Reuters World News - Greece’s migrant tragedy, Indian arms and how to fly an F-16

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

Hundreds of migrants remain missing after Greece’s deadliest shipwreck so far this year. The Biden administration is pushing for New Delhi to cut through its own red tape and advance a deal for dozens of U.S.-made armed drones. Plus, Ukrainian pilots could begin training to fly U.S.-manufactured F-16 fighter jets as soon as this summer. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, hundreds remain missing after a deadly migrant shipwreck off Greece. The U.S. pushes for India to advance a big deal on drones. Ukrainian pilots could be trained on U.S.-made F-16 planes within weeks as President Zelensky pushes for air power. It's Thursday, June 15th. This is Reuters World News, with everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Christopher Waljester in Chicago. Crimmons in Dublin. A helicopter rescues migrants from the deadliest shipwreck off Greece this year.

At least 79 migrants drowned Wednesday, and hundreds more are missing after the overloaded boat capsized and sank. A European rescue support charity says it believes around 750 people were on board the vessel, which left from Libya. 104 people have been rescued, officials said most of those on board were from Egypt, Syria, and Pakistan. Exhausted survivors spent the night in a warehouse shelter set up on the port of Kalamata. Carolina Tagaris is here to help us understand how this disaster unfolded. Carolina, what was the situation like on board? Authorities have said that the outer deck was absolutely crowded. There were way too many people on it.

And there are reports that there were a lot of people in the hold of the vessel and they are believed to have included women and children. As far as survived, We know that most of them are young men in their 20s. What do we know about reports that the boat refused an offer of help from the Coast Guard? What we know from the Greek Coast Guard is that they made a couple of offers of assistance to the asylum seekers. And one of them was they offered a food which was received. But any offer of help or to be rescued was turned down. And this is not something which is very unusual in these situations.

and it has been the case that asylum seekers who have tried to reach Greece have wanted to avoid being rescued by the Greek authorities so that they can then continue their journey, often northward to other wealthier European countries. Now, there has been some controversy over Greece's treatment of migrants, right? Prime Minister Mitsotakis has said that Greece doesn't have a pushback policy. Will this tragedy put migrant policy back at the top of the political agenda? Greece has long been criticized by rights groups and by the European Commission of carrying

so-called pushbacks at sea and on its land borders with Turkey, which is essentially turning back asylum seekers without giving them a chance to arrive in the country and apply for asylum. This is something which Greece has denied. So there is no suggestion that this incident involved some kind of pushback or interception. But again, it is a one of those accidents which really brings to the surface the issue of migration policy and finding safer ways for asylum seekers to be able to reach Europe. Now for the other news making headlines around the world. The United States has played down expectations of any breakthrough from Anthony Blinken's

upcoming trip to China. Blinkin's visit to Beijing will be the first by a US Secretary of State for five years. But Chinese Foreign Minister, Chin Gang, urged the US to stop meddling in its affairs, and harming its security in a call with Blinken on Wednesday. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. We go into this trip very clear-eyed that we have a number of differences with the government in China on a wide range of issues and we're going to be clear and candid about those issues. It doesn't mean we will have any breakthroughs on them on this trip.

More than 150,000 people have been evacuated from parts of Pakistan and India as a powerful cyclone approaches. for fears the violent storm could damage homes and crops after making its way across the Arabian Sea. A New York grand jury has voted to indict a former U.S. Marine after he was filmed placing a homeless man in a fatal chokehold. Daniel Penny says he was acting in self-defense when he grabbed Jordan Neely on a Manhattan subway car. Penny's charged with second-degree manslaughter. Today we decided to leave our policy interest rate unchanged. There you have it.

After 10 consecutive rate hikes, the federal federal government. Reserve has called a timeout. While the central bank left rates unchanged, it signaled the borrowing costs would likely rise a bit by the end of this year. To explain it all in 30 seconds is our Fed watcher, Howard Schneider. Howard, you're on the clock. So this was the meal that was expected with a little extra spice on the side. The Fed did hold rate steady, as expected, but they projected they're going to have to go up by another half a point by the end of the year. That's an extra quarter point more than was anticipated. Now, good news is the economy is holding up stronger. They doubled their projection of GDP now to a full 1% for the year. Unemployment rate is not expected to climb as much, but the bad

news is inflation is also coming down more slowly, which is why the Fed thinks it is going to have to continue with rate hikes, probably again in July. So what did markets make of Jerome Powell's speech? Well, they're digesting it. U.S. stocks were mixed overnight, and they're indicating that way again this morning. Some investors clearly told that the Fed was done with its rate hikes. Asian shares, on the other hand, hit two-month highs and European stocks are on the rise. They seem prepared for this to be a pause rather than a halt. The European Central Bank meets later today, and it's expected to deliver its eighth straight rate hike. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Washington next week.

The stakes are high, especially when it comes to arms. Sources tell Reuters the Biden administration is pushing New Delhi to advance a big deal on US drones. Trevor Honeycutt covers the White House. Trevor, tell us about this potential deal. That's in a real focus on both sides because the United States wants India to buy less arms from Russia and more arms from the United States. And they also want to find a way to integrate the two countries' military systems better. And India, meanwhile, they want advanced military technology like any country does for self-defense purposes and for any potential conflicts that they might have with countries like Pakistan or China. And they also want to grow their own industrial capability, right?

It creates jobs domestically when they're able to produce military and scientific technology. What does each side hope to gain politically from next week's visit? So the United States wants another power in the Indo-Pacific, in the Asian region that is not China. They like India because it is a democracy. It's a huge country. It just recently became the biggest country by population in the world. and they want that to be an American-friendly country that has ideals that the West shares, that can kind of counter what the United States sees as the destabilizing effects of China's growth

and China's aggression. And what India wants is a balance. They want a balance between the Western powers and the other countries of the world, right? They see advantages from a business standpoint and from all other kinds of standpoints, from having a good relationship with the United States and with Russia and with China to some extent as well. When President Trump visited India, he was greeted by Modi in a stadium of tens of thousands. What's Modi's relationship with Biden? Yeah, so it's really interesting because you couldn't have two different presidents between Biden and Trump.

And yet both of them have had these on and off kind of relationships with Modi. And I think there's a recognition in the Biden administration that even if Modi might not be the ideal person that they would want to work with, they recognize that he's probably the best that they're going to get. From drones to fighter jets, an F-16 landing at an airbase in the Netherlands. This U.S. manufactured aircraft is a type set to be used very soon to train Ukrainian pilots for the fight against Russia. The need for airpower is what President Zelensky has talked about since day one of the war. Now he's moving a step closer to his wish, with Reuters being told the training program could begin within weeks and should be fully up and running in six months.

Colonel Laurent Jan Veig is part of the team that will train the Ukrainians. He's flown F-16s for 15 years. What the training involves exactly, we don't know yet. It will comprise of academic training, so they need to go in school, I would say. It's going to be language training, it's going to be simulator training, where they learn how to deal with the different subsystems in the airplane. Both on the throttle, which you use to accelerate and on a stick to control the airplane, there's a lot of buttons that you use to operate all the avionics.

And usually in Soviet equipment that's non-existent, or at least less part of the design. So we just need to work with them and learn, for instance, from a partner like Poland, who also converted from the MiG-29 to the F-16 and learn from their less. in that transition, like what it really takes. And that's it for this edition of Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow. To make sure you know what's going on around the world, remember to subscribe on your favorite podcast player

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