HomeSeek

Not for the first time, China once again dominated the news this week.

The release of new economic data provided a temperature check of the world’s second-largest economy, while dubious COVID-19 death rates focused attention on Beijing’s reputation for secrecy and narrative control at all costs.

Elsewhere, Asia’s youngest nation went to the polls, and Japan got a rare taste of rising inflation after decades of sluggish economic growth.

Here are the numbers you should know to get on top of this week’s economic and business news.

4.8 percent

The amount by which China’s economy grew year on year in January-March, according to official government data.

The first quarter performance beat most forecasters’ predictions, but reflected only a fraction of the effect of lockdowns imposed on Chinese cities, including the financial capital Shanghai, since late March.

Even without accounting for economically-crippling lockdowns, the economic data hinted at storm clouds on the horizon: retail sales, a key indicator of economic health, fell 3.5 percent in March compared with the same period last year.

Analysts expect much worse to come, as Chinese President Xi Jinping signals his intention to hew to a zero-tolerance approach towards the virus long after the rest of the world has moved on from the pandemic.

The IMF and banks including UBS, the Bank of America and Barclays this week downgraded their growth forecasts for China in 2022.

Nomura’s especially pessimistic forecast, 3.9 percent, would mark China’s slowest growth rate since 1990 – apart from 2020, when the pandemic derailed the global economy.

38

The number of COVID-19 deaths China has reported from coronavirus outbreaks since the beginning of March.

To say the figure has raised eyebrows would be an understatement.

With some 550,000 cases reported so far, most of them in Shanghai, the official death toll flies in the face of all international experience with the virus.

By comparison, South Korea – with a superior vaccination rate – reported a death rate of about 0.12 percent during its most recent wave.

Applying the same ratio to China would translate to about 660 deaths.

Some health experts quoted in international media have attributed the discrepancy to Chinese authorities’ longstanding practice of focusing on causes of death such as cancer and heart disease.

Others question whether Beijing is intentionally distorting the picture to save face after expending so much political capital claiming its response to the pandemic has been superior to that of the West.

62 percent

The share of the vote secured by independence leader and Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta in East Timor’s presidential election.

Ramos-Horta, who previously served as president of the young nation from 2007-2012, scored a landslide against incumbent Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres after a runoff vote on Monday.

Ramos-Horta, who has promised to reduce poverty, faces the challenge of diversifying the Southeast Asian country’s economy from oil and gas, which has accounted for more than 90 percent of government revenues in recent years.

The president-elect has said he expects East Timor, which gained its independence from Indonesia in 2022, to become the 11th member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year.

0.8 percent

The amount by which Japan’s consumer prices rose year on year in March.

The core consumer price index (CPI), which does not include volatile fresh food prices but does cover fuel, rose from 0.6 percent in February – the fastest increase in more than two years.

Unlike other countries that are raising interest rates to tame soaring inflation, Japan has for decades grappled with the opposite problems of stagnation and deflation, and its central bank has pledged to maintain stimulus measures to boost growth.

While high inflation erodes people’s purchasing power, a moderate amount is considered a healthy sign of rising demand and economic growth.

For years, the world’s third-largest economy has tried in vain to reach a 2 percent inflation target with rock-bottom interest rates and fiscal stimulus ranging from tax cuts to cash handouts.

Soaring commodity prices due to the war in Ukraine and a weakening yen are now finally causing prices to meaningfully rise.

But that could be a double-edged sword.

While Japan’s inflation remains modest by international standards, a significant uptick could prove politically perilous in a country accustomed to decades of stagnant prices and measure wage growth.

In a sign of the general public’s concern about the cost of living, Japanese households predicted inflation would hit 6.4 percent next year in a BOJ survey carried out earlier this month, Bloomberg reported. That was the highest reading since 2008.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The leaders of the rival Koreas have exchanged letters expressing hope for improved bilateral relations, which plummeted in the past three years amid a freeze in nuclear negotiations and North Korea’s accelerating weapons development.

North Korea’s state media said Friday that leader Kim Jong Un received a personal letter from outgoing South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday and replied on Thursday with his own letter appreciating Moon’s peace efforts during his term.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said their exchange of letters showed their “deep trust.” Moon’s office also confirmed that he exchanged letters with Kim but didn’t immediately say what was said.

