By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution Wednesday demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza because it’s not linked to the release of hostages.

The resolution also does not condemn Hamas’ deadly attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, or say the group must disarm and withdraw from Gaza — two other U.S. demands.

The 14 other members of the 15-nation council voted in favor of the resolution, which also describes the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” and calls on Israel to lift all restrictions on the delivery of aid to the 2.1 million Palestinians in the territory.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council will vote Wednesday on a resolution demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and the Trump administration is expected to veto it because it does not link the ceasefire to the release of all the hostages held by Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

The resolution before the U.N.’s most powerful body also does not condemn Hamas’ deadly attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the war, or say the group must disarm and withdraw from Gaza — two other U.S. demands.

The U.S. vetoed the last resolution on Gaza in November, under the Biden administration, because the ceasefire demand was not directly linked to the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. Similarly, the current resolution demands those taken by Hamas and other groups be released, but it does not make it a condition for a truce.

Calling the humanitarian situation in Gaza “catastrophic,” the resolution, put forth by the 15-member council’s 10 elected members, also calls for “the immediate and unconditional lifting of all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and its safe and unhindered distribution at scale, including by the U.N. and humanitarian partners.”

President Donald Trump’s administration has tried to ramp up its efforts to broker peace in Gaza after 20 months of war. However, Hamas has sought amendments to a U.S. proposal that special envoy Steve Witkoff has called “totally unacceptable.”

The vote follows a decision by an Israeli and U.S.-backed foundation to pause food delivery at its three distribution sites in the Gaza Strip after health officials said dozens of Palestinians were killed in a series of shootings near the sites this week. Israel and the United States say they supported the establishment of the new aid system to prevent Hamas from stealing aid previously distributed by the U.N.

The United Nations has rejected the new system, saying it doesn’t address Gaza’s mounting hunger crisis, allows Israel to use aid as a weapon and doesn’t comply with the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence. The U.N. says its distribution system throughout Gaza worked very well during the March ceasefire and is carefully monitored.

The resolution demands the restoration of all essential humanitarian services in line with humanitarian principles, international humanitarian law and U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Several U.N. diplomats from different countries, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions have been private, said they expect the United States to veto the resolution. They also said they expect a similar vote to the one in November, when the 14 other council members supported the resolution.

Israel’s U.N. Mission said Ambassador Danny Danon, who will speak after the vote, will say the resolution undermines humanitarian relief efforts and ignores Hamas, which is still endangering civilians in Gaza. He also will say the resolution disregards the ceasefire negotiations that are already underway, the mission said.

Gaza’s roughly 2 million people are almost completely reliant on international aid because Israel’s offensive has destroyed nearly all food production capabilities. Israel imposed a blockade on supplies into Gaza on March 2, and limited aid began to enter again late last month after pressure from allies and warnings of famine.

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“The world is watching, day after day, horrifying scenes of Palestinians being shot, wounded or killed in Gaza while simply trying to eat,” U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement Wednesday. He called for a flood of aid to be let in and for the world body to be the one delivering it.

The Security Council has voted on 14 Gaza-related resolutions and approved four since the war began. That is when Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.

They are still holding 58 hostages, a third of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants.

The ministry is led by medical professionals but reports to the Hamas-run government. Its toll is seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts, though Israel has challenged its numbers.

AP writer Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations contributed to this report.

The state proposes giving the Harlem River a new classification that would exempt the city from meeting bacterial water quality standards when it rains—and environmental groups are not happy about it.

The Harlem River, which runs between Manhattan and the Bronx, sees more overflow from the sewer system than any river in the state, according to the non-profit Swim Coalition. (Photo by Adi Talwar)

The Bronx’s environmental community is standing strong against a state proposal to assign the Harlem River a new water quality classification that would exempt the city from meeting clean-water safety standards during rain events.

The Harlem River, a waterway that connects the Hudson and East rivers, receives 1.9 billion gallons of raw sewage and polluted stormwater from the city’s overloaded sewer system, known as Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO), annually. That’s an average of 5 million gallons per day.

