Evelyn Reynolds

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    in US Politics

    Trump ramps up retribution campaign against legal community

    Donald Trump expanded his retribution campaign against law firms on Friday night as he ordered his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to refer what she determines to be partisan lawsuits to the White House and recommend punitive actions that could harm the firms involved.The directives were outlined in a sweeping memo in which Trump alleged that too many law firms were filing frivolous claims designed to cause delays. It came after a week of setbacks, in which a slew of judges issued temporary injunctions blocking the implementation of Trump’s agenda.Trump’s memo directed Bondi to seek sanctions against the firms or disciplinary actions against the lawyers. But imposing sanctions is up to federal judges, and perhaps in recognition of the uncertainty that his attorney general would prevail, Trump also ordered referrals to the White House.“When the attorney general determines that conduct by an attorney or law firm in litigation against the federal government warrants seeking sanctions or other disciplinary action, the attorney general shall … recommend to the president … additional steps that may be taken,” the memo said.The memo, as a result, created a formal mechanism for Trump to unilaterally decide whether to impose politically charged sanctions through executive orders that strip lawyers of the security clearances they need to perform their jobs or prevent them from working on federal contracts.Multiple legal experts suggested the memo would theoretically allow Bondi to decide a particular lawsuit that triggered a temporary injunction was causing an unnecessary delay, and refer the firm that filed the suit to face the effects of a punitive executive order.That could cause a chilling effect and lead to the volume of litigation against the Trump administration to decline, the experts said. Even if the lawsuits are in fact for a legitimate purpose, there’s fear that their representation could put them in the president’s cross hairs and endanger their legal practices.Trump also directed Bondi to open a review into the “conduct” of lawyers and their respective law firms in litigation against the federal government reaching back to the start of his first term in 2017 – and recommend whether it warranted additional punitive actions.The memo comes as Trump in recent weeks has used executive orders targeting law firms to great effect.Most recently, Trump stripped lawyers at the firm Paul Weiss of their security clearance and barred its employees from entering federal government buildings over his long-held complaint about a former partner, Mark Pomerantz, who tried to build a criminal case against him in New York.The executive order targeting Paul Weiss was nearly identical to an order that punished the firm Perkins Coie over its ties to a lawyer who once worked with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and another aimed at Covington and Burling, which represented the former special counsel Jack Smith.Paul Weiss had its order withdrawn on Thursday after its chair, Brad Karp, offered a series of concessions including offering up criticism of Pomerantz apparently to appease Trump. He committed to providing $40m worth of legal services to causes that Trump has championed.But Trump has stewed for days, according to people familiar with the matter, over a series of temporary restraining orders that have slowed the implementation of his political agenda and, in one instance, branded Elon Musk’s cost-cutting drive as likely unconstitutional.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe case that has aggravated Trump the most has been the challenge in a federal district court in Washington against his use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to remove hundreds of suspected Venezuelan gang members without due process as he seeks to ramp up deportations.In that lawsuit, the US district judge James Boasberg ordered the administration to turn around any deportation flights that were in the air and temporarily barred any further deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.The case has turned into a headache for the administration, after it failed to recall two flights on the basis that the judge did not replicate his verbal instruction in a written order, leading the judge to effectively open an inquiry into whether the White House had flouted a court order.“You felt that you could disregard it because it wasn’t in the written order. That’s your first argument? The idea that because my written order was pithier so it could be disregarded, that’s one heck of a stretch,” Boasberg said at a recent hearing.The administration has insisted it did not violate the order, but at the heart of the dispute is the administration’s belief that the judge lacked jurisdiction to hear the case in the first instance, ignoring the reality that federal courts can review whether statutes are properly invoked.Against that backdrop, as Trump has continued to rail against the injunction itself, the administration has adopted an increasingly combative stance towards Boasberg and said it was considering whether to invoke the rarely used state secrets privilege to stonewall the judge’s inquiry. More

