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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.

The United States and Iran concluded a second round of high-stakes talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme on Saturday, agreeing to meet again in a week for further discussions.The Oman-mediated talks in Rome lasted about four hours, Iranian state television reported, with Tehran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi declaring 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.Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the parties had “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.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.

US Vice President JD Vance met the Vatican’s second-highest official on Saturday, discussing the thorny issue of refugees just two months after Pope Francis incurred the wrath of the White House after lambasting the new US administration over its migration policies.Catholic convert Vance and his delegation held “cordial talks” with the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s secretary for relations with states, according to a Vatican statement.The late morning meeting came just a day after Vance met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and discussed US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.Vance, 40, had been hoping to meet the 88-year-old head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, who is recuperating after battling life-threatening pneumonia and spending nearly 40 days in hospital.The Vatican made no mention of any such meeting with the pontiff and Vance’s entourage has not commented on the rest of his programme in Rome.But Francis made a brief appearance at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the late afternoon, greeting visitors from his wheelchair.”During the cordial talks” that praised bilateral relations, “the common commitment to protect the right to freedom of religion and conscience was reiterated,” the Vatican said in a statement.That was a topic Vance brought up during a speech to the Munich Security Conference in February, when he slammed the “retreat” of free speech in Europe.A statement from the White House said that Vance and Parolin “discussed their shared religious faith, Catholicism in the United States, the plight of persecuted Christian communities around the world, and President Trump’s commitment to restoring world peace”.- ‘Valuable service to most vulnerable’ -However, there were also discussions on subjects where the two sides do not see eye to eye.”There was an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees, and prisoners,” the Vatican added.In February, Francis angered the White House after writing a letter to US bishops in which he condemned Trump’s plan to deport migrants en masse, which he described as a “major crisis”.The United States responded by telling Francis to “stick to” religion.Last year, Francis also made a rare foray into the US election season to call harsh anti-migrant attitudes “madness” and criticise right-wing US Catholic figures for overly conservative stances.But following Saturday’s meeting, the Vatican did acknowledge the US Catholic Church’s “valuable service to the most vulnerable people”.Vance has a close relationship with the most conservative fringe of American churches, which have criticised the pope over his stances on migration, LGBTQ rights and certain questions of social justice.The US vice president, his wife and three children attended a Good Friday liturgy at Saint Peter’s Basilica following his meeting with Meloni.There has been no official confirmation of whether Vance, who converted to Catholicism in his mid-30s, will attend Easter mass on Sunday, where the pope is expected to make an appearance to the thousands of worshippers descending on the Vatican for the occasion.In May 2017, when Trump was in his first term, he was received at the Vatican for a half-hour meeting.

The US Supreme Court, in a dramatic nighttime intervention Saturday, paused President Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of an obscure law to deport Venezuelan migrants without due process.The emergency ruling, delivered in two terse paragraphs, noted that two of the most conservative of the nine justices 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.The unusual 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 against them 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 on 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. We are relieved that the Supreme Court has not permitted the administration to whisk them away the way others were just last month,” lead attorney Lee Gelernt said.- Tattoos and due process -Trump’s election last November was won in large part on his aggressive promises to combat what he has repeatedly claimed is an “invasion” of violent migrants.While there is no evidence to support the narrative of the United States being “invaded,” Trump’s rhetoric about rapists and murderers descending on suburban homes resonated with swaths of voters who have long been 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 narco-gangs like Tren de Aragua and MS-13 terrorist groups.However, 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 ability to go before a judge or being charged with a crime.Attorneys for several of the Venezuelans already deported had said their clients were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.In the most publicized case, Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported last month to the infamous El Salvador mega-prison without charge. The Trump administration said he had been included in a bigger batch of deportees due to an “administrative error” and a court ruled that it must facilitate his return.However, Trump has since doubled down, insisting that Abrego Garcia is in fact a gang member, including posting an apparently doctored photo on social media Friday that showed MS-13 on his knuckles.Most of the deported migrants are currently held in El Salvador’s maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a mega-prison southeast of the capital San Salvador with capacity for 40,000 prisoners. Inmates are packed in windowless cells, sleep on metal beds with no mattresses, and are forbidden visitors.

