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  • Round 2 in the Trump-vs-Mexico Matchup Looks Ominous for Mexico

    MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is facing a second Donald Trump presidency, and few countries can match its experience as a target of Trump’s rhetoric: There have been threats to close the border, impose tariffs and even send U.S. forces to fight Mexican drug cartels if the country doesn’t do more to stem the flow of migrants and drugs.

    That’s not to mention what mass deportations of migrants who are in the U.S. illegally could do to remittances — the money sent home by migrants — that have become one of Mexico’s main sources of income.

    But as much as this second round looks like the first round — when Mexico pacified Trump by quietly ceding to his immigration demands — circumstances have changed, and not necessarily for the better. Today, Mexico has in Claudia Sheinbaum a somewhat stern leftist ideologue as president, and Trump is not known for handling such relations well.

    Back in 2019, Mexico’s then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was a charismatic, plain-spoken, folksy leader who seemed to understand Trump, because both had a transactional view of politics: You give me what I want, I’ll give you what you want. The two went on to form a chummy relationship.

    But while López Obrador was forged in the give-and-take politics of the often-corrupt former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, Sheinbaum grew up in a family of leftist activists and got her political experience in radical university student movements.

    “Claudia is more ideological than López Obrador, and so the problem is that I see her potentially responding to Trumpian policies, whether it’s, you know, organized crime or immigration or tariffs with a much more nationalistic, jingoistic view of the relationship,” said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s former ambassador to the U.S. from 2007 to 2013.

    Sheinbaum made a point of being one of the first world leaders to call Trump on Thursday to congratulate him after the election, but during the call Trump did two things that may say a lot about how things will go.

    First, Sheinbaum said, Trump quickly brought up the border to remind her there were issues there. Then he asked Sheinbaum to send his greetings to López Obrador, with whom Trump said he had “a very good relationship.” That might suggest that Trump believes that López Obrador — the new president's political mentor — is still in charge, a view shared by some analysts.

    Sarukhan said he believes the fact that Sheinbaum is a woman and is from Mexico will be "a very important challenge, an issue out there as both of them get going in their relationship.”

    There's little likelihood that Trump will get caught up in other issues and just forget about Mexico. Karoline Leavitt, the Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman, said Trump had been given "a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.”

    Not everything has changed for the worse: Cross-border trade has topped $800 billion per year and U.S. companies are more dependent than ever on Mexican plants.

    But the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, or USMCA, is coming up for review, and Mexico has made legal changes that Trump could seize on to demand a re-negotiation of parts of the deal.

    Sheinbaum has suggested Mexico won't give in even if backed into a corner, saying “we obviously are going to address any problems that come up with dialogue, as a collaborative process, and if not, we are going to stand up, we are prepared to do that with great unity.”

    Standing up hasn’t worked particularly well before. In 2018, Marcelo Ebrard was Mexico’s top diplomat; former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Ebrard basically bent to U.S. demands to keep asylum seekers in Mexico and accept migrants back even if they weren’t Mexicans.

    Ebrard just asked that the deal not be made public to avoid embarrassing López Obrador, Pompeo wrote. (Ebrard later claimed he had avoided signing a much worse "safe third country’" agreement.)

    Today, Ebrard is Mexico’s economy secretary, and would lead Mexico’s delegation in the scheduled 2026 review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, something that Trump has greeted with mirth ("I've never seen anybody fold like that," Trump once said of Ebrard.)

    Ebrard on Thursday downplayed any risks this time around, saying e conomic ties between the two countries would keep Trump from closing borders or imposing tariffs.

    “I am optimistic. Unlike other countries, we are the largest trading partner (of the U.S.), so, if you put up a tariff, that will have repercussions in the United States,” Ebrard said. “I’m not saying it is going to be easy, because it is not at all easy, but the relationship with President Trump will be good because, what unites us? These numbers, this gigantic economy.”

    But some former diplomats say any argument that Mexico can avoid friction with the Trump administration is overconfident, and that 2025 is not necessarily going to be like 2019.

    Martha Bárcena, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2018 to 2021, said she doesn't think Trump would back away from campaign promises to deport migrants who are in the country illegally. She said Mexican officials who believe Trump might temper his “campaign promises because Mexican migrants are necessary for the U.S. economy” are being overly optimistic.

    “Mexico is looking at it through the lens of economic logic. The logic that the Trump campaign applies on immigration is a logic of national security and cultural identity issues," Bárcena said.

    Some of Trump's biggest policy concerns – restoring U.S. jobs and the increasing rivalry with China — also run through Mexico.

