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Sputnik rehashes North Korean talking points reported in Western media, while missing the regime insecurity that’s driving Pyongyang’s trash balloon campaign.

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White House — U.S. President Joe Biden is aiming to persuade leaders of the world’s seven richest economies on a plan that could potentially provide up to $50 billion in loans for Ukraine’s war effort by using interest from frozen Russian assets held in Western financial institutions. The U.S. leader wants his G7 counterparts to endorse the plan at their upcoming summit in Apulia, Italy, set to kick off June 13. But before G7 partners can get on board, much of the scheme’s details must first be ironed out, a source familiar with Biden’s plan told VOA. If agreed upon, the loan could be disbursed as early as during the next few months. Most of the approximately $280 billion Russian assets frozen by Western financial institutions following Moscow’s 2022 invasion are in Europe, the bulk of which are in Belgium, France and Germany. In April, Biden signed legislation allowing Washington to seize the roughly $5 billion in Russian assets that had been immobilized in U.S. financial institutions. Resisting pressure from the U.S. and Ukraine to seize the assets directly, EU officials in May agreed on a more restrained plan of using only the interest generated by these assets, an estimated $3 billion a year or more. But the Biden administration is pushing for a more aggressive scheme. In simple terms, a loan of up to $50 billion will be issued up front to Ukraine by Western allies, which will be paid back using the assets’ interest income in the years to come. If not the G7, the U.S. — possibly with other allies including Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and the EU — would issue the loan jointly and be entitled to a share of interest generated by the assets, the source said. Details of the plan are unclear as intensive diplomacy continues to work out the legal and technical requirements. But G7 finance ministers broadly agreed to support the principles of the plan during their meeting in May. The group’s discussions have focused on what can be done to unlock the value of Russians’ frozen assets for the benefit of the Ukrainian people, said U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo. “They talked through a number of options that will allow us to make sure that Ukraine has access to the money you need to not only invest in the economy but to invest in defense,” Adeyemo told VOA. “And my expectation is that as we get to the leaders meeting, those leaders are going to endorse some of those options.” The push is driven in part by the situation in the battlefield, where Moscow's forces have made strategic advances north and north-east of Kharkiv, the second biggest city in Ukraine. Russia has also intensified attacks along the eastern front. American taxpayers’ reluctance to fund the war is another driving factor. Although the U.S. Congress in April agreed on a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine, Republican opposition had stalled its passage. In his Friday meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on the sidelines of D-Day celebrations in France, Biden apologized to the Ukrainian president for “those weeks of not knowing what was going to pan — in terms of funding,” blaming “very conservative members who were holding it up.” He pledged to continue to support Zelenskyy’s war efforts. But as other G7 countries face the same war funding fatigue among their constituents, Biden began working with allies and partners to make Russia pay instead of burdening taxpayers, in a way that maintains unity without crossing any country’s red lines, the source said. While there is an overall agreement to give Ukraine as much as possible, as early as possible, there are challenging legal and regulatory implications of lending based upon the anticipated returns on frozen assets, said Kristine Berzina, managing director of Geostrategy North at the German Marshall Fund think tank. “How do you lend against the anticipated profits of the assets, how does that fit into the existing sanctions regime, and how long will those assets truly be frozen?” she pointed out to VOA as the key issues at stake. “How can you guarantee that the sanctions which freeze these assets do not get changed by the Europeans before that 50 billion is provided?” Moscow has threatened retaliation. In May, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that Russia will identify U.S. property, including securities, that could be used as compensation for losses sustained as a result of any seizure of frozen Russian assets in the U.S. While some Western countries may be concerned by the threat, others are worried about the precedent of using frozen assets under international law. Biden will seek to allay those fears when he meets with G7 leaders next week. He faces many challenges, including the European Parliament this weekend, where hundreds of millions of voters from 27 nations could help decide on the continent’s struggle between unity and nationalism, as well as determine the fate of European support for Ukraine. VOA’s Oksana Bedratenko contributed to this report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in France, following the 80th commemoration of the allied landing in Normandy on D-Day. He met with France’s defense minister, addressed the lower house of its National Assembly, and U.S. President Joe Biden. Anna Chernikova joins from Kyiv. The