🔗 Share this article

Hello and welcome to the current updates in American political affairs. We start with the news that a limited contingent of National Guard troops has begun guarding government facilities in the Chicago area and assisting law enforcement in Memphis on Wednesday, as confirmed by authorities.

Deployment Details

An element of 200 Texas Guard troops were working in the Greater Chicago region, according to a representative for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the Associated Press on background basis in order to reveal operational details that have not been officially released.

The military personnel are in the urban area to secure US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and other federal facilities and law enforcement personnel, Northern Command stated publicly.

The troops, along with about 300 from Illinois, had reached on Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, approximately 90 kilometers southwest of Chicago. All 500 troops are under the military command and have been activated for 60 days. The official wasn't able to immediately offer details about how the troops were armed.

Political Context

It coincides with Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's mayor, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, charging them of not protecting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

"The city's mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!" Trump posted on his social media platform on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"

Both the mayor and governor are Democrats. Trump's comments coincide with state military forces have started deployment in the Greater Chicago region at the order of the federal administration, despite opposition from Illinois officials, including Pritzker and Johnson.

Other Updates

• Donald Trump declared that the conflicting parties have agreed to a tentative deal to cease hostilities in Gaza, and release captured individuals and Palestinian prisoners.
• Reports about the Middle East deal was applauded by Republican lawmakers, who called on Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize this week, but received with greater caution by Arab-American communities.
• During presidential gathering, Trump appeared not to recognize the term 'Habeas Corpus' and deferred to his homeland security secretary. In May, Noem gave a highly incorrect definition of the fundamental legal concept that mandates that the authorities provide a public reason for arresting and jailing people.
• All of the witnesses who provided statements at the White House "political discussion" hosted by the president on Wednesday were identified as freelance reporters who might better be called partisan conservative social media influencers. The content producers cover leftwing protests in a highly political manner, more akin to opposition research than neutral journalism.
• Senate Republicans rejected a military authorization measure that would have limited Trump's ability to use lethal armed action against alleged narcotics traffickers after opposition party tried to counter the government's unprecedented deployment of the armed forces to destroy boats in the Caribbean.
• During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least one witness repeated Trump's false claim that significant amounts of people have been killed by political extremists in the Oregon city. The accurate count of fatal incidents by self-described "antifa" radicals in Portland is: one.