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US President Donald Trump and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen met Sunday for make-or-break talks in Scotland, aimed at ending a months-long transatlantic trade standoff, as negotiations went down to the wire.Trump again told reporters he felt the two sides had a 50-50 chance of a deal with the European Union. The bloc faces an across-the-board US levy of 30 percent unless it strikes a trade pact by August 1.Washington warned Sunday there would be “no extensions” and Trump confirmed “the deals all start on August 1”.Von der Leyen’s European Commission, negotiating on behalf of EU countries, is pushing hard for a deal to salvage a trading relationship worth an annual $1.9 trillion in goods and services.The EU chief said at the start of the talks at Trump’s luxury golf resort in southwestern Turnberry that if they reached a deal “I think it would be the biggest deal each of us has ever” made.According to an EU diplomat briefed ahead of the meeting, the contours of a deal are in place, but key issues still need settling.”A political deal is on the table — but it needs the sign-off from Trump, who wants to negotiate this down to the very last moment,” the diplomat told AFP.The proposal, they said, involves a baseline levy of around 15 percent on EU exports to the United States — the level secured by Japan — with carve-outs for critical sectors including aircraft and spirits, though not for wine.Any deal will also need to be approved by EU member states — whose ambassadors, on a visit to Greenland, were updated by the commission Sunday morning. They would meet again after any accord.According to the EU diplomat, the 27 countries broadly endorsed the deal as envisaged — while recalling their negotiating red lines.- Baseline 15 percent -The Trump-von der Leyen meeting was taking place in the president’s luxury golf resort in Turnberry on Scotland’s southwestern coast.The 79-year-old Trump said Friday he hoped to strike “the biggest deal of them all” with the EU.The EU is focused on getting a deal to avoid sweeping tariffs that would further harm its sluggish economy — while holding out retaliation as a last resort.Under the proposal described to AFP, the EU would commit to ramp up purchases of US liquefied natural gas, along with other investment pledges.Pharmaceuticals — a key export for Ireland — would also face a 15-percent levy, as would semi-conductors.The EU also appears to have secured a compromise on steel that could allow a certain quota into the United States before tariffs would apply, the diplomat said.But Trump said Sunday trade tariffs with the EU would not be lower than 15 percent.- Auto sector -The EU has been hit by multiple waves of tariffs since Trump reclaimed the White House. It is currently subject to a 25-percent levy on cars, 50 percent on steel and aluminium, and an across-the-board tariff of 10 percent, which Washington threatens to hike to 30 percent in a no-deal scenario.It was unclear how the proposed deal would impact tariff levels on the auto industry, crucial for France and Germany. Carmakers are already reeling from the levies imposed so far.While 15 percent would be much higher than pre-existing US tariffs on European goods, which average around 4.8 percent, it would mirror the status quo, with companies currently facing an additional flat rate of 10 percent.Should talks fail, EU states have greenlit counter tariffs on $109 billion (93 billion euros) of US goods including aircraft and cars to take effect in stages from August 7. Brussels is also drawing up a list of US services to potentially target.Beyond that, countries including France say Brussels should not be afraid to deploy a so-called trade “bazooka” — EU legislation designed to counter coercion that can involve restricting access to its market and public contracts.But such a step would mark a major escalation with Washington.- Ratings dropping -Trump has embarked on a campaign to reshape US trade with the world, and has vowed to hit dozens of countries with punitive tariffs if they do not reach a pact with Washington by August 1.US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday the August 1 deadline was firm and there will be “no extensions, no more grace periods.”Polls suggest however the American public is unconvinced by the White House strategy, with a recent Gallup survey showing his approval rating at 37 percent — down 10 points from January.Having promised “90 deals in 90 days,” Trump’s administration has so far unveiled five, including with Britain, Japan and the Philippines.

