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The U.S. Interior Department on Thursday gave final approval to ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada, the first domestic source of the battery metal to be permitted by President Joe Biden’s administration and one that will become a key supplier to Ford and other electric vehicle manufacturers. 

Shares of the Australia-based critical minerals miner jumped more than 20% in New York trading on Thursday afternoon before easing down. 

The approval ends a more-than six-year review process during which regulators, ioneer and conservationists tussled over the fate of a rare flower found at the mine site, a tension that exposed the sometimes competing priorities between climate change mitigation efforts and biodiversity protection. 

The permit, which had been expected by the end of the year, comes amid a flurry of recent moves by Biden officials to support critical minerals production and offset China’s market dominance.  

It also unlocks a $700 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as a $490 million equity investment from Sibanye Stillwater to fund the project. 

“This is a science-based decision,” Laura Daniel-Davis, the Interior Department’s acting deputy secretary, told Reuters. “We’re trying to send a signal that there’s no topic with greater importance than addressing climate change.” 

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is controlled by the Interior Department, on Thursday issued the Rhyolite Ridge project’s record of decision — essentially the mine’s permit — and said the project will “include significant protections for the local ecosystem” and help create hundreds of jobs in the rural region.  

The project, roughly 362 kilometers north of Las Vegas, Nevada, contains enough lithium to power roughly 370,000 electric vehicles each year. Construction is slated to begin next year, with production commencing by 2028, a timeline that would make Rhyolite Ridge one of the largest U.S. lithium producers alongside Albemarle and Lithium Americas. 

The U.S. Geological Survey has labeled lithium a critical mineral vital for the U.S. economy and national security.  

“We’re proud to be the first U.S. lithium mine permitted by the Biden administration,” James Calaway, ioneer’s chairman, told Reuters. 

The project will extract lithium as well as boron, a chemical used to make ceramics and soaps, from a clay-like deposit. The lithium will be processed on site into two main derivatives used to make batteries, and the company said it plans to recycle half of all the water used at the site, higher than the industry average. 

Ford and a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic have agreed to buy lithium from the mine. 
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«Ми завершили будівництво на 80%, і замовлення на машини надходять», заявив виконавчий директор компанії
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Polls show that Americans’ trust in news reporting is at an all-time low. And while the decline has many causes, it reflects both the changing media landscape and the values of media consumers.

Nearly 250 years since the principle was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, a majority of Americans still agree that a free press is crucial to a democratic society, according to polling by the Pew Research Center. But how they feel about the existing press is a different matter.

The same polls show that only one-third of Americans believes the country’s media report the news objectively. And a September Gallup poll reveals that Americans’ overall trust in mass media has declined to an all-time low of 32%.

Much of the narrative around declining faith in media has been shaped by political partisanship. The last time that America saw such low levels of media confidence was in 2016, when Donald Trump amplified longstanding conservative complaints about liberal media bias by attacking critical coverage of his presidential campaign as “fake news.”

Accordingly, self-identified Republicans report less trust in media, reaching a low of 11% compared with 58% for Democrats.

However, partisan trends don’t capture the whole picture. While partisan divergence in media confidence significantly widened during the presidency of Republican George W. Bush, overall trust in media institutions has been declining for supporters of both parties as well as independents since Gallup first began tracking it in the 1970s.

The rise of partisan cable news networks in the 1990s and digital news, along with social media in the 2000s, has reflected and exacerbated this trend. And dissatisfaction with perceived bias in coverage of conflicts such as the Iraq War or Israel’s invasion of Gaza has also reduced trust in traditional news sources among left-leaning Americans, often driving them toward unreliable alternative sources.

As Americans lose trust in traditional media, they also engage less with it. While over half of adults in the U.S. now report getting their news from social media, audiences and advertising revenue have shrunk when it comes to newspapers and TV news.

In fact, part of the story behind declining trust in media is Americans across the political spectrum becoming less interested in news overall. Nearly two-thirds of Americans are experiencing news fatigue while 38% report that they follow the news closely, compared with 51% in 2016.

Do Americans want independent journalism?

The simultaneous loss of trust and interest in news media has raised questions beyond simple accusations of partisan bias. While criticism of the media often focuses on whether the core principles of independent journalism are being upheld, the principles themselves may not be popular.

