MON ANIO

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is investigating after elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures in recent weeks received messages from someone impersonatingSusie Wiles, PresidentDonald Trump's chief of staff. A White House official said Friday the matter is under investigation and the White House takes cybersecurity of its staff seriously. ,The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The FBI did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. TheWall Street Journal reported Thursdaythat senators, governors, business leaders and others began receiving text messages and phone calls from someone who seemed to have gained access to the contacts in Wiles' personal cellphone. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles number, the newspaper reported. It is unclear how the person gained access to Wiles' phone, but the intrusion is the latest security breach for Trump staffers.Last year, Iran hacked into Trump's campaignand sensitive internal documents were stolen and distributed, including a dossier on Vice President JD Vance, created before he was selected as Trump's running mate. Wiles, who served as a co-manager of Trump's campaign before taking on the lynchpin role in his new administration, has amassed a powerful network of contacts. Some of those who received calls heard a voice that sounded like Wiles that may have been generated byartificial intelligence, according to the report. Some received text messages that they initially thought were official White House requests but some people reported the messages did not sound like Wiles. ___ Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON − TheSupreme Courton May 30 said theTrump administrationcanrevoke the temporary legal statusof hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans living in the United States. Two of the court's liberal justices – Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor – dissented. The administration wants to cut short a program that provided a two-year haven for immigrants because of economic, security, political and health crises in their home countries. Lawyers for the migrants said half a million people lawfully in the country will become subject to deportation, what it called the "largest mass illegalization event in modern American history." Labor unions and communities that have welcomed the migrants said they've filled gaps in key industries, including healthcare, construction and manufacturing. Nearly 20% of the workers at one automotive parts manufacturer are in the temporary program, according to labor unions. The Trump administration said it's determined the migrants' presence in the United States is "against the national interests" and the courts don't get to decide otherwise. The move is part of the PresidentDonald Trump'scrackdown on immigrationandpush to ramp up deportations, including of noncitizens previously granted a legal right to live and work in the United States. TheBiden administration hoped the programwould deter migrants from those countries from trying to enter the country illegally. But theTrumpadministration cancelled people's work permits and deportation protections, arguing the program failed as a deterrent and makes it harder to enforce immigration laws for those already in the country. Immigrant rights groups challenged the change on behalf of the immigrants and their sponsors. A federal judge in Massachusettssaidthe abrupt curtailing of the program was based on a legal error, as the administration wrongly concluded that letting the temporary status naturally expire would foreclose the Homeland Security Department's ability to legally expedite their deportations. District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, also said early cancellation of protections requires a case-by-case review for each participant. A three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of AppealsbackedTalwani's decision to temporarily block mass cancellation. All three judges were appointed by Democratic presidents. The Justice Department argued the lower courts are "undoing democratically approved policies that featured heavily in the November election." Lawyers for a group of cities and counties said the abrupt cancellation of the program "would case severe economic and societal harms." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Supreme Court lets Trump revoke migrants' temporary status

The Chrisley family is set to address reporters on Friday, days after the formerly jailed reality TV starsTodd and Julie Chrisleywerepardoned by President Donald Trumpand released from federal prison. The family will be holding a press conference at 10:30 a.m. CT, 11:30 a.m. ET, at the Kimpton Aertson Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, flanked by their attorneys. It is unclear if Todd and Julie Chrisley will be present. Trump issued pardons to the Chrisleys on Wednesday. The pair, known for their roles on reality TV show "Chrisley Knows Best," were convicted in 2022 of tax evasion and defrauding banks to obtain personal loans worth more than $36 million and fund a lavish lifestyle. Prosecutorssaidthat the Chrisleys submitted false bank statements, audit reports and personal financial statements to Georgia community banks to obtain the loans. They were found guilty by an Atlanta jury in 2022 andconvicted of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracyto defraud the United States. Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison and Julie Chrisley was sentenced to seven years. Their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, was pivotal in getting her parents released. The 27-year-old spoke at the Republican National Convention in July and began petitioning Trump to pardon her parents before the president was inaugurated, according to the Chrisleys' attorney, Alex Little. Little told NBC News on Wednesday that the family did not try to petition the Biden administration for the couple's release. Julie Chrisley made her first public outing on Thursday, to a butcher shop in Nashville, Tennessee. The 52-year-old was sporting her natural hair color, gray. Later that day, Savannah Chrisley also posted selfies with her father on Instagram and captioned the images: "To the paparazzi following us looking to pay your bills… here's your photo." The Chrisleys' pardons were amongseveral presidential clemencies to raise eyebrowsin recent months. Former President Joe Bidenissued a pardonfor his son Hunter Biden on federal gun and tax charges in December, andpre-emptive pardonsfor other members of his family before leaving office. Within his first days of his second term, Trumppardoned roughly 1,500 criminal defendantsin connection with the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. And on Monday, Trump announced he was pardoningScott Jenkins, a former sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia. The former sheriff was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year for acceptingover $75,000in exchange for giving law enforcement authority to local businessmen, in addition to two undercover FBI agents. The Chrisleys' former accountant, who was found guilty in 2022 of defrauding the Internal Revenue Service,told the Atlanta Journal-Constitutionon Wednesday that he also plans to petition the Trump administration for a pardon. The accountant, Peter Tarantino, served three years in prison for the crimes. Chase Chrisley, one of the convicted couple's sons, did not rule out whether his parents would return to reality TV in an interview with "Entertainment Tonight" on Thursday. He cautioned that "there's no deal in place for my parents." Chase added that cameras were rolling when he and his siblings first spoke with their parents by telephone after their pardons were announced. "You guys will see it. And it's just been raw reality and truth of, like, the struggles that we've been going through as a family, as individuals and how to navigate that while still staying together and holding our family together," he said. It is unclear if the reality stars will be filming the press conference on Friday.

DAMASCUS (AP) — The lifting of economic sanctions onSyriawill allow the government to begin work on daunting tasks that include fighting corruption and bringing millions of refugees home, Hind Kabawat, the minister of social affairs and labor, told The Associated Press on Friday. Kabawat is the only woman and the only Christian in the 23-membercabinet formedin March to steer the country during a transitional period after the ouster of former PresidentBashar Assadin a rebel offensive in December. Her portfolio will be one of the most important as the country begins rebuilding after nearly 14 years of civil war. She saidmoves by the U.S. and the European Unionin the past week to at least temporarily lift most of the sanctions that had been imposed on Syria over decades will allow that work to get started. Before, she said, "we would talk, we would make plans, but nothing could happen on the ground because sanctions were holding everything up and restricting our work." With the lifting of sanctions they can now move to "implementation." One of the first programs the new government is planning to launch is "temporary schools" for the children of refugees and internally displaced people returning to their home areas. Kabawat said that it will take time for the easing of sanctions to show effects on the ground, particularly since unwinding some of the financial restrictions will involve complicated bureaucracy. "We are going step by step," she said. "We are not saying that anything is easy -- we have many challenges — but we can't be pessimistic. We need to be optimistic." The new government's vision is "that we don't want either food baskets or tents after five years," Kabawat said, referring to the country's dependence on humanitarian aid and many displacement camps. That may be an ambitious target, given that 90% of the country's population currently lives below the poverty line, according to theUnited Nations. Thecivil warthat began in 2011 also displaced half the country's pre-war population of 23 million people. The U.N.'s refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that about half a million havereturned to Syriasince Assad was ousted. But the dire economic situation and battered infrastructure have also dissuaded many refugees from coming back. The widespread poverty also fed into a culture of public corruption that developed in the Assad era, including solicitation of bribes by public employees and shakedowns by security forces at checkpoints. Syria's new rulers have pledged to end the corruption, but they face an uphill battle. Public employees make salaries far below the cost of living, and the new government has so far been unable to make good on a promise to hike public sector wages by 400%. "How can I fight corruption if the monthly salary is $40 and that is not enough to buy food for 10 days?" Kabawat asked. Women and minorities The country's new rulers, led by PresidentAhmad al-Sharaa— the former head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a Sunni Islamist insurgent group that spearheaded the offensive against Assad — have been under scrutiny by western countries over the treatment of Syrian women and religious minorities. In March, clashes