Trump’s deportation agenda is about to get a $70B infusion from Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — With virtually no strings attached, Congress is on the verge of providing a sizable infusion of cash to the Department of Homeland Security, powering President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda for the remainder of his term in the White House.

The nearly $70 billion package, which cleared the Republican-held Senate in a middle of the night vote and now heads to the House, was declared a “rotten bill” by the Democratic leader and an “ATM for ICE” by pro-immigrant advocates.

But for those aligned with Trump’s campaign promise for the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, it all but guarantees an uninterrupted flow of money to carry out the administration’s immigration enforcement operations — and comes on top of some $170 billion Congress already approved for the department last summer, as part of Trump’s big tax breaks bill.

“We’re going to continue to arrest people, we’re going to continue to detain people and we’re going to keep deporting people,” Trump border czar Tom Homan told CBS News on Friday.

He hinted at summer sweeps of enforcement actions coming next to New York City.

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A federal judge strikes down Trump administration immigration policy affecting 39 countries

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday struck down a Trump administration policy enacted after the shooting of two National Guard members that made it harder for immigrants from dozens of countries to stay and enter the U.S.

In a ruling harshly criticizing the administration, U.S. District Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. said the policy “threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo,” and he accused the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of ignoring the law.

“In enacting its latest immigration policies, USCIS: claims statutory and regulatory authority that it does not possess; makes decisions without the reasoned explanations that it must provide; acts without regard for the reliance interests of applicants that it must consider; and justifies its actions with pretextual concerns of ‘national security’ that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making,” he wrote. “In legal terms that means USCIS’s actions are contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The policies enacted after the National Guard shooting last year meant that immigrants from 39 African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries have been “categorically barred” from receiving final decisions on, among other things, their asylum, work permit, green card, and citizenship applications.

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US military says it shot down Iranian missiles, drones launched toward Gulf allies, Strait of Hormuz

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — The U.S. military said it shot down Iranian ballistic missiles and drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf Arab allies on Friday, while striking some of the Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar sites in response, an exchange of fire that further frayed a shaky ceasefire with Tehran.

The exchange of strikes comes as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Iran to make a deal to end the conflict.

U.S. Central Command said on social media Friday night that Iran fired seven ballistic missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, with U.S. forces intercepting six of the missiles and a seventh failing to reach its target. The military said there were no reports of harm to U.S. personnel.

The ballistic missiles were fired after the U.S. earlier in the day shot down four Iranian drones that were launched toward Strait of Hormuz.

“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,” U.S. Central Command said on social media.

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Trump says he wants his new acting director of national intelligence to cut the office

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he wants his new acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, to cut the office, which has already been significantly scaled back during his second term.

Trump noted that the size of the office has been “way too high for way too long” and that “if he cut, I wouldn’t mind that.”

“He’ll do a very good job,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to Wisconsin for an event on agriculture. “He’ll watch it closely, but Bill Pulte is very good, he’s very talented.”

The Republican president said in an earlier interview with The Wall Street Journal that he has asked Pulte to start the process of firing employees. In the interview, Trump said he has already conveyed his view to Pulte, who has served as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency but has no apparent national security expertise.

“I’d like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn’t be there,” Trump said, which the Journal said was in reference to intelligence community officials who had served in the Democratic administrations of Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

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Putin rejects Zelenskyy’s offer to meet, saying he sees ‘no point’ in it

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday rejected a proposal by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a face-to-face meeting on the 4-year-old conflict, saying he sees “no point” in it.

Thursday’s letter, the first public message Zelenskyy has written directly to Putin since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, was a sweeping critique of the Russian leader’s 26 years in power as well as some taunts about his age.

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin described Zelenskyy’s open letter proposing the meeting as “boorish.”

“Is it a way to create conditions for personal meetings and talks, or create an environment which makes any personal meetings impossible?” Putin said at a question-and-answer session at his annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “I think it’s the second.”

Putin added that a Russian businessman whom he didn’t identify traveled to Kyiv last month and met with Zelenskyy to hear his offer of a personal meeting.

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The US job market is strong but many Americans are still frustrated by prospects and rising prices

WASHINGTON (AP) — The American job market continues to show surprising strength — good news for President Donald Trump who has taken a beating in the polls over the surging gasoline prices that followed U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.

Employers added 172,000 jobs in May – roughly double what forecasters had expected – and the unemployment rate remained at a low 4.3%, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Job growth was down slightly last month from a revised 179,000 in April.

