Trump administration briefing: Judge halts bid to use 18th-century wartime act for deportations

District judge orders planes be turned around after Trump deploys obscure act against Venezuelans; strikes ordered on Houthis in Yemen - key US politics stories from Saturday at a glance

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from using an obscure, 227-year-old law designed primarily for use in wartime to deport five Venezuelan nationals from the US.

District judge James Boasberg, responding to a lawsuit brought by two civil liberties organizations, issued an immediate halt and ordered any planes already in the air be turned around, saying the government was already was flying migrants it claimed were newly deportable to be incarcerated in El Salvador and Honduras.