SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Thursday, May 15, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Noem’s claim that Afghan refugees can safely return to their Taliban-ruled homeland is ‘just absurd,’ advocates say (NBC News)
NBC News [5/14/2025 4:00 AM, Dan De Luce, 44.7M]
The Trump administration says Afghan refugees can safely return to Afghanistan despite warnings from rights groups and lawmakers that Afghans who worked for the U.S. military face the threat of persecution, imprisonment and even execution by the Taliban regime.
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday it had stripped legal protections for thousands of Afghans in the U.S., saying that the security and economic situation in Afghanistan no longer justified granting them temporary protected status, or TPS.“We’ve reviewed the conditions in Afghanistan with our interagency partners, and they do not meet the requirements for a TPS designation,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.“Afghanistan has had an improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy no longer” prevents Afghans from returning to their home country, she said.
DHS officials had previously signaled plans to cancel temporary protected status for Afghans but did not formally rescind it until Monday.
Lawmakers and rights groups said the Trump administration’s decision would put thousands of Afghans’ lives at risk and betray partners who had risked their lives to work for the U.S. military during America’s 20-year war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.“It’s just absurd and divorced from reality to claim that Afghan refugees can safely return to Afghanistan,” said Eleanor Acer, senior director for global humanitarian protection for the nonprofit Human Rights First.“Many Afghans would face dire risks of persecution if they are forced back into the hands of the Taliban,” Acer said. “Journalists, human rights advocates, religious minorities, women’s rights defenders and people who worked with the U.S. military and government are all in danger of Taliban persecution or retaliation if they are forced back to Afghanistan.”
Kim Staffieri of the Association of Wartime Allies, a nonprofit that helps Afghans who worked for the U.S. government, said it “is unfathomable that DHS can say the economy of Afghanistan has stabilized, that it’s much safer now and that Afghans don’t need TPS anymore.”Apart from reports of the Taliban’s human rights abuses, aid groups say Afghanistan is plagued by rising poverty and hunger. According to the World Food Programme, 3.5 million young children are expected to suffer from malnutrition this year, the highest level ever recorded in the country.
Lawmakers, including some Republicans, said the administration was jeopardizing the lives of those who had stood by the United States.“Afghanistan is not safe,” said Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, an Army veteran who served in Iraq. “The Taliban continues to crack down on human rights and target Afghans who speak out against them, including those who aided American servicemembers like me during the war. It’s cruel and wrong that President Trump is turning his back on those fleeing violence and persecution.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, condemned the move as a betrayal and said it contradicted “overwhelming evidence” that Afghans with ties to the U.S. faced persecution and torture by the Taliban.“Deporting our partners to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is morally indefensible and recklessly endangers lives,” she said.
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, a former chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, praised President Donald Trump’s foreign policy overall but said he was concerned for the safety of Afghan partners.
The Taliban “have made their thirst for retribution against those who helped the United States clear,” McCaul said. “Until they demonstrate clear behavioral changes, I urge the administration to continue prioritizing the safety of the Afghan men and women who risked their lives to help our troops.” DHS Claims Tourism To Afghanistan Reason To End Immigration Protection (Forbes)
Forbes [5/14/2025 9:10 AM, Stuart Anderson, 91738K]
To justify ending immigration protections for Afghans, Trump officials have cited increased tourism to the violent and impoverished country. The justification indicates the Trump administration had already decided to end Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan and scrambled to find details to support the decision. Human rights reports conclude Afghanistan under the Taliban remains an oppressive place, particularly for girls and women, who are prohibited from educational and employment opportunities enjoyed in the rest of the world. The Trump administration made similar decisions to end TPS for Haiti and Venezuela despite the conditions in those countries.
The Trump Administration’s Decision To Stop Immigration Protections For Afghans.
The Department of Homeland Security released its official notice ending Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan on May 13, 2025. DHS reported that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem decided to end TPS for Afghans almost two months earlier, on March 21, 2025.
