Donald Trump

June 4 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued a proclamation to “fully restrict and limit” entry of people from 12 foreign countries starting Monday.

Citing national security concerns, Trump issued the ban on nationals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Also, he partially restricted and limited entry from seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

Of the 19 named nations, 10 are in Africa.

“These restrictions distinguish between, but apply to both, the entry of immigrants and nonimmigrants,” the order states about the two designations,” the proclamation reads.

There are exceptions for lawful permanent residents, existing visa holders, certain visa categories and individuals whose entry serves US national interests.

“As President, I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,” the proclamation reads. “I remain committed to engaging with those countries willing to cooperate to improve information-sharing and identity-management procedures, and to address both terrorism-related and public-safety risks. Nationals of some countries also pose significant risks of overstaying their visas in the United States, which increases burdens on immigration and law enforcement components of the United States, and often exacerbates other risks related to national security and public safety.”

On his first day in office on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order that it is the policy of the United States to “protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was ordered to compile a list of countries “for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries.”

The proclamation said: “Some of the countries with inadequacies face significant challenges to reform efforts. Others have made important improvements to their protocols and procedures, and I commend them for these efforts. But until countries with identified inadequacies address them, members of my Cabinet have recommended certain conditional restrictions and limitations.”

CNN reported Trump decided to sign the proclamation after the antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colo., though the system didn’t come to the United States from the restricted countires.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, of Colorado Springs, has been charged with a federal hate crime and he is facing 16 state counts of attempted murder on Monday. Soliman, an Egyptian national who spent time in Kuwait, entered California in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired in February 2023 and his asylum claim was pending.

During his first term, Trump banned travel by citizens of predominantly Muslim countries, including Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Amid legal challenges, it was modified and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.

When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he repealed it.

DONALD Trump has signed a sweeping new travel ban blocking people from a dozen countries from entering the US — with restrictions set to kick in within days.

The bombshell move, announced late Wednesday, resurrects the explosive “Muslim ban” policy from his first term and will take effect at 12.01am Monday.

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The countries hit with a full ban include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

In addition to the outright ban, heightened restrictions will be slapped on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

“I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,” Trump said in a proclamation.

The sweeping list stems from a January 20 executive order, in which Trump tasked the State Department, Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence with flagging “hostile attitudes” and countries that pose a national security risk.

The crackdown mirrors Trump’s highly controversial 2017 executive order, which initially barred citizens from seven majority-Muslim nations — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen — triggering chaos at airports and global backlash.

Dubbed the “Muslim ban”, it sparked scenes of confusion as travellers, including students and tourists, were blocked from boarding planes or detained after landing in the US.

After legal challenges, the policy was retooled and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018, with a version targeting Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya, alongside North Korea and Venezuelan officials.

Trump has consistently defended the bans as vital to national security, despite critics accusing him of religious discrimination.

The latest move ramps up his hardline immigration stance as the Republican firebrand gears up for a second term — once again placing border control and national safety at the heart of his presidency.

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump held an hour-long call with Vladimir Putin, revealing the Kremlin tyrant “will have to respond” to Ukraine’s devastating drone blitz on Russian airfields.

“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”

The warning came after Operation Spiderweb — a daring Ukrainian drone assault that wiped out 41 Russian warplanes across four strategic air bases, including nuclear-capable bombers.

The pair also discussed Iran’s nuclear programme, with Trump writing: “I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement.”

He added: “President Putin suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion.”

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Trump signed a proclamation which also restricts the travel of people from an additional seven countries.

United States President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation imposing a full travel ban on people from 12 countries and restricting the citizens of seven other countries, The Associated Press news agency reports.

The banned countries include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

In addition to the ban, which takes effect on Monday, there will be heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

“I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,” Trump said in his proclamation.

During his first term in 2017, Trump issued an executive order banning travel to the US by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

People from the named countries were either barred from getting on their flights to the US or detained at US airports after they landed. Those affected included tourists, people visiting friends and family, as well as students and faculty in the US and businesspeople.

The order, often referred to as the “Muslim ban” or the “travel ban”, was reworked amid legal challenges, until a version was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018 which banned categories of travellers and immigrants from Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya, plus North Korean and some Venezuelan government officials and their families.

Trump defended his initial travel ban on national security grounds, arguing it was aimed at protecting the US and claimed it was not anti-Muslim. However, Trump had called for a travel ban on Muslims during his first campaign for the White House.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow shortly.

Ruling says those deported from US under 1798 law have right to challenge their removal and that Trump administration must help.

A federal judge in the United States has ruled that Venezuelan immigrants deported to El Salvador under an obscure 1798 law must be given the chance to challenge their removals and detention. 

The ruling on Wednesday by Judge James Boasberg is the latest setback to President Donald Trump’s efforts to use the Alien Enemies Act to quickly expel alleged gang members from the US without due process.

Trump initially invoked the wartime law in March, arguing that the presence of the Tren de Aragua gang in the US represented an invasion.

Trump’s use of the law to fast-track deportations was quickly blocked by Boasberg, but not before two planes carrying 238 deportees had already departed the US for El Salvador. The Trump administration refused the judge’s order to turn the plane around.

Boasberg has since said he has found probable cause to believe the administration committed contempt of court.

Upon landing in El Salvador, the deportees were locked up in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Centre, known as the CECOT prison, as part of a deal with the Trump administration.

In Wednesday’s order, Boasberg wrote that there was “significant evidence” indicating that many of the individuals imprisoned in El Salvador are not connected to Tren de Aragua.

They “thus languish in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations”, Boasberg said.

Court documents previously indicated that some of the men may have been deported based only on their tattoos or clothing.

Boasberg wrote that the administration “plainly deprived” the immigrants of a chance to challenge their removals before they were put on flights.

He ruled that their cases must now be given the right to be heard before a court, as they “would have been if the Government had not provided constitutionally inadequate process”.

“That process – which was improperly withheld – must now be afforded to them,” Boasberg wrote. “Absent this relief, the government could snatch anyone off the street, turn him over to a foreign country, and then effectively foreclose any corrective course of action.”

The ruling did not expressly order the Trump administration to return the deported people to the US.

The US Supreme Court previously ruled that people deported under the Alien Enemies Act must be given a chance to challenge their removal, and it paused certain planned deportations that would have been conducted using the law.

A case currently being heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to eventually make its way to the top court for a final decision.

Until then, various challenges have played out in lower courts, with three federal judges in New York, Texas and Colorado having so far ruled that Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act is illegal. A fourth federal judge, in Pennsylvania, has ruled that Trump was within his powers to invoke the law.

