The burden of providing asylum seekers with food and accommodation often falls to the cities, the creation of heavy Budget cutsBut Denver is currently testing a brand new approach that goals to integrate immigrants into the labor market more quickly.

The Denver Asylum Seeker Program offers six months of rent-free accommodation in addition to legal assistance, food assistance and skilled training. The program began on April 10, 2024 with places for as much as 1,000 participants.

Only asylum seekers who were already living in Denver when this system was launched are eligible to participate—a provision designed to maintain costs under control and discourage hopeful participants from coming to Denver. This is a very important detail in a city that like othershas been groaning under the financial burden of the influx of migrants since December 2022.

Upfront financial costs The recent programme includes expenses for accommodation, food and training, that are expected to be around $1,700 per migrant.

So is that this effort value it? One approach to judge that is to take a look at a toolkit utilized by economists often called Cost-benefit evaluation. I teach this tool set as Professor of Economics at Colorado State UniversitySuch an evaluation takes into consideration the general advantages and costs of a program resembling Denver’s in comparison with maintain the established order or “do nothing”.

A system under pressure

Migration flows in Denver reached a peak in early 2024 when 5,213 people arrived in only at some point, leading to Reduction in opening hours of leisure centres and the Motor Vehicle Authority to release funds for food and shelter supplies.

Many of the migrants got here from the border with Mexico and carried Fines paid for by the Governor of Texas due to Denver's status as a sanctuary city. Denver has seen Since the tip of 2022, 42,817 migrants have arrivedgreater than another US city of this sizebut in recent weeks the numbers have dropped significantly.

The recent Denver Asylum Seekers Program is designed to regulate costs by serving a limited variety of asylum seekers while helping others “Securing onward travel”, as the town describes it, after only 72 hours in temporary accommodation. The city had previously offered 14 days accommodation for adults and 42 days for families.

The program allowed Denver to chop $15 million per quarter from its previously planned budget, but the town will still spend 90 million US dollars in migrant services in 2024, including the prices of the Denver Asylum Seekers Program.

Costs of doing nothing

Denver currently has greater than 10,000 persons are homelessTherefore, one motivation for the brand new program is to maintain these migrants off the streets.

Denver's homeless grew by 32% in 2023 to about 10,000 people, even when migrants are usually not included in the whole numbers. More people on the streets result in higher care costs in Emergency rooms and for Police work.

If this system means avoiding among the costs related to “doing nothing,” then those avoided costs could go toward other income support and prevention programs. This idea was illustrated in 2023 when Denver faced additional spending on migrant services and received around $2 million from Department of Human Services Accountsother programs can be neglected.

How Denver's program addresses problems

The Denver program is a direct response to Processing times for work permits for newly arrived asylum seekers who’ve been within the country for up to 1 yr in the previous couple of months. According to federal law Asylum seekers must wait 150 days before you even apply to work legally on this country.

The Denver program is designed to make good use of this waiting time by Training of the workforcewhich increases the probabilities that migrants will quickly find employment once they’re allowed to work.

Job training advantages not only the migrants themselves, but additionally their relations and the local economy. Recent statistics show that 43% of refugees in Colorado were under 18. So, when migrant parents get jobs, the prices of programs that support children, resembling public social services, are minimized.

Further advantages of migrant services

Research suggests that supporting migrants also local economic development.

An economics professor at Montana State University found that a $100 increase within the federal government’s monthly support for refugees Temporary assistance for families in need Program was linked to 5 to eight percent higher wages for these migrants once they’ve began workingThe study concluded that refugee aid is an economical approach to help refugees find suitable jobs. These jobs, in turn, contribute to the long-term economy, which advantages everyone.

The integration of refugees has also proven to be particularly helpful for Colorado. Professors from the Colorado School of Public Health and the University of Colorado Anschutz documented connections between economic independence and Integration into the community from 467 refugees from Colorado inside three yearsThey measured integration by understanding of American culture, knowledge of legal rights, and other points of social and economic stability.

Investment returns from employing migrants

A common counterargument Investments in recent migrants have the potential to displace native employees within the labour market. In a US State Department paperIt was shown that the admission of refugees over a study period of 30 years had no impact on the wages or employment of the local population.

One yr 2018 Colorado Department of Human Services The report found that 2,700 refugees within the state generated $611 million in recent economic activity. For every dollar invested in refugee services, the return was $1.23 in recent state and native tax revenue.

If this first-of-its-kind program achieves the identical return on investment, it will probably be expanded or replicated in other cities to cut back migrant spending and promote local economic sustainability.

politics

SOMEWHERE IN UKRAINE (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy unveiled Ukraine's newly arrived F-16 fighter jets on Sunday, saying the planes would boost the country's war effort against Russia.

