Archive June 25, 2025

At a hearing on Wednesday, McIver pleaded guilty. During a May 9 congressional oversight visit to an immigrant detention center in New Jersey, she is accused of assaulting, resisting, impeding, and interfering with federal officials.

“They won’t bother me,” I said. She remarked outside the Newark courthouse, “They won’t stop me from doing my job.”

Democratic lawmakers have previously been threatened with arrest and detention for immigration-related issues by the Trump administration.

However, McIver and her supporters have emphasized that members of Congress are entitled to inspect immigration facilities.

Democrats have also referred to these accusations as a baseless attempt to deter criticism and oversight of the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement strategy.

The third misdemeanor charge, which can result in a maximum sentence of one year in prison, is a maximum sentence for McIver on two of the three counts, which have an eight-year maximum sentence. November 10 is the start of a trial.

Alina Habba, a temporary US attorney who had previously represented the president as a personal attorney in his court cases during the time he served two terms, charged McIver.

A video from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) video shows McIver surrounded by agitated protesters and police in New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention facility. Although it’s not clear whether this was intentional, her elbow does seem to protrude into an officer.

She is accused of “slammed” an agent and trying to grab him, according to the criminal complaint against her.

Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark, was also detained during the demonstration on trespassing-related charges that were later dropped. He claims that Habba was persecuted for what he perceives as malicious behavior.

On Wednesday, Baraka and McIver spoke and stated that the Trump administration was using law enforcement as an “appendage of their ideology to begin hammer us.”

In the US House of Representatives, McIver is one of the 12 members of the Congress who represent New Jersey. However, other Democratic officials have argued against immigration policies with the Trump administration.

After protests erupted in Los Angeles over immigration raids, Trump made a public mutter about arresting California governor Gavin Newsom earlier this month.

Trump remarked to his border czar Tom Homan, who had suggested making the possibility of these arrests, that “I would do it if I were Tom”. It’s fantastic, in my opinion.

Then, after being forced to the ground, federal agents handcuffed and temporarily detained California’s Senator Alex Padilla on June 12 during a press conference dedicated to the protests.

Padilla had interjected the session to pose a question to the speaker, Kristi Noem, DHS Secretary. Despite a video of the incident demonstrating this clearly on the video, DHS later claimed Padilla had not identified himself.

Additionally, the senator claimed that he had “lunged” toward Noem, a claim he refuted. According to Padilla, his actions were a result of “his duty to carry out Congressional oversight of the federal government’s operations.”

Although federal law permits members of Congress to inspect immigrant detention facilities and are not prohibited from entering, DHS issued guidelines earlier this month that stated the agency has complete discretion over who enters immigration enforcement field offices.

Israel’s occupation of Gaza continued despite its most recent conflict with Iran, which came to an end thanks to a US-brokered ceasefire.

Qatar has also announced that it will resume mediation efforts to put an end to the genocide.

What are the current prospects for peace then?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Xavier Abu Eid, former adviser to Palestine’s top negotiator, political analyst and former adviser

Mairav Zonszein, Senior Analyst for Israel at the International Crisis Group

The couple’s lavish wedding in Venice, which has attracted the support of numerous activist groups, has taken place ahead of the multibillionaire Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s lavish wedding.

Two security boats were waiting for Bezos and Sanchez on Wednesday at the Aman Hotel, a five-star hotel on the Grand Canal, as they arrived in a water taxi.

Residents claim the lavish event exemplifies how their needs are ignored in the era of mass tourism to the historic and iconic lagoon city, and it has drawn protests from groups who view it as a sign of the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots.

About a dozen Venetian organizations have joined together to protest the multi-day event under the slogan “No Space for Bezos,” a play on words used to refer to the bride’s recent space flight. These include housing advocates, anti-cruise ship campaigners, and university groups.

They have set up small-scale demonstrations, placing anti-Bezos banners on renowned Venetian sites. Greenpeace and the British charity “Everyone Hates Elon,” which has reportedly smashed Tesla cars in protest of Elon Musk, joined them on Monday to protest allegedly provided billionaire tax breaks.

A mannequin of Bezos clinging onto an Amazon box and his fists full of fake dollars was displayed on a float down the Grand Canal on Wednesday. The stunt was not a protest against the wedding, but rather against unchecked wealth, media control, and the expansion of public space privatization, according to the British publicity firm that made the announcement.

Bezos’s representatives haven’t commented on the protests.

The local activists had planned a more well-organized protest for Saturday that would block boats’ access to canals to impede traffic to a wedding venue.

Federica Toninello, an activist for the Social Housing Assembly network, predicted a “strong, decisive protest, but peaceful” demonstration. We want it to be like a party with music in order to show how our Venice should look.

Mick Jagger, Ivanka Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, and Leonardo DiCaprio are among the 200 guests who have confirmed to be guests at the wedding.

Venice, a city known for its romantic canal views, hosts hundreds of weddings annually, not the least of which are those of the wealthy and famous. The general public embraced prior celebrity weddings, such as those involving George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin in 2014. At City Hall, hundreds turned out to wish the couple well.

Tommaso Cacciari, a prominent figure in the movement that successfully advocated for the ban on cruise ships over 25, 000 tons traveling through the Giudecca Canal in central Venice, said Bezos has a different political and business profile.