Trump campaigned on a pledge to conduct a mass deportation of “criminal” non-citizens living in the US, but his efforts have been hampered by legal challenges and backlogged immigration courts.

Immigration advocates say that has led the administration to seek various means of fast-tracking deportations, including by circumventing due process.

A federal court says removing the wife and children of Mohamed Soliman without due process could cause ‘irreparable harm’.

A United States judge has temporarily blocked the deportation of family members related to a suspect accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado.

The ruling on Wednesday came after the administration of President Donald Trump arrested the wife of Mohamed Soliman and their five children in an effort to deport them.

Judge Gordon Gallagher wrote that Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, and her children cannot be removed from the country as long as his order stands.

“Moreover, the Court finds that deportation without process could work irreparable harm,” the judge said.

El Gamal, who has not been charged with a crime, had filed a legal petition for her release.

Soliman, meanwhile, has been charged with a federal hate crime over the attack on Sunday, which injured 12 people.

It is unclear if the Trump administration has any evidence that Soliman’s relatives committed wrongdoing, or if they were simply targeted for their association with him. Authorities have indicated that Soliman appears to have acted alone in the attack.

Still, Trump officials signalled they would take an aggressive approach to investigating and deporting individuals they perceived to be linked to “terrorism”.

“In light of yesterday’s horrific attack, all terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a social media post on Monday.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed on Tuesday the detention of Elgamal, her three daughters and her two sons, four of whom are minors.

“We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a video posted online. “Justice will be served.”

According to DHS, Soliman and his family arrived in the US on temporary visas in 2022 before applying for asylum.

Soliman’s visa expired in 2023. Media reports indicate that El Gamal, meanwhile, applied for an employment visa: She has a background as a network engineer.

Critics say the tactic of penalising the relatives of a criminal suspect is a form of unlawful collective punishment.

In the West Bank, for instance, human rights groups have denounced Israeli operations that demolished the homes of Palestinians related to suspects in armed attacks.

The attack in Colorado has been linked to Israel’s war on Gaza, which United Nations experts have described as a genocide. The suspect allegedly yelled “Free Palestine” during the fire-bombing.

The Washington-backed war has also sparked other violent incidents on US soil. The incident in Colorado followed the killing of two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington, DC, last month.

In October 2023, a six-year-old Palestinian boy was stabbed to death in the Chicago area in another crime linked to the war. The 73-year-old suspect reportedly told the boy’s mother that Muslims “must die” as he attacked them. He was sentenced to 53 years after being convicted of murder and hate crimes.

Weeks later, three Palestinian American students were shot and severely wounded in Vermont.

The war on Gaza has killed at least 54,607 Palestinians, according to health officials.

In a news statement this week, the White House cherry-picked personal income tax-related elements in the “big, beautiful bill”, the wide-ranging tax and spending bill being pushed by United States President Donald Trump, and claimed that, in opposing the legislation as a whole, the Democratic Party was opposed to every individual item contained within it.

Such a tactic is misleading, particularly since the White House cited measures in the bill that have been championed by Democrats to improve the lives of Americans and are not the reasons the Democrats have given for opposing the “big beautiful bill”.

Here’s a fact-check of what the White House claims Democrats oppose:

“They’re opposing the largest tax cut in history, which will put an extra $5,000 in their pockets with a double-digit percent decrease to their tax bills. In fact, Americans earning between $30,000 and $80,000 will pay around 15% less in taxes.”

The specifics of the tax bill have not been finalised. In its current form, it would cut taxes by an average of 2.4 percent, for middle-income households, according to analysis by the Tax Policy Center.

While it is a significant tax cut, it is not the biggest in history. That was under Ronald Reagan in 1981 at 2.9 percent.

It is accurate that there will be a double-digit percentage decrease in tax bills, at least in the immediate term, at a little more than 11 percent across all tax brackets. It is also true that people earning between $30,000 and $80,000 will pay 15 percent less, according to the Non-Partisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

“They’re opposing NO TAX ON TIPS for the millions of Americans who work in the service industry and NO TAX ON OVERTIME for law enforcement, nurses, and more.”

This is true only in their opposition to Trump’s tax and spending bill.

Democrats and Republicans have supported the concept of no tax on tips. Both Donald Trump and the Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris pledged to do so on the campaign trail. Senate Democrats backed the No Tax on Tips Act, passed by the US Senate on May 20. The bill, authored by Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, was co-sponsored by notable Democrats, including Jacky Rosen of Nevada and passed unanimously.

“They’re opposing historic tax cuts for senior citizens”

Outside of the “big beautiful bill”, Democrats have generally not opposed tax cuts for seniors. Many Democrats have championed legislation that would expand tax cuts for seniors. California Democrat Jimmy Panetta co-sponsored a Republican led bill that would increase the standard deduction for adults over the age of 65 by $4,000.

In 2024, House Democrats introduced the “You Earned It, You Keep It Act”, which would effectively eliminate taxes on social security benefits. The bill, however, has never made it past committee.

“They’re opposing a boost to the child tax credit.”

Again, they are opposing Trump’s “big beautiful bill”, not objecting to the child tax credit.

In fact, Democrats have long pushed to expand the child tax credit. In April, Senate Democrats, including Georgia’s Raphael Warnock and Colorado’s Michael Bennett, introduced legislation that would expand the child tax credit. The bill would increase the tax credit, from $2,000 where it currently stands, to $6,360 for newborns, $4,320 for children ages one to six and $3,600 for children six to 17, permanently.

While the “big beautiful bill” would also increase the child tax credit, it would do so only by $500, and that would kick in in 2028.

“They’re opposing new savings accounts for newborns and the chance for children across America to experience the miracle of compounded growth.” 

In the “big beautiful bill”, House Republicans introduced new savings accounts for children. The accounts would include a $1,000 handout for every child born between January 1, 2025 and January 1, 2029.

Democrats have not only been supporters of the idea for savings accounts for newborns, but prominent Democrats actually championed it.

In 2018, Cory Booker of New Jersey introduced the American Opportunity Accounts Act, which would also give $1,000 to newborns and up to $2000 in annual contributions. He reintroduced the bill again in 2023.

“They’re opposing expanded access to childcare for hardworking American families.”

This appears to be false. The White House link refers to the Paid Family and Medical Leave Credit, not child care access. Trump’s bill offers up to 12 weeks of paid leave for employees who have worked a year and earn $57,600 or less.

While that gives parents more time at home, Democrats have focused on expanding access to child care, including universal pre-K. In 2023, Republicans opposed a Democratic plan to keep child care centres open that struggled in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They’re opposing historic border security to keep their communities safe.”

