ICE deports over 100 Chinese nationals
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), led by its Dallas office, deported 122 Chinese nationals earlier this month as part of a coordinated Department of Homeland Security operation...
The Rebel Yellow - Issue #82
An Air India Dreamliner crash in Ahmedabad has left over 240 dead, marking the deadliest civil aviation disaster in India in nearly 30 years. Meanwhile, Trump declares a new U.S.-China trade deal, federal agents expand immigration raids to nail salons, and China and the Philippines issue protest-related travel advisories. Also in this issue: ICE deports over 100 Chinese nationals, a UCSF professor sues over Gaza-related posts, San Antonio elects its first Asian American woman and openly gay mayor, and BTS nears full reunion as more members complete military service.
Air India Boeing 787 crash leaves hundreds dead, 1 survivor
An Air India Boeing 787‑8 Dreamliner, Flight AI171, en route to London Gatwick, crashed into the B.J. Medical College hostel in Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff Thursday at 1:38 p.m. local time, killing more than 240 people, officials said.
30 seconds
Flight AI171 departed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport and climbed to about 600 feet before issuing a Mayday distress call. Around 30 seconds after takeoff, the aircraft crashed into a densely populated area, striking a hostel dining hall on the college campus. CCTV footage showed the plane rising briefly before plummeting and erupting in flames.
Sole survivor
All 242 people on board — 230 passengers and 12 crew — were presumed dead except for one survivor: British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who was seated in emergency exit row 11A. He reportedly jumped from the aircraft as it broke apart. Passengers included 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.
At least five medical students on the ground were killed when debris struck the dining area during lunch. Dozens of others were injured. Initial fatality estimates of 294 were revised downward after authorities removed duplicate counts.
Investigation underway
The crash is the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner since its commercial debut in 2009. It is also India’s deadliest civil aviation disaster since 1996.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is leading the probe with support from Boeing, GE Aerospace, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch. Investigators will review flight recorders, maintenance logs, pilot records and wreckage. Ahmedabad airport briefly suspended operations but has since resumed limited service.
Trump claims “done deal” with China … but is it, really?
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that a U.S.-China trade deal is “done” after two days of high-stakes negotiations in London, but observers say it just put Washington in a circle.
Catch up
The London meetings were prompted by a May agreement in Geneva that temporarily lowered punishing tariffs that had brought trade between the superpowers nearly to a halt. Trump’s April duties had climbed to 145% on most Chinese goods, leaving U.S. businesses that rely on them struggling. The Geneva agreement lowered Trump’s new tariffs to 30% and China’s to 10%, establishing a 90-day window until Aug. 10 for a broader deal.
The arrangement, however, fell apart due to conflicts over rare earth shipments and technology access. Beijing holds a dominant market position in rare earth production — materials vital for products from automobiles to military hardware — leading U.S. industries to lobby Washington for action.
Where things stand
After a pivotal phone conversation between Trump and Xi Jinping last week that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said “changed everything,” negotiators reached what officials termed a “framework” during extended talks at London’s Lancaster House. “Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me,” Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday, noting that the U.S. will get “a total of 55% tariffs” and China, 10%.
The 55% U.S. tariff structure includes several components: 10% universal duties on most trading partners, 20% penalties aimed at China over fentanyl issues and 25% rates carried over from Trump’s first presidency. The framework calls for China to deliver “full magnets, and any necessary rare earths … up front,” while the U.S. will maintain Chinese student access to American universities.
On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian confirmed that a consensus has been reached and reiterated that Beijing will always honor its commitments.
The big picture
Despite Trump’s positive assessment, analysts question the deal’s substance. It appears the framework only primarily returns both nations to their pre-April status, with elevated tariffs still in effect.
Fundamental trade disagreements, including China’s large trade surplus and intellectual property concerns, remain untouched, while the World Bank this week lowered global growth projections, identifying elevated tariffs as a “significant headwind” for most economies.
The U.S. and Chinese governments must approve the framework before any implementation begins.
China, Philippines issue safety advisories amid LA protests
China and the Philippines have issued safety advisories via their Los Angeles consulates, warning their citizens to remain alert amid demonstrations over federal immigration raids that led President Donald Trump to deploy 2,000 National Guard personnel over the weekend.
China instructed its citizens to avoid large gatherings, solo nighttime outings and places with poor security conditions. It also recommended tracking government updates and boosting personal security measures during active law enforcement actions.
