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.

In 2024, Illinois provided roughly 35,000 abortions to out-of-state patients, while North Carolina provided 16,700. Kansas and New Mexico, which neighbor anti-abortion Texas, provided 16,100 and 12,800 abortions – the vast majority of which were to out-of-state patients.

“Travel is so incredibly costly, both for patients and for the broader support network of funds, practical support organizations and providers,” said Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a Guttmacher data scientist. The sheer magnitude of the travel, he said, is “testament to the great efforts that a lot of people are taking in order to make sure that people could access care that really they should be able to access within their own community – without necessarily expending this enormous financial and logistical cost”.

As the Guttmacher report focuses on abortions provided through the formal healthcare system, it does not count self-managed abortions, which appear to be on the rise post-Roe. (Medical experts widely agree that individuals can safely end their own first-trimester pregnancies using abortion pills.) The report also does not track abortions provided to people living in states with total abortion bans, even though providers living in blue states sometimes mail abortion pills across state lines – a practice that, in recent months, has sparked heated litigation.

This does not mean, researchers warned, that everybody who wants a post-Roe abortion is still able to get one. Caitlin Myers, a Middlebury College economics professor who has researched the impact of abortion bans, estimated that about 20-25% of people who want abortions are blocked from getting them by bans.

The Guttmacher report arrived days after the Trump administration effectively demolished the CDC team responsible for government reports on abortion provision in the United States, which are known as “abortion surveillance” reports. These cuts have alarmed researchers.

“If we can’t measure outcomes, we can’t do science,” Myers said. “My concern is that this work fundamentally relies on the ability to track public health outcomes, and if we aren’t tracking them, we don’t know what’s happening to people. We don’t know what’s happening in their lives. We don’t know the effect of policies and interventions.”

In addition to the CDC and Guttmacher, just one other group – #WeCount, a research project by the Society of Family Planning – regularly collects nationwide data on abortion incidence. The groups use different methods to collect data, so the CDC’s annual report on the topic has long been less comprehensive than the post-Roe reports issued by Guttmacher and #WeCount.

A number of states – including California, a haven for abortion rights – do not provide information to the federal government about the abortions performed within their borders. The CDC report also lags behind the Guttmacher and #WeCount reports; its most recent report, issued in November, counted abortions performed in 2022.

The CDC report does include information about abortion patients’ demographic backgrounds and the gestational age of their pregnancies, which can serve as a critical fact-check in heated debates around abortion. Anti-abortion activists, for example, often condemn abortions that take place later on in pregnancy, but the 2022 CDC report found that only about 1.1% of all abortions take place at or after 21 weeks’ gestation.

“Abortion surveillance can be used to asses changes in clinical practice patterns over time,” a former employee from the CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health said in a text. “Without this report, we are losing the ability to track these changes.”

Notably, the move to ax the researchers behind the CDC report appears to run counter to Project 2025, a famous playbook of conservative policies. Project 2025 urged the federal government to dramatically expand the CDC’s “abortion surveillance” by cutting funds to states that did not provide the CDC with information about “exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method”. It also suggested that the CDC collect statistics on miscarriages, stillbirths and “treatments that incidentally result in the death of a child (such as chemotherapy)”.

These proposals alarmed researchers and raised concerns about patients’ data privacy, especially given the fact that abortion remains a deeply controversial procedure. But given the turbulence of the Trump administration, experts are not sure whether another agency will ultimately take up Project 2025’s recommendations.

Maddow-Zimet said he doesn’t “think that we’re necessarily any less concerned than we were before about the possibility of these kind of data mandates going into effect and/or using the data in appropriate ways to either make providers ask patients questions they wouldn’t have otherwise asked, that are very stigmatizing, or potentially put providers at risk”.

• Ukraine and Russia conducted a swap of more than 500 prisoners of war on Saturday. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Telegram 277 Ukrainian service personnel had returned home from Russian captivity. Russia’s defence ministry said 246 servicemen had been handed over by Kyiv. It said a further 31 injured prisoners of war had been handed over to Ukraine and 15 of its own wounded servicemen had also been returned by Kyiv. Zelenskyy thanked the United Arab Emirates for its mediation, saying a total of 4,552 Ukrainians – service personnel and civilians – had been returned since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

• Fighting has continued in Russia’s border regions despite Vladimir Putin’s declaration of an Easter ceasefire, Zelenskyy has said. “Kursk and Belgorod regions – Putin’s Easter statements did not spread to this territory,” Ukraine’s president said on X, referring to parts of Russia where Ukraine troops are present. “Fighting continues, Russian strikes continue.”