A recent study by the Media Insight Project found that common journalistic values such as amplifying marginalized voices, holding power to account or increasing public transparency do not enjoy majority support.

In fact, such values may not be as integral to journalism as is commonly believed. As Columbia University journalism professor Michael Schudson writes, the modern idea of journalism as an independent investigative force and a check on government power has been a fairly recent development.

And amid today’s rapid social, political and technological changes, the role that people expect journalism to play in society may once again be shifting.
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Адвокатку підозрюють у виправдовуванні російської агресії
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washington — The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies have new marching orders — to more quickly embrace and deploy artificial intelligence as a matter of national security.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed the directive, part of a new national security memorandum, on Thursday. The goal is to make sure the United States remains a leader in AI technology while also aiming to prevent the country from falling victim to AI tools wielded by adversaries like China.

The memo, which calls AI “an era-defining technology,” also lays out guidelines that the White House says are designed to prevent the use of AI to harm civil liberties or human rights.

The new rules will “ensure that our national security agencies are adopting these technologies in ways that align with our values,” a senior administration official told reporters, speaking about the memo on the condition of anonymity before its official release.

The official added that a failure to more quickly adopt AI “could put us at risk of a strategic surprise by our rivals.”

“Because countries like China recognize similar opportunities to modernize and revolutionize their own military and intelligence capabilities using artificial intelligence, it’s particularly imperative that we accelerate our national security community’s adoption and use of cutting-edge AI,” the official said.

But some civil liberties advocates are raising concerns that the new guidelines lack sufficient safeguards.

“Despite acknowledging the considerable risks of AI, this policy does not go nearly far enough to protect us from dangerous and unaccountable AI systems,” according to a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union’s Patrick Toomey.

“National security agencies must not be left to police themselves as they increasingly subject people in the United States to powerful new technologies,” said Toomey, who serves as deputy director of ACLU’s National Security Project.

The new guidelines build on an executive order issued last year that directed all U.S. government agencies to craft policies for how they intend to use AI.

They also seek to address issues that could hamper Washington’s ability to more quickly incorporate AI into national security systems.

Provisions outlined in the memo call for a range of actions to protect the supply chains that produce advanced computer chips critical for AI systems. It also calls for additional actions to combat economic espionage that would allow U.S. adversaries or non-U.S. companies from stealing critical innovations.

“We have to get this right, because there is probably no other technology that will be more critical to our national security in the years ahead,” said White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, addressing an audience at the National Defense University in Washington on Thursday.

“The stakes are high,” he said. “If we don’t act more intentionally to seize our advantages, if we don’t deploy AI more quickly and more comprehensively to strengthen our national security, we risk squandering our hard-earned lead.

“We could have the best team but lose because we didn’t put it on the field,” he added.

Although the memo prioritizes the implementation of AI technologies to safeguard U.S. interests, it also directs officials to work with allies and others to create a stable framework for use of AI technologies across the globe.

“A big part of the national security memorandum is actually setting out some basic principles,” Sullivan said, citing ongoing talks with the G-7 and AI-related resolutions at the United Nations.

“We need to ensure that people around the world are able to seize the benefits and mitigate the risks,” he said.
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Голова ОВА вказав на те, що Покровськ і його околиці є мішенню для російських військ, і закликав місцевих жителів евакуюватися
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SEATTLE — Boeing factory workers voted to reject a contract offer and continue a more than five-week strike on Wednesday, in a blow to new CEO Kelly Ortberg’s plan to shore up the finances of the struggling planemaker.

The vote was 64% in opposition to the deal, which offered a 35% rise in wages over four years, in a major setback for Ortberg who took the top job in August on a pledge to work more closely with factory workers than his predecessors.

The rejection of Boeing’s offer, which comes after 95% of workers voted against a first contract last month, reflects years of resentment from workers who felt cheated by the company in talks a decade ago and deepens a financial crisis.

After the vote, union leaders said they were ready to immediately resume negotiations with Boeing on the first major negotiation since 2014, when the company used the threat of moving production of the new version of the 777 out of the region to push through a deal that ended traditional pensions.

