AFP USA

In frontier soup kitchens and shelters, Francis is remembered as the ‘Pope of migrants’ — a steadfast champion who offered spiritual support during perilous escapes from poverty, violence and oppression.Stranded a stone’s throw from the Mexico-US border, 28-year-old Colombian Yulieth Cuellar is one of countless tired, poor and huddled masses today demonised by politicians in Washington and beyond.But until his death on Monday, she could count on support from the Argentine-born son of Italian migrants, who became Latin America’s first pope.”He prayed a lot for us migrants” said Cuellar, recalling the late 88-year-old pontiff as she sheltered from the desert sun amid rows of empty pop-up tables and folding chairs in a Ciudad Juarez soup kitchen run by the church.”His prayers touched us to the core” she said.It was in Ciudad Juarez in 2016 that Francis climbed a ramp facing the Rio Grande that separates the city from El Paso, Texas, laid flowers under a black cross and blessed crowds of migrants.The first Latin American pontiff was eager to see the border barrier with his own eyes, Jose Guadalupe Torres, bishop of Ciudad Juarez, recalled.When he saw it, he said: “I have seen the promised land where neither milk nor honey flows,” Torres said during a mass in honor of Francis.A decade on, against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown, the late pope’s prayers were welcomed more than ever.”We must follow his example, continue welcoming our migrant brothers and sisters, protect them as best we can and integrate them into society,” said Ileana Margarita Sorto, a migrant from El Salvador.- ‘Wonderful person’ -Thousands of miles to the south, in a shelter in Honduras, 35-year-old Venezuelan Ericxon Serrano remembered Pope Francis as a “wonderful person.”The pontiff had asked Trump to “stop the harassment of migrants,” said Serrano, who was returning to Caracas with his wife and two young children having abandoned hope of entering the United States.Francis’s defense of migrant rights saw him clash with Trump, including when the Republican first ran for president in 2016 with a promise to build a wall to seal off Mexico.”Anyone, whoever he is, who only wants to build walls and not bridges is not a Christian,” Francis said.In a letter to US bishops in February, the pontiff called Trump’s deportation plans a “calamity” and pleaded for “the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized.”His support gave hope to migrants like Marisela Guerrero, a 45-year-old Venezuelan who moved to Chile a few months ago.”His words encouraged all of us who left our countries,” she said.Priests and others involved in migrant support programs also remembered Pope Francis with fondness and respect.He was a “living saint,” says Cristina Coronado, head of the food kitchen in Ciudad Juarez, who said that Francis restored her confidence in the Church.”It’s very sad that this angel who defended migrants has passed away,” said Father Francisco Calvillo, who ran a migrant shelter in the border city at the time of the pontiff’s visit.Calvillo hopes Francis will now ask God to “send us a pope, more bishops, more priests, more lay people who are sensitive to this reality” of migration.

With lawsuits and tirades about “the enemy of the people” Donald Trump has launched a frontal assault on the mainstream media, while empowering conservative bloggers and podcasters to get his radical agenda across.The president has stepped up his long-established hostility towards TV news channels like CNN and newspapers such as The New York Times, but even the respected Associated Press news agency has been under intense fire.The AP has become a test case for editorial independence after it was barred from the Oval Office and Air Force One over its decision to refer to the “Gulf of Mexico” — and not the “Gulf of America” as decreed by Trump.As well as his fiery rhetoric against the press, Trump has sued private channel CBS, regional newspaper The Des Moines Register, and pressured ABC which paid $15 million when threatened with a defamation lawsuit.”The White House’s moves to curtail journalists’ abilities to do their jobs and document what’s happening is unprecedented,” said Katherine Jacobsen, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ US program director. “This attempt to control the narrative threatens both freedom of the press, and American democratic values.” The Trump administration has moved fast — pressing to dismantle US overseas outlets Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, and threatening to starve NPR public radio and PBS television of federal funds. Trump’s cheerleader and dismantler-in-chief Elon Musk has even said the team behind CBS’s flagship “60 Minutes” show deserve prison.”Wielding the power of the government to stifle free speech and to threaten news organizations — I think we’re in a new territory,” said City University of New York journalism professor Reece Peck.The Federal Communications Commission — headed by a Trump ally — has launched probes into CBS, ABC and NBC, alongside NPR and PBS, he said as an example.The United States fell from 45th to 55th place in 2024 in the World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).It is unclear how far Trump can go in a country that has a rich tradition of investigative reporting and where freedom of speech is protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment.”His ability is limited,” said Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy.”He can try to find some targets here and there, but he certainly hasn’t been able to do anything about The New York Times, which has been doing excellent reporting on the chaos of the Trump administration.”But Kennedy warned Trump was seeking to design a media system where the Times “will simply be ignored by everybody, except their core audience.”- Suspicious of media -Trump is drawing on mounting suspicion and disregard for traditional media among ordinary Americans.Just 31 percent of people surveyed by Gallup in 2024 said they trusted the mainstream media to provide complete, accurate and unbiased information — a figure that was above 50 percent in the 2000s.In its first 100 days, the White House has welcomed influencers, podcasters, and commentators aligned with his agenda and on whom Trump relied during the election campaign — not known for speaking truth to power.One such figure, Real America Voice’s Brian Glenn, joined the official pile-on against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he visited Washington.”Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level in this country’s office and you refuse to wear a suit. A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the office,” Glenn said to the wartime leader, parroting White House talking points.”Trump cultivated relationships with independent, alternative right-wing media way, way back in 2015 and 2016,” said Peck, a move born of necessity because Fox News, with its conservative viewership, had yet to support the then-candidate. Trump has continued the successful “flood the zone” strategy to dominate the news cycle, pioneered by his one-time adviser Steve Bannon.As the news gets ever more hectic — and hard to cover — Kennedy said the question now is whether any outlets are “big enough to cover everything that’s happening?”

US envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to visit Russia this week, a Kremlin aide said Tuesday, as US President Donald Trump seeks a speedy deal to end the three-year Ukraine conflict.Trump, who promised on the campaign trail to strike a deal between Moscow and Kyiv in 24 hours, has failed since his return to office three months ago to wrangle concessions from Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt his troops in Ukraine.Trump said over the weekend he hoped a peace deal could be struck “this week” despite no signs the two sides were anywhere close to agreeing even a ceasefire, let alone a wider long-term settlement.Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned Tuesday against rushing into a speedy ceasefire, telling a state TV reporter that the issue was too “complex” for a quick fix.”It is not worth setting any rigid time frames and trying to get a settlement, a viable settlement, in a short timeframe,” he said.Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov meanwhile told state media that Witkoff was expected this week in Moscow, his fourth visit to Russia since Trump took office.Moscow’s forces hold around a fifth of Ukrainian territory and tens of thousands of people have been killed since the military offensive started in February 2022.After rejecting a US-Ukrainian offer for a full and unconditional ceasefire last month, Putin announced a surprise Easter truce over the weekend.Fighting dipped during the 30-hour period but Russia launched fresh attacks on residential areas on Monday and Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.Kyiv and its allies dismissed the truce as a public relations exercise from Putin.”The Easter truce that he announced somewhat unexpectedly was a marketing operation, a charm operation aimed at preventing President Trump from becoming impatient and angry,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told FranceInfo radio.- London meeting -Ukraine’s allies will meet in London on Wednesday, a senior Kyiv official told AFP, when they are expected to continue discussions on the contours of a possible deal they could all get behind.European leaders are scrambling to work out how to support Ukraine should Trump pull Washington’s vital military and financial backing.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his team’s “first priority” at the London talks would be “an unconditional ceasefire”.Zelensky proposed to Russia on Sunday a half of missile and drones strikes against civilian facilities for at least 30 days.While saying he would “analyse” the idea, Putin threw doubt on it 24 hours later by accusing Kyiv of using civilian facilities for military purposes.He held open the prospect of bilateral talks on the topic, though the Kremlin said there were no fixed plans to engage with Kyiv.”There are no concrete plans (to talk), there is readiness from Putin to discuss this question,” Peskov said Tuesday.”If we are talking about civilian infrastructure, then we need to understand, when is it civilian infrastructure and when is it a military target,” he added.- Russian attacks -Russia hit a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Myrnograd with drones Tuesday, killing three people and wounding two, local authorities said. One person was reported dead and 23 wounded after two guided aerial bombs pounded the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the region’s governor said.Photos from Ukraine’s emergency services showed the outer walls of an apartment block blown open and a bloodied man tended by medics on a stretcher, with bandages around his head and arms.”One guided aerial bomb hit an infrastructure facility, another one hit a densely populated neighbourhood, a residential building directly,” Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.Russian strikes wounded another six in the southern city of Kherson and seven in Kharkiv in the northeast, officials said.The Russian army meanwhile claimed to have captured a village in the eastern Donetsk region, where its troops are advancing.In Paris last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented Washington’s plan for ending the conflict, though both he and Trump warned that Washington’s patience was running thin and could lead it to withdraw.Many in Ukraine fear any US-brokered settlement would benefit Russia.

