The United States brought its most advanced fighter jet, the F-35, to India for the first time this week alongside F-16s, Super Hornets and B-1B bombers as Washington looks to woo New Delhi away from its traditional military supplier, Russia.

India, desperate to modernize its largely Soviet-era fighter jet fleet to boost its air power, is concerned about Russian supply delays due to the Ukraine war and faces pressure from the West to distance itself from Moscow.

The American delegation to the weeklong Aero India show in Bengaluru, which ends on Friday, is the biggest in the 27-year history of the show and underlines the growing strategic relationship between the United States and India.

In contrast, Russia, India’s largest weapons supplier since the Soviet Union days, had a nominal presence. Its state-owned weapons exporter Rosoboronexport had a joint stall with United Aircraft and Almaz-Antey, displaying miniature models of aircraft, trucks, radars and tanks.

At previous editions of the show, Rosoboronexport had a more central position for its stall, although Russia has not brought a fighter jet to Bengaluru for a decade after India began considering more European and U.S. fighter jets.

Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets have already entered the race to supply fighter jets for the Indian Navy’s second aircraft carrier and Lockheed Martin’s F-21, an upgraded F-16 designed for India unveiled at Aero India in 2019, are also being offered to the air force.

A $20 billion air force proposal to buy 114 multi-role fighter aircraft has been pending for five years, brought into sharp focus by tensions with China and Pakistan.

The F-35 is not being considered by India “as of now,” according to an Indian Air Force (IAF) source, but the display of two F-35s at Aero India for the first time was a sign of New Delhi’s growing strategic importance to Washington.

It was “not a sales pitch” but rather a signal to the importance of the bilateral defense relationship in the Indo-Pacific region, said Angad Singh, an independent defense analyst.

“Even if weapons sales aren’t the cornerstone of the relationship, there is a cooperation and collaboration at the military level between India and the U.S.,” he added.

The United States is selective about which countries it allows to buy the F-35. When asked if it would be offered to India, Rear Admiral Michael L. Baker, defense attache at the U.S. Embassy in India, said New Delhi was in the “very early stages” of considering whether it wanted the plane.

An IAF spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on its interest in F-35s.

Ahead of the show, Russian state news agencies reported that Moscow had supplied New Delhi with around $13 billion of arms in the past five years and had placed orders for $10 billion.

The United States has approved arms sales worth more than $6 billion to India in the last six years, including transport aircraft, Apache, Chinook and MH-60 helicopters, missiles, air defense systems, naval guns and P-8I Poseidon surveillance aircraft.

India also wants to manufacture more defense equipment at home in collaboration with global giants, first to meet its own needs and eventually to export sophisticated weapons platforms.
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A new Gallup poll shows that Americans’ satisfaction with the level of immigration into the United States has fallen to its lowest point in a decade.

About 63% of the respondents said they were dissatisfied with immigration. The poll was conducted January 2-22 as part of an annual poll done since 2001 on many issues.

In January 2022, overall satisfaction with immigration stood at 34%. This past January, the number dropped to 28%. In 23 years of polling, the lowest satisfaction percentage, 23%, was recorded in 2007; the highest was 41% in 2018.

“We know since COVID, and with everything happening at the border, [migrant] numbers have increased and that’s just reflected in people concerned about illegal immigration, people’s satisfaction with the level of immigration,” Gallup’s director of United States social research, Lydia Saad, told VOA.

The desire for less immigration increased across party lines, but the sentiment remained highest among Republicans.

According to Gallup, in 2021, 40% of Republicans said they believed immigration levels were too high. The number increased to 69% in 2022 and was 71% in the latest poll, the highest recorded for Republicans.

Dissatisfaction that immigration is too high also rose among Democrats, from 2% in 2021 to 11% in 2022 to 19% in January; among independents, the figure rose from 19% in 2021 to 32% in 2022 to 35% in January.

Older adults also increasingly want less immigration, according to the latest study. About 55% of Americans ages 55 and older surveyed said they wanted immigration levels to drop. That number was 21% in 2021, according to the poll.

