Blinken Travels To Mexico, U.S. Targeted By Iran-Backed Militias, Bidenomics
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U. S. Of visuals are in mexico to discuss immigration of thousands of migrants head for the U. S. border.

Mexico s. President says his work with the U. S. On border policy. So what .

can the two sides agree? IT. And this is a first from and beer news.

From lebanon to the red C. U. S. And israeli troops are in confrontations with iranian act regional militia. It's one way iron is demonstrating its power and influence in response to israel's escalating military Operation in gaza. Where have as rules what's being done to stop the war from expanding .

as twenty twenty four inches closer? President biden wants you to know the economy is showing the signs of improvement, but will voters agree when they cast their ballots in november? Stay with this will give you all the news you need to start your day.

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a group of senior officials in the biden administration are travelling to mexico today to talk immigration enforcement.

There's been in an unprecedented increase in the number of migrants at the border federal agency. How are to roughly two point five million this year.

N, P, R, immigration correspond. Jason guard joins us now. So you are travelling in on this trip today. What do you expect we will be discussed in the meetings?

So secretary of state empty ony blinking, a secretary of homeland security alin handmaiden gas and White house homeland security advisor Elizabeth that sure wood Randall are scheduled to meet with mexican president and the one way love is over at old and they'll be arriving around the same time as a caravel of thousands of migrants truck through mexico heading towards the U. S. border.

Now, president biden already spoke to president of this, so but I thought last week about curbing immigration, and the mexican president said they are in talks for mexico to secure its own southern border with ma, as well as to make IT more difficult for migrants to move up mexico. My understanding is that today's trip will be to flesh out the details of that enforcement. And there is a sense of urgency right now. There are ongoing negotiations in congress involving immigration enforcement.

right? Jason, those talks and congress have been going on for some time, but they're certainly ramping up this question of border security. Tell us a little bit more about that, about what at stake.

Well, of course, we're heading into an election year and a center piece of republican presidential campaigns has been widened. Immigration policies, which they are calling disastrous out to that recently, president by didn't requested wartime aid for ukraine and israel. In response, house republicans demanded that there be a drastic change in immigration policy to make applying for and receiving asylum m at the border far more difficult, as well as expanded deportations.

So what has the response been from mexico? All of these suggestions.

So this month, the mexican government halted a program to repay, treat and transfer migrants inside mexico due to lack of funds. President logis over alot has said he's willing to work with the us. The mexican president has also made IT clear he wants the biden administration to ease sanctions on the governments of cuba and venezuela. A significant percentage of migrants are from Venus villa, and he wants more aid to ln america.

Jasmine, I wanna zoom out away from the politics of this specific moment. You have spent a lot of time at the U. S. Mexico border covering migrants, covering humAnitary arian concerns. What are you hearing ahead of these potential policy changes I have?

And what is unfolding at the border is a humAnitary arian crisis. Like I haven't seen in my years of reporting. What i've heard is a lot of fear from advocates that IT could be a return to trump era policies where there was no access to asylum in the us, and that delegating immigration enforcement to mexico has LED to serious human rights abuses.

Ahead of this meeting, the U. S. Department of state has said IT will reaffirm the U. S. S. Commitment for the protection of asylum seekers and quote, underscore the urgent need for lawful le pathways in paris jassan .

in guards that thanks for taking the time to talk to a set of your busy day of reporting and travel. Thank you.

The past few weeks, from syria and lebanon to the red sea and even into iraq, there have been confrontations between the united states or israeli troops and militias backed by iran.

They have intensified because of israel's war against him, as as the death told there in gaza balloons over twenty thousand people and despite U. S. Pressure to reach at IT down, israeli officials say the war is likely to last quote many months.

And this week things escalated when U. S. Troops were injured in the iraq and the us. Carried out air strikes on the militia that claim to respons .

ibt joining us now from instable to discuss all of this is mp, is Peter kenyan. Good morning. Peter morning.

Here, let's step back for a moment and describe the bigger picture here. Iran has backed malicious all around the middle. St, why does he do that?

Well, this has been one of a runs preferred ways of projecting its influence in the region. I mean, you don't see iranian forces being shipped out in large numbers to conflict terriers in the midwest. But what you do see are ironi funded militia groups in action has belong lebanon, the hoods in yemen, various militias in iraq, and to some extent, homos.

How much is, of course, in a war with israel? El, after homos members killed some twelve hundred people in southern rael on october seventh, iran officials like to talk about the access of resistance. They mean groups that are fighting to reduce, or, if possible, eliminate the american military presence in the region. And it's an arrangement that lends terran influence without IT getting directly involved in the fighting.

