THE GLOVES ARE OFF: Top Commander Blasts Trump’s ‘Illegal’ Iran War

By: The Blog Topics Brief | February 28, 2026

The sirens are still wailing in Tehran and Tel Aviv, but the biggest explosion today might be the one happening inside the Pentagon.

Just hours after President Trump announced the launch of "Operation Epic Fury"—a massive joint U.S.-Israeli strike campaign aimed at toppling the Iranian regime—the military’s leadership is reportedly in a state of open revolt. While the White House is busy posting "Mission Accomplished" style videos on Truth Social, the people actually tasked with fighting this war are sounding the alarm.

"Blatantly Unconstitutional"

In a scathing public statement that has sent shockwaves through Washington, retired Major General Paul Eaton—a former top commander in Iraq and senior advisor to VoteVets—didn't hold back. He labeled the strikes "blatantly unconstitutional," ripping into the President for bypassing Congress and the War Powers Act to start what he calls an "illegal war of choice."

"Men who know more about war than Donald Trump ever will warned him repeatedly about the risks to American lives," Eaton stated. "Starting a war with no goal, no focus, and no Congressional authorization isn't leadership—it’s incompetence on a global scale."

A War Without a Map?

The critique hitting hardest isn't just about the legality; it’s about the strategic vacuum. Despite the administration's claims that this will be an "easily won" victory, reports are leaking that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine, has been privately warning the President for weeks that we are walking into a meat grinder.

The military's core complaints?

• No Exit Strategy: There is no clear plan for what happens after the bombs stop falling. Are we occupying? Are we nation-building?

• Incompetence at the Top: Commanders are reportedly frustrated by a "fitful cycle of lashing out" rather than a coherent strategy.

• Munitions Drain: Warnings have been ignored that a prolonged fight with Iran will leave the U.S. completely exposed in the Pacific if China decides to move on Taiwan.

The Political Fallout

On Capitol Hill, the reaction has been a mirror of the military's frustration. Senators Tim Kaine and Rand Paul are already moving to force a vote on a War Powers Resolution by Monday, calling the move an "extreme abuse of power." Even some of Trump's usual allies are reportedly quiet, waiting to see if the "easy win" turns into another twenty-year entanglement.

Trump, for his part, remains defiant. From Mar-a-Lago, he told reporters that General Caine is "a great fighter" who knows "only one thing: how to WIN." But as the first reports of U.S. casualties at bases in Bahrain and Qatar start to trickle in, the distance between the President’s rhetoric and the military's reality is becoming a canyon.

The bottom line: We are 12 hours into a new war, and we already have a constitutional crisis and a military leadership that feels ignored. This isn't just about Iran anymore—it’s about who actually controls the sword of the United States.

CONSTITUTIONAL SHOWDOWN: Senate Moves to Block Trump’s Iran Strikes

By: The Blog Topics Brief | February 28, 2026

The smoke hasn’t even cleared from the first wave of Tomahawk missiles, but a second front has already opened—this time on the floor of the United States Senate.

As of this morning, a rare bipartisan coalition is moving at "breakneck speed" to invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973. Their goal? To legally force President Trump to halt "Operation Epic Fury" and withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran within 30 days unless Congress officially declares war.

The "Kaine-Paul" Alliance

In a scene that highlights just how fractured D.C. has become, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) stood side-by-side on the Capitol steps today. Their message was simple: The Constitution doesn't give the President a blank check for regime change.

"The President is acting as if Article II of the Constitution makes him a king," Senator Kaine told reporters. "It does not. Only Congress has the power to declare war. We are reclaiming that authority today."

Senator Paul added a warning to his own party: "If we allow any President—regardless of party—to start a global conflict on a whim, we have abandoned the Republic. This is about the law, not the man."

The White House Defense: "Article II"

The White House Counsel’s office issued a defiant memo late last night, arguing that the President has "inherent constitutional authority" as Commander-in-Chief to protect U.S. interests and allies (specifically citing Israel) from "imminent" Iranian threats.

