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President Donald Trump on Friday denied reports that Elon Musk would see top secret US plans for a possible war with China, saying that his billionaire ally’s links with Beijing raised potential conflicts of interest.The rare acknowledgment of Musk’s dueling roles in business and government came as Trump pushed back against media reports saying the Space X and Tesla owner would receive a Pentagon briefing on its China strategy.The reports fanned concern about the influence of the world’s richest man in the White House as an unelected, South African-born tycoon who has become Trump’s closest advisor.Musk did visit the Pentagon on Friday, but Trump insisted he was “there for DOGE, not for China” — referring to Musk’s Department for Government Efficiency, which is expanding its cost-cutting drive to the defense department.”I don’t want to show it to anybody. You’re talking about a potential war with China,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the possibility of sharing the war plan with Musk.”Certainly you wouldn’t show it to a businessman… Elon has businesses in China and he would be susceptible perhaps to that.”Musk’s automaker Tesla produces some of its electric vehicles at a huge so-called gigafactory in Shanghai and is trying to compete with fast-growing Chinese manufacturers.The entrepreneur has become a cult figure in China and has fostered ties with its leadership. He has also caused controversy by suggesting the self-ruled island of Taiwan should become part of China.In the United States, Trump has repeatedly insisted that Musk has no conflicts of interest, even as Musk leads a harsh overhaul of US government agencies that in some cases his companies have dealings with.Musk’s SpaceX has US government defense contracts worth billions of dollars, including for launching rockets and for the use of the Starlink satellite service.Trump has recently further blurred the line by promoting Tesla cars after attacks by vandals over Musk’s links to the White House. Trump suggested Friday that such vandals could be deported to prisons in El Salvador.- ‘Enemy of the people’ -According to the New York Times, Musk had been set to receive a briefing Friday on US military plans in case of a war with China, including maritime tactics and targeting plans.The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post also reported on the apparent briefing.The Times later reported that the meeting in the secure “tank” room of the Pentagon had been called off after its story was published late Thursday.Trump, who has launched a series of attacks on journalists and news outlets in recent days, furiously lashed out at the press over the story.”They really are the enemy of the people,” Trump said of the New York Times.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Musk’s “informal meeting” at the Pentagon would focus on innovation and efficiencies, not “top secret China war plans.””The NYT should immediately retract this fake narrative,” Hegseth said on X.Tensions have soared between Washington and Beijing since Trump’s inauguration as the world’s two largest economies impose a slew of tariffs on each other’s imports.Democrats have meanwhile blasted Trump for handing administration policy to Musk despite him undergoing no background checks and heading companies with government contracts.Musk joined the chorus of criticism of the Times, labeling it “pure propaganda” on his social media platform X.In a separate post replying to Hegseth, he said Friday’s meeting would not be his first visit to the US Defense Department.”I’ve been to the Pentagon many times over many years. Not my first time in the building,” he wrote.

