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.

FOX News [6/29/2025 8:44 AM, Ronn Blitzer , Bonny Chu, 46878K] reports federal officials arrested two people on Friday at a Los Angeles house tied to a suspected Iranian human smuggling network said to have been "repeatedly used to harbor illegal entrants linked to terrorism." Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the arrests in an X post on Friday, saying that the operation was part of a broader national security effort involving multiple federal agencies. "CBP executed a federal search warrant today at a human smuggling hub in Los Angeles tied to national security threats," the agency said. "Two individuals were arrested during the operation, which was led by CBP’s Special Response Team with support from Border Patrol tactical units and Air and Marine Operations." The detentions follow the arrests of seven Iranian nationals at the same location earlier last week, CBP said, adding that the suspects were on the FBI Terror Watchlist and connected to an Iranian human trafficking hub. "The location has been repeatedly used to harbor illegal entrants linked to terrorism," CBP said. Breitbart [6/29/2025 2:23 PM, Lowell Cauffiel, 3077K] reports that the arrests come in the wake of Department of Homeland Security warnings of a "heightened threat environment" across the United States in response to the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities earlier this month. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the arrests in a post on X Friday, saying the house was used to harbor illegal aliens linked to terrorism. "The ongoing Israel-Iran conflict brings the possibility of increased threat to the homeland in the form of possibly cyberattacks, acts of violence and anti-Semitic hate crimes," said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem the day before the June 24 ceasefire between the two countries was announced. "It is our duty to keep the nation safe and informed, especially during times of conflict," she said.

The New York Times [6/29/2025 10:17 PM, Mark Walker, 138952K] reports at least two firefighters were killed in Idaho on Sunday afternoon after they were ambushed in a sniper attack while responding to a fire in a rugged mountain area, the authorities said. Law enforcement agencies near Coeur d’Alene scrambled to evacuate the area — popular for weekend hikers — while trying to stop what might be multiple attackers who were still firing shots at emergency workers. “We are actively taking sniper fire as we speak,” said Sheriff Robert Norris of Kootenai County in an afternoon news conference around 4:30 p.m. He was unsure how many people had been hit by gunfire but officials said the two people killed were firefighters. As the shooting initially unfolded, firefighters pleaded for help after two of them went down with gunshot wounds, according to a feed posted on Broadcastify, a website that provides public access to emergency radio communications. One firefighter reported that they were hiding behind a firefighting rig. One voice could be heard saying that they thought the fire was set intentionally. Officers who responded to the shooting reported that additional shots were coming from multiple directions, suggesting the possibility of multiple attackers, Mr. Norris said. He added it appeared that “high-powered rifles” were being used, with the attacker or attackers well prepared, blending into heavy brush. Mr. Norris cautioned that if the authorities could not stop the suspects quickly, the operation could last multiple days. The fire that triggered the initial fire department response around 1:21 p.m. local time was still blazing, and law enforcement agencies urged people in the area to shelter indoors. Kim Anderson, a spokeswoman for Kootenai Health hospital system, said that along with the two fatalities, one other person had been brought in for injuries from the shooting. She did not immediately have details on the condition of that person, but the International Association of Fire Fighters said a firefighter was in surgery. The Canfield Mountain area, on the eastern outskirts of Coeur d’Alene, features both public and private lands, with a system of trails through steep mountain terrain used by hikers, mountain bikers and motorcyclists. Hikers were still making it off the mountain as the gunfire continued, Sheriff Norris said. Graham Christensen, the past president of the Lake City Trail Alliance, said the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department regularly performed brush clearing and fire suppression there, and said he did not know of a naturally caused wildfire there in the past two decades. He said the attack was a shock because the area had always felt so safe. NPR [6/30/2025 2:08 AM, Russell Lewis, Eric Whitney, Kevin Drew, 37958K] reports local authorities said a man armed with a rifle started a fire on a mountain in northern Idaho and then began shooting at responding firefighters, killing two and injuring a third. Additionally, authorities in Kootenai County, Idaho, said the body of the man recovered on the mountain is believed to be the only suspect responsible for the fatal shootings. A weapon was found near the body, said Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris. Norris also made clear that he and other authorities believe the shootings were intentional. "We do believe the suspect started the fire, it was an ambush and it was totally intentional," Norris said. "This was a total ambush. These firefighters did not have a chance. Norris added: "Based on the preliminary investigation, we believe that is the only shooter on the mountain at that time. There is no threat to the community at this time." Earlier Sunday, local authorities had lifted a shelter-in-place order. Speaking at a late Sunday evening news conference, Norris said a cell phone signal led authorities to discovering the dead body. Authorities went through a timeline of the deadly events on Sunday. At 1:21 p.m. local time, first reports of a wildfire on Canfield Mountain. A 2 p.m., firefighters first reported coming under gunfire. At around 3:15 p.m., authorities picked up an active cell phone signal on the mountain. Norris said the body of person believed to be the shooting suspect was found about an hour and a half later. Norris and other authorities gave no information about the dead body pending identification, or any possible motive for the shootings. Norris did not say of the dead person had fatally shot himself. "We believe that there was only 1 shooter, based on weapons found, type of injuries incurred from that weapon," Norris said. The sheriff also said investigators don’t believe the shooting suspect is the one that made the 911 call to report the fire. Norris said investigators believe the suspect ran and shot during the attack on the firefighters. At the news conference, local authorities also said Firefighters are not trained to respond to ambush situations. Norris added: "This is a situation where a lot of people in this room haven’t processed this." FOX News [6/29/2025 8:54 PM, Stepheny Price, 46878K] reports “This evening, members of the SWAT team located a deceased male on Canfield Mountain,” the office said in a statement. “A firearm was found nearby.” FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said FBI assets were en route to the scene to provide “tactical and operational support.” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is also monitoring the situation, according to a spokesperson. Attorney General Pam Bondi said FBI personnel were on the ground at the scene.

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FOX News [6/29/2025 11:14 PM, Stepheny Price , Bradford Betz , Landon Mion, 46878K] reports a SWAT team has located a deceased man and a nearby firearm hours after a sniper shot and killed two firefighters and injured another while they were battling a wildfire in Idaho, authorities confirmed late Sunday. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s office said the deceased male was located on Canfield Mountain. A shelter in place was lifted, but an active wildfire remained, the sheriff’s office said. The update came hours after the International Association of Fire Fighters confirmed that the two victims who were killed were firefighters. Some 300 law enforcement officers were on scene. "While responding to a fire earlier today in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, IAFF members were ambushed in a heinous act of violence. Two of our brothers were killed by a sniper, and a third brother remains in surgery," the association said. "Please keep them, their families, and law enforcement in your prayers.". FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said the agency responded to the scene to provide tactical and operational support. "FBI technical teams and tactical assets are currently on the scene providing support. It remains an active, and very dangerous scene," Bongino said just before 9 p.m. During a news conference, Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris said two firefighters were killed and a third was fighting for his life but was in stable condition after undergoing surgery. "We do believe the suspect started the fire and we do believe that it was an ambush and it was intentional," he said, noting that a preliminary investigation suggests there was only one gunman. "This was a total ambush. These firefighters did not have a chance.". The sheriff said a recommendation was made at about 6:30 p.m. to neutralize the shooter. Law enforcement was able to track a cellphone signal to the suspect’s location. He added that the fire compromised evidence at the crime scene, saying: "we felt that as the fire was approaching we needed to scoop up that body.". The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office issued an alert earlier Sunday afternoon stating: "Active shooter at Canfield Mountain. Injuries have been reported, though the severity remains unknown. Please avoid the area.". Norris had said that they were developing a plan to move people out of the mountains as soon as they had the fire under control. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also said their department is actively monitoring the situation and that "justice will be served.".

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Wall Street Journal [6/30/2025 1:20 AM, Ginger Adams Otis, 646K]

FOX News [6/30/2025 1:25 AM, Landon Mion, 46878K] reports audio from the scene in Kootenai County, Idaho, where firefighters responding to a blaze were ambushed reveals the moment a call for help was made. Two firefighters were killed and another was wounded in a sniper ambush Sunday afternoon. Authorities later located the body of a deceased man with a firearm nearby and lifted the shelter-in-place order that had been in place. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said fire crews responded to a blaze at Canfield Mountain just north of Coeur d’Alene at around 1:30 p.m. Gunshots were reported about a half-hour later. In audio from the scene, a firefighter said there was an "emergency situation" and an "active shooter at a fire." "We need law enforcement up here immediately," the firefighter told a dispatcher, adding that there were "two battalion chiefs down." "We have another Coeur d’Alene firefighter down ... we’ve got two unresponsive battalion chiefs down, multiple gunshot wounds, two Coeur d’Alene are down ... I’m pinned down," the caller continued. The caller also says that the fire "was set intentionally to draw us in." "It’s clear to me that this fire was set intentionally to draw us in," the caller said. Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris said at a news conference later Sunday afternoon that two firefighters were killed and another was fighting for his life, though in stable condition, after receiving surgery. Authorities tracked down the body of the suspected sniper using cell phone information. Due to the danger, fire crews had to retreat, and the brush fire continued to pose a threat. Idaho Gov. Brad Little said "multiple" firefighters were attacked in the incident. "Multiple heroic firefighters were attacked today while responding to a fire in North Idaho," he wrote on X. "This is a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters. I ask all Idahoans to pray for them and their families as we wait to learn more. Teresa and I are heartbroken. As this situation is still developing, please stay clear from the area to allow law enforcement and firefighters to do their jobs." FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said the agency responded to the scene with technical teams and tactical support.

