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Hello and welcome to the current updates in US politics. We start with the report that a limited contingent of state military forces has started protecting government facilities in the Chicago area and supporting police operations in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.

Deployment Details

An unit of 200 Texas Guard troops were operating in the Chicago area, as stated by a representative for the US Northern Command, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to reveal operational details that have not been officially released.

The troops are in the urban area to secure US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) buildings and other federal facilities and police officers, Northern Command stated publicly.

The troops, along with about 300 from Illinois, 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 information about how the troops were armed.

Political Context

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

"Chicago Mayor should be in prison for failing to protect Ice Officers!" Trump wrote on his social media platform on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"

Both Johnson and Pritzker are Democrats. Trump's comments coincide with national guard troops have started deployment in the Chicago area at the direction of the federal administration, despite objections from state authorities, including Pritzker and Johnson.

Other Updates

• Donald Trump announced that Hamas and Israel have agreed to a provisional agreement to cease hostilities in Gaza, and free Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
• News of the Gaza agreement was applauded 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 presidential gathering, Trump appeared not to recognize the term 'legal principle' and referred to Kristi Noem. In May, Noem gave a wildly inaccurate definition of the core legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for arresting and jailing people.
• All of the witnesses who provided statements at the White House "antifa roundtable" organized by the president on Wednesday were self-described independent journalists who might more accurately described as political content creators. The content producers cover leftwing protests in a partisan fashion, more similar to opposition research than nonpartisan reporting.
• Senate Republicans rejected a war powers resolution that would have checked Trump's ability to use deadly military force against alleged narcotics traffickers after opposition party tried to oppose 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 one witness repeated Trump's inaccurate statement that significant amounts of people have been murdered by left-wing radicals in Portland, Oregon. The accurate count of killings by self-described "antifa" radicals in Portland is: one.