BARCELONA, Spain — Thousands rallied in Madrid and Barcelona on Saturday in a last-ditch call for Spanish and Catalan leaders to stave off a national crisis amid Catalonia’s threat to secede.

The rallies in the Spanish capital and the Catalan city were held with the slogan “Shall We Talk?” in an effort to push lawmakers in both cities to end months of silence and start negotiating. Attendees respected the organizers’ call to not bring the Spanish or Catalan flags.

Catalonia’s regional president Carles Puigdemont has vowed to make good on the results of Oct. 1’s disputed referendum on secession won by the “yes” side.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned that the vote was illegal and promised that Catalonia is going nowhere.

Protestors packed Barcelona’s Sant Jaume Square where the Catalan government has its presidential palace, shouting “We want to talk!” and holding signs saying “More Negotiation, Less Testosterone!” and “Talk or Resign!”

“We have to find a new way forward,” said Miquel Iceta, the leader of Spain’s Socialist party in Catalonia. “It’s the moment to listen to the people who are asking for the problem to be solved through an agreement, and without precipitated and unilateral decisions.”

The gathering around Madrid’s Cibeles fountain boasted a huge banner demanding that leaders start talking.

In a separate rally in Madrid’s Colon Square, thousands clamored for the unity of Spain and against any attempt by the northeastern region to break away. The crowd bristled with Spanish flags.

Pro-union forces will try to generate momentum on Sunday in a protest in Barcelona.

White nationalist leader leads another Charlottesville march

White nationalist Richard Spencer, who in August led white nationalists and white supremacists in a torchlight march across the University of Virginia campus that touched off a weekend of clashes that turned deadly, returned Saturday night to Charlottesville, Va.

Spencer posted video on social media of followers carrying torches to the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, which the city has sought to remove.

Spencer did not immediately return a message seeking comment Saturday night, but he posted video on social medial

WVIR-TV reported that Spencer and his group arrived at the park about 7:45 p.m., and departed 15 minutes later.

Spokesmen and officials with the Charlottesville police department did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday night.

Danish police find severed head of journalist who’d been on sub

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Danish divers found the decapitated head and legs and the clothes of a Swedish journalist who was killed after going on a trip with an inventor on his submarine, police said Saturday.

The body parts and clothing were found Friday in plastic bags with a knife and “heavy metal pieces” to make them sink near where Kim Wall’s naked, headless torso was found in August, Copenhagen police investigator Jens Moeller Jensen said.

Moeller Jensen said there were no fractures to Wall’s skull.

Peter Madsen, the Danish inventor who is in pre-trial detention on preliminary manslaughter charges, has said Wall, 30, died after being accidentally hit by a 155-pound hatch on the UC3 Nautilus submarine, after which he “buried” her at sea.

Poles pray en masse at border; some see anti-Muslim leanings

GDANSK, Poland — Polish Catholics held rosaries and prayed together Saturday along the country’s 2,000-mile border, appealing to the Virgin Mary and God for salvation for Poland and the world in a national event that some said had anti-Muslim overtones.

The “Rosary to the Borders” event was organized by lay Catholics but was endorsed by Polish church authorities. Organizers say the prayers commemorated the centenary of the apparitions of Fatima, when three shepherd children in Portugal said the Virgin Mary appeared to them.

But the event also commemorated the 16th-century naval battle of Lepanto, when a Christian alliance defeated Ottoman Empire forces on the Ionian Sea, “thus saving Europe from Islamization,” as organizers put it.

Iran president: 10 Trumps can’t undo deal benefits

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s president defended the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers on Saturday, saying not even 10 Donald Trumps can roll back its benefits to his country, state TV reported.

Hassan Rouhani’s comments came as President Donald Trump appears to be stepping back from his campaign pledge to tear up the deal, instead aiming to take other measures against Iran and its affiliates.

State TV broadcast Rouhani while addressing students at Tehran University.

“We have achieved benefits that are irreversible. Nobody can roll them back, neither Trump, nor 10 other Trumps,” he said.

Rouhani warned the U.S. not to violate the deal. “If the United States violates (the nuclear deal), the entire world will condemn America, not Iran,” he said.

3 charged in mysterious, failed attack at Paris building

PARIS — Three men have been handed preliminary terror-linked charges in the failed attack a week ago on a residential building in an upscale Paris neighborhood with gas canisters that failed to ignite, a judicial official said Saturday.

The suspects were placed under formal investigation late Friday in the mysterious attack attempt in the building in western Paris’ chic 16th arrondissement, the official said. No motive for the attack has been uncovered, and the three have refused to answer questions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the record about an ongoing investigation.

The trio has denied a role in the attack plot in which four gas canisters on the building’s ground floor were set to explode.

Turkey’s president announced Saturday that the country has launched a “serious” operation in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province with Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces, following international efforts for de-escalation in the war-torn country. The operation has been highly expected in the province.

Police arrested rapper Nelly early Saturday after a woman said he raped her on his tour bus in a town outside Seattle, an accusation the Grammy winner’s attorney denied. Auburn police Cmdr. Steve Stocker said Nelly, whose real name is Cornell Iral Haynes Jr., was in jail Saturday after being arrested on his tour bus.