NBC News [6/29/2025 6:19 PM, Matt Dixon, 44540K] reports President Donald Trump is expected to be at the formal opening Tuesday of a controversial immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades that state leaders have dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz.". The Palm Beach Post reported Sunday that Federal Aviation Administration data indicated that Trump would be in South Florida for the opening. Two White House officials and a Florida official familiar with the travel confirmed to NBC News that Trump is "likely" to be there. The facility is on a little-used airstrip in Miami-Dade County that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration seized using emergency powers to build a housing facility for undocumented migrants. DeSantis issued an emergency order focused on immigration in early 2023, and he has since then extended it multiple times. The measure gives him significant authority to take actions such as seizing land. Some local political leaders in Miami-Dade County opposed DeSantis’ taking the land for the Everglades-based detention center. The facility, which was set up quickly — in roughly one week — by the DeSantis administration, was the brainchild of state Attorney General James Uthmeier, who is DeSantis’ former chief of staff and one of his top political advisers. Environmental groups sued to block the plan Friday, arguing it could have devastating effects on the Everglades. "The site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species," Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Florida Everglades, which is among the groups suing, said in a statement. "This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect.". Hundreds of people also turned out Saturday for a protest against construction of the facility, which is expected to have 5,000 immigrant detention beds. "Alligator Alcatraz" has been hyped as the highest-profile example of Florida’s push to be the state that most aggressively tries to align with Trump’s immigration agenda. The facility is estimated to cost $450 million annually, and it has been approved by the Department of Homeland Security, which has said it is likely to reimburse the state for at least some costs associated with operation. Breitbart [6/30/2025 12:56 AM, Paul Bois, 3077K] re “The facility is projected to cost about $450 million a year, which will come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Shelter and Services Program that was used to house asylum-seekers during the Biden administration,” it added. The facility will reportedly hold migrants arrested in Florida and migrants transferred by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. The president plans to join Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem at the opening on Tuesday. Reuters [6/29/2025 9:54 PM, Steve Holland, 51390K] reports Trump will be accompanied by Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, who asked him to visit, said the source, who spoke on Sunday, on condition of anonymity. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The numbers in federal immigration detention have risen sharply to 56,000 by June 15, from 39,000 when Trump took office, government data show, and his administration has pushed to find more space.

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Washington Examiner [6/29/2025 9:27 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1934K]

Breitbart [6/29/2025 7:11 PM, Staff, 3077K] reports several hundred demonstrators protested plans for an immigration detention center, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," that is being constructed on an abandoned airstrip in Florida’s Everglades. The protest, which was organized by the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Everglades, drew environmental activists, indigenous groups and immigration advocates on Saturday. They went to the edge of the Tamiami Trail, which is near the site for the mobile units being constructed on the border between Collier County and Miami-Dade County. Alligator Alligator Alley, which is part of Interstate 75, runs 80 miles across the state through the Everglades. On Friday, environmental groups filed a lawsuit seeking to halt construction of the facility, saying it "threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect." Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who used his emergency powers in approving the project, said there will be "zero" impact. He accused critics of using the Everglades "as a pretext just for the fact that they oppose immigration enforcement." Florida will seek reimbursement from the federal government for the $450 million yearly cost of running the facility, a senior Department of Homeland Security official told the Miami Herald. DeSantis and Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem have touted the location because it is in a relatively remote area and surrounded by swampland containing alligators, snakes, panthers and other wild animals. "Alligator Alcatraz, and other facilities like it, will give us the capability to lock up some of the worst scumbags who entered our country under the previous administration," Noem posted Friday on X.

NBC News [6/29/2025 3:21 PM, Megan Lebowitz, 44540K] reports President Donald Trump said in an interview on Fox News that the administration is working to develop a temporary pass for immigrants who work in certain industries, which would mark the latest shift in the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement for farmworkers. "We’re working on it right now. We’re going to work it so that some kind of a temporary pass where people pay taxes, where the farmer can have a little control, as opposed to you walk in and take everybody away," Trump said in an interview that was taped Friday and aired Sunday on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures.". The president referenced authorities going to farms and taking "away people that have been working there for 15 and 20 years, who are good, who possibly came in incorrectly.". "What we’re going to do is we’re going to do something for farmers, where we can let the farmer sort of be in charge. The farmer knows. He’s not going to hire a murderer," Trump said. "When you go into a farm and he’s had somebody working with him for nine years doing this kind of work, which is hard work to do, and a lot of people aren’t going to do it, and you end up destroying a farmer because you took all the people away. It’s a problem.". Reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security provided the same comment the department gave this month after the White House reversed a plan to limit immigration enforcement activity at certain industry workplaces. "The President has been incredibly clear. There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts," the statement read. "Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability. These operations target illegal employment networks that undermine American workers, destabilize labor markets and expose critical infrastructure to exploitation," the statement continued. A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for further details about Trump’s plan and whether DHS’ response conflicted with the temporary pass plan. Trump said on Truth Social on June 12 that farmers and people in the hotel and leisure industries had said the administration’s immigration policy "is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace." He said that "we must protect our Farmers," adding that "changes are coming." NBC News has reported that at around the same time, ICE paused worksite arrests in the agriculture, restaurant and hotel industries. But just days later, the administration reopened arrests of immigrant workers in those industries. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin provided the same statement then as the DHS statement Sunday. "The President has been incredibly clear. There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts," McLaughlin said after DHS reversed the pause this month.

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AP [6/29/2025 1:28 PM, David Klepper and Ali Swenson, 24051K] reports President Donald Trump says he is not planning to extend a 90-day pause on tariffs on most nations beyond July 9, when the negotiating period he set would expire, and his administration will notify countries that the trade penalties will take effect unless there are deals with the United States. Letters will start going out "pretty soon" before the approaching deadline, he said. "We’ll look at how a country treats us — are they good, are they not so good — some countries we don’t care, we’ll just send a high number out," Trump told Fox News Channel’s "Sunday Morning Futures" during a wide-ranging interview taped Friday and broadcast Sunday. Those letters, he said, would say, "Congratulations, we’re allowing you to shop in the United States of America, you’re going to pay a 25% tariff, or a 35% or a 50% or 10%.". Trump had played down the deadline at a White House news conference Friday by noting how difficult it would be to work out separate deals with each nation. The administration had set a goal of reaching 90 trade deals in 90 days. Negotiations continue, but "there’s 200 countries, you can’t talk to all of them," he said in the interview. Trump also discussed a potential TikTok deal, relations with China, the strikes on Iran and his immigration crackdown. Earlier this month, Trump had called for a pause on immigration raids disrupting the farming, hotel and restaurant industries, but a top Homeland Security official followed up with a seemingly contradictory statement. Tricia McLaughlin said there would be "no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine" immigration enforcement efforts.

The Hill [6/29/2025 3:29 PM, Nathaniel Weixel, 18649K] reports the Senate Republicans’ tax and spending bill, which is speeding through the chamber, would result in deeper health care cuts and more people without insurance than the version that passed the House, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The legislation would result in 11.8 million Americans losing insurance by 2034, CBO found: nearly 1 million more people without insurance than the House version. That amount includes an estimated 1.4 million people without "verified citizenship, nationality, or satisfactory immigration status" who would lose their state-funded coverage. The legislation would also cut federal spending on Medicaid, Medicare and ObamaCare by $1.1 trillion, with more than $1 trillion coming from Medicaid. The CBO’s analysis confirms that despite President Trump’s repeated pledges to only cut waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid, the legislation would enact an unprecedented reduction in the program currently used by more than 70 million low-income Americans. The bill would achieve its savings in various ways, but the bulk of the cuts come from a strict national work requirement and new restrictions on state-levied taxes on health providers. Under the bill, for the first time in the history of the Medicaid program, beneficiaries would need to prove they are working or in school at least 80 hours a month to keep their health insurance. The Senate version extends the requirement to low-income parents of children older than 14, in addition to childless adults without disabilities. The work requirements are projected to save about $325 billion over a decade. The provider taxes were the second-largest Medicaid cut in the House bill, after the work requirements. The cuts are even larger under the Senate design. Those changes would reduce spending by nearly $191 billion over a decade, according to the CBO estimate. The provider tax provisions have been among the most controversial in the Senate. States impose taxes on providers to boost their federal Medicaid contributions, which they then redirect to hospitals in the form of higher reimbursements.

