action

July 11 (UPI) — The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Minnesota’s hiring practices, the third legal or administrative action the Trump administration has taken against the Democratic-led state in just over two weeks.

The Justice Department informed Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison of the investigation into the state’s hiring practices in a letter dated Thursday.

“Our investigation is based on information that Minnesota may be engaged in certain employment practices that discriminate against employees, job applicants and training program participants based on race and sex in violation of Title VII,” Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.

“Specifically, we have reason to believe the Minnesota Department of Human Services is engaging in unlawful action through, among other things, the adoption and forthcoming implementation of its ‘hiring justification’ policy.”

Early this month, the Minnesota Department of Human Services announced a new hiring policy set to take effect Aug. 12. It directs hiring supervisors to “provide a hiring justification when seeking to hire a non-underrepresented candidate when hiring for a vacancy in a job category with underrepresentation.”

The purpose of the directive is to ensure the department meets its affirmative action responsibilities, comply with state laws and increase the diversity of its workforce.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has sought to roll back so-called progressive practices, including diversity, equity and inclusion policies. In an executive order issued on his second day in office titled Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, he specifically ordered the federal government to cease demanding that contractors adopt affirmative action policies, describing it as illegal discrimination.

The Justice Department on Thursday described the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ new policy as part of a broader effort by the state to engage in race- and sex-based employment practices.

“Minnesotans deserve to have their state government employees hired based on merit, not based on illegal DEI,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been a critic of Trump and ran against his ticket as the vice presidential candidate with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Since then, the two have clashed.

After a man assassinated a state lawmaker and wounded another in Minnesota in mid-June, Trump declined to call Walz.

“I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out — I’m not calling him. Why would I call? I could call him and say, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So, I could be nice and call him, but why waste my time?” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Late last month, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit challenging Minnesota laws that provide some undocumented immigrants with higher-education tuition benefits not offered to all U.S. citizens.

The next day, Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services opened a civil rights investigation into the Minnesota Department of Education over a transgender teenager competing on a girls’ softball team.

Lawyers for victims of human rights abuses committed during Peru’s decades-long armed conflict have pledged to appeal to international bodies to overturn a law passed by the country’s Congress, which would grant amnesty to prosecuted military and police members, as well as other forces.

“We’re not only going to the domestic arena to seek its invalidation, but we’ve already taken some action at the international level,” lawyer Gloria Cano, director of the Pro Human Rights Association, said during a news conference on Thursday.

A congressional commission on Wednesday approved the bill granting amnesty to members of the armed forces, national police and local self-defence committees, said legislator Alejandro Cavero, third vice president of the country’s Congress.

Cano also said her association had already alerted the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and planned to go to the United Nations, as well.

After the Peruvian Congress passed the bill, Volker Turk, the UN’s national human rights coordinator, said on X that “impunity does not hide the crime, it magnifies it.”

Amnesty International earlier urged the legislature to side with victims and reject the bill. “The right to justice of thousands of victims of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, torture, and sexual violence would be violated,” the rights group said on X.

A coalition of human rights organisations in Peru said the new law could wipe out 156 convictions and another 600 cases that are being prosecuted.

The law, which awaits President Dina Boluarte’s approval, benefits uniformed personnel who were accused, are still being investigated or are being tried for crimes stemming from their participation in the country’s armed conflict from 1980 to 2000 against left-wing rebels. Boluarte has not made any comment on the amnesty, even before its passage.

The bill was presented by Congressman Fernando Rospigliosi, from the right-wing Popular Force party of Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the late former leader Alberto Fujimori.

Fujimori’s decade as president from 1990 was marked by ruthless governance.

He was jailed for atrocities – including the massacre of civilians by the army – but released from prison in 2023 on humanitarian grounds.

The new law specifies that a humanitarian amnesty will be granted to people more than 70 years old who have been sentenced or served a prison sentence.

Critics have warned that the legislation would hinder the search for truth about the period of violent conflict, which pitted state forces against Shining Path and Tupac Amaru rebels, and killed about 70,000 people.

“Granting amnesty to military and police officers cannot be a reason for impunity,” Congressman Alex Flores of the Socialist Party said during debate on the bill.

There have been numerous attempts in recent years to shield the military and police from prosecution in Peru for crimes committed during the conflict – but opponents of amnesty have found success before at international bodies.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has at least twice previously declared amnesty laws in Peru invalid for violating the right to justice and breaching international human rights standards.

Human rights advocates believe that Peru’s membership of the Inter-American System of Human Rights and the obligations this entails make the amnesty law unconstitutional.

Amnesty laws passed in 1995 in Peru shielded military and police personnel from prosecution for human rights abuses committed during the conflict, including massacres, torture, and forced disappearances.

Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the majority of the conflict’s victims were Indigenous Peruvians caught between security forces and the Shining Path. It also found that there are more than 4,000 clandestine graves across the country as a result of the two decades of political violence.

In August 2024, Peru adopted a statute of limitations for crimes against humanity committed before 2002, shutting down hundreds of investigations into alleged crimes committed during the conflict.

The initiative benefitted the late Fujimori and 600 prosecuted military personnel.

The United Kingdom has outlawed Palestine Action – an organisation that disrupts the arms industry in the UK with direct action in the form of strikes and protests – grouping it with ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. Supporters of the group now risk up to 14 years in prison, and arrests of protesters opposed to the listing have already begun.

What does the decision reveal about the UK’s approach to protest and civil disobedience, and how might it reshape the wider Palestine solidarity movement?

WASHINGTON — Arrests continue to mount in the aggressive federal operation that began more than a month ago to track down and detain undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles, according to Homeland Security figures released Tuesday.

“DHS and its components’ immigration enforcement operations are ongoing in Los Angeles,” a Homeland Security official said in a statement provided to The Times. “Since operations began in June, ICE and CBP have arrested 2,792 illegal aliens in the L.A. area.”

