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.

The New York Times [5/26/2025 4:56 PM, Johnatan Reiss, 153395K] reports Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, met with officials in Israel on Sunday and Monday as she underscored American support for Israel amid policy disagreements between the two countries. Ms. Noem met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and attended a ceremony on Monday that commemorated two Israeli Embassy aides who were killed last week in a shooting in Washington. Speaking at the ceremony, Ms. Noem said President Trump “extends his greetings and his grief to all of you, and he stands with you as we fight this hatred in the world.” She also spoke of “a unity among us that will help us defeat our enemies.” Israeli leaders presented her visit as proof of strong United States-Israel relations, following disagreements between Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu over how best to approach Iran and its proxies in Yemen, and Mr. Trump’s growing frustration with the continuation of the war in Gaza. Mr. Trump did not visit Israel during a recent tour of the Middle East, an omission interpreted as a sign of tension with Mr. Netanyahu. The New York Post [5/26/2025 1:08 PM, Emily Crane and Ryan King, 54903K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday that she had a “very candid” conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about President Trump’s efforts to cut a nuclear deal with Iran during her whistlestop trip to the Jewish state. Without elaborating, Noem seemingly alluded to friction between Trump and Netanyahu over how to handle fears over Iran’s nuclear program and acknowledged that “you can’t trust” the theocratic regime. “President Trump specifically sent me here to have a conversation with the prime minister about how those negotiations are going and how important it is that we stay united and let this process play out,” Noem told “Fox & Friends” Monday. “It was a very candid conversation.” Trump teased Sunday that his team has had “some very good talks with Iran” and that he thinks “we can have some good news on the Iran front.” While Trump and Netanyahu have been chummy in the past, there have been rumors of tensions between the two men and of Israel weighing military options against Iran. Trump notably did not visit Israel during his three-country swing to the Middle East earlier this month. Noem refrained from dishing on those rumors. “We discussed Iran, and we discussed where Israel’s position was, and I also delivered the message on where the president was, and the president will never accept a nuclear-capable Iran,” Noem said. “He also wants … Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be on the same page with him.” FOX News [5/25/2025 7:21 PM, Louis Casiano, 46878K] reports Noem met the Israeli leader in Jerusalem, where she voiced "strong appreciation for the Prime Minister’s policies, particularly the construction of the border fence with Egypt and the conduct of the ongoing war," Netanyahu’s office said. Others who attended the meeting were Israeli Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman; Foreign Policy Advisor Dr. Ophir Falk; Prime Minister’s Spokesperson Dr. Omer Dostri; and U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. The Hill [5/26/2025 5:09 PM, Jared Gans, 18649K] reports that the release states that others involved in the meeting were Netanyahu’s military secretary, foreign policy adviser and spokesperson and the U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. Earlier in the day, Netanyahu met with Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen (D), according to the release. The meetings came after the shootings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, both staffers at the embassy who were said to be getting engaged soon. Noem also met with Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and was seen at the Western Wall. But Noem’s visit also comes amid reports of tensions between Trump and Netanyahu over the continuation of the war between Israel and Hamas and Trump’s efforts to reach a deal with Iran on its nuclear program. The Washington Examiner [5/25/2025 10:38 PM, Zach LaChance, 1934K] reports Noem landed in the Jewish nation earlier Sunday, where she was greeted by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz and said a prayer for the two embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who were killed on Wednesday evening outside a museum in Washington. Noem then visited the Western Wall, a holy site, writing in the visitors’ book that "Israel is the chosen people, and the United States stands by you." The homeland security secretary also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later on Sunday night, where Noem expressed "unwavering support for the Prime Minister and the State of Israel," according to Netanyahu’s office. The prime minister’s office noted that the pair discussed the war in Gaza, with Noem showing "great appreciation for the Prime Minister’s policy of building a fence along the Egyptian border and for his conduct of the war."

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AP [5/26/2025 12:40 PM, Staff, 48304K]
Washington Times [5/26/2025 12:28 PM, Staff, 2106K]

New York Times [5/25/2025 4:46 PM, Isabel Kershner, 138952K] reports weeks before, Yaron Lischinsky had made plans to travel to Israel on Sunday with his partner, Sarah Milgrim. He wanted to introduce her to his family for the first time and, relatives said, propose to her. Instead, Mr. Lischinsky, 30, was laid to rest on Sunday at sunset, in a small cemetery a short walk from his family home in the village of Beit Zayit, nestled in the wooded hills west of Jerusalem. Mr. Lischinsky and Ms. Milgrim, 26, were gunned down on Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington as they left a reception for young professionals and diplomats hosted by the American Jewish Committee. The gunman, identified by the police as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, cried out “Free, free Palestine!” as he was being apprehended — a call heard in protests around the world against Israel and its war in Gaza, which was ignited by the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Mr. Rodriguez has been charged with the murder of foreign officials, first-degree murder and other crimes. The U.S. authorities said they would also be investigating the attack as a hate crime and a crime of terrorism. For their part, Mr. Lischinsky, a research assistant in the political department at the Israeli Embassy, and Ms. Milgrim, who organized and worked with delegations, were both known as peace-seeking bridge-builders, according to their colleagues. On Sunday, quiet prevailed over Beit Zayit, a community of about 1,600 residents with a store, a clinic and an outdoor library in a tiny pavilion. Residents of the town described the Lischinsky family as very private and modest people. In keeping with the family’s desire for privacy, the return to Israel of Mr. Lischinsky’s remains and his funeral were unusually low-profile affairs, without media coverage. Mr. Lischinsky’s coffin arrived in Israel on Friday and was received by representatives of the family and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a brief, private ceremony at the airport, according to a statement from the ministry. Israelis were outraged by the killing of Mr. Lischinsky and Ms. Milgrim but many said that amid the global rising tide of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment they saw such an attack coming. On Monday, Mr. Saar, the Israeli foreign minister, was expected to host U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in Jerusalem, followed by joint statements together with the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. Afterward, the foreign ministry said in a statement, a memorial ceremony would be held in honor of Mr. Lischinsky and Ms. Milgrim, and a tree would be planted in their memory.

AP [5/26/2025 12:40 PM, Staff, 48304K] reports U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Sunday. Noem’s visit follows an attack on Thursday in which two members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were killed. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [5/25/2025 10:59 PM, Alex Brandon and Ohad Zwigenberg, 56000K] reports that during her trip to the Middle East, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited a naval base in Bahrain, where she met with coast guard personnel, served meals and signed autographs. She also toured the historic Qal’at al-Bahrain Fort on camelback and held a meeting with the country’s king. On Sunday, she traveled to Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. [Editorial note: consult photos at source link]

NewsMax [5/26/2025 9:05 PM, Nick Koutsobinas, 4622K] reports Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted a video of herself on Memorial Day praying at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem following the shooting last week of two Israeli Embassy staffers. "Following the horrific terrorist attack in Washington DC killing two Israeli diplomats," President Donald "Trump asked me to visit Israel and meet with Prime Minister" Benjamin Netanyahu. Hate will not have the last word," Noem wrote on X under a video of her praying at the Wailing Wall. The day before the post, Netanyahu’s office shared a photo of Noem posing alongside the Israeli prime minister. The photo was followed by a press release, briefing about their meeting with Israel’s top diplomats. The post mentioned how Noem "expressed great appreciation" for Netanyahu’s "policy of building a fence along the Egyptian border and for his conduct of the war." According to The Hill, Noem also met with Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, separately. The meetings come amid reports that Israel is concerned about the United States striking a deal with Iran, all the while Israel looks to attack its nuclear energy facilities. "They’re worried about any deal," one U.S. official told NBC News of the Israelis.

NewsMax [5/26/2025 11:56 AM, Staff, 4622K] reports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Sunday evening with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who arrived in Israel to express solidarity and attend a memorial service honoring murdered Israel Embassy employees Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Netanyahu, during a meeting with Noem and U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, thanked Noem for her "unwavering support for the prime minister and the state of Israel." On Monday morning, Noem and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar attended the memorial service for the two embassy workers who were shot and killed last week outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., during an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee. Before leaving the United States, Noem said the U.S. government would conduct a thorough investigation into the Washington shooter, Elias Rodriguez.

Breitbart [5/26/2025 8:23 PM, Ian Hanchett, 3077K] reports that, on Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that aid in Gaza “many times” funds Hamas and Israel is the country that knows how to get aid to those who need it without Hamas taking it and if people are bringing aid into the region without the intelligence Israel has, “they will be fueling more violence, they will be fueling more death.” Co-host Lawrence Jones asked, “[T]here is debate about the aid coming into Gaza. And I get it. And I think the commander-in-chief made it very clear, he heard from a lot of the folks in the Middle East, some of the kings that he [was] dealing with, the foreign leaders there, they want the aid to come through. But there’s also still the issue of Hamas taking the aid and it’s not getting directly to the people. So, how do we balance wanting to be sympathetic for the cause as it relates to the children that are dying, but, still, you have a terrorist regime that is still in charge?” Noem answered, “Yeah, absolutely. It is that aid, many times, that is funding Hamas. So, we need to trust, we talked about this, specifically, with Bibi last night, he knows how to get aid into that region to the people who need it without Hamas using it to fund their violence. He is bringing aid in, the people are being told to evacuate, he is dropping leaflets, letting civilians have the chance to leave before they level these areas that Hamas has infiltrated. But if people go in there and offer aid without the kind of intelligence that they are using, they will be fueling more violence, they will be fueling more death. So, this prime minister clearly understands how Hamas has used that [aid] to perpetuate their future and we need to work with him to ensure that the aid is truly helping the people that need the help to get out of a dangerous situation.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [5/26/2025 11:12 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports DHS Secretary Kristi Noem reveals some of the top agenda items during her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [5/26/2025 8:23 PM, Ian Hanchett, 3077K] reports that, on Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem discussed her visit to Israel and said that “we aren’t talking weeks and months and years before President Trump will make a decision on what’s going to happen with Iran, they’ve been given a very short timeframe, a matter of days.” Noem stated that she didn’t want to divulge the private messages between the President and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “but the prime minister’s team had a conversation afterwards with us that they don’t remember a bilateral meeting that was quite that candid and direct and about how we really felt about the importance of Israel, our support for Israel, but that this negotiation was critically important, too. We’re on a short timeframe here, as well, we aren’t talking weeks and months and years before President Trump will make a decision on what’s going to happen with Iran, they’ve been given a very short timeframe, a matter of days. And I asked the prime minister to work with President Trump to make sure that we were making wise decisions together. “ Noem further stated that Hamas can’t be allowed to remain. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [5/25/2025 9:34 AM, Jenny Goldsberry, 1934K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that her agency is being thanked for reversing the damage done by former President Joe Biden’s immigration policy. Some 88,000 immigrants have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency under Noem’s department. According to acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, two-thirds of these arrests happened since President Donald Trump took office and began facilitating deportation flights. Noem defended these arrests while on Fox News’s Life, Liberty, and Levin Saturday. "As we go into these big cities, and we’re in theses communities, such as the other day we were in the Bronx pulling out guys that had weapons charges, drug charges, assault. They were charged with rape and murder. The community knew where they were. The law enforcement knew where they were. They just didn’t go extract them and protect the individuals that are raising their families there," Noem said. "America overwhelmingly wants these bad guys and dirtbags off our streets and out of this country. The fact that Joe Biden didn’t do that for so many years, proves he just did not put America first. He did not love this country. He was weakening us from within.” Noem claimed it can be "overwhelming" to complete these operations in the presence of American citizens, who are thanking them for their efforts. However, she insisted her department was simply following federal law. "We had a president in the White House when Joe Biden was there breaking federal law every single day," Noem said. Despite the alleged popularity of Noem’s strategy among the public, DHS and ICE face increasing protests. Police arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka outside the Delaney Hall Detention Center nearly two weeks ago. DHS also accused Reps. Rob Menendez (D-NJ), LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) of storming the facility as part of a protest over Trump administration policies regarding immigration.

The Hill [5/26/2025 8:29 AM, Filip Timotija, 18649K] reports President Trump sent a Memorial Day message to Americans Monday, including to what he referred to as the "scum" he says spent the last four years "trying to destroy our country." Trump, in a post on Truth Social, hammered the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border and slammed judges who have ruled against his administration in the first four months of his second White House term. "HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS, WHO ALLOWED 21,000,000 MILLION PEOPLE TO ILLEGALLY ENTER OUR COUNTRY, MANY OF THEM BEING CRIMINALS AND THE MENTALLY INSANE,THROUGH AN OPEN BORDER THAT ONLY AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WOULD APPROVE, AND THROUGH JUDGES WHO ARE ON A MISSION TO KEEP MURDERERS, DRUG DEALERS, RAPISTS, GANG MEMBERS, AND RELEASED PRISONERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, IN OUR COUNTRY SO THEY CAN ROB, MURDER, AND RAPE AGAIN," Trump wrote in 174-word post Monday morning. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the administration to facilitate the return of a third improperly deported man, identified as O.C.G., stating that his deportation "lacked any semblance of due process." The federal government removed the Guatemalan national to Mexico even though he feared persecution. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) characterized Murphy as an "activist" judge. "The person in question was an illegally present alien who was granted withholding of removal to Guatemala. He was instead removed to Mexico, a safe third option for him, pending his asylum claim," DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.

Breitbart [5/26/2025 12:06 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 3077K] reports that Conservatives far and wide recognized Monday the sacred day that is Memorial Day, honoring the "American heroes who gave everything for our freedom." The Trump White House released a video showing footage of Arlington National Cemetery with the caption, "Memorial Day isn’t about barbecues or beach days—it’s about those American heroes who gave everything for our freedom." "As we remember our heroes, let us not only mourn their loss but also celebrate their bravery," First Lady Melania Trump said. "Each life lost serves as a poignant reminder of the price paid for our rights and the values we hold dear," she added, using the hashtag "#MemorialDay." "On Memorial Day, we honor and remember our fellow Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation—giving their lives to protect our freedom and homeland," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement, thanking them with "eternal gratitude." Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis released a longer statement, writing that the sacrifices of those who gave up their lives for our nation "represent patriotism in its purest form.” "Their service was — and remains — indispensable in preserving the republic," he said, reminding Americans that liberty is granted by God — not the government. "It is, though, up to We the People to secure this liberty — by upholding the Constitution, by fostering a strong civic culture, and by producing leaders who are willing to make great sacrifices on behalf of others," he continued, explaining that our founding documents are ensured by those "willing to put on the uniform" and risk and give their lives for our country.

The Hill [5/26/2025 9:39 AM, Filip Timotija, 18649K] reports President Trump said Monday he was considering taking $3 billion of grant money from Harvard University and distributing it to trade schools around the country, amid an ongoing battle with the country’s oldest university. "I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land," Trump wrote in a Monday morning post on Truth Social. "What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!". The Hill has reached out to Harvard for comment. The administration has escalated its back-and-forth with the Ivy League institution, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ordering Thursday that the school be taken off the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, which is necessary for enrolling international students. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the school had to be held accountable for "fostering violence, failing to curb antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus." The school sued the administration Friday morning, alleging its First Amendment right was violated. Hours later, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs temporarily blocked the administration’s move to rescind the school’s SEVP certification. The administration said last week it would terminate $60 million in grants to Harvard, with the total amount of money taken away nearing $3 billion. Politico [5/26/2025 11:38 AM, Gregory Svirnovskiy, 2100K] reports Trump last week halted Harvard’s ability to bring in international students, who comprise roughly 27 percent of the university’s total enrollment, over what Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said was Harvard’s failure to comply with an extensive public records request from DHS. A federal judge blocked that action Friday. “We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country,” Trump wrote Monday. “Harvard is very slow in the presentation of these documents, and probably for good reason!” The Washington Examiner [5/26/2025 11:20 AM, Callie Patteson, 1934K] reports that last week, the Department of Homeland Security revoked the school’s University Student and Exchange Visitor Program, effectively prohibiting Harvard from enrolling foreign students. The administration also canceled its student visa program. Harvard has since sued the administration, claiming the move would affect more than 7,000 visa holders. The university has also accused the administration of violating the First Amendment, the due process clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act. While the court order blocking the DHS decision remains in place, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin previously told the Washington Examiner that the Trump administration has "the law, the facts, and common sense on our side." A hearing on a preliminary injunction for the case is scheduled for May 29 in Boston. The Wall Street Journal [5/26/2025 12:25 PM, Jack Gillum, 646K] reports Harvard filed a federal lawsuit against the government, arguing the Trump administration has violated the university’s constitutional rights as well as due process. The lawsuit noted the longstanding partnership between federal funding and university research, highlighting its historical success in improving American lives and fostering breakthroughs like drugs to treat Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [5/26/2025 12:15 PM, Emily Crane, 49956K]
CBS News [5/26/2025 12:0 PM, Megan Cerullo, 51860K]

ABC News [5/26/2025 10:22 AM, Kelsey Walsh and Alexandra Hutzler, 31733K] reports that President Donald Trump on Monday doubled down on his demand for a list of names of international students enrolled at Harvard, yet another escalation in his administration’s standoff with the university. In a social media post on Sunday, Trump claimed that a third of students at the Massachusetts institution are from foreign nations and "some not at all friendly to the United States." "We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming. We want those names and countries," he wrote. Trump repeated the request on Monday, while also threatening to take away more federal funds from the university. "Harvard is very slow in the presentation of these documents, and probably for good reason!" Trump wrote on his conservative social media platform. ABC News has reached out to Harvard for comment. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week wrote to Harvard that it lost the "privilege" to enroll international students as a result of what she called the school’s "refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information." Notably, the Department of Homeland Security already contains a Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) information database. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the database "tracks and monitors" schools that hold SEVP status as well as the students who come to the U.S. to attend them. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] FOX News [5/26/2025 12:25 PM, Danielle Wallace, 46878K] reports that in a letter Thursday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem informed Harvard’s leadership that the university had lost its "privilege" of enrolling foreign students as a result of the institution’s "refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security with pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies." Burroughs set another hearing on the matter for Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in Boston federal court.

