One of the best-known leaders in the decades-long struggle for US farm laborer rights, Dolores Huerta may be 95 years old but she is busier than ever.With the administration of US President Donald Trump ramping up immigration raids targeting farmworkers, the veteran activist — who co-founded the country’s largest agricultural union more than 60 years ago — is a galvanizing figure for those seeking to fight back.”People are reaching out because they want to do something,” she told AFP during an interview at the headquarters of her Dolores Huerta Foundation in Bakersfield, an agricultural nexus in California’s Central Valley.Born in New Mexico and raised in California, Huerta took the reins of the US farmworker movement in the 1960s along with the late activist Cesar Chavez.They created what is now United Farm Workers, launching an unprecedented fight for the rights of marginalized laborers who toil in the fields that feed America every day.At the time, Huerta was raising seven children — she later had four more — while going through a divorce.Finding the time to organize and mobilize workers remains as crucial as ever today, she said.”We’ve got to be a lot more active, because what’s happening right now is so huge. I liken it to what was happening in Germany before Hitler took power,” Huerta said. She argues that it is essential to prepare the electorate to vote in the 2026 midterms, which could reshape the US Congress. Both its chambers currently have Republican majorities.”This is the only way that this can be solved,” she said.- ‘Si se puede’ slogan -Much has changed since her time as a young union leader, but one thing that has never gone away is racism, Huerta said.”I believe that that illness of racism is what has really contaminated our political system,” said Huerta.”Trump is actually playing out that racism when he is again putting immigrants, and mostly people of color, into the detention centers” with “inhumane conditions,” she said.Many have been sent to countries with which they have no connection, Huerta noted, such as the 252 Venezuelans who were sent to a notorious El Salvador prison, before eventually being repatriated to their homeland as part of a political deal.For Huerta, the Republican-led crackdown is “absolutely atrocious… our people have been caught off guard.”Huerta believes that the swell of Latino support for Trump that aided his victory in November was driven by religious interests.Church leaders and lobbyists who are influential with Hispanic communities used issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights to “intimidate” Hispanic communities, who traditionally favor Democrats, into voting Republican, she said.But Huerta — whose famous “Si se puede” slogan was mirrored by Barack Obama’s “Yes, we can” rallying cry in 2008 — believes Trump’s promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history could yet backfire.In various sectors ranging from agriculture to hospitality and services, employers are realizing how much they need hard-working immigrants, she said.- ‘Fear’ -The risks have sharply risen for many in her community since Trump came to power, but for Huerta personally, activism has long had perilous consequences.When she was 58, Huerta was arrested and brutally beaten by police at a San Francisco protest.Her commitment to the union movement also meant she was an absent mother — and even today, she spends more time on her work than with her many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.Huerta has often been the only woman in male-dominated spaces, and is renowned by many for her ability to face down corporate power.In February, her foundation helped drive an ongoing boycott against the retail giant Target over its decision to end pro-diversity programs following Trump’s election.”Trump instilled fear in all these corporations,” she said.Using tactics like boycotts to influence billionaire business owners who can “pull Trump’s strings,” she said, “we finally are able to move them in the right direction.””They need to start speaking up and stop these dangerous policies of Trump.”

President Donald Trump, who is remodeling the White House to his tastes, will build a massive ballroom for hosting official receptions, one of the largest projects at the US executive mansion in over a century.Trump himself and unspecified donors will foot the bill for the $200 million project, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a press briefing on Thursday.”For 150 years, presidents, administrations and White House staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex,” the spokeswoman said.”There’s never been a president that was good at ballrooms,” the 79-year-old president and former real estate developer told reporters of the latest bid to leave his mark on the White House.”I’m good at building things, and we’ll get it built quickly and on time. It’ll be beautiful,” said Trump, assuring that the character of the original building would be preserved.The new structure will span over 8,000 square meters (90,000 square feet) and have space to seat 650 people, according to Leavitt.Work on the ballroom — one of Trump’s long-time ambitions — will begin in September and is expected to be completed “well before” the end of his second term in January 2029, Leavitt said.The hope is it will host grand state dinners, given in honor of foreign heads of state visiting Washington. Until now, these were generally done by erecting a huge tent on the White House grounds.- Facade -A model of the ballroom presented by the government shows it will be a white building with tall windows. Its columns and front look reminiscent of the main White House building, a facade is known worldwide.The ballroom building will replace the East Wing, which usually houses the offices of the US first lady.Trump, who does not shy away from the gaudy, has also redone the Oval Office to splash the room in gold — from the stars surrounding the presidential seal on the ceiling, to the gold statues on the fireplace, to the mantel itself. The project is shaping up to be one of the most significant to break ground at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since renovation and expansion works undertaken by President Theodore Roosevelt at the start of the 20th century.President Harry Truman also oversaw notable construction work between 1948 and 1952, but did so without changing the external structure.Trump has said for some time that he wants to build a White House ballroom inspired by his own properties.On Thursday, he praised the newly built, lavish ballroom — named after himself — at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, one of dozens of properties owned by the Trump family.It will also be inspired by the ballroom of the Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida, which has served as the model for Trump’s remodeling of the White House to suit himself.The Republican billionaire, inspired by the patios of Mar-a-Lago, recently ripped up the lawn at the White House’s historic Rose Garden and is paving that area, where official events are often held.He is flying two huge American flags outside the White House, which has been the residence and workplace of American presidents since 1800. 

Steven Knight, the creator of gritty TV crime series “Peaky Blinders,” will write the highly anticipated next James Bond movie, studio Amazon MGM announced Thursday.Knight will work alongside previously announced director Denis Villeneuve (“Dune”) to bring the world’s most famous fictional spy back to the big screen after a prolonged absence. Amazon MGM Studios acquired creative control of the 007 movies in February, and has moved quickly to get one of Hollywood’s most valuable franchises back into production.There has been no new Bond film since 2021’s “No Time To Die.” Knight is best known as the mind behind violent British gangster series “Peaky Blinders,” which was set in industrial England at the turn of the 20th century and became a global hit.Running for six seasons, and with a Netflix film version currently in the works, “Peaky Blinders” turbo-charged the careers of leading man Cillian Murphy, alongside a stellar supporting cast including Tom Hardy, Anya Taylor-Joy and Kingsley Ben-Adir.In addition to “Peaky Blinders,” Knight also co-created the wildly popular television quiz show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and has penned four novels.The Birmingham, England-based screenwriter, producer and director’s other TV credits include “Taboo,” “See,” “This Town,” and “All the Light We Cannot See.”The Bond films, based on Ian Fleming’s novels, have earned more than $7 billion collectively at the global box office since debuting in 1962.No release date or title has yet been set for the film franchise’s 26th installment.And despite frenzied speculation among fans, there has been no announcement on which actor will replace Daniel Craig as the suave British super-spy.Among the actors most discussed to be the next Bond are Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Tom Holland, Harris Dickinson, Jacob Elordi, and Ben-Adir — but Amazon MGM has so far refused to disclose the franchise’s most closely guarded secret.