NMG Issues Updated Feasibility Study for its Integrated Phase-2 Ore-to-Active-Anode-Material Operations: the Matawinie Mine and the Bécancour Battery Material Plant

House Republicans are pushing to vote on their multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks package as soon as Wednesday, grinding out last-minute deal-making to shore up wavering GOP support and deliver on President Donald Trump’s top legislative priority.

The Trump administration acknowledged in court that it deported eight migrants after being called to answer questions Wednesday about a deportation flight of Asian migrants to the African nation of South Sudan that potentially violated a judge's order. Immigration authorities told the judge that their home countries would not take them back. They refused to say what the migrants’ final destinations would be.

And Trump hosted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House after accusing the country’s government of allowing a “genocide” to take place against minority white farmers. Afrikaner farmers in the country say this claim is false and there's no evidence of it.

Here's the latest:

Ramaphosa, continuing to try to smooth things over with Trump, says he is sorry he doesn’t have a jet to offer.

As Trump continued to complain about being questioned on his acceptance of the Qatari jet, criticizing the reporter to as an “idiot,” Ramaphosa told Trump, “I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.”

“If your country was offering the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it,” Trump said.

The White House is promoting a video Trump showed during his meeting with South Africa’s president which the U.S. president suggests shows politically motivated slayings occurring in that country.

The official White House X account posted an emoji of a siren and the title “JUST SHOWN IN THE OVAL OFFICE: Proof of Persecution in South Africa” over a video Trump had showed during his meeting with Ramaphosa. Trump said the video showed killings and suggested that white South African farmers were being targeted.

The post of the video came even as Trump’s meeting with Ramaphosa was still happening.

South Africa has been pursuing allegations of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

Although the White House has criticized the case, Trump did not address the issue in the Oval Office.

Asked what he wanted to see happen, Trump said “I don’t know.”

“There’s a lot of anger there. I don’t expect anything. We’ll see what happens.”

A federal judge says the Trump administration violated a court order on deportations to third countries with a flight linked to South Sudan.

Judge Brian E. Murphy says the eight migrants aboard the plane weren’t given a meaningful opportunity to object that the deportation could put them in danger.

The group was flown out of the United States just hours after getting notice, leaving them no chance to contact lawyers to object in court.

Government attorneys argued that the men had a history with the immigration system, giving them prior opportunities to express a fear of being deported to a country outside their homeland.

During his tense meeting with Ramaphosa, Trump noted “I have a great feeling for South Africa” and many friends in that country.

The president said some of his South African friends were at the meeting in the Oval Office, including billionaire Elon Musk.

“Elon is from South Africa,” Trump said, though he suggested that involving Musk in U.S.-South African relations could cause more controversy.

“I don’t want to get Elon involved,” Trump said. “I don’t want to talk to him about that. I don’t think it’s fair to him.”

It’s not uncommon for the U.S. president to criticize representatives of the “fake news,” but he was especially angry when NBC’s Peter Alexander asked him about Qatar’s donation of a 747 for Trump to use as Air Force One.

The Pentagon’s announcement about accepting the plane came during Trump’s meeting with the South African president. Alexander asked about it right after the White House staff played a video about allegations of persecution against white farmers.

“What does this have to do with the Qatari jet?” Trump said. “You’re a terrible reporter.”

He also called for retaliation against Comcast, the corporate owner of NBC, and its chief executive.

“Brian Roberts and the people who run that place they ought to be investigated,” he said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has accepted a gifted Boeing 747 from Qatar for Trump to use as president, Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said.

Parnell said the plane was accepted “in accordance with all federal rules and regulations.”

Trump was asked about the acceptance Wednesday while he was in the Oval Office with South Africa’s president and said, “They are giving the United States Air Force a jet.”

He then insulted the reporter who asked about the jet.

Ramaphosa said he brought major-winning golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen after Trump requested he bring them along and that he also attempted to bring legendary 89-year-old player Gary Player, who declined the trip, citing his age.

Ramaphosa told Trump he brought the president “a really fantastic book” that weighs 14 kilograms (about 31 pounds) showcasing South Africa’s golf courses. He said he’s also started practicing golf, at Trump’s suggestion.

“I’ve started practicing so I’m ready,” he told Trump.

Trump opened by remarking that Ramaphosa “is a man who is certainly, in some circles, really respected.”

He also said he and Ramaphosa will discuss “many things,” including some of the issues that have been in the news to see if he can help.

“We want to help,” he said.