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The Hill [5/25/2025 2:58 PM, Elizabeth Crisp, 18649K]
USA Today [5/25/2025 1:44 PM, Savannah Kuchar and Zachary Schermele, 75552K]
Telemundo [5/25/2025 2:15 PM, Staff, 3352K]

Daily Wire [5/25/2025 11:28 AM, Tim Pearce, 3816K] reports President Donald Trump lashed out at Harvard University on Sunday, ripping the elite institution for refusing to identify its foreign students while they benefit from taxpayer funding. The Department of Homeland Security last week blocked Harvard from accepting any new foreign students as the administration and school tussle over antisemitism on campus. The university responded with a lawsuit. "Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31% of their students are from FOREIGN LANDS, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay NOTHING toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to. Nobody told us that!" Trump posted on Truth Social. "We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming. We want those names and countries. Harvard has $52,000,000, use it, and stop asking for the Federal Government to continue GRANTING money to you!" he added. Harvard enrolls about 6,800 foreign students, which make up over 27% of its student body, according to 2024-2025 data from the university. Harvard sued the federal government over the freeze on foreign students on Friday, accusing the Trump administration of committing a "blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act." "It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students," the lawsuit says. After weeks of threats from the Trump administration, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent a letter to Harvard on Thursday notifying the university that it had been stripped of its certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. The secretary said the university was in violation of reporting requirements after it refused a Trump administration request for information on students on visas who committed "illegal activity" or "dangerous or violent activity." "This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus," said Noem.

Reported similarly:
NPR [5/25/2025 11:27 AM, Joe Hernandez, 37958K]
Washington Examiner [5/25/2025 9:43 AM, Emily Hallas, 1934K]

Breitbart [5/25/2025 11:43 AM, Lowell Cauffiel, 3077K] reports President Donald Trump evoked more political leverage Sunday in his effort to reign in alleged antisemitism and racial favoritism at Harvard by arguing U.S. taxpayers fund the education of its foreign students. "Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31% of their students are from FOREIGN LANDS, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay NOTHING toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to," Trump wrote early Sunday morning on Truth Social. "Nobody told us that!". The president’s comments come amid a battle between the Trump and the prestigious university for the administration’s plans to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students. We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming. We want those names and countries. Harvard has $52,000,000, use it, and stop asking for the Federal Government to continue GRANTING money to you! Harvard’s endowment actually is $53 billion, making it the richest university in the world. According the university’s website, "the endowment is made up of over 14,000 funds; the two largest categories of funds support faculty and students, including professorships and financial aid for undergraduates, graduate fellowships, and student life and activities.” The administration also has alleged that the university coordinates with China in its foreign student programs. Harvard filed a lawsuit Friday in an effort to stop the administration’s decision to prohibit the university from enrolling foreign students. A federal judge on Friday temporarily restrained the administration from canceling the school’s student visa program while the lawsuit is adjudicated. The lawsuit argues that the ban impacted more than 7,000 student visa holders and the administration’s action was a "blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act," according to its court filing. The Department of Homeland Security(DHS) acted to end Harvard’s visa program after the university allegedly failed to provide behavioral records of student visa holders the agency had requested. The administration has already stopped nearly $3 billion in largely research grant money to the university. The administration argues that Harvard has not adequately responded to alleged campus antisemitism in protests and has not moved to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in a statement: "This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.”

The Hill [5/25/2025 7:53 PM, Ian Swanson, 18649K] reports President Trump on Sunday expressed new frustrations with Harvard University, arguing the school should turn over the names of foreign students and that U.S. students are not getting to go to Harvard because places are being taken by students from other countries. "I don’t have a problem with foreign students. But it shouldn’t be 31 percent. It’s too much, because we have Americans who want to go there, and to other places, and they can’t go there because there’s 31 percent foreigners," Trump said from the tarmac in Morristown, N.J., where he was preparing to take off for Washington, D.C. The number of foreign students at Harvard is actually 27 percent of its total enrollment. Foreign students at Harvard and other schools tend to pay full tuition, providing an economic boost to the U.S. and effectively subsidizing costs for U.S. students.

NPR [5/27/2025 5:00 AM, Steve Inskeep, Obed Manuel, Reena Advani, 37958K] reports that, with elite U.S. universities in President Trump’s crosshairs, the leader of Harvard University says institutions need to double down on their "commitment to the good of the nation" and be firm in what they stand for. The Trump administration, acting on its claims that Harvard has failed to stamp out antisemitism on campus, froze more than $2 billion in research grants and contracts in April and attempted to revoke the school’s ability to enroll international students last week. The university is suing the federal government for both actions. Harvard President Alan Garber told Morning Edition that he finds the measures taken by Trump to be "perplexing." While he acknowledges there is work to be done on campus, he said he struggles to see a link between funding freezes and fighting antisemitism. "Why cut off research funding? Sure, it hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country because after all, the research funding is not a gift," Garber said, adding that these dollars are awarded to efforts deemed "high-priority work" by the federal government. NPR reached out to the White House for comment, but did not immediately receive a response. As evidence of how his university’s work directly benefits the U.S. public, Garber points to recent honors awarded to Harvard faculty by the Breakthrough Prize, known as "The Oscars of Science," for their work on obesity and diabetes drugs and gene editing, used to correct disease-causing genetic variations. The Trump administration’s multi-billion dollar funding freeze came after Harvard refused demands to change policies around hiring and admissions, eliminate DEI programs, or screen international students who are "supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism," as the administration put it. The federal government’s Joint Task Force to combat antisemitism said in an April statement that Harvard’s lack of compliance "reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges – that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws. The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support.” After a federal judge blocked the administration’s attempt to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll international students last week, Trump posted on his Truth Social that the home countries of those students are "not at all friendly to the United States" and "pay NOTHING toward their student’s education." The president’s post also said his administration wants "to know who those foreign students are.”

Daily Caller [5/25/2025 12:28 PM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports following through on a campaign pledge to crack down on the massive anti-Israel student protests that swept universities across the United States in 2024, President Donald Trump has detained an increasing number of foreign student protesters accused of harassing Jewish students and promoting an extremist agenda. However, these arrests and other crackdowns on alleged criminal foreign students have been met with fierce resistance in the courtroom. A federal judge in California Thursday blocked the Trump administration from terminating the legal statuses of international students at universities across the country, dealing a blow to the crackdown on students “identified in a criminal records check and/or has had their visa revoked,” according to court documents. As for students involved in anti-Israel activism, below are several of the most high-profile individuals detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for alleged pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic activity. Mahmoud Khalil ,an Algerian citizen who entered the U.S. in 2022 on a student visa to attend Columbia University, Mahmoud Khalil quickly became the face of the student protests that rocked the school’s campus in 2024. The “Gaza solidarity encampment,” a collection of tents unlawfully occupying campus grounds, demanded Columbia officials divest from Israel, and many protesters were accused of harassing Jewish students. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Khalil on March 8 and eventually transferred him to a detention center in Jena, Louisiana, where he has remained as the administration fights to deport him out of the country. Democrats and immigration advocates have vehemently contested his arrest and attempted removal. Moshen Mahdawi, Columbia University student Moshen Mahdawi was arrested by ICE agents in Vermont in April. Born and raised in the West Bank, Mahdawi relocated to the U.S. in 2014 and eventually obtained permanent status, according to his attorneys. A friend of Khalil’s, Mahdawi also became a significant leader in anti-Israel student protests that swept Columbia University in 2024. Badar Khan Suri, Georgetown University Student and researcher Badar Khan Suri was arrested by immigration authorities in March in Arlington, Virginia, not far from Washington, D.C. where his school is located. Originally from India, Khan entered the U.S. on a student visa and lived in the area with his Palestinian wife. DHS officials accuse Khan of spreading Hamas propaganda and having connections to the terrorist group. “Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” a DHS spokesperson stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation at the time. “Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.” Alireza Doroudi, a University of Alabama doctoral student from Iran, Alireza Doroudi was apprehended by ICE agents in March, the Crimson White, the school’s newspaper reported at the time. Like the other students engaged in anti-Israel activism, DHS officials said Doroudi posed security risks and revoked his student visa. “ICE [Homeland Security Investigations] made this arrest in accordance with the State Department’s revocation of Doroudi’s student visa,” a DHS spokesperson said, according to AL.com. “This individual posed significant national security concerns.” Rumesya Ozturk, a Turkish national currently attending Tufts University, Rumesya Ozturk was arrested by immigration authorities in March just outside of Boston, DHS confirmed to the DCNF at the time. Like many of the other foreign students arrested before her, Ozturk used her time on campus to serve as an anti-Israel activist and was profiled by a watchdog that tracks anti-Semitism. “A visa is a privilege not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to the DCNF about Ozturk’s arrest. “This is common sense security.” Leqaa Kordia, ICE agents out of Newark, New Jersey, arrested Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, in March for overstaying her expired student visa. “Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was another Columbia Student who actively participated in anti-American, pro-terrorist activities on campus,” DHS said in a social media statement. “Kordia was arrested for immigration violations due to having overstayed her F-1 student visa, which had been terminated on January 26, 2022 for lack of attendance.”

Federal News Network [5/26/2025 12:06 PM, Justin Doubleday, 2346K] reports in a new court declaration, DHS detailed plans to keep three oversight and civil liberties offices open with significantly slimmed down staffs. The Department of Homeland Security says it is planning to keep three oversight and civil liberties offices open, albeit with staffing that amounts to a skeleton crew compared to their previous workforce totals. The new plan, detailed in a May 22 declaration in federal court, would see whittled down staffing at the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, respectively. In the May 22 declaration in the case, Troup Hemenway, principal deputy chief of staff at DHS, said he had been appointed the department’s acting officer for civil rights and civil liberties.

New York Times [5/26/2025 4:17 PM, Annie Correal 153395K] reports they climbed onto the boat on Panama’s Caribbean Coast, around 40 people in all, their belongings stuffed in garbage bags and their children clinging tight to them for the arduous trip ahead. They were not defying the U.S. government by moving toward the border. They were heading back to Venezuela — doing exactly what American officials want them to do — even though it meant facing threats of robbery, kidnapping and a dangerous crossing once again. “It’s a broken dream,” said Junior Sulbarán, who, like the others, had fled Venezuela the year before, carrying his infant daughter thousands of miles north and through the treacherous jungle pass known as the Darién Gap. He and his family arrived in Mexico City before President Trump’s second term, and soon heard the administration’s message. “If you are considering entering America illegally, don’t even think about it,” Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, said in a White House video posted in February. “If you come to our country and you break our laws, we will hunt you down.” There is no clear figure for how many people have decided to leave the United States or given up on reaching it, and migration at the southern border had dropped sharply even before Mr. Trump took office for a second time. But in one indication that some migrants are starting to return to South America, more than 10,000 people — virtually all from Venezuela — have taken boats from Panama to Colombia since January, according to Panamanian officials, who say that more are setting out each week.

Univision [5/26/2025 10:14 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports that, tired of living in fear of an immigration raid, a Colombian immigrant decided to ‘self-deport’ using the CBP Home application. President Donald Trump’s administration offered him a return flight to his native country and a $1,000 incentive. However, the Hispanic claims that the money has not arrived. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Axios [5/25/2025 9:57 AM, Avery Lotz, 13599K] reports a federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a gay Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico despite him saying he had faced violence there. The order to facilitate the return of yet another deportee in a case with similarities to that of Kilmar Armando Ábrego García’s battle for release marks an escalation in pressure on the Department of Homeland Security amid its high-speed deportation push. The deportee, identified in court filings by the initials O.C.G., was granted withholding from removal status by an immigration judge in February. The status barred deportation to his home country of Guatemala, the complaint stated. Around two days later, per the complaint, he was placed on a bus to Mexico, where he had allegedly previously been raped and held hostage. When he arrived, he was given a choice between going to another facility in Mexico to wait to apply for asylum or being taken to Guatemala. O.C.G. chose to return to Guatemala, where he has since been living in hiding, the complaint said. The government previously said O.C.G. had stated he was not afraid to return to Mexico, despite the violence he had experienced, but it later admitted an "error" had been made in the proceedings.

The Hill [5/26/2025 6:00 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 18649K] reports the Trump administration is facing high stakes as it brings charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) — a test of the administration as it eyes additional prosecutions against other lawmakers. The case is the first brought against a sitting lawmaker under the Trump administration, one Democrats argue amounts to an effort to intimidate the political opposition. Alina Habba, a former personal attorney to President Trump now serving as interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, has accused McIver of assaulting law enforcement with her forearms during a chaotic clash that ensued after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers began to arrest Newark, N.J., Mayor Ras Baraka (D). Habba has since pushed to meet with two other New Jersey Democrats present that day — Reps. Rob Menendez and Bonnie Watson Coleman — raising questions over whether additional charges may be coming. The rising tensions over the case complicate efforts to present it as a straightforward assault charge. Menendez said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has yet to release all body camera footage from the incident, something he said would raise further questions about “how Bonnie and LaMonica were treated that day.” But he also noted McIver wasn’t even referenced in the DHS’s initial press release on the matter.

New York Times [5/26/2025 11:13 PM, Mattathias Schwartz, 138952K] reports a federal judge expressed frustration on Monday night with the government’s failure to give due process to a group of deportees the administration is trying to send to South Sudan but is now holding in Djibouti, as he had mandated last week. “It turns out that having immigration proceedings on another continent is harder and more logistically cumbersome than defendants anticipated,” the judge, Brian E. Murphy of Federal District Court in Massachusetts, wrote in his 17-page order. He added that if giving deportees remote proceedings proved too difficult, the government could still return the men to the United States. Judge Murphy’s earlier order, issued on Wednesday, mandated that six of the eight men be given a “reasonable fear interview,” or a chance to express fear of persecution or torture if they were sent on to South Sudan. At a hearing that day, he found that the government had violated another order that the deportees be given notice in a language they could understand, and at least 15 days to challenge their removal. Instead, the judge found they were given “fewer than 16 hours’ notice.” On Monday night, Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the migrants in the case, confirmed that her team had not been given phone access to them. The Homeland Security Department’s public affairs office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The substance of Judge Murphy’s order was not surprising, as he rejected a motion from the government that he pause one of his earlier orders. But his criticism of the government’s delay in offering due process appeared to reflect his growing frustration in another contentious case in the back-and-forth between the Trump administration and federal courts. The day after Judge Murphy ordered that the migrants remain in U.S. custody, the White House called them “monsters” and the judge “a far-left activist.” Then, on Friday night, Judge Murphy ordered the government to “facilitate” the return from Guatemala of a man known as O.C.G., one of the original plaintiffs in the case. “The Judges are absolutely out of control,” President Trump wrote on Thursday in a social media post criticizing Judge Murphy. “This must change, IMMEDIATELY!” The case before Judge Murphy is a class-action lawsuit that considers the due process rights of not only the men in Djibouti but also any migrants eligible for deportation whom the Homeland Security Department is trying to send to a so-called third country other than their country of origin.

Breitbart [5/25/2025 12:28 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio says a federal judge’s court order blocking the Trump administration from deporting illegal aliens to South Sudan will cause "significant and irreparable harm to United States foreign policy.” Rubio’s comments came in a late-night filing to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts after Judge Brian Murphy, appointed by former President Joe Biden, ruled this week that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) violated a prior preliminary injunction by deporting eight illegal aliens, all violent convicts, to South Sudan. The Trump administration had deported the illegal aliens, some of whom have been convicted of murder, rape, and child sex crimes, to South Sudan after their native countries refused to take them back. Rubio, in his filing to the court, argues that Murphy’s order has already disrupted U.S. diplomacy with South Sudan, Libya, and Djibouti, threatening the president’s Article II authority to conduct foreign policy. "This Department of Justice believes that this situation urgently requires judicial intervention to restore President Trump’s full Article II authority to conduct foreign policy," a DOJ official told Breitbart News. In a separate filing, Trump’s DOJ is asking for Murphy’s order to be stayed pending appeal, arguing that "federal courts have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner.” "Because cooperation with other nations is required to transport and distribute international humanitarian aid, it is almost certain the Court’s interjection will result in delayed or reduced humanitarian efforts across the region in a time of severe humanitarian crisis," the DOJ filing states. "Furthermore, the Court’s Orders impermissibly disrupt the President’s ability to faithfully execute the nation’s immigration laws," the filing continues.

