As he languished in a Missouri prison for nearly three decades, Lamar Johnson never stopped fighting to prove his innocence, even when it meant doing much of the legal work himself.

This week a St. Louis judge overturned Johnson’s murder conviction and ordered him freed. Johnson closed his eyes and shook his head, overcome with emotion. Shouts of joy rang out from the packed courtroom, and several people — relatives, civil rights activists and others — stood to cheer. Johnson’s lawyers hugged each other and him.

“I can’t say I knew it would happen, but I would never give up fighting for what I knew to be the right thing, that freedom was wrongfully taken from me,” Johnson said.

Thanks to a team of lawyers, a Missouri law that changed largely because of his case, and his own dogged determination, he can start to put his life back together. “It’s persistence,” the 49-year-old said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.

“You have to distinguish yourself. I think the best way to get [the court’s] attention, or anyone’s attention, is to do much of the work yourself,” Johnson said. “That means making discovery requests from law enforcement agencies and the courts, and that’s what I did. I wrote everybody.”

He said that he was able to contact people “who were willing to come forward and tell the truth.”

Johnson was just 20 in 1994 when his friend, Marcus Boyd, was shot to death on Boyd’s front porch by two masked men. Police and prosecutors arrested Johnson days later, blaming the killing on a dispute over drug money; both men were drug dealers.

From the outset, Johnson said he was innocent. His girlfriend backed his alibi that they were together when the killings occurred. The case against him was built largely on the account of an eyewitness who picked Johnson out of a police lineup, and a jailhouse informant who told a police detective that he overheard Johnson discussing the crime.

Decades of studies show that eyewitness testimony is right only about half the time — and since Johnson’s conviction, across the country there has been a reexamination of eyewitness identification procedures, which have been shown to often reproduce racial biases.

St. Louis Circuit Judge David Mason also heard testimony calling into question the informant’s integrity. Even more, an inmate at South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri — James Howard — came forward to tell the judge that he and another man were the shooters — and that Johnson wasn’t involved. Howard is currently serving a life term for an unrelated murder.

After two months of review, Mason announced his ruling Tuesday.

“It felt like a weight had been lifted off me,” Johnson said. “I think that came out in how emotional I got afterward. I was finally heard.”

It was a moment that he wasn’t sure would ever come.

A connection to another wrongfully convicted man also played a pivotal role in Johnson’s eventual freedom.

Ricky Kidd was convicted of killing two men in Kansas City in 1996. He was sent to the Potosi Correctional Center, where he and Johnson became friends. One day, in the prison yard, Johnson turned to Kidd.

“He said, ‘You might not believe me, but I’m innocent,’” Kidd recalled. “I said, ‘Oh yeah? You might not believe me but I’m innocent, too!’”

The two became cellmates. Eventually, the Midwest Innocence Project agreed to take on Kidd’s case. Meanwhile, Johnson’s effort was going nowhere. Kidd recalled a night when he was awakened by Johnson’s quiet sobs and the sound of his feet pacing the floor.

“He said, ‘Man, I don’t think I’m going to make it out. I keep getting these doors shut,’” Kidd said. “I said, ‘You got to hang in there.’”

Johnson tried to stay busy. That included working in the prison hospice unit. It gave him a new perspective.

“Growing up where I grew up, death, shootings, all those kinds of things are kind of normal,” he said. Working in hospice, “You develop a greater appreciation of life, as you see someone go through that death process.”

Meanwhile, Kidd talked to an investigator with the Innocence Project and made the case that since Johnson had already done so much background work himself that the process would have a head start. The organization took on his case.

Lindsay Runnels, a Kansas City attorney who partners with the Innocence Project, said Johnson’s work was vital. For example, she said his Freedom of Information Act requests uncovered the extensive criminal background of the jailhouse informant, which called into question the man’s integrity.

“He just did all of that groundwork on his own from his jail cell, with nothing but paper and stamp,” Runnels said.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner believed Johnson was innocent. But her efforts to help him were blocked when the Missouri Supreme Court, in March 2021, ruled that Gardner lacked the authority to seek a new trial 28 years after the conviction.

Missouri lawmakers, disturbed that an innocent person could remain in prison on the technicality that too much time had passed since his conviction, passed a law enacted in August 2021, that allows prosecutors to request a hearing before a judge in cases of potential wrongful conviction. That law freed another longtime inmate, Kevin Strickland, in 2021. He had served more than 40 years for a Kansas City triple-killing.

Some states, including California and Hawaii, are also wrestling with how to handle wrongful convictions cases. In California, Attorney General Rob Bonta is setting up a commission to review criminal cases for possible wrongful convictions. The Innocence Project’s website says that across the U.S., it has helped free or exonerate more than 240 people, 58% of whom are Black.

The vast majority of their clients were exonerated by DNA evidence.

Now, Kidd is a public speaker who also works with prosecutors to help them avoid convicting innocent people. He hopes Johnson will join him in his effort. What Johnson chooses to do next as a free man is unclear.

