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TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Night after night for six weeks, Erika Hernández knelt outside her home in central Mexico and prayed: “Please, God, don’t let my son turn into a criminal.”

“I prayed a lot. I fasted. My faith was huge,” said the 46-year-old woman, fearing her son would be forcibly recruited by a criminal organization.

It didn’t take long for God to listen, Hernández said. By early June, after being kidnapped by members of the Familia Michoacana drug cartel near Mexico City, her son escaped and the family fled north hoping to cross in the United States.

For many migrants like Hernández, their faith has been essential for coping with their challenging circumstances.

Hernández and 10 of her relatives spent three months hopping on buses, taxis and walking until they reached the Movimiento Juventud shelter in Tijuana, in northern Mexico, where they are awaiting an opportunity to find a safer home in America.

Before her son’s kidnapping, the idea of migrating to the United States had never crossed Hernández’s mind. Her family owned cattle and several tracts of farmland. They had a good life.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in early October that about 10,000 migrants per day were heading to the U.S. border. Waves of people riding atop railway cars forced Mexico’s largest railroad to suspend dozens of freight trains.

While many places in Mexico provide shelter for Venezuelans, Haitians and Central Americans, some shelters in Tijuana have seen an influx of Mexicans fleeing violence, extortion and threats by organized crime.

José Guadalupe Torres reached out to God as soon as he left his home in the central state of Guanajuato. His motives mirrored Hernandez’s: His family was threatened by a drug cartel. “We parted ways to be safe,” the 62-year-old said. “But God has always been with us.”

Now he prays for an appointment that will allow him to enter the United States.

Early this year, the Biden administration launched an online appointment system as a recommended way for migrants to request asylum, though thousands cross the border illegally every day.

“This is the precise time to preach the word of God,” said pastor Albert Rivera, an evangelical who currently provides a roof and spiritual guidance for nearly 400 migrants in Agape, a nearby shelter.

According to Rivera, many migrants saw their children being murdered, suffered through the kidnapping of a family member, or lost everything to pay criminal extortion demands.

“We have received women married to hitmen whose enemies have shot their homes and said: ‘I’ll kill you and your children,’” the pastor said.

His guidance provides comfort for some who feel hopeless while waiting for a better life.

Mariana Flores fled Guerrero, a Pacific Coast state, with her husband and 3-year-old son after organized criminals kidnapped her husband temporarily. She brought her faith with her, but said being at Agape has renewed it.

“God did a miracle for us,” the 25-year-old said. “So even if we feel sad from time to time, attending services helps us forget and we can keep trying to move on.”

Miguel Rayo, 47, traveled from the same Mexican state with just a few possessions, but keeps a Bible on his phone. “I read it when I’m cold, when I’m in need. We want to be renewed and remain close to God,” Rayo said.

Agape welcomes migrants of any faith or ideology, but everyone is encouraged to attend services on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Migrants also pray in small groups several days per week in their dormitories.

A few miles away, Casa del Migrante provides spiritual comfort in addition to a temporary home, daily meals, legal advice and mentorships that help migrants find jobs and schools for their kids. The shelter was established by the Catholic Scalabrinian Missionaries in 1987.

Every Wednesday afternoon, during one of the Masses celebrated by the Rev. Pat Murphy, an American priest, migrants are invited to participate by sharing their thoughts, petitions and concerns.

“It’s a lovely Mass, a time to gather and share,” said Alma Ramírez, who started working as a volunteer a year ago and recently became a full-time worker at Casa Migrante.

The shelter used to receive only deported men from the U.S. but since 2019, when the surge of migrants increased, entire families and members from the LGBTQ+ community have been welcomed as well.

“We currently have internally displaced people, Mexicans who left states in the South because they faced violence mainly from drug trafficking,” Ramírez said.

Across the shelter’s entrance, a portrait depicting the Virgin Mary greets the newcomers.

“There are migrants who approach the door and once we tell them, ‘You can enter,’ they reply: I knew, since the moment I saw the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, that all would be fine,’” Ramírez said.