NewsNation [5/25/2025 9:58 PM, Jorge Ventura, 5801K] reports the Trump administration is escalating a high-stakes standoff with a federal judge over eight migrants deported to South Sudan, despite multiple court orders attempting to stop their removal. The Department of Homeland Security deported eight criminals in the United States illegally on a plane bound for South Sudan last week. The men hail from various countries, including Myanmar, Vietnam, Cuba, Laos, and Mexico. Only one is from South Sudan. However, after takeoff, Judge Brian Murphy ruled the deportations were rushed and that the men needed more time to argue their case. Judge Murphy ordered that the criminals remain in U.S. custody. "We conducted a deportation flight from Texas. To remove some of the most barbaric, violent individuals illegally in the United States. No country on Earth wanted to accept them because their crimes are so uniquely monstrous and barbaric," Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS, said this week. The Trump-backed Department of Justice is now asking the judge to reverse that decision. The Justice Department argues federal courts cannot direct the conduct of foreign policy, and the ruling is impeding the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. Judge Murphy has yet to rule on the DOJ’s latest request, but during earlier hearings, the judge said that the Trump administration unquestionably violated his court order. Whether that leads to contempt charges remains to be seen.

New York Times [5/26/2025 3:46 PM, Mattathias Schwartz, Abdi Latif Dahir and Amanda Taub, 153395K] reports the Trump administration is trying to deport a group of eight migrants to South Sudan, a country on the brink of civil war. The men, who are from countries including Vietnam, Cuba and Mexico, are currently believed to be held at an American military base in the East African nation of Djibouti, after a federal judge ordered the administration not to turn them over to the government of South Sudan. U.S. immigration law does, under some circumstances, allow people to be sent to countries that are not their own. But this has been rare under past administrations. The Trump administration is attempting to do something more expansive: potentially sending large groups of people to dangerous places like South Sudan, Libya or a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, with little or no due process, even if their countries of origin are willing to take them back. “The trifecta of being sent to a third country, plus the intended scale, plus the punishment-is-the-point approach — those three things in combination, that feels very new,” said Sarah R. Sherman-Stokes, a professor at Boston University School of Law. The administration’s ultimate goal, experts say, may be to shape the behavior of other immigrants through fear. Deportation to war-torn countries, said Muneer Ahmad, a professor at Yale Law School, is a “concerted strategy” intended “to both disincentivize people from coming to the United States and to incentivize self-deportation.”

New York Post [5/25/2025 3:42 PM, David Propper, 49956K] reports a Georgia cop who arrested a college student during a bad traffic stop that ended up paving the way for her potential deportation has resigned from his post. Dalton Police Officer Leslie O’Neal stepped down Friday, two weeks after authorities said he mistakenly took into custody Ximena Arias-Cristobal, who is in the country illegally, after believing she made an illegal turn May 5. During the traffic stop, O’Neal also found that Arias-Cristobal, 19, didn’t have a valid driver’s license and cuffed her. She was eventually determined to be in the US illegally and held on immigration raps. But the driving charges against her were dropped when dashcam footage showed O’Neal had mistakenly pulled her over because she was in a pickup truck similar to the vehicle he was looking for. In O’Neal’s resignation letter, viewed by 11 Alive News, the cop said he was leaving the department because of its "inadequate response to and defense against public accusations of false arrest, which arose after a charge from a valid arrest was publicly dropped without explanation.” He also argued he can’t carry out his duties going forward in Dalton because of the backlash and lack of support from the department, according to the station. "We can confirm that Officer O’Neal did resign from the DPD on Friday," a rep for Dalton told the station. "He was the arresting officer in Ms. Arias-Cristobal’s case.” The traffic stop led to national attention when Arias-Cristobal was transferred from a county jail to federal custody after immigration authorities discovered she was in the country illegally. She was held at Stewart Detention Center for about two weeks before a judge cut her loose on bond Thursday night, according to reports.

Univision [5/25/2025 7:39 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports a judge refused to block the deportation of a pregnant Salvadoran immigrant who had sued Donald Trump’s government on behalf of a son with autism, American citizen, and her unborn baby. Carmen Graciela Guerrero Sandoval, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, had filed a petition to stop her deportation to El Salvador, scheduled for June 3. However, Judge Edmund Sargus of the Southern District of Ohio said his court cannot intervene. This case involves a number of recurring and sad facts. A 9-year-old boy born in the United States is a U.S. citizen under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The mother is not and can face deportation," reads the document signed by the judge on May 22. ‘While the facts surrounding Ms. Guerrero Sandoval’s potential deportation are unclear at this point, the situation certainly causes stress and potential harm to her family. But the federal and previous law of the Sixth Circuit are clear that this court cannot issue an order blocking the potential deportation based on the rights wielded here," he adds. According to court documents, Guerrero Sandoval was denied an asylum application and is on the appeal to the relevant immigration court. There were no further details on that process. The mother argued in her lawsuit that she is her son’s main financial supporter, identified in the claim as CBD. The lawsuit also stated, among other things, that for CBD the deportation of Guerrero Sandoval would be a cruel and unusual punishment that will deprive him of his mother’s love, affection, care and financial support. The nine-year-old was diagnosed with autism and has been deemed eligible for special education services at a school in Columbus. "There are no similar special education facilities in El Salvador," reads Guerrero Sandoval’s lawsuit on behalf of his children. However, the judge found that the plaintiffs’ claims were unlikely to be successfully sustained. "As the lawsuit acknowledges, the plaintiffs are aware of the main obstacle to potential relief: under the precedent of the Sixth Circuit and federal laws, this court cannot grant a brake or injunction blocking Guerrero Sandoval’s removal order (...) It is highly unlikely that the plaintiffs will be able to win in their claims," the judge wrote.

Washington Examiner [5/26/2025 10:46 PM, Annabella Rosciglione, 1934K] reports Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) said he was denied access in El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the suspected MS-13 gang member mistakenly deported by the Trump administration. Ivey, who represents the congressional district in which Abrego Garcia lived, said he contacted a Salvadoran ambassador to make a request to their government before his trip. Despite that outreach, he added, he was denied access to the prison where Abrego Garcia is being held. "They knew we were coming, they knew why we were coming, and they know we have the right to do this," Ivey said in a video posted on X on Monday. "So, they need to just cut the crap, let us get in there and have a chance to see him and talk with him.” Ivey noted he was told to travel to San Salvador to obtain a permit before he could visit Abrego Garcia. He appeared in the video alongside Abrego Garcia’s attorney and a member of CASA, the Maryland-based union he was part of. Ivey’s visit comes after Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) traveled to El Salvador in April to visit Abrego Garcia at CECOT, the country’s notorious mega-prison where he has remained in custody. Van Hollen was denied visitation access at first, but was later allowed to meet him. In court filings, the Trump administration said Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported due to an "administrative error." Federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court have ordered the Trump administration to "facilitate" his return to the U.S., but it has not done so. The administration invoked the state secrets privilege in order to withhold information from Abrego Garcia’s attorneys and a federal judge in Maryland. In response, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys accused the Trump administration of delaying the court’s orders to facilitate his return. In April, Ivey said, "At this point, I’m just assuming that [the Trump administration is] scared to bring him back because they’ll have to go to court and explain all of the false statements that they’ve apparently made about him.” Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland for 14 years after entering the U.S. around 2011 without authorization. His attorneys argue he "is not a member of or has no affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang" and said that the U.S. government "has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation.” A judge ruled that in 2019, Abrego Garcia could be deported, but not to El Salvador, as he faced a legitimate threat of violence due to gang activity in his native country.

Reported similarly:
AP [5/24/2025 4:19 AM, Staff, 48304K]
Telemundo [5/26/2025 11:14 PM, Staff, 3352K]

Univision [5/25/2025 2:24 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports Donald Trump’s government has until Wednesday to inform a Boston judge what it has done to facilitate the return to the United States of a Guatemalan immigrant deported to Mexico, even though he had expressed fear of being sent to that country because in the past he was outraged and extorted there. It is a case that recalls the "mishandling" expulsion of Kilmar Ábrego García to the prison for terrorists of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. And where we’re looking into court documents to learn more about what happened. The Guatemalan immigrant, identified as O.C.G., is one of four plaintiffs in a claim against the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice (DOJ). In the lawsuit, he said he was taken to a bus in Arizona along with 20 other men and deported to Mexico, not knowing that he was heading to that country and despite the fact that his deportation to Guatemala, his country of origin, had been suspended because an immigration judge determined that he could be persecuted there because of his sexual orientation. He was expelled to Mexico despite the fact that he had also reported that in that country he had been kidnapped and raped. The immigration judge told O.C.G. that he could not be removed to another country other than his native Guatemala, at least not without additional steps in the process. Those necessary steps and O.C.G.’s request for help were ignored. As a result, O.C.G. was handed over to Mexico, which sent him to Guatemala, where he hides to this day," Judge Brian Murhpy wrote on May 23 in a document in which he asked the government to facilitate his return to the United States. Murphy said it is the second time O.C.G. defense has called for his return to the United States. The first occasion did not order his return because the government filed an affidavit claiming O.C.G. had said it was not afraid to be expelled to Mexico.

New York Times [5/27/2025 5:01 AM, Annie Correal, 153395K] reports for Yessica Rojas, the choice was clear. After less than two years in Missouri, she and her two children had to leave. The reason, she said, were stories about Venezuelan mothers like her that had gone viral on social media. Ms. Rojas heard they had been deported to Venezuela while the American authorities held on to their children. “It just isn’t worth it now,” said Ms. Rojas, 29, explaining her decision to leave the United States. The stories are not just rumors: This year, a Venezuelan 2-year-old called Antonella by her family remained in foster care while her mother was sent back to Venezuela and her father to a prison in El Salvador. (Antonella has since been returned to her family.) Ms. Rojas left Branson, Mo., the same week. Episodes like this one have sent shock waves through immigrant communities, accomplishing what the Trump administration’s warnings — and even the promise of $1,000 for those willing to “self-deport” — alone could not do: They have persuaded at least some migrant parents to leave the United States. It is not clear how many people have abandoned their American lives since President Trump began his second term. A recent flight carried around 65 people who opted to leave for Colombia and Honduras, according to the Trump administration, and individual stories of immigrants leaving voluntarily have emerged across the country. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement last week, “It’s an easy choice: Leave voluntarily and receive a $1,000 check or stay and wait till you are fined $1,000 day, arrested and deported without the possibility to return.” She added: “We encourage all parents, who are here illegally, to take control of their departure through the CBP Home app.” Over the next few weeks, Ms. Rojas and her children took buses to Texas and to the U.S. border, where two years before they spent five days in a detention center, sleeping under crinkly aluminum blankets and eating frozen burritos that made Yessiel, then still a baby, sick. Then they traveled farther south, finally boarding a boat in Panama for an eight-hour trip along the Caribbean Coast to the edge of the fearsome jungle they had once trekked through on their way north: the Darién Gap. Along the way, they met other families like theirs: with single mothers who had left the United States, terrified of being separated from their children. These mothers, too, were Venezuelan; many had fled their crisis-torn country years before and given birth to sons and daughters in other countries. This added to their fear that if they were to be deported from the United States, their children would be held by the immigration authorities or sent elsewhere. Last week, Ms. Rojas finally arrived in Venezuela. In a phone call, she said she was grateful to have made it safely back to the city of Mérida, even if food prices were high and the journey home had cost her everything she had saved: more than $2,000. She feared she had little to show for all her struggles. But she had her son and her daughter.

Daily Wire [5/27/2025 12:00 AM, Spencer Lindquist, 3816K] reports the Trump administration has tapped the Treasury Department to track down and halt the flow of money to foreign drug cartels. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender says the federal agency is choking off the cash flow that powers cartels’ human and drug smuggling operations by designating them as terrorists, he explained to The Daily Wire. "One of the most important things that the president did upon coming into office was to declare a number of the narco groups terrorist organizations," Faulkender told The Daily Wire. "What that does is it unleashes additional authorities at Treasury for us to better target some of the financial activities that these cartels are engaging in.” Faulkender told The Daily Wire that the agency’s moves are cutting into the cartels’ flow of money, disincentivizing their human smuggling and drug-running operations. "It’s one thing to have our partners at [the Department of Homeland Security] work on stopping the flow of people and drugs, but we can also use our financial tools to go after the money," the Treasury official explained. "If the money is not flowing back south, then there’s less of an incentive to bring the drugs and the guns and some of the illicit activity up to the north.” "Since the president took office, we’ve engaged in five different actions going after nine different entities for a total of 16 individuals," he noted. The Treasury Department unveiled sanctions on "two high-ranking members of the Mexico-based Cartel del Noreste," a foreign terrorist organization formerly known as Los Zetas. Cartel del Noreste "and its leaders have carried out a violent campaign of intimidation, kidnapping, and terrorism, threatening communities on both sides of our southern border," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent charged. "We will continue to cut off the cartels’ ability to obtain the drugs, money, and guns that enable their violent activities.” That move follows the Treasury Department’s March announcement that it was imposing sanctions on six individuals and seven organizations believed to be laundering money for the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the world’s most notorious criminal organizations and a federally-designated foreign terror organization. "We leveled sanctions against six individuals and seven entities involved in a money laundering operation, cutting off financing for these evil people," Bessent said at the time. "Laundered drug money is the lifeblood of the Sinaloa Cartel’s narco-terrorist enterprise, only made possible through trusted financial facilitators like those we have designated today.”

The Hill [5/25/2025 4:00 PM, Jonathan Zimmerman, 18649K] reports I am Jewish, and I am afraid. On Wednesday night, two young staffers at the Israeli embassy were killed outside of a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. by a man who chanted, "Free, free Palestine!" afterward. That comes on the heels of attacks on Israeli embassies and consulates in Mexico, Serbia, Denmark and Germany. It’s part of a worldwide uptick in antisemitic violence since the Hamas assault on Israel in October 2023. But I’m also afraid of censorship, which is the enemy of democracy in all times and places. On our college campuses, especially, free expression is under fire from the White House and its spineless accomplices in university leadership. And I fear that these horrific murders in Washington will make it yet more difficult for any of us to speak our minds. Witness recent events at George Washington University and New York University, where graduation speakers were penalized for criticizing Israel’s mass killings in Gaza. The offending orator at George Washington was banned from campus. NYU withheld its speaker’s diploma. Ostensibly, the two students were sanctioned for departing from their pre-approved speeches. But everyone knows the real reason: Our universities are cowering before the Trump administration, which has already withheld millions of federal dollars from Columbia and Harvard for allegedly failing to fight antisemitism in their ranks. And last week, the administration barred Harvard from enrolling international students on the grounds that it had allowed "anti-American, pro-terrorist" foreigners to "harass and physically assault" other people on campus, as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem charged. Let’s be clear: harassment and assault are illegal. So are all forms of physical violence. Anyone who engages in those acts — on our campuses, or outside of them — should be held criminally responsible. But it is not illegal, in a democracy, to shout "Free Palestine" or "Globalize the Intifada." I understand why critics regard those chants as hateful; depending on the context, I might find these words hateful myself. Yet words are not violence. And once we lose sight of that distinction, free speech will become a dead letter. You can censor anything you don’t like, on the grounds that it promotes violent behavior.

The Hill [5/25/2025 1:00 PM, Lok Darjee, 18649K] reports I arrived in America on Feb. 9, 2011, with just one carry-on bag containing everything to my name: middle school certificates, some clothes and one white bag bearing the International Organization for Migration logo, holding a big badge with my name and our destination: Twin Falls, Idaho. My one-and-a-half-year-old nephew screamed from hunger. My sister-in-law, drained from days of travel and weakened by her own hunger, tried to breastfeed him as we waited for hours at JFK International Airport. We had no money and no guide. And I, then just a teenager, was the only one who could speak even a few words of English. Two days later, after a 10-hour delay in Detroit, we finally landed in Idaho. There was no press conference. No welcome speech. No camera crew. Just one driver from the local refugee center and a Nepali interpreter who took us to a run-down two-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of town. Our new home was in a complex full of people like us — Black, Middle Eastern and other non-white families whose stories no one had ever asked to hear. That’s what most refugee arrivals in America look like: quiet, tense, invisible. You’re met not with celebration but with suspicion — from airport security, border officials, even bystanders. Staff roll their eyes when you ask where to go, what time your flight boards, or which gate to use. Strangers glare at you for your accent, your United Nations badge and the smell of exhaustion on your clothes. There is no dignity — just the constant fear of doing something wrong, of being reminded that you don’t belong. I remember my mother crying softly in a corner, whispering to me: "Let’s go back to the refugee camp, we at least had dignity in camp.” On Jan. 20, the Trump administration effectively halted refugee admissions. But on May 8, it was announced that refugee status has been granted to 54 White Afrikaners. On May 12, the same day the Afrikaners arrived in the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the termination of temporary protected status for Afghanistan, stripping protections from more than 9,000 Afghans who had risked their lives working alongside U.S. forces. It wasn’t a refugee arrival. It was a spectacle — a carefully staged, Hollywood-style production of resettlement. Meanwhile, thousands of other refugees, mostly from the Global South, whose cases had been approved after years of rigorous vetting, have been quietly denied entry or had their resettlement canceled, leaving them in danger and legal limbo. Congress must demand answers from the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. On what grounds were white Afrikaners granted expedited status while thousands of others, many with proven claims of persecution, wait in limbo or are deported?

