United States

LOS ANGELES — California’s governor and the mayors of its two largest southern cities condemned President Donald Trump on Monday night after he told a campaign rally in Nebraska that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego and called it a small price to pay in the war with Tehran, BBC News and KTLA reported.

Speaking at the Pinnacle Bank Expo Center in Grand Island, Neb., where he was campaigning for Sen. Pete Ricketts, Trump discussed higher gasoline prices tied to the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. “They could take out a city. Let ’em take out Los Angeles. Let ’em take out San Diego,” he said, drawing cheers from parts of the crowd. “This is a very small price to pay and it’s going to be over very soon. It’s essentially almost over with.” BBC News noted it was not clear exactly what the president meant.

Gov. Gavin Newsom called Trump “deranged and dangerous.” His press office added: “Let’s be clear: The President is advocating for an attack on 10+ million U.S. residents in two of America’s largest cities. This is not normal.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that the president’s remarks “are dangerous and could potentially compromise our safety,” adding: “The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives.”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria responded: “San Diego is not collateral damage. We are not expendable. And we are never a ‘small price to pay.’ Keep our city out of your reckless war talk.” Both cities host major U.S. military installations, including Naval Base San Diego, home port of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, while Los Angeles is home to the Space Force’s Space Systems Command headquarters and Los Angeles Air Force Base, BBC News noted.

Trump had yet to respond to the California officials’ criticism, BBC News reported. The Nebraska rally was part of his midterm campaign swing; Ricketts faces an unexpectedly tight race against independent Dan Osborn, according to polls cited by KTLA.

Sources: BBC News, KTLA

—

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard said it intercepted a large cargo ship carrying fuel bound for Cuba, as the Trump administration’s oil embargo against the island continued, The Guardian and Reuters reported Friday.

The vessel, named Grace and about 91 metres (300 feet) long, was stopped on September 5 in the Caribbean Sea between Cuba and Mexico. The Coast Guard said Grace was “believed to be employing tactics common amongst the dark fleet.” A boarding team escorted the ship to Mexico, where a Mexican navy inspection team “confirmed the presence of large quantities of fuel in the vessel’s ballast tanks” and containers believed to contain illicit fuel.

Adm. Kevin Lunday, the Coast Guard commandant, said in a statement: “The high seas are not a sanctuary for lawlessness. Dark fleet actors who employ deceptive tactics to engage in illicit activities will not evade justice.” The agency said the Grace interdiction followed an earlier boarding of the M/V Jaira Provider, another vessel it said was carrying illicit fuel toward Cuba.

A U.S.-imposed oil blockade earlier this year has intensified fuel shortages and blackouts in Cuba after shipments from traditional suppliers were disrupted. The Trump administration has said its goal is to change Cuba’s government. The Coast Guard statement did not say how authorities determined the fuel’s destination or how much fuel Grace carried.

Sources: The Guardian, Reuters

—

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a challenge to a Trump administration policy that subjects millions of people living in the United States without lawful status to mandatory detention without bond hearings during deportation proceedings, Reuters reported.

The justices granted review in Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha (No. 26-104), an administration appeal of a Second Circuit ruling for Brazilian national Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, who entered unlawfully around 2004–2005, was arrested in Massachusetts in September 2025, initially denied a bond hearing, and later released on bond. The Department of Homeland Security’s July 2025 guidance treated noncitizens already inside the country as “applicants for admission” under 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(A), reversing a nearly three-decade interpretation that allowed bond for many interior cases.

Reuters analysis earlier found hundreds of judges had ruled thousands of times that the detention policy was unlawful; immigrants have filed more than 73,000 related federal cases this year. ACLU lawyer Michael K.T. Tan called the policy “cruel and inhumane” and unlawful. A DHS spokesperson welcomed the grant, saying the department had “implemented the law as Congress intended” and faulting prior “catch-and-release” practice. Argument falls in the term that opens Monday; a decision is due by the end of June.

Sources: Reuters, SCOTUSblog

—

MINNEAPOLIS — The family of Renee Good, a U.S. citizen shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer during a January immigration sweep in Minneapolis, filed two lawsuits Thursday against the U.S. government and senior Trump administration officials, the BBC and Associated Press reported.

Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who had recently moved to the city, was killed on January 7 at a traffic stop that authorities said followed an attempt to harm agents; witnesses disputed that account. Millions watched video of the shooting, and protests followed across Minneapolis. A second Minneapolis resident, Alex Pretti, was killed by immigration agents on January 24. Weeks later, hundreds of federal agents were withdrawn from the city and the operation’s commander, Greg Bovino, was removed.

One suit, citing the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleges battery, assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence in Good’s death. The second names ICE officer Jonathan Ross, who fired the shots, along with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, border official Tom Homan and others, alleging a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights. Family lawyer Antonio Romanucci said the operation created “an unprecedented environment for state-sponsored violence.” Partner Becca Good told a news conference: “The whole world had to watch as our entire universe was destroyed.”

White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis called the lawsuits “baseless” and said the government would vigorously defend them. President Donald Trump initially blamed Good’s actions, later calling the death a “tragedy.” At least 10 people have been killed in encounters with immigration officers during Trump’s second term, according to the AP.

Sources: BBC News, Associated Press

—

QUANTICO, Va. — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in a “State of the Force” address on Wednesday that the military will cut 20 percent of its generals and admirals by Jan. 1, 2027, and create a new four-star command focused on drones and autonomous systems, the Associated Press reported.

Hegseth said he directed the services to double a 10 percent reduction he ordered last spring affecting roughly 800 flag and general officer posts. “I call it accountability and long overdue,” he told junior officers and enlisted leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico. Some lawmakers called the drawdown a “purge”; Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said it would take a generation to recover leadership lost in the cuts.

Hegseth also said the Pentagon would stand up a drone-focused warfare command and launch a future-warfare study led in part by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey. He touted plans for a new military base — the first in about 40 years — and other personnel and cultural changes. The speech came amid a grinding U.S. war with Iran and other overseas operations, AP reported.

Sources: Associated Press via NBC News, Associated Press via ABC News

—

NASHVILLE — Tennessee death-row inmate Christa Pike survived an attempted execution on Wednesday evening after receiving two lethal injections of pentobarbital and was later given “life-saving measures” in hospital, her lawyers and the Associated Press reported.

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The U.S. Supreme Court had cleared the way for the lethal injections after last-minute litigation. At Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, media witnesses said the curtain in the witness room was closed twice; reporters were later asked to leave, the AP said. Tennessee’s protocol provides a secondary set of syringes if the first does not kill, but does not spell out what happens if the prisoner remains alive after the second set.

One of Pike’s attorneys told the BBC she had lost consciousness yet still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring during the attempt. Gov. Bill Lee said he ordered a “comprehensive, third-party review” and that the state’s last remaining scheduled execution of 2026 would not go ahead as planned. The attempted execution was not Tennessee’s first 2026 disruption: Tony Carruthers’s lethal injection was postponed in May after staff could not find a usable vein.

Sources: BBC News, Associated Press

—

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt the execution of Tennessee inmate Christa Pike on the eve of her scheduled lethal injection, BBC News reported, clearing the way for what would be the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Pike, 50, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer at a job-training camp for troubled teens in Knoxville. She was 18 at the time of the killing. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Monday denied clemency. Only 18 women have been executed in the United States since the 1970s, compared with 1,663 men, BBC noted.

Defense attorneys argued that “an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain” and that Pike was too young for a death sentence. She was due to be executed at 11:00 a.m. EDT Wednesday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Sources: BBC News

—