More than 100 US universities and colleges, including Ivy League institutions Princeton and Brown, issued a joint letter on Tuesday condemning President Donald Trump’s “political interference” in the education system.The move comes a day after Harvard University sued the Trump administration, which has threatened to cut funding and impose outside political supervision.”We speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education,” the letter read.”We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion,” it said, adding: “We must reject the coercive use of public research funding.”Trump has sought to bring several prestigious universities to heel over claims they tolerated campus anti-Semitism, threatening their budgets, tax-exempt status and the enrolment of foreign students.The letter said the universities and colleges were committed to serving as centres where “faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.”Trump’s war against universities has seen him threaten to cut federal funding over policies meant to encourage diversity among students and staff.The Republican president has also pursued a wide-ranging immigration crackdown that has expanded to foreign students, revoking their visas, often for little or no reason.The White House has publicly justified its campaign against universities as a reaction to uncontrolled “anti-Semitism” and the desire to reverse diversity programs aimed at addressing historical oppression of minorities.The administration claims protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that swept across US college campuses last year were rife with anti-Semitism.- Harvard lawsuit -Many US universities, including Harvard, cracked down on the protests over the allegations at the time.Several top institutions, including Columbia University, have also bowed to demands from the Trump administration, which claims that the educational elite is too left-wing.In the case of Harvard, the White House is seeking unprecedented levels of government control over admissions and hiring practices at the country’s oldest and wealthiest university.But Harvard rejected the government’s demands, prompting the Trump administration last week to order the freezing of $2.2 billion in federal funding to the institution.In its lawsuit, Harvard calls for the freezing of funds and conditions imposed on federal grants to be declared unlawful, as well as for the Trump administration to pay the institution’s costs.The Department of Homeland Security has also threatened Harvard’s ability to enroll international students unless it turns over records on visa holders’ “illegal and violent activities.” International students made up 27.2 percent of Harvard’s enrollment this academic year, according to its website.

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche on Tuesday announced plans to invest $50 billion in the United States over the next five years.”These investments further strengthen Roche’s already significant US footprint with 13 manufacturing and 15 R&D sites across the pharmaceutical and diagnostics divisions, and are expected to create more than 12,000 new jobs,” a company statement said.The firm already has plants in the United States, and said the move would help expand capacity at sites in Kentucky, Indiana, New Jersey, Oregon and California.”Today’s announced investments underscore our long-standing commitment to research, development and manufacturing in the US,” said Roche Group chief executive Thomas Schinecker.”Our investments of $50 billion over the next five years will lay the foundation for our next era of innovation and growth, benefiting patients in the US and around the world.”

The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court is slated to hear a case on Tuesday about whether parents have the religious right to pull their children from classes when books containing LGBTQ-related content are read or discussed.The court will review an appeal filed by parents against a Maryland public school district where, in 2022, books aimed at combating prejudice and discussing homosexuality and gender identity were introduced to the curricula of kindergarten and elementary school students. The schools had initially offered parents the chance to opt out of controversial coursework, but later retracted the option, saying: “These opt-outs were unworkable. Some schools, for example, experienced unsustainably high numbers of absent students.”Parents are suing because the opt-outs were canceled. They say the schools’ inclusive curriculum choices infringe on their Christian and Muslim faiths and First Amendment rights. The complaint alleges that the Montgomery County school board “wants to disrupt” parents’ rights to “pass those beliefs on to their young children.” School systems in some conservative states have already issued book bans or cracked down on library catalogues, with parents and conservative groups saying it is inappropriate for public spaces to host books they accuse of promoting homosexuality and inclusive progressive ideologies.Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis in 2022 signed a measure widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law which prohibits the teaching of subjects related to sexual orientation or gender identity in primary schools.Court precedent has generally established that exposing students to ideas contrary to religion does not constitute coercion.The Justice Department of President Donald Trump’s administration supports the parents in the case, accusing the schools of “textbook interference with the free exercise of religion.”The decision of the high court, with its six conservative and three progressive judges, is expected before the current session ends in late June. 