Detroit Free Press [5/26/2025 6:02 AM, Amir Makled, 4241K] reports that if you think you see a train coming down the tracks, it’s best to assume it’s a train. And right now, President Donald Trump and his inner circle are charging full speed toward stripping Americans their most basic constitutional rights – with working people, immigrants and communities of color tied to the rails. Multiple media outlets recently reported that President Donald Trump’s Senior Advisor Stephen Miller has suggested the administration is "actively looking at" suspending habeas corpus – a constitutional right dating back to the Magna Carta of 1215, designed to prevent unlawful detention. Miller’s statement is not a political trial balloon. It is a direct threat to every community and person that has historically borne the brunt of unchecked state power; and now many millions more are at risk. Just recently, Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, while testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was asked by Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, to define habeas corpus, saying – incorrectly – "habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country." Under Trump’s watch, ICE has detained people with legal status for nothing more than criticizing presidential policies and proposals. We’ve seen legal residents arrested at courthouses, workplaces, and even outside schools. Ask yourself: what happens if there’s no court to turn to? No right to challenge your detention? That’s not democracy. That’s dictatorship.

Washington Examiner [5/27/2025 12:01 AM, Staff, 1934K] reports the vital importance of President Donald Trump’s strategy to confront Mexican drug cartels was bloodily underlined this week after two separate incidents, barely 24 hours apart, showed that Mexico is a nation in crisis, and that the drug cartels hold the strategic initiative. As a nation, we must do more to stop Americans who buy the drugs that fuel the bloody misery in Mexico, but we also must escalate against the cartels responsible for the misery they inflict on both sides of the border. Fortunately, the Trump administration has abandoned the American tolerance of the past. Last week, the State Department revoked the visas of numerous high-level Mexican officials who were complicit in the drug trade. The Washington Examiner understands that these actions were predicated on U.S. intelligence showing close links between numerous members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena Party and the powerful Sinaloa cartel. These links extend directly to former Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The horror out of Mexico this week only underscored the urgency of Trump’s action. First, a group of youths were murdered early on Monday morning following an event organized by the Catholic Church. As they celebrated in the small town of San Bartolo de Berrios, seven innocent souls were shot by a gang of gunmen. Taunting graffiti messages left at the scene indicated that the relatively small Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, which is engaged in a provincial turf war with the Jalisco New Generation cartel, was responsible for the attack. Next, in an even more dramatic signal of perceived impunity on Tuesday, a private secretary and top adviser to Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada was shot dead in the Mexican capital. As Ximena Guzman stopped to pick up Jose Munoz at his home, CCTV shows a man walking by Guzman’s car and, after identifying his targets, raising a hidden handgun and shooting both individuals before escaping. While Mexican authorities are currently denying that there is any link between the assassinations and drug cartels, the involvement of the CJNG must be considered. The cartel has targeted top security officials in Mexico City in brazen assassination attempts. And it is a fact that the CJNG resents the close relationship between the Morena Party, of which Brugada is also a member, and the Sinaloa cartel. It’s time for the Trump administration to escalate its existing covert action against the cartels. It should do so with or without Sheinbaum’s approval, even if it causes near-term controversy. Because of its dominance of the fentanyl smuggling trade and expansive territorial control along the U.S. southern border, the Sinaloa cartel must be a priority focus for more aggressive American action. We’re not talking about any old organized crime group here. On the contrary, the Sinaloa cartel is so powerful that it has co-opted the United States’s NATO ally, Albania, as a partner for money laundering and drug trafficking in Europe. There is evidence to suggest that Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama is directly involved in this conspiracy.

Bloomberg [5/26/2025 8:00 AM, Juan Pablo Spinetto, 19320K] reports even in a country as accustomed to violence as Mexico, some vicious acts can still shake up society. The assassination of two of Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada’s close aides last week was one of them. The shocking murders during the morning commute on one of the city’s busiest avenues were designed for maximum political impact. The authorities have been careful not to air any conjectures about who was responsible. But the attack makes very clear that Claudia Sheinbaum doesn’t have much room to continue soft-pedalling Mexico’s security challenge. Mexico’s first female president has made inroads in the fight against narco violence since her October inauguration. Her decision to empower her Secretary of Security Omar García Harfuch — the city’s former police chief who was himself the target of an unsuccessful assassination attempt in 2020 — to take on organized crime has had some good results: The average of daily intentional homicides declined about 25% according to official figures; several high-profile operatives have been arrested or killed; some big-ticket fentanyl seizures have occurred. In February, the government transferred 29 drug capos to the US for prosecution. Polls show growing public approval of Sheinbaum’s security policies. Yet that’s not enough. The government has focused on trying to administer the problem and reverse the negative trend of recent years — instead of tackling the insecurity threat head-on with a comprehensive plan to truly change Mexico’s state of lawlessness. It’s understandable: Sheinbaum’s predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s labelled his containment strategy “hugs, not bullets” in an explicit call to avoid repression, an ethos of his administration. You could say it was naïve or even cynical, but by disregarding a problem he didn’t think he could solve, López Obrador navigated his six years in power relatively unscathed. The memories of President Felipe Calderon’s disastrous war on drugs, when the Mexican state deployed the army to wage a full-on fight against narcos, were still fresh. Unfortunately for Sheinbaum, the extent of criminal penetration in the country is such that she doesn’t have the luxury of pursuing an incremental approach. Forced by continuous political violence, US government pressure and growing popular demand, Sheinbaum must own the insecurity problem that López Obrador left unresolved. In fact, the cowardly assassinations of Ximena Guzmán and José Muñoz, even if the result of just local underworld disputes, show that you can’t take on organized crime without paying some political costs for the unavoidable backlash.

CBS’ Face The Nation [5/25/2025 10:58 AM, Staff, 2664K] reports Jack McCain is the son of Cindy and the late Senator John McCain. He’s a Navy veteran who served in the Afghanistan War. When he was in Afghanistan, he flew alongside and helped to train some of the Afghan Black Hawk pilots. Why is it important to him now to speak out on their behalf? Are any of his personal contacts there at risk? "Yes. Basically everyone that we were unable to get out is at risk. These pilots and crew members fought the Taliban toe to toe. And because of that, the Taliban is trying to seek them out for reprisal. Something that they distinctly promised that they would not do. So, not only are they – are they in danger, but we owe them a debt. I believe that I’m vertical and still on this earth because of the efforts of my Afghan pilots and crews. And not only do I owe them personally, but the nation owes them a debt of honor. One that we have yet to repay. Everyone, interpreters, ground troops, pilots, that worked and fought alongside the United States at our behest should be able to be evacuated here to the United States and should be taken care of." McCain states. McCain was on active duty at the time of the very chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. He helped to get Afghans out during that period of time. There were a lot of Afghans airlifted out. Who was left behind and – and what promises were made? "the problem is everyone was left behind. Whether it was family members, including family members of U.S. servicemen, whether it was pilots, crews, the people that I worked with, special forces, we did everything we could to get as many as we could out. But due to the chaos of the withdrawal and, frankly, the lack of planning on the part of the United States government, it was up to individuals and sometimes smaller military units to help either, in my case I had to triage who we were going to take out. I had to prioritize operational pilots over pilots in training versus crew members in the back simply because everyone was trying to do everything they could. So, we have tens of thousands that fought alongside us left behind. Each one of them in danger in their own way. Not to mention family members that can be used as tools of leverage against those that are even here in the United States now." McCain comments.

CBS’ Face The Nation [5/25/2025 10:58 AM, Staff, 2664K] reports Congressman Jim Himes did not vote for the massive bill making its way through congress. Connecticut has one of the highest state and local tax burdens in the country. Does Congressman Himes at least like that one little portion of this bill? "That one little portion is going to be good for my constituents. It was like listening to "1984" or something listening to the speaker. You know, anybody can look this up. The American people want basically three things out of their federal budget. Number one, at this point in time, when Americans – the wealthiest Americans, are doing better than ever before, Americans want the wealthiest of the – of Americans to pay more taxes and to give tax relief to the middle class and below. Number two, they want us to address the deficit, which is now spiraling out of control, to the point where we got a downgrade in one of the U.S. credit ratings. And, third, they want a simpler tax code. This bill fails spectacularly on all three counts. They’re cutting Medicaid and nutritional assistance, food stamps, to tens of millions of Americans in order to preserve tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. They’re adding $3 trillion to the deficit with this bill. And, lastly, they’re gumming up the tax code with, you don’t have to pay taxes on tips. Now, what about the folks who don’t earn tips, you know, auto lending? I mean, again, on the three things that Americans care most about, that they want the Congress to do, this bill fails spectacularly. Look, and that’s going to show up in the polling pretty soon, as Americans come to realize what it is that the House of Representatives just did." Himes states. When it comes to what the president has vowed to do to Russia, he floated this idea two weeks ago of possible sanctions if Russia doesn’t stop its war in Ukraine. But then he spoke to Vladimir Putin on Monday, and we heard nothing about sanctions. We did hear from the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency that this war is trending in favor of Russia. What changes need to be made, if anything, to how the U.S. provides support? "We’re at a fork in the road with respect to the Russia-Ukraine war. And, you know, Donald Trump and his acolytes in the Congress will go along with one of these two choices. Either we will continue the trajectory that started when the president and the vice president humiliated Vladimir – humiliated President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and paused aid, and Vladimir Putin will learn from that experience that he can count on the U.S. to support his murderous incursions into neighboring countries. Or we can take another path, which I hope the president will take, which is to say, what we need to do right now is generate maximum leverage against Vladimir Putin, and I see the president getting a little frustrated by him." Himes comments.

FOX News Sunday [5/25/2025 10:58 AM, Staff, 2664K] reports U.S. ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker discusses President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war and more on ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’

FOX News [5/27/2025 3:45 AM, Landon Mion and Brooke Taylor, 10702K] reports Federal immigration authorities arrested multiple migrants in various cities across the U.S. over Memorial Day weekend, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The arrests happened on Saturday, when they were taken into custody by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers based in Boston, Denver, Houston, Newark, New York City, Salt Lake City and San Francisco, according to ICE. Kevin Estuarde Hernandez, 18, of Guatemala, was arrested by ERO Boston along with other federal agencies. Hernandez was in the U.S. without admission or parole. He is a suspected 18th Street gang member who local police in Everett, Massachusetts, say was involved in a shooting between 18th Street and MS-13 gangs. ERO Denver arrested Jose Antonio Deras, 45, of El Salvador. Deras, who is in the U.S. illegally and was denied temporary protected status in 2008, was ordered removed by a judge in 2009. Misael Delgado-Carlos, 35, of Mexico, was arrested by ERO Houston. She was previously removed from the U.S. before reentering illegally. Eduardo Sanchez-Hernandez, 32, of Mexico, was arrested by Newark ERO with help from Homeland Security Investigations Newark. ERO New York City arrested Litzy Janel Saavedra, 26, of Mexico, who was served a Notice to Appear. Saavedra, who is in the U.S. illegally, has a criminal history that includes a 2022 conviction for third-degree felony rape in Yonkers, New York. Jose Barrios-Bello, 35, of Mexico, was arrested by ERO Salt Lake City after he was previously removed from the U.S. and reentered illegally. Carlos Torres Valdovinos, 46, of Mexico, was arrested by ERO San Francisco. He entered the U.S. illegally and has a criminal history that includes a felony conviction for oral copulation of a child in Stanislaus County, California. Torres Valdovinos was removed to Mexico on Sunday, ICE said. The others will remain in custody pending removal proceedings.

Telemundo [5/26/2025 9:01 PM, Pilar Niño, 57K] reports ICE agents have been arriving at immigration courts, in plain clothes, across the country, including in San Francisco and Concord. "The surprise in the hallway was a person, when he says to me, ‘what’s your name, what’s your name, who are you,’ he pulls out his ICE police badge," recalled Sergio Lopez, spokesman for the Contra Costa Immigrants Rights Alliance. Attorneys and community organizations now agree that this is a strategy for when immigrants’ cases are dismissed. "By allowing the case to be dismissed, and once that happens, the immigrant is left without any legal remedy and may be exposed to immediate deportation," explained Angel Rodriguez, an immigration attorney. In this day and age, people who are less than two years old are the most vulnerable to deportation and therefore prosecutors are using the strategy of dismissing cases so that they are left without legal remedy and can be deported immediately. The California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice explained in a statement that: "ICE attorneys inside the courthouse are coordinating with ICE agents waiting outside asking immigration judges to dismiss people’s cases. In order to dismiss the cases, the judges must agree to it and according to this Coalition of Bay Area Organizations here they have not been very successful with that. The statement from the collaborative goes on to say that as of last Friday they had not been successful in the Bay Area courts, and there was only one arrest in the Concord court, however, because of this and other actions, the fear of keeping court dates has been spreading. Community organizations urged people not to drop their cases and follow due process so we asked who should not be concerned about this. "People who have immigration counsel who may use other strategies to avoid going to court physically, people who have more than 2 years fighting an immigration case, those would be the main ones," Rodriguez explained. Remember that you can ask to attend your appointment virtually and you should consult with an attorney before you skip it. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Fall River Reporter [5/26/2025 9:52 AM, Ken Paiva] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in collaboration with Europol, the Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement Team, and various national and international partners, announced the results of Operation RapTOR. This historic takedown, led by Europol, resulted in the highest number of seizures in JCODE’s history. The seizures, to which ICE Homeland Security Investigations significantly contributed, include more than $200 million in currency and digital assets, over two metric tons of drugs, comprised of 144 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and over 180 firearms. In addition, the United States and international law enforcement partners made 270 arrests of dark web vendors, buyers, and administrators in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. Led by Europol’s European Cyber Crime Centre Operation RapTOR united the FBI-led JCODE team — comprised of ICE HSI and law enforcement partners from the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia — to disrupt fentanyl and opioid trafficking, as well as sale of other illicit goods and services on the Darknet. Building on the successes of prior years’ operations, Operation RapTOR furthered global efforts to dismantle darknet marketplaces, resulting in the seizure of darknet infrastructure from Nemesis, Tor2Door, Bohemia, and Kingdom Markets. These actions provided investigators across the globe with invaluable leads and evidence, strengthening the ongoing fight against cybercrime and illicit activities on the darknet. “This record-breaking operation sends a clear message to every trafficker hiding behind a screen — your anonymity ends where our global reach begins,” said ICE acting Director Todd Lyons. “Thanks to the unwavering efforts by ICE HSI, Europol and our international partners, we’re cracking the code of the so-called ‘safe spaces’ for cybercriminals — they are in our sights and we’re not backing down.” The Head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, Edvardas Šileris, commented: “Operation RapTor shows that the dark web is not beyond the reach of law enforcement. Through close cooperation and intelligence sharing, officers across three continents identified and arrested suspects, sending a clear message to those who think they can hide in the shadows. Europol will continue working with our partners to make the internet safer for everyone.”

Boston 25 News [5/26/2025 6:15 PM, Elly Morillo, 1200K] reports the organization MASS 50501 says more protection is needed for immigrants in Massachusetts. The organization rallied outside City Hall on Monday and says immigrant communities are being targeted. The group says the American dream many make their way to the United States for is being threatened by fear. “It’s being done extra judicially, warrants are not being issued for these individuals and so they are being deported without due process, which means it’s possible that anybody could be deported and we wouldn’t know,” said Bryan Winter, a veteran’s representative. Department of Homeland Security officials have emphasized that they are prioritizing the removal of dangerous criminals. In a statement last week, Homeland Security said ICE detained and removed a number of people here in Massachusetts who have criminal records. “Despite sanctuary politicians and activists trying to disrupt ICE operations, our brave law enforcement removed gang members, drug traffickers, and other violent criminals from Massachusetts’ streets,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia Mclaughlin.

NewsMax [5/26/2025 9:23 PM, Michael Katz, 4622K] reports Todd Lyons, acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told Newsmax on Monday that it’s "absolutely crazy" that Democrat mayors of New Jersey sanctuary cities claim they are upholding the Constitution by impeding the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit May 22 against four New Jersey cities — Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark, and Paterson — accusing them of perpetrating a "frontal assault on the federal immigration laws and the federal authorities that administer them." Newark Democrat Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested May 9 for trespassing during a protest at ICE’s Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark — the DOJ dropped the charges — called the lawsuit "absurd," adding "we’re not blocking safety, we are upholding the Constitution. Our policies reduce fear, increase trust, and have helped cut homicides by 61%. That’s not a threat to public safety, that’s what public safety looks like." Lyons told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" that Baraka saying his city is upholding the Constitution is "absolutely crazy." "All we’re asking for is local jurisdictions to cooperate with us on individuals that have already been arrested," he said. "These local police departments have already deemed these criminal aliens to be a public safety threat, so why not turn them over to us instead of letting them roam free in New Jersey? "To me, they’re violating the Constitution by not protecting their citizens from these violent criminal aliens. And that’s exactly what ICE is doing. What all ICE is asking for is cooperation. And not working with us does not make anyone safer." Hoboken Democrat Mayor Ravi Bhalla responded to the lawsuit by stating, "Make no mistake about it — Hoboken will never aid [President] Donald Trump’s inhumane treatment of law-abiding immigrants & residents. We will not back down."