Federal authorities said earlier that 1,618 undocumented immigrants had been detained between June 6 — the start of the DHS operation in Los Angeles — and June 22. The new total includes nearly 1,200 arrests in just over two weeks since then. President Trump deployed the National Guard and U.S. Marines in the city days after the operation began amid heated protests.

The latest figures were released a day after dozens of immigration agents and National Guard members swept through MacArthur Park, just west of downtown, forcing children from a summer camp to be rushed inside.

Gov. Gavin Newsom called it a “disgrace” and the action drew widespread condemnation from local officials. They have repeatedly criticized the federal operations for terrorizing immigrant communities, where business has slowed and many have holed up in their homes.

“The actions from the federal government over the last month do not represent the values of our city or of our country,” said City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the area. “Sending United States soldiers to intimidate children at camp and señoras at the bus stop is not making anyone safer. Raiding Home Depots is not stopping crime. Tearing families away from their children isn’t upholding family values. And let me be clear, this cruelty and the chaos that we see is the point.”

The president’s immigration crackdown in Los Angeles has been a test case for the Trump administration as it presses the bounds of executive authority, deploying federal agents and the military to a major metropolitan city with leadership hostile to its cause of deporting mass numbers of immigrants.

The detentions have proven a challenge to local and state officials, who have been dealt setbacks in federal court over the ability of the White House to conduct enforcement operations at the local level.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has also ruled that Trump can maintain control of the California National Guard, for now, after he took the extraordinary step of federalizing the guard and deploying them to Los Angeles.

Wilner reported from Washington, Uranga from Los Angeles.

Top British diplomat David Lammy says the US-backed aid distribution mechanism in Gaza is ‘not doing a good job’.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has decried the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying that the United Kingdom could take further action against Israel if a ceasefire deal to end the war in the Palestinian territory does not materialise.

Speaking to the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Lammy also criticised the new aid distribution mechanism in Gaza via a group backed by the United States and Israel, dubbed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

“We’ve been very clear that we don’t support the aid foundation that has been set up,” Lammy said. “We it’s not doing a good job. Too many people are close to starvation. Too many people have lost their lives. We have led globally on our condemnation the system that has been set up.”

Hundreds of Palestinians have been gunned down by Israeli fire while seeking GHF assistance over the past weeks.

Asked by a legislator whether the British government will take measures against Israel if the “intolerable” situation in Gaza continues, Lammy said: “Yes, we will.”

Last month, the UK joined Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway in sanctioning Israeli government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for inciting violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.

Weeks earlier, the UK had also suspended talks for a free trade agreement with Israel over the blockade on Gaza, which has sparked a starvation crisis in the territory. And last year, London halted some arms exports to Israel.

While welcoming the moves, some Palestinian rights supporters have criticised them as symbolic and failing to impose serious consequences on Israel for its apparent abuses of international humanitarian law.

On Tuesday, Lammy condemned settler violence and the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying that they are “flouting international law”.

Pressed on whether the UK’s pressure on Israel has led the Israeli government to alter its behaviour, Lammy acknowledged that the change is “not sufficient”. Still, he defended London’s record, including recent moves against Israel and support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

“I am very, very comfortable that you would be hard pressed to find another G7 partner or another ally across Europe that’s doing more than this government has done,” he said.

Ultimately, Lammy played down the UK’s sway in the Middle East, saying that it is “but one actor”.

The UK is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It is also a major trade partner of Israel. And according to numerous media reports, the British Royal Air Force has conducted hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza to help locate Israeli captives in the territory.

The UK has also cracked down on Palestinian rights activists at home, recently banning the advocacy group Palestine Action and arresting dozens of its supporters.

The Labour government in the UK has not recognised Palestine as a state – a move that several European countries have made over the past year.

Lammy said London wants its recognition of Palestine to be part of a concrete push towards the two-state solution, not just a symbolic gesture.

He added that the UK wants to recognise Palestine at a moment that helps shift “the dial against expansion, against violence, against the horrors that we’re seeing in Gaza, and towards the just cause that is the desire for Palestinian statehood”.

But Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Emily Thornberry warned Lammy that with settlement expansion and annexation threats, if the UK continues to delay the decision to recognise Palestine, “there won’t be anything left to recognise”.

“We should recognise a Palestinian state and then work towards ensuring that one happens practically,” Thornberry said. “But if we continue to hold back, it’ll slide through our fingers.”

California and a coalition of 17 other states threw their support Monday behind a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of recent federal immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles, asking a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order against such operations while their legality is challenged.

The states’ action adds substantial heft to a lawsuit filed last week by advocacy groups and detained individuals, who accused the federal government of violating the rights of Los Angeles residents by sending masked immigration agents to detain people in certain L.A. neighborhoods based on little more than the color of their skin.

It came the same day that heavily armed agents in tactical gear swept through MacArthur Park in Los Angeles in a stunning show of force that further rattled local residents and drew outrage from local officials.

In their amicus filing, the states wrote that masked and unidentified ICE and CBP agents were stopping people in L.A. communities without any legitimate cause, and that such stops have “shattered [the] rhythms of everyday life” and diminished public safety in those neighborhoods.

“Masked immigration agents conducting unannounced enforcement actions through the community and, in all too many instances, stopping residents without so much as a reasonable suspicion of unlawful conduct have left people afraid to leave their homes …,” the states argued. “The cumulative effect of defendants’ unlawful actions — including unconstitutional stops — has had devastating impacts on California’s peace and prosperity, and has turned once bustling neighborhoods into ghost towns.”

The states said the immigration enforcement tactics have had a “chilling effect” that has reached far beyond undocumented people, leading to the detention of U.S. citizens and others legally in the country.

The states wrote that the “secretive approach” to such raids — with agents heavily masked and in plainclothes — “has not only created a culture of fear, but has also needlessly impeded local law enforcement.”

Federal officials have vigorously defended their actions as part of President Trump’s promised agenda to conduct mass deportations. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement last week that “any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE.”

Trump administration officials also have defended federal agents wearing masks, saying it was to protect themselves and their families from threats to their safety. They declined to comment on the operation in MacArthur Park.