Ukraine hopes to secure at least a partial ceasefire at upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia, during which US officials will meet separately with Russian and Ukrainian delegations, a senior Ukrainian source told AFP on Friday.Momentum has been building in recent weeks towards a ceasefire in the three-year war as US officials hold talks with both sides, though their efforts have so far failed to yield a breakthrough.Both Russia and Ukraine say they back a 30-day pause in strikes on energy infrastructure, a pause that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered on Tuesday but that Kyiv says Moscow has already broken.US negotiators will meet separately with Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia on Monday, in what US envoy Keith Kellogg described to US media as “shuttle diplomacy” between hotel rooms.Ukraine last week gave its approval to a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire on land, air and sea, an idea that Russia rejected.”We still want to agree on a ceasefire, at least on what we have proposed,” a Ukrainian source told AFP, referring to calls for a halt to strikes on energy sites, civilian infrastructure and attacks in the Black Sea.The Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia will be led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who will handle a “technical discussion” of issues surrounding the implementation of any truce, the source said.Those questions included “what facilities” strikes would be limited against, and “how to oversee the ceasefire”, the source added.The Russian delegation will be led by career diplomat Grigory Karasin and senior FSB official Sergei Beseda, neither of whom are seen as high-ranking decision makers.”They are experienced negotiators with a wealth of experience in this kind of work,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.US President Donald Trump has said he can end the war and has been pursuing rapprochement with Moscow.- Ceasefire timing ‘unclear’ -Putin ordered a limited, 30-day pause on strikes targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure following a call with Trump on Tuesday. But Zelensky has accused Moscow of continuing to hit energy facilities anyway and said Thursday that nothing had changed, “despite Putin’s words”.Russia had recently struck a high-voltage power line near the city of Pokrovsk, a flashpoint for fighting in east Ukraine, an official from Ukraine’s largest private energy provider told AFP.The attack cut power to a village, leaving it completely “cut off”, said Vitalii Asinenko, head of the Pokrovsk power distribution zone at DTEK.Both sides also accused each other of blowing up a gas facility under the control of Ukraine’s army in the Russian border region of Kursk earlier on Friday.The Ukrainian source added that as of yet it was “unclear” when any ceasefire could be implemented. “There have been no reciprocal steps from the Russians,” the source added.”We need to agree on the main thing: what objects and what control. The Americans have enormous intelligence capabilities, so they see a lot,” the source added.Zelensky said the Ukrainian side would present a “list of civilian objects” that he would want included in a ceasefire.Russia kept up its aerial attacks on Ukraine into Friday.Zelensky called for allies to exert “joint pressure” on the Kremlin after an overnight barrage of more than 200 drones and guided bombs.In the Black Sea city of Odesa, an AFP reporter saw the charred remains of a shopping mall destroyed in the overnight attack.The Russian defence ministry meanwhile said Kyiv “deliberately blew up the Sudzha gas metering station, located a few hundred metres from the state border in the Kursk region.”It said the Ukrainian army had been using the facility as a logistics hub since seizing it in its shock August 2024 cross-border offensive, and blew it up as part of Ukraine’s “retreat” from the area.The defence ministry claimed Kyiv blew up the site specifically to “discredit the peace initiatives of the US president”.”Everyone can see how much we can trust the word of Zelensky and the word of other representatives of the Kyiv regime,” Peskov said.Ukraine’s general staff said the claim it was behind the attack was “groundless” and said Russia had “fired artillery at the facility”.bur-afptv-cad/rmb

Donald Trump has been back in power for just two months, and the past week produced another stream of extraordinary news stories ranging from a constitutional clash to interior decorating at the White House.- Supreme Court v. Trump -After Trump called for a judge’s impeachment over a migration ruling, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts delivered a rare public rebuke of the sitting president.Breaking precedent as ever, Trump smacked back, saying “radical and highly partisan judges” were standing in the way of his agenda.”If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!” he posted.- Blinging up the Oval Office -Trump unveiled the Declaration of Independence, now hanging in the Oval Office behind light-protecting curtains (though it appears to be a copy).He has also decked out the inner sanctum of the US presidency in his signature style with gilded trophies and gold-plated, Trump-branded coasters. Trump pointed out gold cherubs newly installed above the doorways. “They say angels bring good luck,” he said while giving Fox News a tour.- Canada’s new head of state? -Britain’s King Charles could lose one of his roles and be replaced by Trump if the United States annexes Canada as the president intends.The king, who is Canada’s head of state, met the country’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney for talks at Buckingham Palace.A thinly sourced report in the British tabloids suggests the king could offer bringing the US into the British Commonwealth, which he oversees. Trump posted on social media: “I love King Charles. Sounds good to me!”- Final JKF papers released -The National Archives released the final batch of files related to the 1963 assassination of president John F. Kennedy — a case that fuels still conspiracy theories.The move follows Trump’s executive order for the unredacted release of papers held back at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation.Experts are sifting through tens of thousands of documents, but, so far, no bombshell revelations.- Autopen attack -Without much legal basis, Trump sought to drum up outrage over Joe Biden’s supposed use of autopen to sign presidential pardons and other documents.Auto-signatures have been used by previous presidents, and there is no evidence Biden even used the technology, but Trump hammered home his theory that a senile Biden was not in charge as president.”Did he know what he was doing?” Trump asked. “Or is there somebody in an office, maybe a radical left lunatic, just signing whatever that person wants?”

