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The clash over President Donald Trump’s bid to exercise unprecedented powers in deporting migrants deepened Sunday as he again bashed the judiciary, while a top Democrat warned the country was “closer and closer” to a constitutional crisis.The latest events followed a dramatic intervention by the Supreme Court in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday to temporarily block Trump’s use of an obscure law to deport Venezuelan migrants without due process.Trump lashed out Sunday on his Truth Social platform, not specifically naming the high court but slamming the “WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue, an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten!”Samuel Alito, one of two conservative high-court justices to vote against the halt, called the emergency ruling by the court’s majority “legally questionable.””Literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief… without hearing from the opposing party,” Alito wrote in his dissent.The court’s order at least temporarily halted what rights groups warned were imminent deportations of Venezuelan migrants being held in Texas, who have been accused of being gang members.More broadly, the decision temporarily prevents the government from continuing to expel migrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act — last used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II.The Trump administration has been butting heads with federal judges, rights groups and Democrats who say he has trampled or ignored constitutionally enshrined rights in rushing to deport migrants, sometimes without the right to a hearing. “We’re getting closer and closer to a constitutional crisis,” Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar told CNN.”Donald Trump is trying to pull us down into the sewer of a crisis.”The Republican president has insisted that he is protecting American citizens against a wave of undocumented migration — including, he says, murderers, terrorists and rapists — while carrying out the will of the voters who returned him to the White House.- ‘Put up, or shut up’ -Last month, the Trump administration sent hundreds of migrants, most of them Venezuelan, to the maximum-security CECOT prison in El Salvador, alleging they were members of violent gangs.In the most publicized case, Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to the infamous El Salvador mega-prison without charge.The administration admitted that Abrego Garcia had been included among the deportees due to an “administrative error,” and a court ruled that the government must “facilitate” his return.Trump has since doubled down, however, insisting that Abrego Garcia is in fact a gang member, including posting an apparently doctored photo on social media Friday of a gang symbol tattooed on his knuckles.CECOT inmates are packed in windowless cells, sleep on metal beds with no mattresses, and are forbidden visitors.Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen managed on Thursday to secure a meeting with Abrego Garcia and said the man was bewildered by his detention and felt threatened in prison.On Sunday, Van Hollen challenged the Trump administration to provide evidence that it is respecting US laws in its deportation sweep.”I’m okay with whatever the rule of law dictates,” he told CNN, “but right now we have a lawless president… a lawless president who is ignoring the order of the Supreme Court of the United States to facilitate (Abrego Garcia’s) return.””They need to put up or shut up in the courts of the United States.”

The United States would drastically reduce its diplomatic footprint in Africa and scrap State Department offices dealing with climate change, democracy and human rights, according to a draft White House order.The executive order, framed as a strategy to cut costs while “reflecting the priorities” of the White House, also lays out measures to slash US soft power around the world.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said The New York Times, which first reported the existence of the draft order, had fallen “victim to another hoax.””This is fake news,” Rubio posted Sunday on X.However, a copy of the draft viewed by AFP calls for “full structural reorganization” of the State Department by October 1 of this year.The aim, the draft order says, is “to streamline mission delivery, project American strength abroad, cut waste, fraud, abuse, and align the Department with an America First Strategic Doctrine.”The biggest change would be organizing US diplomatic efforts into four regions: Eurasia, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia-Pacific — with no equivalent focus on Africa.The current Africa Bureau would be eliminated. In its place would be a “Special Envoy Office for African Affairs” who reports to the White House’s internal National Security Council, rather than the State Department.”All non-essential embassies and consulates in Sub-Saharan Africa shall be closed,” the draft order says, with all remaining missions consolidated under a special envoy “using targeted, mission-driven deployments.”Emphasis in Africa would be placed on counterterrorism and “strategic extraction and trade of critical natural resources.”The US footprint in Canada — a historic US ally that President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested should be annexed and made a 51st state — would likewise get a downgrade.The diplomatic presence would see a “significantly reduced team” and the embassy in Ottawa would “significantly downscale.”Tom Yazdgerdi, president of the American Foreign Service Association, which represents US diplomats, said officers support making the government more efficient, but this “looks like a hatchet job.””It looks like we’re pulling back from the world,” he said.