Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

NBC News [8/24/2025 5:22 PM, Megan Lebowitz, 43603K] reports President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to send the military into Baltimore to "quickly clean up" crime. "But if Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime," Trump said in a post on Truth Social, referring to the Democratic governors of Maryland and California and using a derogatory nickname for Gavin Newsom. Trump’s comments are the latest in a line of threats to replicate the D.C. deployment in cities across the country after hundreds of National Guard troops were brought to D.C. in what he’s described as an effort to fight crime, though critics have painted the move as an overreach for political purposes. Reached for comment, Moore said in a statement that Trump "would rather attack his country’s largest cities from behind a desk than walk the streets with the people he represents.". "The President should join us in Baltimore because the blissful ignorance, tropes, and the 1980s scare tactics benefit no one," Moore continued. "We need leaders who are there helping the people who are actually on the ground doing the work.". Trump’s push to deploy National Guard troops to cities like D.C. is a significant departure from how presidents typically deploy the Guard, which is usually used to respond to situations like natural disasters and civil unrest. Maryland’s Moore said Friday that "many of the comments that are being made from the White House come off as so, so tone deaf and so ignorant" about fighting crime. "It’s because they have not walked our streets," he said on CNN on Friday. "They have not been in our communities, and they’re more than happy of just making these repeated tropes about us, but not actually working with us to be able to make sure that our streets are safe and that people can have a real opportunity to feel safe in their own neighborhoods.". Trump criticized Moore’s remarks in his Sunday Truth Social post, saying he assumed that Moore "is talking about out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore.". "As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk,’" Trump added.

Reported similarly:
CNN [8/24/2025 8:36 AM, Alejandra Jaramillo, 23245K]

Breitbart [8/24/2025 2:07 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2608K] reports President Donald Trump responded to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), who invited the president on Thursday to "walk the streets" of Baltimore, calling for the governor to clean up the "out of control, crime ridden" city. In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump criticized the Maryland governor’s record on crime and said if Baltimore needs assistance he will send in the National Guard like he did in Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Trump also noted that he had given Moore "a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge," adding that he might have to rethink the decision. "Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has asked, in a rather nasty and provocative tone, that I ‘walk the streets of Maryland’ with him," Trump wrote in his post. "I assume he is talking about out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore? As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk.’". Trump’s post comes after Moore wrote a letter addressed to Trump, inviting him to take part in a public safety walk in September with Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D), Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates (D), and Moore. "I would like to formally invite you to attend our next public safety walk in September, at a date of your choosing," Moore said in his letter. "We would be joined by the Baltimore City Mayor, the Baltimore State’s Attorney, elected officials, local law enforcement, and community groups. In Maryland and in Baltimore, you will find people who share the same commitment to public safety that I have — and who want to be part of the solution, not the problem.". In his letter, Moore also expressed that "there is no higher priority" for him "than the safety" of the people of his state. Moore expressed that he has tried a different path and that the state has "taken an all-of-the-above approach to public safety.".

CBS News [8/24/2025 2:05 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 45245K] Video: HERE reports Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Sunday that President Trump’s rhetoric on crime is "purely performative" as the president has offered to send troops to Baltimore amid a push to crack down on crime that began in the nation’s capital in recent weeks and could extend to other major cities. "While the President is spending his time from the Oval Office making jabs and attacks at us, there are people actually on the ground doing the work who know what supports would actually work to continue to bring down crime. But it’s falling on deaf ears of the president of the United States," Moore said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.". Mr. Trump moved to federalize the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department earlier this month and deployed the National Guard to the district to assist law enforcement, despite data showing crime has declined in the city in recent years. Upon announcing the moves, the president outlined that the effort "will go further," saying the administration is "starting very strongly with D.C." and suggesting it could then move to other cities, though the president has unique authority over the D.C. National Guard because the district is controlled by the federal government. He referenced crime rates in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Baltimore and Oakland. Last week, Moore, a Democrat, sent a letter to Mr. Trump inviting him to attend a public safety walk in Maryland, while touting the state’s investments in local law enforcement and other efforts to address crime under his administration. In 2025, Baltimore has seen a 22% decrease in homicides from last year, according to the Baltimore Police Department. The governor said Sunday that "the reason that I asked the president to come and join us is because he seems to enjoy living in this blissful ignorance, these tropes and these 1980s scare tactics.". "We know we have work to do," Moore said. "If one person does not feel safe in their neighborhood, that’s one too many. But we also know what tactics actually work, and what tactics is just theatrics.".

CBS News [8/24/2025 7:38 PM, Adam Thompson, 45245K] reports President Trump on Sunday told Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to "clean up this crime disaster" before he would visit Baltimore for a public safety walk, in response to a letter by the governor inviting the president to visit. Mr. Trump also threatened to rethink the federal funding set to aid in replacing the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. Last week, Moore invited the president to Baltimore on a date of Mr. Trump’s choosing following what he described as personal "insults from the Oval Office," after he expressed concern over the president’s decision to deploy National Guard personnel for municipal policing in Washington, D.C. In recent remarks, Mr. Trump said Baltimore was "so far gone," as far as crime is concerned. On "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday, Moore said Trump’s rhetoric on crime is "purely performative" as the president has offered to send troops to Baltimore amid a push to crack down on crime that began in the nation’s capital in recent weeks and could extend to other major cities. "While the President is spending his time from the Oval Office making jabs and attacks at us, there are people actually on the ground doing the work who know what supports would actually work to continue to bring down crime. But it’s falling on deaf ears of the president of the United States," Moore said. The White House, in a statement to WJZ last week, shared an article by U.S. News and World Report that showed Baltimore ranks as the fourth worst in the nation in crime and murders. According to a U.S. and World News report, Baltimore ranks behind only Memphis, Oakland and St. Louis. On Sunday, Mr. Trump, on his social media platform Truth Social, doubled down on the "out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore.” "Stop talking and get to work, Wes," Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. "I’ll then see you on the streets!!!". "Wes Moore’s record on Crime is a very bad one, unless he fudges his figures on crime like many of the other ‘Blue States’ are doing," Mr. Trump wrote. According to Moore, since his inauguration, homicides in Maryland have decreased statewide by 20%. He said that in the first six months of 2025, the Baltimore Police Department saw double-digit reductions in gun violence, including a 28% decrease in homicides and a 19% decrease in non-fatal shootings from the year before. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [8/24/2025 5:37 PM, Elvia Limon, 12414K] reports Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Sunday listed the reasons why he opposes President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., including his seeing it as "disrespectful" to the guard members. Earlier this month, the Trump administration began surging federal law enforcement across parts of the nation’s capital to crack down on what the White House said was an unacceptable level of crime, despite statistics showing violent crime has declined in the city. Last week, Trump took federal control of the Metropolitan Police Department and deployed hundreds of National Guard troops across the city to further the crack down on crime. Moore, in a Sunday interview with CBS News’s "Face the Nation" with Margaret Brennan, said there were "plenty of reasons" why he opposed the deployment, including that it is unsustainable, not scalable, and unconstitutional. "The fourth reason is because it’s deeply disrespectful to the members of the National Guard," Moore said. "As someone who actually deployed overseas and served my country in combat, to ask these men and women to do a job that they’re not trained for is just deeply disrespectful.". "And so when we’re thinking about all of these lasting factors, when we’re thinking about the fact that it serves as a distraction from the fact that the president’s disastrous economic policies are making everything more expensive for everyday Americans — is making life harder for everyday Americans, there is a multitude of reasons that I am against this, and I will not authorize the Maryland National Guard to be utilized for this," he continued.

New York Times [8/24/2025 6:56 PM, Alyce McFadden and Tim Balk, 143795K] reports Democrats pushed back on Sunday against President Trump’s characterization of blue-state cities as crime-ridden and lawless, which the White House has used to justify calling up National Guard troops and sending federal law enforcement agents to Washington streets. Mr. Trump said on Friday that he was considering using the same playbook in other major American cities, and that Chicago could be next. The administration has not indicated when the National Guard could be sent to Chicago, New York or any of the other cities the president has mentioned. Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago, said on CNN on Sunday that Mr. Trump’s threat was more a reflection of the president’s animus toward Chicago’s Democratic leadership and desire to crack down on immigration than a considered strategy to take on crime. “When you look at what he did in D.C., he’s not going to actually deal with crime,” Mr. Emanuel said. “This is an attempt to deal with cities that are welcoming cities, known as sanctuary cities, and deal with immigration.” Violent crime in Chicago, Washington and other major cities has fallen in recent years. Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois said in a statement on Saturday, “There is no emergency that warrants the president of the United States federalizing the Illinois National Guard” or sending in federal agents. The governor said he had not received any communication from the White House about such a deployment and added that the president was “attempting to manufacture a crisis.” Mr. Trump said on Friday that New York City would be the next target for a federal policing effort, after Chicago. Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee in New York’s mayoral race, said in a telephone interview on Sunday that New Yorkers were not looking for law enforcement help from Washington. What New Yorkers want, Mr. Mamdani said, is “not to see the National Guard across the five boroughs. It’s to know that they could still have the same health care that they have today. It’s to know that they could still afford their groceries.” He called federal cuts to social services “the crisis that D.C. is creating” and said there was not a single problem “they would be coming to solve.” On Sunday morning, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that he was also considering sending National Guard troops to Baltimore, describing the city as “out of control” and “crime ridden.” In an appearance on CBS, Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, a Democrat, pointed out that homicides in the city had dropped significantly and said the president was relying on “tropes” and “1980s scare tactics.” In an Aug. 21 letter, Mr. Moore invited the president to join him on a “safety walk” in the state next month. Mr. Trump answered with a resounding “no” on Sunday, writing in the social media post that he would send National Guard troops to “clean up the crime disaster” before setting foot in Baltimore. The Pentagon on Sunday deflected questions about plans to send National Guard troops to cities besides Washington. “We won’t speculate on further operations,” the Defense Department said in a statement. “The Department is a planning organization and is continuously working with other agency partners on plans to protect federal assets and personnel.”

Breitbart [8/24/2025 4:05 PM, Staff, 2608K] reports Donald Trump threatened to deploy National Guard troops Sunday to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as the US president seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an "out of control, crime-ridden" city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. In June he controversially ordered nearly 5,000 troops to Los Angeles — ostensibly to quell protests against immigration enforcement raids — triggering ferocious opposition from California Governor Gavin Newsom, widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential hopeful. And US media is reporting that the Trump administration also is planning an unprecedented deployment of thousands of National Guard personnel to Chicago, the country’s third-largest city, prompting vocal pushback from Democrats there. As for Baltimore, "if Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, using a derogatory nickname. Trump’s feud with Moore, who is Black, appeared to escalate dramatically this week, with the governor assailing Trump’s provocative suggestion of deploying troops in Maryland and Trump calling Moore "nasty" and threatening to revoke federal funds to help fix a collapsed bridge. On Sunday, Moore told CNN he had invited Trump to walk the streets of Baltimore with him so the governor could counter "this blissful ignorance, these tropes and these 1980 scare tactics" used by the president.

