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Hello and welcome to the most recent updates in US politics. We start with the news that a limited contingent of state military forces has begun guarding federal property in the Greater Chicago region and assisting law enforcement in Memphis on Wednesday, according to officials.

Troop Information

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 mission specifics 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 federal facilities and law enforcement personnel, Northern Command stated publicly.

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 500 troops are under the Northern Command and have been activated for two months. The official wasn't able to quickly provide information about how the troops were armed.

Political Context

It comes as Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the imprisonment of Brandon Johnson, Chicago's mayor, 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 failing to protect ICE personnel!" Trump wrote on his social media platform on Wednesday morning. "The state governor also!"

Both Johnson and Pritzker are members of the Democratic party. Trump's remarks come as state military forces have started deployment in the Chicago area at the direction of the Trump administration, despite objections from state authorities, including the governor and mayor.

Other Updates

• Donald Trump announced that Hamas and Israel have agreed to a provisional agreement to cease hostilities in Gaza, and release Israeli hostages and detained persons.
• Reports about the Gaza agreement was applauded by GOP legislators, who called on 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 'Habeas Corpus' and deferred to his homeland security secretary. In May, the secretary gave a wildly inaccurate explanation of the fundamental legal concept that mandates that the government provide a official justification for arresting and jailing people.
• All of the participants who contributed testimony at the White House "political discussion" hosted by the president on Wednesday were self-described independent journalists who might better be called partisan conservative social media influencers. The influencers report on leftwing protests in a highly political manner, more akin to opposition research than neutral journalism.
• GOP senators rejected a military authorization measure that would have limited 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 military to destroy boats in the Caribbean Sea.
• During the White House "political discussion" on Wednesday, at least a participant repeated Trump's inaccurate statement that significant amounts of people have been killed by left-wing radicals in Portland, Oregon. The accurate count of fatal incidents by political activists in Portland is: one.