AFP USA

Downtown Los Angeles was largely calm overnight into Wednesday, with police arresting at least 25 people for violating a curfew after a fifth day of protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.Heavily armed security officers, including several riding horses, patrolled near government buildings, while men boarded up storefronts after dark on Tuesday to protect against vandalism.Looting and vandalism in the second-biggest US city have marred the largely peaceful protests over ramped-up arrests by immigration authorities.The demonstrations, which began Friday, and isolated acts of violence prompted Trump to take the extraordinary step of sending in troops, over the objection of the state governor.One protester told AFP the arrest of migrants in a city with large immigrant and Latino populations was the root of the unrest.”I don’t think that part of the problem is the peaceful protests. It’s whatever else is happening on the other side that is inciting violence,” she said Tuesday.Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the curfew — meant to stop vandalism and looting — was in effect within one square mile (2.5 square kilometers) of the city’s more-than-500 square mile area from 8:00 pm and 6:00 am (0300 to 1300 GMT).That zone was off-limits for everyone apart from residents, journalists and emergency services, she added.Protests against immigration arrests by federal law enforcement have also sprung up in cities around the country, including New York, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Austin.On Tuesday, in the Atlanta suburb of Brookhaven, dozens of demonstrators waved American and Mexican flags and held signs against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency that has ramped up arrests and deportations of migrants under Trump.”You got people that are being arrested on the street by (immigration) agents that don’t wear badges, wear masks… it makes me really angry,” 26-year-old protester Brendon Terra told AFP.- Breaking curfew -The Los Angeles protests again turned ugly Tuesday night, but an hour into the curfew only a handful of protesters were left downtown, with police making several arrests as they warned stragglers to leave.”Multiple groups continue to congregate” within the designated downtown curfew area, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) wrote on X late Tuesday. “Those groups are being addressed and mass arrests are being initiated.”Police arrested at least 25 people on suspicion of violating the curfew as of Tuesday evening, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing an LAPD spokesperson.At their largest, the protests have included a few thousand people taking to the streets, but smaller groups have used the cover of darkness to set fires, daub graffiti and smash windows.Overnight Monday 23 businesses were looted, police said, adding that more than 500 people had been arrested over recent days.- ‘Provide protection’ -Trump has activated 4,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, along with 700 active-duty Marines, in what he has claimed is a necessary escalation to take back control, even though local law enforcement authorities insisted they could handle the unrest.A military spokeswoman said the Marines were expected to be on the streets by Wednesday. Their mission will be to guard federal facilities and provide protection to federal officers during immigration enforcement operations.The Pentagon said the deployment would cost US taxpayers $134 million.Photographs issued by the Marine Corps showed men in combat fatigues using riot shields to practice crowd control techniques at the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach.Late Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said his state would deploy its National Guard “to locations across the state to ensure peace & order” after solidarity protests.- Behaving like ‘a tyrant’ -In sprawling Los Angeles on Tuesday, it was largely a typical day, with tourists thronging Hollywood Boulevard, children attending school and commuter traffic choking streets.But at a military base in North Carolina, Trump painted a darker picture.”What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty,” the Republican told troops at Fort Bragg.”We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.”California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has clashed with the president before, said Trump’s shock militarization of the city was the behavior of “a tyrant, not a president.”In a filing to the US District Court in Northern California, Newsom asked for an injunction preventing the use of troops for policing.US law largely prevents the use of the military as a police force — absent the declaration of an insurrection, which Trump has mused.The president “is trying to use emergency declarations to justify bringing in first the National Guard and then mobilizing Marines,” said law professor Frank Bowman.

