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One minute Maria was selling tamales from her food cart in Chicago’s West Side. The next, her son told AFP, she was bundled into a van, the latest victim of President Donald Trump’s aggressive crackdown on immigrants.Maria’s family was left to pick up the pieces, removing her cart, food containers and umbrella before launching a frantic search for the Mexican-born mother of seven who has lived in the United States for two decades, albeit undocumented.By Saturday morning, 24 hours after her arrest, her family had still learned “nothing” about her status from US Immigration and Customs Enforcemnt (ICE), the federal agency conducting aggressive raids in and around the nation’s third largest city.”It could be days, it could be months, it could be years, or we may never see her again,” Eduardo Santoyo, 22, said of his mother.Maria’s detention in broad daylight — witnesses posted video online — fit a recent pattern: Agents swoop in without warning, snatch an unsuspecting resident and drive off, with relatives left to panic over the fate of their loved ones.”What are we going to tell my sister?” Santayo asked, refering to his mother’s youngest child, who is only six years old.Anguish colored the faces of Maria’s son and another daughter, age 16, as they stepped in to continue running the tamale cart in the very spot where their mother was taken into custody.This week saw scores of immigration detentions in Chicago, many of which only came to light after witnesses posted footage of the arrests on social media.Alerts about raids are popping up regularly online as activist groups warn residents about sweeps in Latino-heavy neighborhoods like Cicero, Little Village and Pilsen.Migrants reportedly have been detained at Chicago-area construction sites, near a university building, along strip malls and outside schools.A local television producer, who holds US citizenship, was arrested by federal agents during immigration enforcement operations on Chicago’s North Side, her employer WGN said. She was later released.Federal agents also targeted rideshare drivers in a sweep Friday at O’Hare International Airport, resulting in 12 arrests, according to local reports.- ‘It could be anyone’ -While protesters have been beaten, tear-gassed and arrested in recent weeks at an ICE facility in the suburb of Broadview, anti-immigration unrest across the rest of the city has been sporadic. But the impact of the raids has been nothing less than chilling.”You may not see a raid,  but this is affecting our community,” said Casey Caballero, 37, a self-described soccer mom from Lombard who is married to a naturalized US citizen.Caballero and others accuse immigratiom agents of discriminatory racial profiling.Santoyo has US citizenship, but expressed anger and fear that such status may matter little if agents are doing what he suspects: targeting people because of the color of their skin and the language they speak.”That’s racism,” he said. “If they come after me, I have papers, but how would they know that?”Another tamale street vendor not far from Maria’s cart said she had heard of her detention and quickly teared up over what happened.”It could be anyone” swept up in the raids, she told AFP.A heavily tattooed man, who said he was driving past when Maria was taken into custody, expressed outrage at the operation, noting she had been serving food to the community for years.Nae Campbell, a longtime customer, recalled how this “good woman” could be found vending year-round, whether in searing heat or Chicago’s famously bitter cold.As for the raids, Campbell called them “the most…inhumane gesture I’ve ever seen.””People have taken root here, they have families here now” and federal agents “basically just stripped them from their life. That’s crazy,” the 32-year-old hospital worker said.But Campbell, who drove across the city for Maria’s goods, said she had faith that the vendor’s family would be supported.”The community is definitely going to rally around them.”

