Los Angeles police swiftly enforce downtown curfew
LOS ANGELES, June 11, (AP): Los Angeles police swiftly enforced a downtown curfew Tuesday night, making arrests moments after it took effect, while deploying officers on horseback and using crowd control projectiles to break up a group of hundreds demonstrating against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
Members of the National Guard stood watch behind plastic shields, but did not appear to participate in the arrests. Hours later, many of the protesters had dispersed, although sporadic confrontations continued that were much smaller than in previous nights. Officials said the curfew was necessary to stop vandalism and theft by agitators looking to cause trouble. Democratic Gov Gavin Newsom earlier accused Trump of drawing a "military dragnet' across the nation's second-largest city with his escalating use of the National Guard.
He also deployed Marines, though none were seen on the streets Tuesday. Newsom asked a court to put an emergency stop to the military helping federal immigration agents, with some guardsmen now standing in protection around agents as they carried out arrests. He said it would only heighten tensions and promote civil unrest. The judge set a hearing for Thursday, giving the administration several days to continue those activities.
The change moves troops closer to engaging in law enforcement actions like deportations as Trump has promised as part of his administration's immigration crackdown. The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers but any arrests ultimately would be made by law enforcement. Trump has activated more than 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines over the objections of city and state leaders.
They were originally deployed to protect federal buildings. Demonstrations have spread to other cities nationwide, including Dallas and Austin, Texas, Chicago and New York, where a thousand people rallied and multiple arrests were made. In Texas, where police in Austin used chemical irritants to disperse several hundred demonstrators Monday, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's office said Texas National Guard troops were "on standby" in areas where demonstrations are planned, Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said Tuesday evening.
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Arab Times
7 hours ago
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US Embassy in Kuwait fully staffed
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The Israeli occupation and Iran exchanged military strikes last year amidst heightened tension in the region because of the Israeli occupation's genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza Strip, as well as attacks on Syria and Lebanon. An Iraqi government official confirmed Tuesday non-essential staffers of the US Embassy in Baghdad were evacuated as part of safety procedures related to the US presence not only in Iraq but in some countries of the Middle East region. The US Embassy in Kuwait affirmed Wednesday night that no changes have been made to its staffing levels and that it continued to operate normally. The United States is drawing down the presence of staffers who are not deemed essential to operations in the Middle East and their loved ones due to the potential for regional unrest, the State Department and military said. The State Department said it has ordered the departure of all nonessential personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad based on its latest review and a commitment 'to keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad.' The embassy had already been on limited staffing, and the order will not affect a large number of personnel. The department, however, also is authorizing the departure of nonessential personnel and family members from Bahrain and Kuwait. That gives them the option of leaving those countries at government expense and with government assistance. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 'has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations' across the region, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The command 'is monitoring the developing tension in the Middle East.' Speaking at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump said, 'They are being moved out, because it could be a dangerous place, and we'll see what happens. We've given notice to move out, and we'll see what happens.' Tensions in the region have been rising in recent days as talks between the U.S. and Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program appear to have hit an impasse. The talks seek to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions that the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful. The next round of talks - the sixth - had been tentatively scheduled for this weekend in Oman, according to two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic matters. However, those officials said Wednesday that it looked increasingly unlikely that the talks would happen. Trump, who has previously said Israel or the U.S. could carry out airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations failed, gave a less-than-optimistic view about reaching a deal with Iran, telling the New York Post's 'Pod Force One' podcast that he was 'getting more and more less confident about' a deal. 'They seem to be delaying, and I think that's a shame. I'm less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago. Something happened to them,' he said in the interview recorded Monday and released Wednesday. Iran's mission to the U.N. posted on social media that 'threats of overwhelming force won't change the facts.' 'Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon, and U.S. militarism only fuels instability,' the Iranian mission wrote. Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh separately told journalists Wednesday that he hoped talks with the U.S. would yield results, though Tehran stood ready to respond. 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Earlier Wednesday, a statement from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, a Mideastbased effort overseen by the British navy, issued a warning to ships in the region that it 'has been made aware of increased tensions within the region which could lead to an escalation of military activity having a direct impact on mariners.' It urged caution in the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz. It did not name Iran, though those waterways have seen Iranian ship seizures and attacks in the past. The top U.S. military officer for the Middle East, Gen. Erik Kurilla, was scheduled to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, but that testimony has now been postponed, according to the committee's website. The Pentagon has not commented on the postponement. Meanwhile, Iraq's state-run Iraqi News Agency said in a statement attributed to an unnamed government official that the evacuation of some nonessential employees from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was part of 'procedures related to the U.S. diplomatic presence in a number of Middle Eastern countries, not just Iraq' and that Iraqi officials 'have not recorded any security indicators that warrant an evacuation.' 'We reiterate that all security indicators and briefings support the escalating assessments of stability and the restoration of internal security,' the statement said.
