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A Pakistani man was extradited from Canada to the United States on Tuesday to face charges of plotting to carry out an attack on Jews in New York City, the Justice Department said.Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was arrested in Canada in September.According to a criminal complaint, Khan planned to travel to New York and carry out a mass shooting in support of the Islamic State (IS) at a Jewish center in Brooklyn on the October 7 anniversary of the deadly 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.”He planned to use automatic weapons to kill as many members of our Jewish community as possible, all in support of IS,” US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.Khan allegedly revealed his plans in conversations with conspirators who were actually undercover law enforcement officers, the Justice Department said.He was taken into custody by Canadian authorities in the municipality of Ormstown some 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the US-Canada border.Khan is charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization and attempting to commit acts of terrorism. He could face a maximum of life in prison if convicted.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed Los Angeles was being invaded by a “foreign enemy” and vowed to “liberate” the city after days of protests sparked by immigration raids.In a hardline speech at one of the country’s biggest army bases, Trump described protesters as “animals” and got troops to boo the names of California Governor Gavin Newsom and ex-president Joe Biden.Trump has deployed thousands of troops including 700 active duty US Marines to Los Angeles, despite California authorities saying the move is unnecessary and will inflame the situation.Newsom has called Trump’s actions “dictatorial.””This anarchy will not stand. We will not allow federal agents to be attacked, and we will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy,” Trump told troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.Trump described the protesters as “animals” who “proudly carry the flags of other countries.” “What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty, carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country,” the US president said.Trump linked the protesters to what he called “uncontrolled migration” and said that Europe — which his administration has repeatedly berated on the subject — must act too.”As the entire world can now see, uncontrolled migration leads to chaos, dysfunction and disorder,” Trump said. “And you know what? They have it in Europe too. It’s happening in many of the countries of Europe. They better do something before it’s too late.”

The jury considering the fate of disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein, facing retrial for rape and sexual assault, retired Tuesday without reaching a verdict after requesting to review significant portions of testimony.The Oscar-winning producer is being retried for offenses against two women: Jessica Mann, whom he is alleged to have raped; and Miriam Haley, whom he is alleged to have sexually assaulted.He is also facing new charges of assaulting ex-model Kaja Sokola.Judge Curtis Farber said jurors had requested to read back much of Mann’s testimony “starting with her going downstairs at the DoubleTree” hotel in Manhattan to meet Weinstein on March 18, 2013, when she says he raped her.They also asked to revisit Mann’s medical notes when they reconvene for a fifth day on Wednesday.Weinstein’s original 2020 conviction, and the resulting 23-year prison term, was thrown out last year after an appeals court found irregularities in the way witnesses were presented.He denies the latest charges, and deliberations continue Wednesday.

Hundreds of US Marines were expected in Los Angeles on Tuesday as President Donald Trump again mused about declaring a full-blown “insurrection” following protests in a small part of the city.The 700 elite troops will join around 4,000 National Guard soldiers, a stunning militarization of the sprawling city, which is home to millions of foreign-born and Latino residents.Small-scale and largely peaceful demonstrations have taken place over four days, with sporadic but isolated violence erupting as protests dispersed and masked individuals confronted police.Streets were quiet on Tuesday as the Little Tokyo neighborhood cleaned up after overnight clashes that saw an unruly mob shooting fireworks at officers in riot gear, who fired back with volleys of tear gas.Several properties — including the Apple Store — had been looted.Protests that erupted Friday were sparked by a sudden intensification last week of Trump’s signature campaign to find and deport undocumented migrants, who he claims have mounted an “invasion” of the United States.Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday stressed the majority of protesters have been peaceful — and that local law enforcement could easily cope.”The unrest that has happened (is) a few blocks within the downtown area,” she said. “It is not all of downtown, and it is not all of the city. Unfortunately, the visuals make it seem as though our entire city is in flames, and it is not the case.”She also slammed the deployment of active-duty soldiers, which the Pentagon said would cost taxpayers $134 million.”What are the Marines going to do when they get here? That’s a good question. I have no idea,” she said.