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.
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.
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.”
Vladyslav Plyaka poses for a photo at Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, Monday, June 2, 2025. Vladyslav Plyaka came to the U.S. from Ukraine as an exchange student in high school and stayed to attend the University of Wisconsin. His entry visa has expired, and he was planning to visit Poland to see his mother and renew his visa over the next year. He doesn’t know when that will be possible now that visa appointments are suspended, and he doesn’t feel safe leaving the country even when appointments resume. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Vladyslav Plyaka poses for a photo at Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Vladyslav Plyaka poses for a photo at Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Vladyslav Plyaka poses for a photo at Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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Vladyslav Plyaka poses for a photo at Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, Monday, June 2, 2025. Vladyslav Plyaka came to the U.S. from Ukraine as an exchange student in high school and stayed to attend the University of Wisconsin. His entry visa has expired, and he was planning to visit Poland to see his mother and renew his visa over the next year. He doesn’t know when that will be possible now that visa appointments are suspended, and he doesn’t feel safe leaving the country even when appointments resume. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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.
Woodbury’s new city administrator is a Woodbury resident with over 20 years of experience in local government, according to the city.
Jeffrey Dahl was announced as the new city administrator by the Woodbury City Council on Wednesday. After months of searching and narrowing down the selection of candidates to five, Dahl was chosen as the right fit. Dahl will start his position with the city July 28, once he is approved by the City Council during their June 11 meeting, according to a press release.
Jeffrey Dahl (Courtesy of the City of Woodbury)
“I am so grateful for the opportunity to work for such a strong organization in the city I call home,” Dahl said in the press release. “The city of Woodbury has great staff who care about the community and offer excellent service and connection to the residents of Woodbury. I look forward to working with staff and the City Council to build upon this commitment to be a premier community where everyone can live, work, and thrive.”
The council searched nationally for a new administrator with search firm Baker Tilly. Each of the five candidates was interviewed by the City Council, city staff and community members before the city council reached its final decision, according to the release.
Woodbury Mayor Anne Burt said in the press release that Dahl is a personable, strategic thinker and knows Woodbury well, making him a positive addition to serve Woodbury.
“I’m excited to welcome Jeffrey to the city of Woodbury team,” Burt said in the release. “We had an incredibly talented pool of applicants and Jeffrey impressed us all with his experience, his passion for public service and his approach to the job.”
Since 2016, Dahl has served as the city manager and HRA executive director for the city of Wayzata. In the past, he has been an assistant city administrator and economic development director in the city of Chaska and a city administrator and development services director for the city of Osseo, according to the release.
Dahl’s work in local government began through a community development internship with Woodbury in 2005, according to the release. He has a master’s degree in Political Science with an Urban Studies/Planning emphasis and a bachelor’s in International Relations from the University of Minnesota.
For close to 10 years, Dahl has lived in Woodbury with his wife, Christine, stepdaughter Camila and son Jack, according to the release.
After serving the city of Woodbury for 21 years, current Woodbury City Administrator Clint Gridley will retire from his position June 6.
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NEW YORK (AP) — A graphic designer testified Wednesday that she was so traumatized after Sean “Diddy” Combs held her over a 17th-floor apartment balcony that she sometimes screamed in her sleep afterward.
Bryana ‘Bana’ Bongolan, 33, a friend of Combs’ former longtime girlfriend Cassie, said the 2016 assault at Cassie’s Los Angeles apartment caused a bruise on the back of her leg, along with back and neck pain. It also left her emotionally scarred, she told the jury.
“I have night terrors and paranoia and I would scream in my sleep sometimes,” said Bongolan, a creative and marketing director who runs her own art agency.
Her testimony came in the fourth week of evidence presentation by prosecutors as they seek to prove that Combs oversaw a racketeering organization composed of his employees and associates as he physically and sexually abused women for two decades.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and other charges that, if convicted, could send him to prison for 15 years to life.
Bongolan is the latest woman to testify that the hip-hop mogul acted violently toward her and Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who already testified for four days about the abuse she incurred. Other witnesses described seeing him physically abusing women.
Cassie testified that she saw Combs bring one of her friends back over the railing of a balcony at her apartment in the early morning.
Cassie said she was asleep in her room when she awoke to the episode.
“I saw him bring her back over the railing of the balcony and then throw her onto the patio furniture,” Cassie testified.
When Bongolan recalled the attack, she said Combs barged into Cassie’s apartment, lifted her up and put her on the rail. She said she feared that she would plummet to her death as she pushed back against Combs.
“I was scared to fall,” she said. Combs was yelling at her throughout the ordeal, Bongolan said, estimating he held her over the railing for 10 to 15 seconds.
She said Combs then threw her onto balcony furniture. Adrenaline helped her power through the ordeal, Bongolan said. She recalled getting up immediately after being thrown down.
Bongolan said Cassie, who was sleeping in the bedroom, then came out and asked Combs: “Did you just hang her over the balcony?” Told that Bongolan’s ex-girlfriend was also in the apartment, Combs swiftly left, Bongolan said.
Bongolan said she has lasting effects from Combs assaulting her.
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“I have nightmares and I have a lot of paranoia and I used to scream a lot in my sleep, but it’s dissipated a little bit,” she testified.
Part of her paranoia, she said, includes opening doors carefully and peeking into rooms before going inside, and she added that she had a nightmare as recently as a few days ago.
Bongolan said Combs gave her drugs on three or four occasions, including ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and G, a substance she understood was the depressant GHB.
She said she also did drugs about once a week with Cassie when Combs wasn’t around.
Bongolan, testifying in response to a subpoena from prosecutors, was granted immunity after she initially said she would refuse to answer questions and invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. She was at least the third witness given immunity to testify.
