Donald Trump

June 7 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing members of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency to access personal Social Security Administration data.

On Friday, the Court’s six conservatives granted an emergency application filed by the Trump administration to lift an injunction issued by a federal judge in Maryland. Opposing the injunction were the three liberal justices: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

There are 69 million retirees, disabled workers, dependents and survivors who receive Social Security benefits, representing 28.75% of the U.S. population.

In a separate two-page order issued Friday, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration for now to shield DOGE from freedom of information requests seeking thousands of pages of material. This vote also was 6-3 with no written dissenting opinions.

In the two-page unsigned order on access, the court said: “We conclude that, under the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work.”

The conservatives are Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Three of them were nominated by President Donald Trump during his first term.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander, appointed by President Barack Obama, had ruled that DOGE staffers had no need to access the specific data. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Virginia, declined to block Hollander’s decision.

The lawsuit was filed by progressive group Democracy Forward on behalf of two unions, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the American Federation of Teachers, as well as the Alliance for Retired Americans.

They alleged broader access to personal information would violate a federal law, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

“This is a sad day for our democracy and a scary day for millions of people,” the groups said in a statement. “This ruling will enable President Trump and DOGE’s affiliates to steal Americans’ private and personal data. Elon Musk may have left Washington, D.C., but his impact continues to harm millions of people. We will continue to use every legal tool at our disposal to keep unelected bureaucrats from misusing the public’s most sensitive data as this case moves forward.”

Social Security Works posted on X: “No one in history — no commissioner, no president, no one — has ever had the access that these DOGE minions have.”

White House spokesperson Liz Huston after the ruling told NBC News that “the Supreme Court allowing the Trump Administration to carry out commonsense efforts to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse and modernize government information systems is a huge victory for the rule of law.”

Brown Jackson wrote a nine-page dissenting opinion that the “Government fails to substantiate its stay request by showing that it or the public will suffer irreparable harm absent this Court’s intervention. In essence, the ‘urgency’ underlying the government’s stay application is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes.”

She concluded her dissent by writing: “The Court opts instead to relieve the Government of the standard obligations, jettisoning careful judicial decisionmaking and creates grave privacy risks for millions of Americans in the process.”

Kathleen Romig, who worked as a senior adviser at the agency during the Biden administration, told CNN that Americans should be concerned about how DOGE has handled highly sensitive data so far. She said the personal data runs “from cradle to grave.”

“While the appeals court considers whether DOGE is violating the law, its operatives will have ‘God-level’ access to Social Security numbers, earnings records, bank routing numbers, mental and reproductive health records and much more,” Romig, who now is director of Social Security and disability policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

When Trump became president again on Jan. 20, he signed an executive order establishing DOGE with the goal of “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

Nearly a dozen DOGE members have been installed at the agency, according to court filings. In all, there are about 90 DOGE workers.

DOGE, which was run by billionaire Elon Musk until he left the White House one week ago, wants to modernize systems and detect waste and fraud at the agency.

“These teams have a business need to access the data at their assigned agency and subject the government’s records to much-needed scrutiny,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the court motion.

The data includes Social Security numbers, date and place of birth, gender, addresses, marital and parental status, parents’ names, lifetime earnings, bank account information, immigration and work authorization status, health conditions for disability benefits and use of Medicare.

SSA also has data-sharing agreements with the IRS and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The plaintiffs wrote: “The agency is obligated by the Privacy Act and its own regulations, practices, and procedures to keep that information secure — and not to share it beyond the circle of those who truly need it.”

Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano, who was sworn in to the post on May 7, said in a statement: that”The Supreme Court’s ruling is a major victory for American taxpayers. The Social Security Administration will continue driving forward modernization efforts, streamlining government systems, and ensuring improved service and outcomes for our beneficiaries.”

On May 23, Roberts temporarily put lower court decisions on hold while the Supreme Court considered what next steps to take.

Musk called Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” during an interview with Joe Rogan on Feb. 28.

The Social Security system, which started in 1935, transfers current workers’ payroll tax payments to people who are already retired.

The payroll tax is a mandatory tax paid by employees and employers. The total current tax rate is 12.4%. There is a separate 2.9% tax for Medicare.

The big break-up: The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has parted ways with the richest man in the world, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Once their friendship reaped rewards for both: Musk donated around hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s re-election campaign and the president created a role for Musk in his government.

But political, or fiscal, differences soured the relationship, and what was once a mutually beneficial alliance deteriorated into an exchange of insults on social media.

So, did Elon Musk’s position undermine US democracy?

And do Donald Trump’s friendships and interests influence US policy?

Presenter: Elizabeth Puranam

Guests:

Niall Stanage – Political analyst and White House columnist for The Hill newspaper

Dan Ives – Technology analyst and managing director of Wedbush Securities

Faiz Siddiqui – Author of, Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk

June 7 (UPI) — South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung spoke for the first time with U.S. President Donald Trump late Friday as both leaders agreed to further strengthen their nations’ alliance.

Lee, who took office Wednesday, talked with Trump in a 20-minute phone call, according to the presidential office of South Korea.

The White House has not confirmed the conversation, and the president, who is in New Jersey this weekend, hasn’t posted about the call on Truth Social.

The two presidents agreed to strive toward reaching a mutually acceptable trade agreement, including on tariffs.

Trump has imposed 10% baseline tariffs on most trading partners. On April 2, Trump said the Republic of Korea would face a 49% duty but one week later he paused it for three months along with the other worst offenders in the trade imbalance.

South Korea’s tariffs on imported agricultural goods average 54%.

Trump congratulated Lee on his election victory, and the new leader expressed his gratitude, according to the office.

Lee noted the importance of the alliance, which forms the foundation of Seoul’s diplomacy.

The phone call was “conducted in a friendly and candid atmosphere,” as they shared anecdotes and experiences from their election campaigns, according to South Korea’s presidential office.

They exchanged views on their assassination attempts last year and political challenges, in addition to discussing their their golf skills and agreed to play a round together.

Trump invited Lee to the White House and the Group of Seven summit in Alberta, Canada, from June 15-17.

South Korea is not a G7 member state, but the nation attended them group’s meetings in 2021 and 2023. Korea’s neighbor, Japan, is a member of the G7.

Yonhap reported the South Korea government is in consultations for Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chinese President Xi Jinping to speak to their leader.

It has not been decided whether Lee will attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders’ summit in the Netherlands on June 24 and 25, according to the presidential office.

Lee, the Democratic Party liberal candidate, won in a landslide over Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party. He was inaugurated the next day on Wednesday.

South Koreans turned out in record numbers in a snap election triggered by the impeachment and removal of Yoon Suk Yeol in April after a botched martial law decree.

