Photos of Juneteenth celebrations commemorating end to slavery
Juneteenth celebrations took place across the U.S., commemorating the day in 1865 when enslaved Black people in Texas learned of their freedom. While long honored by Black Americans, the holiday has gained broader recognition since becoming a federal holiday in 2021 under President Joe Biden, who attended an event in Galveston, Texas, where Juneteenth began.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Wife of Colorado terror suspect makes desperate plea from ICE detention
The wife of an Egyptian national accused of hurling makeshift flamethrowers at pro-Israel protesters has issued a desperate plea from an ICE facility where she and her five children are being held. Hayam El Gamal, 43, and her children were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on June 3 - just days after her husband, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, allegedly attacked a demonstration honoring the October 7 victims who are still being held hostage by Hamas militants in Gaza. A dozen people between the ages of 52 and 88 were injured in the attack, which federal prosecutors believe Soliman planned out over the course of a year - driven by his anger toward Israel and his animosity toward 'Zionists.' The terror suspect is now facing 118 state charges, including attempted murder, as well as a federal hate crime charge for the assault. In a statement on Wednesday, El Gamal insisted she and her children had no idea what her husband was reportedly planning as she begged Americans to push for her and her family's release. 'My children and I are in total shock over what they say my husband did in Boulder, Colorado earlier this month,' she said in the statement released by her Michigan-based immigration attorney, Eric Lee. 'So many lives were ruined that day. There is never an excuse for hurting innocent people,' El Gamal said from the Dilley Family Detention Center in Texas. 'We have been cooperating with the authorities, who are trying their best to get to the bottom of this. We send our love to the many families who are suffering as a result of the attack.' She then went on to question why she and her children are being punished for the actions of her husband and their father. 'Why punish any of us, who did nothing wrong?' El Gamal said, noting that on the night of June 3 she and her five children were put on a flight and transferred to Colorado to the Texas-based facility. Her eldest daughter, Habiba Soliman, has since turned 18 at the ICE detention center, while her seven year old and 15 year old also have upcoming birthdays. At the detention center, El Gamal said the family is 'treated like animals by the officers who told us we are going to be punished for what my husband is accused of doing,' and claimed that her youngest children were 'forced to watch officials rough up' another detainee. 'They cried and cried, thinking they would be roughed up, too.' She also claimed that the conditions at the Dilley Family Detention Center are inhumane, and detainees are always being watched and woken up in the middle of the night. Now, the mother-of-five says all her children want 'is to be home, to be in school, to have privacy, to sleep in their own beds, to have their mother make them a home cooked meal, to help them grieve and get through these terrible weeks.' 'But instead, we are here, in jail in Texas, where you can't be human,' El Gamal said. She also claimed she and her family have 'tried to do everything right' since they arrived in the United States on a visa in August 2022, noting that they learned English, found work and were good neighbors 'cooking food for those around us regardless of whether they are Muslim, Christian or Jewish. 'I do not judge anyone based on his religion. If your heart is good, that's enough,' El Gamal continued, arguing she just wants 'to give my children good lives. 'It has been two weeks in jail, how much longer will we be here for something we didn't do? How much longer until the damage to my children is irreversible?' she said. 'It has been so hard for me to stay strong for my kids. I'm so tired. 'I ask the American people, with all my heart, to please listen to our story and help us,' she pleaded. Meanwhile, her attorney is fighting to get the family to remain in the United States - arguing that it is unclear why they are being detained. In court documents filed last week, federal prosecutors note that the family entered the United States with B1 visitor visas in 2022, which are meant to be used for business purposes, such as conferences, according to KDVR. Soliman then filed for asylum on September 29, 2022, listing his wife and five children as dependents - and he was granted a work authorization in March 2023. That asylum claim is still pending, according to a petition provided to a federal judge last week, which also noted that El Gamal is a network engineer with a pending EB2 visa - which is given to professionals with advanced degrees. But Lee argued to CNN, 'The issue here is whether they can be detained when the government has explicitly stated that its reason for detaining them is not because of their visa stays, but is because of their relationship to their husband/father.' In fact, the family had been set for expedited removal following Soliman's attack, which would allow immigration officials to remove them without a hearing before an immigration judge. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem noted at the time that her agency was 'investigating to what extent [Soliman's] family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it.' However, El Gamal has not been charged with any wrongdoing, Lee notes. 