The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency should continue vehicle stops after recent fatal shootings, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, seeming to oppose a new suspension of the practice used as part of his immigration crackdown. Plus, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche goes to Congress, human rights groups sue over ICC sanctions and former President Joe Biden's new book. |
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President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with Iraq's Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) |
ICE should do traffic stops despite recent shootings, Trump says, seeming to oppose new suspension — By Darlene Superville, Patrick Whittle, Jack Brook, Rebecca Santana and Michael R. Sisak
The Republican president said that to remove criminals he claims were let into the country under the previous Democratic administration “we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” Trump said, “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.” But Trump administration officials have told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to suspend most vehicle stops after two deadly shootings within a week, people familiar with the decision said Tuesday.
The suspension was ordered after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver Monday in Maine and a week after another officer shot and killed a motorist in Houston, renewing criticism of the agency’s enforcement tactics that were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota. In Florida on Tuesday, a third man in roughly a week died during an encounter with immigration officers. This time, a 28-year-old man was killed after he was hit by a tractor trailer while running from immigration and other federal officers, authorities said.
It’s a narrative that has been repeated since the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown began, with federal officers confronting drivers and then saying they opened fire when the drivers' vehicles became a danger. That’s despite decades of warnings from policing experts that shooting into moving cars presents a danger of its own and should almost always be avoided. Read more from across the AP on the evolving ICE situation. |
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Todd Blanche, Jay Clayton testify on Capitol Hill |
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks as FBI director Kash Patel speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Wednesday, July 1, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) |
Congress is back, and a pair of Capitol Hill hearings on Wednesday highlight officials the Trump administration wants to oversee the nation's legal and intelligence communities.
Blanche confronts questions about his brief but turbulent tenure atop the Justice Department during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing that tests Trump’s grip on Republican lawmakers whose support the nominee will need for the job.
Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, has run the department on an interim basis since April, during which time he has accelerated investigations into Trump foes, functioned as the public face of a maligned fund meant to compensate the Republican president’s allies and alarmed press freedom advocates with an aggressive pursuit of news media leaks. And Jay Clayton, Trump’s pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, also testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee, weeks after Trump abruptly delayed his nomination. Republicans and even some Democrats have been eager to quickly confirm Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, as they have expressed concerns about Trump’s interim appointee for the intelligence post, Bill Pulte.
AP will be publishing updates across the testimony on our live blog. |
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Groups sue over Trump administration sanctions on ICC |
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seen on Dec. 9, 2025, in The Hague, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool) |
Human rights groups sue over Trump administration's sanctions on ICC for investigations into Israel — By Eric Tucker
Two human rights groups say Trump administration sanctions imposed on the International Criminal Court over its investigations of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza have illegally impeded their ability to advocate for Palestinians.
The organizations say in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that they have been forced to censor their own advocacy work to avoid scrutiny from the White House, which in an executive order last year not only targeted the Hague-based criminal court but prohibited providing or receiving services to or from entities that have been sanctioned. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan against top administration officials by DAWN and Taxpayers Alliance Against Genocide, seeks a court order that would strike down the restrictions on their advocacy and their ability to interact with Palestinian human rights groups and other sanctioned parties.
The Hague-based ICC has been investigating allegations of war crimes in Gaza during the war that began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. A panel of judges issued arrest warrants in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant. Netanyahu has called the warrants “absurd.” The U.S. and Israel are not among the court’s members, and neither nation recognizes its authority.
Read more from Tucker on the human rights groups' ICC lawsuit. |
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New books coming from Biden and former US negotiator |
Former President Joe Biden speaks to the South Carolina Democratic Party, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley) |
It's not Friday, so it's not quite time for political book club. And the books mentioned here won't be out for a while — but they will be coming to my reading list later this year.
Hillel Italie is out today with two previews for fall releases from former President Joe Biden and Brett McGurk, a U.S. diplomat appointed by Biden in 2023 to oversee hostage talks between Israel and Hamas.
Biden says his "Promise Me, America" will touch upon everything from the economy to his decision to drop his bid for reelection. It's scheduled to come out Nov. 17, two weeks after the midterms. Publisher Little, Brown and Company says that Biden plans to tour on behalf of the book and give interviews.
Penguin Random House imprint Crown says McGurk's "Brink: Inside the Race to Free the October 7 Hostages" is slated for release Oct. 6, nearly three years to the day after the deadly Hamas siege that left more than 1,000 people dead and more than 200 taken captive.
Read more from Italie on the new books coming by Biden and McGurk. |
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