"Based on her review and consultation with the Department of State, the Secretary determined that, overall, there are notable improvements in the security and economic situation such that requiring the return of Afghan nationals to Afghanistan does not pose a threat to their personal safety due to armed conflict or extraordinary and temporary conditions," according to a Federal Register notice published May 13, 2025. "She further determined that permitting Afghan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to the national interest of the United States.".
Groups supporting Afghan evacuees criticized the Trump administration’s action. "The decision to terminate TPS for Afghanistan is not rooted in reality—it’s rooted in politics," said the group #AfghanEvac in a statement. "Afghanistan remains under control of the Taliban . . . There are still assassinations, arbitrary arrests and ongoing human rights abuses, especially against women and ethnic minorities . . . The United States cannot abandon its allies and call that immigration policy.".
Objective analysis indicates Afghanistan is not a place where the U.S. government would typically force individuals to return or face deportation. The decision on Afghanistan fits a pattern with other countries deemed safe by Trump officials, in spite of evidence to the contrary.
"In deciding that Afghanistan is a safe place for men, women and children to return, Trump officials have delivered a predetermined outcome based on a motivation to end Temporary Protected Status without regard to country conditions," according to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis. "The Trump administration’s actions on Afghanistan follow other predetermined outcomes on Temporary Protected Status, where the Department of Homeland Security claimed that conditions in Haiti and Venezuela had improved sufficiently to warrant ending TPS.".
NFAP noted the administration has also blocked the entry of refugees from Afghanistan who fear returning to a country ruled by the Taliban.
The Federal Register notice includes proof that DHS decided to end Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan before conducting a serious analysis. The notice cites an executive order published on January 20, 2025, that calls for ensuring TPS designations are "made for only so long as may be necessary to fulfill the textual requirements of that statute.".
DHS Claims Tourism To Afghanistan A Reason To End Immigration Protections.
Given the conditions in Afghanistan, it could not have been easy for Trump officials to gather supporting facts to justify ending protection from deportation to a country ruled by the Taliban. As a result, the Federal Register notice touts an improbable and modest increase in tourism to Afghanistan and hails a reduced rate of kidnappings.
"The Taliban government is promoting tourism to shift its global image," according to the DHS Federal Register notice. "Tourism to Afghanistan has increased, as the rates of kidnappings have reduced. In 2021, there were 691 foreign tourists; in 2022, that figure rose to 2,300 and continued to rise to 7,000 in 2023. Foreign visitors, particularly from China, have increased by 913% since the Taliban took control of the country in August 2021. Tourists are sharing their experiences on social media, highlighting the peaceful countryside, welcoming locals and the cultural heritage, according to some reports.".
To place the 7,000 foreign tourists visiting Afghanistan in context, note that France attracted approximately 100 million foreign tourists in 2024.
"Citing Taliban-promoted tourism as a basis for ending TPS is dangerously out of touch with the realities facing thousands of Afghan allies in the U.S.," said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, in an interview. "A handful of curated travel blogs do not change the fact that Afghanistan remains the most repressive regime in the world for women and girls, who have been stripped of the right to learn, work and move freely.".
The Congressional Research Service reported, "Afghanistan under the renewed rule of the Taliban is ‘the most repressive country in the world regarding women’s rights,’" citing the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. Global Refuge’s Vignarajah said, "Humanitarian protections should be based on credible assessments of safety and human rights, not on image-building efforts by the very regime people are fleeing.". Taliban opens ‘dialogue’ as Congress worries about Afghans sent back after their TPS expires (Washington Examiner)
Washington Examiner [5/14/2025 1:40 PM, Brady Knox, 2296K]The Taliban-controlled government of Afghanistan opened a “dialogue” with the United States as Congress voiced concern about the safety of Afghan refugees returning to their home country.On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the revocation of temporary protected status for roughly 11,700 Afghan migrants in the U.S., putting them at risk of deportation. In a statement announcing the move, Noem argued that Afghanistan’s security and economic situations have improved to the point where TPS is no longer appropriate."This administration is returning TPS to its original temporary intent," Noem said. "We’ve reviewed the conditions in Afghanistan with our interagency partners, and they do not meet the requirements for a TPS designation. Afghanistan has had an improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy no longer prevent them from returning to their home country.".