Washington Post [8/24/2025 9:25 PM, Daniel Wu, 29079K] reports National Guard members in Washington are now carrying weapons and “detentions may occur leading to arrests,” according to a statement from the force on Sunday, potentially deepening the military’s involvement in President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of D.C. police. Guard members will carry their service-issued weapons, which may include M4 carbine rifles and M17 pistols, a spokesperson for Joint Task Force-D.C., the military mission that includes Guard members from D.C. and six states that are involved in the deployment, said in a statement. Guard members were seen with their sidearms visible at Union Station on Sunday. The statement said the National Guard members are operating under rules that “allow use of force only as a last resort and solely in response to an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm.” A White House official said in a statement to Washington Post that the Guard “will continue protecting federal assets — including officers — providing a safe environment for officers to make arrests if needed, and providing a visible law enforcement presence to deter crime, as they have been since the operation began.” In the roughly two weeks since Guard members were first ordered to D.C., they have conducted patrols, mostly in Metro stations and high-traffic areas such as Union Station. They are not authorized to make arrests. The Pentagon has also said the National Guard’s mission is focused on being a visible deterrent. Personnel will support law enforcement and can temporarily detain a suspect until police arrive, officials have said. But under federal Title 32 orders, which is the authority Trump used to activate them, they could conduct law enforcement if asked. A federal law known as the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits U.S. troops from carrying out civilian law enforcement actions. The National Guard’s mission “remains such that it is strengthening the mission to assist local and federal law enforcement in community in Washington, D.C.,” the task force said in the statement Sunday. “The National Guard is committed to public safety.” More than 2,200 National Guard members are in Washington, including troops from six other states, since Trump on Aug. 11 declared a crime emergency in the nation’s capital, placing the D.C. police department under direct federal control and ordering Guard members — who report to the president because the District does not have a governor — to patrol the streets. The Pentagon announced Friday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had authorized Guard members in Washington to carry weapons — a reversal from their initial orders — though officials with Joint Task Force-D.C. said at the time that they had not been ordered to do so yet. Initial deployment orders specified that National Guard personnel, while wearing body armor, would not be armed or carry weapons in their vehicles.

Reported similarly:
AP [8/24/2025 2:48 PM, Jonathan J. Cooper, Leah Askarinam and Konstantin Toropin, 2608K]
CBS Los Angeles [8/25/2025 2:27 AM, Margaret Brennan, 45245K]
CNN [8/24/2025 9:45 PM, Zachary Cohen, 662K]

Breitbart [8/24/2025 12:33 PM, Randy Clark, 2608K] reports violent attacks on federal law enforcement agents involved in deportation operations are continuing to escalate in Governor Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary state of California. On Wednesday, a group of 15-20 violent rioters in San Francisco, California, assaulted, grabbed, punched, and pepper-sprayed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in broad daylight. The Department of Homeland Security condemned the attack on the agents in a statement announcing the arrest of one member of the group. The incident occurred when four ICE agents, assigned to perform targeted immigration enforcement duties as part of President Trump’s ongoing deportation actions in the state, were met and surrounded by the angry mob on Montgomery Street as they carried out their duties. According to DHS, one agent sustained a hand injury during the melee, and others were injured when the angry mob used pepper spray to attack the group of law enforcement officers. One man, a United States citizen named Adrian Guerrero, was charged with assault and destruction of federal property. According to court filings, Guerrero slashed the tire of a government vehicle and threatened to stab a law enforcement officer. According to the agents, Guerrero made repeated threats against the officers, stating, "I’m going to fuck you up, I’m going to go after your family," and "I’m going to stab you." At the time of his arrest, Guerrero was standing at arm’s length of the agents and was in possession of a large black knife. Guerrero was dressed in all black and sported a Palestinian Keffiyeh headscarf and orange-tinged goggles. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem issued a statement about the escalating attacks on Friday, saying, "Our brave ICE law enforcement are now facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them as they risk their lives to arrest the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens. These acts of violence are fueled by sanctuary politicians’ rhetoric vilifying our law enforcement.". Despite the attacks, the Secretary vows her agency will not be deterred from enforcing immigration laws, adding, "We will not and have not let this violence stop us or slow us down. Everyday our law enforcement continues to enforce the law and arrest the most depraved criminals including pedophiles, terrorists, murderers, gang members, and sexual predators.".

CNN [8/24/2025 2:48 PM, Hannah Rabinowitz and Kaanita Iyer, 662K] reports the Trump administration has been planning for weeks to send the National Guard to Chicago, two officials told CNN, as President Donald Trump looks to expand his anti-crime agenda and crackdown on immigration in major cities across the United States. It is not yet clear how many troops would be sent to Chicago, or when those deployments would start. Trump seemed to preview those plans in the Oval Office on Friday, saying, "I think Chicago will be our next, and then we’ll help with New York.". Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, said Friday that the city has not heard from the White House about the deployment or any increased law enforcement presence, adding that such a move would be "uncalled for" and "unlawful.". "There are many things the federal government could do to help us reduce crime and violence in Chicago, but sending in the military is not one of them," Johnson said in a statement. Johnson told MSNBC on Sunday the city would take legal action if Trump sent troops into the city, adding that "the people of this city are accustomed to rising up against tyranny.". "What he is proposing at this point would be the most flagrant violation of our Constitution in the 21st century. The city of Chicago does not need a military occupation," Johnson said. "That’s not what we need. In fact, we’ve been very clear about what we need. We need to invest in people to ensure that we can build safe and affordable communities.". A spokesperson for the Pentagon told CNN, "We won’t speculate on further operations. The Department is a planning organization and is continuously working with other agency partners on plans to protect federal assets and personnel.".

Washington Post [8/24/2025 3:19 PM, Praveena Somasundaram and Mariana Alfaro, 29079K] reports city and state leaders pilloried the Trump administration for planning to home in on Chicago — the third most populous city in the United States — as the next target for a military deployment in the name of addressing crime, immigration and homelessness, calling the idea unlawful and unnecessary. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) said the state was not experiencing any emergency that would warrant a National Guard presence like that which the Pentagon has been considering. Instead, Pritzker said, President Donald Trump was “attempting to manufacture a crisis.” Trump has portrayed Chicago as crime-ridden for years and suggested in recent days that it would be the National Guard’s next step. On Saturday, The Washington Post first reported that the Pentagon has been considering options to deploy the National Guard in Chicago as early as September; the use of thousands of active-duty troops in Chicago also has been discussed but is considered less likely at this time. If the mission is approved, Chicago would become the third U.S. city to face a recent deployment, coming on the heels of crackdowns in Los Angeles and D.C. Chicago, a city of roughly 2.7 million, has seen a decrease in violent crime since a covid pandemic-era spike that mirrored other U.S. cities. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) noted in a statement Friday that over the past year homicides were down by more than 30 percent and shootings by nearly 40 percent. At a block party on Saturday, Johnson, whose mayoralty in the Democratic stronghold has been challenged by low approval ratings, decried Trump’s depiction of his city. “This is who Chicago really is,” Johnson said. “What’s being painted by the federal government is false. We love one another. We support one another. We put our arms around one another.” In his statement Friday, Johnson wrote that he had “grave concerns” about a National Guard deployment, describing Trump’s approach as “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.”

NBC News [8/25/2025 12:55 AM, Shaquille Brewster, Selina Guevara and Marlene Lenthang, 43603K] reports Chicago’s mayor is defying President Donald Trump’s threat to deploy the National Guard to the Windy City to combat crime and scoping out legal avenues to prevent soldiers from overtaking the city. On Friday, Trump talked about his controversial deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and said Chicago and New York City would be next. He has described the deployment in the nation’s capital as a bid to clean up crime, but critics dismiss the move as little more than political overreach. "The guard is not needed," Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told NBC News. "This is not the role of our military. The brave men and women who signed up to serve our country did not sign up to occupy American cities.” Johnson also noted the city’s decline in murders, shootings and car thefts. Chicago police crime data from earlier this month show murders are down 31% from the same time last year, shootings have dropped by 36% and vehicle thefts are down 26%. "The things that we’re doing in Chicago by investing in people, youth employment, mental health care, services, building more affordable homes, making sure that our detectives bureau has all the resources that it needs ... that’s why we’re seeing the results that we are experiencing right now," he said. "Occupying our cities with the military — that’s not how we build safe and affordable communities," he added. Johnson on Sunday further questioned why Trump slashed federal investments in violence prevention and reduced the budget for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid if he wanted to drive down violence in big cities. "The National Guard is not going to put food on people’s table. The National Guard is not going to reduce unemployment," Johnson said. The mayor’s office said in a statement Saturday that it was working with Illinois’ governor and Cook County, which is home to Chicago, in "evaluating all of our legal options to protect the people of Chicago from unconstitutional federal overreach.” Edwin Yohnka, director of communications and public policy for the Illinois branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said Trump will face legal challenge if the guard is deployed in Chicago without a valid reason. "There’s a higher barrier for the president to send National Guard into Chicago [than into D.C.], because there has to be a reason or he has to have the agreement of the governor of the state of Illinois. And clearly, from what we see, he’s not going to have that. He’s going to have to articulate a reason for doing it. I think that reason will be challenged by the state of Illinois," Yohnka said in an interview. He said the ACLU of Illinois will also be "on the lookout" for how troops, if deployed, behave on the streets and challenge any arrests, detention sweeps or use of excessive force. Speaking Friday at the Oval Office, Trump said he hadn’t made any concrete plans with regard to Chicago and hadn’t spoken to Johnson about any troop deployment. He claimed, however, that people in the city "are screaming for us to come.” "When we’re ready, and we’ll go in and we’ll straighten out Chicago, just like we did D.C. Chicago is very dangerous," he said.

