By Jade Walker

President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members was unlawful, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The court also shot down Trump's claim that there was a “predatory incursion” by members of the gang Tren de Aragua in the US, which he said justified his use of the wartime authority. 

Here's what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, China's President Xi Jinping and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (Alexander Kazakov/AFP/Getty Images)

China

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stood together publicly for the first time today and projected an image of unity and authoritarian strength. More than 20 world leaders also attended a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which was designed to demonstrate China’s leadership and put forth a less Western-centric vision of international order. While President Trump alarms nations with his trade war, withdrawals from international organizations, massive foreign aid cuts and threats on social media, Xi vowed to oppose “hegemonism” and “bullying practices” — without naming the US directly. To highlight China as “a credible alternative” to the US as the world’s top superpower, Xi promoted his partnerships with North Korea, Russia and Iran. And during a military parade in Tiananmen Square — one that featured over 10,000 troops marching in unison and a display of hundreds of advanced weapons — Xi declared China’s rise was “unstoppable.”

War on drugs

The US conducted a deadly military strike on a boat allegedly tied to the Tren de Aragua drug cartel, President Trump said Tuesday. Eleven people were killed in the attack, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio said took place in the “southern Caribbean." The use of military force against a Latin American drug cartel marks a significant escalation in the US war on drugs. Trump justified the action in a post on his social media site, saying the cartel was “a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.” When asked by CNN about the legal authority for militarily targeting the cartels, Rubio said: “I’m not going to answer for the White House counsel, suffice it to say that all of those steps were taken in advance.”

Epstein files

The House Oversight Committee has released more than 33,000 files related to the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein that it received from the Justice Department. However, Tuesday’s release of flight logs, court filings, jail surveillance footage, redacted records, depositions and memos may not represent the totality of the Epstein-related documents in the DOJ’s possession, and congressional Democrats have said they largely included previously known information. “After careful review, Oversight Democrats have found that 97% of the documents received from the Department of Justice were already public,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. “There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims.” As the panel readied the files’ release, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie pushed forward with his bill to compel the publication of the Epstein files in full. 

RFK Jr.

More than 1,000 current and former employees of the Department of Health and Human Services have signed a letter demanding that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resign. The employees claim Kennedy’s leadership has “put the health of all Americans at risk,” and cited as examples his facilitating the firing of CDC director Dr. Susan Monarez, his appointments of “political ideologues” to influential roles in vaccine policy and the rescinding of emergency use authorizations for Covid-19 vaccines. The letter also urged the president and Congress “to appoint a new Secretary of Health and Human Services, one whose qualifications and experience ensure that health policy is informed by independent and unbiased peer-reviewed science.” Numerous public health groups and lawmakers have also called for Kennedy to either resign or be fired. In an opinion piece published Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal, Kennedy claimed that his agency was “restoring public trust in the CDC.”

Google

In a landmark antitrust ruling, a federal judge has decided that Google will not be forced to sell off its Android operating system or Chrome browser. US District Court Judge Amit Mehta also said he had accepted some of Google’s proposed remedies. For example, the tech company will need to make certain search data available to qualified competitors to promote competition. And, Google will be barred from entering into or maintaining exclusive contracts related to the distribution of services like Chrome, Search, the Google Assistant and its Gemini app. In a statement, the Justice Department said the ruling “recognizes the need for remedies that will pry open the market for general search services.”

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5 Things AM is edited by CNN's Andrew Torgan.

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