Indonesia volcano belches six-mile ash tower

A DAY AFTER 8.8 RUSSIAN EARTHQUAKE 


By AFP
August 1, 2025


Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spewed a column of molten ash topped with volcanic lighnting into the Flores' night sky - Copyright Indonesia's Geological Agency/AFP -

An Indonesian volcano spewed a 10-kilometre (6.2-miles) molten plume of ash topped by lightning into the Friday night sky, weeks after another huge eruption triggered dozens of flight cancellations in Bali.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,584-metre-high volcano on the tourist island of Flores, erupted at 20:48 pm (1248 GMT), the volcanology agency said in a statement.

“The height of the eruption column was observed to be approximately 10,000 metres above the summit,” the agency said.

There were no immediate reports of damages or casualties.

The eruption was triggered by a gas buildup in recent weeks, geological agency head Muhammad Wafid said in a statement.

He also warned of the possibility of hazardous lahar floods — a type of mud or debris flow of volcanic materials — if heavy rain occurs, particularly for communities near rivers.

Tourists and residents were told to avoid a six-kilometre radius around the crater.

Pictures shared by the country’s geological agency showed volcanic lightning near the top of the ash plume.

Last month, the volcano spewed a colossal 18-kilometre tower of ash, scrapping 24 flights at Bali’s international airport.

There were no immediate reports of cancelled flights after Friday’s eruption.

Laki-Laki, which means man in Indonesian, is twinned with the calmer but taller 1,703-metre (5,587-foot) volcano named Perempuan, after the Indonesian word for woman.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.

Search intensifies for five trapped in giant Chile copper mine

By AFP
August 1, 2025


Relatives wait for news after the partial collapse of a copper mine in Rancagua, Chile - Copyright AFP Raul BRAVO
Franco FAFASULI

Rescue teams in Chile searched Friday for five miners trapped after a partial collapse triggered by a tremor killed one colleague and halted operations at the world’s largest underground copper mine.

At least 100 people were involved in the perilous search effort nearly 12 hours after the event was registered, said Andres Music, general manager of El Teniente mine in Rancagua, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Santiago.

“So far, we have not been able to communicate with them. The tunnels are closed, they are collapsed,” he told reporters on Friday.

The miners had been working at a depth of more than 900 meters when the collapse happened. Their exact location has been pinpointed with specialized equipment.

Michael Miranda, brother of missing miner Jean Miranda, 31, told AFP the men’s families were desperate for news.

“They haven’t explained anything to us. No one has approached us to talk to us, to tell us if my brother is okay or not,” he said outside the offices of state mining giant Codelco in Rancagua.

Jean’s wife was pregnant, he added, “and no one from the company has approached her to talk. No psychological support, nothing.”

Mining minister Aurora Williams earlier announced the temporary cessation of activity at the mine, which began operating in the early 1900s and boasts more than 4,500 kilometers (some 2,800 miles) of underground tunnels.

Last year, El Teniente produced 356,000 metric tonnes (over 392,000 tons) of copper — nearly seven percent of the total for Chile.

– ‘Many irregularities’ –

The cave-in happened after a “seismic event” Thursday afternoon of which the origin — natural or caused by drilling — is not yet known, according to authorities.

The tremor registered a magnitude of 4.2.

“It is one of the biggest events, if not the biggest, that the El Teniente deposit has experienced in decades,” said Music.

Jose Maldonado, a union leader at El Teniente, said workers were demanding a “thorough investigation” and told AFP they had reported “many irregularities.”

The search team included several of the rescuers who participated in successfully surfacing 33 miners trapped in a mine for more than two months in the Atacama Desert in 2010, attracting a whirlwind of global media attention.

Chile is the world’s largest copper producer, responsible for nearly a quarter of global supply with about 5.3 million metric tonnes (5.8 million tons) in 2024.

Its mining industry is one of the safest on the planet, with a fatality rate of 0.02 percent last year, according to the National Geology and Mining Service of Chile.

The metal is critical for wiring, motors and renewable energy generation.

Brazilians burn Trump effigies as tariffs spark anger


By AFP
August 1, 2025


Dummies depicting US President Donald Trump (R) and Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro are burnt during a pro-national sovereignty protest following the US imposition of trade taxes and sanctions - Copyright AFP Nelson ALMEIDA

Brazilians set fire to effigies of Donald Trump in protests across several cities Friday, denouncing the US president’s politically motivated trade tariffs.

