Hailing a taxi in some parts of America comes with a growing chance that when the car arrives, no one will be behind the wheel, Axios Future of Mobility Joann Muller writes.

• Why it matters: Once the stuff of science fiction, robotaxis are now regularly plying the streets of Atlanta, Austin, L.A., Phoenix and San Francisco, and will be coming soon to at least a dozen more cities.

🚕 Zoom in: Alphabet-owned Waymo is driverless in five cities, with 15 more markets coming in 2026 and beyond.

• Uber and Lyft are gradually adding robotaxis from Waymo and other partners to their ride-hail networks.
• Tesla has small robotaxi fleets in Austin and San Francisco (with human safety monitors riding along). Phoenix is likely next. CEO Elon Musk has big expansion plans.

Most other players, including Amazon's Zoox, Toyota-backed May Mobility, Hyundai-owned Motional and Uber-backed Nuro, are in various stages of testing.

🥊 Reality check: A flurry of expansion announcements, mostly from Waymo, the industry's 800-pound gorilla, would lead you to believe robotaxis are everywhere.

• In L.A., Phoenix and San Francisco, that might be true. But elsewhere in the U.S., robotaxis are still pretty much a novelty.
• Uber customers in Atlanta or Austin can set their preferences for a robotaxi. But the number of cars is limited, meaning they'll have a longer wait.

🛣️ What to watch: Waymo's expanding service areas now include airports in San Jose, Phoenix and, soon, San Francisco.

• It's starting to offer high-speed freeway trips for some users in San Francisco, L.A. and Phoenix.

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President Trump said last night that West Virginia National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from wounds sustained in an ambush-style attack by an Afghan national near the White House on Wednesday.

• Trump announced her death during a Thanksgiving call with service members, saying a "magnificent person" had "just passed away. She's no longer with us." Trump spoke with Beckstrom's parents last night.

Andrew Wolfe, the other guardsman shot in the attack, is "fighting for his life," Trump said.

The backstory: The suspect in the case, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, "fought in the late days of the U.S. war there as part of a 'Zero Unit,' a paramilitary force that worked with the CIA," the N.Y. Times reports (gift link).

• The units were "known for their brutality and labeled 'death squads' by human rights groups. A childhood friend said that "Lakanwal had suffered from mental health issues and was disturbed by the casualties his unit had caused."
• Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. He resettled in Washington with his family in September 2021.

Asked last night about Lakanwal's vetting and the fact that the suspect worked with the CIA, Trump said: "He went cuckoo, he went nuts."

• Get the latest.

🌐 19 "countries of concern": U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Joseph Edlow said on X yesterday that Trump has ordered "a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern."

• Asked to elaborate, USCIS referred Axios' Rebecca Falconer to 19 countries listed in a Trump proclamation on June 4, "Restricting the entry of foreign nationals to protect the United States from foreign terrorists and other national security and public security threats." Keep reading.

In a Truth Social post at 11:27 p.m. ET on Thanksgiving night, Trump vowed: "I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover."

Nearly two-thirds of registered voters believe a college degree isn't worth the cost — a stunning shift in sentiment from just one decade ago, according to an NBC News poll out this morning.

• Why it matters: The eye-popping shift "comes against the backdrop of several major trends shaping the job market and the education world, from exploding college tuition prices to rapid changes in the modern economy" — namely, AI.

🧮 By the numbers: 63% agreed that it's "not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off."

• Just 33% agreed that a four-year college degree is "worth the cost because people have a better chance to get a good job and earn more money over their lifetime."

In 2013, 53% in a CNBC poll said a degree was worth it. 40% said it wasn't.

• More on the poll.

Above: Spectators line Sixth Avenue during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Vice President Vance helps serve a Thanksgiving meal to soldiers on Wednesday during a visit to Fort Campbell in Kentucky, where Kid Rock introduced him onstage.

• Vance joked before the meal: "Think about turkey. Be honest with yourself, who really likes turkey? You're all full of sh-t — everybody who raised your hands. ... How many times do you roast an 18-pound turkey just randomly?"

The V.P. said he was planning to deep-fry his bird.

New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, the Rev. Al Sharpton and New York Attorney General Letitia James serve a Thanksgiving meal in Harlem.

Americans' social media habits are splintering in ways that echo the fractured traditional news landscape, Axios Communicators author Eleanor Hawkins writes.

• Why it matters: The same fragmentation that reshaped news is now reshaping social media, making it harder for companies, brands and public figures to reliably reach large swaths of the public.

Pew Research Center surveyed more than 5,000 U.S. adults and found that YouTube (84%), Facebook (71%) and Instagram (50%) remain the most widely used social platforms.

• The number of X users in the U.S. has decreased since 2021. Reddit has seen an uptick.

🔬 Zoom in: YouTube remains the most widely used platform among U.S. teens and those between the ages of 18-29 (95%) and 30-49 (92%), though TikTok is on the rise.

• 63% of those under 30 use the short-form video platform regularly, and roughly half say they go on TikTok at least once a day.
• A majority of those under 30 (58%) are also active on Snapchat.

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This clever headline we spotted in Christianity Today captures the seismic AI shake-up hitting the music industry: "The Current No. 1 Christian Artist Has No Soul."

• Why it matters: We told you earlier this month that the most-downloaded country song in America was written and sung by AI. Now robo-generated music is topping gospel charts.

Solomon Ray currently has the No. 1 songs on the Billboard and iTunes charts for digital sales of Christian and gospel music.

• "But Solomon Ray (at least, this Solomon Ray) is not a real person. Artificial intelligence crafted his persona, voice, performance style, and lyrics," Christianity Today writes.

🎧 Reality check: Digital sales and downloads represent just a fraction of overall music listenership, and don't include streaming and radio airplay.

• Go deeper.

Robert A.M. Stern — an acclaimed architect who designed notable museums, libraries and residences, including the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas — died yesterday at 86.

• Stern, a Brooklyn native, was obsessed with history and teaching, not just his own buildings. He wrote a definitive series of six books on New York City architecture, and was former dean of the Yale School of Architecture. He favored martini glasses and yellow socks.

Stern "built museums, schools, houses and libraries with little notice outside his profession," the N.Y. Times reports, "before winning international acclaim late in life by designing what was then the most expensive condominium building overlooking Central Park."

• That's 15 Central Park West, hailed as a rebirth of prewar luxury when it opened in 2008. Vanity Fair dubbed him "The King of Central Park West."

Other iconic Stern works included the Comcast Center and Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts in Florida, and the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.

• Photos of key projects ... N.Y. Times obit (gift link).

President Trump uses a small, seldom-seen study just off the Oval Office as a miniature version of the gift shops at Trump properties, the N.Y. Times' Doug Mills and Ashley Wu write.

• Trump shows off the merch to foreign leaders, and has been known to hand out trinkets and tchotchkes to favored visitors, like he does at his clubs.

When Doug Mills took these photos last month, goodies on display included Trump 2028 hats (two styles) ... cuff links ... and tumblers, water bottles, towels and M&M's with Trump's signature and the presidential seal.

The study is between the Oval Office and Trump's private dining room — "part of a small suite of private rooms, including a bathroom ... clustered off the Oval Office for the president's use," The Times notes:

"The president does not appear to be selling anything from this room ... According to a White House official, Mr. Trump uses the Oval Office as his primary office, and therefore wanted to turn the lesser-used study into a gift room for guests. The items in the room are swapped out or restocked at the discretion of Mr. Trump."

N.Y. Times gift link.