Good and bad news for Ireland from Trump's UK deal
Good morning.
The Cabinet gathers at Government Buildings for its weekly meeting with the spectre of
Donald Trump
once again looming large over events. Tánaiste
Simon Harris
will brief his colleagues on initial analysis by officials of the US-UK trade deal announced last week. There's good news and bad news. The good news is that officials say that the tricky situation of differential tariff rates for North and South has been averted for now anyway; the bad news is that the agreement with the UK suggests that the US sees tariffs as an essential part of the future arrangements with the rest of the world. In other words, Harris will tell his colleagues, even if there is a trade agreement between the EU and the US in the coming months – and that's a big if – there is likely to be tariffs. This is the 'new reality', he will tell the Cabinet. And that will suppress trade and therefore growth.
As we report this morning
, yesterday was a good example of just how unpredictable and volatile the trade policy environment right now. The US and China announced they would set aside the recent massive tariffs for 90 days to try to create the conditions for a new agreement.
'We're not looking to hurt China,' said Donald Trump – which is a new angle for him, you'd have to say.
READ MORE
A couple of hours later, Trump announced a new executive order
designed to cut drug prices in the US
– though critics immediately said that the order didn't include any actual measures that would reduce costs, and as such amounted to a request to the pharma companies to cut their prices. Maybe they will. Give Trump a victory and then move on. That would certainly be welcomed in Dublin, fretting about the pharma companies who pay so much corporation tax here. Then again, things could change again today.
Row brewing over Leaving Cert reforms
Teachers could be
subjected to salary deductions
if they don't implement Leaving Cert forms, Carl O'Brien reports.
According to proposals from the Department of Education, teachers could lose 5 per cent of their salaries – money they are being paid under pay agreements requiring workplace flexibility – if they refuse to co-operate with Leaving Cert reforms. Officials say unions will be in breach of pay deals giving them 2 per cent and 3 per cent pay rises. The ASTI is threatening not to co-operate with the plan, but Minister for Education Helen McEntee will tell the Cabinet today that she intends to push on with Leaving Cert reforms, despite the objections. Well, every minister for education has to have a row with the teachers at some stage.
Martin trades barbs with Orban
Taoiseach Micheál Martin
has tangled with
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban over plans for Ukraine to join the EU. Orban has repeatedly threatened to use Hungary's veto to block the move, which Martin described as 'outrageous' in an interview with Euronews, complaining of 'wilful abuse of the veto'. Orban hit back, complaining that Hungary 'always regarded Irish patriots as champions of freedom and national independence', and accusing Martin of siding with 'an empire'.
Best reads
Irish Times chess columnist JJ Walsh
retires after 70 years
and – get this – nearly 16,000 puzzles. Nice piece by Ronan McGreevy.
Work on the BusConnects corridors
will start in the autumn
. Expect there to be blue murder. If the cycle tracks are anything to go by, they should be finished by about 2100.
A
collapsed Victorian cottage
in Ranelagh is owned by . . . the Construction Industry Federation.
London Correspondent Mark Paul on Labour's
tough new stance on immigration
in the UK.
Donald Trump
offers to join
the Russia-Ukraine talks.
On Monday's
Inside Politics podcast
, Simon Harris answered questions on housing, the Occupied Territories Bill and more.
Playbook
Cabinet meets at Government Buildings this morning – Jack Horgan-Jones has a
preview of some of the agenda items
, including a plan to poach US academics and researchers.
The Dáil resumes at 2pm with Leaders' Questions, followed by the Order of Business and Taoiseach's questions. There's statements on higher education, Sinn Féin Private Members' business and health questions. Quiet day in the Seanad and there's little meaningful business yet at the committees.
Read the full Oireachtas schedule here
.
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Irish Examiner
11 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
ieExpains: How can Trump use the national guard on US soil?