US President Donald Trump and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen prepared to meet Sunday in Scotland in a push to resolve a months-long transatlantic trade standoff that is going down to the wire.Trump has said he sees a 50-50 chance of reaching a deal with the European Union, having vowed to hit dozens of countries with punitive tariffs unless they hammer out a pact with Washington by August 1.The EU is currently facing the threat of an across-the-board levy of 30 percent from that date.Von der Leyen’s European Commission, negotiating on behalf of the EU’s member countries, has been pushing hard for a deal to salvage a trading relationship worth an annual $1.9 trillion in goods and services. Any deal with the United States will need approval by all 27 member states. EU ambassadors, on a visit to Greenland, were to meet Sunday morning to discuss the latest negotiations — and again after any accord.Sunday’s sit-down between Trump and the EU chief was to take place at 4:30 pm (1530 GMT) in Turnberry, on Scotland’s southwestern coast, where Trump owns a luxury golf resort.The 79-year-old American leader said Friday he hoped to strike “the biggest deal of them all” with the EU.”I think we have a good 50-50 chance” of a deal, the president said, citing sticking points on “maybe 20 different things”.He praised von der Leyen as “a highly respected woman” — a far cry from his erstwhile hostility in accusing the EU of existing to “screw” the United States.But late-night EU talks with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Saturday to hammer out the final details were “combative at times,” The Financial Times reported.As of Saturday evening, there were “still quite a few open questions” — notably on pharmaceutical sector tariffs, said one EU diplomat.Tariff levels on the auto sector were also crucial for the Europeans — notably France and Germany — and the EU has been pushing for a compromise on steel that could allow a certain quota into the United States before tariffs would apply.- Baseline 15 percent -According to European diplomats, the deal on the table involves a baseline levy of around 15 percent on EU exports to the United States — the level secured by Japan — with carve-outs for critical sectors including aircraft, lumber and spirits excluding wine.The EU would commit to ramp up purchases of US liquefied natural gas, along with a series of investment pledges.Hit by multiple waves of tariffs since Trump reclaimed the White House, the EU is currently subject to a 25-percent levy on cars, 50 percent on steel and aluminium, and an across-the-board tariff of 10 percent, which Washington threatens to hike to 30 percent in a no-deal scenario.The EU has focused on getting a deal with Washington to avoid sweeping tariffs that would further harm its sluggish economy, with retaliation as a last resort.While 15 percent would be much higher than pre-existing US tariffs on European goods — at 4.8 percent — it would mirror the status quo, with companies already facing an additional flat rate of 10 percent.Should talks fail, EU states have greenlit counter tariffs on $109 billion (93 billion euros) of US goods including aircraft and cars to take effect in stages from August 7. Brussels is also drawing up a list of US services to potentially target.Beyond that, countries like France say Brussels should not be afraid to deploy a so-called trade “bazooka” — EU legislation designed to counter coercion through trade measures which involves restricting access to its market and public contracts.But such a step would mark a major escalation with Washington.- Ratings dropping -Trump has embarked since returning to power on a campaign to reshape US trade with the world.But polls suggest the American public is unconvinced, with a recent Gallup survey showing his approval rating at 37 percent — down 10 points from January.Having promised “90 deals in 90 days,” Trump’s administration has so far unveiled five, including with Britain, Japan and the Philippines.Early Sunday, ahead of his meeting with Von der Leyen, Trump was out again on the golf course, having spent most of Saturday playing at Turnberry amid tight security.The trip to Scotland has put physical distance between Trump and the scandal around Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy financier accused of sex trafficking who died in prison in 2019 before facing trial.In his heyday, Epstein was friends with Trump and others in the New York jet-set, but the president is facing backlash from his own MAGA supporters demanding access to the Epstein case files.With the uproar refusing to die down, a headline agreement with the EU — in addition to bolstering Trump’s dealmaker credentials — could bring a welcome distraction. 