FOX News [5/26/2025 10:21 PM, Greg Wehner, 46878K] reports a Republican lawmaker from Tennessee is calling for a federal investigation into Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s handling of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, adding he will not back down. Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., said in a post on X that with support from the House Judiciary Committee, he is formally requesting all documents and communications from O’Connell’s office pertaining to his alleged protection of illegal immigrants. Specifically, Ogles is requesting documents related to "the amendment of Executive Order 30," which he referred to as "an outrageous directive requiring Nashville employees and first responders to report all communication with federal immigration authorities directly to the mayor." Ogles also said he is requesting any internal discussions or documents concerning ICE enforcement actions in Nashville or Davidson County and all correspondence involving Metro employees and affiliated nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) pertaining to the arrests or detention of criminal illegal aliens within the city or county. "We’ve heard it: the individuals that the mayor is standing with are murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, sexual predators, child traffickers…the list goes on," he said. "Which is why I will always stand on the rule of law and with ICE. And I don’t just stand with ICE; I’ll stand in front of ICE because we the people have had enough. "I choose my community, my state and my family over this type of nonsense, which is why, due to the remarks of Freddie O’Connell and the potential for aiding and abetting illegal immigration, the Homeland Security and the Judiciary Committees will be conducting an investigation into the mayor of Nashville, his conduct and whether or not federal dollars have been used in criminal enterprise," Ogles continued. "I will not back down. I will not relent, and I will always stand with law enforcement. I want my community, and I want my country back." Ogles’ announcement comes 10 days after he sent a letter urging for an investigation into O’Connell, whom the Trump administration has accused of supporting "pro-illegal policies."

New York Times [5/27/2025 4:55 AM, Alex Pena and Emily Cochrane, 138952K] reports word spread quickly through Nashville in early May: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had been spotted alongside state highway patrol officers along the southern roads where much of the city’s Latino population lives. The outcry over the nearly 200 immigration-related arrests was fierce in Nashville, a liberal enclave in an otherwise ruby red state. But even as the city’s Democratic mayor, Freddie O’Connell, condemned what he called the operation’s “deep community harm,” it reflected how most Tennessee leaders have embraced President Trump’s crackdown on immigration. With little official recourse, several Nashville residents and immigration advocacy groups are now acting as unofficial chroniclers of immigration activity. Among them is The ReMIX Tennessee, which set up a hotline for community members to call in and report any sign of immigration enforcement. On social media, they also circulate warnings about where the Tennessee Highway Patrol and ICE agents have been spotted together. State troopers can make routine traffic stops. Immigration officers legally cannot without probable cause or a warrant, but together, it meant traffic stops could end in immigration arrests. “Anyone who’s from Nashville knows those areas are densely immigrant, Hispanic, Latino areas,” said Cathy Carrillo, a co-founder of the organization. She added, “if we weren’t out there documenting everything that they were doing, they would be doing double what they were doing, and they would be treating people worse.” Brian Acuna, an official in ICE’s New Orleans field office, said the operation was focused on “identifying and removing individuals who pose a threat to the safety and security of Tennessee residents.” While some of those detained have not been identified, the agency said that 96 of the 196 arrests had either prior convictions or pending charges. The Tennessee Highway Patrol “categorically rejects any suggestion that our troopers engage in racial profiling or target individuals based on ethnicity, race, or national origin,” Jason Pack, a spokesman for the department said. Troopers were focused on “observed hazardous driving behavior,” conducting 660 traffic stops and 16 arrests between May 3 and May 13. “Each stop was lawful, consistent with department policy, and conducted in accordance with the Constitution,” Mr. Pack said. The agency is now one of more than 600 state and local agencies that have signed a formal agreement with the federal government that allows them to help with immigration enforcement.

United Press International [5/26/2025 12:46 PM, Adam Schrader, 1546K] reports an American citizen born in the United States was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers despite having a REAL ID. He was later released from custody after providing his Social Security number. The incident on Wednesday was first reported by Noticias Telemundo, which obtained video footage of a raid that led to the arrest of 25-year-old Leonardo Garcia Venegas at a job site in Alabama. The video shows ICE officers grabbing Venegas and putting handcuffs on him before someone off-camera yelled that he was a citizen. He told the broadcaster that authorities took his ID from his wallet before handcuffing him and dismissed it as fake. The Department of Homeland Security alleged in a statement to NBC News that Garcia had interfered with an arrest that was being carried out at the job site. "He physically got in between agents and the subject they were attempting to arrest and refused to comply with numerous verbal commands," said Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary. The brief video shared by Noticias Telemundo and Shelah Venegas on social media does not appear to show Leonardo Garcia Venegas getting between two agents as described. "Anyone who actively obstructs law enforcement in the performance of their sworn duties, including U.S. citizens, will of course face consequences which include arrest," McLaughlin said. A spokesperson for the agency told Newsweek that "there was no mistake" made by authorities during the encounter. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [5/26/2025 2:30 AM, Joshua Goodman, 48304K] reports immigration officials said Tomás Hernández worked in high-level posts for Cuba’s foreign intelligence agency for decades before migrating to the United States to pursue the American dream. The 71-year-old was detained by federal agents outside his Miami-area home in March and accused of hiding his ties to Cuba’s Communist Party when he obtained permanent residency. Cuban-Americans in South Florida have long clamored for a firmer hand with Havana and the recent apprehensions of Hernández and several other former Cuban officials for deportation have been extremely popular among the politically powerful exile community. “It’s a political gift to Cuban-American hardliners,” said Eduardo Gamarra, a Latin American expert at Florida International University. But many Cubans fear they could be next on Trump’s list, he said, and “some in the community see it as a betrayal.” While President Donald Trump’s mass deportation pledge has frightened migrants from many nations, it has come as something of a shock to the 2.4 million Cuban-Americans, who strongly backed the Republican twice and have long enjoyed a place of privilege in the U.S. immigration system. Amid record arrivals of migrants from the Caribbean island, Trump in March revoked temporary humanitarian parole for about 300,000 Cubans. Many have been detained ahead of possible deportation. Democrats, meanwhile, have been trying to turn the immigration crackdown to their advantage. In April, grassroots groups erected two giant billboards on Miami highways calling Rubio and Republican Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, María Elvira Salazar and Carlos Giménez “traitors” to the Cuban-American community for failing to protect tens of thousands of migrants from Trump’s immigration policies. In March, Giménez sent Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a letter with the names of 108 people he said were former Cuban state agents or Communist Party officials living unlawfully in the U.S. “It is imperative that the Department of Homeland Security enforce existing U.S. laws to identify, deport and repatriate these individuals who pose a direct threat to our national security, the integrity of our immigration system and the safety of Cuban exiles and American citizens alike,” Giménez wrote, adding that the U.S. remains a “beacon of hope and freedom for those escaping tyranny.”

Breitbart [5/25/2025 10:24 AM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports the Texas Legislature is one step closer to requiring the sheriffs of the state’s largest counties to enter into cooperation agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Texas Senate passed SB8 in April and forwarded the legislation to the House. On Saturday, the House passed the third reading of the bill. Texas House members voted 89-50 to pass the third reading of SB8. One member voted "present," and ten others were absent from the roll call vote. Four Democrats voted with 85 Republicans. Before the vote, the House approved four amendments to the bill, forcing a conference committee to reconcile the differences. The bill will mandate that the sheriffs in Texas’s 43 counties with populations of over 100,000 people enter into agreements with ICE under the federal 287(g) program. The bill encourages the remaining smaller counties to enter into agreements by providing funding to all counties with a population of less than 1,000,000 residents. The Senate bill, authored by State Senator Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown), passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 26-5. While all 11 Democrats joined with the majority, five Republicans voted against the measure before sending it to the House. In addition to mandating participation in the federal immigration program, the bill authorized the Texas Attorney General to file a lawsuit against sheriffs who do not comply. The bill also grants all but seven of Texas’s most populous counties to help defray the costs of training and operating the federal immigration enforcement program. According to information obtained from the federal immigration agency, 85 Texas counties have signed some level of agreement with ICE as of May 23. Most of the state’s largest counties are not included in this list and would be required to enter into an agreement. In a written statement published by the Texas Tribune, Governor Greg Abbott’s Deputy Press Secretary Eduardo Leal said, "Gov. Abbott has made it clear that cities and counties across Texas must fully cooperate with the federal government’s efforts to arrest, jail, and deport illegal immigrants. The Governor will review this legislation, as he does with any legislation sent to his desk that helps achieve that goal.” ICE can authorize local authorities to carry out certain types of immigration enforcement in local jails, where officers can be deputized to question inmates about their immigration status and to serve administrative warrants.

NewsMax [5/25/2025 12:04 PM, Eric Mack, 4622K] reports now that the Taliban controls Afghanistan, the return of refugees, granted temporary protected status in the U.S. under former President Joe Biden, amounts to a death sentence, American veterans of the longest war in U.S. history warn. "Some of these are our closest partners, people that actually worked with us and for us, that are simply using the TPS program because that was the only option," Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a former Army Ranger who fought in Afghanistan, told The Washington Post. "If they’re sent back to Afghanistan, it would be a death sentence for them.” And a vocal group of President Donald Trump backers, American veterans, are behind that warning, perhaps even to the point of standing in the way of Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deportation forces. "If they attempt to deport the Afghans, you’re going to see actual physical conflict between veterans and ICE," Army veteran Matt Zeller, who says an interpreter saved his life in the war, told the Post. The Trump administration believes conditions in Afghanistan are more favorable now for the return of an estimation 10,000 refugees under the Biden TPS program that the Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced could be terminated by July. The safety of Afghanistan refugees stands to become a political divide for Trump-backing veterans, according to the report. "To me as a veteran, that’s incredibly offensive," No One Left Behind’s Andrew Sullivan, a former infantry commander in Afghanistan told the Post, calling the Trump administration’s security position "laughable.” "If there was ever a country that deserves TPS, it is Afghanistan.”

NBC News [5/27/2025 5:00 AM, Nicole Acevedo, 44540K] reports a 10-year-old Venezuelan girl living in New York City with a special legal protection against deportation has repeatedly asked her mother the same question all week: "Mommy, what am I going to do if immigration comes?". The girl, her two siblings and her parents are among the 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants who have been living and working in the U.S. with temporary protected status, better known as TPS, for the past two years. But a one-page Supreme Court order issued last week, which provided more questions than answers, jeopardized the legal immigration status of Venezuelans with TPS — eliciting uncertainty, anguish and a sense of betrayal for families at risk of losing their protections. "That makes you feel very depressed, anxious and distressed," the mother of the little girl told NBC News in her native Spanish. "This is all terrible.” With no clear timeline, the Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump and his administration the green light to continue their efforts to end the protections granted to these Venezuelans in 2023 by then-President Joe Biden. NBC News spoke with the mother in New York City and two other Venezuelan TPS holders, one in North Carolina and one in Los Angeles, about navigating changing immigration policies at a time when the Trump administration is rolling back temporary protections and other legal immigration programs for refugees and asylum-seekers — consequently expanding the pool of possible deportees as the president seeks to deliver on his campaign promise of mass deportations. All three TPS holders requested their names not be published for safety reasons, as they expressed worries about their protections against deportation under TPS. TPS is considered a humanitarian designation under U.S. law for nationals of certain countries experiencing war, natural disasters or other serious crises that would make it unsafe for them to return. Beneficiaries are allowed to remain in the U.S. legally and get work authorization for up to 18 months — subject to extensions. That is the case for a young political scientist who fled government persecution in her native Venezuela to settle in North Carolina. She has TPS and was overcome with frustration after she saw the Supreme Court’s order Monday, she said. "Being in that limbo feels like a right that you already acquired has been taken away from you," she said, adding that TPS holders like her did everything right to meet requirements and paid hundreds of dollars in work permits and application fees.

The Hill [5/26/2025 6:00 AM, Lexi Lonas Cochran, 18649K] reports international students have a new reality to grapple with as the Trump administration signals no U.S. campus is a safe haven while it tries to yank them out of Harvard University. In attempting to block Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign-born students, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explicitly said the move is “a warning to every other university to get your act together,” scrambling campus communities far from Cambridge, Mass. “We’re taking a look at a lot of things,” President Trump said Friday when asked if he is considering similar moves at other schools. For the more than 1 million foreign-born college students in the U.S. whose visas are tied to their education, that’s a potentially life-altering threat. Shaun Carver, executive director of International House at the University of California, Berkeley, said that while the DHS’s announcement “was targeted towards Harvard, it really is kind of a shot across the bow of any public or private institution across the United States.” A judge has temporarily paused the order from the DHS and scheduled a hearing for Thursday, acknowledging Harvard’s concern “will sustain immediate and irreparable injury before there is an opportunity to hear from all parties.” While it’s a temporarily sigh of relief for international students, damage to the reputation of the United States as a destination for foreign scholars has built up over the past few months, according to advocates.

FOX News [5/25/2025 7:00 AM, Breanne Deppisch, 46878K] reports the Supreme Court heard a case this month centered on President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end so-called birthright citizenship, in one of the most closely watched and potentially impactful cases heard by the court in recent years. Though the case itself was used largely as a means of challenging lower court powers to issue so-called universal or nationwide injunctions, justices on the high court did inquire about the merits of the order itself, "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship," which Trump signed on the first day of his second White House term. The order, which was slated to take force Feb. 20, directed all U.S. agencies to stop issuing citizenship documents to children born to illegal immigrants or children born to mothers living in the country on a temporary visa, if the father is not a permanent resident or U.S. citizen. Despite the Supreme Court’s focus on universal injunctions in hearing the case, deep and unyielding concerns persist about Trump’s attempt to undo more than 100 years of legal precedent. The ACLU included in its lawsuit the story of one couple from Indonesia but living in New Hampshire whom they said would be affected by the order. "They arrived in 2023, applied for asylum, and their application awaits review," ACLU attorneys said of the couple. "The mom-to-be is in her third trimester. "Under this executive order, their baby would be considered an undocumented noncitizen and could be denied basic health care and nutrition, putting the newborn at grave risk at such a vulnerable stage of life," they added. And such problems would persist throughout their lives, lawyers for the group noted. These persons would not be able to obtain necessary identification, such as drivers’ licenses, and would not be able to vote, hold some jobs or serve on juries.

NPR [5/26/2025 4:21 AM, Nancy Guan, 37958K] Audio: HERE reports Florida has eliminated a program that allowed immigrant students under DACA protections to pay in-state tuition. Now, thousands have to figure out how to finish college with higher costs.

Breitbart [5/25/2025 9:34 AM, Neil Munro, 3077K] reports the FBI arrested two Pakistani immigration lawyers in Texas, exposing a smuggling network that imported Pakistani migrants via several forms of white-collar fraud. The FBI investigation and the arrest follow promises by President Donald Trump’s deputies to supercharge investigations into white-collar migration crime. The Department of Justice (DOJ) reported: Two Texas residents, Abdul Hadi Murshid, 39, and Muhammad Salman Nasir, 35, both originally from Pakistan, a law firm, and a business entity were charged by indictment with conspiracy to defraud the United States, visa fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) conspiracy, announced Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham. Murshid and Nasir were also charged with unlawfully obtaining and attempting to obtain United States citizenship. The defendants face up to 20 years in prison. The federal government allows a shifting population of roughly 1.5 million migrants in white-collar jobs throughout the United States. The workers arrive via multiple white-collar visa programs, such as the H-1B work visa and the EB programs for green card applicants. These programs create myriad incentives and opportunities for graft, scams, and fraud in the legal migration system. For decades, the government has done little to find or reduce the fraud, despite the massive damage to Americans’ white-collar professionals, per-capita productivity, and national innovation. The programs also reduce the ability of American professionals to enforce legal, technical, and professional standards, despite the federal government’s insistence that Americans benefit from the standards, regulations, and laws set by the government. The FBI has the opportunity to discover and penalize the two lawyers’ prior clients. They can also pressure those clients to provide evidence of additional fraud by other migrants. The indictment alleges that the defendants exploited the EB-2, EB-3, and H-1B visa programs. Specifically, the defendants caused classified advertisements to be placed in a daily periodical for non-existent jobs. These advertisements were placed in order to satisfy a Department of Labor ("DOL") requirement to offer the position to United States citizens before hiring foreign nationals. Once they received the fraudulently obtained certification for from the Department of Labor, the defendants filed a petition to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") to obtain an immigrant visa for the visa seekers. At the time the petitions were submitted, the defendants also submitted an application for legal permanent residence so that the visa seekers could also obtain a green card. According to the indictment, to make the non-existent jobs look legitimate, the defendants received payment from visa seekers, then returned a portion of the money back to the visa seekers as purported payroll. The H-1B program is for white-collar migrants seeking to earn green cards. The EB-2 and EB-3 programs allow companies to provide foreign workers with the huge prize of green cards and citizenship.

