Debasish Sarmah

I read pictures to make a living and study IR for fun | MA International Affairs @DSD_Kings | MA Photojournalism @UniWestminster | Own views | RT ≠ Endorsement

[Alpha Defense™🇮🇳 @alpha_defense]

China has unveiled a mobile aerosol smoke-screen system designed to rapidly obscure large areas during military operations.

This system will be really useful in blocking the view of FPV and Loitering Munitions.

[Sadanand Dhume @dhume]

Mounds of rotting garbage, trains overflowing with commuters, half-drowned school buses on flooded roads. The age of social media has been brutal for India’s global image. [My take]
https://t.co/kLeYWD6xGy

[Vivek Wadhwa @wadhwa]

H-1B’s death should cheer Indians and Americans.
This is about an article I wrote telling India why it should support America terminating the H-1B visa program:
H-1B was created to fill genuine shortages of highly skilled workers. It was supposed to allow American companies to recruit exceptional people whose expertise could not be found here. Instead, body shops, in collaboration with American employers, turned it into one of the most corrupt labor-arbitrage schemes in modern America.
The body shops learned to flood the system with applications, manufacture experience, embellish résumés, and present ordinary technology jobs as positions requiring rare skills. Workers were brought in at lower wages and placed at American companies through layers of contractors and subcontractors, allowing the companies to pretend that they had not directly replaced anyone.
American workers were harmed the most. Many were ordered to train their foreign replacements before losing their jobs. Experienced engineers were pushed out and told that their skills were obsolete, while younger and cheaper workers were brought in to perform substantially the same work. Age discrimination became an unspoken part of the business model.
These were decent, hardworking Americans who had studied, built careers, supported families, and contributed to their companies for years. Their loyalty was rewarded with termination notices because executives had discovered a cheaper and more controllable source of labor.
The control was central to the scheme because an H-1B employee whose right to remain in America depended on the sponsoring company could not negotiate like an American worker. Leaving a bad job could mean losing legal status and being forced to leave the country. The decades-long green-card backlog made this dependency even worse. Employers gained workers who were less likely to demand raises, report abuse, challenge management, or resign.
Then the companies wrapped this exploitation in the language of diversity, innovation, and skilled immigration. Executives claimed there were real talent shortages while laying off qualified Americans.
The darkest part is that the corporations escaped most of the blame while Indians became the public face of the abuse. American workers saw jobs being transferred to Indian contractors, heard stories about fabricated experience and embellished résumés, and concluded that Indians were cheating them. Some applicants certainly participated knowingly, and that dishonesty must also be acknowledged. But the system was created, expanded, and defended by companies that made billions from it. This is all they lobbied for in DC, not real solutions to the backlog.
The consequences have been devastating for Indians in America. Millions of legal immigrants who studied hard, worked honestly, paid taxes, created companies, and contributed enormously are now viewed with suspicion. The achievements of an entire community are being overshadowed by unscrupulous players. The anger has spread far beyond H-1B and mutated into open anti-Indian hatred.
The visa also exploited the Indian workers it brought to America. Their legal status depended on their employers, and the decades-long green-card backlog left many unable to change jobs, start companies, or plan their lives. They were sold the American dream and then trapped in a form of indentured servitude.
That is why this cancer, the H-1B visa must be terminated, and terminated now. And this is why I am speaking up so strongly. Enough is enough.

[Anas Alhajji @anasalhajji]

🇮🇳India has replaced the UAE and Saudi Arabia as the supplier of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and fuel oil to Kenya🇰🇪.

[WarTranslated @wartranslated]

WSJ: CIA Director Ratcliffe arrived in Moscow after the US gathered intelligence indicating mobilization preparations and plans to test NATO's resolve.

Former Deputy Director of US National Intelligence Beth Sanner told the publication that Ratcliffe may have met with Putin to deliver a warning along the lines of: "We know what you are going to do, and you'd better not do it."
https://t.co/Kvb9b4MvOA

[Sidhant Sibal @sidhant]

Just in: India and China coordinate search for missing MV Ocean Winner crew as Coast Guard vessel ICGS Varad responds to naval aircraft distress signal. Indian side is coordinating MRCC Beijing for the search. ICGS Varad located a lifeboat of MV Ocean Winner in the search area.