“The Harlem River is not a dumping ground—it is a vital waterway and a source of pride and recreation for the Bronx. Any proposal that weakens protections for our river is an affront to the health, dignity, and future of our community,” said Congressman and Bronx-native, Ritchie Torres, at a press conference on Tuesday.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) put out a proposal in mid-April to give the Harlem River an “SB Wet Weather” classification. 

The move is part of a larger effort to update the water quality criteria of bodies of water across the state, and the Harlem River is the first up for discussion. The public is now invited to weigh in on the proposal and has until June 26 to submit comments. The DEC has until April of next year to make a final decision on the river’s future status.

But environmental groups say the classification proposed for the Harlem River would allow the city to relax water quality standards for bacteria found in the waterway up to 36 hours after wet weather events. 

“The SB Wet Weather classification is a cop-out because then the city gets to say: we actually don’t have to spend any more money on improving water quality in the Harlem River, since we are already meeting this lower standard,” said Em Ruby, advocacy and policy coordinator at the environmental group Riverkeeper.

Lifting water quality standards when it rains is problematic because rainfall is what drives the river’s CSO problem in the first place, experts say.

CSO pollution happens because the city’s archaic sewer system can’t handle the amount of water that comes in during a downpour. The pipes overflow and end up dumping untreated sewage into nearby waterways. 

With a total of 65 CSO outfalls feeding into its waters, the Harlem River receives the most combined sewage overflow out of any river in the state, according to the non-profit Swim Coalition.

Environmental advocates want the “wet weather” exemption to be dropped. Instead they propose an “SB classification“—which says the water must be clean enough to swim and fish in—ultimately pressuring the city to clean up the river to meet that higher standard.

“If that were to happen, the state would set the goal for New York City to ensure that the Harlem River has water quality that is safe for swimming 100 percent of the time, regardless of whether it rains or not,” Ruby explained.

The Inwood waterfront, Harlem River side, seen from the Bronx. (Photo by Adi Talwar)

But the DEC noted in email that although the SB Wet Weather classification includes an exemption for rain events, it’s an upgrade from the river’s current Class I status. This denomination means the city only needs to keep the water clean enough to allow for secondary contact recreation, like boating and fishing.

By upgrading the water quality classifications for rivers across the state, the DEC said in an email that it’s “making generational investments and improvements in protecting water quality and public health for future generations.”

“These landmark regulatory changes are unprecedented, building upon decades of ongoing progress to transform the Harlem River and other waters in and around New York City,” the Department added.

The DEC also defends the wet weather exemption in its proposal for the new classification, arguing that it would cost $9.3 billion dollars to build and replace new infrastructure that captures 100 percent of the CSO feeding into the Harlem River.

“It’s too costly. We understand why that’s impossible,” said Robert Fanuzzi, board member of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality.

Instead, Fanuzzi and other environmentalists want the city to scale up alternatives. That means investing further in ongoing efforts to add rain gardens and green infrastructure to rooftops, so they absorb rainwater before it makes its way into the sewers and triggers an overflow. 

There are also gray infrastructure projects that can capture CSO at strategic points where overflow happens often, holding the sewage during a downpour so it can be redirected for treatment after a storm is over. 

New York City has already vowed to end the discharge of untreated sewage into the New York Harbor by 2060. Setting a higher standard now will push the city to invest in alternative infrastructure that tackles this city-wide problem, advocates say.

“The city should be working with community members to make sure they have access to the water and that it’s clean enough for swimming and fishing,” said Chauncy Young, coordinator at the Harlem River Coalition. And those efforts should be concentrated in the communities where pollution is at its worst, Young notes.

“The Hudson River is swimmable and fishable. Why is the Harlem River not?”

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Mariana@citylimits.org. The reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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The post Harlem River Status Change Could Stall Cleanup Efforts, Environmentalists Warn appeared first on City Limits.

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam abolished its long-standing two-child limit on Tuesday to try and reverse declining birth rates and ease the pressures of an aging population.

The National Assembly passed amendments scrapping rules that limit families to having one or two children, state media Vietnam News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The rules were usually stricter for Communist Party members, who could miss out on promotions or bonuses if they had a third child.