- Soft power scrapped -The plan would impose far-reaching cuts to American soft power around the world and weaken participation in multilateral bodies.While the draft executive order obtained by AFP has not been discussed publicly by officials, it comes amid a flurry of moves to cut decades-old US initiatives and to question long-held alliances, including with NATO.An earlier proposed plan leaked to US media would see the State Department’s entire budget slashed by half.While that proposal also has yet to be confirmed, the State Department did announce last week that it has scrapped an agency built to track and combat aggressive disinformation campaigns run by foreign governments.The administration has also already axed the US government’s foreign aid arm, USAID.The new draft order says current offices dealing with climate change, oceans, global criminal justice, and human rights would be “eliminated.” Also on the scrap list is the State Department’s separate office for Afghan women and girls.A decades-old program to project US cultural and English-language contacts around the globe would be partially dismantled.The Fulbright program funds research and teaching scholarships for Americans abroad, as well as attracting foreign students to US institutions. Under the executive order, many of those opportunities would vanish.This would follow Trump’s already ongoing dismantlement of Voice of America, the network built to broadcast into repressive countries.Yazdgerdi criticized what he described as a “self-inflicted wound” for the United States.Soft power is “what showcases America. This is the inspiring element. Yes there’s a fearful element in that we have an awesome military and you need that of course, but this is what inspires people,” he said.”You’re basically ceding the field to countries that have no issue filling the void — Russia and China immediately spring to mind.”

North American moviegoers feasted on Warner Bros.’ vampire thriller “Sinners” as it debuted to an estimated $45.6 million over the Easter holiday weekend, analysts said Sunday.The first original film from Ryan Coogler — director of Oscar-nominated “Black Panther” — has Michael B. Jordan playing twins who encounter a sinister force as they return home to Jim Crow-era Mississippi. Hailee Steinfeld and Delroy Lindo also star in the music-driven thriller.Riding on “near-perfect reviews,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, “Sinners” outperformed another Warner Bros. blockbuster, “A Minecraft Movie,” which kept up its solid run with $41.3 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported.”Minecraft,” co-produced by Legendary Pictures, has recorded $344.6 million in domestic ticket sales and $376.2 million internationally for a total haul of $720.8 million in just three weeks out. Analysts say it could be the year’s first billion-dollar blockbuster. Starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, “Minecraft” already ranks as the all-time most successful film adaptation from a video game.”The King of Kings,” an animated telling of Jesus’s life from indie media company Angel Studios, did well over Easter weekend, scoring an estimated $17.3 million in ticket sales.Oscar Isaac, as Jesus, leads the voice cast, along with Kenneth Branagh, Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman and Mark Hamill. 20th Century thriller “The Amateur” slipped one spot to fourth place, taking in $7.2 million. Rami Malek plays a nerdy CIA analyst who turns vicious as he tracks down his wife’s killers. Rachel Brosnahan, Laurence Fishburne and Jon Bernthal also star.And in fifth place, also down one spot from last weekend, was A24’s “Warfare,” at $4.9 million. Based partly on the experiences of co-director Ray Mendoza as a navy SEAL, the film follows a platoon of soldiers moving amid high tension through hostile territory.Rounding out the top 10 were:”Drop” ($3.4 million)”Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing” ($2.8 million)”Pride and Prejudice” (20th anniversary re-release) ($2.7 million)”The Chosen: Last Supper Part 3″ ($1.7 million)”Snow White” ($1.2 million)