“If you go back to the party trend, dissatisfaction has increased among all party groups since 2021,” said Saad. “The increase in older Americans’ concern is exclusively among independents and Democrats because Republicans were already highly concerned.”

The survey question did not specify legal or illegal immigration, Saad said.

“It just asked people to say if they’re satisfied or dissatisfied with the level of immigration into the country today,” she said.

However, in a March 2022 Gallup survey, 41% of Americans reported they were worried “a great deal” about illegal immigration to the United States. That was the same percentage found in 2021, yet one of the highest results among Gallup readings taken over the last decade.

Despite the rising concern about immigration, it is not a top priority for respondents, the January poll found. Other issues — such as women’s rights, the environment, race relations, guns and medical care — ranked higher than immigration.

According to Gallup, Americans’ satisfaction with immigration has fluctuated under different administrations. Immigration satisfaction hit its lowest level at the end of former President George W. Bush’s administration, in the years after 9/11.

Likely an issue during 2024 races

Immigration has been a hot topic in the last two decades and is likely to be a campaign topic in 2024.

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show that 874,449 migrants have been encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border since the start of fiscal 2023 on October 1, 2022.

Of those, 264,963 were immediately removed under Title 42, the measure that allows for the immediate expulsion of migrants during public health emergencies.

Some of those migrants have tried to cross the border multiple times.

In fiscal 2022, there were an estimated 2.3 million encounters with migrants, CBP data show. More than 1 million migrants were immediately expelled under Title 42 and 1.3 million were processed under Title 8, which means they were allowed to seek asylum in the U.S. or placed under expedited removal proceedings and sent back to Mexico or their home countries.

In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden said, “America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts,” adding that immigration reform is a bipartisan issue.

The last time Congress agreed to significant immigration legislation was in 1996.
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Michigan State Police said Thursday the suspect in this week’s Michigan State University shootings carried with him a note indicating he felt slighted by former co-workers and others, a possible clue to a motive for a shooting that left three students dead and five others injured at the college late Monday.

At a news briefing in East Lansing, Michigan State Police Lieutenant Rene Gonzalez told reporters the note carried by the suspect, 43-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae, indicated McRae had some issues with other employees at a previous job where he had been asked to leave.

Gonzalez noted they were uncertain what prompted McRae to open fire in two academic buildings on the university campus and later at a nearby student union. McRae died later, about six kilometers off campus, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was confronted by police. He had no known connection to the university.

Gonzalez also said police had interviewed the suspect’s father, Michael McRae, who said his son had no friends and spent much of his time alone in his room.

Chris Rozman, Michigan State University interim deputy police chief, said investigators are going to consider the possibility the suspect suffered from mental illness, though he admitted that may be difficult to confirm after the fact.

Michigan State University Interim President Teresa Woodruff told reporters three students — a 20-year-old man, a 20-year-old woman and a 19-year-old woman — were killed in the shooting. She said five other students remained hospitalized in critical condition as of early Thursday.

Rozman said the names of the wounded were not being released out of respect for their families.

Woodruff said the academic building where two students died will remain closed for the remainder of the semester. She said the student union is still being evaluated.

Michigan State has about 50,000 students at its campus in East Lansing, located 145 kilometers northwest of Detroit.  

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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A special grand jury that investigated efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his election loss in Georgia says it believes some witnesses committed perjury, and it recommends that prosecutors seek charges.

The panel recommended that the district attorney “seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.” In addition to the section on perjury, the report’s introduction and conclusion were released Thursday. But any recommendations on potential criminal charges for specific people will remain under wraps for now.

While the report is silent on key details, including who the panel believes committed perjury and whether other indictments should be pursued, it marks the first time the grand jurors’ recommendations for criminal charges tied to the case have been made public. The investigation is one of several that could have serious legal consequences for the former president as he ramps up his third bid for the presidency.

Despite Trump’s persistent contentions, the grand jurors found “by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning the election.”

The partial release was ordered Monday by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who oversaw the special grand jury. During a hearing last month, prosecutors urged him not to release the report until they decide on charges, while a coalition of media organizations, including The Associated Press, pushed for the entire report to be made public immediately.