war in Ukraine has left much of the population traumatized in some way. Children can have a rough time. That’s why US pediatrician and activist Irwin Redlener founded the Ukraine Children’s Action Project – designed to give Ukrainian children health care access. China’s military intensifies its efforts to recruit current and former Western fighter pilots. A new warning says Beijing is employing new and more intricate tactics to snare Western expertise. VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin has the details. Cyber experts warn the US and other countries holding elections this year have failed to set up guardrails to counter Russian disinformation campaigns using vastly improved Artificial Intelligence, or AI. Top security experts recently warned a US Senate panel that Russia is already trying to influence the US election by employing the latest innovations in AI. VOA’s Carol Van Dam looks at what Congress, AI companies, and ordinary people can do to reduce the amount of disinformation circulating in social media this election year.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to the Middle East next week, the U.S. State Department said on Friday, as Washington tries to put pressure on Israel and Hamas to accept a cease-fire proposal that President Joe Biden laid out last week.  In his eighth visit to the region since Hamas militants staged a terror attack in Israel on October 7, triggering the latest flare-up in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the top U.S. diplomat will visit Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Qatar and meet with their senior leaders.  Blinken's visit comes after Biden laid out a fresh cease-fire plan to end the 8-month-long war and at a time when tensions between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have escalated in recent days, with both sides signaling a readiness for a bigger confrontation.  "The Secretary will discuss how the ceasefire proposal would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians," the State Department said in a statement. "He will underscore that it would alleviate suffering in Gaza, enable a massive surge in humanitarian assistance and allow Palestinians to return to their neighborhoods."  Talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and others to arrange a cease-fire between Israel and the militant Hamas movement in the Gaza war have repeatedly stalled, with each side blaming the other for the lack of progress.  The cease-fire, the State Department said, would also unlock the possibility of achieving calm along Israel's northern border with Lebanon and set conditions for further integration between Israel and its Arab neighbors.  "The Secretary will also continue to reiterate the need to prevent the conflict from escalating further," it added.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel was prepared for strong action in the north. He warned in December that Beirut would be turned "into Gaza" if Hezbollah started an all-out war.  The Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas-led Palestinian fighters attacked southern Israel from Gaza, killing more than 1,200 people, and seizing more than 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.  Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza has left the territory in ruins, led to widespread starvation, and killed more than 36,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.  While in Jordan, Blinken will attend a conference on humanitarian response to Gaza, the department said. 

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GENEVA — The International Organization for Migration warns that the number of internally displaced people in Sudan soon will top 10 million, as conflict and acute hunger spread throughout the country.    Mohammed Refaat, the IOM’s chief of mission in Sudan, calls the crisis unfolding in Sudan a “catastrophic human tragedy.” He told journalists in Geneva on Friday that he was speaking from Port Sudan “with a heavy heart and a profound sense of urgency.”  “Today, I am not just a representative of a U.N. agency, I am a voice for millions of Sudanese whose lives have been forever altered by the ongoing crisis. Families have been torn apart, communities devastated, and the future put on hold. The human toll of this crisis is huge,” he said.    The IOM says that more than half of the 9.9 million people displaced inside Sudan are women and more than a quarter are children. Additionally, it says more than 2 million people have fled as refugees into neighboring countries, mainly to Chad, South Sudan, and Egypt.  Refaat observed that before rival generals of the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces went to war in mid-April 2023, displacement was largely concentrated within Darfur and Kordofan states. Since then, he said displacement has spread widely across all 18 states, with the majority, 36 percent, from the capital, Khartoum.  He said that 70 percent of people uprooted from their homes are trying to survive “in areas at risk of famine,” noting that most of those places are in the Darfur region, “which is currently the most difficult for humanitarians to reach.”  “The humanitarian situation has entered a new and alarming chapter, the outbreak of fighting in Al Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, putting over 800,000 civilians at risk,” he said. “Movement restrictions are choking the lifelines of those in the state, with crucial roads out of Al Fasher blocked and preventing civilians from reaching safer areas and limiting the amount of food and humanitarian aid coming into the city,”  The Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Program issued a joint report on 18 world “hunger hotspots” Thursday in which they cite Sudan, along with Mali, Palestine, and South Sudan, as countries that “remain at the highest alert, and require the most urgent attention” to prevent famine.  