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As we reported earlier, about 200 marines have been deployed to Los Angeles and will be protecting a federal building from noon local time, Maj Gen Scott Sherman, said during a briefing:
I would like to emphasize that the soldiers will not participate in law enforcement activities.
He also added that so far, neither the marines nor the national guard troops there had temporarily detained anyone.
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The day so far
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Donald Trump is scrambling to present Israel’s strikes on Iran, which he publicly claimed he did not want on Thursday, as a means of continuing his efforts to convince Tehran to negotiate a nuclear deal. Trump has been walking a tightrope as he claims that he was fully aware of Israel’s plans to launch massive airstrikes against Iran while continuing to distance the US from those strikes and deny Washington took any active role in the preparations. Fears of a full-scale war in the region are very much real, with Israel declaring its strikes on Iran were “just the beginning”, and Iran vowing to retaliate by opening “the gates of hell” on Israel. Follow all our latest coverage on the crisis here.
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Federal troops continued to be on duty in the streets of Los Angeles after a series of court rulings, and more arrived today along with 200 marines. The marines have been protecting the Wilshire Federal Building since noon local time. Maj Gen Scott Sherman had earlier said the marines “will focus on the protection of federal property and personnel”, and would not be performing law enforcement activities. The relieved national guard members would then focus on protecting federal agents, Sherman said.
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Millions of people are expected to turn out to protest on Saturday at roughly 2,000 sites nationwide in a demonstration dubbed “No Kings”, against growing opposition to what critics see as Trump taking actions on the brink of authoritarianism. Demonstrations are expected in places including Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York City, Minneapolis and Houston.
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The mass nationwide protests are timed to coincide with the president’s controversial military parade in Washington DC tomorrow to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the formation of the US army, and coincidentally his 79th birthday. There are also predictions of as many as 200,000 protestors at the parade itself.
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Kilmar Ábrego García, the man who the Trump administration unlawfully deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March, pleaded not guilty in a Tennessee court today. He faces criminal charges of taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle migrants into the US. He is also expected to contest a bid by federal prosecutors to have him detained pending trial.
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A federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked the state department from implementing an agency-wide reorganization plan that includes 2,000 layoffs. US district judge Susan Illston said her May ruling barring federal agencies from laying off tens of thousands of employees at the direction of Trump applies to the planned overhaul announced by the state department last month.
US judge blocks state department's planned overhaul, mass layoffs
A federal judge in California has temporarily blocked the state department from implementing an agency-wide reorganization plan that includes 2,000 layoffs.
US district judge Susan Illston in San Francisco during a virtual hearing said her May ruling barring federal agencies from laying off tens of thousands of employees at the direction of Donald Trump applies to the planned overhaul announced by the state department last month.
A US Department of Justice lawyer, Alexander Resar, said in response that the state department would not issue layoff notices that were scheduled to go out tomorrow.
The state department had argued that its reorganization plan submitted to Congress last month predated a February executive order and subsequent White House memo directing mass layoffs, placing it outside the scope of Illston’s decision.
The ruling came in a lawsuit by a group of unions, non-profits and municipalities.
Gabrielle Canon
‘A moral obligation to protest’: LA residents on being thrust into chaos
As thousands of military personnel descended on Los Angeles under the orders of Donald Trump and their city was thrust into the center of a political crisis, Angelenos have largely voiced their support for the immigrant community and resistance to the administration targeting them.
“When you are rounding up people with no criminal record while they are at their jobs, it is very clear that the cruelty is indeed the point,” said Alex Berg, 42.
As Americans, we have a constitutionally protected right to protest. As Angelenos, we have a moral obligation to protest Ice raids on members of our community.
Predominantly peaceful protests, which erupted after federal agents swept into workplaces, immigration hearings and elementary schools last week, were met with an unprecedented and heavy-handed response from the president, in a move the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has called “unlawful”.
Hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested or detained in the past week. Officers and troops in tactical gear have relied on chemical irritants, fired rounds of “less-lethal” projectiles and deployed flash-bang grenades in attempts to squash the unrest. Scores of armored vehicles have been crowded into a small part of the vast city’s downtown in a striking show of force.
Berg believes the escalation was by design, “to chill vocal opposition to the administration”, he said. “They cannot remove our constitutionally protected right to protest through the law, but they can certainly make us think twice about how badly we’re willing to deal with the consequences of protesting.”
While the marches mostly remained nonviolent, dramatic images of burning cars and graffitied buildings have been splayed across the internet and on social media sites, and Trump has used them to validate his orders. In a speech on Tuesday, the president promised he would “liberate Los Angeles”, and, calling the protesters “animals”, he made a baseless claim that the demonstrations were part of a “foreign invasion”.
