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The Trump administration's use of an obscure portion of immigration law to detain and attempt to deportpro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalilis likely unconstitutional, according to an order issued Wednesday by a federal judge in New Jersey. Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and permanent US resident, is "likely to win on the merits" of his arguments against the federal government's assertion that he poses a threat to the administration's foreign policy goal of combatting antisemitism, Judge Michael Farbiarz of the Federal District Court in New Jersey writes in a lengthy order. The administration's use of that law appears to be "unconstitutionally vague as applied" to Khalil, Farbiarz writes. But the judge did not order Khalil's release, finding also that he has not provided sufficient evidence against the administration's other claims that hefailed to discloseties with certain organizations when he applied for residency status in the US. Khalil has been in detention since his arrest near Columbia in March. He was among the first in a series of high-profile arrests made by the Trump administration in the name of battling antisemitism, but which has sparked a litany of free-speech concerns. An immigration judge in April ruled Khalilcould be deportedafter the government argued his presence posed "potentially serious foreign policy consequences." Khalil's attorneys argue the government's evidence is insufficient and based solely on a letter fromSecretary of State Marco Rubiothat does not allege criminal activity. They contend Khalil is being targeted for his political speech, a First Amendment violation. The federal judge's new order is sympathetic to that argument. "The Secretary did not affirmatively determine that (Khalil's) alleged conduct has impacted U.S. relations with other countries. Indeed, the Secretary's determination says nothing about any country other than America," Farbiarz writes. The judge also notes that deporting Khalil on those grounds would be "unprecedented." Khalil's legal team praised the order and said it will provide the additional information requested by the judge as quickly as possible to "return (Khalil) to his wife and newborn son." "The district court held what we already knew: Secretary Rubio's weaponization of immigration law to punish Mahmoud and others like him is likely unconstitutional," the legal team said, according to a statementposted by the ACLU, which is helping represent him. Khalil's case is playing out separately in immigration court in Louisiana, where he's been in detention. In alengthy hearing last week, a judge denied a request to terminate Khalil's deportation proceedings after his attorneys argued that he was arrested illegally and without a warrant. CNN's Ruben Correa contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

Former White House advisor Steve Bannon pushed back forcefully Thursday against claims that President Donald Trump's immigration plans amount to "mass incarceration." In a Thursday episode of MSNBC's "Katy Tur Reports," Emma Vigeland claimed Trump had abandoned his "drain the swamp" rhetoric, embraced Washington elites, and used criminal justice reform as a tool to reward allies while overseeing a mass incarceration agenda. Bannon said on his show that the Trump administration's First Step Act was a landmark reform rooted in compassion and fairness and that there is a clear difference between incarceration and deportation. "And this is why they're losing. She's a bald-faced liar. Nobody has done more on prison reform and work with prisoners and is more anti-mass incarceration," Bannon said in response to what Vigeland said. Bannon reminded viewers of a statement he issued while inprison. WATCH: "On August, on September 26, and Grace, we should put this up because you were involved in this, in prison. I put the only statement I think I ever put out in prison about the coming victory over Kamala Harris. You know where I got that from? The prisoners. Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party and that young lady right there, they represent mass incarcerations," Bannon added. Bannon then emphasized that the First Step Act, a signature bipartisan achievement under Trump, marked a historic break from the era of mass imprisonment, particularly for minority communities.