The union has been seeking a 40% pay rise and the return of the defined-benefit pension.

Boeing factory workers were also venting frustration after a decade when their wages have lagged inflation and critics have complained that the planemaker spent tens of billions of dollars on share buybacks and paid out record executive bonuses.

“This membership has gone through a lot … there are some deep wounds,” the union’s lead contract negotiator Jon Holden told reporters after the vote.

“I want to get back to the table. Boeing needs to come to the table as well. Hopefully, we can have some fruitful discussions with the company, and Mr. Ortberg, to try and resolve this.”

Boeing declined comment on the vote.

Some 33,000 machinists downed tools in Boeing’s West Coast factories on Sept. 13, halting production of the best-selling 737 MAX as well as 767 and 777 wide-body programs.

Time is running out for Boeing, historically the largest U.S. exporter, and its biggest union to reach a deal before the busy political period surrounding the presidential election on Nov. 5.

With Boeing and IAM at a stalemate earlier this month, acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su had helped get the latest offer presented for a vote after attending in-person talks with both parties in Seattle last week.

Holden said after the union vote that he would reach out to the White House to see if the union could get more assistance negotiating with Boeing.

“After the first contract offer was rejected, the honeymoon was over on the labor reset. This further validates that,” said Scott Hamilton, an aviation consultant.

“It’s bad news for everybody – Boeing, labor, suppliers, customers, even the national economy.”

Boeing is the largest customer for a U.S. aerospace supply chain already facing critical financial pressure.

Fuselage supplier Spirit AeroSystems warned that if the strike continued beyond the end of November, there would be layoffs and more drastic furloughs.

The company, which is in the process of being taken over by Boeing, has already announced a 21-day furlough for 700 workers.

‘Defining moment’

Boeing has announced plans to cut 17,000 jobs and is closing in on a plan to raise up to $15 billion from investors to help preserve its investment grade credit rating, while some airlines have had to trim schedules due to aircraft delivery delays.

Ortberg warned on Wednesday there was no quick fix for the ailing planemaker.

In a quarterly earnings call, Boeing forecast it would burn cash through 2025. Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said after the vote that the decision to prolong the strike could worsen the expected drain on cash.

The specter of a quality crisis from a January mid-air panel blowout hangs over Boeing.

Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, said this was now the “defining moment” of Ortberg’s short tenure and he needed to get a deal across the line soon.

“There’s a feeling that he hasn’t handled this as well as he might have,” Aboulafia said. “They’ve (Boeing) got to get this done, and they’re in a position of weakness.”

The rejection from workers on Wednesday was the second in a formal vote after the offer of a 25% pay rise over four years was rejected last month, leading to the strike.

Many comments on social media and from workers outside voting stations had cast doubt on a deal.

“We’re ready to go back on strike until we get a better deal,” Irina Briones, 25, said after the vote.

“They took a bunch of numbers and moved them around to make them look like they’re giving us more than they were,” said Josh Hajek, 42, who has worked six years at Boeing on wing assembly.

Voting figures showed the two sides getting closer to a deal but still a solid majority in favor of prolonging the strike.

Before the vote, Terrin Spotwood, a 20-year-old machinist in 737 wing assembly, said he planned to approve the contract because the offer was “good, but not great.” He said several coworkers planned the same because they “can’t really afford to say no to this contract. They have to go back to work.”

Even so, many workers are still angry about the last deal signed a decade ago.

“We’re going to get what we want this time. We have better legs to stand on this time than Boeing,” said Donovan Evans, 30, who works in the 767 jet factory outside Seattle.
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WASHINGTON — There is new evidence China, Iran and Russia are aggressively expanding their efforts to influence American voters to potentially sway the result of the upcoming U.S. elections.

Two threat intelligence reports Wednesday, one from software giant Microsoft and the other from the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, detail growing activity by cyber actors linked to each country — all aiming to impact U.S. public perceptions with less than two weeks before voters go to the polls.

The biggest change, according to Microsoft, comes from Chinese-linked actors known to researchers as Spamouflage or Taizi Flood.

“Chinese influence operations have recently taken a new turn, shifting focus to several down-ballot candidates and members of Congress,” Microsoft said, noting that starting in September, China has targeted at least four prominent Republican lawmakers, all of whom are known critics of the government in Beijing.

