Reuters World News - Rape at the border, the NFL’s Swift effect, and sneaker culture moves on

Episode Date: September 29, 2023

There has been a surge in sexual violence against migrants at the Mexico border. Experts say the Biden administration’s new border strategy is contributing to the increase. Nike’s Air Jordans are losing their resale value. Is sneaker culture moving on? The ‘Taylor Swift effect’ boosts the NFL. Plus, the latest on Putin and the Wagner group and a devastating suicide bombing in Pakistan. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, a suicide bomber kills dozens at a religious gathering in Pakistan, a surge in sexual violence against migrants at the Mexico border. Nike's Air Jordans are losing their resale value. Is sneaker culture moving on? And Swifties descend upon the NFL. Will the league ever be the same? It's Friday, September 29th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to.

know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in London. And I'm Jonah Green in upstate New York. First, let's take a quick look at the headlines from around the world. A suicide bombing at a parade celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad has killed dozens of people in Pakistan. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast in Balochistan province, which comes amid a surge in attacks by militant groups in the west of the country. Something dangerous happening in America now. There's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. A warning from Joe Biden that his likely opponent, Donald Trump, and his followers,

pose a threat to democracy. The remarks in his speech honoring the late Republican senator, John McCain, mark a more aggressive approach by Biden, as the race for the White House beckons. Sticking with Donald Trump, his civil fraud trial will likely kick off Monday after a New York appeals court rejected his attempt to delay the case.

The court's decision caps a week of legal losses for the former president, who was found liable for fraudulently overvaluing his assets in a surprise pre-trial hearing. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been shown meeting one of the most senior ex-commanders of the Wagner mercenary group, who the Kremlin says now works for the Defence Ministry. The meeting with Andrei Choshev highlights how Putin is reasserting his authority

after a failed mutiny by the Wagner Group. It's time now for markets with Carmel Krimmins and Carmel knitwear sales and not where they should be. This is true. We've had unseasonably warm weather across the United States and Europe, and retailers are warning that that's denting sales of heavy sweaters and coats. In fact, some stores have already started slashing prices to avoid a pile up of inventory. The problem for retailers is that the rise in temperatures is coinciding with the start of holiday shopping season. That season starts much earlier now, really from about October. Do you know what? I actually just bought a winter coat thinking I was getting a crazy discount, but Carmel turns out there is better advice for consumers. Well, it's kind of

temperature dependent, right? If temperatures do stay warmer, you might be better off putting off that winter coat purchase until perhaps early 2024, because there might be a lot of heavy discounting then. The number of migrants trying to cross into the United States has led to a humanitarian crisis in two major transport hubs on the border. Now, lawyers, medics and aid workers have told Reuters about an increase in sexual violence against migrants. Laura Goddess Dina filed this report. And a warning that some listeners may find this segment upsetting. We spoke with eight rape and sexual assault survivors

who had arrived to these two cities, Matamoros and Reynosa, hoping to enter the United States. What they told us was they faced different forms of sexual violence, sometimes kidnapping and then rape while in captivity. That's a tactic cartels are using more and more to try to extort and pressure migrants in their families to pay exorbitant ransoms as quickly as possible. Sophia Cardona for Bromé,

the United Nations Refugee Agency here in Mexico, said it's increasingly becoming the modus operandi of criminal groups. She's saying they're increasingly seeing this type of sexual violence as, frankly, a fast way to make migrants respond to what the kidnappers want. It's important for us to remember that lots of types of violence, including rape and kidnapping, has always been a program for migrants crossing Mexico. Since the Trump administration rolled out a policy called Remain in Mexico, in which tens of thousands of asylum seekers waited along the border, the numbers of rapes, cases of rape and sexual violence really increased. Earlier this year, the Biden administration rolled out a new policy called CBP1.

This is a government-run smartphone application that allows migrants to request an appointment to present themselves in a port of entry and enter the United States. Biden officials say the application is also supposed to cut smugglers out of the equation that often charge migrants to smuggle them across the river so that they can present themselves to U.S. border officials on the other side. The problem is that when asylum seekers arrive in a city like Rhinos or Matamotos, without having paid a smuggler or without having paid the cartel to transit through their territory, is they're highly at risk of being kidnapped and then extorted for often thousands of dollars in ransom for their freedom. The Biden administration acknowledged delays in processing, but said migrants could wait in safer parts of Mexico and only travel to the border once they land their CBP-1 appointments. Mexico's National Migration Agency and Foreign Ministry did not respond to questions about sexual violence against migrants.

We turn now to the world of sneakers. The Air Jordans have been an iconic staple for Nike, especially in the resale market. But recent data has shown the value of some Georgia, Jordan shoes has been slipping on the resale market as other sneaker brands are experiencing exponential growth. Is the luster fading for this iconic brand? Retail reporter Kate Masters joins us now. So Kate, can you explain what's happening here and why this might spell trouble for Nike? The thing to understand is that for years, Nike has been able to count on very strong

demand for its sneakers, particularly collector's items like the Air Jordan One, which is kind of the quintessential collector sneaker. And so when they do new releases, they've been pretty assured that they're going to see both strong demand from buyers, from fans of the brand, and from resaleers who are looking to buy these sneakers and essentially flip them on secondary markets to folks who want the product. But what we've seen recently, particularly so far in 2023, is that these premiums on resale platforms like Stockax have gone down from a high of 61% in 2020 to 4% so far this year in 2023. But sales on sites like StockX are resales, right? So they don't directly impact Nike's revenues. Exactly. But they are a sign of consumer sentiment

and consumer demand. So the worry for Nike is that they aren't going to be able to count on this really strong demand for retro sneakers like the Air Jordan One that has been a big moneymaker for the brand. And at the same time, they're seeing increasing competition from other brands like on running, Hoka, Solomon, which could cut into their sales if consumers are opting for other sneakers. Taylor Swift's appearance at last week's Kansas City Chiefs cheering on tight end Travis Kelsey has caused a bit of a stir in sports. Amy Tenry is in New York where so-called Swifties are reportedly buying up tickets to see their

hero at Sunday's Kansas City game against the Jets at MedLife Stadium. Okay, Amy, first question, and it's a big one, are Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey dating? Yes or no, you're on the clock. Look, the only two people who could really answer that question for certain are Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift. What we do know is that the NFL is seeing a major swift effect. We spoke to the ticket resale platform. Stubhub, who said that tickets for the upcoming game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Jets have skyrocketed. And they've also seen a nearly threefold increase in sales in a 24-hour window for Chief's home games since she appeared in Travis Kelsey's luxury box this last Sunday.

Okay, so how big is this really for the NFL? It seems like a lot of non-football fans are suddenly very engaged. Yeah, of course. I mean, look, we won't want to get too carried away here, right? We are talking about the reigning Super Bowl champions, Kansas City Chiefs. The ratings are going to follow them wherever they go. Ticket sales are going to be up whenever they play. And, of course, you keep in mind that women have made up roughly half of the NFL audience for quite a few years now.

So we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves. All of that being said, Taylor Swift has a remarkably loyal fan base and an extraordinary amount of starpower. We actually spoke with sports merchandise retailer fanatics who said there was a nearly 400% spike in sales of Travis Kelsey's jersey on its websites, including the flagship NFL shop.com. So there is a pretty significant bump that the big business of the NFL is seeing from Taylor Swift. And it's going to be fascinating to see if she shows up in East Brotherford, New Jersey, this weekend. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back on Saturday with a special weekend episode looking at the future of big tech. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday.

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