President Donald Trump suggested Friday that people who vandalize Tesla property — the car brand owned by his billionaire ally Elon Musk — could be deported to prisons in El Salvador.”I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.”Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!” he added, referencing the Central American nation known for its harsh treatment of criminals.Trump’s remarks mark a further consolidation of his administration’s support for key advisor Musk, who has divided Americans as an unelected tycoon who has led a ruthless cost-cutting drive at the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).Several Tesla dealerships around the country have been vandalized in recent weeks and the company’s stock price has plummeted over the past month.Attorney General Pam Bondi this week branded vandalism against property owned by Tesla as “domestic terrorism” in a public show of support for Musk.On Thursday she announced that unspecified charges were being brought against three people accused of targeting Tesla cars, carrying between five and 20 years in prison.The three defendants, who were not identified, “will face the full force of the law” for using Molotov cocktails to set fire to Tesla vehicles and charging stations in Oregon, Colorado and South Carolina, the Justice Department said.Trump, in an unprecedented product endorsement by a sitting president, sought to boost Tesla sales earlier this month, briefly turning the White House into a showroom and announcing he was buying one of the electric cars.His suggestion of jailing Tesla vandals in El Salvador is particularly pointed after US officials last weekend flew more than 200 alleged gang members to be jailed in the country.The move caused uproar as it apparently defied a US court order halting the flights — though the Trump administration insists it was legal.

For nearly 70 years scientists have been probing, measuring, drilling and generally getting to know South Cascade Glacier in the US Northwest, developing and honing skills now used worldwide.Generations of glaciologists have studied the slow-moving ice mass in Washington state, which was named “glacier of the year” on Friday by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and is one of five “benchmark” US glaciers, keeping tabs on how they are changing as human activity warms the Earth.While glaciers have been studied in Europe since at least the 19th century, what scientists learned here has been invaluable.”A lot of the scientific methods that we use to measure glaciers were developed here,” said Andrew Fountain, professor emeritus at Portland State University, who specializes in glaciers and climate change.That includes the use of ice radar, which allowed researchers to see just how thick the ice is in a spot where a glacier has probably existed for upwards of a million years.- Ideal for studying -South Cascade Glacier sits in a basin at the head of the South Fork of the Cascade river, which flows down ultimately into Puget Sound.The size of the basin — more than 2 square miles (over 6 square kilometers) — along with its straightforward geometry made it ideal to study for scientists wanting to know how these dynamic bodies are faring in the changing world.A glacier is a perennial accumulation of snow and ice that is always on the move, abrading the rocks underneath and — over a long enough period of time — carving valleys.Measurements began at the site in 1958, according to the US Geological Survey, the government body that studies the natural environment.The following year, the USGS began what is known as a “continuous mass balance” measurement project that keeps a running tally of streamflow runoff, precipitation, air temperature, barometric pressure, snow thickness and density, ice ablation, surface speed and surface altitude.- Retreating -The data collected here, as well as from the four other benchmark glaciers — three in Alaska and one in Montana — provides a continuous record, capturing their seasonal variations and their year-to-year changes.Over nearly seven decades, glaciologists have been able “to track how the glacier is responding to climate.”And what they are seeing is not good, says Fountain.”As you can imagine, it’s been retreating like crazy” and is now about half the size it was when measurements started.All the world’s 19 glacier regions suffered a net mass loss in 2024, the third year in a row, the WMO said Friday.With a very complete record of the conditions, it’s clear that the rising temperatures of the industrial age are to blame, said Fountain.A warmer atmosphere reduces the amount of precipitation that falls as snow and increases the ambient air temperature, so what snow does fall doesn’t hang around.While people may find it difficult to discern any long-term trends from the wildly differing amounts of snow a region