“These jets are in our skies and today you see them,” said Zelensky, standing in front of two of the fighter jets as two others flew overhead in close formation. “It's good that they are here and that we can use them.”

Ukraine can also be trying to steer its neighbouring countries to assist defend against Russian missiles, said Zelensky.

“This decision is probably difficult for our partners, as they always fear unnecessary escalation,” the Ukrainian president said. “We will work on it… I think we have a good option for a NATO-Ukraine Council… so that NATO countries can talk to Ukraine about the possibility of a small coalition of neighboring countries that would shoot down enemy missiles.”

Two F-16 jets covered in camouflage nets and bearing the Ukrainian trident insignia on the tail provided a dramatic backdrop for Zelensky's address on Air Force Day, an event held at an undisclosed location under tight security to guard the fighter jets from Russian attacks.

“Since the beginning of this war, we have been talking with our partners about the need to protect our Ukrainian skies from Russian missiles and Russian aircraft,” Zelensky said. “Now we have a new reality in our skies. The F-16s are in Ukraine. We made it possible. I am proud of our guys who have mastered these aircraft and have already started using them for our country. … Our fighter jets will bring us closer to victory.”

A senior Ukrainian military official said Ukraine may deploy among the F-16 fighter jets at foreign bases to guard them from Russian attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow could consider attacks on facilities in NATO countries if the fighter jets utilized in Ukraine are based there.

Made within the USA, the F-16 is an iconic fighter jet that has been the frontline combat aircraft of selection for NATO and various air forces around the globe for 50 years.

Although the F-16s are latest to Ukraine, they are literally older fighter jets donated by Ukraine's Western allies. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have pledged to deliver greater than 60 of those machines to Ukraine in the approaching months, but deliveries could also be slow. Zelensky didn’t say what number of F-16s have arrived in Ukraine or which countries they got here from.

US President Joe Biden gave the green light for the stationing of used F-16 fighter jets in Ukraine in August 2023. However, the US is not going to supply its own aircraft.

The F-16s will boost Ukraine's military strength, especially by improving its air defenses, but analysts say they alone is not going to turn the tide of the war.

Russia is making small but regular battlefield gains within the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, and its regular advance is intensifying as Ukraine steadily loses ground.

Before Kamala Harris entered the presidential race, the group of Democrats that met every Thursday in San Jose to speak politics and write postcards for the candidates had shrunk to 4 or five – sometimes just two or three.

But just five days after the Bay Area native rose to the highest of the Democratic ticket, they pushed several tables together in San Pedro Square to accommodate all 20 people. One wore a tank top with a big comma and the letters LA – a play on the right pronunciation of Harris' first name: “comma-la.”

“I was able to gain new energy,” said Stacy Palermini, 59, the identical age because the vp. “Nothing could stop me.”

Harris' candidacy has flipped the mood within the party from “doom scrolling” the grim news following President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance and the MAGA surge on the Republican National Convention to “hope scrolling” the headlines about record donations, the following conference call with 160,000 white women, TikTok memes and growing support. The expected endorsement of former President Barack Obama got here on Friday.

“I was totally scared,” said Erik Martinez, an LGBTQ activist from San Francisco. Now, he said, “I definitely feel very empowered and excited. I was just talking to a few friends yesterday about how we all kind of feel the same energy that we felt during Obama's first presidential campaign.”

Trump, who seemed on his method to victory before Biden's withdrawal, has already attacked his recent rival, blaming her for the issues of the Biden-Harris administration, including the border crisis and inflation. On Thursday, Trump called Harris a “madwoman” and a “California socialist.”

And if Republicans fear that Harris would have a greater likelihood of defeating Trump, they are usually not letting it show.

“I have no concerns at all. I'm telling you, Trump will be president,” said Jan Soule, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Conservative Republicans. “To be clear, anyone who knows Kamala here knows that she will be no harder to beat than Joe Biden.”

But Harris' entry into the race has not only revived Palermini's feminist group Solidarity Sundays, founded in 2017 to withstand Donald Trump's presidency, but has also inspired the relaunch of a sister organization within the East Bay and motivated quite a few Democrats within the Bay Area to mobilize their resources and open their wallets.

“I've donated three times in the last week just to say, 'I'm here, I'm present and I'm there, and we're going to make this happen,'” said Zoe Ellis, a Richmond choir director who was certainly one of 40,000 Black women who joined a Zoom call this week to support Harris.

