DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS: Abbott Confirms National Guard Deployed To Enforce Order Amid Riots
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has confirmed the deployment of the National Guard across the state to help manage the ongoing riots over immigration.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, violent riots due to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids erupted in Los Angeles over the weekend and have spread across the country.
The spread of left-wing agitators has reached Dallas and Austin, and more riots are expected to occur across the country over the coming days.
Now, a representative from the San Antonio Police Department has written that Chief William McManus 'was able to confirm that Gov. Greg Abbott deployed National Guard troops to San Antonio,' according to a statement sent to The San Antonio Express.
Abbott's press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, also confirmed that soldiers 'are on standby in areas where mass demonstrations are planned in case they are needed,' though he did not mention what areas this included.
'Peaceful protests are part of the fabric of our nation, but Texas will not tolerate the lawlessness we have seen in Los Angeles,' he added in a statement sent to The San Antonio Express.
'Anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property will be swiftly held accountable to the full extent of the law.'
Abbott also personally confirmed on social media that National Guard troops have been deployed throughout the state, writing that the troops will 'use every tool & strategy to help law enforcement maintain order.'
'Texas National Guard will be deployed to locations across the state to ensure peace & order. Peaceful protest is legal. Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest.'
Abbott could be addressing the dozens of 'protests' planned for this weekend by the 50501 Movement, which describes itself as a 'national movement made up of everyday Americans who stand for democracy, and who stand against the authoritarian actions of the Trump Administration.'
The violent riots in Los Angeles resulted in a total of 50 arrests and the deployment of over 600 non-lethal rounds, with two officers being transported to the hospital with injuries sustained while attempting to manage the crowd, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
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16 minutes ago
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Jacinda Ardern Documentary ‘Prime Minister' Shows Us How the New Zealand Leader Is the Anti-Trump
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We currently have a disconnect where that is not what is on display by political leadership. Because instead, politics has decided that blame and the weaponization of fear is a better response to the difficult period we're in, than the much more challenging response in politics, which is to actually solve the problems that people are facing.' More from IndieWire 'In Your Dreams' Teaser: The Search for the Sandman Powers Netflix's New Animated Sibling Fantasy Gold List TV Honors 'Squid Game,' 'Deli Boys,' 'The Studio,' and More Ardern's story is remarkable. She reluctantly ran for Prime Minister in 2017 after the Labour candidate dipped in the polls, and her party eventually, after intense negotiations with smaller parties, squeaked to a win. Three days before the results were announced, Ardern found out that she was pregnant. She took office in October 2017 at age 37, the youngest in New Zealand's history, the youngest country leader at that time in the world, and the third woman to serve as New Zealand Prime Minister. In due time, she gave birth to a daughter, only the second elected world leader to do so (after Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto). From the start, Ardern made it clear that her partner, Clark Gayford, would be the primary caregiver for their child. A former TV anchorman, Gayford was not only used to being in the spotlight but knew how to wield a video camera. He filmed their life behind the scenes from 2017 through her decision to step down five years later, after her popularity waned. 'The only thing that I ever found overrode self-doubt was my grinding sense of responsibility,' said Ardern. 'I knew that I had to answer the call. And so from then on, I just had to get on with it. So that was what did it.' That intimate footage was key to assembling 'Prime Minister,' which could have become a local production. But when producer Gigi Pritzker came on board, she brought in ace editor Lindsay Utz (Oscar-winner 'American Factory,' 'Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry,' 'Martha') to make a film with global appeal that was bigger than a New Zealand political story. Making her feature debut, Utz co-directed with New Zealand's Michelle Walsh. The film was seven years in the making. 'Everybody that was working on it in New Zealand recognized that it was a powerful moment in time and it should be documented,' Utz told me. 'But there was never any plan until Jacinda resigned and came to the States.' When the New Zealand team came to America to finance the movie, American financier Pritzker showed Utz some video. 'I only had to look at about two minutes to know that I wanted to take on the project,' said Utz. 