AFP USA

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders on Thursday slammed US President Donald Trump for his “authoritarian” attacks on the media since returning to office, accusing him of inspiring press crackdowns worldwide.Trump “has grown into a key figure in a global anti-journalism political movement,” the New York-based RSF said in a statement.In the six months since his return to the White House, RSF said Trump had used “lawfare” and economic pressure on newsrooms, dismantled public media, banned outlets and undesirable wording, as well as smearing journalists and their employers.”Trump has matched years of verbally attacking journalists with new, concrete actions to limit press freedom. Many of these tactics are nothing new — it’s the same playbook we’ve seen press freedom predators employ around the world,” said RSF USA executive director Clayton Weimers. “But it’s clear that Trump has amplified this phenomenon, emboldening and inspiring other leaders to crack down on their own domestic media. The result is a disaster for press freedom globally.”RSF also reported that it had tracked “at least 60 acts of violence against journalists during recent protests in Los Angeles against Trump’s immigration policies.” “This aggression towards journalists has been a staple of Trumpist politics,” RSF said.In February, the White House restricted the access of US news agency Associated Press (AP) because it refused to use “Gulf of Mexico” instead of “Gulf of America,” as the body of water was renamed by Trump. The Trump administration is also seeking to dismantle public broadcasting and has announced the closure of international radios Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia. His bid is facing legal challenges.RSF said the measures would deprive hundreds of millions globally of “credible information,” promoting “propaganda” media by “authoritarian regimes” like Russia and China.

US President Donald Trump has been diagnosed with a chronic but benign vein condition after seeking medical examination for swollen legs, the White House said Thursday.The presidential physician found Trump, 79, has “chronic venous insufficiency” — a condition where damaged leg veins fail to keep blood flowing properly — Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, calling it a “benign and common condition.”Responding to speculation over recent photos showing bruising on Trump’s hand, Leavitt said “this was consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin, which is taken as part of a standard cardiovascular prevention regimen.”Trump became the oldest person in history to assume the presidency when he began his second term this January, replacing Democrat Joe Biden, who stepped down at 81.The Republican frequently boasts of his energy levels and the administration recently even posted an image depicting him as Superman.In April, Trump said after undergoing a routine medical check-up that he was in “very good shape.”Leavitt’s revelations follow viral online discussions about the president’s visibly swollen ankles and discolored right hand.She said he had undergone “a comprehensive examination, including diagnostic vascular studies. Bilateral lower extremity venous doppler ultrasounds were performed and revealed chronic venous insufficiency, a benign and common condition, particularly in individuals over the age of 70.””Importantly, there was no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease,” she said.All Trump’s test results “were within normal limits,” she said and he had a “normal cardiac structure and function, no signs of heart failure, renal impairment or systemic illness.”The hand issue, she said, was linked to the aspirin he takes in a “standard” cardiovascular health program.

US health authorities on Thursday began a reassessment of the risks surrounding Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), a treatment used by menopausal women around the world but long clouded by fear over its side effects.HRT is taken to replace estrogen the body stops producing after menopause — when periods end permanently — and helps relieve symptoms such as hot flashes, vaginal discomfort, and pain during sex.But its use has plummeted in recent years amid concerns including a potential link to invasive breast cancer.Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Marty Makary, who convened Thursday’s meeting of outside experts, has long advocated for HRT, saying its risks have been overstated.”For decades, hormone replacement therapy for women — that is estrogen or estrogen plus progesterone — has helped women alleviate the symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes, dryness, mood swings, weight gain and poor sleep quality, to name a few,” he said in a video ahead of the meeting.He added that when initiated within a decade of the onset of the transitional period before menopause, HRT may even reduce cognitive decline, the risk of Alzheimer’s, and prevent osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.Makary blamed the drop in HRT use on a landmark clinical trial, the Women’s Health Initiative, which was halted in the early 2000s after it flagged increased risks of breast cancer and stroke. But he said subsequent studies had not replicated the findings on breast cancer.”The many benefits of hormone therapy were ignored as it was seen as a carcinogen. Prescriptions for hormone replacement therapy plummeted in the United States, women flushed their pills down the toilet,” he said Thursday.”Fifty million plus women have not been offered the incredible potential health benefits of hormone replacement therapy because of medical dogma,” he added, including his own mother, who suffered multiple bone fractures in her older life.Critics of the trial argue it was flawed because the participants were too far from menopause, when risks are elevated and benefits limited, and that the formulations used are now outdated.- Label changes -Still, the issue remains divisive within the medical community.The FDA’s own warning label for HRT — which can be administered through various means including orally, through skin patches, or vaginally — cites risks including endometrial cancer, breast cancer, and life-threatening blood clots.This week, the American Family Physician journal published an editorial that found limited benefits and significant harms associated with HRT.”Menopause is a positive life experience for many women and should not be medicalized,” the authors concluded.The nature of the FDA expert meeting is also unusual. Unlike standard practice before the Trump administration, no agenda was publicly posted.Several of the named panelists have ties to companies offering menopause treatments or who belong to the advocacy group “Let’s Talk Menopause,” which receives funding from pharmaceutical companies and campaigns to revise the FDA warning label.