• Moscow’s troops have driven out Ukrainian forces from nearly all of the Kursk region, Russia’s chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov, has said. “The bulk of the area where the invasion took place has now been cleared,” Gerasimov told Putin in a televised meeting. “It’s 1,260 sq km, 99.5%.” The RIA state news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying on Saturday that Russian troops recaptured the village of Oleshnya in Kursk.

• Zelenskyy has said that, according to Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, Kyiv’s forces “continued their activity on the territory of the Kursk region and are holding their positions”. In an X post on Saturday, he also said Ukrainian troops “have advanced and expanded our zone of control” in the Belgorod region.

• Putin announced the Easter ceasefire in the televised meeting with Gerasimov, saying Russian forces would stop combat operations from 6pm Moscow time on Saturday until midnight on Sunday. Russia’s president said he was ordering a temporary halt to the fighting out of “humanitarian considerations”.

• Zelenskyy posted on X soon after Putin’s announcement that Russian artillery fire was continuing on Saturday. “Russian artillery can still be heard in certain directions of the front, regardless of the Russian leader’s promise of silence. Russian drones are in use. In some areas, the situation has become quieter,” Zelenskyy said.

• According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia launched eight missiles and 87 drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Saturday, causing damage in five regions across the country. Air defence units shot down 33 Russian drones, and another 36 drones were redirected by electronic warfare, the air force said. It gave no details on missiles. Damage was recorded in five regions in the south, north-east and east, it said.

• Ukraine’s president put the onus on Russia to extend any ceasefire beyond the weekend. “Our actions are and will be symmetrical,” Zelenskyy said on X. “The proposal for a full and unconditional 30-day silence remains on the table – the answer to it must come from Moscow. Ukraine, together with our partners, is ready to move toward peace as constructively as possible, but same readiness is required from Russia.”

• Russian troops are “solidifying their presence” in the village of Kalynove in the Donetsk region, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing the DeepState military blog, which is considered close to Ukraine’s army. The publication reports, sourcing DeepState, that Russian forces are deploying infantry, and establishing logistical routes and communication lines in Kalynove.

• Australia will use “whatever avenues” it can to help Melbourne man Oscar Jenkins, who faces a 15-year jail term in Russia for fighting with Ukrainian troops. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Saturday that the government would “continue to make representations to the reprehensible regime of Vladimir Putin” to release Jenkins, 33, a former teacher who fought with Ukraine’s armed forces against Russia’s invasion.

An Indonesian father of an infant with special needs, who was detained by federal agents at his hospital workplace in Minnesota after his student visa was secretly revoked, will remain in custody after an immigration judge ruled Thursday that his case can proceed.

Judge Sarah Mazzie denied a motion to dismiss the case against Aditya Wahyu Harsono on humanitarian grounds, according to his attorney. Harsono, 33, was arrested four days after his visa was revoked without notice. He is scheduled for another hearing on 1 May.

“His wife has been in a state of shock and exhaustion,” Sarah Gad, Harsono’s lawyer, said. “The Department of Homeland Security has weaponized the immigration system to serve just an entirely different purpose, which is to instill fear.”

Harsono, a supply-chain manager at a hospital in Marshall, Minnesota, who is married to a US citizen, was surprised by authorities in his workplace basement on 27 March. Gad said that Harsono was detained without clear explanation and interrogated for hours.

Harsono’s wife, Peyton, called Gad in a panic after she received a call from human resources at the hospital. Two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents, dressed in plain clothes, had shown up and instructed the staff to stage a fake meeting in the basement so they could apprehend him, according to Gad.

Hospital staff were distraught but felt forced to comply.

“He unsuspectedly walks in, smiling, and then they just pull out their handcuffs and forcibly detain him, pushing against the wall, start frisking him, and stripping all of his belongings,” Gad said.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Guardian.

Harsono was brought to the Kandiyohi County Jail, where he is still detained, according to the Ice detainee locator.

He told the Ice agents that his F-1 student visa was valid through June 2026, and that he had a pending green-card application based on his marriage to a citizen, but that he had been issued a notice to appear in court stating that he had overstayed his visa.

His attorney said that as of 28 March, the day after his arrest, his F-1 visa was still active. Gad said the government revoked it without any notice to him, and then claimed he had overstayed.

The revocation was backdated to 23 March and allegedly based on his 2022 misdemeanor conviction for graffitiing a semi-truck trailer. Gad said that this is not a deportable offense under the Immigration and Nationality Act. He had traveled internationally and returned multiple times to Indonesia since the conviction without incident.

The day before Harsono’s bond hearing, DHS disclosed their evidence against him. Besides stating that his visa had been revoked for the misdemeanor graffiti conviction, for which he paid $100 in restitution, they also mentioned an arrest from 2021 during a protest over the murder of George Floyd. That charge was dismissed.