Noem also accused many recipients of the program of fraud and jeopardizing public safety or national security.
In a statement posted on X, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for the Afghan foreign ministry, welcomed the development.
"EA-MoFA considers recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a positive step & acknowledgement of existing realities, affirming progress in Afghanistan’s security & economic environment," he said. "IEA views this as a clear recognition of progress made in national security, economy & other areas.".
"Afghanistan is the shared home of all Afghans, & all have the right to free movement. IEA stands ready to engage in constructive dialogue with the US & other countries regarding repatriation of Afghans who no longer meet criteria to remain in host countries," Balkhi added, stressing the importance of "bilateral mechanisms.".
The opened dialogue is some of the first diplomatic contact between Washington and Kabul since the former withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Many members of Congress, primarily Democrats, have denounced the move to end TPS for Afghan refugees.
"The Trump administration is abandoning Afghan refugees, some of whom risked their lives to support American troops, and who now face imminent, life-threatening danger in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan," Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) said in a statement.
"I urge the Administration to reverse this decision," she added.
"Afghanistan is not safe," Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said, according to NBC News. "The Taliban continues to crack down on human rights and target Afghans who speak out against them, including those who aided American servicemembers like me during the war. It’s cruel and wrong that President Trump is turning his back on those fleeing violence and persecution.".
"Deporting our partners to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is morally indefensible and recklessly endangers lives," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) denounced the move as "textbook betrayal" in a statement to NPR, attempting to delegitimize the plight of Afrikaner refugees who were admitted into the U.S. on Tuesday.
"To say that the conditions in Afghanistan have improved as our allies are being hunted down is clearly absurd," Moulton said. "I know Kristi Noem doesn’t understand the idea of risking your life for our country, but perhaps she understands outright racism in accepting Afrikaner ‘refugees’ in their place.".
The move even drew criticism from some Republicans. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) said the Taliban "have made their thirst for retribution against those who helped the United States clear. Until they demonstrate clear behavioral changes, I urge the administration to continue prioritizing the safety of the Afghan men and women who risked their lives to help our troops.".
Though nearly all statements condemning the matter portrayed all Afghans under TPS as allies who worked directly with U.S. troops, the designation was broadly given to Afghans in the U.S., irrespective of whether they worked with the U.S. military. The last extension of the designation in September 2023 reasoned that the deteriorating security conditions made return unsafe, rather than that they would be targeted due to working with the U.S.Looking to justify its decision to revoke TPS for the Afghan refugees in a Tuesday Federal Register notice, the DHS noted, "Afghanistan does not pose a threat to their personal safety due to armed conflict or extraordinary and temporary conditions.".
The department also cited a decrease in kidnappings and an increase in tourism — 7,000 tourists visited the country in 2023 alone, mostly from China.
Others have disputed the findings. The Congressional Research Service conceded that the economy has recovered somewhat since 2022 but noted that it "remains fragile and weak, leaving over 23 million Afghans — around half the population — considered to be in need of humanitarian assistance.".
A Feb. 9 World Bank report agreed that Afghanistan’s "economic outlook remains highly fragile with a very limited revenue base" but noted some improvements.
"Following two years of severe contraction, Afghanistan’s economy has shown modest growth primarily driven by private consumption. GDP growth of 2.7% in 2023/24 has recouped only about 10% of past economic losses, indicative of the slow and fragile nature of the recovery," according to the report.
Greame Smith, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, noted in a report three years after the Taliban takeover that "some aspects of Afghans’ lives have deteriorated and others have improved.".
Rights for women and girls, political and press freedom, public services, and poverty and unemployment have grown worse. Peace and security, primary school attendance, humanitarian access to the countryside, corruption, and cracking down on drug production have all improved.