China’s vice premier and top trade negotiator said Beijing was ready to “strengthen cooperation” with Washington, Chinese state media said Wednesday, following trade talks in London it said had made substantial progress.US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expressed optimism after a full day of negotiations that concerns surrounding rare earth minerals and magnets “will be resolved” eventually, as the deal is implemented.But this framework will first need to be approved by leaders in Washington and Beijing, officials said, at the end of meetings at the British capital’s historic Lancaster House.All eyes were on the outcomes of negotiations as both sides tried to overcome an impasse over export restrictions. US officials earlier accused Beijing of slow-walking approvals for shipments of rare earths.The world’s two biggest economies were also seeking a longer-lasting truce in their escalating tariffs war, with levies currently only temporarily on hold.”We’re moving as quickly as we can,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters Tuesday.”We would very much like to find an agreement that makes sense for both countries,” he added, noting that the relationship was complex.”We feel positive about engaging with the Chinese,” he maintained.Speaking separately to reporters, China International Trade Representative Li Chenggang said: “Our communication has been very professional, rational, in-depth and candid.”Li expressed hope that progress made in London would help to boost trust on both sides.And in a state media readout of the talks released Wednesday, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, who headed Beijing’s team in London, stressed the need for the two sides to strengthen cooperation in future dialogue.”As a next step, the two sides should… continuously enhance consensus, reduce misunderstandings and strengthen cooperation,” He Lifeng said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.- Productive talks -US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier described the closely-watched trade talks as productive, although scheduling conflicts prompted his departure from London with negotiations still ongoing.Bessent, who led the US delegation with Lutnick and Greer, left early to return to Washington for testimony before Congress, a US official told AFP.Both sides do not yet have another gathering scheduled.But Lutnick said Tuesday that US measures imposed when rare earths “were not coming” would likely be relaxed once Beijing moved forward with more licence approvals.Stocks rose Wednesday as investors welcomed the China-US agreement to lower trade tensions, stoking hopes the economic superpowers will eventually reach a broader tariff deal.Hong Kong was among the best performers in Asia while European markets were also up.The London negotiations follow talks in Geneva last month, which saw a temporary agreement to lower tariffs.This time, China’s exports of rare earth minerals — used in a range of things including smartphones, electric vehicle batteries and green technology — were a key issue on the agenda.”In Geneva, we had agreed to lower tariffs on them, and they had agreed to release the magnets and rare earths that we need throughout the economy,” US President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, told CNBC on Monday.Even though Beijing was releasing some supplies, “it was going a lot slower than some companies believed was optimal”, he added.- ‘Mirror arsenal’ -Both countries “have developed almost a mirror arsenal of trade and investment weapons that they can aim at each other,” said Emily Benson, head of strategy at Minerva Technology Futures.As they tap economic tools to try to shift global power structures, she told AFP, it may not be reasonable to expect a typical trade and investment deal.But both sides could find ways to level off a downward spiral.A dialling-down of temperatures could involve Chinese efforts to shore up the process for granting export control licences, Benson said. She noted Beijing appeared understaffed given the volume of requests.On the US side, this could look like a relaxation of certain export curbs in the high-tech domain, she added.But observers remained cautious, with Thomas Mathews of Capital Economics warning that Washington was unlikely to “back off completely.” This could weigh on markets.Since returning to office, Trump has slapped a 10 percent levy on friend and foe, threatening steeper rates on dozens of economies.His tariffs have dented trade, with Beijing data showing Chinese exports to the United States plunged in May.The World Bank on Tuesday joined other international organisations to slash its 2025 global growth forecast amid trade uncertainty.China is also in talks with partners including Japan and South Korea to try to build a united front countering Trump’s tariffs.burs-oho/mtp

Los Angeles police began arresting people in the city’s downtown late Tuesday, as groups gathered in violation of an overnight curfew after a fifth day of protests against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.Looting and vandalism in the second-biggest US city have marred the largely peaceful protests over ramped-up arrests by immigration authorities.The demonstrations, which began Friday, and isolated acts of violence prompted Trump to take the extraordinary step of sending in troops, over the objection of the state governor. The protests again turned ugly after dark Tuesday, but an hour into the overnight curfew only a handful of protesters were left downtown, with police making several arrests as they warned stragglers to leave.”Multiple groups continue to congregate on 1st St between Spring and Alameda” within the designated downtown curfew area, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) wrote on X late Tuesday.”Those groups are being addressed and mass arrests are being initiated.”Police arrested 25 people on suspicion of violating the curfew as of Tuesday