    U.S. and foreign automakers have set up dozens of plants in Mexico, and some in the U.S. worry that Chinese companies could do the same to take advantage of existing trade rules to export Chinese cars or auto parts to the United States.

    It doesn’t help that Sheinbaum has pushed through López Obrador’s policies aimed at eliminating independent regulatory and oversight bodies, and laws the U.S. government says could reduce the independence of the judiciary, both of which are required under the USMCA trade agreement.

    “If they go ahead with the elimination of independent regulators and autonomous bodies, that’s going to be a further violation of the USMCA,” Sarukhan said. “And then that’s going to make things even worse. Obviously, the big piece is going to be China and the Chinese footprint in Mexico.”

    That could lead Trump to demand the re-negotiation of all auto industry agreements under the trade pact.

    As far as efforts to jointly combat the illegal drug trade — such cooperation fell to historic lows in 2019 and 2020 — there have been some modestly encouraging signs. Last week, Mexico announced the seizure in Tijuana of over 300,000 fentanyl pills after months when t he country’s entire seizures had amounted to as little as 50 grams — a couple of ounces — per week.

    Sheinbaum, who took office on Oct. 1, also appears to be tacitly abandoning López Obrador’s strategy of not confronting drug cartels. But neither she nor her predecessor and political mentor could ever accept any Trump plan to send U.S. forces to operate independently on Mexican soil.

    It remains to see how far Trump might go; he often makes only token gestures to carry through on threats. But Sarukhan noted, “I do think that he will talk loudly and carry a big stick.”

    ____

    AP Writer Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. contributed to this report.

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  • Mattel ‘Deeply’ Regrets Misprint on ‘Wicked’ Dolls Linking Adult Site

    NEW YORK (AP) — Toy giant Mattel says it “deeply” regrets an error on the packaging of its “Wicked” movie-themed dolls, which mistakenly links toy buyers to a pornographic website.

    The error gained attention on social media over the weekend, where numerous users shared photos of the URL printed on the back of the boxes for the special edition dolls, which feature characters from the movie adaptation of “Wicked” set to hit theaters later this month. Instead of linking to Universal Pictures' official WickedMovie.com page, the website listed leads to an adult film site that requires consumers to be over 18 to enter.

    In a statement sent to The Associated Press, Mattel said it was “made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls," which it said are primarily sold in the U.S. “We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this,” the company added.

    Mattel did not confirm whether this action included removing unsold products with the incorrect link from stores. But as of Monday morning, at least some of these “Wicked” dolls appeared to be no longer available or not in stock on sites like Amazon, Target and Mattel's.

    In the meantime, the company is advising consumers who already have the dolls to discard their packaging or obscure the link — and contact Mattel's customer service for more information.

    Mattel unveiled its special “Wicked” collection earlier this year. Back in July, a promotion shared on Instagram showed Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who star as Elphaba and Glinda in Universal Pictures' upcoming film, seeing the line's singing dolls for the first time.

    The beloved Broadway musical has been split into two parts for its movie adaptation. The first chapter of “Wicked” will hit theaters on Nov. 22, with part two set for a fall 2025 release.

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  • Vatican, Microsoft Create AI-generated St. Peter’s Basilica

    VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican and Microsoft on Monday unveiled a digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica that uses artificial intelligence to explore one of the world’s most important monument’s while helping the Holy See manage visitor flows and identify conservation problems.

    Using 400,000 high-resolution digital photographs, taken with drones, cameras and lasers over four weeks when no one was in the basilica, the digital replica is going online alongside two new on-site exhibits to provide visitors -- real and virtual -- with an interactive experience.

    “It is literally one of the most technologically advanced and sophisticated projects of its kind that has ever been pursued,” Microsoft's president Brad Smith told a Vatican press conference.

    The project has been launched ahead of the Vatican's 2025 Jubilee, a holy year in which more than 30 million pilgrims are expected to pass through the basilica’s Holy Door, on top of the 50,000 who visit on a normal day.

    “Everyone, really everyone should feel welcome in this great house,” Pope Francis told Smith and members of the project's development teams at an audience Monday.

    The digital platform allows visitors to reserve entry times to the basilica, a novelty for one of the world’s most visited monuments that regularly has an hours-long line of tourists waiting to get in.

    But the heart of the project is the creation of a digital twin of St. Peter’s Basilica through advanced photogrammetry and artificial intelligence that allows anyone to “visit” the church and learn about its history.