Some 35.24 million voters cast a ballot, representing a turnout of 79.4% — the highest mark since an 80.7% turnout in 1997.

June 6 (UPI) — Several thousand veterans converged on the National Mall on Friday at a rally among 200 events nationwide against a proposed overhaul that includes staffing reduction and some services shifted.

The Veterans Administration counters the new proposed budget is higher than last year, processing of claims have sped up and it’s easier to get benefits.

Veterans, military families and others participated in the Unite for Veterans, Unite for America Rally on the 81st anniversary of D-Day, which was the Allies’ amphibious invasion of German-occupied France.

The protests, which were organized by a union, took place at 16 state capitol buildings and more than 100 other places across 43 states.

“We are coming together to defend the benefits, jobs and dignity that every generation of veterans has earned through sacrifice,” Unite for Veterans said on its website. “Veteran jobs, healthcare, and essential VA services are under attack. We will not stand by.”

Speakers in Washington included Democrats with military backgrounds: Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, former Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania and California Rep. Derek Tran.

There were signs against President Donald Trump, VA Secretary Doug Collins and Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire who ran the Department of Government Efficiency. They said those leaders are betraying the country’s promises to troops.

“Are you tired of being thanked for our service in the public and stabbed in our back in private?” Army veteran Everett Kelly, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, asked the crowd.

“For years, politicians on both sides of the aisle have campaigned on their support of veterans, but once they get into office, they cut our benefits, our services. They take every opportunity to privatize our health care.”

The Trump administration plans to cut 83,000 VA staffers and shift more money from the federal health care system to private-sector clinics.

The administration’s proposed budget for the VA, released on Friday, slashes spending for “medical services” by $12bn – or nearly 20% – an amount offset by a corresponding 50% boost in funding for veterans seeking healthcare in the private sector.

The Department of Veterans Affairs employs approximately 482,000 people, including 500,000 workers at 170 hospitals and 1,200 local clinics in the nation’s largest health care system.

In all, there are 15.8 million veterans, which represents 6.1% of the civilian population 18 years and older.

VA officials said the event was misguided.

“Imagine how much better off veterans would be if VA’s critics cared as much about fixing the department as they do about protecting its broken bureaucracy,” VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz said in a statement to UPI. “The Biden Administration’s VA failed to address nearly all of the department’s most serious problems, such as rising health care wait times, growing backlogs of veterans waiting for disability compensation and major issues with survivor benefits.”

Kasperowicz told UPI disability claims backlog is already down 25% since Trump took office on Jan. 20 after it increased 24% during the Biden administration.

He said VA has opened 10 new healthcare clinics around the country, and Trump has proposed a 10% budget increase to $441.3 billion in fiscal year 2026.

The administration’s proposed budget for the VA reduces spending for “medical services” by $12 billion – or nearly 20% – which is offset by a 50% boost in funding for veterans seeking healthcare in the private sector.

Kasperowicz said the “VA is accelerating the deployment of its integrated electronic health record system, after the program was nearly dormant for almost two years under the Biden Administration.”

The event was modeled after the Bonus Army protests of the 1930s, when veterans who served in World War I gathered in the nation’s capital to demand extra pay denied after leaving the service.

Irma Westmoreland, a registered nurse working at a VA hospital and the secretary-treasurer of National Nurses United, told the crowd in Washington: “It’s important for every person to keep their job, from the engineering staff to the housekeeper to the dietary staff. When cuts are made, the nursing and medical staff will have to pick up all their work that needs to be done.”

French leader’s visit to Greenland comes after US President Donald Trump’s threats to annex the Arctic territory.

French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Greenland this month, the French presidency has announced, in the wake of United States expressions of interest in taking over the mineral-rich Arctic island.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and the French leader said they will meet in the semi-autonomous Danish territory on June 15, hosted by Greenland’s new Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.

The talks between the leaders will focus on North Atlantic and Arctic security, climate change, energy transition and critical minerals, the French presidency said in a statement on Saturday.

Frederiksen welcomed Macron’s upcoming visit and said in a statement that it is “another concrete testimony of European unity” in the face of a “difficult foreign policy situation”.

The visit comes amid US President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland.

This trip aims to “strengthen cooperation” with the Arctic territory in these areas and to “contribute to the strengthening of European sovereignty”, the French presidency statement stressed.

Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to control the immense Arctic territory, rich in mineral resources and strategically located, “one way or another”.

“We need Greenland for international safety and security. We need it. We have to have it,” Trump said in an interview in March.

The US has also suggested that Russia and China have strategic designs on Greenland.

Trump’s Vice President JD Vance visited the US military base in Pituffik, northwest Greenland, on March 28, in a trip seen as a provocation at the time.

Vance accused Denmark of not having “done a good job for the people of Greenland”, not investing enough in the local economy and “not ensuring its security”.

The vice president stressed that the US has “no option” but to take a significant position to ensure the security of the island as he encouraged a push in Greenland for independence from Denmark.

“I think that they ultimately will partner with the United States,” Vance said. “We could make them much more secure. We could do a lot more protection. And I think they’d fare a lot better economically as well.”

Denmark, for its part, insists that Greenland “is not for sale”.

Addressing American leaders from the huge island, the prime minister said in early April: “You cannot annex another country.”

Faced with American threats, Denmark announced 14.6 billion Danish kroner ($2.1bn) in financial commitments for Arctic security, covering three new naval vessels, long-range drones and satellites.

Greenland’s main political parties, which are in favour of the territory’s independence in the long term, are also against the idea of joining the US.

According to a poll published at the end of January, the population of 57,000 mostly Inuit inhabitants, including more than 19,000 in the capital, Nuuk, rejected any prospect of becoming American.

Incoming Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a news conference in March that the territory needed unity at this time.

“It is very important that we put aside our disagreements and differences … because only in this way will we be able to cope with the heavy pressure we are exposed to from outside,” he said.

Los Angeles witnessed a series of coordinated immigration raids by United States law enforcement officials on Friday, resulting in the arrest of dozens and igniting widespread protests.

The raids, which were carried out in a military-style operation, have intensified concerns about the force used by federal immigration officials and the rights of undocumented individuals.

Here is what we know about the raids and the latest on the ground.

What happened in LA?

Federal agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) conducted a series of “immigration enforcement operations” across Los Angeles on Friday morning.

Individuals suspected of “immigration violations and the use of fraudulent documents” were arrested. The arrests were carried out without judicial warrants, according to multiple legal observers and confirmed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), which did not take part in the raids, was called in to quell ensuing protests.

The raids were part of a broader initiative under the Trump administration’s intensified immigration policies.

Which areas were raided?

The raids focused on several locations in downtown LA and its immediate surroundings. These spots are known to have significant migrant populations and labour-intensive industries.

Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), which covers California, said advocates had recorded enforcement activity at seven sites. This included two Home Depot stores in the Westlake District of Los Angeles, a doughnut shop and the clothing wholesaler, Ambiance Apparel in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles.

Other locations in which raids were carried out included day labour centres and one other Ambiance facility near 15th Street and Santa Fe Avenue in south Los Angeles.

How many people have been arrested?

ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) reported the “administrative arrest” of 44 individuals for immigration-related offences.

An administrative arrest, unlike a criminal arrest, refers to detention for civil immigration violations such as overstaying a visa or lacking legal status, and does not require criminal charges. These arrests can result in detention, deportation, temporary re-entry bans and denial of future immigration requests.

Advocates believe the number of arrests made was higher, however. Caleb Soto, of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, told Al Jazeera that between 70 and 80 people had been detained, but only three lawyers have been allowed access to the detention centre where they were being held to provide legal advice.

Additionally, David Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California, was arrested for allegedly obstructing federal agents during the raids. Huerta was reportedly injured during the arrest and received medical treatment at Los Angeles General Medical Center before being taken into custody.

What kinds of raids were these?

What sets these raids apart from typical civil enforcement actions was their military-style execution, experts say.

According to witnesses, legal observers and advocacy groups, federal agents involved in the operations were heavily armed and dressed in tactical gear, with some wearing camouflage and carrying rifles.

Agents arrived in unmarked black SUVs and armoured vehicles and, at certain points, sealed off entire streets around targeted buildings. Drones were reportedly used for surveillance in some areas and access to sites was blocked off with yellow tape, similar to measures which would be taken during a high-threat counterterrorism or drug bust operation.

The ACLU described the show of force as an “oppressive and vile paramilitary operation”. Civil liberties groups said the tactics used had created panic in local communities and may have violated protocols for civil immigration enforcement.

How did protests break out?

As news of the raids spread via social media and through immigrant advocacy networks, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Edward R Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, where detainees were being processed.

Demonstrators blocked entrances and exits to the building, chanted slogans and demanded the release of those arrested. Some spray-painted anti-ICE slogans on the building’s exterior walls. Several protesters attempted to physically stop ICE vehicles, leading to confrontations with law enforcement.

LAPD officers issued dispersal orders and warned protesters that they would be subject to arrest if they remained in the area. To enforce the order, officers in riot gear deployed tear gas, pepper spray and “less-lethal munitions”, including firing rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. A citywide tactical alert was also issued, requiring all LAPD officers to remain on duty.

What’s happening now?

Shortly after 7pm on Friday [02:00 GMT Saturday], the LAPD declared the protests to be an “unlawful assembly”, meaning that those who failed to leave the area could be subject to arrest. The declaration appeared to remain in effect until the crowd dispersed later that evening, though no formal end time was publicly announced.

US media outlets and rights groups reported that hundreds of detainees, including children, were held overnight in the basement of the federal building without access to beds, blankets or adequate food and water.

However, an ICE spokesperson told CBS News that the agency “categorically refutes the assertions made by immigration activists in Los Angeles”, stating that it takes its mandate to care for people in custody “seriously”.

The status of all individuals detained remains unclear. While some have been released, others continue to be held and details about their current locations or conditions have not been fully disclosed.

What are the reactions to the raids?

Local and state officials condemned the raids and the manner in which they were conducted.

In a statement shared on X on Friday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said such operations “sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city”.

We will not stand for this. pic.twitter.com/Ug1CN4JKOz

— Mayor Karen Bass (@MayorOfLA) June 6, 2025

California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement describing the operations as “cruel” and “chaotic”, adding that they are an attempt “to meet an arbitrary arrest quota”.

All 15 members of the Los Angeles City Council issued a joint statement denouncing the raids.

Some Trump administration officials, on the other hand, defended the actions and criticised local leaders for pushing back. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, for instance, suggested that Mayor Karen Bass was undermining federal law.

You have no say in this at all. Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced. https://t.co/N53UBl3UM4

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) June 6, 2025

An Iranian spokesperson called the move a sign of a ‘supremacist and racist mentality’ dominating US policy.

Iran has sharply criticised United States President Donald Trump’s travel ban on its nationals and those of several countries, calling it “racist” and a sign of deep-rooted hostility towards Iranians and Muslims.

Trump earlier this week signed an executive order that bars and restricts travellers from 19 countries, including several African and Middle Eastern nations.

The policy, set to take effect on Monday, echoes measures introduced during Trump’s previous term in office from 2017-2021. In the executive order, Trump said he “must act to protect the national security” of the US.

Alireza Hashemi-Raja, who heads the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ department for Iranians abroad, said on Saturday that the decision reveals “the dominance of a supremacist and racist mentality among American policymakers”.

“This measure indicates the deep hostility of American decision-makers towards the Iranian and Muslim people,” he said in a statement.

The latest restrictions cover nationals from Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. A limited ban has also been applied to travellers from seven other countries.

Hashemi-Raja argued that the policy breaches international legal norms and denies millions the basic right to travel, based solely on nationality or faith. He said the ban would “entail international responsibility for the US government”, without elaborating.

The US and Iran have had no formal diplomatic relations since 1980, following the Islamic Revolution.

Despite decades of strained ties, the US remains home to the world’s largest Iranian diaspora, with about 1.5 million Iranians living there as of 2020, according to Tehran’s Foreign Ministry.

June 6 (UPI) — Former Washington, D.C., Police Intelligence Chief Lt. Shane Lamond got 18 months in a federal prison Friday for obstructing an investigation by lying regarding contact he had with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio.

Lamond leaked information to Tarrio that he was being investigated and then lied about doing that, according to prosecutors.

Lamond was convicted of one count of obstructing justice and three counts of making false statements to federal law enforcement.

Judge Amy B. Jackson said Lamond showed no real contrition for his actions.

“The entire attitude throughout has been, ‘How dare they bring these charges!,” Jackson said.

Lamond attorney Mark Schamel urged Judge Jackson to not incarcerate Lamond. He told the judge he fundamentally disagrees with her about the facts in the case.

He said Lamond’s destroyed police career should be enough punishment.

The investigation into Lamond’s communication with Tarrio revealed hundreds of message exchanges that included encrypted Telegram messages.

Lamond contended they were intended to gather intelligence on extremist groups.

Tarrio was pardoned for his federal conviction by President Donald Trump, who also pardoned hundreds of other people convicted in connection with the violent pro-Trump attack on the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, 2021.

Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, but Trump freed him with a presidential pardon.

Tarrio testified for Lamond and urged Trump to pardon the D.C. police officer.

When Lamond was convicted in December 2024, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said in a statement, “As proven at trial, Lamond turned his job on its head-providing confidential information to a source, rather than getting information from him-lied about the conduct, and obstructed an investigation into the source.”

