district judge Susan Illston in San Francisco during a virtual hearing said her May ruling barring federal agencies from laying off tens of thousands of employees at the direction of Donald Trump applies to the planned overhaul announced by the state department last month.
A US Department of Justice lawyer, Alexander Resar, said in response that the state department would not issue layoff notices that were scheduled to go out tomorrow.
The state department had argued that its reorganization plan submitted to Congress last month predated a February executive order and subsequent White House memo directing mass layoffs, placing it outside the scope of Illston’s decision.
The ruling came in a lawsuit by a group of unions, non-profits and municipalities.
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‘A moral obligation to protest’: LA residents on being thrust into chaos
As thousands of military personnel descended on Los Angeles under the orders of Donald Trump and their city was thrust into the center of a political crisis, Angelenos have largely voiced their support for the immigrant community and resistance to the administration targeting them.
“When you are rounding up people with no criminal record while they are at their jobs, it is very clear that the cruelty is indeed the point,” said Alex Berg, 42.
As Americans, we have a constitutionally protected right to protest. As Angelenos, we have a moral obligation to protest Ice raids on members of our community.
Predominantly peaceful protests, which erupted after federal agents swept into workplaces, immigration hearings and elementary schools last week, were met with an unprecedented and heavy-handed response from the president, in a move the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has called “unlawful”.
Hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested or detained in the past week. Officers and troops in tactical gear have relied on chemical irritants, fired rounds of “less-lethal” projectiles and deployed flash-bang grenades in attempts to squash the unrest. Scores of armored vehicles have been crowded into a small part of the vast city’s downtown in a striking show of force.
Berg believes the escalation was by design, “to chill vocal opposition to the administration”, he said. “They cannot remove our constitutionally protected right to protest through the law, but they can certainly make us think twice about how badly we’re willing to deal with the consequences of protesting.”
While the marches mostly remained nonviolent, dramatic images of burning cars and graffitied buildings have been splayed across the internet and on social media sites, and Trump has used them to validate his orders. In a speech on Tuesday, the president promised he would “liberate Los Angeles”, and, calling the protesters “animals”, he made a baseless claim that the demonstrations were part of a “foreign invasion”.
Many residents, however, have challenged the president’s descriptions of their city’s demonstrations. Celeste Perry felt Trump’s mass deportation agenda was part of a ploy.
Last year Republicans blocked meaningful immigration reform per Trump’s instructions to House speaker Mike Johnson. Trump desperately needed to keep immigration his central issue for his campaign.
The raids are performance to sell his base on the lie that all their troubles should be blamed on immigrants.
“The protesters have my full support,” said William Rosencrans, a 57-year-old stonemason, who called the moves by the administration cruel and chaotic.
Trump and his allies are using tactics shared by every other authoritarian regime and they must be resisted at all costs and, ultimately, by any means necessary if the country is to be saved.
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Hundreds of US marines arrive in LA as large protests are planned in California and across US
Federal troops continued to be on duty in the streets of Los Angeles on Friday after a series of court rulings, and more arrived, with large protests planned in California and across the country this weekend against the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigration raids and a big military parade in Washington DC.
Around 200 US marines arrived in LA on Friday morning. This followed Donald Trump’s extraordinary decision to deploy national guard troops to LA last weekend, over the objections of the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. The marines were to take over protecting a federal building, US Army Maj Gen Scott Sherman, who commands the task force of marines and national guardsmen, said.
The streets had been mostly calm overnight going into Friday morning, marking the seventh day of protests across various areas and the third day of an overnight curfew in a small part of the huge downtown area.
Sporadic demonstrations have also taken place in cities including New York, Chicago, Seattle and Austin on several days in the last week against Trump’s pushing of his mass deportation agenda, undertaken by targeting undocumented communities in the US interior.
And millions more are expected to turn out to protest on Saturday at roughly 2,000 sites nationwide in a demonstration dubbed “No Kings”, against growing opposition to what critics see as Trump taking actions on the brink of authoritarianism.