"Overall, travel is much safer: many Afghans are rediscovering their own country, reuniting with relatives in places too dangerous to visit during the war," Smith noted, adding that the Taliban have dismantled hundreds of roadblocks and invested significantly in improving infrastructure.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees have already returned to Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul in August 2021, largely from Iran and Pakistan, the latter of which is undertaking a massive deportation operation. A comprehensive analysis of how these returnees are treated is difficult due to a lack of press freedom, as noted in a report from the European Union Agency for Asylum.
The 212-page report gave conflicting information on the situation in Afghanistan, with some measurements showing vast improvements and others showing things getting worse. It noted that violent crime has significantly decreased after a boom at the beginning of Taliban rule and that the security situation has significantly improved. Notably, an officially-sanctioned campaign of revenge hasn’t come to pass as originally feared.
The report noted that, "unlike previous power shifts in Afghan history, no ‘large-scale purges of previous adversaries,’ or massacres have taken place. Consulted sources suggest that the targeted killings that have been occurring have not been part of any ‘nationwide policy’ or an orchestrated campaign, as that would have generated significantly more deaths.".
One analyst in the report noted that the most important thing to the Taliban is citizens’ current allegiance, rather than that before their takeover. Officials have largely held to the amnesty granted to those who worked for the previous government or military, though hundreds of cases of individual Taliban members or lower-level officials enacting revenge have been recorded. Those still in Afghanistan who worked with U.S. or Western forces are believed to be at the biggest risk, with many of them living on the run or in hiding.
Several high-ranking officials who worked for the previous government, including former President Hamid Karzai, still live in Afghanistan, largely unmolested.
Overall, analysts largely support the DHS’s argument that the security situation has improved but hold that the country still remains dangerous and deeply impoverished, with other areas of life having gotten much worse.
The roughly 11,700 Afghan refugees under TPS represent only a fraction of the over 150,000 Afghan refugees who settled in the U.S. between August 2021 and August 2024. Afghan Refugees Should Be Treated as Well as South African Ones (Bloomberg – opinion)
Bloomberg [5/14/2025 10:50 AM, Patricia Lopez, 16228K]
As one of the first acts of his second term, President Donald Trump suspended the US refugee program, not to be restarted “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.” Almost four months later, it is now clear which refugees align with those interests, and which do not: Prosperous, White South African farmers are allowed in, while Afghans fleeing the Taliban are not.After taking a government-chartered flight to Washington, some 60 South Africans were greeted by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and other top Trump officials. They will immediately be eligible for many resettlement benefits, including housing, food assistance and other transition aid. Trump has also promised them an expedited path to citizenship, a process that typically takes years.In February, Trump claimed that the South Africans, or Afrikaners, were fleeing “government-sponsored, race-based discrimination” in their native country. This week, when asked at a news conference why the Afrikaners merited an exception to a program that’s been closed since Jan. 20, Trump said: “Because they’re being killed. … It’s a genocide that’s taking place that you people don’t want to write about.”It’s ironic that Trump finds it so easy to acknowledge systemic racism in South Africa while denying its effects in the US. Even worse is the administration’s admission of White Afrikaners to the US, while it works to deport refugees and asylum-seekers — many of whom are not White — already in the country. As for genocide, little evidence has surfaced; according to news reports, an estimated 50 farmers, mostly Afrikaners, were killed in South Africa between January and September of 2024.It is true that a South African law, which came into effect in January, gives the government the power to confiscate property without compensation. For a real estate developer like Trump, that had to cut deeply. And surely it didn’t hurt that Trump’s biggest donor, South-African-born Elon Musk, made the case on the Afrikaners’ behalf.Ordinarily a concern for the life, safety and property of a minority group, accompanied by a determination to cut through red tape to get them out of danger, would be cause for praise. For more than seven decades, the US been offering people from other countries refuge from storms