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Hello and welcome to the current developments in US politics. We begin with the report that a small number of National Guard troops has started protecting federal property in the Greater Chicago region and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.

Deployment Details

An element of two hundred Texas military personnel were working in the Chicago area, as stated by a representative for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the news agency on condition of anonymity in order to reveal mission specifics that have not been made public.

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

The forces, along with about 300 from Illinois, had reached on Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles southwest of Chicago. All 500 troops are under the military command and have been activated for two months. The official wasn't able to immediately offer information about how the personnel were equipped.

Background Situation

It coincides with Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the jailing of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's city leader, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, charging them of failing to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.

"The city's mayor should be in jail for not protecting ICE personnel!" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"

Both Johnson and Pritzker are members of the Democratic party. Trump's remarks coincide with state military forces have begun arriving in the Chicago area at the direction of the Trump administration, despite objections from state authorities, including Pritzker and Johnson.

Other Updates

• The president declared that Hamas and Israel have agreed to a provisional agreement to cease hostilities in Gaza, and free Israeli hostages and detained persons.
• News of the Gaza agreement was praised by GOP legislators, who urged Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize this week, but greeted with more trepidation by Arab-American communities.
• During White House event, Trump seemed unfamiliar with the term 'legal principle' and referred to Kristi Noem. In May, Noem gave a highly incorrect definition of the core legal principle that requires that the authorities provide a official justification for arresting and jailing people.
• All of the participants who provided statements at the White House "political discussion" hosted by the president on Wednesday were identified as freelance reporters who might better be called partisan conservative social media influencers. The content producers report on liberal demonstrations in a highly political manner, more similar to opposition research than nonpartisan reporting.
• Senate Republicans rejected a military authorization measure that would have limited Trump's authority to use lethal armed action against suspected drug smugglers after Democrats tried to counter the administration's extraordinary use of the armed forces to eliminate vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
• During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least one witness repeated Trump's inaccurate statement that significant amounts of people have been killed by left-wing radicals in Portland, Oregon. The correct number of fatal incidents by political activists in Portland is: a single incident.