Cake, gifts and a low-key family celebration may be how many senior citizens picture their 70th birthday.But NASA’s oldest serving astronaut Don Pettit became a septuagenarian while hurtling towards the Earth in a spacecraft to wrap up a seven-month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).A Soyuz capsule carrying the American and two Russian cosmonauts landed in Kazakhstan on Sunday, the day of Pettit’s milestone birthday.”Today at 0420 Moscow time (0120 GMT), the Soyuz MS-26 landing craft with Alexei Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Donald (Don) Pettit aboard landed near the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan,” Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said.Spending 220 days in space, Pettit and his crewmates Ovchinin and Vagner orbited the Earth 3,520 times and completed a journey of 93.3 million miles over the course of their mission.It was the fourth spaceflight for Pettit, who has logged more than 18 months in orbit throughout his 29-year career. The trio touched down in a remote area southeast of Kazakhstan after undocking from the space station just over three hours earlier.NASA images of the landing showed the small capsule parachuting down to Earth with the sunrise as a backdrop.The astronauts gave thumbs-up gestures as rescuers carried them from the spacecraft to an inflatable medical tent.Despite looking a little worse for wear as he was pulled from the vessel, Pettit was “doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth,” NASA said in a statement.He was then set to fly to the Kazakh city of Karaganda before boarding a NASA plane to the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Texas.The astronauts spent their time on the ISS researching areas such as water sanitization technology, plant growth in various conditions and fire behavior in microgravity, NASA said.The trio’s seven-month trip was just short of the nine months that NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams unexpectedly spent stuck on the orbital lab after the spacecraft they were testing suffered technical issues and was deemed unfit to fly them back to Earth.Space is one of the final areas of US-Russia cooperation amid an almost complete breakdown in relations between Moscow and Washington over the Ukraine conflict.

Global tax plans targeting billionaires and multinational companies are running aground, with the United States torpedoing reforms under President Donald Trump.The billionaire real estate tycoon has pulled the United States out of an international deal on taxing multinationals and threatened tariffs on countries that target US tech giants.Here is a look at the state of play:- Big tech taxes -Countries have accused Amazon, Microsoft, Google owner Alphabet and Facebook’s parent company Meta of sidestepping local taxes.Trump issued a warning on February 21 to countries that would hit big tech and other US companies with fines or taxes that are “discriminatory, disproportionate” or designed to transfer funds to local companies.”My administration will act, imposing tariffs and taking such other responsive actions necessary to mitigate the harm to the United States,” he said in the memo.The move reopens a rift between Washington and its allies over taxing digital services.During his first term, Trump threatened to slap tariffs on US imports of champagne and French cheese after France rolled out a digital services tax in 2019.Seven other countries have followed France’s lead since then.The tax generated 780 million euros ($887 million) for the French government last year.Now the European Union is threatening to impose a tax on digital services if negotiations fail over Trump’s plans to impose 20 percent tariffs on EU goods.Britain, which is hoping to strike a trade deal with the United States, may reconsider its own digital levy, which currently brings in £800 million annually.British Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said the digital tax is not “something that can never change or we can never have a conversation about”.- Global corporate tax -Nearly 140 countries struck a deal in 2021 to tax multinational companies, an agreement negotiated under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.The OECD agreement has two “pillars”.The first provides for the taxation of companies in countries where they make their profits, a move aimed at limiting tax evasion. It primarily targets tech giants.Pillar two, which sets a minimum global rate of 15 percent, has been adopted by around 60 economies, including Brazil, Britain, Canada, the EU, Switzerland and Japan.Daniel Bunn, head of the Tax Foundation, a US non-profit think-tank, said negotiations on implementation of the first pillar “have been stalled for some time”, even under Joe Biden’s presidency.Franco-American economist Gabriel Zucman told AFP that the EU’s reaction in the coming weeks “will be crucial”.”If the EU and other countries give up and allow American multinationals to exempt themselves, it will unfortunately spell the end of this very important agreement,” he said.- Tax the rich -Efforts to tax the world’s ultra-wealthy are also stalling.Brazil used its time as chair of the G20 to push for a plan to impose a two percent minimum tax on the net worth of individuals with more than $1 billion in assets, a project estimated to raise as much as $250 billion per year.The Biden administration baulked at the plan and it is unlikely to get any traction with Trump — a billionaire himself and proponent of tax cuts — at the White House.Almost a third of the world’s billionaires are from the United States — more than China, India and Germany combined, according to Forbes magazine.At a recent conference in Paris, French economist Thomas Piketty said the world cannot wait for the G20 to all agree.”We need individual countries to act as soon as they can,” he said.”History suggests that once you have a couple of countries who adopt a certain kind of reform, in particular powerful countries, it becomes sort of a new standard.”