Donald Trump's administration has ordered the deployment of 4,000 national guard members and 700 marines in response to protests against deportation operations in Los Angeles. The deployment of soldiers into the city comes despite the objections of local officials and the California governor, and appeared to be the first time in decades that a president activated a state's national guard without a request from its governor. Governor Gavin Newsom has sued to block the use of military forces to accompany federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, calling it an 'illegal deployment'. 'The federal government is now turning the military against American citizens. Sending trained warfighters on to the streets is unprecedented and threatens the very core of our democracy,' Newsom wrote. Here are some things to know about when and how the president can deploy troops on US soil. The laws are a bit vague Generally, federal military forces are not allowed to carry out civilian law enforcement duties against US citizens except in times of emergency. An 18th-century wartime law called the Insurrection Act is the main legal mechanism a president can use to activate the military or national guard during times of rebellion or unrest. But Trump didn't invoke the Insurrection Act on Saturday. A protester taunts a line of California National Guard protecting a federal building in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer) Instead, he relied on a similar federal law that allows the president to federalize national guard troops under certain circumstances. Trump used Title 10 authority, which places him rather than the governor at the head of the chain of command, to call part of California's national guard into federal service. The national guard is a hybrid entity that serves both state and federal interests. Often, it operates under state command and control, using state funding. Sometimes national guard troops will be assigned by their state to serve federal missions, remaining under state command but using federal funding. The law cited by Trump's proclamation places national guard troops under federal command. The law says this can be done under three circumstances: when the US is invaded or in danger of invasion; when there is a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the US government; or when the president is unable to 'execute the laws of the United States', with regular forces. But the law also says that orders for those purposes 'shall be issued through the governors of the States'. It's not immediately clear whether the president can activate national guard troops without the order of that state's governor. Trump has baselessly claimed paid 'rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion' are leading the protests in LA. Protesters confront a line of U.S. National Guard in the metropolitan detention center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night's immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer) The role of the national guard troops and marines will be limited Trump's proclamation said the national guard troops would play a supporting role by protecting US immigration officers as they enforce the law, rather than having the troops perform law enforcement work. Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center who specializes in military justice and national security law, says that's because national guard troops can't legally engage in ordinary law enforcement activities unless Trump first invokes the Insurrection Act, which authorizes the president to use military forces domestically in the event of an insurrection or rebellion. Vladeck said the move raises the risk that the troops could end up using force while filling that 'protection' role. The move could also be a precursor to other, more aggressive troop deployments down the road, he wrote on his website. 'There's nothing these troops will be allowed to do that, for example, the ICE officers against whom these protests have been directed could not do themselves,' Vladeck wrote. The 700 marines that arrived in the city on Tuesday were there to protect federal officials and property, and not to respond to the protests, the Marine Corps commandant said. A line of California National Guard, stand in formation guarding a Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo Jae Hong) California's attorney general, Rob Bonta, has said that the Trump administration intends to use 'unlawfully federalized National Guard troops and Marines to accompany federal immigration enforcement officers on raids throughout Los Angeles'. How much will it cost, and how it the administration defending it? Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, said he expected the military would remain in the city for 60 days at a cost of at least $134m. He defended the deployment, telling a US House subcommittee on Tuesday that they were there 'to maintain the peace on behalf of law enforcement officers in Los Angeles, which Gavin Newsom won't do', he said. Peter Aguilar, US congressman for California's 33rd district, asked about the justification for using 'the military for civilian law enforcement purposes in LA'. 