Anti-Trump protests were held in Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, a sign of souring ties between two of the Americas’ largest economies.

The demonstrations were modestly attended, but reflected broad anger at Trump’s decision to put a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian exports and to sanction a top judge.

The mercurial US president has openly admitted he is punishing Brazil for prosecuting his political ally, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro.

The far-right Brazilian firebrand is currently on trial for plotting a coup after failing to win reelection in 2022.

Bolsonaro supporters stormed Brazil’s congress in January 2023, ransacking the chambers and attacking police, in scenes reminiscent of Trump supporters’ attack on the US Capitol two years before.

A Brazilian general has given evidence that the alleged plotters also wanted to assassinate leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and several other public officials.

Trump has called the trial a “witch hunt” and his Treasury Department has sanctioned Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes in response.

Trump also signed an executive order slapping 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian imports, citing Bolsonaro’s “politically motivated persecution.”

The tariff is due to enter into force on August 6.

Moraes, in a rare public address, said Friday he pledged to “continue working” despite a US travel ban and assets freeze.

“This Court, the Office of the Attorney General, and the Federal Police will not bow to these threats,” he said during a court session.

And he vowed the court would remain “absolutely uncompromising in defending national sovereignty and its commitment to democracy.”

Moraes has repeatedly taken aim at the Brazilian far-right and its figurehead Bolsonaro, as well as tech titan Elon Musk, over online disinformation.

He is also the presiding judge in the coup trial of Bolsonaro, who risks a 40-year prison sentence.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has accused Moraes of “serious human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention involving flagrant denials of fair trial guarantees and infringing on the freedom of expression.”

Moraes recently ordered Bolsonaro to wear an electronic ankle bracelet pending the conclusion of his trial, and barred him from leaving his home at night or using social media pending an investigation into potential obstruction of justice.

‘We Will Not Accept Foreign Interference’: Brazilian Lawmakers Hit Back Over Trump Economic Warfare

Even right-wing Brazilian politicians are condemning Trump's actions as "an unacceptable attempt at foreign interference."


Protesters wearing masks depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro take part in downtown São Paulo, Brazil, on July 18, 2025.
(Photo by Nelson Almeida/AFP via Getty Images)

Brad Reed
Jul 31, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

U.S. President Donald Trump is facing international condemnation for his decision to level sanctions against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes in a bid to punish him for overseeing the criminal trial of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a longtime Trump ally.

The Guardian reported on Wednesday that Brazilian political leaders are not backing down in the face of Trump's economic warfare, which includes not only sanctions against Moraes but also 50% tariffs on several key Brazilian exports to the United States, including coffee and beef.

Chamber of Deputies member José Guimarães, a member of the left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores, described Trump's actions as "a direct attack on Brazilian democracy and sovereignty" and vowed that "we will not accept foreign interference in... our justice system."

Left-wing politicians weren't the only ones to criticize the sanctions and tariffs, as right-wing Partido Novo founder João Amoêdo condemned them as "an unacceptable attempt at foreign interference in the Brazilian justice system." Eduardo Leite, the conservative governor of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, said he refused to accept "another country trying to interfere in our institutions" as Trump has done.

In justifying the sanctions and tariffs, the Trump White House said they were a measure to combat what it described as "the government of Brazil's politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and thousands of his supporters."

Bolsonaro is currently on trial for undertaking an alleged coup plot to prevent the country's current president, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, from taking power after his victory in Brazil's 2022 presidential election.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of the former president, openly celebrated Trump's punitive measures against Brazil this week, which earned him a stiff rebuke from the editorial board of Folha de São Paulo, one of Brazil's largest daily newspapers. In their piece, the Folha editors labeled Eduardo Bolsonaro an "enemy of Brazil" and said he was behaving like "a buffoon at the feet of a foreign throne" with his open lobbying of the Trump administration to punish his own country.

Elsewhere in the world, the U.K.-based magazine The Economist leveled Trump for his Brazil sanctions, which it described as an "unprecedented" assault on the country's sovereignty. The magazine also outlined the considerable evidence that the former Brazilian president took part in a coup plot, including a plan written out by Bolsonaro deputy chief of staff Mario Fernandes to assassinate or kidnap Lula and Moraes before the end of Bolsonaro's lone presidential term.