“I think we can move the needle, prevent wrongful convictions in the first place and help extricate more individuals on the back end,” Kidd said.

Johnson said he’s thankful to be free, even if he’s unsure what the future holds.

“It’s exciting and a little intimidating,” he said. “I have to go out there and learn, and survive, and get my life back in order.”
…

President Joe Biden will mark the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a speech Tuesday in Poland, where he is expected to reiterate the United States’ commitment to support the defense of Ukraine “for as long as it takes” despite growing Republican reticence and softening overall support among Americans.

Scheduled to arrive in Warsaw on Tuesday morning, Biden will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda to discuss “collective efforts to support Ukraine and to bolster NATO’s deterrence,” said John Kirby, National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson in a briefing to reporters Friday.

Biden also will meet with NATO leaders from the so-called Bucharest Nine (B-9), the countries on NATO’s easternmost flank, which include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

B-9 countries feel the Russian threat more acutely and are pushing for a more robust military response compared with other European nations including France and Germany, whose citizens are more concerned about ways to end the conflict and are questioning the war’s impact on their own economies.

The White House said there are no plans for Biden to visit Ukraine nor to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during this trip. Observers say Biden may not cross the border to avoid provoking Putin, but it’s likely that Zelenskyy will meet him in Poland in a summit that would not be revealed until the last minute for security reasons. The pair last met in person in late December when Zelenskyy made a surprise visit to Washington.

Meanwhile Vice President Kamala Harris is in Germany to attend the annual Munich Security Conference, in which the Ukraine war dominates conversations among world leaders.

War of attrition

Despite repeated public confirmation that the U.S. will support Zelenskyy for “as long as it takes,” observers note that time is not on Kyiv’s side as Moscow turns the conflict into a war of attrition in a bid to grind down Ukrainian resolve and exhaust the West’s patience. Ukraine has the advantage of Western high-tech weapons and intelligence support, but Russia is favored by the sheer size of its economy, manpower and defense production capacity.

The U.S. wants Ukraine to make battlefield progress rapidly without dragging NATO into a direct military confrontation with Moscow, said George Beebe, director of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute.

“We are trying to essentially achieve a balance here to give the Ukrainians enough military wherewithal that they can bring this war to a successful conclusion but to do so without recklessly raising the risk of World War III as President Biden is fond to say,” Beebe told VOA. “That’s not an easy balance to strike.”

With the U.S. and Russia having most of the world’s nuclear weapons, escalation could be catastrophic.

Amid reports of Russia ramping up its ground and air attacks, administration officials would not say whether Biden will announce another security package or offensive weaponry including jet fighters that Kyiv says it needs to make significant gains on the battlefield.

No pathways to peace

White House officials are quick to point out that Russian President Vladimir Putin can end the war immediately by halting his offensive. Instead, Moscow is mobilizing and ramping up long-term defense production.

“At the same time, Ukrainians are absolutely not ready to give up any of their territory, not that that would stop the war because Putin would just be encouraged by this,” said Michal Baranowski, managing director for German Marshall Fund East.

Polls show an overwhelming majority of Ukrainians believe the country should get back all its territory, including Crimea, which Moscow annexed illegally in 2014.

Baranowski told VOA that Biden is unlikely to force Zelenskyy into a premature compromise, however it remains unclear how much Western support can be sustained long term. Already NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is saying that Ukraine is using up ammunition faster than the West can provide, straining its weapons industries.

Another contentious element is Ukraine’s future geostrategic alignment. Moscow is adamant that Kyiv does not join NATO or have a separate military alliance with the U.S. even if it doesn’t become a NATO member.

“Unless there’s some understanding reached with the Russians on that, I think their fallback position is going to be simply to wreck Ukraine to the point where it’s in no condition to ally with anybody,” Beebe said.

Beebe points to cease-fires where neither side recognizes territorial changes and simply accepts them as unsettled issues, at least at first. “That may be where we want to go into here,” he said.

Next week, the United Nations General Assembly will vote on a draft resolution co-sponsored by the U.S. that stresses “the need to reach, as soon as possible, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.

“We are also urging countries to support the resolution,” a National Security Council spokesperson told VOA.

Republican questions

While there is still broad support for Ukraine in Congress, some Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives, where their party now holds a slim majority, are increasingly questioning the massive flow of American funds to Kyiv — $40 billion in security, economic and humanitarian aid since the invasion.

“This war is being fought on the backs of U.S. taxpayers,” said Ryan Zinke, a Republican congressman from Montana. “And what’s our plan, Mr. President? Is it an endless war? Are we going to continue to feed armament that we don’t know where it’s going exactly, or how it’s going to be used? To what extent?” he said to VOA following Biden’s State of the Union remarks earlier this month.

Traditionally, Republicans are more likely to support foreign military spending. But former President Donald Trump’s “America First” doctrine has motivated a small but vocal non-interventionist faction in the party.

Earlier this month a group of House Republicans who support Trump introduced the “Ukraine Fatigue” resolution that calls for an end to U.S. military and financial aid to Ukraine and urges combatants to reach a peace agreement.

