Transcript

1.27.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the reading of the
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Washington Post for this Monday, January twenty seventh. As a reminder,
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Radio I as a reading service intended for people who
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are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult
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to read printed material. Your reader for today is Rod Brotherton,
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and since it's Monday, by listener request, we begin by
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reading Paul Prather's weekly column from the Lexington Herald Leader.
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This week's article is entitled does Prayer help the six Sick? Well?
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The answers are qualified Yes. Last week I wrote about Vicki,
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a parishioner who recently died of cancer. I talked about
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her journey to faith and how faith ultimately buoyed her
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and others during her illness. Something I didn't deal with, however,
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was the ancient difficult question of what role prayer and
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religion ultimately play in dealing with sickness and suffering. Does
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God heal people? If so, why doesn't He heal more
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of them? In her death? Vicki surely inspired those of
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us who knew her, but why did she have to
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die at all? In the New Testament, the writer James
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makes a thrilling promise is anyone among you sick, then
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he must call for the elders of the church, and
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they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil
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in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered
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in faith will restore the one who is sick, and
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the Lord will raise him up. And if he has
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committed sins, they will be forgiven him. My dad, then
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a Southern Baptist preacher, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in
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the nineteen seventies. A neurosurgeon told me that Dad had
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a zero chance of recovery, but my father decided to
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follow James's instructions. He asked his congregations members to anoint
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him with oil and prey. Within forty eight hours, his
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cancer spontaneously vanished. His doctors were flabbergasted. He lived thirty
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five more years cancer free and died of old age.
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After Dad's healing, my parents, my sister and I, and
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roughly half of Dad's congregation converted from Baptist into faith
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healing Pentecostals. We had no doubt that if you were sick,
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you could just call the elders, get annoyed, and bang,
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you'd be cured. Except that's not how it turned out.
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We prayed for a lot of people. I've got to
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tell them, most of them didn't get well. Sorry, James.
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I still believe, almost fifty years later, that my father
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was divinely healed. I was there, I saw it. But
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I also believe that what happened to him was a
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once in a thousand prayers miracle, a miracle of biblical proportions,
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and it was not the norm. Why him? Who knows?
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I sure don't. There have been numerous double blind scientific
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studies regarding the power of prayer over sickness. In twenty
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oh nine, two scientists published a meta analysis of the
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studies conducted up to that time. They found the results
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of the research to be all over the map. Prayer
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has been reported to improve outcomes and humans as well
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as non human species, to have no effect on outcomes,
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to worsen outcomes, and to have retrospective healing effects. They wrote,
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for a multitude of reasons, research on the healing effects
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of prayer is riddled with assumptions, challenges, and contradictions that
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make the subject a scientific and religious mind field. We
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believe that the research has led nowhere and that future research,
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if any, will forever be constrained by the scientific limitations
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that we outline bottom line, scientifically speaking, who knows. This
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week I was tidying up my way too mini files
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on my computer's desktop, or more accurately, I was trying
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to avoid writing. I happened to cross the newspaper article
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I'd saved last October and forgotten The peace was called
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What Science Says About the power of religion and Prayer
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to Heal. Its author, Robert Klitzmann, is a psychiatrist and
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director of the Masters of Bioethics program at Columbia University.
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Klitzmann studied the relationship between prayer and illness by interviewing
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hospital chaplains of various stripes, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, and
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secular humanists. He concluded that religion and prayer did lead
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to improved medical outcomes, but the relationship was subtle. What
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he reported didn't fit into bromide such as God heals
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or prayer works, or for that matter, there is no God.
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Spiritual practices don't necessarily cause physical improvements, he reported, they
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do help patients cope psychologically with their illnesses. You might
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say prayer and faith can ease the journey even if
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they don't change the destination. Here are four specific ways
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religion helps, he said, brain changes. Research shows that strong
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religious or spiritual beliefs are associated with thicker parts of
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the brain, providing neuronal reserves that can buffer against depression
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and despair. To purpose, religion and spirituality, broadly defined, provide
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a sense of meaning, purpose, and hope. Third meaning me
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patients come to find or construct their own sources of
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meaning and for social support. Religious and spiritual groups also
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commonly provide valuable social support and interactions. Certainly, I saw
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all of those dimensions where working and VICKI I don't
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know anything about neronal reserves, but I can tell you
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I never saw in her any evidence of depression, bad days,
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in bad moods. Sure through it all though she mainly
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stayed upbeat and even joyous. She knew she was dying,
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but felt largely okay with that. She expressed both purpose
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and meaning. She prayed for the ability to reflect God's
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love to others. Despite her illness. She believed the Lord
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was using her as a witness of his grace. Even
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as her life ebbed away. She even experienced a mystical
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vision that for her unlocked many of cosmic mysteries, and
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she thought it was a divine gift. Plus she was
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surrounded day and night by church people who loved her,
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who wanted her to know it, and who tried to
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ease her passing. There's no doubt her faith in God
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made a difference. She wasn't healed, but for her what
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Jesus promised came true. Lo I am with you always,
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even to the end. And as you know, Paul Praether
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is pastor of Bethesda Church near Mount Sterling and you
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can email him at pr at pd at yahoo dot com. Now,
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let's look at the news and our lead story. Trump
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backs off trade threats after Columbia agrees to deportation flights.