New York Times [6/29/2025 10:34 AM, Alan Feuer, 138952K] reports it is one of President Trump’s most contentious assertions of executive authority: a proclamation, issued in March, calling on the powers of an 18th-century law to round up and deport scores of immigrants who he claimed were members of a Venezuelan street gang. That law, the Alien Enemies Act, had been used only three times before in U.S. history, all during periods of war. And the way Mr. Trump invoked it raised significant questions about whether he was complying with the statute’s text. For more than three months, courts across the country have been struggling to answer those questions and decide whether the president had stretched the limits of the law in pursuing one of his central policy goals: the mass deportation of immigrants. On Monday, a federal appeals court in New Orleans will consider those questions, as well, in what is likely to be the decisive legal battle over Mr. Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act. The hearing, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, will almost certainly reprise legal arguments that the Trump administration and lawyers for the Venezuelan men have made repeatedly in lower courts. But the Fifth Circuit’s case is likely to be the first to reach the Supreme Court, where it will get a full hearing on the substantive question of whether Mr. Trump has used the act unlawfully. Passed in 1798 as the nascent United States was threatened by war with France, the Alien Enemies Act gives the president expansive powers to detain and expel members of a hostile foreign nation. But the act grants those powers only in times of declared war or during what it describes as an invasion or a “predatory incursion.” From the start, the administration has sought to use the law in an unusual way, turning it against scores of Venezuelan men accused of belonging to the street gang Tren de Aragua, which Mr. Trump has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The president and his aides have repeatedly maintained that the men were not mere criminals but were working hand in glove with the Venezuelan government. Moreover, they have argued that their presence on U.S. soil was tantamount to an invasion by a hostile foreign country. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been representing the men, has scoffed at those claims in case after case, saying that they have no connection to reality. Lawyers for the A.C.L.U. have pointed out that mass migration, regardless of its scale, is not the same as an invasion. They have also argued that there is no conclusive evidence that their clients, many of whom have no criminal record, are working for anyone, let alone for the Venezuelan government.

AP [6/29/2025 3:38 PM, Staff, 56000K] reports court records show that the Trump administration has agreed to spare from deportation a key witness in the federal prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in exchange for his cooperation in the case. Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, 38, has been convicted of smuggling migrants and illegally reentering the United States after having been deported. He also pleaded guilty to “deadly conduct” in connection with a separate incident where he drunkenly fired a gun in a Texas community. Records reviewed by The Washington Post show that Hernandez Reyes has been released early from federal prison to a halfway house and has been given permission to stay in the U.S. for at least a year. Prosecutors have identified Hernandez Reyes as the “first cooperator” in the case against Abrego, according to court filings. The Department of Homeland Security maintains that Hernandez owned the SUV that Abrego Garcia was allegedly using to smuggle migrants when the Tennessee Highway Patrol stopped him in 2022. That traffic stop is at the center of the criminal investigation against Abrego Garcia. Hernandez Reyes is among a handful of cooperating witnesses who could help the administration deport Abrego Garcia. Abrego Garcia, a construction worker who had been living in Maryland, became a flashpoint over Trump’s hard-line immigration policies when he was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March. Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, the administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called “preposterous.” On Friday, attorneys for Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge in Tennessee to delay his release from jail because of “contradictory statements” by the administration over whether or not he’ll be deported upon release.

NewsMax [6/29/2025 8:58 AM, Eric Mack, 4622K] reports the blood of murdered mother Larisha Thompson, 40, is on the hands of former President Joe Biden, his open borders administration, and Democrats defending those, according to Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. "Two children will not have a mother to come home to," Norman said, the New York Post reported. It can happen anywhere, at any time. That’s the sad part. We’ve seen it all over the country. "The positive thing is, the border’s secure now, but you’ve got to realize: four years of leaving the doors open to over 160 countries to put criminals and anybody else that wanted to come into the country. "You wouldn’t open your house up like that; yet, the Democrats are still not condemning what Joe Biden intentionally did.". Norman said Thompson will join those who have become "the face" of rampant illegal migration, including other victums of murder by illegal migrants like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin, Lizbeth Medina, and Kayla Hamilton. "The unknown is what we fear," Norman said. “When you hear [FBI Director] Kash Patel talk about threats … the fact is that they’re doing their best, but … we don’t know who’s here. "And we’re getting a lot of them out, but there’s still the unknown of who’s left here. And that’s the problem. How many more deaths do we have to have that are just so senseless?". Thompson was reportedly murdered May 2 by six illegal migrants between the ages of 13 and 21. Three adults, Asael Aminadas Torres-Chirinos, 21, Jarby Ardon Ramos-Odari, 18, and Jeyson Sobied Pineda-Salgado, 17, and three juveniles, ages 13, 14, and 15, have been arrested in connection with Thompson’s death and a separate burglary that occurred April 30. "This shooting defies any sense of decency in a civilized society," Lancaster, South Carolina Sheriff Barry Faile wrote in a statement. "Ms. Thompson was going about her business on a Friday night, not bothering anyone. All of a sudden these six men and boys, out to get something for nothing from someone they did not know and had no business bothering, pulled alongside her car, and Torres-Chirinos opened fire, killing Ms. Thompson. The three adults and three juveniles are all charged with murder, attempted armed robbery and second-degree burglary, and all six suspects are subject to deportation over their immigration status, according to the sheriff’s office. "The Department of Homeland Security has placed detainers on these six," Faile added. "That doesn’t mean the federal government will scoop them up and send them out of the country before their cases are heard in court. It simply means if for any reason any one or more of them becomes eligible for release before their charges are resolved in court, Homeland Security will take custody of them and they will not be back out on the street.

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Breitbart [6/29/2025 10:43 AM, Amy Furr, 3077K]

The Hill [6/29/2025 6:29 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 18649K] reports Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) praised the Supreme Court ruling on Friday that limits judges’ ability to block the president’s policies nationwide. In an interview on ABC News’s "This Week," Graham acknowledged that both sides have tried to select judges that would be most sympathetic to their lawsuit challenging an administration’s action — but Graham said it’s appropriate for that practice to stop. "A single federal court district judge has been able to enjoin policy for the nation, and [Supreme Court Justice] Amy Coney Barrett said that the equitable powers of a federal judge have limits," Graham said. Graham noted that Republicans, during the Obama administration, "actually did this.". "We went to Texas and got a federal district court judge for a period of time to enjoin ObamaCare," he added. Graham said that’s not the way policy should be made. "So, the ruling was, a single judge cannot stop policy for the entire country," Graham said. "That’s beyond the mandate of a federal district court judge. You still have judicial review, but it has to go up the chain.". "A single judge can’t stop a program for the entire country, and that’s a good thing, because people are going judge shopping," he added. Graham was pressed on the GOP’s past instances of going "judge shopping" to block federal policies they didn’t like. "Totally," Graham said. "I mean, and I’m here to say, judge shopping needs to stop.". "We need to have a system where if you’re going to enjoin policy for the nation, it’s done at a higher level than a single judge, for the left or the right," he said. The Supreme Court ruling, along ideological lines, paved the way for President Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship to go into effect in some areas of the country.

New York Times [6/29/2025 8:00 AM, Elizabeth Dias, 138952K] reports as the Trump administration escalates its aggressive deportation campaign, Roman Catholic bishops across the United States are raising objections to the treatment of migrants and challenging the president’s policy. For years many bishops focused their most vocal political engagement on ending abortion, rarely putting as much capital behind any other issue. Many supported President Trump’s actions to overturn Roe v. Wade, and targeted Democratic Catholic politicians who supported abortion access. But now they are increasingly invoking Pope Leo XIV’s leadership and Pope Francis’s legacy against Mr. Trump’s immigration actions, and prioritizing humane treatment of immigrants as a top public issue. They are protesting the president’s current domestic policy bill in Congress, showing up at court hearings to deter Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and urging Catholics and non-Catholics alike to put compassion for humans ahead of political allegiances. The image in Los Angeles and elsewhere of ICE agents seizing people in Costco parking lots and carwashes “rips the illusion that’s being portrayed, that this is an effort which is focused on those who have committed significant crimes,” said Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of Washington, in an interview from Rome. “The realities are becoming more ominous,” he said. “It is becoming clearer that this is a wholesale, indiscriminate deportation effort aimed at all those who came to the country without papers.” Cardinal McElroy, who has frequently spoken against Mr. Trump’s immigration policies, was named the archbishop of Washington as one of Pope Francis’s final major actions in the United States, reflecting the Vatican’s desire to counter the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. Immigration arrests are rising sharply, and ICE has a goal of apprehending 3,000 people a day. “A very large number of Catholic bishops, and religious leaders in general, are outraged by the steps which the administration is taking to expel mostly hardworking, good people from the United States,” Cardinal McElroy said. President Trump campaigned on aggressive immigration tactics, and polls before his inauguration captured broad support among Americans for deportations. Since then, Americans have “mixed to negative views” of the administration’s immigration actions, according to an early June survey by the Pew Research Center. The Trump administration has said the aggressive immigration tactics are necessary to protect public safety because some illegal immigrants are violent criminals. Vice President JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism six years ago, articulated his personal views in an interview last month, saying that immigration “at the levels and at the pace that we’ve seen over the last few years” was destructive to the common good. “I really do think that social solidarity is destroyed when you have too much migration too quickly,” he added. It is not clear how much influence the bishops will have on the issue. In Congress, there has been little debate between the two chambers over the immigration portion of the policy bill. The bishops expressing concern stand in opposition to the voices of key Catholics in executive leadership, including Mr. Vance. Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Mexico, has long supported immigration reform and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a program that shields from deportation people who were brought into the United States as children and did not have citizenship or legal residency. But as the recent raids were executed in Los Angeles, his criticism of the Trump administration became more direct.