Most recently, the Chinese-linked accounts targeted Texas Republican Michael McCaul, accusing the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee of “abusing power for personal gain.” 

Late last month, other Spamouflage began going after Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, Microsoft said. And earlier this month, the same effort began promoting Blackburn’s opponent in the November 5 election.

Other targets include Alabama Republican Representative Barry Moore, who was subjected to content criticizing his support for Israel, and the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Marco Rubio, who was accused of corruption.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected the allegations in the Microsoft report.

“The presidential elections are the United States’ domestic affairs,” embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu told VOA Wednesday, echoing previous Chinese denials. 

“Such allegations are full of malicious speculations against China, which China firmly opposes,” he added.

U.S. lawmakers, however, said they were not surprised by the uptick in malign activity.

“The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] cannot stand anyone who supports and gives a voice to those they oppress; their response is to sanction and attack,” McCaul said in a statement to VOA. 

“I consider it a badge of honor when the CCP — a leading abuser of human rights, censor of free speech, and oppressor of its own people — takes issue with my work,” he said. 

Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for the Chinese influence efforts to “be taken very seriously.”

“China is becoming increasingly more aggressive,” Rubio said in a statement to VOA. “China’s goal is to shape American opinion on critical issues and target specific candidates, especially those they view as anti-China.”

Growing threats

The reports from Microsoft and Recorded Future warn Beijing is not alone.

Specifically, the reports caution the Russian-linked cyber actors, known to researchers as Storm-1679 or Operation Overload, have increased their pace of operations over the past month and a half and are showing signs that more influence operations are on the way.

“Operation Overload is very likely to ramp up its activities,” said the Recorded Future report.

Recorded Future said many of the Russian efforts, of late, have sought to provoke anger toward the LGBTQ+ community “using disinformation to perpetuate discriminatory beliefs around transgender individuals, perceived behavioral issues, gender transition and reassignment surgeries, and pharmaceutical treatments.”

Other influence operations, the report said, are making use of AI-generated voiceovers to emulate the style of U.S. broadcast journalists.

Microsoft said the Russian cyber actors also have found ways to reach additional U.S. voters by shifting much of the content from the Telegram social media platform to X.

“Storm-1679 videos posted to X received higher levels of engagement,” Microsoft said.

Microsoft researchers also warned there are signs Iran is also ramping up its election interference efforts.

The Microsoft report says that in one instance, less than two weeks ago, “an online persona operated by Iran began falsely posing as an American and called on Americans to boycott the elections due to both candidates’ support for Israel’s military operations.”

Russia and Iran, like China, have repeatedly denied any involvement in efforts to meddle with the U.S. election.

But the new findings from Microsoft and Recorded Future align with assessments from U.S. intelligence officials.

“Foreign actors — particularly Russia, Iran and China — remain intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans and undermine Americans’ confidence in the U.S. democratic system consistent with what they perceive to be in their interests,” according to a declassified assessment issued Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

U.S. intelligence officials have previously said Russia has been working to boost the chances of former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump, while Iran has been working to hurt Trump’s reelection bid and instead buoy the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

And while there is little evidence to suggest China has sought to affect the U.S. presidential race, intelligence officials have said Beijing has been focusing its efforts on congressional and state and local candidates perceived to be promoting policies detrimental to Beijing’s interests.
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За даними Центру Разумкова, частка таких людей за рік зросла на 14%
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department has sent a letter to Elon Musk’s super PAC warning that the billionaire Tesla CEO’s $1 million giveaways may violate federal law, several media organizations reported on Wednesday, citing people briefed on the matter.

A letter from the department’s public integrity section, which investigates potential election-related law violations, went to the PAC.

The Justice Department and Musk’s America PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

South African-born Musk, who has thrown his support behind Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump ahead of the November 5 election, announced on Saturday while speaking before a crowd in Pennsylvania that he was giving away $1 million each day until Election Day to someone who signs his online petition supporting the U.S. Constitution.

