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Massive, sustained protests led to the 2021 downfall of billionaire oligarch Andrej Babiš, dubbed ‘the Czech Trump’

“In 2018, a popular movement, Million Moments for Democracy, began organizing rallies in the Czech capital, Prague,” against billionaire prime minister Andrej Babiš, “the Czech Trump.”

Despite “lost momentum caused by Covid and Babiš’s stubborn refusal to resign,” the movement succeeded in converting “discontent into votes at the ballot box” in 2021.

“We in the Czech Republic are an example of how long-term civic-society activities can bring, or help bring, political change.”

Jiří Pehe emphasized: “You can change things… but you have to be active.” “There has to be a very strong message towards the political class.”

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela on Sunday, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the United States his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela.

In a post on the social media platform X, directed at President Nicolás Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year.

Chris Van Hollen says ‘if we deny constitutional rights of this one man, it threatens constitutional rights of everyone’

Senator Chris Van Hollen, who travelled to El Salvador last week to meet Kilmar Ábrego García, the man at the center of a wrongful deportation dispute, said on Sunday that his trip was to support Ábrego García’s right to due process because if that was denied then everyone’s constitutional rights were threatened in the US.

The White House has claimed Ábrego García was a member of the MS-13 gang though he has not been charged with any gang related crimes and the supreme court has ordered his return to the US be facilitated.

But in an interview with ABC’s This Week, Van Hollen, a Maryland senator, stressed that the government had presented no evidence linking Ábrego García to MS-13 in federal court. “Mr President,” the senator said, “take your facts to court, don’t put everything out on social media.”

Three Indian and two Chinese students are part of a suit brought against the Trump administration over the termination of several international students' F1 visas.

Three Indian and two Chinese students in the US have sued the Department of Homeland Security and other immigration officials for terminating the F-1 visas of several international students.

The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) before the US District Court in New Hampshire, accuses the Trump administration of "unilaterally terminating the F-1 student status of hundreds, if not thousands, of international students."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow continued to launch attacks after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a unilateral temporary truce.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia on Sunday of creating a false appearance of honoring an Easter ceasefire, saying Moscow continued to launch attacks after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a unilateral temporary truce.

“As of Easter morning, we can say that the Russian army is trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire, but in some places, it does not abandon individual attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

Despite Putin’s declaration of an Easter ceasefire on Saturday, Zelenskyy said Sunday morning that Ukrainian forces had recorded 59 instances of Russian shelling and five assaults by units along the front line, as well as dozens of drone strikes.

If enacted changes would be one of the biggest reorganizations of department since its founding in 1789

A draft Trump administration executive order circulating among US diplomats proposes a radical restructuring of the US state department, including drastic reductions to sub-Saharan operations, envoys and bureaus relating to climate, refugees, human rights, democracy and gender equality.

The changes, if enacted, would be one of the biggest reorganizations of the department since its founding in 1789, according to Bloomberg, which had seen a copy of the 16-page draft, which first reported on the draft.

The proposals reportedly also include the elimination of the Bureau of International Organizations, which liaises with the United Nations and a cut in diplomatic operations in Canada. Overall, the draft proposes a significant rejection of the US commitment to a multilateral world order.

An American citizen says he and his wife were detained for hours by U.S. border agents when they returned to the United States after a short trip to Canada.

Bachir Atallah told CNN he and his wife, Jessica, were driving back into the U.S. Sunday evening after visiting family in Canada for the weekend when U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents stopped them for a secondary inspection at the Highgate Springs checkpoint in Vermont.

Atallah, who is originally from Lebanon, said he was told to park his Range Rover and hand over his keys. When he asked the officer why, the officer placed his hand on his gun and told him to exit his vehicle, Atallah said. He said he was then handcuffed and led into a cell, where his belongings were confiscated. He said his wife was put into a cell across from his.

“Seeing my wife’s mascara running because she was crying, it was heartbreaking,” Atallah said. “It wasn’t humane.”

Guttmacher report finds 155,000 people crossed state lines for procedure – double number who did so before Roe’s fall

For the second year in a row, abortion providers performed more than 1m abortions in the United States in 2024. About 155,000 people crossed state lines for abortions – roughly double the number of patients who did so in 2020, before the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade and paved the way for more than a dozen state-level abortion bans to take effect.

These numbers, released earlier this week by the abortion rights-supporting Guttmacher Institute, have not changed much since 2023, when the US also performed more than 1m abortions and 169,000 people traveled for the procedure.

This lack of change masks a deep geographical divide in the US, as a handful of states have now become major hubs for people seeking abortions.

Summary

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum launched the "México te abraza" employment program to help citizens deported under Donald Trump reintegrate into the workforce.

In partnership with the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial, over 220 companies have posted 63,880 vacancies nationwide, surpassing a January pledge to create 50,000 jobs.

Roles span sectors like agriculture and construction, with salaries ranging from $424 to over $2,000 USD monthly. Key employers include Walmart, Grupo Bimbo, and CEMEX.

The initiative aims to provide “dignified, well-paying work” and leverage U.S. labor experience for Mexico’s economic benefit.

DHL Express, a division of Germany's Deutsche Post, said it would suspend global business-to-consumer shipments worth over $800 to individuals in the United States from April 21, as U.S. customs regulatory changes have lengthened clearance.

The notice on the company website was not dated, but its metadata showed it was compiled on Saturday.

DHL blamed the halt on new U.S. customs rules which require formal entry processing on all shipments worth over $800. The minimum had been $2,500 until a change on April 5.

Summary

Gavin Kliger, a 25-year-old DOGE goon, allegedly screamed at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) employees during a 36-hour shift to expedite layoffs of 90% of staff.

A court paused the firings, citing violations of an earlier order requiring individual assessments before terminations. Kliger told staffers to ignore the court-ordered individual-by-individual assessment requirement.

Kliger is a 25-year-old “internet edgelord” who claims to have ditched seven figures in Silicon Valley to work at DOGE. He is a 2020 Berkeley graduate and “has boosted white supremacists and misogynists online,” Reuters reported.

Kliger has already overseen 1,500–1,700 layoffs. Only three senior staff remain, raising concerns about CFPB's ability to fulfill legal duties.