Trump administration live updates: U.S. announces trade deal with U.K.; President says he will appoint Fox News host as interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.
Senators are expressing concerns about an escalating standoff after a terrorist attack in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir last month, which prompted India to retaliate with strikes on the Pakistan-administered areas of Kashmir and Pakistan itself.
Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, both emphasized to NBC News the necessity for both countries to de-escalate, and senators from both parties pointed to India's and Pakistan's nuclear status as reason for concern.
Other senators took a more definitive position criticizing Pakistan.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and member of the Armed Services Committee, called Pakistan a 'known harbor of terrorist organizations,' pointing to Osama bin Laden's compound and assassination in the country. Sheehy also said the escalation tensions between the two countries are 'not our problem.'
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., similarly said "our hands are full, the world is on fire, you know?' But Cramer clarified there would be nothing to gain with two nuclear powers getting involved in a potential war.
Upon hearing the first reports of the strikes, Trump called them 'a shame' and said he hoped the fighting 'ends very quickly.'
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NBC News
2 hours ago
- NBC News
Judges bring Trump's sweeping plan to deport foreign students to a standstill
President Donald Trump's sweeping bid to deport foreign students who have condemned the war in Gaza has been brought to a standstill by federal judges who have repeatedly ruled against the administration, according to an NBC News review of recent court filings. First, Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student, was arrested and transported hundreds of miles from his home. Then a graduate student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, Rümeysa Öztürk, was grabbed off the street by masked plainclothes federal agents. A third student, Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University postdoctoral scholar and professor, was arrested at his home, while another Columbia student, Mohsen Mahdawi, was detained at his naturalization interview. Since then, though, federal judges have rejected the administration's arguments about court jurisdiction and the continued detention of three of the four students. Federal judges freed Öztürk, Mahdawi and Suri. And a ruling on Khalil's possible release is expected soon. In separate legal setbacks for the administration, federal appeals courts upheld lower courts' orders requiring the government to transfer Öztürk to Vermont for a bail hearing and to release Mahdawi. And late last month, a judge issued an injunction blocking the administration from terminating the legal status of international students at universities across the United States. The judges have been appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents, including Trump. 'It has been very heartening to see the courts recognize the legal issues at play here and recognize that what the administration has been doing is unconstitutional,' said Esha Bhandari, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents several of the students. 'This reinforces just how important it is to have an independent judiciary that can protect individual rights and act as a check when the executive branch overreaches.' Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin predicted in a statement to NBC News that the administration would eventually prevail in court. 'These rulings delay justice and seek to kneecap the President's constitutionally vested powers,' she said. "We expect a higher court to vindicate us in this. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.' The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. Rarely used provision The Trump administration's primary legal argument is that foreign students and scholars can be deported under an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The law allows the secretary of state to remove noncitizens whose presence in the country would have 'potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.' Trump administration officials have argued that students who engaged in protests in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization, contributed to antisemitism on college campuses. Khalil and the other students have denied allegations of antisemitism and of providing support to Hamas or any other terrorist organization, and they say they have not participated in protests backing Hamas. None of the four face any publicly known criminal charges. The government has yet to disclose any evidence linking the students to Hamas or praising the group, which the United States designated a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. Attorneys representing the students have argued that their clients' detainment and the efforts to deport them are retaliation for constitutionally protected free speech and advocacy for Palestinian rights. Khalil, a legal permanent resident, played a key role in the student protests at Columbia University last year by leading negotiations between the protesters and university officials. The other Columbia student, Mahdawi, was a prominent organizer of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. Öztürk, a graduate student, wrote an op-ed in her student newspaper at Tufts University that was critical of the university's response to the war in Gaza. Last week, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled against the administration's claim that Khalil's beliefs and speech had adverse consequences for U.S. foreign policy. It was the first time a judge has said the government's primary justification for deporting Khalil was most likely unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said Secretary of State Marco Rubio failed to 'affirmatively determine' that Khalil's alleged conduct has affected U.S. relations with another country, adding that deporting Khalil under the provision would be 'unprecedented.' In response to a request for comment, a State Department spokesperson said, 'We don't comment on pending litigation.' Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation's border security and immigration center, said the judges were unfairly blocking Trump. 'There have been a lot of activist judges issuing rulings against the Trump administration,' Ries said. 'There is a clear effort, beyond even what we saw in Trump's first term, to slow down a lot of the efforts to enforce immigration law.' Daniel Kanstroom, a professor at Boston College Law School, predicted that judges would continue to rule in international students' favor. 'I think the courts are going to view this period as one in which the judiciary should and needs to exert a little more force and authority than it might do in other circumstances,' Kanstroom said. 'Just to bring the tone down a little bit and bring us back to a more normal interaction among the three branches.' Detention losses In April, U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ruled that Mahdawi, 34, a U.S. permanent resident who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, should be released from a Vermont immigration detention facility on bail. Crawford said Mahdawi's continued detention would be likely to have a 'chilling effect on protected speech.' The government opposed freeing Mahdawi, citing law enforcement records that indicated he was 'involved in and supporting antisemitic acts of violence' and that he had 'an interest in and facility with firearms for that purpose,' according to court documents filed under seal but reviewed by NBC News. But in a court order, Crawford said law enforcement had determined that a Vermont gun shop owner's accusations against Mahdawi were unsubstantiated. In May, U.S. District Judge William Sessions III freed Öztürk from detention, writing, 'There has been no evidence introduced by the government other than the op-ed,' referring to the student newspaper op-ed in which Öztürk called on Tufts to acknowledge the war in Gaza. 'That literally is the case. There is no evidence here,' Sessions said. Sessions said Öztürk's continued detention infringed on her First Amendment and due process rights. He added that it might be justified 'if the government had presented a legitimate case for it, but it has not done so.' Legal struggle ahead No cases involving the deportation of foreign students for their condemnation of the war in Gaza are before the Supreme Court, but they could be in the future. Conor Fitzpatrick, a supervising senior attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit civil liberties group, said the Supreme Court has yet to address the intersection of executive power, immigration law and free speech. Until it does, the fate of foreign students and scholars in the United States remains uncertain. 'There is a real sense of unease for international students and international faculty about whether they can feel safe voicing their opinions,' Fitzpatrick said. 'They're worried about risking their immigration status, and that is a harm that is going to take a long time to undo.' John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who served as a senior Justice Department official during the George W. Bush administration, said the cases will create a unique challenge for the Supreme Court. 'The two things that this court has been very supportive of are coming into collision,' Yoo said. 'The Roberts Court has been very deferential to the executive branch in general. On the other hand, this court has also been extremely protective of freedom of speech.' He added, 'It's going to cause a lot of tension at the court.'