FOX News [5/26/2025 8:34 PM, Nick Butler, 46878K] reports Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has put forth legislation amending the International Bridge Act of 1972 that would expedite the presidential permitting process for all international bridges and land ports of entry. The bipartisan bill from Cruz and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., will expand on legislation previously written by Cruz and passed into law that streamlined permits for international bridges in Eagle Pass, Laredo and Brownsville. The new bill will streamline all permits for international bridges and ports of entry for Mexico and Canada. In a news release, Cruz discussed how this new bill has been a top priority for him. "This bill builds on and expands our success in securing presidential permits for four major international bridge projects in South Texas by streamlining the approval process for all future international bridges along the Texas–Mexico border," Cruz said in a news release. Cruz strongly urged his colleagues "to pass this bill so it can be sent to the President for signature." Lujan said in a news release that he was proud to introduce bipartisan legislation that would deliver real investments to New Mexico. "Ports of entry and international bridges are vital to the economic success of our border communities, supporting trade, business, and tourism," Lujan said. "Yet, new border crossings are too often held up by the presidential permit process."

NewsNation [5/26/2025 1:43 PM, Ali Bradley, 5801K] reports for the first time ever, Border Patrol K-9s are being trained to detect fentanyl. An academy in El Paso, Texas, is currently teaching 62 K-9s to find fentanyl and other hard narcotics, like meth and heroin. These illicit drugs are coming in between the nation’s ports of entry, making Border Patrol and their K-9 partners essentially the last line of defense in detecting illicit drugs at checkpoints. Director of the BPK9 Academy Stephen Crump told NewsNation that expanding the dogs’ abilities is the best way to contribute to the nation’s safety. The agency plans to up its workforce in the next fiscal year to more than 300 K-9s — more than double the 144 dogs in 2016 to 2020. Currently they have 900 teams deployed to the field, and Lopez told NewsNation they are looking to improve the numbers to over 1,000 by next fiscal year.

Breitbart [5/26/2025 11:28 AM, Bob Price, 3077K] reports that America is safer this Memorial Day Weekend after San Diego Sector Border Patrol officials closed another of Joe Biden’s migrant processing centers. The closure follows the Trump administration’s success in shutting down migrant crossings in the Southern California sector. "Due to the unprecedented decrease in illegal crossings this year, the massive 1,000 person, San Diego Sector Soft Sided Facility has been dismantled," a post by the San Diego Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Jeffrey Stalnaker. Chief Stalnaker reported that agents in this sector apprehended only 38 migrants per day in March 2025. This is a major drop from the 1,090 apprehensions per day just one year earlier — a 96.4 percent decrease. During the first three full months of the Trump administration, apprehensions fell to an average of 47 per day, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Southwest Land Border Encounters Report. Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Joel Pollak reported that the Trump administration’s increased border security and immigration enforcement efforts also led to the closure of NGO migrant shelters near San Diego. Catholic Charities laid off 73 employees at two shelters used to temporarily house migrants released by the Biden administration onto the streets of California. Another 115 employees were laid off from the San Diego Rapid Response Network.

San Francisco Chronicle [5/25/2025 7:00 AM, Sara Libby, 4120K] reports by any reasonable measure, Ernesto Campos Gutierrez is a pillar of his Bakersfield community. A resident of more than two decades, he is a homeowner. He is a business owner. He is an active member of his church. There’s no clear reason why he was stopped by an unmarked SUV as he drove to his gardening job on Jan. 8, with a mini trailer containing his equipment in tow. He wasn’t speeding, and his license and registration were up to date, according to court documents. More than five months later, there are even fewer answers as to why the encounter turned violent. Campos Gutierrez handed officers his ID, but when they refused to say why he’d been pulled over and demanded his keys, he said no, according to court documents. Agents then forcibly removed his passenger after threatening to shatter his windows with a handheld tool. Then an officer slashed his tires. Campos Gutierrez was arrested, he was told, for "alien smuggling" — and detained for hours in a facility about 20 minutes away, despite telling officers he was a U.S. citizen. Bree Bernwanger, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, represents several of those targeted by what turned out to be a series of coordinated raids. She told me immigration agents "were sending their roving patrols to agricultural areas, to Home Depot, to places where farmworkers go for breakfast, and they were timing it with their shifts, so they were clearly going after farmworkers and day laborers.” These raids weren’t just unusual for their brazenness. They were conducted by a Border Patrol unit hundreds of miles from its typical territory — one that has not just ramped up its activity far from the border but has boasted about legally dubious behavior on social media. Many of the initial reports about the raids assumed Immigration and Customs Enforcement was responsible. It didn’t occur to most people that such actions would be carried out by another agency, a sector of Border Patrol based in El Centro, a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border in Imperial County, more than 300 miles away. In Facebook posts following the Bakersfield raid, which the El Centro sector named Operation Return to Sender, it boasted: "We are taking it to the bad people and bad things in Bakersfield" and promised "We are planning operations for other locals (sic) such as Fresno and especially Sacramento.” Since the Bakersfield episode, El Centro agents have descended on more locations far from the southern border, including El Monte and Pomona in Los Angeles County. A spokesman for Border Patrol’s El Centro sector declined to answer my questions about its approach, but wrote in a statement that it "uses its official social media platforms to communicate directly with the American people — reinforcing our mission, highlighting operations, and offering a window into the work of our agents and officers. We actively monitor communications to ensure they reflect agency priorities and public expectations.” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees Border Patrol, this week made clear she knows or cares nothing about the fundamental rights protecting people under her purview. "Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country, and suspend their right to," she told senators at a hearing Wednesday (she was cut off based on how sideways her answer had already gone).

NBC News [5/26/2025 7:16 PM, Ryan Chandler, 44540K] Video: HERE reports that, from New Mexico to Alabama, millions are at risk for severe weather today and overnight. Severe weather watches are already in effect for parts of Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. The dangerous weather comes after a weekend of storms.

Washington Examiner [5/26/2025 8:00 AM, Hailey Bullis and Ramsey Touchberry, 1934K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency has landed on President Donald Trump’s radar as he considers the agency’s abolishment or a significant reform to its operations. But a bipartisan push from both chambers of Congress would instead seek to install FEMA as a Cabinet-level agency, effectively promoting the agency’s importance while moving it directly under Trump’s purview. The efforts come after Trump has previously floated "reforming" or "getting rid of FEMA." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees the agency, also said during a Cabinet meeting that the agency was "going to eliminate FEMA.” Congressional lawmakers on both sides of the aisle see a different path forward. Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Byron Donalds (R-FL) are among the lawmakers pushing to carve FEMA out of the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that the public security agency’s size has become a hindrance. Donalds told the Washington Examiner that he has spoken with the White House about getting FEMA moved out from under DHS, saying that leaving it within the agency will lead to "more bureaucratic mishaps." There is precedent for FEMA to be an independent agency, as it was before the formation of DHS by then-President George W. Bush after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

ABC News [5/26/2025 1:23 PM, Kenton Gewecke and Megan Forrester, 31733K] reports that more than 12 million people are on alert for flash flooding from Oklahoma to Mississippi on Memorial Day as potentially strong storms hit the South. In the overnight hours heading into Memorial Day, six tornadoes -- five in Texas and one in New Mexico -- were reported and hail up to 6 inches in diameter fell in Afton, Texas. Nearly 100,000 customers were without power from Texas to Alabama on Monday afternoon, with more storms expected throughout the afternoon and evening hours in the South. As of Monday morning, 1 to 4 inches of rain had already fallen in Dallas and Shreveport, Louisiana, along with 4 to 6 inches in parts of Oklahoma, leading to widespread flooding alerts. The storm system will stall on Monday, stretching over the South and bringing damaging winds and hail. A few tornadoes will also be possible from Texas to Alabama. It’s the opposite in the Northeast, where rain moved out and has led to a beautiful Memorial Day. For the Northeast, the last day of the holiday weekend will bring sunny skies, with temperatures around 70 degrees in New York City and around 60 degrees in Boston. On Tuesday, the low pressure system associated with the storms in the South will move northeast in the middle of the week, bringing showers and a few thunderstorms to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Wednesday.

CBS Baltimore [5/26/2025 12:02 PM, JT Moodee Lockman, 51860K] reports Maryland Gov. Wes Moore requested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) conduct a damage assessment after flooding in western Maryland in mid-May. The flooding was brought on by severe weather, which brought more than five inches of rain to areas of Allegany and Garrett counties. The flooding left buildings damaged, caused power outages and prompted evacuations at multiple schools. In Allegany County, at least 200 people were rescued from schools, and 12 students were trapped overnight at a high school in Frostburg. Gov. Moore declared a State of Emergency, mobilizing Maryland’s Department of Emergency Management (MDEM) to work with local responders and federal partners in the flooding response. In his request to FEMA, Gov. Moore said the state’s emergency response brought on significant costs, prompting the need for more assistance. "...The breadth of damage requires us to accelerate our work in this moment, not slow down," Gov. Moore said. "This Joint Preliminary Damage Assessment will help ensure Marylanders get the help they need as we work together to rebuild.” According to the governor, the Preliminary Damage Assessment would help to determine if Maryland meets the federal requirement for a Presidential Disaster Declaration.

New York Times [5/26/2025 5:01 AM, Emily Cochrane 153395K] reports Veda Rose Knappenberger lost everything in March when a tornado tore up her house in Cave City, Ark., leaving her bruised and shaken to the core. A neighbor, Kathy McLeod, invited Ms. Knappenberger, 78, to sleep on her couch until help arrived. But by then, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had delivered startling news: It was denying assistance to residents of the nine counties hit by the storm system, saying the damage appeared contained enough for state and local officials and volunteers to handle. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican who served as President Trump’s press secretary in his first term, appealed the denial. Another month passed. Governor Sanders made a personal appeal in a phone call with her former boss. Shortly after, on May 13, Mr. Trump announced he had approved a disaster declaration for Arkansas, allowing residents to apply for a type of FEMA aid known as individual assistance. “They shouldn’t have denied it — they should have at least said, ‘We’re working on it,’” Ms. McLeod said upon learning that federal help was coming after all. “That way, people wouldn’t have thought they were just forgotten.”

CBS News [5/25/2025 11:22 PM, Staff, 51860K] reports that a severe weather threat comes in from the west late Sunday night and moves across North Texas overnight before another round of severe weather is expected Monday afternoon. A severe thunderstorm watch is issued for North Texas until 5 a.m. Monday. [Editorial note: consult video at source link for video]

AP [5/26/2025 9:27 PM, Morgan Lee, 24051K] reports a wildfire swept through portions of a Civil War-era fort and historical site in southern New Mexico, forcing the evacuations of campgrounds and a horse ranch, authorities said Monday. The fire damaged structures at Fort Stanton Historical Site built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and a gym erected by Germans interned at the site during World War II after their ship sank. Ground crews, air tankers and helicopters joined efforts to contain a blaze that scorched more than a square mile (3 square kilometers) of terrain at the site and surrounding conservation lands managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Laura Rabon, a spokesperson for a multiagency team responding to the situation, said crews cleared lines of vegetation Monday on the north side of the wildfire and helicopters doused smoldering hot spots with water. The fire was contained along 4% of its boundary. The blaze at Fort Stanton is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) away from communities at Ruidoso that were ravaged by wildfires last year when several hundred homes and businesses were destroyed. Those fires were followed by devastating flooding and erosion in scorched areas. Separately in Arizona, more than 500 firefighters and support personnel had largely contained the boundaries of a wildfire northeast of Tuscon, in the Santa Catalina Mountains, that has destroyed five homes in the community of Oracle. Evacuations were rescinded in some residential areas — but not all — on Monday.

Telemundo Amarillo [5/26/2025 5:23 PM, Raquel Martinez, 4K] Video: HERE reports several severe storms swept through our region Sunday afternoon with a confirmed tornado in New Mexico. According to the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, the tornado touched land in Roosevelt County, near the city of Floyd. The tornado caused minor damage to some homes, and a nearby dairy, but the tornado was mostly isolated in a rural part of the county. No injuries have been reported. The National Weather Service in Albuquerque will send reconnaissance equipment to determine the classification of the tornado.

NPR [5/26/2025 7:04 PM, Jaclyn Diaz, 37958K] reports the FBI is refocusing on three, high-profile cases that emerged just before and during the Biden administration, Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, announced Monday on X. The FBI wants to revive or invest more resources into cases that Bongino said pointed to "potential public corruption," including the investigation into a pair of undetonated pipe bombs left near the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021, and the discovery of a bag of cocaine at the White House over July 4 weekend in 2023. The third case getting renewed scrutiny is the 2022 leak of the unpublished Supreme Court Dobbs decision, which ended federal protections for abortion. An eight month investigation into the leak, ordered by Chief Justice John Roberts, was unable to identify the person responsible. "Shortly after swearing in, [FBI Director Kash Patel] and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest. We made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases," Bongino posted on X. He continued, "I receive requested briefings on these cases weekly and we are making progress. If you have any investigative tips on these matters that may assist us then please contact the FBI.” The pipe bomb case has remained open since the devices were discovered over four years ago. In January, the FBI released new details and a video showing a potential suspect leaving the pipe bombs outside the DNC and RNC buildings the night before the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Authorities said they conducted 1,000 interviews, reviewed 39,000 video files and sifted through some 600 tips — but the alleged bomber remains elusive. The White House cocaine case began when the drug was found stashed in a cubby hole near the Situation Room, where officials store cell phones during meetings. The U.S. Secret Service stopped looking for the owner of the dime bag of cocaine about 10 days after it was first discovered on July 2, 2023, citing a lack of physical evidence. The Daily Wire [5/26/2025 9:23 AM, Hank Berrien, 3816K] reports "There was no surveillance video footage found that provided investigative leads or any other means for investigators to identify who may have deposited the found substance in this area," the FBI stated at the time. "Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered. At this time, the Secret Service’s investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence."

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FOX News [5/26/2025 4:44 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports on DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s overhaul of the U.S. Coast Guard on ‘Fox News Live.’

New York Post [5/26/2025 5:00 PM, Joe Marino, Reuven Fenton and Matt Troutman, 49956K] reports a top city Environmental Protection engineer killed in a weekend sewage-boat explosion may have accidentally blown himself up by welding near methane, sources told The Post on Monday. An investigation into the death of Raymond Feige, 59, preliminarily found he had been welding on the sludge vessel before the blast Saturday, sources said. Methane from sewage may have got trapped in a tightly enclosed space on the ship — and ignited when it came in contact with the welding torch’s flame, according to the sources. The ensuing blast hurled Feige into the Hudson River, trapping him between the sludge boat and a pier outside the North River Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility near 135th Street in Upper Manhattan, authorities have said. Two other DEP employees were rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment after the blast. The potential that the blast had been caused by a welding accident was first raised by the US Coast Guard, which tweeted the incident was "linked to hot work aboard a dock boat.”

New York Post [5/26/2025 7:03 PM, Nicole Rosenthal, 49956K] reports members of US Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City nixed a Fleet Week search and rescue demonstration in Manhattan on Memorial Day for the real thing — more than 100 miles away. The Atlantic City unit, known as the "Blackjacks," were diverted to a distress call 20 miles off the Jersey shore on Monday after a radio transmission that sounded like "Help" was transmitted just before noon, a US Coast Guard rep told The Post. "Any sign that there could be potential distress, that’s enough for us to launch [a search and rescue operation] and go search," the rep said, adding that no other "correlating" evidence, such as a missing person or missing boat, were reported. The investigation – which was conducted in the area of Barnegat Light, Atlantic City and Cape May in New Jersey, was called off just after 3 p.m., the rep added. Coast Guard Station Cape May also responded to the search. The Fleet Week demonstration, slated to start at 2 p.m., was set to involve a dummy doll being rescued in the water by a Coast Guard member dropping in from a helicopter. Some US Coast Guard members at Pier 86 — where the demonstration was planned to take place after the annual Memorial Day commemoration ceremony at the Intrepid Museum — told The Post they were unsurprised the diversion happened due to the popularity of marine-related activities over the holiday weekend. On Memorial Day weekend, there’s "more than a 50% chance that they are going to get diverted," one Coast Guard member at the Pier 86 event said.

