WASHINGTON: US intelligence agencies rejected a claim by President Donald Trump used to justify the deportation of more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador, according to a declassified memo released on Monday.
The memo by the National Intelligence Council, dated April 7, shows US spy agencies do not believe Trump’s claims that the Tren de Aragua (TDA) criminal gang is linked to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
Trump had used an obscure wartime law — the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA) — to deport people he alleged were members of the TDA to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
“While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” the memo read.
The memo aligned with intelligence findings first reported by the New York Times in March, which said US spy agencies were at odds with Trump’s claims.
A day after that report, the Justice Department announced a “criminal investigation relating to the selective leak of inaccurate, but nevertheless classified, information from the Intelligence Community relating to Tren de Aragua (TDA).”
“We will not tolerate politically motivated efforts by the Deep State to undercut President Trump’s agenda by leaking false information onto the pages of their allies at the New York Times,” a statement attributed to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
Monday’s memo was released following a request under the Freedom of Information Act by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which provided a copy to the Times.
The Supreme Court lifted a lower court order last month blocking the deportation of undocumented migrants under the AEA, but said they must be given an opportunity to challenge their removal.
The AEA had been last used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II.
The Trump administration has sent more than 200 alleged TDA gang members to El Salvador, and used images of the deportees shackled and having their heads shaved in a maximum security prison as proof that it is cracking down on illegal immigration.
US authorities have provided little public evidence to support claims that all the deportees were members of TDA.
Lawyers have denounced the fact that some deportees were accused of membership because of their tattoos.

A police personnel keeps watch at a polling station as voting commenced for Sri Lanka’s local government elections in Colombo on May 6, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The polls opened in Sri Lanka on Tuesday (May 6, 2025) for the delayed local council elections seen as a major electoral test for the ruling National People’s Power (NPP) led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

The voting started at 7 am and will end at 4 pm. Over 17.1 million voters are eligible to vote to elect 8,287 members of 339 local government bodies at 13,759 polling stations, election officials said.

Over 75,000 candidates from 49 political parties and 257 independent groups are in the fray. The elected candidates will be appointed for a 4-year term.

This would be the first electoral test for the current government led by President Dissanayake since it won the presidential and parliamentary elections in the last quarter of 2024.

The last local elections were held in the country in 2018.

However, the next local elections were postponed due to political unrest caused by the economic crisis in 2022. The elections were postponed twice in 2023 even after the dates were announced by the election commission.

The then government’s decision not to hold the local election, citing a lack of finances amid the economic crisis, was challenged in court. The court ordered the early conduct of the poll.

Mr. Dissanayake narrowly won the September presidential election with just 42% of the vote and then led his NPP to a resounding victory in the parliamentary election that followed in November.

The NPP, after winning the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2024, has been struggling to fulfil its key promises made during the elections.

Mr. Dissanayake, despite his pre-election pledges to revise the hard conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, has failed to deliver his promise and is continuing with the same austerity measures imposed by his predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The unique system of elections, in operation only for the second time, would see 60 per cent of local council members elected first past the post and 40% elected based on proportional representation.

A minimum representation of 10% for women and 25% for youth is guaranteed within the system.

Dissanayake urged the voters to elect the NPP for a clean local government. During the election campaign, Dissanayake said that he would not release money for the councils won by the opposition. The comments drew criticism for exerting undue influence on the voters.

The divided opposition seemed disorganised, posing little real challenge to the ruling NPP, observers noted.

CAIRO: Sudan’s paramilitary unleashed drones on the Red Sea city of Port Sudan early Tuesday, hitting key targets there, including the airport, the port and a hotel, military officials said. The barrage was the second such attack this week on a city that had been a hub for people fleeing Sudan’s two-year war.
There was no immediate word on any casualties or the extent of the damage. Local media reported loud sound of explosions and fires at the port and the airport. Footage circulating online showed thick smoke rising over the area.
The attack on Port Sudan, which also serves as an interim seat for Sudan’s military-allied government, underscores that after two years of fighting, the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are still capable of threatening each other’s territory.
The RSF drones struck early in the morning, said two Sudanese military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Abdel-Rahman al-Nour, a Port Sudan resident, said he woke up to strong explosions, and saw fires and plumes of black smoke rising over the port. Msha’ashir Ahmed, a local journalist living in Port Sudan, said fires were still burning late Tuesday morning in the southern vicinity of the maritime port.
The attack apparently disrupted air traffic at the airport, with Cairo airport data in neighboring Egypt showing that three Port Sudan-bound flights were canceled on Tuesday.
The RSF did not release any statements on the attack. On Sunday, the paramilitary force struck Port Sudan for the first time in the war, disrupting air traffic in the city’s airport, which has been the main entry point for the county in the last two years.
A military ammunition warehouse in the Othman Daqna airbase in the city was also hit, setting off a fire that burned for two days.
When the fighting in Sudan broke out, the focus of the battles initially was the country’s capital, Khartoum, which turned into a war zone. Withing weeks, Port Sudan, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) to the east of Khartoum, turned into a safe haven for the displaced and those fleeing the war. Many aid missions and UN agencies moved their offices there.
The attacks on Port Sudan are also seen as retaliation after the Sudanese military earlier this month struck the Nyala airport in South Darfur, which the paramilitary RSF has turned into a base and where it gets shipments of arms, including drones.
The RSF is allied with the United Arab Emirates, which UN experts say has provided weapons, including drones to the paramilitary. The UAE denies the claim. Sudan’s miliary is backed by Egypt.
Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023, when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare in Khartoum. From there, the fighting spread to other parts of the country.
Since then, at least 24,000 people have been killed, though the number is likely far higher. The war has driven about 13 million people from their homes, including four million crossed into neighboring countries. It also pushed parts of the country into famine.
The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western Darfur region, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.