Washington Post [8/24/2025 4:53 PM, Lauren Lumpkin, 29079K] reports Zoe Amen usually rides the Metro home from school — a 90-minute commute that takes her from her Catholic high school in the Maryland suburbs to her house in Southeast Washington. In a normal year, she’ll sometimes stop to grab food or study at the library. In a normal year, she feels pretty safe. “I’m kind of scared of being stopped,” said the 17-year-old rising senior. Her mom always tells her that she’s a good kid, that nothing will happen. But now, there are more federal officers in the streets. The first day of school, typically steeped in routine and tradition, will look different for some students in the District amid President Donald Trump’s orders to place the city’s police under federal control and deploy the National Guard to drive down crime. Some teenagers are changing their commutes. Parents are recruiting volunteers to monitor popular routes to school — particularly around campuses with large populations of Hispanic children and recent immigrants. An after-school program hopes it can hold on to its mostly Latina staff, who are on edge after unmarked federal immigrant enforcement patrol cars were outside the campus last week. Amen was among dozens of students at a Friday night meeting in Southeast Washington that was organized by several community groups in response to the federal police takeover. City leaders, community organizers and D.C. police shared advice for navigating the increased law enforcement presence once school starts Monday: Stay calm. You’re allowed to film officers, but from a respectful distance. Be smart. Many of D.C.’s almost 100,000 schoolchildren use public transportation, and it’s not uncommon for students to trek through violent areas to get to school — prompting the city to start a program in 2017 that tasks adults with keeping watch around schools in high-crime areas. After declaring a crime emergency, Trump put more federal officers and National Guard troops on D.C. streets. At a visit to a U.S. Park Police facility in Southeast Washington last week, the president thanked law enforcement officers and troops, telling them, “We’re not playing games. We’re going to make it safe.” But some residents are made uneasy by the surge of federal officers from agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The city’s growing immigrant community fears being targeted and detained — even those who are in the country legally. Black students, some already distrustful of police, are worried they’ll be profiled and treated unfairly.

Reported similarly:
NBC News [8/25/2025 5:00 AM, Gary Grumbach and Megan Lebowitz, 43603K]

FOX News [8/24/2025 8:04 PM, Sophia Compton, 40019K] Video: HERE reports a petition urging Florida officials to show leniency toward Harjinder Singh, an illegal immigrant truck driver accused of causing a crash that killed three people, has garnered nearly 2.5 million signatures as of Sunday afternoon. The petition — posted on the website Change.org and addressed to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — calls for both DeSantis and the Florida Board of Executive Clemency to re-examine the case against the 28-year-old. Singh faces three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of manslaughter in connection with the deadly Aug. 12 crash. Harjinder Singh, 28, an illegal immigrant, was operating a commercial semi-truck with a trailer on the Florida Turnpike in Fort Pierce when he allegedly attempted a U-turn in an unauthorized area. The trailer jackknifed and collided with a minivan, killing all three of its passengers, according to officials. Singh was arrested in Stockton, California, on Aug. 16 and later extradited to Florida. Investigators determined that he and his passenger, Harneet Singh, fled to Sacramento the day after the crash, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. On Saturday, a Florida judge denied bond to Singh, ruling that he is an unauthorized alien and a substantial flight risk. St. Lucie County Judge Lauren Sweet also found probable cause for all six charges against Singh and classified them as forcible felonies under Florida law. "This was a tragic accident — not a deliberate act," the petition states. "While accountability matters, the severity of the charges against him does not align with the circumstances of the incident.” If convicted, the petition requests that Singh receive a "proportionate and reasonable" sentence, that parole eligibility be granted after part of his sentence is served and that alternatives to incarceration — like counseling or community service — be considered. The petition is signed by "Collective Punjabi youth.” Authorities said Singh crossed into the U.S. illegally in 2018 via the southern border, later obtaining a commercial driver’s license in California. He attempted to obtain work authorization, but it was rejected by the first Trump administration on Sept. 14, 2020, according to Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this week that the U.S. is halting work visas for foreign commercial truck drivers, a move praised by conservatives in the wake of the deadly crash. Governor Ron DeSantis did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [8/24/2025 11:38 AM, Anthony Blair, 43962K]
Daily Caller [8/24/2025 3:39 PM, Mark Tanos, 985K]

AP [8/25/2025 12:04 AM, Staff, 27036K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia was expected Monday to report to U.S. immigration officials in Maryland as the Trump administration says it intends to deport the El Salvadoran national whose arrest and fight to stay in the country have become a flashpoint in the president’s immigration crackdown. The scheduled check-in at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore comes just days after the 30-year-old immigrant was released from a jail in Tennessee, where he had been detained since June after being brought back to the U.S. following his mistaken deportation to El Salvador. Immigration officials have said they plan to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda, which recently agreed to a deal to accept certain deportees from the U.S., after he declined an offer to be removed to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to human smuggling charges. According to his defense attorneys, the government has given Abrego Garcia until first thing Monday to accept the plea deal and deportation to Costa Rica, or "that offer will be off the table forever.” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have declined to say if he’s still considering the deal. On Friday, Abrego Garcia returned to his family in Maryland. Video released by advocates of the reunion showed a room decorated with streamers, flowers and signs. He embraced loved ones and thanked them "for everything.” Filings in federal court show the Costa Rican government saying Abrego Garcia would be welcomed as a legal immigrant and wouldn’t face detention. In a statement, Justice Department spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said the criminal charges underscore how Abrego Garcia presents a "clear danger" and that he can either plead guilty or stand trial. "Either way, we will hold Abrego Garcia accountable and protect the American people," Gilmartin said.

FOX News [8/24/2025 10:10 PM, Breanne Deppisch, 40019K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian migrant whose months-long court fight has emerged as a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, will report Monday to the ICE Field Office in Baltimore, where he is expected to be arrested and deported to Uganda, his attorneys told Fox News Digital. The news caps an extraordinary, six-month court battle over Abrego Garcia’s legal status that has spanned two continents, touched off dozens of lengthy court hearings, and involved three federal judges in Tennessee and Maryland. The Department of Justice has said Abrego Garcia is a member of the El Salvadoran gang MS-13, was caught in Tennessee allegedly driving a van full of illegal migrants, and has been accused by his wife of beating her. His supporters have painted him as a hard-working father who has been vilified by the Trump administration, and have pointed to a judge’s ruling that said the government failed to provide sufficient evidence that he is a member of MS-13. Now, Abrego Garcia is slated for deportation to a third country, after an immigration judge ruled he could not be sent back to his homeland because he faced danger there. The latest development in Abrego Garcia’s saga comes days after the Justice Department offered to send him to Costa Rica on Thursday, in exchange for a guilty plea to criminal charges of human smuggling, brought against him while he was still detained in Salvadorian custody earlier this year. Abrego Garcia declined the offer. His attorneys used the spurned offer to bolster their motion to dismiss the criminal case against him on the grounds of "vindictive" and selective prosecution by the Trump administration. They said the plea deal offer shows that the Trump administration had embarked on a pressure campaign against their client, and one in which several government agencies— the Justice Department, ICE, and DHS— were "using their collective powers to force" their client to choose between the plea and Costa Rica, or not accepting the offer, and what they termed the "rendition to Uganda.” "In conjunction with that proposal, the government produced a letter to Mr. Abrego’s counsel confirming that he could live freely in that country, which would accept him as a refugee or grant him residency status, and promise not to refoul him to El Salvador," his attorneys said in a court filing on Saturday. It was not until after he rejected that offer, they said, that the government "informed Mr. Abrego that he has until first thing Monday morning — precisely when he must report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office — to accept a plea in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica, or else that offer will be off the table forever.” The plans were detailed in several documents, including the official notice sent Friday to Abrego Garcia’s attorneys by ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Adviser (OPLA), and in the Saturday court filing from his attorneys. Lawyers for the Justice Department vehemently opposed Abrego Garcia’s release from custody, arguing at an evidentiary hearing earlier this year that he was a danger to the community and describing him as a member of MS-13 — a claim that was rejected by a judge in a ruling earlier this year. Even so, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem blasted Abrego Garcia’s release from criminal custody on Friday, saying in a statement that the Trump administration "will not stop fighting till this Salvadoran man faces justice and is OUT of our country.” Prior to Abrego Garcia’s arrival at the ICE facility in Baltimore Monday, CASA, an immigrant advocacy group, is holding an early-morning candlelight vigil outside the detention center in Baltimore to show their support for Abrego Garcia and his family. "Kilmar is being made an example of, a martyr for having the courage to stand up to this administration’s illegal deportation practices," Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, CASA’s Chief of Organizing and Leadership, said in a statement.

The Washington Examiner [8/24/2025 5:49 PM, Zach LaChance, 1563K] reports Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Sunday following the Salvadoran national’s release from criminal custody, his office announced. On Friday, Abrego Garcia, who is awaiting trial on human smuggling charges in Tennessee, was granted a release from custody by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes. He has since returned to Maryland, where he previously lived with his family before his arrest and deportation to El Salvador earlier this year. Now that Abrego Garcia is out of custody, Van Hollen, who was one of the first Democrats to decry the Salvadoran national’s deportation as an alleged violation of due process, is seizing on the case again. Over the weekend, the Maryland senator held a virtual meeting with Abrego Garcia and his wife, Jennifer Vazquez, the first time they have spoken since a separate meeting with him in El Salvador, one that was roundly mocked by the White House and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who claimed the two were "sipping margaritas.". In a statement after the meeting, Van Hollen said the three discussed the case, as well as alleged efforts by the Trump administration to deny Abrego Garcia’s due process rights "at every turn," including through a potential deportation to Uganda, which has set itself up as a third country for deportees concerned about their safety if sent to their home countries. "Trump’s cronies keep lying about the facts in his case and they are engaged in a malicious abuse of power as they threaten to deport him to Uganda — to block his chance to defend himself against the new charges they brought," his statement said. That deportation could be coming soon, with a Department of Homeland Security official saying on Saturday that Abrego Garcia may be deported to Uganda "in no fewer than 72 hours, absent weekends." He has also been instructed to report to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore on Monday. The Daily Signal [8/24/2025 7:00 PM, Olivia Pero, 668K] reports Abrego Garcia is affiliated the MS-13 gang and has a history of domestic violence. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed domestic violence allegations against him in May 2021. Van Hollen’s Sunday meeting with Abrego Garcia was their first since April when Abrego Garcio was imprisoned in El Salvador, a friendly encounter mocked at the time by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. "During our conversation [Sunday], I shared with him that I and many others have been fighting for months to ensure that his constitutional due process rights were respected despite Trump’s efforts to deny them at every turn," said Van Hollen in a statement. Van Hollen also said the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Abrego Garcio to Uganda was "a malicious abuse of power.” "As I told Kilmar and his wife Jennifer, we will stay in this fight for justice and due process because if his rights are denied, the rights of everyone else are put at risk," Van Hollen said. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes is ordering Abrego Garcia to have "access to attorneys" to "prepare for trial" if Immigration and Customs Enforcement takes him into custody. ICE then told Abrego Garcia’s lawyers he might be deported to Uganda in "no less than 72 hours." Additionally, ICE said Abrego Garcia must report to any ICE agent at the Baltimore office Monday. Uganda is the country of choice for Abrego Garcia’s deportation because the country reached a deal with the U.S. to take third-party deportations.

