Connect with us

News

Hundreds gather in central London for protest against Trump administration

Published

on

Hundreds gather in central London for protest against Trump administration

Hundreds of protesters have gathered in central London as part of global demonstrations against Donald Trump’s administration.

Crowds gathered in Trafalgar Square on Saturday afternoon with banners which read “No to Maga hate” and “Dump Trump”.

The rally is one of hundreds of so-called “hands off” demonstrations around the world – including in cities across the US, Paris and Berlin.

The movement has been organised by more than 150 groups, including civil rights groups and trade unions.

Advertisement

In London, demonstrators voiced their concerns with chants of “Hands off Ukraine” and “Hands off the UK”.

Among the protesters was Clarke Reinstein, 73, from Rhode Island, who told the PA news agency he was “disappointed in my fellow Americans” over the election of Mr Trump.

“I’ve been in London for two months and I like being over here because people think a little differently,” he said

“They made a mistake over Brexit – but they didn’t fall over like the Americans have.”

A 37-year-old woman from Philadelphia was draped in the American flag that had been presented to her Second World War veteran grandfather.

Advertisement

The woman, who did not wish to be named, told PA she was protesting because of the “absolute, mind-blowing insipidness” of Mr Trump’s presidency.

“I don’t want to alienate the rest of the world,” she said.

“It’s not going to be useful for anyone in the long run. I felt powerless and I needed to come out and say something.

“I have friends in the United States who are marching in protest, and I wanted to march with them in solidarity.”

She explained that the flag she wore had been given to her grandfather, who served at Cambridgeshire airbase Duxford during the war.

Advertisement

“This is the flag they give a veteran when they pass away,” she said.

“My grandfather fought fascism and now to see it returning, he would be turning in his grave.”

Many of the protesters in the British capital are American expats.

Brent Robertson, 56, from Albuquerque, criticised Mr Trump’s tariffs.

A 25% levy on all foreign cars imported into America came into force on Thursday, and a wider “baseline” 10% tariff on goods imported from around the world kicked in on Saturday morning.

Advertisement

Mr Robertson said: “Stupid is not the word.

“He is shooting himself and all of us as Americans, just so he can make himself look like a tough guy.”

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

News

What to Know About the Deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador

Published

on

What to Know About the Deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador

Some of President Trump’s top aides on Monday misstated several key facts involving the deportation of a Maryland man to El Salvador last month, blatantly contradicting other members of the administration who have maintained for weeks that his expulsion was an “administrative error.”

In remarks from the Oval Office and on television, Mr. Trump’s advisers suddenly declared that the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, had been lawfully sent to a prison in El Salvador.

The White House also sought to portray a recent Supreme Court ruling in Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case as a victory when in fact the decision was a nuanced one. It partly found in favor of Mr. Abrego Garcia while also leaving open a loophole for the administration to avoid bringing him back from El Salvador.

The efforts by the Trump administration to misrepresent the case came as President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador announced after a meeting with Mr. Trump that his government would not return Mr. Abrego Garcia to U.S. soil.

Here are some of the ways in which the White House has twisted the facts.

Advertisement

When Mr. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant, was arrested while looking for work at a Home Depot in Maryland in 2019, a judge determined that he should not be deported to his homeland because he might face danger there. The ruling, known as a “withholding from removal” order, meant that he could stay in the United States with a measure of legal protection.

In March, however, he was suddenly pulled over by federal agents who accused him of being a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and inaccurately told him that his protected status in the country had changed. Within three days, he was on a plane with other migrants to a prison in El Salvador called CECOT, which is known for its human rights violations.

After Mr. Abrego Garcia’s family sued the government seeking his return, several Trump administration officials — including the United States solicitor general — made a rare admission: The White House had made a mistake when it deported Mr. Abrego Garcia.

But on Monday, Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s top domestic policy adviser, abruptly changed course. He declared on Fox News that Mr. Abrego Garcia had not in fact been wrongfully deported.

“He was not mistakenly sent to El Salvador,” Mr. Miller said, adding, “This was the right person sent to the right place.”

