News briefs

Tribune News Service on Jun 9, 2025

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Deterrence and intimidation drive Trump threats to arrest Newsom in LA standoff

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s late-night phone call with Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday night came with a warning. Protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles were producing flares of unrest. “Get the police in gear,” Trump told the governor.

His patience would last less than 24 hours before he chose an historic path, federalizing the National Guard against the wishes of state and local officials.

The administration is now considering whether to escalate further, preparing a battalion of active-duty Marines stationed just outside Los Angeles County, a White House official told the Los Angeles Times. No decision had been made on whether to operationalize them as of Monday afternoon, the official said, but any deployment would be “to protect ICE agents.”

It is yet another threat intended to quell simmering demonstrations across Los Angeles, some of which have turned violent, in protest of flash raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in recent days.

—Los Angeles Times

Texas teens worry as lawmakers ban LGBTQ clubs in public schools

DALLAS — They gathered every other Wednesday afternoon in the English teacher’s cozy classroom. They shared homemade cupcakes covered in rainbow sprinkles. They decorated pumpkins for Halloween, planned potlucks, talked politics — both of the national and high school variety.

These are 16-year-old Willow Biasi’s memories from Sherman High School’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance, the type of club an anti-DEI bill approved by the Texas Legislature appears to target.

“We do not need to have school-sponsored and school-sanctioned sex clubs, period,” Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, said as he pushed for the bill’s passage. That’s not what GSA is, the Biasi family says. “It was literally a space for those who couldn’t come out at home or those who just enjoyed being around fellow queer people,” Willow said.

Senate Bill 12 will bar schools from sponsoring a “student club based on sexual orientation or gender identity.” It also forbids schools from providing instruction, guidance or programming on sexual orientation or gender identity.

—The Dallas Morning News

Battle to eradicate invasive pythons in Florida achieves stunning milestone

A startling milestone has been reached in Florida’s war against the invasive Burmese pythons eating their way across the Everglades.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida reports it has captured and humanely killed 20 tons of the snakes since 2013, including a record 6,300 pounds of pythons killed this past breeding season, according to a June 9 news release.

To put that in perspective, 20 tons — or 40,000 pounds — is a mound of snakes the size of a fire truck ... or a fully loaded city bus.

What’s startling is those 1,400 snakes didn’t come from a statewide culling. They came from a 200-square-mile area in southwestern Florida, the Conservancy reports.'

—The Bradenton Herald

Russia, Ukraine start delayed prisoner swap after recriminations

Russia and Ukraine started a major prisoner exchange on Monday after days of wrangling cast doubt over the only concrete result of peace talks last week in Turkey.

The first groups of prisoners under the age of 25 years were transferred by both sides, and the returning Russian soldiers are currently in Belarus, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on its Telegram channel, without specifying the number exchanged. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed prisoners were returned from Russian captivity and said the process would continue in several stages over the coming days.

“The process is quite complex, with many sensitive details, and negotiations continue virtually every day,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on X. He also didn’t specify how many prisoners were involved, but said those returning included the wounded and seriously wounded. “We count on the full implementation of the humanitarian agreements reached during the meeting in Istanbul,” he said.

The planned swap of 1,200 people from each side is set to be the largest-to-date of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now well into its fourth year, but was held up as the two sides disagreed over details of the arrangement.

—Bloomberg News