    The ultra-precise 3D replica, developed in collaboration with digital preservation company Iconem, incorporates 22 petabytes of data — enough to fill five million DVDs — Smith said.

    The images have already identified structural damage and signs of deterioration, such as missing mosaic pieces, cracks and fissures invisible to the naked eye, with a speed and precision far beyond human capabilities.

    Francis has called for the ethical use of AI and used his annual World Message of Peace this year to urge an international treaty to regulate it, arguing that technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness were too great.

    On Monday, he thanked the Microsoft team and basilica workers responsible for the project and marveled at how modern technology was helping spread an ancient faith and preserve a piece of world patrimony, which celebrates the 400th anniversary of its consecration in 2026.

    “This house of prayer for all peoples has been entrusted to us by those who have preceded us in faith and apostolic ministry,” he told Smith and the delegation. “Therefore, it is a gift and a task to care for it, in both a spiritual and material sense, even through the latest technologies.”

    Smith declined to give a price tag for Microsoft’s investment in the project, saying only it was “substantial” and was borne of Francis’ initiative in 2018 to bring tech companies together to promote ethnically minded AI.

    He said Microsoft had done similar AI projects at Mont Saint-Michel in France and Ancient Olympia, in Greece.

    ___

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • Used Cars Set To Be More Affordable With Price Drops And Rate Cuts

    DETROIT (AP) — Since it started selling cars in 2013, Carvana has disrupted the U.S. used vehicle market with no-haggle pricing and an online buying process that cuts out the often-dreaded salesman.

    The Tempe, Arizona, company took advantage of many buyers’ fear of negotiating with a dealer, letting them purchase vehicles via computer and have them delivered to their homes.

    CEO and co-founder Ernie Garcia says the company has lower costs than conventional dealerships because it doesn’t have expensive real estate across the nation. It does have 17 centers nationwide where used vehicles are reconditioned before sale.

    So far the company has sold about 2 million vehicles, with sales now running at a rate of 400,000 per year. That’s still only a small part of the U.S. used vehicle market of about 36 million sales annually.

    Garcia spoke recently with The Associated Press about the used vehicle market and the future of the business.

    Q: When you started Carvana, did you have research showing that people didn’t like negotiating at dealerships?

    A: There’s plenty of research out there that suggests that customers are looking for something that is much simpler. That was the entire premise behind building Carvana. We didn’t set out to build an e-commerce platform for selling cars. We set out to build a simpler customer experience where customers could leave confident.

    Q: Do I pay a premium for this experience over conventional dealerships?

    A: Versus our largest competitors, on average, customers save about $1,000, give or take, on price. That’s the flow-through of building a completely different business model. We’re buying those cars directly from customers. We have our own finance company, and that means there’s not another middleman. Customers go through a self-service platform, which means that we save a lot of money and time that would otherwise go into someone to walk them through that process.

    Q: Why should I buy a car from you without seeing it? Why should I trust you?

    A: What we would ask customers to do is trust the 2 million customers that came before them and bought cars from Carvana. And buy with the confidence of knowing that if the car’s not right for you, you can return it, no questions asked, for seven days. And that in many ways that’s much, much better than a test drive. Most consumers only test drive a single car. Those test drives generally last a couple of minutes.

    Q: Do I have to pay to ship a car back?

    A: You don’t have to pay to ship it back. Many cars on the website have no shipping fees. In that case we’ll just come and pick it up. Or we’ll drop off a new one if you want to swap the car for another one. If you did buy a car from far away, the shipping fee is not refundable.

    Q: Used car prices have been dropping for a few months. But there were huge increases during the pandemic. What’s going to happen?

    A: Over the last two years, on average, car prices have been coming down. I think that that trend is generally continuing. There are seasonal times around tax season in February and March, or around return to school in August, where prices can go up a bit. But generally around this time of year, they’re going down. For several years, cars got extremely expensive, and that made it hard for a lot of people to buy. Pricing has come down in the last two years. We hope that they continue to come down and that the rates continue to come down as well, driving customer payments lower.

    Q: We’re not back to pre-pandemic prices yet. Do you ever see us returning to that level?

    A: There’s no question car prices went up very significantly in 2021 and 2022 and then interest rates went up to 2023. That drove affordability down significantly and led to payments being significantly higher for most customers. The other news that simultaneously occurred is the price of nearly all goods and services in the economy also went up. And so during 2022 and 2023 and even early 2024, car prices were still higher relative to other goods and services than they were pre-pandemic. More recently, car prices continued to depreciate more quickly while there’s still some inflation across the rest of the economy. So now car prices are similar relative to other goods and services to where they were pre-pandemic. But there’s no question car prices are higher in nominal terms, even though they’re somewhat similar in inflation-adjusted terms.