Washington Examiner [6/29/2025 7:00 AM, Mia Cathell and Robert Schmad, 1934K] reports left-wing legal groups that help illegal immigrants evade deportation are funding the New York City mayoral run of Zohran Mamdani, now the presumptive Democratic nominee, according to a Washington Examiner review of campaign finance records. Mamdani’s mayoral campaign is in part bankrolled by activist attorneys who work for legal aid agencies that provide pro bono services to illegal immigrants facing deportation, with individual donations totaling over $14,600. Half of the funds ($7,400) came from Legal Aid Society staffers, including supervising attorneys, public defenders, and the deputy director of grants. The Legal Aid Society, which describes itself as the "largest, most influential social justice law firm in New York City," defends low-income immigrants against the threat of deportation. To date, its Immigration Law Unit has assisted over 12,000 immigrants living in New York. The unit’s federal litigation team is at the forefront of immigration fights in federal court, sometimes taking matters to the Supreme Court. The team regularly files habeas corpus cases challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. In collaboration with the firm’s Civil Law Reform Unit and pro bono partners, the team also brings class action lawsuits to enjoin federal immigration policies, such as the denial of relief. The Legal Aid Society lists self-help resources on its website for illegal immigrants, such as instructions on navigating ICE encounters. "We do not recommend carrying documents that identify your nationality or country of origin," the Legal Aid Society advises. Disclosure data shows that more than a dozen lawyers and paralegals with the New York Legal Assistance Group made cash contributions to Mamdani’s campaign ahead of the primary election. NYLAG, a social justice advocacy organization offering free legal assistance, has represented roughly 15,000 immigrants in removal proceedings, including illegal aliens in detention. Two dozen staffers, ranging from investigators to attorneys, with Brooklyn Defender Services, a public defense office fighting deportation efforts, gave Mamdani’s campaign nearly $2,000 in small-dollar donations. The office’s immigration division has "a highly successful in-house federal court practice," where it litigated dozens of cases in U.S. courts, including habeas, mandamus, and class action claims. Eleven associates of Legal Services NYC, a Manhattan-based immigrant legal services provider with offices in all five boroughs, donated to Mamdani’s campaign. Legal Services NYC, which receives a bulk of its funding from government contracts, "never charge[s] its clients for legal representation.".

New York Times [6/30/2025 3:00 AM, Luis Ferré-Sadurní, 138952K] reports workers — with no one left to attend — dozed off inside the empty lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel, its chandeliers still pocked with deflated balloons that had welcomed migrants to New York City. The luggage room, once just for tourists, held a few suitcases left behind by migrant families that had cycled through the hotel. The gift shop shelves were bare, except for the diapers that city workers had handed out to new mothers. Upstairs, the grand ballroom was desolate. Gone were the migrants who had slept on cots as they waited for rooms, on the same carpet where New York politicians once campaigned. A map of the United States was all that remained, with small arrows pointing to New York, and a handwritten note in Spanish: “You are here.” Those were the last traces of New York’s migrant crisis inside the Roosevelt before the hotel stopped operating last week as the city’s best-known migrant shelter — 767 days after it opened as a city-run shelter in May 2023. Chaos, criticism and conviction had greeted the shelter’s arrival. It closed quietly, fading away with little fanfare, much like the migrant crisis, as the city relocated the remaining families to other shelters and housekeepers turned over its thousands of rooms. On the day before the hotel closed, Maria Lumbi, 35, a mother from Ecuador, was among the last migrants to show up, along with her three children, ages 8, 12 and 16. She was not seeking shelter but rather plane tickets to Ecuador to self-deport — as President Trump has encouraged migrants to do — two years after the family arrived in the country. “I haven’t been able to work,” she said. “I prefer to go back.” The Roosevelt’s volatile chapter as a shelter turned the century-old hotel into an unlikely lightning rod in the nation’s divisive immigration debate. Its role welcoming migrants drew comparisons to Ellis Island but also accusations from Mr. Trump that it was a waste of taxpayer money, a hotbed of criminal activity and a beacon for illegal immigration. The administration of Mayor Eric Adams announced the closure of the Roosevelt shelter in February as border crossings plummeted, slowing the flow of migrants to a trickle. The hotel’s future remains unclear, amid speculation that the 18-floor building in Midtown Manhattan may be redeveloped into a skyscraper. But over two years, the Roosevelt cemented its place in the annals of New York’s winding immigration story. It functioned as a base for city officials to process new migrants, transforming its marble lobby into a gateway for people arriving in New York, and the United States, sometimes just a day after they had crossed the border. The numbers were staggering.

New York Post [6/29/2025 7:16 PM, Staff, 49956K] reports New York’s lefty lawmakers just blocked reviving the state’s ban on masking by protesters, and now two Manhattan Democrats, Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, have turned around to push a federal ban on masking by ICE agents, even when nabbing dangerous gangbangers. Their "No Secret Police Act" would bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other Homeland Security officers from concealing their faces during civil immigration enforcement and require them to clearly display official ID and insignia. California Democrats are proposing a similar state ban on any face masks for law enforcement officers; expect other progressive bastions to join in. Homeland Security recently reported that ICE enforcement officers are facing a 413% increase in assaults against them. Plus, in the aftermath of the LA riots, "ICE officers’ family members have been doxed and targeted as well.". Reprisals against family of law-enforcers are a classic tactic of the cartels and gangs such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13. Meanwhile, progressives are dead-set against stopping their allies from masking. Rioters and aggressive "protesters" have been routinely concealing their faces since at least the 2020 anti-policing demonstrations; it’s grown even more common among the "tentifada" set in demos since Oct. 7, 2023. Anonymity not only makes it easier to get away with violent lawbreaking, it helps intimidate others and may encourage the masked to get out of control. Hence repeated calls for the return of New York’s anti-masking law, which then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed to repeal in 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. Gov. Kathy Hochul briefly sought just that this year, but progressives wouldn’t let her get more than a symbolic crackdown that generally protects masked demonstrators.

Wall Street Journal [6/29/2025 4:20 PM, J.D. Crouch II, 646K] reports when President Ronald Reagan created the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983, he challenged the nation to build effective missile defenses. Critics labeled the initiative “Star Wars,” to which Reagan responded that “it isn’t about war; it’s about peace. It isn’t about retaliation; it’s about prevention. It isn’t about fear; it’s about hope.” Central to that vision was a space-based layer of interceptors capable of destroying ballistic missiles in early flight. The concept became real in the form of Brilliant Pebbles—small, autonomous interceptors orbiting relatively close to Earth and designed to collide with missiles at incredible speeds. President George H.W. Bush fully embraced this concept. His administration proposed deploying 1,000 Brilliant Pebbles. Bush saw what Reagan saw: that only space-based technologies could provide the global, persistent coverage required to defend against serious ballistic threats. President Trump has reignited the conversation by calling for a “Golden Dome.” He’s on the right track. No solely ground-based or regional missile defense system, however layered, is sufficient against today’s threats. China and Russia are building and deploying highly maneuverable high-speed missile systems. North Korea has tested ballistic and satellite-launch capabilities. Iran launched longer-range ballistic missiles against Israel and a U.S. base in Qatar. In this environment, robust space-based defense isn’t optional; it’s foundational.

CBS’ Face The Nation [6/29/2025 11:47 AM, Staff, 4201K] reports even the Iranians concede that the damage to three of their nuclear sites from last week’s bombing was excessive and serious, but it’s a mystery as to what the Iranian nuclear capability is now. Friday, we spoke with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, and we asked him just that. Director Grossi says, "It’s clear that what happened in particular in – in Fordow, in Natanz, Isfahan, where Iran used to have and still has to some degree capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion, and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree. Some is still standing. So, there is, of course, an important setback in terms of those – of those capabilities." There was roughly 400 kilograms, which is just under 900 pounds, of highly enriched uranium before the attacks. These are in small canisters and relatively easy to move. Does Grossi have any idea where that was moved and if it was moved before the attack? "We presume, and I think it’s – it’s logical to presume, that when they announced that they are going to be taking protective measures, this could be part of it. But as I said, we don’t know where this material could be, or if part of it could have been, you know, under the attack during those 12 days. So, some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved. So, there has to be, at some point, a clarification. If we don’t get that clarification, this will continue to be hanging, you know, over our heads as – as a potential problem. So, this is why I say, it’s so important, first of all, for Iran to allow our inspectors to continue their indispensable work as soon as possible." Director Grossi stated.

CBS’ Face The Nation [6/29/2025 11:47 AM, Staff, 4201K] reports Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, gives clarity on if Iran intends to reconstitute a nuclear enrichment program on its soil. " You know that we are a member – responsible member of the NPT. And according to the – this treaty, we have the mutual rights. It means that the right of one side will be the obligation of the other sides. And the NPT has been defined that we have to the (ph) exclusive rights. The first is that we can have research on development, we can have the production of uranium, and we can have – use the peaceful energy. And the second right is that the legal protection by the IAEA for our activity and technical corporations for our development programs." Ambassador Iravani states. Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a statement yesterday saying that there were calls in Iran – this, I believe, is from a newspaper that the supreme leader oversees, accusing Director General of IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, of being an Israeli spy and calling for his arrest and execution. To be clear, is Iran threatening U.N. inspectors? " No, there is not any threat. It is a very clear law of our parliament that they have suspended our cooperation with IAEA because the agency has not implemented their rights, their responsibility. Due to this, it is conditional law. And as long as this condition has not been set, so are the cooperation with IAEA will be suspended. But wherever it’s set up as according to the law, so we can have – resume our cooperation. But there is not any threat against the general director of IAEA." Ambassador Iravani states.