'At the time, I looked at the breastfeeding footage. I had just had my second baby, and I was struggling with similar issues, common issues that women struggle with. And so this film became two countries and two teams coming together.' The Rt. Honorable Dame Ardern now serves as a fellow at Harvard University. When Utz got started, Ardern had moved to the East Coast, so the director was able to meet and bond with her in Boston. She and Walsh interviewed Ardern together and also got access to New Zealand's oral history project and 40 hours of audio diaries that had been recorded when Ardern was in office. 'That's a gift right from the documentary heavens,' said Utz, whose editorial background was an asset as the film melded together archive and fresh interviews. The first rough cut assemblage ran 17 hours. The editing team took a year to wrestle the movie down to one hour and 42 minutes. The directors wanted Ardern's voice 'to be at the center of the film,' said Utz, 'almost as if you're sitting next to her and she's telling you a story. The approach was using the audio diaries as a portal into the past and then doing these incredibly intimate interviews with her. And we were lucky, because she was writing her memoir at the time, so she was in this contemplative space. And you can see that in the interviews, they're pretty raw. She's pretty raw. She's still processing what she's just been through. We wanted it to feel like reflection, and intimate, but we were always aware that we wanted the past to be propulsive and move forward in a verité way. So we had to balance the past and the present.' Front and center was Ardern's model of a different kind of governing. 'She showed up unapologetically as herself,' said Utz. 'And that's what people take note of. They feel the authenticity, and they feel the conviction. And she demonstrates that you can be both empathetic and strong, that you can be kind and have resolve. It was important to us to show the portrait of the leader that we saw.' Remarkably, Ardern gave the filmmakers leeway. 'She did not have control,' said Utz. 'She was a good subject. You can imagine it's hard for Clark, because he shot a lot of this footage, to let go. We were given space to work and figure out how to craft this movie, and she didn't see it cut until after we submitted to Sundance.' The filmmakers screened 'Prime Minister' for Ardern in New York. 'Michelle and I were sitting in the room squeezing each other, sitting a few aisles behind her,' said Utz. 'She's watching it for the first time, and that's always a nerve-wracking experience. A lot of it is hard for her to watch, but because she is such a lover of history and documentation, she understood that even the stuff that she is embarrassed by is all part of the story. And she gave us great freedom to do what we thought was right.' As you watch the documentary, it's striking how different New Zealand is from the United States, where it's hard to imagine many of the accomplishments of Ardern's administration even being possible, from shutting down the entire country during COVID, saving 20,000 people's lives, to ordering her citizens to turn in their arms. After the Christchurch mosque shootings in March 2019, the government implemented strict gun control reforms. Within weeks, Parliament passed a ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons, nearly unanimously. The months-long government buyback program, by the end of 2019, collected over 56,000 banned firearms and almost 200,000 illegal gun parts. 'It's surreal to watch this,' said Utz, 'because it feels like another planet.' The parliamentary system in New Zealand also favors the election of women in Parliament. Still, Ardern is something of a unicorn in today's tumultuous right-leaning times. 'You see the political will behind the scenes,' said Utz. 'And you see the passion, and you feel her commitment to these issues. We didn't want to make a film that was dissecting all of her policies. We wanted this to be an intimate, personal journey of a woman on the world stage, facing all sorts of things that women face: the balance of work and motherhood, what it looks like to have a supportive partner. This was a family story, too. You were invested in them as a family, because they were a unit, that's how she functioned, that's how she did her job.' Another aspect of the Ardern story: New Zealand has always been a progressive country. But that did not protect her when the wolves began to circle. Her popularity soared and then fell after months of organized protests. 'Russian cells were pumping disinformation into New Zealand,' said Utz. 'The New Zealand public was interacting with that disinformation at a much higher rate than other countries at that time. There was the anti-vaccine sentiment, of course, that we saw in lots of places in the world, that became a powerful force. And Quanon and our American politics were being looked at and studied and admired.' When the economy tanked after COVID, Ardern was under tremendous pressure, and decided to resign before the end of her term. 