The exchange of letters came amid heightened tensions created by a series of North Korean weapons tests this year, including its first flight-test of an intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017 in March, reviving a nuclear brinkmanship aimed at forcing the US to accept it as a nuclear power and remove crippling tensions.

South Korea’s military has also detected signs that North Korea is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear testing ground it partially dismantled weeks before Kim’s first meeting with then-US President Donald Trump in June 2018, a possible indicator that the country is preparing to resume nuclear explosive tests .

Moon met Kim three times in 2018 and lobbied hard to help set up Kim’s meetings with Trump. But the diplomacy never recovered from the collapse of the second Kim-Trump meeting in 2019 in Vietnam, where the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility, which would have amounted to a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities.

Kim has since vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent to counter “gangster-like” US pressure and sped up his weapons development despite limited resources and pandemic-related difficulties.

North Korea also severed all cooperation with Moon’s government while expressing anger over US-South Korea military exercises and Seoul’s inability to wrest concessions from Washington on its behalf.

The KCNA said that Moon, whose term ends next month, said in his letter to Kim that he will continue to support efforts for reunification between the war-torn rivals based on their joint declarations for inter-Korean peace issued after their meetings in 2018.

North Korea now faces a new South Korean leader who could possibly take a harder line toward Pyongyang. Conservative South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol, who takes office on May 10 after narrowly winning the March 9 election, has rejected pursuing “talks for talks’ sake” with North Korea and vowed to bolster Seoul’s alliance with Washington to counter the North’s nuclear threat.

Washington, DC – The Biden administration has imprisoned tens of thousands of asylum seekers in violation of United States and international law, a rights group has said in a new report, just weeks before large numbers of people are expected to arrive at the country’s southern border.

In a report published on Thursday, Human Rights First said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has held tens of thousands of people in jails instead of allowing them to live in the US with their families or sponsors as their asylum cases are decided.

The group said that jailing asylum seekers is “inhumane, unnecessary, and wasteful” and has needlessly subjected people to severe physical and psychological harm, medical neglect and discrimination.

“Jailing asylum seekers is fundamentally dehumanising and cruel,” said Becky Gendelman, an associate attorney for research refugee protection at the group and the report’s author.

“It cuts them off from legal representation and subjects them to horrendous conditions of confinement, it inflicts physical and psychological harm and it can be re-traumatising for people who have fled persecution,” Gendelman told Al Jazeera in an an.

The report, entitled “’I’m a prisoner here’: Biden administration policies lock up asylum seekers”, found that since President Joe Biden took office in January of last year, asylum seekers were held in detention centers for 3.7 months on average.

This included those who passed their so-called credible fear interviews, during which an asylum seeker is expected to explain to an immigration officer why returning to their country of origin could put them in danger.

The detention of asylum seekers is generally prohibited under international law, except in exceptional circumstances. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibits detention that is unreasonable, unnecessary, disproportionate or arbitrary.

Rights organizations also say the detention of asylum seekers, who have not committed a crime, is illegal and a violation of their right to freedom of movement.

The report comes as the US on May 23 is expected to end a pandemic-era policy invoked in March 2020 that allowed authorities to expel the majority of those seeking asylum at the border, citing the need to protect the country from the spread of the coronavirus .

More than 1.8 million expulsions have been conducted under Title 42, with asylum seekers sent back to Mexico or their country of origin, according to government figures.

“While the Biden administration has turned away and expelled many asylum seekers under Title 42 it has also subjected many whom it doesn’t expel to prolonged and cruel detention,” Gendleman said.

Prolonged detention

Under an agreement with Mexico, the US can only expel people from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador under Title 42.

Gendelman says many of those jailed have been asylum seekers whom the US could not expel to Mexico. According to the report, people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela as well as several countries in Africa have been subjected to prolonged detention.

Biden had pledged to eliminate prolonged detention, end the use of for-profit immigration detention centres, and uphold the legal right to seek asylum. But amid record-high arrivals at the US-Mexico border and attacks from his Republican rivals, Biden has kept in place several restrictive policies that his predecessor Donald Trump had championed.

The Biden administration has come under frequent criticism from immigrant advocates and progressive Democratic leaders urging the president to do more to uphold its responsibility towards asylum seekers.

Trump, a president who made discouraging asylum an important policy goal, seeking to detain asylum seekers for the duration of their proceedings, arguing most would not show up to their court hearings if they are allowed into the US while they wait for the outcome of their cases.