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and other company board members settled a shareholder lawsuit on Thursday concerning decisions made in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.A trial over the long-running case had just begun on Wednesday, with defendants accused of overpaying the US government in 2019 when they engineered a $5 billion settlement for alleged privacy violations in the scandal.Sources familiar with the matter confirmed the settlement to AFP, without providing details.A spokesman for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, declined to comment. Lawyers for the defendants and shareholders didn’t immediately return requests for comment.The settlement comes the same day that Marc Andreessen, one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture capitalists and a Meta board member, was scheduled to take the stand.Zuckerberg himself was expected in the Wilmington, Delaware courtroom on Monday.Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel and former Meta top executive Sheryl Sandberg — both former board members — were also expected to face questioning in the court.Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting firm that was found to have improperly accessed personal data from millions of Facebook users for targeted political advertising, particularly during the 2016 US election and Brexit referendum.The scandal thrust Facebook and Zuckerberg in particular into a political firestorm, leading to major regulatory changes and public scrutiny of tech companies’ data practices.The shareholders in the lawsuit alleged that the board members conspired to pay more to the US government in exchange for ensuring that Zuckerberg would not be named personally for wrongdoing in the settlement.- High-profile case -Longtime observers of the company were hoping that the trial would expose inside details of how Zuckerberg and the Facebook executives handled the scandal.”This settlement may bring relief to the parties involved, but it’s a missed opportunity for public accountability,” said Jason Kint, the head of Digital Content Next, a trade group for content providers.He worried that Meta “has successfully remade the ‘Cambridge Analytica’ scandal about a few bad actors rather than an unraveling of its entire business model of surveillance capitalism and the reciprocal, unbridled sharing of personal data.”Zuckerberg was under huge pressure at the time from US and European lawmakers amid widespread allegations that Russia and other bad actors were weaponizing Facebook to sow chaos around major elections in the West.The multi-faceted case also alleged insider trading at the time of the events, with board members to be questioned about the timing of their share sales before the scandal erupted.The high-profile case was expected to bring further attention to Delaware, the state that many US companies choose for incorporation due to its highly specialized courts.The trial was presided over and to be decided by Kathaleen McCormick, the same judge who last year rejected Elon Musk’s multi-billion pay package at Tesla.Tesla has since chosen to reincorporate in Texas and reports said that Meta was also considering a different state to register its business empire

Emil Bove, US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, moved a step closer Thursday to becoming a federal appellate judge, after a fiery Senate committee meeting that featured a walkout by Democrats.The Republican-majority Senate Judiciary Committee voted along partisan lines to advance the nomination of the controversial Bove for consideration by the full Senate.Bove, 44, has been nominated by Trump to a lifetime appointment on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which covers the states of Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.A former federal prosecutor and currently the third-ranking official in the Justice Department, Bove has faced fierce criticism for his role in the Trump administration’s divisive six months in power.”Mr. Bove has led the effort to weaponize the Department of Justice against the president’s enemies,” Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at Bove’s confirmation hearing.”Having earned his stripes as a loyalist to this president, he’s been rewarded with this lifetime nomination,” Durbin said.More than 900 former Justice Department attorneys sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee this week expressing concern over Bove’s nomination.”It is intolerable to us that anyone who disgraces the Justice Department would be promoted to one of the highest courts in the land,” they said.A group of more than 75 retired state and federal judges also wrote the committee, saying it is “deeply inappropriate for a president to nominate their own criminal defense attorney for a federal judgeship.””Especially,” they said, “when that president has said he is nominating judges based on whether they will be more loyal to him than to the country.”