Last year, Trump pressured Republicans to vote against a bipartisan border security bill, a move that reportedly helped Trump’s chances of winning in November 2024. Democrats have opposed Republican plans to use US military bases for migrant detention, arguing that it misuses Department of Defense resources. Democrats have long opposed border wall funding, including during Trump’s first term.

A 2018 Stanford University analysis estimated that a border wall would reduce migration by just 0.6 percent. Despite this, the “big beautiful bill” allocates more than $50bn to complete the wall and maritime crossings, $45bn for building and maintaining detention centres, and $14bn for transportation.

“They’re opposing expanded health savings accounts that give Americans greater choice and flexibility in how they spend their money.”

This is sort of true. Democrats have not been huge proponents of health savings accounts. The belief is that healthcare savings accounts do not help the socioeconomically disadvantaged, who may not have the financial resources to contribute to the accounts. Democrats have also objected to other cuts to healthcare in the bill, including the potential $880bn that could be cut from essential government programmes like Medicaid.

“They’re opposing scholarships that empower Americans to choose the education that best fits the needs of their families.”

In the bill, the White House is conflating the longstanding debate on school choice with scholarships. Under school choice, funds otherwise allocated to the public school system can be re-allocated to private institutions, which Republicans argue will allow students to have potential access to a higher quality education.

Democrats have opposed school choice because it diverts funds from public school systems, many of which are already drastically underfunded. In Texas, Senator Ted Cruz, for example, pushed legislation that would expand school choice, even as three out of four school districts in the state are underfunded, according to a Kinder Institute analysis.

June 4 (UPI) — Russian President Vladimir Putin will respond to the Ukrainian drone strikes that destroyed Russian military aircraft in several locations on Sunday, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday.

Trump spoke with Putin by phone for more than an hour on Wednesday and said it was “not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace,” CNBC reported the president saying in a Truth Social post.

Putin told Trump the Russian military will retaliate against Ukraine for the drone strikes conducted during a long-planned operation dubbed “spiderweb.”

The drone strikes destroyed more than 40 Russian heavy bombers that are capable of deploying missiles that contain nuclear warheads.

Putin said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is disrupting peace talks with such attacks.

Putin aide Yury Ushakov said the conversation lasted about 70 minutes and was the fourth between the two world leaders.

“It was emphasized that Ukraine tried to derail these talks by carrying out targeted attacks on entirely civilian targets and civilians on direct orders from the Kiev regime,” Ushakov said in an online announcement.

“These attacks unequivocally constitute an act of terrorism under international law,” Ushakov said. “The Kiev regime has essentially degenerated into a terrorist organization.”

Trump said the United States had no advance knowledge of the drone strikes, Ushakov said, adding that the two presidents agreed to continue working to achieve peace between Ukraine and Russia.

Putin and Trump also discussed matters in the Middle East, the conflict between India and Pakistan, and a potential restoration of cooperation between Russia and the United States regarding various global issues.

“We also discussed Iran and the fact that time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons, which must be made quickly!” Trump said in his Truth Social post.

Putin said he could assist with nuclear talks with Iran, which Trump is working to stop from developing nuclear weapons, the BBC reported.

Ushakov credited Trump with halting the recent armed conflict between India and Pakistan and said both agreed their phone conversation was “positive and highly productive.”

The leaders of Canada and Mexico have criticised the latest hike in steel and aluminium tariffs under United States President Donald Trump, who increased import taxes on the metal from 25 to 50 percent.

The international condemnation came just hours after the latest tariff increase went into effect early on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the tariff increases were “unjustified”.

“They’re illegal. They’re bad for American workers, bad for American industry and, of course, for Canadian industry,” he said.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, meanwhile, pledged to pursue countermeasures if the Trump administration refuses to grant tariff relief. She warned that the tariffs would have a “huge impact” on Mexico’s steel and aluminium industries.

“This isn’t about an eye for an eye, but rather about protecting our industry and our jobs,” she added, without specifying what steps her government might take.

Canada calls for action

Wednesday’s tariff hike had been unveiled last Friday, when Trump held a rally with steelworkers outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

That region of the US is a part of the Rust Belt, an area that has been heavily affected by the decline in US manufacturing. Trump pledged to use tariffs and other measures to bring jobs and investments back to the area.

Previously, in March, Trump set tariffs on steel and aluminium at 25 percent. But he threatened to lift that rate to 50 percent specifically for Canadian imports of the metals, a plan he later appeared to walk back.

Those threats, however, roiled relations between the US and its northern neighbour in particular. Canada is the top supplier of steel to the US, followed by Brazil and then Mexico. South Korea and China also top the list.

Canada is also responsible for about 40 percent of aluminium imports to the US, followed by the UAE, Russia and Mexico. Carney’s government has pledged to pursue retaliatory measures so long as Trump’s tariffs remain in place.

On Wednesday, one of Canada’s largest labour unions, Unifor, called on Carney to take immediate action against the latest tariff hike, including by limiting the country’s exports of critical metals to the US.

“Unifor is urging the federal government to act without delay to defend Canada’s manufacturing sector and counter the escalating trade assault,” the union said in a statement.

Premier Doug Ford — who leads the top manufacturing province in Canada, Ontario — also called for Canada to respond in kind and “slap another 25 percent” on US steel imports.

“It’s tariff for tariff, dollar for dollar. We need to tariff the steel coming into Canada an additional 25 percent, totalling 50 percent,” Ford told reporters. “Everything’s on the table right now.”

Navigating global trade pacts

Both Canada and Mexico have been hard hit by Trump’s aggressive tariffs, which include a blanket 25-percent tax on all imports not subject to the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA), as well as a separate 25-percent levy on automobile imports.

The three countries have highly integrated economies, with products like automobiles being built using supplies and factories from multiple locations.

The USMCA pact was agreed upon during Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021. But he has since signalled he hopes to renegotiate the free-trade deal to get more favourable terms for the US.

But the doubling of the US steel and aluminium tariffs is expected to have a global impact, well beyond North America.

The European Union is also bracing for the increase. The bloc’s trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, met US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of a meeting for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Wednesday.

“We’re advancing in the right direction at pace – and staying in close contact to maintain the momentum,” Sefcovic wrote on X afterwards.

UK Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds also met with Greer, and he said steel and aluminium tariffs would remain at 25 percent for his country. The two countries have been in the process of forging a post-Brexit bilateral trade agreement, announcing a “breakthrough” last month.

“We’re pleased that as a result of our agreement with the US, UK steel will not be subject to these additional tariffs,” a British government spokesperson said.

‘Extremely hard to make a deal’

Trump’s latest tariff hike comes days after a federal court ruled that his so-called reciprocal tariffs — which imposed customised taxes on nearly all US trading partners — were illegal.