Although the group represents a minority even within the Republican Party, its members could jeopardize future Ukraine aid packages since the January adoption of a new House rule where only one member is needed to bring a “motion to vacate” to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — a concession McCarthy agreed to in exchange for support to secure his speakership.

Nearly half of Americans (47%) now say Washington should urge Kyiv to settle for peace as soon as possible.
…

US President Joe Biden is gearing up to mark the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a speech in neighboring Poland on Tuesday, where he will reiterate the US commitment to support the defense of Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes.’ This despite growing Republican reticence and softening overall support among Americans. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
…

Nearly 50 lawmakers from both major political parties of the United States on Friday attended the start of Europe’s premier annual security conference to affirm bipartisan support for U.S. aid to Ukraine.

Four delegations of Democratic and Republican leaders and members of the Senate and House converged as one of the largest groups of U.S. lawmakers to attend the Munich Security Conference since its inception in 1963, U.S. officials said.

Hundreds of politicians, military officers and diplomats from around the world gathered in Munich a week before the anniversary of Russia’s invasion, with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urging allies to speed up weapons deliveries.

The war has tested not only the unity of the NATO alliance and European Union, but the ability of the U.S. parties to overcome deep policy differences.

“We are here to send a clear message to this conference and everyone around the world: The U.S. is on a bipartisan basis totally behind the effort of help Ukraine,” Mitch McConnell, the Democratic-controlled Senate’s Republican minority leader, told Reuters after meeting conservative German politicians.

Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder said McConnell’s unequivocal support for Ukraine was welcome after the uncertainty of the former President Donald Trump administration’s isolationist America First policy.

“Today is a very good signal,” he said.

Other prominent U.S. lawmakers in Munich included Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Republican chairmen of the House foreign relations and intelligence committees and their Democratic Senate counterparts.

The Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in last year’s mid-terms raised questions about the future of the U.S. aid on which Kyiv depends to halt a new offensive by Russia in a war that has killed thousands and displaced millions.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy declared there would be no “blank check” for Ukraine and far-right Republicans hold that resources are needed to address other pressing problems.

Some senators share that view. On Thursday, Republican Senator Josh Hawley had urged an end to U.S. military aid to Ukraine until the European allies increased their backing, saying sending arms to Kyiv was threatening the ability of the U.S. to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

But Lindsey Graham, a leading advocate of aiding Ukraine, said in Munich that China would be encouraged to invade Taiwan if the U.S. and its European allies failed to back Ukraine.

“If you care about China and you don’t get the connection between Russia, Ukraine and China, you are missing a lot,” Graham told Reuters.

But Republicans and some Democrats also say President Joe Biden’s administration should better explain its Ukraine policy.

The United States is Ukraine’s leading military aid supplier at some $30 billion, including long-range artillery, air defense systems and advanced armored vehicles.

There are now calls on both sides of the Atlantic for Ukraine to receive advanced Western fighter jets.
…

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Aid efforts ramp up in aftermath of earthquakes 

As hopes fade for finding survivors under the rubble more than one week after  massive earthquakes killed more than 40,000 people in parts of Turkey and Syria, relief efforts are ramping up to reach the millions of survivors who need winter clothes, food, water and sanitation. The United Nations launched a $1 billion appeal for Turkey and a nearly $400 million one for Syria this week. 

For the first time since the Syrian war began in 2011, the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, has agreed to allow the U.N. to bring humanitarian assistance into opposition-held parts of the country. Since 2014, the organization has relied on Security Council resolutions to cross from Turkey into Syria. Now, with millions of residents in the area impacted by the earthquake, Assad has agreed to let humanitarian workers use two additional crossings for three months. The United States says it will be watching, and if the Syrian leader reneges on his promise, it will seek council authorization to keep the crossings open. 

Syria’s Assad to Allow UN More Access to Quake Victims 

Aid appeal for Ukraine as war hits one-year mark 

The United Nations appealed Wednesday for $5.6 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to millions of Ukrainians affected by Russia’s invasion of their country nearly one year ago. Nearly $4 billion of the appeal will go toward easing the plight of 11.1 million people displaced or living in dangerous and difficult situations inside Ukraine. The remainder will assist 4.2 million Ukrainian refugees and communities hosting them in 10 European countries.

UN Appeals for $5.6 Billion for Millions of Ukrainian Victims of Russian Invasion 

Uganda closes UN human rights office in Kampala 

Uganda said this week that it would not renew the U.N. human rights office’s mandate in the country because it was no longer necessary. Human rights activists have protested the action and the U.N. human rights office is reportedly in discussions with the government to see what can be done.

Ugandan Activists Decry Closure of UN Human Rights Office in Uganda 

In brief        

—  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the African Union summit. He will address leaders Saturday on issues including peace and security threats, the cost-of-living crisis, and the impact of the climate crisis on the continent. He is also participating in high-level meetings on the situations in the Sahel, Libya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has had several bilateral meetings with leaders, including the AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Rwandan President Paul Kagame. 