FOX News [6/29/2025 1:37 PM, David Rutz, 46878K] reports Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s administration should prioritize detaining illegal immigrants who are "aggravated felons," while defending the government’s efforts to restore "sanity" to that aspect of homeland security. On "Face the Nation," CBS anchor Margaret Brennan quoted a report from The Independent stating 47 percent of the 59,000 detained migrants in the U.S. didn’t have a criminal record, and fewer than 30 percent had been convicted of crimes. "These aren’t the worst of the worst," she said. "I was a federal prosecutor for many years, counterterrorism. You have to prioritize, right?" McCaul said. "I would prioritize the aggravated felons that [Biden DHS Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas let in, in defiance of federal law. It was ‘shall detain.’ He said, ‘may detain,’ and let them out into the streets. I would prioritize that first." The border is just about secure, McFaul said, pointing to the end of "catch and release" with the return of Trump to power. The Trump administration has pushed back against and lashed out at the media over the notion that most of the illegal immigrants who’ve been arrested this year haven’t been convicted or charged with a crime. "Under the Trump Administration, 70% of illegal aliens arrested have been convicted or charged with a crime beyond illegally entering our country," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said this week in a release about DHS operations capturing illegal immigrants in Los Angeles. "As bad faith politicians attempt to demean and vilify our brave law enforcement, we will only double down and ramp up our enforcement actions against the worst of the worst criminals." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Axios [6/29/2025 7:15 AM, Russell Contreras, 13599K] reports the images of masked, heavily armed immigration agents snatching people off the streets and taking them away in unmarked cars have shocked many Americans — and led to a simple question: Is all of this legal? It is — at least for now. Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created after the 9/11 attacks, its agents have operated with vastly more enforcement power, less transparency and fewer guardrails than local police. ICE’s rules were designed largely to give the agency broad leeway in helping the FBI identify and arrest domestic terror suspects. Now the Trump administration is using that power to go after unauthorized immigrants — potentially millions of them — with a frequency and aggressiveness that has sent ripples through communities nationwide. Under Trump, critics say, ICE has become the closest thing the U.S. has to a secret police force. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has defended ICE agents’ tactics and the covering of their faces, saying in a statement that they’re "facing a 500% increase in assaults against them while carrying out enforcement operations."

USA Today [6/29/2025 4:31 PM, Charlie Whitehead and Julia Gomez, 75552K] reports a man who ran into the water to help a 9-year-old girl after she was bitten by a shark in Florida may be facing deportation after he was arrested and accused of driving without a license days after the attack. Luis Alvarez, 31, of Lehigh Acres, in Lee County, Florida, around 140 miles northwest of Miami, was stopped about 1:30 a.m. on June 14 after police say he was driving without his headlights on. He was driving a gray SUV with a Rhode Island tag, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office arrest report. Court records indicate he is being held in jail by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to reporting from the Fort Myers News-Press, part of the USA TODAY Network. He is scheduled to go before a judge on July 9. USA TODAY has reached out to ICE for more information. On the day of the arrest, at around 1:30 a.m. local time, police say Alvarez was driving a car without its headlights on when he was pulled over. When asked for his license, Alvarez called up a picture of his Employment Authorization Card on his phone. He told the arresting officer in Spanish that he had been in the country for two-and-a-half years and had never had a driver’s license, according to the arrest report. Alvarez was arrested on a charge of driving without a license and was issued a warning for not having his headlights on. The arrest report said Alvarez is from Boaco, Nicaragua. Court records indicate he is being held in jail by ICE. Court records indicate Alvarez has no arrest history in Collier County. He was arrested on similar charges of not having a valid driver’s license four times in Lee County, dating back to December 2023. Lee County is located in southwest Florida along the Gulf Coast. He paid fines or had adjudication withheld by three different judges. In the most recent case, the judge issued a D6 suspension on June 23, meaning since Alvarez had not paid his fine, he was unable to apply for a license. Alvarez was on the beach and ran into the water to help on June 11 when Leah Lendel, 9, was bitten by a shark. Lendel’s hand was nearly severed after the attack, which happened in the ocean a few feet off the beach in Boca Grande, Florida. Lendel’s hand was nearly severed, but fast action at the scene and an airlift to Tampa General Hospital allowed surgeons to reattach her hand. She is recovering. Alvarez went into the water first to scare the shark, her sister Raynel Lugo, who also helped during the rescue, said in an interview with Fox4 News. "He jumped in that area to bring her out when I was assisting Leah," said Lugo in the Fox4 interview. "He went deep underwater, not even caring about the shark. He went really deep. He probably faced the shark." Body camera footage from a Lee County Sheriff’s Office Deputy who responded to the call shows the three men standing next to the water as Leah was being treated by EMS.

Reported similarly:
Detroit Free Press [6/29/2025 4:31 PM, Charlie Whitehead and Julia Gomez, 4241K]

Houston Chronicle [6/29/2025 7:00 AM, Sam González Kelly and Ava Hu, 1982K] reports Svetlana Romanova thought the United States would welcome her when she fled her native Russia last year for protesting its war in Ukraine. Instead, the 59-year-old woman has spent roughly eight months at a privately operated immigration detention center in north Houston. She has no idea when she may be released. "I feel depression all the time," Romanova said in Russian over the phone, as her son translated. "All the time I feel scared, depressed and without medicine, and nobody wants to deal with it.". Romanova was one of over 3,600 people being held across four detention centers in the Houston area as of early June, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which tracks immigration data, as President Donald Trump has sought to ramp up deportations of immigrants without legal status, and close the border to refugees and other new arrivals. While Houston-area facilities don’t appear to be overcrowded yet, Immigration and Customs Enforcement data collected by the Deportation Data Project shows that migrants at some detention centers in the Houston area are being held, on average, more than twice as long since the start of Trump’s second term. The Houston Chronicle interviewed two people who have been detained at Houston-area Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities for more than six months, along with their attorneys and family members. The newspaper also reviewed inspection reports of the facilities and federal detention data. Both migrants voiced frustration with the conditions of their detention. But an even greater concern looms: As their asylum cases inch their way through the massively backlogged court system, detention feels like an indefinite prison sentence. "It’s not a detention center, it’s a prison," said Islam Musaev, a Kyrgyzstani man who remains detained as his successful asylum case is appealed by the government. "There is no difference.". Under the Biden administration, standard policy was to allow non-criminal asylum seekers to pursue their case from outside the detention system to alleviate the burdens on ICE. At the start of the year, more than 90% of people in detention had criminal convictions or charges, according to Austin Kocher, a Syracuse University researcher who studies immigration enforcement. That rate has dropped significantly after the Trump administration launched its widespread immigration crackdown, nearly doubling the number of people in detention by arresting more immigrants who have no criminal history, Kocher said. "Essentially, it means the people in detention now are much more likely to be people who are not a public safety threat of any kind," Kocher said. An ICE spokesman said that as a Russian citizen, Romanova "hails from a special-interest country that carries a high-risk of threat to U.S. national security," and that ICE is generally unable to confirm the backgrounds of such immigrants. As a result, she is being detained throughout her immigration proceedings, the spokesman said.

Los Angeles Times [6/29/2025 9:30 AM, Andrew J. Campa, 14672K] reports the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s immigration raids throughout Los Angeles and surrounding counties have been splashed all over television and social media feeds for nearly a month. There were the two women nabbed outside the Airport Courthouse on La Cienega Boulevard on Tuesday after a hearing in a local criminal case. There was the raid at a Hollywood Home Depot on June 19, in which crews of armed, mostly masked agents converged on a parking lot, blocking gates and surrounding the laborers and vendors. For all the attention created and fear induced, the results of the operations remained opaque — until recently, when numbers on the actual arrests were released by Homeland Security. My colleague Andrea Castillo provided the figures, which offer new insights into the size and scope of the operations. From June 6 to June 22, enforcement teams arrested 1,618 immigrants for deportation in Los Angeles and surrounding regions of Southern California, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The "area of responsibility" for the Los Angeles field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement includes the L.A. metropolitan area and the Central Coast, as well as Orange County to the south, Riverside County to the east and up the coast to San Luis Obispo County. As immigration arrests have occurred across Southern California, demonstrators have protested the federal government’s actions and bystanders have sometimes confronted immigration officers or recorded their actions. During the same time span, 787 people have been arrested for assault, obstruction and unlawful assembly, a Homeland Security spokesperson said. Homeland Security did not respond to requests for information on how many of those arrested had criminal histories, or for a breakdown of those convictions.