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    in US Politics

    The Trump administration is descending into authoritarianism

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    View image in fullscreenEntering the magnificent great hall of the US Department of Justice, Donald Trump stopped for a moment to admire his portrait, then took to a specially constructed stage where two art deco statues, depicting the Spirit of Justice and Majesty of Justice, had been carefully concealed behind a blue velvet curtain.The president, who since last year is also a convicted criminal, proceeded to air grievances, utter a profanity and accuse the news media of doing “totally illegal” things, without offering evidence. “I just hope you can all watch for it,” he told justice department employees, “but it’s totally illegal.”Trump’s breach of the justice department’s traditional independence last week was neither shocking nor surprising. His speech quickly faded from the fast and furious news cycle. But future historians may regard it as a milestone on a road leading the world’s oldest continuous democracy to a once unthinkable destination.Eviscerating the federal government and subjugating Congress; defying court orders and delegitimising judges; deporting immigrants and arresting protesters without due process; chilling free speech at universities and cultural institutions; cowing news outlets with divide-and-rule. Add a rightwing media ecosystem manufacturing consent and obeyance in advance, along with a weak and divided opposition offering feeble resistance. Join all the dots, critics say, and America is sleepwalking into authoritarianism.“These are flashing red lights here,” Tara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director turned Trump critic. “We are approaching Defcon 1 for our democracy and a lot of people in the media and the opposition leadership don’t seem to be communicating that to the American people. That is the biggest danger of the moment we’re in now: the normalisation of it.”Much was said and written by journalists and Democrats during last year’s election campaign arguing that Trump, who instigated a coup against the US government on 6 January 2021, could endanger America’s 240-year experiment with democracy if he returned to power. In a TV interview, he had promised to be “dictator” but only on “day one”. Sixty days in, the only question is whether the warnings went far enough.The 45th and 47th president has wasted no time in launching a concerted effort to consolidate executive power, undermine checks and balances and challenge established legal and institutional norms. And he is making no secret of his strongman ambitions.Trump, 78, has declared “We are the federal law” and posted a social media image of himself wearing a crown with the words “Long live the king”. He also channeled Napoleon with the words: “He who saves his country does not violate any law.” And JD Vance has stated that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power”.Trump quickly pardoned those who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, placed loyalists in key positions within the FBI and military and purged the justice department, which also suffered resignations in response to the dismissal of corruption charges against the New York mayor Eric Adams after his cooperation on hardline immigration measures.The president now has the courts in his sights. Last weekend, the White House defied a judge’s verbal order blocking it from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law meant only to be used in wartime, to justify the deportation of 250 Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador, where they will be held in a 40,000-person megaprison.Trump accused James Boasberg, the chief district judge in Washington who made the ruling, of being “crooked”, said he should be “impeached” and labelled him a “radical left lunatic of a judge”. The outburst prompted John Roberts, the chief justice of the supreme court, to deliver a rare rebuke of the president, emphasing that “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision”.In an interview on the conservative Fox News network, Trump denied defying a court order and said he would not do so in future. But he added ominously: “We have very bad judges and these are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point, you have to start looking at what do you do when you have a rogue judge?”David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W Bush, posted on the X social media platform: “Almost every major Trump action is intentionally illegal. Trump is gambling that the US democratic system is too broken to stop him. He assumes, to borrow a phrase: ‘All we’ve got to do is kick the door in and the whole edifice will come crumbling down.’ Testing hour is here.”The White House has yet to release the names of the deported Venezuelans or proof that they were indeed criminal gang members. In another recent incident, it sent 40 undocumented immigrants to the notorious detention facility at the Guantánamo Bay naval base, only for a judge to intervene and force their return to the mainland.Some commentators suggest that the Trump administration is exploiting the power of sadistic spectacle. They say it is priming the public for future crackdowns and testing its level of tolerance for a moment when, for example, it might invoke the Insurrection Act to target anti-Trump protesters.Steve Schmidt, a political strategist and former campaign operative for George W Bush and John McCain, said: “Donald Trump is producing a Washington television show from the Oval Office that’s authoritarian in nature. You go on TikTok and see the deportations scored to songs and videos released by the administration. It’s a theatre of the absurd. It’s a theatre of malice. All of it is desensitising people to the use of authority and power.”Violations of civil liberties are piling up on an almost daily basis. They include incidents that, if they had happened anywhere else in the world before 2025, the US would have been among the first to condemn.Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian entrepreneur and actor in the American Pie movie franchise, was detained for almost two weeks in “inhumane” conditions by US border authorities over an incomplete visa. She wrote in the Guardian: “I was taken to a tiny, freezing cement cell with bright fluorescent lights and a toilet. There were five other women lying on their mats with the aluminum sheets wrapped over them, looking like dead bodies. The guard locked the door behind me.”Fabian Schmidt, a German national who is a permanent US resident, was detained and, his mother said, “violently interrogated”, stripped naked and put in a cold shower by US border officials. A French scientist was denied entry to the US after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration, according to the French government.Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported despite having a US visa. Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University and citizen of India married to a Palestinian, was detained by immigration agents who told him his visa had been revoked.Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident with no criminal record, was detained over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and is fighting deportation efforts in federal court. Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, reacted on social media: “In dictatorships, they call this practice ‘being disappeared’. No charges, no claims of criminal behaviour. The White House doesn’t claim he did anything criminal. He’s in jail because of his political speech.”Another trigger for alarm is Trump’s close relationship with tech oligarchs, many of whom donated to and attended his inauguration. Tesla and SpaceX head Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has been taking a chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy, firing thousands of workers in indiscriminate ways that have been challenged in court.Musk’s X regularly parrots pro-Trump propaganda. Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and the Washington Post, recently ordered that the newspaper narrow the topics covered by its opinion section to personal liberties and the free market. Several star reporters and columnists have quit in recent months.Trump has escalated attacks on media outlets whose coverage he dislikes, including barring them from workspaces and events. He has filed lawsuits against media outlets and falsely claimed the flagship series 60 Minutes admitted guilt regarding a lawsuit.His appointee to head the Federal Communications Commission is investigating PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and NPR (National Public Radio). Last weekend, the Trump administration put almost the entire staff of Voice of America – which began broadcasting in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda – on leave and ended grants to Radio Free Asia and other media with similar news programming.Trump’s moves in the foreign policy arena hold up a mirror to his domestic vision. He has rattled longtime allies in Europe over whether the US remains committed to Nato and has sided with Russia in talks to end the war in Ukraine. He even called the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a “dictator” and berated him in the Oval Office.Trump has long shown an affinity for autocrats such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong-un of North Korea and his actions have been compared with those of Viktor Orbán in consolidating power in Hungary, including remaking the judiciary, gaming elections and cracking down on media and civic organisations.At the Center for American Progress thinktank in Washington this week, JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, told the Guardian: “If you haven’t already read about Orbán in Hungary, go read about what he did steadily, not that slowly, to put the noose around that country. Donald Trump admires Orbán and I believe he and his team have learned from that and are replicating that.”What some find most frightening of all is the relative lack of resistance so far. Trump’s approval rating equals his best-ever mark as president at 47%, according to a recent NBC News poll, although a majority – 51% – disapproves of his performance. Some 55% of voters approve of his handling of border security and immigration, while 43% disapprove.Setmayer, who now heads the Seneca Project, a women-led super political action committee, commented: “The fact that Donald Trump’s approval rating is still in the mid-40s should scare the hell out of every American who understands the value of our constitutional republic, the freedoms that we enjoy and the rule of law, because what he is doing is categorically against everything this country was founded on.”This is reflected in Congress, where the Republican party is more loyal to and unquestioning of Trump than ever. Few members have dared to speak out against the president’s support for Putin, haphazard tariff policy or bullying of neighbour Canada. They know that dissent would likely result in public humiliation on social media and a primary election challenge funded by Musk.Democrats, for their part, are still struggling to meet the moment as swelling protests across the country hunger for leadership. Last week, Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, reversed his position by voting to pass a Republican budget plan that will make cuts to housing, transportation and education while also empowering Trump and Musk to slash more programmes.Faced with the prospect of a government shutdown, Schumer argued that he was choosing the lesser of two evils but ignited a furious backlash from Democrats in the House of Representatives and grassroots activists. NBC’s poll found that just 27% of voters say they have positive views of the party, its lowest rating since the question was first asked in 1990.Meagan Hatcher-Mays, a senior adviser for United for Democracy, a coalition of 140 organisations aimed at reforming the courts, said Democrats were wrongfooted by Trump’s narrow victory in the national popular vote last year.“They took the wrong lesson from the outcome of that election and they think Donald Trump is a lot more popular than he actually is,” she said. “Their baseline is already to be scared but that made them more scared to push back or resist against some of Donald Trump’s worst impulses. What you have now is they’re more comfortable caving and that’s what they have been doing.“They have not been able to mount a durable opposition to Donald Trump or to congressional Republicans. You can’t just be not Donald Trump. You have to be for something and you have to paint a vision for what you want for the American people. Instead what they’ve decided to do is just say nothing and hope for the best and that is not going to win them any seats in 2026.”The courts are potentially the last line of defence. Federal judges have blocked dozens of Trump’s initiatives, including attempts to eliminate agencies, end birthright citizenship and freeze federal funding. This week, a judge found that Doge likely violated the constitution “in multiple ways” with its dismantling of the development agency USAID.Jamie Raskin, a Democratic representative from Maryland, noted that Democrats and their allies have filed more than 125 cases against various attacks on the rule of law and obtained more than 40 temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions.“We’re in the fight of our lives,” he told the Guardian. “This is not a two-week, two-month or even two-year fight that we’re in. This is going to take us many years to defeat the forces of authoritarian reaction, and the Democrats are rising to the occasion.“If you look at the way democratic societies responded to fascism a century ago, it just takes time for people to realign and refocus and mobilise a concerted and unified response. Are we there yet? No. But are we going to be in a place where we can stand together and defeat authoritarianism in our country? Yes, we are going to get there.”Norm Eisen, a lawyer and founder of State Democracy Defenders Action, has brought successful cases that stopped Trump targeting thousands of FBI employees and blocked Musk’s access to sensitive data at the treasury department. He said: “Donald Trump is definitely pushing towards authoritarianism. He promised to be a dictator on day one and he hasn’t stopped. That’s the bad news.“The good news is that he has met vigorous pushback from litigants like myself and many others and from courts at every level. So far, his most outrageous illegal conduct has been countered.”If the Trump administration ignores such orders, the US could face a full-blown constitutional crisis. But Eisen retains measured optimism, saying: “It’s a mistake to count us out. We have so surprised ourselves and the world over and over again in our history and there is cause for hope here when you see the furious legal pushback by lawyers.“There is reason for hope but nobody knows. Will we go the way of Brazil, Poland, Czech Republic, where I was ambassador, all of which pushed out autocratic regimes in recent years? Or will we go the way of Hungary and Turkey, which failed to oust autocrats? It remains to be seen but I, at least, am hopeful.” More