—  The U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, known as UNMISS, said Thursday that violence rose sharply there at the end of 2022, mainly in Upper Nile, Warrap and Jonglei states. The number of civilians harmed by violence rose 87% between October and the end of December over the same period in 2021. There was also a huge spike in abductions (464%) and conflict-related sexual violence (360%). UNMISS urged the Juba government to urgently address the escalation and to protect civilians. For its part, the mission has increased patrols and set up temporary operating bases in hot spots. 

— On Thursday, the U.N. launched a $1.3 billion appeal to help 6 million people in northeastern Nigeria, where child malnutrition rates are rising and 2.4 million people are in acute need due to conflict, disease and disaster. Women and girls make up 80% of those in need across three hard hit areas – Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. The U.N. says already high levels of severe acute malnutrition in children are forecast to more than double, from 300,000 children impacted last year to a projected 697,000 children this year.  

— In Bangladesh, the World Food Program said Tuesday that because of a major funding shortfall, it will have to cut food assistance to Rohingya refugees for the first time since they fled Myanmar six years ago. The WFP is appealing for $125 million to avoid ration cuts, or at a minimum $80 million, to limit the ration cuts to one in 2023. The food agency said the first cut would be from $12 to $10 per person per month and would seriously impact food security and nutrition, which are already alarming. The WFP says without a cash injection by April, it could be forced to further cut an additional $4 per person. Most Rohingya refugees are fully dependent on that money to feed their families. 

— The U.N. said Friday that Malawi is fighting its worst recorded cholera outbreak, with more than 1,400 deaths and 43,000 cases to date. U.N. agencies have been responding for several months, providing cholera beds, tents for cholera treatment, essential supplies including hygiene items, and mobile units for safe food storage. 

Quote of note  

“Low-lying communities and entire countries could disappear forever. We would witness a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale. And we would see ever-fiercer competition for fresh water, land and other resources.” 

– Secretary-General Guterres, on the consequences of sea-level rise, speaking Monday during a debate in the Security Council. He urged climate action to stem the warming, rising sea waters.

Next week

February 24 will mark one year since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. The fighting has displaced 5.3 million Ukrainians inside the country, caused nearly 8 million more to flee as refugees, and left 17.6 million people in the country in need of humanitarian assistance. The U.N. General Assembly is expected to take action on a draft resolution on Thursday that promotes peace in Ukraine in line with the U.N. Charter and international law. The Security Council will hold a ministerial level meeting on Friday on the subject.
…

The United States successfully concluded recovery efforts off South Carolina on Thursday for debris from the suspected Chinese balloon shot down by a U.S. fighter jet on February 4, the U.S. military said in a statement Friday. 

“Final pieces of debris are being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Virginia for counterintelligence exploitation, as has occurred with the previous surface and subsurface debris recovered,” the U.S. military’s Northern Command said in a statement. 

“U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels have departed the area. Air and maritime safety perimeters have been lifted.” 
…

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in Estonia on Thursday, where the United States and NATO allies have increased force numbers as part of a push to deepen defenses across NATO’s eastern flank. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb gained exclusive access to US soldiers in Estonia, as she crisscrossed the country to learn more about its defense.
Camera: Mary Cieslak Video Editor: Mary Cieslak
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Federal prosecutors Thursday asked a judge to give singer R. Kelly 25 more years in prison for his child pornography and enticement convictions last year in Chicago, which would add to 30 years he recently began serving in a New York case.  

The 56-year-old wouldn’t be eligible for release until he was around 100 if the judge agrees both to the 25-year sentence and another government request that Kelly begin serving his Chicago sentence only after the 30-year New York sentence is fully served.  

In their sentencing recommendation filed before midnight Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, prosecutors described Kelly’s behavior as “sadistic,” calling him “a serial sexual predator” with no remorse and who “poses a serious danger to society.”  

“The only way to ensure Kelly does not reoffend is to impose a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life,” the 37-page government filing says.  

Kelly’s sentencing in Chicago is set for next week.  

Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, wrote in a filing last week that even with his existing 30-year New York sentence, “Kelly would have to defy all statistical odds to make it out of prison alive.” She cited data that the average life expectancy of inmates is 64.  

She recommended a sentence of around 10 years, at the low end of the sentencing guidelines range, which she said could be served simultaneously with the New York sentence.  

In arguing for the lesser sentence, Bonjean alleged Kelly, who is Black, was singled out for behavior that she said white rock stars have gotten away with for decades. 

“None have been prosecuted and none will die in prison,” she wrote.  

Prosecutors acknowledged that a 25-year sentence in the Chicago case would be more time than even sentencing guidelines recommend. But they argued imposing a long sentence and instructing it be served only after the New York sentence was appropriate.  

“A consecutive sentence is eminently reasonable given the egregiousness of Kelly’s conduct,” the filing argued. “Kelly’s sexual abuse of minors was intentional and prolific.”  