The Trump administration has specifically targeted L.A. for its “sanctuary” policies, and administration officials have suggested that heavy immigration enforcement activity will continue in the city for the foreseeable future.

In announcing the states’ filing Monday, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said the recent actions of ICE and CBP agents in Los Angeles were “part of a cruel and familiar pattern of attacks on our immigrant communities by an administration that thrives on fear and division,” and that his office would be fighting back.

“Let me be crystal clear: These raids are not about safety or justice. They are about meeting enforcement quotas and striking fear in our communities,” he said. “We won’t be silent. We won’t back down. We will continue to hold the federal government accountable when it violates the Constitution and federal law.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that every person in California is protected by the Constitution against “unreasonable searches and seizures,” and that the recent actions of federal agents in L.A. have threatened “the fabric of our democracy, society, and economy.”

“Instead of targeting dangerous criminals, federal agents are detaining U.S. citizens, ripping families apart, and vanishing people to meet indiscriminate arrest quotas without regard to due process and constitutional rights that protect all of us from cruelty and injustice,” Newsom said.

Joining Bonta in the states’ filing were the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

More than 25 protesters have been detained by police a day after the activist group was banned in the UK.

Police have arrested protesters in London for supporting activist group Palestine Action, which was banned at midnight in the United Kingdom.

“Officers have arrested more than 20 people on suspicion of offences under the Terrorism Act 2000. They have been taken into custody. Palestine Action is a proscribed group and officers will act where criminal offences are committed,” the Metropolitan Police wrote on X on Saturday.

Campaign group Defend Our Juries said in a press release that 27 people, including a priest and a number of health professionals, had been arrested for offences under the Terrorism Act.

They were holding cardboard signs, saying: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

Passersby reacted to the arrests as the police intervened in the demonstration at noon.

“Met Police, you are puppets of the Zionist state” and “leave them alone”, they were quoted as shouting by the Press Association, the British news agency.

Other supporters, not directly involved in the Palestine Action protest, shouted: “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?” and “British police off our streets.”

There were further chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” during the incident.

The ban

Police warned on Friday that expressing support for Palestine Action would be a criminal offence after the ban kicked in at midnight.

“This includes chanting, wearing clothing or displaying articles such as flags, signs or logos,” said the force.

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said: “We commend the Counter Terrorism police for their decisive action in protecting the people of London from some cardboard signs opposing the genocide in Gaza and expressing support for those taking action to prevent it.”

The proscription cleared parliament on Thursday, with a court challenge to try to stop it becoming law failing on Friday.

The government announced last week it would ban Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000, days after activists from the group broke into an air force base in southern England.

Two aircraft at the base were sprayed with red paint, causing an estimated 7 million pounds ($9.55m) in damage.

Four Palestine Action activists were remanded in custody on Thursday after appearing in court over the incident.

Palestine Action has condemned the proscription as an attack on free speech.

The ban will make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

The UK’s High Court upheld the government’s move to ban activist group Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist organisation’ after it said it damaged two military planes. Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego explains what this means, as hundreds of people gathered in London to protest the ruling.

EXPLAINER

MPs in the UK have voted to proscribe the group as a terrorist organisation, but what has it actually done?

Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom voted overwhelmingly this week to proscribe the campaign group, Palestine Action, as a terrorist organisation under anti-terrorism laws, putting the group on a par with armed groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).

A draft order to amend the Terrorism Act 2000 to do this, brought by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, passed through the House of Commons on Wednesday by 385 votes to 26.

Cooper tabled the order in parliament just days after Palestine Action activists broke into RAF Brize Norton, the largest station of the Royal Air Force in Oxfordshire, and sprayed two military planes with red paint, resulting in millions of pounds of criminal damage, according to police.

On Friday, the High Court in London is hearing a challenge to the order. Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori has asked for a temporary block on the legislation.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the Airbus Voyager incident in an X post, saying: “The act of vandalism committed at RAF Brize Norton is disgraceful.”

Palestine Action describes itself as “a pro-Palestinian organisation which disrupts the arms industry in the United Kingdom with direct action”. It says it is “committed to ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime”.

The government claims it is a “terrorist” outfit.

But what has the group actually done?

What happened at Brize Norton?

In the highest-profile move made by the group so far, activists sprayed red paint into the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyager aircraft, used for air-to-air refuelling.

According to Manaal Siddiqui, a spokesperson for Palestine Action, “These [Royal Air Force] aircraft can be used to refuel and have been used to refuel Israeli fighter jets.” He added that planes from Brize Norton fly to the British air force base in Cyprus, from where they are “dispatched on spy missions and that intelligence is shared with the Israeli government and the Israeli air forces”.

What else has the group done?

Since its founding in July 2020, Palestine Action (PA) has carried out hundreds of protests across the UK aimed at disrupting the operations of companies they accuse of profiting from Israeli military operations, with a particular focus on the Israeli arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems.

Palestine Action members’ tactics typically involve breaking into facilities, chaining themselves to machinery, daubing buildings with red paint and destroying equipment.

They include the following incidents:

• The group launched a series of break-ins at Elbit’s Ferranti site in Oldham, near Manchester in northern England. Between 2020 and early 2022, the site was repeatedly occupied and vandalised, culminating in Elbit closing the facility in January 2022 – an outcome Palestine Action declared as a major victory.
• In 2021, the group occupied the Leicester drone factory operated by UAV Tactical Systems, a subsidiary of Elbit. Activists chained themselves to the roof for nearly a week. Ten people were arrested, but later acquitted.
• Throughout 2022, PA’s actions became more frequent. In April, they blockaded another Elbit site in Braunstone, Leicestershire. In June, they broke into the Thales UK factory in Glasgow and caused more than 1 million pounds ($1.37m) of damage with smoke bombs and property destruction. Five activists were jailed.
• Following the launch of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, Palestine Action intensified its efforts. They targeted the BBC’s headquarters in London with red paint to protest against the broadcaster’s perceived pro-Israel bias, and blockaded facilities of arms manufacturers including Lockheed Martin, the US aerospace and defence group which has a base in London, and Leonardo, the defence and security group.
• Palestine Action has also expanded internationally. In November 2023, its newly launched US branch occupied the roof of an Elbit facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire, with three activists arrested and later released with misdemeanour charges.
• In August 2024, activists drove a van into Elbit’s headquarters in Bristol, stormed the building and caused extensive damage. At about the same time, they spray-painted the Ministry of Defence, in central London, red and defaced a statue of Arthur Balfour with tomato ketchup inside the House of Commons. Balfour was a former Conservative prime minister who, as serving foreign secretary in 1917, authored the Balfour Declaration which supported the establishment of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine.
• In June 2025, the group carried out one of its most provocative actions to date: infiltrating RAF Brize Norton, the UK’s largest airbase. Activists used electric scooters to breach security and vandalised military aircraft with red paint.