U.S. government reform advocacy group Public Citizen was also quick to condemn Trump's actions, which it described as a "shameless power grab."

"Trump's order sets a horrifying precedent that literally any domestic judicial action or democratically enacted policy set by another country could somehow justify a U.S. national emergency and bestow the president with powers far beyond what the Constitution provides," said Melinda St. Louis, global trade watch director at Public Citizen.

St. Louis also predicted that the tariffs on Brazil would soon be tossed out by courts given their capricious justifications, although she said the reputation of the U.S. would suffer "lasting damage."

Thai-Cambodian cyberwarriors battle on despite truce


By AFP
August 1, 2025


Thailand and Cambodia's five-day border conflict killed more than 40 people and displaced over 300,000 - Copyright AFP Chanakarn Laosarakham
Nattakorn Ploddee with Suy Se in Phnom Penh

Thailand and Cambodia may have reached a ceasefire to halt their bloody border clashes, but cyber warriors are still battling online, daubing official websites with obscenities, deluging opponents with spam and taking pages down.

The five-day conflict left more than 40 people dead and drove more than 300,000 from their homes.

It also kicked off a disinformation blitz as Thai and Cambodian partisans alike sought to boost the narrative that the other was to blame.

Thai officials recorded more than 500 million instances of online attacks in recent days, government spokesperson Jirayu Huangsab said on Wednesday.

These included spamming reports to online platforms and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks — halting access to a website by overloading its servers with traffic.

“It’s a psychological war,” Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona told AFP.

“There’s a lot of fake news and it wouldn’t be strange if it came from social media users, but even official Thai media outlets themselves publish a lot of fake news.”



– Disinformation –



Freshly created “avatar” accounts have targeted popular users or media accounts in Thailand.

On July 24, a Facebook post by suspended Thai prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra condemning Cambodia’s use of force was bombarded with 16,000 comments, many of them repeating the same message in English: “Queen of drama in Thailand”.

Another, similar post by Paetongtarn on July 26 was hit with 31,800 comments, many reading: “Best drama queen of 2025”, with snake and crocodile emojis.

Government spokesman Jirayu said the attacks were aimed at “sowing division among Thais” as well as outright deception.

Similarly, Cambodian government Spokesman Pen Bona said fake news from Thailand aimed to divide Cambodia.

Apparent bot accounts have also published and shared disinformation, adding to the confusion.

Videos and images from a deadly Cambodian rocket attack on a petrol station in Thailand were shared with captions saying they showed an attack on Cambodian soil.

Other posts, including one shared by the verified page of Cambodian Secretary of State Vengsrun Kuoch, claimed Thai forces had used chemical weapons.

The photo in the post in fact shows an aircraft dropping fire retardants during the Los Angeles wildfires in January 2025.

AFP contacted Vengsrun Kuoch for comment but did not receive a reply.



– Obscenities –



Hackers from both sides have broken into state-run websites to deface pages with mocking or offensive messages.

One of the targets was NBT World, an English-language news site run by the Thai government’s public relations department.

Headlines and captions on articles about acting prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai were replaced with obscenities.

Thai hackers meanwhile, changed the login page of Sachak Asia Development Institute, a Cambodian education facility, to show an image of influential ex-leader Hun Sen edited to have a ludicrously exaggerated hairstyle.

The image was a reference to a video — much mocked in Thailand — of Cambodian youths sporting the same hairstyle visiting one of the ancient temples that were the focus of the fighting.

Online attacks — whether disinformation messaging or full-blown cyber strikes to disrupt an adversary’s infrastructure or services — are a standard feature of modern warfare.

In the Ukraine conflict, Kyiv and its allies have long accused Russia of state-backed cyberwarfare, disrupting government and private IT systems around the world.

And earlier this week, Ukrainian and Belarusian hacker groups claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Russia’s national airline that grounded dozens of flights.

Jessada Salathong, a mass communications professor at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, said the border clashes had invoked the full spectrum of information disorder, carried out by both sides.

“In an era when anyone can call themselves media, information warfare simply pulls in everyone,” he told AFP.