At the trial in Chicago last year, jurors convicted the Grammy Award winning singer on six of 13 counts. But the government lost the marquee count that Kelly and his then-business manager successfully rigged his state child pornography trial in 2008. 

Both of Kelly’s co-defendants, including longtime business manager Derrel McDavid, were acquitted of all charges. 

Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, rose from poverty in Chicago to superstardom, becoming known for smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and sex-infused songs such as “Bump n’ Grind.”  

While the Grammy Award-winner went to trial in 2008, it wasn’t until after the airing of Lifetime’s 2019 docu-series, “Surviving R. Kelly – featuring testimonials by his accusers — that criminal investigations were kicked into high-gear, ending with federal and new state charges. 

In January, an Illinois judge dismissed state sex-abuse charges prior to a trial on the recommendation of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Foxx said she was comfortable dropping the case because Kelly would spend decades in prison for his federal convictions.  

Prosecutors at Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago portrayed him as a master manipulator who used his fame and wealth to reel in star-struck fans to sexually abuse, in some cases to video record them, and then discard them. 

After deliberating over two days, jurors convicted Kelly of three counts each of producing child pornography and enticement of minors for sex, while acquitting him of obstruction of justice, one count of production of child porn and three counts of receiving child porn. 

The Chicago verdict came months after a federal judge in New York sentenced Kelly to 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking. Based on that sentence alone, he wouldn’t be eligible for release until he is around 80. 

Even if granted time off for good behavior, Kelly would only be eligible for release if he serves 25 years after the New York sentence in the year 2066, the government’s Thursday filing said.  

It will be up to Judge Harry Leinenweber in Chicago to decide the crucial question of whether Kelly serves whatever sentence he imposes concurrently, simultaneously, with the New York sentence or consecutively. 

Kelly’s legal team is appealing his New York and Chicago convictions. Prosecutors sometimes press for long sentences for defendants sentenced at earlier trials in a bid to ensure that, if some convictions are later tossed, they will still do some time behind bars.  

Bonjean argued that traumas throughout Kelly’s life, including abuse as a child and illiteracy throughout adulthood, justified leniency in sentencing the singer.  

Kelly “is not an evil monster but a complex (unquestionably troubled) human-being who faced overwhelming challenges in childhood that shaped his adult life,” she said.  

That the conduct for which he was convicted occurred decades ago should also be factored in, she said.  

“While Kelly was not a child in the late 1990s, he also was not the middle-aged man he was at the time of his 2019 indictment,” she argued. “Kelly was a damaged man in his late 20s.”  

She added that Kelly has already paid a heavy price from his legal troubles, including a financial one. She said his worth once approached $1 billion but that he “is now destitute.”  

___ 

 
…

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.
…

A federal appeals court has agreed to rehear a case that could determine the fate of more than 300,000 immigrants living in the U.S. legally on humanitarian grounds.

Immigrant advocates are calling last week’s decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals a victory, at least for now. The court vacated a 2020 ruling issued by a three-judge panel of the California-based appeals court.

The California panel’s ruling would have allowed the government to end Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan.

TPS allows migrants whose home countries are considered unsafe to live and work in the U.S. for a period of time if they meet certain requirements established by the U.S. government.

Ahilan Arulanantham, the immigration attorney representing TPS holders, told VOA his clients were happy the courts agreed to rehear the case.

Arulanantham said the case is part of a long fight over the TPS policy that began in 2018 when a district judge blocked the former Trump administration from ending the program for El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.

At the time, the federal judge said the terminations were not properly justified.

In 2020, the three-judge panel of 9th Circuit judges said the courts are not allowed to second-guess the government’s TPS decisions. Attorneys representing TPS holders asked for the case to be reheard, and the 2020 ruling never took effect.

“Then the election happened and the Biden administration won. And of course, President [Joe] Biden had promised to protect the TPS holder community on the campaign trail and on his website … And so we entered into settlement negotiations, and those negotiations actually lasted, like, 18 months,” Arulanantham said.

But the negotiations collapsed in October 2022.

“Now 11 judges are going to decide,” Arulanantham said. No date has been set for the court to hear arguments.

The decision to rehear the case has no immediate impact on TPS beneficiaries of the affected countries.

But Arulanantham said if the program were to end, TPS holders would quickly lose employment authorization.

“And that could happen in a matter of months after the terminations go into effect,” he said.

According to the latest figures from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, there were 241,699 Salvadorans, 76,737 Hondurans, 14,556 Nepalis, and 4,250 Nicaraguans enrolled in the TPS program.

In a statement to the media, the plaintiff in the case, Cristina Morales, who is a TPS holder of more than 20 years and a leader in the National TPS Alliance, said, “For five years, my family has faced a roller coaster of emotions — from fear of terminations to elation from these court victories.”

Morales urged the Biden administration to return to the negotiating table and reach an agreement.

In November 2022, the Biden administration allowed TPS holders affected by the case to maintain their work permits and deportation protection for an extra year after the date set to end the program, or until June 30, 2024, whichever date comes later.