Even Pantsuit Nation, a national grassroots group that encouraged women to wear Hillary Clinton-style pantsuits to the polls in 2016, is regaining momentum.

“All I'm saying,” wrote certainly one of the Facebook group members, “Kamala looks stunning in a pantsuit.”

But can Harris keep the momentum going? Her first presidential campaign in 2020 was so poorly managed and short-lived that she did not make it to the Iowa caucuses. Her campaign speeches throughout the 2020 Biden campaign often seemed uninspired.

But over the past two years, she has gained momentum in her latest role, which has criticized the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and conservative states that severely restrict abortion access – a brand new talent and a critical issue that Bruce Cain, a professor of political science at Stanford University, believes will serve her well.

“She seems to have improved as a candidate,” Cain said. “She doesn't have to be Barack Obama. She just has to be able to explain well” why she is best for the country.

According to a New York Times-Sienna College poll conducted this week, Harris is already harder to beat than Biden. Among likely voters, Trump remains to be ahead, but only by a razor-thin margin: Trump is at 48 percent, Harris at 47 percent.

Zina Slaughter of Richmond said she would do whatever she could to get Harris to defect.

“I'm definitely going to be making phone calls and doing phone canvassing,” said Slaughter, a member of Harris' sorority who also participated within the Zoom call for black women. “I'm looking into actually doing some door-to-door canvassing and helping organize some voter mobilization.”

This also applies to Debbie Mesloh, who worked on all of Harris' campaigns in California and flew to Maricopa County, Arizona, in 2020 to knock on doors and persuade voters to solid their ballots for the Biden-Harris ticket.

“We're going to raise money and organize in our community – women, lawyers, former employees, her friends, people from the gym in San Francisco, people from her favorite cookie shop,” Mesloh said. “They're going to dig deep and do whatever it takes to help her win.”

WASHINGTON – Urgently needed aid was delivered to Gaza from a recently repaired American-built pier, a U.S. official said Saturday after Problems that had hampered the efforts to deliver supplies to the Palestinians by sea.

The pier, built by the American military, was only in use for about every week before it torn apart by strong winds and heavy seas on May 25. The damaged section was reconnected to the beach in Gaza on Friday after carrying out repairs at an Israeli port.

Crews delivered about 1.1 million kilos (492 tons) of humanitarian aid across the pier to Gaza on Saturday, the U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement of the delivery.

On the identical day, Israel launched a heavy air and ground offensive. Attack through which 4 hostages were rescuedcaptured by Hamas through the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war in Gaza. At least 210 Palestinians, including children, were killed, a Gaza health official said.

This will bring back online a solution to deliver urgently needed food and other emergency supplies to Palestinians who’ve been displaced by the eight-month-old War between Israel and HamasDue to Israeli restrictions on land crossings and fighting, the world's supply of food and other essential goods is severely limited.

The damage to the pier was the last stumbling block for the project and the continuing struggle to provide the ravenous PalestiniansThree US soldiers were injured, one seriously, and 4 ships were stranded as a consequence of heavy seas.

Initial attempts to bring relief supplies from the pier into the Gaza Strip were interrupted by crowds. overran a truck convoy that aid agencies used to move the food, and plenty of of those ships were unloaded before they may reach a UN warehouse. Authorities responded by changing the travel routes, and aid got to those in need.

Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command, told reporters on Friday that the teachings learned from the primary week of operations had given him confidence that larger amounts of aid could now be delivered.

He said the goal was to stand up to 1 million kilos (500 tons, or 450 metric tons) of food and other supplies through the pier to Gaza every two days. Before the dam broke apart within the storm, greater than 1,100 tons (1,000 metric tons) of supplies were delivered, Pentagon officials said.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is working with the United Nations World Food Programme and its humanitarian partners within the Gaza Strip to distribute food, emergency dietary treatment for ravenous children and other relief supplies by sea.

Aid groups have been urging Israel to reopen land routes that might bring all of the aid it needs into the country. Israel says it has allowed tons of of trucks to go through a southern checkpoint and points the finger on the UN for failing to distribute aid. The UN says it is commonly unable to gather aid due to the security situation.

UN agencies warn that greater than 1,000,000 Palestinians within the Gaza Strip extreme hunger until the center of next month if hostilities proceed.

President Joe Biden's administration has said from the start that the pier just isn’t intended to be a one-size-fits-all solution and that any help can be helpful.

The original cost was estimated at $320 million, however the Pentagon said last week that the value had been reduced to $230 million due to donations from Britain and since the fee of buying trucks and other equipment was lower than expected.