Good morning.
The US has ended Covid-19 border restrictions that blocked many migrants at the border with Mexico, immediately replacing the Title 42 restrictions with sweeping new asylum rules meant to deter illegal crossings.
The secretary of homeland security, Alejandro N Mayorkas, said on Thursday evening that 24,000 border patrol agents and officers had been sent to the border to enforce US laws, adding: “The border is not open.”
“Starting tonight, people who arrive at the border without using a lawful pathway will be presumed ineligible for asylum. We are ready to humanely process and remove people without a legal basis to remain in the US.”
In the hours before the regulations went into effect, thousands of migrants waded through rivers, climbed walls and scrambled up embankments on to US soil, hoping to be processed before midnight.
What is Title 42? In March 2020, under Donald Trump, the CDC issued an order limiting migration into the US, saying it was necessary to reduce the spread of Covid. The order made use of little-used laws dating back more than a century that authorized border officials to immediately remove migrants, including people seeking asylum, overriding their normal rights. Migrant and human rights advocates condemned Title 42 as a ploy to stop immigration. The Biden administration said it wanted to end Title 42 – but in fact tightened restrictions further.
What’s next for migrants to the US? Starting on 12 May, asylum seekers will be allowed to request asylum again at the border and will be interviewed by immigration officers. Those who are found to have a “credible fear” of being persecuted in their home countries can stay in the US and go through the immigration court system until a final determination is made. That can take years.
Trump’s team revels in town hall victory as CNN staff rage at ‘spectacle of lies’
Donald Trump and his circle believe he got everything he wanted from the town hall hosted by CNN, even as it prompted a wave of outrage and embarrassed the network, including many of its own staff who were upset it gave the former president a platform to lie to a large audience.
Trump was interested in doing the town hall with CNN for two main reasons, people close to him said. There was an understanding that CNN would book Trump surrogates – which a CNN spokesperson denied – and because it would give the campaign vast amounts of material to clip for social media.
Trump was not particularly concerned by whether the broadcast would get high ratings, though he told CNN’s chief executive, Chris Licht, backstage that he would boost their ratings, to which Licht nodded and said he should have “a good conversation and have fun”, two of the people said.
Trump’s camp saw the town hall ultimately as a strategic win for Trump, who revelled in playing off the live audience of Republican and Republican-leaning voters in New Hampshire, which is hosting the first 2024 GOP presidential primary, and talked over the CNN moderator, Kaitlan Collins, as she tried to factcheck him in real time.
What else has happened since? Writer E Jean Carroll is considering suing Donald Trump for defamation again after the former US president made disparaging remarks about her during a televised CNN town hall a day after he was found liable in a civil case for sexually assaulting her.
What has CNN said about the town hall? Addressing staff anger over the decision to host the New Hampshire event, Licht saluted what he called a “masterful performance” by Collins, who attempted to cope with Trump’s lies and abusive comments in front of a raucous Republican audience. On an internal call, Licht reportedly told staffers: “You do not have to like the former president’s answers, but you can’t say that we didn’t get them. Kaitlan pressed him again and again and made news … Made a lot of news, [and] that is our job.”
In other news …
The societal cost of using toxic PFAS or “forever chemicals” across the global economy totals about $17.5tn annually, an analysis has found. Meanwhile, the chemicals yield comparatively paltry profits for the world’s largest PFAS manufacturers – about $4bn annually.
A day after the New York representative George Santos pleaded not guilty to charges in the US, he signed an agreement yesterday with public prosecutors in Brazil to avoid prosecution for forging two stolen checks in 2008. “What would have been the start of a case was ended today,” Santos’s lawyer in Brazil said.
The White House national security adviser met China’s top diplomat in Vienna as both sides recognised the need to move beyond the spy balloon incident that caused a rupture in relations between the superpowers, a senior US official has said.