Trump had imposed those tariffs in April, only to pause them for 90 days. The court’s ruling was quickly paused while legal proceedings continued, and Trump’s tariffs have been allowed to remain in place for now.

One of the hardest hit countries has been China, which saw US tariffs against its exports skyrocket to 145 percent earlier this year.

The Trump administration, however, has since sought to reach a deal with China to end the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The White House said on Monday that Trump would speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, raising hopes the duo could soothe tensions and speed up negotiations.

But on Wednesday, Trump appeared to dampen hopes for a quick deal.

“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” he posted on his Truth Social platform.

When asked about the remarks during a regular news briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Beijing’s “principles and stance on developing Sino-US relations are consistent”.

The US president says Putin also suggested he would participate in talks aimed at reaching a new nuclear deal with Tehran.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Donald Trump in a telephone conversation that Moscow would have to respond to the recent Ukrainian drone attacks, the US president said.

Trump said on Wednesday that the two men “discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides.”

Putin “did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields”, Trump said in a social media post.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said that Trump described his 85-minute phone call with Putin as “a good conversation but not one that would lead to immediate peace”.

“You have to remember that Donald Trump, when he came into office, was very confident that he could end this war on day one, but here we are now in June and the fact is … this is far from resolved,” she said from the White House.

Moscow said earlier on Wednesday that military options were “on the table” for its response to Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia and accused the West of being involved in them.

Russia also urged the US and Britain to restrain Kyiv after the attacks, which Ukrainian officials have lauded as showing Kyiv can still fight back after more than three years of war.

British and US officials have said they had no prior knowledge of the weekend attacks on Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers.

In his social media post, Trump said he and Putin also discussed Iran. Putin suggested he would participate in talks aimed at reaching a new nuclear deal with Tehran, Trump said.

“I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement,” Trump said. He accused Iran of “slow-walking” decisions regarding the talks.

Putin told Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian that Moscow was ready to help advance talks on a nuclear deal, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

But Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier on Wednesday that Washington’s proposal was against Tehran’s national interests, amid sharp differences over whether Tehran can continue to enrich uranium.

Tucked within the proposed “Big Beautiful Bill”, the more than 1,000-page tax and spending overhaul that United States President Donald Trump wants to see enacted in law, is a provision that is being referred to as a “revenge tax”.

The “Enforcement of Remedies Against Unfair Foreign Taxes” in Section 899 targets countries that the Trump administration believes impose unfair or discriminatory taxes on US companies and individuals, and will allow the US to impose additional taxes on entities from those countries.

The provision calls, for instance, for levies on revenue from digital services, such as data monetisation and online advertising.

The proposal also includes a higher minimum tax on the profits of foreign entities, even if those profits are earned outside US borders. This could impact passive income streams, such as interest and dividends, and may discourage international investors from countries flagged as discriminatory.

The administration’s unpredictable approach to global economic policy has already created uncertainty in international markets. Should this measure be signed into law, it could further erode foreign investor confidence in the US market.

‘This revenge tax move will add to economic uncertainty. It will stop foreign CEOs from investing – the very thing President Trump says he wants. It means more wild economic swings, stock market declines, less stability and a greater chance of recession this year,” Stuart Mackintosh, the executive director of the financial think tank Group of Thirty, told Al Jazeera.

“Every few days, we see a destabilising misuse of US power, more self-inflicted wounds, that look set to drive up prices and slow the economy. America has shredded its political and economic alliances. These revenge taxes underscore that America cannot be trusted.”

Who could be affected

Under the provision, certain foreign governments and international businesses could face an additional 20 percent tax, which would apply to non-US entities earning income from US sources, including interest, dividends and royalties.

Taxes would be hiked gradually at the rate of 5 percent annually.

It would also affect profits earned at US locations, which are transferred to foreign parent companies, as well as income from the sale of US real estate by designated “bad actors”. Trusts, global foundations and partnerships with passive income could also be impacted.

However, exceptions are built into the legislation for foreign pension funds and charitable organisations. The tax would only apply to countries designated as “discriminatory” by the US Treasury Department. Countries not flagged would remain unaffected.

House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, a Republican from Missouri, said that while the provision could serve as an effective retaliatory tool, it “will hopefully never take effect”.

According to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, the measure could bring in revenue of $116.3bn over the next decade. But it would also lower tax revenue in the long term, by $12.9bn in both 2033 and 2034.

Impacted investment climate

The administration’s shifting trade strategies have already led to legal battles, policy reversals and a climate of unpredictability that has left companies hesitant to make long-term plans.

Companies like toy manufacturer Mattel and automaker Stellantis have suspended financial guidance due to the volatile nature of US tariff policy.

These policies have also contributed to swings in consumer confidence. When Trump announced his series of sweeping tariffs against trade partners on April 2, which he dubbed “Liberation Day”, confidence fell to a 13-year low, only to rebound after the administration paused the tariffs’ implementation.

Analysts warn that provisions like the “revenge tax” could deter foreign investment and strain developing partnerships.

“If you’ve got the headwinds of an extra withholding tax that starts at an extra 5 percent [and] moves up to 20 percent over the subsequent four years, I think [investors would] have second thoughts. In terms of optimising your investment strategy, you’d have a slightly smaller allocation to the US,” Chris Turner, the global head of markets and regional head of research for the United Kingdom and Europe at ING, a financial services company, told Al Jazeera.

There is already evidence that some economies have started diversifying away from the US. Canada, for example, has increased trade with Europe and Asia. Trump’s trade policies have also been cited as a factor in foreign governments divesting from US treasuries, while the European Central Bank continues to promote the euro as a competing global reserve currency.

This measure adds another mechanism to the Trump administration’s broader trade strategy, which has relied heavily on tariffs even as many face legal scrutiny.

Last week, the US Court of International Trade blocked the administration’s blanket global tariffs enacted under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. A federal district court temporarily halted the block’s enforcement as legal battles unfold.

Experts believe many of these tariffs may not withstand judicial review.

“There’s no statute that provides the president that authority”, to impose sweeping international tariffs through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Greg Shaffer, a law professor at Georgetown University, told Al Jazeera. “And as the court said, if there were such a statute, it would be unconstitutional because the Constitution provides that responsibility to Congress.”

However, the ruling did not address tariffs on aluminium, steel and automobiles, which fall under a different legal basis – the 1962 Trade Expansion Act. Under that statute, Trump recently announced plans to raise those tariffs to 50 percent for most imports.

June 4 (UPI) — Ukrainian officials were set to update U.S. senators on Wednesday on the war and discuss arms purchases and efforts to pressure Russia to negotiate a peace deal, including a tough new bipartisan sanctions bill due to come to the floor of the upper chamber next week.

