AFP USA

Supporters of Venezuelans deported by the United States to El Salvador, including one of their relatives, appealed to President Nayib Bukele’s government Tuesday to let them see the migrants in prison.It was the first visit to the Central American nation by a family member since more than 250 Venezuelans were expelled by the United States in March, accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.”We want to be allowed a visit, to check on their health, and to ask for their prompt release,” Jhoanna Sanguino, the aunt of Widmer Agelvis Sanguino, told AFP.Reina Cardenas, a friend of Andry Hernandez Romero’s family, said: “We want him to know he’s not alone.””We’re fighting for them,” she added.The two women were accompanied by Walter Marquez, president of the Amparo Foundation, a human rights NGO providing legal support to some of the deportees.”We want to urge the president to receive us so we can present all the documentation that proves they should be released,” Marquez told AFP after submitting a visit request.El Salvador has no international criminal jurisdiction to detain the Venezuelans, who have not been sentenced in the United States, he said.”Not one of them belongs to Tren de Aragua,” Marquez added.US President Donald Trump invoked rarely used wartime laws to fly many of the migrants to El Salvador without any court hearings.His administration struck a deal to pay the government of ally Bukele millions of dollars to hold the deportees in a maximum security prison.Washington has said the Venezuelans’ tattoos are evidence of their gang affiliation, though experts say that Tren de Aragua members do not commonly sport gang markings.Sanguino believes that her 24-year-old nephew was deported because of his tattoos of a clock, a rose and an owl.”It’s shocking not knowing anything about them,” she said. “We’ve put our personal lives on hold to demand justice.”A law firm hired by Caracas to represent some of the other detained Venezuelans says that it has been denied access to them.

US President Donald Trump is wrapping himself up in martial symbolism at a series of military events this week — even as he faces accusations of authoritarianism after sending thousands of active-duty troops to protest-hit Los Angeles.Trump will continue his long fascination with military trappings when he gives a speech on Tuesday at Fort Bragg, the country’s largest military installation, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US Army.The Republican then presides over a huge, highly unusual military parade in Washington to mark the same anniversary on Saturday — a day which also happens to be Trump’s own 79th birthday.”For Trump, what matters is the spectacle. And the military is a heck of a spectacle,” Peter Loge, director of George Washington University’s School of Media, told AFP.”The military parade, the military in Los Angeles is theater of leadership, theater of governing, without paying attention to the real-world consequences.”Trump was sent to a military academy as a child by his property tycoon father, and seems to have loved military pomp ever since — even if repeated educational and medical deferments meant he could avoid the draft to fight in Vietnam.During his first presidential term, the former reality TV star loved to pose alongside what he called “his” generals, even as he reportedly berated them for not being as loyal as Nazi leader Adolf Hilter’s top officers.He first had the idea for a grand military parade after attending France’s annual Bastille Day parade in Paris at the invitation of his friend, President Emmanuel Macron, but was put off by the cost and warnings that heavy tanks could damage Washington’s streets.But Trump would not be dissuaded as he flexed his presidential power in his second term.Tanks, helicopters and troops will rumble through the US capital on Saturday in the biggest such parade in decades, at a cost of up to $45 million.”It is my birthday, but I’m not celebrating my birthday,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “It happens to be the same day so I take a little heat.”- ‘Very big force’ -The president however made it clear he would not tolerate anyone spoiling the party.”If there’s any protest that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,” Trump said on Tuesday when asked about the parade.Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg is also sending a message about what his new Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth calls a new, “woke-free” military.One of Trump’s first acts back in office was to change Fort Bragg, which houses the US special forces command, back to its original name.Previously named after Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general in the US Civil War, the base in North Carolina was renamed Fort Liberty under Democratic President Joe Biden. Trump’s administration says it now honors private first class Roland L. Bragg, a World War II hero.World War II appears to have been increasingly on Trump’s mind since returning to office.He recently designated May 8 “Victory Day,” noting that unlike much of Europe the United States had no day to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany — and he has repeatedly downplayed the role of US allies in the war.”You would be speaking German right now, okay? We won the war, and you might be speaking Japanese too,” Trump told a reporter in the Oval Office on Tuesday.Critics say that Trump’s military fascination underscores an authoritarian streak.Trump has leaned into the strongman imagery of deploying 700 Marines as well as 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles to deal with protests in Los Angeles. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom branded Trump “dictatorial” and said the move was a deliberate attempt to inflame the situation in the city for political gain.”The imagery is very much strongman: I am Donald Trump, America is a nation of force and power, because look at all the images of force and power,” Loge said.