Sensible and steely: how Mexico’s Sheinbaum has dealt with Trump


ByAFP
August 2, 2025


Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum says the country will not take any action before seeing details of US President Donald Trump's promised trade tariffs - Copyright AFP Sergio Morales

A combination of tact and tenacity is credited for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s successful dealings with US counterpart Donald Trump, most recently convincing him to delay a sky-high import tariff meant to come into effect Friday.

The pair are known to get along despite sitting on opposite sides of the political aisle, earning Mexico’s first woman president the epithet of “Trump whisperer.”

At least three times now, the US president has granted Mexico tariff relief and Trump has described Sheinbaum as a “wonderful woman” to the envy of a host of other world leaders who have found exchanges with Trump can be tetchy.

On Thursday, Trump agreed to delay by 90 days a 30 percent general tariff on imported Mexican goods, just hours before it was to take effect.

It was the outcome of the ninth phone conversation between the two leaders since Trump returned to power in January with a strong rhetoric against undocumented migrants and fentanyl flowing from America’s southern neighbor.

How did she do it? “With a cool head,” the president herself told reporters Friday.

The 63-year-old physicist and dedicated leftist added that she avoids “confronting” the magnate, all the while insisting on Mexico’s sovereign rights in dealing with a man known to respect strong leaders.

Sheinbaum has said that Mexicans should “never bow our heads” and Trump has acknowledged her mettle, remarking: “You’re tough” in one phone call, according to The New York Times.

“Mexico represents a lot to the United States… they are aware of that,” Sheinbaum explained.

– ‘Ability to convince’ –

Thanks to the USMCA free trade agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada, nearly 85 percent of Mexican exports have been tariff-free.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has been dubbed the ‘Trump whisperer’ – Copyright AFP Christopher Furlong, Alfredo ESTRELLA

And while a 30 percent general tariff has been delayed, for now, Mexico’s vital automotive sector is the target of a 25 percent levy, albeit with discounts for parts manufactured in the United States.

Its steel and aluminum sectors, like those of other countries, are subject to a 50 percent tariff.

Mexico’s government nevertheless claims the latest delay as a victory.

“Without being sycophantic, I can tell you that the way our president handles her conversations, her approach, the firmness with which she defends Mexico’s interests, her ability to convince President Trump, is very significant,” Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard, who leads trade negotiations, told reporters Thursday.

– Give and take –

Sheinbaum seems also to have adopted a give and take approach, deploying thousands of border troops to assuage Trump’s concerns about migration and drug flows.

The president insists she has “not yielded anything” in negotiations with Trump, and talks are ongoing between the neighbors for a security agreement to tackle the problem of fentanyl and drug trafficking.

Sheinbaum has also raised the possibility of importing more US products to reset the trade balance.

Some fear the Mexican leader is merely buying time.

The latest tariff delay “does not solve the issue of uncertainty; we return to the starting point,” Diego Marroquin, a trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told AFP.

Swiss to try to negotiate way out of stiff US tariffs

39% TARIFF


By AFP
August 1, 2025


Pharmaceuticals accounted for more than half of Swiss goods imported into the United States last year and now face a stiff 39 percent tariff rate - Copyright AFP Jim WATSON

The Swiss government said Friday it would negotiate with the United States to try to avoid the 39 percent punitive US tariff rate that would ravage its key pharmaceutical industry.

As part of a slew of new tariffs unveiled late Thursday on nearly 70 countries, Washington said it planned to charge a 39 percent tariff rate on Swiss goods, higher than the 31 percent rate that it had been threatening to implement.

The new rate is set to go into effect on August 7, and would also prove painful for Switzerland’s manufacturing and watchmaking industries.

The Swiss government said it remains in contact with US authorities and “still hopes to find a negotiated solution…”, in a statement on X.

“The Federal Council notes with great regret the intention of the US to unilaterally burden Swiss imports with considerable import duties despite the progress made in bilateral talks and Switzerland’s very constructive position,” it added.

Senior Swiss officials had held numerous discussions with their US counterparts in an attempt to reach a deal with the administration of US President Donald Trump, like Britain and the European Union have.

President Karin Keller-Sutter, who is also finance minister, spoke with Trump on Thursday.

“The trade deficit remains the centre” of Trump’s preoccupation and they could not reach an agreement on a framework trade deal, she said on X.