The delegation, which included Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, Deputy Defense Minister Serhii Boyev and Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak, arrived Tuesday, a day after a second round of Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey broke up without a breakthrough.

Yermak said in a social media post that the delegation was bringing a “comprehensive agenda” of issues that were important to Ukraine to actively promote to members of both parties and President Donald Trump‘s team.

“We plan to talk about defense support and the situation on the battlefield, strengthening sanctions against Russia, including Senator [Lindsey] Graham’s bill. We will also discuss the Agreement on the Establishment of the Reconstruction Investment Fund, which we signed earlier,” wrote Yermak.

He said the delegation would also raise the issue of getting back Ukrainian children deported by Russia and support for the process.

The bill that Sen. Graham, R-S.C., plans to introduce in the Senate aims to ratchet up economic pressure on Russia, targeting its trade partners by slapping 500% tariffs on imports from countries that continue to purchase Russian products, including gas, oil and uranium.

China and India are the two biggest markets for Russian energy exports.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Politico that he and Graham would host a closed-door meeting with the Ukrainians on Capitol Hill to which all Senators had been invited.

He said support for the sanctions bill was gaining very strong momentum with 82 members of the Senate split down the middle of the aisle agreeing to co-sponsor it.

Blumenthal said the secondary sanctions could be a “game changer.”

“It’s a pivotal moment in Ukraine — and crunch time for the Senate on this bill.”

He also pushed back on what he said was a growing but false belief that Ukraine was losing the war, saying recent offensive assaults deep into Russian territory, such as Sunday’s so-called “Operation Spiderweb,” in which Ukrainian drones destroyed 41 strategic Russian bomber aircraft, proved otherwise.

Blumenthal argued that such feats could help shift the dial among the administration’s foreign policy team, helping persuade them to bolster military and other assistance for Ukraine and to support the sanctions bill.

That in turn would help overcome the reservations of some lawmakers, he said.

“Events will move the White House — and maybe some of the president’s friends here [Capitol Hill]. Congress can move ahead. [Trump] doesn’t have to support it.”

Current U.S. flows of arms and equipment to Ukraine are all under drawdowns on assistance packages approved under former President Joe Biden, with no fresh approvals since as the Trump administration shifts to a more mercantile approach under which Ukraine will buy the weapons rather than receiving them as aid.

Growing strains in US-China relations over implementation of agreement to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions.

United States President Donald Trump has said his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, is tough and “extremely hard to make a deal with”, days after he accused China of violating an agreement to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions.

“I like President Xi of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social online platform on Wednesday, amid growing tensions between the two nations over their tariff truce.

On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said Trump would speak with Xi to iron out differences on last month’s tariff agreement, among larger trade issues.

In May, American and Chinese negotiators had struck a deal in Geneva that lowered US tariffs on goods from China from 145 percent to 30 percent. In exchange, China dropped its tariffs on US goods from 125 percent to 10 percent.

Analysts had described the agreement as unexpected, pointing out that the two sides had been so widely apart on their tariff dispute. Still, the deal was seen as a welcome development averting a bigger showdown that unnerved the global market.

But on Monday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said the US has “severely violated” the deal, adding that it would take steps to defend its interests.

US violations included the halting sales of computer chip design software to Chinese companies, the blocking of usage of Chinese-made chips from the tech giant Huawei, as well as the cancellation of visas for Chinese students, the Commerce Ministry said.

The ministry also said US actions severely violate an agreement reached in January during an earlier phone call between Xi and Trump.

Trump had also ranted on social media last week, accusing Beijing of “totally” violating the agreement with the US.

He did not specify which provisions in the May tariffs deal were violated. But US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was later quoted in media reports as saying Beijing had failed to remove non-tariff barriers levied against the US, as agreed under the deal.

Last week, a US trade court ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in imposing the bulk of his tariffs on imports from China and other countries under an emergency powers act.

Less than 24 hours later, a federal appeals court reinstated it, saying it was considering the government’s appeal.

June 4 (UPI) — A 23-year-old Texas man has been arrested by U.S. Secret Service agents after jumping the wall at President Donald Trump‘s Florida Mar-a-Lago estate, according to reports.

Anthony Thomas Reyes had entered the property early Tuesday and told law enforcement that he was there to “spread the gospel” to the president and marry his teenage granddaughter, Kai Madison Trump, Florida Today reported, citing a Palm Beach Police arrest report.

A Secret Service spokesperson told CBS News in a statement that the suspect had “scaled a perimeter fence and triggered alarms” shortly after midnight Tuesday.

The suspect was taken into custody without incident, the spokesperson said.

Jail records state Reyes has been charged with a misdemeanor trespassing offense and is being held at Palm Beach County Jail on a $50,000 bond. He pleaded not guilty later Tuesday during his first appearance in court.

Trump was in Washington at the time of the incident.

The police report also states that Reyes was arrested and accused of trespassing at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve.

In April, 58-year-old Adrienne Tajirian was arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge for allegedly trying to enter Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to have dinner with the president.

And in January, Bijan Arceo was arrested on the same charge after allegedly jumping over the outer wall at Mar-a-Lago.

A security zone was erected around Trump’s estate following an assassination attempt on Trump’s life during a campaign rally in July.

Kai Madison Trump is the 18-year-old daughter of the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

Mexico says tariffs make ‘no sense’ as Canada seeks negotiations to remove the levies ongoing.

In a move that has reignited trade tensions with key allies, United States President Donald Trump has doubled tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

The new rates, which came into effect early on Wednesday, raise duties from 25 percent to 50 percent. Trump says the measure is designed to bolster the struggling US metals sector.

“We started at 25 and then, after studying the data more, realised that it was a big help, but more help is needed. And so that is why the 50 [percent tariff] is starting tomorrow,” said White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett during a steel industry event in Washington on Tuesday.

The executive order applies to all trading partners except the United Kingdom, which has reached a provisional trade deal with Washington during a 90-day pause on broader tariffs.

British exports will continue to face a 25 percent rate until at least July 9.

Allies seek exemptions

The hike is expected to weigh heavily on Canada and Mexico, two of the US’s closest economic allies and among the largest suppliers of steel. Census Bureau data shows Canada alone exports more aluminium to the US than the rest of the top 10 countries combined. Almost half of the US aluminium consumption is imported.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office confirmed that “intensive and live negotiations” were ongoing to remove the tariffs.

Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard slammed the decision as irrational, noting the imbalance in steel trade between the two nations.

“It makes no sense for the United States to levy a tariff on a product in which you have a surplus,” he said, adding that Mexico would seek an exemption.

The European Union criticised the decision, saying it “strongly regrets” the move and warned it could take retaliatory action, accusing Washington of undermining attempts at a negotiated settlement.