Legal experts are calling this the "Preemptive Self-Defense" doctrine, a controversial interpretation that essentially bypasses the need for Congressional approval if the President deems a threat "urgent."

The Legal Sticking Points:

• The 60-Day Clock: Under the War Powers Act, the President has 60 days to get authorization before being forced to withdraw. The Senate resolution aims to shorten that clock to zero.

• The "Imminence" Debate: Critics argue the administration hasn't provided a shred of intelligence proving Iran was about to attack the U.S. mainland or its assets.

• Funding the Fight: The real teeth of the Senate’s move? A threat to block an emergency $40 billion supplemental funding bill for the strikes.

2026 Midterm Heat

With the 2026 Midterms just months away, this legal battle is also a political minefield. Vulnerable incumbents are being forced to choose between supporting a "wartime President" or standing up for "Constitutional checks and balances."

Polls taken in the last 24 hours show a nation split right down the middle, but one thing is clear: the Senate floor is about to become the most important battlefield of the month.

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The Vote is scheduled for Monday night. If it passes, we are looking at a historic Constitutional crisis that could end up in the Supreme Court before the week is out.

The Brink of War: Reflections on Operation Epic Fury

 The world woke up to a different reality today. As of February 28, 2026, the smoke rising over Tehran and the sirens wailing across the Middle East signal more than just a localized strike—they signal the beginning of what the Trump administration has termed "major combat operations" in Iran.

For many, this is a moment of profound anger and heartbreak. While the geopolitical justifications fly across our news feeds, the human reality is far more somber: our service members are once again in the crosshairs of a conflict with no clear end in sight.

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A Massive Escalation Under the Radar

What began in the early hours of this morning as Operation Epic Fury (or Roaring Lion in Israel) has quickly evolved into an unprecedented air and sea campaign. This isn't just about surgical strikes on nuclear facilities; the targets have expanded to include:

• Government Centers: Strikes hit near the compound of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the National Security Council in Tehran.

• Military Infrastructure: Over 500 targets across 14 cities, including air defenses and IRGC command hubs.

• The Ultimate Goal: President Trump has been explicit—the objective is regime change, calling on the Iranian people to "take over your government" while promising "certain death" to those who resist.

The Human Cost and the Constitutional Crisis

While the White House frames this as a path to liberation, the immediate fallout is devastating. Reports from IRNA have already confirmed civilian casualties, including a strike that hit a girls' school in southern Iran.

Back home, a storm is brewing in Washington. Critics are calling this an "illegal and authoritarian" move, noting that the President launched these strikes without Congressional authorization. Many lawmakers, like Senator Mark Warner and Representative Adam Smith, have warned that this "war of choice" bypasses the checks and balances designed to prevent precisely this kind of unilateral escalation.

Thoughts with Our Service Members

The bravest among us—the men and women of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines—are now facing the brunt of Iran's retaliation. Ballistic missiles have already targeted U.S. installations in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar.

As we watch the headlines, our hearts are with the families waiting for news. We have been here before, and the lessons of the past twenty years should have taught us that "weeks-long operations" rarely stay within their borders.

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"The American people have seen this playbook before—claims of urgency, misrepresented intelligence, and military action that pulls the United States into regime change." — Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA)

FINALLY CAPTURED AND ARRESTED! Vance Boelter, the alleged shooter of two Minnesota elected officials, has been arrested and is in custody according to CBS News.

Minnesota authorities said their manhunt for the suspect in the shooting of two state Democratic lawmakers remains very active and urged the public to come forward with any information.

Law-enforcement agents were focusing their search in Sibley County, Minn, not far from the home of the suspect, 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter. Authorities found a hat linked to him near a vehicle that they believe he left in the area, they said at a press conference on Sunday evening.

Authorities said they have received 400 tips so far and are unsure what mode of transportation Boelter is using to get around. They added that he has been in contact with people, although they didn’t specify who and said they are unsure if anyone is helping him evade capture.

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Boelter is suspected of posing as a police officer to gain access to the Brooklyn Park home of state Rep. Melissa Hortman early Saturday, according to law-enforcement officials. The 55-year-old lawmaker, a former speaker of the state House, and her husband, Mark Hortman, were fatally shot there in what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has called an act of “targeted political violence.”