evening, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing an LAPD spokesperson.The number of arrests was likely to rise as law enforcement worked to remove the remaining protesters from the area, the newspaper said.Earlier, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she had issued the curfew “to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting.”One square mile (2.5 square kilometers) of the city’s more-than-500 square mile area will be off-limits from 8:00 pm and 6:00 am (0300 to 1300 GMT) for everyone apart from residents, journalists and emergency services, she added.One protester told AFP the arrest of migrants in a city with large immigrant and Latino populations was the root of the unrest.”I think that obviously they’re doing it for safety,” she said of the curfew. “But I don’t think that part of the problem is the peaceful protests. It’s whatever else is happening on the other side that is inciting violence.”At their largest, the protests have included a few thousand people taking to the streets, but smaller mobs have used the cover of darkness to set fires, daub graffiti and smash windows.Overnight, Monday 23 businesses were looted, police said, adding that more than 500 people had been arrested over recent days.Protests against immigration arrests by federal law enforcement have also sprung up in cities around the country, including New York, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Austin.- ‘Provide protection’ -Trump has ordered 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, along with 700 active-duty Marines, in what he has claimed is a necessary escalation to take back control — despite the insistence of local law enforcement that they could handle matters.A military spokeswoman said the Marines were expected to be on the streets by Wednesday. Their mission will be to guard federal facilities and to accompany “federal officers in immigration enforcement operations in order to provide protection.”Demonstrators told AFP the soldiers “should be respected” because they had not chosen to be in Los Angeles, but Lisa Orman blasted it as “ridiculous.””I was here for the Dodger parade,” she said, referring to the LA team’s World Series victory.”It was 100 times bigger,” she said, branding the idea that Marines were necessary as “a big show” that Trump wanted.The Pentagon said the deployment would cost US taxpayers $134 million.Photographs issued by the Marine Corps showed men in combat fatigues using riot shields to practice crowd control techniques at the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach.Late Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said his state would deploy its National Guard “to locations across the state to ensure peace & order” after solidarity protests.”Peaceful protest is legal. Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest,” Abbott wrote on X.The Texas National Guard “will use every tool & strategy to help law enforcement maintain order.”- Behaving like ‘a tyrant’ -In sprawling Los Angeles on Tuesday, it was largely a typical day: tourists thronged Hollywood Boulevard, celebrities attended red carpet premieres, tens of thousands of children went to school and commuter traffic choked the streets.But at a military base in North Carolina, Trump was painting a much darker picture.”What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty,” the Republican told troops at Fort Bragg.”This anarchy will not stand. We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.”California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has clashed with the president before, said Trump’s shock militarization of the city was the behavior of “a tyrant, not a president.”In a filing to the US District Court in Northern California, Newsom asked for an injunction preventing the use of troops for policing.US law largely prevents the use of the military as a policing force — absent the declaration of an insurrection, which Trump has mused.The president “is trying to use emergency declarations to justify bringing in first the National Guard and then mobilizing Marines,” said law professor Frank Bowman.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has ordered the restoration of the names of several US military bases that honored officers who fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War.While the redesignations will return the facilities to their original names, they come with a twist, as the bases will ostensibly honor other military personnel who have the same names, and not those who fought to maintain slavery in the South.The Republican president made the announcement in a speech at the country’s largest military base, which he had renamed to Fort Bragg in February after predecessor Joe Biden changed it to Fort Liberty in 2023.”We are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee,” Trump told soldiers.”We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It’s no time to change.”The move reverses a renaming process begun in the wake of the death of George Floyd, whose murder by police in 2020 focused a spotlight on systemic racism.A naming commission ultimately recommended hundreds of locations be redesignated, among them nine US Army bases named after Confederate officers who had fought for the South in defense of slavery during the country’s 1861-1865 Civil War.The Pentagon said Tuesday that the new base names, while consistent with the last names of the Confederate officers, actually honor different military veterans.For example, while the original Fort Bragg honors Confederate general Braxton Bragg, the new name commemorates Roland L. Bragg, a little-known World War II hero, officials said.Fort Robert E Lee in Virginia, which was redesignated Fort Gregg-Adams in honor of two African-American servicemembers, was changed back to Fort Lee. But the new name honors Medal of Honor recipient Private Fitz Lee who fought in the Spanish-American War, said the Pentagon, and not the Robert E Lee who was overall commander of the Confederate army.