If “Andor” — which returns from Tuesday for its second and final season — has been received as one of the very best “Star Wars” TV series, that is largely thanks to the grittier, more adult approach taken by its creator Tony Gilroy.That standpoint — far, far away from the family-pleasing tone often encountered in the “Star Wars” universe run by the Disney empire — should be of no surprise to those who watched the 2002 action thriller “The Bourne Identity”, written by Gilroy.Its genesis was already evident in the 2016 “Star Wars” movie “Rogue One”, which Gilroy co-wrote — and which serves as the climax to “Andor”, which recounts the rebellion leading up to that film’s events.”Everything is emotionally charged” because “we’re getting close to ‘Rogue One’,” Diego Luna, the actor who plays the protagonist Cassian Andor, told AFP.For Disney, the success of “Andor” stands out as a new hope for a franchise that has become hit-or-miss with audiences in recent years.That is why it has banked heavily on the 12-episode story, which cost a staggering $645 million to make, according to Forbes magazine.Where “Rogue One” was about a rebel suicide mission to steal the plans for the Death Star, with “characters that sacrifice everything for a cause”, “Andor” is about how one of those characters “gets there”, Luna said.Unlike in a typical hero’s journey, the series explores the motives and dark sides of both camps: the rebels and the Empire. It spends time with figures such as a rebel alliance operative played by Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard.Gilroy, speaking to AFP with Luna during a Paris visit, said the original plan was for five seasons of “Andor”, but he came to realise “there’s no physical way to do it” given “the volume of work” required.The result was two seasons, but with episodes that were “more intense, more complex in every possible way”, Luna said.With season one finishing in late 2022 with a stunning 96-percent rating on the critic aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, season two has star billing on the Disney+ streaming platform. That season hits the small screen from Tuesday in the United States, or from Wednesday in France, Germany, Italy and other territories.- Revolutionary reading -“Andor” is not the only hit “Star Wars” television series.”The Mandalorian”, which preceded it, excited audiences for the first two seasons before interest waned in its third. That story will move to the cinemas, with a film scheduled for release next year.But “Andor” has impressed fans and critics with its darker vibe, greater political themes and more realistic tone. Gilroy said his approach to the series was informed by a decades-long reading obsession about uprisings — “all this crazy stuff I’ve learnt about… the Russian Revolution and… the French Revolution, and Thomas Paine and Oliver Cromwell and the Haitian Revolution and the Roman Revolution and Zapata.””I mean, it’s all in there,” he said.The second season focuses on the use of propaganda, looking at the tragic destiny of a planet called Ghorman, for which Gilroy and his team embarked on serious world-building, imagining its economy, language, culture and dress.Part of the inspiration came from a French TV series about a village living under German occupation in World War II, “A French Village”.”I loved that show… I had some of those actors in my head” while writing about Ghorman’s inhabitants, he said.Even if some people might see some echoes of today’s Earth in aspects of “Andor”, Gilroy said a writer’s horizon, stretching years ahead, did not allow him to anticipate current events. But, he said, “the sad truth is that history is… rinse and repeat,” adding: “We so commonly feel, narcissistically, that we live in unique times.”Technology might change, the rhetoric might alter, “but the dynamic of oppression and resistance are a Catherine wheel. It just keeps going. I think it’s timeless, sadly.” 