NBC News [6/29/2025 8:00 AM, Alicia Victoria Lozano, 44540K] reports an abandoned ice cream cart has become a symbol of resistance to residents of a west Los Angeles neighborhood who oppose President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies. The cart belonged to a beloved ice cream vendor who was arrested by federal agents Monday afternoon while walking his usual route through Culver City. The sudden disappearance of Ambrocio "Enrique" Lozano stunned residents who said the vendor was a welcome fixture in their neighborhood for more than 20 years. "There was always a bright light around him," said Patricia Pande, a Culver City resident who spent countless days enjoying Lozano’s ice cream with her granddaughter. "The happiest times I know with her are from the ice cream man.". A photo of Lozano’s lone ice cream cart spread quickly across social media, triggering a tidal wave of responses from immigration advocates, residents and lawmakers. Hyperlocal grassroots organizations like Siempre Unidos LA began sharing the image, and soon a crowdfunding campaign for Lozano and his family hit its goal of $6,000 to cover their legal fees and living expenses. The campaign topped $57,000 after the photo drew national attention. The response to Lozano’s arrest highlights a new strategy emerging after large-scale protests overtook downtown Los Angeles earlier this month. Instead of focusing on marches outside federal buildings, residents of sprawling L.A. County are zeroing in on their own blocks and neighborhoods to show their opposition to Trump’s mass deportation efforts. A loose coalition of dozens of grassroots organizations whose cellphone-toting members are broadcasting immigration arrests in real time over social media to millions of followers has taken shape across the region. These groups post and repost the locations of arrests, organize spontaneous protests, help families find information about relatives who have been detained and set up donation drives when needed. It’s difficult to measure the direct effect these actions have had since Trump’s immigration crackdown, but affected families say the outpouring of support is immeasurable. Lozano is among more than 1,618 people in Los Angeles who have been arrested by the federal government since it began clamping down on residents without citizenship earlier this month, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

San Francisco Chronicle [6/29/2025 7:00 AM, Raheem Hosseini, 4120K] reports Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni stood at the podium, his office’s six-pointed star displayed in triplicate: on the breast of his uniform, on a long-necked microphone and larger than life on the swamp-green curtain behind him. On a black video screen under the word "ARRESTED" flashed five mug shots — a big one in the middle and four small ones arrayed around it. The men were responsible for a series of armed robberies in August 2024, Zanoni said, of a taco stand and two grocers. There was also a carjacking and, Zanoni said, a home invasion. "These are very violent and very dangerous individuals," the Central Valley sheriff said. The men, he added, were "possibly connected to Tren de Aragua, TdA, which is also known as a violent criminal street gang.". What Zanoni did not say at the April 23 news conference was that the mug shot in the bottom left corner belonged to an innocent man. Nonetheless, at that moment, Yan Garcia-Heredia was inside a West Texas detention center, a wrong man in a wrong place. The legal asylum seeker had been living and working in Fresno County when Zanoni’s officers arrested and released him without ever requesting that criminal charges be filed, according to the district attorney’s office. Garcia-Heredia left the county jail on Feb. 15 and entered immigration custody the same day — under circumstances that suggest cracks in the story the Trump administration is telling about the immigrants it seeks to deport. And the story Zanoni is telling his majority Latino community. In April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved Garcia-Heredia to a Texas detention center that has been a waystation for U.S. migrants shipped to El Salvador based on unproven gang claims. ICE posted Garcia-Heredia’s photo on its Facebook and Instagram channels, the 22-year-old’s startled face crowded by text that said "Tren de Aragua" and "robbery & assault with a firearm" — a gang he denies belonging to and crimes he denies committing.

Univision [6/29/2025 7:51 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports the Department of Homeland Security, through the head of its office in Puerto Rico, warned citizens who interfere with the detention of undocumented immigrants on the island that they will be "criminally prosecuted". The message, published on the social network X by the special agent in charge, Rebecca González Ramos, responds in large part to the complaints generated by the arrest of a Dominican worker, while working on a property on Gandía Street, in the Baldrich development, in Hato Rey, a sector of the Capital. González Ramos did not discuss the process criticized by local residents. He only stated that during the afternoon of Friday, June 27, "a Dominican citizen, who was without immigration status in the United States, was arrested in Hato Rey. We continue to execute the presidential order to enforce immigration laws". He added: "Citizens who interfere with our work and put our agents in danger will be criminally prosecuted. Neighbors have pointed out that the immigrants may be undocumented, but they have human rights that must be respected. They witnessed how the agents involved in the ICE operation, who were also supported by the DEA and the FBI, did not show arrest warrants. Nor did they arrive at the property where the undocumented Dominican worker was working with a warrant allowing them to enter. Data obtained by the Center for Investigative Journalism on the island estimate that as of June 5, at least 552 immigrants, mostly Dominicans, have been arrested in Puerto Rico.

Telemundo20 [6/29/2025 8:30 PM, Xinthya Gomez, 37K] reports Ana and her family, who are from Honduras, lived seven years in Los Angeles until the American dream became a nightmare, so they decided to opt for self-deportation, before being liable to fines or being separated from their three youngest children born in the United States. We came back because we looked at the very violent situation, fear that they would separate us from the children, we crossed because he gave us political asylum, we entered with a political asylum when Trump was there and we went out too, as well, were Ana’s words in Tijuana. We looked at how people were being deported as they were gripping it I’m a farm worker, and because I never would have liked me to be chased by them too. The national security department announced that fines on undocumented immigrants in the United States will be accelerated and may be by ordinary mail. Foreigners who entered without documents would pay between $100 and $500 and those who do not comply with a voluntary exit order could pay almost $10,000. Activists consider that, after these measures, self-deportations will be increasingly visible on the border. Is it closing more and more to the migrant community living in the United States. There is talk of 100, 130 per day the number of deportations that there was constant in the previous administration decreased, but I think with this measure it means that a stronger deportation is going to happen at any time, perhaps we begin to look at that very regrettable situation for our nationals who are going to do deportations, or that they themselves are going to have to deport themselves and go out the door again, as well as go back out to Mexico. The activist José María Lara de Alianza, Migrant of Tijuana, mentioned.

NPR [6/30/2025 4:09 AM, Mile Parks and Michel Martin, 37958K] reports the Trump administration has built a searchable national citizenship data system. The tool is designed to be used by state and local election officials to ensure only citizens are voting. But it was developed rapidly without a public process, and some of those officials are already worrying about what else it could be used for. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

NewsMax [6/29/2025 4:08 PM, Staff, 4622K] reports U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin said on Sunday he believes babies born in the United States to immigrants living in the country illegally should be deported alongside their parents if the adults are removed. Mullin’s comments on NBC’s "Meet the Press" came in response to questions about a U.S. Supreme Court decision on Friday that paved the way for President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship to go into effect soon in some states. The court’s ruling did not address the legality of Trump’s order, which would upend the historic practice of granting U.S. citizenship to anyone born in the country regardless of their parents’ immigration status. NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Mullin what should happen to babies born in the United States whose parents are deported, given that the children are U.S. citizens under current law. "Well, they should go where their parents are," said Mullin, of Oklahoma. "Why wouldn’t you send a child with their parents? I mean, why would you want to separate them?".

SFGate [6/29/2025 3:00 AM, Staff, 11859K] reports California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Friday issued a consumer alert warning immigrant communities to beware of scams related to immigration assistance, as fear and uncertainty rise amid what he called President Donald Trump’s "inhumane" detention and deportation agenda. Bonta’s guidance highlights the dangers of notario fraud, which are scams involving individuals posing as legal experts. "Scammers are paying attention," Bonta said in a statement. "Before hiring someone claiming to help with immigration matters, people should know how to identify trusted and qualified professionals.". In many Latin American countries, "notarios" are licensed attorneys, but in the U.S., a notary public is not legally permitted to offer immigration legal services, the Attorney General’s office noted. Bonta urged Californians to verify credentials before accepting help and provided tools such as ICE’s detainee locator (locator.ice.gov) and immigration court information system (acis.eoir.justice.gov) to track individuals held in detention.

NPR [6/29/2025 8:02 AM, Nirvani Williams, 37958K] reports that, in 2021, an Afghan man who helped the U.S. military narrowly escaped Afghanistan with his family, but was forced to leave several children behind. He struggled to reunite his family in the U.S. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

FOX News [6/29/2025 8:05 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports Customs Border Protection said two people were arrested on Friday at a home linked to terrorism and an Iranian human trafficking hub in Los Angeles, California. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [6/29/2025 7:50 PM, Stepheny Price, 46878K] reports Iran’s top Shiite cleric issued a religious decree against President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday, an act some experts called an incitement to terrorism. The fatwa from Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi called on Muslims around the world to take a stand, according to the New York Sun. It states that any individual or government that challenges or endangers the leadership and unity of the global Islamic community (the Ummah) is to be regarded as a "warlord" or a "mohareb," defined as someone who wages war against God. Under Iranian law, those identified as mohareb can face execution, crucifixion, limb amputation, or exile. "Those who threaten the leadership and integrity of the Islamic Ummah are to be considered warlords," Makarem said in the ruling. He finished with a prayer asking for protection from these "enemies" and for the swift return of the Mahdi, a messianic figure in Shiite Islam. British-Iranian commentator Niyak Ghorbani condemned the fatwa, describing it as a state-endorsed incitement to global terrorism. He posted on his X account that the Islamic Republic’s aggression is not limited to domestic dissent but signals broader international ambitions for religiously motivated violence. "The West must realise: the Islamic Republic is not only targeting its own people — it is preparing for global violence in the name of religion," he wrote in the post. This fatwa followed what has been dubbed the "12-Day War," during which American and Israeli efforts reportedly inflicted significant damage on Iran’s nuclear capabilities.`