- ‘Behaving like a tyrant’ -Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom filed an emergency motion asking a court for a restraining order to prevent troops hitting the streets.”Sending trained warfighters onto the streets is unprecedented and threatens the very core of our democracy,” he said. “Donald Trump is behaving like a tyrant, not a President. We ask the court to immediately block these unlawful actions.”The filing to the US District Court in Northern California asking for an injunction by 1:00 pm local time (2000 GMT), names Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and charges they have violated the US Constitution.Trump has branded the LA protesters “professional agitators and insurrectionists.”Asked again if he intended to invoke the Insurrection Act, a mechanism that would allow active duty military to employ lethal force against Americans, he said: “If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see.”In an extraordinary move, Trump has also called for Newsom’s arrest, while the president’s ultra-loyal speaker in the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, on Tuesday declared the California governor “ought to be tarred and feathered.”- ‘Incredibly rare’ -Trump’s use of the military is an “incredibly rare” move for a US president, Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and a former lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force, told AFP.The National Guard — a fully equipped reserve armed forces — is usually controlled by state governors and used typically on US soil in response to natural disasters.The Guard has not been deployed by a president over the objections of a state governor since 1965, at the height of the civil rights movement.Deployment of regular troops, such as the Marines, on US soil is even more unusual.US law largely prevents the use of the military as a policing force — absent an insurrection. Speculation is growing that Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act giving him a free hand to use regular troops for law enforcement around the country.Trump “is trying to use emergency declarations to justify bringing in first the National Guard and then mobilizing Marines,” law professor Frank Bowman, at the University of Missouri, told AFP.Bowman said the “suspicion” is that Trump is aiming to provoke the kind of all-out crisis that would then justify extreme measures. “That kind of spectacle feeds the notion that there is a genuine emergency and, you know, a genuine uprising against the lawful authorities, and that allows him to begin to use even more force.”

US President Donald Trump has invoked emergency powers to deploy National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles to quell protests against federal immigration raids.Here is a look at some of the legal questions surrounding the move.- Is it legal? -Trump relied on a seldom-used law known as Title 10 to send an initial 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles. He has since ordered another 2,000 Guard members and 700 Marines to the Californian city.National Guard troops are normally mobilized by a state governor and used domestically to respond to natural disasters such as floods or wildfires.Trump, exceptionally, sent the troops to Los Angeles against the wishes of California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.The last time a president defied a state governor to deploy the Guard was in 1965, when president Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights protestors.Title 10 permits National Guard federalization in times of “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States” but does not give the troops the powers to perform domestic law enforcement duties.The troops deployed to Los Angeles have been used so far only to provide security around federal buildings in the second-largest US city.Newsom has accused Trump of exceeding his authority by deploying the troops without his green light and has filed suit in federal court seeking to have the deployment declared unlawful.- Insurrection Act -Trump would need to invoke the rarely-used Insurrection Act of 1807 to allow troops to expand their current role in Los Angeles, according to legal analysts.The Insurrection Act gives a president the authority to deploy the military domestically to perform law enforcement duties such as conducting searches and making arrests.The Insurrection Act was most recently invoked by president George H.W. Bush at the request of the then California governor to help put down riots in Los Angeles in 1992 that followed the acquittal of police officers involved in the beating of a Black motorist, Rodney King.It was used by president Johnson in 1968 to quell riots that broke out in the nation’s capital and other cities following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.- Posse Comitatus -Using the military domestically to conduct law enforcement activities is normally barred by another law, the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.The Insurrection Act lets a president sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act to suppress “armed rebellion” or “domestic violence” and use the armed forces “as he considers necessary” to enforce the law.William Banks, a professor emeritus of law at Syracuse University, said the Insurrection Act and waiving of Posse Comitatus has been infrequent because of a long US history of “leaving law enforcement to civilians.””To sum up the conditions where (the Insurrection Act) may be used, it’s for when all hell breaks loose,” said Banks, co-author of the book “Soldiers on the Home Front: The Domestic Role of the American Military.””When state and local officials are unable to control civil affairs without federal involvement, the federal government may intervene,” he told AFP. “It’s normally been requested by the state officials, and the president simply agrees and decides to send a federal force.”Newsom has said repeatedly that there was no need for the deployment of the National Guard and Marines and that the Los Angeles Police Department was fully capable of handling the unrest.  