The mass protests are timed to coincide with the US president’s controversial military parade in Washington DC to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the formation of the US army, and coincidentally his 79th birthday.
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Analysis: Trump scrambles to claim credit for Israel’s Iran attack he publicly opposed
Donald Trump is walking a tightrope as he claims that he was fully aware of Israel’s plans to launch massive airstrikes against Iran while continuing to distance the US from those strikes and deny Washington took any active role in the preparations.
The White House’s messaging has shifted quickly from Marco Rubio’s arms-length description of the Israeli attack as a “unilateral action”, to Trump claiming this morning that he was fully in the loop on the operation and that it came at the end of a 60-day ultimatum he had given Iran to “make a deal” on its nuclear programme.
“Today is day 61,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I told [Iran] what to do, but they just couldn’t get there.”
Trump’s framing presents a good cop-bad cop dynamic of his approach with Benjamin Netanyahu, the embattled Israeli leader with whom he has a notoriously combative relationship. The US president has scrambled to now present the Israeli strikes, which he publicly claimed he did not want on Thursday, as a means of continuing his efforts to convince Iran to negotiate.
“They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late,” he said.
But the discordant US response from to the strikes, including Rubio’s Thursday evening statement, a hasty evacuation of some US personnel from the region and ambiguity over whether the US provided intelligence or would actively take part in Israel’s defence from a likely counterattack, has raised questions over whether Israel may have moved ahead of the Trump administration as a way to present Washington with a fait accompli.
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CNN has more on that briefing, reporting that Sherman confirmed that at noon local time the two marine companies, part of the full battalion of 700 marines mobilized on Monday in response to the protests, will take over the role of protecting the Wilshire Federal Building, where national guard troops had been posted.
Per my last post they “will focus on the protection of federal property and personnel”, Sherman said, and will not be performing law enforcement activities.
The marines will also be equipped with “standard crowd control gear, which includes a helmet, their face shield, a shield, baton and gas masks”, he added.
The national guard members who were protecting the building will transition to protecting federal agents once the marines take over, Sherman said.
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As we reported earlier, about 200 marines have been deployed to Los Angeles and will be protecting a federal building from noon local time, Maj Gen Scott Sherman, said during a briefing:
I would like to emphasize that the soldiers will not participate in law enforcement activities.
He also added that so far, neither the marines nor the national guard troops there had temporarily detained anyone.
Thousands of protests planned for Saturday across US
As we reported earlier, around 2,000 No Kings protests will be held across the country tomorrow, including in Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York City, Minneapolis and Houston, with millions of people expected to attend in a “day of defiance” intended to divert attention away from the “spectacle” of tomorrow’s military parade in Washington DC.
There are also predictions of as many as 200,000 protestors at the parade itself, which coincides with Donald Trump’s birthday.
Women’s March is organizing what it says will be “the biggest protest circus in the country” to counter the military parade in Washington DC. “Tomorrow, we take the streets with creativity, courage, and chaos to call out the real clowns in power,” the group said in a Facebook post.
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Delta Air Lines said it has paused flights to Tel Aviv from New York through 31 August due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East after Israel launched a huge wave of airstrikes across Iran. Tehran has called the strikes “a declaration of war”.
Trump says 'we knew everything' about Israel’s strike on Iran
Further to the Wall Street Journal’s report earlier, Donald Trump has said “we knew everything” about Israel’s strikes on Iran. Israel’s prime minister also said a short while ago that the US had advanced warning of its attack on Iran.
Trump told Reuters in a phone interview that it was unclear if Iran still has a nuclear program following Israeli strikes on the country, and said he was unsure if planned nuclear talks schedule for Sunday with Iran would still take place.
He said it was not too late for Iran to make a deal.
I tried to save Iran humiliation and death.
He also said he is not concerned about a regional war breaking out as a result of Israel’s strikes.