- Whistleblower complaint -Bove represented Trump in the New York case that ended in his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star.He also defended Trump in two federal criminal cases which never reached trial and were shut down after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.Earlier this year, Bove ordered federal prosecutors in New York to drop bribery and fraud charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.The move triggered a wave of resignations in the Manhattan US attorney’s office and at the Justice Department in Washington.Bove has denied allegations that the decision was a “quid pro quo” in exchange for the Democratic mayor’s support for Trump’s immigration crackdown.A Justice Department whistleblower also recently claimed that Bove had told subordinates that he would be willing to ignore court orders to enforce Trump’s plans to deport undocumented migrants.Bove denies the allegation.Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sought on Thursday to delay the confirmation vote on Bove to allow for the whistleblower to testify, but the Republican committee chairman refused the request.Democrats then walked out of the meeting in protest while Republicans proceeded to vote unanimously to send Bove’s nomination to the full Senate.Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the chamber.

US health authorities are set Thursday to reassess Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), a treatment used by menopausal women around the world but long clouded by debate over its risks.HRT is taken to replace estrogen the body stops producing after menopause — when periods end permanently — and helps relieve symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal discomfort.But its use has plummeted in recent years amid concerns over rare side effects, including a potential link to invasive breast cancer.Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Marty Makary, who convened Thursday’s meeting of outside experts, has long advocated for HRT, saying its risks have been overstated.”For decades, hormone replacement therapy for women — that is estrogen or estrogen plus progesterone — has helped women alleviate the symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes, dryness, mood swings, weight gain and poor sleep quality, to name a few,” he said in a video.He added that when initiated within a decade of the onset of the transitional period before menopause, HRT may even reduce cognitive decline, the risk of Alzheimer’s, and prevent osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.Makary blamed the drop in HRT use on a landmark clinical trial, the Women’s Health Initiative, which was halted in the early 2000s after it flagged increased risks of breast cancer and stroke. But he said subsequent studies had not replicated the findings on breast cancer.Critics of the trial argue it was flawed because the participants were too far from menopause, and that the formulations used are now outdated.Still, the issue remains divisive within the medical community.The FDA’s own warning label for HRT — which can be administered through various means including orally, through skin patches, or vaginally — cites risks including endometrial cancer, breast cancer, and life-threatening blood clots.This week, the American Journal of Physicians published an editorial that found limited benefits and significant harms associated with HRT.”Menopause is a positive life experience for many women and should not be medicalized,” the authors concluded.The nature of the FDA expert meeting is also unusual. Unlike standard practice before the Trump administration, no agenda was publicly posted.Several of the named panelists have ties to companies offering menopause treatments or who belong to the advocacy group “Let’s Talk Menopause,” which receives funding from pharmaceutical companies and campaigns to revise the FDA warning label.

