In the news today: The White House is pressing Ukraine to draft 18-year-olds in the war with Russia; Bolivia faces a shocking economic collapse; and can scientists predict when a volcano will erupt? Also, how to navigate politics this Thanksgiving. |
Migrants line up to U.S. agents requesting an appointment to apply for asylum, at the Paso del Norte international bridge, Mexico, Nov 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
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Trump vows tariffs over immigration. Here’s what the numbers say about border crossings, drugs and crime
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Donald Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric has resonated with voters concerned about immigration and crime. Yet there’s more to the story than Trump’s short statement suggested. A look at what the numbers and studies say about border crossings, fentanyl smuggling and whether there’s a connection between immigration and crime. Read more.
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Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests in October, which is about a four-year low. But it hasn’t always been like that. A little less than a year ago, in December 2023, the Border Patrol made about a quarter of a million arrests along the southern border — an all-time high.
Trump and many Republicans have often portrayed the U.S.'s southern border as wide open to drug smuggling. They have linked immigrants to drug smuggling and accused Mexico of doing little to stop it. Much of America’s fentanyl is smuggled from Mexico, but the fentanyl scourge began well before Joe Biden took office, and statistics show that it is Americans who are doing the smuggling across the border.
- Trump has also argued that the influx of immigrants is causing a crime surge in the U.S., although statistics show violent crime is on the way down. FBI statistics do not separate crimes by the immigration status of the assailant, but there is no evidence of a spike in crime perpetrated by migrants.
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The White House is pressing Ukraine to draft 18-year-olds to battle Russia
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President Joe Biden’s administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of those as young as 18. Read more. |
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The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s February 2022 invasion. But with time running out until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the Biden administration is also sharpening its viewpoint that Ukraine has the weaponry it needs and must dramatically increase troop levels if it’s going to stay in the fight. A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Ukrainians believe they need about 160,000 additional troops, but the U.S. administration believes they will need more than that.
The situation in Russia’s Kursk border region has become further complicated by the arrival of thousands of North Korean troops, who have come to help Moscow try to claw back the land seized in a Ukrainian incursion this year. Russia’s own problems with adequate troop levels and planning early in the war prevented Moscow from taking full advantage of its edge. But the tide has shifted.
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Conscription has been a sensitive matter in Ukraine throughout the war as some Ukrainians worry that taking more young adults out of the workforce could backfire by further harming the war-ravaged economy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has consistently stated that he has no plans to lower the mobilization age.
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Bolivia faces a shocking economic collapse
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Fuel is rapidly becoming one of Bolivia’s scarcest commodities. Long lines of vehicles snake for several kilometers outside gas stations all over Bolivia, once South America’s second-largest producer of natural gas. Some of the queues don’t budge for days. Read more. |
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Bolivia’s monthslong fuel crunch comes as the nation’s foreign currency reserves plummet, leaving Bolivians unable to find U.S. dollars at banks and exchange houses, disrupting everyday life for millions of people, hurting commerce and farm production and sending food prices soaring.
The fuel crisis has created a sense that the country is coming undone. Mounting public anger has driven crowds into the streets in recent weeks, piling pressure on leftist President Luis Arce to ease the suffering ahead of a tense election next year.
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It’s a shocking turnaround for the landlocked nation of 12 million people that was a South American economic success story in the 2000s, when the commodities bonanza generated tens of billions of dollars under the nation’s first Indigenous president, former President Evo Morales. Morales, Arce’s one-time mentor, is his present-day rival in the fight to be the ruling party’s candidate next year.
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A plane used to air drop frozen turkeys in remote rural Alaska. (Mountain Mind Media/Alaska Gear Company via AP)
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In Alaska, a pilot delivers turkeys to rural homes for Thanksgiving
For the third straight year, Esther Keim has been flying low and slow in a small plane over rural parts of south-central Alaska, dropping frozen turkeys to those who can’t simply run out to the grocery store for Thanksgiving dinner. |
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AP Buyline: Conquer Black Friday with our collection of the best deals |
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