'A lot of people have anger towards her, still to this day, about her policies,' said Utz, '[saying] they were too draconian, too strict, put too much emphasis on life and not enough on the economy, although [Ardern's government] did do a lot to support families and people during the pandemic. You could find people on both sides of that issue.' As the movie hits theaters, Utz is 'secretly thrilled that we got a film about a progressive politician into theaters nationwide,' she said. 'It feels like something unique right now. People are desperate for some light and some inspiration. And she's good at that.' Where Ardern goes, applause follows. 'We could not move anywhere in Park City without being stopped by somebody in the streets,' said Utz. 'Since then, it's been playing at festivals, and we're getting the same reaction everywhere. There's palpable emotion in the room. We opened Sundance Mexico City last week. It's hitting a nerve, it's touching something inside.' At her Live Talks Los Angeles event, Ardern held the audience in her hand. She knows where the laughs and groans are and that she represents the polar opposite of Donald Trump. She's everything that our current administration is not. And she offers hope for what an alternative could look like. She told a story about the early days of her experience in Parliament. After a particularly grueling round of debate one day, Ardern went to one of the tougher politicians and asked how she should toughen up. He said: 'Just a minute, don't toughen up. If you toughen up, you will lose your empathy, and that is what's going to make you good at your job.' 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Los Angeles Times
16 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
The gift Trump never meant to give: the spotlight to Democratic adversary Gavin Newsom
SACRAMENTO — President Trump craves attention and will stoop to any depth to grab it — even pour gasoline on a kindling fire in Los Angeles. But this time he unwittingly provided priceless attention for an adversary. Because Trump needlessly deployed National Guard troops and — more ridiculous, a Marine battalion to L.A. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom was granted a prime-time speaking slot on national cable television to respond. 'We honor their service. We honor their bravery,' Newsom said of the troops. 'But we do not want our streets militarized by our own armed forces. Not in L.A. Not in California. Not anywhere … . 'California may be first — but it clearly won't end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault right before our eyes. The moment we've feared has arrived.' I'm not sure the 'democracy is under assault' message has much traction, but keeping armed combat forces off our streets must be a salable pitch. Regardless, governors almost never get national TV time to deliver entire speeches, even as brief as Newsom's. You've practically got to be nominated for president. But the publicity-thirsty sitting president provided the cameras for California's governor. Newsom's strong address probably boosted his stock within the Democrat Party and revived dormant speculation about a 2028 presidential bid. No longer was the Democratic governor playing respectful nice guy and tempering criticism of the Republican president. Now he was standing up to the bully who loves to use California, Newsom and our progressive politics as a punching bag. Trump's red-state supporters love every swipe at this 'left coast' state. Newsom rose to the occasion, using his greatest asset: invaluable communication skills coupled with telegenic looks. He laid out his version of what happened to turn relatively peaceful protests against federal immigration raids into destructive street violence. And it's the correct version by objective accounts. On Saturday, Newsom said, federal immigration agents 'jumped out of an unmarked van' near a Home Depot parking lot and 'began grabbing people. A deliberate targeting of a heavily Latino suburb … . In response, everyday Angelenos' exercised their constitutional right to protest. Police were dispatched to keep the peace and mostly were successful, the governor continued. But then tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades were used — by federal agents, Newsom implied. Then Trump deployed 2,000 California National Guard troops 'illegally and for no reason,' the governor asserted. 'This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation … . Anxiety for families and friends ramped up. Protests started again … . Several dozen lawbreakers became violent and destructive.' Newsom warned: 'That kind of criminal behavior will not be tolerated. Full stop.' And hundreds have been arrested. But he emphasized: 'This situation was winding down and was concentrated in just a few square blocks downtown. But that's not what Donald Trump wanted … . He chose theatrics over public safety.' In Trump's twisted view, if he hadn't sent in the National Guard, 'Los Angeles would be completely obliterated.' Never mind that the violence was confined to a few downtown blocks, a fraction of a city that spreads over 500 square miles. 