of chaos and violence.The problem is that Trump has “paused” the entire US refugee admissions program — while an estimated 130,000 conditionally approved refugees, mostly Black and brown-skinned, remain in limbo. This inequality in treatment is too obvious to ignore.So it’s not surprising that the US Episcopalian Church, which has provided resettlement services for decades, said it would end its partnership with the federal government to help refugees. The church had been expected to help resettle the South Africans refugees as part of its federal grant, but the government’s latest US move crossed a moral line. “In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step,” said the church’s presiding bishop in an open letter.Perhaps no group feels the cruelty of this waiver more sharply than Afghans, many of whom worked side-by-side with US troops in America’s 20-year war against the Taliban. On the day the Afrikaners were being received by a deputy secretary of state, the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for thousands of Afghan refugees already in the US, and dashed the hopes of thousands more waiting to come.TPS provides protection against deportation and offers work permits to those who have it. Without it, an estimated 9,000 Afghans — some of whom have been in the US for more than three years — must leave the country within 60 days or face deportation to Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban awaits.This prospect deeply offends US service members who know what a crucial role these Afghans played. Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran, is the president of #AfghanEvac, a nonprofit group that has long worked to bring Afghans to the US. Van Diver did not serve in Afghanistan, but knows many who did. “They are furious,” he said. “Our veterans that worked with these guys are so angry right now. This country made a promise to these people. They don’t understand what’s going on.”They are not alone. We Americans are used to being the good guys in this scenario. In that sense, it not the admission of the Afrikaners that offends America’s values, though their special treatment rankles many, especially those whose work is refugee resettlement. The greater outrage is the suspension of a refugee program that is so badly needed in this world. That’s the scandal Trump should be forced to address. Pakistan
Imran Khan’s sons call on Donald Trump to intervene and secure his release (The Independent)
The Independent [5/14/2025 6:11 AM, Alisha Rahaman Sarkar, 44838K]
Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s sons have urged US president Donald Trump and the international community to call for their father’s release from a Pakistani prison.
British citizens Suleman Khan, 28, and Qasim Khan, 26, broke their silence for the first time to make a public appeal after "exhausting" legal and other routes.
Mr Khan, the 72-year-old cricketer-turned-politician, has been lodged in the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi since 2023 after a court handed him a three-year sentence in a corruption case.
He faces some 150 charges in total, all of which his party says are politically motivated. The Tehreek-e-Insaf chief served as Pakistan’s prime minister between 2018 and 2022 before being removed from office.
In an interview broadcast live on X with citizen journalist Mario Nawfal, Qasim Khan said: "We want the international community to take action and who better than [Donald] Trump.".
"We would love to speak to Trump and try and figure out a way where he would be able to help out." he said, adding they were trying to "bring democracy to Pakistan".
Both sons called Mr Khan their "hero" and added they had never "spoken before, but seeing what he’s going through, we couldn’t stay quiet".
When asked about US official Richard Grenell’s call for their father’s release, the brothers said they were grateful for all the "support he has shown".
Suleman Khan said: "In terms of a message to the Trump administration, we’d call for any government that supports free speech and proper democracy to join the call for our father’s release, and especially the most powerful leader in the world.".
The brothers accused the Pakistan government of punishing Mr Khan by keeping him in isolation and complete darkness following a pro-democracy protest that called for the former prime minister’s release.
Mr Khan has no "access to the outside world, no access to doctors, and has been in prolonged solitary confinement", his elder son said. "Court mandates we speak to him once every week, but we speak to him once in two or three months.".
Their mother, Jemima Goldsmith, last October accused the Shehbaz Sharif government of cutting his access to lawyers and family visitations and even severing electricity to his cell. "He is now completely isolated, in solitary confinement, literally in the dark, with no contact with the outside world," the film producer, who was married to Khan from 1995 to 2004, said in a post on X.