But this claim has been refuted, and to TRAC Immigration, a data-gathering organization at Syracuse University, in the 2019 fiscal year, 98.7 percent of asylum seekers who were not detained showed up to every court hearing.

Human Rights First’s report said the mass jailing of asylum seekers is also the result of Biden administration policy (PDF) that designates people who cross the border, including asylum seekers, as a “threat to border security” and a priority for enforcement, according to a February 2021 ICE memo.

“We urge the Biden administration to stop jailing asylum seekers as it ends the illegal Title 42 policy. It should instead welcome them with dignity and use community-based programs,” Gendleman said.

DHS did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on the report.

‘Like I was a criminal’

Salma, a human rights and opposition activist from Uganda, said she fled to the US in July 2021 after being detained and tortured. She claimed asylum after landing in Los Angeles, California. She said she was detained for six hours at the airport and then transported to the Adelanto detention centre. She said she was chained during the three-hour drive there.

“First of all, you’re hungry, you’re tired and then you’re chained,” Salma, 30, who used a pseudonym because her asylum case is still pending, told Al Jazeera. “They chained my hands, legs and wrists like I was a criminal,” she said.

Two days later, she was given a credible fear interview, which she passed. Still, she was not allowed to leave the detention centre; she said she was told it was because she did not have relatives in the US who could sponsor her.

She was also not able to contact a lawyer right away, her belongings, including her phone and passport, were taken away, and her hair locks were cut off. The detention center was so cold, she said, that some women there got nosebleeds, while the food was of such low quality that it was often thrown away.

NEW: @humanrights1st report, “I’m a Prisoner Here,” documents the jailing of tens of thousands of asylum seekers under the Biden administration in dangerous and cruel conditions. https://t.co/MoCg0Iluaf

— Rebecca Gendelman (@becky_gendelman) April 21, 2022

She was given a medical parole a month and a half later after she realised that she was pregnant. She said she had a miscarriage a month after her release. “There is no way someone can survive without eating proper food,” she said.

According to TRAC, 23,827 asylum decisions were made during the 2021 fiscal year, down from 60,079 a prior year. In 2021, the number of people who were granted asylum was 8,349 and an additional 402 were granted another type of relief.

US Justice Department data also showed that more than 1.5 million asylum cases were pending in the courts as of the first quarter of the 2022 fiscal year.

Meanwhile, Human Rights First’s report found that Black asylum seekers were on average for nearly 4.3 months – 27 percent longer than asylum seekers who are not Black.

Sabri, an asylum seeker who spoke to reporters on Thursday using a pseudonym, said he crossed the US-Mexico border in August 2021 after fleeing Sudan with his wife. He said his requests for parole were denied multiple times even after he passed his credible fear interview.

He said officers took their belongings and separated him from his wife. He was held at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, while his wife was sent to another detention center in the state.

“I thought the US government would treat me well after everything that I had been through,” Sabri said. “But the government detained me for five-and-a-half months.”

US says Ukrainian forces still hold ground in Mariupol, despite Vladimir Putin saying Russia ‘liberated’ besieged city.

• Washington says Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that Moscow “liberated” the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol is “yet more disinformation”.
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls for more weapons and tougher sanctions against Russia as its eastern offensive continues.
• US President Joe Biden pledges more heavy artillery, ammunition and drones to Ukraine as part of a new $800m weapons package.
• World Bank chief says Russia’s invasion has caused $60bn in damage to buildings and infrastructure across Ukraine so far.

Here are all the latest updates:

5 min ago (20:55 GMT)

‘Yet more disinformation,’ US says of Russian claim about Mariupol

The US State Department has said it understood Ukrainian forces still held ground in Mariupol and called Putin’s claim to have liberated the city “yet more disinformation from their well-worn playbook”.

Putin hailed Russia’s “liberation” of the Ukrainian port city after Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told him Moscow controlled it, apart from the Azovstal steel plant.

“Block off this industrial area so that not even a fly can escape,” Putin said in a televised meeting, adding it would be “impractical” to storm the huge industrial area, where more than 2,000 Ukrainian servicemen remain, according to Shoigu.

5 seconds ago (20:50 GMT)

OAS suspends Russia as permanent observer

The Organization of American States (OAS) has adopted a resolution suspending Russia as a permanent observer to the inter-governmental institution over the invasion of Ukraine.