The Biden administration also created more TPS designations including Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ukraine and Venezuela, allowing hundreds of thousands of immigrants to have temporary legal status.

And the government announced TPS extensions for Haitian and Sudanese immigrants living in the U.S. But it has yet to announce extensions for immigrants from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Nepal, and Honduras.

Haitians living in the U.S. have TPS protections until Aug. 3, 2024, while the Sudan designation extends through Oct. 19, 2023.

The TPS program does not lead to permanent U.S. residency.
…

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.
…

Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman, still recovering from a stroke, has checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to seek treatment for clinical depression, his office said Thursday.

Fetterman, who has struggled with the aftereffects of a stroke he suffered last May, checked himself in Wednesday night, it said.

“While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks,” his chief of staff, Adam Jentleson, said in a statement.

Fetterman was evaluated on Monday by the attending physician of Congress, Dr. Brian P. Monahan, who recommended inpatient care at Walter Reed, Jentleson said.

“John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis,” Jentleson said. “After examining John, the doctors at Walter Reed told us that John is getting the care he needs and will soon be back to himself.”

Fetterman, 53, is in his first weeks as a U.S. senator after winning the seat held by now-retired Republican Pat Toomey in a hard-fought contest against Republican nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Fetterman overcame a stroke days before last May’s primary election and spent the last five months on the campaign trail recovering from the stroke.

Last week, Fetterman stayed two days in George Washington University Hospital, checking himself in after becoming lightheaded. Fetterman’s office has said tests found no evidence of a new stroke or a seizure.

He continues to suffer the aftereffects of the stroke, in particular auditory processing disorder, which can render someone unable to speak fluidly and quickly process spoken conversation into meaning.

The stroke nearly killed him, he has said.

Fetterman underwent surgery to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator to manage two heart conditions, atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathy, and spent much of the summer recovering and off the campaign trail.
…

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.
…

Every spring in Washington, the Japanese cherry trees bloom bright pink and white; however, the U.S. National Park Service has announced that one of the indicator trees, which usually blooms two weeks before the others, is already budding even though it’s still winter.

Gifted by the mayor in Tokyo in 1912 as a demonstration of the strong relations with the United States, the cherry blossoms are a popular attraction. Most of the trees are around the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial. The National Cherry Blossom Festival runs from March to April each year and includes food, music and entertainment events.

The NPS uses a combination of temperature analysis, historical records and indicator trees to estimate when the trees will bloom, but it’s a difficult process.

Environmentalists and park officials are worried about climate change affecting the cherry blossom seasons.

“What we have seen over the last 100 years or so is both the average date getting earlier by about six days, while at the same time we have seen temperatures on the Tidal Basin increase a statistically significant 2.4 degrees,” National Park Service spokesperson Mike Litterst told the WUSA9 television station.

Peak bloom occurs when 70% of the blossoms are open. The average date of peak bloom is April 4, but in 2022, it was a full 10 days ahead of schedule. This year, the indicator tree started to show buds another 10 days earlier than 2022.
…

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.
…

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.
…

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.
…

The FBI searched the University of Delaware in recent weeks for classified documents as part of its investigation into the potential mishandling of sensitive government records by President Joe Biden.

The search, first reported by CNN, was confirmed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The person would not say whether anything was found.

The university is Biden’s alma mater. In 2011, Biden donated his records from his 36 years serving in the U.S. Senate to the school. The documents arrived June 6, 2012, according to the university, which released photos of the numbered boxes being unloaded at the university alongside blue and gold balloons.

Under the terms of Biden’s gift, the records are to remain sealed until two years after he retires from public life.

Biden’s Senate records would not be covered by the presidential records act, though prohibitions on mishandling classified information would still apply.

The White House referred questions to the Justice Department, which declined to comment. A representative at the university did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

The university is the fourth known entity to be searched by the FBI following inspections of his former office at the Penn Biden Center, where records with classified markings were found in a locked closet by Biden’s personal lawyers in November, and more recently of his Delaware homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach.
…

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.
…

The United States is preparing for a possible meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi during a regional security conference in Europe this Friday, a diplomatic source confirmed to VOA on the condition of anonymity.

The meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference could be the first face-to-face talks between two top diplomats since the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon early this month. The incident led Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing.

Blinken told Wang Yi in a phone call on February 3 that the spy balloon, which drifted across the continental United States, was “an irresponsible act and a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law that undermined the purpose” of Blinken’s trip.

China said it was a weather balloon that strayed off course and later charged that the U.S. has conducted more than 10 balloon flights over China since May 2022. The U.S. has rejected both claims.

U.S. officials say the Chinese military’s refusal to speak with Pentagon counterparts after the balloon was shot down last week was a dangerous development.

Senior U.S. officials have said open lines of communication between the two countries are critical to prevent unintended conflicts, particularly at times of tensions.

However, officials Wednesday were unwilling to confirm that Blinken will meet with his Chinese counterpart this week.

“I don’t have anything to announce today,” Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said during an event at the Brookings Institution when asked about a possible meeting between Blinken and Wang.