He handed $1 million checks to two separate people over the weekend — one to a man in Harrisburg on Saturday and another to a woman in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world’s richest person, so far has supplied at least $75 million to America PAC, according to federal disclosures, making the group a crucial part of Trump’s bid to regain the White House.
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islamabad — The latest U.S.-imposed restrictions on entities supporting Pakistan’s defense programs may hinder Islamabad’s future efforts to acquire sensitive defense technologies and its collaboration with China but are unlikely to affect Pakistan’s weapons development for now, experts say.

Sixteen Pakistani firms were among 26 international companies added this week to a U.S, “entities list,” making them ineligible to acquire U.S. items and technology without government authorization.

Companies or individuals can be placed on the list if they are “involved or pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States,” according to a U.S. Commerce Department statement.

Nine of the 16 Pakistani companies added to the blacklist this week were accused of being front companies for a previously sanctioned company, Advanced Engineering Research Organization, deemed responsible for the country’s cruise missile and strategic drone programs.

The remaining seven entities were added for contributions to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program, the Commerce Department statement said. Other companies added to the list this week were accused of procuring U.S.-made items with military applications for China, Iran, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Defense analysts told VOA that addition to the list is unlikely to slow Pakistan’s missile program, which has continued despite multiple rounds of U.S. curbs on entities supporting it.

“It will not make a difference to Pakistan,” said Pakistani defense analyst Salman Javed, who acknowledged that the country relies on the United States for other defense technology needs. “I believe Pakistan’s missile program is in an advanced stage, and U.S. restrictions will have no impact on it.”

Former Pakistani army General Talat Masood said Pakistan has looked more to China than the United States for “the expertise and technology” needed to advance its drone program. But he said the new curbs might affect Pakistan’s future collaboration with China in the field of drones and their sale to other countries.

Pakistan has not officially responded to the latest restrictions but objected last month when Washington blacklisted four companies, three Chinese and one Pakistani, for “knowingly” transferring prohibited equipment to Pakistan. Islamabad said the sanctions were imposed “without any evidence whatsoever.”

Syed Irfan Ashraf, an assistant professor at the University of Peshawar in Pakistan, said the United States has long prevented arms technology sales in black markets to protect its interests. “However, the timing and scrutiny of entities supporting Pakistan right now is crucial” because of the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

In September, the U.S. State Department acted against five entities and one individual — all but one Chinese — that were involved in the proliferation of ballistic missiles and controlled missile equipment and technology to Pakistan.

Salman Ali, a Pakistani scholar at the School of Politics at the Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad, said the recent wave of U.S. sanctions represents a distinct shift from the usual regulatory measures observed since Pakistan’s de facto nuclearization and are aimed more at pressuring China.

“Over the past six rounds of U.S. curbs, it’s clear that the focus has been on the technical exchanges between China and Pakistan. These sanctions are not only intended to curb the rapid advancement of missile and drone programs but are also seen as a strategy to pressure China,” Ali told VOA.

Pakistan and Iran are both members of the China-led regional alliance Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which opposed the unilateral sanctions in its recently concluded summit October 16 in Islamabad.

This story originated in VOA’s Deewa Service. Iftikhar Hussain reported from Washington.
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У кількох областях на півночі, сході та півдні України триває повітряна тривога
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23 жовтня президент зустрівся із представниками громадянського суспільства
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Washington — Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff is warning that the Republican presidential nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office, Trump suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “did some good things.” 

The comments from John Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, came in interviews published Tuesday in The New York Times and The Atlantic. They build on past warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final two weeks. 

Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat “suckers” and “losers.” His new warnings emerged as Trump seeks a second term vowing to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers “enemies from within.” 

“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,'” Kelly recalled to the Times. Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but that Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again. 

In his interview with the Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing “German generals,” Kelly would ask if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor who oversaw the unification of Germany. “Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, “Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.” 

Trump’s campaign denied the accounts Tuesday, with campaign spokesman Steven Cheung saying that Kelly had “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated.” 

Polls show the race is tight in swing states, and both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are crisscrossing the country making their final pitches to the sliver of undecided voters. Harris’ campaign has spent considerable time reaching out to independent voters, using the support of longtime Republicans such as former Rep. Liz Cheney and comments like Kelly’s to urge past Trump voters to reject his candidacy in November. 

Harris’ campaign held a call with reporters Tuesday to elevate the voices of retired military officials who highlighted how many of the officials who worked with Trump now oppose his campaign. 