The move comes as pressure is growing to exclude Russia from various international organizations in response to the war. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed Russia’s OAS suspension.

Complete text of the resolution “Suspension of the Status of the Russian Federation as a Permanent Observer of the Organization of American States” adopted by the #OAS Permanent Council pic.twitter.com/uGulsmLuWR

— OAS (@OAS_official) April 21, 2022

5 min ago (20:44 GMT)

US defense chief to host Ukraine talks at US base in Germany next week

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will host Ukraine-focused defense talks with allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on April 26, the Pentagon has said.

“The goal is to bring together stakeholders from all around the world for a series of meetings on the latest [Ukrainian] Defense needs and … ensuring that Ukraine’s enduring security and sovereignty over the long-term is respected and developed,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

Kirby did not say how many allies would participate.

9 min ago (20:40 GMT)

Mass grave site near Mariupol expanded in recent weeks: US company

Satellite imagery from near the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol shows a mass grave site that has expanded in recent weeks to contain more than 200 new graves, a private US company has said.

Maxar Technologies said a review of images from mid-March through mid-April indicates the expansion began between March 23 and 26. The site lies adjacent to an existing cemetery in the village of Manhush, 20 kilometers west of Mariupol, Maxar said.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the imagery.

17 mins ago (20:33 GMT)

US again warns China against backing Russia in war

US Secretary of State Spokesman Ned Price has warned China against supporting Russia in its military, but said Washington does not believe Beijing has provided any weapons to Moscow.

“We offered an assessment a couple of weeks ago that we had not seen any such support on the part of the PRC [People’s Republic of China]. That remains the case today,” Price told reporters.

“We’ve made that any country that seeks to clear our sanctions regime or seeks to provide support to Russia’s war effort in Ukraine would face consequences,” he added.

25 mins ago (20:25 GMT)

Chinese president says talks, not sanctions resolve conflicts

Xi Jinping has said his government supports negotiations and opposes the “wanton use” of sanctions to resolve international disputes, remarks seen as confirming that China is sticking to its stance of refusing to criticize Russia’s invasion.

Beijing has faced calls from US and European leaders to speak out against Russian atrocities in Ukraine and pressure President Vladimir Putin to end the conflict.

Xi said China rejects “double standards, and oppose the wanton use of unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction.” Read more here.

32 min ago (20:17 GMT)

World Bank estimates $60bn in physical damage in Ukraine

The World Bank has estimated that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused $60bn in damage to buildings and infrastructure across Ukraine so far.

World Bank President David Malpass told a conference on Ukraine’s financial assistance needs that the early estimate of “narrow” damage costs does not include the growing economic costs of the war.

“Of course the war is still ongoing, so those costs are rising,” Malpass said.

Welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Read all the updates from Thursday, April 21 here.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Two days into Russia’s attack on Ukraine, a majority of UN Security Council members voted to demand that Moscow withdraw. One thing stood in their way: a veto by Russia itself.

It was the latest in decades of vetoes — on issues ranging from the Korean War to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to climate change — that at least temporarily stymied the council that was designed to be the UN’s most potent component. A round of venting followed over the veto power afforded to just five of its 15 members: China, the United States, Russia, France, and Britain. Each has used that power over the years.

Proposals to change the council’s structure or rein in vetoes have sputtered for more than half a century. But now, a new approach — simply subjecting vetoed matters to scrutiny by the full UN membership — appears to be gaining traction.

Spearheaded by Liechtenstein, the measure has more than 55 co-sponsors, including the US The 193-member General Assembly is due to consider the measure Tuesday.

“This is really an important initiative,” said Thomas Weiss, a City University of New York Graduate Center political science professor and Chicago Council on Global Affairs distinguished fellow who specializes in UN politics. To him, the proposal promotes transparency and challenges the idea that a few powerful countries can tank Security Council initiatives without so much as an explanation.

“It does, in important ways, suggest that the veto is not sacrosanct,” he said.

The proposal wouldn’t limit vetoes, but they would trigger public debates in the General Assembly. Whichever country or countries had cast a veto would be invited to say why.

The assembly wouldn’t have to take or even consider any action. Regardless, the discussion could put veto-wielders on the spot and let a raft of other countries be heard.

It aims “to promote the voice of all of us who are not veto-holders, and who are not on the Security Council, on matters of international peace and security because they affect all of us,” said Liechtenstein’s UN ambassador, Christian Wenaweser.

