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Gatherings had a street carnival atmosphere as demonstrators packed Times Square in New York and lined Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington on Saturday
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There are growing questions over the legality of U.S. strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. "These are sitting ducks, and we are simply engaged in cold-blooded murder of individuals who may or may not be drug smugglers," says David Cole, professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. Cole says that President Trump is "committing homicide" by killing people without trial. "These individuals who have now been sent to the bottom of the sea by this president, if they were tried, at most, would face a sentence of some period of years," says Cole. "There would be no death penalty authorized under the Constitution for these individuals, even assuming they're guilty."
This comes as Trump has authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations inside Venezuela aimed at regime change, raising fears of a military confrontation between the two countries.
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Even as President Trump has cracked down on dissent and sent troops into multiple cities, organizers of Saturday's anti-authoritarian "No Kings" protests expect millions to join at least 2,500 rallies across all 50 states and several U.S. territories. The turnout could surpass the 5 million protesters who turned out for "No Kings Day" events in June.
"We are engaging in the most American activity in the world, which is coming together in peaceful protest of our government," says Leah Greenberg, co-founder and co-executive director of the progressive organization ?Indivisible. Trump's threats against the protests are a "classic exercise of the authoritarian playbook, to try to create fear, to try to threaten, to try to make people back off preemptively," she adds.
"There will be no fear, but the fear of what will happen to us if we don't mobilize," says Byron Sigcho Lopez, alderperson of the 25th Ward in Chicago, where mass protests are expected.
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