World
Russians are blocked at US border, Ukrainians are admitted

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About three dozen would-be asylum seekers from Russia discovered themselves blocked from coming into the U.S. on Friday whereas a gaggle of Ukrainians flashed passports and have been escorted throughout the border.
The scene mirrored a quiet however unmistakable shift within the differing remedy of Russians and Ukrainians who enter Mexico as vacationers and fly to Tijuana hoping to enter the U.S. for an opportunity at asylum.
The Russians – 34 as of Friday – had been camped a number of days on the busiest U.S border crossing with Mexico, two days after metropolis of Tijuana officers gently urged them to go away.
ATTORNEYS HELP UKRAINIAN IMMIGRANTS STAY IN US, BRING FAMILY MEMBERS FROM WAR-TORN HOME
They sat on mats and blankets, checking smartphones, chatting and snacking, with sleeping baggage and strollers close by as a stream of pedestrian border crossers filed previous them. 5 younger ladies sat and talked in a circle, some with stuffed animals.
Days earlier, some Russians have been being admitted to the U.S. on the San Ysidro crossing, whereas some Ukrainians have been blocked. However by Friday, Russians have been denied whereas Ukrainians have been admitted after quick waits.
“It’s very exhausting to know how they make choices,” mentioned Irina Zolinka, a 40-year-old Russian girl who camped in a single day together with her household of seven after arriving in Tijuana on Thursday.
Irina Zolinka, who’s looking for asylum within the U.S., cries close to the San Ysidro Port of Entry into the USA, in Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, March 17, 2022.
(AP Photograph/Gregory Bull)
Erika Pinheiro, litigation and coverage director for advocacy group Al Otro Lado, mentioned the U.S. started admitting all Ukrainians on humanitarian parole for one 12 months round Tuesday, whereas on the identical time blocking all Russians. There was no official announcement.
A Homeland Safety Division memo dated March 11 however not publicly launched till Thursday advised border officers that Ukrainians could also be exempt from sweeping asylum limits designed to stop unfold of COVID-19. It says choices are to be made case-by-case for Ukrainians however makes no point out of Russians.
“The Division of Homeland Safety acknowledges that the unjustified Russian warfare of aggression in Ukraine has created a humanitarian disaster,” the memo states.
BORDER PATROL TOLD TO CONSIDER EXEMPTING UKRAINIANS AT SOUTHERN BORDER FROM TITLE 42 RESTRICTIONS: REPORT
Homeland Safety indicated in a press release Friday that anybody deemed “significantly weak” could also be admitted for humanitarian causes on a case-by-case overview, no matter nationality.
Russian migrants in Tijuana sat off to the facet of a line of a whole bunch of border residents ready to stroll throughout the border to San Diego on Friday. The road was unimpeded.
A 32-year-old Russian migrant who hadn’t left the border crossing since arriving in Tijuana along with his spouse about 5 days earlier had no plans to go away, fearing he could miss any sudden alternative.

A pair from Russia looking for asylum within the U.S. wait in Tijuana, Mexico, Thursday, March 17, 2022.
(AP Photograph/Gregory Bull)
Inside hours of arriving, the migrant, who recognized himself solely as Mark as a result of he feared for his household’s security in Russia, noticed three Russian migrants admitted to the USA. After six hours, U.S. authorities returned his passport and mentioned solely Ukrainians have been being admitted.
“Ukrainians and Russians are struggling due to one man,” Mark mentioned, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He fled shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. officers have expelled migrants greater than 1.7 million occasions since March 2020 with no likelihood to see asylum beneath sweeping authority aimed toward stopping unfold of COVID-19. However the public well being authority, often called Title 42, is seldom used for migrants of some nationalities who’re tough to expel for monetary or diplomatic causes.
I’M IN POLAND HELPING UKRAINIAN REFUGEES, AND SEEING THIS CRISIS FIRSTHAND IS SHOCKING
However to assert asylum, migrants have to be on U.S. soil and U.S. officers are blocking passage apart from these it needs to confess.
Even earlier than Russia’s invasion, the USA was seeing a rise in Russian and Ukrainian asylum seekers, most attempting to enter at official crossings in San Diego somewhat than attempting to cross illegally in deserts and mountains.
Greater than 1,500 Ukrainians entered the U.S. on the Mexican border from September by February, in line with U.S. Customs and Border Safety, about 35 occasions the 45 Ukrainians who crossed throughout the identical interval a 12 months earlier.

A Russian girl hugs her son as they wait close to the San Ysidro Port of Entry main into the USA on March 17, 2022.
(AP Photograph/Gregory Bull)
Ukrainians who can attain U.S. soil are just about assured a shot at asylum. Solely 4 of the 1,553 who entered within the September-February interval have been barred beneath the general public well being order that lets the U.S. expel migrants with no likelihood at humanitarian safety.
The variety of Russian asylum seekers coming into at U.S land crossings from Mexico surpassed 8,600 from September by February, about 30 occasions the 288 the identical time a 12 months earlier. All however 23 have been processed beneath legal guidelines that enable them to hunt asylum.
Mexican officers have been cautious of migrants sleeping on the border. Final month they dismantled a big migrant camp with tents and tarps in Tijuana that blocked a walkway to San Diego.
Desperate to cease one other camp from forming, town distributed a letter on Wednesday asking migrants to go away their campsites for well being and security causes and supplied free shelter in the event that they couldn’t afford a lodge.