Story continues

From the UN’s 1945 start, World War II allies, France, China, the Soviet Union (succeeded by Russia), and the US have been the only countries with permanent seats and veto power in the Security Council. Other members are elected to two-year terms.

While the General Assembly got a broad membership and agenda, the council got more power. Its resolutions are legally binding, if sometimes ignored nonetheless, and can entail military action (ie, assembling peacekeeping forces with troops contributed by various countries.)

Vetoes arose quickly. So did frustration. By the end of 1946, the assembly asked the council “to make every effort” not to let vetoes hinder prompt decision-making.

By now, more than 200 different Security Council proposals have been vetoed, some by multiple countries, according to UN records. The subjects were as sweeping as reporting on weapons stockpiles and as specific as the governance of a part of the Indian Ocean nation Comoros.

The Soviet Union/Russia has cast the most vetoes by far, followed by the United States. Fewer still have been cast by Britain, China and France.

Countless other ideas were never brought to a vote because of an expected veto.

All that has engendered laments that the council’s sometime paralysiss its legitimacy and public faith in the UN And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has only brought those grievances more into focus.

“We are dealing with a state that is turning the veto in the United Nations Security Council into the right to die,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the council via video April 5. Saying the council “simply cannot work effectively,” he called on members to remove Russia, reform or “dissolve yourself and work for peace.”

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, in turn, bristled that his country had been thwarted in its efforts to hold a separate council meeting on Ukraine the day before. (Current council president Britain said it was just a scheduling disagreement).

With the council at an impasse, the no-veto General Assembly has voted to demand that Russia stop the war, to blame Russia for the humanitarian crisis that has ensued, to urge an immediate cease-fire, and to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. Russia said it withdrew from the rights group before the vote.

Liechtenstein initially planned to introduce its proposal in March 2020 but held off because of the coronavirus pandemic, Wenaweser said. He said the Ukraine stalemate has now built support for the idea.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield cited what she called Russia’s “shameful pattern of abusing its veto privilege” when she announced last week that Washington was backing Liechtenstein’s proposal. She called it innovative and “a significant step toward the accountability, transparency and responsibility” of countries with veto power.

The United States last used it to kill an August 2020 proposal about prosecuting and rehabilitating people involved in terrorism. Washington objected that the measure didn’t call for repatriating foreign fighters for the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq and Syria.

The other veto-wielding countries haven’t responded to requests for comment on Liechtenstein’s proposal. Wenaweser said Russia had raised objects, centered on views about the General Assembly’s proper role in international peace and security issues.

Wenaweser said his country is “pragmatic” about the future of veto power, but “we want to help initiate a change in mindset as to the way in which the veto is cast.”

WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) – The United States understands that Ukrainian forces still hold ground in Mariupol and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim to have liberated the city is disinformation, the US State Department said on Thursday.

“We understand that Ukraine’s forces continue to hold their ground and there is every reason to believe that President Putin and his defense minister’s show for the media that we saw in recent hours is even yet more disinformation from their well-worn playbook,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told a news briefing.

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Simon Lewis; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Black legislators protest as state legislature endorses Governor Ron DeSantis’s proposal to change US congressional map.

A new Florida congressional map proposed by Governor Ron DeSantis has been approved by the Republican-led state legislature, setting up a likely advantage for Florida Republicans in November’s US elections.

The map, which sets voting boundaries for members of Congress, is projected to increase the number of Republicans representing Florida in the US House of Representatives to 20 from 16. Democrats stand to lose three House seats, going from 11 to eight, political analysts have said.

Democrats protested the new congressional map as a product of intentional partisan “gerrymandering” that will make it more difficult for Black candidates to run for office.

Florida’s congressional map was redrawn as part of a nationwide redistricting process in the United States in which seats in the US House of Representatives are reapportioned to reflect population changes. Florida is adding a seat because of population growth following the 2020 Census.

Black lawmakers staged a sit-in on the floor of the Florida House on Thursday as debate about the maps was nearing an end. State representatives Angie Nixon and Tray McCurdy opened up their suit jackets to display “Stop The Black Attack” T-shirts and shouted the same phrase.

They sat on the state seal in front of the House speaker’s rostrum and were soon joined by other Black Democrats and other supporters.