NPR [8/24/2025 6:28 PM, Chandelis Duster and Scott Detrow, 34837K] Audio: HERE reports the attorney for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man wrongfully deported to a notorious El Salvadoran prison and later returned to the U.S., said he expects him to be detained by immigration officials again on Monday. Abrego Garcia, who was released from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday while he awaits federal trial, has been told to report to an ICE detention center in Baltimore on Monday, attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said during an interview with All Things Considered that aired on Sunday. "I don’t see any need for ICE to detain him. They’ve got him right now," Sandoval-Moshenberg said, saying that Abrego Garcia is being monitored electronically by the U.S. Marshals Service through a GPS ankle bracelet. "But that said, I expect that ICE will take him into detention because, well, pretty much that’s what they do. They have said they’re going to try to deport him.". After Abrego Garcia was released Friday, immigration officials notified his attorneys that they plan to deport him to Uganda after he rejected a plea deal to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to smuggling charges and remaining in jail, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said in a court filing on Saturday. His attorneys also believe the move is designed to push Abrego Garcia into a guilty plea, with Uganda being used as "a means of punishment." Sandoval-Moshenberg said no assurances have been given about Uganda, and while they are concerned about what his living conditions would be in the country, they are also concerned it is a way to ultimately send Abrego Garcia back to El Salvador. "If Uganda is going to deport him right back to El Salvador, whether, you know, the next day, the next month, or even in a few months, that’s just as illegal as it would be for them to send him straight to El Salvador for a second time," Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

CNN [8/25/2025 5:03 AM, Alison Main and Devan Cole, 23245K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was unlawfully deported to El Salvador earlier this year, will gather with members of his family, immigration activists, community leaders and elected officials at a rally in Baltimore on Monday morning as the Trump administration warns it could send him to Uganda as soon as this week. Abrego Garcia is expected to check in at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore on Monday. He returned home at the end of last week from Tennessee, where he was being held pending trial in a federal human smuggling case. Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, the chief of organizing and leadership at CASA, the group behind the rally, argued that Abrego Garcia is being made a “martyr for having the courage to stand up to this administration’s illegal deportation practices.” “They’re throwing the entire federal apparatus at one father of three to prove that no one should dare challenge their authority,” she continued in statement. A Department of Homeland Security official notified Abrego Garcia’s lawyers on Friday that the agency might try to deport the Salvadoran national to Uganda in the coming days. The notice came just minutes after he was released from criminal custody pending his trial, which is set to begin in January. For now, per an order by a federal judge in Maryland, Abrego Garcia is under supervision by the ICE Baltimore field office, where he must occasionally check in with an immigration officer. Under that order, he is supposed to be allowed to continue to work and live in the state. But the judge has not barred the Trump administration from deporting him to a third country, like Uganda, so long as officials do not violate his due process rights. Activists joining Abrego Garcia on Monday morning accuse the Trump administration of “retaliating” against him for fighting against his deportation and trying to exercise his constitutional rights.

Politico [8/24/2025 7:00 AM, Myah Ward, 2100K] reports Republican governors are vying for billions of immigration enforcement dollars from the GOP’s megalaw, as state-federal partnerships emerge as a key strategy in the Trump administration’s rapid expansion of migrant detention capacity. The Trump administration has already announced deals to establish detention facilities in Florida, Indiana and Nebraska, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has signaled more announcements are coming — pointing to Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz as the model for quickly launching detention sites at airports and jails across the country. In Louisiana, state and federal officials have discussed a deal to fund the renovation of parts of Angola, the nation’s largest maximum-security prison, to hold detainees, according to an administration official, who like others for this story were granted anonymity to discuss the plans. ICE officials have looked at a few private, vacant prisons in Oklahoma to potentially hold detainees, a state official told POLITICO. And in Texas, the massive soft-sided tent structure at Fort Bliss — Lone Star Lockup — opened last weekend under a Defense Department contract. As the Trump administration rushes to spend the $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and meet aggressive White House targets for arrests and deportations, red-state governors are eager to pitch in — and grab a piece of the new funding authorized in the legislation. State officials are working with the Trump administration to secure detention contracts, but also to help fund costs that come with certain arrangements, called 287(g) agreements, that allow local and state law enforcement to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “There’s no question that if you’re a Republican governor, you’re looking for ways to do this cooperation there,” said Ken Cuccinelli, who served as Trump’s deputy of Homeland Security during the first term. “They’re literally willing to pay for you to flex your public safety muscles in your own home state. I mean, are you kidding? Where’s the downside?” Coordination with Republican governors will be a crucial component of ICE’s high-speed build-out, an unprecedented effort that has already spurred lawsuits and drawn accusations of mistreatment and cruelty in detention facilities across the country. And the partnerships underscore the Trump administration’s increasing reliance on soft-sided facilities and vacant prisons and structures that require little construction — an effort designed to intensify President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign.

Wall Street Journal [8/24/2025 10:00 PM, Paul Kiernan, 646K] reports last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. labor market has entered “a curious kind of balance.” The demand for workers has cooled, yet the unemployment rate has held steady because the supply of labor has slowed abruptly. Behind that slowing in the labor supply is a dramatic swing in immigration, from one of the biggest waves in U.S. history to almost none. Economists say that could have subtle but lasting consequences. A virtual halt to unauthorized border crossings, plus stepped-up deportations and a souring climate for foreigners means net immigration this year could be negative for the first time in decades, some experts predict. That has a short-run benefit, as Powell alluded to. It means slumping labor demand won’t necessarily push up the unemployment rate, which at 4.2% is historically low. But in the long run it could limit the economy’s potential growth and generate larger budget deficits. From 2010-19, a net 917,000 people entered the country annually, on average, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That leapt to 3.3 million in 2023 and an estimated 2.7 million in 2024, one of the biggest such surges in American history. In a recent paper for the conservative American Enterprise Institute, economists Wendy Edelberg, Stan Veuger and Tara Watson estimated net migration will drop to negative 205,000 this year, give or take roughly a quarter-million. They attribute that to a combination of minimal illegal immigration and a surge in out-migration to between 675,000 and 1.02 million above typical rates, assuming increased deportations and voluntary departures in response to the Trump administration’s policies. The last time annual net immigration was consistently so low was the 1960s. But back then, the baby boomers were entering the workforce and powering the economy. Now they are retiring, leaving the labor supply more dependent on immigrants. Economists and demographers say immigrants already account for the vast majority of growth in both the population and labor supply. With zero net immigration, Apollo Chief Economist Torsten Slok estimates, the U.S. economy would be able to sustainably add only about 24,000 nonfarm jobs a month, compared with an average 155,000 from 2015 through 2024. There have been claims that net immigration has already turned negative, such as a report by the Pew Research Center this past week. In an Aug. 14 press release, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said 1.6 million unauthorized immigrants had left the U.S. in her first 200 days on the job. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an email that figure “comes from our own numbers,” without providing detail. However, Noem’s press release included a chart copied and pasted from the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates for less immigration that recently estimated 1.6 million unauthorized migrants have left since January.

NPR [8/25/2025 5:00 AM, Ximena Bustillo, 34837K] reports the halls of the immigration courts in lower Manhattan are quiet on a recent August day — except for the sounds of five men wearing masks and sunglasses, looking at their phones and talking among themselves. They are immigration and federal law enforcement officers, continuing the show of force that has thrown immigration courts into chaos. Eight months ago, the courts were a little-known part of the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), where judges oversee the cases of individuals living in the country illegally. This summer, however, the halls of 26 Federal Plaza and 290 Broadway in lower Manhattan, along with dozens of other courts nationwide, became the epicenters of the Trump administration’s efforts to increase the rate of immigration arrests. "There weren’t any ICE agents in the very beginning, and in the past six months it’s increasing," said John Sarabella, a volunteer with the New Sanctuary Coalition, an immigrant rights group that advocates against deportations. "And their strategies and their tactics have become more and more aggressive and assertive." Sarabella, who says he visits the courts in Manhattan once a week, now witnesses arrests every time. He is one of the many who oppose the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies. Various groups protest outside the buildings, clergy members escort immigrants to hearings, and there are occasional arrests or clashes between law enforcement and elected officials. Last week, New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, filed a brief in court calling for an end to courthouse arrests by federal agencies. "This campaign has taken a heavy toll on our residents," the filing stated, adding that the strategy deters people from attending their mandatory hearings and weakens trust in law enforcement.

NPR [8/25/2025 5:04 AM, Carrie Kahn, 34837K] reports U.S. warships are heading to the waters off Venezuela in a significant show of force by the Trump administration. Officials say the ship are part of the president’s effort to combat drug trafficking. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

The Hill [8/24/2025 12:00 PM, Fron Nahzi, 12414K] reports as the Trump administration doubles down on sweeping, highly exclusionary immigration bans, it risks repeating the least enlightened chapters of U.S. history without learning an important lesson. There have been times when immigration policy was used not just to keep people out, but also to strengthen America’s security, moral standing and global influence. Today’s blanket bans, pitched as a simple fix for complex border challenges, lack the nuance and strategic foresight that once made immigration an integral part of U.S. foreign policy. They shut the door indiscriminately — on the persecuted, the skilled and the allies we may need tomorrow — while failing to address the root causes of migration or harness its potential benefits. A century ago, restrictive immigration quotas favored Northern and Western Europeans and excluded millions of Jews, Catholics, Asians and other groups deemed undesirable. Although the rhetoric has shifted, the reflex of slamming the door shut whenever fear rises remains stubbornly familiar. Yet after World War II, America chose a different path — one worth revisiting now. As Communism tightened its grip across Eastern Europe, the U.S. responded not only with military alliances and containment but by welcoming political exiles as strategic partners in a global ideological struggle. These immigrants became part of a larger U.S. effort to challenge totalitarian regimes through information campaigns, civic organization and cultural preservation. Thousands were resettled in the U.S., carefully vetted and supported by organizations such as the National Committee for a Free Europe — a quasi-nonprofit quietly backed by the U.S. government — as well as Catholic Charities and the World Council of Churches. Among them were approximately 10,000 Albanian families, mostly Muslim, who had fled Communist repression with assistance from the Free Albanian Committee and these faith-based organizations. My own family, Albanian and Catholic, was among those who found refuge and the chance to begin anew. These newcomers were not treated as burdens to be managed or hidden. They were seen, and funded, as assets in the ideological fight against totalitarianism. The result was a kind of soft-power infrastructure that helped strengthen America’s moral position in the world while offering displaced people not just shelter, but purpose. This approach — treating immigration as a tool of national strategy — deserves serious reconsideration.

