Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Sweden have drawn a line under the European Union’s proposed €2 trillion budget for 2028-2034, demanding cuts of several hundred billion euros before they’ll sign off. It is, on its face, a fight about arithmetic: six net contributors who pay more into Brussels than they get back want […]
More than 500 people are now confirmed dead across Nepal and Tibet, with hundreds more missing, after a wall of water, mud and debris tore down the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli-Narayani river system earlier this week. As rescue crews still dig through the wreckage of that first disaster, China’s water ministry has warned of a second one:
Washington and Tehran are once again circling the same bargain: America lifts its naval blockade and eases sanctions, Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz and reins in its regional proxies. Reports this week suggest a text is close, delivered through Pakistani mediation. It would be reassuring to call this the breakthrough. History from just the
Army Chief Asim Munir’s visit to Tehran this week, carrying what multiple regional broadcasters describe as a US-drafted framework for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, places Pakistan in a familiar but increasingly delicate role: intermediary between two adversaries with little appetite for direct talks. It is a position Islamabad has occupied before, and one that
A US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III touching down at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport would, under most circumstances, be unremarkable enough to escape notice entirely. That this particular landing has instead triggered a wave of speculation, from prisoner exchanges to back-channel diplomacy, says less about the aircraft itself than about the peculiar state of US-Russia relations:
The collapse of US-Canada trade talks this month offers a sobering case study for India as it navigates its own trade relationship with Washington. After negotiators failed to reach a deal despite intense discussions, the United States imposed 50 percent tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded
Former Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan’s recent clarification about Operation Sindoor, that an Indian loitering munition may have inadvertently struck near Pakistan’s Kirana Hills after running low on fuel while hunting for radar targets around Sargodha, is a small but revealing window into how autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons are reshaping the nature of
Friendships between nations are usually described in the language of interest, not sentiment. Yet the India-Russia relationship has, for over six decades, defied that convention. Through every major conflict India has fought since independence, Moscow has been present in some tangible form, whether through arms, diplomatic cover at the United Nations, or political support when
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Moscow this week, and his meeting with President Vladimir Putin, was a reminder of a relationship India has consistently declined to sacrifice despite years of Western pressure. Putin’s warm reception, and Jaishankar’s own emphasis on growing cooperation in trade, energy, fertilisers and nuclear power, underline a partnership that
A viral story about a 64-year-old Uttar Pradesh government official who completed an MTech degree, finishing in the top 10 of a class half his age while working full-time and travelling nearly 1,000 km a week, has done more than generate admiration online. It has surfaced a question India can no longer afford to treat
