Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the day in US politics. We will return on Tuesday to continue chronicling the second Trump administration, but here are some of Monday’s main developments:
Federal and state authorities filed murder and hate crimes charges against Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the suspected attacker in Boulder, Colorado who hurled Molotov cocktails at a demonstration for Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, injuring 12 people.
The head of Ice defended his agency’s decision to arrest an 18-year-old Massachusetts high school student on his way to volleyball practice. US district judge Richard Stearns later ordered a 72-hour stay to “provide a fair opportunity for the judge who will be randomly assigned to this case” to review merits and rule on any contested issues in the case of Marcelo Gomes Da Silva.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) barred its 2025 class president from attending her graduation ceremony on Friday after she delivered a speech during a commencement event the day before condemning Israel’s war in Gaza and criticizing the university’s ties to Israel.
China accused the US of “seriously violating” and undermining the agreements reached in Geneva in May.
Prosecutors in Milwaukee charged a man on Monday with four felonies for attempting to frame an undocumented immigrant he is accused of assaulting, by sending forged letters in the immigrant’s name with a threat to kill Donald Trump.
New York’s lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, announced on Monday that he is running for governor, setting up a Democratic primary battle against the sitting governor, Kathy Hochul, who selected him for the job as her deputy.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s senior Democrat, released a social media video on Monday in which he seemed to taunt Donald Trump for supposedly being too “chicken” in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
Updated
Schumer tries to goad Trump away from nuclear deal with Iran
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s senior Democrat, released a social media video on Monday in which he seemed to taunt Donald Trump for supposedly being too weak in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
Schumer, a staunch ally of Israeli leaders who oppose any deal to lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for that nation’s commitment that it will not build nuclear weapons, seemed to be responding to an Israeli journalist’s report that Trump’s negotiators, Steve Witkoff and March Rubio, might be open to letting Iran enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
In the video, Schumer referred to rumors that the US might agree, in “a secret side deal”, to let Iran proceed with low-grade enrichment, similar to the level agreed on in the Iran nuclear deal struck during the Obama administration, which Trump pulled out of during his first term.
Invoking the phrase “Trump always chickens out”, or Taco, Schumer said, “If Taco Trump is already folding, the American public should know about it
Although the international Iran nuclear deal struck by the Obama administration in 2015, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, was regarded as a huge success for diplomacy by many Democrats, it was strongly opposed by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and by some pro-Israel Democrats, including Schumer.
In 2015, Schumer voted against the deal.
A Boston high school student who was detained by immigration agents on Saturday while he was on his way to volleyball practice must be kept in Massachusetts for at least 72 hours, a federal judge said on Monday.
Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, 18, entered the United States on a student visa, according to a lawsuit filed on his behalf after his arrest. While his student visa status has lapsed, he is eligible for and intends to apply for asylum.
US district judge Richard Stearns ordered the 72-hour stay on Monday to “provide a fair opportunity for the judge who will be randomly assigned to this case” to review merits and rule on any contested issues.
New York’s lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, announces run against his boss, Kathy Hochul
New York’s lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, announced on Monday that he is running for governor, setting up a Democratic primary battle against the sitting governor, Kathy Hochul, who selected him for the job as her deputy.
In a campaign video posted on YouTube, Delgado introduced himself to voters as “a hip-hop artist, a congressman, a man of faith” with working-class roots in upstate New York and his desire to provide “transformational leadership”.
“Listen, the powerful and well-connected have their champions,” Delgado says in the video. “I’m running for governor to be yours.”
Delgado gave up a House seat in the Hudson valley to become lieutenant governor to Hochul, a post Hochul herself held until Andrew Cuomo was forced to resign as governor and she inherited the top job in 2021.
Hochul narrowly won a full term in 2022 in a race against Republican Lee Zeldin, a former Congressman who is now head of the environmental protection agency.
Delgado has refused to rule out a primary challenge against Hochul for months and earlier this year said he would he would not run for reelection alongside her.
He broke publicly with the governor on two fights within the Democratic party over the past year. In 2024, when Hochul was a campaign surrogate for Joe Biden, Delgado called on the then president to drop out of the presidential race.
Earlier this year, Delgado called for New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, to resign when it became apparent that he had cut a deal with the Trump administration to have his indictment on federal corruption charges dropped.
Hochul, who had the power as governor to depose Adams, chose not to do so.
Updated
Milwaukee prosecutors charge man for attempting to frame an undocumented immigrant in plot to kill Trump
Prosecutors in Milwaukee charged a man on Monday with four felonies for attempting to frame an undocumented immigrant he is accused of assaulting, by sending forged letters in the immigrant’s name with a threat to kill Donald Trump.
The handwritten, forged letters were mailed to Wisconsin’s attorney general, Milwaukee police and US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (Ice).
WISN-TV, an ABC affiliate in Milwaukee, reports that a criminal complaint alleges that Demetric Scott admitted to investigators that he wrote the letters threatening to kill the president in the name of Ramon Morales-Reyes, whom he was previopusly charged with assaulting.
Among those who fell for the hoax were Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who released a statement praising immigration officers for arresting Morales-Reyes on 22 May, one day after the forged letter was received by an Ice field intelligence officer.
“Thanks to our ICE officers, this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars”, Noem said in a press release. Her department also released an image of the handwritten note to news agencies.
“We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans – we have done more for this country than you white people – you have been deporting my family and I think it is time Donald J. Trump get what he has coming to him”, the letter said. “I will self deport myself back to Mexico but not before I use my 30 yard 6 to shoot your precious president in the head – I will see him at one of his big ralleys”.
Last week, one of Morales-Reyes’ children told an immigrant rights group that he could not have written the letters since he cannot read or write in Spanish, let alone English.