Harsono is Muslim and frequently posts on social media in support of humanitarian relief for Gaza. He also runs a small non-profit, which sells art and merchandise, with proceeds going to organizations aiding Gaza.

His wife and eight-month-old daughter, who has special needs, are distraught by his arrest, Gad said. After the judge granted Harsono a $5,000 bond on 10 April, the Minnesota Freedom Fund had been en route to pay it. But DHS immediately filed a notice to appeal the bond decision, which triggered an automatic stay, meaning Harsono had to remain in custody. Gad said this type of move is rare, usually only seen when a judge grants bond to someone charged with violent or serious crimes.

“You never involve stays of an immigration judge’s bond order for a minor conviction when somebody’s on their way to becoming a green-card holder,” she said.

Gad is preparing to file a federal petition and a temporary restraining order against DHS.

In an appeal for help on GoFundMe, Harsono’s wife explained that her husband had been fired from his job while in detention and now the family is “in danger of losing our apartment” and they “no longer have health insurance”.

The Minnesota Nurses Association condemned the hospital worker’s arrest and restated its position that “nurses should not and will not serve any role in immigration enforcement” and its hope that “all hospital employees will also reject a role in assisting Ice”.

Harsono’s case comes amid a wave of reports of student visas being revoked under the Trump administration’s new executive policy. The actions by the federal government to terminate students’ legal status have left hundreds of scholars at risk of detention and deportation.

At least 901 students at 128 colleges and universities have had their visas revoked or their legal statuses terminated since mid-March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements and correspondence with school officials.

In some high-profile cases, including the detention of the former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, the Trump administration has argued it should be allowed to deport noncitizens over involvement in pro-Palestinian activism it casts as antisemitic. But in the vast majority of visa revocations, colleges say there is no indication that affected students had a role in protests.

The US supreme court has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt the deportation of Venezuelan men in immigration custody, after their lawyers said they were at imminent risk of removal without the judicial review previously mandated by the justices.

“The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court,” the justices said early on Saturday.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, two of the court’s leading conservatives, dissented.

The order is the latest example of how the country’s courts are challenging the Trump administration’s overhaul of the immigration system, which has been characterized by a number of deportations that have either been wrongful or carried out without due process.

Before the late-night supreme court ruling, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued in an emergency Friday court filing that dozens of Venezuelan men held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Bluebonnet detention center in Texas had been given notices indicating they were classified as members of the Tren de Aragua gang. They said the men would be deported under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) and were told “that the removals are imminent and will happen tonight or tomorrow”.

The ACLU said immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan men held there of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which would make them subject to deportation. The ACLU said a number of the men in Texas had already been loaded onto a bus, and it urged the court to rule before they could be deported.

The ACLU has already sued to block deportations under the AEA of two Venezuelans held in the Texas detention center and is asking a judge to issue an order barring removal of any immigrants in the region under the law.

The supreme court has allowed some deportations under the AEA, but has previously ruled they could proceed only if those about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and were given “a reasonable time” to contest their pending removals.

Federal judges in Colorado, New York and southern Texas have also issued orders barring the removal of detainees under the AEA until the administration provides a process for them to make claims in court. But there’s been no such order issued in the area of Texas that covers Bluebonnet, which is located 24 miles (39km) north of the city of Abilene in the far northern end of the state.

District judge James Wesley Hendrix this week declined to bar the administration from removing the two men identified in the ACLU lawsuit because immigration officials filed sworn declarations that they would not be immediately deported.

But the ACLU’s Friday filing includes sworn declarations from three separate immigration lawyers who said their clients in Bluebonnet were given paperwork indicating they were members of Tren de Aragua and could be deported by Saturday.

In one case, immigration lawyer Karene Brown said her client, identified by initials and who only spoke Spanish, was told to sign papers in English.

“Ice informed FGM that these papers were coming from the president, and that he will be deported even if he did not sign it,” Brown wrote.

The ACLU asked Hendrix to issue a temporary order halting any such deportations. Later on Friday, with no response from Hendrix, the ACLU asked district judge James Boasberg in Washington to issue a similar emergency order, saying they had information that detainees were being loaded onto buses.

In their court filing, lawyers say clients received a document on Friday from immigration officials, titled “Notice and Warrant of Apprehension and Removal Under the Alien Enemies Act”.

It read: “You have been determined to be … a member of Tren de Aragua. …

“You have been determined to be an alien enemy subject to apprehension, restraint and removal from the United States … This is not a removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

Before the supreme court decision, Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat, denounced the reported plan. “We cannot stand by,” Jayapal wrote on social media, as the Trump administration “continues to disappear people”.

Hours before the supreme court ruling was announced, an appeals court in Washington DC temporarily halted Boasberg’s contempt proceedings against the Trump administration over its deportation flights to El Salvador last month.