My colleague Hayden Vernon is blogging all the latest on this over on our Middle East blog:
Israel used US equipment in Iran attack, says Trump, adding 'maybe now' Iran will agree a nuclear deal – Axios
Israel used “great American equipment” during its attack on Iran, Donald Trump has told Axios in an interview today.
Trump said that Iran now has a stronger incentive to agree on a nuclear deal after Israel’s strikes, Axios reports.
“I couldn’t get them to a deal in 60 days. They were close, they should have done it. Maybe now it will happen,” Axios quotes the president as saying.
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US gave regional allies heads up on Israel's planned attack on Iran – Reuters
The US state department informed a number of regional allies in the Middle East of Israel’s looming strike on Iran hours before the attack took place, three sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
In a diplomatic note sent out on Thursday afternoon, the state department confirmed that the Israeli attack was set to take place late on Thursday. Qatar was among the countries which received the heads up.
Washington was not involved in Israel’s operation and was not providing any support, the note said, adding that Donald Trump has been very clear on his desire for peace in the region but at the same time has been firm that Tehran cannot be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons.
The state department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
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About 200 marines have moved into Los Angeles, says official
US marines have moved into Los Angeles and will take over protecting federal property and personnel, according to Maj Gen Scott Sherman, who is overseeing the 4,700 troops deployed.
About 200 marines have moved into the city so far, Sherman told reporters on Friday. He said the marines would take over their operations at noon local time in downtown Los Angeles.
He added that so far, neither the marines nor the national guard troops there had temporarily detained anyone.
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US warns citizens to depart Iran immediately amid threat of additional military strikes
The US state department has issued a security warning instructing US citizens not to travel to Iran for any reason and to depart Iran immediately. The warning states:
US citizens in Iran face serious, increasing dangers due to rising regional tensions.
It also warned of missiles, drones or rockets flying over Iraq and said Iraq has suspended air traffic at all airports and closed its airspace. The warning states:
Due to regional events, there are indications there may be missiles, drones, or rockets flying over Iraqi airspace. In the event of such an incident seek overhead cover and shelter in place. Do not expose yourself to falling debris.
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Kilmar Ábrego García pleads not guilty to human trafficking charges
We reported earlier that Kilmar Ábrego García, the man whom the Trump administration wrongly deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March, appeared in a Tennessee court today to face criminal charges.
Ábrego García, who faces criminal charges of taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle migrants into the US, has now pleaded not guilty.
He is also expected to contest a bid by federal prosecutors to have him detained pending trial.
Ábrego García – a 29-year-old Salvadorian whose wife and young child in Maryland are US citizens – was deported by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials and held in the so-called Center for Terrorism Confinement, a controversial mega-prison better known as Cecot.
Before the hearing began in Nashville, his wife told a crowd that she had seen him for the first time on Thursday since the Trump administration “abducted and disappeared my husband and separated him from our family” three months ago.
“Kilmar wants you to have faith,” she told the crowd, as she asked people supporting him and his family “to continue fighting, and I will be victorious because God is with us”.
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California governor Gavin Newsom’s office expressed concern that the data of millions of Medicaid enrollees would be used for immigration raids supported by the national guard troops and marines deployed by Donald Trump in Los Angeles.
“We deeply value the privacy of all Californians,” a statement by the governor’s office reads.
This potential data transfer brought to our attention by the AP is extremely concerning, and if true, potentially unlawful, particularly given numerous headlines highlighting potential improper federal use of personal information and federal actions to target the personal information of Americans.
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Trump administration handed over personal data of millions of Medicaid enrollees to deportation officials – report
The Trump administration provided deportation officials this week with the personal data of millions of Medicaid enrollees, according to a report on Friday.
The data includes the immigration status of millions of Medicaid enrollees, which could facilitate locating people to deport as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
According to an internal memo and emails obtained by the Associated Press, Medicaid officials unsuccessfully sought to block the data transfer, citing legal and ethical concerns. But two top advisers to the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, ordered the dataset handed over to the Department of Homeland Security.
The dataset includes the information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state and Washington DC, all of which allow non-US citizens to enroll in Medicaid programs that use only state taxpayer dollars.