Sean Combs’s defense lawyers on Tuesday began questioning a woman who dated the music mogul up until his arrest, and who has testified in agonizing detail that he pressured her into drug-fueled sex with escorts.In the initial hours of questioning defense attorney Teny Geragos sought to show that this woman speaking under the pseudonym Jane had agency throughout her relationship with Combs — an attempt to show that what prosecutors deem to be sex trafficking was in fact consensual.The defense exhibited loving messages and voice notes the pair shared, and also asked Jane about her “jealousy” regarding Combs’s “polyamorous” lifestyle that involved other girlfriends, some of them public.Geragos elicited testimony from Jane in which she said she gravitated to men who were “successful.””My ideal partner is a protector and provider,” Jane said.She also testified that at points she felt “very loved” by Combs and that he was her “baby.”This witness questioning core to the case has so far been largely cordial, with Jane responding calmly and precisely.At one point when Geragos asked her a probing question about her ex’s relationship with their child, Jane was direct.”What does that have to do with this whole thing?” she answered.- Violent outburst -Jane previously told jurors how the final year of her relationship with the artist known as “Diddy” exploded into violence in June 2024.At the time Combs was already under investigation by federal authorities; his homes had been raided, and the now-infamous security footage of him assaulting his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura in a hotel was public.Jane, who began seeing Combs in early 2021, detailed how she had longed for a more traditional romantic relationship with him.But she said 90 percent of their time together resulted in sometimes days-long sex parties that saw Combs direct her to have sex with male escorts while he watched, even as she told him the encounters made her feel “sleazy” and “disgusted.”Jane told jurors Combs paid for her rent at the time and still does. He also continues to fund her legal costs.She previously testified at length that she felt “obligated” to participate in hotel sex parties for “fear of losing the roof over my head” that Combs was bankrolling.A June 2024 date-turned-argument escalated when Jane said she pushed Combs’s head onto a marble countertop in her home and began hurling candles — acts of “built-up” anger, she testified.Combs was livid: Jane said he kicked down doors and ultimately put her in a chokehold. She ran out but upon return Combs kicked and punched her until she had a black eye and “golf-ball” sized welts, she said.Combs instructed her to ice the injuries and prepare for a hotel night with an escort.”You’re not going to ruin my fucking night,” she said Combs told her. When she said she didn’t want to participate, he stood closely to her face as he asked in a “forceful” tone: “Then is this coercion?” Jane ultimately complied: “I just felt like I wasn’t even in my own body,” she said.- ‘Sexual trauma’ -When Ventura — who last month testified of physical and psychological abuse in similarily excruciating detail — filed her 2023 civil lawsuit that opened the door for a federal investigation, Jane said she “almost fainted.””There was a whole other woman feeling the same thing,” Jane said.”I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma. It makes me sick how three solid pages, word for word, is exactly my experiences and my anguish,” she messaged Combs, in text records read in court.Jane said that following their physical fight in the summer of 2024, they saw each other twice more before his arrest last September.The 55-year-old faces life in prison if convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking.Jane’s story was not in the original indictment against Combs, but she was added after receiving a subpoena requiring she testify in November 2024 before a grand jury.She began speaking to prosecutors in January of this year.Jane testified that she told Combs’s defense team about the brawl last summer before she told prosecutors.She said she felt “obligated” to meet the defense team “due to my relationship.”Jane has not filed any civil suit against Combs, and said in court Monday she has no plans to.Jane’s testimony is expected to last through Thursday, and the Manhattan federal trial is anticipated to continue several more weeks.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought Tuesday to reassure lawmakers over the US pledge to supply Australia with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, amid growing concern that production is not rolling out quickly enough to meet the commitment. Under the AUKUS deal signed to great fanfare in 2021, Washington, London and Canberra are cooperating on the joint development of cyber warfare tools, artificial intelligence and hypersonic missiles. The agreement commits the United States to building cutting-edge submarines for Australia, an investment with an estimated cost of up to $235 billion over 30 years.  