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Now, Europeans, what was you saying?

I know that's a somewhat rhetorical question, but that's how Der Spiegel reports on it (Google Translated):

Mass protests against the US government

They are now in resistance against Trump II.

Donald Trump is massively pushing ahead with the restructuring of US democracy. Resistance has been limited so far. Now people are taking to the streets nationwide, in Washington, New York, Chicago. They are warning the Republican: "Hands off!"

"We shall overcome," the protest brass band sings upstairs at the Parkman Bandstand, and demonstrators below sing along in chorus. Thousands of people gathered at 11 a.m. this Saturday morning in Boston Common Park, around the venerable bandstand. To protest the Trump administration. And to have fun. Even though it's five degrees cold and rain is forecast.

Over a thousand registered demonstrations

When the brass band plays "O when the saints," some of the demonstrators even dance along. Almost everyone here has brought a homemade sign. "Hands off our democracy," it reads, "President not King," or "There isn't a big enough sign to list all the reasons I'm here."

"Hands off" is the motto of this rally and the approximately 1,200 other protest events that have been registered for this Saturday: in every US state, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. Organizers had previously estimated that there could be more than 250,000 participants nationwide. Initially, given the large number of events, there was no reliable information on the total number of participants.

• In the US capital, Washington, thousands of demonstrators gathered at the Washington Monument near the White House.

• In New York, too, despite the drizzle, thousands demonstrated against Trump and his close advisor Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire head of the electric car company Tesla. In Bryant Park, they held up signs with slogans like "Pull the plug on Elon" or "I can only write this because there was a Department of Education."

• There were also larger protests in other cities – such as Atlanta, Miami, and Chicago.

And in Boston, too. "Hands Off" is intended to be the first nationwide mass protest against Trump II. Many participants believe it is high time. Because so far, public resistance in the USA has been limited

First they come for the scientists

Here in Boston, where the American Revolution began a good 250 years ago, frustration is great, especially because the Trump administration is targeting science. Boston, with its world-famous elite universities like MIT and Harvard and its biotechnology companies, is the knowledge mecca of the USA. And the new administration has not only cut research funding for various scientists. It is also putting pressure on Harvard and other universities to allow interference with their independence.

Pamela, 61, who does not want her last name published, wrote "First they come for the scientists" on her sign – in reference to the quote by Martin Niemöller: "When the Nazis took the communists, I kept silent, I wasn't a communist."

She says she is not a scientist herself, but Trump, Musk, and Robert Kennedy Jr. are on the verge of undermining the USA's exceptional position in research. "We have made such great strides and breakthroughs in recent years," says Pamela, but now politics is putting everything at risk: "our economy, scientific progress, our health."

Gravestones for Democracy

Although it has started to rain, the crowd is growing. Thousands are moving toward City Hall. "No, No, No. Donald Trump has got to go," the people chant, and the trumpeters and trombonists of the brass band play along to the beat. The demonstration passes the Granary Burning Ground, the historic cemetery where heroes of the American Revolution such as Samuel Adams and Paul Revere are buried

A dozen gray gravestones made of construction foam hang on the cemetery fence today. They bear inscriptions such as "Here lies Free Speech," "In Memory of International Alliances," "Here lies Education for All," and "In Memory of Climate Science."

Caitlin de Angelis, 41, and her family designed them. They worked on the gravestones for a week, says the historian, who has researched this cemetery herself. "Donald Trump is attacking our civil rights, our economy, our foreign neighbors," says de Angelis. "It's important to show the whole world that so many people here are against it—in our entire country." Her parents are currently at a demonstration in Maine.

Whether in Providence, Rhode Island, or Portsmouth, New Hampshire: in several other cities here in New England in the northeastern United States, "Hands Off" protests with several thousand participants are taking place almost simultaneously, despite the weather.

"Hands Off" chants the crowd in Boston as Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu appears in the rain. "This is our city," Wu shouts, "and you will never get us down." When she finishes, the people sing "We shall not be ruled." Shortly afterwards, the demonstration is over, and the demonstrators crowd into the subway. Soaked, but inspired.

With material from the agencies