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The United States and Columbia averted a trade war for
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now after the White House said late Sunday that Bocatah
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agreed to accept deportation flights from the United States. The
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two nations had spent much of the day in a
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tense standoff, with President Trump threatening to impose steep tariffs
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and visa restrictions on Columbia after the South American nation
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turned away to deportation flights. Earlier Sunday, Columbia's president Gustavo
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Petro set on social media that he had denied entry
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to US military planes carrying Colombian immigrants that made them
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turn back, specifically that deportations should be carried out with
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dignity and respect. In response, Trump announced twenty five percent
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tariffs on all Colombian goods coming into the United States.
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He also said the United States would immediately revoke the
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visas of Colombian government officials, their allies and supporters. The
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State Department on Sunday said that the US Embassy in
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Bogatah would suspend issuing visas to the United States. The
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tariffs would have probably devastated Columbia's flower industry, a key
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export to the United States just before the Valentine's Day season,
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while also escalating prices for American consumers. Coffee prices in
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the United States could have soared too, given that Columbia
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is a major exporter and that business tends to pass
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along the cost of tariffs to consumers through higher prices.
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But late Sunday, the White House said Colombia had agreed
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to all President Trump's terms, including allowing US military aircraft
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to send Colombians back, the suspension of visas would remain
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in effect until the first planeload of deportees is accepted,
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and the order on tariffs SIN sanctions would be held
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in reserve in case Columbia does not honor its end
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of the deal. Today's events make it clear to the
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world that America is respected again, the White House Press
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Secretary Carolyn Levitt said and statement announcing the deal. President
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Trump will continue to fiercely protect our nation's sovereignty, and
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he expects all other nations of the world to fully
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cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present
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in the United States. Luis Dilberto Murio, Columbia's foreign minister
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and the Colombian ambassador to the United States, will hold
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a series of high level meetings after the agreements between
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the two countries. Murio said. The meetings will take place
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in the coming days to follow up on an exchange
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of diplomatic notes between the two governments. The Colombian government
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will continue to receive deported Colombians, guaranteeing them dignified conditions,
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Murio said in a video statement. We have overcome the
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impass with the United States government. Petro made available the
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presidential plane to facilitate the travel of the deported Colombians
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who were going to arrive in the country early Sunday morning.
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Despite the detant, the dramatic dispute was the most significant
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diplomatic crisis in decades between the United States and one
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of its most important allies in Latin America. It also
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apparently took officials from both countries by surprise. Washington and
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Bogatah have for years had a bilateral agreement allowing for
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regular deportation flights that have until now gone to Colombia
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at the rate of at least twice a week without problems.
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Under the agreement, the United States since Columbia a manifest
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forty eight hours in advance of the flights with the
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aims of the deportees, and Columbia provides authorization before the
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planes take off. That happened in this case, according to
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a Colombian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity
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about the sensitive issue, and Bogata agreed to accept the flight.
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It was unclear whether or when Petro was made aware
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of that for the first time that the planes being
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used were US military see seventeens. Although video of shackle
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deportees being marched into military aircraft was widely televised and
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posted on social media. The Colombian official said more than
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two hundred people were on the two flights to Colombia.
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The planes were approaching Bogata early Sunday morning when Petro
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decided to deny entry, and within minutes posted on x
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that he had done so, the official said. Shortly after,
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Trump posted about his retaliatory actions, saying they were warranted
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because Colombia was violating its legal obligations and was harming
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the national security of the United States. The White House,
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in an earlier statement announcing Trump's sanctions, misspelled Colombia as Colombia.
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Both presidents have long known been to make frequent use
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of social media and diplomatic ways. In response to Trump's
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post announcing the tariffs, Petro, a membory of Colombia's M
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nineteen guerrilla group in the nineteen eighties who was elected
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president in twenty twenty two, replied, if you know someone stubborn,
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that's me. Trump's tariffs, if enacted, could have had disastrous
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consequences on the economy in Colombia. The United States is
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Colombia's top trading partner, accounting for twenty six percent of
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its trade. In twenty twenty three, Remittances to Colombia make
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up an estimated three point four percent of the country's economy,
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more than coffee, a key Colombian export. Most of those
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remittances come from the United States. It is one of
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the top receipt recipients of US foreign aid. Since the
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two thousand launch a Planned Colombia, a counter narcotics and
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security initiative that has often had bipartisan support in the
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United States, the United States has sent about fourteen billion
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dollars in funding to Colombia since two thousand, at least
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sixty percent of it for the military and police. The
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Colombian American Chamber of Commerce am CHAM Columbia also warned
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of widespread shocks to the economy if the tariffs would
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have taken effect. In coffee alone, more than five one
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hundred thousand families depend on this sector. In flower farming,
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thousands of single mothers would lose their livelihood, the chamber said.
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Earlier in the day, Sergio Guzman, director of the political
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consultancy Colombia Risk Analysis, said that the standoff could push
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Colombia closer to China. He noted that Colombia has expressed
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interest in joining bricks the economic partnership of Brazil, Russia, India,
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China and South Africa as China's Belt and Road initiative.
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Amid the diplomatic crisis between Petro and Trump, on Sunday,
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China's ambassador to Colombia posted on x saying Colombia and
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China are in the best moment of our diplomatic relations.