He also is suspected in the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman, 60, and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, in their Champlin, Minn., home. They both survived. The victims’ homes are about 8 miles apart and located roughly 15 to 20 miles north of Minneapolis.

Boelter was named as a suspect in part because of an identification left at the scene of Hortman’s shooting, special agent Travis Riddle, of the St. Paul field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in an interview with Fox News. Law-enforcement agents were also able to run traces on firearms recovered by officials.

Authorities said they found a list in the suspect’s vehicle that named other public officials. Those officials were alerted and have received additional security, police said. It wasn’t immediately clear if Boelter knew Hoffman or Hortman.

The list had dozens of names, including prominent individuals who support abortion rights in Minnesota, Democratic lawmakers, and abortion providers, according to an official who has seen the document.

On Sunday, authorities said they haven’t found a manifesto, only names of lawmakers and others alongside other thoughts, which they didn’t detail.

The shootings were “politically motivated, and there clearly was some throughline with abortion because of the groups that were on the list,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat of Minnesota, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning.

Klobuchar, the senior senator from Minnesota, is mentioned in the suspect’s writings, according to a person with knowledge of a briefing on the subject.

The senator said she was with Hortman and her husband at a “big political dinner” the night before the killings. “That was the last time so many of us saw Melissa and Mark.” She said Walz, a Democrat, called her at 5 a.m. Saturday to tell her about Hortman’s death.

Klobuchar said Hoffman and his wife “are hanging in there.”

She shared a message from Yvette Hoffman, who said she and her husband were both “incredibly lucky to be alive” after being shot multiple times. “John is enduring many surgeries right now and is closer every hour to being out of the woods,” his wife said in the statement.

On Sunday morning, Hortman’s home in Brooklyn Park was surrounded by yellow police tape. Plywood covered the front door and several windows. A police cruiser and several media teams were parked across the street.

Alka Dabade, a retiree who lives about one hole away on the golf course behind the Hortman home, walked about half a mile to see the house.

“It’s shocking,” she said, noting that she and her husband had lived in the area since 1993 and consider it very safe. The couple got an alert from the police to shelter in place on Saturday around 5:30 a.m. They weren’t allowed to leave until 3:30 p.m., she said.

Records show that Boelter lived with his family in a house in rural Green Isle, Minn., about an hour’s drive from Hortman’s home. He stayed a few nights a week at a rental home in Minneapolis with roommates.

One of his roommates, David Carlson, said Boelter was working overnight shifts for an organization that handles eye donations while trying to get a private security company off the ground. Boelter has also served as a Christian preacher, including at a church in the Congo.

On Saturday, Carlson said he woke to a text from Boelter saying he was “going to be gone for a while” and “may be dead shortly.” Carlson said he called the police.

Boelter had voted for President Trump and was against abortion, Carlson said.

Police responded to the shootings around 2 a.m. Saturday. Police were called first to Hoffman’s home. Officers then went to check on Hortman’s home around 3:35 a.m. and spotted the suspect emerging from her house, said Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley. The suspect was dressed as a police officer and there was an SUV in the driveway with emergency lights on, according to Bruley. The suspect, who wore a badge and police gear, retreated into the house and escaped on foot out the back, he said.

Political figures from across the spectrum condemned the shootings, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) asked that lawmakers be given a briefing on security once they return from a recess. “The level of threat that lawmakers are exposed to is just unacceptable,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D., Minn.)

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THIS JUST IN! Rep. Alex Padilla (D-CA) Assaulted and Arrested by Trump Autoritarian Fascist Thug!

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was forcibly removed from a news conference in Los Angeles on Thursday and briefly detained after trying to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

"I am Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary," Padilla said to Noem, which prompted several men to physically push him out of the room. It was unclear who the men were as several were dressed in plainclothes.

Padilla's office shared a video of the incident with NBC News. The video shows Padilla being taken into a hallway outside and pushed face forward onto the ground as officers with FBI-identifying vests told the senator to put his hands behind his back. The officers then handcuffed him.