OECD chief economist Alvaro Pereira told the AFP news agency that the tariffs have already dampened global trade, investment and consumption, and that the US will bear the brunt of the fallout.

While several of Trump’s tariff measures face legal scrutiny, they remain in force during the appeals process.

SEOUL, June 4 (UPI) — Lee Jae-myung was sworn in as South Korea’s president on Wednesday, just hours after his victory was certified in a snap election that brought an end to months of political turmoil in the country.

Lee’s term officially began at 6:21 a.m. when the National Election Commission certified his victory over challenger Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party.

The new president received 49.42% of the vote, while Kim garnered 41.15%, the NEC confirmed. Minor conservative Reform Party candidate Lee Jun-seok finished with 8.34%.

In a speech during a scaled-down ceremony at the National Assembly, Lee pledged to unify a country that saw its political divisions grow deeper in the aftermath of former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law attempt in December.

“Regardless of who you supported in this presidential election, I will become a president of all who embraces and serves all the people,” Lee said.

During his campaign, Lee framed the election as an existential choice for the future of South Korean democracy, and he echoed that theme in his remarks.

“I will become a president who ends the politics of division,” he said. “I will overcome the crisis by using national unity as my driving force. I will restore what was lost and destroyed by the insurrection.”

South Korea “has become a clear example for people around the world who are looking for a new way forward for democracy in crisis,” he added.

Lee inherits a raft of challenges as president, with economic concerns at the top of the list. South Korea saw its economy shrink in the first quarter of the year, and the export-driven country is facing tariff negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump, who doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50% on Wednesday.

In his remarks, Lee said the election was a “turning point of great change” and vowed to stimulate economic growth.

“It is time to revive the people’s livelihoods that have been driven to the brink, restore growth and create a tomorrow where everyone is happy,” he said.

Lee, who rose to fame as a progressive firebrand during his tenure as mayor of Seongam and then governor of Gyeonggi Province, recast himself as a centrist during the campaign.

On Wednesday, Lee said his administration “will be a pragmatic market-oriented government.” He reiterated campaign pledges to invest heavily in science and technology, with a heavy focus on developing one of the world’s top artificial intelligence industries.

Lee also vowed to take a pragmatic approach toward healing the country’s deep political divides.

“Let’s send old ideologies to the museum of history,” he said. “From now on, there will be no problems for progressives. From now on, there will be no problems for conservatives. There will only be problems of the people and of the Republic of Korea.”

The 60-year-old briefly touched on pressing geopolitical concerns during his remarks, including an increasingly dangerous nuclear-armed North Korea.

Lee said he would continue to strengthen cooperation with the United States and Japan — a trilateral alliance that Yoon championed — but said Seoul would “approach relations with neighboring countries from the perspective of national interests and practicality.”

While Yoon and the PPP’s Kim took a hardline approach toward Pyongyang, Lee pledged during his campaign to reopen communications with Seoul’s recalcitrant neighbor.

“We will prepare for North Korea’s nuclear weapons and military provocations, while opening channels of communication with North Korea and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and cooperation,” Lee said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Lee on his election victory Wednesday and affirmed the strong ties between the allies.

“The United States and the Republic of Korea share an ironclad commitment to the alliance grounded in our Mutual Defense Treaty, shared values and deep economic ties,” Rubio said in a statement.

“We will also continue to deepen U.S.-Japan-ROK trilateral cooperation to bolster regional security, enhance economic resilience and defend our shared democratic principles,” he said.

Lee began assembling his cabinet on Wednesday, nominating one of his top campaign aides, Democratic Party Rep. Kim Min-seok, as his candidate for prime minister. He also tapped former Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok to head the National Intelligence Service, the nation’s top spy agency.

Both nominees must undergo confirmation hearings. Lee’s chief of staff will be Democratic Party Rep. Kang Hoon-sik.

June 4 (UPI) — The Democratic mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, has sued the Republican U.S. district attorney of New Jersey over his arrest last month outside of a prison being transformed into a detention facility to hold migrants arrested in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The lawsuit, announced Tuesday, accuses District Attorney Alina Habba and Special Agent in Charge Ricky Patel of the Newark Division of Homeland Security Investigations of violating Baraka’s rights by arresting him without cause, initiating a malicious prosecution and committing defamation.

“They abused their power to violently arrest me at Delaney Hall despite being invited inside,” Baraka said in a statement Tuesday.

“No one is above the law.”

Baraka was arrested on May 9 outside Delaney Hall, a Newark prison owned by GEO Group, which in February signed a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house migrants at the 1,000-bed center for 15 years.

Habba accused Baraka of trespassing at the facility and claimed he was arrested after allegedly “ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center.

“He has willingly chosen to disregard the law,” she said on X following Baraka’s arrest. “That will not stand in this state.”

Habba — formerly a lawyer for President Donald Trump, who appointed her to her current position in New Jersey — announced last month she was dropping the charges against Baraka “for the sake of moving forward.”

According to the lawsuit, Baraka was at the prison at the invitation of Rep. LaMonica McIver, one of three Democratic New Jersey House representatives visiting Delaney Hall that day to inspect it.

Baraka arrived at Delaney Hall at about 1:42 p.m. EDT and spoke with members of the public protesting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

At 1:50 p.m. a GEO Group guard invited Baraka to enter the inner gate of Delaney Hall, which the mayor did. He waited there for about 40 minutes, apparently for the Democratic lawmakers inside the facility.

According to the lawsuit, Patel confronted Baraka at 2:33 p.m., and told him to leave. Baraka argued he was invited in by the guard, which Patel disputed, the court documents state.

Minutes later, the members of Congress exited the facility after witnessing the confrontation between the two and informed Patel that they had wanted Baraka there.

“After the members of Congress conveyed their thoughts, Defendant Patel threatened to arrest the Mayor,” the lawsuit states. “In response, the Mayor said: ‘I’m leaving now.'”

Baraka was arrested by about 20 DHS agents, some masked, about 5 minutes after he left the GEO Group property, according to the filing.

“Egged on by Defendant Patel, who ordered the DHS agents to ‘take him down’ (meaning violently tackle the Mayor of Newark) the agents pushed, shoved and assaulted the Mayor’s security team and members of Congress before violently pulling Mayor Baraka’s arms and arresting him without probable cause,” the lawsuit states.

“The DHS agents handcuffed the Mayor behind his back in an effort to effect maximum humiliation for what Defendant Habba’s office later admitted was an alleged ‘petty offense.'”

The lawsuit, which is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, also accuses Habba of having a political agenda to forward Trump’s immigration policies and to help Republicans in the state.