Commercial plane prices, already lifted in recent years due to pandemic supply chain shocks, are poised to climb further as Boeing and Airbus are buffeted by trade tariffs.”Compared with 2018, prices for commercial jets have risen by around 30 percent,” an aviation expert told AFP on condition of anonymity.The American and European aerospace giants have grappled with higher expenses for primary materials such as titanium, components and energy, as well as overall labor cost pressures.To resolve a labor strike, Boeing late last year agreed to a new contract with its Seattle-based machinist union that lifted wages by 38 percent over four years.Just months earlier, Spirit AeroSystems, a major supplier to both Boeing and Airbus, reached an agreement with similar wage increases.Richard Aboulafia, managing director at consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said items that have inflated “at a particularly high rate” include castings, forgings and “anything titanium… especially since all that Russian capacity has been cut off from the US and, to a lesser extent, from Europe.” Aboulafia estimates prices for materials and equipment have risen 40 percent since 2021. That’s before Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum, which are used in planes.”It’s kind of ironic, raw materials were not a problem, but Donald Trump is determined to make them a problem,” Aboulafia said.Inflation in aviation has been accelerating, and “that’s only going to get worse with these tariffs that are being imposed,” agreed John Persinos, editor-in-chief at Aircraft Value News. “These tariffs are disastrous.”What’s more, the newer generation of planes, such as the Boeing 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A321neo, can command premium prices thanks to their lower fuel consumption.- Listed prices a ‘fiction’ -The impact of tariffs is not reflected in the companies’ stale official pricing literature. Boeing has not updated its figures since 2023, while Airbus’ catalogue is untouched since 2018.”Catalogue prices were a complete work of fiction,” Aboulafia said. “You got 50 percent off for showing up dressed nicely.”Airbus decided to abandon the use of catalogue prices “a long time ago” because they “were not closely correlated to the final price, which was based on each specific contract in terms of plane configuration and detail,” the company said.The aerospace companies will often negotiate additional services such as plane support or training at a discounted level when aircraft are delivered, said the expert who requested anonymity.Such deals make the official listed price less meaningful, they added. Contracts for new planes typically include adjustment clauses for inflation, while pricing can also be tweaked if deliveries are delayed.Since the contracts are usually denominated in dollars, there can also be allowances for swings in exchange rates.Boeing told AFP that it evaluates price based on production costs and other market factors, but does not discuss the details publicly since they pertain to competition.Both Boeing and Airbus currently have a substantial backlog of plane orders that will keep them occupied through the end of the decade. But that strong demand has not in itself boosted pricing much.”It’s a very competitive situation,” said the expert. “The two companies fight for every transaction and that impacts pricing.”Most airlines opt to do business with both Airbus and Boeing.”Before Covid, Boeing and Airbus competed for a market where prices were really lower, maybe even too low,” said Manfred Hader of consultancy Roland Berger.But airlines have been able to afford more expensive planes in the post-lockdown period, where there has been strong travel demand, boosting ticket prices and airline profitability, Hader said.In February, Japanese carrier ANA ordered 77 planes from Boeing, Airbus and Brazilian firm Embraer, providing updated catalogue prices that show an increase from earlier levels.The order priced Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner at around $386 million and the 737 MAX at $159 million, compared with $292 million and $121.6 million in 2023, according to AFP calculations.It priced the Airbus A321neo at around $148 million compared with the $129.5 million in the 2018 catalogue. 