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Petrow's initial refusal to accept the deportation flights would still
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complicate Trump's promise of mass deportations in the early days
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of his administration. Other Latin American leaders have also raised
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questions over the United States treatment of deported migrants. Brazil's
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Foreign ministry is requesting an explanation from the US government
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over what it said was degrading treatment that deportees were
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subjected to on a U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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repatriation flight Friday. Regarding claims that deportees have been mistreated,
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former US officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said
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that shackles have been traditionally used around the world to
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prevent deportees from kicking, biding, or attacking accompanying security officials.
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While Petro has long criticized the United States, including its
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role in the War on drugs. He walked a careful
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line with the Biden administration. Despite Colombia's role as a
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cornerstone partner for the United States and South America. Trump
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appears to see Petro as an irreverent president who he
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wants to make an example of. Guzman of the Columbia
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Risk Analysis said he chose the wrong moment to face
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up Trump. Guzman said he's going to drag us into
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a personal conflict President Trump, with a significant burden on
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all of us. Petro, Columbia's first leftist president, who is
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closely allied with the presidents of Brazil and Mexico, said
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that over fifteen thoy six hundred US citizens are living
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in Colombia without the proper documents. Petro added that while
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he is aware some Americans are living in Colombia illegally,
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he's not going to return them to the United States
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and chains the rising tensions could have still re percussions
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for Colombians and their travel ability to the United States,
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especially at a time when the Trump administration has said
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it will implement travel bands for certain nationalities, said Diego Chavez. Gonzalez,
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a senior manager for the Migration Policy Institutes Latin American
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and Caribbean Initiative. Chavez Gonzalez, a Colombian native, urged the
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importance of reinforcing diplomatic channels between the two countries. The
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most damaging thing would be to continue to manage this
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situation in an improvised way on social media. He said.
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Petro's initial refusal to accept these flights came as Trump
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and his administration are upping efforts to detain undocumented immigrants nationwide,
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efforts that began soon after the President took office. On
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this last Monday, Levitt claimed that on Tuesday or Thursday,
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Mexico accepted a record of four deportation flights in one day.
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While NBC News reported Friday that Mexico had refused to
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accept a US military jet carrying deportees a day earlier,
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the Mexican Foreign Ministry denied it was blocking the returns
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of its citizens. Mexico has a good relationship with the
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government of the United States, and we cooperate with respect
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for each other's sovereignty on a wide range of issues,
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including migration, et cetera. A statement as far as repatriations go.
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We always accept the arrival of Mexicans and our own
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land with open arms. In Brazil, eighty eight Brazilian nationals
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were subject to what the country said was an undignified
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treatment on a repatriation flight. The passengers were handcuffed at
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their seats and feet, and the air conditioning system was broken,
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among other problems. According to a statement from the Foreign
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Ministry posted Saturday, the flight, which was bound for Confiene's
21:11
International Airport in Belo Horizonante, had to make an emergency
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landing Friday and Manaos due to technical problems, Brazil's Ministry
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of Justice and Public Security said. The Minister of Justice
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and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, slammed the flagrant disregard for
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the fundamental rights of Brazilian citizens. The next story Palestinians
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to return to northern Gaza after a ceasefire snag is resolved.
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AMAS has turned over a list of Israeli hostages with
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information on whether they were alive or dead, to be
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released during the pause in the fifteen month war from Jaffa, Israel.
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A day that began and with the masses of Palestinians
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blocked from returning to their homes in northern Gaza. The
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latest snag to threaten the shaky peace between Israel and
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Hamas ended with the militant group saying it had turned
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over a list of Israeli hostages to be released, including
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information on whether they were alive or dead. Israeli officials
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and hostage families have sought such information since the deadly
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Hamas attack of October seventh, twenty twenty three. Some of
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the two hundred and fifty one people who were abducted
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have since been freed or their bodies repatriated, but eighty
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seven are still believed to be held in the enclave.
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Hamas said Sunday night that it had given details on
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all hostages to be released in the first phase of
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the ceasefire to mediators in ongoing talks in Daha Cutter.
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Israel confirmed receiving them. The information was not immediately made
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public Earlier Sunday. Thousands of Palestinians were stranded along the
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enclaves two main north south highways, unable to move north
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to communities largely ruined by the fifteen months of war.
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Israel said it wouldn't open up a key corridor or
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permit more than one million displaced Palestinians to return north
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until Hamas released an Israeli civilian it said was already
23:30
supposed to be free. Late Sunday, a spokesman for the
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Katari Foreign Ministry said the sides had reached an understanding.
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Hamas was to release twenty nine year old Arbel Yehud
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and two other hostages before Friday, and Israel was to
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allow Gazans to return to northern areas beginning Monday morning.
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The Israeli Defense Forces issued instructions in Arabic for those
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who planned to make the journey. Each side accused the
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other of renigging on the deal broken by the Biden
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and Trump administrations, as well as Egypt and cutter to
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pause the conflict that has flattened much of Gaza. Israel
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said Hamas agreed to turn over all living female civilians
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among the first hostages, but had not transferred to Yehud,
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abducted from her home in Kibbutz near Oz in the
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October seventh attack. Earlier, and Israeli familiar with negotiations told
24:35
The Washington Post that Israel would not allow Gazans to
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move to the northern part of the Strip until the
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matter is resolved. The person spoke on the condition of
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anonymity to discuss ongoing talks. President Trump over the weekend
24:53
said he wanted Jordan and Egypt to take in Palestinian
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refugees as part of a plan to clean out, a
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controversial approach previously advocated by Israel's right wing and military hardliners.