Advertisement

The sudden turnabout was remarkable not only because Mr. Miller, who is not a lawyer, contradicted previous assertions by some within the administration, but also because he appeared to go against the findings of the Supreme Court. In their recent ruling in Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case, the justices immediately stated that the government itself had taken the position that “the removal to El Salvador was the result of an ‘administrative error.’”

That view had already been advanced in court papers by a top official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and by D. John Sauer, Mr. Trump’s newly appointed solicitor general. It was also offered during a court hearing this month by Erez Reuveni, a Justice Department lawyer who was handling the case — that is, until he was fired this weekend, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In one of the more remarkable moments in his appearance on Fox News, Mr. Miller blamed Mr. Reuveni — and only Mr. Reuveni — for having planted the idea that Mr. Abrego Garcia’s deportation had been in error.

“A D.O.J. lawyer who has since been relieved of duty, a saboteur, a Democrat, put into a filing, incorrectly, that this was a mistaken removal,” Mr. Miller said.

That assertion, however, flew in the face of the fact that other Trump officials had said the exact same thing.

Advertisement

One of them was Mr. Sauer, a top-ranking Justice Department official. Another was Robert Cerna, the acting field office director for enforcement and removal operations at ICE.

Early in the case, Mr. Cerna submitted a sworn declaration about Mr. Abrego Garcia’s deportation, and made clear that it was a mistake.

“This removal was an error,” he said.

Moreover, just a few weeks before he was fired, Mr. Reuveni was praised as a “top-notched” prosecutor by his superiors in an email announcing a recent promotion.

Mr. Trump and his top aides have repeatedly accused Mr. Abrego Garcia of being a member of MS-13. They have also said at times that he is a terrorist — but only because the administration recently designated MS-13 as a terrorist organization.

Advertisement

In the Oval Office on Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that two courts — an immigration court and an appellate court — had “ruled” that Mr. Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13. But Ms. Bondi’s statement was a bit misleading.

To be clear, Mr. Abrego Garcia has never been charged with — let alone convicted of — being a member of the gang. But during his deportation proceedings, some evidence was introduced that he belonged to MS-13, and judges decided it was enough to keep him in custody while the matter was resolved.

But other judges have found the same evidence to be lacking.

When Judge Paula Xinis, who has been overseeing the efforts to bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the United States, considered the accusations that he was a gang member, she decided they were less than persuasive.

“The ‘evidence’ against Abrego Garcia consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York — a place he has never lived,” Judge Xinis wrote in an order last week.

Advertisement

In its daily update to Judge Xinis outlining what steps it has taken to return Mr. Abrego Garcia to the United States, the Justice Department, submitting its filing more than an hour late, echoed many of the recalcitrant remarks that administration officials made in the Oval Office. It included the assertion that in 2019, a judge had determined that Mr. Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13.

When the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case last week, its findings were complicated and rather ambiguous.

The justices endorsed Judge Xinis’s previous order that required the administration to “facilitate” the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia. But they stopped short of actually ordering his return, indicating that even federal courts may not have the authority to require the executive branch to do so.

And yet Mr. Miller, in his appearance on Fox News and in the Oval Office, portrayed the ruling as an unmitigated victory for the Trump administration.

He said, for instance, that the Supreme Court’s instructions that the White House had to “facilitate” getting Mr. Abrego Garcia out of custody meant that Trump officials could assume an entirely passive stance toward his release.

Advertisement

“If El Salvador voluntarily sends him back,” Mr. Miller said on Fox News, “we wouldn’t block him at the airport.”

But whether that position flies with Judge Xinis remains to be seen. She has scheduled a hearing to discuss what the government should do for Tuesday in Federal District Court in Maryland.

Mr. Miller also seized upon a small portion of the justices’ ruling that directed Judge Xinis to take the first crack at telling the White House what to do. The justices cautioned Judge Xinis that as she considered that issue, her ultimate decision needed to be made “with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

The Justice Department used that line in a court filing on Sunday to suggest that the courts were powerless to dictate how the White House should act because the president alone has broad powers to handle foreign policy.

“The federal courts have no authority to direct the executive branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner,” lawyers for the department wrote. “That is the ‘exclusive power of the president as the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations.’”

Advertisement

Glenn Thrush contributed reporting.