Scott is currently in Milwaukee County Jail, charged with armed robbery and aggravated battery. Prosecutors said Morales-Reyes is the victim in that case.
According to a transcript of a phone call prosecutors say Scott made while awaiting trial for assaulting Morales-Reyes, Scott framed Ramon Morales-Reyes to keep him from testifying against him. “If he gets picked up by Ice”, Scott allegedly said in the call, “there won’t be a jury trial, so they will probably dismiss it that day. That’s my plan”.
Morales-Reyes remains in Ice detention at a facility in Juneau, Wisconsin.
After the 2023 assault, Morales-Reyes applied for a U-visa – a special visa provided to undocumented victims of crime that may lead to a pathway to legal residency.
Updated
Federal judge blocks Trump administration from canceling TSA union contract
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Monday, blocking the Department of Homeland Security from canceling a union contract covering transportation security officers.
In her ruling, US District Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle wrote that the Trump administration of President Donald Trump likely broke the law by stripping 50,000 TSA officers of the ability to unionize and bargain over their working conditions in a suit brought by the American Federation of Government Employees and other unions.
Pechman said that the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, had failed to explain why she was reversing the Obama administration’s finding that unionizing would benefit TSA officers, who staff checkpoints at US airports and other transportation hubs, and in turn the public they serve.
“The Noem Determination appears to have been undertaken to punish AFGE and its members because AFGE has chosen to push back against the Trump Administration’s attacks to federal employment in the courts,” Pechman wrote.
AFGE represents about 800,000 federal government employees.
Updated
Acting Fema administrator unaware of hurricane season – report
Reuters reports that staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) were left baffled on Monday after the head of the US disaster response agency said during a briefing that he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation.
The US hurricane season officially began on Sunday and lasts through November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast last week that this year’s season is expected to bring as many as 10 hurricanes.
The remark was made by David Richardson, who has led Fema since early May. It was not clear to staff whether he meant it literally, as a joke, or in some other context.
Richardson, a former marine, was suddenly put in charge of Fema four weeks ago, after his predecessor, Cameron Hamilton, told a congressional committee that he did not “believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency”. Hamilton was removed the next day.
According to the Fema website, Richardson took over in the middle of the agency’s “Hurricane Preparedness Week”.
Updated
Suspect 'was not on our radar in Boulder', police chief says
Boulder police chief Stephen Redfearn said that the suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman “was not on our radar in Boulder” as a potential threat.
Mark Michalek of the FBI said that the suspect was not known to his office either.
Updated
Boulder police using video and license plate readers to piece together attack timeline
Boulder police chief, Stephen Redfearn, said that there is as yet no video of the suspect approaching the demonstration but officials are piecing together a timeline using video of the attack aftermath and license plate readers.
He also appealed to anyone who might have more video to bring it to the police.
Law enforcement officials will meet with Jewish community leaders
The Boulder police chief, Stephen Redfearn, said that his force has good relations with the city’s Jewish community and he and other law enforcement officials plan to meet Jewish community leaders shortly.
Attack site is now safe, Boulder police chief says
The Boulder police chief, Stephen Redfearn, told the public at the news conference still in progress that the site of the attack on Pearl Street is now safe, after it was scoured by bomb-sniffing dogs last night.
FBI appeals to public for more witness accounts and video
The FBI Special agent in charge Mark Michalek said at the ongoing news conference in Boulder that the bureau has already interviewed 44 witnesses and is asking the public to come forward with any additional witness accounts or visual evidence.
Boulder county DA says 16 unused Molotov cocktails were recovered after attack
The Boulder County district attorney, Michael Dougherty, just said that there were 16 unused Molotov cocktails recovered by officers in the aftermath of the attack.
Dougherty explained that his office will be prosecuting the suspect for 16 counts of attempted murder and other charges in parallel to the federal hate crimes prosecution.
If convicted, Soliman would be jailed for the rest of his life, with a cumulative of over 600 years.
He also said that there were 12 victims in total.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman charged with a federal hate crime, US attorney says
A news conference on the Boulder attack just started with a statement from acting US Attorney for the District of Colorado, J. Bishop Grewell.
The suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, has been charged with a federal hate crime, Grewell said.
He added that Soliman claimed to have been planning the attack for a year on what he called a “Zionist group” demonstrating in support of Israelis held hostage in Gaza.
Grewell also said that Soliman told investigators that he had resorted to Molotov cocktails when he had been unable to buy a gun.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman learned how to make Molotov cocktails from YouTube, according to FBI affidavit
In the affidavit filed on Sunday in support of a hate crimes charge against Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an FBI agent reported that the suspected attacker told officers he used YouTube to research how to make the Molotov cocktails he allegedly used to attack demonstrators marching in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
The affidavit also says that Soliman yelled “Free Palestine!” as he hurled two Molotov cocktails at the marchers and had a plastic container with 14 more unlit Molotov cocktails when he was arrested.
MIT class president barred from graduation after speaking out on Gaza
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) barred its 2025 class president from attending her graduation ceremony on Friday after she delivered a speech during a commencement event the day before condemning Israel’s war in Gaza and criticizing the university’s ties to Israel.
The student, Megha Vemuri, spoke at MIT’s OneMIT commencement on Thursday in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wearing a keffiyeh over her graduation gown, she praised student protests against the war in Gaza and condemned MIT’s ties to Israel.
“As scientists, engineers, academics and leaders, we have a commitment to support life, support aid efforts and call for an arms embargo and keep demanding now, as alumni, that MIT cuts the ties [to Israel]” Vemuri said during her speech.