Protesters gathered after immigration agents took dozens of people into custody during raids across Los Angeles.

There have been tense confrontations in Los Angeles as riot police and demonstrators – protesting federal immigration raids – squared off in the downtown area.

Earlier on Friday, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took dozens of people into custody during raids across Los Angeles city.

Caravans of unmarked military-style vehicles and vans loaded with uniformed federal agents streamed through the city as part of the operation.

The ICE agents raided several locations, including an apparel store in the city’s Fashion District, a Home Depot in Westlake District, and a clothing warehouse in South Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles City News Service.

In response, crowds of demonstrators protesting the raids massed outside a jail where some of the detainees were believed to be held and spray-painted anti-ICE slogans on the walls of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers – who did not take part in the immigration raids – were called in to quell the unrest. Wielding batons and tear gas rifles, LAPD officers faced off with the demonstrators after authorities ordered them to disperse on Friday night.

Some protesters hurled broken concrete towards the LAPD officers, the Reuters news agency reports. Police responded by firing volleys of tear gas and pepper spray.

LAPD spokesperson Drake Madison said police on the scene declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, meaning that those who failed to leave the area were subject to arrest, according to Reuters.

It’s not immediately clear how many arrests have been made.

Stoking fear and terror

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass condemned the federal immigration raids, saying they “sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city”.

Caleb Soto, of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, told Al Jazeera that between 70 and 80 people had been detained, but only three lawyers have been allowed access to the detention centre where they were being held to provide legal advice.

“The chaotic manner of the raids that we saw today happening throughout Los Angeles and different day-labour worksites and garment worker work sites was an example of the purpose of what this Trump administration has set out to do, which is create as much fear as possible,” Soto told Al Jazeera.

He said the ICE agents conducting the raids did not obtain a judicial warrant required under US law, and granted by a judge if there is probable cause to carry out an arrest because of suspected criminal activity.

Soto said ICE agents were showing up at work sites “where they know that there are a lot of immigrant workers” and “people without documents”, and if someone starts running they use that as “reasonable suspicion” that the person is undocumented.

“They use that as the pretext to start arresting people who are there in that area and around them. We find that to be pretty unconstitutional,” he said.

The Los Angeles raids are the latest sweeps in several US cities over recent months as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Trump, who took immediate steps to ramp up immigration enforcement after taking office in January, has promised to arrest and deport undocumented migrants in record numbers.

In late May, his administration stated it would revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 people in the country, including Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

These are the key events on day 1,199 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Saturday, June 7:

Fighting

• At least six people were killed in Russian missile and drone strikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and across the country on Friday.
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said three of the victims were emergency responders who were killed in a missile and drone attack on Kyiv, while a further 80 people nationwide were injured in the attacks.
• Two people were killed in Ukraine’s northern city of Chernihiv, and at least one more person was killed in the northwestern city of Lutsk.
• Ukraine’s air force said Russia had used 407 drones, one of the largest numbers recorded in a single attack, as well as 45 cruise and ballistic missiles in the attack.
• The Ukrainian military said it had launched a preemptive strike overnight on the Engels and Dyagilevo airfields in the Russian regions of Saratov and Ryazan, in addition to striking at least three fuel reservoirs.

• Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia had “responded” to Kyiv’s audacious drone attack that destroyed Russian heavy bombers at airfields in Siberia last weekend by attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces had carried out the strikes, which targeted military and military-related targets in response to what it called Ukrainian “terrorist acts” against Russia.
• Western military aviation experts told the Reuters news agency that Russia will take years to replace the nuclear-capable bomber planes that were hit in Ukrainian drone strikes on airfields in Siberia.
• Russia’s National Guard said it killed a man as he tried to prepare a drone attack on a military site in Russia’s Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow.
• Russian air defence units intercepted and destroyed 82 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, including the Moscow region, Russia’s Defence Ministry said early on Saturday.

• Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said six drones headed for the capital city had been destroyed or downed.
• In total, Russia’s Defence Ministry said that air defences had downed 174 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions. Three Ukrainian Neptune missiles were also shot down over the Black Sea.
• A locomotive train was derailed in Russia’s Belgorod region after the track was blown up, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Regional security

• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said some US legislators do not understand the scale of Russia’s military rearmament campaign: “They clearly have no idea what is happening there right now,” he said after a meeting with US President Donald Trump.
• Merz said he had been reassured by President Trump’s “resounding no” to a question on whether the US had plans to withdraw from NATO.

Politics and diplomacy

• The Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by Trump, who likened the war in Ukraine to a bitter dispute between toddlers in a park.
• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was possible Trump believed his own comments, but for Russia, the war on Ukraine was “existential”.
• “For us, it is an existential issue, an issue on our national interest, safety, on our future and the future of our children, of our country,” Peskov told reporters.
• Russia has asked the UN nuclear watchdog to mediate between Moscow and Washington to resolve the question of what to do with US nuclear fuel stored at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is under Russian control.
• Russian nuclear energy chief Alexei Likhachev said that Russia was willing either to use the fuel, supplied by US company Westinghouse, or to remove it entirely and return it to the United States.

Sanctions

• President Trump said that he had not decided whether to deploy sanctions against Russia that are being considered by the US Senate.

Economy

• The Russian central bank has cut its key interest rate by a full percentage point, a surprise move by the bank, which it justified by pointing to declining inflation pressure and a more robust rouble. It was the first easing since September 2022 by the bank, which has faced pressure from business leaders and top government officials to begin cutting rates.

June 6 (UPI) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is back in the United States after being indicted in Tennessee on two federal charges involving migrant smuggling, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday.

Bondi said Abrego Garcia, 29, is in the United States to “face justice.”

He made his first court appearance Friday afternoon in Nashville. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes set his arraignment for Wednesday and a hearing on whether he should be detained before the trial.

The Justice Department said in a court filing that he should be held in pretrial custody because “he poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight, and no condition or combination of conditions would ensure the safety of the community or his appearance in court.”

On May 21, a grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned an indictment, charging Abrego Garcia with criminal counts of alien smuggling and conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, Bondi said at a news conference.

Abrego Garcia is the only member of the alleged conspiracy indicted.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele was presented with an arrest warrant for him and he agreed to return him to the United States, Bondi said.

“We’re grateful to President Bukele for agreeing to return him to our country to face these very serious charges,” Bondi said.

Bondi said that if Abrego Garcia is convicted of the charges and serves his sentence, he will be deported back to his home country of El Salvador.

“The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring,” Bondi said. “They found this was his full-time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country.”

President Donald Trump later told reporters that “I don’t want to say that” it was his call to bring him back to the United States.

“He should have never had to be returned. Take a look at what’s happened with it. Take a look at what they found in the grand jury,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Jersey. “I thought Pam Bondi did a great job.”

