- France's Amandine Henry retires from international football
- Centre-left set to win pro-Ukraine Lithuania's vote
- India's World Cup hopes in Pakistan hands after Australia defeat
- Zelensky says NKorea sending troops to Russian army
- England beat Finland to get back on track
- King and Lewis propel West Indies to T20 triumph over Sri Lanka
- Pre-Halloween 'Terrifier' lands atop North America box office
- 'I still plan to compete and play next season,' says Djokovic
- Harris, Trump seek advantage in knife-edge election battle
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record in Chicago
- Kamindu and Asalanka power Sri Lanka to 179 against West Indies
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record as Korir wins in Chicago
- Spain send injured Yamal home 'to prioritise player's health'
- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Iraq walks fine line with pro-Iran factions to avoid war
- Race four abandoned after New Zealand breeze into 3-0 lead in America's Cup
- West Indies win toss, put Sri Lanka in to bat in first T20
- Sudan rescuers say air strike killed 23 in Khartoum market
- Netanyahu tells UN to move Lebanon peacekeepers out of 'harm's way'
- Bangladeshi Hindus defy attack worries to celebrate festival
- Kiwis three up in America's Cup as Ineos pay for time penalty
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Dominant England crush Scotland at Women's T20 World Cup
- Dropped: The rise and fall of Pakistan batting maestro Babar Azam
- Israel fights Hezbollah on the ground, pounds Lebanon from the air
- Sabalenka outlasts local hero Zheng to win third Wuhan Open title
- Bangladeshi Hindus shrug off attack worries to celebrate festival
- Former Pakistan captain Azam dropped for second England Test
- 'Opportunist' Dupont dazzles on Toulouse return
- Australia replace injured Vlaeminck with Graham at Women's T20 World Cup
- Sinner wins Shanghai Masters to deny Djokovic 100th career title
- Ubisoft fears assassin's hit over falling sales
- Israel hits Lebanon from the air and fights Hezbollah on the ground
- China's Yin has 'goosebumps' as she romps to LPGA win in Shanghai
- Pakistan to re-use Multan pitch for second England Test
- Blair and King Charles hail Salmond's 'devotion' to Scotland
- Vietnam, China hold talks on calming South China Sea tensions
- SpaceX will try to 'catch' giant Starship rocket shortly before landing
- England captain Stokes in line for second Pakistan Test return
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgery: reports
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgey: reports
- Israel widens Lebanon strikes as troops fight Hezbollah along border
- Bowlers' graveyards: Pakistan's placid pitches under fresh fire
- 'Little Gregory' murder haunts France 40 years on
- Vietnam, China to expand rail links, cross-border payments
- Americans get their belief back as Pochettino makes his mark
- Vietnam, China to boost economic, defence cooperation
- Winning start for Pochettino's American adventure
- Tariffs, tax cuts, energy: What is in Trump's economic plan?
- Amazon wants to be everything to everyone
US, Mexico see headway on migration as Blinken pays emergency visit
Top Mexican and US officials said that they made progress Wednesday in emergency talks on curbing a surge in migration, which has become a major headache for President Joe Biden as he enters an election year.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid an unusual Christmas week visit to Mexico City as the rival Republican Party presses Biden for a migration crackdown in return for agreeing in Congress to one of his key priorities -- support for Ukraine.
The day trip was abruptly announced last week after Biden spoke by telephone with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who met for more than two hours with Blinken and other top US officials including Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Lopez Obrador, writing afterward on X, formerly known as Twitter, said that "important agreements were reached for the benefit of our peoples and nations," without elaborating.
A senior Biden administration official said that Mexican leaders told the US delegation about new measures they are taking including cracking down on smugglers who are putting migrants on buses or trains to the border.
"We were really impressed by some of the new actions that Mexico is taking, and we have seen in recent days a pretty significant reduction in border crossings," the official told reporters on customary condition of anonymity on Blinken's airplane back to Washington.
The official, however, said the United States knows to "never draw conclusions based on day-to-day fluctuations" on migrant numbers and said the countries would stay in close contact in 2024, an election year in both.
The number of people seeking to enter the United States without authorization had shot up this month to around 10,000 a day, nearly double the number from before the pandemic.
Few migrants are Mexicans, with the bulk in recent years fleeing Central America, which has been ravaged by extreme poverty, rampant violence and failing crops worsened by climate change.
There has also been an uptick in migrants heading through Mexico from Haiti, which has been devastated by gang violence and a lack of a functioning government, and Venezuela, where basic goods have fallen in short supply after years of economic chaos.
- 'Nobody's going to stop migration' -
Lopez Obrador said before the meeting that Mexico was "helping a lot" on addressing migration but that the solution was job creation.
"People leave their towns out of necessity and there's a lot of economic and social crisis in the world," the leftist leader said.
A new caravan of hundreds if not thousands of people has been heading by foot toward the US border since the past weekend.
"Nobody's going to stop migration," activist and caravan organizer Luis Garcia Villagran said, complaining that migrants were being treated as "currency" by the US and Mexican governments.
"A budget of billions of dollars is being settled right now to mitigate migration. With all the gold and money in the world they cannot stop people seeking better living conditions," he told reporters in southern Mexico.
- Priority for two governments -
US border authorities have been so overwhelmed that they have suspended several legal crossings to focus on processing undocumented migrants.
Reopening those crossings "is a priority for us" given the close trade links between the two countries, Mexican Foreign Secretary Alicia Barcena told reporters after the talks, which she described as "excellent."
Mexico, under agreements with both Biden and his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, has agreed at least temporarily to take in migrants seeking to cross into the United States.
The package proposed by Biden to Congress would also fund 1,300 additional Border Patrol agents to help address migration.
The Biden administration has warned that without a deal, Ukraine will soon run out of weapons needed to repel the nearly two-year-old Russian invasion, and on Wednesday announced its final package of arms under existing authorization.
Republican hardliners have shown little sign of compromise.
Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Biden next November, is again campaigning on stridently anti-immigrant rhetoric, accusing foreigners of "poisoning the blood of our country," language that critics pointed out was similar to that of Adolf Hitler.
Andrew Rudman, director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, said that politicians around the world wanted a "short-term solution" to the long-standing issue of migration.
"The Biden administration wants to show for its own domestic political reasons that they're doing everything they possibly can," he said. "There is no magic wand."
J.Williams--AMWN