The court said the order was intended to provide “sufficient opportunity” for the court to consider the government’s appeal and “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion”.

A federal judge on Friday ordered that a Turkish Tufts University student detained by immigration authorities in Louisiana be brought to Vermont by 1 May for a hearing over what her lawyers say was apparent retaliation for an op-ed piece she co-wrote in the student newspaper.

The US district judge William Sessions said he would hear Rümeysa Öztürk’s request to be released from detention. Her lawyers had requested that she be released immediately, or at least brought back to Vermont.

The 30-year-old doctoral student was taken by immigration officials as she walked along a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville on 25 March. After being taken to New Hampshire and then Vermont, she was put on a plane the next day and moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, Louisiana. An immigration judge denied her request for bond Wednesday.

Öztürk is among several people with ties to American universities whose visas were revoked or who have been stopped from entering the US after they were accused of attending demonstrations or publicly expressing support for Palestinians. A Louisiana immigration judge has ruled that the US can deport Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil based on the federal government’s argument that he poses a national security risk.

Öztürk’s lawyers are challenging the legal authority for Ice’s detention. They asked that she be immediately released from custody, or returned to Vermont while her immigration case continues.

A lawyer for the justice department said her legal challenge should be dismissed, adding the immigration court has jurisdiction.

Öztürk’s lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts. Initially, they didn’t know where she was. They said they were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she had been detained. Öztürk herself said she unsuccessfully made multiple requests to speak to a lawyer.

Öztürk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, the Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”, disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Öztürk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said last month, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Öztürk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group.

Earlier this week, however, the Washington Post reported that a state department review of the DHS investigation conducted before Öztürk’s arrest had cast doubt on that claim, and noted that there was no evidence that she had engaged in antisemitic activity or made any public statement indicating support for a terrorist organization.

Cake, gifts and a low-key family celebration may be how many senior citizens celebrate their 70th birthday.

But Nasa’s oldest serving astronaut, Don Pettit, became a septuagenarian while hurtling towards Earth in a spacecraft to wrap up a seven-month mission onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

A Soyuz capsule carrying the American and two Russian cosmonauts landed in Kazakhstan on Sunday, Pettit’s birthday.

“Today at 0420 Moscow time (0120 GMT), the Soyuz MS-26 landing craft with Alexei Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Donald (Don) Pettit aboard landed near the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan,” Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said.

Spending 220 days in space, Pettit, Ovchinin and Vagner orbited the Earth 3,520 times and completed a journey of 93.3m miles over the course of their mission.

It was the fourth spaceflight for Pettit, who has logged more than 18 months in orbit during his 29-year career.

The trio touched down in a remote area south-east of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 6.20am (0120 GMT) after undocking from the space station just over three hours earlier.

Nasa images of the landing showed the small capsule parachuting down to Earth with the sunrise as a backdrop. The astronauts gave thumbs-up gestures as rescuers carried them from the spacecraft to an inflatable medical tent.

Nasa said in a statement that Pettit was “doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth”.

He was then set to fly to the Kazakh city of Karaganda before boarding a Nasa plane to the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Texas.

The astronauts spent their time on the ISS researching areas such as water sanitisation technology, plant growth under various conditions and fire behaviour in microgravity, Nasa said.

The trio’s seven-month trip was just short of the nine months that the Nasa astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams unexpectedly spent on the orbital lab after the spacecraft they were testing suffered technical issues and was deemed unfit to fly them back to Earth.

Space is one of the final areas of US-Russia cooperation amid an almost complete breakdown in relations between Moscow and Washington over the Ukraine conflict.

Pope Francis, who is recovering from a severe bout of pneumonia, marked Easter Sunday by making a brief appearance to bless thousands of people who had gathered for mass in St Peter’s Square, and by holding a short meeting with the US vice-president, JD Vance.

The 88-year-old pontiff – who nearly died during his recent, five-week stay at Rome’s Gemelli hospital – did not celebrate Easter Sunday mass in the piazza, instead delegating the service to Cardinal Angelo Comastri, the retired archpriest of St Peter’s Basilica.

But when mass ended, Francis appeared on the loggia balcony over the basilica entrance, prompting huge cheers.

“Brothers and sisters, happy Easter!” he said, his voice sounding stronger than it has for weeks. The crowd responded with a chant of, “Viva il Papa!” (Long live the Pope!).

The pope has made only a handful of public appearances after leaving hospital and returning to the Vatican on 23 March. He skipped the solemn services of Good Friday and Holy Saturday leading up to Easter, but had been expected to make an appearance on Sunday to celebrate the most important day in the Christian calendar.