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    Gold has surged amid economic uncertainty. Should you buy some?

    As economic uncertainty roils the US, the price of gold has roared to record highs amid investors seeking a place to shield their cash from Donald Trump’s scattergun trade wars.A single ounce of gold cost $3,051.99 on Wednesday, compared with $2,160 in 2024, and gold has historically been seen as the safest place to invest in financially turbulent times.But the buying, and potentially hoarding, of gold need not be restricted to the Scrooge McDucks of this world. In 2025, gold can be bought from Walmart and Amazon – although experts say more established gold dealers are a better source.Once a person has bought the gold, they can do whatever they like with it: there are whole Reddit threads devoted to the best way to bury gold underground. (Dig a deep hole, dump your vacuum-sealed gold in the hole, put a layer of rocks on top of the gold so it can’t be discovered by a thief with a metal detector, then try not to forget where the gold is buried.)Experts suggest not burying the gold, however.“Gold is one of the few elements on the periodic table that does not decay or oxidize over time, so there’s no need to worry about deterioration,” said Alex Deluce, the host of the Gold Telegraph Show, and an expert in gold investment.“However, for safekeeping, store it in a secure location, ideally in a safety deposit box or a well-protected home safe. Keep it away from direct sunlight and heat sources to maintain its condition and security.”Deluce said gold should be purchased “from reputable suppliers who insure all deliveries”, and financial magazines including Forbes have lists devoted to gold-selling companies.To the uninitiated, an equally important question is: what kind of gold should people buy?Taylor Kenney, an economic journalist who works for ITM Trading, a gold and silver dealer based in Arizona, said most gold purchases are of bullion: gold that has been refined and shaped into coins or bars.Some of those bars are the big heavy type that is frequently stolen from banks in heist movies, but those tend to be very heavy, which means they are very expensive. Instead, many gold purchasers will be buying much smaller bars.A handy example was seen in the recent case of Bob Menendez, the now former Democratic senator who in January was sentenced to 11 years in prison for receiving bribes.Photos shared by the FBI showed that Menendez had an amazing a hoard of gold bullion in a variety of sizes: he had a couple of gold bars that weighed just one ounce.According to the United States Gold Bureau – which is not a government body, but instead a cleverly named private gold-trading company – the one-ounce bars are the most commonly traded around the world. Roughly the size of a US military dog tag, one-ounce bars were listed at Walmart for $3,122.10 on Friday, although anyone who has ever ordered and never received a table lamp from Walmart might want to try elsewhere.Menendez had also accumulated, through nefarious means, some one-kilo gold bars, each of which, at today’s prices, is worth just under $100,000.“Now is the perfect time to buy gold,” said Kenney.She said gold prices are rising “in response to inflation, geopolitical unrest and economic uncertainty”.Kenney added: “As dollar dominance is called into question, gold carries no counterparty risk and serves as a true store of wealth, unlike fiat currencies [such as the US dollar] that can be printed at will. The same reason central banks are buying gold is the same reason that average citizens should be buying gold as well.”Gina Miller, the founder of Moneyshe.com, is less convinced. She told CityAM that while gold has traditionally been viewed as a safe investment, “its track record reveals significant limitations as a long-term investment”.“For instance, while gold surged 148% from October 2008 to August 2011, it took nearly nine years, until July 2020, to reach new highs. Such prolonged stagnation makes it unappealing for investors seeking steady, long-term growth,” Miller said.With gold at record-high prices, it is unlikely that people will be able to buy the metal and flip it for quick returns. Instead, experts say, people should see gold as a small part of an investment portfolio, rather than pumping all their money into it and putting it in a big vault.As Trump shows no signs of backing down on his trade battles, having a few dog tags of gold stored in a safe space, or, if you’re Menendez, “jammed into jackets and boots”, might not be the worst option. More

