Federal grand jury indicts Wisconsin judge on charges that she helped immigrant avoid agents
A federal grand jury indicted Wisconsin judge Hannah C Dugan of the Milwaukee county circuit court, who was arrested last month on allegations that she helped an undocumented immigrant avoid federal authorities.
Dugan faces charges of concealing a person from arrest and obstructing official proceedings.
“Judge Hannah C Dugan has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge,” reads a statement from Dugan’s attorney after she was arrested.
Key events
Edward Helmore
RFK Jr and his grandchildren swam in DC creek contaminated by sewage
The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has revealed that he went swimming with his children in a Washington DC creek that authorities have said is toxic due to contamination by an upstream, ageing sewer system.
The “Make America healthy again” crusader attracted attention for the Mother’s Day dip in Dumbarton Oaks Park with his grandchildren Bobcat and Cassius, which he posted about on X. He was also accompanied by relatives Amaryllis, Bobby, Kick and Jackson.
Rock Creek, which runs through the federal park, is described as unsafe for swimming or wading because it acts as a runoff for excess sewage and storm water during rain storms.
Studies of streams in the nation’s capital have revealed “chronic elevated levels of Escherichia coli (E coli) contamination that exceeded DC’s surface water quality standards”, according to one published in 2021.
Read the full story by The Guardian’s Edward Helmore here:
Sharp debates are underway as House Republicans grind through marathon hearings on their “big, beautiful bill”, with sizable reductions in Medicaid health care, food stamps for older Americans and tax breaks tallying more than $5 trillion up for heated discussion.
Republicans are working to push President Donald Trump’s signature legislative package through a gauntlet of committees over mounting opposition from Democrats, advocacy groups and even some wary Republicans themselves.
One meeting was immediately disrupted by protesters shouting down what the panel’s top Democrat called “cruel” cuts to Medicaid.
Pete Buttigieg suggested he would “assess” a potential presidential campaign in 2028, Politico reports.
His remarks on Tuesday came as the former Biden Transportation secretary returned to Iowa for a live interview with a Substack author, marking an appearance that seemed like a campaign before the launch.
“What Pete is doing right now is exactly what he did in 2019 and 2020,” Lis Smith, the Democratic strategist who served as his senior adviser in 2020, told Politico. “The strategy then was simple: go everywhere, talk to everyone, meet voters where they are — even if it’s in red areas or on more conservative media. A lot of Democrats are finally waking up to the idea that you can’t just campaign in safe, liberal echo chambers and expect to win over swing voters, but Pete has always understood that.”
Here’s what Buttigieg had to say to the Substack journalist Anand Giridharadas:
“Right now, I live in a 50-50 county in Michigan,” Buttigieg said. “I’m literally, physically, co-located with people who represent a real breadth of ideological difference. And I know … that many of them or some of them are ready to entertain very different ideas or at least think twice when you talk to them on their terms, but you have to actually do it. Which is why I go on Fox News. Which is why I’m spending more time in podcasts and online spaces that have not been really progressive-oriented.”
Republicans continued to raise concerns about President Donald Trump’s desire to accept a $400 million airplane from Qatar. Here’s what some of them have to say:
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“There will be plenty of scrutiny,” Republican senate majority leader John Thune of South Dakota told reporters. “There are lots and lots of issues around that, that I think will attract very serious questions.”
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“The plane poses significant espionage and surveillance problems, so we’ll see how this issue plays out,” said senate commerce committee chair Ted Cruz of Texas on CNBC.
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“I think it’s not worth the appearance of impropriety,” Republican senator Rand Paul of Kentucky told Fox News.
Palestinian UN ambassador welcomes Trump’s visit to region and hopes for ceasefire deal, AP reports
Riyad Mansour said that he hopes Trump’s trip to the Middle East will prove fruitful for the ongoing, devastating war between Israel and Hamas.
“We hope that President Trump’s visit to the region will allow to achieve such a ceasefire, and to build a political horizon of freedom for the Palestinian people, security for all and shared prosperity for our region,” Mansour said on Tuesday during a UN Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
A federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump is allowed to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport members of Tren de Aragua, but found that his administration failed to provide adequate notice before carrying out the removals.
US district judge Stephanie Haines’s decision contrasts from those of several other federal judges who have ruled that Trump’s use of the wartime law was unlawful.