A senior US health official on Tuesday admitted President Donald Trump’s administration had gone too far in slashing biomedical research grants worth billions of dollars, and said efforts were underway to restore some of the funding.Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), made the remarks during a Senate committee hearing examining both recent cuts to his agency and deeper reductions proposed by the White House in next year’s budget. Bhattachartya said he had created an appeals process for scientists and laboratories whose research was impacted, and that the NIH had already “reversed many” of the cuts.”I didn’t take this job to terminate grants,” said the physician and health economist who left a professorship at Stanford University to join the Trump administration.”I took this job to make sure that we do the research that advances the health needs of the American people.”The hearing came a day after more than 60 NIH employees sent an open letter to Bhattacharya condemning policies they said undermined the agency’s mission and the health of Americans.They dubbed it the “Bethesda Declaration” — a nod both to the NIH’s suburban Washington headquarters and to Bhattacharya’s role as a prominent signatory of the 2020 “Great Barrington Declaration,” which opposed Covid lockdowns.Since Trump’s January 20 inauguration, the NIH has terminated 2,100 research grants totaling around $9.5 billion and $2.6 billion in contracts, according to an independent database called Grant Watch.Affected projects include studies on gender, the health effects of global warming, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer.Trump has launched a sweeping overhaul of the US scientific establishment early in his second term — cutting billions in funding, attacking universities, and overseeing mass layoffs of scientists across federal agencies.

Supporters of Venezuelans deported by the United States to El Salvador, including one of their relatives, appealed to President Nayib Bukele’s government Tuesday to let them see the migrants in prison.It was the first visit to the Central American nation by a family member since more than 250 Venezuelans were expelled by the United States in March, accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.”We want to be allowed a visit, to check on their health, and to ask for their prompt release,” Jhoanna Sanguino, the aunt of Widmer Agelvis Sanguino, told AFP.Reina Cardenas, a friend of Andry Hernandez Romero’s family, said: “We want him to know he’s not alone.””We’re fighting for them,” she added.The two women were accompanied by Walter Marquez, president of the Amparo Foundation, a human rights NGO providing legal support to some of the deportees.”We want to urge the president to receive us so we can present all the documentation that proves they should be released,” Marquez told AFP after submitting a visit request.El Salvador has no international criminal jurisdiction to detain the Venezuelans, who have not been sentenced in the United States, he said.”Not one of them belongs to Tren de Aragua,” Marquez added.US President Donald Trump invoked rarely used wartime laws to fly many of the migrants to El Salvador without any court hearings.His administration struck a deal to pay the government of ally Bukele millions of dollars to hold the deportees in a maximum security prison.Washington has said the Venezuelans’ tattoos are evidence of their gang affiliation, though experts say that Tren de Aragua members do not commonly sport gang markings.Sanguino believes that her 24-year-old nephew was deported because of his tattoos of a clock, a rose and an owl.”It’s shocking not knowing anything about them,” she said. “We’ve put our personal lives on hold to demand justice.”A law firm hired by Caracas to represent some of the other detained Venezuelans says that it has been denied access to them.