Similarly, the Philippines advised its citizens to exercise heightened awareness concerning demonstrations and to stay away from “any crowd build-ups that may lead to disturbances.” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has also instructed relevant departments to provide assistance to affected Filipinos.
The protests mark an escalation in public response to Trump’s sweeping immigration policies. His two-month National Guard activation, meanwhile, is facing legal challenges. It marks the first instance of federal military intervention overriding state leadership since the Civil Rights movement.
Feds are now raiding nail salons
As immigration enforcement intensifies nationwide, federal agents have also set their eyes on nail salons, apprehending 12 people at a business in Georgia on June 4 and raiding at least two more locations in New York on Tuesday.
What happened: The Georgia operation, which reportedly sprang from a tip, occurred at Luxx Nail Lounge in Marietta, with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents taking 12 of the 13 workers on duty into custody.
A witness named Angel said seeing the arrests “turned my stomach,” telling WRDW, “I don’t see how raiding this business that serves this community is doing anything but hurting our community.” Similar raids targeted Paint Lab and Top Nails in Potsdam, New York, on Tuesday in what officials called a “victim centered investigation.”
What authorities are saying: Authorities are now conducting about 3,000 immigration arrests daily across the country, with the Atlanta region reportedly averaging 100 per day. “Hiring illegal aliens is a federal crime that undermines fair labor, exploits the vulnerable and threatens public safety. Employers will be held accountable,” said HSI Atlanta, which shared a clip showing an Asian man being arrested.
Meanwhile, Steve Shrank, special agent in charge at HSI Atlanta, told WSB-TV, “This business rode on that illegal labor force. As you can see, they are closed today because they have no employees to do that work.”
How ILRC’s “Red Cards” can help protect immigrants during ICE encounters
As immigration enforcement actions grow under the Trump administration, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s “Red Cards” remain a practical, trusted tool for asserting legal rights during encounters with ICE. Immigrants — and anyone who might face questioning by authorities — are encouraged to download and carry these cards, and to share them widely with family, friends and neighbors.
The wallet-sized cards provide clear, legally grounded instructions based on constitutional protections. They outline the right to remain silent, the right not to open the door without a judge-signed warrant, the right to refuse to sign documents, and the right to speak with a lawyer — regardless of immigration status.
Originally created in 2007, the Red Cards are available for free in 39 languages at ilrc.org. The ILRC recommends printing them on red cardstock with rounded corners to improve durability and visibility. They are designed to be kept easily accessible in a wallet or near a front door.
Since 2020, more than 9 million cards have been downloaded — more than in the previous 17 years combined. Though not part of a current ILRC campaign, the Red Cards continue to be shared informally by educators, advocacy groups and legal clinics. The organization urges users to avoid third-party sellers and download only from its official website to ensure legal accuracy.
ICE deports more than 100 Chinese nationals in major op
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), led by its Dallas office, deported 122 Chinese nationals earlier this month as part of a coordinated Department of Homeland Security operation targeting individuals with final removal orders.
The details: The flight to China transported 96 men and 26 women, aged 19 to 68, from ICE detention centers nationwide. All deportees had received their final orders, with many convicted of what officials called “egregious crimes.” Those included murder, rape, drug trafficking, human smuggling, bribery and sexual offenses involving minors. Some notable cases included a 47-year-old convicted murderer, a 27-year-old rapist and a 55-year-old human smuggler.
What authorities are saying: ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Dallas acting Field Office Director Josh Johnson acknowledged interagency partnerships and coordination between the agency’s field offices as behind the successful deportation.
“This operation not only enhances the public safety of our communities across the U.S. but also strengthens national security,” Johnson said in a news release. “Our colleagues at ICE come to work every day to identify, arrest and remove illegal aliens who attempt to circumvent our nation’s immigrations laws.”
The big picture: The operation, part of the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration policy, came just before a series of ICE raids in Los Angeles that sparked a wave of protests across the country. Trump responded by deploying thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to the city, bypassing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s constitutional authority and consequently drawing legal challenge.
Indian American professor sues UCSF over firing linked to Gaza posts
An academic physician at UC San Francisco has sued the university, claiming free speech violations after she was fired over social media posts about Israel’s Gaza operations.
What she’s saying: Dr. Rupa Marya, who worked at the university for 22 years — with a focus on “the health impacts of colonialism, racism and state violence as well as the paths to create health equity” — was fired in late May following a nine-month suspension.
After Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, she began posting content supporting Gaza’s hospital workers while condemning strikes on medical centers. She slammed Zionist ideology as supremacist and racist, questioning how such beliefs might affect patient care. Her posts reportedly triggered death and rape threats, but administrators allegedly refused protective measures despite providing such help during the 2020 civil rights protests.
What the university is saying: UCSF representatives have declined to comment on Marya’s case, with spokesperson Kristen Bole citing privacy laws. However, the university had previously issued a statement condemning “a tired and familiar racist conspiracy theory” about “‘Zionist’ doctors” threatening certain patients of color and denouncing “those who attack entire groups of people and promote divisiveness and xenophobia, including Islamophobia and, in this instance, antisemitism.”
Citing safety concerns, the university’s medical board temporarily revoked Marya’s clinic privileges in October 2024 before restoring them two weeks later.
The big picture: Marya’s case reflects growing tensions over Palestinian advocacy on college campuses. It also comes amid increased federal pressure on universities over campus antisemitism, including Justice Department official Leo Terrell’s threat of “massive lawsuits” against the UC system. Similar disputes have occurred at other UC campuses, including UCLA’s firing of another professor over their involvement in pro-Palestinian encampments.
Marya’s federal case seeks court protection of her medical licensing, while her state case demands financial compensation for lost income and emotional distress.
3rd Chinese researcher arrested for smuggling biomaterials to University of Michigan lab
Chengxuan Han, a doctoral student from Wuhan’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology, was arrested June 8 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and charged with smuggling biological materials into the U.S. and making false statements, federal prosecutors said. Han is the third Chinese national in two weeks accused of secretly sending research specimens to a University of Michigan laboratory.
Packages flagged before arrival
Court filings say Han mailed four packages from China in 2024 and 2025 that were labeled as household goods but actually held live biological material tied to roundworm research. All were addressed to associates at a university lab in Ann Arbor.
Customs officers stopped Han after the flight from Shanghai and, during questioning, she initially denied shipping the items. Agents later found she had deleted phone data three days earlier. Han then admitted the shipments were hers, according to the criminal complaint.
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Alleged pattern
“The alleged smuggling of biological materials by this alien from a science and technology university in Wuhan, China — to be used at a University of Michigan laboratory — is part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said.
Cheyvoryea Gibson, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, called the case “a direct threat to public safety and national security” that “severely compromises the integrity of our nation’s research institutions.”
Strict rules
Scientists often import foreign plants, animals or microbes to study traits such as pesticide resistance or genetic variation, but doing so legally requires advance federal permits. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the U.S. for research purposes are stringent but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, director of field operations for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Officials have not explained why Han bypassed the permit process or whether the roundworm samples posed a safety risk.
Linked cases at same university
Han’s arrest follows charges on June 3 against University of Michigan post-doctoral fellow Yunqing Jian and her partner Zunyong Liu, who allegedly tried to illegally bring the crop-blighting fungus Fusarium graminearum into the country. Federal investigators say they are examining whether the three cases are connected.
Han remains in federal custody ahead of a detention hearing set for June 11. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison on the smuggling count and five years for making false statements.
San Antonio elects its 1st Asian American woman, openly gay mayor
Gina Ortiz Jones defeated Rolando Pablos to become the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, making history as the city’s first Asian American woman, first Filipino woman and first openly gay mayor.
By the numbers: Jones won 54% of the vote in the runoff election, receiving 77,484 votes to Pablos’ 65,202. Aside from the aforementioned milestones, she is now the first Asian American woman to helm a major Texas city and the first woman mayor in Texas to have served in war.
About Jones: Jones, a 44-year-old West Side native, was born to a Filipino mother who immigrated from the Philippine province of Pangasinan and raised her and her sister alone. Jones left San Antonio in 1999 after receiving an Air Force ROTC scholarship to attend Boston University. She served as an intelligence officer in Iraq and later managed a $173 billion budget and 600,000 personnel as undersecretary of the Air Force in the Biden administration. She lost congressional races in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District in 2018 and 2020 before winning this mayoral contest.
What she’s saying: In her victory speech Saturday night, Jones thanked her supporters and reminded the crowd that San Antonio “is about compassion” and “leading with everybody in mind.” She also stressed that her victory is “a testament to the vision we put forward — a vision of getting things done while treating people with dignity, respect and compassion.” She also said she looks forward to being “a mayor for all.”
Jones faces immediate challenges including projected multi-million dollar budget deficits when she takes office.