According to the report, “18 million people are acutely food insecure, including 3.6 million children acutely malnourished, and famine is rapidly closing in on millions of people in Darfur, Kordofan, Al Jazirah, and Khartoum.”  “Conflict and displacement also continue at an alarming pace and magnitude in Sudan, where time is running out to save lives and the lean season looms,” the report warns.  Sudan historically has been a major transit and destination country for migrants. It traditionally has been a haven for many fleeing war, hunger and hardship from neighboring countries.  The IOM’s Refaat notes that the recent war has exacerbated the situation, however, “leaving many migrants and refugees stranded with limited access to support and services.”  Meanwhile, the World Health Organization warns that the health system in Sudan is collapsing. It notes about 65 percent of the Sudanese population lacks access to health care, just 25 percent of needed medical supplies are available and “only 20 to 30 percent of health facilities remain functional, at minimal levels” in hard-to-reach areas.  “At least two-thirds of the states are experiencing simultaneous outbreaks,” said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier, noting that vaccination for measles has declined “due to the conflict.”    “Over 11,000 cases of cholera have been reported from 12 states and this is likely to be an underestimate, and there are also outbreaks of malaria and dengue,” he said, adding that many people are suffering from mental health, non-communicable and chronic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and kidney failure for lack of treatment.  The IOM says that the prices of food, water and fuel are skyrocketing, making those essential goods unaffordable. This, at a time when “the world’s worst internal displacement crisis continues to escalate, with looming famine and disease adding to the havoc wrought by conflict,” it said in a statement Thursday.  Refaat said, “Aid agencies have struggled to keep pace with the growing needs.  Funding shortfalls are impeding efforts to provide adequate shelter, food, and medical assistance.”  “Serious concerns are mounting about the long-term impact of the displacement on Sudan’s social and economic fabric,” he said, emphasizing that the IOM’s $312.5 million appeal to provide aid for 1.7 million people this year is only 19 percent funded.

ISLAMABAD — The United Nations informed Taliban leaders Friday that it is working to finalize the agenda for a crucial two-day international conference on Afghanistan, and it is aiming for it to be accepted by all sides. Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, met with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul and discussed the matter, Muttaqi’s office said in a post-meeting statement. The two sides “exchanged views on the detailed outlook and necessary coordination” for the June 30 U.N.-convened conference, which Doha, Qatar, will host. The gathering, referred to as "Doha III,” will be the third in Qatar’s capital on the subject since U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres initiated the process with special envoys on Afghanistan to promote an effective world approach to the Taliban-governed country, which is facing dire humanitarian, economic, and human rights crises. “At the outset, Mrs. Roza Otunbayeva said that her team is working on the agenda of the 3rd Doha meeting and trying to arrange an agenda that could be recognized by all sides,” the Taliban foreign ministry stated. While emphasizing the importance of a conference agenda “that may be acceptable to all sides,” Muttaqi was quoted as pledging "to work closely with the concerned sides regarding the matter.” The U.N. did not immediately comment on its envoy’s meeting with the chief Taliban diplomat. Otunbayeva’s contact with de facto authorities came amid growing calls for the U.N. to ensure Afghan women’s representation at the table in the Doha meeting, with the rights of women and girls at the center of discussions. Rights activists have criticized the U.N. for inviting the Taliban to the Doha meeting and allegedly working hard to persuade them to attend the event. De facto Afghan authorities did not participate in the first two Doha gatherings, saying the U.N. had failed to meet their conditions for doing so. The Taliban informally stated late last month their intention to join the June 30 discussions in Doha, however, promising to make a formal announcement after receiving from the U.N. the final agenda of the event. On Thursday, about a dozen rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, jointly sent a letter to the U.N., the Security Council and member states, sharing concerns the Taliban’s participation in Doha is being sought at the cost of the rights of Afghan women and girls. “While members of the international community are moving perilously close to accepting the legitimacy of Taliban rule, Afghanistan’s women, who are bravely fighting back and paying a devastating price as a result, are not,” the letter reads. Heather Barr, women’s rights associate director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA the letter highlighted several concerns, including reports that women’s