The US Senate approved early Thursday a package of spending cuts proposed by President Donald Trump that would cancel more than $9 billion in funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting.The upper chamber of Congress green-lit the measure in what was seen as the first test of how easily lawmakers could usher into law savings sought by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — in the aftermath of the tech mogul’s acrimonious exit from the government.Despite the cutbacks’ unpopularity in some sections of both parties, the Republican-led Senate passed the measure with 51 votes for and 48 against in a session that went more than two hours past midnight.The version of the text passed in June by the House of Representatives sought to eliminate $400 million in funding allocated to health programs, including the PEPFAR global AIDS relief fund created by then-president George W. Bush.But defunding PEPFAR — which has saved an estimated 26 million lives — was seen as a nonstarter among a handful of moderate Republican senators, and the proposal was dropped.South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham told AFP the bill was consistent with Trump’s promises to cut spending.”I’ve been a big fan of the foreign aid accounts… I’m a big hawkish guy, but you need foreign aid. You need soft power,” he said.”But when you start spending money on a bunch of junk, and liberal programs disconnected from the purpose of the aid package, it makes it difficult on a guy like me.” The bill now goes back to the House for final approval, with lawmakers up against the clock. Congress, which had already allocated the money, has to approve the cuts by Friday or the White House must spend the cash as originally intended.Legislation to claw back money already approved by Congress — known as a “rescissions package” — is extremely rare, and no such measure has passed in decades.- ‘Surrendering powers’ -Around a dozen Republicans had voiced concerns about allowing the White House to dictate spending cuts, placing them in the crosshairs of Trump, who last week threatened to withhold his endorsements from any rebels.The vote was the first in what Republicans have touted as a potential series of packages codifying the spending cuts made by DOGE. Musk was tapped by Trump to lead the task force after the tech billionaire spent $290 million helping him get elected.The SpaceX and Tesla boss boasted that he would be able to save $2 trillion in federal spending — but left the White House under a cloud in late May as he feuded with Trump over deficits and spending.DOGE acknowledges that it has saved taxpayers just $190 billion — and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous inaccuracies in its accounting. The rescissions package slashes around $8 billion in foreign aid, with much of that approved for humanitarian organization USAID, one of DOGE’s first targets. Around $1 billion is to be taken back from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), as well as more than 1,500 local radio and television stations.Conservatives often accuse PBS and NPR of bias, and Trump signed an executive order in May to cease federal funding for both networks.Democrats say cutting the funding will not meaningfully reduce the deficit, but instead dismantle a trusted source of information for millions of Americans.”It is yet another example of the spirit and ideals of our Constitution being undermined in a terrible way. We are a nation that believes that (Congress) has a real role,” New Jersey Senator Cory Booker told AFP.”And this is a bunch of my colleagues in thrall of the president, surrendering the powers of us, and the urgency for us to work together and do it in a bipartisan way to improve budgets.”

The day before Bad Bunny kicked off his blockbuster residency that’s expected to bring hundreds of millions of dollars to Puerto Rico while showcasing its rich culture, he posted a simple message: Shop Local.The ethos is core to his 30-show concert series in San Juan which, after nine performaces exclusive to residents, will open up to fans from elsewhere — what many Boricuas, as Puerto Ricans are known, are hoping will serve as an exercise in responsible tourism.”It’s an incredible moment for the island,” said Davelyn Tardi of the promotional agency Discover Puerto Rico.The organization conservatively estimates the residency will bring in some $200 million to Puerto Rico over the approximately three-month run, which falls during the typically less-trafficked summer months.Azael Ayala works at a bar in one of San Juan’s popular nightlife zones, telling AFP that business was already booming even though the residency was only in its first weekend.It’s “completely changed,” the 29-year-old said, as crowds buzzed about La Placita where some bars were slinging Bad Bunny-themed cocktails.”We’re thrilled,” Ayala said. “The tips are through the roof.”The fact that people are coming from across the globe to see Bad Bunny “is a source of pride for Puerto Rico, too,” he added.Arely Ortiz, a 23-year-old student from Los Angeles, couldn’t score a ticket to a show — but said Bad Bunny was still the draw that prompted her to book her first trip to Puerto Rico.”I really love how outspoken he is about his community,” she said. “Just seeing him, that he can get so far, and he’s Latino, it encourages more Latinos to be able to go for what they want.””He has for sure empowered Latinos, like 100 percent.”