President Donald Trump said Saturday he had issued an order for the military to be paid next week despite the ongoing government shutdown during which many civil servants are working without salaries.Trump said he had ordered Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth “to use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th” as he again blamed Democrats for the funding deadlock now in its second week.”I will not allow the Democrats to hold our Military, and the entire Security of our Nation, HOSTAGE, with their dangerous Government Shutdown,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. With no end in sight for the shutdown, both political parties are blaming the other for the crisis, and Trump’s message Saturday was another salvo in the political feud.The standoff means that hundreds of thousands of government workers have been put on temporary unpaid leave or deemed essential and ordered to work without pay. About 1.3 million active-duty military personnel had been set to miss their pay next Wednesday — something that has not happened in any of the US government shutdowns through modern history.Trump’s announcement on ensuring military pay came after the White House said Friday it had begun mass layoffs of federal workers, as the president sought to amp up pressure on Democrats.Trump’s budget chief Russ Vought said the administration was following through on threats to fire some of the 750,000 public servants placed on enforced leave.It plans to lay off some 4,000 workers across several government agencies, according to a court filing seeking to block the action.”Republicans would rather see thousands of Americans lose their jobs than sit down and negotiate with Democrats to reopen the government,” top US Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said.Unions representing 800,000 government employees asked a federal judge in San Francisco for an emergency order to halt the firings, ahead of a hearing set for October 16 on their legality.Nonessential government work stopped after the September 30 deadline for Congress to pass a new funding bill, with Senate Democrats repeatedly blocking a Republican resolution to reopen federal agencies since then. Republicans are proposing an extension of the current budget, with the same spending levels, while Democrats are calling for an extension of subsidies for health insurance for low-income households. Several Democratic votes are required to pass a budget, despite the Republican majority. But Trump has rejected any negotiations with the opposition on health issues without reopening the federal government as a prerequisite.With a prolonged shutdown looking more likely each day, members of Congress have been looking to Trump to step in and break the deadlock.But the president has been largely tuned out, with his focus on the Gaza ceasefire deal and sending federal troops to bolster his mass deportation drive in Democratic-led cities such as Chicago and Portland.

Actress Diane Keaton, known for her Oscar-winning performance in 1977’s “Annie Hall” and her role in “The Godfather” films, has died at age 79, People magazine reported Saturday.Details were not immediately available and Keaton’s loved ones have asked for privacy, a family spokesperson told People, which confirmed that the actress died in California.Keaton was a frequent collaborator of director Woody Allen, portraying the titular character in “Annie Hall,” the charming girlfriend of Allen’s comic Alvy Singer. The film also garnered Oscars for best picture, best director and best original screenplay, cementing Keaton’s place as one of the industry’s top actresses and an offbeat style icon as well.She made a total of eight films with Allen, including 1979’s “Manhattan.”A BAFTA and Golden Globe winner, Keaton scored Oscar nominations three other times for best actress, for “Reds,” “Marvin’s Room” and “Something’s Gotta Give.”In “The Godfather” films, she played Kay Adams, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone.Born Diane Hall in Los Angeles on January 5, 1946, Keaton was romantically involved with Allen, Pacino and Warren Beatty, but never married. She is survived by her two children, Dexter and Duke.

Eighteen people are presumed dead after a huge blast at an explosives factory in Tennessee, officials said Saturday.”We can assume that they are deceased at this time,” Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told a news conference, referring to 18 people missing since the explosion Friday in the town of Bucksnort.The factory owned by Accurate Energetic Systems made explosives for both military and demolition purposes.The blast destroyed an entire building at the plant’s large campus, shook homes miles away and sent debris flying, news reports said.Davis said DNA testing will be used to identify remains.”But we’re going to have to slow walk that because of the scene, the way that the scene is,” Davis said.In a statement, the company called the blast “a tragic accident.” But Davis said: “Can I say we’re going to rule out foul play? We can’t answer that. That might be days or weeks or months before we can do that.”    He said staff from several federal agencies including the FBI have been sent to the blast site to help with the investigation.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that Qatar will be allowed to build an air force facility at Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho that will house F-15 fighter jets and pilots.The announcement comes soon after President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to defend the Gulf Arab state against attacks, following Israeli air strikes targeting Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital Doha.”We’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho,” Hegseth said at the Pentagon, with Qatari Defense Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at his side.”The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training” as well as “increase lethality, interoperability,” he said.”It’s just another example of our partnership. And I hope you know, your excellency, that you can count on us.”The Idaho base currently also hosts a fighter jet squadron from Singapore, according to its website.Hegseth also thanked Qatar for its “substantial role” as a mediator in the talks that led to a truce and hostage-prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, and its assistance in securing the release of a US citizen from Afghanistan.The Qatari minister hailed the “strong, enduring partnership” and “deep defense relationship” shared by the two countries. The Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is Washington’s largest military facility in the Middle East.Trump’s close relationship with the leaders of Qatar has raised eyebrows, especially over its gift to the US president of a Boeing 747 to be used as Air Force One.Though the Idaho facility for Qatar had apparently been in the works since the last administration of Democrat Joe Biden, the deal prompted some hand-wringing on social media, including from far-right activist Laura Loomer, usually a Trump ally.”Never thought I’d see Republicans give terror financing Muslims from Qatar a MILITARY BASE on US soil so they can murder Americans,” Loomer wrote on X.Hegseth, who never said it was a base, later wrote on the platform: “Qatar will not have their own base in the United States — nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.”