The Hill [8/24/2025 3:00 PM, Tyler Beaver, 12414K] reports after watching America’s small business innovation programs get gamed by foreign adversaries and corporate welfare recipients, I’ve seen enough. The Small Business Innovation Research program was designed to fund the next generation of American innovators; the engineers in garages across America, the defense tech startups, the genuine small businesses with breakthrough ideas. Instead, we’re subsidizing research that ends up in Beijing while a handful of "SBIR mills" pocket hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars. Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) recently released report exposes the stunning scope of this problem: six of the 25 program’s largest recipients had clear links to China yet still received nearly $180 million from the Pentagon in 2023 and 2024 and this is after due diligence systems were supposedly in place. Meanwhile, the top 20 "SBIR mills" — companies consuming the programs resources — have received $3.4 billion in Phase I and II contracts, often producing little more than policy white papers. Meanwhile genuine American, 1 a.m. in the garage startups struggle to get funding or wade through the bureaucracy. This isn’t just waste — this is a national security crisis masquerading as an innovation development difficulty. From my work with defense technology companies, I have witnessed this dysfunction firsthand. Foreign-backed entities arrive with sophisticated applications, complex education, prior knowledge and professional-grade documentation that’s completely disproportionate to their supposed "startup" status. They represent themselves as small American companies despite being connected to vast international networks, carefully structuring ownership just below detection thresholds. Beijing has weaponized America’s open innovation system against us. China announced a $138 billion government-backed venture fund in March 2025, specifically targeting quantum and AI startups, areas where Small Business Innovation Research funding has been substantial. The "state-led, enterprise-driven" model allows Chinese entities to bid strategically for U.S. intellectual property while American companies face market constraints. The pattern of self-allowed subjugation of our technology is clear: foreign entities use American partners as nominal owners, develop technology with U.S. taxpayer funding, then commercialize innovations overseas. We are literally funding our own technological displacement.

Washington Post [8/24/2025 3:21 PM, Scott Lincicome, 29079K] reports President Donald Trump’s announcement on Friday that the U.S. government will take a 10 percent stake in long-struggling Intel marks a dangerous turn in American industrial policy. Decades of market-oriented principles have been abandoned in favor of unprecedented government ownership of private enterprise. Sold as a pragmatic and fiscally responsible way to shore up national security, the $8.9 billion equity investment marks a troubling departure from the economic policies that made America prosperous and the world’s undisputed technological leader. The deal converts previously committed Chips Act grants into government equity, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick arguing that the change will ensure American taxpayers get “a piece of the action.” But this superficially appealing logic ignores the many risks that arise when the Uncle Sam becomes a private company’s biggest shareholder — including dangers for the company itself. The most immediate risk is that Intel’s decisions will increasingly be driven by political rather than commercial considerations. With the U.S. government as its largest shareholder, Intel will face constant pressure to align corporate decisions with the goals of whatever political party is in power. Will Intel locate or continue facilities — such as its long-delayed “megafab” in Ohio — based on economic efficiency or government priorities? Will it hire and fire based on merit or political connections? Will research and development priorities reflect market demands or bureaucratic preferences? Will standard corporate finance decisions that are routinely (and mistakenly) pilloried in Washington, such as dividends or stock buybacks, suddenly become taboo? These risks are already evident, and not just in historically underperforming government-owned enterprises such as Amtrak or the U.S. Postal Service. Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan agreed to the deal only after Trump demanded he resign over benign investments in China. Trump’s description of their Aug. 11 meeting says it all: “He walked in wanting to keep his job, and he ended up giving us $10 billion for the United States.”

CNN’s State of the Union [8/24/2025 12:30 PM, Staff, 447K] reports there is new reporting this morning that President Trump has a detailed plan, it’s been in the works for weeks, apparently, to send National Guard troops into Chicago. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries says that he supports Governor Pritzker statement that there’s no basis, no authority for Donald Trump to potentially try to drop federal troops into the city of Chicago. "There’s been no request from the state of Illinois, no request at all for federal assistance. I support the Chicago Police Department. I support the New York Police Department. These are men and women who have taken an oath to protect and serve these communities, and they do a great job of that. And we should continue to support local law enforcement and not simply allow Donald Trump to play games with the lives of the American people as part of his effort to manufacture a crisis and create a distraction because he’s deeply unpopular. The one big ugly bill is deeply unpopular. Ripping health care away from millions of Americans is unpopular. Enacting tax breaks for their billionaire donors is deeply unpopular." Jeffries states.

CNN’s State of the Union [8/24/2025 12:30 PM, Staff, 447K] reports CNN’s new reporting is that President Trump has a detailed plan that has been actually in the works for weeks to send the National Guard into Chicago. As the former mayor of the Windy City, what’s CNN senior political and global affairs commentator Rahm Emanuel reaction? "I think the core issue here is, look, crime is coming down, specifically violence. But there’s a persistent problem, which is carjacking. In fact, the DOGE individual in D.C. was a victim of an attempted carjacking. There’s technology actually to deal with that problem. It hasn’t dropped as much as homicides and shootings. And that’s where the federal government can work with cities and work with mayors and work with county officials to actually reduce carjackings, which are the bigger problem in cities and the persistent problem in that area. And, lastly, I think, look, the attack here is also in the area of prosecutions. And they should -- the U.S. attorney’s offices across the country should get back to prosecuting gun crimes in cities across the country and states across the country, unlike what’s happening in D.C. And Democrats’ answer isn’t, here’s the law or this is unprecedented, which is true. We have a strategy for fighting crime, more police on the beat and getting kids, gangs, and guns off the street. And that is the strategy. And that’s what has to be done. And, in this area, you can actually do it with carjackings. " Emanuel states.

CBS’ Face The Nation [8/24/2025 12:10 PM, Staff, 3715K] reports here in D.C., there are Guardsmen from six different states on the street. The mission is – quote – "beautification duty and support." The defense secretary has authorized them to carry M4 and M17 rifles, but, to date, we have not been able to locate anyone armed within the National Guard on the streets of D.C. Governor Wes Moore is opposed to this idea. Governor Moore says its not sustainable. "You know, one, it is not sustainable. You cannot continue this type of pace of operations, particularly when you’re – when it’s costing over a million dollars a day in order to do this. The second, it’s not scalable. You’re not going to be able to do this in every single major American city, particularly when many of the cities that have the highest crime rates are the places that have actually deployed their National Guards to Washington, D.C. So who’s going to – who’s going to go do the work in their cities? The third, it’s unconstitutional. It’s a direct violation of the 10th Amendment. And for a party that talks about state rights, it’s amazing how they’re having such a big-government approach in the way they’re conducting public safety. The fourth reason is because it’s deeply disrespectful to the members of the National Guard. As someone who actually deployed overseas and served my country in combat, to ask these men and women to do a job that they’re not trained for is just deeply disrespectful. Governor Moore stated.

NBC’s Meet the Press [8/24/2025 11:04 AM, Staff, 3847K] reports the FBI raided the home and office of Mr. Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton searching for classified documents, according to officials. Vice President JD Vance says they are in the early stages of an on going investigation into Joh Bolton. "What I can tell you is that, unlike the Biden DOJ and the Biden FBI, our law enforcement agencies are going to be driven by law and not by politics. And so if we think that Ambassador Bolton has committed a crime, of course, eventually prosecutions will come." Vance states. When asked on the root cause Vance said he will let the FBI speak to that. Ambassador Bolton is a frequent critic of President Trump’s. He’s also on Kash Patel’s enemies list. The administration has already revoked his security clearance, Secret Service protection. Is Ambassador Bolton being targeted because he’s a critic of President Trump? "No, not at all. And in fact, if we were trying to do that, we would just throw out prosecutions willy-nilly, like the Biden administration DOJ did, prosecutions that later got thrown out in court. If we bring a case, and, of course, we haven’t done that yet. The Department of Justice has not done that yet. We are investigating Ambassador Bolton. But if they ultimately bring a case, it will be because they determine that he has broken the law. We’re going to be careful about that. We’re going to be deliberate about that because we don’t think that we should throw people, even if they disagree with us politically, maybe especially if they disagree with us politically, you shouldn’t throw people willy-nilly in prison. You should let the law drive these determinations, and that’s what we’re doing." Vance stated.

NBC’s Meet the Press [8/24/2025 11:04 AM, Staff, 3847K] reports last week Secretary Rubio says he actually doesn’t think that new sanctions would force Putin into a ceasefire. Are sanctions now off the table? "No, sanctions aren’t off the table. But we’re going to make these determinations on a case by case basis. What do we think is actually going to exert the right kind of leverage to bring the Russians to the table? Now, you said sanctions were not going to lead to a ceasefire. I think that’s obviously correct. If you look at the way the Russians have conducted themselves, they don’t want a ceasefire. They don’t want a ceasefire for complicated reasons. We, of course, have pushed for a ceasefire. But again, we don’t control what Russia does. If we did, the war would’ve been over seven months ago. What we do believe though is that we continue to have a lot of cards. The president of the United States has a lot of cards left to play to apply pressure to try to bring this conflict to a close, and that’s what we’re going to do." Vance states.

FOX News Sunday [8/24/2025 11:04 AM, Staff] reports Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley and former principal deputy assistant attorney general Tom Dupree discuss the FBI raid of former National Security Advisor John Bolton and more on ‘Fox News Sunday.’

AP [8/24/2025 1:21 PM, Rebecca Santana, 5352K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement is an agency inside the Department of Homeland Security that is integral to President Donald Trump’s vision of carrying out the mass deportations he promised during the campaign. Deportation officers within a unit called Enforcement and Removal Operations are the ones who are responsible for immigration enforcement. They find and remove people from the United States who aren’t American citizens and, for a variety of reasons, no longer can stay in the country. Some might have gone through immigration court and a judge ordered them removed. Or they were arrested or convicted of certain crimes, or they’ve repeatedly entered the country illegally or overstayed a visa. ICE also manages a growing network of immigration detention facilities around the country where it holds people suspected of immigration violations. Overall, its activities - and how it carries them out - have polarized many Americans in recent months. After years when the number of deportation officers largely remained even, the agency is now rapidly hiring. Congress this summer passed legislation giving ICE $76.5 billion in new money to help speed up the pace of deportations. That’s nearly 10 times the agency’s current annual budget. Nearly $30 billion is for new staff. Last week, The Associated Press got a chance to visit the base in southern Georgia where new ICE recruits are trained and to talk to the agency’s top leadership. Here are details about four things ICE is doing that came out of those conversations. ICE currently has about 6,500 deportation officers, and it is aggressively looking to beef up those numbers. Acting Director Todd Lyons says he wants to hire an additional 10,000 by year’s end. Caleb Vitello, who runs training for ICE, says it has cut Spanish-language requirements to reduce training by five weeks, and he’s been looking for ways to streamline the training and have recruits do more at the field offices where they’re assigned. As Trump’s effort to deport millions of people has intensified, violent episodes have unfolded as ICE seeks to arrest people. Critics have said ICE is being too heavy-handed in carrying out arrests while ICE says its people are the ones being attacked. Vitello said the agency tracks every time officers use force as well as any time someone attacks its officers. According to the agency’s data, from Jan. 21 through Aug. 5 there were 121 reported assaults of ICE officers compared with 11 during the same period last year. New recruits to ICE receive training on immigration law and the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unlawful searches. Longtime officers get regular refreshers on these topics.