'Every American citizen deserves to live in a community that's safe, and Ice agents need to be able to do their job. They're being attacked for doing their job, which is deporting illegal criminals. That shouldn't happen in any city, Minneapolis or Los Angeles, and if they're attacked, that's lawless,' Hegseth replied. President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez) For his part, Trump has said his administration had 'no choice' but to send in troops, and argued that his decision 'stopped the violence'. California leaders, meanwhile, have countered that the administration's moves are intentionally inflammatory, and that the Trump administration is using Los Angeles as an 'experiment'. Troops have been mobilized before The Insurrection Act and related laws were used during the civil rights era to protect activists and students desegregating schools. Dwight Eisenhower sent the 101st airborne to Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect Black students integrating Central high school after that state's governor activated the national guard to keep the students out. George HW Bush used the Insurrection Act to respond to riots in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of white police officers who were videotaped beating Black motorist Rodney King. National guard troops have been deployed for a variety of emergencies, including the Covid pandemic, hurricanes and other natural disasters. But generally, those deployments are carried out with the agreements of the governors of the responding states. Trump is willing to use the military on home soil In 2020, Trump asked governors of several states to deploy their national guard troops to Washington DC to quell protests that arose after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Many of the governors agreed, sending troops to the federal district. President Donald Trump gestures after speaking at Fort Bragg, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Fort Bragg, N.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) At the time, Trump also threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act for protests following Floyd's death in Minneapolis – an intervention rarely seen in modern American history. But then defense secretary Mark Esper pushed back, saying the law should be invoked 'only in the most urgent and dire of situations'. Trump never did invoke the Insurrection Act during his first term. But while campaigning for his second term, he suggested that would change. Trump told an audience in Iowa in 2023 that he had been prevented from using the military to suppress violence in cities and states during his first term, and said that if the issue came up again in his next term: 'I'm not waiting.' Trump also promised to deploy the national guard to help carry out his immigration enforcement goals, and his top adviser, Stephen Miller, explained how that would be carried out: sympathetic Republican governors would send troops to nearby states that refused to participate, Miller said on The Charlie Kirk Show in 2023. After Trump announced he was federalizing the national guard troops on Saturday, the defense secretary Pete Hegseth said other measures could follow. Hegseth wrote on the social media platform X that active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton were on high alert and would also be mobilized 'if violence continues'. - The Guardian with dditional reporting from agencies Read More Gavin Newsom warns Trump's LA troop deployment is assault on democracy
Irish Times
11 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Carlow gunman disclosure set to lead to scrutiny of An Garda Síochána
It was Drew Harris 's last appearance before the Oireachtas Justice Committee before his retirement. In between well-wishes for his contribution to policing over a long career – including from Sinn Féin's chair Matt Carthy – there was some close questioning and a political edge to it. The most dramatic came from Labour TD Alan Kelly, who disclosed that Evan Fitzgerald, the young man who fired shots in a shopping centre in Carlow before turning his shotgun on himself, had been supplied with guns and ammunition by undercover gardaí . As Pat Leahy and Conor Lally report, it was confirmed by the Commissioner that Fitzgerald (22) was supplied with the guns by gardaí under what is called a 'controlled delivery'. The gardaí then arrested and charged him with possession of firearms and ammunition offences. It was some disclosure. Such are the time limits on the questioning – because there are so many committees in the 34th Dáil there are strict restrictions – Harris didn't actually manage to respond to the question posed by Kelly. READ MORE A little later, however, Michael McDowell came back to the specific question and Harris said that controlled deliveries were frequently used in drugs and firearms cases. The matter has been referred to Fiosrú, the policing ombudsman, but has now a public and political dimension. It's certain that down the line, the Garda will come under political and public scrutiny for the deployment of this tactic. As Kelly later told The Irish Times: 'What he was doing was wrong, but where is the proportionality in the actions of An Garda Síochána? When undercover gardaí met this young man, followed him and knew who they were dealing with, did they not assess the level of threat differently and look at alternative interventions? 'They knew they were not dealing with dissidents or organised crime gangs but a young man with some issues. They have effectively said the same and even agreed to his bail, so obviously they didn't believe he was a huge threat.' Payback time (or more pay time) for former ministers and senior civil servants There was a bit of surprise when it was announced on Tuesday that Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers was holding a media conference in relation to the National Shared Services Office (NSSO), a classic back-office State agency that doesn't exactly draw news headlines. But as Cormac McQuinn reports, errors in handling pension payments have resulted in a situation where Government ministers and as many as 13,000 retired civil servants could either owe money or be owed money because of miscalculations in relation to their pension contributions. 