Vietnamese families are having fewer children than ever before. The birth rate in 2021 was 2.11 children per woman, just over the replacement rate required for a population to avoid shrinking over the long term. Since then, the birth rate has steadily declined: to 2.01 in 2022, 1.96 in 2023 and 1.91 in 2024.

Vietnam isn’t the only Asian country with low fertility. But, unlike Japan, South Korea or Singapore, it is still a developing economy.

Nguyen Thu Linh, 37, a marketing manager in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, said that she and her husband decided to have only one child because they wanted to give their 6-year-old son the best education and upbringing that they could afford.

“Sometimes, I think about having another child so my son can have a sibling, but there’s so much financial and time pressure if you have another child,” she said.

Vietnam introduced rules blocking families from having more than two children in 1988 to reduce pressure on limited resources after years of war, first with France and then the United States, as the country transitioned into a more market-oriented economy

Vietnam’s “golden population” period — when working age people outnumber those who depend on them — began in 2007 and is expected to last until 2039. The number of people who can work is likely to peak in 2042 and, by 2054, the population may start shrinking. All of this could make it harder to grow the economy, since there will be fewer workers while the cost of supporting the needs of the elderly increases.

Birth rates in Vietnam aren’t falling evenly. In Ho Chi Minh City — the country’s biggest city and economic hub — the fertility rate in 2024 was just 1.39 children per woman, much lower than the national average. At the same time, nearly 12% of the city’s population was over 60, putting pressure on welfare services. To help, local officials started offering about $120 to women who have two children before turning 35 last December.

It also offers some of the most generous family benefits in the region, including six months of fully paid maternity leave and free healthcare for children under six. Tuition in government schools is free until the age of 15 years and, starting in September it’ll be free till the end of high school.

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Vietnam is also dealing with a unbalanced gender ratio, partly due to long-standing preferences for sons. According to state media, the distortion is more concentrated in Vietnam’s northern Red River delta, which includes Hanoi.

Doctors aren’t allowed to tell parents the baby’s sex before birth, and sex-selective abortions are banned. But despite this, some still hint at the baby’s gender using coded language, said state media VN Express, citing a government report.

On Tuesday, the health ministry proposed tripling the fine for choosing a baby’s sex before birth to $3,800, state media reported.

China imposed a one-child policy in 1979 amid worries about overpopulation. But as the country faces growing concerns about the long-term economic and societal challenges of an aging population, it has been slowly easing the policy to allow a second child and then a third child in 2021, but with little success in boosting birthrates.

Associated Press journalist Hau Dinh contributed to this report.

By JOCELYN GECKER, AP Education Writer

To attract the brightest minds to America, President Donald Trump proposed a novel idea while campaigning: If elected, he would grant green cards to all foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges.

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“It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greatest schools,” Trump said during a podcast interview last June. “That is going to end on Day One.”

That promise never came to pass. Trump’s stance on welcoming foreign students has shifted dramatically. International students have found themselves at the center of an escalating campaign to kick them out or keep them from coming as his administration merges a crackdown on immigration with an effort to reshape higher education.

An avalanche of policies from the Trump administration — such as terminating students’ ability to study in the U.S., halting all new student visa interviews, moving to block foreign enrollment at Harvard — have triggered lawsuits, countersuits and confusion for international students who say they feel targeted on multiple fronts.

In interviews, students from around the world described how it feels to be an international student today in America. Their accounts highlight pervasive feelings of fear, anxiety and insecurity that have made them more cautious in their daily lives, distracted them from schoolwork and prompted many to cancel trips home because they fear not being allowed to return.

For many, the last few months have forced them to rethink their dreams of building a life in America.

A standout student from Latvia feels ‘expendable’

Markuss Saule, a freshman at Brigham Young University-Idaho, took a recent trip home to Latvia and spent the entire flight back to the U.S. in a state of panic.

For hours, he scrubbed his phone, uninstalling all social media, deleting anything that touched on politics or could be construed as anti-Trump.

“That whole 10-hour flight, where I was debating, ‘Will they let me in?’ — it definitely killed me a little bit,” said Saule, a business analytics major. “It was terrifying.”

