Trump Pauses All Asylum Applications, and China’s Fast-Food Brands Make a Play for the U.S.

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From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford.
Today's Monday, December 1st. Here's what we're covering.

First, a few updates on stories from over the long weekend. President Trump is making a new and aggressive push to limit immigration to the U.S.

in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C.

Last Wednesday, a man walked up to troops who were patrolling the city and opened fire with a revolver, killing one of them. The suspect, who is from Afghanistan, came to the U.S.

after the Taliban retook control of the country. He'd worked with CIA-backed forces and was one of thousands of Afghans who were vetted by officials and allowed to enter the U.S.

under a special visa program. He received asylum in April.

Now, the administration says it's stopped issuing visas to people from Afghanistan and paused all asylum decisions for people from any country.

It also says it's going to scrutinize some people who are already in the country legally on green cards. My colleague Hamed Ali Aziz, who covers immigration policy, says that's a notable escalation.

What's really remarkable here is this idea that, yes, we're going to pause a bunch of people from entering the United States, but we're also going to go back and we're going to review people who've already obtained a form of status in the United States.

We're going to go back and look at those records as well. So it's not only prospective, but it's retrospective as well.

For more on the administration's new immigration restrictions, listen to today's episode of The Daily.

Also,

this is

completely outside of anything that has been discussed with Congress, and there is an ongoing investigation. Very interesting to hear you say that this might be an illegal act.

I know you're prominent Democratic and Republican lawmakers are suggesting that U.S.

military officials might have committed a war crime during one of the strikes President Trump ordered against boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean.

If that reporting is true, it's a clear violation of the DOD's own laws of war, as well as international laws about the way you treat people.

In interviews this weekend, the lawmakers said they were alarmed by a Washington Post report about what happened during one of those strikes in early September.

According to that report, an initial attack left two survivors clinging to the wreckage in the water.

Then a commander ordered a second strike to comply with a directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to kill everybody. Hegseth has called the reporting fabricated and inflammatory.

Beyond this particular attack, members of Congress have been raising more and more concerns about the legal justification for the strikes overall, which have killed more than 80 people.

There are now ongoing investigations into the attacks by both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

Meanwhile, despite President Trump's repeated claims that he's cracking down on the flow of deadly drugs to the U.S., he now says he plans to pardon the former president of Honduras, who helped flood America with cocaine.

Juan Orlando Hernandez was sentenced to 45 years in prison after a trial in the U.S. last year in one of the most sweeping drug trafficking cases of its kind.

Under his leadership, Honduras was a major transit point for cocaine shipments to the U.S., as he directed the police and military to protect smugglers, who in turn paid him off. He even once boasted,

We are going to stuff the drugs up the gringos' noses.

During his sentencing, Hernandez said he was the victim of political persecution, a claim echoed by Trump when he announced his plan to pardon him. In a statement to the Times, Trump said,

Many friends had asked him to free Hernandez, saying, They gave him 45 years because he was the president of the country. You could do this to any president.

In Hong Kong, the Times has learned that residents of a high-rise tower complex had been warning officials about potential fire safety violations for more than a year before a deadly blaze broke out there last week.

At least 128 people were killed when seven of the eight massive towers caught fire on Wednesday, trapping people on high floors as firefighters struggled to contain the inferno.

The buildings were in the process of being renovated and were wrapped in netting, foam panels, and bamboo scaffolding.

Residents had raised concerns about the flammability of some of those materials, but had been told the construction project met fire safety requirements.

After the fire, though, officials said the foam panels were one of the factors that let the fire spread so quickly, and that the bamboo scaffolding had also caught on fire, collapsed, and blocked exits.

Bamboo scaffolding has come under increased scrutiny in recent years in Hong Kong, one of the last places in China where the intricate, ancient technique is still in widespread use.

Advocates of the material say it's cheaper and easier to transport than using metal, but it's slowly being phased out, in part over safety concerns.

For the moment, the cause of the deadly fire is still under investigation, though authorities have arrested multiple people linked to the scaffolding, netting, and construction work.

The question of how old kids should be before they get a smartphone is a heated debate, and a new study out today strengthens the case for holding out.

The research published in the journal Pediatrics found that kids who got a smartphone by age 12 were at higher risk of depression, obesity, and insufficient sleep than those who didn't have one yet.

The study analyzed data for more than 10,000 American kids. It doesn't show cause and effect, but it does show an association between getting a smartphone earlier and poor health outcomes.

Previous studies have suggested that young people with phones may spend less time socializing in person, exercising, and sleeping, all of which are essential for well-being.

The lead author of the new study said the goal is not to shame parents who've already given their kids a phone, but to emphasize that age matters.

Quote, a kid at age 12 is very, very different than a kid at age 16.

Because of that, he said, when you give your kid a phone, you need to think of it as something that is significant for the kid's health.

For kids, even small changes in sleep or mental health can have deep and lasting effects.

And for kids who do have phones already, one pediatrician told The Times that at least keeping the devices out of their rooms at night can be a step to help mitigate some of the negative health effects, especially from interrupting kids' sleep.

And finally, in the heart of Walnut, California, you're going to find where people are calling the Asian version of Chick-fil-A.

There's been a wave of new restaurants and beverage shops from Chinese chains opening across the U.S.

This coffee chain that you've probably never heard of is actually one of the most popular coffee shops in the entire world.

There are coffee shops in New York, fried chicken sandwich spots in California,

and tea shops all over the place.

The coconut mango boom, the crisp grape bloom, and the triple supreme matcha latte. The aggressive expansion in the U.S.
comes as Chinese companies face an oversaturated market at home.

By one estimate, there are three times as many food and beverage places per capita in China as in the U.S.

To survive, chains there are undercutting each other in a race to the bottom, and half of the new restaurants that open in China close within a year.

In the U.S., they're hoping they can tap into a more stable market and build excitement around what they're bringing.

Lines have stretched out the door at Hey Tea in Times Square, where people can get the brand's signature fruit tea topped with cheese foam.

The brands have also been tweaking their menus to cater to American tastes. Wallace, the fried chicken chain, for example, made its food saltier for the U.S.
palate.

And it's hoping to compete on price, offering three chicken chicken sandwiches for $10

compared to $6 for a single sandwich at KFC or Chick-fil-A. The president of Wallace's U.S.
Arm told the Times he liked his company's chances, saying,

American fast food is getting too expensive.

Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford.
We'll be back tomorrow.

This podcast is supported by the International Rescue Committee. Co-founded with help from Albert Einstein, the IRC has been providing humanitarian aid for more than 90 years.

The IRC helps refugees whose lives are disrupted by conflict and disaster, supporting recovery efforts in places like Gaza and Ukraine, and responding within 72 hours of crisis.

Donate today by visiting rescue.org/slash rebuild.