NPR [8/24/2025 7:54 AM, Aleja Hertzler-McCain and Ayesha Rascoe, 34837K] Audio: HERE reports nearly two weeks into the Trump administration’s takeover of the police in Washington, D.C., some local churches are experiencing drops in attendance as worshippers fear being detained.

NPR [8/24/2025 1:58 PM, Joe Hernandez, 34837K] Audio: HERE reports Chicago political leaders are slamming a suggestion made by President Trump late last week that he may soon send National Guard troops to the streets of the Midwest metropolis in order to combat crime. Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, said in a statement on Friday that Trump’s approach was "uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound" and that "unlawfully deploying" the National Guard to Chicago could "inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement." Speaking on MSNBC on Sunday, Johnson added: "The city of Chicago does not need a military occupation... This is clearly a violation of the Constitution, and we’re going to remain firm and vigilant in our commitment to ensure that our democracy is protected and our humanity is secured." According to city data quoted by Mayor Johnson, Chicago has seen a drop in certain violent crimes in the past year, including a more than 30% reduction in homicides, a 35% drop in robberies and a nearly 40% decline in shootings. Earlier in August, Trump deployed hundreds of National Guard members to Washington, D.C., as part of what he touted as an effort to reduce crime and root out homelessness. (That’s despite the fact that Mayor Muriel Bowser has said that violent crime in D.C. is at its lowest level in 30 years.) Speaking to reporters Friday in the Oval Office, Trump said he wanted to take that approach to other U.S. cities, including New York and Chicago. "Chicago’s a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent. And we’ll straighten that one out probably next," Trump said. On Sunday morning, the president said in a post on his social media network Truth Social that he might "send in the ‘troops’" to Baltimore, in response to an invitation earlier in the week by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for Trump to join him on a public safety walk to "discuss strategies for effective public safety policy."

New York Post [8/24/2025 5:34 PM, Anthony Blair, 43962K] reports a cheeky ICE arrest photo showing the capture of an illegal Mexican migrant has gone mega-viral for an unexpected reason after being shared online — and many are accusing authorities of deliberately staging the photo for clicks. The picture of Diego Hernandez, 42, posed next to a female ICE agent — who has her back to the camera and her hair flicked over her shoulder, while dressed in tight black pants — has almost 25 million views since being posted on X by the San Diego, California branch of ICE on Saturday. ICE arrest photos are commonly staged so the arresting agent’s face is hidden to protect their identity, but this particular photo, of a sullen Hernandez wearing shorts and a South Park T-shirt, next to a curvy agent, took off on social media. "Am I f–king crazy, or is this them trying to humiliate a random immigrant and using an ICE agent’s fat delicious a– just to make sure it gains traction," one X user asked, sharing the picture. "The Cartman shirt, the ICE agent facing the wall for no reason other than to show her a–, this is art. The parallels one could draw from this are endless. Satire is dead," a second user wrote. Hernandez, who has multiple drunk driving convictions, was arrested in San Diego after local law enforcement notified ICE, according to officials. He is expected to be deported to Mexico. "ICE San Diego arrested Diego Hernandez, 42, an illegal alien from Mexico with multiple convictions for DUI and repeated illegal re-entry into the U.S.," ICE San Diego said in a statement regarding the arrest.

Axios [8/24/2025 8:00 AM, Tal Axelrod and Zachary Basu, 14595K] reports through immigration crackdowns and cultural purges, President Trump is wielding government power to enforce a more rigid, exclusionary definition of what it means to be American. The MAGA movement’s obsession with American identity and Western civilization is shaping federal policy far more than in Trump’s first term — fueling a reckoning over who belongs and what history should be remembered. In MAGA’s telling, America is the heir to ancient European civilizations, built on a Judeo-Christian foundation of white identity, meritocracy, traditional gender roles and the nuclear family. These tenets are cast as universal truths — and mantras such as "America is an idea" or "diversity is our strength" are dismissed as liberal fictions. In an extension of his sprawling DEI crackdown, Trump has ordered the Smithsonian Institution to revise exhibits the administration deems problematic in "tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals." Trump argues there’s been a "widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history" by casting it as irredeemably racist or oppressive — including, he says, with an excessive focus on "how bad slavery was." U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced this past week it’ll screen legal immigration applicants for "anti-American ideologies," including views expressed on social media. USCIS is also expanding the "good moral character" requirement for citizenship applicants, tying the vague standard to an individual’s "behavior, adherence to societal norms, and positive contributions."

NBC News [8/24/2025 8:32 AM, Freddie Clayton, 43603K] reports postal services across the world are halting shipments to the United States this week amid mounting confusion over new import duties that will apply to parcels starting Friday. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month abolishing the trade loophole known as "de minimis," which since 2016 had allowed goods worth up to $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free. The end of the exemption is being extended worldwide after the loophole was closed in May for packages from mainland China and Hong Kong. Under the new rules, personal gifts worth less than $100 will still be duty-free, but all other packages will face the same tariffs as standard imports from their country of origin. The planned policy shift, which operators say lacks clear procedures, has raised concerns about backlogs as services are put on hold. Postal providers in Belgium, Denmark and New Zealand are among several operators that have already suspended shipments of packages to the U.S. until they can retool their systems to comply with the new rules. Letters and documents are generally unaffected. Services in Germany, France, Britain and India have announced they will follow suit in the coming days. France’s national postal service, La Poste, said in a statement that the U.S. did not provide full details or allow enough time to prepare for new customs procedures. New Zealand’s postal service said parcel deliveries to all U.S. states and territories would be "temporarily unavailable until further notice" while systems are updated to meet new U.S. customs requirements. DHL, one of the world’s largest courier companies, said Friday that it will stop accepting parcels containing goods from business customers destined for the U.S. beginning Monday. The company cited unresolved "key questions" about the process, including "how and by whom customs duties will be collected in the future, what additional data will be required, and how the data transmission to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection will be carried out.". DHL will, however, continue to deliver private parcels labeled as gifts valued under $100, in line with White House assurances. The White House said ending the duty-free exemption would help combat "escalating deceptive shipping practices, illegal material, and duty circumvention," claiming some shippers had "abused" the exemption to send illicit drugs such as fentanyl into the U.S.

Houston Chronicle [8/24/2025 12:45 PM, Jarrod Wardwell, 2356K] reports if the Transportation Security Administration is asking what you’ve got in your checked luggage, you better not say cordless curling irons. The TSA has banned cordless curling irons with a gas cartridge, butane, lithium metal or lithium ion batteries from checked bags, restricting them to carry-on luggage, according to the agency. Those cordless curling irons are one of the hazardous items the Federal Aviation Administration says can leak, cause toxic fumes, catch fire or explode. The agency posted an announcement about the restrictions last week. "Doing your haircare on the fly? Allow us to iron out the details," the TSA wrote on social media. A cordless curling iron found in a checked bag with a gas cartridge or butane will be removed and given to the flyer’s airline, according to the TSA. The agency also bans cordless hair straighteners and flat irons in checked luggage with lithium metal, lithium ion batteries or fuel from either gas or butane.

New York Times [8/24/2025 5:11 AM, Jenna Russell, 153395K] reports when the electrical system on Dominic Zanke’s 42-foot fishing boat, Tyrant, suddenly failed one day this spring, the veteran lobsterman was 35 miles out to sea, with no radio or radar to guide him home. Mr. Zanke, who fishes out of Stonington, Maine, saw little cause for worry. He knew he could rely on an old-school fallback: the sprawling network of Coast Guard navigational buoys that dot the coastline from Maine to New Jersey. Generations of fishermen, ferry captains and recreational boaters have taken comfort in knowing that if all else fails, the buoys will be there. In recent months, though, that faith has been shaken by a Coast Guard proposal to do away with roughly 350 buoys, a winnowing the agency says makes sense given decades of advancement in electronic tools for navigation. To some who have used the buoys to skirt disaster on foggy shoals and in narrow channels rocked by squalls, the plan to remove them feels like a betrayal. “What is the value of a life at sea?” said Jon Wilson, an elder statesman of Maine’s sailing community and the founder of WoodenBoat magazine. “There were marine accidents that made people say, ‘We need a buoy here.’ There’s a genius to the system, and it has worked for a reason.” To the Coast Guard, which maintains around 1,700 large ocean buoys from the easternmost point of Maine, at the Canadian border, to northern New Jersey, reassessing the usefulness of specific buoys is practical and realistic. Among other reasons, the agency has pointed to “smartphone navigation apps that are more widely available and affordable.” The Coast Guard released the list of buoys it planned to eliminate in April, setting a deadline of June for public comment. It received more than 3,000 responses, shattering the Northeast District’s previous record of 450. About 15 percent of the comments were impassioned defenses of specific buoys — feedback that has been especially valuable, Mr. Stuck said, as the agency tries to better understand how boaters use each buoy. It plans to release a revised list, with fewer buoys on the chopping block, next month, and will again seek public feedback. No buoys will be removed until next year.

NewsNation [8/24/2025 10:40 AM, Meg Hilling, 6811K] reports the captain of a shipping container was arrested in Seattle on Wednesday for allegedly operating the vessel while intoxicated. On August 20, watchstanders at the Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound said they were notified by a Puget Sound Pilot onboard the MSC Jubilee IX that the captain was exhibiting signs of intoxication. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the vessel was coming from an anchorage near Everett, Washington and made it to Terminal 5 in the Port of Seattle without incident. Agents with the Coast Guard Investigative Service administered a field sobriety and breathalyzer test to the captain upon arriving and found he had a blood alcohol content over six times the legal limit for commercial mariners. The captain was arrested and transported to the King County Jail, where charges were referred to the prosecutor for boating under the influence.