The day so far
Much of the day has focused on the fallout from an attack in Boulder, Colorado on Sunday that injured eight people at a rally raising awareness for Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and multiple other felonies after he allegedly used a makeshift flamethrower and incendiary devices to attack the crowd. Soliman is alleged to have shouted “Free Palestine” as he attacked the crowd. The FBI said he told police he planned the attack for a year and had specifically targeted what he described as the “Zionist group”. According to an FBI affidavit, he also said he would do it again. He is due to appear in court at 1.30pm local time (3.30pm ET), while state and federal officials will hold a press conference this afternoon (2.30pm local time / 4.30pm ET) to announce state and federal charges against him.
Lawmakers across the political divide have condemned the violence and antisemitism and called for unity, whereas the Trump administration has seized upon the attack to make the case for Trump’s aggressive and highly contentious immigration policy. Multiple news outlets reported that Soliman is an Egyptian national who entered the country in August 2022 on a B-2 visa that expired in February 2023. Officials said he was granted a work authorization in March 2023, which expired at the end of March this year, more than two months into Trump’s presidency. He had filed for asylum in September 2022, according to the DHS. Though he overstayed his visa, NBC News noted, he had not yet exhausted all legal routes to staying in the US.
Elsewhere:
The Trump administration asked a US appeals court to pause a second court ruling that found the president had exceeded his authority by imposing sweeping tariffs on imports, saying the decision jeopardizes trade negotiations with other nations.
The head of Ice defended his agency’s decision to arrest an 18-year-old Massachusetts high school student on his way to volleyball practice, saying: “He’s in this country illegally and we’re not going to walk away from anybody.”
China has accused the US of “seriously violating” and undermining the agreements reached in Geneva in May, and the consensus between Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s president, in their January phone call. Following Trump administration claims last week that China had not delivered on promises to roll back restrictions on the export of key critical minerals to the US, China has said it was in fact the US that has breached the agreement Trump and Xi made in a January phone call, by damaging China’s interests through moves including limiting chip exports and going after Chinese students.
It was also reported that a direct conversation between Trump and Xi could take place as soon as this week.
The Trump administration asked the supreme court to halt a judicial order blocking mass job cuts and the restructuring of agencies. The justice department’s request came after San Francisco-based US district judge Susan Illston blocked large-scale federal layoffs, known as “reductions in force,” in a 22 May ruling siding with a group of unions, non-profit groups and local governments that challenged the administration.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders faced chilling levels of hate in 2024, a new survey found, reflecting the impact of a divisive presidential election year that included historic representation and rampant anti-immigrant rhetoric. The report by Stop AAPI Hate, found that 53% of respondents said they experienced a race-based hate act in 2024, a small rise from 49% in 2023. Incidents ranged from bullying at school and workplace discrimination to harassment and physical violence.
More than a dozen National Weather Service (NWS) forecast offices along the hurricane-prone Gulf of Mexico coast are understaffed as the US plunges into an expected active season for ruinous storms. There is a lack of meteorologists in 15 of the regional weather service offices along the coastline from Texas to Florida, as well as in Puerto Rico – an area that takes the brunt of almost all hurricanes that hit the US. Several offices, including in Miami, Jacksonville, Puerto Rico and Houston, lack at least a third of all the meteorologists required to be fully staffed.
Updated
The aftermath of the Boulder attack – in pictures
Trump administration seeks pause of second tariff case after loss
The Trump administration has asked a US appeals court to pause a second court ruling that found the president had exceeded his authority by imposing sweeping tariffs on imports, saying the decision jeopardizes trade negotiations with other nations, Reuters reports.
Trump’s tariffs were first declared illegal by the Manhattan-based US Court of International Trade on 28 May. A federal court in Washington followed with a second ruling the next day, which also found that the tariffs exceeded the president’s authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law intended to address “unusual and extraordinary” threats during national emergencies.
The lawsuits which led to those rulings challenged Trump’s use of the law to justify the so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs on imports imposed in early April on most US trading partners, as well as a separate set of tariffs levied on China, Mexico and Canada in February.
The Trump administration has already won a temporary pause of the first court loss, allowing it to reinstate tariffs during the early stages of the appeal. The court is expected to rule on the Trump administration’s request for a longer-term pause later this month.
The second ruling, from US district judge Rudolph Contreras had less immediate impact than the Court of International Trade ruling, because it only stopped the Trump administration from collecting tariffs from two small businesses that had sued whereas the trade court ruling blocked the tariffs that had been challenged broadly. But it contained a more direct finding that IEEPA simply does not authorize tariffs, going further than the more nuanced ruling in the Court of International Trade.
A blunt ruling that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs undercuts Trump’s ability to use tariffs as a “credible threat” in trade talks, the Department of Justice wrote in an emergency motion to the US court of appeals for the DC circuit, which has jurisdiction over the DC district court.
Four senior Trump officials, including secretary of state Marco Rubio and US trade representative Jamieson Greer had submitted affidavits to Contreras before his 29 May ruling, saying that stopping the tariffs would threaten the United States’ economic and national security by jeopardizing “delicate” trade negotiations with dozens of other nations.
The small businesses that brought the lawsuit, educational toy makers Learning Resources Inc and hand2mind, said they would oppose the Trump administration’s attempt to block the lower court ruling.
Top immigration officials defend arrest of Massachusetts high school student
The head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has defended his agency’s decision to arrest a Massachusetts high school student on his way to volleyball practice, saying: “He’s in this country illegally and we’re not going to walk away from anybody.”
Todd Lyons, the acting director of Ice, made those comments as reporters asked him during an event in Boston to explain why authorities on Saturday arrested 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, who has been in the United States since 2012.
The Brazilian’s arrest sparked a massive protest on Sunday in the Boston suburb of Milford, where he lives, and a demand for information about the incident from Democratic governor Maura Healey, who said she was “disturbed and outraged.”
