WASHINGTON: The US and India seem like a natural fit in the Trump era: Rambunctious democracies, led by populists, focused on economic growth and fighting against radicalism. It is a budding partnership that could be set back by a nuts-and-bolts dispute over employment visas.
As President Donald Trump looks to help US workers, his administration is considering a broad review of a visa program used heavily by India’s massive technology and outsourcing industries to send programmers and other computer specialists to the US.
Speculation about tougher rules on so-called H-1B visas sent tech stocks tumbling in India last week, and compounded concerns about the protectionist direction of US policy after Trump temporarily suspended immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The technology sector is vital for India’s economy and creating jobs for a fast-growing, young workforce — a top priority for Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. US is the main customer: It accounted for more than 60 percent of India’s $108 billion in foreign tech and outsourcing sales last year, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), an Indian industry lobby group.
“There is a general sense of anxiety in the industry,” said Dipen Shah, an IT analyst at Kotak Securities in India. He said it seemed likely that the cost of hiring people on H-1B visas would increase, hurting tech companies’ bottom lines.
A draft executive order prepared by Trump’s team is short on specifics. It calls for a report within nine months on the injury caused to US workers by several working visa categories, including H-1B, and a re-consideration of how to allocate the visas to ensure they go to “the best and the brightest.”
The US government grants up to 85,000 of these visas each year. They are open to a broad range of occupations and recipients who can stay in the country for up to six years. First Lady Melania Trump, who comes from Slovenia, had one as a fashion model in the 1990s.
The top occupations, however, are tech-related and about 70 percent of the recipients are Indian.
Critics say the program is abused, with many companies contracting out jobs to consulting firms that bring in lower-paid workers from overseas. Employees on H-1B visas are unable to change employers. Critics say that leaves them with little leverage to negotiate their salaries. Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, has long opposed the program, and there is bipartisan congressional support for reform.
Advocates say the visa program allows companies to fill skills shortages and encourages students with hi-tech degrees to stay in the US and set up companies of their own.
Vinson Palathingal, who runs a mid-sized, US-based IT consulting company, said the administration’s priority should be training US workers to address skills shortages, and developing a quicker path to permanent residency for Indian talent. Without those steps, he said, restricting H-1B visas would mean tech jobs leaving the US.
India’s government wants more of the visas to be issued, not less. After visa fees were hiked in late 2015, India challenged the US at the World Trade Organization (WTO) — a rare instance in which one WTO member contended that another’s immigration laws violated international trade rules.
“Limitations on this visa are sure to cause of a lot concern in Delhi and that will be conveyed in fairly strong terms to Washington,” said Rick Rossow, an India specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The question is how much is the Indian government willing to put on the table to represent corporate interests in its discussions with the US,” said Bharath Gopalaswamy, director of the South Asia program at the Atlantic Council, another Washington-based think tank. “I do not think they will bet all their chips on this.”
Over the past decade, India shifted from a Cold War-era foreign policy of non-alignment to become more comfortable as Washington’s partner. Its military, long reliant on Russian weaponry, is being modernized with US help. Modi has called the US an “indispensable partner.”
Visa changes could stunt budding US-India ties
Visa changes could stunt budding US-India ties
Ethiopians celebrate Christmas as natural calamities and conflict take their toll
- The patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church called for reconciliation and peace in a nation where conflict has been often fueled by ethnic strife
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christians are celebrating Christmas with prayers for peace in the Horn of Africa nation that has faced persistent conflict in recent years.
Ethiopians follow the Julian calendar, which runs 13 days later than the Gregorian calendar, used by Catholic and Protestant churches. They traditionally celebrate by slaughtering animals and joining family members to break the fast after midnight.
The patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Mathias, in his televised Christmas Eve message called for reconciliation and peace in a nation where conflict has been often fueled by ethnic strife. Different parts of Ethiopia recently have also faced natural calamities, including mudslides. Earthquakes last week in the remote regions of Afar, Amhara and Oromia have displaced thousands.
Despite the signing of a peace agreement to end the armed conflict in the northern region of Tigray in 2022, recurring conflicts in Amhara, Oromia and elsewhere have caused widespread suffering and forced 9 million children to drop out of school, according to UNICEF.
Almaz Zewdie, who was among thousands of Orthodox Christians attending ceremonies in Addis Ababa’s Medhanyalem Church, said she was praying for peace.
She was draped in an all-white traditional attire to mark the end of a 43-day fasting period and the birth of Jesus Christ.
“I lost friends and my livelihood,” said Zewdie, a merchant from the tourist town of Gondar, speaking of the toll of the conflict in Amhara, where government troops have been fighting members of a local militia.
Isaias Seyoum, a priest in Addis Ababa’s Selassie Church, said the celebration of Christmas is more than just feasting and merrymaking. It is also a time to share meals with needy people and help those impacted by conflict, including many sheltering in Addis Ababa, he said.