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Trump told reporters Saturday that he had spoken with King
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Abdullah the Second of Jordan about the idea, which Abdullah
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and other Arab leaders have rejected in the past. I
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said to him, I'd love you to take on more
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because I'm looking at the whole Gaza strip right now
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and it's a mess. Trump said, I'd like him to
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take people, and I'd like Egypt to take people. Gozzens,
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many of whom have been living for months and tents
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and camps for displaced people, were eager to return to
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war battered homes, reunite with relatives and start to rebuild,
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but many have no homes left, only piles of broken
25:52
concrete and rebar and in some cases, the bodies of
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loved ones buried underneath the idea of On Sunday, opened
26:01
fire on civilians waiting on the coastal ill Rashad Highway,
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killing two people and injuring at least eighteen others, according
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to a spokesman for Al Awada Hospital in Nusriyat, where
26:15
casualties were taken. The IDFs and troops fired warning shots
26:21
at several gatherings of dozens of suspects who were advancing
26:25
toward the troops and posed a threat. Several displaced Palestinians
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told the Post that they planned to wait a few
26:33
days before heading north to avoid any violence that might erupt.
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Tamer Alfarani, twenty seven, left the p Buriji camp at
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seven a m. Sunday to join the crowds on Al
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Rishid Highway. He planned to walk to the Softawa neighborhood
26:51
in Gaza City, where he expected to find the bodies
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of his sister, her husband, and their four children, ages fourteen, twelve,
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of eight and five in the ruins of the family home.
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The five story building was destroyed in mid December, he
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said by phone, and he lost contact with his sister
27:10
on December first. He expected he would have to dig
27:14
them out by hand. The family, like Minny in Gaza,
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was searching for services to help when Farani learned Sunday
27:23
that he would not be allowed to pass. He turned
27:26
back as soon as they opened the road. I will go,
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he said God Deir. Ayoub, thirty three, said her parents
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planned to set up a tent on the rubble of
27:37
their house in the northern city of Bet Lahiya. Her
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parents' car was packed and ready to move as soon
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as the road's open. They know nothing remains of their home,
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but she said one has to returned to their land. Ayoub,
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who has been living in a handmade tent in Deir
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al Ballah, planned to remain in Central God. She was
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afraid of the war restarting and becoming separated from her
28:04
work and livelihood. The IDF warned Palestinians early Sunday against
28:10
approaching the heavily fortified net Zarim corridor, which bisects Salah
28:16
al Din v Rode. Lieutenant Colonel Achieve Adre, an Arab
28:22
language spokesman for the IDF, said it would remain closed
28:26
until Yehud's release. Hamas said it was following up with
28:31
the mediators with full responsibility to reach a solution that
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leads to the return of the displaced. Hamas led fighters
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streamed out of Gaza early on October seventh, twenty twenty three,
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murdering about twelve hundred people and Israel and taking two
28:50
hundred and fifty one back to the enclave as hostages.
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Israeli responded with a military campaign that has killed forty
28:58
seven thousand, three hundred peace in Gaza, according to the
29:01
enclaves Health Ministry, and displaced nearly the entire population of
29:06
two point two million. The Sea's Fire is to proceed
29:09
in three phases. The first Hamas is to release Israeli
29:14
hostages and Israel is to temporarily halt IDF operations, release
29:19
Palestinian prisoners, and allowing a surge of humanitarian aid. In
29:25
the second, the sides are to complete the releases and
29:29
tackle the most difficult issue, who will rule Gaza next.
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But there are fears on both sides of the deal
29:39
prematurely collapsing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hasn't ruled out
29:46
Israel returning to fighting. Far right politicians. Netinyaho's key coalition
29:52
partners have blasted the deal and threatened to take down
29:56
his government. The IDEF was supposed to evac the heavily
30:00
fortified Nizarim Corridor after the second round of releases. Which
30:05
took place on Saturday. Hamas had said the return to
30:09
the north would begin Sunday. The deal declares permitted routes.
30:14
Palestinians are to be allowed to travel by foot along
30:18
the Al Rashid Highway and in vehicles to be inspected
30:23
by private military contractors on Salah al Din Road. Israeli
30:29
forces are to pull out of Netzium to positions nearby.
30:34
The guards hired through UG Solutions of North Carolina, Save
30:39
Each Solutions of Wyoming and an Egyptian firm have been
30:44
instructed to search for and confiscate weapons. They are not
30:49
permitted to use force or make arrests, including of Hamas.
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Members the company say it's not clear how many people
30:57
will pass through or how the contractors will respond to violence.
31:02
Farini is among more than one million residents of northern
31:06
Gaza who, in the war's initial weeks fled for the south,
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where the idea of said people would be safer. They
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were not. He said. His family moved four more times
31:17
to escape the military campaign. Farani has most recently been
31:22
living with his parents and other relatives in the Breggi camp.
