In the News

President Trump moved to end his administration's policy separating children from immigrant parents who cross into the U.S. illegally — but California elected officials and activists blasted the new practice of detaining immigrant families together indefinitely.

Under an executive order Trump signed Wednesday, immigrant families that cross the border illegally will be kept in detention centers together, potentially for months as their asylum cases proceed.

— HOUSE DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS AMENDMENTS DUE: Amendments to the fiscal 2019 defense appropriations bill are due this morning. The measure would provide the Pentagon just under $675 billion for the coming fiscal year.

CAIRO (AP) — The 15 officers who arrived at the prison in southern Yemen hid their faces behind headdresses, but their accents were clearly foreign — from the United Arab Emirates. They lined up the detainees and ordered them to undress and lie down. The officers then searched the anal cavity of each prisoner, claiming that they were looking for contraband cellphones.

The men screamed and wept. Those who resisted were threatened by barking dogs and beaten until they bled.

As President Trump prepared for his historic summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats penned a letter last week threatening to maintain or even strengthen sanctions against North Korea if Trump did not ensure that the country completely dismantle all of its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The United Nations is warning an impending Saudi-led offensive on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah could have catastrophic humanitarian consequences. This comes as the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition bombed a new Doctors Without Borders cholera clinic in Yemen's northwestern Abs region. Doctors Without Borders said that before the strike the group had provided the coordinates of the clinic to the Saudi-led coalition and that the roof of the building clearly identified it as a medical site.

Some progressive Democratic lawmakers have offered cautious support for President Donald Trump's outreach to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, thereby parting ways with the party's congressional leaders, who have been unflinching in their criticism.

These Democrats argue that legislators should encourage Trump when he pursues a diplomatic approach to resolving foreign conflicts ― however little confidence they may have in his ability, in this instance, to achieve the major breakthrough needed to denuclearize North Korea.

President Donald Trump faced significant criticism in 2017 for his hardline stance on North Korea — one he punctuated with personal insults against Kim Jong Un and threats to "totally destroy" the country.

"We need to be firm and deliberate with [North Korea], but reckless rhetoric is not a strategy to keep America safe," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted in August, after Trump infamously threatened Pyongyang with "fire and fury."

Donald Trump is an exceptionally disappointing president whose misguided approach to foreign affairs was highlighted by the temper tantrum with which he concluded the G7 summit in Canada.