Hiring has bounced back this year from a miserable 2025, showing resilience in the face of economic uncertainty and painfully high energy prices since the Iran war started in late February.

The job gains are broad-based. Local governments added 55,000 workers, restaurants and bars 48,000, healthcare companies 35,000.

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Lebanese leaders lash out at Iran and say their country should not be used as a ‘bargaining chip’

DIBBINE, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanon’s president and prime minister criticized Iran on Friday for opposing the latest ceasefire deal between the Lebanese government and Israel, saying their country should not be used by Tehran as a “bargaining chip” in its talks with Washington.

The comments came as the Israeli military struck multiple parts of southern Lebanon and issued evacuation warnings for nine villages, including one that has sheltered thousands of people displaced by the three-month war between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. The strikes killed nine people in six locations in southern Lebanon, the state news agency reported.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard issued a statement Thursday vowing that “there will be no calm in the region” if Israel doesn’t withdraw its troops from Lebanon. In an interview with CNN, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun responded: “It’s not your job to interfere into our country. I reject the statement totally because our people (are) being killed, our houses being destroyed.”

In separate remarks, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called on the Lebanese people to put their country’s interest first, saying that Lebanon “should not remain a battlefield for others.”

Both he and Aoun complained that Iran was treating their nation as “a bargaining chip” in talks with Washington about ending the U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic. Iran has demanded that any lasting truce should extend to Lebanon.

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Virginia man gets life in prison for double murder scheme in affair with au pair

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man who was having an affair with the family’s au pair was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for the murder of his wife and a man who was lured to the couple’s home as a fall guy.

Brendan Banfield, a former IRS law enforcement officer, claimed he shot Joseph Ryan after he came across Ryan attacking his wife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. But prosecutors said Brendan Banfield and Brazilian au pair Juliana Peres Magalhães set Ryan up in a scheme to get rid of Christine Banfield, a pediatric intensive care nurse.

Judge Penney Azcarate called Banfield’s actions evil and calculated.

“The disregard of the life of your wife, someone you supposedly loved, is almost unfathomable,” she said in handing down the sentence, which is mandatory in Virginia for an aggravated murder conviction. The scheme involved “luring a completely innocent man into your deadly trap; continuing on after the murders without a care; and not once — not once — thinking of the impact” on the Banfields’ 4-year-old daughter. Brendan Banfield “took everything from her,” Azcarate said.

In addition to murder, jurors in February convicted Banfield of child endangerment because the couple’s daughter was home during the killings. Azcarate sentenced Banfield to an additional five years on that charge and three more years on a firearms charge.

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After actor James Handy’s stabbing death, his girlfriend’s son is charged with murder

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man was charged with murder Friday in the stabbing of “Jumanji” and “Top Gun: Maverick” actor James Handy, who was in a relationship with the suspect’s mother.

Michael Gledhill, 44, was charged after police say officers found the 81-year-old Handy stabbed in the chest and lying unconscious outside a home in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Handy was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead.

Gledhill did not appear at an arraignment Friday afternoon in Los Angeles Superior Court and no plea was entered for him. Javier Trincado, Gledhill’s lawyer, said his client is “unable to assist” in his defense and told the judge that the sheriff’s department did not bring Gledhill to the courtroom, but did not provide a reason.

Superior Court Judge John H. Reid ordered that Gledhill be sent to mental health court and undergo psychological evaluations. Another judge will decide whether he is competent for trial.

Authorities say Gledhill was arrested after telling police he was the person they were looking for. Police had responded to the home after a 911 caller stated: “I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin,” according to the department.

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Actor Anthony Head, known for ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ has died at 72

LONDON (AP) — Anthony Head, the suave, smooth-voiced British actor known for roles in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Ted Lasso,” has died, his family said Friday. He was 72.

Head’s daughters, actors Emily and Daisy Head, told the Press Association news agency that the actor passed away due to complications from pneumonia.

The stage and TV performer became well known to British audiences in the 1980s as one half of a will-they, won’t-they romantic couple in a series of ads for Nescafe Gold Blend instant coffee. The ads were later re-shot for a U.S. audience for Taster’s Choice.

Head achieved wider fame as librarian Rupert Giles, mentor to the title character in the cult-favorite supernatural series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which ran from 1997 to 2003.

He most recently played Rupert Mannion, the villainous ex-husband of Hannah Waddingham’s character Rebecca, in “Ted Lasso.”