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    In these dark times, Americans must harness the power of the civil rights movement again | Al Sharpton

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    It can often be challenging to keep track of everything in Donald Trump’s US; the executive orders, the changes to decades-long protocols, the draconian legislation, the abandonment of established policies – and just the utter chaos.That in itself is part of the Trump administration’s strategy – throw everything at us all at once to see what sticks and what they can get away with. There is, in fact, so much happening simultaneously that it is virtually impossible to tackle it all.That is why efforts on the ground, in our communities and in our neighbourhoods are as vital as they ever were. Just like the grassroots civil rights movement of the 1960s forced change at the top, now too is a moment when our work can and must push back against Trump and a far right that is strategically dismantling every measure of progress. We must resist in order to exist.View image in fullscreenWhen Trump was being sworn into office on 20 January, my organisation, National Action Network, held a massive rally at the historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Washington DC. It was important for us to gather at this church, at a location that has long served as a place of refuge and comfort during dark times. As we once again find ourselves caught in the winds of uncertainty, chaos and injustice, we must organise, strategise and execute our own plan of action in order to save any measure of advancement and our hard-won civil rights.Despite the cruelty emanating from the Oval Office, there is a lot that can be done at the state and local level, and in our communities. In fact, state laws and policies often affect people more directly than federal policies at times. Therefore engaging state- and locally elected officials is vital – let them hear from you. After all, they are in office to serve the people and serve our interests, so our interests must be known. Whether it’s women’s reproductive rights, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, protecting immigrants, or any other issue, our concerns must be addressed. This is not a time for sitting back and watching helplessly; there is a lot that we can and must do to peacefully fight back.Here’s how we can push backOne of the first executive orders that Trump signed in office was to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in federal agencies. Many corporations, such as Target, McDonald’s, Walmart and others, unfortunately have fallen in line and capitulated to pressure from the right to either scale back significantly their DEI policies, or eliminate them altogether. It is why I announced on Martin Luther King Day that National Action Network will lead a strategic boycott of two companies that have dropped their DEI commitments.We’ve put together a group that is engaged in a 90-day study of which corporations have abandoned their DEI initiatives the most – and how much of their consumer base is in the Black community and how much of our wealth they receive. We will announce which companies we’re strategically boycotting at National Action Network’s upcoming annual conference, held from 2 to 5 April at the Sheraton Times Square hotel in New York City.Not only will we boycott specific entities that don’t respect us, but we are also simultaneously supporting those who stand with us. After retail giant Costco announced that it will remain firm in its DEI policies, I led hundreds of people in a “buy-cott” at a Costco in East Harlem. That was followed by similar buy-cotts at Costco locations in New Jersey, Los Angeles and all over the south. It is vital to proactively support those who support us. We must remember why we have DEI in the first place – in order to rectify institutional policies that purposefully excluded us. Trump and other businesses may attack DEI, but they cannot dictate where we spend our hard-earned dollars. Our actions will speak for us even as they try to silence us.This is just one example of how we can push back individually and collectively during these challenging and dark times. There is much that we can do at the local community level to protect ourselves and our neighbours, and speak out where needed. When they cut social services, help those less fortunate and help people understand how they can navigate an increasingly confusing system. When they continue to eliminate DEI and voting protections, make sure people are empowered to know how to weather the storms – and how to still participate in the electoral process.When they go after reproductive rights, help women know where and how they can seek the care they may need and stay safe. When they target undocumented immigrants, make sure they know their rights. When they target the LGBTQ+ community, stand with them and continue to push for greater equality and inclusion. Over these next four years, it will be incumbent upon all of us to unite as one because the vile attacks against us are resting on a theory of divide and conquer.During the great civil rights movement, Black Americans and our allies organised, marched, boycotted and put enough pressure on the White House to bring about substantive change that was then codified into law. People didn’t just give us our rights out of the kindness of their hearts; we demanded them. It was pressure from the grassroots that then forced elected officials to act. We once again find ourselves living in an era where our work, our voices and our actions can and must speak volumes and bring about a nation where all of us are valued, protected and afforded the same rights and liberties.Trump and the right are counting on us to be defeated or deflated; we must strategise and push back because there are more of us than them. Those of us who care about diversity, inclusion, equality and justice far outweigh those working to destroy it. We just need to use our power effectively – and as one.

