Trump ‘looking at all options’ amid threats to invoke Insurrection Act, Vance says

Vice-president calls crime ‘out of control’ in US cities as Trump faces legal battles for use of federal forces

The White House is talking about invoking the Insurrection Act that would allow the deployment of military troops on US soil to quell domestic unrest amid legal challenges over the moves, JD Vance confirmed on Sunday.

Vance was asked on NBC News’s Meet the Press whether Donald Trump was seriously considering invoking the emergency power to deploy national guard forces and even the US military in domestic settings.

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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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Trump says military members will be paid despite government shutdown

President claims he found a way to pay troops and directed Pentagon chief to release funds on 15 October

Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that he had found a way to pay US military troops despite the ongoing federal government shutdown, saying he had instructed his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, to release funds.

Posting on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: “I am using my authority, as commander-in-chief, to direct our secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, to use all available funds to get our troops PAID on October 15.”

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Nineteen people feared dead after blast at Tennessee munitions plant

Police chief calls explosion near Bucksnort, south-west of Nashville, ‘devastating’ and says ‘we have some deceased’

Nineteen people are missing and feared dead following a huge explosion at a military munitions plant in Tennessee.

The powerful blast ripped through the explosives manufacturing plant in rural Tennessee on Friday morning, rattling homes miles away and bringing emergency services to the scene, authorities and residents said.

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Senate Republicans vote against check on Trump using deadly force against cartels

First vote in Congress on military campaign that White House says has hit four vessels and killed at least 21 people

Senate Republicans voted down legislation Wednesday that would have put a check on Donald Trump’s ability to use deadly military force against drug cartels after Democrats tried to counter the administration’s extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers to destroy vessels in the Caribbean.

The vote fell mostly along party lines, 48-51, with two Republicans, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski, voting in favor and the Democrat John Fetterman voting against.

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US struck another boat illegally carrying drugs off Venezuela coast, Trump says

President said US would turn attention to drug trafficking happening on land during speech at navy ceremony

US forces on Saturday evening struck another vessel illegally carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela, Donald Trump said on Sunday to thousands of sailors at a ceremony celebrating the US navy’s 250th anniversary. He added that the US would also start looking at drug trafficking happening on land.

Trump made the comment during a speech at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, next to the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier. It was not immediately clear if he was referencing a strike announced on Friday by defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

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White House official inadvertently reveals plans to send elite army unit to Portland

Anthony Salisbury displayed chat about deployment of 82nd airborne division on cell phone while in Minnesota

A senior White House official accidentally leaked details of plans to send an elite army unit to Portland, in the latest intelligence leak by the Trump administration.

Anthony Salisbury, a top deputy to Stephen Miller, the influential White House policy adviser, was observed using Signal in a public place to discuss a plan to deploy the army’s 82nd airborne division to Portland, the Democratic-run Oregon city which Donald Trump has repeatedly castigated as being “war-ravaged”.

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Hegseth says four killed in US strike on alleged drug boat off Venezuelan coast

Pentagon chief says strike – fourth by US military in recent weeks – targeted boat with ‘substantial amounts’ of drugs

The United States carried out a strike against an alleged drug-trafficking boat on Friday that killed four people, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said, a day after the Trump administration told Congress it was entering a new “non-international armed conflict” with cartels.

The strike, which Hegseth said he directed on Donald Trump’s orders, appears to be at least the fourth in recent weeks. Hegseth gave few details about the boat or the evidence that it was carrying narcotics, other than saying the US had confirmed it was carrying drugs.

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Trump signs order promising measures, including military, to defend Qatar

Text appears meant to assure the Qataris following Israel’s surprise attack on the country targeting Hamas leaders

Donald Trump has signed an executive order vowing to use all measures including US military action to defend the energy-rich nation of Qatar – though it remains unclear just what weight the pledge will carry.

The text of the order, available Wednesday on the White House’s website but dated Monday, appears to be another measure by Trump to assure the Qataris following Israel’s surprise attack on the country targeting Hamas leaders as they weighed accepting a ceasefire with Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip.

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US military brass brace for firings as Pentagon chief orders top-level meeting

Pete Hegseth ordered hundreds of generals and admirals to Virginia to meet and receive address on ‘warrior ethos’

US military officials are reportedly bracing for possible firings or demotions after the Trump administration’s Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, abruptly summoned hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world to attend a gathering in Virginia in the upcoming days.

The event, scheduled for Tuesday at Marine Corps University in Quantico, is expected to feature a short address by Hegseth focused on military standards and the “warrior ethos”, according to the Washington Post.

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Pentagon demands journalists sign pledge not to gather certain information

If they don’t agree to limits, including restricting movement within building, Pentagon press passes will be revoked

The US military has issued new media restrictions demanding that journalists pledge not to gather any information – including unclassified documents – that has not been authorized for release or else risk revocation of their press passes.