Reuters reports that Lyons spoke about Gomes’ arrest while announcing the results of an immigration enforcement surge in Massachusetts that resulted in nearly 1,500 people being taken into custody last month as part of Donald Trump’s hardline effort to ramp up mass deportations.
Lyons and Patricia Hyde, the acting field director of Ice enforcement and removal operations in Boston, said Gomes was not the target of the investigation that led to his arrest and that authorities instead were seeking his father, who remains at large. “So obviously, he isn’t the father of the year because he brought his son up here illegally as well,” Lyons said.
The Milford high school student had been driving his father’s vehicle when he was arrested following a traffic stop, Lyons said. He said that when authorities encounter someone in the country illegally, “we will take action on that”.
“We’re doing the job that Ice should have been doing all along,” he said. “We enforce all immigration laws.”
A federal judge issued an emergency order on Sunday preventing authorities from transferring Gomes out of Massachusetts for at least 72 hours in response to a lawsuit arguing he was unlawfully detained.
The lawsuit said that Gomes entered the United States on a student visa. While his student visa status has lapsed, the lawsuit said he is eligible for and intends to apply for asylum.
China accuses US of ‘seriously violating’ trade truce
Here’s more on that from my colleague Amy Hawkins.
China has accused the US of “seriously violating” the fragile US-China detente that has been in place for less than a month since the two countries agreed to pause the trade war that risked upending the global economy.
China and the US agreed on 12 May to pause for 90 days the skyrocketing “reciprocal” tariffs that both countries had placed on the others goods in a frenzied trade war that started a few weeks earlier. Tariffs had reached 125% on each side, which officials feared amounted to virtual embargo on trade between the world’s two biggest economies.
Donald Trump had hailed the pause as a “total reset” of US-China relations. But since then, trade negotiations have faltered, with the US complaining that China has not delivered on promises to roll back restrictions on the export of key critical minerals to the US. The US president said on Friday that China had “totally violated” the agreement.
The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said on Sunday:
What China is doing is they are holding back products that are essential for the industrial supply chains of India, of Europe. And that is not what a reliable partner does.
During the period of aggressive retaliatory trade measures between the US and China in April, China had restricted the export of certain rare earth minerals and magnets, which are critical for US manufacturing.
The restrictions were expected to be relaxed after the 12 May agreement but the process appears to have been patchy at best. Now, US companies, particularly car manufacturers, are reportedly running out of magnets.
China hit back on Monday, accusing the US of violating and undermining the agreements reached in Geneva in May, and the consensus between Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s president, on their 17 January phone call.
China’s commerce ministry said on Monday:
The US has successively introduced a number of discriminatory restrictive measures against China, including issuing export control guidelines for AI chips, stopping the sale of chip design software to China, and announcing the revocation of Chinese student visas.
The ministry said China “is determined to safeguard its rights and interests” and denied the accusation from the US that it had undermined the 12 May agreement.
The US has indicated that another Xi-Trump call is expected soon.
Earlier we reported that Donald Trump is expected to speak directly with Chinese president Xi Jinping “in the coming days”. While this could still happen, Bloomberg reports (paywall) that China has lashed out today after Trump accused China of “totally violating” its initial trade deal last week, potentially “dimming the prospect of an immediate leadership call”.
Indeed, per Politico: “China said it was in fact the US that has breached the agreement Trump and Xi made in a January phone call. And from limiting chip exports to going after Chinese students, the US ‘insists on its own way and continues to damage China’s interests’, the commerce ministry said, threatening counter-measures.
“China’s crackdown on rare earth exports two months ago is starting to bite for US automakers in particular, which may have to start limiting production in a matter of days, the New York Times (paywall) reports. With China still not pulling back on the magnet restrictions, the US and Europe have this supply-chain Achilles’ heel exposed.”
Updated
Officials to hold news conference to announce charges against Boulder attack suspect
Boulder district attorney Michael Dougherty and acting United States attorney for the district of Colorado, Bishop Grewell, will hold a news conference at 2.30pm MDT (4.30pm ET), according to the Department of Justice.
Updated
Suspect in Colorado attack told police he researched for a year and targeted 'Zionist group' - AP
The FBI have said the man charged in the attack in Boulder, Colorado, that left eight people injured told police he planned it for a year and specifically targeted what he described as the “Zionist group”.
An FBI affidavit says Mohammed Soliman confessed to the attack after being taken into custody Sunday and told the police he would do it again, the Associated Press reports.
The affidavit was released in support of a federal hate crime charged filed by the justice department earlier today.
The group that was targeted had gathered in a popular pedestrian park in Boulder to draw attention to the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza.
The Islamic Center of Boulder has condemned the “targeted violence” of yesterday’s attack. “Such actions have no place in the Boulder community,” the center said in a statement today.
The statement reads:
Hate and violence oppose our values and are a threat to all Americans. We call on our neighbors to focus on supporting the victims of this terrible attack, and to reject those who would use this horrible incident to divide our community.
Every individual and every community has the constitutional right to peaceful assembly and free expression. These fundamental freedoms must be respected and safeguarded for everyone, regardless of their views or background.
Boulder attack has 'every single hallmark of being a hate crime', says Colorado attorney general
Earlier this morning, Colorado attorney general Phil Weiser said the Boulder attack was “very cruel” and has “every single hallmark of being a hate crime”.
“This was a peaceful march done every single week by the Jewish community, calling out the injustices of the hostages, and they were attacked because of who they are,” he said on MSNBC. “It is heart-wrenching for all of us in Colorado.”
“It is repulsive,” said Weiser, who is Jewish, of the violence. “It’s got to be condemned. There’s no possible justification for this.”