- Tourism: it’s complicated -But while tourism has long been an economic engine for the Caribbean island that remains a territory of the United States, the relationship is complicated.Concerns around gentrification, displacement and cultural dilution have magnified on the archipelago beloved for stunning beaches with turquoise waters — especially as it’s become a hotspot for luxury development, short-term rentals and so-called “digital nomads” who work their laptop jobs remotely while traveling the world.Visiting foreigners sample the island’s beauty but are shielded from the struggle, say many locals who are coping with a chronic economic crisis exacerbated by natural disasters, as rents soar and massive blackouts are routine.Bad Bunny — who was born and raised Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio — himself has pointed to such issues and more in his metaphor and reference-laden lyrics.”In my life, you were a tourist,” reads one translation of his track “Turista.””You only saw the best of me and not how I was suffering.”Historian Jorell Melendez Badillo told AFP that Puerto Rico by design has long catered to foreign investment: “A lot of people see tourism as sort of like this colonial undertone,” he said.But when it comes to Bad Bunny and his residency at the affectionately nicknamed venue El Choli, “we cannot negate the fact that it’s going to bring millions of dollars” to the island, he added.”We can celebrate what Benito is doing while also looking at it critically, and having a conversation around what type of tourism will be incentivized by this residency.”Ana Rodado traveled to Puerto Rico from Spain after a friend native to the island gifted her a ticket.She booked a five-day trip with another friend that included a visit to beachside Vega Baja, the municipality where Bad Bunny grew up and worked bagging groceries before gaining fame.After posing for a photo in the town square, Rodado told AFP that she’d been trying to take the artist’s “shop local” plea to heart.”Tourism is a global problem,” she said. “To the extent possible, we have to be responsible with our consumer choices, and above all with the impact our trip has on each place.””We try to be respectful, and so far people have been really nice to us.”Ultimately, Bad Bunny’s residency is a love letter to his people — a show about and for Puerto Ricans whose narrative centers on heritage, pride and joy.”We’re here, damn it!” he shouted to ecstatic screams during his sweeping first show, which at times felt like a giant block party. “I’d come back for the next 100 years — if God lets me, I’ll be here.”

After a Kentucky teenager died by suicide this year, his parents discovered he had received threatening texts demanding $3,000 to suppress an AI-generated nude image of him.The tragedy underscores how so-called sextortion scams targeting children are growing around the world, particularly with the rapid proliferation of “nudify” apps — AI tools that digitally strip off clothing or generate sexualized imagery.Elijah Heacock, 16, was just one of thousands of American minors targeted by such digital blackmail, which has spurred calls for more action from tech platforms and regulators.His parents told US media that the text messages ordered him to pay up or an apparently AI-generated nude photo would be sent to his family and friends.”The people that are after our children are well organized,” John Burnett, the boy’s father, said in a CBS News interview.”They are well financed, and they are relentless. They don’t need the photos to be real, they can generate whatever they want, and then they use it to blackmail the child.”US investigators were looking into the case, which comes as nudify apps — which rose to prominence targeting celebrities — are being increasingly weaponized against children.The FBI has reported a “horrific increase” in sextortion cases targeting US minors, with victims typically males between the ages of 14 and 17. The threat has led to an “alarming number of suicides,” the agency warned.- Instruments of abuse -In a recent survey, Thorn, a non-profit focused on preventing online child exploitation, found that six percent of American teens have been a direct victim of deepfake nudes.”Reports of fakes and deepfakes — many of which are generated using these ‘nudifying’ services — seem to be closely linked with reports of financial sextortion, or blackmail with sexually explicit images,” the British watchdog Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said in a report last year.”Perpetrators no longer need to source intimate images from children because images that are convincing enough to be harmful — maybe even as harmful as real images in some cases — can be produced using generative AI.”The IWF identified one “pedophile guide” developed by predators that explicitly encouraged perpetrators to use nudifying tools to generate material to blackmail children.  The author of the guide claimed to have successfully blackmailed some 13-year-old girls.The tools are a lucrative business.A new analysis of 85 websites selling nudify services found they may be collectively worth up to $36 million a year.The analysis from Indicator, a US publication investigating digital deception, estimates that 18 of the sites made between $2.6 million and $18.4 million over the six months to May.Most of the sites rely on tech infrastructure from Google, Amazon, and Cloudflare to operate, and remain profitable despite crackdowns by platforms and regulators, Indicator said.