Brand Logo
ICE scuffle escalation, Trump-Putin call and a Jan. 6 payout

 
Today's POLITICS story

Trump DOJ charging House Democrat in ICE fracas

What happened
The Justice Department is charging Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) with allegedly "assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement" during a May 9 tussle outside an immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced yesterday. She also said she was dropping misdemeanor trespassing charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) stemming from the incident "for the sake of moving forward."

Who said what
The Department of Homeland Security released body-camera video it says shows McIver elbowing masked law enforcement officials outside the Delaney Hall detention facility, where she and two other congressional Democrats had come for a surprise inspection, as allowed under federal law. McIver and her colleagues said the ICE agents shoved and assaulted them. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the charges were based on a "thorough review of the video footage." But the government's narrative has been "contradicted" by other video footage and "by witnesses who were at the scene," The New York Times said. 

Charging a sitting member of Congress "after a heated clash in which no one was injured" is a "highly unusual decision," The Washington Post said. It's also an "extraordinary stress-test for the separation of powers at a time in which President Donald Trump is seeking to maximize executive branch dominance," Politico said. 

Prosecuting McIver is "extreme, morally bankrupt and lacks any basis in law or fact," House Democratic leaders said. "No one is above the law — politicians or otherwise," said Habba, a former defense lawyer for Trump. "Assaults on federal law enforcement will not be tolerated," said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, another former Trump defense attorney.

What next?
This "spectacularly inappropriate" prosecution is an "attempt to shift the blame" from ICE's escalation of "what should have been a peaceful situation into chaos," said McIver's lawyer, Paul Fishman, a former U.S. attorney for New Jersey. "In the courtroom, facts — not headlines — will matter." McIver said the charges were "purely political" and she looked "forward to the truth being laid out clearly in court." 

 
 
Today's INTERNATIONAL story

Trump drops ceasefire demand after Putin call

What happened
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for two hours yesterday in a phone call Trump characterized as "excellent" and Putin described as "very informative and very frank." Trump said "some progress has been made" toward ending Russia's Ukraine war, but he backed off an earlier demand that Putin agree to an immediate ceasefire, a condition accepted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Who said what
"Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the war," Trump said on social media after the call. "The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be." Putin, who rejected an invitation to meet with Zelenskyy in Turkey last week, said Russia was "ready to work" with Kyiv "on a memorandum on a possible future peace agreement." 

Trump is "banking on the idea that his force of personality and personal history with Putin will be enough to break any impasse over a pause in the fighting," The Associated Press said. But the "lack of any meaningful breakthrough" in yesterday's call, The New York Times said, shows that Trump's "belief in his personal charisma and negotiating acumen has so far run up against deep divisions and complex political motivations guiding Russia and Ukraine."

What next?
There are "big egos involved," Trump told reporters yesterday. "I think something's going to happen and, if it doesn't I'd just back away and they have to keep going."

 
 
Today's White House Story

Trump DOJ said to pay $5M over Jan. 6 death

What happened
The Trump administration has agreed to pay nearly $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old woman fatally shot by a U.S. Capitol Police officer as she tried to breach an entrance to the House chamber during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, several news organizations said yesterday. Babbitt's family had sought $30 million.

Who said what
The reported settlement reverses the Justice Department's "earlier opposition in the case" and averts a trial slated for July 2026, The Washington Post said. President Donald Trump returned to office "casting Babbitt as a martyr and seeking to rewrite the history of the assault on the Capitol as a heroic act of collective patriotism, not a violent effort to overturn an election" by his supporters. Four other people also died in and directly after the violence.

Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of the nearly 1,600 people charged with participating in the riot, including at least 379 charged with assaulting 140 police officers or reporters. "I am extremely disappointed and disagree with this settlement," which "sends a chilling message to law enforcement nationwide," U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a statement.

What next?
The details of the settlement have not been made public, but U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ordered the government and the Babbitt family's lawyers to update the court on Thursday.

 
 

It's not all bad

Linwood Riddick earned his bachelor's degree from South Carolina State University in Orangeburg this month at age 79. A small business owner and Vietnam veteran, Riddick retired at 72 and then decided to attend SC State after learning about the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre, where police shot college students protesting segregation, killing three. He enrolled to honor the "sacrifice of these three men," Riddick said. He drove an hour every day for classes. "It's not impossible if you try," he said.

 
 
Under the radar

The Trump administration's crackdown on migrants has hit restaurants, construction and other industries — and horse racing may be ensnared next. A large percentage of the workers at America's horse racing tracks — about 78%, according to the industry outlet Thoroughbred Daily News — are migrants. The industry serves as a lifeline for those looking to leverage their equine skills for legal status, and horse racing insiders are pressuring the White House to provide enhanced protections for them.

Many migrants work in horse racing because it pays well. And "owners and trainers say they're unable to find enough U.S.-born workers" to fill crucial roles, said NPR. Workers like horse grooms "get a cut of a winning horse's cash prize, which can top tens of thousands of dollars." Many of the jockeys who ride the horses in the race are immigrants, too. In all, migrant workers in horse racing "help generate $177 billion for the American economy," American Business Immigration Coalition CEO Rebecca Shi told Newsweek.

Some workers have visas or are in the process of getting them, but visas like the H-2B have been capped for 2025. The industry has urged Congress to "talk about a legal pathway for farm and racetrack workers," said the Louisville Courier-Journal, protecting workers "who are legally here on a work visa, but are still stressed about being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement." For now, many migrants remain "undocumented because the demand for people to care for and feed the horses far outpaces the visas issued," said CBS News.

 
 
On this day

May 20, 1990

The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photograph from outer space. The grainy black-and-white image depicted a star that was about 1,300 light years away. Since its launch, the Hubble has taken more than 1.6 million photographs of space, according to NASA. The more advanced James Webb Space Telescope was launched into orbit in 2021.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

U.S.-Mexico "border crossings decline," the Arizona Republic says on Tuesday's front page, quoting a Border Patrol agent: "Never seen it this slow." The Supreme Court "allows end to protections for Venezuelans," The Washington Post says. "U.K., EU strike accord on security, trade ties," The Wall Street Journal says. "Israel is wavering on aid and strategy in Gaza," The New York Times says, as "Project 2025 architects pursue Israel's critics" in the U.S., aiming to "crush the Palestinian cause." Pope Leo XIV "shaped by Chicago upbringing," the Chicago Tribune says. "Pope Leo's blighted hometown hoping for a resurrection," USA Today says.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

On the catwalk

Tired of waiting to get picked up, a cat named George escaped from the vet's office and walked three miles home. George was at the Florida facility to get neutered, and still had anesthesia in his system when he made a run for it. Owner Bob Beasock told UPI that a week after the escape, he found George "stretched out in his chair on our carport, looking like he had just returned from a grand adventure."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: AP Photo / Angelina Katsanis; Contributor / Getty Images; Yasin Ozturk / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images; Mike Campbell / NurPhoto / Getty Images