标签： North America

In a significant legal escalation against federal immigration policies, the states of Minnesota and Illinois have filed separate federal lawsuits against the Trump administration seeking to halt the deployment of additional immigration enforcement officers to their jurisdictions. The legal action comes in response to last week’s fatal shooting of 37-year-old mother Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minnesota, which has sparked widespread protests and condemnation.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has spearheaded the litigation, naming Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and multiple immigration officials as defendants. The lawsuit petitions a federal court to declare the officer surge both unconstitutional and unlawful, alleging systematic racial profiling and political targeting of the Democratic-leaning state. Ellison characterized the deployment as ‘a federal invasion of the Twin Cities and Minnesota’ that has inflicted ‘serious harm’ on the state.

The Minnesota suit specifically seeks judicial mandates requiring federal officers to wear visible identification, activate body cameras, and refrain from obscuring their faces with masks. It further aims to prohibit the threat of physical force or brandishing of weapons against individuals not subject to immigration arrest.

Illinois filed parallel litigation seeking to block U.S. Customs and Border Protection from conducting civil immigration enforcement within state boundaries. Governor JB Pritzker denounced what he termed DHS’s ‘dangerous use of force,’ with the Illinois complaint requesting restrictions on tactics including tear gas deployment, trespassing on private property, and concealing license plates to mask official operations.

The legal actions follow dramatic confrontations between ICE agents and civilians in Minnesota, where Reuters journalists witnessed agents deploying tear gas, pepper balls, and chemical spray against crowds throwing snowballs during an immigration checkpoint incident. The tension reflects broader conflicts between the Trump administration and Minnesota dating back months, with the president having previously criticized the state’s Democratic leadership and Somali-American community in inflammatory terms.

Both states are seeking immediate temporary restraining orders against the federal enforcement surge, with Minnesota scheduled for an emergency hearing as early as Tuesday.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has formally moved to dismiss a multi-billion dollar lawsuit filed by former U.S. President Donald Trump, challenging the legal foundation of his defamation claims regarding the editing of his January 6th, 2021, speech in a Panorama documentary.

In court documents submitted to a Florida court, the BBC’s legal team outlined a multi-pronged defense strategy. The broadcaster contends that the Florida court lacks ‘personal jurisdiction’ over the BBC, a UK-based entity, and asserts that the chosen venue is ‘improper.’ Furthermore, the corporation argues that President Trump has ‘failed to state a claim’ upon which relief can be granted, fundamentally challenging the lawsuit’s validity.

The legal dispute centers on a specific edit in the documentary ‘Trump Takes on the World,’ which condensed two separate statements from Trump’s lengthy speech into a single sequence. The edited clip showed Trump saying, ‘We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.’ The BBC previously acknowledged that this edit created a ‘mistaken impression’ that the President had issued a direct call for violent action, leading to an internal review and subsequent high-level resignations, including then-Director General Tim Davie.

Despite this prior apology, the BBC’s motion vigorously defends its editorial position. It states that the Panorama program was not broadcast in the United States and disputes that it aired on the streaming service Britbox, as alleged by Trump. Crucially, the defense argues that the former president has not demonstrated any actual damage, noting his subsequent electoral victory in Florida. The filing also emphasizes that the clip constituted a mere 15 seconds within an hour-long program that provided extensive and balanced coverage, and it asserts that Trump cannot plausibly allege the content was published with ‘actual malice’—a key requirement for defamation claims by public figures in the U.S.

The broadcaster has additionally requested a stay on all discovery processes until the court rules on this motion to dismiss. A tentative trial date has been set for 2027, should the case proceed beyond this initial stage. A BBC spokesperson reaffirmed the corporation’s commitment to defending the case but declined further comment on the ongoing proceedings.

In a significant diplomatic development, former U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at the White House this Thursday. This high-profile meeting occurs amidst intensifying pressure on Venezuela’s interim leadership to accelerate the release of political prisoners detained under the previous regime of Nicolás Maduro.

The engagement marks a notable shift in Washington’s approach toward Machado, who had been largely sidelined since U.S. forces apprehended long-term authoritarian leader Maduro on January 3. Concurrently, the Trump administration declared its intention to actively oversee Venezuela’s transitional governance.