31:26
We have no place to live in Gaza city, he said,
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but we will to return to our houses, even though
31:32
they are entirely destroyed. If we have to, we will
31:35
make a tent and live in it. He doesn't know
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whether he'll receive aid in the north. He said he
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has never received a tin as of now. He said,
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none of the ceasefire housing aid has reached me. FERRANI
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has dreamed throughout the war of returning home. This is
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a new tragedy we have to go through now, he said.
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Of the displaced, Kazen said they couldn't afford the trip
32:02
or weren't ready to return to ruins. Mohammad al Masri
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said he no longer has a home in bit Hanun.
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His seventeen year old son, Hatham, has been missing for
32:13
nearly a year. The deal, he said, didn't do justice
32:18
to the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza suffering
32:21
through fifteen months of war. Israel failed and Hamas failed,
32:27
Masri said from his tent near the Nasir Hospital in
32:31
the southern city of Khanyunis. Masri said he could not
32:36
immediately afford the cost of transportation, food and housing to
32:39
return to his home near the border with Israel. He
32:43
planned to wait for a week and watched the situation develop.
32:48
For what was the war? He asked a year and
32:52
a half of war and suffering hunger and destruction. Masri's
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son left the family's temporary show alter in Rafa one
33:01
morning last year to sell cigarettes and never returned. He
33:06
has held up hope that his son was detained, not killed,
33:10
and would be among the Palestinians now being released. The
33:14
first sixteen guysen detainees were among those released Saturday. The
33:19
teenager was not among them, and the next story, Migrants
33:23
stranded by Trump's decision face rising hostility in Mexico. From
33:29
Mexico City, tens of thousands of migrants from Venezuela, Guatemala,
33:35
and other countries are stranded in Mexico after the Trump
33:39
administration shut down the asylum system of the border, increasing
33:43
the pressure on a nation bracing for a wave of
33:46
Mexican deportees. Frustration had already been growing in Mexico over
33:52
the number of migrants camped out in cities far from
33:55
the border, trying to secure American asylum appointments through a
33:59
more mobile app run by US Customs and Border Protection.
34:04
In Mexico City, some migrants have built tense cities and
34:07
slept on the streets. In a country long sympathetic to migrants,
34:12
neighbors started protesting. Now those migrants have no clear path
34:17
to the United States. Everyone is in limbo, desperate, trying
34:23
to figure out what to do, said the Reverend Louis
34:26
Juan Carhabal, who runs the Archangel Raphael migrant shelter in
34:32
southern Mexico City. The Mexican government has no data on
34:36
how many foreigners have been waiting within its borders for
34:39
their US appointments. Reuters and the Associated Press, citing CPB officials,
34:46
have reported that about two hundred and eighty thousand would
34:49
be migrants in Mexico have been trying to make appointments.
34:54
A CBP of spokesman said he couldn't confirm those figures.
35:00
Si January twenty twenty three, almost one million people have
35:05
crossed into the United States via the app CBP one.
35:11
Once asylum seekers obtained their appointment, which could take months,
35:15
they could live and work in the United States while
35:18
their requests were processed. The Biden administration and the Mexican
35:24
government praised the system for curtailing the practice of migrants
35:28
swarming the border, but migrants then congregated in places such
35:33
as Mexico City to avoid cartel controlled areas farther north.
35:40
The cancelation of the CBP one program comes as the
35:43
Mexican government is worried about its own migrants, is building
35:48
huge shelters for its citizens who may be sent back
35:51
from the United States under President Trump's mass deportation program.
35:56
Mexico may also wind up accepting some foreign deportees, though
36:01
that's not yet confirmed. For the Mexican deportees, there's a
36:06
good plan, said Arturo Rocha, who served as a senior
36:11
Mexican migration official until last year. But for the foreigners
36:16
now stranded in Mexico, there's uncertainty about what's going to
36:20
happen to them. They could be a valuable asset for
36:24
Mexico if they can be integrated into the labor market,
36:27
he said, But as in the United States, it's difficult
36:31
for undocumented immigrants to obtain legal status. After seven months
36:38
in the Mexican capital, Marie Ba Ruiz, who was forty
36:42
two of Venezuelan security guard, was on the verge of
36:46
making it into California. She her husband, and their two
36:51
small daughters had been issued an appointment for February second
36:55
to file their asylum claim. They'd brought plane tickets to
36:59
tia Juana. Then last Monday, just hours after Trump was
37:03
sworn in, Ruiz opened the CBP one app on her phone.
37:08
Her appointment had been canceled, along with thirty thousand others.
37:13
Now she doesn't know what to do. Venezuela's economy has
37:16
collapsed in recent years. I never had enough money to
37:21
feed my kids properly, she said. Her family now lives
37:24
in a dirt floor shack the size of a large
37:27
closet made of scrap wood and plastic sheeting, and a
37:30
migrant camp in northern Mexico City. She and her husband
37:35
work odd jobs. At least they can afford to eat.
37:39
There's no way I'm going back to Venezuela, she said.
37:43
Mexico City was entirely unprepared for the surge of migrants
37:47
over the past two years. The capital shelters have room
37:51
for only two hundred and eighty migrants. Shelters run by
37:57
charities can take in another one thousand, said timstoles Villeueva,
38:02
the city's top immigration official. About seventeen hundred migrants are
38:07
living on the streets or in informal camps, he said.
