☕ National Guard moves out of LA

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Happy 235th birthday, Washington D.C!

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Some headlines from this morning:

• Conservative Republicans in Congress are breaking with President Trump over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, demanding the release of sealed government files related to the convicted sex offender. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he supports transparency and wants Attorney General Pam Bondi to explain her previous comments about having Epstein case materials, while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for all files to be made public. The pushback comes after the Justice Department and FBI said they would not release additional information and found no evidence of an "incriminating client list" that could lead to new prosecutions.

• The U.S. and Indonesia reached a trade deal on Tuesday that reduces U.S. tariffs on Indonesian goods from 32% to 19% and eliminates all Indonesian tariffs on American products. The agreement includes Indonesia purchasing $15 billion in U.S. energy, $4.5 billion in agricultural products, and 50 Boeing jets over the coming years. Jakarta described the negotiations as an "extraordinary struggle" after President Trump threatened to impose higher tariffs on countries that didn't reach a deal by August 1. The trade pact follows Trump's renewed pressure campaign on international partners to renegotiate existing agreements.

• U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that illegal border crossings reached a historic low in June, with 25,228 encounters, a 78% decrease from 119,000 in June 2024. The agency recorded its lowest single-day total of apprehensions on June 28, with only 136 individuals crossing the southern border. Officials attributed the decline to increased border forces under the Trump administration and fewer South American migrants attempting to cross Colombia's Darien Gap, which connects South America to Central America. The figures represent the lowest monthly totals since the agency began tracking encounters in their current format.

• Computer chip giant NVIDIA announced on Wednesday that it will resume selling artificial intelligence chips to China, after sales were paused during the U.S.-China trade war. The company will restart sales of its H20 chip following a meeting between CEO Jensen Huang and President Trump last week. Huang told the President that restricting sales would hurt NVIDIA's competitive position and reduce revenue from the crucial Chinese market. The announcement comes after NVIDIA became the first company valued at $4 trillion last week, driven by global demand for AI technology.

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The Pentagon ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to withdraw from Los Angeles on Wednesday, cutting the federal military presence in half after weeks of immigration enforcement protests. It's the first significant drawdown since President Trump deployed 4,700 troops to the city without state approval last month. Here's what you need to know.

What happened

Trump ordered the National Guard to Los Angeles in June after protests erupted over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids targeting undocumented immigrants. The deployment marked the first time since 1965 that a president has sent troops to a major city over the governor's objections.

ICE agents conducted workplace raids and street arrests, with some reports of masked agents taking people from their jobs. The enforcement campaign is part of Trump's broader immigration crackdown, which targets 3 million deportations annually.

Why the troops were deployed

While protests remained largely peaceful, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said they "became increasingly worse and more violent." Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency and imposed an 8 PM curfew.

Trump argued the demonstrations were "inhibiting the execution of the laws and constituted a form of rebellion." The president deployed 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines without the consent of the state of California.

The political battle

Governor Gavin Newsom called the deployment a "brazen abuse of power by a sitting president" and launched a legal challenge. "The federal government is sowing chaos so they can have an excuse to escalate," Newsom said.

Bass insisted the deployment was unnecessary, saying troops had spent weeks "guarding two federal buildings" and that LA "frankly didn't need to be guarded."

What’s next

2,700 troops remain in LA as California fights the deployment in federal court. Newsom won an initial ruling that the deployment was illegal, but an appeals court quickly overturned the decision.

The case continues in federal court, where California argues that Trump violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the deployment of military forces on domestic soil. Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell said the remaining troops will continue their mission as "lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding."

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More than 200 people have been killed in southern Syria this week amid clashes between two minority groups. In response, Israel launched airstrikes. Syria said Israel’s strikes were illegal and killed civilians. Israel said it needs to protect a religious minority in the area.

Separately, Israel has also launched strikes on Lebanon. Lebanese authorities said Israel struck a refugee camp and other civilian infrastructure, killing 12, while Israel said it struck Hezbollah targets.

Syria

Syria has an interim government, after a coalition of rebels overthrew the Assad family dictatorship last December. The Assad family had ruled since 1971.

Since the fall of the Assad dictatorship, there have been tensions between ethnic and religious minority groups within Syria over how much control the interim government should have.

Recent conflict

Over the weekend, violence broke out between Druze forces and Bedouin tribes in the city of Suwayda, in southern Syria. The Druze are a religious minority that form a majority of the population in Suwayda.

As the violence escalated, the Syrian Government deployed military forces to Suwayda to control the conflict. This led to more violence. The independent Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll was 203, including militants, Government soldiers, and civilians.

Israel then launched airstrikes on Monday and Tuesday. The Syrian Government condemned Israel’s attacks, calling them “a flagrant breach of the principles of international law”. It said Israel had killed “several innocent civilians,” as well as soldiers.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said “the presence” of the troops in the area “may pose a threat”. Israel illegally occupies the Golan Heights in the south of Syria.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said it is “committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria”. There is a Druze population in the Golan Heights and in Israel.

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