What does Palestine Action say about being banned?

In a statement posted on its X profile, Palestine Action said: “The real crime here is not red paint being sprayed on these warplanes, but the war crimes that have been enabled with those planes because of the UK government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide.”

The group added that the government’s move could risk criminalising legitimate protest.

The statement also accused Starmer of “hypocrisy” since the prime minister, back in 2003, supported protesters who broke into an RAF base to stop US bombers heading to Iraq. At the time, Starmer was a lawyer.

“I think it’s a very knee-jerk reaction from an embarrassed government, and it’s an overblown reaction,” Siddiqui said.

Siddiqui said it was unprecedented for Palestine Action to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation. “The majority of the proscribed groups are international. The majority of them take actions in very, very different ways. Palestine Action would be a complete outlier. It’s a draconian approach for the government to stifle protests that they just don’t like. It’s genuinely terrifying for anyone who cares about civil liberties in the UK.”

In all, 81 groups are proscribed in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000. They include political movements with armed wings such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as armed groups like ISIS (ISIL), al-Qaeda and Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan.

Lawmakers in the United Kingdom have voted to proscribe campaign group Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organisation, raising fears about freedom of expression in the country.

Parliament voted 385-26 in favour of the measure against the group on Wednesday, the move coming after its activists broke into a military base last month and sprayed red paint on two planes in protest at the UK’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Critics decried the chilling effect of the ban, which puts Palestine Action on a par with armed groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) in the UK, making it a criminal offence to support or be part of the protest group.

“Let us be clear: to equate a spray can of paint with a suicide bomb isn’t just absurd, it is grotesque. It is a deliberate distortion of the law to chill dissent, criminalise solidarity, and suppress the truth,” said lawmaker Zarah Sultana, a member of the ruling Labour party.

Zarah Sultana not only stands against the proscription of our group, she declares we are all Palestine Action❤️ pic.twitter.com/IyKzkFHfpC

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) July 2, 2025

Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, slammed the move as “unprecedented legal overreach”, pointing out that it gave the authorities “massive powers to arrest and detain people, suppress speech and reporting, conduct surveillance and take other measures”.

“Using them against a direct-action protest group is an egregious abuse of what they were created for,” he said.

Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic said that protesters gathering outside Westminster had showed “defiance”.

“[They are] saying that they would still find a way to show support and hopefully not get arrested. But even if they do get arrested, many of them have told us that it is not the worst thing in the world,” she said.

The proscription order will reach parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, on Thursday. If approved there, the ban on Palestine Action would become effective in the following days.

The group, which has called its proscription unjustified and an “abuse of power,” has challenged the decision in court and an urgent hearing is expected on Friday.

Lawmakers ‘boxed in’ by vote

Launched in July 2020, Palestine Action says it uses “disruptive tactics” to target “corporate enablers” and companies involved in weapons manufacture for Israel, such as Israel-based Elbit Systems and French multinational Thales.

The British government has accused the group of causing millions of pounds of damage through its actions.

On Tuesday, the group said its activists had blocked the entrance to an Elbit site in Bristol, southwestern England. Other members reportedly occupied the rooftop of a subcontracting firm in Suffolk, eastern England, that the group had linked to Elbit.

United Nations experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council had previously urged the UK government to reconsider its threat to proscribe the group, arguing that acts of property damage without the intention to endanger life should not be considered “terrorism”.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, the UK’s interior minister, says that violence and criminal damage have no place in legitimate protest, and that a zero-tolerance approach was necessary for national security.

In addition to Palestine Action, the proscription order approved by parliament includes neo-Nazi group Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russian Imperial Movement, a white supremacist group which seeks to create a new Russian imperial state.

Al Jazeera’s Veselinovic said lawmakers had felt “boxed in” by the vote, feeling that they had no choice but to proscribe all three organisations.

“If they had voted ‘no’, that would have meant that those two other organisations that they wanted to ban could not have been banned,” she said.

In the coming days, the United Kingdom government is moving full steam ahead to proscribe Palestine Action – a movement of young people with a conscience – as a terrorist group. Some of its members are already behind bars; others face trials or await sentencing. Yet, despite the “terrorist” label and the threat of imprisonment, tens of thousands across the country have taken to the streets chanting, “We are all Palestine Action”.

If the government’s goal was to intimidate people into silence – to ensure British complicity in genocide continues unchecked – it has badly miscalculated. A recent poll found that 55 percent of Britons are against Israel’s war on Gaza. A significant number of those opponents – 82 percent – said Israel’s actions amount to genocide. Something fundamental is shifting. There is a gaping disconnect between the media’s narrative and the views of common people, who reject ministerial spin and the framing of resistance to tyranny and fascism as terrorism.

Like the defiant youth of Palestine Action, I too was once branded a terrorist. In 1981, I was a member of the United Black Youth League. We knew building petrol bombs was legally “wrong”, but we believed in our right to defend our community – even by armed means – against fascist threats in Bradford. Arrested alongside 11 others, I faced terrorism charges carrying life sentences in what became known as the Bradford 12 case.