can experience from year to year, a shrinking glacier is an obvious sign that the balance of nature is off.”We can understand very viscerally that the climate is warming,” he said.Since President Donald Trump — a climate change skeptic — came to power, he and billionaire adviser Elon Musk have set about slashing government spending, eliminating tens of thousands of government jobs, including scientists.This week, researchers at the Environmental Protection Agency — which tackles environmental issues including pollution, clean water and climate change — were put in the firing line.For Fountain, whatever the reason a government has for diminishing the work of scientists, they should not be ignored.About two percent of the world’s water is stored in glaciers, and if they all melt, it will run eventually into the oceans, further raising sea levels and imperiling human settlements along tens of thousands of miles of coastlines worldwide.That, amongst other reasons, is why the science of glaciology that came of age at South Cascade Glacier is invaluable, said Fountain.”Just because we don’t want to hear a message doesn’t mean it isn’t happening,” he said.

Jennifer Nikolaeff slowly inhales and exhales as she seeks “a moment of calm” at a free yoga class for sacked government workers in Washington, where life has been upended by Donald Trump’s return.”Many of us are trying to get jobs again, so this is just one way for us all to get together,” said Nikolaeff, 53, who was recently fired from aid agency USAID after 15 years of service across the globe.As dramatic job losses mount among government staff, a sense of gloom has descended on the US capital.Of the city’s 700,000 residents, 70,000 are federal employees with at least another 110,000 living in the suburbs.Civil servants and contract workers, who are often passionate about politics and left-leaning, look on distraught as President Trump and his fellow Republicans slash the government and move to shut many of its agencies headquartered in the city.Nikolaeff was locked out of her work system at the start of February. Two weeks later, she received a letter saying she was let go.Since then “it felt like every day was going through an entire cycle of grief, from sadness to loss, anger,” she said.In the city that voted 90 percent for Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential election, three times as many people filed for unemployment benefits in February as in the same period last year.- Awaiting bad news -“The energy has been sucked from everyone,” said Nick McFarland, a waiter in a Washington bar.While many have been laid off, others fear they are next to receive the fateful email. Staff are often locked out of offices in the days before cuts are confirmed.Some of those laid off are already looking for a new job, while also fighting in court to keep their current ones.Those still on the payroll have had work-from-home options cut back or eliminated.The city “isn’t sleeping anymore,” said a headline in the Washington Post.Elana Woolf, a mental health therapist, says she has seen the impact on patients.”A lot of people are having increased levels of anxiety, depression,” she said. “You can really feel the change in mood and the change in the environment.”In solidarity, some businesses are making small gestures for former civil servants and contract workers.Veterinarian services offer discounted prices, bars have special “happy hours,” and career workshops offer to help revamp CVs.”The job market is already kind of a mess, with a lot of high skilled workers flooding the market,” said Seth Commichaux, who worked at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for nine years before being terminated.”When I’m applying to jobs, it’s not unusual for there to be 1,000 applications on something within a couple of days,” he told AFP at a small protest gathering of fired employees.- Shell-shocked -The local real estate market is not yet showing an exodus of residents. But “there is a lot of uncertainty, and so many people are just shell-shocked by the news right now,” said Sarah Brown, a real estate agent who organized the free yoga session, adding that many people have frozen their plans.The city government anticipates a drop in revenue of around one billion dollars “over the next four to five years due to these layoffs,” Brianne Nadeau, a local Democratic representative, told AFP.In a physical sign of change, a celebrated “Black Lives Matter” street mural just outside the White House has been dug up and removed.  The capital’s Democratic mayor Muriel Bowser agreed to remove the anti-racist statement after Republican lawmakers threatened to cut funding to the city, which is under congressional control.Back at the yoga studio, owner Kristine Erickson says “there is a feeling of helplessness among us. It feels like we are being punished.”   

