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Greetings and welcome to the latest developments in US politics. We start with the news that a small number of National Guard troops has started protecting government facilities in the Greater Chicago region and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.

Deployment Details

An element of 200 Texas Guard troops were working in the Greater Chicago region, as stated by a spokesperson for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the Associated Press on background basis in order to discuss operational details that have not been made public.

The troops are in the city to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and other federal facilities and law enforcement personnel, Northern Command said online.

The troops, along with about 300 from Illinois, had arrived Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles southwest of Chicago. All 500 troops are under the Northern Command and have been activated for 60 days. The spokesperson wasn't able to quickly provide details about how the troops were armed.

Political Context

It coincides with Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the jailing of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's mayor, and JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, accusing them of not protecting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.

"The city's mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE personnel!" Trump wrote on his social media platform on Wednesday morning. "Governor Pritzker also!"

Both the mayor and governor are members of the Democratic party. Trump's comments come as national guard troops have started deployment in the Chicago area at the order of the federal administration, despite objections from Illinois officials, including the governor and mayor.

Additional Developments

• The president announced that the conflicting parties have accepted a tentative deal to end the fighting in Gaza, and free captured individuals and Palestinian prisoners.
• Reports about the Middle East deal was applauded by Republican lawmakers, who urged Trump to be given the Nobel Peace prize this week, but received with greater caution by Arab-American communities.
• During presidential gathering, Trump appeared not to recognize the term 'legal principle' and deferred to Kristi Noem. In May, Noem gave a highly incorrect explanation of the core legal principle that requires that the authorities provide a public reason for arresting and jailing people.
• All of the participants who provided statements at the White House "antifa roundtable" organized by the president on Wednesday were self-described independent journalists who might better be called partisan conservative social media influencers. The influencers cover leftwing protests in a highly political manner, more akin to opposition research than neutral journalism.
• Senate Republicans voted down a war powers resolution that would have limited Trump's ability to use lethal armed action against alleged narcotics traffickers after Democrats tried to counter the administration's unprecedented deployment of the armed forces to eliminate vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
• During the White House "antifa roundtable" on Wednesday, at least a participant repeated Trump's false claim that significant amounts of people have been killed by left-wing radicals in the Oregon city. The accurate count of fatal incidents by self-described "antifa" radicals in Portland is: a single incident.