Latin American migrants paid tribute on Monday to Pope Francis as a staunch defender of their rights who gave them much-needed encouragement on their long and dangerous journeys fleeing poverty and violence.From South America to northern Mexico, migrants joined in mourning the death of the Argentine pope at the age of 88.They expressed gratitude for Francis’s work denouncing what he called the “human tragedy” of migration and the anti-immigrant policies of US President Donald Trump.”He prayed a lot for us migrants,” Yulieth Cuellar, a 28-year-old Colombian, told AFP at a church soup kitchen in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, calling Francis a “great pope.”His prayers “touched us to the core,” added Cuellar, one of thousands of migrants left stranded in Mexico due to Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown.It was in Ciudad Juarez in 2016 that Francis climbed a ramp facing the Rio Grande river that separates the city and El Paso, Texas, laid flowers under a black cross and blessed crowds of migrants.The first Latin American pontiff was eager to see the border barrier with his own eyes, Jose Guadalupe Torres, bishop of Ciudad Juarez, recalled.When he saw it, he said: “I have seen the promised land where neither milk nor honey flows,” Torres said during a mass in honor of Francis.In one of the many tragedies that mark what the pontiff called a “humanitarian crisis,” 40 people died when a fire broke out at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez in March 2023.- ‘Wonderful person’ -Thousands of miles away, in a shelter in Honduras, 35-year-old Venezuelan Ericxon Serrano remembered Pope Francis, the son of Italian migrants, as a “wonderful person.”The pontiff had asked Trump to “stop the harassment of migrants,” said Serrano, who was returning to Caracas with his wife and two young children having abandoned hope of entering the United States.Francis’s defense of migrant rights saw him clash with Trump, including when the Republican first ran for president in 2016 with a promise to build a wall to seal off Mexico.”Anyone, whoever he is, who only wants to build walls and not bridges is not a Christian,” Francis said.In a letter to US bishops in February, the pontiff called Trump’s deportation plans a “calamity” and pleaded for “the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized.”His support gave hope to migrants like Marisela Guerrero, a 45-year-old Venezuelan who moved to Chile a few months ago.”His words encouraged all of us who left our countries,” she said.Priests and others involved in migrant support programs also remembered Pope Francis with fondness and respect.He was a “living saint,” says Cristina Coronado, head of the food kitchen in Ciudad Juarez, who said that Francis restored her confidence in the Church.”It’s very sad that this angel who defended migrants has passed away,” said Father Francisco Calvillo, who ran a migrant shelter in the border city at the time of the pontiff’s visit.Calvillo hopes Francis will now ask God to “send us a pope, more bishops, more priests, more lay people who are sensitive to this reality” of migration.

A delegation of Democratic lawmakers visited El Salvador on Monday in a new push to secure the release of a wrongly deported US resident at the center of a mounting political row.Kilmar Abrego Garcia was sent back to his country and remains imprisoned there despite the US Supreme Court ordering President Donald Trump’s administration to facilitate his return to the United States.”There is no reason for me to believe that our administration, the Trump administration, is doing anything to facilitate his safe return home, and that is simply unacceptable,” congresswoman Yassamin Ansari told reporters after meeting US embassy officials.”It isn’t just about Kilmar. It is the fact that our government is relentlessly going after any immigrant that’s trying to come to the United States or is in the United States without any regard for due process,” the Arizona representative said.Ansari was accompanied by fellow US House Democrats Robert Garcia, Maxwell Frost and Maxine Dexter.Frost said there was “zero indication” that the Trump administration was trying to bring Abrego Garcia back.”But we’ve got to be clear — this isn’t just about him. This is also about every single person in the United States. The constitution applies to all people in our country. Due process applies to all people in our country,” the Florida representative added.Frost said that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s administration had denied a request for the group of US lawmakers to meet with the deported man.- Trump doubles down -The visit comes days after Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the state where Abrego Garcia has lived for years with his wife and child, arrived in the Central American country.Van Hollen eventually managed to meet with Abrego Garcia after multiple efforts.Trump’s administration has paid El Salvador millions of dollars to lock up nearly 300 migrants it says are criminals and gang members — including Abrego Garcia.The 29-year-old was detained in Maryland last month and expelled to El Salvador along with 238 Venezuelans and 22 fellow Salvadorans who were deported shortly after Trump invoked a rarely used wartime authority.El Salvador’s President Bukele has vowed not to return Abrego Garcia to the United States, but on Sunday proposed to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to exchange his countrymen for “political prisoners” in Venezuela.Maduro responded on Monday in his weekly address by calling Bukele a “systematic and serial violator of human rights” and demanding the Venezuelans’ “unconditional release.”The Trump administration admitted that Abrego Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error,” and the Supreme Court ruled that the government must “facilitate” his return.But Trump has since doubled down, insisting Abrego Garcia is in fact a gang member.Bukele, who was hosted at the White House last week, said he did not have the power to return Abrego Garcia.The migrant’s supporters note he had protected legal status and no criminal conviction in the United States.”My parents fled an authoritarian regime in Iran where people were ‘disappeared’ — I refuse to sit back and watch it happen here,” Ansari said in a statement.”What happened to Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not just one family’s nightmare — it is a constitutional crisis that should outrage every single one of us,” said Dexter, a congresswoman from Oregon.Abrego Garcia told Van Hollen that he was initially imprisoned at the Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison for gang members, but was later transferred to a jail in the western department of Santa Ana.