The US central bank is widely expected to hold off slashing interest rates again at its upcoming meeting, as officials gather under the cloud of an intensifying pressure campaign by President Donald Trump.Policymakers at the independent Federal Reserve have kept the benchmark lending rate steady since the start of the year as they monitor how Trump’s sweeping tariffs are impacting the world’s biggest economy.With Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff approach — and the levies’ lagged effects on inflation — Fed officials want to see economic data from this summer to gauge how prices are being affected.When mulling changes to interest rates, the central bank — which meets on Tuesday and Wednesday — seeks a balance between reining in inflation and the health of the jobs market.But the bank’s data-dependent approach has enraged the Republican president, who has repeatedly criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not slashing rates further, calling him a “numbskull” and “moron.”Most recently, Trump signaled he could use the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation project as an avenue to oust Powell, before backing off and saying that would be unlikely.Trump visited the Fed construction site on Thursday, making a tense appearance with Powell in which the Fed chair disputed Trump’s characterization of the total cost of the refurbishment in front of the cameras.But economists expect the Fed to look past the political pressure at its policy meeting.”We’re just now beginning to see the evidence of tariffs’ impact on inflation,” said Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics.”We’re going to see it (too) in July and August, and we think that’s going to give the Fed reason to remain on the sidelines,” he told AFP.- ‘Trial balloon’ -Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has imposed a 10 percent tariff on goods from almost all countries, as well as steeper rates on steel, aluminum and autos.The effect on inflation has so far been limited, prompting the US leader to use this as grounds for calling for interest rates to be lowered by three percentage points.Currently, the benchmark lending rate stands at a range between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent.Trump also argues that lower rates would save the government money on interest payments, and floated the idea of firing Powell. The comments roiled financial markets.”Powell can see that the administration floated this trial balloon” of ousting him before walking it back on the market’s reaction, Sweet said.”It showed that markets value an independent central bank,” the Oxford Economics analyst added, anticipating Powell will be instead more influenced by labor market concerns.Powell’s term as Fed chair ends in May 2026.- Jobs market ‘fissures’ -Analysts expect to see a couple of members break ranks if the Fed’s rate-setting committee decides for a fifth straight meeting to keep interest rates unchanged.Sweet cautioned that some observers may spin dissents as pushback on Powell but argued this is not necessarily the case.”It’s not out-of-line or unusual to see, at times when there’s a high degree of uncertainty, or maybe a turning point in policy, that you get one or two people dissenting,” said Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic.Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman have both signaled openness to rate cuts as early as July, meaning their disagreement with a decision to hold rates steady would not surprise markets.Bostjancic said that too many dissents could be “eyebrow-raising,” and lead some to question if Powell is losing control of the board, but added: “I don’t anticipate that to be the case.”For Sweet, “the big wild card is the labor market.”There has been weakness in the private sector, while the hiring rate has been below average and the number of permanent job losers is rising.”There are some fissures in the labor market, but they haven’t turned into fault lines yet,” Sweet said.If the labor market suddenly weakened, he said he would expect the Fed to start cutting interest rates sooner.

At a strip mall in Maryland, a miniature landscape extends across a table between Dash Krempel and his friend as a war game unfolds. But their hobby is becoming more expensive as US tariffs take a toll.Krempel, 29, told AFP the cost of models for tabletop games have surged from inflation, and continued rising since US President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on trading partners this year.UK-made figurines that cost $60 around three years ago now go for $94.50, he said.”Prices have gotten bigger,” he added. “It’s a very expensive hobby to begin with, so it’s maybe pricing a lot of people out.”Instead of buying more products, he now tries to support retailer Game Kastle College Park by renting tables to play in-store.For the shop’s owner, Boyd Stephenson, stocking new board games, paints and hobby supplies has only become more challenging.To avoid the harshest of Trump’s tariffs, some suppliers had to delay shipments or postpone new releases.As they raised their suggested retail prices, so has Stephenson at Game Kastle.About a fifth of his store’s products have seen cost hikes, with increases ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent.”If we see higher prices or higher tariffs, I’m going to see higher wholesale prices, and then I have to raise my prices accordingly,” he said.Asked what percentage of his store relies on imports, Stephenson replied: “Almost all of it.”- No capacity -Stephenson estimates some 7,000 board games were released last year from 5,000 different companies.”You’re really looking at 5,000 different approaches (to tariffs),” he said.”Some producers are saying, ‘We’re going to eat the cost.’ Some producers are saying, ‘We’re passing the cost through all the way.’ And other producers are doing some sort of mix of that.”Like other US retailers, Stephenson could face more cost pressures come August 1, when steeper tariffs are set to hit dozens of economies like the European Union and India.The elevated rates mark an increase from the 10 percent levy Trump imposed on goods from most economies in April.While China — a crucial manufacturing hub for games — is temporarily spared, Trump has separately imposed fresh 30 percent tariffs on products from the world’s second biggest economy this year.US tariffs on Chinese products could return to higher levels from August 12 if officials fail to extend their truce.Yet, there is no quick fix to return manufacturing to the United States.”US manufacturers just don’t have the capacity to do that anymore,” said Stephenson, showing an intricate board game figurine.”Really, the people that are good at that, that’s China,” he said. “The best modeling paints come from Spain.””So if you see tariffs get put up on the EU, then all of a sudden I’m going to have to pay higher prices on modeling paint when I bring it into the country,” he added.Trump has threatened the bloc with a 30 percent tariff.- ‘Universally bad’ -Stephenson tries to absorb some cost hikes, but said: “I have to be able to pay the staff, pay the electric company, pay the landlord.”Trump’s on-again, off-again approach to duties has also made suppliers’ price changes more unpredictable.”What is always universally bad for business is uncertainty,” Stephenson said.He usually stocks up on inventory ahead of the year-end holiday season, but expects to be more strategic with purchases this year to avoid unwelcome surprises.Many companies are delaying merchandise imports as they lack certainty, said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation.”When the product is brought into the country and entered into commerce, you have 15 days to pay your tariff bill,” he said.This causes problems when tariff rates change and businesses lack funds to pay for orders.Some businesses, and industry group the Game Manufacturers Association, have mounted legal challenges against Trump’s blanket tariffs hitting various countries, noting nearly 80 percent of tabletop games sold in the US are made abroad.But such complaints are an uphill battle.”The damage, especially for small retailers, has been significant,” Gold said.