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Here are some photos of preparations for the army’s 250th anniversary parade in Washington DC tomorrow, which is expected to be met with millions of people protesting at roughly 2,000 sites around the country.
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No immigration changes under way for farm and hospitality workers – Washington Post
There are no policy changes under way to exempt farm, hotel and other leisure workers from Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, the Washington Post reports, a day after the president suggested he might issue an order for such workers.
Trump’s comments yesterday were aimed at soothing industry leaders, but there will be no changes to current deportations, according to the Post’s report, which cites three people with knowledge of the administration’s immigration policies.
Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report, which comes amid demonstrations protesting Trump’s immigration raids.
Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, told the Washington Post that he had not discussed any changes for such workers with Trump and has not been involved in any policy plans to address them.
Farm and hotel industries rely heavily on migrant labor, and farmers were strong supporters of Trump’s 2024 re-election bid.
On Thursday, Trump acknowledged the impact of his immigration policies on some sectors and said he would issue a related order “soon”, giving no details. He said at the White House:
Our farmers are being hurt badly and we’re going to have to do something about that ... We’re going to have an order on that pretty soon.
He had earlier said on social media that he was listening to business leaders’ concerns about his mass deportation agenda taking away good workers. He wrote on Truth Social:
Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. Changes are coming!
But the post was unclear as he gave no details on what changes were coming or when, and because he also claimed “criminals … are applying for those jobs”.
US farm industry groups have long sought to be spared from mass deportations, which could upend a food supply chain dependent on immigrants, and welcomed his comments.
Agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins told CNBC yesterday that Trump was reviewing all possibilities but that Congress would also have to act, pointing to the H-2A visa program that allows employers to hire temporary or seasonal labor.
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A Florida sheriff has said his deputies will shoot protesters “graveyard dead” if they step out of line during Saturday’s “No Kings” demonstrations against the Trump administration.
Wayne Ivey, of Brevard county, is one of the state’s so-called constitutional sheriffs and a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, who he enthusiastically endorsed in previous elections.
He gave his fire and brimstone warning at a press conference on Thursday attended by Republican governor Ron DeSantis and other state officials, reported by the Orlando Sentinel:
Throw a brick, a firebomb or point a gun at one of our deputies, we will be notifying your family where to collect your remains at, because we will kill you graveyard dead. We’re not going to play.
Mimicking the kind of language favored by the president, Ivey continued:
If anyone strikes a deputy they will be going to the hospital and likely will be bitten by one of the agency’s big, beautiful dogs. I don’t want to hear any whining later saying ‘we didn’t know’.
DeSantis, meanwhile, touted Florida’s law allowing drivers to mow down protestors if they perceived them to be a threat.
If you drive off and you hit one of these people that’s their fault for impinging on you. You don’t have to sit there and just be a sitting duck and let the mob grab you out of your car and drag you through the streets.
Dozens of “No Kings” actions are planned for Saturday across Florida, where DeSantis has aligned himself forcefully with Trump’s immigration policies.
In Palm Beach, protestors plan to march to the president’s Mar-a-Lago home, although Trump will be spending his 79th birthday watching the military parade in Washington DC.
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Earlier we reported that Donald Trump has welcomed the ninth US circuit court of appeals’ decision that temporarily paused a lower court ruling that blocked his mobilization of national guard troops to Los Angeles, claiming “we saved LA”.
Cities across the United States are bracing for more demonstrations especially tomorrow, when those also opposed to the military parade in Washington marking the army’s 250th anniversary are expected to take to the streets.
“They’ve defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services,” the group No Kings, which is behind the day of action, wrote on its website.
A battalion of 700 marines is expected to arrive today in Los Angeles, marking an extraordinary use of military forces to support civilian police operations within the United States.
Troops have stood guard at a federal detention center in the city’s downtown, where many of the protests have taken place in a show of solidarity for immigrants detained inside.
The protests so far have been mostly peaceful, punctuated by incidents of violence, and restricted to a few city blocks.