Qasim Khan reiterated his mother’s concerns, adding Mr Khan was "there for 10 days in the pitch black". He said the family wanted "international pressure" on Pakistan because their father is "currently living in inhumane conditions"."They are not giving him [Imran Khan] basic human rights," Qasim Khan said. "It is basically for human rights of not only our father but also other political prisoners and the restoration of proper democracy in Pakistan.".
Mr Khan’s political party, earlier in May, petitioned the court for his urgent release from jail, claiming he could potentially be targeted in drone strikes during Pakistan’s military standoff with India. His party said a plea had been filed in the Islamabad High Court to seek his release on parole during a "national emergency" as India and Pakistan’s military exchanged volleys of drones and shells.
Both nations walked away from the brink of war following a ceasefire announcement this weekend.
Mr Khan’s sons said they miss their father, but "what hurts more is seeing a nation lose the man who gave everything for it".
"He always told us ‘if you stand for truth, you’ll pay a price. We’re seeing that now’.".
Former UK environment minister Zac Goldsmith, in a post on X, praised his nephews for speaking up now for their father. "So proud of my nephews. They have never courted publicity," he said.
Mr Goldsmith added: "But they are speaking up now for their father Imran Khan – a hero for so many in Pakistan, an incorruptible leader who is being tortured by a desperate, corrupt and greedy establishment.". Pakistan warns ceasefire with India could collapse over Indus Waters Treaty (The Independent)
The Independent [5/14/2025 8:46 AM, Stuti Mishra, 44838K]
Pakistan’s deputy prime minister warned the fragile ceasefire with India could fall apart if the Indus Water Treaty dispute was not resolved, calling New Delhi’s decision to suspend the river sharing agreement an "act of war".
India’s unilateral suspension of the treaty in the wake of last month’s terror attack in Kashmir is one of the several punitive measures that remain in place despite the neighbour’s reaching a ceasefire deal on Saturday.
"If it is not reversed, then this will amount to an act of war," Ishaq Dar told CNN on Monday, "because Pakistan depends on water.".
His statement came a day after Indian prime minister Narendra Modi declared that "blood and water cannot flow together", enforcing the idea that the treaty would remain suspended.
Indian media, citing unnamed government sources, reported last week that Delhi had closed the Baglihar dam in Kashmir, stopping water flowing into Pakistan through the Chenab river.
India limited Pakistan’s access to water from three rivers originating in its territory after gunmen attacked a tourist town in the Himalayan valley and killed 26 people, mostly Hindu visitors.
The attack escalated tensions between the two nuclear powers as India blamed Pakistan for backing the gunmen who had carried out the attack. Pakistan denied any responsibility and demanded an independent investigation.
India announced it was halting implementation of the 1960 treaty on the sharing of water from six rivers in the Indus basin. India has control over the eastern rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutlej while Pakistan relies on the western rivers Indus, Jhelum and Chenab for most of its agricultural needs.
A few days later, Indian military conducted airstrikes on what it alleged were terrorist training camps in Pakistan. It said the strikes, dubbed "Operation Sindoor", were retaliation for the Pahalgam attack.
Pakistan responded and the two countries exchanged heavy artillery shelling as well as drone and missile attacks on military installations for four days until a ceasefire was reached over the weekend.
Mr Dar said India’s strikes were "a wishful attempt to establish hegemony in the region" and warned that Pakistan would not tolerate attempts to use water as a weapon.
"There are certain times when you have to take very serious decisions," he said in the interview to CNN. "We were very sure that our conventional capacity and capabilities are strong enough that we will beat them both in air and on ground.".
Mr Modi earlier said that Operation Sindoor had "drawn a new line under the fight against terrorism". "This is a new phase, a new normal. If there is a terror attack on India, we will give a jaw-breaking response," he said in his first public remarks after the ceasefire was announced.
How the ceasefire came about has raised many questions. US president Donald Trump has claimed that it was brokered by his administration to prevent a "nuclear war".
India has said the truce was a result of bilateral talks with Pakistan.
