Trump poised to send scores of federal agents to San Francisco

Newsom calls move ‘right out of the dictator’s handbook’ as agents prepare for key immigration enforcement operation

The Trump administration appeared poised to send dozens of federal agents to the San Francisco Bay Area for a major immigration enforcement operation, prompting condemnation from California leaders.

Details of the deployment were still emerging, but it will reportedly involve more than 100 federal agents, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The agents are reportedly set to begin using the US Coast Guard base in Alameda, a city located across the bay from San Francisco. It remained unclear whether national guard troops would also be involved.

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Cuban man deported from US to Eswatini goes on hunger strike in prison

Roberto Mosquera del Peral was sent to African country as part of Trump administration’s immigration crackdown

A Cuban man deported by the Trump administration to the southern African country of Eswatini has started a hunger strike against his detention there, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Roberto Mosquera del Peral was among five third-country nationals deported from the US to Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, in July.

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‘They can’t dismiss Leo so easily’: how the pope has confounded conservatives

As pontiff prepares for visit of King Charles, the contours of his papacy are slowly becoming apparent

When King Charles meets Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican this week, the two leaders are likely to discuss pressing global issues as well as sharing a historic moment of prayer.

In the face of volatility and rising nationalism, Leo, the first North American chosen to lead the Roman Catholic church, has begun to outline the contours of his papacy after a low-key start to his five-month-old papacy.

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Deputy US marshal and man shot during Ice operation in Los Angeles

Investigation after federal officers shot at man during ‘targeted traffic stop’ and agent was hit by ricochet bullet

An investigation is ongoing after a man and a deputy US marshal were shot and injured on Tuesday morning during an immigration enforcement operation that took place in south Los Angeles, police said.

Reports from the Los Angeles police department said the incident was reported shortly before 9am and involved a federal agent being shot.

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Florida politician faces backlash over calls for mass deportation of Indians

Chandler Langevin faced censure from Palm Bay council and calls to resign from series of posts condemned as ‘vile’

A city councilmember in Florida is facing backlash from national Indian American organizations, members of Congress, and local residents after posting a series of social media messages that insulted Indian people living in the US and called for them to be deported en masse.

Chandler Langevin, a Palm Bay council member elected last year, made derogatory comments about Indian people across several posts on the social media platform X over roughly three weeks this fall. He claimed that Indians come to America to “drain our pockets” before returning to India, “or worse … to stay”.

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At least 15 detained after protesters and police clash outside Chicago Ice center

Officers reportedly tackled and dragged several people after authorities told demonstrators to stay in ‘protest zones’

At least 15 people were taken into custody outside the Broadview Ice detention center in the Chicago area after heated confrontations between Illinois state police and protesters on Friday.

Authorities had instructed demonstrators to remain in designated “protest zones”, but tensions escalated when officers moved to clear the roadway.

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Trump officials ask supreme court to permit national guard in Illinois

Justice department submits emergency filing as Trump pushes to expand use of military in Democratic-led cities

The Trump administration on Friday asked the US supreme court to permit the deployment of national guard troops to Illinois, as the president pushes to expand the domestic use of the military in a growing number of Democratic-led cities.

In an emergency filing, the justice department urged the court to overturn a lower court ruling that halted the deployment of several hundred national guard troops to the Chicago area. The district judge had raised doubts about the administration’s justification for sending troops, questioning its explanation in light of local conditions.

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Trump to pay Ice and border agents amid shutdown as other federal workers go unpaid

Administration reportedly promises ‘supercheck’ covering shutdown pay for law enforcement officers across DHS

The Trump administration has promised tens of thousands of federal agents carrying out his immigration crackdown that they will be paid during the government shutdown, according to emails seen by Reuters, even as other federal workers go without pay.

The pay plan was communicated to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staff on Wednesday in separate internal emails seen by Reuters.

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75% of Americans report soaring prices as Trump claims inflation ‘over’

Exclusive poll: Inflation remains a concern despite president’s pledge to reduce prices on ‘day one’

Nine months after Donald Trump took office, promising to reduce prices on “day one”, a clear majority of Americans say their monthly costs have risen by between $100 and $749, according to an exclusive new poll conducted for the Guardian.

The president has continued to insist that there is “virtually no inflation”. “Prices are ‘WAY DOWN’ in the USA,” Trump wrote on social media in late August.

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Trump says six were killed in US strike on another boat allegedly carrying drugs near Venezuela

UN has condemned US strikes on small boats it believes to be trafficking drugs as extrajudicial executions

Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States has struck another small boat that he accuses of carrying drugs in waters off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people aboard.

“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social social media platform. “No U.S. Forces were harmed.”

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Obama takes aim at companies cutting deals with Trump: ‘We have capacity to take a stand’

Universities, law firms and businesses that have changed course should have stood by convictions, says ex-president

Barack Obama took aim at institutions and businesses who made deals or worked out settlements with the Trump administration, noting on a new podcast episode: “We all have this capacity, I think, to take a stand.”