'This cohort of former civil servants were in work-share arrangements and, while not all are necessarily affected, their pensions are to be checked for underpayments,' writes McQuinn. 'There is also an issue in relation to the pensions of 30 retired senior civil servants and one of them could owe as much as €280,000 as a result of NSSO errors.' It is believed most current Government ministers will owe money to the State, though some may be due some money back. The highest overpayment may be in the region of €30,000. Ministerial Pressure Zones There was a time when the political pressure zone only surrounded the Minister for Housing but this week it has extended nationwide, as it were, to the whole of Government. Not only did the Minister James Browne have a testing day trying to explain the changes he has introduced to rent pressure zones (RPZs), the issue dominated Leaders' Questions. There was a snarly back and forth all day between the Government and Opposition parties over the changes, with some very thorny prose being used (see best reads below). Extending the RPZ from the current 111 local election areas to all 166 was simple to explain. It was the future arrangements for tenants – especially existing ones – that came under scrutiny and, by extension, put the Government under the cosh. Browne was explaining all day and living up to the Karl Rove dictum that when you are doing that, you are losing. Under the new classification, a landlord who owns three properties or less is a 'mom and pop' landlord. That became an issue. The distinction between new accommodation coming on stream and existing accommodation also became an issue. The Opposition pounded the Government all day on whether existing tenants in RPZ zones would see changes to the increase limits after six years, like new tenancies that begin from March 2026. 'The rights of existing tenants will not change' became the mantra of all Government people during the day. In other words, RPZ rules would continue for them ad infinitum. However, it did not succeed in convincing. The Smaller the Party the Bigger the Split Wow. We did not see that coming. People Before Profit coming under attack from within for becoming too mainstream. A group of some 30 activists have left the party over concerns it would enter a future Government with Sinn Féin . It's not over the concerns the likes of Simon Harris or Micheál Martin would have. It's because Sinn Féin is essentially an establishment party, they say. The group's best known politician is Dublin City Council member Madeleine Johansson. In a statement, it said a Sinn Féin-led government would 'coalesce with the establishment and leave untouched the real government, the permanent government – the State bureaucracy, army chiefs and head of Guards'. Ronan McGreevy has the full story on this latest split among the micro parties of the far-left . Best reads Miriam Lord has the full welly on the back and forth over the RPZ changes yesterday including some choice name-dropping by the Taoiseach. Ellen Coyne, our newest colleague on the political team, covered the press conference on Gaza on Tuesday, hosted by Senator Frances Black and others. She reports that the Independent Senator said a 'groundbreaking' case against Airbnb will set a precedent for legal action against any Irish companies with links to illegal Israeli settlements. Black said similar cases will continue to be taken until the Government includes services in the upcoming Occupied Territories Bill . Gordon Deegan writes that Michael Healy-Rae's family property company has posted €842,000 in profit over two years. Playbook Dáil Wed, Jun 11th 09.00: Topical Issues 10.00: Private Members' Business (Social Democrats): Motion re Ending the Central Bank's facilitation of the sale of Israel Bonds 12.00: Leaders' Questions. 12.34: Other Members' Questions 17.02: Government Business: Mental Health Bill 2024 – Committee Stage 21.02: Deferred Divisions 21.32: Dáil adjourns Seanad 10.30: Commencement Matters 11.30: Order of Business 13.00: Government Business: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024 – Second Stage 15.30: Private Members' Business: Child Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation Material (Amendment) Bill 2022 – Committee Stage 17.30: Seanad adjourns Committees 09.30: Transport Driving Test and NCT Delays The NCT will say it has reduced the waiting time for tests from 27 weeks to 20 weeks and that one of the causes of the delays were a 60 per cent upsurge in driving test applications. 09.45: Health Issues relating to the priorities and concerns in the context of the Mental Health Bill 2024 10.45: Social Protecion Engagement with Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary 12.30: Arts, Media and Communications Committee Matters relating to the termination of the Arts Council Grant Management IT system. Pat Leahy has details of the opening statement , which deeply regrets the decision by Minister for Arts Patrick O'Donovan not to renew the contract of director Maureen Kennelly over the handling of a controversial ICT project. 12.30: Further and Higher Education Engagement with Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless. 15.30: Finance, Public Expenditure Israeli Bond Programme 15.30: Agriculture Examination of the impacts of the Veterinary Medicinal Products, Medicated Feed and Fertilisers Regulation Act 2023
The Journal
22 minutes ago
- The Journal
California governor accuses Trump of tyranny as mass arrests underway in under-curfew LA