Padilla's office said in a statement that Padilla was in L.A. to perform congressional oversight of the government's operations in the city and across his state. The statement said that the senator is no longer detained.

"He was in the federal building to receive a briefing with [Air Force] General [Gregory] Guillot and was listening to Secretary Noem’s press conference," his office said. "He tried to ask the Secretary a question, and was forcibly removed by federal agents, forced to the ground and handcuffed. He is not currently detained, and we are working to get additional information.”

Democrats have ramped up criticism of the Trump administration after the president deployed National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to L.A. in response to the ongoing protests. Dozens of demonstrations have taken place across the country in the days that followed and more are planned this weekend.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., denounced the incident on the Senate floor. "I just saw something that sickened my stomach. The manhandling of a United States Senator, we need immediate answers to what the hell went on," he said.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the state's other senator, wrote on X that Padilla "represents the best of the Senate. The disgraceful and disrespectful conduct of DHS agents, pushing and shoving him out of a briefing like that, demands our condemnation. He will not be silenced or intimidated. His questions will be answered. I’m with Alex."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a post on X that Padilla "is one of the most decent people I know." "This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful. Trump and his shock troops are out of control. This must end now," he added.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, of which Padilla is a member, called what happened "unacceptable."

"We demand a full investigation and consequences for every official involved in this assault against a sitting US senator," the group said on X.

Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., interrupted a House committee hearing on sanctuary cities after video of Padilla spread on social media and called on the panel to subpoena Noem over the incident. “We need to subpoena Kristi Noem,” Frost demanded of House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. “Just shut up,” Comer replied, after moments of back-and-forth yelling.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., criticized Padilla for interrupting the news conference.

“If you come to my press conference, yeah, you need to be respectful," he said, adding, "What he ought to be doing, in my view, is making sure that we have rational immigration policy. And Senator Padilla, who’s a nice man, sat on the sidelines for four years, watch the border completely be blown apart.”

The incident follows a string of arrests of Democratic elected officials related to immigration. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested last month for allegedly trespassing at an ICE facility in New Jersey. The charges were ultimately dropped, but he has sued interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba over the incident and Ricky J. Patel, a special agent in charge of the Newark division of Homeland Security Investigations.

Earlier this week, Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., was indicted on federal charges that stemmed from the same confrontation with law

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BREAKING!!! Mahmoud Khalil's deportation by ICE blocked by federal judge!

The federal judge presiding over Mahmoud Khalil’s case on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration, for now, cannot deport or detain the Columbia University activist based on a determination by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The judge’s preliminary injunction will not take effect until Friday, allowing the government time to appeal.

Rubio has cited an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify Khalil’s removal from the U.S., saying that he poses a national security risk. He had argued that the provision allows the secretary of state to “personally determine” whether Khalil should remain in the country.

U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz ruled that Khalil could not be removed based on Rubio’s determination, but said another avenue by which the government is seeking could be a basis for his deportation.

Khalil was a Columbia University student who played an active role in protests over the war in Gaza on the Manhattan campus last year.

He was arrested by federal agents in March and has been held since, as he and his lawyers have challenged efforts to deport him. The Trump administration has accused him of leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security has alleged that Khalil has acted to “glorify and support terrorists.”

Khalil, who has not been charged with any crime, last week called the claims “grotesque and false.”

In his decision Wednesday, the judge said that Khalil’s “career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled — and this adds up to irreparable harm.”

The Department of Homeland Security has also argued that it could detain Khalil because he inaccurately completed his lawful-permanent-resident application.

But that would not work as an argument to keep Khalil detained, Farbiarz wrote.

“The evidence is that lawful permanent residents are virtually never detained pending removal” for those types of omissions, he wrote.

“And that strongly suggests that it is the Secretary of State’s determination that drives the Petitioner’s ongoing detention — not the other charge against him,” Farbiarz wrote.

Messages seeking comment from the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department were not immediately returned.

Khalil was one of the first campus protesters targeted by the Trump administration, which has vowed to strike back over protests over the war in Gaza, which Israel launched after it was attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

Trump has targeted Columbia and Harvard, citing a fight to combat anti-semitism at universities.