So there have been a lot of incidents lately. This seems like there's almost daily shelling or air strikes between israel and has belong the lebanon on border. So what is IT that specifically occurred in the last few days that has folks concerned about escalation? Well.

in addition to the attacks from hesba, the north israeli just identified three soldiers killed in gaza, and palestinian officials said six people were killed in a drone strike in the west bank. Beyond that, this recent drone attack on a us. Base in the bill and north in iraq, critically, we would do the us.

Service person. And also recently, iran is israeli killed one of its sender commanders in syria. Headlines in irani and media have been filled with official comments vowing revenge for that.

There's also another factor here that the threat to shipping in the red sea and beyond rockets and missiles have been launched at tankers iran says are linked to israel IT LED some firms to send their vessels all away around africa rather than the more direct red sea route, and IT LED the us. To send warships to the region to quell rocket fire and to turn others from getting involved. That has some companies considering returning to the red sea.

So are there mechanisms or negotiations of some sort to keep this all from spiring out of control?

There are certainly plenty of calls for talks so far. Is a real Benjamin that to know who has shown no interest in having negotiations right now, he's been warning that israeli military could do to be root and let IT on what it's doing in the gaza strip. If has law decides to increase cross border attacks into israel, probably the main deterrence to escalation now is the worry that things could get out of control.

The us. Already has a couple of thousand troops in syria, some nine hundred, and doesn't need to see things heating up. Even iran, which talks a lot about getting other countries involved in the conflict, hasn't forgotten.

Its surrounded by gulf arab states with ties to the us. So all sides have something to lose. No one's entirely in control of events. Each attack brings pressure for a response, and the risk of escalation is very real. Diplomats are looking for some means of preventing that.

And pr, Peter kenyon and im, thanks so much for your reporting.

Thank you.

It's the top issue for americans when that often decides presidential elections, the economy.

it's shown some strong signs as of late receding inflation, lower employment, Better than expected job growth, and people are even spending record amounts of money this holiday season. But president biden IT does not seem to be benefiting politically. So what is going on here.

and we are senior political editor and correspondent to montana.

is joining us not to tell you OK.

So let's talk about the politics of all this. What argument is the White house making about how president biden has contributed to the state of economy?

I mean, they say that the fundamental are strong, inflations come down, unemployment continues to be low, and that job growth is pretty strong. But that really isn't filtering down to how americans feel about the economy. Polls have found that just one in five people raise the economy is at least good, and they say that they don't like how biden .

is handling IT. okay. So if there are positive science for the economy, why do people feel this way?

I mean, there are a lot across current here in the bottom line is I just don't think people look at this in a macro o economics kind of way. I think pretty simple when people see big signs with gas Prices higher than they'd like and when they see that they're bill, let the checked counter in the grocery stores twenty thirty dollars higher than they'd paid, you say, a year or two ago then that things in that sits with them even though inflation has receded.

That really doesn't mean that the Price of your morning coffee and eggs are going back to where they were, just that they're not going up as much as they had been. Plus the federal reserve has hiked interest strates several times over the last two years in an effort to bring down inflation that's made taking out loans more expensive. So the irony here is that the very tool that's being used to curb inflation is also making buying a house more difficult. And people are blaming biden.

So is there something more going on here than just economics?

yes. I mean, there's a lot of politics that play here too. You know, whether people think the economy is good or bad isn't just dependent on Prices or the unemployment rate. This is also about who you ask and which party is in the White house when you ask. What we found is that when a new administration comes in, there's been a sharp reversal in perceptions of the economy by party, and it's especially true of republicans.

For example, the pew research center found that at the talent and of the obama presidency, with unemployment just below five percent, only eighteen percent of republicans rated the economy as good or excEllent. But after trumping office, republicans jumped to eighty one percent. With biden in office, republican's views of the economy nosedived. Ed, again to ten percent. Now sure, inflation went up, obviously, but that kind of windlasses just can be explained by economics alone, especially considering that inflation was flat between the end of the obama White house and the trumps time in office.

Only we're going forward here, twenty twenty four and election years. So voters aren't buying what and selling on the economy. How difficult does that make his reelection chances?

It's a big problem. And especially when only twenty eight percent of democrats in the pupil are saying that they think that the economy is good right now, you know, biden has to hope that the economic good news continues, the inflation continues to come down, and that the fed gets more confident in the fundamentals of the economy, moves to cut rates and makes IT easier for people to do things of buying a house or car. But this is not an easy political problem for buying to solve at all.

Thank so much. are.

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