South of the Border: The incoming Mexican government is denying reports — and claims by President Trump — that it has agreed to hold asylum seekers in Mexico while their cases wend through American courts.

“There is no agreement of any sort between the incoming Mexican government and the US government,” future Interior Minister Olga Sanchez said in a statement.

The Washington Post reported that there is such an agreement and President Trump victoriously tweeted, “No ‘Releasing’ into the U.S….All will stay in Mexico.” He also said, “If for any reason it becomes necessary, we will CLOSE our Southern Border.”

Something is awry here because the Post story also quoted Sanchez as saying, “For now, we have agreed to this policy of Remain in Mexico.”

Holding migrants in Mexico would end, at least for now, the system Trump has decried as “catch and release” in which immigrants are taken into custody and let go after processing. Forcing them to stay in Mexico is seen as a way to discourage them from even trying to get into the US.

British Divorce: The other 27 members of the European Union have approved Britain’s complicated proposal for leaving the EU. Prime Minister Theresa May has cobbled a complicated arrangement that would kinda’, sorta’ pull Britain completely out of the EU. The deal still needs to be approved by the British Parliament where there is still a lot of disagreement.

Wrong Man: Police in Hoover, Ala., admit that one of their officers shot and killed the wrong man in a shopping mall shooting Thanksgiving night. The gunman who wounded an 18-year-old man and 12-year-old girl is believed to be still on the loose.

An officer killed 21-year-old Emantic Bradford Jr., who police say “may have been involved in some aspect” of an argument that preceded the shooting inside the Riverchase Galleria near Birmingham.

The cops have changed their story. They first said “While moving toward the shooting scene, one of the officers encountered a suspect brandishing a pistol and shot him.” They revised that to say Bradford was shot and killed while “fleeing the shooting scene while brandishing a handgun.”

Clear Cut: Brazilians are clearing the Amazon forest at a faster rate than they have in 10 years, according to government figures. More than 3,000 square miles of the Amazon were cleared between August 2017 and July 2018. That was nearly 14 percent more than the previous year.

Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonarois not likely to stop it. He campaigned on a pledge to limit fines for damaging the forests and to weaken the influence of the country’s environmental agency.

It sounds bad, but the rate of deforestation is 70 percent less than it was in 2004 when the government decided to do something about it. The Amazon includes the world’s largest tropical rainforest  and has plant and animal species that are still being discovered.

The Last Word: A letter written by an American man trying to spread Christianity reveals his thoughts and fears in the final days before he was killed last week by natives on a remote Indian island.

John Allen Chau, 26, wrote to his parents that he was willing to die to spread the word of Jesus. “You guys might think I’m crazy in all this,” he wrote in a last letter, “But I think it’s worth it to declare Jesus to these people.”

Chau had spent several days on North Sentinel Island in the Andaman Sea east of India, which is declared off limits to outsiders. The native population lives as it has for thousands of years, wearing loin cloths and bearing bows and arrows. Little is known about their language or how they live. They have killed or tried to kill many outsiders. Chau was shot and killed with arrows.

Chau was taken to the island by fishermen and paddled to shore in a kayak. He wrote, “The Milky Way was above and God Himself was shielding us from the Coast Guard and Navy patrols.”

He wrote of an early encounter with the natives that, “Two armed Sentinelese came rushing out yelling. They had two arrows each, unstrung, until they got closer. I hollered, ‘My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you.’ ”

Evidently neither they nor anyone on the island got the message.

College Ball: Number three ranked Notre Dame beat USC 24-17 last night to finish the season with a perfect 12-0 record. Clemson, ranked number two, also went 12-0 for the season. Ohio State blew out No. 4 Michigan 62-39, moving them to the Big Ten championship game against Northwestern.

Keeping it Real: In keeping with the tradition that Christmas has become a retail battleground, Christmas tree growers are duking it out this year with the artificial tree industry. The tree growers are spending $1 million in a campaign to urge Americans to “Keep It Real.”

An online ad says, “That smell, that wonderful fresh Christmas tree smell. That beautiful scent that fills the house. Smells like Christmas! That can’t be manufactured.”

Fake trees are starting to cut into the business as they become startlingly real-looking. The manufacturers say their trees are much easier. So you have a choice. Go to the tree salesman on the farm or down at the corner and buy something that smells like Christmas, or fight your way to Walmart and get a tall odorless sculpture of tinsel made in China.

We have no strong opinions about this.

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