“People that know him best are most opposed to him, his presidency,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson. 

Anderson said he wished Kelly would fully back Harris over Trump, something he has yet to do. But retired Army reserve Col. Kevin Carroll, a former senior counselor to Kelly, said Wednesday that the former top Trump official would “rather chew broken glass than vote for Donald Trump.” 

Before serving as Trump’s chief of staff, Kelly worked as the former president’s secretary of homeland security, where he oversaw Trump’s attempts to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Kelly was also at the forefront of the Trump administration’s crackdown in immigration policy that led to the separation of thousands of immigrant parents and their children along the southern border. Those actions made him a villain to many on the left, including Harris. 

Kelly is not the first former top Trump administration official to cast the former president as a threat. 

Retired Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bob Woodward in his recent book “War” that Trump was “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” And retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who worked as secretary of defense under Trump, reportedly later told Woodward that he agreed with Milley’s assessment. 

Throughout Trump’s political rise, the businessman-turned-politician benefited from the support of military veterans. 

AP VoteCast found that about 6 in 10 military veterans said they voted for Trump in 2020, as did just over half of those with a veteran in the household. Among voters in this year’s South Carolina Republican primary, AP VoteCast found that close to two-thirds of military veterans and people in veteran households voted for Trump over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s toughest opponent in the 2024 Republican primary.
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San Diego — Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico fell 7% in September to a more than four-year low, authorities said Tuesday. It was likely the last monthly gauge during a presidential campaign in which Republican nominee Donald Trump has made immigration a signature issue. 

The Border Patrol made 53,858 arrests, down from 58,009 in August and the lowest tally since August 2020, when arrests totaled 47,283, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

Mexicans accounted for nearly half of the arrests, becoming a greater part of the mix. In December, when arrests reached an all-time high of 250,000, Mexicans made up fewer than 1 in 4. Arrests for other major nationalities seen at the border, including Guatemalans, Hondurans, Colombians and Ecuadoreans, have plunged this year. 

San Diego was again the busiest corridor for illegal crossings in September, followed by El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona. 

For the government’s fiscal year that ended on September 30, the Border Patrol made 1.53 million arrests after topping 2 million in each of the previous two years for the first time. 

The White House touted the numbers as proof that severe asylum restrictions introduced in June were having the intended effect, and blamed congressional Republicans for opposing a border security bill that failed in February. Vice President Kamala Harris has used that line of attack against Trump to try to blunt criticism that the Biden administration has been weak on immigration enforcement. 

“The Biden Harris administration has taken effective action, and Republican officials continue to do nothing,” said White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández. 

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a frequent administration critic and advocate for immigration restrictions, attributed recent declines to more enforcement by Mexican officials within their own borders, saying the White House “essentially outsourced U.S. border security to Mexico in advance of the 2024 election — policies that can be reversed at any time that the government of Mexico chooses.” 

Arrests fell sharply after Mexico increased enforcement in December, and took a steeper dive after the U.S. asylum restrictions took effect in June. U.S. officials have not been shy about highlighting Mexico’s role. 

Mexican authorities are encountering more migrants this year while deportations remain relatively low, creating a bottleneck. Panamanian authorities reported an increase in migrants walking through the notorious Darien Gap during September, though numbers are still well below last year. 

Troy Miller, acting CBP commissioner, said last week that the administration is working with Mexico and other countries to jointly address migration. 

“We continue to be concerned about any bottlenecks, we continue to look at those, we continue to address them with our partners,” Miller said at a news conference in San Diego. 

The Biden administration has promoted new and expanded legal pathways to enter the country in an effort to discourage illegal crossings. In September, CBP allowed more than 44,600 people to enter with appointments on an online system called CBP One, bringing the total to 852,000 since it was introduced in January 2023. 

Another Biden policy allows up to 30,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela with financial sponsors to enter monthly through airports. More than 531,000 people from those four countries have entered that way up through September. 
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Кабарчуків визнали винними в агентурній діяльності, приготуванні до акту тероризму, а також у злочинах, пов’язаних із боєприпасами
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Прокуратура назвала затриманого «прихильником надмірного російського націоналізму», який підтримує російську агресію
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