The Trump administration last week claimed Columbia violated Jewish students’ rights and threatened the Manhattan university’s accreditation.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Phil Helsel

Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

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JUST IN! US Marines arrive in LA; California governor warns 'democracy under assault'

After days of fiery protest against federal immigration raids, Los Angeles residents and officials braced for the arrival of hundreds of U.S. Marines on Tuesday in what some called an unprecedented and potentially explosive deployment of active-duty troops with hazy mission objectives.

As Trump administration officials vowed to crack down on “rioters, looters and thugs,” state and local officials decried the mobilization of 700 troops from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, calling it a clear violation of law and civility. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass even likened the deployment to “an experiment” that nobody asked to be a part of.

According to the U.S. Northern Command, which oversees troops based in the United States, the Marines will join “seamlessly” with National Guard troops under “Task Force 51” — the military’s designation of the Los Angeles forces. The Marines, like the Guard, they said, “have been trained in de-escalation, crowd control and rules for the use of force.”

Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot told The Times on Tuesday that the Marines in Los Angeles were limited in their authority, deployed only to defend federal property and federal personnel. They do not have arrest power, he said.

“They are not law enforcement officers, and they do not have the authority to make arrests,” Guillot said. “There are very unique situations where they could detain someone ... but they could only detain that person long enough to hand it off to a proper law enforcement official.”

But military experts have raised practical concerns about the unclear parameters of the Marines’ objective. They also warn that sending in Marines without a request from a governor — a highly unusual step that has not been made since the civil rights era in 1965 — could potentially inflame the situation.

U.S. Marines are trained for overseas conflict zones, with deployments in recent decades in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. But the roles they have played in those nations — including providing artillery support to coalition forces fighting against Islamic State militants and advising and training local security forces — are quite different from what they might face as they confront protesters in Los Angeles.

“Marines are trained to fight, that’s the first thing they’re trained to do,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a military research group. “So I think you do have a little bit of mismatch in skills here.”

“In a crisis, when they’re forced to make a snap decision, do they have enough training and experience to make the one that de-escalates the situation rather than escalates it? I think that’s a question mark,” Kavanagh said.

Hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional lawmakers Tuesday that the mobilization of troops to Los Angeles to curtail protests would cost $134 million, President Trump told U.S. Army troops at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina that he deployed thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines “to protect federal law enforcement from the attacks of a vicious and violent mob.”

But city and state officials have repeatedly said that troops are not necessary to contain the protests.

On Monday night, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the deployment of Marines “a blatant abuse of power” and filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the deployment.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell warned that — “absent clear coordination” — the prospect of Marines descending on Los Angeles “presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city.”

However, Guillot said coordinating among different agencies “hasn’t been a challenge to us at all.”

“I think people understand that we’re there for a very specific purpose,” he said. “We’re very highly trained, professional and disciplined, and people have been very cooperative so far.”

By Tuesday afternoon, all 700 Marines had arrived in the Greater Los Angeles area, Guillot said. At least one convoy of U.S. Marine vehicles from Twentynine Palms had arrived at Orange County’s Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach under police escort.

The mobilized Marines and National Guard troops will be stationed in facilities across the region, including Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and a number of National Guard armories, Guillot said. He didn’t provide further details.

Over the last few days, National Guard members have already been stationed at a few federal buildings and have accompanied Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on missions, Guillot said. He expects Marines will be mobilized on the ground Wednesday, if not Tuesday evening, after wrapping up final training.

It is rare for U.S. Marines to be sent to an American city. The last time they were deployed in the U.S. was after riots broke out in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of four LAPD officers who were recorded beating a Black motorist, Rodney G. King.

Back then, President George H.W. Bush acted at the request of California Gov. Pete Wilson and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley after what The Times described as “three days of the worst urban unrest in Los Angeles history.”

Deploying Marines to Los Angeles is not only a dramatic escalation of events, but also potentially illegal, according to Abigail Hall, a defense scholar and senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a nonprofit think tank based in Oakland.