rights would neither be on the agenda nor fully represented at the conference. “The situation in Afghanistan right now is already the most serious women’s rights crisis on the planet, and it is steadily worsening,” Barr stated. She criticized stepped-up U.N. contacts with the Taliban ahead of the Doha meeting. “The context for this seems to be the U.N. twisting themselves into a pretzel to try to placate the Taliban and convince them to attend. That effort is in direct conflict with the U.N.’s core obligation to uphold human rights, including the rights of Afghan women and girls.” U.N. officials have defended their invitation and engagement with the Taliban, saying that “they are the de facto authorities in Afghanistan” and underscoring that the world body is persistently urging Kabul to uphold the rights of women and girls. The Taliban had asked the U.N. in the run-up to the second Doha meeting, in February, that their delegates would be accepted as the sole official representatives of the country, meaning that Afghan civil society representatives, women’s rights activists and members of opposition groups would not be present. De facto Afghan authorities also sought a meeting between their delegation and the U.N. at “a very senior level,” saying it “would be beneficial” for both sides. The Taliban also opposed the planned appointment of a U.N. special envoy to coordinate international engagement with Kabul in line with the latest U.N. Security Council resolution on Afghanistan. However, Guterres rejected the Taliban conditions, saying they would have “denied us the right to talk to other representatives of the Afghan society and demanded a treatment that would to a large extent be similar to recognition.” No foreign country has recognized the Taliban as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan since they stormed back to power in August 2021 as all the U.S.-led NATO troops withdrew from the country after their two-decade-long presence. The Taliban have imposed sweeping curbs on women’s right to education and public life at large in line with their strict interpretation of Islam. Afghan girls ages 12 and older are banned from attending secondary school, while women are prohibited from public and private workplaces, barring health care and a few other sectors. Women are not allowed to undertake road trips unless accompanied by a close male relative and are banned from visiting parks, gyms and other public places. The elusive Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, insists he is governing the country in line with local culture and Islamic teachings, rejecting international criticism of his policies as an interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs. The Taliban, who are ethnically Pashtun, have also dismissed international calls for giving representation to other Afghan ethnicities in the government, saying all groups are represented in it.

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PENTAGON — The U.S. military says a temporary pier to deliver aid into the Gaza Strip by sea has been reconnected to the beach after it broke apart in a storm in late May. Food and other supplies will begin to flow into Gaza “as soon as possible … in the coming days,” U.S. Central Command’s deputy chief, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, told reporters on Friday. “Earlier this morning in Gaza, U.S. forces successfully attached the temporary pier to the Gaza beach,” he said, adding that the military continued its “no U.S. boots on the ground’ policy through support from Israel Defense Force engineers. In response to a question from VOA, Cooper said that the aid was already “on scene,” but that security measures were still being checked before the flow of aid could restart. “There's a whole series of measures on force protection that we want to validate to make sure we have all the communications in place so that we can move successfully. We're validating all those with a strong sense of urgency,” he said. Cooper said operations at the reconnected pier will ramp up with a goal to get about 227,000 kilograms (500,000 pounds) of food and other supplies into Gaza via the pier each day. The U.S. military also intends to simultaneously deliver aid into Gaza via air drops, according to CENTCOM’s deputy chief. A large section of the causeway was broken by heavy winds and rough seas on May 25, which Cooper said was “unanticipated.” Four U.S. military vessels helping with the mission went aground, injuring three service members, including one who remains in critical condition. Large sections of the pier were disconnected and moved to an Israeli port for repairs. U.S. Senator Richard Wicker, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “It is astonishing that President [Joe] Biden is doubling down on this bad idea. It continues to put U.S. troops in harm’s way without any plan for ensuring that aid is delivered successfully to Gazans in need. This needs to end immediately.” The United Nations oversees receiving shipments and coordinating distribution on the ground. The arrangement is part of an effort to boost what humanitarian organizations say is a vastly insufficient amount of aid for Palestinian civilians. Aid has been slow to get into Gaza due to long backups of vehicles at Israeli inspection points and ongoing Israeli military operations against Hamas. The United States and other nations have air dropped food into Gaza dozens of times in recent months, but air drops are much less efficient and provide vastly smaller quantities of aid than distribution via sea or land.