While our struggle was against local fascists, Palestine Action’s fight is nobler: exposing and halting a genocide in Palestine, carried out by Israel’s neo-fascist regime with British support. And unlike us, they have not taken up arms. Where we built crude weapons in self-defence against immediate violence, Palestine Action has used only nonviolent direct action – spray-painting warplanes, occupying factories, and disrupting business as usual – to confront British complicity in genocide. I recognise their rage – I have gone hoarse screaming about genocide myself. How many burning children must we see to know it is wrong? How many starving families must be slaughtered to sustain an apartheid state?

The pain is sharper knowing the weapons murdering Palestinians are made in Britain. It is worse watching hypocritical politicians twist words – from Keir Starmer justifying genocide early on, to now hiding behind hollow phrases like “Israel’s right to defend itself”. But as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese and many others have repeatedly clarified: “Israel has no right to defend itself against those it occupies.”

If the UK government succeeds, anyone associated with Palestine Action will be branded a “terrorist”. During the Bradford 12 trial, we were painted the same way. Like Palestine Action activists, we had, in our own time, fought for a more just and fairer world.

Palestine Action emerged from the failure of endless protests demanding an end to never-ending wars and justice for Palestine. As they state: “Palestine Action is a direct action movement committed to ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime. Using disruptive tactics, we target enablers of the Israeli military-industrial complex, making it impossible for them to profit from Palestinian oppression.”

We, the Bradford 12, were born from the police’s failure to protect us from fascist violence. We took armed self-defence into our own hands in an organised community defence. To do nothing would have been the greater crime. Similarly, UK complicity in genocide demands action. Disrupting the war machine is not criminal; it is a moral necessity.

At our 1982 trial in Leeds Crown Court, tens of thousands mobilised to demand our acquittal. They saw through the state’s lies – they knew convicting us would unleash repression against youth movements, trade unions, and anyone fighting for justice. The jury faced a pivotal question: What kind of world do you want to live in if you acquit these men? I testified that, faced with the same threats, we would do it all again. That question echoes today; if Palestine Action is criminalised, we risk slipping into a lawless world where genocide becomes the norm, not the exception.

We were acquitted, establishing a legal precedent for armed community self-defence. Palestine Action needs no precedent to justify its cause, because its actions are already grounded in legality, morality, and nonviolence. It is not a threat – it is a moral compass. The UK must follow it, not ban it.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

“Heads of State” is not the Cheech & Chong reunion film you’ve been waiting for, but a comic thriller co-starring John Cena and Idris Elba, premiering Wednesday on Prime Video. Previously joined in cultural history by the DC super antihero flick “The Suicide Squad,” the actors have remade their rivalrous characters there into an odd couple of national leaders here, dealing with conspiratorial skulduggery, bullets, bombs and the like.

Call me dim, but I wasn’t even half aware that Cena, whose muscles have muscles, maintains a long, successful career in professional wrestling — which is, of course, acting — alongside his more conventional show business pursuits; he’s ever game to mock himself and not afraid to look dumb, which ultimately makes him look smart, or to appear for all intents and purposes naked at the 2024 Oscars, presenting the award for costume design. (He was winning, too, in his schtick with Jimmy Kimmel.) Elba, whose career includes a lot of what might be called prestige genre, has such natural poise and gravity that one assumes he’s done all the Shakespeares and Shaws and Ibsens, but “The Wire” and “Luther” were more his thing. He was on many a wish list as the next James Bond, and while that’s apparently not going to happen, something of the sort gets a workout here.

Elba plays British Prime Minister Sam Clarke, described as “increasingly embattled” in his sixth year in office, who is about to meet Cena’s recently elected American president, Will Derringer, on the eve of a trip to Trieste, Italy, for a NATO conference. (Why Clarke is embattled is neither explained nor important.) Derringer resents Clarke, who can’t take him seriously, for having seemed to endorse his opponent by taking him out for fish and chips. (This is a recurring theme.) An international star in the Schwarzenegger/Stallone mold — “Water Cobra” is his franchise — one might call Derringer’s election ridiculous, but I live in a state that actually did elect Schwarzenegger as its governor, twice. Wet behind the ears (“He still hasn’t figured out the difference between a press conference and a press junket,” somebody says), Derringer thinks a lot himself, his airplane, his knowing Paul McCartney and his position. Beyond aspirational platitudes, he has no real politics, but as we first see him carrying his daughter on his shoulders, we know he’s really OK.

Directed by Ilya Naishuller (“Nobody”) and written by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec and Harrison Query, the movie begins with a scene set at the Tomatino Festival in, Buñol, Spain, in which great crowds of participants lob tomatoes at each other in a massive food fight — it’s a real thing — foreshadowing the blood that will soon be flowing through the town square, as a team of unidentified bad guys ambush the British and American agents who are tracking them. They’ve been set up, declares M16 agent Noel Bisset (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), who is later reported “missing and presumed dead” — meaning, of course, that she is very much alive and will be seen again; indeed, we will see quite a lot of her.

Also starring is Priyanka Chopra Jonas as M16 agent Noel Bisset, who is tasked with protecting the two heads of state.

(Chiabella James / Prime Video)

Meanwhile, the prime minister and the president board Air Force One for Trieste. They talk movies: “I like actual cinema,” says Clarke, who claims to have never seen one of Derringer’s pictures. “I’m classically trained,” the movie star protests. “Did you know I once did a play with Edward Norton? But the universe keeps telling me I look cool with a gun in my hand — toy gun.”

Following attacks within and without the plane, the two parachute into Belarus and, for the remainder of the film, make their way here and there, trying to evade the private army of Russian arms dealer and sadistic creep Viktor Gradov (Paddy Considine) led by your typical tall blond female assassin (Katrina Durden). They’ll also meet Stephen Root as a computer guy and Jack Quaid as a comical American agent. Elsewhere, Vice President Elizabeth Kirk (Carla Gugino) takes charge. (“Bad?” is the note I wrote. I’ve seen my share of political thrillers.)