But after a brief delay, the Republican-controlled legislature gave final approval to DeSantis’ proposed map. The state Senate had approved the map in a 24-15 vote along party lines during a special session on Wednesday.

If the DeSantis plan holds up against legal challenges, it would offset gains Democrats have made in redistricting plans in states such as Illinois and New York. The Republican governor’s plan could see two of Florida’s five Black members of the US House lose their seats.

State Senator Shevrin Jones said the maps “trample on marginalized people”.

“You have to do self-reflection on whether we are doing the right thing. We’re just not,” Jones said.

Republican state Senator Kelli Stargel argued the new DeSantis map would not hurt minorities’ chances of getting elected. “To say that these maps, as they’re drawn today, are hurting minorities, I believe, is not accurate,” she said.

“These are constitutional maps. I think they’re very thoughtful. I don’t think any of us who vote for them today are racist or following the direct will of the governor. We’re doing our constitutional requirement.”

Florida’s process for adopting the new congressional map has been fraught with controversy and legal battles.

DeSantis, who is a potential 2024 presidential candidate, in March vetoed a map drawn by the Republican legislature that was seen as more politically neutral.

Republican legislators then requested DeSantis provide a new proposed map, rather than revise theirs. Democrats objected that was an overreach of DeSantis’ power.

Republicans rejected those arguments but rubber-stamped DeSantis’s plan in a reversal of previous institutional roles at the state capital in Tallahassee.

“The governor has always had a role in districting. Not just Governor DeSantis, but every governor in the state of Florida, because no reapportionment plan is complete for a congressional map until the governor has signed it,” said state Senator Ray Rodrigues, a Republican who chaired the Senate Reapportionment Committee.

“This map will favor Republicans in 70 percent of the districts,” said Florida Senator Tina Polsky, a Democrat.

“But Republicans make up 36 percent of the registered voters in this state. So we are going to have an incredible imbalance in this state, and that is exactly what gerrymandering is, where the state does not represent its constituents.”

Of Florida’s 14.3 million registered voters, about 36 percent are Republicans, 35 percent are Democrats and most of the rest are independents who have not registered a party affiliation.

Sandy Springs, Ga., April 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The City of Sandy Springs was recognized as a 2021 “Tree City of the World” by the Arbor Day Foundation and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Sandy Springs earned recognition as a Tree City for the third consecutive year. To earn “Tree Cities of the World” designation, the City demonstrated its commitment by meeting five program standards: establish responsibility for the care of trees, set rules to govern the management of forests and trees, maintain an updated inventory or assessment of local tree resources, allocate resources for a tree management plan, and hold an annual celebration of trees to educate residents.

“This is a tremendous honor for the City of Sandy Springs,” Mayor Rusty Paul said. “Once again, this recognition is a testament to the City’s legendary tree canopy, and people often describe Sandy Springs as the city where skyscrapers rise from a forest of serene scenic beauty.”

According to a tree canopy assessment performed using imagery from the 2019 US Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Imagery Program, Sandy Springs is 57% to 60% tree covered.

The Arbor Day Foundation is the world’s largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to planting trees. The Food and Agriculture Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Both organizations came together in 2019 to found Tree Cities of the World. The program is a global effort to recognize cities and towns committed to ensuring that their urban forests and trees are properly maintained, sustainably managed, and duly celebrated.

For information about the City of Sandy Springs, please visit www.sandyspringsga.gov, or call the Citizen Response Center at 770-730-5600. Follow breaking news and traffic alerts on Twitter and community news on Facebook.

###

CONTACT: Jason Fornicola City of Sandy Springs 770-206-1473 [email protected]

At the same time, Biden administration discourages Ukrainians from trying to enter US through southern border with Mexico.

US President Joe Biden’s administration has announced a new program that it says will make it easier for Ukrainian refugees to be resettled in the United States, as the Russian offensive in their home country continues.

In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the “new streamlined process” will allow Ukrainians to apply for humanitarian parole, a status that does not provide a pathway to residency or citizenship, but allows people to stay and work in the US for two years.

To be eligible for the programme, dubbed “Uniting for Ukraine”, they must have been residents in Ukraine as of February 11, have a sponsor – a person or group – in the US, complete COVID-19 vaccinations and pass security checks, the department said. It is formally launching on Monday.

The move came after Biden announced last month that the US would take in up to 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war.