Australia plans to acquire at least three Virginia Class submarines from the United States within the next 15 years, eventually manufacturing its own nuclear-powered subs.The US navy has 24 Virginia-class vessels, which can carry cruise missiles, but American shipyards are struggling to meet production targets set at two new boats each year. Critics question why the United States would sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia without stocking its own military first.Questioned by members of the US House of Representatives, Hegseth said his team was talking “every day” to US shipbuilders Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls to ensure that “their needs not only are being met, but their shortfalls are being addressed.”The former Fox News host, one of President Donald Trump’s most divisive cabinet appointments, acknowledged a “gap” between current supply and future demand, but added that submarine building is “crucial” to US security. He blamed Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden for having “neglected” the industrial base for submarine construction. While the stealthy Virginia class is an attack and intelligence gathering submarine designed for a wide range of missions, the Columbia class is a ballistic missile carrier built for nuclear deterrence that will be the largest submarine ever built by the United States.Democrat Rosa DeLauro — whose home state of Connecticut builds Navy submarines — berated Hegseth over the Pentagon’s decision to move $3.1 billion earmarked in 2026 for Columbia-class construction to 2027 and 2028.”Is that going to raise alarm bells across the defense industrial base by signaling a lack of commitment to the program?” she asked.Hegseth committed to the “on-time” delivery of the vessels. 

Hundreds of US Marines were expected in Los Angeles on Tuesday after President Donald Trump ordered their deployment in response to protests against immigration arrests and despite objections by state officials.The 700 elite troops will join around 4,000 National Guard soldiers, amping up the militarization of the tense situation in the sprawling city, which is home to millions of foreign-born and Latino residents.The small-scale and largely peaceful demonstrations — marred by sporadic but violent clashes between police and protesters — were entering their fifth day.In downtown LA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood at night Monday, scores of protesters faced off with security officials in riot gear, some shooting fireworks at officers who fired back volleys of tear gas.The unrest was sparked by a sudden intensification last week of Trump’s signature campaign to find and deport undocumented migrants, who he claims have mounted an “invasion” of the United States.California officials have stressed the majority of protesters have been peaceful — and that they were capable of maintaining law and order themselves.Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on X that US Marines “shouldn’t be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.”But Trump has branded the LA protesters “professional agitators and insurrectionists.””If I didn’t ‘SEND IN THE TROOPS’ to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now,” he wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.Trump has called for Newsom’s arrest, while the president’s ultra-loyal speaker in the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, on Tuesday declared the California governor “ought to be tarred and feathered.”- Some support for police -Earlier, demonstrators marching with banners and handmade signs yelled “ICE out of LA” and “National Guard go away” — a reference to immigration agents and Guard soldiers.One small business owner in the city, whose property was graffitied during the protests, was supportive of Trump’s strong-arm tactics.”I think it’s needed to stop the vandalism,” she told AFP, declining to give her name.Others were horrified.”They’re meant to be protecting us, but instead, they’re like, being sent to attack us,” Kelly Diemer, 47, told AFP. “This is not a democracy anymore.”LA police have detained dozens of protesters in recent days, while authorities in San Francisco and other US cities have also made arrests.- ‘Incredibly rare’ -Trump’s use of the military is an “incredibly rare” move for a US president, Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and a former lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force, told AFP.The National Guard — a fully equipped reserve armed forces — is usually controlled by state governors and used typically on US soil in response to natural disasters.The Guard has not been deployed by a president over the objections of a state governor since 1965, at the height of the civil rights movement.Deployment of regular troops, such as the Marines, on US soil is even more unusual.US law largely prevents the use of the military as a policing force — absent an insurrection. Speculation is growing that Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act giving him a free hand to use regular troops for law enforcement around the country.Trump “is trying to use emergency declarations to justify bringing in first the National Guard and then mobilizing Marines,” law professor Frank Bowman, at the University of Missouri, told AFP.Bowman said the “suspicion” is that Trump is aiming to provoke the kind of all-out crisis which would then justify extreme measures. “That kind of spectacle feeds the notion that there is a genuine emergency and, you know, a genuine uprising against the lawful authorities, and that allows him to begin to use even more force.”The state of California has sued to block the use of the Guard troops and Newsom said he would also sue against the Marines deployment.