There will be hand-to-hand combat, missiles, machine-gun shoot-em-ups, more than a couple helicopters and a car chase through the streets of Trieste — a lovely seaside/hillside city I recommend if you’re thinking of Italy this summer. Must I tell you that antipathy will turn to appreciation as our heroes make common cause, get a little personal and, with the able Agent Bisset, become real-life action heroes? That they are middle-aged is not an issue, though there is a joke about the American movie star being less fit than the U.K. politician.

The logline portends a comedy, possibly a parody, even a satire. It’s definitely the first of these, if not especially subtle or sharp (Derringer stuck in a tree, hanging from a tangled parachute; Clarke setting off a smoke bomb in his own face — that did make me laugh), a little bit the second, and not at all the third, even though it sniffs around politics a bit. Above all, like many, most or practically all action films, it’s a fantasy in which many things happen that would not and could not ever, ever happen in the real world, because that’s not how people or physics behave. (It certainly doesn’t represent America in 2025.)

There is just as much character development or backstory as is necessary to make the players seem more or less human. Plot-wise there are a lot of twists, because the script superimposes a couple of familiar villainous agendas into a single narrative; it’s mildly diverting without being compelling, which, I would think, will ultimately work in its favor as hectic, lightly violent entertainment. Not even counting the orgy of anonymous death that has qualified as family entertainment for some time now — blame video games, I won’t argue — it’s a painless watch, and, in its cheery, fantastic absurdity, something of a respite from the messier, crazier, more unbelievable world awaiting you once the credits have rolled.

Thousands of fans chanted ‘free Palestine’ and waved Palestinian flags as the Irish trio performed in the UK.

Irish-language rap group Kneecap has performed at the Glastonbury Festival in front of tens of thousands of fans chanting “Free Palestine”, defying United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer who said he did not think it was “appropriate” for the band to appear.

The group’s Liam O’Hanna on Saturday also gave a “shout-out” to Palestine Action Group, which UK Interior Minister Yvette Cooper announced last week would become a banned group under the Terrorism Act of 2000.

“The prime minister of your country, not mine, said he didn’t want us to play, so f*** Keir Starmer,” said O’Hanna, who appeared on stage wearing his trademark Palestinian keffiyeh in front of the capacity crowd, including many people waving Palestinian flags.

“This situation can be quite stressful but it’s minimal compared to what the Palestinian people are [facing],” O’Hanna, who performs under the name Mo Chara, added, referring to the backlash the band has faced for its outspoken support of Palestinians in Gaza.

He is facing charges under the British Terrorism Act of supporting a proscribed organisation for allegedly waving a flag of Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group at a concert in London in November last year.

O’Hanna has said he picked up a flag that was thrown onto the stage without knowing what it represented.

The rapper is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August.

“Glastonbury, I’m a free man!” he shouted as the trio took to the stage at Glastonbury’s West Holts field, which holds about 30,000 people.

The trio also thanked festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis for resisting pressure to cancel their appearance, including from Starmer.

Several Kneecap concerts have been cancelled since the band’s performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California in April, where they accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians, enabled by the United States government.

At least 56,412 Palestinians have been killed and 133,054 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

Ireland’s people and government have been some of the most outspoken critics of the war, as well as Israel’s deliberate starvation of Gaza’s population, which many people see as having parallels to the English occupation of Ireland.

The BBC, which broadcasts dozens of Glastonbury performances, did not show Kneecap’s set live, but said it planned to make it available online later.

The broadcaster said it would not be re-airing the live performance of British rap punk duo Bob Vylan who appeared on stage before Kneecap and led chants of “Free, free Palestine” and “Death, death to the IDF [Israeli army]”.

A BBC spokesperson said the comments were “deeply offensive”, and that they would not be available to rewatch on BBC iPlayer.

The BBC also reported that UK Culture Minister Lisa Nandy spoke to the BBC director general, Tim Davie, seeking an “urgent explanation” after the chants were aired live.

According to the BBC, Avon and Somerset Police also said that they would be reviewing footage of both Kneecap and Bob Vylan’s sets to “determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation”.

The bands were among about 4,000 performers across 120 stages to appear at this year’s festival, which also featured headliners including Neil Young, Charli XCX, Rod Stewart, Busta Rhymes, Olivia Rodrigo and Doechii, as well as a surprise appearance by Britpop band Pulp.

Citing a recent arrest by immigration agents that bloodied a man in the unincorporated area of Valinda, Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said she wants the county to explore a legal counterattack against what she described as the federal government’s “unconstitutional immigration enforcement practices.”

In a statement Saturday, Solis said that she plans to co-sponsor a motion at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting asking the county’s attorney to explore “all legal remedies available to the County to protect the civil rights of our residents and prevent federal law enforcement personnel from engaging in any unconstitutional or unlawful immigration enforcement.”

Such conduct, the motion says, includes the “unlawfully stopping, questioning or detaining individuals without reasonable suspicion, or arresting individuals without probable cause or a valid warrant.”

“As these immigration raids continue to terrorize our communities, I’m deeply disturbed by the forceful detainment of a man in unincorporated Valinda. This incident raises serious concerns about the conduct and legality of these actions, and demonstrates a violation of constitutional rights and due process,” Solis, whose district stretches from Eagle Rock to Pomona, said in a statement.

The Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the motion says, has sown widespread fear throughout the region and emptied out normally bustling public spaces, with people “avoiding going to work or visiting grocery stores and restaurants, skipping medical appointments.”

This has had a “tremendous negative impact” on not only the county’s economy, but also its “ability to provide for the health and welfare of our residents,” according to the motion.

The L.A. City Council introduced a similar motion earlier this month seeking to prohibit federal agents from carrying out unconstitutional stops, searches or arrests of city residents.

Federal officials have said their agents are defending themselves against increasingly hostile crowds, which in some cases are interfering with arrests.

Top officials, such as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, have argued that the government’s raids are targeting “criminals that have been out on our street far too long.” A recent Times analysis suggested that the majority of those who were arrested in early June were not convicted criminals, however.