When Habba told the court she was ending the prosecution of Baraka, federal Judge Andre Espinosa admonished the district attorney.

“The hasty arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, followed swiftly by the dismissal of the trespassing charges a mere 13 days later, suggests a worrisome misstep by your office,” Espinosa said.

“An arrest, particularly of a public figure, is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action, carrying significant reputational and personal consequences, and it should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate evaluation of credible evidence.”

On Monday, after learning of Baraka’s intention to sue her, Habba retorted: “My advice to the mayor — feel free to join me in prioritizing violent crime and public safety. Far better use of time for the great citizens of New Jersey.”

Habba later last month filed charges of assaulting law enforcement against McIver in connection with Baraka’s arrest.

Baraka has voiced solidarity with McIver, and McIver described the charges against her as “purely political.”

June 4 (UPI) — Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said he plans to review the safety of abortion drug mifepristone after a recent study raised concerns about medical side effects.

In a letter to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Makary revealed the FDA’s plan on Monday to review the abortion pill after Hawley alerted the commissioner to the study.

“As the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, I am committed to conducting a review of mifepristone and working with the professional career scientists at the agency who review this data,” Makary wrote.

“As with all drugs, FDA continues to closely monitor the postmarketing safety data on mifepristone for the medical termination of early pregnancy,” Makary added.

Hawley referred the FDA commissioner to the recent study, from the Ethics and Public Policy Center, which found 11% of women experienced sepsis, infection or hemorrhaging within 45 days of taking the pill.

While Hawley said that information is listed as a side effect for mifepristone, the numbers are 22 times greater than the label warns. The study was based on insurance claims for 865,727 mifepristone abortions between 2017 and 2023.

“I’m calling on the FDA to reinstate safety regulations on the chemical abortion drug immediately. New data out today show a massive number of severe medical side effects,” Hawley said in April. “The time to act is now.”

Makary told senators during his confirmation hearing in March that he would oversee a review of mifepristone, but did not order it until Hawley alerted him to the EPPC study. The FDA commissioner did express concerns earlier this year about the Biden administration’s policy, which allowed women to access abortion drugs without making in-person appointments.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, saying the pro-life doctors who brought the case lacked standing. The court said the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine failed to prove they suffered any harm from the FDA’s policies.

President Donald Trump, who supported the Supreme Court’s decision, was also urged by Hawley to order a mifepristone review over the EPPC’s findings.

President Lee Jae-myung has pledged to tackle the economy and improve relations with North Korea after his swearing-in.

South Korea’s new President Lee Jae-myung has pledged to “heal wounds” after months of political and economic turmoil across the country and to reopen dialogue with North Korea in his first speech after taking office following a landslide win at the polls.

Lee, who hails from the liberal Democratic Party of Korea, replaces ousted President Yoon Suk-yeol, who last year triggered a national emergency when he briefly imposed martial law, citing antistate forces and North Korean infiltration.

After taking the oath of office at parliament on Wednesday, Lee pledged to help South Korea reverse course following months of uncertainty and political protest.

South Korea has also found itself under attack from the United States, a top economic and security ally, where trade protectionism is on the rise under President Donald Trump.

“A Lee Jae-myung government will be a pragmatic pro-market government,” Lee said in a speech.

Lee said he would try to make headway in South Korea’s relations with Pyongyang, working to “deter North Korean nuclear and military provocations while opening communication channels and pursuing dialogue and cooperation to build peace on the Korean Peninsula”.

“We will heal the wounds of division and war and establish a future of peace and prosperity,” he said.

“No matter how costly, peace is better than war,” he added.

Lee also warned that “rising protectionism and supply chain restructuring” posed a threat to South Korea’s export-driven economy, and said he would address cost-of-living concerns facing middle- and low-income families.

South Korea’s caretaker government, which ruled after Yoon’s ouster, failed to negotiate a trade deal with the Trump administration to cut down proposed tariffs on imports from the country.

Trump’s 25 percent “Liberation Day” tariffs on South Korea – aimed at addressing the US trade imbalance – are currently on pause pending negotiations, but South Korean exporters were hit with a new 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminium products.

Lee won this week’s snap election with 49.4 percent of the vote, well ahead of conservative candidate Kim Moon-soo, as South Korean voters turned out in the highest numbers since 1997.

Billionaire Elon Musk has renewed his criticisms of United States President Donald Trump’s signature budget bill, calling it a “disgusting abomination” in a series of social media posts.

On Tuesday, just days after leaving his post in the Trump administration, Musk offered yet another broadside against the legislation, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill.

“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

His subsequent posts laid out the reasoning for his opposition, suggesting that the spending and tax cuts proposed in the bill would balloon the US national debt.

“It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt,” Musk said in one post. In another, he wrote, “Congress is making America bankrupt.”

The bill would extend tax cuts established in 2017, during Trump’s first term, and funnel more funds to his administration’s priorities, including $46.5bn for the construction of barriers at the US border with Mexico.

But to accomplish those goals, critics have pointed out that the legislation would lift the cap on the national debt by $4 trillion. It would also limit access to social safety-net programmes like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known colloquially as food stamps.

The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan bureau that provides research to Congress, estimates that the bill will result in a $698bn reduction in Medicaid subsidies and $267bn less in funding for SNAP.

Those trade-offs have spurred concern on both sides of the aisle, with Democrats and some Republicans expressing fears that their constituents may lose their access to vital government services.

Fiscal conservatives, meanwhile, have baulked at the increase to the national debt.

In an early-morning vote on May 22, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill by a tight vote of 215 to 214. Republicans hold a 220-seat majority in the 435-member chamber, but several members were either absent or voted “present”.

Only two Republicans — Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio — broke with party ranks to vote against the bill. The House’s 212 Democrats all voted against it as well, in a unified show of opposition.

That sent the bill to the Senate, where Republicans likewise hold a razor-thin majority. Senators are expected to weigh the bill in the coming days.

But following Musk’s criticisms of the One Big Beautiful Bill, Massie chimed in to applaud the billionaire for his frank criticism.

“He’s right,” Massie wrote in a brief post, to which Musk responded that his opposition was rooted in “simple math”.

Musk also called on voters to “fire all politicians who betrayed the American people” during the 2026 midterm elections — referencing what he considered wasteful spending.

Until last week, Musk had served as a special government employee in the second Trump administration, helping to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) since the president’s inauguration in January. In that advisory role, Musk was tasked with identifying and eliminating “waste” in the federal bureaucracy.

His and DOGE’s efforts to slash the federal workforce, yank contracts and shutter government agencies, however, made them both a target for widespread criticism and lawsuits. Opponents accused Musk of engaging in conflicts of interest, including by attacking watchdog groups like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Federal law generally prohibits special government employees from serving for more than 130 days in a year, and Musk ended his tumultuous tenure in the Trump administration with an Oval Office sendoff last week.