    Q: Many automakers have gotten rid of lower-cost vehicles, mainly cars, meaning there are fewer lower-cost used vehicles. Can somebody still get a decent, affordable vehicle?

    A: We try to make discovery of what car works for them as easy as possible. They can go on the website, they can get approved for financing in seconds. They can start searching by monthly payment, down payment. They can see exactly what they can afford and what makes sense for them. We sell cars in a very wide range of prices. The least expensive car that we sold on Carvana so far is just over $5,000.

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  • Bitcoin Bounces Above $86,000

    NEW YORK (AP) — Most U.S. stocks are rising Monday, led by those seen as benefiting the most from Donald Trump’s reelection as president, but drops for some high-profile Big Tech stocks are keeping indexes in check.

    The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in late trading, and two out of every three stocks in the index were climbing. It's coming off its best week of the year, following Trump's presidential victory and a cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve to bolster the economy.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 332 points, or 0.8%, with roughly an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.

    Tesla was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 after rising 7.2%. Its leader, Elon Musk, has become a close ally of Trump’s, and its stock jumped nearly 15% the day after the election and has kept rising.

    Several pieces of what’s known as the “Trump trade” also helped drive the market, as investors try to identify which companies will be winners under a second Trump term. JPMorgan Chase rose 1.3%, and bank stocks broadly led the market on expectations for stronger economic growth, less regulation from Washington and an increase in mergers and acquisitions.

    A White House more friendly to big tie-ups has helped Wall Street speculate about a merger between insurers Cigna Group and Humana, for example. It’s been so feverish that Cigna said Monday it isn’t pursuing a deal with Humana. Cigna’s stock rose 7.5%, and Humana’s sank 2.3%.

    Stocks of companies more focused on the U.S. economy were also rising more than the rest of the market, including a 1.4% rally for the smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index, because they’re seen as benefiting more from Trump’s America First policies than big multinational companies.

    They helped offset a drop of 1.7% for Nvidia, which was the heaviest weight on the market and helped drag the Nasdaq composite in particular.

    Such Big Tech stocks have rocketed higher on excitement about artificial-intelligence technology, and they had been gaining almost regardless of what the economy was doing. Now, though, critics say their prices look too expensive, and investors are finding more interesting buys in companies that could do well under Trump's second term. A drop for Nvidia packs a particularly heavy punch because its massive value of nearly $3.6 trillion makes it one of the most influential stocks on the S&P 500 and other indexes.

    AbbVie, meanwhile, tumbled 12.7% after saying trials investigating its treatment for some adults with schizophrenia failed to show statistically significant improvement compared with a placebo group at week six.

    Some of the sharpest swings were in the crypto market, where bitcoin rose above $86,000 for the first time. Trump has embraced cryptocurrencies generally and pledged to make his country the crypto capital of the world. Bitcoin hit a record of $86,660, according to CoinDesk.

    Another Trump trade has been a rise in Treasury yields, as traders anticipate potentially higher economic growth, U.S. government debt and inflation because of Trump’s policies. But trading in the bond market is closed Monday in observance of Veterans Day.

    Treasury yields been generally climbing since September, in large part because the U.S. economy has remained much more resilient than feared. The hope is that it can continue to stay solid as the Federal Reserve continues to cut interest rates in order to keep the job market humming, now that it’s helped get inflation nearly down to its 2% target.

    But Trump’s win has scrambled expectations for coming cuts to rates. Traders have already begun paring forecasts for how many the Fed will deliver next year. While lower rates can boost the economy, they can also give inflation more fuel.

    Still, many professional investors warn not to get carried away by all the momentum following Trump's victory. It takes time to see what campaign promises turn into actual policy, and that can lead to sharp snaps back for the market's initial knee-jerk reactions.

    The U.S. stock market is also broadly looking more expensive, as prices continue to run up faster than corporate profits.

    “Valuations are increasingly elevated, and the pace of growth isn’t sustainable,” according to Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. “While near-term seasonality will be a strong tailwind for markets, valuations may prove to be a tipping point as we move into 2025.”

    Stock markets abroad have swung following Trump’s election amid worries about increased tariffs and disruptions to global trade.

    Indexes were mixed Monday, with European markets rising while South Korea’s and Hong Kong’s sank.

    __

    AP Writer Zimo Zhong in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

    0 min

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