(RELATED: Steve Bannon Predicts Massive Cash Flow From Tariffs As Trump Tightens Grip) "What he's doing with illegal aliens is not mass incarceration. That's deportation of people that have no due process rights and are going to get the hell out of this country. President Trump, the First Step Act, asked the prisoners, ma'am, have you interviewed the prisoners? His First Step Act is the boldest move ever against mass incarceration. Remember, the Democratic Party, and particularly the progressive part of the Democratic Party, have been for mass incarceration," Bannon said. Clarifying Trump's deportation agenda, Bannon discussed the distinction between criminal justice reform and immigration enforcement. "What President Trump [wants] is mass deportation of illegal aliens, and they're going to get mass deported. It's for you to sit there and Katie Turner, now for you to correct that bald-faced lie, and that was a bald-faced lie, and Katie Turner, you know better," Bannon added. Bannon went on to call MSNBC "corrupt" and "increasingly irrelevant," blaming its misinformation campaigns for the network's declining influence. "This is how corrupt MSNBC is. This is why there's no offense becoming more and more irrelevant. This is why African American men are voting for President Trump in the MAGA movement in record numbers," Bannon said. "This is why the Hispanic community is coming to President Trump in the MAGA movement in record numbers." Before winning in an electoral landslide against former Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump campaigned on an aggressive immigrationplatformthat included building the border wall, ending birthright citizenship, and launching the largestdeportationeffort in U.S. history. Trumpsaidhe will declare a national emergency and deploy military resources to enforce mass deportations. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter's byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contactlicensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

By Francesco Guarascio HANOI (Reuters) -Investment in a planned Trump Tower in Vietnam is estimated at around $1 billion and construction of the at least 60-storey skyscraper could start next year, a person familiar with the discussions told Reuters. The building, for which plans are still preliminary, would be the second major project the Trump Organization, U.S. President Donald Trump's family business, is reviewing in Vietnam. The Southeast Asian country is currently in trade talks with Washington to avoid crippling 46% tariffs. Eric Trump, senior vice president of the Trump Organization, visited Vietnam last week to survey the site for the tower in the country's southern business hub of Ho Chi Minh City and to attend the groundbreaking for a golf resort in northern Vietnam. The approval for the golf club, according to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, had been expedited by the authorities. The Trump Organization would operate the golf club, while its Vietnamese partner, real estate firm Kinhbac City, would focus on developing it with an estimated investment of $1.5 billion, the source said. The division of work had not been previously reported. A similar arrangement is likely to be agreed for the Trump Tower, with the investment expected to come mostly from local partners, the source said, declining to be named because the information is not public. The Trump Organization did not reply to a request for comment. Kinhbac City, a leading industrial real estate developer in Vietnam, did not respond to a request for comment. When it announced its collaboration with the Trump Organization in October, the company said the venture "will focus on developing 5-star hotels, championship-style golf courses, and luxurious residential estates and unparalleled amenities in Vietnam." During his visit last week, Eric Trump toured the site where the skyscraper would be built and met local officials, the source said. That was in line with the schedule of his engagements with the city's authorities, according to a Vietnamese document seen by Reuters. The tower would be built in Thu Thiem, an area under development in central Ho Chi Minh City where a new financial centre is planned to be built, the document from the city's authorities showed. 'ENVY OF ALL OF ASIA' At the groundbreaking for the golf resort, Eric Trump said the projects to be developed in Vietnam would be "the envy of all of Asia and of the entire world", adding he would visit the country frequently to further the company's plans. Approvals for the tower project are still being sought and no final decision had been made about when construction will start, the source said, adding that the aim was to have the groundbreaking next year. The investment could be larger than $1 billion if permits are obtained for a building with more than 60 floors, the person said. The Trump Organization operates several towers in the United States and across the world, but does not own all of them. The flagship Trump Tower in the Manhattan neighbourhood of New York City was built in the 1980s. Others have since been built in Chicago, Florida and abroad, including in Turkey and the Philippines. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Kate Mayberry)