McBurney wrote in his order that it’s not appropriate to release the full report now because it’s important to protect the due process rights of people for whom the grand jury recommended charges.

The special grand jury, which was requested by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to aid her investigation, did not have the power to issue indictments. Instead, its report contains recommendations for Willis, who will ultimately decide whether to seek one or more indictments from a regular grand jury.

Over the course of about seven months, the grand jurors heard from 75 witnesses, among them Trump allies including former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Top Georgia officials, such as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, also appeared before the panel.

The grand jurors were seated in May, began receiving evidence in June and submitted their report to McBurney on Dec. 15. The report’s introduction says an “overwhelming majority” of the information that the grand jury received “was delivered in person under oath.”

Trump, who publicly refused to accept that Joe Biden won the November 2020 election, has seemed particularly bothered by his loss in Georgia and what he saw as a failure of Republican state elected officials to fight for him. Georgia tipped to Biden by about 12,000 votes, making him the first Democratic presidential candidate to win there since 1992.

Trump and his allies have made unproven claims of widespread voter fraud and have repeatedly berated Raffensperger and Kemp for not acting to overturn his loss. State and federal officials, including Trump’s attorney general, have consistently said the election was secure and there was no evidence of significant fraud.

Willis has said since the beginning of the investigation two years ago that she was interested in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump suggested to Raffensperger that he could “find” the votes needed to overturn his loss in the state.

“All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said during that call. “Because we won the state.”

Trump has said repeatedly that his call with Raffensperger was “perfect,” and he told the AP last month that he felt “very confident” that he would not be indicted.

Based on witnesses called to testify before the special grand jury, it is clear that Willis is focusing on several areas. Those include:

— Phone calls by Trump and others to Georgia officials in the wake of the 2020 election.

— A group of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate in December 2020 falsely stating that Trump had won the state and that they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.

— False allegations of election fraud made during meetings of state legislators at the Georgia Capitol in December 2020.

— The copying of data and software from election equipment in rural Coffee County by a computer forensics team hired by Trump allies.

— Alleged attempts to pressure Fulton County elections worker Ruby Freeman into falsely confessing to election fraud.

— The abrupt resignation of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta in January 2021.

Willis last summer sent letters informing some people, including Giuliani and the state’s 16 fake electors, that they could face criminal charges.
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Fewer Americans filed for jobless benefits last week despite efforts by the Federal Reserve to loosen the labor market with higher interest rates as it tries to cool the economy.

Applications for jobless aid in the U.S. for the week ending Feb. 11 fell by 1,000 last week to 194,000, from 195,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It’s the fifth straight week claims were under 200,000.

Jobless claims generally represent the number of U.S. layoffs.

The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out some of the weekly ups and downs, rose by 500 to 189,500. It’s the fourth straight week that the four-week moving average has been below 200,000.

Earlier this month, the Fed raised its main lending rate by 25 basis points, its eighth rate hike in less than a year. The central bank’s benchmark rate is now in a range of 4.5% to 4.75%, its highest level in 15 years. Chair Jerome Powell appeared to suggest that he foresees two additional quarter-point rate hikes.

So far, the Fed’s hawkish interest rate policy has tempered inflation, but has had less impact on a resilient U.S. job market.

Two weeks ago, the government reported that employers added a better-than-expected 517,000 jobs in January and that the unemployment rate dipped to 3.4%, the lowest level since 1969. Analysts were expecting job gains of around 185,000.

Job openings rose to 11 million in December, up from 10.44 million in November and the highest since July. For 18 straight months, employers have posted at least 10 million openings — a level never reached before 2021 in Labor Department data going back to 2000. In December, there were about two vacancies for every unemployed American.

Though the U.S. labor market remains robust, layoffs have been mounting in the technology sector, where many companies overhired after a pandemic boom. IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce, Facebook parent Meta, Twitter and DoorDash have all announced layoffs in recent months.

The Fed’s interest rate hikes have hit the real estate sector the hardest, largely due to higher mortgage rates — currently above 6% — that have slowed home sales for 11 straight month s. That’s almost step-in-step with the Fed’s rate hikes that began last March.