At least 11 people were injured in a stabbing at a Walmart store in the Midwestern state of Michigan on Saturday, with police saying it appeared to be a random attack.A 42-year-old male suspect was in custody, Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea told a press conference. “Based on the information that we have at this time, it appears they were random acts,” Shea said of the attack in Traverse City, Michigan.”The victims were not predetermined,” Shea said, adding that the suspect, a Michigan resident, apparently acted alone and used a “folding knife.”Six victims were in critical condition late Saturday, and five were in serious condition, Munson Healthcare said in a statement.At least three of the victims were undergoing surgery, according to Shea. The victims included six men and five women.Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said she was in touch with law enforcement regarding the “horrible news.””Our thoughts are with the victims and the community reeling from this brutal act of violence,” Whitmer said in an X post.Eyewitness Julia Martell told The New York Times she heard screaming and saw a man with a knife running through the store’s pharmacy section.Martell said she saw the man shoving and stabbing people as he moved through the store.The 30-year-old witness described seeing three people with stab wounds and “blood everywhere.”Shea said the stabbing spree initially started near the checkout area of the store.”It is very uncommon for our area,” he said of the violence, adding that citizens in the Walmart “assisted” in apprehending the suspect.Traverse City is a popular tourist destination located on the shore of Lake Michigan.FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said agents were providing “any necessary support to the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office in their investigation of the attacks at the Walmart.”

Comic-Con attendees got their first glimpse Saturday at the new sci-fi space thriller “Project Hail Mary,” starring Ryan Gosling, ahead of its arrival in US theaters in March 2026.Gosling was joined on a convention panel by directing duo Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, as well as screenwriter Drew Goddard and book author Andy Weir — whose previous novel “The Martian” was also turned into an Oscar-nominated film starring Matt Damon.Based on Weir’s 2021 book of the same title, “Project Hail Mary” follows astronaut Ryland Grace (Gosling), a science teacher waking up to learn he was recruited for a space mission to save Earth from an existential solar threat.Gosling described his character as “a scared guy who has to do something impossible.””I knew it would be brilliant, because it’s Andy [Weir],” Gosling told the crowd.”It took me places I’ve never been. It showed me things I had never seen. It was as heartbreaking as it was funny and I was… not just blown away, but also overwhelmed.”Weir for his part said it was “so cool” to see his book come to life and complimented Gosling for giving “many layers to this character I made up.”Lord and Miller, the Oscar-winning duo behind the “Spider-Verse” Spider-Man animated films, talked about the challenges of shooting a “crazy ambitious” film which takes place inside a spaceship for the most part.”We had to build an entire spaceship in two modes of gravity, and then we built this entire massive tunnel at scale,” Miller said.”This is insane, to build a tunnel that was like 100 feet (30 meters) long, filled up an entire stage.”The event also showcased various clips from the film, receiving a positive response from fans, who noted the bond formed between Gosling’s character and an alien named Rocky.”The relationship between these two characters is the heart of the movie,” Miller said.”I loved it,” attendee April Rodriguez, who also read the book, gushed about the film.”I just never, like, envisioned it that way. So that was pretty cool.”- Star Trek -Comic-Con, which bring some 130,000 fans for the convention in San Diego, California, welcomed the Star Trek universe to the main stage earlier in the day Saturday to showcase its upcoming releases.Thousands of fans filled the hall to watch exclusive footage from the fourth season of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” before it premieres on Paramount+.One clip showed Captain Christopher Pike played by Anson Mount in an entire episode where the cast is depicted like puppets from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.Fans were also offered a first look of a new Star Trek series, dubbed “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” starring Holly Hunter.Hunter plays Nahla Ake, the academy’s chancellor and captain of the USS Athena, who in a clip shown at Comic-Con welcomes a new class of cadets.”It was really interesting to get the offer to be the captain, but then also to combine that with being the chancellor,” Hunter said.”The captain is there to analyze in emergency situations, and then to delegate. And the chancellor is there to guide, to collaborate and to have tremendous empathy.”It was just a wonderful combination of things,” she added.Comic-Con continues on Sunday for its final day of events.