    The Rev Al Sharpton is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist and radio talkshow host More

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    US tourism industry faces drop-off as immigration agenda deters travellers

    A string of high-profile arrests and detentions of travellers is likely to cause a major downturn in tourism to the US, with latest figures already showing a serious drop-off, tourist experts said.Several western travellers have recently been rejected at the US border on increasingly flimsy grounds under Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, some of them shackled and held in detention centers in poor conditions for weeks.Germany updated travel guidance for travelling to the US, warning that breaking entry rules could lead not just to a rejection as before, but arrest or even detention. Three German citizens have been held for prolonged periods despite apparently having committed no crime nor any obvious violation of US visa or immigration rules – including one US green card holder who was detained at Boston’s Logan airport.The UK Foreign Office, too, has bolstered its advice to warn of a risk of arrest after Becky Burke, a tourist from Wales who had been backpacking across America, was stopped at the border with Canada and held for three weeks in a detention facility. Last week members of the UK Subs, a British punk band, were denied entry and detained after they landed at Los Angeles international airport.Even before the most recent spate of detentions, forecast visits to the country this year had been revised downward from a projected 5% rise to a 9% decrease by Tourism Economics, an industry monitoring group, which cited “polarising Trump Administration policies and rhetoric”, particularly around tariffs.It predicted that the drop-off would lead to a $64bn shortfall in the US tourist trade.“There’s been a dramatic shift in our outlook,” said Adam Sacks, the president of Tourism Economics, told the Washington Post. “You’re looking at a much weaker economic engine than what otherwise would’ve been, not just because of tariffs, but the rhetoric and condescending tone around it.”The decline has been most pronounced from neighbouring Canada, which Trump has menaced with crippling tariffs and repeatedly threatened to annex outright. The number of Canadians returning by road from the US fell by 23% in February, year on year, while air traffic fell 13% on a year earlier, according to Canadian government statistics.A Canadian actor made headlines this week when she revealed US authorities had handcuffed her and moved her out of state to a detention center, where she spent several weeks in “inhumane conditions” despite not having been accused of any crime.Neri Karra Sillaman, an entrepreneurship expert at Oxford University, told Fast Company that travellers now viewed entering the US as “too difficult or unpredictable”.“Even if you get a visa, you have the risk of being detained or to be denied,” she said, adding that even as a valid US visa holder, married to an American, she was hesitating to visit the country in the current climate.That climate was in further evidence this week as Denmark and Finland issued cautionary advice to transgender travellers, following US state department rule changes spurred by the Trump administration decree that it would recognise only two genders. The Danish foreign ministry advised travellers who use the gender designation “X” on their passport to contact the US embassy before travelling, while Finland cautioned travellers whose gender had changed that they might not gain entry.The recent episodes are all the more striking because they involve countries long allied to the US, although students and academics from India and the Middle East have also been detained in recent days despite holding valid visas. While visitors from many regions have long had difficulty entering the US, immigration officials have traditionally taken a more lenient stance towards travellers from allied nations.Pedro Rios, the director of the American Friends Service Committee, a non-profit group that aids migrants, told AP that it was unprecedented in the 22 years he had worked at the southern border for travellers from western Europe and Canada to be detained with such regularity.“It’s definitely unusual with these cases so close together, and the rationale for detaining these people doesn’t make sense,” he said. “The only reason I see is there is a much more fervent anti-immigrant atmosphere.” More