Both at Casa del Migrante and Agape, some migrants ask Murphy and Rivera to baptize them. Others request their company to pray for blessings. Many fear for the family members they left behind. Others hope for a good ending on their journey to the United States.

“Open the doors for me, Lord, so that I can cross,” Rivera suggests they say in prayer.

“Imagine the experience of faith,” Rivera said. “Arriving at a place feeling broken, but then you pray to God, fill out your application, you get an appointment and that’s how you arrive in the United States.”

“That’s something they’ll never forget.”

——

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. Share Tweet

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Tesla shares drop 7% in premarket trading after Elon Musk says he is launching a political party

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Tesla shares drop 7% in premarket trading after Elon Musk says he is launching a political party

White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk walks to the White House after landing in Marine One on the South Lawn with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) on March 9, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Samuel Corum | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Tesla shares fell in premarket trade on Monday after CEO Elon Musk announced plans to form a new political party.

The stock was down 7.13% by 4:27 a.m. E.T.

Musk said over the weekend that the party would be called the “America Party” and could focus “on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts.” He suggested this would be “enough to serve as the deciding vote on contentious laws, ensuring that they serve the true will of the people.”

The billionaire’s involvement in politics has been a point of contention for investors. Musk earlier this year was part of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and worked closely with President Donald Trump — a move seen as potentially hurting Tesla’s brand.

Musk left DOGE in May, which helped Tesla’s stock.

Now tech billionaire’s reinvolvement in the political arena is making investors nervous.

“Very simply Musk diving deeper into politics and now trying to take on the Beltway establishment is exactly the opposite direction that Tesla investors/shareholders want him to take during this crucial period for the Tesla story,” Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, said in a note on Sunday.

“While the core Musk supporters will back Musk at every turn no matter what, there is broader sense of exhaustion from many Tesla investors that Musk keeps heading down the political track.”

Musk’s previous political foray earned him Trump’s praise in the early days, but he has since drawn the ire of the U.S. president.

The two have clashed over various areas of policy, including Trump’s spending bill which Musk has said would increase America’s debt burden. Musk has taken issue to particular cuts to tax credits and support for solar and wind energy and electric vehicles.

Trump on Sunday called Musk’s move to form a political party “ridiculous,” adding that the Tesla boss had gone “completely off the rails.”

Musk is contending with more than just political turmoil. Tesla reported a 14% year-on-year decline in car deliveries in the second quarter, missing expectations. The company is facing rising competition, especially in its key market, China.

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Paris’ popular bike share program has a big sticky finger problem

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Paris' popular bike share program has a big sticky finger problem

Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.

According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.

“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.

The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.

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The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.

Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.

And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.

The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.

Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.

That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.

The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.

Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.

The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.

Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.

In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.

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CNBC Daily Open: Elon Musk, founder of companies and political parties

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CNBC Daily Open: Elon Musk, founder of companies and political parties

U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk attend a press event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025.

Nathan Howard | Reuters

When they lose a significant other, most men do indeed become a “TRAIN WRECK.” Then they pick up the pieces of their lives and start living again — paying attention to their personal grooming, hitting the gym and discovering new hobbies.

What does the world’s richest man do? He starts a political party.

Last weekend, as the United States celebrated its independence from the British in 1776, Elon Musk enshrined his sovereignty from U.S. President Donald Trump by establishing the creatively named “American Party.”

Few details have been revealed, but Musk said the party will focus on “just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” and will have legislative discussions “with both parties” — referring to the U.S. Democratic and Republican Parties.

It might be easier to realize Musk’s dream of colonizing Mars than to bridge the political aisle in the U.S. government today.

To be fair, some thought appeared to be behind the move. Musk decided to form the party after holding a poll on X in which 65.4% of respondents voted in favor.

Folks, here’s direct democracy — and the powerful post-separation motivation — in action.

 — CNBC’s Erin Doherty contributed to this report.

What you need to know today

And finally…

An investor sits in front of a board showing stock information at a brokerage office in Beijing, China.

Thomas Peter | Reuters

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