--:-- Shamita Basu: Hey there, it's Shamita here. Every so often, we're going to recommend a show that we think is worth your time. This week, I want to tell you about a new series on the Times podcast from the LA Times. It's all about the Colorado River, a lifeline in danger for thousands of people from Colorado to Mexico. But this isn't a typical climate change story. It's a crisis unfolding in real time, with native tribes, homeowners, and entire states all jockeying for control. Listen and subscribe at latimes.com slash thetimes or on Apple Podcasts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, January 10th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the impact of bombshell revelations from Prince Harry's new memoir, what it means for public schools to have lost more than a million students during the pandemic, And good news for Buffalo Bills safety DeMar Hamlin. But first, President Biden is in Mexico City this week, meeting for a summit with his counterparts in Mexico and Canada. He's resuming the presidential tradition of visiting Mexico. Trump did not do so while in office. Trade and cracking down on drug and gun smuggling are high on the agenda. And, of course, immigration.
--:-- Uriel Garcia: Over the weekend, President Biden visited the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time since taking office. Part of the reason why President Biden came to El Paso, there's been a high increase of migrants crossing the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez into El Paso.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Recently, the number of illegal border crossings has hit record highs. Because there were so many of them at the same time, Border Patrol didn't have enough holding facilities in the city and NGOs did not have enough shelter space that Border Patrol agents began releasing some of the migrants onto the streets Biden faces criticism from the left and right for his border policy Some Democrats want better treatment for asylum seekers And some border state Republicans say the administration is too lax enforcing existing law and want Biden to resume building a border wall.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Biden recently announced a new set of policies, including a move to allow 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. They can enter as long as they pass a background check and can find economic support in the U.S. But the administration is also expanding the use of Title 42 to expel the same amount of migrants from those four countries to Mexico. And it's sending additional agents to the border to speed up processing. The administration also plans to propose an immigration rule to deny asylum to anyone who traveled through another country and didn't seek asylum there first.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Biden's moves have gotten a mixed reaction so far. But with little hope of getting a broad immigration overhaul through a gridlocked Congress, executive action may be the only change that can happen anytime soon.
--:-- Katie Nichol: Prince Harry's memoir Spare is out today. And as you've probably heard from various interviews and leaks, there are some pretty explosive details. I've never read a book like this in all my years as a journalist. Having covered this genre for so long, it really is bombshell after bombshell, and Harry just doesn't hold back.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The real standout moment, I think, for me in all of this is just how serious the rift is, how deep it runs. this sense of sibling rivalry, which goes way back, way back to when Harry was a young boy, a young boy who couldn't really get his head around the fact that he never got treated the same as his brother who was the despair from the very beginning And it seems that that resentment jealousy sibling rivalry is something that has manifested itself
--:-- Katie Nichol: Nicol talked about one moment in the book where the rivalry got physical. At Nottingham Cottage in 2019, when William went over to speak to Harry about Meghan's behavior and the rumors that she was being quite rude to some members of staff and this altercation became so heated that William went for Harry's collar, shoved him to the ground.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In interviews over the weekend promoting the book, Prince Harry said he's eager to make peace with his family. Here's what he told Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes. I look forward to having a relationship with my brother. I look forward to having a relationship with my father and other members of my family. You want that? That's all I've ever asked for.
--:-- Katie Nichol: The royal family has not publicly commented on the book. And Nicol says she doesn't suspect they'll want to reconnect. I'm told they see this book as an absolute betrayal. Will it damage the monarchy in the long term? No. Can there be a reconciliation? I think in a way there has to be a reconciliation in order for the monarchy to move forward. The monarchy is nothing if it cannot progress, if it cannot evolve.
--:-- Ben Chapman: Since the start of the pandemic, public schools in the United States have lost more than 1 million students. It's a significant drop. It's a larger drop than we typically have seen in recent years.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The drop is driven by a combination of lower birth rates and more kids doing homeschooling or going to private or charter schools. Most public schools get funding based on how many students enroll, which means some are now reexamining the programs they can afford to offer. You're not going to have as many clubs and sporting teams. They're not going to have as much rich academic offerings either. But some schools are facing tougher choices. If the numbers don't make sense, they can stay open Chapman described what happening in one district in Colorado The superintendent is visiting the schools and saying gosh we got five kids in an elementary school class that would typically have 20 and this is not working out. We still have to pay for the teacher and the room and all those things, and it just doesn't make financial sense to have such a small class.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Federal relief funding during the pandemic helped some public schools hang on. But in areas where closures are on the table, it's not pretty. Superintendents see it as a last resort. Parents, teachers, and teachers' unions fight hard to keep them open. But if public school enrollment trends hold, more districts might have to take that difficult step.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Before we let you go, two quick updates from the world of football first buffalo bills safety damar hamlin took a major step in his recovery he's been transferred from a hospital in cincinnati to one in buffalo and doctors say that he's walking normally and he's on a path to recovery Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field during a game last week. But by the weekend, he was healthy enough to watch the Bills win in their first game since he was carried off the field.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And college football wrapped up its season last night. Georgia beat Texas Christian University 65-7 to win a second consecutive national championship. It's the most points a team has scored in championship game history. Georgia's win continues the dominance of teams from the South, which have taken 17 of the last 18 college football titles.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, don't go anywhere. We've got a narrated article coming up next from People magazine. It's been about a month since WNBA star Brittany Griner was released from a Russian penal colony. Her wife, Sherelle, talks about her hard-fought release and what's next for them. So sit back, enjoy listening to that, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