World
Vote counting is underway in high-stakes state election in the New Delhi region
NEW DELHI (AP) — Vote counting started early Saturday in the high-stakes state legislature election in India’s federal territory, including New Delhi, with TV exit polls predicting a win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party.
Over 60% of more than 15 million eligible people voted to elect the local government on Wednesday.
Volunteers of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) check the results on mobile outside their party office as votes are being counted in the Delhi state election in New Delhi,India, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party was projected to win a majority in the 70-member assembly of India’s capital against the Aam Aadmi Party, or AAP, led by Arvind Kejriwal, which runs New Delhi and has built widespread support with its welfare policies and anti-corruption movement.
The early counting trends indicated that the BJP was ahead of the AAP in over 40 seats. Modi’s party hasn’t won the territory that includes India’s capital of 20 million people in over a quarter-century.
Exit polls, however, have a patchy record in India owing to diverse voting population.
The BJP failed to secure a majority on its own in last year’s national election but formed the government with coalition partners. It has gained some lost ground by winning two state elections in northern Haryana and western Maharashtra states.
Ahead of this election, both Modi and Kejriwal offered to revamp government schools and provide free health services and electricity, along with a monthly stipend of over 2,000 rupees ($25) to poor women.
Modi’s party has hoped to benefit after the recent federal budget slashed income taxes on the salaried middle class, one of its key voting blocs.
The AAP won 62 out of 70 seats in a landslide victory in the last state legislature election in 2020. leaving the BJP with eight and the Congress party with none.
The BJP was voted out of power in Delhi in 1998 by the Congress party, which ran the government for 15 years.
World
President Trump says 'we will have relations with North Korea'; it's a 'big asset' that he gets along with Kim

President Donald Trump hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House Friday and said the U.S. will have relations with the North Korean regime of dictator Kim Jong Un.
“We will have relations with North Korea, with Kim Jong Un. I get along with them very well,” Trump told reporters alongside Ishiba.
Trump, who first met Kim in 2018 in Singapore and became the first sitting president to meet with the leader of North Korea, is looking to build off his personal diplomacy he established with Kim during his first term.
NORTH KOREAN SOLDIERS IN RUSSIA RESORT TO SUICIDE AMID CAPTURE OF FIRST POWS BY UKRAINE
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Japan’s Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, at the White House Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“We had a good relationship. And I think it’s a very big asset for everybody that I do get along with them,” the president said.
Trump met Kim again in 2019 and became the first president to step foot inside North Korean territory from the demilitarized zone.
Trump said Japan would welcome renewed dialogue with North Korea because relations between Japan and North Korea remain tense since diplomatic relations have never been established.
“And I can tell you that Japan likes the idea because their relationship is not very good with him,” Trump said.
NORTH KOREA SLAMS RUBIO’S ‘ROGUE STATE’ LABEL AS ‘NONSENSE,’ VOWS TO PUSH BACK AGAINST TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

President Donald Trump met with Kim Jong Un in Singapore in June 2018 during his first term as president. (AP/Evan Vucci)
Ishiba said it’s a positive development Trump and Kim met during Trump’s first term. And now that he has returned to power, the U.S., Japan and its allies can move toward resolving issues with North Korea, including denuclearization.
“Japan and U.S. will work together toward the complete denuclearization of North Korea,” Ishiba added.
Prime Minister Ishiba also addressed a grievance involving the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. Although North Korea released some of the prisoners in the early 2000s, Pyongyang never provided Japan with any explanation for the abduction of its citizens, and there can be no normalization of relations between Japan and North Korea until the issue is resolved.
“And so our time is limited,” Ishiba warned.
“So, I don’t know if the president of the United States, if President Trump is able to resolve this issue. We do understand that it’s a Japan issue, first and foremost. Having said that, we would love to continue to cooperate with them,” the prime minister added.
World
Cyprus jails Syrian man over death of young girl on migrant boat

The number of migrants arriving Cyprus has fallen massively over the past three years after tough measures from the government.
A Syrian man has been jailed for three years by a Cyprus court for causing the death by negligence of a 3-year-old girl who died of dehydration aboard an overloaded migrant boat.
The Famagusta criminal court ruled that the 48-year-old captain had failed to ensure the safety of the 60 Syrian migrants in January last year during a journey on the small wooden craft, which carried no navigational aids or appropriate communications equipment.
The captain had told the passengers at some point in the journey to throw any remaining bottles of water overboard in a bid to remove any indications that the boat had departed from Lebanon, the Attorney-General’s Office in Cyprus said on Friday.
The boat set sail on 18 January 2024, but an engine failure left the vessel adrift for nearly a week in the eastern Mediterranean, where many of the passengers began to drink sea water and their own urine to quench their thirst, according to the facts of the case.
After locating the boat, Cypriot authorities airlifted the 3-year-old girl, who was accompanied by her mother, to a hospital, but medical staff could not save her life.
The authorities did not name the perpetrator or the victim.
The number of migrants arriving in Cyprus has fallen massively over the past three years after tough measures from the government. Authorities said the EU member nation’s ability to host many thousands of new asylum seekers was being overwhelmed.
Migrant arrivals to ethnically divided Cyprus — mostly through the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, where government authorities cannot exercise jurisdiction — dropped from 17,278 in 2022 to 6,102 in 2024, according to the latest available government data.
Meanwhile, asylum applications plummeted from a record 21,565 to 6,769 over the same period while repatriations increased to nearly 11,000 from 7,700.
Following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in December, Cyprus’ Deputy Migration Minister Nicholas Ioannides said about 40 Syrian nationals on average each day are requesting to either withdraw their asylum application or to revoke their international protection status.
Ioannides said this week that some 755 Syrians have already returned to their homeland.
Cyprus lies closer to the Middle East than any other EU state, and thousands of Syrians have fled to the island in recent years, which last year caused the government to halt the processing of asylum applications altogether.
Last October, Europe’s top human rights court ruled that Cyprus breached the right of two Syrian nationals to seek asylum after keeping them, and more than two dozen other people, aboard a boat at sea for two days before sending them back to Lebanon.
Additional sources • AP
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