Continue Reading

News

Live news: US stocks close higher as tech shares gain on tariff relief

Published

on

Live news: US stocks close higher as tech shares gain on tariff relief

Treasury yields were on track for their first daily decline in a week, as investors increased their bets on a US recession despite news of tariff exemptions.

The 10-year Treasury yield, which sets government borrowing rates and underpins pricing on financial assets worldwide, fell 0.13 percentage points on Monday to 4.36 per cent. That puts the 10-year on track to record its first day of declines in yield, which move inversely to price, since April 4. Across maturities, yields were lower. 

The 10-year Treasury yield is sensitive to growth expectations — it tends to fall when investors are betting on increased chances of a recession. 

Mohit Mittal, chief investment officer of core strategies at bond fund group Pimco, said: “Even with the 90-day pause, even with the weekend pause on tech products, this has created an environment of extreme uncertainty. Until we get more certainty, businesses and consumers will continue to act with caution. That brings us closer to a recession in 2025. That’s the fundamental story for the bond market.” 

Treasuries typically move inversely to shares — when stocks rise, bond prices fall and yields rise. But that relationship has been subverted in the past week, as investors sold both stocks and bonds. On Monday, investors were buying both, which could be seen as a “buy the dip” move — in stocks and in bonds. 

Advertisement

Mittal said: “Government bonds look very attractive here. This is starting to create attractive opportunities for long-term investors. If you expect US growth to decline further, then yields could be much lower going forward.”

Continue Reading

News

Swarthmore College mourns graduates killed in upstate NY place crash

Published

on

Swarthmore College mourns graduates killed in upstate NY place crash

School officials at Swarthmore College are morning the loss of members of the schools “extended family,” they said in a letter to students after six people died in a plane crash in upstate New York over the weekend.

According to the Associated Press, a twin-engine aircraft, a Mitsubishi MU-2B, went down shortly after noon Saturday in a muddy field in Copake, New York, near the Massachusetts line, on Saturday.

The crash, officials said, killed all six people aboard.

In a letter addressed to students, faculty and staff members, officials with Swarthmore College said that three of those who were killed were graduates of Swarthmore College — Alexia Couyutas Duarte, class of 2023, Jared Groff of the class of 2022, and Jared’s father, Michael Groff, class of 1988.

Jared’s mother Joy Saini, along with his sister and former MIT soccer player recently named the NCAA Woman of the Year, Karenna Groff, along with her partner, James Santoro, were killed in the crash.

Advertisement

Swarthmore College officials noted, in the letter, that Alexia is survived by her sister, Ariana Couyutas Duarte, of Swarthmore College’s class of 2026, who was studying abroad when this tragedy occurred.

“In the face of such devastating news, we recognize and celebrate all that these extraordinary individuals meant to us, as well as support those who knew, mentored, and loved them,” Swarthmore College officials wrote in a letter.

School officials called the former students “extraordinary.”

  • Alexia, a first-generation American, graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in economics and political science. After graduation, she began her career as a legal intake specialist at the Rian Immigrant Center in Boston. Most recently, Alexia worked as a paralegal in the pro bono initiative unit at MetroWest Legal Services in Miami. She had planned to attend Harvard Law School this fall.
  • Jared, originally from Weston, Mass., graduated with a B.A. in economics and political science. He was a four-year member of the men’s basketball team and contributed to squads that won a Centennial Conference championship and reached the NCAA Division III National Championship game for the first time in program history. Jared most recently worked as a paralegal at DW Partners in New York and planned to attend law school this fall.
  • Michael was a neurosurgeon and the executive medical director of neuroscience at Rochester Regional Health. He and Joy, a pelvic surgeon and founder of Boston Pelvic Health and Wellness, met while training at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Their survivors include their daughter, Anika, who was recently admitted to Swarthmore’s Class of 2029.

School officials said they plan to celebrate the victims’ lives, but noted it was too soon to share details.

“On behalf of everyone at Swarthmore, our hearts go out to the families and friends of those we lost on Saturday, and to everyone affected by their tragic passing,” school officials said. “Please join us in sending them peace and light.”

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation into the crash, officials have said.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending