International
Biden in Mexico for talks on migrants, drugs
January 9th | By AFP | Daniel Rook |
A regional migration and drug smuggling crisis is expected to dominate talks between US President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday.
Biden arrived in Mexico City late Sunday after a politically charged stop at the southern US border — his first since taking office.
He will meet Monday and Tuesday with Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau one-on-one and also together in what is dubbed the “Three Amigos” summit.
While trade and environmental issues are also on the table, Biden has put a surge in irregular migration and dangerous drug trafficking front and center of his trip, his first to Mexico as president.
“Our problems at the border didn’t arise overnight,” Biden tweeted after his arrival.
“And they won’t be solved overnight. But, we can come together to fix this broken system. We can secure the border and fix the immigration process to be orderly, fair, safe, and humane.”
Lopez Obrador, who joined Biden in his armored limousine for the journey from the airport, called for increased investment in the region so that people are less likely to flee their countries.
“Opportunities must be guaranteed to citizens, to workers of all countries in their places of origin,” he told reporters.
‘Where are our rights?’
On his way to Mexico, Biden stopped for several hours in El Paso, Texas, a city at the heart of the troubled border.
He met with US officials at the Bridge of the Americas crossing, watching a demonstration of the latest border enforcement technology, as well as a customs sniffer dog.
He later got out of his motorcade to inspect a section of the tall fencing that snakes between El Paso and its twin city Juarez on the Mexican side.
“They need a lot of resources. We’re going to get it for them,” Biden told reporters after his visit to the customs post.
Just ahead of Biden’s arrival in Mexico, a line of migrants, some with children in their arms, were deported from El Paso to Ciudad Juarez, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
Venezuelan Jose David Melendez told AFP that he had been apprehended by border guards at a church where he was taking refuge.
“The police officers from the border patrol came and hit us, made us run, pointed guns at us, pointed at children with firearms. Where are our human rights?” the 25-year-old said.
Biden is under political pressure in the face of spiraling illegal border crossings and applications for asylum.
Adding to the crisis has been a surge in cross-border smuggling of the highly addictive and often deadly narcotic fentanyl.
Biden’s visit sought to respond to Republican accusations that he has been ignoring the situation.
On Thursday Biden announced an expansion of powers to expel people showing up at the border without clearance.
At the same time, a legal, strictly enforced pathway will be created for up to 30,000 migrants a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The quota will be restricted to those who already have a US sponsor, while anyone attempting to cross the border illegally will be expelled in coordination with Mexico.
Human rights groups harshly criticized this as closing the door on desperate people, but the Biden administration says its actions will essentially kill the market for human smuggling networks, while encouraging legitimate arrivals.
Cartel violence
In 2021, the United States and Mexico announced a revamp of their fight against drug trafficking to address the root causes of migration, encourage economic development and bolster curbs against cross-border arms smuggling.
Mexico is plagued by cartel-related bloodshed that has seen more than 340,000 people murdered since the government deployed the military in the war on drugs in 2006.
Days before Biden’s visit, Mexican security forces captured a son of notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life sentence at a US prison.
The United States had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Ovidio Guzman’s arrest, accusing him of being a key player in the Sinaloa cartel founded by his father.
Climate change and cooperation in clean energy technologies will also be on the summit agenda, with Mexico hoping to benefit from Washington’s efforts to reduce its reliance on Asia-based manufacturers.
International
White House considered dropping leaflets over Caracas to pressure Maduro
The White House recently proposed a plan to drop leaflets from U.S. military aircraft over Caracas to further pressure Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, according to sources familiar with the matter cited by The Washington Post.
The operation — which as of Saturday had not yet been authorized — considered dropping the leaflets this Sunday, the day of Maduro’s 63rd birthday. The materials were expected to highlight the $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, a bounty the White House doubled in August on the grounds that the Venezuelan leader is involved in “narcoterrorism.”
The proposal represents an escalation in Washington’s efforts to oust Maduro, a goal Trump pursued during his first term (2017–2021) and one that remains a priority for several of his top advisers.
Since the summer, the United States has carried out a large-scale military deployment in the southern Caribbean aimed at pressuring Maduro and, according to the White House, combating drug trafficking. This operation has resulted in the destruction of roughly twenty boats allegedly carrying narcotics and the deaths of 83 people on board.
In mid-November, Trump said he had made a decision regarding a possible military action in Venezuela, further raising tensions with Caracas.
On Friday, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an advisory urging commercial flights to “exercise extreme caution” when flying over Venezuela and the southern Caribbean due to the “potentially hazardous situation” linked to increased military activity in the region.
This prompted several European and American airlines to cancel flights to the Caribbean nation.
International
Trump attacks Europe and Biden on Truth Social ahead of talks on Ukraine peace plan
In a message posted on Truth Social, the U.S. president also targeted European nations, “which continue buying oil from Russia,” as well as his predecessor, Joe Biden, whom he accused of inaction at the start of the conflict.
“I inherited a war that never should have happened, a war in which everyone is losing,” the president wrote in all caps on his social media platform.
“The Ukrainian leaders have shown zero gratitude for our efforts, and Europe keeps buying oil from Russia.”
“The United States continues to sell massive quantities of weapons to NATO for distribution to Ukraine (corrupt Joe gave everything away — free, free, free — including large sums of money!),” he added.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet with a Ukrainian delegation in Geneva this Sunday in hopes of advancing Trump’s plan for Ukraine.
Washington now presents Trump’s 28-point proposal as a “framework for negotiations” aimed at ending the conflict, though it is viewed with concern in both Kyiv and Brussels.
International
Tatiana Schlossberg reveals aggressive leukemia diagnosis in personal New Yorker essay
In a deeply personal essay published in The New Yorker, Tatiana Schlossberg revealed her diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia with a rare genetic mutation known as Inversion 3, a variant that responds poorly to standard treatments.
The 35-year-old journalist explained that the disease was discovered shortly after the birth of her second daughter in May 2024, when doctors detected an extremely high white blood cell count. Schlossberg said she was in complete shock upon receiving the diagnosis, noting that she “didn’t feel sick” and had experienced a healthy pregnancy.
Her treatment since then has been intense. She has undergone chemotherapy, at least two bone marrow transplants, and is participating in clinical trials involving CAR-T therapy, an advanced form of immunotherapy. In one of these trials, her doctors told her they might be able to “keep [her] alive for a year, maybe less.”
Schlossberg reflected on her fears for her children, her husband, George Moran, and her parents, and on the emotional weight of becoming part of the Kennedy family’s long history of tragedy. She also criticized her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for political decisions that she argues have harmed medical research that could benefit cancer patients like her.
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