Bringing in the Marines to L.A., she said, violates the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law enacted after the Civil War, which forbids active-duty federal forces to provide regular civilian law enforcement unless authorized by Congress or the president invokes the Insurrection Act.

Trump has yet to invoke the Insurrection Act.

“I don’t see any way that this is not a direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act,” Hall said. “We’re not at war, we’ve not invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 — and even if we did, that’s what the National Guard is for. It’s not what the Marines are for.”

Kavanagh didn’t comment on the deployment’s legality, but called it unprecedented in modern times. She worried that could make its mission and parameters unclear for troops.

The last time the military was deployed without a governor’s request or approval, military experts said, was to facilitate court-ordered desegregation in Southern states during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Kori Schake, senior fellow and director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said the Trump administration appeared to be trying out a new way to get around the restrictions on domestic law enforcement by the American military.

“The authority the president is claiming is his constitutional authority under what’s called the Take Care clause ... he’s claiming the federal responsibility to protect federal agents and federal property operations. That authority has never been tested in court.”

Such an approach, Schake said, was fraught with more than legal risk.

“If violence burgeons, tempers are running high, the Marines are armed, this could spiral out of control,” Schake said.

The L.A. deployment, Kavanagh said, could also be a jarring mission for Marines who signed up to go abroad and defend America’s freedom — and instead are facing off with fellow citizens.

“Does everyone know the rules of engagement?” Kavanagh asked of the L.A. mission. “Are they clear?”

She also worried that the troops deployed to L.A. are likely to have some of the most limited experience. Guard members are not full time and undergo less frequent training, and Marines retain the youngest service members of all the military branches. Nearly three-quarters of active-duty enlisted members of the Marine Corps are 25 or younger, according to a 2022 Department of Defense report. The average age is 24, compared with 27 for the Army and 28 for the Air Force.

Schake, however, pointed out that although Marines may be the youngest cohort in the military, they are well trained in de-escalation tactics.

“The wars that the United States has been fighting for the last 25 years have required incredible discipline on the use of force by the military in Afghanistan and in Iraq in particular, so they are trained for de-escalating conflict,” Schake said. “I think actually, it’s quite possible they’re better trained at de-escalation of violence than the police forces are.”

In that sense, Schake said she was less worried about violence on the streets than about “creeping authoritarianism.”

“The way the president, that Homeland secretary, the secretary of Defense, the White House press spokesman are talking is incendiary and reckless,” Schake said.

“They’re calling the city of Los Angeles — where 1 in 40 Americans live — a hellscape, and everybody in the city a criminal. They’re describing protests that are really peaceful as an insurrection. And that’s a very reckless thing to do in a difficult situation.”

Times staff writers Hayley Smith and Christopher Buchanan contributed to this report.

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JUST IN! LA mayor imposes limited curfew as protests draw on

 

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass imposed a curfew in her city’s downtown Tuesday evening, seeking to avert looting and vandalism as immigration protests stretch into their fifth day.

The attempt to ease tensions came after the Trump administration ordered Marines and California National Guard troops to the region over the objections of Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom. California has sued to reverse the deployment, and the state is awaiting a Thursday afternoon hearing on its request for a restraining order.

“If you do not live or work in downtown LA, avoid the area,” Bass told reporters.

She said the curfew would cover one square mile of the city.

Democrats have insisted the interventions are unnecessary to quell mostly peaceful protests of federal immigration raids in which demonstrators are far outnumbered by local police. Yet videos of protesters throwing rocks at cars, burning self-driving cars and insulting law enforcement have created a national spectacle in California.

The curfew will begin at 8 p.m. Tuesday and last until 6 a.m. Wednesday, and include exceptions for residents of the area, people traveling to and from work and media. Bass said the city would likely impose curfews again over the next few nights.

Trump has promised ongoing, daily immigration arrests in Los Angeles. Guard troops deployed to the region have begun assisting in the sweeps, protecting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from demonstrators, the Associated Press reported.

EXPOSED! BBC hits back at Karoline Leavitt's 'fake news'.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, recently gave a press briefing about Palestinians killed close to an aid distribution centre in Gaza on June 1. A key question, she suggested, was whether the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) were really to blame, as had been reported.