For weeks, social media has been flooded with videos of federal agents, their faces often shrouded by masks, violently arresting bystanders who are filming their actions, dragging a taco stand vendor by her arm and tossing smoke bombs into a crowd of angry onlookers. One widely circulated clip showed a military-style vehicle accompanying federal law enforcement officers during an apparent raid at a home in Compton earlier this month — part of what critics have called an alarming escalation in tactics.

Footage reviewed by The Times shows a person in the turret of the vehicle pointing what appears to be a less-lethal projectile launcher downward, but it’s unclear whether any shots were fired.

In her statement, Solis cited another federal operation that was at the center of a viral video.

That footage, shot by a bystander and obtained by ABC 7, shows federal agents in tactical vests and masks smashing the windows of a large white pickup truck before apparently pulling out a man from inside.

Several agents are later seen kneeling on top of the man who is bleeding from an apparent head wound, even as a crowd of onlookers demand that the man be released. In one clip, an agent is shown pushing the man’s face into the pavement.

A European Union (EU) summit in Brussels called for a ceasefire in Gaza, but not for sanctions against Israel.

Germany has led member states in blocking action throughout the war, as others express anger.

So what’s behind the EU’s position on Israel and Gaza?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests: 

Claudio Francavilla – Associate EU director at Human Rights Watch in Brussels

Lynn Boylan – Sinn Fein member of the European Parliament and chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Palestine

Giorgia Gusciglio – Europe coordinator of campaigns for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement promoting economic pressure against Israel

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the USNS Harvey Milk will be renamed after a World War II sailor who received the Medal of Honor, stripping the ship of the name of a slain gay rights activist who served during the Korean War.

In a video posted to social media, Hegseth said he was “taking the politics out of ship naming.”

The ship’s new name will honor Navy Chief Petty Officer Oscar V. Peterson, who was awarded the highest military decoration posthumously for his actions during the 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea in the Pacific.

The decision is the latest move by Hegseth to wipe away names of ships and military bases that were given by President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration, which in many cases chose to honor service members who were women, minorities, from the LBGTQ community and more.

It follows earlier actions by Hegseth and President Donald Trump, a Republican, to purge all programs, policies, books and social media mentions of references to diversity, equity and inclusion in the military and elsewhere.

Hegseth’s announcement comes during Pride Month — the same timing as the Pentagon’s campaign to force transgender troops out of the U.S. military.

“We’re not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists,” said Hegseth, who earlier this month ordered Navy Secretary John Phelan to put together a small team to rename the USNS Harvey Milk replenishment oiler.

He said Peterson’s “spirit of self-sacrifice and concern for his crewmates was in keeping with the finest traditions of the Navy.”

When Hegseth announced the decision to rename the ship, officials defended it as an effort to align with Trump and Hegseth’s objectives to “re-establish the warrior culture.”

Peterson served on the USS Neosho, which also was an oiler. The ship was damaged during the Battle of the Coral Sea, and even though Peterson was injured, he managed to close the bulkhead stop valves to keep the ship operational. He died of his wounds.

The Navy in 1943 named an escort ship after Peterson. The USS Peterson served for more than two decades and was decommissioned in June 1965.

The USNS Harvey Milk was named in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who said at the time that the John Lewis-class of oilers would be named after leaders who fought for civil and human rights.

Harvey Milk, who was portrayed by Sean Penn in an Oscar-winning 2008 movie, served for four years in the Navy before he was forced out for being gay. He later became one of the first openly gay candidates elected to public office, in San Francisco. He was assassinated in 1978 by a disgruntled former city supervisor.

Baldor writes for the Associated Press.

My young family and I were in Israel when the military and the Mossad began their offensive operations against Iran on Friday, June 13, commencing what President Trump has since called the “12-Day War.” Although the Mossad’s intelligence and the Israel Defense Forces’ rapid establishment of air superiority inside Iran proved to be nothing less than extraordinary, my wife and I lived on pins and needles for those first few days of the war. We had to be ready day or night, at a moment’s notice, to drop everything, grab our 6-month-old baby and race to the house’s “safe room” (that is, bomb shelter).

Trust me: This is not a fun way to live — especially not with an infant. Meanwhile, too many of Iran’s ballistic missiles — considerably more lethal than the rockets typically fired into Israel from Gaza and Lebanon — were evading Israeli air defense. They were finding their targets. Too many homes were being destroyed, and too many people, tragically, were being killed. Though a proud Jew and Zionist, and even the author of a recent book on Israel’s fate, I decided to do what any American parent of an infant would do in such a situation: get us home.

I am a Floridian, and I heard about a program the state of Florida had launched to evacuate American citizens from the war zone. We first took a bus to the Jordanian border. We next got to Amman, where we spent the night. We then flew to Cyprus, a hub for those fleeing (and returning to) Israel, where we also spent a night. And finally, we flew from Cyprus to Tampa, where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis surprised our group by meeting us at the airport.

The day after my family got home to Florida, the world changed in an instant: Trump ordered Operation Midnight Hammer, delivering a devastating — perhaps fatal — blow to the Iranian regime’s three most prized nuclear facilities, Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. In his brief remarks at the White House following the strikes, Trump repeatedly linked the national interests and fates of the United States and Israel. Despite months of tendentious leaks, palace intrigue and the often-parroted media reports of a rift between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that bilateral relationship is clearly stronger than ever.

Looking back at both the pre-strike debate and the post-strike fallout, the more interesting question — especially given the hostility toward Trump’s move from certain high-profile talking heads within the broader MAGA fold — is perhaps this: Is Midnight Hammer an aberration from Trump’s “America First” foreign policy doctrine, or is it entirely consistent with it?

As the definitive essay on the topic, a 2019 Foreign Policy magazine article — appropriately titled “The Trump Doctrine” — from former Trump administration national security official and current State Department Director of Policy Planning Michael Anton put it, Trump’s conception of “America First” means that he has “no inborn inclination to isolationism or interventionism, and he is not simply a dove or a hawk.” By contrast, Trump’s foreign policy instinct is “Jacksonian”: It is a strand of pragmatic conservative realism that is intuitively skeptical. The mindset echoes George Washington’s famous farewell address, which warned against getting overly involved overseas, but it also remains able, willing and eager to lash out and strike if necessary to defend core American national interests.