The United States is a key trading partner for Switzerland, taking 18.6 percent of its total exports last year, according to Swiss customs data.

Pharmaceuticals dominated at 60 percent of Swiss goods exports to the United States, followed by machinery and metalworking at 20 percent and watches at eight percent.

The trade balance was heavily in Switzerland’s favour at 40 billion Swiss francs ($49 billion) last year.

Trump has paid particular attention to trade deficits, considering them a sign that the United States is being taken advantage of by its trading partners.

Switzerland is however the sixth country in terms of foreign direct investment into the United States, particularly in research and development.

Swiss pharmaceutical giants Roche and Novartis have both announced plans to invest tens of billions of dollars in the United States in the coming five years as they try head off threats by Trump to impose separate tariffs of up to 200 percent on medicines if foreign drugmakers don’t move more production into the United States.

The trade association representing the small and medium-sized firms in Switzerland’s machine and metal-working industry urged the government to take advantage of the negotiating window before the entry into force of the new tariffs which it warned would have serious long-term consequences.

Brewed awakening: German beer sales lowest on record

By AFP
August 1, 2025


Revellers at Oktoberfest, the world's biggest beer festival, in Munich - Copyright AFP/File KARIM JAAFAR

It is news that will leave brewers feeling flat — German beer sales hit their lowest level in the first half of the year since records began over three decades ago.

From January to June, sales of alcoholic beer fell 6.3 percent compared to the same time last year to 3.9 billion litres, federal statistics agency Destatis said Friday.

That was the lowest since figures on beer sales were first collected in 1993, it said, with demand declining both at home and abroad.

Domestic sales slumped 6.1 percent year-on-year to 3.2 billion litres, similar to the size of the drop seen at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Exports meanwhile tumbled 7.1 percent. Like many other industries, German beer exporters have in recent months faced tariffs in the major US market imposed by President Donald Trump.

Beer consumption has fallen over recent decades in Germany as a result of an ageing population as well as changing tastes — non-alcoholic beers have been growing in popularity, although they are not counted in the figures.

Holger Eichele, head of the German Brewers’ Federation, said 2025 was set to be “an extremely demanding year for us”.

“Geopolitical risks have greatly intensified and uncertainty is increasing for exporters,” he said.

He also pointed to “consumers not wanting to spend.”

This is particularly true in Germany, where the economy is struggling to pull itself out of a long downturn.

SPACE/COSMOS

International crew bound for space station


By AFP
August 1, 2025


Crew-11 mission astronauts pause outside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building en route to launch complex LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 1, 2025 - Copyright AFP Gregg Newton

NASA and SpaceX launched a four-member crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday for the latest research expedition to the orbiting laboratory.

American astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan’s Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov lifted off at 11:43 am aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The capsule, named Endeavour, has previously flown four NASA missions as well as a private mission.

The Crew-11 mission marks the 11th crew rotation mission to the ISS under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which was created to succeed the Space Shuttle era by partnering with private industry.

As part of their six-month stay, the Crew-11 astronauts will simulate Moon landing scenarios that could be encountered near the lunar South Pole under the United States-led Artemis program.

Using handheld controllers and multiple display screens, they will test how shifts in gravity affect astronauts’ ability to pilot spacecraft, including future lunar landers.

Continuously inhabited since 2000, the ISS functions as a vital testbed for research that supports deeper space exploration — including eventual missions to Mars.

Among Crew-11’s more colorful cargo items are Armenian pomegranate seeds, which will be compared to a control batch kept on Earth to study how microgravity influences crop growth.

The ISS is set to be de-commissioned after 2030, with its orbit gradually lowered until it breaks up in the atmosphere over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean called Point Nemo, a spacecraft graveyard.

Dmitry Bakanov, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has been holding talks with NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy this week about the station’s future.

When US-Russia relations nosedived at the start of the Ukraine war, Russia threatened to pull out of ISS cooperation early. But on Thursday, Bakanov confirmed Russia remained committed to de-orbiting in 2030.

'Setback': Trump gets green light to gut federal unions’ bargaining power

Daniel Hampton
August 1, 2025 

RAW STORY

President Donald Trump got a federal appeals court's blessing Friday night to move forward with ending collective bargaining with many federal unions.

