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Hello and welcome to the most recent updates in US politics. We begin with the news that a small number of National Guard troops has started protecting government facilities in the Greater Chicago region and assisting law enforcement in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.

Deployment Details

An unit of 200 Texas Guard troops were operating in the Chicago area, according to a representative for the US Northern Command, who communicated with the news agency on background basis in order to discuss operational details that have not been made public.

The military personnel are in the urban area to secure US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) buildings and other government properties and law enforcement personnel, Northern Command stated publicly.

The forces, along with about three hundred Illinois personnel, had arrived Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles southwest of Chicago. All 500 troops are under the military command and have been deployed for 60 days. The spokesperson wasn't able to immediately offer details about how the troops were armed.

Political Context

It coincides with Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's city leader, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, accusing them of failing to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

"Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"

Both Johnson and Pritzker are Democrats. Trump's comments coincide with state military forces have started deployment in the Chicago area at the direction of the Trump administration, despite objections from Illinois officials, including Pritzker and Johnson.

Other Updates

• The president announced that Hamas and Israel have agreed to a provisional agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, and release Israeli hostages and detained persons.
• News of the Middle East deal was praised by Republican lawmakers, who urged Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize this week, but received with greater caution by Palestinian Americans.
• During White House event, Trump appeared not to recognize the term 'Habeas Corpus' and referred to his homeland security secretary. In May, Noem gave a wildly inaccurate explanation of the core legal principle that mandates that the authorities provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people.
• All of the witnesses who contributed testimony at the White House "antifa roundtable" hosted by the administration on Wednesday were identified as freelance reporters who might better be called partisan conservative social media influencers. The influencers report on leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more similar to political investigation than neutral journalism.
• GOP senators rejected a military authorization measure that would have checked Trump's authority to use lethal armed action against suspected drug smugglers after opposition party tried to counter the administration's extraordinary use of the military to eliminate vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
• During the White House "political discussion" on Wednesday, at least one witness echoed Trump's inaccurate statement that large numbers of people have been killed by left-wing radicals in Portland, Oregon. The accurate count of killings by self-described "antifa" radicals in Portland is: a single incident.