About 1.7 million people were receiving jobless aid the week that ended Feb. 4, an increase of 16,000 from the week before.
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The United States is concerned about the expansion of Russia’s nuclear cooperation with the military-led government in Myanmar — also known as Burma — the U.S. State Department said this week.

“We are deeply concerned with — but not surprised by — Russia’s willingness to expand its material support, including through nuclear energy cooperation, to the repressive regime in Burma (Myanmar),” the State Department said in an emailed statement to VOA on Tuesday. “Russia’s actions are prolonging a crisis that threatens our efforts to advance peace and prosperity with our partners and allies in the Indo-Pacific.”

Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, known as ROSATOM, and the Myanmar junta signed the “intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of the use of nuclear energy” on February 6.

“This agreement is for the cooperation, not only for the small nuclear power plant, but also the applications of nuclear technology in multiple sectors, and it will enhance the socioeconomic development of the country,” said junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in a signing ceremony last Monday at the newly opened Nuclear Technology Information Center in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.

The two countries’ cooperation on nuclear energy begins “a new chapter in the history of Russian-Myanmar relations,” ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev said during the signing ceremony. “The creation of a new industry in the country will undoubtedly benefit the energy sector, industry and the economy of Myanmar.”

Cooperation after coup

After the February 2021 coup, military-ruled Myanmar rapidly increased nuclear cooperation with Russia. A spokesperson for the Myanmar junta, Major General Zaw Min Tun, confirmed to VOA last Friday that Myanmar would build a small-scale nuclear reactor with Russia’s assistance.

Zaw Min Tun told VOA Burmese by phone that the junta’s nuclear experts “are looking for suitable places in the country to build a small-scale nuclear reactor together with Russian nuclear experts.”

“The feasibility studies will be conducted in several places across the country to build a nuclear reactor. We haven’t chosen a place yet,” he said. “We will do it in the best location with the most favorable and safest environment in order to minimize danger.”

Last September, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing visited Russia to attend the Eastern Economic Forum and agreed with Russia on a road map for nuclear cooperation, including the possibility of implementing a small modular reactor project in Myanmar.

The statement by ROSATOM declared that the road map would guide cooperation in the field of “peaceful use of atomic energy” for 2022-23. In addition, experts from both countries would conduct studies about the possible construction of a light-water moderated nuclear reactor in Myanmar.

After 1999, the previous junta in Myanmar began negotiations with Russia on a nuclear reactor project, confirming their plans in January 2002 to build a nuclear research reactor for “peaceful purposes.”

Past nuclear pursuits

Myanmar, however, has been suspected of pursuing a nuclear weapons program in the past.

VOA sought comment from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), asking if the Myanmar junta’s plan for the nuclear reactor would be in accordance with the IAEA’s Additional Protocol. The IAEA has not yet responded.

Myanmar signed a key nuclear nonproliferation agreement, known as the Additional Protocol, with the IAEA in 2013. According to the agreement, the IAEA can expand its access to information and sites related to the country’s nuclear activities.

However, international analysts have concerns that Myanmar lacks the necessary regulatory and management systems to operate a nuclear power facility safely.

“In this type of reactor (a light-water moderated nuclear reactor), after some time, leaking can become a problem if proper maintenance is strictly required,” Myanmar scientist Khin Maung Maung, a professor of physics at the University of Southern Mississippi, said in a statement to VOA. “Here proper maintenance is the key idea. As far as I am aware, there is not a single factory in Myanmar that enjoys this privilege.”

“There is no doubt that they (the military leaders) have the ambition and desire to own nuclear arsenals,” he said, “and acquiring nuclear reactors, no matter how small, is definitely a step in that direction.”

ROSATOM previously said it would supply 10 metric tons of enriched uranium fuel to Myanmar, which, according to scientist Khin Maung Maung, is enough to build a nuclear weapon. Though the country doesn’t have the technical ability to convert the uranium to weapons-grade material, it could potentially use it in a “dirty bomb” scenario.