In accordance with his doctors’ orders for two months of convalescence and respiratory therapy to improve his lung function, the pope has cut back his workload.

He did, however, find time on Sunday to meet Vance, who had had “an exchange of opinions” with the Vatican’s secretary of state over international conflicts and immigration when they met a day earlier.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, has in the past tangled with the pope over immigration and Donald Trump’s plans to deport people en masse. Francis has made caring for those who migrate a hallmark of his papacy and his progressive views on social justice issues have often put him at odds with members of the more conservative US Catholic church.

According to a short statement from the Vatican, Vance met Francis at his residence for a few moments on Sunday morning “to exchange Easter greetings”.

In the traditional Urbi et Orbi message, which was read out on his behalf, Francis reminded Roman Catholics that Easter was a day of joyful resurrection.

“Love has triumphed over hatred, light over darkness and truth over falsehood. Forgiveness has triumphed over revenge,” his speech said. “Evil has not disappeared from history; it will remain until the end, but it no longer has the upper hand; it no longer has power over those who accept the grace of this day.”

Francis also stressed the importance of using Easter to “revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!

He went on to remind people of the suffering in Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, among many other places.

He added: “I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development. These are the ‘weapons’ of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death!”

In keeping with its tradition of diplomatic neutrality, the Holy See has responded cautiously to the Trump administration.

It has expressed alarm over the US president’s crackdown on immigration and cuts to international aid, and has called for peaceful resolutions to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Those concerns were reflected in the Vatican statement on Saturday’s meeting, which said the talks were cordial and that the Vatican expressed satisfaction with the administration’s commitment to protecting freedom of religion and conscience.

“There was an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees, and prisoners,” the statement said.

“Finally, hope was expressed for serene collaboration between the state and the Catholic church in the United States, whose valuable service to the most vulnerable people was acknowledged.”

The reference to “serene collaboration” appeared to refer to Vance’s accusation that the US conference of Catholic bishops was resettling “illegal immigrants” in order to obtain federal funding. Top US cardinals have pushed back strongly against the claim.

The Associated Press contribute to this report

Pope Francis, who is recovering from a severe bout of pneumonia, marked Easter Sunday by making a brief appearance to bless thousands of people who had gathered for mass in St Peter’s Square, and by holding a short meeting with the US vice-president, JD Vance.

The 88-year-old pontiff – who nearly died during his recent, five-week stay at Rome’s Gemelli hospital – did not celebrate Easter Sunday mass in the piazza, instead delegating the service to Cardinal Angelo Comastri, the retired archpriest of St Peter’s Basilica.

But when mass ended, Francis appeared on the loggia balcony over the basilica entrance, prompting huge cheers.

“Brothers and sisters, happy Easter!” he said, his voice sounding stronger than it has for weeks. The crowd responded with a chant of, “Viva il Papa!” (Long live the Pope!).

The pope has made only a handful of public appearances after leaving hospital and returning to the Vatican on 23 March. He skipped the solemn services of Good Friday and Holy Saturday leading up to Easter, but had been expected to make an appearance on Sunday to celebrate the most important day in the Christian calendar.

In accordance with his doctors’ orders for two months of convalescence and respiratory therapy to improve his lung function, the pope has cut back his workload.

He did, however, find time on Sunday to meet Vance, who had had “an exchange of opinions” with the Vatican’s secretary of state over international conflicts and immigration when they met a day earlier.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, has in the past tangled with the pope over immigration and Donald Trump’s plans to deport people en masse. Francis has made caring for those who migrate a hallmark of his papacy and his progressive views on social justice issues have often put him at odds with members of the more conservative US Catholic church.

According to a short statement from the Vatican, Vance met Francis at his residence for a few moments on Sunday morning “to exchange Easter greetings”.

In the traditional Urbi et Orbi message, which was read out on his behalf, Francis reminded Roman Catholics that Easter was a day of joyful resurrection.

“Love has triumphed over hatred, light over darkness and truth over falsehood. Forgiveness has triumphed over revenge,” his speech said. “Evil has not disappeared from history; it will remain until the end, but it no longer has the upper hand; it no longer has power over those who accept the grace of this day.”

Francis also stressed the importance of using Easter to “revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!

He went on to remind people of the suffering in Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, among many other places.

He added: “I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development. These are the ‘weapons’ of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death!”

In keeping with its tradition of diplomatic neutrality, the Holy See has responded cautiously to the Trump administration.

It has expressed alarm over the US president’s crackdown on immigration and cuts to international aid, and has called for peaceful resolutions to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Those concerns were reflected in the Vatican statement on Saturday’s meeting, which said the talks were cordial and that the Vatican expressed satisfaction with the administration’s commitment to protecting freedom of religion and conscience.