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    Here’s what you need to know about your rights when entering the US

    Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, he has carried out the hardline immigration policies he promised on the campaign trail.Trump’s administration sent migrants to the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba – with little access to legal counsel – and singled out two pro-Palestinian academics for deportation. The administration also failed to return El Salvador-destined deportation flights in potential violation of a court order.But in recent weeks, immigration authorities have also repeatedly detained US-bound tourists at the border, sparking public and diplomatic outrage abroad and fears among many people planning trips to the US, or living in the country on visas.Examples have made global headlines. A British woman said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detained her for three weeks after a mixup at the US-Canada border. Canadian businesswoman and actor Jasmine Mooney said she was detained by Ice for two weeks. Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Germany, was held in immigration detention for six weeks before returning home.There’s suspicion that in some cases people were turned away over anti-Trump views. Among them is a French scientist who was denied entry after immigration officers at an airport found messages on his phone that were critical of Trump, France’s minister of higher education said.With serious concerns growing about whether visitors can safely travel to the US without fear of landing in immigration detention, here is a brief guide to international visitors’ rights.I have valid travel documents. Can customs officers stop and search me?Yes. US customs officers can stop people at entry points to assess whether they can come into the US. They are permitted to search travelers’ belongings for contraband, according to the ACLU of Pennsylvania.They can do this even if there’s nothing suspicious about you or your belongings. Customs agents are not allowed to search you or conduct another inspection “based on your religion, race, national origin, gender, ethnicity or political beliefs”.What about my mobile phone?The government asserts that their authority to search travelers without individualized suspicion also includes searches of electronic devices, including cellphones and laptops. That said, this assertion remains “a contested legal issue”, the ACLU said. Customs officers have at times asked travelers to give them their phone or laptop passwords when they going to or from the US.And if I refuse to unlock my devices?Citizens of the US can’t be denied entry if they refuse to provide passwords or unlock their devices. However, if they refuse, it could prompt a delay, still more questioning and customs officers taking their phone for further inspection.This should also be true for US lawful permanent residents who have been admitted to the US before and maintain their immigration status, as their green cards “can’t be revoked without a hearing before an immigration judge”. For visa holders and travelers from visa waiver countries, they are at risk of being denied entry if they refuse to unlock devices, the ACLU said.If my country is in the visa waiver program, can I enter?In general, the visa waiver program allows citizens of about four dozen countries to enter for up to 90 days without a visa for tourism or business. Citizens of the US, in turn, can travel up to 90 days in program countries.However, travelers from waiver program countries still need valid Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) approval before they come here for at least 72 hours prior to getting on a flight, the New York Times explains.The tricky part is that you can’t get an ESTA if you traveled to certain places after specified times, such as Cuba after 12 January 2021, the Times said. Without an ESTA, a tourist visa is necessary.I have an ESTA. Does that mean I can work?Visitors coming to the US with an ESTA are prohibited from studying or engaging in permanent work. ESTA visitors also give up many rights, such as the right to fight deportation – meaning that persons traveling with an ESTA could wind up facing “mandatory detention”, the Times said.Does a visa allow me to work?There are three types of visas for non-immigrant visitors to the US. There is a visitor visa allowing temporary entry for business purposes, a tourism visa, and a visa for business and travel.The three visas last as long as a decade but visitors with these visas can stay a maximum of six months in the US. Among other things, visitors with these visas are not allowed to do permanent work or study, or engage in paid performances, according to the New York Times.Even if your documents are in order, that doesn’t guarantee admission into the US. According to the Department of State, customs officials “have authority to permit or deny admission to the United States”.What happens if I’m detained?Civil rights advocates now suggest that visitors into the US, especially people who are not citizens, bring information to call an immigration lawyer or emergency contact if they encounter problems. “The stories are definitely concerning,” Noor Zafar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, told the Washington Post.Zafar reportedly said that if travelers are detained, it’s advisable to comply with immigration officers’ directions – and get in touch with a lawyer immediately.So what rights do I actually have?Visitors to the US do have the right to remain silent. But choosing to do so at an entry point could jeopardize entry.If a customs agent asks a visitor with a tourist visa whether they were going to work during their stay, and that person doesn’t answer, then it could result in their being denied entry.If a visitor is not allowed to enter the US, they can “withdraw” their intent to do so and be permitted to return home. Typically their visa gets canceled and they fly back right away.An officer could deny this withdrawal, however, and detain the visitor. That is because these encounters technically take place outside the US and constitutional protections don’t hold. As a result, detainees in this situation don’t automatically have the right to an attorney.How does this work?“If you’re a foreign national, first understand you haven’t affected an entry despite being physically on US soil until you’re admitted properly,” said immigration attorney Michael Wildes, managing partner of Wildes and Weinberg and a professor at the Cardozo School of Law.“It’s a term of art when you’re admitted fully to the United States,” he said. When a person lands on US soil but is not technically admitted, “you might be considered to be what’s called an ‘arriving alien’.“You have greater rights as a criminal than as a foreign national coming with a visa.” More