US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard warned Tuesday after a trip to Hiroshima that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war, in an extraordinary, if veiled, pitch for diplomacy.Gabbard did not specify her concerns, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly brandished the specter of nuclear war as he cautions Europe and the United States against support for Ukraine.Gabbard, a former congresswoman who has faced criticism in the past for her views on Russia, posted a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.On August 6, 1945, the United States obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects.Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving around 74,000 people dead by the end of the year. Japan surrendered on August 15.”This one bomb that caused so much destruction in Hiroshima was tiny compared to today’s nuclear bombs,” Gabbard said. “A single nuclear weapon today could kill millions in just minutes.””As we stand here today closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elites and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers,” she said.”Perhaps it’s because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won’t have access to.”Taking a tone more customary for a politician or activist than the director of national intelligence, Gabbard said: “So it’s up to us, the people, to speak up and demand an end to this madness.”Japanese media reports said the comments were “extremely rare” for an incumbent US government official, and at odds with Washington’s past justification of the bombings. Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japan’s top government spokesman, declined to comment directly on Gabbard’s video.But he said an “accurate understanding” of the destruction and suffering caused by atomic bombs would “serve as the basis for various efforts toward nuclear disarmament”.”It’s important for Japan to continue its realistic, pragmatic efforts with the United States to realise a nuclear-free world, based on the belief that the carnage in Hiroshima and Nagasaki must not be repeated,” Hayashi said.Gabbard’s remarks come as aides to President Donald Trump voice growing frustration with Putin, who has refused US-led, Ukraine-backed calls for a temporary ceasefire.Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom Gabbard criticized before the two entered Trump’s cabinet, has warned that the United States could walk away from diplomacy over the Ukraine conflict if there are no positive signs.Gabbard, a former Democrat, faced a heated confirmation hearing but ultimately prevailed after Democrats and some Republicans questioned her past statements, including some supportive of Russian positions.She has said that the European Union and Washington should have listened to Russian security concerns about Ukraine joining NATO.Gabbard’s visit to Hiroshima comes ahead of the 80th anniversary of the world’s only atomic bombings.The United States has never apologized for the attacks.

California Governor Gavin Newsom went on the political offensive Tuesday with a dire warning that Donald Trump’s crackdown on California “will not end here,” attacking the president’s policies across the country.Newsom, who observers say is weighing a presidential run in 2028, has been full-throated in his insistence that Trump overstepped his authority by deploying troops to Los Angeles to quell days of unruly protests against immigration raids. But on Tuesday he went well beyond accusing the president of stoking tensions in the country’s second-biggest city to attack Trump’s ongoing, polarizing effort to “Make America Great Again.” “California may be first, but it clearly will not end here,” Newsom warned in the live-streamed address. Trump, he said, is a “president who wants to be bound by no law or constitution, perpetuating a unified assault on American tradition.”The actions of immigration agents — who Newsom said had used unmarked cars to detain a heavily pregnant US citizen and a four-year-old girl — are worrying precepts of the administration.”If some of us can be snatched off the streets without a warrant, based only on suspicion or skin color, then none of us are safe,” he said.”Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there.”Newsom ran through a stark list of the Republican leader’s actions since he returned to the White House in January, from firing government watchdogs to threatening universities’ funding and targeting law firms. “He’s declared a war, a war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself,” the 57-year-old Democrat said. This weekend, Trump will spend his 79th birthday watching tanks rumble through Washington at a parade to mark the 250th anniversary of the US army.Newsom accused him of “forcing” the military “to put on a vulgar display to celebrate his birthday, just as other failed dictators have done in the past.”He charged Trump with “taking a wrecking ball” to American democracy, and said there were “no longer any checks and balances” on the president.”Congress is nowhere to be found,” Newsom said. He called on Americans to “stand up and be held to account,” but urged any protesters to do so peacefully. “I know many of you are feeling deep anxiety, stress and fear,” he said.”What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him.”A presumed frontrunner for Democratic leadership, Newsom has made no secret of his political ambitions and has not shied away from a public showdown with Trump.In the five days since the Los Angeles protests began, he has brawled with officials on social media and dared the Trump administration to make good on its threats to arrest him. 

Several thousand people took to the streets of New York City on Tuesday to protest the immigration policies of US President Donald Trump, after a series of raids by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sparked protests across the country.”No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” chanted protesters who initially gathered at Foley Square, a plaza in front of a courthouse where several migrants were detained by law enforcement on Friday. Protesters marched into lower Manhattan, many carrying signs reading “ICE, out of New York” in reference to the federal immigration police whose raids to arrest undocumented immigrants have ramped up in recent weeks. “I’m here to stand up for those who don’t have a voice to be here at the moment, especially for my mom,” one woman at the protest told AFP.She requested anonymity, given her Mexican mother’s undocumented immigration status.”Honestly, this country wouldn’t be what it is without the immigrants. So I’m here for them,” she added.Another protester named Jacqueline, a 23-year-old American woman with Mexican heritage, told AFP: “I’m here to defend my family… I fear for them now, and I don’t want to live in a society where I’m in fear for my family’s health.”The march in New York was more peaceful than its counterpart in Los Angeles, where ongoing demonstrations between protesters and police have spurred Trump to deploy thousands of National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines.Protests like those in LA are “unacceptable and will not be tolerated if attempted in our city,” said New York Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday, who added that the New York Police Department was prepared “to handle any issues that may arise, especially when we are faced with deep division in our society.”Adams did not implement a Tuesday night curfew in New York, unlike his counterpart in Los Angeles.

The Mexican flag has become a flashpoint during protests in Los Angeles this week, waved by demonstrators proud of their heritage but cast by US President Donald Trump’s administration as heralding a “foreign invasion.”For five days now protesters have held small and largely peaceful rallies against immigration raids in the sprawling city, as the rest of Los Angeles carried on largely as normal with red carpet premieres, awards shows, traffic and tourists.But there have been some eyecatching — albeit isolated and sporadic — incidents of violence that produced dramatic images of protesters flying Mexican flags during clashes with law enforcement under smoke-filled skies. It is those images that Trump and officials in his administration have seized on to help justify his extraordinary step of deploying thousands of US troops to the California city over the strident objection of local officials. “The only flag that will wave triumphant over the streets of Los Angeles is the American flag — so help me God,” the president told cheering soldiers Tuesday at Fort Bragg army base in North Carolina.Republicans lined up behind Trump to frame the protests as an invasion, with the Mexican flag as its symbol and the demonstrators as insurrectionists.”Look at all the foreign flags. Los Angeles is occupied territory,” top White House migration advisor Stephen Miller posted on X over footage of the demonstrations. It is not illegal to fly foreign flags in the United States under the US Constitution’s First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech.But the Mexican flag has at times been a lightning rod in Los Angeles, the unofficial capital of the Mexican diaspora in the United States. In 1994 the green, white and red banner was also waved by protesters as a sign of solidarity against legislation seeking to bar undocumented migrants from services including education and health care.Then as now, it was seen by some as a symbol of anti-American defiance, becoming so polarizing that it helped to get the legislation passed, argues Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who studies Latino voting trends.”So it is a little bit odd to see the same strategy being used when it misfired so badly last time,” Madrid, who authored the recent book “The Latino Century”, told AFP. – ‘Great irony’ -Protesters who spoke to US media this week, including those who said they were American citizens, said they were waving the flag to show pride in their heritage and solidarity with those facing deportation. Diana Mena, a 28-year-old US citizen with Mexican parents, said she had family in the US military”As much as I understand that we had a privilege to come here, I feel like it’s very important to know where we came from,” she told AFP on Tuesday.”I benefit from being in a place that has been able to provide me an opportunity to be able to advance, but that doesn’t mean I’ll ever forget my roots and my culture.”The strategist Madrid, who himself is of Mexican heritage, argues the ability for people to be proud of both cultures presents a paradox for Trump, after the Latino community’s rightward shift helped propel him to victory in 2024.That shift comes as more Latinos are born in the country rather than arriving as immigrants, transforming them into working-class voters rather than an ethnic minority, he said. “The idea that we will respond… to an ethnic appeal over an economic or pocketbook appeal, is very very misguided, it’s really a relic of the 1990s,” he told AFP.Many Latinos support Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants and illegal migration to the United States.But the Latino vote is never cohesive “unless the community perceives itself to be under attack… It’s very clear who the president is attacking here,” Madrid said.”The great irony is they’re all moving towards him… That speaks to the dysfunction of the shrinking white Republican non-college-educated voter. Nativism animates the Republican Party’s base.”A police officer at the US Capitol in Washington told CBS News it made no sense for Republicans to be outraged over Mexican flags at the LA protests.He invoked the image of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 carrying the banner of the rebel Southern states who fought the United States during the Civil War from 1861 to 1865.”They don’t remember the Confederate flags on January 6?” 