More than five million people> have fled Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an all-out invasion in late February, with most seeking refuge in neighboring countries in Europe.

“We are proud to deliver on President Biden’s commitment to welcome 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russian aggression to the United States. The Ukrainian people continue to suffer catastrophic tragedy and loss as a result of Putin’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on their country,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in the statement on Thursday.

But at the same time, the department discouraged Ukrainians from trying to enter the US through its southern border with Mexico, where thousands of refugees have been amassing in makeshift camps and other facilities in recent weeks.

US authorities had been allowing Ukrainian refugees in at the border on humanitarian grounds, exempting them from a restrictive policy known as “Title 42” that has been used since 2020 to turn away most other asylum seekers seeking US protection.

“Following the launch of Uniting for Ukraine [on Monday]Ukrainians who present at land US ports of entry without a valid visa or without pre-authorization to travel to the United States through Uniting for Ukraine will be denied entry and referred to apply through this program,” DHS said.

About 15,000 Ukrainian refugees have come to the US since the Russian invasion began, mostly through Mexico, the Reuters news agency reported.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Biden said the new program “will complement the existing legal pathways available to Ukrainians, including immigrant visas and refugee processing” and “provide an expedient channel” for Ukrainians with a US sponsor to come into the country.

“This program will be fast; it will be streamlined and will ensure the United States honors its commitment to the people of Ukraine,” the US president said.

Most recently, the US has used humanitarian parole to help bring thousands of Afghans to the country following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. But amid processing backlogs, advocates have urged Congress to pass a law that would grant them permanent residency.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, said despite the way the Biden administration has characterised the new program for Ukrainians, “it doesn’t appear to be as easy as it looks.”

“While the US government is saying this is going to be streamlined, they’re going to expedite this, they’ve not created any new pathway for Ukrainian refugees to come to the United States,” Halkett reported. “There are already some eyebrows being raised [as to] Whether it’s as good as the United States government is selling it to be.”

We are proud to deliver on @Putus‘s commitment to welcome 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russian aggression to the United States. The Ukrainian people continue to suffer tragedy and loss as a result of Putin’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on their country. https://t.co/uYm4XfplBE

— Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (@SecMayorkas) April 21, 2022

WASHINGTON — President Biden announced another $800 million in military assistance to Ukraine, as Russia began what could be a decisive offensive in the Donbas region. Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes the second phase of the war will be more favorable to Russia than the initial invasion, launched in late February.

“Putin has failed to achieve his grand ambitions on the battlefield,” Biden said Thursday, as he prepared to leave Washington for a trip to the Pacific Northwest. He praised the Ukrainian military for having “beat back Putin’s savagery” in the battle for Kyiv, which Russian generals told Putin they would win easily. Instead, the battle for Ukraine’s capital turned out to be what Biden called a “historic victory for the Ukrainians.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that Russia has begun its offensive on the plains of the Donbas, where the Kremlin hopes to consolidate territorial gains first achieved in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine eight years ago.

Biden predicted on Thursday that the fighting in the Donbas would be “more limited in terms of geography, but not in terms of brutality,” an assessment generally shared by military experts. He said the $800 million in new military aid would include 144,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as heavy artillery and howitzers, as well as “tactical drones,” an apparent reference to the explosive Switchblade unmanned systems aerial.

Putin “will never succeed in dominating and occupying all of Ukraine,” Biden vowed. “That will not happen.”

A prolonged occupation, however, would be to Russia’s advantage, turning Ukraine into an image of Chechnya, the breakaway Islamic republic Putin invaded as one of his first major acts as prime minister in 1999. The fighting there was ruthless, and the ensuing occupation prolonged . By the time Russian forces finally withdrew in 2009, the dreams of a free Chechnya were dead.

Biden promised that support for Ukraine would be unwavering. “Putin is banking on us losing interest,” he said, adding a few moments later that Ukraine’s allies in the West “will not lessen our resolve.”

Story continues

In order to “keep weapons and ammunition flowing without interruption,” Biden said he will ask Congress next week for additional funds to help Ukraine. He also announced $500 in nonmilitary aid to Kyiv, as well as an expedited program for refugees from the war-ravaged nation seeking to enter the United States.

The president also said Russian ships would be prevented from docking at American ports.

_____

How are Ukrainian forces taking out so many Russian tanks? Use this embed to learn about some of the weapons systems the US is sending to the Ukrainian army.