Nader says that the fear caused by President Donald Trump’s immigration policies have left the streets of his largely migrant neighborhood in Queens, New York empty, forcing him to shutter his furniture store.”It’s almost dead out here,” said Nader, a Palestinian-American who like others in this article declined to give his full name.He described his neighbors’ trepidation as having contributed to the worst business in his 35 years in the furniture trade. “I have a lot of customers — especially from Guatemala — and nobody is coming to the streets (to) buy furniture,” he said, explaining that people fear arrest and deportation.The main square in Corona, Queens was once a bustling meeting point at the heart of the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, but is now quiet with little foot traffic.Sometimes three days go by without a single sale, said 57-year-old Nader, now facing an uncertain future.Occupying a spot next to Corona’s main drag, Roosevelt Avenue, Nader said “I never thought it would end like this” as he contends with unaffordable rent.His customers were often undocumented — like many of the people in the melting pot neighborhood, now fearful of the mass deportations threatened by Republican Trump.Faced with uncertainty, people are wary of committing to purchasing a bed, a mattress or chest of drawers when they might be forced to leave at a moment’s notice, Nader said.Local clothing stores, grocers, remittance offices and food stands also complain that business has fallen by around half since the beginning of the year. Customers at phone stores have also halved, said Javier who reported his clients have cut back on their phone plans, while others pay the minimum to avoid losing their number. Most prefer to wait to buy a new device, he said.”People used to spend without issue. ‘I have a job, I have money.’ Now they leave work and may not make it home,” said Javier, a 31-year-old Mexican.- ‘Kick out more’ -Unlike around Trump’s inauguration when ICE roamed the area in force to act on deportation orders, the officers are not commonly seen now — but the fear remains. “It will last for years,” Javier said darkly.From the inauguration to March 12, ICE agents removed 28,319 people across the country, according to official statistics.”What if they keep up the deportations?” Javier added, insisting that local businesses depended on the Latin community — both documented and undocumented.Javier, like many of his friends, has taken his savings to Mexico as a precaution, fearful of what might happen, and has retained only what he needs to live.Compounding store closures and layoffs are businesses that are dismissing undocumented employees ahead of possible round ups.Ecuadoran Francisco Lopez, who works in construction, complained that employers were changing workers every “fifteen days.” He was paid off with a check that bounced, he recounted angrily.A 53-year-old Mexican woman, who declined to give her name, has a food stand in Corona’s main square and also reports being hit by the impact of Trumps’ anti-immigrant rhetoric.Last year she made up to $500 daily, from which she paid for transportation, kitchen equipment rentals, her tent, ingredients and costs related to her four children. But in recent days it has been a struggle to make more than $140 daily, said the undocumented migrant who came to the United States 32 years ago and has paid taxes and even received a license from the city for her food stand.”I have to come to work — even if I’m afraid,” she said, adding that she had to reassure her young children who fear she could be deported. She is considering granting her eldest daughter, 21, power of attorney to care for her siblings in case something happens.”If Mr Trump said ‘The people who live here, I will leave these people alone — nobody will touch these people who don’t have papers,’ that would be good. But he doesn’t,” said Nader.”Instead, he says he wants to kick out more.”