An Alabama man who murdered his girlfriend was put to death by nitrogen gas on Tuesday, with another man executed by lethal injection in the US state of Florida. Gregory Hunt, 65, was pronounced dead at 6:26 pm Central Time (2323 GMT) at the Alabama state prison in Atmore.He was executed by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.It was 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 was convicted of the 1988 rape and murder of 32-year-old Karen Lane, whom he had been dating for a month.In Florida, Anthony Wainwright, 54, was put to death by lethal injection at 6:22 pm Eastern Time (2222 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 21 executions in the United States this year: 16 by lethal injection, two by firing squad and three 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.”

President Donald Trump turned a trip marking the US army’s 250th birthday into a political-style rally Tuesday, wrapping himself in martial symbolism as he defended his decision to send soliders to protest-hit Los Angeles.The US commander-in-chief goaded troops to boo political opponents and the media and called protesters “animals” in what was meant to be a non-partisan event at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the country’s biggest military installation.The Republican president meanwhile reinforced his strongman image as he watched spectacular rocket fire, special forces training and parachute displays, standing behind sandbags while surrounded by military officers in camouflage.The event came days before tanks are set to rumble through Washington in a huge and highly unusual military parade on Saturday, which coincides with Trump’s own 79th birthday.Trump has long shown a fascination for the military — and envy for the military parades that his foreign counterparts preside over.But on Tuesday he spent much of his speech talking about anything but the army, preferring instead to go on a diatribe on the Los Angeles protests.”They’re incompetent,” Trump said of California Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, as some troops in the audience booed. Newsom has attacked Trump as “dictatorial” after the president deployed thousands of troops including 700 active duty US Marines to Los Angeles following clashes sparked by US government immigration raids.- ‘Theater of leadership’ -Pointing at the “fake news,” Trump said “look what I have to put up with” as troops booed again. Democratic former president Joe Biden also earned a few boos when Trump mentioned him.Trump then ramped up the military language as he promised to “liberate” Los Angeles, saying he would “not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.”The Republican also announced that he would be restoring the names of other US Army bases that, like Fort Bragg, honored military figures of the pro-slavery Confederacy from the US Civil War.He was accompanied by Pentagon chief and former Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth, who hailed the end of what he called “woke” in the US military.In scenes that resembled one of his election rallies last year, Trump finally left the stage to cheers as he did his trademark dance to the Village People song “Y.M.C.A.”The event comes in a week loaded with military symbolism for Trump.He made it clear earlier that he would not tolerate anyone spoiling the parade on Saturday — which marks the 250th anniversary of the army but falls on his birthday too.”If there’s any protest that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,” Trump said earlier at the White House.For Trump, “what matters is the spectacle. And the military is a heck of a spectacle,” said Peter Loge, director of George Washington University’s School of Media.”The military parade, the military in Los Angeles is theater of leadership, theater of governing, without paying attention to the real-world consequences,” Loge told AFP.- ‘Speaking German’ -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.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 is only getting around to it in his second term.World War II meanwhile 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.”Without us, you’d all be speaking German right now, maybe a little Japanese thrown in,” Trump said at Fort Bragg.Critics say that Trump’s military fascination underscores an authoritarian streak.”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.