An MP from Northern Ireland’s biggest pro-UK party has condemned Joe Biden after the US president made contentious remarks about his recent visit to the territory. Biden said the purpose of his trip last month was “to make sure … the Brits didn’t screw around” with peace in Northern Ireland.
Stat of the day: Unprecedented €2.2bn drought response plan approved in Spain
The Spanish government has approved a €2.2bn (£1.9bn) plan to help farmers and consumers cope with an enduring drought that has been exacerbated by the hottest and driest April on record. The measures, described as unprecedented by the government, were signed off by the cabinet on Thursday. They include €1.4bn of funds from the environment ministry to tackle the drought and increase the availability of water, and €784m from the agriculture ministry to help farmers maintain production and avoid food shortages. Spain’s environment minister, Teresa Ribera, said her department would spend €1.4bn on building new infrastructure such as desalination plants; on doubling the proportion of water that is reused in urban areas from 10% to 20% by 2027; and on subsidising those whose irrigation water supplies would be reduced.
Don’t miss this: He was six when police bombed Move – now he’s making the site a memorial
As a child, Mike Africa was a regular visitor to a row house on the west side of Philadelphia, spending time with his great-aunt and uncle, cousins and friends – all members of Philadelphia’s Black liberation group known as Move. He remembers gathering with the other kids on the roof of 6221 Osage Avenue, eating fruit as the sun went down. It was on that same roof, 38 years ago on Saturday, that one of the worst incidents in America’s long history of racial atrocities was perpetrated. At 5.27pm on 13 May 1985, a state helicopter commissioned by Philadelphia police flew low over the property and dropped a bomb made of C-4 plastic explosives directly on to it. The device ignited a fire that turned into an inferno that was then notoriously allowed to burn by Philadelphia authorities. Eleven people trapped inside the Move house died in the conflagration. The property’s new owner, Africa Jr, is fulfilling his great-aunt’s dying wish.
… Or this: ‘Why would we employ people?’ Experts on five ways AI will change work
In 1965, the political scientist and Nobel laureate Herbert Simon declared: “Machines will be capable, within 20 years, of doing any work a man can do.” Today, in what is increasingly referred to as the fourth Industrial Revolution, the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is igniting similar concerns. The European parliament’s forthcoming Artificial Intelligence Act is likely to deem the use of AI across education, law enforcement and worker management to be “high risk”. Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “godfather of AI”, recently resigned from his position at Google, citing concerns about the technology’s impact on the job market. From farming and education to healthcare and the military, artificial intelligence is poised to make sweeping changes to the workplace. But can it have a positive impact – or are we in for a darker future?
Climate check: New US rules could stem emissions from coal and gas power plants
The US will impose new carbon pollution standards upon its coal- and gas-fired power plants, in a move that the Biden administration has hailed as a major step in confronting the climate crisis. Under new rules put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), new and existing power plants will have to meet a range of standards to cut their emissions of planet-heating gases. This, the EPA predicts, will spur facilities to switch to cleaner energy such as wind and solar, install rarely used carbon capture technology or shut down entirely. In all, the EPA forecasts that the standards would prevent up to 617m tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted from coal and gas plants over the next two decades, which is equivalent to the yearly emissions of around half of all the cars in the US, or nearly double what the entire UK emits in a year.
Last Thing: US police running to cry for help surprised by sad goat
Police officers in Oklahoma responding to what they thought was a man crying for help got a surprise on reaching the scene: the anguished cries they heard on a farm near Enid were those of a goat. In bodycam footage released by the Enid police department, officer David Sneed told his colleague, Neal Storey: “That’s a person.” Sneed and Storey ran toward what appeared to be a voice crying for help. Then they realized their error. “That’s a goat,” Storey said. “That’s a goat?” Sneed replied. The officers approached the farm owner. He told them the goat had been separated from a friend and was very upset. “I’m sitting here, and I keep thinking I hear someone yell ‘Help!’” Storey said, the goat continuing to cry in the background.
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