The US Supreme Court, in a dramatic nighttime intervention Saturday, blocked President Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of an obscure law to deport Venezuelan migrants without due process.The emergency ruling noted that two of the most conservative justices on the nine-member panel had dissented.The order temporarily prevents the government from continuing to expel migrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act — last used to round up Japanese-American citizens during World War II.Trump invoked the law last month to deport Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador that holds thousands of that country’s gangsters.The court decision was triggered by imminent plans late Friday to expel dozens more Venezuelans under the act, meaning they would have been deported with next to no ability to hear evidence or challenge their cases.The court said “the government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order.”Trump justifies summary expulsions — and the detention of people in El Salvador — by insisting that he is cracking down on violent Venezuelan criminal gangs now classified by the US government as terrorists.But the policy is fueling opposition concerns that the Republican is ignoring the US constitution in a broader bid to amass power. The row over the Alien Enemies Act comes amid muscular assaults by the administration against big law firms, Harvard and other universities, and major independent media outlets.The American Civil Liberties Union, which took the lead in seeking to halt Friday’s planned deportations, welcomed the Supreme Court ruling.”These men were in imminent danger of spending their lives in a horrific foreign prison without ever having had a chance to go to court,” attorney Lee Gelernt said.On Saturday the government filed a motion with the Supreme Court arguing that it should not be prevented from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport people it says are terrorists.The government also asserted that even if it is blocked, the court should state that such deportations can go ahead using other laws.- Tattoos and due process -Trump won the White House election last November in large part on promises to combat what he repeatedly claimed is an invasion of criminal migrants.Trump’s rhetoric about rapists and murderers descending on suburban homes resonated with swaths of voters concerned about high levels of illegal immigration.Trump has sent troops to the Mexican border, imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada for allegedly not doing enough to stop illegal crossings, and designated gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as terrorist groups.A right-wing influencer who meets often with Trump, Laura Loomer, said Saturday that the president was “gracious” for flying out people who entered the country illegally, rather than having them “shot to death” at the border.Democrats and civil rights groups have expressed alarm at an erosion of constitutional rights.Under Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act — previously seen only during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II — migrants have been accused of gang membership and sent to El Salvador without going before a judge or being charged with a crime.Trump has also repeatedly said he would be open to sending American citizens convicted of violent crimes to the notorious El Salvador prison, CECOT, outside San Salvador.Attorneys for several of the Venezuelans already deported have said their clients were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.In the most publicized case to date, Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported last month to CECOT before the Trump administration admitted he was sent there due to an “administrative error.”Even after a court ruled that the Trump administration must facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, Trump has doubled down and insisted he is a gang member — including posting an apparently doctored photo on social media Friday that showed MS-13 on his knuckles.As court challenges pile up, the president and his allies have repeatedly attacked what they call “activist” judges.Another right-wing influencer with a large social media following, Jesse Kelly, responded to the overnight order freezing deportations by posting: “Ignore the Supreme Court.”

Thousands of protesters rallied Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the United States for a second major round of demonstrations against Donald Trump and his hard-line policies.In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans like “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting “No ICE, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” a reference to the role of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in rounding up migrants.In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process.The administration is carrying out “a direct assault on the idea of the rule of law and the idea that the government should be restrained from abusing the people who live here in the United States,” Benjamin Douglas, 41, told AFP outside the White House.Wearing a keffiyeh and carrying a sign calling for the freeing of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian student protester arrested last month, Douglas said individuals were being singled out as “test cases to rile up xenophobia and erode long-standing legal protections.””We are in a great danger,” said 73-year-old New York protester Kathy Valy, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, adding that their stories of how Nazi leader Adolf Hitler rose to power “are what’s happening here.””The one thing is that Trump is a lot more stupid than Hitler or than the other fascists,” she said. “He’s being played… and his own team is divided.”- ‘Science ignored’ -Daniella Butler, 26, said she wanted to “call attention specifically to the defunding of science and health work” by the government.Studying for a PhD in immunology at Johns Hopkins University, she was carrying a map of Texas covered with spots in reference to the ongoing measles outbreak there.Trump’s health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, spent decades falsely linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) jab to autism.”When science is ignored, people die,” Butler said.In deeply conservative Texas, the coastal city of Galveston saw a small gathering of anti-Trump demonstrators.”This is my fourth protest and typically I would sit back and wait for the next election,” said 63-year-old writer Patsy Oliver. “We cannot do that right now. We’ve lost too much already.”On the West Coast, several hundred people gathered on a beach in San Francisco to spell out the words “IMPEACH + REMOVE,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.Others nearby held an upside-down US flag, traditionally a symbol of distress.Organizers hope to use building resentment over Trump’s immigration crackdown, his drastic cuts to government agencies and his pressuring of universities, news media and law firms, to forge a lasting movement.The chief organizer of Saturday’s protests — the group 50501, a number representing 50 protests in 50 states and one movement — said some 400 demonstrations were planned.Its website said the protests are “a decentralized rapid response to the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration and its plutocratic allies” — and it insisted on all protests being non-violent. The group called for millions to take part Saturday, though turnout appeared smaller than the “Hands Off” protests across the country on April 5. 