- ‘Whack-a-mole’ -The proliferation of AI tools has led to new forms of abuse impacting children, including pornography scandals at universities and schools worldwide, where teenagers created sexualized images of their own classmates.A recent Save the Children survey found that one in five young people in Spain have been victims of deepfake nudes, with those images shared online without their consent.Earlier this year, Spanish prosecutors said they were investigating three minors in the town of Puertollano for allegedly targeting their classmates and teachers with AI-generated pornographic content and distributing it in their school.In the United Kingdom, the government this year made creating sexually explicit deepfakes a criminal offense, with perpetrators facing up to two years in jail.And in May, US President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan “Take It Down Act,” which criminalizes the non-consensual publication of intimate images, while also mandating their removal from online platforms.Meta also recently announced it was filing a lawsuit against a Hong Kong company behind a nudify app called Crush AI, which it said repeatedly circumvented the tech giant’s rules to post ads on its platforms.But despite such measures, researchers say AI nudifying sites remain resilient.”To date, the fight against AI nudifiers has been a game of whack-a-mole,” Indicator said, calling the apps and sites “persistent and malicious adversaries.”burs-ac/des

The 500,000-strong Haitian community in the United States is in a state of panic as the Trump administration pushes to deport those who fled here after a huge 2010 earthquake.”I came here seeking refuge, and now they want to kick me out,” said Clarens, who obtained temporary protected status (TPS) following the quake that leveled much of his Caribbean island home.”I believed in the American dream, and I thought I could bring the rest of my family here. I thought we would be able to thrive in the United States.”In Miami and New York, where the Haitian diaspora is largest, fear of being returned to the destitute, violent, largely lawless and gang-ridden island is widespread.”It’s total panic, the whole community is suffering because even if your temporary status has not yet been revoked, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents are on the streets and can arrest anyone,” said Clarens, which is not his real name.After cancelling an extension of the protective status granted to 520,000 of Clarens’s countrymen to February 2026, Trump definitively cancelled it in June.While a New York court has blocked Trump’s move, Haitian-American immigration lawyer Stephanie Delia warned the reprieve will likely be short-lived.”If it ends February 3, which sadly we expect that it will, you’re talking about (people) who for 15 years have relied on something and have built their life on,” she said.In Brooklyn’s “Little Haiti” neighborhood, many in the diaspora are too afraid to go to church, work, or even the doctor for fear of being arrested by ICE agents.- ‘Slaughterhouse’ -“The number of TPS people, so mostly Haitians and people from Latin America, has dropped sharply at the clinic. From 300 to 30 a day. People are afraid,” said the head of a clinic in the neighborhood who requested anonymity.Guerline Jozef, director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said she was aware of many people afraid to go outdoors, including one woman in “complete distress.” “She had to flee Haiti 20 years ago, and was able to get that protection in 2010. Now her fear is what is going to happen — primarily with her children,” Jozef said.Haitian activist Pascale Solages warned that without legal status, “people will no longer be able to work, pay their rent, and will end up on the street.”Faced with the choice of being arrested and removed, or “self-deporting”, some migrants are fleeing to Canada.”We are receiving many inquiries and calls. We are seeing 10 to 15 people per day,” said Marjorie VilleFranche, director of Maison d’Haiti, a support organization in Montreal, home to a large Haitian community.Under an agreement on safe third countries, Haitians in the United States can apply for asylum in Canada if they have family there. Others can cross the land border and request asylum within two weeks.Canada’s Border Services Agency said more than 8,000 asylum seekers crossed at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle crossing between Quebec and New York State in the first six months — up from 4,613 in the same period in 2024.Most of those were Haitian.Clarens said he could not imagine travelling to Canada without his family and waiting years for an asylum ruling.The prospect of returning home is even more daunting.Haiti is plagued by gang violence with more than 3,000 people killed in the first six months of 2025, the UN says. The gangs control most of the capital city, Port-au-Prince. Haiti is run by a weak, non-elected transitional government and has not held an election of any kind since 2016.”Gangs control everything — they have informants monitoring those who enter and leave the country. In their minds, if you live in the United States, you must have money,” Clarens said. “We’d be kidnap targets. Sending us back there is like sending us to our deaths, to the slaughterhouse.”