The Latest: Federal agents will patrol Washington 24/7
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to London on Thursday in a show of support for Ukraine as Trump prepares for his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Both Zelenskyy and the Europeans have worried that the bilateral summit would leave them and their interests sidelined.
Here's the Latest:
There's confusion over who controls Washington police
The White House says Attorney General Pam Bondi is effectively in charge of the police department in Washington, D.C. But the city's police force already has a Pam at the helm — Chief Pamela Smith — and she says she only reports to the mayor.
D.C. and federal officials say they are working together, but the unusual arrangement is raising questions about who gets to make decisions about police resources, personnel and policy.
Trial over California National Guard deployment concludes
The judge has yet to rule after a three-day trial over whether the administration broke the law by sending Guard troops to accompany immigration agents on raids in Southern California.
The state argued that the deployment violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits military enforcement of domestic laws. Lawyers for the administration said the law does not apply because Trump called up the Guard under an authority that allows separate authority.
What to know about the US-Russia summit in Alaska
It's happening where East meets West, in a place familiar to both countries as a Cold War front line of missile defense, radar outposts and intelligence gathering.
Whether it can lead peace in Ukraine after more than 3 1/2 years of war remains to be seen.
It takes place Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson outside Anchorage, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning. It played a key role in the Cold War in monitoring and deterring the Soviet Union.
It's Putin's first U.S. trip since 2015, for the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Because the U.S. isn't a member of the International Criminal Court, which has issued a warrant for Putin on war crimes accusations, it's under no obligation to arrest him.
▶ Read more on things to know about the meeting between Trump and Putin
— Dasha Litvinova and Michelle L. Price
Guard troops expected to ramp up DC missions Thursday
National Guard officials say they expect troops to start doing more missions as orders and plans are being developed and more troops stage at the Guard's armory.
Neither Army nor District of Columbia National Guard officials have been able to describe the training backgrounds of the troops who have reported for duty so far.
While some Guard members are military police, and thus better suited to a law-enforcement mission, others likely hold jobs that would have offered little training in dealing with civilians or law enforcement.
Federal agents will patrol the streets 24/7 in Washington, White House says
Officials said the number of National Guard troops will ramp up and federal officers will be out around the clock after the president made the unprecedented announcement that his administration would take over the police department for at least a month.
Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser is walking a political tightrope. She has called the takeover an 'authoritarian push' but also framed the infusion of officers as a boost to public safety.
Hundreds of federal law enforcement and city police officers who patrolled Tuesday night made 43 arrests, compared with about two dozen the night before. Councilmember Christina Henderson downplayed these as 'a bunch of traffic stops' and said the administration is seeking to disguise how unnecessary the intervention is.
'I'm looking at this list of arrests, and they sound like a normal Saturday night in any big city,' Henderson said.
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