'The government can't detain individuals for unlawful purposes,' he said, as a federal judge approved his request to extend a temporary restraining order issued by a different judge on June 4. Biden-appointed US District Court Judge Gordon Gallagher ruled at the time that deporting them without adequate process could cause 'irreparable harm.' The order has now been extended for another 14 days, during which the family is expected to have an immigration hearing. has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. My name is Hayam El Gamal. My five children and I are in total shock over what they say my husband did in Boulder, Colorado earlier this month. So many lives were ruined on that day. There is never an excuse for hurting innocent people. We have been cooperating with the authorities, who are trying their best to get to the bottom of this. We send our love to the many families who are suffering as a result of the attack. My kids and I were arrested by ICE on June 3, put on a flight to Texas in the middle of the night and have now been in an immigration jail in Texas for two weeks. This includes my two four-year-old children, my seven-year-old, my fifteen-year-old, and my oldest daughter, who just turned eighteen in jail. We are grieving, and we are suffering. We are treated like animals by the officers, who told us we are being punished for what my husband is accused of doing. But why punish me? Why punish my four-year-old children? Why punish any of us, who did nothing wrong? Since coming to America three years ago, we have tried to do everything right. We got work permits. We learned English. My daughter and I volunteered teaching English to other immigrants, to help them become more comfortable in America. We have always tried to be good neighbors, cooking food for those around us regardless of whether they are Muslim, Christian or Jewish. I do not judge anyone based on his religion. If your heart is good, that's enough. All I want is to give my children good lives. My oldest daughter volunteered at a hospital; she has a 4.5 GPA and wants to become a doctor, to help people in this country. My kids want to go to school, they want to see their friends and deal with their grief from recent weeks. But here they can't sleep. They cry throughout the day, asking me, 'When will we get to go home?' When we were first detained, my children were forced to watch officials rough-up another detainee, and they cried and cried, thinking they would be roughed-up, too. Now my seven-year-old is about to have her birthday in jail, and my fifteen-year-old, too. All they want is to be home, to be in school, to have privacy, to sleep in their own beds, to have their mother make them a home-cooked meal, to help them grieve and get through these terrible weeks. But instead, we are here, in jail in Texas, where you can't be human. Where you are always being watched. Where you are woken up in the middle of the night by guards and given food fit for animals. Only mothers can truly understand what we are going through. I did everything for my kids. It has been two weeks in jail, how much longer will we be here for something we didn't do? How much longer until the damage to my children is irreversible? It has been so hard for me to stay strong for my kids. I'm so tired. I ask the American people, with all my heart, to please listen to our story and help us.
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Israel has done most of the job — now Trump can finish it
For any US president, the decision whether to intervene in a foreign war is a momentous one. This is the week when President Trump has to make that decision. Should he, or should he not, use American air power to finish the job Israel has very nearly completed, ensuring that Iran never possesses nuclear weapons? We understand why Trump is weighing the decision with the utmost care — why he gave negotiations with Iran a 60-day chance, and why he has spent many hours with his national security team, hearing their different views. Opponents of US military action tell a simplified story of past interventions — in Vietnam, most obviously, but some also cite Iraq and Afghanistan — that led to 'forever wars'. But isolationists have trouble arguing that the US should never intervene abroad. Would the Cold War have gone better if Harry Truman had abandoned South Korea to Stalin's proxies in 1950? Would the Middle East have benefited if Kuwait had been left in Saddam Hussein's hands in 1991? Would the Balkans be stabler today if Bill Clinton had not belatedly acted to save Bosnia and then Kosovo from Slobodan Milošević's aggression? None of these analogies is really applicable anyway, because the US today is not being asked to send soldiers to invade or occupy Iran. The action President Trump must decide upon is clearly defined and limited in its duration and scale, since much of the work of defeating Iran has already been done by Israel. The past six days have marked a strategic inflection point. After decades of preparation, Israel has acted: striking critical nuclear sites, dismantling missile production lines, and eliminating senior figures in Iran's military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. These operations have already set Iran's programme back by years. The current campaign did not begin spontaneously. It is the result of a long-planned strategy built on four prerequisites: neutralising Hezbollah, crippling Iran's ballistic missile production, establishing an air corridor to Tehran — and later, air superiority over Iran — and securing American support. The first three were achieved by October. Once the fourth was in place, earlier this month, the campaign could begin. We both salute the extraordinary skill with which the Israel Defence Forces and Mossad have executed Israel's war plan. For generations, cadets at military academies around the world will study Operation Rising Lion as a classic of modern asymmetric warfare, brilliantly combining mastery in the air with covert operations. Much of Iran's nuclear weapons programme now lies in ruins, and many of the scientists who ran it are dead. But one key site remains, at Fordow. Deep underground and heavily fortified, it holds the core of Iran's remaining enrichment capability: eight cascades with over 3,000 centrifuges. The facility's scale allows Iran to rapidly enrich weapons-grade uranium. It could do so in just three weeks, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Leaving it intact risks allowing the Islamic Republic to rebuild and resume its quest for the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. Fordow is built into the mountains near Qom, encased under at least 90 metres of limestone, and protected by additional layers of reinforced concrete shielding and other structural defence measures that increase the facility's ability to survive a heavy air attack. There is no credible way that Israel alone can destroy it. Only one air force has the power to finish off Fordow. The US designed and built the GBU 57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) precisely for such a task. The MOP is a 30,000-pound, 20-foot-long weapon. Its warhead contains 5,300 pounds of explosives. Cased in a hard steel alloy, the weapon is dropped from high altitude, accelerates to Mach 2 or 3, punches into the target, and rips through layers of protection before detonating. Three to eight MOPs would suffice to render Fordow defunct. The MOP is designed for American B-2 Spirits, all of which are based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Each B-2 can carry two MOPs, meaning a strike wave of two to six B-2s delivering four to 12 MOPs would get the job done. Fordow is 6,800 miles away from Missouri, so the B-2s would need to refuel at least twice and potentially five times. The US has moved exactly the requisite number of tankers from North American bases to Europe. One of us devoted considerable time and effort to considering ways that Israel could achieve the same result with the F-15Es it possesses and the 2,000 and 5,000-pound bombs they can carry, or with a Second World War–style commando raid behind enemy lines. Neither option is realistic. Only America can do this. Only President Trump can order it. Primo Levi's novel If Not Now, When? is about a group of Jewish resistance fighters who desperately defy the might of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front in the Second World War. The Holocaust has been much on the minds of Israelis since October 7, 2023, an Iran-sponsored atrocity that was consciously intended as a trailer for a second Shoah. But the question 'If not now, when?' is also an ancient Jewish one, posed by Hillel the Elder more than two millennia ago. It is the question we would now ask President Trump. And we would add another question: If B-2s and MOPs were not designed for precisely this purpose, then what use are they? A nuclear-armed Iran would pose more than a threat to the Israeli people and their state. Its missiles could reach Gulf capitals and Europe. Those missiles could allow Iran to sponsor terror and wage conventional war with impunity. The result would be a nuclear arms race in the Gulf. By destroying Fordow, President Trump would create a new equilibrium in the Middle East and re-establish American leadership. The strike would focus solely on eliminating Iran's nuclear arms programme, but it should be accompanied by a clear message: If Iran attempts to target the US or its Gulf allies, it will risk the elimination of its regime. There is an economic consideration too. The longer the current conflict continues, the greater the risk to energy markets and global economic stability. Running out of missiles and launchers, its military command structure disabled by assassinations, Iran must now be contemplating desperate measures such as attacks on its Arab neighbours or mining the Strait of Hormuz, in the hope that these might deter US intervention. Decisive action now can prevent an oil-price shock. Israel has moved and continues to move with determination and dispatch. The support of allies, first and foremost the US, has been crucial. Now, with a single exertion of its unmatched military strength, the US can shorten the war, prevent wider escalation and end the principal threat to Middle Eastern stability. It can also send a signal to those other authoritarian powers who have been Iran's enablers that American deterrence is back. This is a rare moment when strategic alignment and operational momentum converge. It must not be missed. Niall Ferguson is the Milbank Family senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford. Yoav Gallant is the former Israeli minister of defence. He writes The Defense Memo substackThis article first appeared at
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Trump celebrates 'big win' over 'incompetent and ill prepared' Gavin Newsom after judge makes key decision on LA protests