Updated
Trump says Boulder attack suspect 'must go' as he vows prosecution
Donald Trump has said the suspect in the Boulder attack would be prosecuted to “to the fullest extent of the law” and stressed the need for his deportation policies, saying the suspect “must go”.
“Yesterday’s horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “He must go out under ‘TRUMP’ Policy.”
Here’s the full post:
Yesterday’s horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America. He came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly. He must go out under “TRUMP” Policy. Acts of Terrorism will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law. This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland. My heart goes out to the victims of this terrible tragedy, and the Great People of Boulder, Colorado!
Updated
Boulder attack suspect charged with federal hate crime - CNN
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the suspect in yesterday’s attack in Boulder, Colorado, on a crowd who were raising awareness for Israeli hostages in Gaza has been charged with a hate crime, CNN is reporting citing an affidavit filed today.
He was charged with a “hate crime involving actual or perceived race, religion, or national origin”, CNN quotes the affidavit as saying.
Trump asks supreme court to allow mass federal layoffs
Donald Trump’s administration has asked the supreme court to halt a judicial order blocking mass job cuts and the restructuring of agencies, Reuters reports.
The justice department’s request came after San Francisco-based US district judge Susan Illston blocked large-scale federal layoffs, known as “reductions in force,” in a 22 May ruling siding with a group of unions, non-profit groups and local governments that challenged the administration.
The case involves the departments of agriculture, commerce, health and human services, state, treasury and veterans affairs, among others.
Trump directed federal agencies in February to “promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force” as part of his administration’s restructuring plans.
Illston wrote in her ruling that Trump had exceeded his authority in ordering the downsizing. “As history demonstrates, the president may broadly restructure federal agencies only when authorized by Congress,” Illston wrote.
Illston on 9 May had initially blocked about 20 agencies from making mass layoffs for two weeks and ordered the reinstatement of workers who had lost their jobs. She continued most of that relief in her 22 May ruling.
The San Francisco-based 9th US circuit court of appeals in a 2-1 ruling on 30 May denied the Trump administration’s request to halt the judge’s ruling.
The 9th Circuit said the administration had not shown that it would suffer an irreparable injury if the judge’s order remained in place and that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail in their lawsuit. “The executive order at issue here far exceeds the president’s supervisory powers under the Constitution,” the 9th Circuit wrote, calling the administration’s actions “an unprecedented attempted restructuring of the federal government and its operations.”
Trump’s administration has sought relief from the supreme court in a growing number of cases following rulings by lower courts impeding various policies since he returned to office in January.
Police found 16 additional molotov cocktails in the area where the Boulder attack suspect was spotted, CNN is reporting citing multiple law enforcement sources.
The suspect arrived in the area of the incident around 1pm local time and lingered there before throwing two incendiary devices, according to multiple law enforcement sources. He was wearing a utility vest over his shirt and was carrying a garden sprayer filled with gasoline, sources said.
Many witnesses said he looked like a gardener, officials added. He used the garden sprayer as the ‘makeshift flamethrower’, apparently, by spraying gasoline in the direction of the marchers while holding a lighter in front of the stream of fuel, sources said.
Investigators believe he stopped at gas stations in the area before the attack to fill the bottles and the garden sprayer.
Witnesses said the suspect took off his vest and shirt because they had started to catch fire during the attack, according to police. He was taken to an area hospital after his arrest for burns he sustained to his hands during the attack.
Democratic senator Chris Murphy has launched a new political action committee to help fund groups that are organizing opposition to the Trump administration.
The group, American Mobilization Pac, plans to spend $400,000 to organizations that oppose cuts to Medicaid and register young people to vote. The group expects to spend upwards of $2m in the 2026 midterm cycle, Politico reports.
In an interview with the outlet, Murphy said his Pac is unique because it is not focused on funding campaigns and instead is looking to mobilize people against Trump’s agenda. He said:
All of us have to realize that if we don’t act aggressively right now to organize and mobilize, we may not have our democracy in 2026. I’m a believer that the only thing that is ultimately going to stop Trump’s corruption and his destruction of democracy is mass mobilization.
The Boulder police department has released a mugshot of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who has been charged with multiple felonies related to the Sunday attack at an event in Boulder, Colorado to raise attention for Israeli hostages in Gaza.
At least 20 Planned Parenthood clinics across seven states have shuttered since the start of 2025 or have announced plans to close soon – closures that come amid immense financial and political turbulence for the reproductive health giant as the United States continues to grapple with the fallout from the end of Roe v Wade.
The Planned Parenthood network, which operates nearly 600 clinics through a web of independent regional affiliates and is overseen by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is facing a number of threats from the Trump administration.
A Guardian analysis has found that Planned Parenthood closures have occurred or are in the works across six affiliates that maintain clinics in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Utah and Vermont.
In late March, the Trump administration suddenly froze tens of millions of dollars in funding for nine Planned Parenthood affiliates, including at least two that have since closed clinics or are set to do so soon.
The funding, which flowed from the federal family planning program Title X, was used to provide services such as contraception, cancer screenings and STI tests.
Trump to speak to Xi Jinping 'very soon' in call likely to take place this week
Donald Trump is expected to have a direct conversation with Chinese president Xi Jinping in the coming days after his outburst last week accusing Beijing of “totally violating” an interim trade deal reached by the two countries in Geneva last month. According to CNBC the call will come “very soon” but probably not today.
Politico had also reported this morning that cabinet members confirmed yesterday that trade talks with China had slowed but had also hinted at the Trump-Xi conversation likely taking place this week. “That’s our expectation,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told ABC. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said a call should come “very soon”, telling CBS that China has slow-walked a critical minerals agreement – which was also cited by US trade representative Jamieson Greer last week.
