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Hello and welcome to the latest updates in US politics. We begin with the report that a limited contingent of National Guard troops has begun guarding government facilities in the Chicago area and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, as confirmed by authorities.

Troop Information

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

The military personnel are in the urban area to secure US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) buildings and other government properties and police officers, Northern Command said online.

The troops, along with about three hundred Illinois personnel, had reached on Tuesday at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles southwest of Chicago. All five hundred personnel are under the Northern Command and have been deployed for 60 days. The official wasn't able to immediately offer 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 not protecting Ice Officers!" 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 remarks coincide with state military forces have begun arriving in the Greater Chicago region at the direction of the federal administration, despite objections from state authorities, including the governor and mayor.

Additional Developments

• Donald Trump announced that Hamas and Israel have accepted a provisional agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, and release captured individuals and detained persons.
• Reports about the Gaza agreement was praised by GOP legislators, who called on Trump to be awarded the peace award this week, but greeted with more trepidation by Arab-American communities.
• During White House event, Trump seemed unfamiliar with the term 'Habeas Corpus' and deferred to his homeland security secretary. In May, Noem gave a highly incorrect explanation of the core legal principle that requires that the government provide a official justification for detaining and imprisoning people.
• All of the witnesses who provided statements at the White House "political discussion" organized by the president on Wednesday were self-described independent journalists who might better be called political content creators. The content producers report on leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more similar to opposition research than nonpartisan reporting.
• GOP senators voted down a military authorization measure that would have checked Trump's ability to use lethal armed action against suspected drug smugglers after opposition party tried to oppose the government's unprecedented deployment of the armed forces to eliminate vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
• During the White House "political discussion" on Wednesday, at least a participant repeated Trump's false claim that large numbers of people have been killed by political extremists in the Oregon city. The accurate count of killings by self-described "antifa" radicals in Portland is: one.