38:11
In May, protests broke out in three neighborhoods in the
38:15
capitol where migrants had set up tent camps. Residents blocked
38:20
major avenues holding signs reading the street is not a shelter.
38:25
When the federal government announced it would open a refugee
38:29
office in the upscale neighborhood of Anzurs, it was met
38:34
with furious demonstrations. The government backed off, moving the facility
38:39
to a poor neighborhood in the south. Last month, Mexico
38:44
City announced a plan to more than double the space
38:47
at migrant shelters. Trump's announcement changes everything, Villanueva said. Before
38:53
most migrants eventually moved on to the border, this possibility
38:58
of entering the US in illegal war is over. The
39:04
influx of migrants into Mexico City is partly due to
39:08
the design of the CBP one app Until recently, it
39:12
could only be accessed by asylum seekers who had reached
39:16
the capitol or points farther north. Under CBP one, American
39:21
authorities provided fourteen hundred and fifty asylum appointments a day
39:26
through a lottery system. At Carbahal's shelter, some people clinched
39:31
an appointment within days, Others had to keep trying for months.
39:37
Mexico has become sort of a giant waiting room, the
39:41
Catholic priest said. The Biden administration further pushed people toward
39:47
the app by limiting asylum for those who tried to
39:50
simply across the border illegally. Those policies, plus intensified Mexican enforcement,
39:57
drove down illegal crossing sharply. Trump administration officials, however, took
40:03
a damn view of the program, saying was a magnet
40:06
for migrants, many of whom will eventually fail to qualify
40:10
for asylum. The CBP one program was a way to
40:14
bring order to the flood of asylum seekers, to make
40:18
it more safe and efficient, said Jorge Durand, a migration
40:22
scholar at the University of Guadalajara. But he said it
40:27
should have been accessible from the migrants' countries of origin,
40:31
because otherwise the problem lands in Mexico. Majolivrez thirty two,
40:38
a street vendor from Venezuela, left because of the economic
40:43
crisis and moved to Chile, but the mother of two
40:47
couldn't get legal status. Lured by the promise of the
40:51
CBP one app she undertook the punishing journey north, surviving
40:56
a kidnapping by a criminal gang in southern Mexico. I
41:01
wanted a house for my kids, she said, looking down
41:04
as she sliced tomatoes in the kitchen at the Archangel
41:08
Raphael shelter. Now I'm thinking what can I do? Go
41:12
back home or stay in Mexico and try to get papers.
41:18
Mexico has more than one million unfilled jobs, authority say,
41:23
but it can be very hard for immigrants to gain
41:26
legal status. Dana Graberladik, the representative here from the International
41:33
Organization for Migration, said the process was costly and often unclear. Nonetheless,
41:41
she said there's a lot of commitment on behalf of
41:45
the government and civil society to make this work. President
41:51
Claudia Shinbaum has launched a CRASH program to prepare to
41:55
receive Mexican citizens who are deported from the United States.
42:00
Authorities are building dozens of shelters in northern cities. Shinebaum
42:05
said this week that businesses would open thirty five thousand
42:08
jobs to the deportees, but there's no similar program for
42:13
migrants stranded in Mexico. In part that's because authorities are
42:18
still waiting to learn the details of Trump's policies. He
42:23
plans to revive a program from his first term in
42:26
which migrants waited along the Mexican border for the US
42:30
asylum appointments. It's not yet clear whether he'll lean on
42:34
Mexico to take in deportees from other countries. Shinebaum has
42:39
said that Mexico will act in a humanitarian way toward
42:42
foreign migrants at the border and seek their repatriation. Analysis
42:48
predict that the cancelation of the cbp IE program will
42:52
fuel the migrant smuggling business. Huberson Saint Surin thirty seven,
42:59
a Haitian who arrived in Mexico City two months ago,
43:03
said there was no way he was going home. Large
43:06
swaths of the Caribbean nation are overrun by gangs. My
43:11
plan was to go to America until Donald Trump came
43:15
in and stopped the whole program, he said with a laugh.
43:18
So now there is a new plan. Wait until Donald
43:23
Trump finishes his four years and the next story. Trump's
43:27
new trade war may prove far more disruptive than his first. President.
43:33
Trump wasted no time last week before lobbying tear threats
43:38
at just about every significant US trendy trading partner in
43:42
a bracing display of executive power that was reminiscent of
43:46
his first term assault on global trade. But Trump's second
43:50
trade war is shaping up to be much different from
43:53
his first. The President's ambitions for a reordering of world
43:59
commerce are broader, the opposition at home and abroad is weaker,
44:06
and the economic risks he seems prepared to run may
44:10
be greater. In the first days of his second term,
44:14
Trump promised or threatened to impose tariffs on more than
44:17
two trillion dollars of foreign products, roughly two thirds of
44:22
everything America's buying from abroad. He ordered his cabinet deputies
44:27
to complete a comprehensive analysis of US trade policy by
44:31
April first, including deals he negotiated during his first term
44:35
with China, Canada, and Mexico, global taxation and currency values,
44:42
all with an eye toward developing a robust and reinvigorated
44:46
new approach. On Sunday, the President announced immediate tariffs on
44:51
goods from Colombia after the government in Bogata refused to
44:55
allow two US military aircraft carrying deported mind flagrants to land.