Major tech firms are pushing the administration of President Donald Trump to loosen rules on building artificial intelligence, arguing it is the only way to maintain a US edge and compete with China. Spooked by generative AI’s sudden advance, governments initially scrambled to develop guardrails, as major tech companies rapidly integrated the technology into their products.Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has shifted focus toward accelerating AI development at all costs, pushing aside concerns about the models suffering hallucinations, producing deepfakes, or destroying human jobs.”The AI future is not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety,” Vice President JD Vance told world leaders at a recent AI summit in Paris.This message unsettled international partners, particularly Europe, which had proudly established the EU AI Act as a new standard for keeping the technology in check.But, faced with America’s new direction, European officials are now pivoting their messaging toward investment and innovation rather than safety.”We’re going to see a significant pullback in terms of the regulatory efforts… worldwide,” explained David Danks, professor of data science and philosophy at University of California San Diego. “That certainly has been signaled here in the United States, but we’re also seeing it in Europe.”- ‘Step back’ -Tech companies are capitalizing on this regulatory retreat, seeking the freedom to develop AI technologies that they claim have been too constrained under the Biden administration.One of Trump’s first executive actions was dismantling Biden’s policies, which had proposed modest guardrails for powerful AI models and directed agencies to prepare to oversee the change.”It’s clear that we’re taking a step back from that idea that there’s going to be a coherent overall approach to AI regulation,” noted Karen Silverman, CEO of AI advisory firm Cantellus Group.The Trump administration has invited industry leaders to share their policy vision, emphasizing that the US must maintain its position as the “undeniable leader in AI technology” with minimal investor constraints.The industry submissions will shape the White House’s AI action plan, expected this summer.The request has yielded predictable responses from major players, with a common theme emerging: China represents an existential threat which can only be addressed by plowing an open path for companies unencumbered by regulation.OpenAI’s submission probably goes the furthest in its contrast with China, highlighting DeepSeek, a Chinese-developed generative AI model created at a fraction of American development costs, to emphasize the competitive threat.According to OpenAI, American AI development should be “protected from both autocratic powers that would take people’s freedoms away, and layers of laws and bureaucracy that would prevent our realizing them.”For AI analyst Zvi Mowshowitz, OpenAI’s “goal is to have the federal government not only not regulate AI,” but also ban individual US states from doing so.Currently engaged in litigation with the New York Times over the use of its content for training, OpenAI also argues that restricting access to online data would concede the AI race to China.”Without fair use access to copyrighted material…America loses, as does the success of democratic AI,” OpenAI said.Another response submitted by a group of Hollywood celebrities — including Ben Stiller and Cynthia Erivo — rejected the notion, reflecting the film and television industry’s contentious relationship with the technology.- ‘Essential’ -In its response, Meta touted its open Llama AI model as part of the fight for American technological superiority.”Open source models are essential for the US to win the AI race against China and ensure American AI dominance,” the company stated.CEO Mark Zuckerberg has even advocated for retaliatory tariffs against European regulatory efforts.Google’s input focused on infrastructure investment for AI’s substantial energy requirements. Like its peers, Google also opposes state-by-state regulations in the US that it claims would undermine America’s technological leadership.Despite the push for minimal oversight, industry observers caution that generative AI carries inherent risks, with or without government regulation.”Bad press is universal, and if your technology leads to really bad outcomes, you’re going to get raked over the public relations coals,” warned Danks.Companies have no choice but to mitigate the dangers, he added.