Film buffs sit snugly in cars watching a drive-in movie, munching popcorn on a lovely recent fall night.Michelle Hutson, 52, has been coming to the Family Drive-In since childhood, enjoying what is now a dying form of quintessentially American entertainment.With a sigh, she notes she might soon see the last picture show as the nearly 70-year-old outdoor theater — one of the few remaining drive-ins in the Washington area — is on its way out, too.”I’m about to be a grandma again for the second time. And it’s heartbreaking to know that she may not be able to experience that,” Hutson said.The owners of the land under the Family Drive-In announced a few months ago they want to sell it, asking $1.5 million, said theater owner Andrew Thomas.If he bought the land at that price, it would mean a mortgage payment three times what he pays now in rent, Thomas told AFP.”It’s just not feasible for the business.”He launched a crowd-funding drive last month to save the theater and so far has raised around $30,000.”It’s overwhelming, in such a good way, that people care that much. Even in times of economic uncertainty, it means that this is a thing for them that’s worth saving, and I agree with them,” he said.”We have an opportunity to preserve a piece of history,” said the 40-year-old.- Attendance down -Drive-in theaters are a throwback to another era in a country where cars are king. In their heyday in the 1950s there were more than 4,000 in America — but now only 300 or so remain, said Gary Rhodes, a movie historian.They have died off because more people watch television at home and urban development has made the land needed for a drive-in theater very expensive, Rhodes said.Drive-ins enjoyed a spike in popularity during the Covid pandemic, as people avoided crowded places like indoor movie theaters, but now “attendance is still going down,” Rhodes said.”I would say the majority of the drive-ins that are left in the world are there because the owner keeps it there. It’s for the love of the business that they’re there,” said D. Edward Vogel, co-owner of a drive-in and vice president of the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association.”Unfortunately, we are reaching a point where a lot of them want to retire,” he said.Because of TV streaming platforms and other factors, he said, “in my take of things, it’s going to be a very rough road to hoe now.”To try to keep drive-in theaters alive, his association created a web site that seeks to match drive-in owners who want out with potential buyers who want in.  “We’ve been inspired by some brand new owners that understood the risk and came up to the challenge, and are determined to maintain a drive-in theater business,” said Vogel.”That’s really what’s breathing faith into the fact that this can continue.”Mike White and Melissa Sims are examples of these new entrepreneurs. They invested $500,000 to open a brand new drive-in in Louisiana and it is scheduled to open this autumn.They have had to postpone the big day several times because of delays getting permits and other problems.”We quizzed a lot of people before we started, and 99 percent of the people that we talked to said sure, they’d be glad to go,” White said.”For me, drive-ins represent a time that my family was was brought together and was doing things together,” said Sims.”That’s what it would bring back to this community.”

Claude Monet did not want to travel to Venice in 1908 — at the time, he was 68 and working on his famed water lilies paintings, and only reluctantly agreed to accompany his wife Alice Hoschede.But his time spent there became one of his most prolific, resulting in 37 paintings, many of which are being put on display at an exhibit opening Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.”He fell in love with the city, and he had a wonderful time there with Alice,” the exhibit’s co-curator Lisa Small told AFP.”They wanted to come back, but Alice became ill and died sadly” in 1911, Small explained. “So he finished these paintings at Giverny in a state of sadness and mourning.”The exhibit, which runs until February 2026, retraces the couple’s journey to Venice through masterpieces the French painter created in the city and their archives, including postcards and photos.Nineteen paintings have been compiled for the exhibit, including “The Palazzo Ducale” and “The Grand Canal, Venice.” Many showcase — in the Impressionist master’s iconic style — architecturally stunning buildings from various distances at different times of days, always highlighting water and their reflections.Venice itself is the second protagonist of the exhibit, which also features works on the city by Canaletto (1697-1768), J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), and John Singer Sargent (1856-1925).The highlight of “Monet and Venice” is a room showcasing the French master’s paintings accompanied by music, with a symphony created for the occasion by the museum’s composer-in-residence, Niles Luther.The piece is a nod to art critics who, “especially toward the end of his career, would talk about his work in musical terms, through a musical lens,” said Small.”They would talk about the symphony of colors, the harmony of the brushstrokes, the brushstrokes being like an orchestra,” she said.”So we felt that there was a really meaningful connection between having music, a contemporary classical composer give his interpretation of that, in with the paintings.”