45:01
After spending much of the day in a tense stand off.
45:04
The two nations have for now averted a trade war
45:08
after the White House said late Sunday that Columbia agreed
45:11
to accept deportation flights from the United States. Trump may
45:16
have backed off those particular trade threats, but he has
45:20
mused about new trade imports, in taxes and virtually every
45:24
public appearance since his inauguration, and the studies he ordered
45:29
hinnant creative uses of presidential powers, including a potential doubling
45:35
of the teriff right for some foreign individuals and companies.
45:39
I think gets significantly different right now. The threats are
45:43
much more expansive, the sense of legal constraints seem much less,
45:48
said Ed Gresser, who led the Office of the US
45:51
Trade Representative Economic Research Unit during Trump's first term. It
45:56
suggests he feels, as president he has the right to
45:59
create a whole new tariff system all by himself. Trump
46:04
appears to be all but certain to act earlier in
46:07
his second term than he did in his first, when
46:10
he waited a full year before slapping tariffs on foreign
46:14
made washing machines and solar panels. He has threatened to
46:18
impose tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico on February first,
46:23
while suggesting that Europe, Russia, Brazil, India, and several other
46:28
countries could also see their goods taxed. But with his
46:33
top trade related officials still awaiting Senate confirmation, Tromp will
46:38
probably wait to act until the April first deadline for
46:42
completion of the multi part trade review. Part of the
46:46
president's strategy is to create uncertainty, said Myron Brilliant, senior
46:51
consultant at DGA Group, a business advisory firm. A more
46:56
harmonious administration trade team makes accelerated second term schedule more likely.
47:04
Trump's first term saw bitter fights between pro and anti terrifactions,
47:09
which delayed action. This time, key advisors, including Scott Descent,
47:15
Treasury Secretary DESIGNATET, and Howard Lutnick, nominated to become Commerce Secretary,
47:21
are on record supporting new taxes on imports, even if
47:25
they differ on implementation details. One of the biggest differences
47:31
is it appears they're not fighting with each other. It
47:34
seems like there's a lot more consensus, said Laurie Wallach,
47:38
director of Rethink Trade and nonprofit. There's no one who's
47:43
really trying to blow up the whole concept. Trump's second
47:47
term team also differs from its lineup he took into
47:51
his first trade war. Robert E. Leiheiser, Trump's chief trade
47:56
negotiator in his first term, has no formal role in
47:59
the current administration, though he continues to advise the president.
48:04
According to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke
48:07
on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, Trump
48:12
has nominated Jamison Greer, Lightheiser's former chief of staff, to
48:17
be his new trade representative. Greer, a well regarded trade
48:21
attorney a generation younger than Lightheiser, has called for broadening
48:26
tariffs on Chinese goods to include products manufactured in other
48:30
countries by Chinese companies. Trump is now wielding tariffs to
48:36
achieve a broader set of goals than during his first term,
48:39
when he focused largely on reducing the trade deficit encountering
48:44
what he described as unfair Chinese trade practices. He began
48:48
a second term offensive by focusing on non economic goals,
48:53
such as curbing the illegal flow of people and drugs
48:56
across US borders. The one overriding objective is using tariffs
49:02
to raise hundreds of billions of dollars each year to
49:06
offset the government revenue loss from extending the twenty seventeen
49:09
tax cuts that expire at the end of this year.
49:14
It's not that Trump himself has changed. He remains fixated
49:19
on bilateral trade deficits with individual nations, which most economists
49:24
regard as unimportant. He continues to talk of encouraging manufacturers
49:29
to relocate into the United States, and some of his
49:32
goals are contradictory. He wants to discourage imports by raising
49:37
their prices with tariffs, but he needs high levels of
49:40
imports to raise significant revenue. He now needs the money.
49:46
He didn't need the money in his first term. It's
49:48
now essential to what he's talking about, said William Reinstich,
49:53
a trade policy expert at the Center for Strategic and
49:56
International Studies in Washington. In the wake of Trump's popular
50:01
vote victory in November and the Democratic Party's rudderless response,
50:07
the environment he confronts now is more favorable. Opponents of
50:12
Trump's tariff plans occupy a weaker position now than they
50:16
did after his first election. After the November election, corporate
50:21
executives who once criticized him or were criticized by him,
50:26
rushed to the president's Marlago resort in South Florida to
50:30
make up for two generations. Most mainstay economists saw tariffs,
50:36
which are taxes that Americans pay on imported goods, as
50:40
economically inefficient, but the decade's long consensus in favor of
50:46
global economic integration, which was battered during Trump's first term,
50:51
eroded further under the Biden administration. Even some of the
50:57
most global American CEOs are a commodating the turn toward
51:01
economic national nationalism, JP Morgan Chase CEO. Jamie Diamond, who
51:08
criticized Trump's first term tariffs, struck a different tone last
51:13
week when asked about the new import levies. If it's
51:18
a little inflationary, but it's good for national security, so
51:21
be it. I mean, get over it, he said at
51:24
the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Businesses that vigorously
51:29
fought TERRORFF proposals during Trump's first term have largely accepted
51:34
the fact that more are coming. Their hope now is
51:38
too less to persuade the President to abandon his plans
51:41
than to be smart about implementing them. A lot more
51:45
people view this as part of the new normal. This
51:48
is where we are right now, said Stephen Lamar, president
51:52
of the American Apparel and Footwear Association. The conversation is
51:58
not about stopping these policies. It's about shaping policies so
52:02
they have the maximum bang for the buck. Some of
52:05
the president's chief foreign targets, such as China and the
52:09
European Union, are in no shape to fight an all
52:13
out trade war. The euro Area is expected to grow
52:18
at an annual rate of just one percent this year.
