The White House is launching a partnership with India on Tuesday that President Joe Biden hopes will help the countries compete against China on military equipment, semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

Washington wants to deploy more Western mobile phone networks in the subcontinent to counter China’s Huawei Technologies, to welcome more Indian computer chip specialists to the United States and to encourage companies from both countries to collaborate on military equipment such as artillery systems.

The White House faces an uphill battle on each front, including U.S. restrictions on military technology transfer and visas for immigrant workers, along with India’s longstanding dependence on Moscow for military hardware.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval, are meeting with senior officials from both countries at the White House on Tuesday to launch the U.S.-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies.

“The larger challenge posed by China – its economic practices, its aggressive military moves, its efforts to dominate the industries of the future and to control the supply chains of the future – have had a profound impact on the thinking in Delhi,” Sullivan said.

Doval will also meet Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during his three-day visit to Washington D.C., which ends Wednesday.

New Delhi has frustrated Washington by participating in military exercises with Russia and increasing purchases of the country’s crude oil, a key source of funding for Russia’s war in Ukraine. But Washington has held its tongue, nudging the country on Russia while condoning India’s more hawkish stance on China.

On Monday, Sullivan and Doval participated in a Chamber of Commerce event with corporate leaders from Lockheed Martin Corp, (LMT.N) Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS) and Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT.O)

Although India is part of the Biden administration’s signature Asian engagement project, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), it has opted against joining the IPEF trade pillar negotiations.

The initiative also includes a joint effort on space and high-performance quantum computing.

General Electric Co, (GE.N) meanwhile, is asking the U.S. government for permission to produce jet engines with India that would power aircraft operated and produced by India, according to the White House, which says a review is underway.

New Delhi said that the U.S. government would review General Electric’s application expeditiously and that the two countries would focus on joint production of “key items of mutual interest” in defense.

The two countries also established a quantum technology coordination mechanism and agreed to set up a task force with India’s Semiconductor Mission, the India Electronics Semiconductor Association (IESA) and the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) to promote the development of semiconductor ecosystems.

India’s space program will work with NASA on human space flight opportunities and other projects, the Indian statement said.

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India’s government will raise its capital expenditure by 33% to 10 trillion rupees ($122.29 billion) in the next fiscal year, the finance minister said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi tries to create jobs ahead of a general election.

Since taking office in 2014, Modi has ramped up capital spending including on roads and energy, while wooing investors through lower tax rates and labour reforms, and offering subsidies to poor households to clinch their political support.

“After a subdued period of the pandemic, private investments are growing again,” Nirmala Sitharaman said in parliament, referring to the COVID-19 crisis.

“The budget makes the need once again to ramp up the virtuous cycle of investment and job creation. Capital investment is being increased steeply for the third year in a row by 33% to 10 trillion rupees.”

After she revealed the big jump, ruling-party lawmakers thumped their desks as the camera moved to Modi.

India’s benchmark Nifty 50 stock index (.NSEI) added to its gains, rising 0.79% as Sitharaman delivered her speech.

Sitharaman said the aim was to have strong public finances and a robust financial sector for the benefit of all sections of the country.

She said that despite a global slowdown because of the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the Indian economy was “on the right track”.

She is expected to announce a plan to lower the government’s fiscal deficit later in her speech.

($1 = 81.7725 Indian rupees)

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A focus of Pope Francis’ visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo is a meeting on Wednesday with around 60 victims of the decades of violence in the east of the country who have made the cross-country journey to see him.

The pontiff had hoped to travel to the eastern city of Goma but cancelled the stop following a resurgence of fighting in the mineral-rich region, where more than 120 armed groups are fighting for control of land and natural resources.

Millions have been killed, and millions more have been displaced by the violence in the east since the 1990s.

The conflict in Congo goes back decades, making it difficult to isolate a few causes, said Jason Stearns, director of the Congo Research Group. At the start, rebellions abroad with rear bases in Congo, local struggles over land, resources, and identity – especially over the status of groups speaking Rwandan languages, and the weakness of the Congolese state were the main causes, he said.

The state has a large responsibility because it has done little to dismantle, demobilize, or defeat any of the 120 armed groups in the east, he said.

Competition for control of the region’s rich natural resources has also contributed to the violence.

Pierre Boisselet from Kivu Security Tracker, which monitors unrest in the region, said: “The conflict has reached a stage where it seems to be self-sustaining because, over the decades, a class of professionals in violence has been formed, both among local and foreign armed groups and the states of the region.”

Myriad armed groups are involved in the violence, some with a few dozen members while others have hundreds of armed combatants, sometimes along ethnic lines. The most active in recent years include:

* The M23. The name refers to the March 23 date of a 2009 accord that ended a previous Tutsi-led revolt in eastern Congo. The group says the government has not kept its promise to fully integrate Congolese Tutsis into the army and government.

It seized swathes of territory in a resurgence since March 2022, displacing over 500,000 as they advanced to the gates of Goma, leading to the cancellation of the pope’s visit there.