Lisa Tate, whose family has been farming in Ventura County since 1876, cannot recall a threat to crops like the one emanating from Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant onslaught.Tate fears that the crackdown on illegal workers, far from addressing the problems of this vital agricultural region north of Los Angeles, could “dismantle the whole economy” and put the country’s food security at risk.”I began to get really concerned when we saw a group of border control agents come up to the Central Valley and just start going onto farms and just kind of trying to chase people down, evading the property owner,” the 46-year-old farmer, who grows avocados, citrus and coffee, told AFP in an interview.”That’s not something we’re used to happening in agriculture,” she added.The impact goes beyond harvesters, she said. “There’s a whole food chain involved,” from field workers to truck drivers to people working in packing houses and in sales.”It’s just, everybody’s scared,” she said — even a multi-generational American like her. “I’m nervous and I’m scared, because we’re feeling like we’re being attacked.”Other farmers contacted by AFP declined to speak to the media, saying they feared potential reprisals from the Trump administration. – Worker shortages -The agricultural sector has for years been trying to find permanent solutions for its perennial labor shortages, beyond issuing temporary permits for migrant workers.”Some of the work we have is seasonal. But really, around here, we need workers that are year-round,” Tate says.The number of government certified positions for temporary agricultural workers practically tripled between 2014 and 2024, Department of Labor statistics show, underlining just how much American agriculture depends on foreign workers.On top of that, some 42 percent of farm workers are not authorized to work in the United States, according to a 2022 study by the Department of Agriculture.Those numbers line up with the struggles many farmers go through to find labor. They say US citizens are not interested in the physically demanding work, with its long days under extreme temperatures, rain and sun.Against that backdrop, Tate warns that removing people who are actually doing the work will cause immeasurable damage. Not only will it harm farms and ranches, which could take years to recover, it will also send food prices soaring, and even endanger US food security, possibly requiring the country to start importing provisions that may previously have been grown at home, she says. “What we really need is some legislation that has the type of program that we need, and that works for both the workers, that ensures their safety, it ensures a fair playing field when it comes to international trade, as well as as domestic needs,” Tate said.- “Everyone loses” -Some farmworkers agreed to speak to AFP on condition of not being fully identified, for fear of being arrested.”All we do is work,” a worker named Silvia told AFP. She saw several friends arrested in a raid in in Oxnard, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Ventura.The 32-year-old Mexican lives in constant fear that she will be the next one picked up and, in the end, separated from her two US-born daughters.”We’re between a rock and a hard place. If we don’t work, how will we pay our bills? And if we go out, we run the risk of running into them,” she said, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.”The way the goverment is working right now, everybody loses,” said Miguel, who has been working in the fields of southern California for three decades. The 54-year-old said that workers are losing jobs, farm owners are losing their labor, and as a result, the United States is losing its food.  Miguel has worked in various different agriculture sector jobs, including during the Covid-19 pandemic. All of them were “very hard jobs,” he said.Now he feels like he has a target on his back.”They should do a little research so they understand. The food they eat comes from the fields, right?” he said. “So it would be good if they were more aware, and gave us an opportunity to contribute positively, and not send us into hiding.”