Ben Schrader, the chief of the criminal division in the office for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville, resigned the same week of the grand jury indictment last month, CNN reported. Schrader’s post on LinkedIn does not mention the Abrego Garcia case.

On April 17, Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with his constituent in El Salvador.

“After months of ignoring our Constitution, it seems the Trump Admin has relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and due process for Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Van Hollen posted on X Friday. “This has never been about the man — it’s about his constitutional rights & the rights of all.”

In the indictment unsealed Friday afternoon, Abrego Garcia and others are accused of participating in a conspiracy in which they “knowingly and unlawfully transported thousands of undocumented aliens who had no authorization to be present in the United States, and many of whom were MS-13 members and associates.”

The allegations from 2016 to this year involve a half-dozen alleged unnamed co-conspirators. Abrego Garcia and others worked to move undocumented aliens between Texas and Maryland and other states more than 100 times, according to the indictment.

They “ordinarily picked up the undocumented aliens in the Houston, Texas area after the aliens had unlawfully crossed the Southern border of the United States from Mexico,” the indictment said.

Abrego Garcia and someone referred to a CC-1 “then transported the undocumented aliens from Texas to other parts of the United States to further the aliens’ unlawful presence in the United States.”

To cover up the alleged conspiracy, prosecutors say Abrego Garcia and his co-conspirators “routinely devised and employed knowingly false cover stories to provide to law enforcement if they were stopped during a transport,” including claims that migrants being transported were headed to construction jobs.

In November 2022, Abrego Garcia is accused of driving a Chevrolet Suburban and was pulled over on a Tennessee interstate highway, with nine other Hispanic men without identification or luggage.

Prosecutors allege that Abrego Garcia transported narcotics to Maryland, though he wasn’t previously charged with any crimes.

“For the last 2 months, the media and Democrats have burnt to the ground any last shred of credibility they had left as they glorified Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a known MS13 gang member, human trafficker, and serial domestic abuser,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement on X. “Justice awaits this Salvadoran man.”

Abrego Garcia and his family have denied allegations that he’s an MS-13 member, and he fled gang violence in El Salvador.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, said his client should appear in immigration court, not criminal court.

“The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order,” Sandoval-Moshenberg Now told CNN. “Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him. This shows that they were playing games with the court all along. Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice.”

Abrego Garcia deported in March

Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland since he arrived in the United States in 2011 unlawfully.

The government earlier, through a confidential informant, said his clothes had alleged gang markings when he was arrested in 2019.

Abrego Garcia was living with his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and children when he was arrested in March and deported to El Salvador to the maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. He was with a group of more than 230 men, mostly Venezuelans, accused of being gang members.

In April, the State Department said Abrego Garcia was moved to a lower-security facility in Santa Ana.

The Trump administration has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was a mistake because he had been granted a legal status in 2019. The Department of Homeland Security is banned from removing him to his home country of El Salvador because he was likely to face persecution by local gangs. He didn’t have a hearing before his deportation.

The government has utilized the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime immigration law, to quickly deport migrants from the United States.

In an April hearing, District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to comply with expedited discovery to determine whether they were complying with the directive to return Abrego Garcia to the United States, which was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The high court and district judge said the Trump administration must “facilitate” his return for due process.

On Wednesday, Xinis ordered seven documents to be unsealed in the deportation.

Trump criticized judges for interfering in cases.

“Frankly, we have to do something, because the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide,” Trump said Friday night. “And that’s not supposed to be the way it is. So I could see bringing him back … he’s a bad guy.”

The criminal charges could impact his immigration case, John Sandweg, a former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told CNN.

“I think what we’re going to see is on the back end of this criminal prosecution — now that they’re prosecuting him for these immigration-related offenses — if they get a conviction, they will go back to the immigration court and argue that now there are those changed circumstances,” said Sandweg, who is now a partner at law firm Nixon Peabody.

The United States Supreme Court has sided with the administration of President Donald Trump in two cases about government records — and who should have access to them.

On Friday, the six-member conservative majority overturned a lower court’s ruling that limited the kinds of data that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could access through the Social Security Administration (SSA).

In a separate case, the majority also decided that DOGE was not required to turn over records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a government transparency law.

In both cases, the Supreme Court’s three left-leaning justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan — opposed the majority’s decision.

DOGE has been at the forefront of Trump’s campaign to reimagine the federal government and cut down on bureaucratic “bloat”.

Unveiled on November 13, just eight days after Trump’s re-election, DOGE was designed to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies”.

At first, it was unclear how DOGE would interact with the executive branch: whether it would be an advisory panel, a new department or a nongovernmental entity.

But on January 20, when Trump was sworn in for his second term, he announced that the existing US Digital Service — a technology initiative founded by former President Barack Obama — would be reorganised to create DOGE.

The government efficiency panel has since led a wide-scale overhaul of the federal government, implementing mass layoffs and seeking to shutter entities like the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

It also advertised cost-savings it had achieved or alleged fraud it had uncovered, though many of those claims have been contradicted or questioned by journalists and experts.

In addition, DOGE’s sweeping changes to the federal government made it the subject of criticism and concern, particularly as it sought greater access to sensitive data and systems.

Up until last week, DOGE was led by Elon Musk, a billionaire and tech entrepreneur who had been a prominent backer of Trump’s re-election bid. Musk and Trump, however, have had a public rupture following the end of the billionaire’s tenure as a “special government employee” in the White House.

That falling-out has left DOGE’s future uncertain.

Accessing Social Security data

One of DOGE’s controversial initiatives has been its push to access Social Security data, in the name of rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.

Early in Trump’s second term, both the president and Musk repeated misleading claims that Social Security payments were being made to millions of people listed as 150 years old or older. But fact-checkers quickly refuted that allegation.

Instead, they pointed out that the Social Security Administration has implemented a code to automatically stop payments to anyone listed as alive and more than 115 years old.

They also pointed out that the COBOL programming language flags incomplete entries in the Social Security system with birthdates set back 150 years, possibly prompting the Trump administration’s confusion. Less than 1 percent of Social Security payments are made erroneously, according to a 2024 inspector general report.

Still, Trump officials criticised the Social Security Administration, with Musk dubbing it “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” and calling for its elimination.

In March, US District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander blocked DOGE from having unfettered access to Social Security data, citing the sensitive nature of such information.

Social Security numbers, for instance, are key to verifying a person’s identity in the US, and the release of such numbers could endanger individual privacy.

Lipton Hollander ruled that DOGE had “never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems”. She questioned why DOGE had not sought a “more tailored” approach.

“Instead, the government simply repeats its incantation of a need to modernize the system and uncover fraud,” she wrote in her ruling. “Its method of doing so is tantamount to hitting a fly with a sledgehammer.”

