US updates: Police announce 'mass arrests' amid LA curfew

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said US personnel were being moved out of the Middle East because "it could be a dangerous place."

The State Department announced it has ordered the departure of all nonessential personnel from the US Embassy in Baghdad after evaluating recent tensions.

"President Trump is committed to keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad," the State Department said in a statement. 

The department is also authorizing the departure of nonessential personnel and family members from Bahrain and Kuwait.

Tensions in the Middle East have been on the rise in recent days as nuclear negotiations between the US and Iran appear to be deadlocked.

A US general who is overseeing the mobilization of 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines to Los Angeles said the Marines would be deployed "soon," but not on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters, Major General Scott Sherman also explained how the troops will operate.

"These soldiers do not conduct law enforcement operations like arrests or search and seizure," Sherman told reporters. 

"They are strictly used for the protection of the federal personnel as they conduct their operations and to protect them to allow them to do their federal mission."

Sherman also claimed the Marines' rifles would not be loaded when they are deployed.

"Not in their rifle," he said, when asked whether rifles would carry live ammunition.

The Marines are taking a two-day training course on how to handle civil disturbances, Sherman added.

A new study has found that public perception of the United States and its President Donald Trump has fallen.

In many countries, a majority of respondents said they do not have confidence in Trump to do the right thing regarding world affairs.

Click here to read more about how other countries perceive the US since Trump took office for a second term.

 

Donald Trump has responded to Elon Musk's apparent regret about some of his social media posts about the US president.

"I thought it was very nice that he did that," he told US newspaper The New York Post.

Musk has since deleted some posts critical of Trump, including one signaling support for impeaching the president.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed in a statement that they had detained Khaby Lame, the world's most popular TikTok personality, in Las Vegas.

The Senegalese-Italian influencer, whose legal name is Seringe Khabane Lame, has left the US under "voluntary departure," a measure that allows those facing removal from the US to avoid a deportation order on their immigration record.

ICE said in the statement that Lame entered the United States on April 30 and "overstayed the terms of his visa," adding that he was released the same day he was detained.

Lame has not commented on the incident. The influencer currently holds top spot on TikTok, with 162.2 million followers and has risen to fame for his short silent videos mocking the convoluted tutorials and tips that abound on the internet.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wants Washington to investigate whether Harvard University violated federal sanctions against China, the New York Times reported.

The alleged infringement reportedly stems out of the university's collaboration with a health insurance conference in China that may have included officials blacklisted by the United States.

Rubio sent a recommendation to the Treasury Department to launch a probe last month, according to the report.

The New York Times said that Harvard was conducting an internal probe into the involvement of the state-run Chinese firm Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps at the conference.

What is Trump's campaign against Harvard?

President Donald Trump's administration has moved to defund several universities, including some of the country's most elite higher education institutions.

In April, Harvard said it was suing Trump's administration over efforts to cut billions of dollars in contracts and grants to the university.

Late last month, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration's bid to revoke Harvard's ability to enroll international students.

Harvard is the United States' oldest and most wealthy university and is part of the Ivy League group of prestigious colleges.

Elon Musk has expressed regret at some of his comments against US President Donald Trump after a public spat between the two former allies last week.

"I regret some of my posts about President [Donald Trump] last week. They went too far," Musk said in a post on his X platform.

He did not immediately specify which of the comments he regretted posting.

Musk spent some $300 million (nearly €263 million) on Trump's election campaign and initially spearheaded the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) before stepping away from it late in May.

Why did Musk fall out with Trump?

The feud was sparked by Musk's opposition to Trump's tax and spending bill. Trump claimed that his former adviser's opposition to the bill was caused by its proposed elimination of tax credits for electric vehicles, which could affect Musk's Tesla automaker firm.

Musk claimed that he opposed the bill because it would increase the federal deficit.

In now deleted posts originally published on X, Musk attempted to link Trump to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"Time to drop the really big bomb: [Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public," Musk claimed without providing evidence.

Later, Trump threatened to cut Musk's government contracts in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Protests against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that began in Los Angeles last week have spread to several other US cities.

Major demonstrations have been seen in the Texas cities of Austin and Dallas, as well as Chicago in the Midwest and Atlanta in the southeast.

In the country's most populous city, New York, thousands took to the streets on Tuesday to protest the raids.

Local media reported that cities in southern Texas were to hold anti-ICE demonstrations on Wednesday and Saturday. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the state would deploy the National Guard to "ensure peace and order" amid the protests.

DW interviewed protesters who took to the streets of LA in opposition to raids by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE).

"It's a basic human right. They are arresting people who are working, they are arresting people at graduation," one woman told DW.

"That's sad and it's heartbreaking. We don't feel safe," she said.

Another protester told DW that Los Angeles required immigrant labor, pointing to reconstruction efforts following wildfires that gripped the city earlier this year.

"We need immigrant workers in this city really badly," she said.

"We've just gone through devastating fires," she said, adding that the city had lost many thousands of structures to the fires.

DW Correspondent Benjamin Alvarez Gruber said that there was a "heavy police presence" on the scene in Los Angeles.

"There is a lot of police movement, we see smaller groups and also several helicopters flying over the city," he said.

He said that non-lethal ammunition, including tear gas, had been used to disperse protesters in front of the Federal Building in LA.

He said that cars were being told to turn back and not enter the city's downtown area.

Alvarez said that Marines, hundreds of which had been deployed by President Donald Trump, had not yet been spotted in downtown LA.

The European Union believes trade negotiations with the United States will extend beyond a July 7 deadline, US news outlet Bloomberg reported.

It cited anonymous sources as saying that Brussels expected the two parties to work out the principles of a deal by the July 7 deadline and will then continue more detailed negotiations.

US President Donald Trump has said the EU will be hit with 50% tariffs after the deadline for a deal expires.

The current deadline is the result of an earlier extension announced in May.

The US is a major trade partner of the bloc, having imported $720 billion (around €821 billion) worth of EU goods in 2022.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the state would deploy its National Guard amid protests.

"Texas National Guard will be deployed to locations across the state to ensure peace & order," Abbott said in a post on X.

"Peaceful protest is legal. Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest," the governor said.

Protests against Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) arrests that first started in Los Angeles, California, began to spread to other states over the weekend.

Local media reported that anti-ICE were planned for Wednesday in Texas' second-largest city of San Antonio.

Thirteen people were arrested on Monday in the state's capital, Austin, in a protest involving hundreds of people, according to the Texas Tribune news portal.

Los Angeles has been under a partial curfew since Mayor Karen Bass announced a "local emergency" in the city late on Tuesday.

It applies to a 1-square-mile area in downtown LA.

"I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting," she said.

The curfew began at 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday (0300 UTC on Wednesday) and is set to end at 6 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said that it was engaging in "mass arrests" as demonstrators continue to congregate in downtown LA.

"Multiple groups continue to congregate on 1st St between Spring and Alameda. Those groups are being addressed and mass arrests are being initiated," the LAPD said in a post on the platform X.

"Curfew is in effect," it stressed.

The CNN broadcaster reported that 10 to 20 people were seen being detained by police in in downtown LA.

US President Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard as well as hundreds of active-duty Marines to Los Angeles amid demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.

California Governor Gavin Newsom harshly criticized Trump's measures, describing them as an "abuse of power" and saying that democracy is "under assault."

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) says it is carrying out "mass arrests" with a curfew still in place in downtown areas of the US' second-most populous city.

Stay with DW for real-time news, analysis, and insights from our correspondents on the ground as we continue to cover the LA protests.