Saule is the type of international student the U.S. has coveted. As a high schooler in Latvia, he qualified for a competitive, merit-based exchange program funded by the U.S. State Department. He spent a year of high school in Minnesota, falling in love with America and a classmate who is now his fiancee. He just ended his freshman year in college with a 4.0 GPA.

But the alarm he felt on that flight crushed what was left of his American dream.

“If you had asked me at the end of 2024 what my plans were, it was to get married, find a great job here in the U.S. and start a family,” said Saule, who hopes to work as a business data analyst. “Those plans are not applicable anymore. Ask me now, and the plan to leave this place as soon as possible.”

Saule and his fiancee plan to marry this summer, graduate a year early and move to Europe.

This spring the Trump administration abruptly revoked permission to study in the U.S. for thousands of international students before reversing itself. A federal judge has blocked further status terminations, but for many, the damage is done. Saule has a constant fear he could be next.

As a student in Minnesota just three years ago, he felt like a proud ambassador for his country.

“Now I feel a sense of inferiority. I feel that I am expendable, that I am purely an appendage that is maybe getting cut off soon,” he said. Trump’s policies carry a clear subtext. “The policies, what they tell me is simple. It is one word: Leave.”

From dreaming of working at NASA to ‘doomscrolling’ job listings in India

A concern for attracting the world’s top students was raised in the interview Trump gave last June on the podcast “All-In.” Can you promise, Trump was asked, to give companies more ability “to import the best and brightest” students?

“I do promise,” Trump answered. Green cards, he said, would be handed out with diplomas to any foreign student who gets a college or graduate degree.

Trump said he knew stories of “brilliant” graduates who wanted to stay in the U.S. to work but couldn’t. “They go back to India, they go back to China” and become multi-billionaires, employing thousands of people. “That is going to end on Day One.”

Had Trump followed through with that pledge, a 24-year-old Indian physics major named Avi would not be afraid of losing everything he has worked toward.

After six years in Arizona, where Avi attended college and is now working as an engineer, the U.S. feels like a second home. He dreams of working at NASA or in a national lab and staying in America where he has several relatives.

But now he is too afraid to fly to Chicago to see them, rattled by news of foreigners being harassed at immigration centers and airports.

“Do I risk seeing my family or risk deportation?” said Avi, who asked to be identified by his first name, fearing retribution.

Avi is one of about 240,000 people on student visas in the U.S. on Optional Practical Training — a postgraduation period where students are authorized to work in fields related to their degrees for up to three years. A key Trump nominee has said he would like to see an end to postgraduate work authorization for international students.

Avi’s visa is valid until next year but he feels “a massive amount of uncertainty.”

He wonders if he can sign a lease on a new apartment. Even his daily commute feels different.

“I drive to work every morning, 10 miles an hour under speed limit to avoid getting pulled over,” said Avi, who hopes to stay in the U.S. but is casting a wider net. “I spend a lot of time doomscrolling job listings in India and other places.”

A Ukrainian chose college in America over joining the fight at home — for now

Vladyslav Plyaka came to the U.S. from Ukraine as an exchange student in high school. As war broke out at home, he stayed to attend the University of Wisconsin.

He was planning to visit Poland to see his mother but if he leaves the U.S., he would need to reapply for a visa. He doesn’t know when that will be possible now that visa appointments are suspended, and he doesn’t feel safe leaving the country anyway.

He feels grateful for the education, but without renewing his visa, he’ll be stuck in the U.S. at least two more years while he finishes his degree. He sometimes wonders if he would be willing to risk leaving his education in the United States — something he worked for years to achieve — if something happened to his family.

“It’s hard because every day I have to think about my family, if everything is going to be all right,” he said.

It took him three tries to win a scholarship to study in the U.S. Having that cut short because of visa problems would undermine the sacrifice he made to be here. He sometimes feels guilty that he isn’t at home fighting for his country, but he knows there’s value in gaining an education in America.

“I decided to stay here just because of how good the college education is,” he said. “If it was not good, I probably would be on the front lines.”

AP Education Writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.