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Ted Cruz leads senators in plan to designate June Pro-Life Month during Pride Month
While last week marked the start of Pride Month, Ted Cruz is leading more than two dozen senators in an effort to designate June as 'Life Month.' The Texas lawmaker introduced the joint ''Life Month Resolution' to the upper chamber Tuesday to 'recognize that every human life is a sacred gift from God,' it states. 'Every human life is worthy of protection, and it is especially incumbent upon Americans and lawmakers to protect the most vulnerable among us,' Cruz said in a statement. 'Designating June as Life Month is a recommitment to the American principle that every life has dignity. I call on my colleagues in the Senate to swiftly pass this resolution.' Cruz's office stated that the resolution was intended to commemorate the third anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which occurred on June 24, 2022. President Donald Trump has repeatedly bragged about being able to 'kill Roe v. Wade ' by installing three conservative Supreme Court justices to reverse the decision. While Cruz did not explicitly express the aim to replace any other awareness month, social media users were quick to argue that the resolution contradicts June's recognition as Pride Month, which celebrates LGBTQ+ individuals and communities worldwide. 'June is pride month, ted cruz,' one person responded to Cruz on X. 'The month was already called for; find another one,' another added, this time directed at Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, who co-sponsored the resolution. A total of 26 GOP senators have also co-sponsored the resolution, including conservative firebrands Tuberville, John Cornyn of Texas, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. 'If we are going to dedicate entire months to recognizing every group under the sun, the least we can do is dedicate June to protecting unborn babies,' Tuberville tweeted Wednesday. The resolution is also supported by 22 anti-abortion organizations, including Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom and Heritage Action, a subsidiary of the far-right think tank the Heritage Foundation. A companion resolution was introduced to the House by New Jersey Representative Chris Smith, who said it calls for Americans to put a stop to the 'dismembering [of] helpless babies with sharp knife-like curettes or poisoning babies with pills that literally starve them to death and often result in their bodies being flushed down a toilet.'
The Herald Scotland
6 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
US travel ban 2025: Who is barred, what it means for future trips
Trump issued travel suspensions for Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela nationals. The White House emphasized that the ban targets countries with "high visa overstay rates" and that are "deficient with regards to screening and vetting." There are similarities to Trump's controversial 2017 "Muslim ban," which targeted several majority-Muslim nations and faced widespread protests and legal challenges. Former President Joe Biden, a Democrat who served following Trump's first term, repealed the ban in 2021, calling it "a stain on our national conscience." This latest ban includes exceptions for lawful permanent residents, current visa holders, and certain visa categories and "individuals whose entry serves U.S. national interests," though those qualifications were not specified. What should international travelers know? The impact on international travelers varies: tourism, work, and student visa applicants from affected countries may face delays or denials. Those already in the U.S. may still be able to renew their visas, but reentry could be complicated. The move fulfills one of Trump's 2024 campaign pledges and follows a recent antisemitic attack in Colorado, which the president said on Truth Social, was "yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland." Travelers should consult the U.S. State Department's website or an immigration attorney for the latest guidance, especially if they are from or have family in one of the listed countries. Which nationals are barred from entering the US? The full travel ban applies to nationals of the following 12 countries: Afghanistan Burma (Myanmar) Chad Republic of the Congo Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Haiti Iran Libya Somalia Sudan Yemen Additionally, partial restrictions are imposed on nationals from: Burundi Cuba Laos Sierra Leone Togo Turkmenistan Venezuela When does the travel ban start? The travel restrictions will take effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday, June 9, 2025, according to a report from NBC News. What happens to travelers from these countries when they arrive at an airport? Travelers from the fully banned countries who attempt to enter the U.S. after the ban takes effect will likely be denied boarding by airlines or turned away upon arrival in the U.S. Those from partially restricted countries may face additional scrutiny, delays, or denial of entry, depending on their visa type and purpose of travel. What will happen to those with tickets already? Individuals from the affected countries who have already purchased tickets to travel to the U.S. should consult with their airlines and the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. While some exceptions exist, most travelers from the fully banned countries are expected to be denied entry. Those from partially restricted countries may still be allowed to travel, subject to additional screening and requirements. Travelers are advised to review the latest guidance from the U.S. Department of State and consult with immigration attorneys if they have concerns about their eligibility to enter the U.S. under the new proclamation. Contributing: Reuters