“There was an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees, and prisoners,” the statement said.

“Finally, hope was expressed for serene collaboration between the state and the Catholic church in the United States, whose valuable service to the most vulnerable people was acknowledged.”

The reference to “serene collaboration” appeared to refer to Vance’s accusation that the US conference of Catholic bishops was resettling “illegal immigrants” in order to obtain federal funding. Top US cardinals have pushed back strongly against the claim.

The Associated Press contribute to this report

Protesters poured into the streets of cities and towns across the United States again on Saturday, in the second wave of protests this month, as organizers seek to turn discontent with Donald Trump’s presidency into a mass movement that will eventually translate into action at the ballot box.

By early afternoon, large protests were under way in Washington, New York and Chicago, with images of crowds cascading across social networks showing additional demonstrations in Rhode Island, Maryland, Wisconsin, Tennessee, South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky, California and Pennsylvania, among others. Americans abroad also signaled their opposition to the Trump agenda in Dublin, Ireland, and other cities.

More than 400 rallies were planned, most loosely organized by the group 50501, which stands for 50 protests in 50 states, one movement.

Opponents of Donald Trump’s administration mobilized from the east coast to the west, including at rallies in Portland, Maine, and Portland, Oregon, decrying what they see as threats to the nation’s democratic ideals.

The demonstrations included a massive march through midtown Manhattan, a rally in front of the White House, and protesters holding up placards reading “It’s Our Turn to Fight Tyranny” and “The Fascists Are Coming, The Fascists Are Coming” at a Concord, Massachusetts, commemoration of the start of the American revolutionary war 250 years ago.

In Massachusetts, 80-year-old retired mason Thomas Bassford told CBS News that he believed US citizens were under attack from their own government, saying: “This is a very perilous time in America for liberty. Sometimes we have to fight for freedom.”

Protesters identified a variety of concerns, each unified under a common theme: opposition to the second Trump presidency.

“We are losing our country,” demonstrator Sara Harvey told the New York Times in Jacksonville, Florida. “I’m worried for my grandchildren,” she said. “I do it for them.”

It is the fourth protest event to be staged by the group since Trump was inaugurated on 20 January. Previous events included a “No Kings Day” on President’s Day, 17 February, a theme adopted before Trump referred to himself as a king in a social media post days later.

Organizers have called for 11 million people to participate in the latest rallies, representing 3.5% of the US population.

Such a figure would likely surpass the numbers who took part in the “Hands Off” rallies staged on 5 April, when 1,200 demonstrations were staged across the US to register opposition to Trump’s assault on government agencies and institutions, spearheaded by the president’s chief lieutenant, the tech billionaire Elon Musk, and his unofficial “department of government efficiency” (Doge) unit.

Indivisible, the progressive movement behind the “Hands Off” events, said it was seeking to send a message to opposition politicians and ordinary voters that vocal resistance to Trump’s policies was essential. It also said it was seeking to build momentum that would lead to further and larger protests.

Heather Dunn, a spokesperson for 50501, said the goal of Saturday’s protests was “to protect our democracy against the rise of authoritarianism under the Trump administration”.

She called the group a “pro-democracy, pro-constitution, anti-executive overreach, nonviolent grassroots movement” that was nonpartisan.

“We have registered Democrats, registered independents and registered Republicans all marching because they all believe in America, because they all believe in a fair government that puts people before profits,” she told the Washington Post.

Academics who have tracked the slide of democracy into authoritarianism say protests can be part of a wider of strategy to reverse the trend.

“Oppositions to authoritarian governments have to use multiple channels always,” said Steven Levitsky, a political scientist at Harvard University and co-author, with Daniel Ziblatt, of How Democracies Die. “They have to use the courts where those are available. They have to use the ballot box when that’s available, and they have to use the streets when necessary – that can shape media framing and media discourse, which is very, very important.”

In Washington DC on Saturday, a protest planned by the 50501 movement was scheduled to take place in Franklin Park, while other protesters, including a local chapter of Indivisible, rallied outside JD Vance’s home, on the grounds of the Washington Naval Observatory. Protesters also gathered near the Washington monument for a march in support of Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran man wrongly deported to El Salvador from Maryland.

Barbara Lee, a trailblazing former member of Congress, has been elected as the next mayor of Oakland, California, after fending off an insurgent challenge from the center at a critical moment for the Bay Area city.

Lee defeated the former city council member Loren Taylor after nine rounds of ranked-choice voting gave her more than 52% of the vote to Taylor’s 47%, according to the Alameda county registrar of voters.

“This morning, Loren Taylor called me to concede the race,” Lee said in a statement on Saturday. “While I believe strongly in respecting the democratic voting process and ballots will continue to be counted through Tuesday, the results are clear that the people of Oakland have elected me as your next Mayor. Thank you, Oakland!”