Demonstrations have also taken place in other US cities this week, including New York and Chicago.
The guard had also accompanied Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents on operations to detain immigrants.
Democratic leaders in California have strongly opposed the ramping up of immigration enforcement since it began last Friday.
“Peace begins with Ice leaving Los Angeles,” mayor Karen Bass, who has imposed a nighttime curfew over one square mile of downtown Los Angeles, said yesterday.
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Trump says US was aware of Israel's plans to attack Iran – WSJ
Donald Trump has told the Wall Street Journal that he and his team had known about Israel’s plans to attack Iran.
The Wall Street Journal reports that, when asked what kind of a heads-up the United States received before the attack, Trump said in a brief phone interview: “Heads-up? It wasn’t a heads-up. It was, we know what’s going on.”
Trump said he had spoken to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday and planned to speak with him again today. Trump called the operation “a very successful attack, to put it mildly”, per the WSJ.
As my colleague Andrew Roth reported yesterday, Trump had been publicly urging Netanyahu not to strike Iran, and at the same time began to pull non-essential personnel out of embassies and bases in the Middle East within striking distance of Iran. Per Andrew’s report:
But, in a nod to speculation that the US was intentionally signaling an imminent attack against Iran, Trump noted that a strike could also compel Iran to make a deal that would limit its efforts to seek a nuclear weapon.
“It might help it actually but it also could blow it,” he said.
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US judge blocks Trump administration from overhauling federal elections
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from implementing parts of his sweeping executive order overhauling federal elections, including by requiring voters to prove they are US citizens and barring states from counting mail-in ballots received after election day.
US district judge Denise Casper in Boston issued a preliminary injunction at the behest of 19 Democratic-led states who argued the president lacked the authority to mandate changes to federal elections and the states’ voting procedures.
Most say upcoming military parade is not good use of government funds – poll
Six in 10 adults say that the upcoming military parade honoring the 250th anniversary of the US army is not a good use of government funds, according to an Associated Press poll.
But slightly more people approve than disapprove of Donald Trump’s decision to hold the parade. The parade will be held in Washington DC on Sunday, which is also Trump’s 79th birthday.
According to the AP-Norc poll, 40% of adults approve and 29% disapprove of Trump’s decision to hold a military parade. Two thirds of Republicans support Trump’s decision to hold the parade while half of Democrats oppose it. Half of independents neither approve nor disapprove.
Just more than a third feel that the military parade is a good use of government funds, which is expected to cost between $25-45m. Eighty per cent of Democrats said the parade is not a good use of government funds, while 65% of Republicans felt it is money well spent.
The nationwide poll was conducted 5-9 June with 1,158 adults.
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Donald Trump will speak to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, CNN is reporting.
Analysis: Israel’s strikes on Iran show Trump is unable to restrain Netanyahu
Israel’s unilateral strikes on Iran indicate a collapse of Donald Trump’s efforts to restrain the Israeli prime minister and have almost certainly scuttled Trump’s efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran that would prevent the country from seeking a nuclear weapon.
It also will probably lead to an Iranian retaliation that could develop into a larger war between Israel and Iran, a new conflict that Trump has publicly sought to avoid.
Washington officials and analysts had expected that Israel would hold off on launching strikes at least until after the US exhausted attempts to negotiate a deal with Iran. During a phone call on Monday, Trump had urged Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported. But by Wednesday, Trump began to pull non-essential personnel out of embassies and bases in the Middle East within striking distance of Iran.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, was expected to travel to Muscat in Oman in order to conduct a sixth round of talks with Iran on Sunday in what was seen as a last chance for diplomacy.
And the strikes took place just hours after Trump had publicly urged the Netanyahu government not to attack Iran, with the US president saying that he believed an Israeli offensive would “blow” up the negotiations.
But, in a nod to speculation that the US was intentionally signaling an imminent attack against Iran, he noted that a strike could also compel Iran to make a deal that would limit its efforts to seek a nuclear weapon.