Donald Trump celebrated a victory over Gavin Newsom after an appeals allowed him to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed to Los Angeles to handle anti-ICE riots. Trump wrote on Truth Social: 'BIG WIN in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the President's core power to call in the National Guard!' 'The Judges obviously realized that Gavin Newscum is incompetent and ill prepared, but this is much bigger than Gavin, because all over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done,' he added. 'This is a Great Decision for our Country, and we will continue to protect and defend Law abiding Americans. Congratulations to the Ninth Circuit, America is proud of you tonight!' The decision halts a ruling from a lower court judge who found Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over opposition from Newsom. The deployment was the first by a president of a state National Guard without the governor´s permission since 1965. In its decision, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously concluded it was likely Trump lawfully exercised his authority in federalizing control of the guard. It said that while presidents don't have unfettered power to seize control of a state's guard, the Trump administration had presented enough evidence to show it had a defensible rationale for doing so, citing violent acts by protesters. 'The undisputed facts demonstrate that before the deployment of the National Guard, protesters `pinned down´ several federal officers and threw `concrete chunks, bottles of liquid, and other objects´ at the officers. Protesters also damaged federal buildings and caused the closure of at least one federal building. And a federal van was attacked by protesters who smashed in the van´s windows,' the court wrote. 'The federal government´s interest in preventing incidents like these is significant.' It also found that even if the federal government failed to notify the governor of California before federalizing the National Guard as required by law, Newsom had no power to veto the president´s order. Trump celebrated the decision on his Truth Social platform, calling it a 'BIG WIN.' He wrote that 'all over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done.' Newsom issued a statement that expressed disappointment that the court is allowing Trump to retain control of the Guard. But he also welcomed one aspect of the decision. 'The court rightly rejected Trump´s claim that he can do whatever he wants with the National Guard and not have to explain himself to a court,' Newsom said. 'The President is not a king and is not above the law. We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump´s authoritarian use of U.S. military soldiers against citizens.' The court case could have wider implications on the president´s power to deploy soldiers within the United States after Trump directed immigration officials to prioritize deportations from other Democratic-run cities. Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to descend on the city in an effort to quell days-long chaos amid ICE raids targeting illegal migrants. Soon after, Trump took to his Truth Social and applauded the National Guard for stepping in to control 'these radical left protests,' while also calling out Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass for being 'unable to handle the task.' 'Great job by the National Guard in Los Angeles after two days of violence, clashes and unrest. We have an incompetent Governor (Newscum) and Mayor (Bass) who were, as usual (just look at how they handled the fires, and now their VERY SLOW PERMITTING disaster. Federal permitting is complete!), unable to to handle the task,' the president wrote. 'These Radical Left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will NOT BE TOLERATED. Also, from now on, MASKS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to be worn at protests. What do these people have to hide, and why??? Again, thank you to the National Guard for a job well done!' Trump argued that the troops were necessary to restore order. Newsom said the move inflamed tensions, usurped local authority and wasted resources. The protests have since appeared to be winding down. Two judges on the appeals panel were appointed by Trump during his first term. During oral arguments Tuesday, all three judges suggested that presidents have wide latitude under the federal law at issue and that courts should be reluctant to step in. The case started when Newsom sued to block Trump´s command, and he won an early victory from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco. Breyer found that Trump had overstepped his legal authority, which he said only allows presidents can take control during times of 'rebellion or danger of a rebellion.' 'The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of `rebellion,´' wrote Breyer, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton and is brother to retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. The Trump administration, though, argued that courts can´t second guess the president´s decisions and quickly secured a temporary halt from the appeals court. The ruling means control of the California National Guard will stay in federal hands as the lawsuit continues to unfold. Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people in the country illegally and lock down the US-Mexico border, with the White House setting a goal for ICE to arrest at least 3,000 migrants per day. But the sweeping immigration crackdown has also included people legally residing in the country, including some with permanent residence, and has led to legal challenges. Los Angeles, the second-most populous city in the United States, is one of the most diverse metropolises in the country.