The judge’s ruling, however, did allow DOGE to view anonymised data, without personally identifying information.

The Trump administration, nevertheless, appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, arguing that Judge Lipton Hollander had exceeded her authority in blocking DOGE’s access.

The Supreme Court granted its emergency petition on Friday, lifting Lipton Hollander’s temporary restrictions on the data in an unsigned decision.

But Justice Brown Jackson issued a blistering dissent (PDF), suggesting that the Supreme Court was willing to break norms to assist a presidency that was unwilling to let legal challenges play out in lower courts.

“Once again, this Court dons its emergency-responder gear, rushes to the scene, and uses its equitable power to fan the flames rather than extinguish them,” Brown Jackson wrote.

She argued that the Trump administration had not established that any “irreparable harm” would occur if DOGE were temporarily blocked from accessing Social Security data.

But by granting the Trump administration’s emergency petition, she said the court was “jettisoning careful judicial decision-making and creating grave privacy risks for millions of Americans in the process”.

Is DOGE subject to transparency laws?

The second Supreme Court decision on Friday concerned whether DOGE itself had to surrender documents under federal transparency laws.

The question was raised as part of a lawsuit brought by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group.

It argued that DOGE’s sweeping powers suggested it should be subject to laws like FOIA, just like any other executive agency. But CREW also alleged that the ambiguity surrounding DOGE’s structures had kept it insulated from outside probes.

“While publicly available information indicates that DOGE is subject to FOIA, the lack of clarity on DOGE’s authority leaves that an open question,” CREW said in a statement.

The watchdog group sought to compel DOGE to provide information about its inner workings.

While a US district judge had sided with CREW’s request for records in April, the Supreme Court on Friday paused that lower court’s decision (PDF). It sent the case back to a court of appeals for further consideration, with instructions that the April order be narrowed.

“Any inquiry into whether an entity is an agency for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act cannot turn on the entity’s ability to persuade,” the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled.

It also said that the courts needed to exercise “deference and restraint” regarding “internal” executive communications.

June 6 (UPI) — Several thousand veterans converged on the National Mall on Friday to rally against proposed cuts to Veterans Affairs services, among 200 events nationwide.

Veterans, military families and others participated in the Unite for Veterans, Unite for America Rally on the 81st anniversary of D-Day, which was the Allies’ amphibious invasion of German-occupied France.

Veteran-led protests took place at 16 state capitol buildings and more than 100 other places across 43 states.

“We are coming together to defend the benefits, jobs and dignity that every generation of veterans has earned through sacrifice,” Unite for Veterans said on its website. “Veteran jobs, healthcare, and essential VA services are under attack. We will not stand by.”

Speakers in Washington included Democrats with military backgrounds: Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, former Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania and California Rep. Derek Tran.

There were signs against President Donald Trump, VA Secretary Doug Collins and Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire who ran the Department of Government Efficiency. They said those leaders are betraying the country’s promises to troops.

“Are you tired of being thanked for our service in the public and stabbed in our back in private?” Army veteran Everett Kelly, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, asked the crowd.

“For years, politicians on both sides of the aisle have campaigned on their support of veterans, but once they get into office, they cut our benefits, our services. They take every opportunity to privatize our health care.”

The Trump administration plans to cut 83,000 VA staffers and shift more money from the federal health care system to private-sector clinics.

The Department of Veterans Affairs employs approximately 482,000 people, including 500,000 workers at 170 hospitals and 1,200 local clinics in the nation’s largest health care system.

In all, there are 15.8 million veterans, which represents 6.1% of the civilian population 18 years and older.

VA officials said the event was misguided.

“Anyone who says VA is cutting healthcare and benefits is not being honest,” VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz in a statement to Navy Times. “The Biden Administration failed to address nearly all of VA’s most serious problems, including rising health care wait times, benefits backlogs, and major issues with survivor benefits. Under President Trump and Secretary Collins, VA is fixing these problems and making major improvements.”

The event was modeled after the Bonus Army protests of the 1930s, when veterans who served in World War I gathered in the nation’s capital to demand extra pay denied after leaving the service.

Irma Westmoreland, a registered nurse working at a VA hospital and the secretary-treasurer of National Nurses United, told the crowd in Washington: “It’s important for every person to keep their job, from the engineering staff to the housekeeper to the dietary staff. When cuts are made, the nursing and medical staff will have to pick up all their work that needs to be done.”

After his mistaken deportation to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia faces US charges of transporting undocumented migrants.

A man the Donald Trump administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador has been brought back to the United States, where authorities say he will face criminal charges.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, a Salvadoran immigrant who had lived nearly half his life in Maryland before he was deported in March, faces charges of transporting undocumented migrants inside the US, according to recently unsealed court records.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday that Abrego Garcia was returned to the US to “face justice”.

The indictment against him was filed on May 21, more than two months after he was deported in spite of a court order barring his removal.

The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, which suspected Abrego Garcia of human trafficking but ultimately issued only a warning for an expired driver’s license, according to a Department of Homeland Security report.

Bondi, speaking at a news conference, said a grand jury had “found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring”.

She said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to return Abrego Garcia to the US after American officials presented his government with an arrest warrant.

Abrego Garcia had been sent to El Salvador as part of a Trump scheme to move undocumented migrants it accuses of being gang members, to prison in the Central American country without due process.

Bukele said in a social media post that his government works with the Trump administration and “of course” would not refuse a request to return “a gang member” to the US.

Deportation ‘a separate legal matter’

Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said Abrego Garcia could face up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

But “that does not deal with the ongoing matter of whether or not he should be deported”, she added. “That’s a separate legal matter.”

Abrego Garcia will have the chance to enter a plea in court and contest the charges at trial. If he is convicted, he would be deported to El Salvador after serving his sentence, Bondi said.

In a statement, Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Andrew Rossman, said it would now be up to the US judicial system to ensure he received due process.

“Today’s action proves what we’ve known all along – that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,” said Rossman, a partner at law firm Quinn Emanuel.

Abrego Garcia’s deportation defied an immigration judge’s 2019 order granting him protection from being sent back to El Salvador, where it found he was likely to be persecuted by gangs if returned, court records show.

Trump critics pointed to the erroneous deportation as an example of the excesses of the Republican president’s aggressive approach to stepping up deportations.

Officials countered by alleging that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang. His lawyers have denied that he was a gang member and said he had not been convicted of any crime.

Abrego Garcia’s case has become a flash point for escalating tensions between the executive branch and the judiciary, which has ruled against a number of Trump’s policies.

The US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, with liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying the government had cited no basis for what she called his “warrantless arrest”.

US District Judge Paula Xinis also opened a probe into what, if anything, the Trump administration did to secure his return, after his lawyers accused officials of stonewalling their requests for information.