PINGTUNG COUNTY, Taiwan — Below a windy lookout, three U.S.-made mobile rocket launchers lurched forward at a military base inTaiwan, preparing for their first live-fire test on the Beijing-claimed island. "3, 2, 1... launch," a Taiwan military officer counted down over a loudspeaker. A total of 33 rockets were then fired toward the Pacific Ocean, in the opposite direction from the Chinese mainland. Making a thunderous sound, each erupted in bursts of flame and trailed white smoke that arced high into the air. The historic test of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, took place this month at an undisclosed location in Pingtung County, on the southern tip of Taiwan, as Taipei scrambles to overhaul its military and get PresidentDonald Trump's backing amid growing military threats fromChina. The rocket system could be crucial if Taiwan ever came under attack from Beijing, which has not ruled out the use of force in annexing the self-governing democracy. Manufactured by U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, HIMARS mobile launchers are equipped with guided rockets that have a range of about 185 miles — far enough to reach coastal targets in the southern Chinese province of Fujian on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. It is the same rocket system that Ukrainian forces have been using to target Russian positions — though unlike Ukraine, Taiwan paid the United States more than $1 billion for the weaponry. The island has received 11 of the 29 HIMARS launchers it has purchased, with the rest expected to arrive ahead of schedule next year. Though the U.S. has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, it is the island's biggest weapons supplier. Billions of dollars in arms deals with the U.S. have helped Taiwan build up asymmetric tools such as drones, missiles and upgraded fighter jets. As China ramps up military and other pressure, Taiwan has alsoextended compulsory military serviceto one year from four months, doubled mandatory annual refresher training for reservists to two weeks, and pledged to increase its defense budget to more than 3% of GDP. While the U.S. remains a "very important" strategic partner, Taipei "fully recognizes" the need to strengthen its own defense capabilities, said Sun Li-fang, a spokesperson for Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense. "Ensuring Taiwan's security is our responsibility and our top priority," he said. "We take this matter very seriously." But it is difficult for Taiwan to build a modern fighting force, Sun said, in the face of "inherently disproportionate" threats from China, whose 2.8-million-strong military ismore than 18 times largerthan Taiwan's number of active-duty personnel. In the year since Taiwan PresidentLai Ching-tetook office, China has held several rounds of large-scale military exercises that Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, warned this month are not drills but "rehearsals." The Chinese military also sends warplanes and ships toward Taiwan on near-daily sorties and in recent days held an amphibious landing drill in the Taiwan Strait. To deal with such "tangible and real" threats, it is "crucial" that the U.S. and Taiwan continue their military cooperation, Sun said. In addition to HIMARS, the U.S. and Taiwan have advanced their cooperation with an intelligence sharing deal that Sun called a "game-changer." "We typically don't go into detail because intelligence and information sharing are sensitive," Sun said in his government's first public comments on the subject. "That said, this kind of intelligence exchange is extremely helpful for us in understanding threats from the enemy and making appropriate defensive deployments." In congressional testimony this month, a retired U.S. Navy admiral also publicly acknowledged for the first time that there are about 500 U.S. military personnel stationed in Taiwan, more than 10 times the number previously disclosed. Even as it works with the U.S., Taiwan is unsure about the extent of the security commitment from Washington, which has long maintained a policy of "strategic ambiguity" when it comes to whether U.S. forces would defend the island against a Chinese attack. Further muddling the picture are commentsTrump has made about Taiwan, the global leader in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, "stealing" chip business from the U.S. and not paying enough for its own defense. Officials in Taipei have also been rattled by thecollapse of U.S. support for Ukraineas well as the threat of steep tariffs on Taiwan's exports, which Trump has set at 32% in addition to a 10% baseline. "You have different voices emerging from the United States, so that creates more uncertainties for Taiwanese," said Andrew Yang, Taiwan's former minister of national defense. "Which voices or narratives should we listen to?" Reservist Jason Chu, 30, said that among those around him, there was a "growing" sense of responsibility to defend Taiwan. "The biggest difference lies in our mindset," said Chu, an engineer. He said that while many people in Taiwan most likely think of their training as a duty at first, often they later begin to think of it as protecting their country. People in Taiwan have watched with concern as war drags on Ukraine, another democracy targeted by a larger, autocratic neighbor — and some have even gone to join the fight against Russia. Tony Lu went to Ukraine in 2022 first as a volunteer, then as a fighter. He said he thinks people in Taiwan need to be ready. "No one wants war — I don't want it either," he said. "But we don't have a choice."

