The Evening Brief: Courts block, deportations proceed, disasters mount

Tonight's picture is one of enforcement meeting disorder. Courts have blocked certain deportations while deportations themselves proceeded. Rules caught up with those who championed harsh enforcement. Disasters mounted across three continents while one space mission departed flawlessly.

Milo Yiannopoulos, a British commentator who publicly advocated for aggressive deportations and strict immigration enforcement, was arrested by ICE on August 27 at New Orleans International Airport and deported on August 29 for overstaying his US visa after entering legally on May 14, 2019, and failing to appear for an immigration hearing. The Department of Homeland Security said he "chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation's laws." According to the reporting, Yiannopoulos had been a vocal proponent of mass deportation, writing in 2025 that "we have got to deport millions and millions of people" and calling for "on the spot deportation for anyone who can't prove they are in the US legally." He is now barred from returning to the United States.

Elsewhere in immigration enforcement, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration's policy of threatening noncitizen students with deportation over protected speech criticizing Israel. U.S. District Judge Noël Wise ruled Friday that visa revocation as punishment for speech violates both the First and Fifth Amendments. The suit was brought by The Stanford Daily after noncitizen reporters reported self-censoring over deportation fears.

In Minnesota, the state's Supreme Court rejected Mike Lindell's demand for a full recount of the August 11 Republican gubernatorial primary, which he lost to Lisa Demuth by 45,000 votes. Chief Justice Natalie E. Hudson ruled in a six-page decision that the state's recount plan, which would count ballots cast only for Lindell and Demuth, follows state law. Lindell said he plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and vowed to conduct an independent investigation, stating he remains unconvinced by electronic voting machines.

Michigan's Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed apologized Saturday to the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus for a March video statement responding to a synagogue attack that critics said minimized antisemitic violence. In the video, el Sayed said "hurt people hurt people" while discussing the attacker's loss of family members in an airstrike. On Saturday, el Sayed told the caucus: "If my statement caused pain, I'm sorry. That's not what I intended." He added: "I made a mistake. I should have issued a statement condemning it, and it just should have been the full stop." Republican nominee Mike Rogers rejected the apology, saying el Sayed is "trying to con Michiganders" and that "it's too little, too late."

A White House teleprompter operator was ordered by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to pay $172,000 for using advance knowledge of Trump speeches to place bets on prediction markets. Gabriel Perez surrendered profits of $107,539.02 and paid a civil penalty of $65,000 for trades made between December 2025 and February 2026 on Kalshi. The CFTC said Perez had "misappropriated" prior knowledge of speeches to place bets "in breach of his duty of trust and confidence." Perez has been banned from trading for three years.

Disasters accelerated across the evening. Nepal's flood death toll climbed to 788 with 2,502 missing as of Sunday, according to CBS News. Fresh flood warnings forced repeated evacuations as water levels rose in the Bhotekoshi River. Chinese authorities informed their Nepalese counterparts of increased upstream water flow Sunday, prompting emergency evacuation alerts. On the Chinese side, 16 deaths and 546 missing were reported. A Cyprus ferry capsized off northern Cyprus on August 30, killing at least 7 people with 237 rescued and 24 still missing. The catamaran-style ferry was traveling from Kyrenia to the Turkish port of Tasucu when it began taking in water approximately 15 minutes after departure, triggering a distress call. A flash flood at Grand Canyon National Park's Phantom Ranch on August 29 left approximately 15 people missing, with 62 evacuated and nearly all footbridges spanning Bright Angel Creek destroyed. No injuries have been reported, though additional storms are forecast.

In space, NASA successfully launched the $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on August 30 at 7:26 a.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The telescope will spend three months traveling to an orbital position 1 million miles from Earth, where it will conduct a five-year mission to study dark matter and dark energy while searching for over 100,000 exoplanets. Once operational, Roman will survey the sky 1,000 times faster than Hubble, with each image capturing a patch at least 100 times larger than Hubble's.

In other developments, Iceland voted against resuming EU membership talks on August 30, with 52.8% voting no and 47.2% voting yes. The turnout of 82.5% was the highest in any Icelandic election since 2009. Fishing rights, not security concerns, drove the opposition despite geopolitical pressures including Trump's interest in Greenland.

On the Middle East conflict, U.S. forces struck two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz on August 30, the first known American attack on Iran since late July. U.S. Central Command said IRGC forces had been observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the strait. Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Jordan. The exchange marks a resumption of tit-for-tat military action six months into the undeclared war, after a pause of roughly one month.

Two shootings occurred in North America. A 22-year-old woman was killed and five others wounded in a shooting at a rave in Aarau, Switzerland, early Sunday; the shooter remains at large. In Trenton, New Jersey, two people died and eight were wounded in a block party shooting early Sunday, with investigators recovering more than 50 spent shell casings; no arrests have been announced.

In Canada-U.S. relations, Ontario Premier Doug Ford installed a large bilingual sign at Fifty Point Conservation Area on August 30 reading "Lake Ontario - Now and Always" and in French "Lac Ontario - Aujourd'hui et pour toujours" in response to President Trump's executive order to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America." Ford's gesture comes amid escalating trade tensions, with Trump stating tariffs of 50% on Canadian goods and Ford calling Trump a "dictator." The mechanism by which Trump's executive order would formally take effect on a binational body of water remains unaddressed.