“With this much fuel in hand, they do not even need to enrich or build a proper weapon,” he said. “But one must be careful and think through all possibilities when dealing with [the] Burmese military.”

Russians visit Myanmar

Last December, a Russian delegation composed of around a dozen senior military officers — led by Colonel-General Kim Alexey Rostislavovich — visited Myanmar. According to the Myanmar state media, the two sides focused on cooperation regarding defense and counterterrorism between the two militaries, saying this would contribute to “regional and global peace.”

Russia, however, has threatened global peace by invading Ukraine, while Myanmar’s military has removed the democratic system in the Southeast Asian country by staging a coup and bloody crackdown on civilians.

According to the State Department, many credible reports show that Russia is providing the Myanmar military with weapons that “enable it to perpetuate violence, atrocities and human rights abuses against the people of Burma.”

“Russia’s backing for the regime is also undermining stability in the broader region,” the State Department said in a statement to VOA on Tuesday. “The United States will continue working with the international community to promote accountability for the coup and all those responsible for the horrific violence, including those who support and arm the military regime.”

VOA’s Burmese Service contributed to this report.
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The Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday said the United States Treasury Department will exhaust its ability to pay its bills sometime between July and September unless the current $31.4 trillion cap on borrowing is raised or suspended.

In a report issued alongside its annual budget outlook, the nonpartisan budget office, also known as the CBO, cautioned that a historic federal debt default could occur before July if revenues flowing into the Treasury in April — when most Americans typically submit annual income tax filings — lag expectations.

The pace of incoming revenues, coupled with the performance of the U.S. economy in coming months, makes it difficult for government officials to predict the exact “X-date,” when the Treasury could begin to default on many debt payments without action by Congress.

“If the debt limit is not raised or suspended before the extraordinary measures are exhausted, the government would be unable to pay its obligations fully,” the budget office’s report said. “As a result, the government would have to delay making payments for some activities, default on its debt obligations, or both.”

Separately, the budget office said annual U.S. budget deficits will average $2 trillion between 2024 and 2033, approaching pandemic-era records by the end of the decade — a forecast likely to stoke Republican demands for more spending cuts.

More spending, higher costs to blame

The sobering analysis reflects the full impact of recent spending legislation, including investments in clean energy, semiconductors and higher military spending, along with higher health care, pension and interest costs. It assumes no change in tax and spending laws over the next decade.

“Over the long term, our projections suggest that changes in fiscal policy must be made to address the rising costs of interest and mitigate other adverse consequences of high and rising debt,” CBO Director Phillip Swagel said in a statement.

The need to raise the debt ceiling is driven by past spending laws and tax cuts, some enacted under Democratic President Joe Biden’s Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, want to withhold a debt limit increase until Democrats agree to deep spending cuts. In turn, Democrats say the debt limit should not be “held hostage” to Republican tactics over federal spending.

After hitting the $31.4 trillion borrowing cap on January 19, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Treasury can keep up payments on debt, federal benefits and make other outlays at least through June 5 using cash receipts and extraordinary cash management measures.

Year of the debt limit

So far in 2023, not a day has gone by on Capitol Hill without lawmakers jousting over the debt limit, as Democrats press for a quick, clean increase in Treasury borrowing authority and Republicans insist on first nailing down significant reductions in future government spending.

Social Security and Medicare, the government’s popular pension and health care programs for the elderly, are at the center of the debt limit and government funding debate, as both parties jockey to define the contours of the 2024 presidential and congressional election campaigns.

“There has been a Republican drumbeat to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, told reporters on Tuesday.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has labored, without much success so far, to smother such talk.

“Let me say one more time: There is no agenda on the part of Senate Republicans to revisit Medicare or Social Security. Period,” he said at a news conference.

Americans concerned

Most Americans do not closely follow Washington’s debt-ceiling saga, but they still worry it could hurt their finances, according to a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll conducted February 6-13.

Fifty-five percent of U.S. adults said they have heard little or nothing about the debate, but three-quarters of respondents said Congress must reach a deal because defaulting would add to their families’ financial stress, largely through potentially higher borrowing costs.
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