* The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), is an armed group run by mostly ethnic Hutus who fled Rwanda after taking part in the 1994 genocide. They are seen as M23’s main rival. Rwanda has accused Congo of using the FDLR a proxy, while Congo has accuse Rwanda of backing the M23. Both sides have denied the accusations.

* Fighters from the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, commonly known as CODECO, are drawn mainly from the Lendu farming community, which has been in conflict with Hema herders. They are seen as one of the most violent against civilians. The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo blamed the militia for a mass grave with 49 bodies including 12 women and six children found on Jan. 19.

* Islamic State-linked militia, known locally as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) is another violent group operating in the region. It has killed and maimed scores in village raids and bombings. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for some of ADF’s violence. The group is suspected of killing 20 people in a raid last week, and 14 others in a church bombing.

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US inflation is outpacing wage growth.

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• Growth in US wages and salaries slowed to 1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from 1.3% in the previous quarter.
• However, wages and salaries actually declined by 1.2% for the whole of 2022, due to high inflation.
• As inflation remains high, the Fed may continue hiking interest rates — meaning wage growth could continue to trend slower. 

US wages rose slightly in the fourth quarter of 2022 — but that still meant a pay cut, as the pay bump did not keep pace with rising inflation. 

Wages and salaries for civilians rose 1% in the fourth quarter from a quarter ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in a Tuesday report. The wage increase slowed from the pace of 1.3% in the third quarter of 2022 — but overall pay was still up by 5.1% for the entire year.

In real terms though, wages and salaries actually declined by 1.2% for the whole of 2022, thanks to high inflation rates. 

US consumer inflation rose 6.5% in December from a year ago — and though it was 0.1% lower between November and December on a seasonally adjusted basis, it’s still far higher than the Fed’s 2% target rate — which means, it is hurting purchasing power and personal finances.

The US Federal Reserve will be keenly watching this data ahead of its first meeting of 2023 on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The central bank is scheduled to release its latest rate decision at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, and analysts polled by Reuters expect the Fed to hike interest rates by 25 basis points this time. The federal funds rate is in the 4.25% to 4.50% range currently.

Higher interest rates make borrowing for anything from mortgages to credit cards more expensive. And it encourages people to save rather than spend, which in theory, helps bring down prices — and in turn, keeps wages lower.

Worker compensation is key to the Fed’s monetary tightening cycle, as rising wages contribute to inflation. Some economists are concerned that current market conditions may lead to a wage-price spiral, a vicious cycle of broad price gains leading to pay hikes, in turn fueling consumption and actually worsening inflation. 

Moderating wages and salaries in the fourth quarter points to validation for the Fed to dial back its aggressive rate hikes to 25 basis points from 50 basis points in December, Vishnu Varathan, the head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank’s Asia and Oceania treasury department, said in a Wednesday note.

But it doesn’t mean the Fed’s going to walk away from hiking rates because inflation remains elevated.

“To be clear, evidence of subsiding inflation and wage pressures in recent months merely increase confidence to slow the pace of hikes, not catalyze an end to the tightening cycle,” Varathan added. 

Cows are seen at a dairy farming company in Handan, Hebei Province, China, on November 15, 2021.

Hao Qunying / Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images

• China claims it’s cloned three cows that make up to 18 metric tons of milk per year.
• “Super cows” are hard to breed since they’re identified at the end of their lives, per state-affiliated media.
• The scientists say they plan to build a herd of 1,000 super cows in the next two to three years.

Scientists in China have cloned three cows that produce abnormally high amounts of milk, state-affiliated media claimed on Tuesday.

The three calves were birthed in the Ningxia region by a team from the Northwest University of Agricultural and Forestry Science and Technology, just before the Chinese New Year began on January 22, per local outlet Ningxia Daily.

The calves were cloned from “super cows” — unusually productive cows that can make 18 metric tons of milk per year and 100 tons of milk in their lifetimes, pro-government tabloid The Global Times reported.

In comparison, the average milk-producing cow in the US makes around 10.8 metric tons of milk per year, per the US Department of Agriculture’s latest figures.

Only five in 10,000 of common cattle breeds in China can produce as much milk as a super cow, said the scientists, per The Global Times.

And because cattle are only designated as super cows at the end of their lives, it’s difficult to breed them after they’ve been identified, said the project lead, Jin Yaping, per the outlet.

Jin said his team “reincarnated” the super cows to help bolster China’s local milk production, which has struggled to meet domestic demand amid surging feed costs. China also heavily relies on importing cattle from Europe.

Jin’s team used tissue from the cows’ ears to make an initial batch of 120 cloned embryos, 42% of which were successfully impregnated in surrogate cows and 17.5% of which remained fertile after 200 days, The Global Times reported.

The scientists highlighted how one of the calves had the exact same skin pattern as its predecessor, reported the outlet.

“We plan to take two to three years to build up a herd comprised of over 1,000 super cows,” Jin said, per The Global Times.

Jin did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

(NewsNation) — Justine Siemens remained in critical condition as a police standoff with the man accused of kidnapping her ended Monday, local media outlets KDRV and KTVL reported.