According to a new report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, about 11.0 million undocumented immigrants were living in the United States in 2022—a 4.6% increase from 2020. This is still a 5.2% drop from the recent high of 11.6 million in 2010. The report from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics further found […]

The post Are More Undocumented Immigrants Living in the US Now? Here’s What the Numbers Say appeared first on Immigration Impact.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration this week warned North Korea against providing Russian President Vladimir Putin “a platform to promote his war of aggression” against Ukraine ahead of his possible trip to Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited Putin to Pyongyang when he visited Russia in September, and preparations are being made for his trip, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry said without providing a specific date, Russian news agency Tass reported May 30. Tass quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko as saying preparations for Putin's visit to North Korea as well as to Vietnam are at “an advanced stage." VOA contacted the Russian Embassy in Seoul, asking if dates are set for Putin's visit to Pyongyang, but did not receive a reply. There was speculation that Putin would visit North Korea after he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May. In response to Rudenko's remarks about Putin's trip to Pyongyang, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in an email to VOA’s Korean Service Tuesday, “As Russia continues to seek international support to sustain its illegal and brutal war against Ukraine, we reiterate that no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities.” The spokesperson continued, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, that “deepening cooperation between Russia and the DPRK should be of great concern to anyone interested in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.” The spokesperson added, “The DPRK has and continues to provide material support to the Russian Federation for their aggression in Ukraine.” Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister, denied on May 17 that North Korea was engaged in arms dealings with Russia. North Korean missiles have been turning up in Ukraine, indicating growing cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, according to a report released by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency on May 29. The report shows the pictures of what it says is debris from a North Korean short-range ballistic missile found in Kharkiv in January that Russia used against Ukraine. Pyongyang has been providing ballistic missiles to Moscow since November in addition to shipping hundreds of containers full of ammunition to Russia in August, the report said. About seven months after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia sought to purchase millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea, the report said. Experts said Putin’s trip to Pyongyang will allow him to boost military cooperation with North Korea that began when Kim visited Russia in September. “Putin, who in the past has openly broached the prospect of bolstering military collaboration with Pyongyang, could use his time in the North to move — or at least discuss moving — arms and military technology agreements toward the finish line,” Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Washington-based think tank Defense Priorities, said in an email. “North Korean munitions have given him critical time to reconstitute Russia’s own domestic military production so Putin will attempt to keep the North Korean arms spigot flowing,” he continued. Putin reportedly said Russia will continue to “develop” its relations with North Korea regardless of what others think when he met with the heads of international news agencies on the sidelines of theInternational Economic Forum held in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. He also said North Korea’s nuclear issue will “gradually be resolved” if Pyongyang does not feel threatened and thanked South Korea for not directly providing weapons to Ukraine, according to Tass. The same day, Putin warned that Moscow could provide long-range weapons to the West’s adversaries so they could strike Western countries in response to NATO allies, including the United States, allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack inside Russia. David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, said during a phone interview that Pyongyang is more likely to “act on its own interest” than to heed Moscow if asked to cause provocations on the Korean Peninsula or elsewhere. Maxwell also said Putin’s possible visit to North Korea could be used as “a propaganda vehicle” for Moscow and Pyongyang. They will try to “reinforce the reputation of both, especially in terms of alliances” and portray their causes — Russia’s war in Ukraine and North Korea’s threats against South Korea — as somewhat “legitimate” despite causing massive human rights abuses, Maxwell said. Pyongyang described Putin’s war in Ukraine as “the sacred war of justice” by “the valiant Russian army” engaged in “the special military operation to annihilate neo-Nazis” in a statement released on May 16 by its state-run KCNA.

