Senate candidates to lead the Senate


Up First: The Upside of the Trump era in Latin America and his decision to run for the top evictoral posthumous term

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Congress returns this week with a busy agenda. The first thing that’s listed is who will lead each chamber. Donald Trump is going to want to influence these choices, and his allies are trying to make that happen.

One of Trump’s biggest decisions will be selecting the leader of the Justice Department. He criticized the DOJ on the campaign trail. Soon, he will have the opportunity to address his grievances.

President Biden travels to Peru and Brazil this week to meet with leaders of the world’s biggest economies at two summits: APEC in Lima and the G20 in Rio. He will likely leave a mark on the global stage, but it comes on the heels of Trump’s victory. As a result, Biden finds himself in a challenging position regarding his final message.

Karla Sofia Gascón, the Border Czar in Emilia Pérez: An Immigration Perspective on Trump’s First Electoral Campaign

One of Trump’s signature campaign promises was to “launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America.” He’s appointed a “border czar”, Tom Homan, to carry it out. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement led by Homan was part of Trump’s first term. Andrew Selee, president of the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute, talks with Morning Edition about what a plan for mass deportation might look like and whether living in a red or blue state matters.

Karla Sofia Gascón plays the title role in the new film Emilia Pérez, the world’s first Mexican cartel musical focusing on a trans woman. Manitas del Monte, as Gascn’s character is known, is a leader of the cartel who is afraid and deadly. She would like to become a woman and not live a life of violence. She emerges from surgery with good intentions to correct her past. Morning Edition and Up First host Steve Inskeep spoke with Gascón about what drew her to the role. She talked about the character and more.

The Oval Office is where Donald Trump is expected to visit today. President Biden invited both his predecessors and successors for a ceremony meant to indicate the desire for a smooth and peaceful transfer of power.

Trump said that it was an honor to meet with Obama and that he hoped to be with him many, many more times.

Obama said he wanted to facilitate a transition that would set Trump up for success. Obama believes it is important for all of us, regardless of party or political preferences, to come together to deal with the many challenges that we face.

“This was a meeting that was going to last for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, and we were just going to get to know each other,” Trump said. “We had never met each other. I have a lot of respect for you. The meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half. It could have gone on for a longer period of time.

When he was in office, Trump ignored that. He frequently held court as reporters shouted questions, responding to the ones he felt like answering and sometimes sparring with the journalists.

A Trump-Biden Day in Lima, Peru: Meeting the U.S. Trade Representative Xi Jinping on the Sidelines of the APEC Summit

Biden and Trump are worse off than the Trump-Obama relationship was. Biden won against Trump in 2020 because he argued that Trump was endangering U.S. democracy.

Then during the 2024 campaign, their one meeting on a debate stage in late June essentially ended Biden’s bid for a second term. During the remaining months of the campaign Trump often gloated about his knock-out punch in the debate and bemoaned the “coup” that forced Biden out of the race.

LIMA, Peru — President Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Lima, Peru, a senior U.S. administration official told reporters on Wednesday.

Biden could use his meeting with Xi to underscore that China needs to change its trade practices, not just threaten retaliation, said Danny Russel, a top State Department official in the Obama administration, in an interview.

“This is a very difficult relationship between the U.S and China, and so whatever the next administration decides they’re going to need to find ways to manage that,” the official said.

Russel said that he would look to Biden to make some points because the likelihood of the Trump administration imposing tariffs is real. It should be a clarion call for China and other big offenders that they need to change their policies.