The United States and Iran made progress in a second round of high-stakes talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme on Saturday and agreed to meet again next week, both sides said.The Oman-mediated talks in Rome lasted about four hours, Iranian state television and a senior US official said. Tehran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi declared it a “good meeting” that yielded progress.”This time we managed to reach a better understanding on a series of principles and goals,” he told Iranian state TV.The senior US official said in a statement, “Today, in Rome over four hours in our second round of talks, we made very good progress in our direct and indirect discussions.”Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the parties  “agreed to resume indirect talks at a technical level over the next few days and subsequently continue at the level of two senior negotiators next Saturday”, April 26.The US official confirmed another meeting next week but did not specify which day or where.Oman said the third round would be in Muscat, returning to the site of the first talks a week ago.Those were the first discussions at such a high level between the foes since US President Donald Trump abandoned a landmark nuclear accord in 2018.Western countries including the United States have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons — an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.After Saturday’s talks, Oman’s foreign ministry said Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had agreed to keep negotiating.The talks, it said, “aim to seal a fair, enduring and binding deal which will ensure Iran (is) completely free of nuclear weapons and sanctions, and maintaining its ability to develop peaceful nuclear energy”.Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said the talks were “gaining momentum and now even the unlikely is possible”.Baqaei said the delegations had been “in two different rooms” at the Omani ambassador’s residence, with Albusaidi passing messages between them.Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.After returning to office in January, Trump revived his “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions against Iran.In March he wrote to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging renewed nuclear talks while also warning of military action if diplomacy failed.”I’m not in a rush” to use the military option, Trump said Thursday. “I think Iran wants to talk.”On Friday, Araghchi said Iran “observed a degree of seriousness” on the US side during the first round but questioned their “intentions and motivations”.- ‘Crucial stage’ -In an interview published Wednesday by French newspaper Le Monde, the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Iran was “not far” from possessing a nuclear bomb, noting a day later that talks were “at a very crucial stage”.During Trump’s first term, Washington withdrew from the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers that offered Iran relief from international sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.Tehran complied with the agreement for a year after Trump’s withdrawal before scaling back its compliance.Araghchi was a negotiator of the 2015 deal. His US counterpart, Witkoff, is a real estate magnate Trump has also tasked with talks on Ukraine.Iran currently enriches uranium up to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 percent limit in the deal but still below the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material.On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged European countries to decide whether to trigger the “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 agreement, which would automatically reinstate UN sanctions on Iran over its non-compliance.The option to trigger the mechanism expires in October.Iran has previously warned it could withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the mechanism were triggered.- ‘Non-negotiable’ -Analysts had said the United States would push to include discussions over Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its support for militants in the Middle East.But Araghchi said Saturday the US side had “not raised any issues unrelated to the nuclear topic so far”.He said earlier this week Iran’s right to enrich uranium was “non-negotiable”, after Witkoff called for its complete halt. Witkoff had previously demanded only that Iran return to the ceiling set by the 2015 deal.On Friday US ally Israel affirmed its commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, saying it had a “clear course of action” to do so — a stance Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Saturday.”I will not give up on this, I will not let go of it, and I will not retreat from it — not even by a millimetre,” he said.