'We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free and clean again,' the president promised. Veteran Republican strategist Mike Murphy had it right, telling CNN: 'He's lighting the fire as an arsonist, then claiming to be the fireman.' It reminded me of President Lyndon B. Johnson's manufactured Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964 that Congress passed, enabling him to vastly escalate U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Johnson reported a North Vietnamese attack on U.S. destroyers that many experts later concluded never happened. But I think Trump mainly is obsessed with attracting attention. He knows he'll get it by being provocative. Never mind the accuracy of his words or the wisdom of his actions. Sending in the Marines certainly was an eye-opener. So is staging a military parade on his birthday — an abuse of troops for attention, personal glorification and exercise of his own power. He'll say anything provocative without thinking it through: Tariffs one day, suspended the next. He'll boast of sending San Joaquin Valley water to L.A. for fighting fires when it's physically impossible to deliver it. While Trump was playing politics with immigrants and L.A. turmoil, a poll finding was released that should have pleased him. Californians no longer support providing public healthcare for immigrants living here illegally, the independent Public Policy Institute of California reported. Adult state residents were opposed by 58% to 41% in a survey taken before the L.A. trouble erupted. By contrast, a PPIC poll in 2021 found that Californians favored providing state healthcare for undocumented immigrants by 66% to 31%. Polling director Mark Baldassare concluded the public opposition stems mostly from the view that California taxpayers can't afford the costly program — not that they agree with Trump's anti-immigrant demagoguery. In fact, Newson has proposed paring back the state's multibillion-dollar program of providing Medi-Cal coverage for undocumented immigrants because the state budget has been spewing red ink. Given all the rhetoric about the L.A. protests, the statement that particularly impressed me came from freshman Assemblyman Mark Gonzalez (D-Los Angeles), whose downtown district stretches from Koreatown to Chinatown. 'Rocks thrown at officers, CHP cars and Waymo vehicles set on fire, arson on the 101 freeway — have nothing to do with immigration, justice or the values of our communities,' he said in a statement Sunday. 'These are not protesters — they were agitators. Their actions are reckless, dangerous and playing into exactly what Trump wants.' Gonzalez is a liberal former chairman of the L.A. County Democratic Party who stuck to his point: Hoodlums can't be tolerated. And, thanks to Trump, Newsom was able to make a similar point about the president on national TV: His dangerous, self-serving actions can't be tolerated either.
Hamilton Spectator
20 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Canada may lose access to Peace Garden airport
INTERNATIONAL PEACE GARDEN – David Pedersen drives his truck past border customs, turns up a grassy hill and stops at a ramshackle piece of tarmac on the edge of the country. Opening his car door, Pedersen drops his feet down on the warped pavement. There it is, he says: this piece of tarmac is Canada's contribution to the International Peace Garden Airport. The paved ground on Canada's side of the airport is smaller than the footprint of a community tennis court. It's not much to look at, but it allows Canada to use the North Dakota airstrip next door. Canadians can land at the airstrip, taxi the aircraft over the border to the pavement chunk in Canada, park, visit the gardens, clear customs, and take off again. But the airstrip and the taxiway, being just south of the border, are paid for by the United States. The future of this relationship, however, is in jeopardy. Canada will lose access to the airport in next eight to 15 years unless some department in the country partners with North Dakota on a rebuild. Due to federal regulations, North Dakota will need to reconstruct some of its tarmac and that will directly cut off access to Canada's slab of pavement. The Americans are looking for someone to deal with in Canada to build a new access, however they've failed to connect with a single agency willing to partner on the project. The regulation failure is that the taxiway that gives access to Canada is not at a 90-degree angle to the landing strip, according to Kyle Wanner, director of aeronautics for North Dakota, who added that Canada's pavement is too close to part of the airstrip. As a result, Canada's slab of pavement at the airport needs to move, or it won't be connected in the future. 'What will happen here is, during the short term, we'll still have access to Canadians on that taxiway moving forward,' Wanner said. 'But eventually that taxiway is going to need a reconstruct, and when it does, if Canada does not step up, or any organization, to fund any improvements on the Canadian side, the taxiway going to the Canadian apron will just be removed, and all access to Canada will cease.' Looking for ways to keep the airport connection going, North Dakota had engineers sketch a new design that would pay American dollars for a new taxiway. All that would be needed is Canadian authorities to commit to move the Canadian tarmac roughly 300 feet to the east, and connect to the taxiway at the new location. The problem is that nobody has been able to identify who in Canada is responsible to green light the project. And so while the United States prepares to reconstruct the airport, it has no confirmation that Canada will actually join in on the program and build its side of the border. 