Monday Briefing: U.S. Deports Hundreds in Face of a Court Order | USAEMALL.com

U.S. deported hundreds in the face of a judge’s order

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced yesterday that hundreds of Venezuelans accused of being gang members were sent from the U.S. to El Salvador, a day after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to cease such deportations.

The timing of the flights could determine if the Trump administration ignored an explicit court order. The judge issued his order shortly before 7 p.m. on Saturday in Washington, but video posted from El Salvador shows deportees disembarking at night. El Salvador is two time zones behind Washington. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador posted a screenshot yesterday on social media about the judge’s order, with a message: “Oopsie… Too late.”

Context: President Trump’s administration hopes that the agreement — which involves paying El Salvador to take suspected gang members — will be the beginning of a larger effort. The administration wants to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to arrest and deport Venezuelan gang members without the due process afforded to immigrants for decades. That law is best known for its role in the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Reactions: The Venezuelan government said in a statement yesterday that the attempt to apply the act “constitutes a crime against humanity.”

Ukraine’s daring campaign in Russia nears its end

Ukrainian troops have over the past week withdrawn from all but a sliver of land in Russia’s Kursk region, according to military analysts and soldiers. Kyiv’s monthslong campaign to seize and occupy Russian territory appears to be ending in the face of relentless airstrikes and drone assaults.

The fighting in Kursk is now less about holding Russian territory, Ukrainian soldiers said, and more about controlling the best defensive positions to prevent the Russians from pushing into the Sumy region of Ukraine and opening a new front in the war. Here’s how Kyiv’s offensive unraveled.

What’s next: Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, said yesterday that he expected President Trump to speak about a cease-fire this week with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

The East African workers dying in Saudi Arabia

Promised lucrative incomes as housekeepers or nannies in Saudi Arabia, Kenyan women often return bearing the marks of physical and sexual abuse — if they don’t come back in a coffin. At least 274 Kenyan workers, mostly women, have died in Saudi Arabia in the past five years, a Times investigation found. An untold number of Ugandans have died, too, but their government releases no data.

Powerful people have incentives to keep the flow of workers moving, and the officials who are supposed to protect them often profit from the industry. Kenya’s president said he wanted to send up to half a million workers to Saudi Arabia in the coming years.

When Iichi Marumo entered his first international speedskating race seven years ago, it took him three times as long to finish, compared with most of the competition. At 88, he was also three times as old. He won silver in his age bracket.

After a life of farming, publishing poetry and volunteering in World War II for a kamikaze mission, he hopes to still be skating when he hits 100.

Lives lived: Roy L. Prosterman, a lawyer who left a lucrative corporate law practice to champion land reform in the underdeveloped world, died at 89.

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Shadows shine a light on Iranian history

Backstage at the New Victory Theater in New York, a mythological bird prepared to take flight for “Song of the North,” an elaborate shadow puppet staging of stories from a 10th-century Persian epic.

The show, which covers stories from “Shahnameh,” or Book of Kings, has played to packed houses on three continents. The production involves 483 puppets, 208 animated backgrounds, 16 character masks and nine performers and will travel to Canada and Saudi Arabia this year.

The idea behind the show is simple, its creator said: to bring the richness of Persian culture to audiences whose views of Iran may be dominated by negative stereotypes.