The US Justice Department on Monday announced it was charging 27 people accused of being connected to Venezuelan drug gang Tren de Aragua with an array of serious crimes, including drug conspiracy, sex trafficking and murder.Acting US Attorney for New York’s Southern District Matthew Podolsky said those charged included alleged members, former members, and associates of Tren de Aragua,” a gang designated by US President Donald Trump as a “foreign terrorist organization.”Of the 27 defendants, 21 were in federal custody and five more were arrested Sunday and Monday in New York and other jurisdictions, the statement said.The charges include murder, shootings, human trafficking of women into sex work, extortion and drug trafficking, the department said.Tren de Aragua became a high-profile target of law enforcement under the Trump administration after the president declared the group a “terrorist” organization and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, saying the United States was facing an “invasion.”Since then, Trump has sent two planeloads of alleged members to a prison in El Salvador on March 15 — a case that led to a standoff with US courts. Attorneys for several of the deported Venezuelans have said that their clients were not members of Tren de Aragua, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.Despite facing challenges, the US Supreme Court lifted a lower court order barring the deportations on April 7, handing Trump a long-sought political victory.The court did note, however, that the deportees must be given an opportunity to legally challenge their removal — a requirement that Trump has called unworkable.”We cannot give everyone a trial, because to do so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years,” the US president said in a social media post on Monday.

Canadians head to the polls next Monday with many expressing concern the country is at a turning point as it faces an unprecedented crisis with its US neighbor.Here is what voters told AFP was on their minds in the final weeks of campaigning between Liberal leader and Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.- ‘A good leader’ -“I think we need somebody to stand up to people,” said Karen Allan, a 54-year-old metal and glass artist, alluding to US President Donald Trump, but refusing to say his name aloud.Trump’s trade war has raised fears of a Canadian recession and his repeated references to annexation have sparked outrage among many voters.The Victoria, British Columbia resident believes the country is in a time of crisis and needs “a good leader.” For her, “that’s Mark Carney.”- Vote for change -Francesco Campo, a 33-year-old hairdresser in Toronto, voted Liberal in the past, but feels the country “needs a change” so will be casting his ballot for the Conservatives.He hears from clients worried about “losing work” and the effects of “things that are happening down south” in the United States.He himself is most concerned about finding affordable housing in the nation’s largest city, which has seen real estate prices soar in recent years.”I have a family of four and I need to buy them a house,” he told AFP. “I look around and homes are $1 million plus… all needing work.”- ‘Strategic voting’ -Kyle Moon, 34, a musician from the Neskantaga First Nation in northern Ontario, has always voted for the leftist New Democratic Party but this round is leaning Liberal.He is among many Canadians switching their allegiance from smaller parties to the Liberals in order to keep Poilievre’s Tories out of office.He is keenly interested in safeguarding Indigenous rights as well as guarding against Ottawa’s plans for mining in Canada’s north, which is rich in critical minerals used in the manufacturing of electronics, EV batteries and other items.”Exploiting more resources in the north could affect water supplies and a lot of nature,” he said.- What about other issues? -Montreal barista Laurie Beausoleil, 24, is disappointed that Trump has sucked up most of the oxygen and that issues such as women’s rights and discrimination are not being discussed more.”For me, the environment is really important,” she said. “We hear a lot about Trump and the economy, which is also very, very important, but it’s definitely disappointing to see that a big issue like this isn’t even addressed.”Beausoleil said she will be voting Liberal, as she believes the Conservatives are too similar to Trump and his MAGA Republicans.”I would be afraid of having a party that aligns with Trump, or that defends similar values,” she said. – ‘Stakes are higher’ -Marcus McCullough, a 38-year-old youth outreach worker with Native Friendship Centre in Victoria, is undecided.”The stakes are a bit higher this year, with everything going on,” he said, referring to Canada’s relations with the United States under Trump.He is concerned about “the rising costs of basically everything.””This is going to be the first election where I’m waiting until the final day to actually make my decision,” he said.”Everything’s evolving almost daily it seems, so I really want to give all the parties time to really explain their platform and to choose which one best represents my interests.”- ‘Historic election’ -Kendel, a 39-year-old Ottawa delivery driver and Conservative supporter who did not disclose his last name, said it was “a very historic election.”He came to Canada as an immigrant in 2007 and has struggled. “It’s been very, very difficult.”This will be his first time voting.He is eager to cast a ballot because the outcome, he said, “could be a game changer with the way that the economy is going.”After nearly a decade of Liberal rule, he said he’s hoping for a Conservative win because he feels “it’s time for a change.”