Many residents, however, have challenged the president’s descriptions of their city’s demonstrations. Celeste Perry felt Trump’s mass deportation agenda was part of a ploy.
Last year Republicans blocked meaningful immigration reform per Trump’s instructions to House speaker Mike Johnson. Trump desperately needed to keep immigration his central issue for his campaign.
The raids are performance to sell his base on the lie that all their troubles should be blamed on immigrants.
“The protesters have my full support,” said William Rosencrans, a 57-year-old stonemason, who called the moves by the administration cruel and chaotic.
Trump and his allies are using tactics shared by every other authoritarian regime and they must be resisted at all costs and, ultimately, by any means necessary if the country is to be saved.
Marina Dunbar
Hundreds of US marines arrive in LA as large protests are planned in California and across US
Federal troops continued to be on duty in the streets of Los Angeles on Friday after a series of court rulings, and more arrived, with large protests planned in California and across the country this weekend against the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigration raids and a big military parade in Washington DC.
Around 200 US marines arrived in LA on Friday morning. This followed Donald Trump’s extraordinary decision to deploy national guard troops to LA last weekend, over the objections of the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. The marines were to take over protecting a federal building, US Army Maj Gen Scott Sherman, who commands the task force of marines and national guardsmen, said.
The streets had been mostly calm overnight going into Friday morning, marking the seventh day of protests across various areas and the third day of an overnight curfew in a small part of the huge downtown area.
Sporadic demonstrations have also taken place in cities including New York, Chicago, Seattle and Austin on several days in the last week against Trump’s pushing of his mass deportation agenda, undertaken by targeting undocumented communities in the US interior.
And millions more are expected to turn out to protest on Saturday at roughly 2,000 sites nationwide in a demonstration dubbed “No Kings”, against growing opposition to what critics see as Trump taking actions on the brink of authoritarianism.
The mass protests are timed to coincide with the US president’s controversial military parade in Washington DC to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the formation of the US army, and coincidentally his 79th birthday.
Analysis: Trump scrambles to claim credit for Israel’s Iran attack he publicly opposed
Andrew Roth
Donald Trump is walking a tightrope as he claims that he was fully aware of Israel’s plans to launch massive airstrikes against Iran while continuing to distance the US from those strikes and deny Washington took any active role in the preparations.
The White House’s messaging has shifted quickly from Marco Rubio’s arms-length description of the Israeli attack as a “unilateral action”, to Trump claiming this morning that he was fully in the loop on the operation and that it came at the end of a 60-day ultimatum he had given Iran to “make a deal” on its nuclear programme.
“Today is day 61,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I told [Iran] what to do, but they just couldn’t get there.”
Trump’s framing presents a good cop-bad cop dynamic of his approach with Benjamin Netanyahu, the embattled Israeli leader with whom he has a notoriously combative relationship. The US president has scrambled to now present the Israeli strikes, which he publicly claimed he did not want on Thursday, as a means of continuing his efforts to convince Iran to negotiate.
“They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late,” he said.
But the discordant US response from to the strikes, including Rubio’s Thursday evening statement, a hasty evacuation of some US personnel from the region and ambiguity over whether the US provided intelligence or would actively take part in Israel’s defence from a likely counterattack, has raised questions over whether Israel may have moved ahead of the Trump administration as a way to present Washington with a fait accompli.
CNN has more on that briefing, reporting that Sherman confirmed that at noon local time the two marine companies, part of the full battalion of 700 marines mobilized on Monday in response to the protests, will take over the role of protecting the Wilshire Federal Building, where national guard troops had been posted.
Per my last post they “will focus on the protection of federal property and personnel”, Sherman said, and will not be performing law enforcement activities.
The marines will also be equipped with “standard crowd control gear, which includes a helmet, their face shield, a shield, baton and gas masks”, he added.
The national guard members who were protecting the building will transition to protecting federal agents once the marines take over, Sherman said.
As we reported earlier, about 200 marines have been deployed to Los Angeles and will be protecting a federal building from noon local time, Maj Gen Scott Sherman, said during a briefing:
I would like to emphasize that the soldiers will not participate in law enforcement activities.
He also added that so far, neither the marines nor the national guard troops there had temporarily detained anyone.
Thousands of protests planned for Saturday across US
As we reported earlier, around 2,000 No Kings protests will be held across the country tomorrow, including in Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York City, Minneapolis and Houston, with millions of people expected to attend in a “day of defiance” intended to divert attention away from the “spectacle” of tomorrow’s military parade in Washington DC.