June 6 (UPI) — The Department of the Interior on Friday announced approval of a mining plan modification for Bull Mountains coal mine in Montana, a move criticized by environmental organizations.

Signal Peak Energy LLC was authorized to mine roughly 22.8 million tons of federal coal and 34.5 million tons of adjacent non-federal coal in Roundup.

The mine, which in Musselshell and Yellowstone counties, exports coal to Japan and South Korea.

“By unlocking access to coal in America, we are not only fueling jobs here at home, but we are also standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies abroad,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.

In 2023, a federal judge halted the mining of federal coal at the Bull Mountains Mine pending a thorough analysis of the mine’s impacts on ranchers, vital water sources, and the climate.

The Trump administration approved the expansion without a draft environmental impact statement or the opportunity for public comment on a draft.

The Interior Department said it is using “alternative arrangements” for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, the 1969 law requiring federal agencies to assess potential environmental effects of their decisions.

Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, described it as one of the most notorious mining operations in the country.

In 2023, The New York Times reported on corruption and criminal history surrounding Signal Peak. It revealed embezzlement, a fake kidnapping, bribery, cocaine trafficking, firearms violations, past links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and worker safety and environmental infringements.

“It’s utter hogwash that we have to sacrifice the climate, water resources, wildlife and area ranching operations in order to send coal overseas to be burned by foreign countries,” Anne Hedges, executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center said in a news release. “Signal Peak has thumbed its nose at state and federal laws for decades.

“Now the Trump administration is rewarding these bad actors with a free pass without considering the harm to ranchers’ livelihoods, wildlife that depend on vanishing area water resources, or the devastation that will result from making the climate crisis even worse. There is no excuse for this type of lawlessness and there is certainly no national energy emergency being alleviated.”

Melissa Hornbein, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center, said: “The Trump administration will have a very difficult time in federal court explaining how expediting approval for expanding operations at a coal mine that exports 98% of its product falls under an extremely specific domestic energy emergency declaration. The energy emergency declaration, preposterous on its face, only ever served as an abuse of the federal government to enrich fossil fuel barons. Using it to expand the Bull Mountains coal mine makes that explicit.”

The Trump administration policy of increasing fossil fuel production stands in stark contrast to Biden administration policies.

In October 2024, the Biden administration announced $428 million in funding for 14 federal energy projects in small towns historically known for coal production.

The Trump administration is in the process of attempting to undo that clean energy approach while doubling down on coal, oil and gas production.

For the Bull Mountains coal mine, the Interior Department said Friday it is using emergency permitting procedures to disregard normal environmental review.

The Interior Department said in an April statement that the procedures reduce what would normally be “a multi-year review process down to just 28 days at most.”

The department asserts that the procedures using the radically shortened review process still upholds environmental standards.

“The Bull Mountains project is proof that we can meet urgent energy needs, work with local communities and uphold strong environmental standards,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Adam Suess in a statement.

According to the Interior Department, “These alternative arrangements apply both to actions not likely to have significant environmental impacts and to actions likely to have significant environmental impacts.”

The Trump administration is using a so-called national energy emergency declared by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 to avoid fully complying with full environmental regulations agencies would normally have to follow.

Under the alternative arrangements, companies would notify the department they want those alternative arrangements.

The official responsible for reviewing the application would then “prepare a focused, concise, and timely environmental impact statement addressing the purpose and need for the proposed action, alternatives, and a brief description of environmental effects.”

According to the Interior Department, the Bull Mountains project is expected to generate “over $1 billion in combined local, state and county economic benefits, including wages, taxes and business activity.”

Signal Peak Energy, which is the only underground mining operation in Montana, said on its website it is “committed to reimagining the industry through top-quality safety procedures and cutting-edge production methods. Our mission is to create an environment where our employees can thrive — complete with a comprehensive benefits package and an industry-leading safety record.

June 6 (UPI) — Federal officials on Friday filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to remove a lower court judge’s ruling currently prohibiting further dismantling of the Department of Education.

President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon are listed as the applicants on court documents.

The Trump administration is attempting to remove a temporary order instituted last month by U.S. District Court Judge Myong Joun in Massachusetts that forces the federal government to re-hire almost 1,400 fired employees and prohibits further layoffs.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer also asked the Supreme Court to stay Joun’s order while it considers the application, which would allow the administration to move forward with its plans to further dismantle the department.

Joun last month ruled the department, which was created in 1979, “must be able to carry out its functions and its obligations under the [Department of Education Organization Act] and other relevant statutes as mandated by Congress.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said at the time the federal government would immediately challenge the order “on an emergency basis.”

“The Constitution vests the Executive Branch, not district courts, with the authority to make judgments about how many employees are needed to carry out an agency’s statutory functions, and whom they should be,” Sauer, who filed the application on behalf of Trump and McMahon, wrote.

“For the second time in three months, the same district court has thwarted the Executive Branch’s authority to manage the Department of Education despite lacking jurisdiction to second-guess the Executive’s internal management decisions. This Court curtailed that overreach when the district court attempted to prevent the Department from terminating discretionary grants.”

In mid-March, McMahon confirmed nearly half of her department’s staff would be placed on leave as part of Trump’s plan to eliminate the agency, part of a larger push to cut federal spending.

June 6 (UPI) — A federal judge temporarily paused President Donald Trump‘s ban on foreign nationals coming to study, teach, or do research at Harvard University, pending a hearing later in June.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs’ ruling Thursday night came after Harvard filed a suit in Boston alleging Trump’s proclamation, issued a day earlier, was unlawful because it violated the First Amendment.

Burroughs said she was granting Harvard’s motion for a restraining order against the Homeland Security Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Justice Department, State Department and the Student and Exchange Visitor Program after accepting Harvard’s claim that it would otherwise “sustain immediate and irreparable injury before there was an opportunity to hear from all parties.”

The motion was in a hastily amended complaint by Harvard after Trump on Wednesday suspended entry of all foreign nationals “who enter or attempt to enter the United States to begin attending Harvard,” and directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to consider cancelling the visas of foreigners already there.

She said the court would reconvene on June 16 for a full hearing on whether Trump’s proclamation is legal.

Burroughs’ order also extended through June 20 a temporary restraining order she issued May 23, preventing DHS from implementing a ban on Harvard sponsoring holders of F-1 and J-1 non-immigrant visas, something the university has been permitted to do for more than seven decades.

The school’s legal team argued Wednesday’s proclamation was an effort to get around this restraining order.

“The proclamation simply reflects the administration’s effort to accomplish the very result that the Court sought to prevent. The Court should not stand for that,” Harvard’s legal counsel alleged in court filings.

Harvard has maintained that the orders represent executive overreach, while Trump insists there is a national security risk posed by its foreign students.