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    Trump news at a glance: Musk is denied look at China war plans and more visitors are refused entry to US

    Musk has China conflict of interest, says TrumpDonald Trump said on Friday that plans for possible war with China should not be shared with Elon Musk because of his business interests, a rare admission that the billionaire faces conflicts of interests in his role as a senior adviser to the US president.Trump rejected reports that Musk would be briefed on how the United States would fight a hypothetical war with China, saying: “Elon has businesses in China. And he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that.”Read the full storyUK punk band denied US entryMembers of a British punk rock band said they were denied entry and detained in the US. UK Subs bassist Alvin Gibbs, and bandmates Marc Carrey and Stefan Häublein, were deported back to the UK following their detention. Only vocalist Charlie Harper had been allowed entry. Harper ended up playing the band’s scheduled show in Los Angeles with a group of stand-in musicians.Read the full storyAnger at US blocking Canadian access to cross-border libraryThe US has blocked Canadian access to a library straddling the Canada-US border, drawing criticism from a Quebec town where people have long enjoyed easy entry to the space.The entrance to the Haskell Free Library and Opera House is located between Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont, with an electrical tape marking the border line. The library’s entrance is on the Vermont side and Canadian visitors could previously enter using the sidewalk and entrance on the American side. Now they have to go through a formal border crossing.Read the full storyColumbia University caves to Trump demands to restore $400mColumbia University has yielded to a series of changes demanded by the Trump administration as a pre-condition for restoring $400m in federal funding the government pulled this month amid allegations that the school tolerated antisemitism on campus.Among the most contentious of the nine demands, Columbia agreed to place its Middle Eastern, south Asian and African studies department under a new official, a memo said, taking control away from its faculty. “In this role, the senior vice-provost will review the educational programs to ensure the educational offerings are comprehensive and balanced,” the memo read, explaining that the review would start with the Center for Palestine Studies; the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies; the Middle East Institute; and other university programs focused on the Middle East.Read the full storyTrump says Boeing will build new US fighter jetsDonald Trump on Friday awarded Boeing the contract to build the US air force’s most sophisticated fighter jet, handing the company a much-needed win. Trump, the 47th US president, announced the airline had beaten out Lockheed Martin for the deal and added that the new jet will be called the F-47.Read the full storyTeachers to sue Trump over education orderTeachers unions and Democratic politicians joined in denouncing Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at eliminating the US Department of Education, with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) saying simply: “See you in court.”Read the full story530,000 people will have legal US status revokedTrump officials will revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the United States, according to a Federal Register notice on Friday, in the latest expansion of his crackdown on immigration. It will be effective 24 April.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

    The Trump administration will reportedly fire almost all employees at the homeland security department’s civil rights office, in a move that will undermine its ability to provide oversight as he implements hardline immigration policies.

    The US president signalled flexibility on new tariffs, due to come in on 2 April. Without giving further details, Trump said: “The word flexibility is an important word. Sometimes there’s flexibility, so there’ll be flexibility.”

    Trump also partook in some royal intrigue with a social media post declaring his love for Britain’s King Charles and saying he would welcome a reported “secret offer” billed as easing tensions with Canada. More