“It might help it actually but it also could blow it,” he said.
The attack was “clearly intended to scuttle the Trump administration’s negotiations with Iran,” said senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, and is “further evidence of how little respect world powers – including our own allies – have for President Trump”.
“This is a disaster of Trump and Netanyahu’s own making, and now the region risks spiraling toward a new, deadly conflict,” he added.
Read more here:
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With Donald Trump’s deployment of more troops in response to protests in LA, and as plans come together for a military parade in Washington DC on the president’s birthday, journalist Judith Levine tells Jonathan Freedland why she believes the US has entered a new era of authoritarianism in this week’s edition of US Politics Weekly. You can listen here.
With predictions of as many as 200,000 attendees at tomorrow’s Washington parade, the Secret Service is preparing for protests by erecting 18 miles of anti-scale fencing and deploying drones to the city’s skies to keep watch.
However, organizers of “No Kings” protests are not planning to hold an event there but are arranging demonstrations around the country to counter the parade, which they contend is meant to feed Trump’s ego.
“The flag doesn’t belong to President Trump. It belongs to us,” the “No Kings” website says.
Their flagship event will be in Philadelphia, and organizers said they hope to draw attention away from what they paint as a strongman spectacle designed for Trump’s birthday, like a king.
Trump laughed off the idea on Thursday. “I don’t feel like a king,” he said. “I have to go through hell to get stuff approved.”
Trump says he had given Iran 60-day ultimatum before Israel's strikes
Trump said he had given Iran a 60-day ultimatum on a nuclear deal before Israel’s strikes, but added Tehran now has a second chance.
In a post on Truth Social he has said:
Two months ago I gave Iran a 60 day ultimatum to “make a deal.” They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn’t get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!
You can follow all the latest developments on this and the region over on our Middle East live blog:
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Israeli attack on Iran 'excellent', says Trump
Donald Trump on Friday said the Israeli attack on Iran has been “excellent” and warned there was much more to come, according to an interview with ABC News.
An ABC reporter on X quoted Trump as saying:
I think it’s been excellent. We gave them a chance and they didn’t take it. They got hit hard, very hard. They got hit about as hard as you’re going to get hit. And there’s more to come. A lot more.
'Doesn't affect tanks': Trump shrugs off weather concerns for parade
Donald Trump’s desire for a grand military parade was scuttled in his first term over concerns about the high cost for the event. This time around, he is barreling past objections just like the tanks that will roll down Constitution Avenue.
Trump has dismissed concerns about the cost, reports Associated Press, about what message the display of military power sends and about the fact that it will take place on his 79th birthday.
One potential obstacle the president can’t control is the weather. There’s a chance the parade could be interrupted by thunderstorms. The White House has said it will go on rain or shine, but it could be delayed by lightning.
Trump said Thursday night that he hopes the weather is OK but if it’s not, “That’s OK too.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said at the White House.
Doesn’t affect the tanks at all. Doesn’t affect the soldiers. They’re used to it.”
Washington prepares for huge military parade
Tomorrow will see a parade fit for a king, writes my colleague David Smith – which is precisely why critics worry what message it will send the rest of the world about the future of democracy in America.
On Saturday there will be tanks on the streets of the nation’s capital as Washington hosts a celebration of the US army’s 250th anniversary, which happens to coincide with Donald Trump’s 79th birthday.
While the army has said it has no plans to recognize Trump’s birthday, the president will play a major role in a made-for-TV extravaganza that will reportedly also feature rocket launchers and missiles.
“He’s adopted not only the signifiers of dictator chic but the actual articles of its faith,” said Rick Wilson, a political strategist and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group. “North Korea: military parades. China: military parades. Russia: military parades.
“These aren’t parades to celebrate a victory and it’s certainly not to celebrate the United States army’s birthday. This is a parade to aggrandise Donald Trump’s ego. No one who knows either Trump or his pattern of behavior would think for a minute this is anything else.”