“I know there are other leaders that will be there. We’re going to see where we are,” Sherman said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is high on the agenda of the Munich Security Conference, which begins on Friday. Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will be among those at the three-day annual gathering.

“We will continue to warn the PRC against providing military support to Russia’s war in Ukraine and to crack down on PRC entities engaged in harmful activities,” said Sherman, the State Department’s second most senior official.

Sherman said it is her assessment that “China is trying to both increase its standing in the international community by saying that it’s going to mediate and help bring Russia’s invasion in Ukraine to an end, while [remaining] committed to Beijing’s ‘no limits’ partnership with Moscow. The U.S. certainly has growing concern about that partnership and the PRC support for this invasion.”

“I don’t think that the PRC can have it both ways, though they’re trying,” she said.

Three high-altitude objects over North America were also shot down last weekend, but U.S. officials said they have not seen evidence that the three airborne objects were linked to China.
…

At her first presidential campaign event on Wednesday, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley told an enthusiastic crowd in Charleston that it is time for the country “to move past the stale ideas and faded names of the past.”

Haley did not mention former President Donald Trump, instead focusing her criticism on the nation’s current leader, Democrat Joe Biden.

“Our leaders are failing. No one embodies that failure more than Joe Biden,” she said.

To face Biden, however, Haley will need to get past Trump, who has already declared his candidacy, and numerous other expected Republican hopefuls.

Haley, ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, is the first prominent Republican to launch a 2024 campaign to formally oppose her former boss. Her entry into the race reverses a promise she made.

“I would not run if President Trump does,” Haley told reporters on Dec. 4, 2021.

Through a campaign spokesperson, Trump, in a statement to VOA, noted Haley’s previous pledge and said he told her, “She should follow her heart and do what she wants to do,” adding, “I wish her luck!”

Haley, an accountant before entering politics, was relatively unknown in her home state when she made her initial successful run for governor in 2011. She would go on to serve a second term, when she raised her national profile by dealing with a mass shooting by a white gunman in a Black church and signing legislation to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the State House.

Haley said she was repeatedly underestimated in her previous political races, noting it was not always easy for her as a child in South Carolina, “a brown girl growing up in a Black and white world.” Haley is the daughter of Punjabi Sikh immigrants from India.

In her inaugural presidential campaign video, released Tuesday, Haley portrays herself as a face of the party’s future rather than one from its past.

“Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. That has to change,” says Haley, a point she also emphasized at Wednesday’s rally.

Haley, who is 51, told supporters at the campaign event there should be “mandatory competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.” Biden is 80. Trump turns 77 in June.

“As U.N. ambassador, she was loyal to President Trump and didn’t break with him as some of the Republican Party did. So those things, I think, would be on the positive side for a Republican voter looking at a new candidate. On the negative side, it’s not clear that she has as strong a lane or as strong an attraction to America, to Republican voters as some others,” says American Enterprise Institute senior fellow John Fortier. He describes Haley as “a dynamic figure.”

Haley’s candidacy declaration likely is just the first among Republicans seeking to thwart Trump’s return to the White House. Among those considering entering the race are three men who served in Trump’s administration — his vice president, Mike Pence, the former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and former national security advisor John Bolton.

“The big person we’re talking in this field as a potential alternative to Donald Trump is the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis,” notes Fortier. “And I think the reasons for that is that he did portray, as a large-state governor in a Republican-leaning state, many of the characteristics of Donald Trump.”

The governor, who focuses on culture war issues as does Trump, is expected to dominate other Republican hopefuls in raising funds. That may make him attractive to party loyalists desiring a strong candidate to face Biden, the expected Democratic Party nominee.

If Haley continues to poll in the single digits, she is more likely to be considered as a running mate (vice presidential candidate) to the eventual party nominee.

Conservative media figures are mostly expressing skepticism, questioning the viability of her campaign and whether she’s a liberal in disguise.

“There’s a rule in politics that you never run for vice president,” said Federalist senior contributor Benjamin Weingarten, speaking on the conservative Newsmax TV channel. “The way the field will ultimately cull that’s the highest seat she could probably attain.”

Haley “is a liberal in outlook and mindset,” declared conservative lawyer Will Chamberlain on Twitter. “She is from South Carolina so she had to run as a Republican. But her views are ultimately formed by The New York Times and The Washington Post.”

The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, is not playing favorites, predicting a vigorous primary process for his party.

“I think it’s going to be very, very competitive in these primaries and we’ll hope for the best and obviously I’m going to support whoever the nominee ultimately is,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

A crowd of candidates competing against the former president and each other could pave the way for Trump, who was twice impeached, to repeat what he did as a political newcomer in 2016 – having just enough support to clear the field and capture the Republican Party’s nomination.
…

The United States Justice Department has in recent months escalated its antitrust probe on Apple Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.  

Reuters had previously reported the Justice Department opened an antitrust probe into Apple in 2019. 

The Wall Street Journal report said more litigators have now been assigned, while new requests for documents and consultations have been made with all the companies involved. 