Two US states executed convicted murderers on Thursday, the third and fourth death sentences carried out in the country this week.  In Oklahoma, a man convicted of killing a woman during a home robbery was put to death. And in Florida, another man was executed for the rape and murder of a child and the killing of her grandmother. Wendell Grissom, 56, was sentenced to death in Oklahoma for the 2005 murder of Amber Matthews, 23, who was shot in the head while trying to protect a friend’s two young daughters.Grissom was pronounced dead 10 minutes after the execution process began at the state penitentiary in McAlester, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said in a statement.It said the execution was carried out using a three-drug protocol: Midazolam, which causes sedation, Vecuronium Bromide, which halts respiration, and Potassium Chloride, which stops the heart.According to court documents, Grissom, a truck driver, and another man, Jessie Johns, broke into the home of Dreu Kopf, a friend of Matthews, with the intention of committing a robbery.Grissom shot and wounded Kopf and killed Matthews while she was hiding in a bedroom in an attempt to shield Kopf’s two children.Johns was sentenced to life in prison without parole.In Florida, Edward James, 63, was also executed by lethal injection, in his case for the 1993 rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl, Toni Neuner, and the murder of Betty Dick, 58, her grandmother.The Florida Department of Corrections announced that James was executed at 8:15 pm Thursday (0015 GMT Friday) at the Florida State Prison in Raiford, outside Jacksonville in the north of the state. – Previous executions -Earlier, on Tuesday this week, Jessie Hoffman, 46, was put to death by nitrogen gas in the southern state of Louisiana.Hoffman, who was convicted of the 1996 rape and murder of Molly Elliott, a  28-year-old advertising executive, was the first person executed in Louisiana in 15 years.Only one other US state, Alabama, has carried out executions by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.The method has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhumane.  Aaron Gunches, 53, who was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband, was executed in Arizona on Wednesday.Gunches had abandoned legal efforts to halt his execution.The vast majority of US executions since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 have been performed using lethal injection, although South Carolina executed a man by firing squad on March 7.There have already been ten executions in the United States this year, following 25 last year.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

US President Donald Trump demanded Thursday that courts stop blocking his agenda, edging closer to a constitutional showdown after a judge suggested the administration had ignored an order to block summary deportations.A federal judge, in a strongly worded order, gave the Justice Department until Tuesday to explain why it went ahead with flights to El Salvador of prison-bound Venezuelan migrants, some of whose representatives say they had committed no crime and were targeted only for their tattoos.Trump, in a scathing attack on the judiciary that would have been unthinkable coming from most presidents, demanded that the Supreme Court intervene.”It is our goal to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and such a high aspiration can never be done if Radical and Highly Partisan Judges are allowed to stand in the way of JUSTICE,” Trump wrote in a post on his online platform Truth Social aimed at Chief Justice John Roberts.”STOP NATIONWIDE INJUNCTIONS NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” Trump wrote in all capital letters.”If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!”Roberts, who was nominated by Republican George W. Bush, a day earlier issued a rare rebuke by the country’s top justice to remarks of the president after Trump called for the impeachment of the judge who ruled on the deportation case.”For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a brief statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”On Saturday, James Boasberg, the chief judge of the US District Court in Washington, issued an emergency order against the deportation of Venezuelans as they sought legal recourse.He said that two flights already in the air must turn around. El Salvador’s President Nayyib Bukele, who has offered to take in prisoners on the cheap in Latin America’s largest prison, responded on social media: “Oopsie… Too late.”- ‘Woefully insufficient’ -In a new order on Thursday, Boasberg said an acting field office director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency had explained that the Trump administration was considering justifying its actions by saying the issue was a matter of “state secrets.””This is woefully insufficient,” Boasberg wrote, saying that “the Government again evaded its obligations.”He said that a regional official in charge of immigration enforcement was not in a position to attest to cabinet-level arguments against a federal court.He gave the Trump administration until Tuesday to explain why it did not violate his restraining order.Officials said that 237 Venezuelans were flown to El Salvador, some of them as Trump invoked the rarely used 1798 Alien Enemies Act to remove alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal gang. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday he had confidence that the deported Venezuelans were gang members but that, even if not, they were illegally in the United States. A lawyer for one of the men, Jerce Reyes Barrios, said that he was a professional soccer player in Venezuela with no criminal record who applied through legal channels for asylum in the United States after demonstrating against Nicolas Maduro, the leftist president whose legitimacy is rejected by Washington and the opposition. The lawyer, Linette Tobin, said that US authorities accused him of gang membership based on a tattoo that in fact was associated with his fandom for Real Madrid.Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said that Trump was “refusing to accept that we are still a nation of laws and not royal edicts.”Gregg Nunziata, a former Senate aide to Rubio who now heads to Society for the Rule of Law, called Trump’s post on the judiciary “a knife pointed at the heart of our Constitution and worthy of impeachment on its own.”