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Greetings and welcome to the current updates in US politics. We begin with the news that a small number of National Guard troops has begun guarding government facilities in the Chicago area and assisting law enforcement in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.

Deployment Details

An unit of two hundred Texas military personnel were operating in the Greater Chicago region, according to a representative for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss mission specifics that have not been made public.

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

The forces, along with about 300 from Illinois, had reached on Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles southwest of Chicago. All five hundred personnel are under the Northern Command and have been deployed for 60 days. The spokesperson wasn't able to quickly provide information about how the troops were armed.

Political Context

It comes as Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the jailing of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's city leader, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, charging them of not protecting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

"Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE personnel!" Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker also!"

Both the mayor and governor are Democrats. Trump's comments come as national guard troops have begun arriving in the Greater Chicago region at the order of the Trump administration, despite objections from Illinois officials, including the governor and mayor.

Additional Developments

• Donald Trump declared that Hamas and Israel have accepted a provisional agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, and free Israeli hostages and detained persons.
• News of the Gaza agreement was applauded by Republican lawmakers, who urged Trump to be given the Nobel Peace prize this week, but received with greater caution by Arab-American communities.
• During White House event, Trump seemed unfamiliar with the term 'legal principle' and deferred to his homeland security secretary. In May, the secretary gave a highly incorrect explanation of the core legal principle that mandates that the government provide a official justification for detaining and imprisoning people.
• All of the witnesses who provided statements at the White House "antifa roundtable" hosted by the administration on Wednesday were self-described independent journalists who might more accurately described as partisan conservative social media influencers. The influencers cover leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more akin to opposition research than neutral journalism.
• GOP senators voted down a war powers resolution that would have checked Trump's authority to use lethal armed action against alleged narcotics traffickers after Democrats tried to counter the administration's unprecedented deployment of the armed forces to eliminate vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
• During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least a participant echoed Trump's false claim that significant amounts of people have been killed by political extremists in the Oregon city. The correct number of fatal incidents by self-described "antifa" radicals in Portland is: one.