The probe will also look at whether Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS, is anti-competitive, favoring its own products over those of outside developers, the report added. 

The Justice Department declined to comment, while Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
…

America’s consumers rebounded last month from a weak holiday shopping season by boosting their spending at stores and restaurants at the fastest pace in nearly two years, underscoring the economy’s resilience in the face of higher prices and multiple interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

The government said Wednesday that retail sales jumped 3% in January, after having sunk the previous two months. It was the largest one-month increase since March 2021.

Driving the gain was a jump in car sales, along with healthy spending at restaurants, electronics stores and furniture outlets. Some of the supply shortages that had slowed auto production have eased, and more cars are gradually moving onto dealer lots. The enlarged inventories have enabled dealers to meet more of the nation’s pent-up demand for vehicles.

Whether America’s shoppers can continue to spend briskly will help determine how the economy fares this year. The eight interest rate hikes the Fed has carried out in the past year have raised the costs of mortgages and auto loans as well as credit card interest rates. Inflation has also eroded workers’ paychecks, thereby limiting their ability to spend freely.

Yet for all the challenges, consumers continue to show resilience. Several factors likely helped propel last month’s spending. About 70 million recipients of Social Security and other government pension programs last month received an 8.7% boost in their benefit checks, an annual cost-of-living adjustment to offset inflation. It was the largest such increase in 40 years.

The job market also surged in January, with nearly a half-million new jobs added. The unemployment rate reached 3.4%, its lowest level since 1969. With many businesses still eager to hire and keep workers, average wages and salaries have risen about 5% from a year ago — among the fastest such rates of increase in decades.

Those raises have generally been eaten up by inflation. Still, consumer price increases have been slowing. And for many households, a sharp drop in gas prices since summer has freed up more money to spend.

As price increases have slowed, average wage gains have surpassed inflation in some months, lending some consumers additional spending power.

On Tuesday, the government reported that inflation eased again in January compared with a year earlier, the seventh straight such decline, to 6.4% from 6.5% in December. But on a month-to-month basis, price increases accelerated in January compared with November and December, evidence that high inflation won’t be defeated quickly or smoothly.
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The United States renewed a warning that it would defend its treaty ally if Filipino forces come under attack in the disputed South China Sea, after a Chinese coast guard ship allegedly hit a Philippine patrol vessel with military-grade laser that briefly blinded some of its crew.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. summoned Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian in Manila on Tuesday to express his serious concern “over the increasing frequency and intensity of actions by China against the Philippine coast guard and fishermen,” Communications Secretary Cheloy Garafil said without elaborating.

The Department of Foreign Affairs separately sent a strongly worded diplomatic protest to the Chinese Embassy that “condemned the shadowing, harassment, dangerous maneuvers, directing of military-grade laser, and illegal radio challenges” by the Chinese ship.

The incident took place February 6. when the Chinese coast guard ship beamed high-grade lasers to block the Philippine patrol vessel BRP Malapascua from approaching Second Thomas Shoal on a resupply mission to Filipino forces there, according to Philippine officials.

China claims the South China Sea virtually in its entirety, putting it on a collision course with other claimants. Chinese naval forces have been accused of using military-grade lasers previously against Australian military aircraft on patrol in the South China Sea and other spots in the Pacific.

Despite friendly overtures to Beijing by former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in January in Beijing, tensions have persisted, drawing in closer military alliance between the Philippines and the U.S.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Monday that a Philippine coast guard vessel trespassed into Chinese waters without permission. Chinese coast guard vessels responded “professionally and with restraint at the site in accordance with China’s law and international law,” he said, without elaborating or mentioning the use of laser.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said China’s “dangerous operational behavior directly threatens regional peace and stability, infringes upon freedom of navigation in the South China Sea as guaranteed under international law and undermines the rules-based international order.”

“The United States stands with our Philippine allies,” Price said in a statement.

He said that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft, including those of the coast guard in the South China Sea, would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under a 1951 treaty. The treaty obligates the allies to help defend one another in case of an external attack.

Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the resource-rich and busy waterway, where a bulk of the world’s commerce and oil transits.

Washington lays no claims to the disputed sea but has deployed forces to patrol the waters to promote freedom of navigation and overflight — moves that have angered Beijing, which has warned Washington to stop meddling in what it says is a purely Asian dispute.

The contested waters have become a volatile front in the broader rivalry between the U.S. and China in Asia and beyond.

Price said the Chinese coast guard’s “provocative and unsafe” conduct interfered with the Philippines’ “lawful operations” in and around Second Thomas Shoal.

In July, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China to comply with a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea and warned that Washington was obligated to defend the Philippines under the Mutual Defense Treaty.

On Monday, Price reiterated that the “legally binding decision” underscored that China “has no lawful maritime claims to the Second Thomas Shoal.” China has long rejected the ruling and continues to defy it.

The Philippines filed nearly 200 diplomatic protests against China’s aggressive actions in the disputed waters in 2022 alone.
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