A standoff at Columbia, as students defy the university's order to disband the protest against the Gaza war. In Charlotte, an effort to serve a warrant on a fugitive suspect turned deadly, with four officers killed and four more wounded. And Ukraine prepares to receive U.S. military aid that can't come soon enough.
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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Miguel Macias, Denice Rios, Nick Spicer, Lisa Thomson and Ben Adler. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Lilly Quiroz. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Zac Coleman.
The United States is home to more immigrants than any other country in the world. It is a truism that everyone who lives here at some point came from somewhere else. At the same time, debates about who and how many people to let in have roiled the nation since our very founding.
And in the past few years, things have heated up to a new level.
That’s no surprise, considering that unlawful attempts to cross the southern border hit a record high of about 2.5 million last year. In the past four years, nearly 5 million attempts to cross the border illegally occurred in Texas alone.
We’ve all seen the videos of mothers with babies shimmying under barbed wire, of migrant caravans marching toward Texas, of young men charging Border Patrol agents.
It’s why immigration is the top issue for voters in the 2024 election. Indeed, the influx has made even progressive cities, which previously declared themselves immigration sanctuaries, sound the alarm. Last May, former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot said “we’ve reached a breaking point,” while declaring a state of emergency in her city. In September, New York mayor Eric Adams said the influx of migrants “will destroy New York City.”
All of this is the subject of our first live debate of 2024, which took place in Dallas, and that we wanted to share with you on Honestly today. The proposition: Should the United States shut its borders?
Arguing in the affirmative are Ann Coulter and Sohrab Ahmari. On the opposing side, arguing that no, the United States should not shut its borders, are Nick Gillespie and Cenk Uygur.
They also cover questions like: Is mass immigration is a net gain or a net loss for America? How do we balance our humanitarian impulse with our practical and economic needs? Do migrants suppress wages of the already strained working class? Do they stretch community resources impossibly thin? Does a porous border impact our national security? And what does a sensible border policy really look like?
Starting in the year 1096, the Christian kingdoms of the Latin Church united to retake religious sites in the Holy Land. This war was known as a crusade.
This was just the first in a series of nine official and several other unofficial crusades over a span of 200 years.
These crusades impacted the kingdoms that took park, the Eastern and Western Christian churches, and relations between Christians, Muslims, and Jews in some ways that can still be felt today.
Learn more about the Crusades, the reason for them, and how they affected the world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
We're talking about international action that could put Israel's prime minister on the same level as leaders of Russia and Sudan, despite America's objections.
Also, a controversial Title IX change meant to protect transgender students in schools is facing pushback. We'll tell you why several states are suing over it.
Plus, new rules are expected to reshape how medical testing is done in the United States; a new feature will soon be required in all cars in the name of safety, and Taylor Swift is dominating music charts again.
Those stories and more news to know in about 10 minutes!
Education, employment, and family formation are “the building blocks for a flourishing life,” says the leader of the Georgia Center for Opportunity.
But, unfortunately, America’s welfare system includes penalties for both work and family formation, Randy Hicks says.
Although the safety net may not intend to punish work or the family, Hicks says, it does that through policies that reward Americans with financial benefits for earning less or remaining single.
Among all the states, Utah has created a model for a strong welfare system, he says. Utah integrated its workforce services with welfare services in the 1990s, so when an individual seeks government assistance, the first step is to help him re-enter the workforce, if he is able, before providing monetary benefits.
But around the year 2000, the federal government passed a law that made it almost impossible for states to integrate workforce and welfare services as Utah did.
To change this situation, Hicks says, the Georgia Center for Opportunity and the Alliance for Opportunity advocate congressional legislation to "give states the flexibility to do what Utah did: integrate workforce and welfare so that we're not compartmentalizing someone's life but viewing it holistically and viewing it all as simply a means to a flourishing life that includes work.”
Hicks joins this episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the path to restoring the value of education, work, and family in America.
Joe Biden cracks jokes, mocks Trump, and goes around traditional media outlets to get his message out on shows like Smartless and Howard Stern. Democratic and Republican politicians get involved in the debate over the Gaza protests on college campuses. One-time Republican Trump critics line up to kiss the ring, and Kristi Noem destroys her VP chances by coming out as an unapologetic puppy killer.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
Middle school can be a rough time no matter what. But for Isaiah, the eighth grader at the heart of Alicia D. Williams' book Mid-Air, there are some added challenges: feeling like his affinity for rock music and nail polish makes him weird, grieving the loss of a close friend, and drifting further and further apart from his other best bud. In today's episode, Williams speaks with NPR's Andrew Limbong about the particular difficulties Black boys face to feel like they belong, and why — in the face of tragedy or discomfort — it can be even harder for them to connect with one another.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
Alex joins us again to catch up on the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests and the range of responses to them, from blatant attempts to provoke the protesters, to complaining about encampments ruining your teaching of silence. Then, Kristi Noem killed her dog, the defrocking of an AI priest, and Trump expressions that live in our heads.
Tickets to Will & Hesse’s Movie Mindset screening & talkback of Death Wish 3 in NYC on May 4: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chapo-trap-houses-movie-mindset-screening-of-death-wish-3-w-will-hesse-tickets-877569192077
Amanda Holmes reads J. R. Solonche’s “Spring.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
Three law enforcement officers killed while trying to serve a warrant in Charlotte, North Carolina. Columbia says it will begin suspending those who haven't left their encampment as anti-Israel protests continue. Cleanup following deadly tornadoes in the Plains over the weekend. CBS News Correspondent Jennifer Keiper with tonight's World News Roundup.