“I accept your choice with a deep sense of responsibility, humility, and love,” Lee added. “Oakland is a deeply divided City; I answered the call to run to unite our community, so that I can represent every voter, and we can all work together as One Oakland to solve our most pressing problems.”

Lee must confront a series of acute challenges, including a gaping budget shortfall, widespread public safety concerns and an affordability crisis. She will serve out the remainder of the term of Sheng Thao, who was recalled by voters in November amid frustration over crime and homelessness.

Earlier this year, Thao was indicted on federal bribery charges; she has denied wrongdoing.

Both Lee and Taylor – the leading contenders in a wide field of candidates – prioritized addressing public safety and the city’s financial crisis, but offered different visions.

“Right now, we’re in a period of instability and voters are looking for somebody to stabilize the city government,” said Chris Higgenbotham, an Oakland-based political consultant who was not involved with the mayoral race.

He added that residents had wanted the city’s next mayor to “move us not in just the right direction for the next two years but to put us on a road map back to where we were at before the pandemic – one of the best cities, highlighted in magazines, and not just in the news for the negative”.

The 78-year-old former representative, a hometown hero, promised to move Oakland past the rancor that has clouded city hall over the last few years. Taylor had cast himself as a tough-on-crime moderate who would shake up city hall and “fix” a “broken” city.

Though Lee entered as the heavy favorite, Taylor’s campaign gained momentum as outside groups working to push the Bay Area’s progressive politics to the center took an interest in his campaign.

Lee was backed by most of the city council, the interim mayor, the local Democratic party, labor unions, faith leaders and business leaders. She earned the endorsement of the editorial board of the East Bay Times. Taylor drew support from the business and tech communities and was endorsed by the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board.

Benjamin Netanyahu said again Saturday that Israel had “no choice” but to continue fighting in Gaza and will not end the war before destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages.

The Israeli prime minister also repeated his vow to make sure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.

Netanyahu is under growing pressure at home, not only from families of hostages and their supporters but also from reservist and retired Israeli soldiers who question the continuation of the war.

In his statement, he claimed Hamas had rejected Israel’s latest proposal to free half the hostages for a continued ceasefire.

He spoke after Israeli strikes killed more than 90 people in 48 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said Saturday. Israeli troops have been increasing their attacks to pressure Hamas to release the hostages and disarm.

Children and women were among the 15 people killed overnight, according to hospital staff. At least 11 dead were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis, several of them in a tent in the Muwasi area where hundreds of thousands of displaced people stay, hospital workers said. Israel has designated it as a humanitarian zone.

Mourners cradled and kissed the faces of the dead. A man stroked a child’s forehead with his finger before body bags were closed. “Omar is gone … I wish it was me,” one brother cried out.

Four other people were killed in strikes in Rafah city, including a mother and her daughter, according to the European hospital, where the bodies were taken.

Later on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike on a group of civilians west of Nuseirat in central Gaza killed one person, according to al-Awda hospital.

Israel’s military in a statement said it had killed more than 40 militants over the weekend.

Separately, the military said a soldier was killed on Saturday in northern Gaza. It confirmed it was the first soldier death since Israel resumed the war on 18 March.

Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam brigades, said it ambushed Israeli forces operating east of Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighbourhood.

Israel has vowed to intensify attacks across Gaza and occupy indefinitely large “security zones” inside the small coastal strip of more than 2 million people. Hamas wants Israeli forces to withdraw from the territory.

Israel also has blockaded Gaza for the past six weeks, again barring the entry of food and other goods.

Thousands of Israelis joined protests on Saturday night pressing for a deal to end the war.

“Do what you should have done a long time ago. Bring them all back now! And in one deal. And if this means to stop the war, then stop the war,” former hostage Omer Shem Tov told a rally in Tel Aviv.

Shohei Ohtani has added a new title to his already decorated résumé: father.

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way superstar announced the birth of his first child, a daughter, in an Instagram post Saturday. Ohtani, 30, shared a photo of the newborn’s tiny feet cradled in two hands, along with a message expressing his gratitude and wonder at becoming a parent for the first time.

“Welcome to the Ohtani Family!” he wrote. “I am so grateful to my loving wife who gave birth to our healthy beautiful daughter. To my daughter, thank you for making us very nervous yet super anxious parents.”

Ohtani is currently on Major League Baseball’s paternity list and missed the Dodgers’ weekend series against the Texas Rangers. He is eligible to miss up to three games, with the club off Monday before heading to Chicago for a series with the Cubs starting Tuesday.

