US president’s controversial deployment of soldiers to US cities has raised alarm and a series of legal challenges.

A United States federal judge has said the Trump administration must pause its deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, DC, a setback for the president’s push to send the military into cities across the country.

US District Judge Jia Cobb temporarily suspended the deployment in a ruling on Thursday, responding to a lawsuit filed by city officials who said Trump had usurped policing powers and was using the military for domestic law enforcement.

The federal government has unique powers in Washington, DC. But the Trump administration has taken the controversial step to deploy soldiers in a growing list of Democrat-led cities, despite frequent protests from state and local officials and a lack of any emergency conditions.

Cobb, who said in her decision that the president cannot deploy soldiers for “whatever reason” he wants, gave the Trump administration 21 days to appeal the order before it goes into effect.

Lawyers for the government slammed the lawsuit that challenged the military deployment as a “frivolous stunt”.

“There is no sensible reason for an injunction unwinding this arrangement now, particularly since the District’s claims have no merit,” Department of Justice lawyers wrote.

Trump has also deployed troops to cities such as Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon; and Chicago, Illinois, in what he depicts as an effort to tackle crime and round up undocumented immigrants.

Residents and civil liberties groups have documented aggressive raids and what they say are widespread rights violations and racial profiling by federal agents during those crackdowns, in which US citizens have sometimes been swept up.

Trump has threatened to imprison local and state officials who criticise his deployment of the military.

A legal challenge filed in September by Washington, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb said that US democracy would “never be the same if these occupations are permitted to stand”.

Trump ordered the first deployment in August, involving about 2,300 National Guard members from various states and hundreds of federal agents from various agencies.

PANAMA CITY (AP) — A planned trip by some Panamanian lawmakers to Taiwan has unleashed the latest diplomatic spat with China as the Central American country tries to navigate the turbulent waters between the Asian superpower and the United States.

On Wednesday, Panama’s Foreign Relations Ministry and the U.S. ambassador to the country criticized China’s diplomats in Panama for asking the lawmakers to cancel their trip to Taiwan, with the ministry accusing the Chinese Embassy of “meddling” in internal Panamanian affairs.

This followed comments from Panama President José Raúl Mulino a week earlier saying that the planned Taiwan trip did not have the approval of his administration and reminding the lawmakers that the executive branch was responsible for Panama’s foreign policy.

China claims Taiwan, a self-governing island off its coast, as its territory and has staged threatening military drills in the surrounding waters in recent years.

China has also been embroiled in a spat with Japan after new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Nov. 7 that a Chinese naval blockade or other action against Taiwan could be grounds for a Japanese military response. Her comments drew a warning from China against any interference in Taiwan.

In Latin America, Chinese diplomats have worked to get governments to establish diplomatic relations with it and cut ties to Taiwan.

Panama established relations with China in 2017 after breaking them off with Taiwan.

The Trump administration has brought the weight of the U.S. government to bear on the issue this year, starting with accusations that China could influence the operations of the strategically important Panama Canal because a Hong Kong-based conglomerate held the long-term concession to operate ports at either end of the canal. The canal’s administration and the Panamanian government have denied that China had any sway over canal operations.

On Wednesday, Panama’s Foreign Relations Ministry said in a statement that “as a sovereign country, it does not accept restrictions, nor pressure that tries to influence the legitimate decisions of its subordinates.” The statement did not name China, but came a day after one of the country’s largest newspapers, La Prensa, reported that 10 lawmakers were asked by the Chinese Embassy to immediately cancel the trip because it “seriously violates the principle of one China” and constitutes “an intervention in Chinese internal affairs.”

The Chinese Embassy referred a request from The Associated Press to the reporting from La Prensa.

Mulino has lamented that Panama has been drawn into the U.S.-China tensions.

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama on his first trip as the U.S. top diplomat in February, he made China’s influence a top issue. Mulino said then that Panama would not be renewing its agreement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative when it expires. The initiative promotes and funds infrastructure and development projects that critics say leave poor member countries heavily indebted to China.

In August, U.S. Ambassador to Panama Kevin Marino Cabrera gave public backing to Panamanian lawmakers who joined the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of hundreds of lawmakers from dozens of countries concerned about how democracies approach Beijing.

In September, the Trump administration said it was restricting visas “for Central American nationals who, while in Central American countries and intentionally acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), knowingly direct, authorize, fund, provide significant support to, or carry out activities that undermine the rule of law in Central America.”

Some of the lawmakers who planned to make the Taiwan trip later this week defended their decision. Some said the trip would expose them to models and experiences that could help Panama’s modernization, others cited opportunities for investment and cooperation.

On Wednesday, Cabrera addressed the controversy, saying that China’s Embassy “shouldn’t be involved in those issues.”

A Russian spy ship was on the edge of United Kingdom waters, British defense officials said.

John Healey, the U.K.’s defense secretary, said it was the second time the ship, the Yantar, had been deployed to U.K. waters, SKY News reported. 

“This is a vessel designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables,” he said during a news conference. “We deployed a Royal Navy frigate and RAF planes to monitor and track this vessel’s every move, during which the Yantar directed lasers at our pilots.”

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Healey warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “We see you, we know what you’re doing and if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.”

The U.K. plans to build a number of factories to make munitions and military explosives. The first one is expected to break ground next year. 

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Healey issued his warning after a report by the Commons Defence Committee, which said the U.K. “lacks a plan for defending the homeland and overseas territories” and urged the government to launch a “coordinated effort to communicate with the public on the level of threat we face,” the news outlet reported. 

The Yantar isn’t just part of a naval operation but part of Moscow’s Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI, which primarily works in surveillance in peacetime and sabotage during conflicts. 

“That is why we’ve been determined. Whenever the Yantar comes into British wider waters, we track it, we deter it, and we say to Putin, ‘We are ready, and we do that alongside allies,’” said Healey.