An Alabama man who murdered his girlfriend is to be put to death by nitrogen gas on Tuesday, one of at least three executions to be carried out in the United States this week.Gregory Hunt, 65, was convicted of the 1988 rape and murder of 32-year-old Karen Lane, whom he had been dating for a month.Hunt is to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.The execution is to be carried out at 6:00 pm Central Time (2300 GMT) at the Alabama state prison in Atmore.It will be the fifth execution in the southern US state using nitrogen gas, which has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhumane.Only one other US state, Louisiana, has used this method.Hunt’s execution is one of two scheduled for Tuesday.Anthony Wainwright, 54, is to be put to death by lethal injection at 6:00 pm Eastern Time (2200 GMT) at the Florida state prison in Raiford.Wainwright was convicted of the 1994 rape and murder of Carmen Gayheart, a 23-year-old nursing student and mother of two young children.Wainwright and an accomplice, Richard Hamilton, abducted Gayheart three days after escaping from a prison in North Carolina.Hamilton was also sentenced to death for Gayheart’s murder but died in prison.A third execution this week is scheduled to take place on Thursday in Oklahoma, where John Hanson, 61, is to be put to death for the 1999 kidnapping and murder of Mary Bowles, 77.Hanson’s execution has been temporarily put on hold by a judge amid claims his rights were violated during a clemency hearing.Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has asked an appeals court to lift the stay to allow the execution to go ahead.The fourth execution this week is to be carried out in South Carolina, where Stephen Stanko, 57, is to be put to death by lethal injection.Stanko was convicted of the 2005 murders of his girlfriend, 43-year-old Laura Ling, and Henry Turner, a 74-year-old friend.There have been 19 executions in the United States this year: 15 by lethal injection, two by firing squad and two using nitrogen gas.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and called on his first day in office for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

Sean Combs’s defense lawyers on Tuesday will question a woman who dated the music mogul up until his arrest, and who has testified in agonizing detail that he pressured her into drug-fueled sex with escorts.After three days on the stand the woman speaking under the pseudonym Jane will face intense scrutiny from defense lawyers who have insisted that what prosecutors deem sex trafficking was in fact consensual.Jane told jurors how the final year of her relationship with the artist known as “Diddy” exploded into violence in June 2024.At the time Combs was already under investigation by federal authorities; his homes had been raided, and the now-infamous security footage of him assaulting his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura in a hotel was public.Throughout her testimony Jane, who began seeing Combs in early 2021, detailed how she had longed for a more traditional romantic relationship with him.But she said 90 percent of their time together resulted in sometimes days-long sex parties that saw Combs direct her to have sex with male escorts while he watched, even as she told him the encounters made her feel “sleazy” and “disgusted.”The June 2024 date at home was meant to be a chill night in, she said, but she and Combs got into a fight over his relationship with another woman.The argument escalated when Jane said she pushed Combs’s head onto a marble countertop and began hurling candles.”I was angry with him,” Jane said. “It was a built-up mix of everything… I just kept saying that I hated him.”Combs was livid: Jane told jurors he kicked down doors and ultimately put her in a chokehold. She managed to run out of the house barefoot but upon returning hours later he was still there. He kicked and punched her until she had a black eye and “golf-ball” sized welts, she said.Combs instructed her to ice the injuries and “put an outfit on.”Jane told jurors that she put on the requisite heels and lingerie for a so-called “hotel night” with Combs and a man he had invited.Through tears Jane said Combs gave her ecstasy and demanded she have sex with the man, and when she protested he said “you’re not going to ruin my fucking night.”When she said again she didn’t want to participate, he stood closely to her face as he asked in a “forceful” tone: “Then is this coercion?” Jane ultimately complied, and gave the escort oral sex: “I just felt like I wasn’t even in my own body,” she said.Jane told jurors Combs paid for her rent at the time and still does. He also continues to fund her legal costs.