Donald Trump is in “excellent overall health,” his physician said Friday after the 79-year-old — the oldest elected president in US history — underwent his second medical checkup of the year.Trump saw physicians at Walter Reed military hospital on the outskirts of the capital Washington earlier in the day.He gave reporters the thumbs-up on his return to the White House when they asked how the checkup had gone.”President Trump continues to demonstrate excellent overall health,” his doctor, Navy Captain Sean Barbabella, wrote in a letter released by the White House. “His cardiac age — a validated measure of cardiovascular vitality via ECG — was found to be approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age. He continues to maintain a demanding daily schedule without restriction.”A battery of routine tests was conducted, and Trump received an updated Covid booster shot and his annual flu shot, Barbabella said.The checkup comes three months after the White House announced that Trump had been diagnosed with a vein condition following speculation about frequent bruising on his hand and his swollen legs.The White House had said earlier this week that Friday’s checkup would be an “annual” one — despite the fact that Trump had already undergone one of those in April.Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday that he was “going to do a sort of semi-annual physical.””I’m in great shape, but I’ll let you know. But no, I have no difficulty thus far… Physically, I feel very good. Mentally, I feel very good.”The Republican billionaire then embarked on one of his trademark tirades comparing his health with that of former presidents, particularly his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.Trump said that during his last checkup, “I also did a cognitive exam which is always very risky, because if I didn’t do well, you’d be the first to be blaring it, and I had a perfect score.”Trump then added: “Did Obama do it? No. Did Bush do it? No. Did Biden do it? I definitely did. Biden wouldn’t have gotten the first three questions right.”- Bruised hand -Trump has repeatedly been accused of a lack of transparency about his health despite huge interest in the well-being of the US commander-in-chief.In September, he dismissed social media rumors swirling about his health — including false posts that he had died.In July, the White House said Trump was diagnosed with a chronic but benign vein condition — chronic venous insufficiency — following speculation about his bruised hand and swollen legs.The hand issue, it said, was linked to the aspirin he takes as part of a “standard” cardiovascular health program.Trump is regularly seen at public events with heavy makeup on the back of his right hand to conceal the bruising.At his last checkup, the White House said Trump was in good health, saying he had a “normal cardiac structure and function, no signs of heart failure, renal impairment or systemic illness.”

US President Donald Trump has undeniably scored a diplomatic victory by helping to broker a truce for Gaza, but the path to the lasting peace he says he wants for the Middle East is littered with obstacles.And it remains to be seen whether the 79-year-old Trump — who is not exactly known for his attention to the fine print — will devote the same level of energy to the conflict over the long term, once his victory lap in the region is over next week.”Any agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, but especially one indirectly brokered between Israel and Hamas is an extraordinary achievement,” Aaron David Miller, who worked for multiple US administrations of both parties, told AFP.”Trump decided to do something that no American president… of either party has ever done, which is to pressure and squeeze an Israeli prime minister on an issue that that prime minister considered vital to his politics,” said Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.But Miller, who has participated in Middle East peace talks over the years, warned of the “universe of complexity and detail” that remains to be hashed out with respect to the implementation of phase two of the deal.The Israeli army said its troops had ceased fire at 0900 GMT Friday in the Gaza Strip, in anticipation of the release of all Israeli hostages, dead and alive, in the subsequent 72 hours, in compliance with the deal it reached with Palestinian armed group Hamas.Trump has said he expects to head to the Middle East on Sunday, with stops in Egypt, where the talks took place, and Israel. – Art of the deal? -Given that every US president over the past 20 years has been unsuccessful in resolving crises between Israel and the Palestinians, Trump’s accomplishment is already remarkable.But the Republican billionaire president has broader aspirations — to revive the Abraham Accords reached during his first White House term, under which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco offered Israel diplomatic recognition.Trump has brought his son-in-law Jared Kushner, one of the architects of those accords, back into the administration to work with special envoy Steve Witkoff on the Gaza negotiations.Officials and foreign policy observers agree that Trump deftly used a mix of carrot and stick — publicly and privately, and especially with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — to get the deal done.He also leveraged his strong ties with Arab and Muslim leaders including Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan. For Miller, Trump clearly played a “decisive” role.But while the agreement’s first phase appears to be on track, much remains undefined, including how — and if — Hamas will agree to disarm after two years of devastating conflict in the Palestinian territory, following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.”A ceasefire is not yet a lasting peace,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Thursday, after meeting with European and Arab ministers on how to help the Palestinians in the post-conflict period.Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote: “Whether this leads to an end to the war remains an open question.”- Huge challenges -Cook says the challenge now is to fully implement Trump’s 20-point plan, which calls for Hamas to surrender its weapons, the creation of an international stabilization force and new governing structures for Gaza that will not include the Palestinian militant group.Trump insisted Thursday that “there will be disarming” by Hamas and “pullbacks” by Israeli forces. Then on Friday, he added: “I think there is consensus on most of it, and some of the details, like anything else, will be worked out.”But his administration will need to work hard to finalize the deal, and ensure that Arab countries in the region are invested in helping rebuild a devastated Gaza.A team of 200 US military personnel will “oversee” the Gaza truce, senior US officials said Thursday. Miller said there are “operational” holes in the plan as it stands, including “no detailed planning for either how to decommission and/or demilitarize Gaza, even if you had Hamas’s assent, which you don’t.”The plan also calls for the creation of a so-called “Board of Peace,” a transitional body to be chaired by Trump himself — a proposal Hamas rejected on Thursday.”Despite coming to office eager to shed America’s Middle East commitments, Trump just took on a huge one: responsibility for a peace plan that will forever bear his name,” wrote Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The White House said Friday it had begun mass layoffs of federal workers as President Donald Trump sought to amp up pressure on opposition Democrats to end a government shutdown that has crippled public services.With the crisis set to go into a third week and no off-ramp in sight, Trump’s budget chief Russ Vought announced on social media that the administration was following through on threats to fire some of the 750,000 public servants placed on enforced leave.The Office of Management and Budget, headed by Vought, told AFP the layoffs would be “substantial,” but gave no precise numbers or details of which departments would be most affected.A court filing Friday said the government has fired more than 4,000 federal workers, including more than 1,000 each at the Treasury Department and Department of Health and Human Services. Trump reiterated his pledge to use the cutbacks as a way to inflict pain on Democrats, telling reporters the number of people fired would be “a lot and it’ll be Democrat-oriented because we figure they started this thing.”Democratic leaders in Congress have dismissed the threats as an attempt at intimidation and say mass firings would not stand up in court.”Russell Vought just fired thousands of Americans with a tweet,” the party’s leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said in a statement berating the White House for wreaking “deliberate chaos.””Let’s be blunt: nobody’s forcing Trump and Vought to do this. They don’t have to do it; they want to,” he fumed.Unions representing 800,000 government employees asked a federal judge in San Francisco for an emergency order to halt the firings, ahead of a hearing set for October 16 on their legality.A US Treasury spokesperson told AFP the department had begun sending out notices of layoffs while the Health and Human Services Department said it had started firing nonessential workers “as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown.”Other departments firing people included the Department of Education, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Commerce, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Energy, according to the court filing.- ‘Tired of the chaos’ -Public servants who hang onto their jobs still face the misery of going without pay while the crisis remains unresolved, with the standoff expected to drag on until at least the middle of next week.Adding to the pain, 1.3 million active-duty military personnel are set to miss their pay due next Wednesday — something that has not happened in any of the funding shutdowns through modern history.”We’re not in a good mood here in the Capitol — it’s a somber day,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference marking the 10th day of the shutdown.Nonessential government work stopped after the September 30 funding deadline, with Senate Democrats repeatedly blocking a Republican resolution to reopen federal agencies.The sticking point has been a refusal by Republicans to include language in the bill to address expiring subsidies that make health insurance affordable for 24 million Americans.With a prolonged shutdown looking more likely each day, members of Congress have been looking to Trump to step in and break the deadlock.But the president has been largely tuned out, with his focus on the Gaza ceasefire deal and sending federal troops to bolster his mass deportation drive in Democratic-led cities such as Chicago and Portland.The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) meanwhile announced it had rescheduled publication of key inflation data due next week to October 24, with the shutdown logjamming government data releases.The consumer price index data is being published to allow the Social Security Administration to “ensure the accurate and timely payment of benefits,” it said.