By John O'Donnell and Oliver Hirt VADUZ, Liechtenstein (Reuters) -Liechtenstein is examining tightening control of scores of Russian-linked trusts abandoned by their managers under pressure from Washington, according to several people familiar with the matter. The country, one of the world's smallest and richest, is home to thousands of low-tax trusts, hundreds of which have links to Russians, two of the people with direct knowledge of the matter said, putting it in the crosshairs of Western efforts to sanction Moscow. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Treasury has sanctioned several individuals and trusts in Liechtenstein it said were linked to Russian oligarchs, including Vladimir Potanin, and a long-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Gennady Timchenko. The U.S. Treasury had no immediate comment. Potanin's Interros holding company did not respond to a request for comment, while Timchenko could not be reached. That sanctioning has prompted other directors fearing such punishment to quit hundreds of Russian-linked trusts, according to several people familiar with the matter, exposing a far wider problem with Russian money in the tiny country with a population of about 40,000. The episode, in a sleepy Alpine enclave ruled by a billionaire royal family, also shows how deep and opaque Russia's business ties to Europe remain more than three years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It is a setback for the microstate that had long sought to shed its image as a safe haven for foreign wealth. The mass resignations have put scores of trusts in limbo, essentially freezing swathes of Russian wealth. The trusts are the linchpin for fortunes, including yachts or property, that are scattered around the globe. Their suspension puts that property beyond reach, a further potential lever over Russia, amid attempts by U.S. President Donald Trump to strike a peace deal. Reuters has spoken to several people with direct knowledge of these events, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. They outlined how a push by Washington had led scores of directors to quit trusts with links to Russia and how the government was scrambling to resolve the crisis. Liechtenstein's newly elected government is seeking to fix the issue, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring the continued pressure from Washington over Russia sanctions, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's earlier suggestions he could ease them. Liechtenstein also sees its handling of sanctions enforcement as something that could influence its government's efforts to lower newly imposed U.S. tariffs on exports, said one person with direct knowledge of the discussions. A Liechtenstein government official said 475 trusts were affected by the defections, although added that not all were linked to Russians or sanctioned individuals. That official said Liechtenstein's justice department was seeking to install new managers to 350 trusts, while 40 were being liquidated and unsuccessful attempts had been made to appoint a liquidator to further 85 trusts. This episode strikes at the trust industry, a critical pillar of Liechtenstein's roughly 770 billion franc ($930 billion) financial centre that underpins the country's economy. Local banks, the government official said, were also affected, without elaborating. Banks are particularly vulnerable because the United States has the power to throttle them by cutting off their access to the dollar, threatening a wider crisis. The episode has confronted the country with its biggest crisis since 2008, when leaked customer data at LGT Bank, owned by the country's princely family, exposed widespread tax evasion. The government is now examining options to centralise the management of the deserted trusts under its watch and tightening supervision of trusts. The Liechtenstein official also said the country's authorities were in contact with their international counterparts and that no trust assets would be released to sanctioned individuals. Liechtenstein, sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria, is dominated by its royal family, whose castle towers over the parliament. It is tied closely to Switzerland, using its franc currency, but also enjoys freedom to do business in the European Union's single market. The country, criticised for hiding the fortunes of the wealthy in the past, had reformed and joined the International Monetary Fund. Once home to roughly 80,000 tax trusts, it now hosts about 20,000, said two people familiar with the matter - equivalent to roughly one trust for two residents. Pressure on Liechtenstein follows a similar push against neighbouring Austria and Switzerland. ($1 = 0.8273 Swiss francs) (Additional reporting by Reuters Moscow bureau, editing by Elisa Martinuzzi and Tomasz Janowski)