LOS ANGELES POLICE have said that 'mass arrests' are underway as people gathered on downtown streets after an overnight curfew went into effect following days of protests against immigration arrests. 'Multiple groups continue to congregate on 1st St between Spring and Alameda' within the designated downtown curfew area, the Los Angeles Police Department wrote on X. 'Those groups are being addressed and mass arrests are being initiated. Curfew is in effect.' The nighttime curfew was imposed by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as officials sought to get a handle on protests that Donald Trump claimed were an invasion by a 'foreign enemy.' Looting and vandalism has scarred the heart of America's second biggest city as largely peaceful protests over immigration arrests turned ugly after dark. 'I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting,' Bass told reporters. One square mile (2.5 square kilometers) of the city's more-than-500 square mile area is off-limits until 6am local time (2pm Irish time) for everyone apart from residents, journalists and emergency services, she added. California Highway Patrol officers detain protesters. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo One protester told AFP the arrest of migrants in a city with large foreign-born and Latino populations was the root of the unrest. 'I think that obviously they're doing it for safety,' she said of the curfew. 'But I don't think that part of the problem is the peaceful protests. It's whatever else is happening on the other side that is inciting violence.' Small-scale and largely peaceful protests – marred by eye-catching acts of violence – began in the city on Friday as anger swelled over ramped up arrests by immigration authorities. Advertisement At their largest, a few thousand people have taken to the streets, but smaller mobs have used the cover of darkness to set fires, daub graffiti and smash windows. Some 23 businesses were looted overnight on Monday, police said, adding that more than 500 people had been arrested over recent days. Protests have also sprung up in cities around the country, including New York, Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco. 'Provide protection' Trump has ordered 4,000 National Guard to Los Angeles, along with 700 active-duty US Marines, in what he has claimed is a necessary escalation to take back control – despite the insistence of local law enforcement that they could handle matters. A protester draped in an American flag stands in front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles during a demonstration. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo A military spokeswoman said the soldiers were expected to be on the streets some time today. Their mission will be to guard federal facilities and to accompany 'federal officers in immigration enforcement operations in order to provide protection.' Demonstrators told AFP the soldiers 'should be respected' because they hadn't chosen to be in LA, but Lisa Orman blasted it as 'ridiculous.' 'I was here for the Dodger parade,' she said referring to the LA team's World Series victory. 'It was 100 times bigger. So the idea that the Marines here, it's a big show. The president wants a big show.' The Pentagon said the deployment would cost US taxpayers $134 million (€117 million). Photographs issued by the Marine Corps showed men in combat fatigues using riot shields to practice crowd control techniques at the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach. 'Behaving like a tyrant' Some 40 kilometers north, the sprawling city of Los Angeles spent the day much as it usually does: tourists thronged Hollywood Boulevard, tens of thousands of children went to school and commuter traffic choked the streets. But at a military base in North Carolina, Trump was painting a much darker picture. Related Reads Trump orders 700 US Marines and more National Guard troops to Los Angeles as unrest continues What's happening in LA, where Trump has deployed the National Guard? 'What you're witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty,' he told troops at Fort Bragg. 'This anarchy will not stand. We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.' [FULL ADDRESS] Governor Newsom addresses Californians in response to President Trump's assault on democracy and the President's illegal militarization of Los Angeles. — Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) June 11, 2025 California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has clashed with the president before, said Trump's shock militarisation of the city was the behavior of 'a tyrant, not a president.' 'Sending trained warfighters onto the streets is unprecedented and threatens the very core of our democracy,' he said. In a live-streamed address, Newsom called Trump a 'president who wants to be bound by no law or constitution, perpetuating a unified assault on American tradition. 'California may be first, but it clearly will not end here.' In a filing to the US District Court in Northern California, Newsom asked for an injunction preventing the use of troops for policing. 'Incredibly rare' Trump's use of the military is an 'incredibly rare' move for a US president, Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and a former US Air Force lieutenant colonel, told AFP. US law largely prevents the use of the military as a policing force – absent the declaration of an insurrection, which Trump again mused about on Tuesday. Trump 'is trying to use emergency declarations to justify bringing in first the National Guard and then mobilising Marines,' said law professor Frank Bowman of the University of Missouri. © AFP 2025