FOX News [8/24/2025 8:00 AM, Adam Sabes, 40019K] reports a cybersecurity expert warns that a scam that has been used to drain entire life savings or retirement accounts has become "devastating" for seniors. FBI Los Angeles on July 15 posted a reminder on X about the Phantom Hacker Scam, which has cost Americans over $1 billion since at least 2024, according to the agency. The FBI said the scam targets senior citizens and warns that victims could lose their "life savings.". The scam operates in three phases: a "tech support impostor," "financial institution impostor" and a "US government impostor.". In the first phase, a tech support impostor will contact victims through text, phone call or email, then direct them to download a program allowing the scammer remote access to their computer. Then, the scammer asks victims to open their financial accounts to "determine whether there have been any unauthorized charges," which the FBI says "is most lucrative for targeting." Afterwards, the scammer will choose an account to target, then tell the victim they will get a call for further instructions from the "fraud department" of the bank hosting their account. In the second phase, the financial institution impostor will then call the victim and inform them that their funds have been "accessed by a foreign hacker" and must be moved to a "safe" third party account. Victims are then instructed to send the money via wire transfer, cash or cryptocurrency, and are told to send "multiple transactions over a span of days or months.". In the third phase of the scam, the victim could be contacted by someone posing as a U.S. government employee, who prompts the individual to move their funds to an "alias" account for protection.

FOX News [8/24/2025 10:00 AM, Julia Bonavita, 40019K] reports as Americans continue to witness senseless violence throughout their communities, the rise of nihilistic violence is raising alarms for law enforcement as officials try to prevent attacks that often come without warning following a mass shooting in New York City that left four dead last month. The concept of nihilistic violence – acts lacking an ideological motive and often driven by a need to gain approval in extremist online communities – remains a key conversation whenever a mass tragedy is carried out. "Nihilistic violence is destruction for its own sake," Jonathan Alpert, a New York City-based psychotherapist, told Fox News Digital. "It isn’t about money, ideology, or revenge; rather, it’s violence born of emptiness.". "Other acts of violence, however twisted, usually have a motive that can be identified," he said. "Nihilistic violence is different because the act itself is the message: a statement of meaninglessness, a way of saying ‘nothing matters, so I’ll be destructive.’". In 2024, 65% of terrorist attacks carried out in Western countries were not associated with any belief system of the perpetrator, marking a significant rise compared with data from previous years, according to the latest Global Terrorism Index. The report acknowledges that a portion of the increase can be attributed to a lack of information regarding specific attacks; it also likely indicates a rise of "ideologically confused" acts of terrorism. However, the inability to tie an attack to a well-defined belief system could represent a terrorist’s decision to combine numerous ideologies in an attempt to justify their acts of violence, according to the report. "This approach complicates counterterrorism efforts," the report states. "As it makes these actors unpredictable and harder to profile.".

CBS News [8/24/2025 7:00 PM, Cecilia Vega, 45245K] reports evidence has emerged that could change our understanding of the 9/11 terrorist attacks nearly 24 years ago. The evidence was turned over to the FBI in the weeks after 9/11, but, as we first reported in April, it was never shared with the bureau’s own field agents or top intelligence officials. Why after all these years did this crucial information just surface? The evidence came to light as part of a long-running lawsuit against the Saudi government by the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks, and it includes a chilling video of a Saudi national filming the U.S. Capitol. A voice on the video says in Arabic, "I am transmitting these scenes to you from the heart of the American capital, Washington.” This video, recorded in the summer of 1999, was unsealed in federal court last year as part of the 9/11 families lawsuit accusing Saudi Arabia of providing crucial support to the hijackers. Exhibit A in their case: the man who made the video, Omar al-Bayoumi – who asked a bystander to film him in front of the Capitol. The FBI says Bayoumi was living in the United States on a student visa and being paid by a Saudi aviation company in California – despite not showing up for classes or work. Investigators say, in fact, Bayoumi was an operative of the Saudi intelligence service and had close ties to two of the hijackers. The video was filmed over several days. Bayoumi recorded entrances and exits of the Capitol, security posts, a model of the building, and nearby landmarks. Bayoumi points out the Washington monument and says, "I will get over there," and "report to you in detail what is there.” He also notes the airport is not far away. Richard Lambert: What I see Bayoumi doing is going out and making a detailed video record of the Capitol from all its sides, and then conducting that 360 degree panoramic view. Richard Lambert is a retired FBI supervisor who led the initial 9/11 investigation in San Diego, where Bayoumi and the two hijackers lived prior to the attacks. He’s now a consultant on the case filed by the 9/11 families. Richard Lambert: If you’ve ever flown into Washington D.C., one of the first things you see on the horizon is the Washington Monument. So, if you know where your other targets are, it helps guide you to your intended target. Federal investigators believe the hijackers on Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, planned to hit the U.S. Capitol as their likely target. In the video, Bayoumi references a, quote, "plan.”

CBS Philadelphia [8/24/2025 12:38 PM, Jessica MacAulay and Joe Holden, 45245K] Video: HERE reports a Villanova University residence hall was evacuated on Sunday morning after authorities were notified of an unspecified threat, Delaware County authorities said. However, Radnor Township police have already confirmed the threat was fake. Authorities were first notified about the unspecified threat in Austin Hall, a dormitory building on the main campus situated between Dougherty and St. Rita’s halls, just after 11 a.m., Delaware County authorities told CBS News Philadelphia. Radnor Township police debunked the threat on social media, writing, "law enforcement has confirmed the call to be false.". Radnor Township police originally wrote in their social media post that the incident was "a reported active shooter." However, the post now doesn’t include that description. Law enforcement sources confirmed to CBS News Philadelphia that the false threat was indeed a reported active shooter. This is the second time in less than a week that a false active shooter incident was reported at Villanova University. Radnor Township police said officers are working to clear the campus and restore normal operations. The investigation into the false report is ongoing. This incident comes just one day before classes are scheduled to begin and also three days after the university received a report of an active shooter that turned out to be a "cruel hoax" on Thursday.

Breitbart [8/24/2025 10:57 PM, Staff, 2608K] reports police descended upon Pennsylvania’s Villanova University on Sunday in response to reports of an active shooter on campus, making it the second time in less than a week that a hoax attack has been reported at the private Catholic school. The Radnor Township Police Department said officers were responding to reports of an active shooter at the university’s Austin Hall. "Law enforcement has confirmed that call to be false," it said in a statement published on X at about 11:40 a.m. EDT. "Officers are working to clear the campus and restore normal operations. At this time, the investigation is ongoing.” Monday is the start of classes for the fall semester of the 2025-26 academic year at Villanova University, where about 10,000 students, including 6,700 full-time undergraduate students, attend. Villanova is a Philadelphia suburb. Kathleen Byrnes, vice president of student life at the school, has announced in a letter that Sunday evening’s Mass and Commissioning has been canceled "given the whirlwind of emotions over these last few days.” "With all that has transpired on campus in recent days, we feel our first-year students are best served by an evening with time to pause before classes start tomorrow," Byrnes said. "For our new students: Please take this evening to relax, talk with new friends and get a good night’s sleep — all of which will help you feel prepared for your first day of college tomorrow.” The first false call of an active shooter on campus occurred Thursday late afternoon. Students were warned at about 4:30 p.m. to shelter in place. The shooter was reported to have been at the university’s law school. University President Peter Donohue announced the Thursday active shooter report was a "cruel hoax.” In a letter to students Sunday following the second false report, Donohue said he wished he had more answers for them. "I do not know why this is happening, but I assure you the authorities are working tirelessly to find out who is behind these calls," he said. "I know it may not seem like it after the past couple of days, but I assure you that campus is safe, and there is no evidence of a legitimate threat to our community.”

USA Today [8/24/2025 11:26 PM, Thao Nguyen, 64151K] reports unconfirmed reports of an active shooter at the University of South Carolina and a second false report at Villanova University briefly caused panic on Aug. 24 as law enforcement searched through the two campuses before issuing an all-clear. Students at the University of South Carolina, a public university located in the state’s capital city of Columbia, were told to shelter in place shortly after 6:30 p.m. local time after an active shooter was reported near the school’s library. A campus alert later stated that there was no evidence of a shooter as police continued to investigate, and an all-clear was issued. "There is no ongoing emergency at this time; you no longer need to shelter in place," according to a campus alert sent at around 8:11 p.m. local time. "The Thomas Cooper Library building remains closed until further notice.” About seven hours earlier, Villanova University, a private Catholic research university in suburban Philadelphia, was targeted in a second hoax report of an active shooter that was directed at a student dormitory, according to the Radnor Township Police Department. Police said in a social media post that they were working to clear the campus and restore normal operations after determining that the report was false. The two incidents occurred just days after there were shooting scares at both Villanova and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Aug. 21. School and local officials had called the false active shooter reports at Villanova a "cruel hoax," while an all-clear was issued for the University of Tennessee shortly after the initial report. Jeff Stensland, a spokesperson for the University of South Carolina, told USA TODAY that campus police had received a report of gunfire at the Thomas Cooper Library on the main Columbia campus at around 6:30 p.m. local time. A public safety alert was then sent to the campus community, warning people to avoid the area and shelter in place, according to Stensland. An initial alert from the campus described a potential suspect as a white man, about 6 feet tall, and wearing black pants. The university later said police were searching affected buildings, and that emergency medical services treated "a couple of students with minor injuries that occurred during evacuation." Stensland said law enforcement had immediately responded to the scene and found no evidence that a shooting had occurred. "Videos circulating on social media purporting to show a suspect carrying a firearm are false," Stensland said. "There have been false gunfire reports at universities across the country in recent days and tonight’s incident remains under investigation.” The campus is now under normal operations and the library will reopen at 7:30 a.m. local time on Aug. 25, according to Stensland. Students were evacuated from Austin Hall, a student dormitory at Villanova, earlier on Aug. 24 after authorities were notified of a potential active shooter in the area, according to the Radnor Township Police Department. Police said the call was later confirmed to be false, and an investigation into the incident remains ongoing. Following the incident, the school’s president, Rev. Peter M. Donohue, said in a letter to the campus community that students had received "another flurry of Nova Alerts about another possible incident on campus." Donohue sought to assuage fears, noting that the campus was safe and there was "no evidence of a legitimate threat to our community.”

Washington Times [8/24/2025 12:11 PM, Seth McLaughlin, 964K] reports Sen. Adam Schiff says the FBI search of former national security adviser John Bolton’s home and office for classified information is a clear case of President Trump seeking retribution against his political foes. “This is clearly retribution,” Mr. Schiff, California Democrat, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “What the president is trying to do here is very systemic and systematic, and that is anyone who stands up to the president — anyone who criticizes the president, anyone who says anything adverse to the president’s interests — gets the full weight of the federal government brought down on them.” The FBI on Friday searched Mr. Bolton’s home in Maryland and office in Washington as part of an investigation into whether he collected or leaked sensitive national security information. Mr. Bolton served as national security adviser for 17 months during Mr. Trump’s first term in office. He has become a vocal critic of Mr. Trump, who has made a habit of publicly deriding Mr. Bolton. “I’m not a fan of John Bolton,” Mr. Trump told reporters Friday after the raids began. “He’s a real sort of a lowlife.” Mr. Trump said he was not aware of the FBI raid, which Mr. Schiff and others insist is part of a broader trend of vengeance. Vice President J.D. Vance dismissed that accusation, saying the FBI’s raid was “not at all” about retribution. “Who has said it looks a lot like retribution?” Mr. Vance said on “Meet the Press.” “A lot of people who tried to throw Donald Trump in prison for completely fake charges that were later thrown out by multiple different courts.” “I suspect that if the media and the American people let this case actually unfold, if they let the investigation unfold as it’s currently doing, they’re going to find out that what we’re doing is being very deliberate and being very driven by the national interest, and by the law here,” he said.