Mervin Yamarte left Venezuela with his younger brother, hoping for a better life. But after a perilous jungle march, US detention, and long months in a Salvadoran jail surviving riots, beatings and fear, he has returned home a wounded and changed man.On entering the sweltering Caribbean port of Maracaibo, the first thing Yamarte did after hugging his mother and six-year-old daughter was to burn the baggy white prison shorts he wore during four months of “hell.””The suffering is over now,” said the 29-year-old, enjoying a longed-for moment of catharsis.Yamarte was one of 252 Venezuelans detained in US President Donald Trump’s March immigration crackdown, accused without evidence of gang activity, and deported to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.According to four ex-detainees interviewed by AFP, the months were marked by abuse, violence, spoiled food and legal limbo.”You are going to die here!” heavily armed guards taunted them on arrival to the maximum security facility east of the capital San Salvador. “Welcome to hell!”The men had their heads shaved and were issued with prison clothes: a T-shirt, shorts, socks, and white plastic clogs.Yamarte said a small tuft of hair was left at the nape of his neck, which the guards tugged at.The Venezuelans were held separately from the local prison population in “Pavilion 8” — a building with 32 cells, each measuring about 100 square meters (1,076 square feet).Each cell — roughly the size of an average two-bedroom apartment — was designed to hold 80 prisoners.- ‘Carried out unconscious’ -Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele built the prison to house the country’s most dangerous gang members in deliberately brutal conditions, drawing constant criticism from rights groups.Trump’s administration paid Bukele $6 million to keep the Venezuelans behind bars.AFP has unsuccessfully requested a tour of the facility and interviews with CECOT authorities.Another prisoner, 37-year-old Maikel Olivera, recounted there were “beatings 24 hours a day” and sadistic guards who warned, “You are going to rot here, you’re going to be in jail for 300 years.””I thought I would never return to Venezuela,” he said.For four months, the prisoners had no access to the internet, phone calls, visits from loved ones, or even lawyers.At least one said he was sexually abused.The men said they slept mostly on metal cots, with no mattresses to provide comfort.There were several small, poorly-ventilated cells where prisoners would be locked up for 24 hours at a time for transgressions — real or imagined.”There were fellow detainees who couldn’t endure even two hours and were carried out unconscious,” Yamarte recounted. The men never saw sunlight and were allowed one shower a day at 4:00 am. If they showered out of turn, they were beaten.Andy Perozo, 30, told AFP of guards firing rubber bullets and tear gas into the cells.For a week after one of two riots that were brutally suppressed, “they shot me every morning. It was hell for me. Every time I went to the doctor, they beat me,” he said. Edwuar Hernandez, 23, also told of being beaten at the infirmary.”They would kick you… kicks everywhere,” he said. “Look at the marks; I have marks, I’m all marked.”The detainees killed time playing games with dice made from bits of tortilla dough.They counted the passing days with notches on a bar of soap.- ‘Out of hell’ -An estimated eight million Venezuelans have fled the political and economic chaos of their homeland to try to find a job in the United States that would allow them to send money home.Yamarte left in September 2023, making the weeks-long journey on foot through the Darien Gap that separates Colombia from Panama.It is unforgiving terrain that has claimed the lives of countless migrants who must brave predatory criminal gangs and wild animals.Yamarte was arrested in Dallas in March and deported three days later, without a court hearing.All 252 detainees were suddenly, and unexpectedly, freed on July 18 in a prisoner exchange deal between Caracas and Washington.Now, many are contemplating legal action.Many of the men believe they were arrested in the United States simply for sporting tattoos wrongly interpreted as proof of association with the feared Tren de Aragua gang.Yamarte has one that reads: “Strong like Mom.””I am clean. I can prove it to anyone,” he said indignantly, hurt at being falsely accused of being a criminal.”We went… to seek a better future for our families; we didn’t go there to steal or kill.”Yamarte, Perozo, and Hernandez are from the same poor neighborhood of Maracaibo, where their loved ones decorated homes with balloons and banners once news broke of their release.Yamarte’s mom, 46-year-old Mercedes, had prepared a special lunch of steak, mashed potatoes, and fried green plantain. At her house on Tuesday, the phone rang shortly after Yamarte’s arrival.It was his brother Juan, who works in the United States without papers and moves from place to place to evade Trump’s migrant dragnet.Juan told AFP he just wants to stay long enough to earn the $1,700 he needs to pay off the house he had bought for his wife and child in Venezuela.”Every day we thought of you, every day,” Juan told his brother. “I always had you in my mind, always, always.” “The suffering is over now,” replied Mervin. “We’ve come out of hell.”

