Trump news at a glance: Newark mayor Ras Baraka takes on Trump administration over immigration
The battle with the Trump administration over illegal immigration continues, with Newark mayor Ras Baraka saying he would fight his arrest in court.
The mayor was arrested on Tuesday after joining three members of Congress at a protest and press conference outside a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facility in Newark called Delaney Hall. The mayor was released about five hours later and charged with trespassing.
Baraka has pushed back against the construction and opening of Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed detention center, arguing that it should not be allowed to open because of building permit issues.
Here are the key stories at a glance:
Speaking out after his arrest on Tuesday, Ras Baraka said his city would continue its fight in court against the company that runs an immigration detention facility in New Jersey.
'I know there are some protests that other people are planning and if I feel obligated to be there, I will,' Newark's mayor told the Rev Al Sharpton on MSNBC Saturday afternoon. 'This doesn't stop the city's contention with the Geo Group, and we're going to continue in court with them.'
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Military leaders and commanders at the Pentagon were ordered on Friday to go through their libraries and review all books that were related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the US military's latest anti-DEI move.
Leaders were ordered to 'promptly identify' materials that promote 'divisive concepts and gender ideology [that] are incompatible with the department's core mission', according to a memo sent to leaders that was seen by the Associated Press. The department gave leaders until 21 May to remove the books.
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Days after the University of Michigan president, Santa Ono, announced he was leaving his post to lead the University of Florida, his name was quietly removed on Wednesday from a letter signed by more than 600 university presidents denouncing the Trump administration's 'unprecedented government overreach and political interference' with academic institutions.
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The daughter of actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard was among those arrested at the latest Columbia University protests, marking the latest development in the anti-war demonstrations that also led to the temporary suspension of student journalists.
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Donald Trump's administration must temporarily halt its sweeping government overhaul because Congress did not authorize it to carry out large-scale staffing cuts and the restructuring of agencies, a federal judge in California said on Friday.
US district judge Susan Illston in San Francisco sided with a group of unions, non-profits and local governments in blocking large-scale mass layoffs known as 'reductions in force' for 14 days.
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A 4.1-magnitude earthquake in Tennessee woke up families and rattled homes as far away as Atlanta as it spread tremors across portions of the southern US on Saturday morning. No injuries or major damage were immediately reported.
Google has agreed to pay $1.375bn in a settlement in principle reached with the state of Texas over allegations the company violated users' data privacy, the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, said on Friday.
A recently introduced bill, if it passes, would allow research on cannabis despite its schedule I status, which some experts say could help policymakers 'craft effective' legislation in the future.
Catching up? Here's what happened on May 9.
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Telegraph
20 minutes ago
- Telegraph
White House tries to water down Russia sanctions
Donald Trump is pressuring a US senator to weaken a Bill that would impose sweeping sanctions on Russia. White House officials hoping to mend relations with Moscow have been quietly contacting senator Lindsey Graham's office urging him to water down his Bill, which aims to cripple Vladimir Putin with huge sanctions. The Bill, backed by nearly the entire Senate, would impose 500 per cent tariffs on countries that continue to buy Russian oil and gas, which bankrolls Putin's war effort. Officials have been demanding the Bill include waivers that would allow Mr Trump to choose who or what was sanctioned, congressional aides told the Wall Street Journal. Other attempts to weaken the legislation include softening the language, replacing 'shall' with 'may' to avoid making the reprimands mandatory. Removing the mandatory nature of the sanctions would render the Bill effectively toothless and do little to hamper Putin's war machine, aides fear. 'We're moving ahead and the White House is included in our conversations,' Richard Blumenthal, senator and lead Democratic co-sponsor of the Bill, told the paper. Russia's war effort is funded by fossil-fuel exports. Moscow has adapted to existing sanctions with relative ease, turning to North Korea and China for support. Fearing the impact on pump prices, Joe Biden, former president, was unwilling to crack down on Russian energy exports. Mr Trump, has threatened to impose sanctions on Ukraine, as well as Russia, if the two sides fail to reach a peace agreement. 'Any sanction package must provide complete flexibility for the president to continue to pursue his desired foreign policy,' a White House official said. They added that the constitution 'vests the president with the authority to conduct diplomacy with foreign nations'. Speaking in the Oval Office alongside Friedrich Merz, German chancellor, on Thursday, the US president said that the Bill should not move forward without his express approval. 'They'll be guided by me. That's how it's supposed to be,' he told reporters. 'They're waiting for me to decide on what to do.' Last week, Mr Graham and Mr Blumenthal visited Ukraine where they applauded the country's drone attack that destroyed 40 aircraft deep inside Russian territory. However, they were ridiculed and accused of 'stirring up' the conflict by key allies of Mr Trump, including Steve Bannon. 'By trying to engage Putin – by being friendly and enticing – it's become painfully clear [Putin's] not interested in ending this war,' Mr Graham said earlier this week. '[Putin] needs to see and hear that message as well from us, from the American people,' said Mr Blumenthal. Both said that failing to act now could pull the US deeper into the conflict later. If Putin isn't stopped in Ukraine, Mr Blumenthal said, Nato treaty obligations could compel US troops into battle. Earlier this week, Russian negotiators tabled a long memorandum, resembling a complete capitulation for Ukraine, in a second round of direct talks with Kyiv in Istanbul. They demanded Ukraine must withdraw its troops from four eastern regions that Russia only partially occupies and that international recognition of Russian sovereignty over them and Crimea must be granted.