Reported similarly:
NBC News [8/24/2025 9:27 AM, Staff, 43603K] Video: HERE
Washington Examiner [8/24/2025 6:14 PM, Asher Notheis, 1563K]

Breitbart [8/25/2025 1:42 AM, Staff, 2608K] reports that, under President Donald Trump the United States has reset relations with west Africa’s military leaders on a mutual back-scratching basis, bartering help fighting jihadists for the Sahel region’s mining riches, experts say. While Joe Biden was in office the US suspended most of the development and military aid it sent to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in the wake of the rash of coups that brought juntas to power in the three restive countries between 2020 and 2023. Trump’s return to the White House has shifted the US away from that stance, as part of a wider pivot in Washington’s African foreign policy and its attempts to counter Russia and China’s influence on the continent. "Trade, not aid… is now truly our policy for Africa," Troy Fitrell, the State Department’s top official for African affairs, told an audience in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in May. In recent weeks several other senior American figures have paid visits to the capitals of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which have all been struggling to root out jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group for more than a decade. In early July, Rudolph Atallah, a security and counterterrorism adviser to Trump, visited Mali to offer the "American solution" for the unrest. "We have the necessary equipment, the intelligence and the forces to stand up to this menace. If Mali decides to work with us, we’ll know what to do," Atallah was quoted as saying by the country’s state newspaper. Several days later, William B. Stevens, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for West Africa, likewise raised the possibility of private American investment in the anti-jihadist fight to an audience in the Malian capital Bamako, after stop-offs in Ouagadougou and Niamey. "Washington offered to kill the leaders of jihadist groups, in exchange for access to lithium and gold for American businesses," said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a think tank affiliated with Germany’s conservative CDU party. Trump has brought US access to key minerals front and centre of his negotiations with foreign countries, including in his attempts to end the Russia-Ukraine war and the long-running conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mali is among Africa’s top producers of gold and lithium, a key component in the electric car batteries necessary for the transition to a low-carbon economy in the age of climate change. Burkina Faso likewise possesses rich veins of gold, while Niger’s uranium deposits make the desert nation among the world’s top exporters of the radioactive metal. Although all three Sahel juntas came to power while promising the people greater control and sovereignty over their country’s mineral wealth, the officers in charge have welcomed Washington’s change in tack. "We have to look at investment, the potential of our countries," said Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop in July, hailing "today’s convergence of viewpoints between the American administration and the government of Mali". Laessing argued that "some officials in the State Department, worried about the end of USAID and the closure of embassies, pointed out Mali’s rich resources to the Trump administration as a way to encourage it to remain engaged and keep the American embassy in Bamako open, at a point where Russia and China are expanding their influence in the region.” But for Liam Karr, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, any critical minerals deal would be "a much longer-term project". "The terrorism threat is the biggest issue… stabilising the region is key to any investment hopes," Karr argued.

ABC News [8/25/2025 3:38 AM, David Brennan, 31733K] reports fighters from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on Sunday intercepted a Russian aircraft in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone for the third time in the past week, the command said in a statement. One E-3 Sentry command and control aircraft, two F-16 fighters and two KC-135s Stratotankers were dispatched "to intercept and visually identify" a Russian Il-20 surveillance and reconnaissance operating in the Alaskan ADIZ, NORAD said. The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian airspace, NORAD said in its statement. "This Russian activity in the Alaskan ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat," it added. An ADIZ "begins where sovereign airspace ends and is a defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security," NORAD said.

The Hill [8/24/2025 10:44 AM, Tara Suter, 12414K] reports Vice President Vance said in an interview that aired Sunday that security guarantees for Ukraine will not include American "boots on the ground" as the Trump administration pushes for an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine. "For Americans who are watching, can you guarantee no U.S. boots on the ground as a part of these security guarantees?" NBC News’s Kristen Welker asked Vance on "Meet the Press.". "The president’s been very clear. There are not going to be boots on the ground in Ukraine, but we are going to continue to play an active role in trying to ensure that the Ukrainians have the security guarantees and the confidence they need to stop the war on their end," Vance added. "And the Russians feel like they can bring the war to a conclusion on their end. It’s complicated, Kristen, but we’re going to keep on trying to play these parties. You know, we’re going to keep on trying to convince these parties to talk to each other and continue to play the game of diplomacy because that’s the only way to get this thing wrapped up," the vice president continued. Russia said Wednesday that talks about possible Western security guarantees for Ukraine in a wider peace deal to end the war are a "road to nowhere" unless Moscow takes part in the talks. "We cannot agree with the fact that it is now proposed to resolve collective security issues without the Russian Federation. This will not work," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference.

Reuters [8/24/2025 10:07 AM, Staff, 45746K] reports Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Sunday that a group of nations including United Nations Security Council members should be the guarantors of Ukraine’s security. Reuters reported last week that President Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters. Lavrov told NBC News’ "Meet the Press" that Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump had discussed the issue of a security guarantee for Ukraine and that Putin had raised the issue of the failed Istanbul discussions of 2022. At those discussions, Russia and Ukraine discussed Ukraine’s permanent neutrality in return for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, and other countries, according to a copy of a draft agreement seen by Reuters in 2022. Lavrov told NBC that a group including Security Council members should guarantee Ukraine’s security. The group could also include Germany and Turkey and other countries, Lavrov said. "And the guarantors would be guaranteeing the security of Ukraine, which must be neutral, which must be non-aligned with any military bloc and which must be non-nuclear," Lavrov said, according to a transcript of the interview released by the foreign ministry.

Breitbart [8/24/2025 8:53 PM, Joshua Klein, 2608K] reports France summoned U.S. Ambassador Charles Kushner on Sunday after he published a scathing open letter in the Wall Street Journal to President Emmanuel Macron, accusing the French government of failing to adequately combat rising antisemitism and warning that "public statements haranguing Israel embolden extremists.” The diplomatic confrontation escalates tensions between Washington and Paris over France’s approach to Jewish safety and Middle East policy, with Kushner’s Wall Street Journal letter — dated Monday, August 25, but released to the press late Sunday afternoon — marking an extraordinary public rebuke from a sitting U.S. envoy to his host nation’s leader. Writing on the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, Kushner opened with a direct assault on Macron’s record: "On the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, which ended the deportation of Jews from French soil, I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it.” The ambassador painted a grim picture of French Jewish life, declaring that "antisemitism has long scarred French life, but it has exploded since Hamas’s barbaric assault on Oct. 7, 2023." He continued: "In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized. Your own Interior Ministry has reported antisemitic incidents even at preschools.” Kushner then delivered his most pointed criticism of Macron’s Middle East policy: "Public statements haranguing Israel and gestures toward recognition of a Palestinian state embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France. In today’s world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism—plain and simple.” Drawing on his personal connection to President Donald Trump, Kushner wrote: "President Trump and I have Jewish children and share Jewish grandchildren. I know how he feels about antisemitism, as do all Americans." He detailed Trump’s current aggressive anti-antisemitism measures: "He directed the Education Department to enforce civil-rights protections for Jewish students on university campuses, making clear that harassment and discrimination won’t be tolerated.” The letter outlined additional Trump administration actions: "He expanded resources for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security to safeguard synagogues and Jewish schools. He ordered strict vetting to bar entry for foreigners espousing antisemitic hatred and revoked visas for foreign agitators. He oversaw the deportation of Hamas sympathizers and cut funding to organizations promoting antisemitic incitement.”

AP [8/25/2025 2:55 AM, Niniek Karmini and Andi Jatmiko, 37974K] reports Indonesia and the United States began annual joint military exercises on Monday together with forces from a dozen other countries, as the U.S. pushes its allies to take threats from China more seriously. Hosted by the Indonesian National Armed Forces, this year’s Super Garuda Shield focused on strengthening regional ties in an increasingly unstable global landscape, said Gen. Tandyo Budi Revita, the military’s Deputy Commander. “It serves as a joint exercise where we stand together to respond every challenge quickly and precisely.” he said in his speech at kick-off ceremony along with Admiral Samuel Paparo, the Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. The exercise has been held annually in Jakarta by U.S. and Indonesian soldiers since 2009. The list of participants expanded since 2022 to include Australia, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Brazil and South Korea, bringing the total number of troops taking part in the drill to 6,500. Paparo said the expanded participants symbolizes a commitment to partnership and to the sovereignty of each country through mutual respect. “It represents deterring anyone that would hope to change the facts on the ground using violence with the collective determination of all participants to uphold the principles of sovereignty,” Paparo said. Jakarta has expressed concern about what it sees as Chinese encroachment on its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, while maintaining generally positive ties with Beijing. Several Asian countries also sent observers to the 11-day combat exercise in Jakarta and on Sumatra island. They will end on Sept. 4 with a combined live-fire drill. The expanded drills have sparked concern from China, which accused the U.S. of trying to build an “Asian NATO” to limit China’s growing military and diplomatic influence in the region. During a recent speech in Singapore, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cautioned that seeking U.S. military support while relying on Chinese economic support carries risk. Hegseth said Washington has been strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to reassure allies alarmed by Beijing’s increasing military and economic pressure from China and provocative actions in the disputed South China Sea. Despite increased activities by Chinese coast guard vessels and fishing boats in the area have unnerved Jakarta, Indonesia has sought to avoid confrontation and continued economic initiatives with China. Jakarta’s decision to sidestep the issue is consistent with its longstanding policy of keeping friction with Beijing behind closed doors, especially given the scale of Chinese trade and investment in the Indonesian economy, said Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat and Yeta Purnama, researchers at the Center of Economic and Law Studies or CELIOS. “This dual-track diplomacy might seem inconsistent. But for Jakarta, it is strategic. Indonesia is embracing defense diversification, not alignment,” said Rakhmat of CELIOS. The country has remained committed to Super Garuda Shield and continued purchasing U.S. and French arms and developing interoperability with Western militaries, he added. “In a region defined by rising tensions and great power rivalry, Indonesia’s refusal to choose sides, at least in defense, might be its strongest asset,” Rakhmat said.

{End of Report} RETURN TO TOP