Gabbard confirms AI use in government intel work, JFK file reviews
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard revealed this week that artificial intelligence tools were used to expedite the declassification review of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Speaking at the Amazon Web Services Summit in Washington on Monday, Gabbard said AI enabled officials to vet records far more quickly than traditional manual methods.
“We have been able to do that through the use of AI tools far more quickly than what was done previously — which was to have humans go through and look at every single one of these pages,” Gabbard said.
The U.S. government released the files in March, two months into President Donald Trump’s second term. Gabbard said the review, which covered roughly 80,000 pages and included files on Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination as well, could have taken months or years without AI. The documents did not cast new doubt on the official conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, but did reveal further details about CIA operations in the 1960s — including efforts to arrange “female companionship” for visiting foreign dignitaries, according to a summary by the Center for Politics.
America’s 18 intelligence agencies, including the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency, have also commissioned and deployed a chatbot across the entire intelligence community. “Making it possible for us to use AI applications in the top-secret clouds has been a game changer,” Gabbard said during her keynote address.
J-pop artist Ayumi Hamasaki denies Elon Musk baby rumor
Japanese pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki broke her silence Monday, publicly denying viral rumors that she secretly had a child with Elon Musk.
Driving the news: The speculation had swirled for weeks online after a vague claim linking Musk to an unnamed Japanese pop star sparked a wave of guesses — many centering on Hamasaki, one of Japan’s most recognizable entertainers.
What she said: In an Instagram story, Hamasaki stated: “Elon Musk is not the father of [either of] my children.” She acknowledged the bizarre nature of the claim, saying even her mother laughed at the rumor. Still, she explained her decision to respond publicly: “When my kids are old enough to start googling things, I don’t want them to run into these rumors and think they’re true.”
How the rumor started: The speculation began after MAGA-aligned influencer Ashley St. Clair told The New York Times that Musk had once mentioned fathering a child with a Japanese pop star. Although no names were mentioned, attention quickly turned to Hamasaki due to her high profile and history of keeping her children’s fathers private.
Where it stands: Musk has not commented on the reports. Hamasaki’s statement is her first and only direct response, aiming to put an end to the rumor with a clear denial.
BTS near reunion as 6 members finish military service
BTS moves closer to a complete reunion following Wednesday’s discharge of Jimin and Jungkook from the military, with just one remaining member yet to finish his mandatory service.
Catch up
Jimin and Jungkook’s exit brings the total to six BTS members who have fulfilled South Korea’s compulsory military requirements. Both completed 18-month terms with the Army’s 5th Infantry Division after enlisting together in December 2023, serving as an artilleryman and cook, respectively.
Their release followed Tuesday’s discharge of bandmates RM and V from a different military facility. Earlier completions include Jin and J-Hope last year, while Suga continues his alternative service as a social worker until June 21.
What’s next
BTS will make their first group appearance at their traditional anniversary celebration, “BTS Festa,” scheduled for June 13-14 at Kintex in Goyang. The reunion carries substantial business implications for their label, Hybe, which previously depended on the group for as much as 95% of its revenue.
Highlighting confidence in the group’s return, Hybe displayed a “WE ARE BACK” messaging at its Seoul headquarters this week.
Sumo’s GOAT Hakuho quits Japan Sumo Association after stable dispute
Hakuho Sho, the record-holding former yokozuna with 45 top-division championships, resigned from the Japan Sumo Association on June 9 after talks collapsed over the continued closure of his Miyagino stable, which was shut last year following a trainee’s violent misconduct.
Driving the news: The Mongolia-born, naturalized Japanese great said the governing body offered “no hope” of reopening the stable, leaving nine wrestlers without a home dojo. “After 25 years of loving sumo and being loved by sumo, I want to advance toward a new dream,” he told reporters at a Tokyo hotel.
Record-setting career: Hakuho retired from the ring in 2021 but remains the sport’s most decorated wrestler with 1,187 career victories, 1,093 wins in the top division and 16 undefeated tournament titles — records that underscore the scale of his departure from sumo’s traditional power structure.
Why it matters: His exit comes as Japan seeks to loosen Mongolia’s grip on sumo’s highest rank. Before Japan-born Onosato’s promotion in May, six of the previous seven grand champions — including Hakuho — were Mongolian.
What’s next: Hakuho announced a “world sumo project” to stage amateur tournaments abroad and broaden participation to women and children. He said Toyota Motor Corp. chairman Akio Toyoda supports the initiative; Toyoda, in a statement, called Hakuho “devoted to trying to bring the world closer together through sumo.”