Sky News
21 minutes ago
- Sky News
Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Man wrongly deported from US to El Salvador has been returned to face criminal charges
A man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration has been returned to the US to face criminal charges. Kilmar Abrego Garcia was charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Tennessee with conspiring to transport illegal immigrants into the US, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday. The indictment was filed on 21 May, more than two months after he was deported from the US, court records have shown. In a statement, Abrego Garcia's lawyer Andrew Rossman said it would now be up to the US judicial system to ensure he received due process. "Today's action proves what we've known all along - that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so," he said. Abrego Garcia was deported from Maryland despite an immigration judge's 2019 order granting him protection after finding he was likely to be persecuted by gangs if he was returned there. The indictment alleges that Mr Garcia worked with at least five co-conspirators to bring immigrants to the US illegally and transport them from the border to other destinations in the country. On Friday, Ms Bondi outlined the charges at a news conference: "The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring. "He made over 100 trips the grand jury found - smuggling people throughout our country... MS-13 [international criminal gang] members, violent gang terrorist organisation members... throughout our country. "He will be prosecuted in our country, sentenced in our country if convicted and then returned after completion of his sentence." Ms Bondi said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to return Mr Garcia to the US after American officials presented his government with an arrest warrant. Critics of Donald Trump have pointed to the deportation of Mr Garcia as an example of the excesses of the Republican president's aggressive immigration policies. US District Judge Paula Xinis has opened a probe into what, if anything, Mr Trump's administration has done to secure his return, after his lawyers accused officials of stonewalling their requests for information. Officials responded by alleging that Mr Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang - something his lawyers have strongly denied. In a separate statement, Pam Bondi also attacked what she called the "Fake News Media" and repeated the - yet unproven - allegations against Mr Garcia. "The Justice Department's Grand Jury Indictment against Abrego Garcia proves the unhinged Democrat Party was wrong, and their stenographers in the Fake News Media were once again played like fools. "Abrego Garcia was never an innocent 'Maryland Man'- Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien terrorist, gang member, and human trafficker who has spent his entire life abusing innocent people, especially women and the most vulnerable."
Reuters
23 minutes ago
- Reuters
US Supreme Court keeps DOGE records blocked in watchdog group's challenge
June 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court extended on Friday its block on judicial orders requiring the Department of Government Efficiency to turn over records to a government watchdog group that sought details on the entity established by President Donald Trump and previously spearheaded by his billionaire former adviser Elon Musk. The court put on hold Washington-based U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper's orders for DOGE to respond to requests by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for information about its operations. The judge concluded that DOGE likely is a government agency covered by the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The brief, unsigned order said that portions of one of the judge's decisions "are not appropriately tailored" and that "separation of powers concerns counsel judicial deference and restraint in the context of discovery regarding internal Executive Branch communications." The court sent the case back to a lower appeals court to narrow the judge's directives. The court's three liberal justices - Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson - dissented from Friday's decision. In a separate case, the Supreme Court on Friday permitted DOGE broad access to personal information on millions of Americans in Social Security Administration data systems while a legal challenge plays out. DOGE has played a central role in Trump's efforts to downsize and reshape the U.S. government including by slashing the federal workforce and dismantling certain agencies. The watchdog group, called CREW, said its intention was to shed light on what it called DOGE's secretive structure and operations. Musk formally ended his government work on May 30 and his once-close relationship with Trump has since unraveled publicly, a split that followed Musk's recent attacks on the president's sweeping tax and spending bill and played out dramatically on social media on Thursday. CREW sued to obtain an array of records from DOGE through the FOIA statute, a law that allows the public to seek access to records produced by government agencies. It sought information on DOGE's activities over its role in the mass firings and cuts to federal programs pursued since the Republican president returned to office in January. The Trump administration contends that DOGE is an advisory entity and not subject to FOIA. In response, CREW sought information to determine whether DOGE is subject to FOIA because it wields the kind of authority of an agency independent of the president. Cooper ruled in April that DOGE must turn over some records sought by CREW and that the group was entitled to question DOGE official Amy Gleason at a deposition. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined on May 14 to put Cooper's order on hold. The administration urged the Supreme Court to act, saying that the judge's orders intruded on the powers of the executive branch and compromised the ability of a wide array of advisers to provide candid and confidential advice to the president. CREW told the justices that siding with the administration in the dispute would give the president "free reign" to create new entities that would "functionally wield substantial independent authority but are exempt from critical transparency laws." In one of his decisions, Cooper said DOGE's operations have been marked by "unusual secrecy." In another, the judge said that the language of Trump's executive orders concerning DOGE suggests that it is "exercising substantial independent authority."