Arab Times
14 hours ago
- Arab Times
Bruce Springsteen's Berlin concert echoes with history and a stark warning
BERLIN, June 12, (AP): Veteran rock star Bruce Springsteen, a high-profile critic of President Donald Trump, slammed the U.S. administration as "corrupt, incompetent and treasonous' during a concert Wednesday in Berlin. He was addressing tens of thousands of fans at a stadium built for the 1936 Olympic Games that still bears the scars of World War II and contains relics from the country's dark Nazi past. "Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices, stand with us against authoritarianism, and let freedom reign,' he said. Springsteen has made increasingly pointed and contentious public statements in recent concerts. He peppered Wednesday's performance with mentions of the American democracy's system of checks and balances designed to ward against authoritarianism. His short speeches - referencing recent headlines about immigration raids, the freezing of federal funds for universities, and measles outbreaks - came between songs that were also captioned in German on large screens beside the stage. The set was flanked by an American flag on one side and a German flag on the other. Still, the Boss remained hopeful: "The America that I've sung to you about for the past 50 years of my life is real. And regardless of its many faults, it's a great country with great people. And we will survive this moment.' But last month in Manchester, he denounced Trump's politics during a concert, calling him an "unfit president' leading a "rogue government' of people who have "no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.' Springsteen is no stranger to Berlin. In July 1988, he became one of the first Western musicians to perform in East Germany, performing to a roaring crowd of 160,000 East Germans yearning for American rock 'n' roll and the freedom it represented to the youth living under the crumbling communist regime. "I'm not here for or against any government. I've come to play rock 'n' roll for you in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down,' Springsteen said in German at the time, before launching into a cover of Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom.' An Associated Press news story from that period says "fireworks streaked through the sky' and hundreds of people in the audience waved handmade American flags as they sang along to "Born in the USA.' The Berlin Wall fell the following year, and some experts credit the concert for its part in fueling the protest movement that brought the end of the Communist government. Almost four decades later, Springsteen issued a stark warning: "The America that I love, the America that I've sung to you about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration."
Arab Times
14 hours ago
- Arab Times
US GOP senators grill Pentagon chief on Ukraine conflict
OUSTON, June 12, (Xinhua) : In a rare public split within the Republican Party on foreign policy, Veteran GOP Senator Mitch McConnell slammed US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Wednesday over the Trump administration's approach to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. "It seems to me pretty obvious that America's reputation is on the line," McConnell said when opening a Senate budget hearing. He is the former Senate majority leader and now leads the Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee in the US Senate. "We don't want a headline at the end of this conflict that says Russia wins and America loses," McConnell told Hegseth during the hearing. When McConnell asked who was the aggressor, Hegseth replied, "Russia is the aggressor." But when asked which side he wants to win, Hegseth, arguing for an "America First" approach, only said that U.S. President Donald Trump is committed to peace."Vladimir Putin knows that President Trump is strong," Hegseth said. "He knows his word means something, and as a result, a negotiated peace in Ukraine makes America look strong, makes us look like we understand the state of the world." In comparison, McConnell said US allies are "wondering whether we're in the middle of brokering what appears to be allowing the Russians to define victory. I think victory is defined by the people who have to live there -- the Ukrainians." Veteran Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, also challenged Hegseth during the hearing. McConnell is one of three Republican senators who opposed Hegseth's confirmation in January. Enditem