You can read David’s full, and excellent, article here
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Millions expected at Saturday’s ‘No Kings’ protests
Millions of people are expected to protest against the Trump administration on Saturday at roughly 2,000 sites nationwide in a demonstration dubbed “No Kings”, planned for the same day as the president’s military parade and birthday.
Interest in the events has risen since Trump sent national guard and US Marine Corps troops to Los Angeles to tamp down mostly peaceful protests against ramped-up deportations.
“We’ve seen hundreds of new events on the No Kings Day map since the weekend,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, one of the groups behind the “day of defiance”. “We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people register for those events.”
A website for the protest cites Trump’s defying of the courts, mass deportations, attacks on civil rights and slashing of services as reasons for the protests, saying: “The corruption has gone too far. No thrones. No crowns. No kings.” Actions are set for the country’s largest cities and small towns, dotting the map from coast to coast – part of a strategy to show that opposition to Trump exists in all corners of the US.
Read the full story here
Kilmar Ábrego García to appear in court
Kilmar Ábrego García, the migrant returned to the US last week after being wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador, is due in court on today to enter a plea to criminal charges of taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle migrants into the US.
The Justice Department’s decision to return him to the US to face criminal charges is a potential off-ramp for Trump’s administration from its escalating confrontation with the judiciary over whether it complied with a court order to facilitate Ábrego García’s return, Reuters reports.
The criminal proceeding will provide Ábrego García with due process by giving him the right to contest the charges contained in a grand jury indictment returned in secret on May 21. Still, his lawyers say his return to face criminal charges does not absolve the Trump administration of responsibility for wrongfully deporting him.
Ábrego García’s hearing on the criminal charges is scheduled to begin at 10 am CDT before US Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to entering his plea, Abrego Garcia is expected to contest a bid by federal prosecutors to have him detained pending trial.
Trump urges Iran to make a nuclear deal or face 'more brutal' attacks
Donald Trump has urged Iran to make a deal over its nuclear programme, saying in a post on his Truth Social platform that there was still time for the country to prevent further conflict with Israel:
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to “just do it,” but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done.
I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come - And they know how to use it.
Certain Iranian hardliner’s spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!
There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end.
Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. God Bless You All!
We are covering all the developments over Israel’s attack on Iran in our Middle East crisis blog which you can see here:
Trump keeps national guard in LA for now
Good morning, and welcome to our blog covering US politics amid continuing protests across the country, legal wrangles over the national guard deployment, preparations for a huge military parade in Washington and, along with all that, a major escalation of the conflict in the Middle East as Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear and military sites. So stay with us for all the developments.
Donald Trump has welcomed an appeals court ruling that temporarily returned control of California’s national guard to him, claiming it would keep Los Angeles from “burning to the ground”. It blocked an earlier ruling by a federal judge that the president’s use of the guards to suppress protests in LA was illegal and banned it. The appeals court said it will hold a fuller hearing on the matter on Tuesday.
You can read our story here
Trump has posted on Truth Social this morning
The Appeals Court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe. If I didn’t send the Military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now. We saved L.A. Thank you for the Decision!!!
In other news:
Trump has urged Iran to make a deal over its nuclear programme, saying in a post on his Truth Social platform that there was still time for the country to prevent further conflict with Israel. He wrote: “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
Trump has said he will attend the G7 summit in Canada which starts on Sunday. It is set to be the first major global gathering of his second term. Looking to avoid a dust-up, Canadian PM Mark Carney had set the agenda on largely uncontroversial themes such as building global supply chains for critical minerals. That now seems likely to be upended amid the Israel-Iran escalation.
Alex Padilla, a Democratic California senator and vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration polices, was forcibly removed and handcuffed as he attempted to ask a question at a press conference held by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Preparations are underway for an extravaganza of American military might featuring tanks and other armored vehicles rolling through Washington, thousands of soldiers marching the streets and military aircraft flying overhead on Saturday. It will be a celebration of the US army’s 250th anniversary, which also happens to coincide with Donald Trump’s 79th birthday.
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