Updated
Half of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders faced hate in 2024, study finds
Minnah Arshad
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders faced chilling levels of hate in 2024, a new survey has found, reflecting the impact of a divisive presidential election year that included historic representation and rampant anti-immigrant rhetoric.
The report by Stop AAPI Hate, shared exclusively with the Guardian ahead of its release, shines a light on underreported incidents largely overlooked in government data and national news media. The coalition conducted its second annual survey with Norc at the University of Chicago, a nonpartisan research organization. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they experienced a race-based hate act in 2024, a small rise from 49% in 2023. Incidents ranged from bullying at school and workplace discrimination to harassment and physical violence.
Four out of every 10 people who faced a hate act said they did not tell anyone, including friends or family. Of those who experienced a potentially unlawful hate act, including explicit threats, physical harm or institutional discrimination, 66% did not report the incident to authorities, often due to the belief that the act wasn’t significant enough or that reporting wouldn’t make a difference.
Grace Meng, a New York Democrat who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said the coalition’s report helps fill a critical data gap, which she regarded as the largest barrier to government leaders taking action. Awareness of anti-Asian bigotry had increased since a wave of high profile hate crimes during the Covid pandemic, Meng said, but since the general election, perpetrators seem empowered to openly express bigotry.
The coalition’s survey of nearly 1,600 Asian American and Pacific Islander adults took place from 7-15 January, days before Donald Trump’s inauguration. Over 80% of respondents expressed concern about the racial climate.
“Honestly, after this president was elected, many of us were nervous again,” Meng told the Guardian.
Just over four months into Trump’s second term, Meng is ringing the bell on a slew of anti-immigrant actions from secretary of state Marco Rubio last week announcing he will carry out revocations of Chinese students’ visas, to Trump’s attacks on birthright citizenship since his first day in office, and widespread funding cuts for a host of institutions.
Meng said she expects the administration’s rhetoric and actions against immigrant communities to translate into more anti-Asian hate and violence this year.
Suspect's visa had expired and asylum claim was pending, says DHS
Expanding on my last post, the suspect entered the country in August 2022 on a B-2 visa that expired in February 2023, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, has told NBC News.
“The Colorado Terrorist attack suspect, Mohamed Soliman, is illegally in our country,” McLaughlin said in a post on X. “He filed for asylum in September 2022.”
She told NBC News his asylum claim was pending. While his visa had expired, NBC notes, he had not yet exhausted all legal routes to staying in the US.
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Boulder suspect's work authorization expired at the end of March - CNN
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the suspect charged in the Boulder attack, arrived in the US in August 2022 as a non-immigrant visitor, CNN reports citing multiple law enforcement officials.
He filed a claim a month later, in September, and was granted a work authorization in March 2023. That authorization expired at the end of March of this year, at which point it appears he remained here illegally, the officials told CNN.
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Here is the full story so far from my colleague Adam Gabbatt.
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Boulder’s district attorney Michael Dougherty vowed “to hold the attacker fully accountable”.
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The victims were aged between 67 and 88 years old, Redfearn confirms.
Four victims were taken to Boulder community hospital, and two additional victims were airlifted to hospital in the Denver metro area. Some of the injuries were minor but one person was in critical condition, he said.
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During a press conference this morning, Boulder police chief Stephen Redfearn urged the community to come together in the wake of the attack, adding:
Now is not the time to be divisive.
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Boulder attack suspect booked on multiple charges, including felony use of incendiary devices
The suspect in the attack in Boulder is in custody after being booked in the county jail just before midnight on multiple felony charges including one count of explosives or incendiary devices used during a felony, and two counts of first degree assault and crimes against at risk adults or elderly people, according to CNN.
He also faces being potentially charged with two counts of first-degree murder, NBC News reports, though the circumstances around those charges are unclear, as authorities have not announced any deaths resulting from the attack.
The suspect has a court date scheduled for later today at 1:30pm MDT.
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Israeli prime minister condemns 'vicious terror attack'
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has this morning condemned the attack on a Jewish community event in Boulder, Colorado and said he prays for the “full recovery of the wounded in the vicious terror attack”.
Yesterday a man used a flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to attack an event that was being held in support of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to the FBI. The suspect yelled “Free Palestine!” during the attack, the FBI said.
At least eight people were injured, Boulder police said. The attack came on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
In comments reported by Israeli media, Netanyahu said:
This attack was aimed against peaceful people who wished to express their solidarity with the hostages held by Hamas, simply because they were Jews.
He said he believes the US will “prosecute the cold-blooded perpetrator to the fullest extent of the law”.
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Lawmakers condemn attack on Jewish community event in Colorado
Lawmakers have issued condemnations of violence following yesterday’s attack on a Jewish community event in Boulder.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said:
Terror has no place in our great country.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, condemned the attack, calling it a “vile, antisemitic act of terror” against the Jewish community. He went on:
Less than two weeks after the horrific antisemitic attack at the Capitol Jewish Museum in DC - and after two relentless years of surging antisemitic attacks across the country - the Jewish community is once again shattered by pain and heartbreak. Once again, Jews are left reeling from repeated acts of violence and terror.
Thousands of Jews around the world will wake up to this horrific news, just as they did after October 7. For many, it’s been over 600 days of unrelenting fear and trauma.
Elizabeth Warren, Democratic senator for Massachusetts, called the attack “terrible” adding: “We all have a responsibility to stop these antisemitic acts.”
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries also said the Jewish community in America had “once again become the target of a horrific, antisemitic attack,” adding that “antisemitism has no place in our nation or anywhere throughout the world”.
New York Democratic congressman Jerry Nadler, who is Jewish, described the attack as “reprehensible and horrific. I unequivocally condemn this deliberate, hate-fuelled act”.