Trump presented the billionaire with a decorative key to the White House and called his work transformational, crediting Musk with ushering in “a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington”.

But in the lead-up to that goodbye, Musk appeared in previews for the TV show CBS Sunday Morning denouncing the One Big Beautiful Bill. He described its provisions as contrary to the spirit of DOGE’s spending cuts.

“I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk told CBS.

“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful,” he added. “I don’t know if it could be both. My personal opinion.”

Those comments fuelled rumours of a widening rift between Trump and Musk, who had been one of the president’s most prominent donors and proxies during his 2024 re-election campaign.

Still, the Trump administration has brushed aside reports of tensions between the two men. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, for instance, shrugged off a question about Musk’s latest fusillade from her podium at the White House briefing room.

“ Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the president’s opinion,” she said. “This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”

Leavitt did, however, blast Republican senators who opposed the legislation for “not having their facts together”.

One of those senators is Rand Paul of Kentucky, who voiced his support for Musk’s dissent against the bill on Tuesday.

“I agree with Elon. We have both seen the massive waste in government spending and we know another $5 trillion in debt is a huge mistake,” Paul wrote. “We can and must do better.”

Trump, however, lashed out against Paul on social media and defended his budget bill, calling it a “WINNER”.

“Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him,” Trump said. “This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!”

Washington, DC – There were shackles at her wrists. Her waist. Her ankles.

The memory of being bound still haunts 19-year-old Ximena Arias Cristobal even after her release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

Nearly a month after her arrest, the Georgia college student said she is still grappling with how her life has been transformed. One day in early May, she was pulled over for a minor traffic stop: turning right on a red light. The next thing she knew, she was in a detention centre, facing a court date for her deportation.

“That experience is something I’ll never forget. It left a mark on me, emotionally and mentally,” Arias Cristobal said during a news conference on Tuesday, recounting her time at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.

“What hurts more,” she added, “is knowing that millions of others have gone through and are still going through the same kind of pain”.

Rights advocates say her story has become emblematic of a “dragnet” deportation policy in the United States, one that targets immigrants of all backgrounds, regardless of whether they have a criminal record.

President Donald Trump had campaigned for a second term on the pledge that he would expel “criminals” who were in the country “illegally”.

But as he ramps up his “mass deportation” campaign from the White House, critics say immigration agents are targeting immigrants from a variety of backgrounds — no matter how little risk they pose.

“The quotas that they are pushing for [are] creating this situation on the ground where ICE is literally just trying to go after anybody that they can catch,” said Vanessa Cardenas, the executive director of America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group.

She explained that young, undocumented immigrants, known as Dreamers, are among the most vulnerable populations.

“In the dragnet, we’re getting long-established, deeply rooted Dreamers and other folks that have been in the United States for a long time,” Cardenas explained.

A vulnerable group

An avid runner who studies finance and economics at Dalton State College, Arias Cristobal is one of the 3.6 million people known as Dreamers. Many were sent to the US as children, sometimes accompanied by family members, others alone.

For decades, the US government has struggled with how to handle those young, undocumented arrivals to the country.

In 2012, then-President Barack Obama announced a new executive policy, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). It provided temporary protection from deportation for younger immigrants who had lived in the US since June 2007.

About 530,000 Dreamers are protected by their DACA status. But Gaby Pacheco, the leader of the immigration group TheDream.US, said that number represents a small proportion of the total population of young immigrants facing possible deportation.

Some arrived after the cut-off date of June 15, 2007, while others have been unable to apply: Processing for new applications has been paused in recent years. Legal challenges over DACA also continue to wind their way through the federal court system.

“Sadly, in recent months multiple Dream.US scholars and alumni have either been arrested, detained and even deported,” Pacheco said.

She noted that 90 percent of the Dreamers that her organisation is supporting during their first year of higher education have no protections under DACA or other programmes.

All told, she said, the last few months have revealed a “painful truth”: that “Dreamers are under attack”.

Setting quotas

But advocates like Pacheco warn that the first months of the Trump administration may be only a harbinger of what is to come.

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller informed ICE agents that the Trump administration had increased its daily quota for immigration arrests, from 1,000 per day to 3,000.

The current draft of Trump’s budget legislation — known as the One Big Beautiful Bill — would also surge an estimated $150bn in government funds towards deportation and other immigration-related activities. The bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives and is likely to be taken up in the Senate in the coming weeks.

Both actions could mean a significant scale-up in immigration enforcement, even as advocates argue that Trump’s portrayal of the US as a country overrun with foreign criminals is starkly out of step with reality.

Studies have repeatedly shown that undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes — including violent crimes — than US-born citizens.

Available data also calls into question Trump’s claims that there are large numbers of undocumented criminal offenders in the country.

The rate of arrests and deportations has remained more or less the same as when Trump’s predecessor, former President Joe Biden, was in office, according to a report by the TRAC research project.

From January 26 to May 3, during the first four months of Trump’s second term, his administration made an average of 778 immigration arrests per day. That is just 2 percent higher than the average during the final months of Biden’s presidency, which numbered about 759.

The number of daily removals or deportations under Trump was actually 1 percentage point lower than Biden’s daily rate.

‘More and more pushback’

All told, Pacheco and Cardenas warned that the pressure to increase arrests and deportations could lead to increasingly desperate tactics.

The administration has already rolled back a policy prohibiting immigration enforcement in sensitive areas, like churches and schools. It has also sought to use a 1798 wartime law to swiftly deport alleged gang members without due process, and revoked temporary protections that allowed some foreign nationals to remain in the country legally.

In an effort to increase immigration arrests, the Trump administration has also pressured local officials to coordinate with ICE. Drawing on section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the administration has even delegated certain immigration powers to local law enforcement, including the right to make immigration arrests and screen people for deportation.

In one instance in early May, the Tennessee Highway Patrol coordinated with ICE in a sweep of traffic stops that led to nearly 100 immigration arrests. Another large-scale operation in Massachusetts in early June saw ICE make 1,500 arrests.

Swept up in that mass arrest was Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, an 18-year-old high school student on his way to volleyball practice. His arrest sparked protest and condemnation in Gomes Da Silva’s hometown of Milford, Massachusetts.

Cardenas pointed to those demonstrations, as well as the outpouring of support for Arias Cristobal, as evidence of a growing rejection of Trump’s immigration policies.

“I think we are going to see more and more pushback from Americans,” she said.

“Having said that, it is my belief that this administration has all the intention to implement their plans… And if Congress gives them more money, they’re going to go after our communities.”