NewsNation [6/29/2025 4:57 PM, Sophia Fanning and Alaina Papazian, 5801K] reports at least ten vessels sank and multiple others required assistance near Anclote Key off the western coast of Florida on Saturday. The vessels found themselves in trouble after a storm quickly brewed just a few miles off the coast near Tarpon Springs. Some impacted vessels began taking on water, according to Tarpon Springs Fire Rescue. Its crews assisted seven boats and a Jet Ski. Pasco Sheriff’s Office said they received calls for assistance at around 1:30 p.m., and all occupants were safely on land by the time first responders arrived. PSO said ten of the vessels sank, three at Anclote Sandbar and seven at Anclote Island. They also said that 42 people were rescued in total, and one person required a medical call. No other injuries were reported, and no additional details were immediately available. It was a multi-agency effort, including assistance from Palm Harbor Fire Rescue, the Coast Guard, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

FOX News [6/29/2025 9:24 AM, Pilar Arias, 46878K] reports first responders rescued four people from a burning boat off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday. The 61-foot sailboat was about one mile offshore when flames broke out, Canaveral Fire Rescue confirmed to Fox News Digital. Witness video taken from nearby Jetty Park Beach shows thick, dark smoke billowing over the ocean. The man who took the video told newsgathering website Storyful that the boat "went up real fast" and it "sounded like there were a few explosions.". The four onboard "safely evacuated to another bystander’s boat and were brought in by Brevard County Sheriff’s Office with no injuries," Canaveral Fire Rescue said. The cause of the fire is under investigation by the United States Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Neither immediately responded to inquiries from Fox News Digital. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Telemundo51 [6/29/2025 4:01 PM, Staff, 177K] reports five people were rescued from a boat that caught fire Sunday near Key Biscayne, authorities said. According to the Coast Guard (USCG), teams from USCG’s Miami Beach station, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office (MDSO) and Miami-Dade firefighters arrived at the site of the incident, about 8 miles east of Key Biscayne. Upon arrival, rescue teams saw a dense smoke coming out of the boat. The Coast Guard said a good Samaritan who was in the area helped with the rescue work. As the teams battled the fire, the five passengers were transported ashore by a MDSO unit. Authorities said the boat’s owner had a radio and was able to call for help. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is under investigation. CBS Miami [6/30/2025 12:36 AM, Hunter Geisel, 51860K] reports five people were rescued by a good Samaritan after their boat caught on fire in Biscayne Bay on Sunday morning, authorities said. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, multiple agencies — including personnel from their Miami Beach station, Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue — responded around 10 a.m. to the boat fire about eight miles off the coast of Key Biscayne near Elliott Key. The USCG shared on X that five boaters were rescued from the burning vessel by a good Samaritan and brought to shore in "good health." According to the USCG, the boat’s owner used his registered Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) to call for help. The fire has since been put out, but the cause and circumstances surrounding it remain under investigation. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Post [6/29/2025 4:40 PM, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 49956K] reports an ailing worker was pulled off a high-seas oil rig after suffering severe chest pains, with the entire daring rescue captured on dramatic Coast Guard video. A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk chopper was called to the Platform Heritage rig about 35 miles off the California coastline around 10:30 a.m. Friday, on reports of a seriously ill worker, the agency said. The helicopter arrived at the oil rig shortly before 12:30 p.m. to retrieve the worker. The footage shows a Coast Guard crew member being rappelled onto the deck of the rig, followed by a stretcher — with the ill worker then placed on the stretcher and pulled up to the Jayhawk. The Coast Guard crew transported the man to Camarillo Airport in Ventura County, California, where he was treated and rushed to St John’s Hospital, Camarillo, for further treatment. The worker’s identity and condition were not released.

Washington Times [6/29/2025 1:32 PM, Matt Delaney, 2106K] reports a Department of Justice audit found that hackers working for Mexican cartel kingpin "El Chapo" have tapped the phones of U.S. officials, which they used to track down and kill people working with American authorities. An FBI informant in 2018 said the Sinaloa Cartel hired a hacker to crack into cellphones and other electronic devices being used by staffers in the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, according to the DOJ’s Inspector General report released Friday. The report said the hacker selected multiple "people of interest" for the cartel during a digital stakeout, including the FBI assistant legal attache. The cartel’s computer wiz further accessed the FBI official’s call log and acquired their geolocation data in the breach. The hacker then used Mexico City’s camera system to follow the attache around town and see who the attache met with, the report said. "According to the case agent, the cartel used that information to intimidate and/or kill potential sources or cooperating witnesses," the report said. The DOJ audit did not identify the attache, the hacker or any of the victims who were singled out by the cartel. Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzman was extradited to the U.S. in 2017, and is serving a life sentence for a murder conspiracy and on more than two dozen drug-related charges for his role in running the Sinaloa Cartel. U.S. officials blame the Sinaloa Cartel and its rival, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, for flooding the States with fentanyl. Mexican gangs produce and traffic the powerful synthetic opioid across the country that has resulted in a spike in overdose deaths. The Trump administration has sought to cripple the cartels’ American enterprise by labeling them as foreign terrorist organizations. The 2018 incident in Mexico City was covered in a report about how to protect FBI agents’ identity from being compromised by cell phones, street cameras, credit cards and other forms of technology. The audit said improving commercial technology has made it easier for less-sophisticated nations and criminal enterprises to take advantage of the access it has to users. "Some within the FBI and partner agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), have described this threat as ‘existential," the report said.

CBS News [6/29/2025 8:00 PM, Scott MacFarlane, 51860K] Video HERE reports Alan Hausman paused mid-sentence during the phone call, then said he is still dogged by "survivor’s remorse." Hausman said he can clearly remember trying to drive up a road to get to the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh after he was alerted to a shooting. But the road was impassable. The memories of the aftermath are indelible. "Every time I see another attack, it’s like someone picked the scab off of my wound," said Hausman, who is the president of the synagogue’s board of directors. He was not attending the synagogue on the day of the October 2018 shooting spree that killed 11 people. The massacre resulted in 63 counts including hate crime charges, resulting in the conviction and a death sentence against the gunman. Hausman, who is an emergency management official in Pittsburgh, said the Tree of Life now has armed security, as do other religious institutions and organizations in the city and region. The houses of worship have installed new alarm systems, and have roving security guards in parking lots, to deter future threats, he said. According to FBI data and Justice Department officials who spoke with CBS News, the Tree of Life tragedy didn’t slow the targeting of religious institutions, but was an early warning of the recent wave of planned attacks.

CBS News [6/29/2025 7:20 PM, Bill Whitaker, 51860K] Video HERE reports the head of NORAD and NORTHCOM - the military commands that defend North America - told Congress earlier this year that some of those mysterious drones seen flying inside the United States may indeed have been spying. He did not say for whom. 60 Minutes has been looking into eerily similar incidents going back more than five years, including those attention- getting flyovers in New Jersey. In each, drones first appeared over restricted civilian or military sites, coming and going - often literally - "under the radar." As we first reported in March, the wake-up call came just over a year ago, when drones invaded the skies above Langley Air Force base in Virginia over 17 nights, forcing the relocation of our most advanced fighter jets. Our story starts with an eyewitness and an iPhone. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [6/29/2025 7:00 AM, Annie Grayer, 21433K] reports House Republican leadership is actively discussing new ways to restrict the classified information that all lawmakers can receive, after the White House indicated it will limit intelligence sharing with Congress going forward. Democrats are warning that would threaten their ability to do their jobs, and some Republicans also say they would be against further restrictions. The conversations happening at the House leadership level have so far revolved around who should be allowed to access the most sensitive information, lawmakers involved in the discussions told CNN. The Trump administration is planning to limit what it shares with Congress, a senior White House official told CNN on Wednesday. That comes after CNN reported that, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by seven people briefed on it, the US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months. Johnson did not rule out eliminating classified briefings for the entire House, which House and Senate lawmakers received last week on Iran, as a potential option. "It probably affects what we are able to be told because there are real risks to that. So, it’s unfortunate. It effects how the institution works, and that’s a problem so we got to address it," Johnson said. House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green confirmed to CNN that "there’s a debate" among House GOP leadership over how to institute new restrictions.

Washington Post [6/29/2025 7:00 AM, Hannah Natanson, 32099K] reports at the Department of Veterans Affairs, some employees had to sign nondisclosure agreements before reviewing plans for firings and organizational shake-ups. At the Administration for Children and Families, career staff were told not to respond in writing to panicky grant recipients whose funding had been shut off to avoid a “paper trail,” one employee said. And at the Environmental Protection Agency, several months after Elon Musk began requiring federal workers to submit weekly emails detailing five things they’d accomplished, some managers began calling staff to say they no longer had to comply — but refused to put it in writing, according to an employee who received one of the calls. "What’s particularly weird for me is that, as a regulatory agency, we tend to operate with the idea that ‘if it’s not in writing, it didn’t happen,’" said the employee, who has since left the government. "But we are very much moving away from things being in writing.". Across President Donald Trump’s administration, a creeping culture of secrecy is overtaking personnel and budget decisions, casual social interactions, and everything in between, according to interviews with more than 40 employees across two dozen agencies, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals. No one wants to put anything in writing anymore, federal workers said: Meetings are conducted in-person behind closed doors, even on anodyne topics. Workers prefer to talk outdoors, as long as the weather cooperates. And communication among colleagues — whether work-related or personal — has increasingly shifted to the encrypted messaging app Signal, with messages set to auto-delete. It’s not just career staffers who are clamming up, fearful they will be tagged as rebellious or resistant to Trump’s policies and dismissed amid the administration’s push to trim the workforce, fulfilling the president’s promise to eradicate waste, fraud and abuse. Trump’s own political appointees are also resistant to writing things down, worried that their agency’s deliberations will appear in news coverage and inspire a hunt for leakers, federal workers said. In an interview Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration views the culture of secrecy pervading the government "as a good thing" because fewer leaks are emerging from the highest ranks. "The president does not tolerate leaks, especially those that could endanger our national security or our homeland security," Leavitt said. "We expect every federal worker, whether they are a political or a career, to respect their jobs and to respect the responsibility they have to the American people to execute on this administration’s policies.". A senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share more candid thoughts, said the administration is determined to crack down on those who give out unauthorized information, pointing to recent firings at the Defense Department and the polygraph testing of suspected leakers at the Department of Homeland Security. The official, noting that the administration bombed Iran with no public leaks beforehand, quoted Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin, who said on television that she had "never seen such operational security" in her 18 years covering the Pentagon. "Secrecy led to the success of the operation and allowed our pilots to accomplish this highly sensitive mission," the official said. "With respect to national security, secrecy is demanded.".