US President Donald Trump is wrapping himself up in martial symbolism at a series of military events this week — even as he faces accusations of authoritarianism after sending thousands of active-duty troops to protest-hit Los Angeles.Trump will continue his long fascination with military trappings when he gives a speech on Tuesday at Fort Bragg, the country’s largest military installation, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US Army.The Republican then presides over a huge, highly unusual military parade in Washington to mark the same anniversary on Saturday — a day which also happens to be Trump’s own 79th birthday.”For Trump, what matters is the spectacle. And the military is a heck of a spectacle,” Peter Loge, director of George Washington University’s School of Media, told AFP.”The military parade, the military in Los Angeles is theater of leadership, theater of governing, without paying attention to the real-world consequences.”Trump was sent to a military academy as a child by his property tycoon father, and seems to have loved military pomp ever since — even if repeated educational and medical deferments meant he could avoid the draft to fight in Vietnam.During his first presidential term, the former reality TV star loved to pose alongside what he called “his” generals, even as he reportedly berated them for not being as loyal as Nazi leader Adolf Hilter’s top officers.He first had the idea for a grand military parade after attending France’s annual Bastille Day parade in Paris at the invitation of his friend, President Emmanuel Macron, but was put off by the cost and warnings that heavy tanks could damage Washington’s streets.But Trump would not be dissuaded as he flexed his presidential power in his second term.Tanks, helicopters and troops will rumble through the US capital on Saturday in the biggest such parade in decades, at a cost of up to $45 million.”It is my birthday, but I’m not celebrating my birthday,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “It happens to be the same day so I take a little heat.”- ‘Very big force’ -The president however made it clear he would not tolerate anyone spoiling the party.”If there’s any protest that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,” Trump said on Tuesday when asked about the parade.Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg is also sending a message about what his new Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth calls a new, “woke-free” military.One of Trump’s first acts back in office was to change Fort Bragg, which houses the US special forces command, back to its original name.Previously named after Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general in the US Civil War, the base in North Carolina was renamed Fort Liberty under Democratic President Joe Biden. Trump’s administration says it now honors private first class Roland L. Bragg, a World War II hero.World War II appears to have been increasingly on Trump’s mind since returning to office.He recently designated May 8 “Victory Day,” noting that unlike much of Europe the United States had no day to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany — and he has repeatedly downplayed the role of US allies in the war.”You would be speaking German right now, okay? We won the war, and you might be speaking Japanese too,” Trump told a reporter in the Oval Office on Tuesday.Critics say that Trump’s military fascination underscores an authoritarian streak.Trump has leaned into the strongman imagery of deploying 700 Marines as well as 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles to deal with protests in Los Angeles. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom branded Trump “dictatorial” and said the move was a deliberate attempt to inflame the situation in the city for political gain.”The imagery is very much strongman: I am Donald Trump, America is a nation of force and power, because look at all the images of force and power,” Loge said.

Sean Combs’s defense lawyers on Tuesday began questioning a woman who dated the music mogul up until his arrest, and who has testified in agonizing detail that he pressured her into drug-fueled sex with escorts.In the initial hours of questioning defense attorney Teny Geragos sought to show that this woman speaking under the pseudonym Jane had agency throughout her relationship with Combs — an attempt to show that what prosecutors deem to be sex trafficking was in fact consensual.The defense exhibited loving messages and voice notes the pair shared, and also asked Jane about her “jealousy” regarding Combs’s “polyamorous” lifestyle that involved other girlfriends, some of them public.Geragos elicited testimony from Jane in which she said she gravitated to men who were “successful.””My ideal partner is a protector and provider,” Jane said.She also testified that at points she felt “very loved” by Combs and that he was her “baby.”This witness questioning core to the case has so far been largely cordial, with Jane responding calmly and precisely.At one point when Geragos asked her a probing question about her ex’s relationship with their child, Jane was direct.”What does that have to do with this whole thing?” she answered.