Baroness Warsi accuses UK Conservative Party of demonizing her over Islamophobia claims
- Party recently told Warsi she would not have whip restored in UK’s upper house of parliament
- Internal inquiry clears Warsi of ‘bringing the party into disrepute’ over support for pro-Palestinian protester
LONDON: The UK’s first Muslim cabinet member has accused her Conservative Party of attempting to “demonize” her after she criticized the party over Islamophobia.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi was told recently she was not welcome back into the Conservative Party in the UK’s upper house of parliament, where she holds a seat, The Independent reported on Wednesday.
Warsi resigned from the party in the House of Lords in September, claiming the Conservatives had moved too far to the right.
The former co-chair of the Conservative Party had also come under pressure from senior party members over language used in a tweet supporting a pro-Palestinian protester.
Warsi has now been cleared of being “divisive” and “bringing the party into disrepute” by a disciplinary panel investigating the tweet.
But the Conservatives wrote to Warsi saying that while she could remain a member of the party, they would not restore to her the party whip, meaning she could not be affiliated with the party in the Lords.
In response, Warsi said she had not asked to have the whip restored, and accused the Conservatives of playing games.
She told The Independent that the party was attempting to “demonize” her for challenging the party’s “rising levels of extremism, racism and Islamophobia.”
Warsi was appointed as the first Muslim Conservative Party chair in 2010 by Prime Minister David Cameron as he sought to modernize the party.
But in recent years the Conservatives have shifted further right as they seek to counter the growing popularity of far-right parties.
In March, Warsi said the party had become known as “the institutionally xenophobic and racist party.” She has also repeatedly accused it of failing to tackle Islamophobia within the party and criticized significant figures for their rhetoric over immigration.
In 2014, she resigned as a minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office over the government’s “morally indefensible” approach to Gaza.
Warsi’s decision to resign the whip in September was, she said: “A reflection of how far right my party has moved and the hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities.”
The move came after complaints against her for a tweet congratulating a pro-Palestinian protester acquitted of a racially aggravated public order offense. The protester had used a placard depicting Rishi Sunak, who was prime minister at the time, as a coconut.
Poland shuts consulate in Saint Petersburg on Russian order
- Russia ordered the closure in December after Poland said in October it was closing Russia’s consulate in the Polish city of Poznan
- “The Polish Consulate General in Saint Petersburg was shut down upon Russia’s withdrawal of its consent to the activity of the Polish post,” Poland’s foreign ministry said
WARSAW: Poland announced Wednesday it had shut its consulate in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg, after Russia ordered the closure in a tit-for-tat move.
Russia ordered the closure in December after Poland said in October it was closing Russia’s consulate in the Polish city of Poznan, accusing Moscow of “sabotage” attempts in the country and its allies.
“The Polish Consulate General in Saint Petersburg was shut down upon Russia’s withdrawal of its consent to the activity of the Polish post,” Poland’s foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
“It is in retaliation for a decision of the Polish foreign minister to close down Russia’s Consulate General in Poznan in the aftermath of acts of sabotage committed on Polish territory and linked to Russian authorities.”
After Russia ordered the closure, Poland responded that it would close all the Russian consulates on its soil if “terrorism” it blamed on Moscow carried on.
Tensions between Russia and NATO member Poland have escalated since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, with both sides expelling dozens of diplomats.
Poland is a staunch ally of Kyiv and has been a key transit point for Western arms heading to the embattled country since the conflict began.
In one of the largest espionage trials, Poland in 2023 convicted 14 citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine of preparing sabotage on behalf of Moscow as part of a spy ring.
They were found guilty of preparing to derail trains carrying aid to Ukraine, and monitoring military facilities and critical infrastructure in the country.
2 Russian firefighters died in blaze caused by Ukraine drone: governor
- “As a result of the liquidation (of the fire), there are two dead,” said the governor of Saratov region
MOSCOW: Two Russian firefighters died on Wednesday fighting a blaze caused by a Ukrainian drone attack, the local governor said, after Kyiv said it hit an oil depot that supplies Russia’s air force.
“Unfortunately, as a result of the liquidation (of the fire), there are two dead — employees of the emergency situations ministry’s fire department,” Roman Busagrin, governor of the Saratov region where the strike happened, said on Telegram.
UK police investigating suspicious vehicle in central London, carry out controlled explosions
- Road closures are in place in the vicinity of Regent Street and New Burlington Street in central London, police said on X
LONDON: British police carried out a number of controlled explosions as a precaution in central London as they investigated a suspicious vehicle on Wednesday, the city’s police force said on social media.
Road closures are in place in the vicinity of Regent Street and New Burlington Street in central London, police said on X.