The three-judge San Francisco panel lifted a lower court's order that blocked the Trump administration from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal workers of their ability to engage in union bargaining with agencies, Reuters reported. The panel paused an injunction handed down that had been obtained by six unions.

The liberal appeals court panel, made up of two Trump appointees and an Obama appointee, said Trump's order did not "express any retaliatory animus." The judges also sided with Trump's administration that the president "would have taken the same action even in the absence of the protected conduct."

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees union, called the Friday ruling "a setback for First Amendment rights in America." He said the union is "confident in our ability to ultimately prevail."

Agencies could change working conditions and more easily hire and fire workers if the Trump administration eliminated collective bargaining. Unions could also be barred from taking the Trump administration to court over such initiatives.

HE SAID SOME BAD THINGS!!

‘First Amendment has limits’: Tom Homan insists that Mahmoud Khalil will be deported

White House officials insist Columbia University grad will be removed despite courts ruling against them

Alex Woodward
in New York
Friday 01 August 2025 

The Independent

Donald Trump’s border czar is adamant that Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil will still be deported from the country despite several court rulings that have kept the Palestinian activist out of detention.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a request from the Trump administration to re-arrest Khalil and keep him in immigration detention center while he continues to challenge the government’s attempts to remove him from the United States. Homan says the administration will continue to appeal.

“We got radical judges just trying to stop the Trump administration from doing our job and enforcing the law,” he told Newsmax on Thursday.


He claimed there is “only one ending” to Khalil’s case: “We detain him and deport him, but regardless, he will be deported.”

That same day, the immigration court judge overseeing his case voided her earlier ruling that allowed the government to deport him.


open image in galleryTrump’s border czar Tom Homan claims Mahmoud Khalil ‘did a lot of bad things’ despite federal court rulings finding the administration retaliated against him for his activism against Israel’s war in Gaza (Getty Images)
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Khalil, a prominent student activist against Israel’s war in Gaza, was stripped of his green card and arrested in front of his then-pregnant wife in their New York City apartment building on March 8. He was then sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana, where he was held for more than 100 days and forced to miss the birth of his child.

Trump administration officials have accused Khalil of “antisemitic activities,” allegations Khalil and his legal team have flatly denied. Officials concede that Khalil did not commit any crime, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sought to justify Khalil’s arrest by claiming that Khalil’s presence in the country undermines foreign policy interests to prevent antisemitism.

Khalil and his legal team argue his arrest and detention — and attempted removal from the country, which is currently blocked by court order — are retaliatory violations of his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and his Fifth Amendment right to due process of law, among other claims.

“Look, First Amendment rights have a limitation, too,” Homan told Newsmax. “He did a lot of bad things. We’re going to hold him accountable. He will be deported.”


Khalil was freed from immigration detention in June after more than 100 days in a Louisiana ICE facility. He will remain out on bail while his legal challenges continue (REUTERS)

On June 11, a federal judge granted Khalil’s release from ICE detention on bail while legal challenges against his arrest and threat of removal from the country continue in both federal and immigration courts.

New Jersey District Judge Michael Farbiarz ruled that the administration had unconstitutionally wielded the law against Khalil, whose “career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled,” the judge wrote.

The government has “little or no interest in applying the relevant underlying statutes in what is likely an unconstitutional way,” Farbiarz added.

“Mahmoud spent 104 days in detention as punishment for speaking out for Palestinian rights,” ACLU senior staff attorney Noor Zafar said in a statement after this week’s appeals court ruling.

“That is time with his family that he will never get back, but this decision affirms that he will remain free and that the government cannot pursue his removal based on the likely unconstitutional foreign policy charge as his case moves through appeal,” she added. “We will not stand by and allow the government to weaponize immigration law to suppress lawful political speech.”

Khalil’s attorneys have also argued that the administration’s secondary basis for his arrest and removal — allegations that he lied in immigration paperwork — are similarly retaliatory and violate his First Amendment and Fifth Amendment due process rights.

The White House continues to insist that Khalil can still be deported on those grounds.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Independent on Friday that “Khalil was given the privilege of coming to America to study on a student visa he obtained by fraud and misrepresentation.”

“Despite the lower court judge’s wishes to the contrary, the executive branch has the lawful authority to take actions that will protect America’s foreign policy interests and promote the overall welfare of the public,” she added. “The Trump Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”