[Jennifer Jacobs @JenniferJJacobs]

Scoop: CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Russia aboard a C-17 for meetings in Moscow today, sources told @Olivia_Gazis @JimLaPorta and me. @CBSNews

[Christopher Miller @ChristopherJM]

Scoop @FT: Trump administration officials last week requested that Kyiv not strike Moscow, St Petersburg and nothern regions of Russia with its long range missiles and drones on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday when the US would send a plane carrying a senior-level official to the Russian capital, according to people familiar with the request. Ukraine agreed, they said. Today we see that a US Air Force C-17 plane has landed in Moscow.

[OSINTdefender @sentdefender]

An observer in Riga, Latvia reported a white aircraft, likely a U.S. Air Force C-40B, parked near the C-17A Globemaster III that arrived in Moscow earlier this morning.

Notably, on the same day the C-17 departed Joint Base Andrews, a C-40B operating under callsign RCH790 also departed Andrews and arrived in Riga.

The C-40B is operated by the 89th Airlift Wing and is used to transport senior U.S. government officials, including Cabinet level officials and senior military commanders, on official business.

Vehicles displaying diplomatic license plates were also observed near the aircraft in Riga. This suggests a senior U.S. government official may have been aboard the C-40B and could now be in Moscow, although the identities of any passengers and the purpose of the trip have not been confirmed.

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

A motorcade of cars with US diplomatic license plates was spotted in Moscow.

[Flightradar24 @flightradar24]

An unusual visitor to Moscow this morning. 👀

A US Air Force C-17A Globemaster III flew from Riga to Moscow Vnukovo Airport

https://t.co/D7vylYesDQ

[Daily Mail @DailyMail]

I want a Tory victory not a monstrous coalition with Reform, says Kemi https://t.co/Gok0wnakSJ

[Shashank Mattoo @MattooShashank]

Breaking: You will not see a single clip of President Trump pushing the 100% tariff bill on India. This is not something you have seen the White House advocating, says US Ambassador Sergio Gor

[Shashank Mattoo @MattooShashank]

“I’m very glad to be invited here. But you could have picked from a very wide range of former UK Prime Ministers. We’re making a lot of them,” jokes former UK PM Boris Johnson in India

[Sadanand Dhume @dhume]

The launch of the “reservation hatao andolan” is a good excuse to reup my recent column on India’s debate about ever-expanding caste quotas and what they mean for Indian competitiveness.
Bottomline: The logic of mass politics in India on this question is at odds with the country’s economic aspirations.

[vasabjit banerjee @vasabjit_b]

Thanks @zone5aviation for highlighting the paper by @PrashantSuh and myself. We calculate 67-79 IAF squadrons contingent on how much PRC commits.

It is available here: https://t.co/JgMWchzur3

[Sidhant Sibal @sidhant]

Canada suspends trade negotiations with US, annouces Canada PM Carney

[Derek J. Grossman @DerekJGrossman]

Kashmir is “an important part of India”—with these four words, Ambassador Gor shiftes longstanding US policy, strengthened US-India ties, AND pissed off Pakistan. Impressive!
https://t.co/AuEgWTDxta

[ThePrintIndia @ThePrintIndia]

Bangladesh open to joining Mecca pact considering its own interests—Foreign Affairs Adviser Humayun Kabir

Debdutta Chakraborty @debdutta_c reports

#ThePrintForeignAffairs

https://t.co/bSqisc2NyF

[小泉進次郎 @shinjirokoiz]

会談が終わると、シン国防大臣から「とても実りある会談だった。」と肩を組んで喜んでくれました。日印防衛協力を加速させる新たなスタートにできました。今後も個人的信頼関係を更に強固にしていくべく、今日の議論を形にしていくために全力を尽くします。シン国防大臣、ありがとうございました。@rajnathsingh