Washington Examiner [6/29/2025 8:00 AM, Lauren Green and Rachel Schilke, 1934K] reports lines of communication over the U.S.’s national security between the White House and Congress are strained as speculation grows that a preliminary report on the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites was leaked out of Capitol Hill. The White House has been put under pressure to provide more information on the bombings in Iran last weekend, as bits and pieces begin to leak to the media and House leaders threaten to limit classified briefings for rank-and-file lawmakers. Johnson told lawmakers he thinks the leak was a "substantial setback" and guessed the leak to the two major outlets came "probably from this body.". "It probably affects what we are able to be told because there are real risks to that," Johnson said, following remarks from President Donald Trump that he wants to limit the flow of intelligence due to the leaks. "So, it’s unfortunate. It affects how the institution works, and that’s a problem, so we got to address it.". Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) criticized the White House for not briefing the "Gang of Eight" on Capitol Hill, a group that consists of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), and Jeffries, along with the top members of the House and Senate intelligence committees. Another point of frustration within the Democratic caucus came when intelligence officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, were set to brief lawmakers on the operation Tuesday, before being delayed just hours before they were set to meet. The briefing instead took place Friday morning — almost a full week after the strikes took place — where Democrats left unsatisfied with the information they received, saying they still have more questions. "It wasn’t particularly enlightening and there remain a whole host of questions that need to be answered for the American people," Jeffries told reporters leaving the briefing.

Daily Wire [6/29/2025 7:38 AM, Daniel Chaitin, 3816K] reports President Donald Trump said that he expects more countries will join the Abraham Accords that seek to normalize relations between Israel and Arab nations. During an interview on "Sunday Morning Futures," anchor Maria Bartiromo asked Trump if any other country had suggested to him that they wanted to sign up after the U.S. military bombed Iranian sites to prevent Tehran from achieving nuclear weapons. "Yes, so we have some really great countries in there right now, and I think we’re going to start loading them up because Iran was the primary problem. I actually thought Iran would, I actually, we had a period of time where I thought Iran would join the Abraham Accords along with everybody else, and frankly they would have been better off than where they are right now," Trump said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Axios [6/29/2025 11:19 AM, Ben Berkowitz, 13599K] reports a looming deadline to make trade deals doesn’t necessarily matter, President Trump said Sunday, because the U.S. will simply send letters to hundreds of countries assigning tariff rates. The pause on Trump’s sweeping global tariffs expires in about 10 days, with one deal and one temporary truce in hand, and the rest of the world in varying states of limbo. "We made deals, but I’d rather just send them a letter, a very fair letter, saying ‘congratulations, we’re going to allow you to trade in the United States of America, you’re going to pay a 25% tariff, or 20%, or 40 or 50%.’ I would rather do that," Trump said on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures." Asked about extending the pause, Trump said "I don’t think I’ll need to. I could, there’s no big deal." "What I wanted to do is, and what I will do just — sometime prior to the 9th — is we’ll send a letter to all these countries," he added. "I’m going to send letters. That’s the end of the trade deal," Trump said, giving U.S. ally Japan as an example. "Dear Mr. Japan, here’s the story. You’re going to pay a 25% tariff on your cars," he said. Trump said letters would go out "pretty soon" and that "we don’t have to meet. We understand, we have all the numbers." Trump made similar promises of unilateral tariff letters on May 16 and June 11, saying both times they’d be sent in 2 to 3 weeks. That didn’t happen.

Wall Street Journal [6/29/2025 11:34 PM, Vipal Monga and Paul Vieira, 646K] reports Canada announced late on Sunday that it is rescinding a digital-services tax in a bid to salvage trade discussions with the U.S. after President Trump paused talks on Friday. Canada’s finance department was set to collect billions of dollars from U.S. tech companies starting on Monday, when payments were due under a digital-services tax that Canada’s Liberal government implemented last year, under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. On Sunday, the government announced it would pause collections and introduce legislation in Parliament to rescind the tax, “in anticipation of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement with the United States.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke with Trump on Sunday, said a spokeswoman for the prime minister’s office. The two leaders decided to move forward with trade discussions with a goal of reaching agreement by July 21. The White House didn’t immediately respond for comment. In an interview with Fox News broadcast earlier on Sunday, Trump complained about “certain taxes” that Canada had imposed. “People don’t realize, Canada is very nasty to deal with,” he said. Canada’s move comes two days after Trump announced that he had terminated trade talks with Canada over what he called an “egregious” tax that unfairly targeted U.S. tech companies.

FOX News [6/29/2025 10:00 AM, Diana Stancy, 46878K] reports a leaked Defense Intelligence Agency report is casting doubt on President Donald Trump’s claim that recent U.S. airstrikes "completely and totally obliterated" three Iranian nuclear facilities, instead concluding the mission only set back Iran’s program by several months. The report, published by CNN and The New York Times, comes just days after Trump approved the strikes amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran. In a national address immediately following the operation, Trump declared the sites "completely and totally obliterated.". While members of the Trump administration have waged a new war to discredit the initial report from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, multiple experts told Fox News Digital that there is too little information available right now to accurately determine how much damage the strikes did. Piecing together a thorough intelligence assessment is complex and time-consuming, they said. Dan Shapiro, who previously served as the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for the Middle East and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said he didn’t put a lot of stock in both overly pessimistic or overly optimistic assessments that emerged quickly, and said that the initial assessment from DIA was likely only based on satellite imagery. "That’s one piece of the puzzle of how you would really make this assessment," Shapiro, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Fox News Digital. "You’d really want to have to test all the other streams of intelligence, from signals intelligence, human intelligence, other forms of monitoring the site, potentially visits by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, potentially visits by other people. So that’s going to take days to weeks to get a real assessment.". "But I think it’s likely that if the munitions performed as expected, that significant damage was done, and would set back the program significantly," Shapiro said. Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that initial battle damage assessments suggested "all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction," but he acknowledged that a final assessment would "take some time.".

FOX News [6/29/2025 6:00 PM, Lindsay Kornick Fox, 46878K] reports President Donald Trump suggested on Fox News Sunday that reporters will be pressured to reveal their sources on stories about the U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. "Sunday Morning Futures" host Maria Bartiromo asked Trump about his recent social media post on Thursday that read, "The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran. They should be prosecuted!". "They should be prosecuted," Trump responded. When Bartiromo asked how one could find out "who" should be prosecuted, Trump answered that there were ways to find out that he suspects his administration will use soon. "You can find out," Trump said. "If they wanted, they could find out easily. You go up and tell the reporter, ‘National Security, who gave it?’ You have to do that. And I suspect we’ll be doing things like that.". Trump repeatedly criticized the New York Times and CNN for reporting what he called "fake news" about the military strikes, suggesting they did not effectively destroy the country’s nuclear programs. On Wednesday, CNN published a report claiming the "US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by seven people briefed on it.". On Tuesday, the New York Times published an article entitled, "Strike Set Back Iran’s Nuclear Program by Only a Few Months, U.S. Report Says.". "A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran set back the country’s nuclear program by only a few months, according to officials familiar with the findings," the Times reported.

Reuters [6/30/2025 4:19 AM, 51390K] reports Iran cannot be expected to ensure usual cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency when the security of agency inspectors cannot be guaranteed days after nuclear sites being hit by Israeli and U.S. strikes, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday.

New York Post [6/29/2025 12:48 PM, Ronny Reyes, 49956K] reports the Jerusalem District Court agreed to postpone Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial — just hours after President Trump called for the case to be dropped while suggesting American aid could hang in the balance over the decision. The court revealed Sunday that Netanyahu will not have to testify for the next two weeks due to diplomatic and national security issues, two days after the judge initially rejected the premier’s repeated requests to have the trial delayed. The new order came after Trump took to Truth Social and slammed the corruption trial — which sees Netanyahu accused of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases — as a "political witch hunt.". "It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu," Trump wrote. "He is a War Hero, and a Prime Minister who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring Great Success in getting rid of the dangerous Nuclear threat in Iran.". "The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this," he warned. Trump also claimed that having Netanyahu occupied with the case would interfere with cease-fire and hostage release efforts in Gaza, as well as the fragile truce with Iran. "Thank you again, @realDonaldTrump. Together, we will make the Middle East Great Again!" Netanyahu replied. A White House official said Trump identified with Netanyahu and made the personal decision to back the embattled prime minister during the ride back from the NATO summit last week, Axios reported.

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