Haines argued that the president has the authority to deport individuals affiliated with a foreign terrorist organization, a label Trump has applied to Tren de Aragua.
“Having done its job, the Court now leaves it to the Political Branches of the government, and ultimately to the people who elect those individuals, to decide whether the laws and those executing them continue to reflect their will,” Haines wrote in her 43-page ruling.
Catherine Shoard
Robert De Niro attacks Trump in Cannes speech: ‘This isn’t just America’s problem’
The actor Robert De Niro has – after a brief period of abstention – returned to his robust public critique of Donald Trump, using his Palme d’Or acceptance speech at the Cannes film festival to newly attack the US president.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of the 78th film festival in France, De Niro said that the US’s re-elected commander-in-chief posed a global threat.
“In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted,” he said. “That affects all of us here, because art is the crucible that brings people together, like tonight. Art looks for truth. Art embraces diversity. That’s why art is a threat.”
As applause broke out in the Grand Lumiére, Cannes’ largest cinema, De Niro continued:
“That’s why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists. America’s philistine president ha[s] had himself appointed head of one of our premier cultural institutions [the Kennedy Center]. He has cut funding and support to the arts, humanities and education.”
Read the full story here:
Here are some images of Syrians in Damascus celebrating the announcement by President Trump of plans to ease sanctions, taking a step toward normalizing relations between the US and the country’s new government:
Senator Lindsey Graham traveled to Turkey to hold talks with officials and assess the current situation in Syria.
“I am very inclined to support sanctions relief for Syria under the right conditions,” Graham said in a statement. “However, we must remember that the current leadership in Syria achieved its position through force of arms, not through the will of its people.”
President Trump announced plans to ease sanctions on Syria and pursue normalization of ties with its new government. He is slated to meet Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Democratic-led states sue over Trump’s attempt to tie grants to immigration policies
A coalition of 20 states led by Democratic administrations filed two lawsuits aiming to stop the Trump administration from forcing them to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation, counterterrorism and emergency preparedness grant funding.
Filed in federal court in Rhode Island, the lawsuits contend that the US Departments of Transportation and Homeland Security are unlawfully pressuring states to adopt the Republican president’s strict immigration policies by leveraging federal funding.
“He’s treating these funds, which have nothing to do with immigration enforcement and everything to do with the safety of our communities, as a bargaining chip. But this is not a game,” said California attorney general Rob Bonta. “I’ll continue taking the President to court each time he breaks the law and puts Californians’ interests on the line.”
William Christou
The White House has confirmed that Donald Trump will meet with Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former rebel commander whose forces helped overthrow Bashar al-Assad in 2024. The informal meeting will be the first face-to-face meeting between a US president and a Syrian leader since 2000, when Bill Clinton met with the late leader Hafez al-Assad in Geneva.
Speaking at an investment forum on Tuesday, Trump said that he planned to lift sanctions on Syria after holding talks with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “to give them a chance at greatness”.
Sharaa’s pitch to woo the US president offered access to Syrian oil, reconstruction contracts and to build a Trump Tower in Damascus in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions on Syria.
Though the details of the sanctions relief were still unclear, Sharaa’s team in Damascus was celebrating.
“This is amazing, it worked,” said Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian writer and activist who is close to the Syrian president. He shared a picture of an initial mockup of Trump Tower Damascus. “This is how you win his heart and mind,” he said, noting that Sharaa would probably show Trump the design during their meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday.
Trump’s negotiations in the Middle East have been characterised by big-ticket investment deals, and those appeared to play a role in his reversal of US policy on Syria as well.
Sharaa, who is keen to normalise relations with the US, has reportedly offered Trump a number of sweeteners including the Trump tower in Damascus, a demilitarised zone by the Golan Heights that would strengthen Israel’s claim to the territory it has occupied since 1967, diplomatic recognition of Israel, and a profit-sharing deal on resources similar to the Ukraine minerals deal.
The idea to offer Trump a piece of real estate with his name on it in the heart of Damascus was thought up by a US Republican senator, who passed on the idea to Sharaa’s team.
“Sanctions in Syria are very complicated, but with Trump, he can [get] most of them lifted. It is a great opportunity,” Ziadeh said.