In short, Trump has no interest in reprising the Bush-era moralistic nation-building enterprise, but he also has no interest in burying America’s head in the sand and pretending that we simply have no interest in events abroad. It was Trump himself, after all, who both withdrew from President Obama’s flawed nuclear deal with the Iranian terror regime and eliminated Islamic State founder Abu Bakr Baghdadi and Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general who commanded the Quds Force.

There are indeed some fools, ignoramuses and scoundrels on the right who keep trying to mislead their MAGA-friendly audiences by imputing to “America First” views that do not put America first and are not held by the president himself. But they are losing that battle: According to a recent CBS News poll, an astounding 94% of self-identified MAGA Republicans support Operation Midnight Hammer. It certainly seems that in voting for Trump, these Americans favored stopping the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism — a regime whose raison d’être is eliminating the “little Satan” of Israel and the “big Satan” of the United States — from acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapons.

After decades of debate about the Iranian nuclear program and months of pearl-clutching about the alleged imminence of World War III, the United States has devastated the illicit nuclear weapons program of a terrorist regime that chants “death to America” on a daily basis — without a single American casualty, without any extended American troop presence on the ground and with a quick post-strike ceasefire to boot. To achieve a decades-long-sought foreign policy objective in this fashion is nothing less than astonishing. Operation Midnight Hammer is one of the greatest acts of presidential statesmanship and leadership in modern American history.

It’s also “America First” in action. And looking back at the entire ordeal years from now, I strongly suspect it will also make everything my family went through in evacuating the Middle East more than worth it.

Josh Hammer’s latest book is “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. @josh_hammer

WASHINGTON — Between June 6 and June 22, immigration enforcement teams arrested 1,618 immigrants for deportation in Los Angeles and surrounding regions of Southern California, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS did not respond to requests for information on how many of those arrested had criminal histories and a breakdown of those convictions.

As immigration arrests have occurred across Southern California, demonstrators have protested the federal government’s actions and bystanders have sometimes confronted immigration officers or videotaped their actions. Between June 6 and June 22, 787 people have been arrested for assault, obstruction and unlawful assembly, a DHS spokesperson said.

Figures about the Los Angeles operation released by the White House on June 11 indicated that about one third of those arrested up until that point had prior criminal convictions.

The “area of responsibility” for the Los Angeles field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area and the Central Coast, as well as Orange County to the south, Riverside County to the east and up the coast to San Luis Obispo County.

Data from the first days of the Los Angeles enforcement operation show that a majority of those arrested had never been charged with or convicted of a crime.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Monday that 75% of nationwide arrests under the Trump administration have been of immigrants with criminal convictions or pending charges. But data published by Immigration and Customs Enforcement show that figure is lower in recent weeks.

Nationally, the number of people arrested without criminal convictions has jumped significantly and many of those are nonviolent offenders, according to nonpublic data obtained by the Cato Institute that covers the period from last Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year, to June 15. The most frequent crimes are immigration and traffic offenses.

Serious violent offenders account for just 7% of those in custody, according to Cato.

Immigration enforcement officers have recently intensified efforts to deliver on President Trump’s promise of mass deportations. In California, that has meant arrests of people in courthouses, on farms and in Home Depot parking lots.

But, with a daily goal of 3,000 arrests nationwide, administration officials still complain that agents are failing to arrest enough immigrants.

Democrats and immigrant community leaders argue that agents are targeting people indiscriminately. Despite the chaotic nature of the raids and protests in Los Angeles, 1,618 arrests by DHS in southern California over more than two weeks is about 101 arrests per day — a relatively small contribution to the daily nationwide goal.

Perhaps the bigger achievement than the arrests themselves, advocates say, is the fear that those actions have stoked.

Times staff writer Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to set aside an effort to impeach President Trump on a sole charge of abuse of power after he launched military strikes on Iran without first seeking authorization from Congress.

The sudden action forced by a lone Democrat, Rep. Al Green of Texas, brought little debate and split his party. Most Democrats joined the Republican majority to table the measure for now. But dozens of Democrats backed Green’s effort. The tally was 344 to 79.

“I take no delight in what I’m doing,” Green said before the vote.

“I do this because no one person should have the power to take over 300 million people to war without consulting with the Congress of the United States of America,” he said. “I do this because I understand that the Constitution is going to be meaningful or it’s going to be meaningless.”

The effort, while not the first rumblings of actions to impeach Trump since he started his second term in January, shows the unease many Democrats have with his administration, particularly after the sudden attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, a risky incursion into Middle East affairs.

Trump earlier Tuesday lashed out in vulgar terms against another Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, for having suggested his military action against Iran was an impeachable offense.

House Democratic leadership was careful to not directly criticize Green, but also made clear that their focus was on other issues. Impeachment matters are typically considered a vote of conscience, without pressure from leadership to vote a certain way.

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands), chair of the House Democratic caucus, said lawmakers will “represent their constituents and their communities.”

“At this time, at this moment, we are focusing on what this big, ugly bill is going to do,” he said about the big Trump tax breaks package making its way through Congress. “I think anything outside of that is a distraction because this is the most important thing that we can focus on.”

Trump was twice impeached by House Democrats during his first term, in 2019 over withholding funds to Ukraine as it faced military aggression from Russia, and in 2021 on the charge of inciting an insurrection after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters trying to stop Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.

In both of those impeachment cases, the Senate acquitted Trump of charges, allowing his return to the presidency this year.

Green, who had filed earlier articles of impeachment against the president this year, has been a consistent voice speaking out against Trump’s actions, which he warns is America’s slide toward authoritarianism.

The congressman told the AP earlier in the day that he wanted to force the vote to show that at least one member of Congress was watching the president’s action and working to keep the White House in check.

Mascaro and Freking write for the Associated Press. AP writer Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.