Despite this overture to the opposition, Trump has maintained working relations with acting president Delcy Rodriguez and other Maduro allies retained in power. The former president has issued stern warnings to Rodriguez regarding compliance with Washington’s directives, particularly concerning access to Venezuela’s substantial oil reserves, with explicit consequences for non-cooperation.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan authorities announced the release of 116 additional individuals imprisoned during Maduro’s tenure, many detained for participating in protests following the controversial 2024 election. However, human rights organizations and opposition figures have questioned the official numbers, indicating that only approximately 50 prisoners have been freed thus far from an estimated 800-1,200 political detainees.

Families of the imprisoned have maintained vigil outside correctional facilities, expressing growing frustration with the pace of releases. Manuel Mendoza, awaiting his son’s release at El Rodeo prison, articulated the collective anguish: ‘We simply ask that they keep their word. It’s already been four nights waiting out in the open air, suffering.’

Machado has sought international intervention, recently appealing to Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican to ‘intercede for all Venezuelans who remain kidnapped and disappeared.’ Her political understudy, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia—who ran as the opposition’s presidential candidate in 2024 after Machado’s disqualification by Maduro-loyal institutions—emphasized that ‘every hour that passes is a new form of violence against families’ of detainees.

Parallel to these developments, U.S. envoys have visited Caracas to discuss reopening the American embassy after a seven-year diplomatic hiatus. Trump expressed openness to meeting with Rodriguez directly, noting that his administration was collaborating ‘really well’ with Venezuela’s interim government. Regarding the prisoner releases, Trump remarked that he hoped those freed ‘will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done.’

A significant legal confrontation has emerged between U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, centering on allegations of unconstitutional retaliation for political speech. The lawsuit, filed by Senator Kelly, contends that the Pentagon unlawfully initiated proceedings to reduce his military retirement rank following his public criticism of the Trump administration’s policies.

The dispute originated when Senator Kelly, a former Navy captain and NASA astronaut, participated in an instructional video alongside five fellow Democratic legislators last November. The video informed military personnel of their legal right to refuse unlawful orders, a position that drew fierce condemnation from then-President Donald Trump, who labeled the remarks ‘seditious’ on his Truth Social platform.

In response, Defense Secretary Hegseth announced formal proceedings to review and potentially downgrade Kelly’s retirement grade—a move that could substantially reduce the senator’s pension benefits. Hegseth characterized Kelly’s statements as violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Kelly’s legal challenge asserts multiple constitutional violations, arguing the Pentagon targeted him specifically for the content and viewpoint of his political speech without proper legal authority. The lawsuit emphasizes that no statutory provisions authorize the Defense Department to revisit retirement determinations based on post-service political expression, warning that such precedent could threaten the retirement security of all military veterans.

The case highlights ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and military figures who have voiced dissent. Kelly, who has established himself as a centrist Democrat with defense expertise, previously criticized the administration’s deployment of National Guard troops in U.S. cities including Portland, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.—deployments that have prompted separate legal challenges regarding their lawfulness.

Neither the Pentagon nor the White House has offered immediate commentary on the pending litigation. The outcome could establish significant precedent regarding free speech protections for retired military personnel engaged in political discourse.

In an unprecedented show of institutional solidarity, central bank governors from eleven nations have issued a joint statement expressing their “full solidarity” with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who is currently facing a criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The remarkable declaration comes after a year of sustained criticism from former President Donald Trump, who repeatedly attacked Powell’s monetary policy decisions and personally characterized the Fed chair as a “major loser” and “numbskull” in public statements.

Among the signatories are some of the world’s most influential financial leaders, including Andrew Bailey of the Bank of England, Christine Lagarde of the European Central Bank, and Tiff Macklem of the Bank of Canada. Their collective statement emphasized the critical importance of central bank independence in setting interest rates without political interference.

“Chair Powell has served with integrity, focused on his mandate and an unwavering commitment to the public interest,” the central bankers asserted in their coordinated message. They further described Powell as “a respected colleague who is held in the highest regard by all who have worked with him.”

The Department of Justice probe, which former President Trump claims to know nothing about, represents an extraordinary development in the relationship between the executive branch and the traditionally independent Federal Reserve. Legal experts note that criminal investigations of sitting Fed chairs are exceptionally rare in American history.

This coordinated international response underscores growing concerns among financial leaders about the potential politicization of central banking institutions and the preservation of monetary policy independence worldwide.