“Unlike some in the media, we don’t take the word of Hamas as total truth,” she said. “We like to look into it when they speak, unlike the BBC.”

Given the explosive war of words that has broken out between US president Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, Leavitt’s accusation may now appear to be small potatoes. But it matters: this is the latest twist of Trump’s undermining of a free press that has been evolving since he first repeated the words back in 2016 that would shake the public’s belief in journalism: “Fake news!”

On inauguration day in January, my international journalism class and I were examining the seating chart for the White House press briefing room. We discussed the prime position of the Associated Press’s (AP) seat (front and centre) and the seats further back, where in the seventh row the BBC shared a position with Newsweek. We wondered if Trump might shuffle the pack, but decided that decisions were safely in the hands of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

Since then, the whole game has changed. Even an organisation as large and venerable as AP can be turfed out of the White House press pool on its ear. Meanwhile selected, right-wing newcomers like Brian Glenn of Real America’s Voice can throw a curve ball putting such an extraordinary question to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky during a White House press conference that it temporarily disturbs the course of a war.

The White House later decided to take away access given to other wire services such as Reuters and Bloomberg rather than allow AP to return to its previous access.

Media appearances and briefings for Trump are now purely performative. Friendly media companies get special invitations to Trump’s often explosive meetings with world leaders (such as that with Zelensky above), and “legacy media” have to keep raising their hands for access.

Leavitt, Trump’s young spokesperson, came out swinging at her briefing, brandishing a handy A4 printout of BBC online news stories on the shootings in Gaza on June 1.

As she waved her piece of paper – as curiously old-fashioned as Trump’s tariff whiteboard – she appeared assured of her facts. While referring to the page, compiled by a student activist on X, she announced that the BBC had edited “multiple headlines” about the death count, and changed claims about the deaths from being the result of tank fire to gunfire.

Without a hint of irony, she observed: “So we’re going to look into reports before we confirm them from this podium. I suggest that journalists who actually care about truth do the same to reduce the misinformation that’s going around the globe.”

Back in London, the BBC released a timely statement arguing that it updated its breaking stories throughout the events on June 1, saying this was “normal practice” and that all its figures were “clearly attributed”.

Meanwhile, the corporation’s analysis editor, Ros Atkins, put out a brief but carefully worded video, via BBC Verify, that concluded Leavitt’s accusations were “repeatedly false”. It affirmed that BBC reporters had quoted figures “with clear attribution” from the “the Hamas-run health ministry”. It also used sources such as the independent Red Cross and quoted the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in stories that day.

Open the Youtube video

The White House attacks the BBC for its coverage of Gaza.

Atkins refuted Leavitt’s claims that the BBC had taken down any of its articles and confirmed that they remained online. He said that BBC Verify had examined a separate online video posted on social media (not a BBC video) and deemed it unrelated to the aid centre deaths. He said that once again the student activist had “misrepresented what BBC Verify had done. The White House then repeated this misrepresentation.”

Interestingly, following the BBC Verify examination of the other video, the Israeli army has admitted responsibility for “a previously unacknowledged strike on the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza”, which reportedly killed at least one Palestinian and injured 30 others.

Two days after her initial briefing, Leavitt doubled down with similar accusations against the “fake news BBC”. However, it is Atkins’ final comment on his video that knocks out arguments that the White House is an arbiter of truth that is most chilling: “But in this case either the White House didn’t look into its claims about the BBC before bringing them to the podium or had no concern that they weren’t true.”

Part of Trump’s playbook involves sowing uncertainty among the public about the truth. He and his associates repeatedly hurl accusations, and then sit back and see what sticks. Going after one of the world’s most trusted media organisations neatly serves this purpose, even though the BBC is a UK-based corporation and there are no straightforward domestic political gains in so doing.

This attack does however do a job of tarnishing the BBC’s reputation with some members of the public which can only please the Israeli government, whose own reputation within the international community could not be lower, according to the Pew Research Center. At the UN security council, this week, the US was the only country out of 15 to veto the draft resolution calling for an “unconditional and permanent” ceasefire in Gaza.