Ramaphosa, meanwhile, said it was “a real joy” to be at the White House and that he wants to take the opportunity to “recalibrate” ties between the two countries.

He said he’s hoping for more trade with the much larger American economy.

“We are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa,” Ramaphosa said.

President Donald Trump is hosting South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday for a meeting that might be tense after Trump accused the country’s government of allowing a “genocide” to take place against minority white farmers.

South Africa has strongly rejected the allegation and Ramaphosa pushed for the meeting with Trump in an attempt to salvage his country’s relationship with the United States, which is at its lowest point since the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation in 1994.

It was minutes after noon when the South African leader’s car pulled up to the West Wing entrance in the rainy weather, about a half hour behind a scheduled 11:30 a.m. arrival. During the wait, a uniformed, flag-bearing member of the honor guard appeared to faint and fall backwards into a grassy area in front of the entrance to the West Wing. The individual was roused and walked way for closer examination.

Trump was waiting at the door to greet Ramaphosa, who got out of the car and shared an extended handshake.

Both presidents then walked inside after Trump answered a couple of questions on other issues.

Wednesday’s emergency appeal to the high court concerns whether Elon Musk ’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has been central to Trump’s push to remake government, is a federal agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

The administration argues DOGE is merely a presidential advisory body and thus exempt from FOIA requests. It wants the justices to freeze orders that would force DOGE to turn over documents to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington or obligate acting DOGE administrator Amy Gleason to answer questions under oath by June 13.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found that DOGE’s role is likely more than just advisory, noting its claims to helping shutter USAID, cut billions of dollars in government contracts and fire thousands of federal employees.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the justices to act quickly, calling Cooper’s orders “extraordinarily overbroad and intrusive.”

The settlements with Minneapolis and Louisville called for departmental overhauls following the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor that set off nationwide racial injustice protests in the summer of 2020.

The Trump administration also announced it’s retracting the findings of Justice Department investigations into six other police departments that the Biden administration had accused of civil rights violations. In a court motion in Minnesota, it said “the United States no longer believes that the proposed consent decree would be in the public interest.”

“It’s our view at the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division under the Trump administration that federal micromanagement of local police should be a rare exception, and not the norm,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.

Police and city officials in Minneapolis and Louisville said they remain committed to reforms regardless of what the Trump administration does.

▶ Read more on the Trump administration canceling police reform efforts

Mike Johnson and conservatives from the House Freedom Caucus are heading to the White House this afternoon over Trump’s big bill, according to a person familiar with the meeting who was granted anonymity to discuss it.

Johnson is struggling to shore up support for the bill. Hard-right GOP lawmakers are against how it will pile onto the national debt.

Meanwhile, action continues in a cramped House hearing room where lawmakers have been meeting all night and all day.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his team settled into the witness table to decry the GOP’s insistence on big tax breaks and spending cuts.

“We believe it’s one big, ugly bill that’s going to hurt the American people,” Jeffries of New York told the panel. “Hurt children, hurt families, hurt veterans, hurt seniors, cut health care, cut nutritional assistance, explode the debt.”

In this Sunday, July 10, 2011 file photo, Southern Sudanese wave the national flag in the capital Juba. (AP Photo/Pete Muller, File)

The Trump administration’s pressure on South Sudan to take in deportees, including foreign ones, comes as cuts in U.S. aid leave its population of 11 million people in even grave danger.

Some Western countries have closed their embassies. The U.S. reduced its embassy staff and warned that “violent crime, such as carjackings, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings are common throughout South Sudan.”

Recently, the Trump administration abruptly revoked the visas of all South Sudanese, saying the country’s government failed to accept the return of its citizens “in a timely manner.” South Sudan pushed back, saying the person in question was Congolese. It later allowed admitted this person “in the spirit of maintaining friendly relations.”

▶ Read more on what’s to know about the situation in South Sudan

It’s rounding the 10th hour at the House Rules Committee, what’s supposed to be a last stop for the Republicans’ big tax breaks package before a House floor vote.

Instead, lawmakers have been up all night as trouble mounts from all fronts.

GOP conservatives refuse to back the package. Democrats, as the minority party unable to stop it, are doing all they can to drag out the process with a lengthy hearing that is expected to stretch into the day.

Speaker Mike Johnson wanted a “big” vote as soon as Wednesday but that’s now in doubt.

A South African news outlet, News24, reports that in an attempt to defuse a possibly tense meeting with the golf-loving Trump, major-winning golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen will be part of the South African delegation at the White House on Wednesday. Both Els and Rupert have played golf with Trump before, the outlet reported.