There are also predictions of as many as 200,000 protestors at the parade itself, which coincides with Donald Trump’s birthday.
Women’s March is organizing what it says will be “the biggest protest circus in the country” to counter the military parade in Washington DC. “Tomorrow, we take the streets with creativity, courage, and chaos to call out the real clowns in power,” the group said in a Facebook post.
Delta Air Lines said it has paused flights to Tel Aviv from New York through 31 August due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East after Israel launched a huge wave of airstrikes across Iran. Tehran has called the strikes “a declaration of war”.
Trump says 'we knew everything' about Israel’s strike on Iran
Further to the Wall Street Journal’s report earlier, Donald Trump has said “we knew everything” about Israel’s strikes on Iran. Israel’s prime minister also said a short while ago that the US had advanced warning of its attack on Iran.
Trump told Reuters in a phone interview that it was unclear if Iran still has a nuclear program following Israeli strikes on the country, and said he was unsure if planned nuclear talks schedule for Sunday with Iran would still take place.
He said it was not too late for Iran to make a deal.
I tried to save Iran humiliation and death.
He also said he is not concerned about a regional war breaking out as a result of Israel’s strikes.
My colleague Hayden Vernon is blogging all the latest on this over on our Middle East blog:
Israel used US equipment in Iran attack, says Trump, adding 'maybe now' Iran will agree a nuclear deal – Axios
Israel used “great American equipment” during its attack on Iran, Donald Trump has told Axios in an interview today.
Trump said that Iran now has a stronger incentive to agree on a nuclear deal after Israel’s strikes, Axios reports.
“I couldn’t get them to a deal in 60 days. They were close, they should have done it. Maybe now it will happen,” Axios quotes the president as saying.
US gave regional allies heads up on Israel's planned attack on Iran – Reuters
The US state department informed a number of regional allies in the Middle East of Israel’s looming strike on Iran hours before the attack took place, three sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
In a diplomatic note sent out on Thursday afternoon, the state department confirmed that the Israeli attack was set to take place late on Thursday. Qatar was among the countries which received the heads up.
Washington was not involved in Israel’s operation and was not providing any support, the note said, adding that Donald Trump has been very clear on his desire for peace in the region but at the same time has been firm that Tehran cannot be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons.
The state department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
About 200 marines have moved into Los Angeles, says official
US marines have moved into Los Angeles and will take over protecting federal property and personnel, according to Maj Gen Scott Sherman, who is overseeing the 4,700 troops deployed.
About 200 marines have moved into the city so far, Sherman told reporters on Friday. He said the marines would take over their operations at noon local time in downtown Los Angeles.
He added that so far, neither the marines nor the national guard troops there had temporarily detained anyone.
US warns citizens to depart Iran immediately amid threat of additional military strikes
The US state department has issued a security warning instructing US citizens not to travel to Iran for any reason and to depart Iran immediately. The warning states:
US citizens in Iran face serious, increasing dangers due to rising regional tensions.
It also warned of missiles, drones or rockets flying over Iraq and said Iraq has suspended air traffic at all airports and closed its airspace. The warning states:
Due to regional events, there are indications there may be missiles, drones, or rockets flying over Iraqi airspace. In the event of such an incident seek overhead cover and shelter in place. Do not expose yourself to falling debris.
Kilmar Ábrego García pleads not guilty to human trafficking charges
We reported earlier that Kilmar Ábrego García, the man whom the Trump administration wrongly deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March, appeared in a Tennessee court today to face criminal charges.
Ábrego García, who faces criminal charges of taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle migrants into the US, has now pleaded not guilty.
He is also expected to contest a bid by federal prosecutors to have him detained pending trial.
Ábrego García – a 29-year-old Salvadorian whose wife and young child in Maryland are US citizens – was deported by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials and held in the so-called Center for Terrorism Confinement, a controversial mega-prison better known as Cecot.
Before the hearing began in Nashville, his wife told a crowd that she had seen him for the first time on Thursday since the Trump administration “abducted and disappeared my husband and separated him from our family” three months ago.
“Kilmar wants you to have faith,” she told the crowd, as she asked people supporting him and his family “to continue fighting, and I will be victorious because God is with us”.
California governor Gavin Newsom’s office expressed concern that the data of millions of Medicaid enrollees would be used for immigration raids supported by the national guard troops and marines deployed by Donald Trump in Los Angeles.
“We deeply value the privacy of all Californians,” a statement by the governor’s office reads.
This potential data transfer brought to our attention by the AP is extremely concerning, and if true, potentially unlawful, particularly given numerous headlines highlighting potential improper federal use of personal information and federal actions to target the personal information of Americans.