Republican Congressman for Colorado’s eighth district, Gabe Evans, had his own clear message:
Hate has no home in Colorado.
“We are praying for all those affected,” he said and thanked law enforcement for their swift response.
Democratic representative Dan Goldman, from New York, another Jewish lawmaker, said:
This is what happens when antisemitic hate is normalized. This is what happens when too many remain silent in response to antisemitic hate.
• This post was amended at 12:37EDT to correct Elizabeth Warren’s state senatorship. She is a US senator for Massachusetts, not New York.
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The attack in Boulder occurred as people with a volunteer group called Run For Their Lives was concluding a weekly demonstration to raise visibility of the hostages who remain in Gaza.
Video from the scene shows a witness shouting, “He’s right there. He’s throwing molotov cocktails”, as a police officer with his gun drawn advances on a bare-chested suspect holding containers in each hand.
Alex Osante, of San Diego, said he was having lunch on a restaurant patio when he heard the crash of a bottle breaking on the ground, a “boom” sound followed by people yelling and screaming, AP reported.
In video of the scene captured by Osante, people can be seen pouring water on a woman lying on the ground who he said had caught on fire during the attack.
A man, who later identified himself as an Israeli visiting Boulder who decided to join the group that day, ran up to Osante on the video asking for some water to help.
After the initial attack, Osante said the suspect went behind some bushes and then re-emerged and threw a petrol bomb but apparently accidentally caught himself on fire as he threw it.
The man then took off his shirt and what appeared to be a bulletproof vest before the police arrived. The man dropped to the ground and was arrested without any apparent resistance.
One of the victims in Sunday’s attack on a group of Jewish community members in Colorado is a Holocaust survivor, a witness told CNN.
Eight people, ages 52 to 88, were injured when a suspect used a flame-thrower and molotov cocktails, according to the FBI.
One was “very seriously injured,” said Boulder police chief Stephen Redfearn.
Chany Scheiner, a friend of the survivor, told CNN affiliate KUSA:
She has spoken at our synagogues as well as other synagogues and schools just about her background and the Holocaust and from her own perspective.
She is passionate about standing up for good things and she is an extremely exceptional person. Always a smile on her face.
Her life wasn’t easy, but she is just a bright light. And anybody who is her friend is a friend for life.
A 45-year-old man, named as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was arrested on Monday in Boulder, Colorado, after he allegedly threw an incendiary device at a crowd gathered to support hostages held in Gaza.
“It is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism,” Mark Michalek, an FBI special agent, told a press conference.
Those injured were aged between 67 and 88, police said.
Key US weather monitoring offices understaffed as hurricane season starts
More than a dozen National Weather Service (NWS) forecast offices along the hurricane-prone Gulf of Mexico coast are understaffed as the US plunges into an expected active season for ruinous storms, data seen by the Guardian shows.
There is a lack of meteorologists in 15 of the regional weather service offices along the coastline from Texas to Florida, as well as in Puerto Rico – an area that takes the brunt of almost all hurricanes that hit the US. Several offices, including in Miami, Jacksonville, Puerto Rico and Houston, lack at least a third of all the meteorologists required to be fully staffed.
Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the Miami-based nerve center for tracking hurricanes, is short five specialists, the Guardian has learned, despite assurances from the Trump administration that it is fully staffed ahead of what’s anticipated to be a busy hurricane season that officially started on Sunday.
The center and local field offices work together to alert and prepare communities for incoming hurricanes, but they have been hit by job cuts and a hiring freeze imposed by the president, with more than 600 staff departing the NWS since Trump took power.
“The system is already overstretched and at some point it will snap,” said Tom Fahy, legislative director of the National Weather Service Employees Organization, an independent labor union and provider of the office staffing data. “We are at the snapping point now.”
The White House budget director Russ Vought on Sunday dismissed as “totally ridiculous” fears expressed by voters that cuts to benefits in the huge spending bill passed by the House will lead to premature deaths in America.
Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill act, now awaiting debate in the US Senate, will slash two major federal safety net programs, Medicaid, which provides healthcare to poor and disabled Americans, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which helps people afford groceries, which will affect millions of people if it becomes law.
Vought, director of the office of management and budget (OMB) and a key figure in Project 2025, the rightwing manifesto created to guide a second Trump term, defended the bill in an appearance on CNN on Sunday morning, also defending the lacerations to the federal workforce under Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge).
Vought was asked about a town hall meeting in Iowa last week hosted by the senator Joni Ernst where, when fielding questions about proposed cuts to Medicaid, a constituent yelled out that as a result people were going to die.
Ernst responded, to jeers: “People are not – well, we all are going to die. For heaven’s sakes, folks.”
Then, after the exchange went viral online, she posted a sarcastic non-apology video on Saturday, saying: “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth. So I apologize. And I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.”
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed a list of “sanctuary” states, cities and counties from its website following sharp criticism from a sheriffs’ association that said a list of “noncompliant” sheriffs could severely damage the relationship between the Trump administration and law enforcement.
DHS on Thursday published a list of what it called sanctuary jurisdictions that it deemed were included in areas that have a policy of limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The list prompted a response from the National Sheriffs’ Association, which represents more than 3,000 elected sheriffs across the country and generally supports federal immigration enforcement.
Sheriff Kieran Donahue, president of the association, said in a statement on Saturday that DHS published “a list of alleged noncompliant sheriffs in a manner that lacks transparency and accountability”. Donahue said the list was created without input from sheriffs and “violated the core principles of trust, cooperation, and partnership with fellow law enforcement”.
Donald Trump had called for his administration to tally apparent sanctuary jurisdictions, in a late April executive order, saying the lack of cooperation amounted to “a lawless insurrection”.