between government security forces and pro-Assad armed groups spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks onmembers of the Alawite sectto which Assad belongs. Hundreds ofcivilians were killed. The government formed a committee to investigate the attacks, which has not yet reported its findings. Many also criticized the transitional government as giving only token representation to women and minorities. Apart from Kabawat, the cabinet includes only one member each from the Druze and Alawite sects and one Kurd. "Everywhere I travel… the first and last question is, 'What is the situation of the minorities?'" Kabawat said. "I can understand the worries of the West about the minorities, but they should also be worried about Syrian men and women as a whole." She said the international community's priority should be to help Syria to build its economy and avoid the country falling into "chaos." 'Rebuilding our institutions' Despite being the only woman in the cabinet, Kabawat said "now there is a greater opportunity for women" than under Assad and that "today there is no committee being formed that does not have women in it." "Syrian women have suffered a lot in these 14 years and worked in all areas," she said. "All Syrian men and women need to have a role in rebuilding our institutions." She called for those wary of al-Sharaa to give him a chance. While the West has warmed to the new president -- particularly after his recenthigh-profile meetingwith U.S.President Donald Trump— others have not forgotten that he fought against U.S. forces in Iraq after the invasion of 2003 or that his HTS group was formed as an offshoot of al-Qaida, although it later cut ties. "People used to call (Nelson) Mandela a terrorist, and then he became the first leader among those who freed South Africa, and after that suddenly he was no longer a terrorist," Kabawat said. She urged skeptics to "give us the same chance that you gave to South Africa."

Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan cast the political left as "crazy" and "mean" while he hyped up his colleague, U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, at a special meeting of Des Moines' Westside Conservative Club. Jordan, a Republican from Ohio who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, was in Des Moines on Thursday, May 29, supporting Nunn. Nunn is running for reelection to the 3rdCongressional District next year. And the race has begun in earnest as Democrats begin entering the race. Democratic state Reps.Sarah Trone GarriottandJennifer Konfrsthave both announced their candidacies. And national Democrats haveonce again targeted the seat as a prime pickup opportunity. "Thanks for getting off the sidelines and getting in the game," Jordan told the group, which gathered at the Machine Shed Restaurant in Urbandale. "I learned a long time ago, good things in life don't just happen. You want to accomplish anything that matters … it takes hard work, it takes sacrifice, but most importantly, it takes a willingness to assume risk." Politics is a risky business, he said, particularly in an age of division. He said the dividing line between the parties currently is one of "common sense." "We're the party of common sense and normal," he said. "You think about the left, it is crazy to defund the police. … It's crazy to not have a border. It is crazy to have men compete against women in sports." He painted Democrats broadly as untrustworthy, pointing to decisions made during the COVID-19 pandemic to shut down schools and churches as well as the current conversation about whether former Democratic PresidentJoe Bidenwas mentally fit to serve in office. More:$1,000 to seek asylum? House Republicans propose new immigration fees "The left will tell a lie," Jordan said. "Big media will repeat the lie. Big tech will amplify the lie. And then when you tell the truth, they call you a racist or some other name. They'll attack you. They'll come at you personally because they're mean. Then pretty soon, your position will be proven accurate. So much so, in this example even, Jake Tapper wrote a book to say we were right." Tapper is the co-author of a bookthat suggests aides and confidantes close to Biden shielded him from the public to hide his declining mental state. Nunn said he had recently spoken to Republican PresidentDonald Trumpabout the importance of Iowa's congressional races in the coming midterm elections. "We were just on a conversation with the President, and he said, 'You know what, everybody looks to Iowa, and they might be looking at presidential races coming up in 2028,'" Nunn said. "But the President said, 'I am laser focused on 2026.'" Nunn again touted the tax cut and spending package that recently cleared the House of Representatives. "It adds 10,000 new ICE agents," he said. "But at this point, we almost don't even need them, because the president has been so effective, they've stopped coming over themselves." He said he believes there are people who need access to social safety net programs, but he believes the legislation, which makes massive spending cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, are for the best. "There are important things that Washington can do for Americans," Nunn said. "I'll be the first to say, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP do help Americans. But they have to be used in a way to help Americans with a hand up, not a handout." Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach her atbpfann@dmreg.comor 515-284-8244. Follow her on X at @brianneDMR. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register:US Rep. Jim Jordan backs Zach Nunn ahead of 2026 reelection bid