Benjamin Foster, 36, was underneath a house in Grants Pass, Oregon as authorities tried to get him to surrender, a police lieutenant told KTVL-TV. An operator at the Grants Pass Police Department told NewsNation late Tuesday night that the department was “resuming normal activities,” and in a news release, the police department said the suspect was in custody.

Authorities called Foster “extremely dangerous” and offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to his arrest and prosecution. He was wanted on the following charges: attempted murder, kidnapping and assault. Police also that he was “actively” using dating sites to potentially find new victims or people who may be able to help him avoid police.

Siemen’s friend, who would like to remain anonymous, revealed to NewsNation on Monday night how Foster knew the victim, but she says it “wouldn’t be accurate” to say they were dating.

“Justine was a competitive bodybuilder some time ago. She’s a smart and charismatic woman. She’s the last person you could think that something like this would happen to. … It’s hard to say because we don’t know what position she was in to begin with, or what he (Foster) could have done to possibly subdue her.”

The family of Siemens released the following statement before police “resolved” the standoff : “She will survive this and as her family, we implore the nation to help bring her attacker to justice.”

Law enforcement officers surrounded the home Tuesday in Oregon, where they say Siemen was tortured, according to reports.

Siemen’s friend said it’s “absolutely sickening” that Foster would go back to the home.

“Ben was a very quiet person, he always had something going on behind his eyes, you can tell he was very quiet, but taking in everything around him. A lot of people thought that he would be mean or angry because of his demeanor, or his attitude. But it just was he was very quiet and … you could always tell the wheels were turning and it was just a slow progression,” a friend of Siemens told host Ashleigh Banfield Tuesday night on “Banfield.”

The friend said that tensions have been very high in their community since Foster was on the run.

“Not only is everybody concerned for Justine, and her health and well-being. Even small children are concerned. … Upset doesn’t even cover the energy that’s been going on in our in our community,” the friend said.

(NewsNation) — The proliferation of methamphetamine produced in Mexican labs over the last decade has left law enforcement with their hands full, and one veteran journalist says it’s also a major driving force of homelessness across the country.

At times dubbed “Super Meth,” the Drug Enforcement Administration has been warning about the highly potent version of the the drug since at least 2019, when officials said it was being seized along interstates in Louisiana.

More recently, the drug was cited in an uptick in overdose deaths in April 2022 in Tucson, Arizona, and it was prevalent last year in Atlanta. Officials in Philadelphia reported an uptick in the drug, too.

The easy and cheap to make product has been a boon for the Mexican drug trafficking trade, with authorities in some areas saying it caused local U.S. labs to cease production.

Sam Quinones, a veteran journalist and author who’s written two books on America’s fight against opioids and meth, chronicled the rise of the drug for an essay in The Atlantic in 2021.

Quinones joined “CUOMO” on Tuesday to explain how meth’s chemical composition has changed and what it’s doing to people across America.

“What’s happening coming out of Mexico right now is that the the Mexican trafficking world now is making meth a different way than it has in the in the past,” Quinones said. “In the last 10 years, they’ve had to switch to a new kind of precursor ingredient … that is very easily made, and … they can get all the chemicals they need to make this drug in quantities that up to now we have never seen in this country, and at potencies we have also never seen.”

Michael Nolan, an addiction counselor in Atlanta, told WSB-TV last year that the way the body and mind react to that ingredient, P2P, short for phenyl-2-propanone, is different than previous iterations of meth. Users aren’t warned by a racing heart or energy boost that they need to take a break.

“People are just taking so much of the drug and getting so high, that it’s causing rapid physical decline, rapid mental health issues,” Nolan said.

The meth can cause paranoia, hallucinations and even schizophrenia. The drug is as much as 93% pure, up from 39% in 2008.

Quinones argues the drug’s potency and its effects are a “major driving force” of homelessness.

“It’s also keeping people, who may be homeless for many, many other reasons, on the street because once you’re on the street, this drug is so prevalent that everybody kind of gradually migrates to using it, and once you begin using it, it’s very difficult to get off the street,” Quinones said.

Exacerbating the public health crisis is fentanyl, which can be cut into other drugs to boost a trafficker’s bottom line — they can sell a smaller quantity but maintain the effects a buyer expects. The extremely lethal drug has been responsible for a surge in overdose deaths over the past several years.

The DEA seized a record 50.6 million fentanyl pills in 2022, which combined with the nearly 11,000 pounds of fentanyl powder equated to more than 379 million lethal doses. Authorities say two milligrams is enough to kill someone.

Just this week, U.S. border officials seized more than 800,000 pills at the Nogales Port of Entry in two days. The Tucson area of operation leads the nation in fentanyl seizures, with more than 18.8 million pills recovered since October.

“Both of these drugs are extraordinarily devastating in their own way and made more so, again I say, because the supplies of the stuff have really just covered the country,” Quinones said. “We have never in our history had one source, meaning the Mexican trafficking world in this case, cover the entire country with one, let alone two drugs, but that is the case today.”