- ‘Sexual trauma’ -When Ventura — who last month testified of physical and psychological abuse in similarily excruciating detail — filed her 2023 civil lawsuit that opened the door for a federal investigation, Jane said she “almost fainted.””There was a whole other woman feeling the same thing,” Jane said.”I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma. It makes me sick how three solid pages, word for word, is exactly my experiences and my anguish,” she messaged Combs, in text records read in court.After weeks of back-and-forth, Jane said Combs called her a “con artist,” and threatened to show sexually explicit videos to the father of her child.She had previously testified at length that she felt “obligated” to participate in hotel nights for “fear of losing the roof over my head” that Combs was bankrolling.Jane said that following their physical fight in the summer of 2024, they saw each other twice more before his arrest last September.The 55-year-old faces life in prison if convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking.Jane’s story was not in the original indictment against Combs, but she was added after receiving a subpoena requiring she testify in November 2024 before a grand jury.She began speaking to prosecutors in January of this year.Jane testified that she told Combs’s defense team about the brawl last summer before she told prosecutors.She said she felt “obligated” to meet the defense team “due to my relationship.”Jane has not filed any civil suit against Combs, and said in court Monday she has no plans to.”I just pray for his continued healing,” she told jurors, “and I pray for peace for him.”The Manhattan federal trial is expected to last several more weeks.

President Donald Trump ordered active-duty US Marines and 2,000 more National Guard troops into Los Angeles on Monday, vowing those protesting immigration arrests would be “hit harder” than ever.Trump’s extraordinary mobilization of 700 full-time professional military personnel — and thousands of National Guard troops — came on the fourth day of street protests triggered by dozens of immigration arrests in a city with huge foreign-born and Latino populations.California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed the move, posting on X that US Marines “shouldn’t be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.”The deployment came after demonstrators took over streets in downtown LA on Sunday, torching cars and looting stores in scenes that saw law enforcement responding with tear gas and rubber bullets.Monday’s demonstrations unfolded largely peacefully, however, after weekend protests triggered by dozens of arrests of people authorities said were illegal migrants and gang members.”Pigs go home!” demonstrators shouted at National Guardsmen outside a federal detention center. Others banged on the sides of unmarked vehicles as they passed through police containment lines.One small business owner whose property was graffitied was supportive of the strongarm tactics.”I think it’s needed to stop the vandalism,” she told AFP, declining to give her name.Others were horrified.”They’re meant to be protecting us, but instead, they’re like, being sent to attack us,” Kelly Diemer, 47, told AFP. “This is not a democracy anymore.”In the nearby city of Santa Ana, about 32 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of Los Angeles, law enforcement fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades on protesters chanting against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency as darkness fell.-‘Hit harder’ -Trump, speaking in Washington, branded the protesters “professional agitators and insurrectionists.”On social media, he said protesters spat at troops and if they continued to do so, “I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before.”Despite isolated and eye-catching acts of violence, officials and local law enforcement stressed the majority of protesters over the weekend had been peaceful.Schools across Los Angeles were operating normally on Monday, while the rhythms of life in the sprawling city appeared largely unchanged.Contrasting Trump’s descriptions of the protests, Mayor Karen Bass said “this is isolated to a few streets. This is not citywide civil unrest.”Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said local authorities were able to control the city.”The introduction of federal, military personnel without direct coordination creates logistical challenges and risks confusion during critical incidents,” he told reporters.At least 56 people were arrested over two days and five officers suffered minor injuries, Los Angeles Police Department officials said, while about 60 people were arrested in protests in San Francisco.Protesters also scuffled with police in New York City and in Austin, Texas on Monday.Police made several arrests after around 100 people gathered near a federal building in Manhattan where immigration hearings are held, an AFP reporter there saw, while law enforcement fired tear gas on dozens of protesters in Austin, NBC affiliate KXAN reported.Trump’s use of the military was an “incredibly rare” move for a US president, Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and a former lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force, told AFP. The National Guard has not been deployed over the head of a state governor since 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement.US law largely prevents the use of the military as a policing force on home soil absent an insurrection.For good reason, VanLandingham said, explaining that troops such as the Marines are trained to use lethal force, as opposed to domestic peacetime law enforcement.”What does ‘protect’ mean to a heavily armed Marine??? Who has not/not trained with local law enforcement, hence creating a command and control nightmare?” she told AFP via email.The Pentagon said late Monday Trump had authorized an extra 2,000 guardsmen, seemingly on top of the 2,000 he deployed over the weekend.Around 1,700 guardsmen had taken up positions in Los Angeles by late Monday, the US Northern Command said on X.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has faced budget cuts before, but the impact of President Donald Trump’s policies has been even more “devastating” for reproductive health worldwide, chief Natalia Kanem told AFP.The agency has been targeted by US conservatives since the Kemp-Kasten Amendment’s enactment in 1985 by Congress, when the administration of then president Ronald Reagan rallied against China’s population policies, accusing Beijing of promoting forced abortions and sterilizations. All subsequent Republican presidencies have cut US funding to UNFPA, and the second Trump administration is no exception.”We’ve had over $330 million worth of projects ended,” virtually overnight, in “some of the hardest hit regions of the world” like Afghanistan, Kanem said in an interview coinciding with the release of the UNFPA’s annual report Tuesday. “So yes, we are suffering.”Kanem pointed to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan as an example, where over the years more than 18,000 pregnancies were delivered by “heroic midwives” who “conducted these over 18,000 deliveries without a single maternal death, which you know, in a crisis situation is extraordinary.” “Those maternity wards today have closed. The funding cuts immediately have meant that those midwives are no longer able to do their jobs,” Kanem said.Although it is too soon to estimate the precise impacts of the US cuts, they will inevitably result in increased maternal mortality and more unintended pregnancies, according to Kanem.”What’s different this time for UNFPA is that our ecosystem of other reproductive health actors who might be able to fill in for us,” Kanem said, adding they are “reeling from huge impact of having their funding denied.” The Trump administration has slashed many such external aid programs. “So it is very lamentable that this year, to me, has been drastically worse than ever before, precisely because now everybody is caught up in the whirlwind.” “The withdrawal of the United States from the funding arena for reproductive health has been devastating,” Kanem said.- Desire and rights -American policy is not only marked by funding cuts, but also a challenge to gender equality matters.”There will be debates about concepts, but there shouldn’t be any debate about the non-negotiability of the rights and choices of women and adolescent girls,” Kanem emphasized. “We always embrace change, but we should not compromise on these common values which spell the difference between life and death for women and girls all around the world,” she continued.”Women deserve support. Adolescent girls deserve to finish their schooling, not become pregnant, not be bartered or sent off into marriage as a non-solution to issues that families may face.”The UNFPA’s annual report, published Tuesday and based on the results of an survey of 14,000 people from 14 countries — nations which represent over a third of the world’s population — also underscores concerns that millions of people around the world cannot create the families they desire.More than 40 percent of those over the age of 50 reported not having the number of children they wanted — with 31 percent saying they had fewer kids than they desired and 12 percent saying they had more than they wanted.More than half of respondents said economic barriers prevented them from having more children. Conversely, one in five said they were pressured into having a child, and one in three adults reported an unintended pregnancy.The majority of people “live in countries where fertility rates have fallen so far and so fast that they are below replacement,” Kanem said. “We know that the issue of population pressure takes almost like a headline drastic view. Some people think there are way too many people. Others are saying we don’t have enough, women should have more babies,” Kanem said.”What UNFPA really cares about is a woman’s true desire, rights and choices,” Kanem said.