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WASHINGTON — America’s employers added a strong 272,000 jobs in May, accelerating from April and a sign that companies are still confident enough in the economy to keep hiring despite persistently high interest rates. Last month’s sizable job gain suggests that the economy is still growing steadily, propelled by consumer spending on travel, entertainment and other services. U.S. airports, for example, reported record traffic over the Memorial Day weekend. A healthy job market typically drives consumer spending, the economy’s principal fuel. Although some recent signs have raised concerns about economic weakness, May’s jobs report should help assuage those fears. Still, Friday's report from the government included some signs of a potential slowdown. The unemployment rate, for example, edged up for a second straight month, to a still-low 4%, from 3.9%, ending a 27-month streak of unemployment below 4%. That streak had matched the longest such run since the late 1960s. President Joe Biden is still likely to point to Friday's jobs report as a sign of the economy’s robust health under his administration. The presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump has focused his criticism of Biden’s economic policies on the surge in inflation, which polls show still weighs heavily in voters’ assessment of the economy. Hourly paychecks accelerated last month, a welcome gain for workers although one that could contribute to stickier inflation. Hourly wages rose 4.1% from a year ago, faster than the rate of inflation and more quickly than in April. Some companies may raise their prices to offset their higher wage costs. The Federal Reserve’s inflation fighters would like to see the economy cool a bit as they consider when to begin cutting their benchmark rate. The Fed sharply raised interest rates in 2022 and 2023 after the vigorous recovery from the pandemic recession ignited the worst inflation in 40 years. Friday's report will likely underscore Fed officials' intention to delay any cuts to their benchmark interest rate while they monitor inflation and economic data. Although Chair Jerome Powell has said he expects inflation to continue to ease, he has stressed that the Fed's policymakers need “greater confidence” that inflation will fall back to their 2% target before they would reduce borrowing costs. Annual inflation has declined to 2.7% by the Fed’s preferred measure, from a peak above 7% in 2022. “This report is going to complicate the Fed’s job," said Julia Pollak, chief economist for ZipRecruiter. “No one’s getting those very clear signals that they were hoping for that a rate cut is appropriate in July or September.” Last month's hiring occurred broadly across most of the economy. But job growth was particularly robust in health care, which added 84,000 jobs, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment providers, which gained 42,000. Governments, particularly local governments, added 43,000 positions. Professional and business services, which includes managers, architects and information technology, grew by 33,000. One potential sign of weakness in the May employment report was a drop in the proportion of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one; it fell from 62.7% to 62.5%. Most of that drop occurred among people 55 and over, many of whom are baby boomers who are retiring. A surge in immigration in the past three years has boosted the size of the U.S. workforce and has been a key driver of the healthy pace of job growth. (Economists have said it isn't clear whether the government's jobs report is picking up all those gains, particularly among unauthorized immigrants.) When the Fed began aggressively raising rates, most economists had expected the resulting jump in borrowing costs to drive unemployment to painfully high levels and cause a recession. Yet the job market has proved more durable than almost anyone had predicted. Even so, Americans remain generally frustrated by high prices, a continuing source of discontent that could imperil Biden’s reelection bid. The economy expanded at just a 1.3% annual rate in the first three months of this year, the government said last week, a sharp pullback from the 3.4% pace in last year’s final quarter. Much of the slowdown, though, reflected reduced stockpiling by businesses and other volatile factors, while consumer and business spending made clear that demand remained solid. In April, though, consumer spending, adjusted for inflation, declined. That raised concern among economists that elevated inflation and interest rates are increasingly pressuring some consumers, particularly younger and lower-income households. A key reason why the economy is still producing solid net job growth is that layoffs remain at historic lows. Just 1.5 million people lost jobs in April. That’s the lowest monthly figure on record — outside of the peak pandemic period — in data going back 24 years. After struggling to fill jobs for several years, most employers are reluctant to lay off workers.