While British and international media correspondents are still calling for permission to enter Gaza to report on the situation, it is clearly not in the Israeli government’s interests to allow this. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has now confirmed he has authorised the supplying of weapons to another, purportedly anti-Hamas militia in Gaza, further muddying the waters of exactly who fired on whom.

Welcome to the latest twist in the Trump government’s media strategy that is designed to promote uncertainty while distracting from troubling events: “Oh look, a squirrel!” 

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EXPOSED! Robert F. Kennedy Jr's lies, conspericy theories and misinformation finally catches up with him.

The unqalified secretary for the Department of health & Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr is in the crosshairs as his tenure went from bad to worst in a span of a week, RJK Jr. and his Department put out that MAHA report which includes fake-ass fugazi multi-citations, they took out the fake citation and replaced it with more fake studies. the authors were notified that is not what their studies said and RFK Jr. and his department took our real citations and replaced them with fake once by creating fake-ass studies that don't even excist PERIOD, that appears to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s MO as a disgraceful sick human being that he is. One day all of Robert K. Kennedy Jr.'s lies, conspericy theories and misinformation will comeback to bite him square in his ass because he is unfit to run the DHHS, To make matters worse, an old clip of him getting his butt handed to him on CNN has resurfaced and gone viral this week exposing him for being a massive deseased piece of shit liar. May the Lord have mercy on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s deseased soul and I hope he rots in hell.

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BREAKING NEWS! We Are FedUp!.

FedEx Express pilots stood outside the FedEx Corporation Executive Offices on Tuesday to show their frustration with the company’s refusal to provide a contract that would provide pilots with better pay and more respect.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — FedEx Express pilots stood outside the FedEx Corporation Executive Offices on Tuesday to show their frustration with the company’s refusal to provide a contract that would provide pilots with better pay and more respect.

The pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), conducted the informational picket outside the executive offices on Shady Grove Road, highlighting their beliefs that the global, Memphis-based company overworks and undervalues its employees.

The Corporation and ALPA have been embattled in protracted contract negotiations for over four years now, starting in 2021 when pilots attempted to modernize an “outdated” labor contract that was signed back in 2015.

ALPA says they reached a tentative agreement in 2023, but the pilots rejected an agreement that they say neither reflected commercial pilot industry standards nor the corporation’s business transformation efforts.

The parties have since made little progress toward an agreement under federal mediation.

“FedEx has had four years to do the right thing, but instead it has chosen to invest in shareholders over its employees,” said Capt. Jose Nieves, chair of the FedEx ALPA Master Executive Council. “The pilots are done waiting. We’ve delivered through crisis and transformation, and we expect to be treated like professionals who enable corporate success.”

On the official FedEx Pilots webpage, the group quoted an excerpt from a FedEx Pilot job offer letter.

In the letter, the company states, “We appreciate the rigor involved in, and applaud you meeting our challenging hiring standards. Successful candidates contribute a wealth of knowledge and experience to our mission and help FedEx Express maintain its long-held position as the express transportation leader.”

FedEx Pilots noted that new hires are praised for meeting the company’s “challenging hiring standards,” but then are challenged to accept less pay, worse schedules, and no respect.

“I find it ironic that our guiding motto, the Purple Promise, aims ‘to make every FedEx experience outstanding,’” said Capt. Nieves. “But when it comes to investing in the people who safeguard its network operations, FedEx disappears behind that principle.”

In response to their displeasure, a line of pilots was seen standing outside the executive offices, lining Shady Grove Road while holding signs reading, “We’re FedUp,” and “Stop profits over people.”

“FedEx promised a dream job, respect, and ‘unsurpassed compensation.’ Instead, pilots are overworked, undervalued, and fighting for a fair contract after more than 4 years of negotiations,” said ALPA.

FedEx sent WREG a response from the company, stating, “We remain committed to reaching an agreement through the mediation process that is fair to our pilots, our other team members, and all FedEx stakeholders. Informational picketing is a common occurrence during negotiations and does not impact our service.”

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