NBC News [5/27/2025 12:27 AM, Sophia Hernandez, Lena Salzbank and Brian Hamacher, 44540K] reports that, nearly a dozen people, including two children, were hospitalized after a boat explosion and fire in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Memorial Day evening, officials said. The incident was reported around 5:45 p.m. Monday near the New River Triangle, not far from the Lauderdale Yacht Club on Southeast 12th Court. U.S. Coast Guard officials said there were 13 people on board the boat when there was an explosion. “For reasons that we don’t know yet, a boat exploded, it tossed people into the water, good Samaritans came over right away and started rescuing them,” Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue spokesman Frank Guzman said. “It’s too soon to know how this happened. We have a fire investigator on scene, as well.” Footage from a surveillance camera captured the moment the fireball erupted on the boat, and showed multiple people spilling into the water. Guzman confirmed there were 11 patients, including two children, who were initially taken to Broward Health Medical Center. “A number of the patients had significant burns and are being transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where they have a burn unit,” Guzman said. “A lot of them had burns to much of their body.” Officials at Jackson Memorial said they received 10 patients, including eight adults who were in good condition and two children who were in fair condition. One patient had to be intubated. Antonio Rivero said he was with family members on the boat when it went up in flames. “Tried to fuel up the boat, and must have been a gas leak and, you know, spark went off and explosion,” Rivero said. “One of the guys’ pants were blown off, so it was bad.” Rivero, 32, suffered burns to his arm, but his wife, Cassandra, and their two children remained hospitalized Monday night. “They’re OK because they’re on a lot of meds, but other than that they’re fine,” he said. At least one witness reported seeing an explosion and said they saw multiple people with burn injuries who were brought to the yacht club docks. The victims had burned legs and bathing suits that appeared ripped and burned to shreds, the witness said. Two other witnesses said they were on a dinghy at the sandbar when the boat exploded. “When they went to start their boat up, it just exploded. There was a huge fireball and people were kind of falling off the boat,” Bret Triano said. “We were at the sandbar too and we just tried to go help out.” Triano and Marisa Toomesn were able to rescue some of the victims. “There were a couple boats trying to pick people up and one guy just didn’t get picked up so we went over to him,” Triano said. “He was screaming.” “He was burned pretty badly,” Toomesn said. “He was saying, ‘Save me. Please, don’t let me die. I’m so hot, I need water,’” Triano said. “He just kept repeating, ‘I want water, I want water.’” Aerial footage from Chopper 6 showed Fort Lauderdale Police, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Broward Sheriff’s Office assisting Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue. Crews were seen examining the boat involved, which was tied up to a nearby sea wall. Guzman said crews also rescued a dog that had been on the boat that wasn’t injured. The FWC and fire officials will investigate the cause of the explosion.

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Chicago Tribune [5/25/2025 11:00 AM, Alexandra Kukulka and Maya Wilkins, 3987K] reports on a recent chilly morning, the Lake County Sheriff’s new Marine 1 boat was bobbing lightly with the water along a dock at the East Chicago Marina. Then, Lake County Sheriff Marine Unit Sgt. Scott Shelhart turned on the boat’s shore balance technology and the boat became still — like a buoy. The boat will be fully integrated into the sheriff’s marine unit this summer, said Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez. "The capabilities of this boat exceed what we’ve had," Shelhart said. "Our goal is lifesaving and protection.” As the Memorial Day weekend holiday kicks off the summer season, the Lake County Sheriff, Porter County Sheriff, U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Natural Resources are tasked with protecting the roughly 26-mile Lake Michigan shoreline from the Illinois state line through Porter County. This summer, the Lake County Sheriff will have three boats available to assist in water emergencies like a stalled boat or a drowning on Lake Michigan, Martinez said. Last summer, the marine unit began testing its new boat out on the water, but this will be the first summer the new 44-foot boat will be utilized, he said. With three boats, Martinez said the department will be able to conduct boat safety checks, patrol the water and respond to emergencies. "Having this new boat, along with our older boat and another smaller boat, it allows us to cover more areas of Lake Michigan," Martinez said. "It will limit the response time and allow us to have an additional boat out there as well.” The new boat has updated technology that helps with navigating difficult waters, said Lake County Sheriff’s Department Special Operations Commander James Stahl. The U.S. Coast Guard has to patrol all of Lake Michigan, Stahl said, so depending where its boats are stationed the closest Coast Guard boat could be in Michigan or Wisconsin. But, having three Lake County Sheriff’s boats for water rescues will improve water safety responses, he said. The U.S. Coast Guard’s Northwest Indiana station is in Michigan City, said spokesman Lt. Joe Neff, and its stations in Chicago and St. Joseph, Michigan support Michigan City if needed. The Michigan City station has one 29-foot boat, he said, and it is only staffed during peak hours.

Houston Chronicle [5/25/2025 5:16 PM, Caroline Wilburn, 1982K] reports a La Porte man and his young grandson were killed Saturday when a small aircraft crashed in Hankamer, according to the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office. The Rockwell Commander 114A airplane was found in a remote wooded area near FM 1724, south of Interstate 10, early Sunday following an extensive search by the sheriff’s office, Texas Game Wardens, Texas Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Coast Guard that started the night before. The man, identified as Larry Motte, was flying the red and white low-wing aircraft, accompanied by his grandson, from Austin, the sheriff’s office said. The plane had last relayed data around 4:57 p.m. Saturday, showing a sudden loss of altitude. An investigation of the crash is being conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.

San Francisco Chronicle [5/26/2025 2:09 AM, Michael Barba, 4120K] reports a ship known for its missions to raise awareness about the problem of marine debris sank Sunday in the Oakland Estuary, authorities said. The Kaisei, a large double-masted sailing vessel, sank at a dock behind the Nob Hill Foods grocery store in Alameda shortly after 6 p.m., said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Kenneth Wiese, a spokesperson for the agency. It’s unclear what caused the Kaisei to sink. Someone on land saw the boat sinking and called the authorities, Wiese said. Multiple agencies, including from Oakland and Alameda, responded and were able to cut its mooring lines so that the ship did not bring down the dock with it. The ship was not blocking traffic on the channel since it sank in place at the dock, Wiese said. However, it appeared to be leaking an oil-like substance. The vessel is estimated to carry 400 gallons of diesel fuel onboard, Wiese said. An Alameda Fire Department post on X said firefighters on their fireboat had worked to protect surrounding vessels and had deployed a floating boom to prevent oil spread.

FOX News [5/26/2025 10:00 AM, Kurt Knutsson, 46878K] reports the FBI has issued a warning that cybercriminals are actively exploiting old, unpatched and outdated routers. The alert, released in May 2025, explains how aging network devices with known flaws are being hijacked by malware and used to power anonymous cybercrime operations. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center published a public service announcement on May 7, 2025, cautioning both individuals and organizations that criminals are taking advantage of outdated routers that no longer receive security patches. Devices manufactured around 2010 or earlier are especially vulnerable, as vendors have long ceased providing firmware updates for them. According to the FBI, such end-of-life routers have been breached by cyber actors using a variant of the "TheMoon" malware, allowing attackers to install proxy services on the devices and conduct illicit activities anonymously.

Washington Times [5/26/2025 3:24 PM, Mathew Ha and Annie Fixler, 2106K] reports although Beijing and Moscow pose the most "active and persistent" cyberthreats, according to U.S. intelligence, Pyongyang is demonstrating with artificial intelligence just how dangerous hackers can be. North Korean hackers are using AI deepfakes to trick recruiters and human resource personnel at some of the largest companies around the world, as well as cybersecurity firms themselves. Employed by unwitting Western companies, these hackers earn six-figure salaries, money that feeds into Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear weapons programs. They also plant malware they can use to steal data and extort the companies when and if they get exposed. As North Korean cybercriminal operations become more sophisticated, American companies will continue falling victim unless the U.S. government helps them better protect themselves. North Korean hackers used to rely on virtual private networks and aliases to hide their true identities in order to get information technology jobs. Interviews used to be enough to weed out most fraudulent applicants or catch a malicious actor who might have been savvy enough to secure a position. Now, according to reporting from Politico and Wired, AI-generated deepfakes are becoming key to Pyongyang’s success, rendering existing screening tools increasingly irrelevant. Here is how the scheme works: North Korean operatives create fake LinkedIn pages using stolen information and pirated or AI-generated profile pictures. When they receive a response to one of the hundreds of applications they have submitted to job listings, they use AI-generated deepfakes to impersonate their LinkedIn identities and AI chatbots to feed them answers to interviewer questions. With stolen Social Security numbers, background checks come back clean as well. Pyongyang then uses American accomplices to sign employment forms, receive paychecks and run laptop farms to prevent the companies from detecting internet communications that connect back to North Korea. In March, Pyongyang launched Research Center 227, an effort within its overseas intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, to focus on AI-enabled cyberattack capabilities. According to cybersecurity firm DTEX, Research Center 227’s objectives are to use AI to neutralize defenses, steal information and money, and automate information collection and analysis. Although the IT worker scheme long predates this center, the capabilities and skills it develops will enhance this operation and the other vast criminal enterprises that fund the regime. The U.S. government has long warned that North Korean hackers obfuscate their identities to secure IT jobs. In December, Washington indicted 14 such hackers. A month later, the Treasury Department issued sanctions against individuals and entities responsible for generating illicit revenue for the regime as part of this conspiracy. These measures, however, have done little to thwart North Korea’s schemes, especially as China continues to support Pyongyang’s efforts.

CNN [5/25/2025 9:50 PM, Hannah Rabinowitz and Alex Stambaugh, 875K] reports that an American man was arrested Sunday after allegedly plotting to throw Molotov cocktails at a branch office of the US embassy in Israel, according to the US Justice Department. Officials arrested the man, 28 year-old Joseph Neumeyer, at John F. Kennedy airport in New York after being deported from Israel to the US, according to a Justice Department news release. The DOJ says Neumeyer, who is also a German citizen, had allegedly arrived at the US embassy office in Tel Aviv on May 19 and spat on an embassy guard without provocation. Neumeyer managed to break free as the guard attempted to detain him, leaving behind his backpack, the DOJ said, citing a complaint. Guards found three Molotov cocktails in the backpack, the department said. Law enforcement tracked down Neumeyer to his hotel in Israel, where he was arrested. Authorities searched Neumeyer’s social media, which allegedly included a post from earlier that day that said "join me as I burn down the embassy in Tel Aviv." His page also allegedly included the phrases, "Death to America, death to Americans" and threats to assassinate US President Donald Trump. "This defendant is charged with planning a devastating attack targeting our embassy in Israel, threatening death to Americans, and President Trump’s life," said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. FBI Director Kash Patel said: “This despicable and violent behavior will not be tolerated at home or abroad, and the FBI, working with our partners, will bring him to face justice for his dangerous actions.” Neumeyer had allegedly arrived in Israel last month. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, according to the Justice Department. The revelation of Neumeyer’s charges comes shortly after the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, DC. The killings are being investigated as an act of terrorism after the man suspected of carrying out the shooting yelled “Free Palestine” and told law enforcement he “did it for Gaza,” according to police. US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is in Israel today meeting with senior government officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the wake of the shooting. The AP [5/25/2025 6:04 PM, Staff] reports Neumeyer, 28, who is originally from Colorado and also has German citizenship, had traveled from the U.S. to Canada in early February and arrived in Israel in late April, according to court records. He had written a series of threatening social media posts before attempting the attack, prosecutors said. Israeli officials deported Neumeyer to New York on Saturday, and he had an initial court appearance before a federal judge in Brooklyn on Sunday, the same day his criminal complaint was unsealed. CBS News [5/25/2025 7:28 PM, Lucia Suarez Sang, 51860K] reports that after his arrest in New York City, Neumayer was charged with attempting to destroy, by means of fire or explosive, the U.S. Embassy. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. FOX News [5/25/2025 3:53 PM, Louis Casiano, 46878K] reports that on May 19, Neumeyer made several posts on Facebook where he allegedly announced his intent to target the embassy. "Join me this afternoon in Tel Aviv we are burning down the U.S. embassy," one post read, according to court documents. "Join me as I burn down the embassy in Tel Aviv. Death to America. Death to Americans and f--- the west.” Other posts called for the assassination of President Donald Trump, as well as calling for the death of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the United Kingdom’s Atomic Energy Authority and Antarctic Heritage Trust. The same day he made the social media posts, Neumeyer arrived outside the embassy branch office in Tel Aviv carrying a backpack, authorities said.

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Washington Examiner [5/25/2025 4:04 PM, Emily Hallas, 1934K]

FOX News [5/27/2025 3:29 AM, Christina Shaw, 46878K] reports a mass shooting in North Philadelphia on Monday night has left two dead and nine others injured, according to Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel. The shooting near Fairmont Park happened around 10:27 p.m. police say, and there were multiple groups of people at the park when the gunshots were fired. One adult male and one adult female were pronounced dead at the scene. Bethel says that among those injured are a 15, 16, and 17-year-old and the rest of the victims are adults. The victims have not been identified at this time. The investigation is expected to go into the morning as the crime scene is large, according to the authorities. Due to the size of the event, Bethel said, "it becomes even a greater challenge to identify who’s out there. Who may be engaged in negative behavior.” "When individuals decide that they’re going to fire into a crowd, that’s something that we can’t anticipate. But we do work hard to try to address the issues as they come up and we become aware," he said. Police do not know how many were involved but stated that they heard multiple rounds from content that had been posted on social media. No weapons have been recovered at this time and the police do not have any suspects in custody. Bethel says he expected to pick up a lot of information as the day unfolds, and that updates will be provided at that time. "We’ll probably have some updates tomorrow morning once we get the scene resolved, and we’ll give you an update then whether we do it in person or send out something in writing," he reassured the public at a press conference. "It’s memorial’s day, a day where we honor those who give their lives in war, and so we understand the significance of this event, and so we’ll make sure we provide an update.” Philadelphia police are still at the scene investigating. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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CNN [5/27/2025 2:22 AM, Hanna Park, 21433K]

Blaze [5/25/2025 4:00 PM, Staff, 1805K] reports on May 21, two Israeli Embassy diplomats, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, a soon-to-be-engaged couple, were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., as they were leaving a Young Diplomats Reception hosted by the American Jewish Committee, where they were ironically discussing how to send more aid to Gaza. The suspect, 31-year-old Chicago native Elias Rodriguez, allegedly paced outside the museum, approached a group of four, and opened fire with a handgun, killing both Lischinsky and Milgrim. According to reports, he shouted, "Free, free Palestine" and "I did it for Gaza.” Rodriguez has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, murder of foreign officials, causing death with a firearm, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. The FBI and D.C. police are investigating the shooting as a hate crime and act of terrorism. "Let me just paint the scene for you," says Glenn Beck. "He comes out, and he has an H&K 9mm pistol. He shoots it 21 times at these two — 21 times! That’s rage. He then reloads as Milgrim, the girl, is trying to crawl away. … He reloads and shoots her more.” Should we be shocked by this heinous act of terrorism? As more and more disturbing information about Rodriguez’s background comes to light, the answer to that question is no — this isn’t shocking at all. Rodriguez "has ties to a radical left-wing group — Party for Socialism and Liberation" — an American communist political party that identifies as Marxist-Leninist and advocates for a socialist revolution to overthrow capitalism. Further, "law enforcement sources have told the New York Post that he was a regular fixture at protests for causes, including the 2014 police shooting of teen Laquan McDonald, Black Lives Matter, and more. He has recently been at all the rallies opposing the war in Gaza," says Glenn. Rodriguez’s GoFundMe page, which he started in 2017, aimed to raise money so he could attend "the People’s Congress of Resistance, which was a leftist gathering in Washington D.C. that rallied under the slogan ‘stand against imperialism, down with the warfare state."‘. "In other words, destroy America," translates Glenn. The page also featured a testimonial about how, at age 11, his father’s Iraq War deployment and return with war souvenirs, including an Iraqi flag patch and a magazine pouch, sparked his opposition to U.S. military actions, shaping his radical worldview. When the FBI stormed Rodriguez’s house, they found a variety of signs, including one that read "Justice for Wadea," which refers to Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy killed in a 2023 hate crime in Illinois, as well as a Hello Kitty sign.

FOX News [5/25/2025 12:57 PM, Benjamin Weinthal, 46878K] reports the newspaper for the rogue regime of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised the man who allegedly murdered an American and Israeli Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., calling him "our dear brother.” Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Chicago man, allegedly told police and witnesses he had gunned down Sarah Milgrim, a 26-year-old American from Kansas, and her 30-year-old Israeli boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, "for Palestine . . . for Gaza.” "Our dear brother Elias Rodriguez, who killed two Israelis in the U.S., has founded the Washington Basij," the newspaper wrote Saturday. The Basij is an Iranian para-military organization that is assigned to crush all dissent against Khamenei’s ironclad rule. The fiercely anti-American editor of Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari, asked, "Any news of our dear brother Elias Rodriguez, who sent two Zionist wild animals in Washington to hell with a bullet?". The Iranian media’s glorification of the murders stunned even longtime regime watchers. "Iran openly calls for terror attacks against Israel on U.S. soil. Kayhan, the mouthpiece of Supreme Leader Khamenei, praises the attack on Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC — one of whom was an American citizen — calling the killer the founder of the ‘Washington Basij,’ Iran’s brutal militia," Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Oren Marmorstein, wrote on X. "Unfathomable.” The timing of the Khamenei-controlled newspaper’s editorial coincided with a report from Israel Hayom that the Trump administration is weighing the acceptance of an interim nuclear agreement with Iran. A senior U.S. official told the Israeli paper that the partial deal would mean Iran would abandon pursuit of nuclear weapons in exchange for limited sanctions relief. However, the clerical regime has repeatedly insisted it would never abandon the right to enrich uranium, which could enable Tehran to build an atomic bomb. Iran’s regime has been designated a leading state-sponsor of terrorism since the mid-1980s by the U.S. government.