- Violent outburst -Jane previously told jurors how the final year of her relationship with the artist known as “Diddy” exploded into violence in June 2024.At the time Combs was already under investigation by federal authorities; his homes had been raided, and the now-infamous security footage of him assaulting his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura in a hotel was public.Jane, who began seeing Combs in early 2021, detailed how she had longed for a more traditional romantic relationship with him.But she said 90 percent of their time together resulted in sometimes days-long sex parties that saw Combs direct her to have sex with male escorts while he watched, even as she told him the encounters made her feel “sleazy” and “disgusted.”Jane told jurors Combs paid for her rent at the time and still does. He also continues to fund her legal costs.She previously testified at length that she felt “obligated” to participate in hotel sex parties for “fear of losing the roof over my head” that Combs was bankrolling.A June 2024 date-turned-argument escalated when Jane said she pushed Combs’s head onto a marble countertop in her home and began hurling candles — acts of “built-up” anger, she testified.Combs was livid: Jane said he kicked down doors and ultimately put her in a chokehold. She ran out but upon return Combs kicked and punched her until she had a black eye and “golf-ball” sized welts, she said.Combs instructed her to ice the injuries and prepare for a hotel night with an escort.”You’re not going to ruin my fucking night,” she said Combs told her. When she said she didn’t want to participate, he stood closely to her face as he asked in a “forceful” tone: “Then is this coercion?” Jane ultimately complied: “I just felt like I wasn’t even in my own body,” she said.- ‘Sexual trauma’ -When Ventura — who last month testified of physical and psychological abuse in similarily excruciating detail — filed her 2023 civil lawsuit that opened the door for a federal investigation, Jane said she “almost fainted.””There was a whole other woman feeling the same thing,” Jane said.”I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma. It makes me sick how three solid pages, word for word, is exactly my experiences and my anguish,” she messaged Combs, in text records read in court.Jane said that following their physical fight in the summer of 2024, they saw each other twice more before his arrest last September.The 55-year-old faces life in prison if convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking.Jane’s story was not in the original indictment against Combs, but she was added after receiving a subpoena requiring she testify in November 2024 before a grand jury.She began speaking to prosecutors in January of this year.Jane testified that she told Combs’s defense team about the brawl last summer before she told prosecutors.She said she felt “obligated” to meet the defense team “due to my relationship.”Jane has not filed any civil suit against Combs, and said in court Monday she has no plans to.Jane’s testimony is expected to last through Thursday, and the Manhattan federal trial is anticipated to continue several more weeks.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought Tuesday to reassure lawmakers over the US pledge to supply Australia with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, amid growing concern that production is not rolling out quickly enough to meet the commitment. Under the AUKUS deal signed to great fanfare in 2021, Washington, London and Canberra are cooperating on the joint development of cyber warfare tools, artificial intelligence and hypersonic missiles. The agreement commits the United States to building cutting-edge submarines for Australia, an investment with an estimated cost of up to $235 billion over 30 years.  Australia plans to acquire at least three Virginia Class submarines from the United States within the next 15 years, eventually manufacturing its own nuclear-powered subs.The US navy has 24 Virginia-class vessels, which can carry cruise missiles, but American shipyards are struggling to meet production targets set at two new boats each year. Critics question why the United States would sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia without stocking its own military first.Questioned by members of the US House of Representatives, Hegseth said his team was talking “every day” to US shipbuilders Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls to ensure that “their needs not only are being met, but their shortfalls are being addressed.”The former Fox News host, one of President Donald Trump’s most divisive cabinet appointments, acknowledged a “gap” between current supply and future demand, but added that submarine building is “crucial” to US security. He blamed Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden for having “neglected” the industrial base for submarine construction. While the stealthy Virginia class is an attack and intelligence gathering submarine designed for a wide range of missions, the Columbia class is a ballistic missile carrier built for nuclear deterrence that will be the largest submarine ever built by the United States.Democrat Rosa DeLauro — whose home state of Connecticut builds Navy submarines — berated Hegseth over the Pentagon’s decision to move $3.1 billion earmarked in 2026 for Columbia-class construction to 2027 and 2028.”Is that going to raise alarm bells across the defense industrial base by signaling a lack of commitment to the program?” she asked.Hegseth committed to the “on-time” delivery of the vessels.