Will the L.A. immigration riots reach Europe?
The pro-immigration protests that erupted last week in Los Angeles have now spread across the United States. On Tuesday there were confrontations between police and demonstrators in Atlanta, Chicago and Denver, where tear gas was used to disperse a crowd. Police in New York City arrested 45 people as they came under attack from a variety of projectiles thrown by a mob that numbered several hundred. Demonstrators shouted 'shame, shame'; one local councillor, Shahana Hanif, accused the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of 'attacking our communities'.
The protests began in L.A. last Friday when ICE officers began rounding up suspected illegal immigrants in the Hispanic districts of Westlake and Paramount. In one raid ICE arrested 44 unauthorised immigrants at a job site.
Donald Trump promptly despatched 700 Marines to L.A., and doubled the National Guard's presence to 4,000 in an attempt to restore order to a city where so far 23 businesses have been looted by demonstrators.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
4 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump accused of 'lobbing grenade' into US-UK security pact as president orders review of nuclear sub deal intended to tackle Chinese aggression
Donald Trump has been accused of 'throwing a hand grenade' into the transatlantic security alliance by ordering a review of a major nuclear submarine pact between the UK, the US and Australia. The president has ordered officials to look into Aukus, which was signed by his predecessor Joe Biden and is intended to secure the Pacific against Chinese aggression. It involves multi-billion-pound commitments to build new nuclear-powered submarines, with the Ministry of Defence already announcing its intention to build up to 12 submarines in last week's Strategic Defence Review. But these plans have been thrown into doubt after the US defence department announced a probe to ensure Aukus meets the President's 'America First' agenda. The review is being led by Elbridge Colby, who is close to President Trump and is a long-term sceptic of the agreement. A UK Government spokesman sought to play down the prospect of an American withdrawal from the deal today, saying Aukus was 'one of the most strategically important partnerships in decades'. They added: 'It is understandable that a new administration would want to review its approach to such a major partnership, just as the UK did last year.' But Helen Maguire, the Liberal Democrat defence spokeswoman, said: 'Trump's decision to review the AUKUS submarine pact has thrown another grenade into our security partnership. 'Even in the face of an imperial Putin and the rising threat posed by China, this White House simply can't be relied upon to support our collective defence. 'Our national security demands that we ramp up talks with our Commonwealth friends and work to plug the gap that the US is threatening to leave in European and global security. 'Starmer must meet urgently with Prime Minister Albanese to develop contingency plans for AUKUS if Trump withdraws from the treaty.' Announced in 2021, Aukus involves the three nations building a new generation of nuclear-powered attack submarines and cooperating in other areas of advanced defence technology. The deal will also see Australia buy three Virginia-class submarines from the US ahead of the new vessels being built. That provision has led some in Washington, including Mr Colby, to question the deal on the grounds that the US may need those submarines if it finds itself in a war with China over Taiwan. But last month, the new US ambassador to London used his first major speech in the job to back Aukus. Warren Stephens told an audience in Parliament, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, that the US was 'proud to stand alongside Britain and Australia, two of our closest allies, as we deepen our collaboration to respond to a changing world'. Relations between the US and Australia have soured over tariffs. America has also demanded Australia increase defence spending and wants to sell older submarines to Australia on favourable terms. Last night former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West said: 'Aukus is extremely important for the strategic situation in the Pacific and very important for Britain as a way of us moving into our next generation of submarines. 'The US had had concerns about selling its submarines to Australia, so it is not entirely unexpected that President Trump would want to look at this. Hopefully this can be resolved and we all move on together as part of the alliance.' The deal is regarded as a pillar of security co-operation. But concerns have been raised in the US over the rate of submarine production and Australia's reluctance to commit to a 'no holds barred' response to a Chinese attack on Taiwan. The US is committed to selling up to five boats to Australia, vessels which many in the US believe should be retained by the US Navy.