The United States and Iran on Saturday resumed high-stakes talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme, a week after an initial round of discussions that both sides described as “constructive”.The Oman-mediated talks in Rome began at around 0930 GMT, according to a US official and Iranian state television.Images broadcast by Iranian state television showed Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arriving in the Italian capital, with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff also set to participate in the talks.Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the “two delegations are in two different rooms” at the Omani ambassador’s residence, with Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi passing messages between them.The meeting comes a week after the two sides had what Iran called indirect talks in Muscat. 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.Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.Following his return to office in January, Trump revived his “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions against Iran.In March he sent a letter 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”.In a social media post early Saturday, Baqaei said Tehran was “aware that it is not a smooth path but we take every step with open eyes, relying also on the past experiences”.The leader of mediator Oman, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, is due in Moscow in the coming days, according to his office and the Kremlin, which said he would discuss with President Vladimir Putin “current questions on the international and regional agenda” and other issues.- ‘Crucial stage’ -In an interview published on Wednesday by French newspaper Le Monde, the United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Iran was “not far” from possessing a nuclear bomb.During Trump’s first term, Washington withdrew from the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers which 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 in Rome, 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 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 on 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 this year.Iran has previously warned it could withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the mechanism were triggered.Grossi, who met Iranian officials in Tehran this week, said the US and Iran were “at a very crucial stage” in the talks and “don’t have much time” to secure a deal.- ‘Non-negotiable’ -Iranian officials have insisted that the talks focus only on its nuclear programme and lifting of sanctions.Araghchi said a deal with the US was “likely” if Washington refrained from “making unreasonable and unrealistic demands”, without elaborating.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.Araghchi said 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 prevent this.Khamenei on Tuesday said Iranians should not pin hopes on progress in the negotiations which “may or may not yield results”.

US Vice President JD Vance met with the Vatican’s second-highest official on Saturday, in which they discussed the thorny issue of refugees just two months after Pope Francis incurred the wrath of the White House after lambasting the new US administration over its migration policies.Catholic convert Vance and his delegation held “cordial talks” with the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s secretary for relations with states, according to a Vatican statement.The meeting came just a day after Vance met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and discussed US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.Vance, 40, had been hoping to meet with the 88-year-old head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, who is recuperating after battling life-threatening pneumonia and spending nearly 40 days in hospital.The Vatican made no mention of any such meeting with the pontiff and Vance’s entourage has not commented on the rest of his programme in Rome.”During the cordial talks” that praised bilateral relations, “the common commitment to protect the right to freedom of religion and conscience was reiterated,” the Vatican said in a statement.That was a topic Vance brought up during a speech to the Munich Security Conference in February, when he slammed the “retreat” of free speech in Europe.- ‘Valuable service to most vulnerable’ -However, there were also discussions on subjects where the two sides do not see eye to eye.”There was an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees, and prisoners,” the Vatican added.In February, Francis angered the White House after writing a letter to US bishops in which he condemned Trump’s plan to deport migrants en masse, which he described as a “major crisis”.The US responded by telling Francis to “stick to” religion.Last year, Francis also made a rare foray into the US election season to call harsh anti-migrant attitudes “madness” and criticise right-wing US Catholic figures for overly conservative stances.But following Saturday’s meeting, the Vatican did acknowledge the US Catholic Church’s “valuable service to the most vulnerable people”.Vance has a close relationship with the most conservative fringe of American churches, which have criticised the pope over his stances on migration, LGBTQ rights and certain questions of social justice.The US vice president, his wife and three children attended a Good Friday liturgy at Saint Peter’s Basilica following his meeting with Meloni.There has been no official confirmation whether Vance, who converted to Catholicism in his mid-30s, will attend Easter mass on Sunday, where the pope is expected to make an appearance to the thousands of faithful who will descend on the Vatican for the occasion.In May 2017, when Trump was in his first term, he was received at the Vatican for a half-hour meeting.