Els and Goosen will be familiar to golf-loving Americans having both won the U.S. Open during their careers. They also are Afrikaners, the white minority group Trump has accused South Africa of persecuting. And they have residences in the United States. News24 says billionaire Johann Rupert, South Africa’s richest man, a prominent Afrikaner figure and another avid golf fan, also will attend.

The criminal investigation of Cuomo, who is now running for New York City mayor, follows a request by Rep. James Comer that the Democrat be charged with lying about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

The investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office now led by Cuomo’s political rival Jeanine Pirro follows a referral from Rep. James Comer, Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, over statements Cuomo made to lawmakers investigating his management of the pandemic when the virus was spreading through nursing homes, the person said. The person was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A spokesperson for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, called this leaked probe “lawfare and election interference plain and simple.”

The Republican president posted a doctored video on his social media network on Wednesday that tried to make it appear he teed off on the golf course and struck The Boss with his golf ball.

Trump has been lobbing insults at the rock star as Springsteen, a longtime Trump critic, has been lambasting the president while on stage.

The Trump administration says it has deported eight migrants convicted of crimes in the United States after reports of a migrant flight to South Sudan.

In a 12-minute briefing, immigration authorities refused to say what their final destinations would be, but said their home countries would not take the migrants back.

The U.S. president’s powerful adviser, who was born in South Africa, is expected to be in the room when Trump sits down with Ramaphosa.

This plan was disclosed by a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Musk has harshly criticized his native country’s government as racist against white people.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 amid hopes that large oil reserves could bring prosperity amid endemic poverty. Instead, violence ensued.

Nicholas Haysom, who leads the nearly 20,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission, has warned that fighting between forces loyal to the president and a vice president threatens to spiral again into full-scale civil war of the kind that took 400,000 lives a decade ago.

The U.S. State Department’s annual report on South Sudan, published in April 2024, says “significant human rights issues” include arbitrary killings, disappearances, torture or inhumane treatment by security forces and extensive violence based on gender and sexual identity.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently extended Temporary Protected Status to a small number of South Sudanese already living in the United States until November, to allow for a more thorough review of whether conditions in South Sudan are unsafe for return.

Major General James Monday Enoka also told The Associated Press on Wednesday that if they do, they would be “redeported to their correct country” if found not to be South Sudanese.

U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts called the emergency hearing to get answers about the apparent deportation of immigrants to South Sudan and other countries.

Murphy, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, previously found that any plans to deport people to Libya without notice would “clearly” violate his ruling. He wants the Trump administration attorneys to:

The Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts called Wednesday's hearing to get answers about the apparent deportation of immigrants to South Sudan and other countries.

Murphy, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, previously found that any plans to deport people to Libya without notice would “clearly” violate his ruling. He wants the Trump administration attorneys to:

The Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Organizers announced some details on Wednesday for the parade on June 14 — which is also Flag Day and Trump’s 79th birthday.

The parade will run from 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. ET that Saturday, along Constitution Avenue between 15th and 23rd Streets. A fireworks display and daylong festival on the National Mall are also being planned.

The procession will trace the Army’s evolution from the Revolutionary War to modern times with historical U.S. Army personnel reenactors, period-accurate equipment, vehicles, flyovers and military bands.

Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks.

Trump is hosting Cyril Ramaphosa amid tension after accusing South Africa of allowing a “genocide” against minority white farmers. South Africa has strongly rejected Trump’s allegations. Afrikaner farmers in the country say there’s no evidence of this — that white and Black farmers alike have been murdered.

Ramaphosa pushed for Wednesday’s Oval Office meeting to try to set the record straight and salvage his country’s relationship with the United States. It’s at their lowest point since the nation enforced its apartheid system of racial segregation, which ended in 1994.

Trump has cut all U.S. assistance to South Africa and welcomed several dozen white South African farmers to the U.S. as refugees.

▶ See an AP Photo package on Afrikaner farmers

With Trump back in the White House, a jaunt with the president or a stop in the Oval Office is now as routine for America’s business leaders as a speech to an industry conference.

Corporate titans are spending more time than ever working to curry favor with the administration as part of their effort to score relief from regulations — and tariffs — from the transactional president. He, in turn, is happy to use them as supporting cast members as he tries to project the economy as booming at a time when growth is slowing.

But putting in time with the U.S. president has not fully insulated companies such as Apple, Amazon, Walmart and others from Trump’s anger. It’s a sign that the public commitments they make to create U.S. jobs may be doing more to burnish the president’s image than to protect their own profitability.

▶ Read more about Trump’s relationship with business titans

Trump will host South Africa’s leader at the White House on Wednesday for a meeting that might be tense after Trump accused the country’s government of allowing a “genocide” to take place against minority white farmers.

South Africa has strongly rejected the allegation and President Cyril Ramaphosa pushed for the meeting with Trump in an attempt to salvage his country’s relationship with the United States, which is at its lowest point since the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation in 1994.

Trump has launched a series of accusations at South Africa’s Black-led government, including that it is seizing land from white farmers, enforcing anti-white policies and pursuing an anti-American foreign policy.

Ramaphosa said he hopes to correct what he calls damaging mischaracterizations during the meeting, which is Trump’s first with an African leader at the White House since he returned to office.

▶ Read more about Ramaphosa’s visit

Trump has announced the concept he wants for his future Golden Dome missile defense program — a multilayered, $175 billion system that for the first time will put U.S. weapons in space.

Speaking Tuesday from the Oval Office, Trump said he expects the system will be “fully operational before the end of my term,” which ends in 2029, and have the capability of intercepting missiles “even if they are launched from space.”

It’s likelier that the complex system may have some initial capability by that point, a U.S. official familiar with the program said.

Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground- and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack: detecting and destroying them before a launch, intercepting them in their earliest stage of flight, stopping them midcourse in the air, or halting them in the final minutes as they descend toward a target.

▶ Read more about the “Golden Dome”

House Republicans are pushing to vote on their multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks package as soon as Wednesday, grinding out last-minute deal-making to shore up wavering GOP support and deliver on Trump’s top legislative priority.

Trump himself had instructed the Republican majority to quit arguing and get it done, his own political influence on the line. But GOP leaders worked late into the night to convince skeptical Republicans who have problems on several fronts, including worries that it will pile onto the nation’s $36 trillion debt.

A fresh analysis from the Congressional Budget Office said the tax provisions would increase the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion over the decade, while the changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other services would tally $1 trillion in reduced spending. The lowest-income households in the U.S. would see their resources drop, while the highest ones would see a boost, the CBO said.

Republicans hunkered down at the Capitol through the night for one last committee hearing processing changes to the package. Democrats immediately motioned to adjourn, but the vote failed on party lines.

▶ Read more about the upcoming vote

A federal judge has ruled that U.S. officials must retain custody and control of migrants who were apparently removed to South Sudan in case he rules their removals were unlawful.

U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts issued the ruling late Tuesday after an emergency hearing, after attorneys for immigrants said the Trump administration appears to have begun deporting people from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan — despite a court order restricting removals to other countries.

Murphy said the government must “maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.”

While Murphy left the details to the government’s discretion, he said he expects the migrants “will be treated humanely.”

▶ Read more about the judge’s ruling

As part of the Trump administration’s push to carry out mass deportations, the agency responsible for immigration enforcement has aggressively revived and expanded a decades-old program that delegates immigration enforcement powers to state and local law enforcement agencies.

Under the 287(g) program led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, police officers can interrogate immigrants in their custody and detain them for potential deportation.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, ICE has rapidly expanded the number of signed agreements it has with law enforcement agencies across the country.

The reason is clear. Those agreements vastly beef up the number of immigration enforcement staff available to ICE, which has about 6,000 deportation officers, as they aim to meet Trump’s goal of deporting as many of the roughly 11 million people in the country illegally as they can.

▶ Read more about what these agreements are and what critics say about them

Immigration authorities appear to have begun deporting migrants from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan, attorneys for the migrants said in court documents filed Tuesday.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return messages seeking comment. An immigration official in Texas confirmed via email that at least one man from Myanmar had been flown to South Sudan Tuesday morning, according to court documents.

A woman also reported to attorneys that her husband from Vietnam and up to 10 other people were flown to Africa.

Those removals would violate a court order from a judge in Massachusetts requiring that people have a chance to challenge removals to countries other than their homelands, attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance wrote.

They asked Judge Brian E. Murphy for an emergency order to prevent such removals. He previously said deportations to Libya would violate his ruling.

Speaker Mike Johnson says Trump’s “one, big, beautiful, bill will require one, big, beautiful vote”, but holdouts remain.

The chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, said they’re still “a long ways away” from agreement. And other key Republicans said they were still a no vote.

Johnson headed to the Senate to update Republicans there on the path ahead.

President Donald Trump, right, is joined by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., left, as he speaks with reporters upon his departure from the Capitol following a meeting with the House Republican Conference, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)