Immigration protests in Los Angeles are proving a stern test of Gavin Newsom’s leadership of California, but the unrest also hands the ambitious governor a unique opportunity, say analysts, as he weighs a presidential run in 2028.Rarely a shrinking violet, the 57-year-old chief executive of the country’s largest and richest state has eagerly taken up the Democratic Party’s cudgel against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.Newsom spent the weekend attacking his Republican opponent, accusing him of deliberately stoking tensions by deploying California’s National Guard to downtown LA.A presumed frontrunner for the Democratic leadership, Newsom has made no secret of his political ambitions and appears to be relishing his chance for a public showdown with Trump.As the latest front in Trump’s immigration crackdown played out on the streets, the Democrat was brawling on social media, vowing to sue Trump over a “serious breach of state sovereignty.””Every political crisis is a political opportunity,” Jeff Le, a former senior official in California state politics who negotiated with the first Trump administration, told AFP.”In California, where President Trump polls at 30 percent, it’s a potential gift for the governor to showcase stark differences between the two.”Those differences were all too apparent as Trump upbraided the Democrat for a “horrible job,” while the president’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, threatened to arrest Newsom over any interference with deportations.Homan rowed back his comments after the Newsom gave a fiery interview with left-leaning MSNBC mocking his “tough guy” stance and calling his bluff.Le said Newsom’s defiant showing would delight a Democratic base “desperate for a fighter.” But he warned that a prolonged stand-off in LA — and particularly an escalation of violence or vandalism — could erode public sympathy, especially if Trump seeks to target California’s federal funding.- ‘Face of Democratic resistance’ -A former mayor of San Francisco, Newsom has been at the helm of the Golden State for six years, making it a haven for liberal priorities such as abortion access and anti-deportation “sanctuary cities.”He has been talked of as a future Democratic president for years, and has bolstered his national profile with bold overtures beyond his own state, including debating Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Fox News.But he has courted controversy on his own side for appearing at times too chummy with Republicans, a criticism fueled by the launch in March of a podcast featuring friendly chats with provocative right-wing guests.His reputation also lost some of its sheen among centrists during the pandemic, when he was slammed by business owners for onerous public health restrictions.A lunch that Newsom attended with lobbyists at an opulent Napa Valley restaurant during the partial lockdown became infamous.An Economist/YouGov poll released last week showed Newsom has ground to make up, as his net popularity rating of -13 points is significantly worse than Trump’s still underwhelming -7 points.”There’s no question Gavin Newsom is trying to use this moment to elevate his national profile, casting himself as the face of Democratic resistance to Donald Trump,” said veteran political strategist Charlie Kolean.But the analyst cautioned that Newsom would damage his presidential ambitions if voters thought he was taking the side of criminals over security forces in his drive to be seen as a defender of civil rights. “Voters overwhelmingly want law and order — it’s one of the core issues Trump ran on and won big with,” Kolean told AFP.”Americans want leaders who protect public safety and stand with law enforcement — not ones who politicize unrest.”