The Trump administration has demanded that Harvard water down its diversity, equality and inclusion policies in hiring and admissions, beef up enforcement of anti-Semitism measures on campus following anti-Gaza war protests and hand over the records of its international students.

Trump’s proclamation stated that the step was in the national interest because he believed Harvard’s refusal to share “information that the federal government requires to safeguard national security and the American public” showed it was not suitable for foreign nationals.

In April, Trump cancelled more than $2 billion in federal funding that the university receives and threatened to remove its tax-exemption status and ability to enroll overseas students.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Hill that Harvard’s lawsuit was a bid to “kneecap the President’s constitutionally vested powers” to suspend entry to the country of persons whose presence was not in line with national interests.

“It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,” McLaughlin said. “The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system; no lawsuit, this or any other, is going to change that. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.”

The tech billionaire and owner of Tesla and Starlink, Elon Musk, has accused United States President Donald Trump of being one of the names in the still-sealed Epstein files, and claims that this is the real reason key documents are still being withheld from the public.

In January 2024, many of the so-called “Epstein files” compiled by US federal investigators were released to the public. However, some remained sealed.

Trump’s presidency began with a strong boost from Musk, who donated large sums to Trump’s presidential campaign and was appointed to lead a newly formed federal agency aimed at streamlining government operations, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

But that relationship fractured after Musk resigned from the role in May 2025, following mounting public backlash over fiscal policies and a sharp decline in Tesla’s stock.

Since then, Musk has become increasingly vocal in his criticism of Trump, calling his “One Big Beautiful Bill” a “disgusting abomination” for increasing the national debt and eliminating electric vehicle subsidies, and, now, accusing him of links to Epstein.

Here’s what we know about the Epstein files and Musk’s accusations.

What are the Epstein files?

The “Epstein files” are a collection of documents compiled by US federal authorities during investigations into the activities of Jeffrey Epstein, the now-deceased financier and convicted sex offender.

These files include flight logs, contact lists, court records and other materials documenting his activities and associations with high-profile individuals.

The first major release of the documents took place in January 2024, when a federal judge ordered the unsealing of records from a 2015 defamation lawsuit against Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.

In February 2025, the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) followed up with an official declassification of additional documents, many of which had already leaked, featuring redacted flight logs and contact books.

However, many documents remain sealed or heavily redacted, prompting public calls for full disclosure.

US Attorney General Pamela Bondi stated that the FBI is reviewing tens of thousands of documents, with further releases pending necessary redactions to protect victims and ongoing investigations.

What has Musk said about the Epstein files?

On Thursday, Musk publicly accused President Donald Trump of being named in the unreleased Epstein files.

In a post on his social media platform X, Musk wrote: “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.” He did not provide any evidence to support this claim.

Time to drop the really big bomb:@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.

Have a nice day, DJT!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025

Has Trump responded?

Trump has not directly addressed Musk’s claim regarding the Epstein files.

However, during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House on Thursday, Trump said he was “very disappointed” by Musk’s criticism of the fiscal bill and suggested that Musk’s opposition was down to the elimination of electric vehicle subsidies.

“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump wrote in a social media post on Thursday.

Trump also threatened to terminate federal contracts and subsidies for Musk’s companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, stating that this would save the US government billions of dollars.

What do we know about Trump’s relationship with Epstein?

Trump and Epstein were acquaintances in the 1980s and 1990s, often seen at social occasions together in New York and Palm Beach, Florida. Their appearances together were documented in news coverage and social pages at the time, while US media reported the two became close during the 1990s when Epstein bought a mansion near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach.

A 1992 video published by NBC News shows Trump and Epstein socialising and watching dancers at a party hosted at Mar-a-Lago.

In a 2002 profile of Epstein by New York Magazine, Trump was quoted describing Epstein as a “terrific guy” who enjoyed the company of beautiful women “on the younger side”.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said.

Flight logs released during court proceedings against Maxwell show that Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet at least seven times between 1993 and 1997, occasionally with family members.

Epstein’s “Black Book” – a contact directory obtained in 2015 by Gawker, a now-defunct US blog that covered celebrities and media – was later submitted as court evidence and listed multiple phone numbers and addresses for Trump, including his office, home and Mar-a-Lago.

What happens now?

Once allies, Musk’s relationship with Trump has deteriorated significantly since his criticism of Trump’s fiscal policy and subsequent allegations about the Epstein files.

Trump’s threats to cut federal contracts with Musk’s companies led to a 14 percent drop in Tesla’s stock value. Musk has since called for Trump’s impeachment and replacement with US Vice President JD Vance.

This public spat has also drawn attention from political figures, with some Democrats demanding the release of the full Epstein files and questioning whether they are being withheld due to potential implications for Trump.

June 5 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to cut Elon Musk‘s government contracts through Tesla amid his departure from his role cutting government spending and opposition to Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda bill.

Trump threatened to end all government contracts with the Musk-founded Tesla in a post on Truth Social and suggested that would be a fast way to reduce government spending.

“The easiest way to save money in our budget, billions and billions of dollars, is to terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts,” Trump wrote.

Tesla share prices declined by more than 14% on Thursday and shed $152 billion in value from the EV maker.

Trump on Thursday accused Musk of going “crazy” after the president canceled the federal electric vehicle mandate imposed by the Biden administration.

“I took away his EV mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday. “He just went crazy!”

Trump said he asked Musk to leave his advisory position with DOGE, although Musk was scheduled to exit the position at the end of May.

Musk earlier said Trump would not have won the Nov. 5 election without his help.

He contributed an estimated $250 million to Trump’s campaign effort.

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” Musk said Thursday morning in a post on X.

Musk has criticized the proposed “one big, beautiful” federal government budget bill as increasing the nation’s debt and negating his work with DOGE.

The entrepreneur opposes the spending bill that the House has passed and is before the Senate because it removed tax credits and subsidies for buying EVs, Trump claimed.

“I don’t mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done that months ago,” Trump said in a subsequent Truth Social post on Thursday afternoon.

“This is one of the greatest bills ever presented to Congress,” he continued. “It’s a record cut in expenses, $1.6 trillion dollars, and the biggest tax cut ever given.”

If the measure is not passed, Trump said it will trigger a 68% tax increase, “and things far worse than that.”

The president said the “easiest way to save money … is to terminate Elon’s governmental subsidies and contracts” with Tesla.

Later on Thursday, Musk in an X post said it is “time to drop the really big bomb” on the president.

Trump “is in the Epstein files,” Musk said. “That is the real reason they have not been made public.”

Musk did not say in what context Trump allegedly appears in the Epstein files, but ended his post with: “Have a nice day, DJT!”

He made a subsequent post that asks: “Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?”

Trump and Musk often appeared together at high-profile events in the first four months of the administration.