The baby’s arrival marks the latest milestone in a whirlwind 16 months for Ohtani. After signing a record-shattering $700m contract with the Dodgers in December 2023, the three-time AL MVP revealed he had quietly married Mamiko Tanaka, a former professional basketball player in Japan. The couple had kept their relationship private, with Ohtani only confirming their marriage after joining the Dodgers.

Tanaka, 28, played collegiately at Waseda University before joining the Fujitsu Red Wave of the Women’s Japan Basketball League, where she competed from 2019 to 2023. The couple also share a dog, Dekopin, who has become a fan favorite on Ohtani’s social media accounts.

In his Instagram post, Ohtani extended his thanks beyond family. “I would also like to thank the Dodgers organization, my teammates, and the fans for their constant support and kind words of encouragement,” he wrote. “I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to all the medical professionals and everyone who dedicated their support to us, up until this wonderful day.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts announced the birth on Saturday’s game broadcast from Arlington, Texas. “Congratulations Sho!” Roberts said, adding with a smile that he wasn’t yet sure of the baby’s name.

Ohtani, who helped lead the Dodgers to a World Series title last fall, is off to a strong start in his second season with the club. Through 21 games, he’s batting .288 with six home runs, eight RBIs, and a .930 OPS.

The US vice-president, JD Vance, had “an exchange of opinions” with the Vatican’s secretary of state over current international conflicts and immigration when they met on Saturday, the Vatican has said.

The Vatican issued a statement after Vance, a Catholic convert, met Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher. There was no indication he met Pope Francis, who has resumed some official duties during his recovery from pneumonia.

The Holy See has responded cautiously to the Trump administration, in keeping with its tradition of diplomatic neutrality.

It has expressed alarm over Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration and cuts in international aid, and has called for peaceful resolutions to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Those concerns were reflected in the Vatican statement, which said the talks were cordial and that the Vatican expressed satisfaction with the administration’s commitment to protecting freedom of religion and conscience.

“There was an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees, and prisoners,” the statement said.

“Finally, hope was expressed for serene collaboration between the state and the Catholic church in the United States, whose valuable service to the most vulnerable people was acknowledged.”

The reference to “serene collaboration” appeared to refer to Vance’s accusation that the US conference of Catholic bishops was resettling “illegal immigrants” in order to obtain federal funding. Top US cardinals have pushed back strongly against the claim.

Parolin told La Repubblica on the eve of Vance’s visit: “It is clear that the approach of the current US administration is very different from what we are used to and, especially in the west, from what we have relied on for many years,.”

As the US pushes to end the war in Ukraine, Parolin reaffirmed Kyiv’s right to its territorial integrity and insisted that any peace deal must not be “imposed” on Ukraine but “built patiently, day by day, with dialogue and mutual respect”.

Vance was spending Easter weekend in Rome with his family and attended Good Friday services in St Peter’s Basilica after meeting Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. On Saturday, after the Vance family’s introduction to Parolin, they had a private tour of the Sistine Chapel.

It was not immediately clear where they would celebrate Easter. Pope Francis, for his part, according to official liturgical plans released on Saturday, indicated he hoped to attend Easter mass on Sunday, which usually draws thousands to St Peter’s Square.

The pope and Vance have tangled over immigration and the Trump administration’s plans to deport people en masse. Francis has made caring for those who migrate a hallmark of his papacy and his progressive views on social justice issues have often put him at odds with members of the more conservative US Catholic church.

The pope also changed church teaching to say that capital punishment was inadmissible in all cases. After a public appeal from Francis just weeks before Trump took office, Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row. Trump is an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, identifies with a small Catholic intellectual movement that is viewed by some critics as having reactionary or authoritarian leanings and often described as “post-liberal”.

Post-liberals share some longstanding Catholic conservative views, such as opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. They envision a counter-revolution in which they take over government bureaucracy and institutions such as universities from within, replacing entrenched “elites” with their own and acting upon their vision of the “common good”.

Just days before the pope was admitted to hospital in February, Francis criticised the Trump administration’s deportation plans, warning that they would deprive people of their inherent dignity. In a letter to US bishops, he also appeared to respond to Vance directly for having claimed that Catholic doctrine justified such policies.

Vance had defended the administration’s America-first crackdown by citing a concept from medieval Catholic theology known in Latin as ordo amoris. He said the concept delineated a hierarchy of care – to family first, followed by neighbour, community, fellow citizens and, last, those elsewhere.

In his 10 February letter, Francis appeared to correct Vance’s understanding of the concept.

“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extends to other persons and groups,” he wrote. “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the good Samaritan, that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”

Vance has acknowledged Francis’ criticism but has said he will continue to defend his views. During an appearance on 28 February at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Vance did not address the issue specifically but called himself a “baby Catholic” and acknowledged there are “things about the faith that I don’t know”.