52:21
According to the International Monetary Fund, China's growth outlook is better,
52:26
but more precarious. I mean the hangover from a property bubble.
52:32
The Chinese economy is in danger of falling into a
52:35
debt trap, where weak demand causes prices to fall, making
52:41
it harder for businesses and consumers to repay their debts.
52:44
The IMF said this month Chinese manufacturers are producing more
52:49
goods than they can sell at home. Exporters are slashing
52:54
prices to boost sales to Americans and Europeans of everything
52:59
from toll to clean energy products. China's growing dependence on
53:04
exports leaves it vulnerable to the additional tariffs of ten
53:09
percent to sixty percent that Trump has proposed. Not all
53:14
of the post twenty eighteen changes favor Trump. The global economy,
53:19
for example, is more susceptible to inflation than it was
53:23
when the first Trump sought to reshape trade flows, making
53:27
the imposition of significant trade restrictions a bigger risk. According
53:31
to the IMF, in twenty eighteen, it had been decades
53:35
since consumers feared inflation. Businesses were typically unable to raise prices. Now,
53:43
after suffering the highest inflation in forty years, consumers are
53:47
more accustomed to seeing prices tick up. When companies' costs increase,
53:53
they are better able to pass along higher prices to
53:55
their consumers. Compared with twenty eighteen, the global landscape today
54:01
reflects greater concern over fragile supply chains, geopolitical tensions, and
54:07
structural factors like aging populations in high levels of public debt,
54:13
all of which could contribute to higher inflation. According to
54:16
Gregory Deko, chief economists at E Y Parthenon, it puts
54:23
us in a very different environment than we were in, say,
54:26
twenty eighteen. Duriko said, the fundamental underpinnings of the global
54:32
economy have changed, and finally, Belarus's Alexander Lukashinko set to
54:40
extend his thirty year rule from Minsk. Exit polls in
54:47
Belarus late Sunday showed autocrat Alexander Lukashinko taking eighty seven
54:53
point six percent of the vote in a presidential race
54:57
denounced by the European Union as a and the country's
55:02
opposition in exile as a non election. The polls, broadcast
55:08
on state television suggested Lukashenko, the seventy year old former
55:13
collective farmer who was ruled Belarus with an iron fist
55:17
for more than thirty years, would win a seventh term.
55:22
Lukashenko said he was too busy to even campaign, but
55:26
no matter he ran virtually unopposed. One of the five
55:31
candidates allowed to challenge him the Communist Party, Sergei Serrankov,
55:37
said he would be running together with Lukashenko, not against it. Another,
55:42
Alexander Kizhnayak, called Lukashenko the right choice. Lukashenko, meeting with
55:49
foreign journalists in a four hour news conference on Sindy,
55:53
said Belarusians didn't need a show. An election is a
55:57
serious thing. He said, serious things should be made seriously,
56:03
and why should we walk all over the place, shout
56:05
at the top of our lungs and hold rallies. He
56:08
was alluding to mass pro democracy protests in twenty twenty
56:13
that nearly toppled him. Lukashenko declined to say whether this
56:18
would be his final five year term as president. He
56:21
said he was not about to die and had no
56:24
specific successor in mind. The Belarusian constitution requires periodic elections.
56:32
When the country was part of the Soviet Union, candidates
56:35
would regularly receive ninety nine percent of the vote. What
56:40
in the democratic world you call elections has nothing in
56:44
common with his vent in Belarus. Sevetlana Tikhanoskaya, the exiled
56:50
opposition leader who was recognized in the West as the
56:53
true victor in Belarus's twenty twenty elections, said last week
56:57
he's like a a ritual for dictators, but reappointing themselves. Tikashkunaiska,
57:04
who was in DeVos, Switzerland, and others in civil society,
57:08
warned that the world should be paying attention not to
57:11
the election, but to Belarus's role in the Russian invasion
57:16
of Ukraine and Lukashenko's close relationship with Russian President Putin.
57:23
If we had won the elections in twenty twenty, there
57:26
most likely wouldn't have been an invasion of Ukraine. Franek
57:31
Viakoka Ti Kanoshkaya's chief adviser, said in a phone interview,
57:37
there can be no stability in Europe without stability in Belarus.
57:43
Lukashenko said Sandy had no regrets about allowing his older
57:47
brother Putin to use the country as a staging ground
57:49
for the invasion. And this concludes the reading of the
57:53
Washington Post for today, Monday, January twenty seventh. Your reader
57:57
today has been Rod Brotherton. If you have any questions, comments,
58:02
or suggestions concerning this program, please feel free to call
58:06
us at eight five nine four two two sixty three ninety.
58:11
Thank you for listening, and now please stay tuned for
58:14
continued programming right here on Radio I