FOX News [5/26/2025 12:05 AM, Christina Shaw, 46878K] reports the Horry County Police Department is asking locals to steer clear of the area following reports of a mass shooting. The incident occurred on Watson Avenue in Little River and police are saying that at least 11 individuals have been transported to area hospitals by Horry County Fire Rescue. Police also said via social media that they have received reports of others arriving at area hospitals via personal vehicles. No further information was immediately available. "This is an active and ongoing investigation," the Horry County Police Department said. Information may evolve as the investigation goes on; additional details will be provided when and as possible. "Please turn to trusted sources such as this page and local news outlets for updates—we cannot attest to the validity of other sources," the social media post on Facebook said.

UPI [5/25/2025 1:09 PM, Adam Schrader, 1381K] reports at least six people were injured Saturday in a late-night shooting in Colorado Springs, police said in a statement. The incident occurred around 10:12 p.m. local time near 1400 Potter Drive in the Rustic Hills area of the city, and appeared to have stemmed from an argument, Police officials said in a statement. Further details about what led to the shooting were not provided. Police received a 911 call reporting an active shooter. Officers found several people with gunshot wounds when they arrived at the scene. At least four of those people were transported to local hospitals while two more victims took themselves to local hospitals for treatment. One of the victims remains in critical condition. Police did not indicate whether any of those injured may have been involved in the shooting, and no suspects were named. The Colorado Springs Police Department said its homicide unit is leading the investigation. It was not immediately clear if there were any fatalities and no arrests have yet been made.

The Hill [5/25/2025 12:00 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 18649K] reports experts are scratching their heads at President Trump’s ambitious, three-year timeline for Golden Dome, a next-generation missile defense system he says is essential for the future of U.S. security. Intended to protect the skies over the continental United States, Golden Dome would mark a bold move into space, promising a network of space-based missiles launched from satellites to intercept missiles launched from the ground. But the expensive, untested technology is still years away from being fielded. Such a system, as called for by Trump via a January executive order, would take far more than the "two and a half to three years" he boasted in the Oval Office on Tuesday, according to Melanie Marlowe, a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies’s Missile Defense Project. "Golden Dome is not going to be an impenetrable missile shield across the entire United States of America," Marlowe told The Hill, adding that the system will require both short- and long-term effort to come together. Trump’s claims the system could be finished in three years are seen as lofty given the sheer amount of satellites needed to cover and protect the entire U.S. via sensing and tracking missiles — some 400 to more than 1,000 satellites, Reuters reported. Another 200 attack satellites armed with missiles or lasers would need to be built to knock down enemy armaments, the first time such weapons would be put in space. But that technology has yet to be demonstrated. Marlowe said the two tracks in building out Golden Dome include a faster undertaking to ramp up munitions and missiles — which the U.S. has been expanding rapidly in the Red Sea in its strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen or shipped to Ukraine for its war with Russia — as well as radars and sensors to detect and track rapidly moving hypersonic threats. While it’s feasible for those parts to be funded, partially completed, and a lot of it at least started in three years, the system’s need for space-based interceptors will be a daunting challenge. "The United States, in pursuing a ‘U.S.-first’ policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself. This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability. China is seriously concerned about this," Mao Ning said at a press conference. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) brought up the issue with the U.S. military’s top missile defense officials earlier this month, remarking that Russia and China have publicly expressed concerns about U.S. missile defense systems. "You’re going to spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money building things that could inspire the Russians to say, ‘Oh, we need to take them out before they get used.’ You better figure that out if you’re going to spend a lot of taxpayer money on this," he said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Wall Street Journal [5/26/2025 11:00 PM, Sune Engel Rasmussen, 646K] reports at the crack of dawn, a dozen U.S. Marines recently took position in a field on this sleepy Swedish island about 200 miles from the Russian city of Kaliningrad and fired their mobile rocket system. The dummy munitions splashed into the Baltic Sea, yet they sent a message to Russia: Even as President Trump has thrown NATO into a historic crisis by questioning its efficacy, in Northern Europe, the U.S. military is doubling down. The Trump administration wants the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to get more “lethal.” A testing ground is Europe’s north, where NATO faces Russia on two sides. Some European officials worry that America’s commitment to the trans-Atlantic alliance is waning, given Trump’s criticism of it and his stated desire to reduce military engagement abroad, but U.S. military commanders say their posture remains firm. “From a U.S. Army perspective, my orders haven’t changed,” said Brig. Gen. Andrew Saslav, deputy chief of staff for operations for U.S. Army Europe and Africa. While the question of future U.S. engagement is “on my mind,” he said, “I have been doing this too long to get hyperfocused on political winds and messaging that isn’t orders.” The high north and the Baltics have been thrust into the center of U.S. war planning, as their access to shipping routes, territory and energy reserves will be crucial to the West in a new era of geopolitical conflict. The region is hawkish on Russia and is driving European efforts to rearm and boost defense budgets, including support for Ukraine’s armed forces. During a three-week exercise, U.S. and U.K. forces joined Nordic and Baltic troops to practice potential war scenarios including live-fire drills, blood resupplies by drone and airborne jumps above the Arctic circle in Norway. The goal was twofold: deter Russian aggression and more firmly integrate allies in this strategic corner of Europe, including new NATO members Finland and Sweden.

New York Times [5/26/2025 5:02 AM, Steven Erlanger, 138952K] reports the head of NATO wants the alliance’s annual summit meeting next month to be short and sweet, European officials and diplomats say, to prevent the kind of open disunity over Ukraine that marred the gathering two years ago. But two things could leave the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, presiding over a more difficult event: President Trump, who is expected to attend, is at odds with allies over Ukraine’s future. And Ukraine itself wants to join NATO, an outcome Mr. Trump opposes. The NATO summit, set for June 24-25 in the Netherlands, comes as the United States is retreating from maintaining primary responsibility to protect Europe, creating significant uncertainty about the continent’s security. Trump administration officials have warned their European counterparts that major changes in American troop rotations are imminent even as they seek to reassure allies that the United States is committed to NATO. At the same time, Mr. Trump is winding down support for Ukraine, has abandoned efforts to reach a cease-fire in the war and seeks to normalize relations with Russia. Given all that, Ukraine’s role in the summit is uncertain, not least because of Mr. Trump’s dismissiveness toward President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is also expected to attend. It is not even clear that Mr. Zelensky will be invited to the main opening dinner. “I fully expect Zelensky to be at The Hague,” Matthew G. Whitaker, the new American ambassador to NATO, said at a conference this month in Tallinn, Estonia. “In what capacity, we’re discussing.” Officials suggested that this summit will not include a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council, where allies sit with Ukraine as equals, as in previous years. Some indicated that after the dinner on the first evening, NATO leaders will meet for only a few hours the next day, to ratify new spending goals that can help European allies replace the United States over time as the prime guarantor of the continent’s conventional defense. NATO is also planning a parallel defense industry forum, which Mr. Zelensky might attend.

Telemundo [5/26/2025 10:23 PM, Alexis Boentes, 177K] reports as a "partner with a friend’s face," as Cuban official journalist Oliver Zamora referred to the head of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Cuba. On Cuban television he said: "From this contradiction of being victims, to be executioners and at the same time, to appear to be a friendly hand ... they seek to mock our suffering. His attack is part of a campaign of discredit against the diplomat, following a press conference in Miami on Friday. Of Mike Hammer’s statements - apparently - the one that bothered the Havana regime the most was the one that stands out. What I’ve been hearing. Even from some of the state’s machinery, the revolution has failed. There’s no electricity. There’s no fuel. There’s no food. There’s no medicine. And this, people know, is the responsibility of the Cuban regime. It has nothing to do with any U.S. policy. The first responder was Johana Tablada, the United States in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In an article published in Cubadebate, he blamed the United States for the crisis on the island. On his social networks, Lis Cuesta, wife of ruler Miguel Diaz-Canel, shared an excerpt from Tablada’s article, where he refers to Hammer, said he is a shameless man who hurts. I’m disgusting from human beings we’ve had to deal with. While Hammer, head of U.S. diplomatic mission in Cuba, stresses: They should listen to their own people. Who sees us as friends, who want to tell us their stories. They want to tell us their frustrations.

Reuters [5/26/2025 6:57 AM, Yuliia Dysa and Pavel Polityuk, 24051K] reports Ukraine has confirmed information that China is supplying a range of important products to Russian military plants, the chief of Ukrainian foreign intelligence was quoted on Monday as saying. "There is information that China supplies tooling machines, special chemical products, gunpowder, and components specifically to defence manufacturing industries," Oleh Ivashchenko told Ukrinform state news agency. "We have confirmed data on 20 Russian factories," he said. Reuters has requested a comment from the Chinese foreign ministry. China, the world’s second-largest economy, has forged even closer trade and other economic relations with Russia since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering Western sanctions on the Russian economy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last month that China was supplying weapons and gunpowder to Russia, the first time he had openly accused Beijing of direct military assistance for Moscow. China dismissed the accusation as "groundless" but Kyiv imposed sanctions on three Chinese entities. Ivashchenko said Ukrainian intelligence also had information on at least five cases of Russian-Chinese cooperation in the aviation sector in 2024-2025, including the supply of equipment, spare parts and documentation.

Yahoo News [5/27/2025 12:02 AM, Volodymyr Ivanshyn, 59943K] reports Ukraine will increase interceptor drone and ballistic missile funding amid increased Russian drone and missile attacks, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening address on May 26. "I instructed a significant increase in the production of our interceptor drones, and we will be engaging more funding from our partners to support this," Zelensky said. "I also ordered dedicated funding for Ukraine’s ballistic missile program to accelerate missile production," he added. Russia has intensified aerial attacks against Ukraine in recent days. On May 26, Russia launched its third large-scale aerial and drone assault against Ukraine in three nights, killing at least six people and injuring 24 across the country. The attack marked the most extensive drone strike against Ukraine during the full-scale war, topping the previous record of 298 drones just a day earlier on May 25. Russia launched over 900 strike drones over the last three days, in addition to cruise and ballistic missiles, Zelensky said. "Over 900 attack drones launched against Ukraine in just three days, along with ballistic and cruise missiles. There is no military logic in this, but it is a clear political choice — the choice of Putin, the choice of Russia — the choice to keep waging war and destroying lives." Ukraine and Russia held peace talks in Istanbul on May 16, where both sides agreed to a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange. The peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were largely inconclusive, with Moscow reiterating maximalist demands and sending a delegation of lower-level officials. Despite the peace talks in Turkey, Russia has intensified drone and missile attacks against Ukraine.

Bloomberg [5/26/2025 3:32 AM, Jennifer A. Dlouhy, 19320K] reports President Donald Trump said he was “absolutely” considering new sanctions against Russia as Moscow’s deadly campaign of missile and drone strikes across much of Ukraine extended into a third night. Trump’s comments, made to reporters in New Jersey on Sunday before he boarded Air Force One, came as he grows visibly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the state of talks meant to deliver a ceasefire in Ukraine. The US president has repeatedly threatened new sanctions in the past without following through. “I’m not happy with what Putin is doing,” Trump said before Moscow’s latest barrage. “He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time — always gotten along with him — but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.” Trump in a Truth Social post later on Sunday said that Putin “has gone absolutely CRAZY!” “I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!” Trump said after he returned to Washington. The US president has so far failed to force Putin to the negotiating table as his deadline to end the conflict within the first 100 days of taking office came and went. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that Trump thinks Russia will likely walk away from Ukraine peace talks if the US threatens more sanctions. But Senate Republicans warned last week that they’re prepared to pass new economic penalties if Putin refuses to engage in truce talks or breaches an eventual agreement. The bill includes a 500% tariff on imports from countries that buy Russian oil, petroleum products, natural gas or uranium, according to a draft of the bill seen by Bloomberg News. Russian missiles and drones barraged Ukraine for a third consecutive night. There were explosions in the capital Kyiv, as well as regions across the country where private homes and local facilities were damaged, according to local and national officials posting on Telegram. Andriy Yermak, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on his Telegram channel that “Moscow is stalling even the discussion of proposals — offering no specifics, only wasting time. The only way to make Moscow move faster is through sanctions and weapons.”

Yahoo News [5/27/2025 1:01 AM, Kieran Kelly, 59943K] reports Russia has upgraded its Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones with 90kg warheads, boosting their destructive capability in the latest sign of deepening co-operation between Moscow and Tehran. Shahed drones – launched in swarms almost always at night – have become a hallmark of Vladimir Putin’s campaign to cripple Ukrainian infrastructure, triggering blackouts and damaging key power facilities. The new combined warheads are being built as two different models, but both weighing 90kg. One is being built in Russia, the other in Iran. The Russian-designed model, known as KOFZBCh, combines cumulative, fragmentation, blast and incendiary effects, meaning it can destroy buildings, scatter deadly shrapnel, spark fires and generate a powerful shockwave. It is designed not just to destroy a specific target but to cause maximum chaos in its surroundings. The Iranian version lacks incendiary capability but still delivers a powerful blow, according to Ukraine’s Defence Express. Pavlo Narozhny, a military expert and founder of Reactive Mail, which provides spare parts to the Ukrainian army, told The Telegraph that Russia needed to make its Shahed drones more powerful to counter protective measures put in place by Ukrainian energy companies. It is not yet clear whether the upgraded Shaheds have been used in combat. But their development reflects the growing importance of drones in the conflict, as both sides race to innovate low-cost, high-impact technology, often for marginal gains on the battlefield.

NewsMax [5/26/2025 6:36 PM, Staff, 4622K] reports President Trump backed a secret plan to release Americans held hostage by the Venezuelan regime, a move that upset the State Department and top national security advisers. Last week, Trump’s special envoy for Special Missions, Richard Grenell, contracted a private jet to travel to Antigua where he met with Venezuelan officials and took custody of Joe St. Clair, 33, a former military veteran who had been arrested and imprisoned about six months ago. Venezuela is believed to continue detaining five remaining U.S. citizens and at least four Venezuelans who hold U.S. residency status. After successfully obtaining his release Tuesday, Grenell flew back with St. Clair to Washington. News of St. Clair’s release – a story broken by Newsmax – upset the State Department and other national security officials and led to a press report in the New York Post suggesting Grenell had gone rogue and undertook the operation without the president’s approval. But sources close to the White House tell Newsmax that Trump fully approved Grenell’s mission and instructed his envoy to undertake the mission without informing other officials. Washington Post reported that the State Department was not involved in talks about sending Grenell to Antigua, which "caught everyone off guard," including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the department’s Bureau of Western

CNN [5/26/2025 11:19 AM, Jeremy Diamond, Abeer Salman, and Oren Liebermann, 21433K] reports that US special envoy Steve Witkoff has told CNN that a ceasefire-hostage deal for Gaza is currently on the table with a pathway to end the war, and urged Hamas to accept it. The proposal would see the release of half of the living hostages and half of those who have died in exchange for a temporary ceasefire before negotiations begin for a comprehensive agreement to end the war. He declined to specify how long that temporary truce would last, which has been a key issue in the negotiations. "Israel will agree to a temporary ceasefire/hostage deal that would see half of the living and half of the deceased return and lead to substantive negotiations to find a path to a permanent ceasefire, which I have agreed to preside over," Witkoff told CNN on Monday. "That deal is on the table. Hamas should take it." He said Hamas has yet to accept the deal. Reuters reported earlier on Monday that Hamas had agreed to a proposal that would see the release of 10 hostages in two groups in exchange for a 70-day truce. Witkoff told CNN that was not his proposal. "What I have seen is completely unacceptable," Witkoff said, referring to the report. Meanwhile, a Palestinian official close to the negotiations also told CNN that Hamas has agreed to Witkoff’s proposal, but did not provide additional details about what the deal entailed.

CNN [5/26/2025 11:52 AM, Frederik Pleitgen, Joseph Ataman, and Claudia Otto, 875K] reports that Iran is open to compromises on its nuclear program in talks with the United States, but uranium enrichment remains non-negotiable, Tehran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson told CNN, indicating Washington understands this position. "If the intention is to make sure that Iran’s nuclear program would not be weaponized, I think that’s something that we could simply do," Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign ministry, said in Tehran on Monday. Asked by CNN how a compromise can be reached in talks, Baghaei said, "So many ways" without specifying. However, he added that Iran’s right to nuclear energy would have to be protected, echoing the long-standing Iranian position on talks. "If the (US’) intention is to deprive Iranians of their right to peaceful nuclear energy, I think that would be very problematic to the extent that I think it would really challenge the whole process," he added. After US-Iran talks inched forward with the fifth round of negotiations in Rome on Friday, President Donald Trump voiced optimism Sunday that progress was being made. "We had some very good talks with Iran yesterday and today, and let’s see what happens. But I think we could have some good news on the Iran front," Trump told reporters in New Jersey as he was preparing to return to Washington. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the talks "one of the most professional rounds of negotiations" yet but said the key issues were "too complicated to be resolved in two or three meetings."

Reuters [5/27/2025 4:23 AM, Jack Kim, 51390K] reports North Korea’s minister of state security, Ri Chang Dae, left Pyongyang on Monday to attend a meeting of senior security officials in Russia, the North’s KCNA state news agency reported on Tuesday. Russian media have reported that the top security aide to President Vladimir Putin, Sergei Shoigu, will take part in the meeting to be attended by security officials from countries including North Korea, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

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