'Almost every group that we had reached out to didn't feel it was their problem, if you will, or there was something that they needed to further discuss. And so we kind of just kept going round in circles,' Wanner said. 'Does Canada want their apron or not? Do they want to continue this partnership or not? We just don't quite have an answer to that yet.' Judy Saxby, a former member of the peace gardens board of directors, said she has failed to find any answer to who is responsible for a proposed upgrade. She has been pursuing the answer of who owns the land in her spare time. 'I've been working at it for about three or four years now, and have not been able to find out who, in quotation marks, owns the little tarmac and who was responsible for building it in the first place,' Saxby told the Sun. 'There doesn't seem to be any documentation on it.' Saxby said that the problem has been not due to resistance, but that no person has been able to give a final answer. In an email in June, a spokesperson for the Province of Manitoba told the Sun that the land is on a road allowance, next to Turtle Mountain Provincial Park — both owned by the province. The spokesperson said that if any party wanted to build on the land, they would have to discuss it with the provincial government, as well as the International Boundary Commission. When the Sun asked the Manitoba NDP government if it would be interested in investing in the airport, a cabinet spokesperson said that the government does not have jurisdiction over any improvements to the Peace Garden airport. The spokesperson said that the airport is instead in the hands of the federal government. 'While the minister's office has received a proposal regarding a future expansion to the airport at the International Peace Gardens, the proposal was referred to the federal government who have sole jurisdiction over that particular airport,' wrote press secretary Caedmon Malowany on behalf of Minister of Municial and Northern Relations Glen Simard. In an email to the Sun, a departmental spokesperson for Transport Canada said that the decision over this land, such as to issue permits or approve land use applications, would fall to local governments. 'Land ownership and land use decisions are typically handled by municipal or provincial governments,' wrote the spokesperson to the Sun. 'We recommend contacting the Municipality of Boissevain–Morton, and or the Province of Manitoba.' The spokesperson said that should a project be proposed at the airport that would affect aviation safety or operations, the agency would review to ensure complaince with regulations. On his way home from the airport, Pedersen said the recent lack of upkeep at the International Peace Gardens Airport is a symbol showcasing that the Province of Manitoba overlooks airports and their significance. He said it's one of a trend across Manitoba. 'This is a symbol of a bigger, greater, problem,' Pedersen said. In the RM of Piney, a Canada-U.S. airport was discontinued in December of 2024 due to a lack of funding on the Canadian side, Pedersen said. He argued that it was a loss as the airport could have been used this year to assist wildfire efforts in the east of the province, giving surveillance planes somewhere out of which to operate. 'Especially in Manitoba, the provincial government is ignoring the contribution that the southern airports make,' he said. 'What I visualize is that we will lose more airports.' Pedersen promotes aviation in the south of the prairies, asserting that airports are crucial for emergency responses such as wildfires and medical evacuations, and that the province does not invest enough in the asset. Adam Penner, owner of Harv's Air Pilot Training near Winnipeg, said he agrees that there is a lack of funding for airports in Manitoba, and worries the Peace Garden airport will end similarly to the loss in the RM of Piney. 'It's the same kind of vibe,' Penner said. 'The Canadians can't decide who's responsible for it, and nobody does anything, it's a real shame.' He said the Peace Gardens airport is a beautiful place to visit. The gardens are nearby, as well as the value of being able to clear customs going north and south of the border. Penner uses the airstrip on business roughly 25 times a year, including for trips to Minot, N.D. The United States this summer is spending $3.5 million to rehabilitate all airport pavement on the U.S. side of the border. Workers cannot cross over to Canada due to jurisdictional issues — and North Dakota has been unable to find a partner in Canada to organize the project. 'I'm a bit embarrassed,' said Penner. 'The Americans can resurface the entire runway, and we can't even get our act together on a little ramp.' Wanner told the Sun that North Dakota is seriously interested in making something work between the two countries, and that there is still years to organize before the airport performs reconstruction that would cut off Canada's existing parking pad. 'I appreciate any positive publicity on the situation,' said Wanner when reached by the Sun. 'I would be happy if somebody in government would actually pay the phone call and say, 'Hey, let's figure this out.'' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . 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