The Guardian
8 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Newsom calls Trump a ‘stone cold liar' as LA protests against Ice raids continue
Gavin Newsom, California's governor, has called Donald Trump a 'stone cold liar', condemned the federal deployment of troops in Los Angeles as 'theater' and 'madness' and even questioned the president's mental fitness, as protests over immigration raids in the city continue. Trump federalized 2,000 of California's national guard on Saturday, with a US president acting over the objections of a state governor in this way for the first time in more than half a century. It followed the outbreak of protests over a series of sweeping immigration raids in the LA area, with Newsom criticizing Trump's actions as illegal overreach, unconstitutional and 'provocation'. Now US Marines are being added to this force to back up arrests by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency, in tactics Newsom said have been used to 'disappear' people unlawfully in these raids rather than confront the protestors who have destroyed property around an Ice facility in downtown Los Angeles. Newsom, a Democrat, said that Trump never raised with him the federalizing of the national guard before it occurred, when the two spoke by phone last Friday, despite the president's claims to the contrary. 'He lied, stone cold liar,' the governor told the New York Times podcast the Daily on Thursday morning in an interview. Of the subsequent rare commanding of the national guard troops by the president, rather than the governor, Newsom told the Daily: 'It came completely out of left field.' The federalized national guard have been taken from their duties on the border and working in California's forests to clear undergrowth to prevent wildfires and have had to be protected by police as protesters were specifically angry at them being deployed by the president, Newsom said. 'That is how ridiculous this whole thing is,' he said. 'This is theater, it's madness, it's unconstitutional, it's immoral. It puts people's lives at risk, these people are being used as pawns.' Newsom said that 'looting is unacceptable' but that more than 1,600 police were dealing with the situation and his greater concern is the 'thuggish behavior' of the Trump administration in ordering the military onto the streets of a US city. Several members of the federalized national guard have told friends and family they are deeply unhappy about the deployment. 'This sends fear and chills up the spines of law-abiding citizens,' said Newsom, who has warned that other states and US democracy itself is under threat from the presidential overreach. 'That is a red line crossed, it is a serious and profound moment in American history.' Newsom told local media that Trump's age seemed to be affecting him. He claimed to the Times that the president can't recall the phone conversation they had on Friday and that 'he's not all there', echoing comments first made by the governor on Monday that Trump, who turns 79 on Saturday, is 'incapable of even a train of thought' and that he has 'lost it'. Trump has said that he wants to 'liberate' Los Angeles from protesters and has escalated a feud with Newsom, a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, by even suggesting the governor himself could be arrested. Los Angeles was calmer on Wednesday evening than at the weekend and the city's mayor, Karen Bass, has emphasized in local appearances how small an area has been affected by any trouble, with a limited area under curfew and no looting experienced there overnight into Thursday. However as protests continue, there were several hundred further arrests late on Wednesday. Newsom also said in the interview broadcast and published on Thursday that his 15-year-old daughter came home from school crying at the prospect of him being arrested. 'I said that doesn't matter, what matters is the military on the streets,' he said. 'I will handle that, I will be fine. I am worried about you, I'm worried about this country, I'm worried about everything we've taken for granted and fought so hard for disappearing overnight.' The protests have spread to other cities including New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Seattle and Spokane in Washington state, Austin and San Antonio in Texas. Meanwhile immigration 'enforcement activity' has extended to California's agricultural heartland, where many farm workers are undocumented people. On Wednesday, Trump was both booed and cheered while attending a performance of Les Misérables in Washington at the Kennedy Center in the capital, which he took over after returning to the White House. And Trump said that the actions in Los Angeles were necessary. 'If I didn't act quickly on that, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground right now,' Trump said.
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘He's not all there': Gavin Newsom questions Trump's mental state as he blasts president's response to LA protests
California Governor Gavin Newsom raised concerns about President Donald Trump 's mental acuity on Thursday, saying the president fabricated details of a conversation about federalizing the state's National Guard in Los Angeles. Newsom accused the president of either deliberately lying or being confused about a conversation the two officials had after Trump told the New York Post he called Newsom to warn him that he planned to utilize the California National Guard to control protests. The governor sharply accused Trump of being a 'stone-cold liar' on The Daily podcast, claiming Trump never brought up the National Guard during their conversation. '[He] starts making up all these things he claimed he told me about, which honestly starts to disturb me on a different level, that maybe he actually believed he said those things and he's not all there. I mean it,' Newsom said. 'He, literally, a few days later… claimed he had another conversation with me,' Newsom said of the president who turns 79 years old on Saturday. Concern about the mental acuity of the president has been top-of-mind for the media and some voters since it became a major issue for former president Joe Biden. Trump often pointed to Biden's jumbled speech and rigid stance as signs of physical or mental unfitness. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, told Axios that Newsom's attacks on Trump are "rich, coming from Gavin Newsom, who in this past election tried to gaslight and lied to the American public about Joe Biden's decline." "Gavin Newsom will never be president, even as he tries to peddle these lies," Cheung said. Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas, who served as Physician to the President under Trump's first term, told Axios that Trump "is the healthiest president this nation has ever seen." 'Frankly, given President Trump's unparalleled work ethic and this administration's commitment to transparency, it's abundantly clear that Governor Newsom, the 'sanctuary state' governor, is indulging in nothing more than petty politics. He, just like most Democrats, needs to look himself in the mirror and answer this: Where was the concern when the cognitive disaster, Joe Biden, was president,' Jackson said. Over the last week, Newsom has been on a press campaign to refute Trump's use of the military to thwart anti-immigration raid protests in Los Angeles. The governor says it's an unnecessary use of the California National Guard and Marines for incidents of civil unrest in a small area in downtown Los Angeles. Trump controversially invoked a rarely-used presidential power to federalize the state's National Guard, against the wishes of Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Newsom has filed a lawsuit against Trump, claiming the president's actions were illegal. Trump, who has defended his decision to federalize the California National Guard, has pushed back on Newsom's assertions, calling the governor 'incompetent' and 'Newscum.' Trump has characterized the Los Angeles protests as violent and potentially dangerous for ICE law enforcement to carry out their duties. The president took his defense a step further on Wednesday when he claimed he warned Newsom about using the National Guard. 'When I talked to him, he never brought it up,' Newsom told the New York Times. 'He lied. He lied. On my mother and dad's grave, I don't mess around when I say this, he lied. Stone-cold liar. Don't think for a second he told the truth.' Newsom said their phone conversation last week was 'incredibly cordial' and that he was in communication with Susie Wiles, the White House Chief of Staff, about cooperating. The governor said he woke up the following day to name-calling. 'Hours later, to your point, I wake up and I'm 'Newscum' again,' Newsom said. 'It's the president of the United States calling someone 'scum.' 'Newscum' which is, for what it's worth, what I think a 7th grader used to call me.'