In a memo issued Thursday, the Pentagon stated that “it remains committed to transparency to promote accountability and public trust”. However, using an abbreviation for the recently rebranded Department of War headed by the Trump administration’s Pete Hegseth, the memo added: “DoW information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.”

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Leaked plans show Pentagon eyeing Louisiana to deploy national guard

Documents show intent to deploy 1,000 troops to conduct law enforcement operations in urban centers

Donald Trump’s administration has drafted a proposal to deploy 1,000 Louisiana national guard troops to conduct law enforcement operations in the state’s urban centers, the Washington Post reported Saturday, citing military planning documents it had obtained.

Trump has made crime a major focus of his administration even as violent crime rates have fallen in many US cities. His crackdown on Democratic-led municipalities has fueled legal concerns and spurred protests, including a recent demonstration by several thousand people in Washington DC.

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Trump directs ire at Tom Hanks for being ‘destructive’ and ‘woke’

US president applauded West Point alumni for abruptly calling off a ceremony honoring the actor

Donald Trump launched a vitriolic attack against Tom Hanks for supposedly being “destructive” and “woke” after one of America’s most beloved actors was snubbed without much explanation by West Point last week.

On his social media site on Monday, the US president applauded the alumni association of the US Military Academy (or West Point) for abruptly calling off a ceremony honoring Hanks, twice an Academy award winner who has played numerous military characters and also has a long history of advocating for veterans.

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Blackwater founder and Maga disciple Erik Prince pitching services in Ukraine

Sources say Prince, whose firm’s contractors committed 2007 Iraq massacre, eager to get into valuable drone sector

Amid reports that Donald Trump’s administration is considering using US private military contractors in a postwar Ukraine, multiple sources tell the Guardian one high-profile and controversial American from the “war on terror” era is already circling for business.

In the streets of Kyiv, military hawks and defense privateers have described how Erik Prince, Maga disciple and founder of the now-defunct mercenary company Blackwater, has been aggressively pitching his services and looking to buy.

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West Point cancels ceremony to honor Tom Hanks as ‘outstanding US citizen’

Little known about decision, although Hanks, who has advocated for military memorials, also voted for Biden

In Forrest Gump, the title character, played by Tom Hanks, receives the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Lyndon B Johnson.

In real life, it appears Hanks will no longer receive another military honor.

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Trump sends 10 stealth fighter planes to Puerto Rico amid war on Caribbean drug cartels

Move comes after accusing Venezuela of buzzing US warship and a deadly US missile strike in Caribbean Sea

Donald Trump is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to bolster US military operations against drug cartels in the Caribbean region, it was reported on Friday.

If follows a deadly US missile strike on Tuesday on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration insisted was carrying 11 Venezuelan drug traffickers, and comments by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Wednesday that such attacks “will happen again”.

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US Navy Seals killed North Korean civilians in botched 2019 mission, report says

New York Times says Trump authorized mission to plant listening device; team killed fishers they encountered

US Navy Seals shot and killed a number of North Korean civilians during a botched covert mission to plant a listening device in the nuclear-armed country during high-stakes diplomatic negotiations in 2019, the New York Times reported on Friday.

Citing unidentified sources, including current and former military officials with knowledge of the still-classified details, the newspaper said Donald Trump approved the operation during his first administration, as he was involved in historic talks with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.

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Trump’s LA national guard deployment cost taxpayers $120m, Newsom says

California governor condemns decision to deploy troops in response to anti-Ice protests as ‘waste, fraud and abuse’

Donald Trump’s deployment of the national guard in Los Angeles in response to protests in the city over immigration raids cost taxpayers nearly $120m, the California governor’s office said on Thursday.

The US president sent 2,000 national guard troops into the city in June amid clashes between federal immigration agents and protesters. This week a judge ruled that dispatching the military to accompany authorities on immigration enforcement operations violated federal law.

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Maine shooting survivors sue US government, alleging army failed to stop deadly attack

US army accused of ‘repeatedly violating its own policies’ over 2023 shooting by reservist that left 18 people dead

Survivors and family members of victims of the 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, are suing the US government, alleging that the US army could have stopped the attack carried out by an army reservist but failed to intervene.

The suit, filed on Wednesday in Maine district court, alleges that despite decades of knowledge about the risks posed by soldiers in crisis, the policies and procedures the army has developed around dealing with service members who are struggling with severe mental health challenges were not used to disarm the shooter, a sergeant with a 21-year history in the army reserve. Eighteen people were killed in the attack.

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Top Obama-era Latin American expert warns of ‘disastrous’ US intervention in Venezuela

US military buildup and attack on alleged narco boat spark fears of protracted guerrilla war in South America

The White House’s former top Latin America official has said he fears the US could stumble into a protracted guerrilla war in Venezuela after Donald Trump ordered a military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 alleged drug traffickers.

Tuesday’s controversial strike off the Venezuelan coast – which was reportedly carried out by an attack helicopter or Reaper drone – came after the US president ordered a major naval deployment to the region, ostensibly to combat South American drug traffickers.

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