The DHS website listing the jurisdictions was offline on Sunday, an issue that Fox News host Maria Bartiromo raised with the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, on the talkshow Sunday Morning Futures.
“I saw that there was a list produced,” Bartiromo said. “Now, the list I don’t see anymore in the media. Do you have a list of the sanctuary cities that are actually hiding illegals right now?”
Noem did not acknowledge the list being taken offline but said some localities had bristled.
Russell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget (OMB), on Sunday cast doubt on the constitutional obligation of the White House to ask Congress to sign off on Donald Trump’s massive cuts to the federal workforce spearheaded by Elon Musk.
Vought indicated the White House preferred to rely on “executive tools” for all but a “necessary” fraction of the cuts instead of submitting the whole package of jobs and agency slashing that took place via the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), to the congressional branch for its official approval.
The White House budget director, in an interview with CNN on Sunday, also defended the widespread future cost-cutting proposed by the US president’s One Big Beautiful Bill act that was passed by the House last week, which covers budget proposals for the next fiscal year starting in October.
But, as Dana Bash, CNN’s State of the Union host, pointed out, Doge cut “funding and programs that Congress already passed”. And while those cuts, cited by the departing Musk as being worth $175bn, are tiny compared with the trillion or more he forecast, Vought said OMB was only going to submit about $9.4bn to Congress this week for sign-off. That amount is understood to mostly cover the crushing of the USAID agency and cuts to public broadcasting, which have prompted outrage and lawsuits.
Senior officials at the US Department of Veterans Affairs have ordered that VA physicians and scientists not publish in medical journals or speak with the public without first seeking clearance from political appointees of Donald Trump, the Guardian has learned.
The edict, laid down in emails on Friday by Curt Cashour, the VA’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, and John Bartrum, a senior adviser to VA secretary Doug Collins, came hours after the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a perspective co-authored by two pulmonologists who work for the VA in Texas.
“We have guidance for this,” wrote Cashour, a former Republican congressional aide and campaign consultant, attaching the journal article. “These people did not follow it.”
The article warned that cancelled contracts, layoffs and a planned staff reduction of 80,000 employees in the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system jeopardizes the health of a million veterans seeking help for conditions linked to toxic exposure – ranging from Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who developed cancer after being exposed to smoke from piles of flaming toxic waste.
“As pulmonologists in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), we have been seeing increasing numbers of veterans with chronic bronchitis, pulmonary fibrosis, asthma, and other respiratory conditions,” doctors Pavan Ganapathiraju and Rebecca Traylor wrote.
The authors, who practice at the VA in Austin, Texas, noted that in 2022 Congress dramatically expanded the number of medical conditions presumed to be linked to military service.
Boulder attack suspect lives in US illegally, White House says
The White House said on Sunday that the suspect arrested in connection with the Boulder, Colorado attack is an undocumented immigrant who overstayed a visa.
“A terror attack was committed in Boulder, Colorado by an illegal alien,” said Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, in a statement on X.
“He was granted a tourist visa by the Biden administration and then he illegally overstayed that visa. In response, the Biden administration gave him a work permit. Suicidal migration must be fully reversed,” he continued.
Law enforcement identified the suspect as Mohamed Soliman, 45. The attack occurred during a peaceful weekly walk organized to show solidarity with hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and to call for their release, The Hill reported.
At a press conference, FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said the suspect used a “makeshift flame-thrower” and incendiary devices during the attack and reportedly shouted “free Palestine.”
Six people, aged 67 to 88, were injured and hospitalized, with two airlifted to a burn unit. The FBI and local authorities are investigating the incident as an act of terrorism.
White House: Tariffs to stay despite legal setback
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that president Trump’s top economic advisers have said they would not be deterred by a court ruling that declared many of the administration’s tariffs illegal.
They cited other legal options the White House could use to pressure China and other countries into trade talks.
They also indicated that Trump had no plans to extend a 90-day pause on some of the highest tariffs, making it more likely those duties will take effect in July.
“Rest assured, tariffs are not going away,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Fox News Sunday.
Asked about the future of the suspended reciprocal tariffs first announced in April, Lutnick added: “I don’t see today that an extension is coming.”
It comes as China accused the US of “seriously violating” the fragile US-China detente that has been in place for less than a month since the two countries agreed to pause the trade war that risked upending the global economy.
China and the US agreed on 12 May to pause for 90 days the skyrocketing “reciprocal” tariffs that both countries had placed on the others goods in a frenzied trade war that started a few weeks earlier.
Tariffs had reached 125% on each side, which officials feared amounted to virtual embargo on trade between the world’s two biggest economies.
In other news:
The US veterans agency has ordered scientists not to publish in journals without clearance. The edict, laid down in emails on Friday by Curt Cashour, the VA’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, and John Bartrum, a senior adviser to VA secretary Doug Collins, came hours after the article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Russell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget (OMB), on Sunday cast doubt on the constitutional obligation of the White House to ask Congress to sign off on Donald Trump’s massive cuts to the federal workforce spearheaded by Elon Musk. Vought indicated the White House preferred to rely on “executive tools” for all but a “necessary” fraction of the cuts instead of submitting the whole package of jobs and agency slashing that took place via the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), to the congressional branch for its official approval.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed a list of “sanctuary” states, cities and counties from its website following sharp criticism from a sheriffs’ association that said a list of “noncompliant” sheriffs could severely damage the relationship between the Trump administration and law enforcement.
The White House budget director Russ Vought on Sunday dismissed as “totally ridiculous” fears expressed by voters that cuts to benefits in the huge spending bill passed by the House will lead to premature deaths in America. Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now awaiting debate in the US Senate, will slash two major federal safety net programs, Medicaid, which provides healthcare to poor and disabled Americans, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which helps people afford groceries, which will affect millions of people if it becomes law.