In a talk with Marc Maron on the comedian’s last edition of his long-running WTF With Marc Maron, the former US president said institutions – including law firms, universities and businesses – that have changed course during the Trump administration should have stood by their convictions.

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National guard troops in Illinois can remain but cannot be deployed yet, judge rules

Troops can stay under federal control, as US senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth decry being barred access to Ice facility

The national guard troops Donald Trump sent to Illinois can remain in the state and under federal control but can’t be deployed, an appeals court ruled on Saturday.

The appeals court granted a pause in the case until it can hear further arguments.

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Chicago TV journalist pushed to ground and arrested during Ice raid, then later released

Witnesses call arrest of video editor Debbie Brockman, a US citizen, by masked federal agents ‘absolutely horrifying’

A video editor and producer for Chicago’s WGN television station was arrested by masked federal agents on Friday morning, and later released, during an Ice raid on the city’s North Side, as shown in videos shared widely on social media.

Videos show Debbie Brockman being violently forced to the ground by two agents before she is handcuffed and put in a van. A local resident filming the incident asks her name while she is face down on the street being handcuffed.

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Chicago woman shot by US border patrol indicted by federal grand jury

Marimar Martinez, 30, was charged with impeding a federal officer with a deadly weapon in fracas preceding shooting

A Chicago woman shot multiple times by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents was recently indicted by a grand jury on federal charges of impeding a federal officer with a deadly weapon.

Prosecutors allege Marimar Martinez, 30, rammed the vehicle of federal agents with her own before they shot her, which they say was an act of self-defense. They also claim Martinez was armed.

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Federal agents taunted Chicago woman to ‘do something’ before shooting her, attorney claims

Officers say woman was in chase ending in ramming border patrol vehicle during Trump’s immigration crackdown

The attorney for a woman who was shot by federal agents in Chicago over the weekend after she allegedly rammed a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) vehicle has claimed that body-camera footage captures one of the officers saying: “Do something, bitch,” before opening fire, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The shooting occurred on Saturday morning in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood, as immigration agents, at the behest of the second Trump administration, have been scouring Illinois’s largest city for people to deport.

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Judge blocks Trump’s bid to deploy national guard to Oregon – US politics live

Ruling by US District Judge Karin Immergut blocks any deployment to Portland for two weeks as legal wrangling continues

The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, accused Democrats of being “not serious” in negotiations to end the federal government shutdown, while the Democratic leader accused Republicans of driving the shutdown, now on its fifth day and expected to last at least through next week.

Talks between the opposing political parties stalled over the weekend, with no votes anticipated to end the standoff. A CBS poll found just 28% of Democratic voters and 23% of Republicans consider their party’s positions worth shutting down the government.

How could bringing in federalised national guard from California not be in direct contravention of the [decision] I issued yesterday?

At the direction of the president, approximately 200 federalized members of the California national guard are being reassigned from duty in the greater Los Angeles area to Portland, Oregon to support US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal personnel performing official duties, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property.

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Eswatini confirms arrival of 10 more people as part of US deportation deal

African kingdom receives second group of third-country nationals in what NGOs and lawyers say is violation of human rights

Ten people deported by the US have arrived in Eswatini, its government said, the second group of third-country deportees to be sent to the southern African kingdom by the Trump administration in what lawyers and NGOs have described as violations of their human rights.

A statement by the Eswatini government posted on social media before their arrival on Monday said: “The individuals will be kept in a secured area separate from the public, while arrangements are made for their return to their countries of origin.”

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Bad Bunny pushes back on Kristi Noem threat that immigrants stay away from Super Bowl

Singer jokes on SNL that everyone was happy about his planned half-time show, ‘even Fox News’

Bad Bunny responded to homeland security secretary Kristi Noem’s threats to send federal immigration enforcement agents to the Super Bowl next year, joking during Saturday Night Live that everyone was happy about his planned half-time performance, “even Fox News”.

The 31-year-old Puerto Rican singer who has criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies hosted the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, using his opening monologue to address controversy around his 2026 Super Bowl performance.

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Trump authorizes national guard deployment to Chicago, White House says, as border patrol there shoots woman

Illinois governor JB Pritzker says administration is escalating ‘aggression against Illinois citizens and residents’

Donald Trump has moved to deploy the national guard in another city by authorizing 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago, where the government said border patrol agents shot and injured a woman while firing at someone who tried to run them over.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that the president had authorized using Illinois national guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.

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Kristi Noem warns immigrants away from Super Bowl: ‘We’ll be all over that place’

Homeland security chief also excoriates NFL for selecting Bad Bunny to perform during game’s half-time break

Kristi Noem, Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, has said that only Americans should attend next year’s Super Bowl and warned that Ice agents “will be all over” the event.

Speaking to the rightwing podcaster Benny Johnson on Friday, Noem also said the NFL will “not be able to sleep at night” over its decision to choose Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper who has criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies, as its half-time performer.

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