Donald Trump’s promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history has appalled some Americans. But others are cashing in on the boom in demand for private detention centers.Migrants captured by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents need to be temporarily housed in places like the facility being readied in California City, prior to deportation.”When you talk to the majority of residents here, they have a favorable perspective on it,” said Marquette Hawkins, mayor of the hardscrabble settlement of 15,000 people, 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of Los Angeles.”They look at the economic impact, right?”California City is to be home to a sprawling detention center that will be operated by CoreCivic, one of the largest companies in the private detention sector.The company, which declined AFP requests for an interview, says the facility would generate around 500 jobs, and funnel $2 million in tax revenue to the city.”Many of our residents have already been hired out there to work in that facility,” Hawkins told AFP.”Any revenue source that is going to assist the town in rebuilding itself, rebranding itself, is going to be seen as a plus,” he said.- Boom -Trump’s ramped-up immigration arrests, like those that provoked protests in Los Angeles, saw a record 60,000 people in detention in June, according to ICE figures.Those same figures show the vast majority have no conviction, despite the president’s election campaign promises to go after hardened criminals.More than 80 percent of detainees are in facilities run by the private sector, according to the TRAC project at Syracuse University. And with Washington’s directive to triple the number of daily arrests — and $45 billion earmarked for new detention centers — the sector is looking at an unprecedented boom. “Never in our 42-year company history have we had so much activity and demand for our services as we are seeing right now,” Damon Hininger, executive director of CoreCivic, said in a May call with investors.When Trump took office in January, some 107 centers were operating. The number now hovers around 200. For Democratic politicians, this proliferation is intentional.”Private prison companies are profiting from human suffering, and Republicans are allowing them to get away with it,” Congresswoman Norma Torres told reporters outside a detention center in the southern California city of Adelanto.At the start of the year, there were three people detained there; there are now hundreds, each one of them attracting a daily stipend of taxpayer cash for the operator. Torres was refused permission to visit the facility, run by the privately owned GEO Group, because she had not given seven days’ notice, she said.”Denying members of Congress access to private detention facilities like Adelanto isn’t just disrespectful, it is dangerous, it is illegal, and it is a desperate attempt to hide the abuse happening behind these walls,” she said.”We’ve heard the horrifying stories of detainees being violently arrested, denied basic medical care, isolated for days, and left injured without treatment,” she added.Kristen Hunsberger, a staff attorney at the Law Center for Immigrant Advocates, said one client complained of having to wait “six or seven hours to get clean water.”It is “not sanitary and certainly not… in compliance with just basic human rights.”Hunsberger, who spends hours on the road going from one center to another to locate her clients, says many have been denied access to legal counsel, a constitutional right in the United States. Both GEO and ICE have denied allegations of mistreatment at the detention centers.”Claims there is overcrowding or subprime conditions in ICE facilities are categorically FALSE,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.”All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.” – ‘Strategy’ -But some relatives of detainees tell a different story.Alejandra Morales, an American citizen, said her undocumented husband was detained incommunicado for five days in Los Angeles before being transferred to Adelanto. In the Los Angeles facility, “they don’t even let them brush their teeth, they don’t let them bathe, nothing. They have them all sleeping on the floor, in a cell, all together,” she said. Hunsberger said that for detainees and their relatives, the treatment appears to be deliberate.”They’re starting to feel that this is a strategy to wear people down, to have them in these inhumane conditions, and then pressure them to sign something where they could then agree to being deported,” she said.

The US space agency NASA will lose about 3,900 employees under Donald Trump’s sweeping effort to trim the federal workforce — at the same time as the president prioritizes plans for crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.In an emailed statement, NASA said around 3,000 employees took part in the second round of its deferred resignation program, which closed late Friday.Combined with the 870 who joined the first round and regular staff departures, the agency’s civil servant workforce is set to drop from more than 18,000 before Trump took office in January to roughly 14,000 — a more than 20 percent decrease.Those leaving the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on the deferred resignation program will be placed on administrative leave until an agreed departure date. An agency spokesperson said the figures could shift slightly in the coming weeks.”Safety remains a top priority for our agency as we balance the need to become a more streamlined and more efficient organization and work to ensure we remain fully capable of pursuing a Golden Era of exploration and innovation, including to the Moon and Mars,” the agency said.Earlier this year, the Trump administration’s proposed NASA budget put a return to the Moon and a journey to Mars front and center, slashing science and climate programs.The White House says it wants to focus on “beating China back to the Moon and putting the first human on Mars.” China is aiming for its first crewed lunar landing by 2030, while the US program, called Artemis, has faced repeated delays.NASA is still run by an acting administrator after the administration’s initial pick to lead the agency, tech billionaire Jared Isaacman — endorsed by former Trump advisor Elon Musk — was ultimately rejected by the Republican president.