Mr Dar, however, said there was no direct contact with Indian officials. Instead, he said, US secretary of state Marco Rubio passed a message to Islamabad that India was ready to stop the fighting.
He clarified that Pakistan had not considered the use of nuclear weapons.
The Indus Water Treaty, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, had survived multiple wars and political crises until Indian leaders suspended it a few weeks ago. The decision marked the most serious challenge to the agreement in its history. 1 killed, 10 wounded in grenade attack on pro-army rally in Pakistan (AP)
AP [5/14/2025 11:41 AM, Staff, 12335K]
A suspected militant on a motorcycle threw a hand grenade at participants of a pro-army rally in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least one person and wounding 10 others, police and hospital officials said.
The attack occurred in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, said local police chief Mohammad Malghani.
He said about 150 people in cars and on motorcycles were heading to a hockey ground in the city for a government-organized event to celebrate the military’s recent retaliatory strikes inside India when the man threw a grenade at them.
Wasim Baig, a spokesman at the Civil Hospital, said at least two of those wounded were in critical condition.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group that has waged a years-long insurgency in the province.
Pro-army rallies have been held across Pakistan since Sunday, when the United States brokered a cease-fire between Pakistan and India, which were engaged in one of their most serious confrontations in decades. India
Trump Says India Offered to Remove All Tariffs on US Goods (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/15/2025 3:40 AM, Jordan Fabian and Swati Gupta, 5.5M]
President Donald Trump said India has made an offer to drop tariffs on US goods, as the Asian nation negotiates a deal to avert higher import taxes.
Speaking Thursday at an event with business leaders in Qatar, Trump said the Indian government has “offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff.”
Trump didn’t offer further details of New Delhi’s apparent offer and the Indian government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
India was one of the first countries to begin trade negotiations with the US following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House in February, with both sides agreeing to finalize the first phase of a bilateral deal by the fall. India’s trade minister is expected to meet Trump administration officials in the US from May 17-20 for further negotiations.
Trump’s comments came amid growing frustration in New Delhi over the US president’s announcement of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after four days of fighting and his insistence he used trade as a bargaining chip to secure the truce. Indian officials have denied that trade had featured in the talks with US officials during the military conflict with its South Asian rival.
The US president also said Thursday he spoke with Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to discourage him from expanding production in India.“I said I don’t want you building in India,” Trump said about a conversation he said he had with Cook. He added that he told Cook “India can take care of themselves, they are doing very well.”
As a result of their discussion, Trump said Apple will be “upping their production in the United States.”
Trump’s comments came days after India threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs in response to higher US duties on steel and aluminum, a sign that New Delhi may be adopting a more assertive approach in its trade negotiations with the White House. The trade talks remain on track though, people familiar with the matter have said. Trump says India willing to charge ‘no tariffs’ on US goods (BBC)
BBC [5/15/2025 3:34 AM, Nikhil Inamdar]
US President Donald Trump has said that India has offered to drop all tariffs on goods imported from his country.
The Indian government has "offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff", Trump said at an event in Doha.
India and the US are currently in talks to negotiate a trade agreement.
Delhi has not commented yet on the remarks. The BBC has reached out to India’s commerce ministry for comment.
No further details regarding the purported deal have been made public yet.
Trump was speaking at an event with business leaders in Doha where he announced a series of deals between the US and Qatar, including for Boeing jets.
According to Bloomberg, the US president also said he had told Apple CEO Tim Cook not to expand production in India.
"I said I don’t want you building in India," Bloomberg quoted Trump as saying about a conversation he said he had with Mr Cook. He added that Apple would be "upping their production in the United States".
In an earnings call earlier this month, Apple had said it was shifting production of most iPhones from China to India while Vietnam would be a major production hub for items such as iPads and Apple watches.
President Trump slapped tariffs of up to 27% on Indian goods in April. Delhi is rushing to negotiate a trade deal during Trump’s 90-day pause on higher tariffs, which ends on 9 July.
The US was until recently India’s biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade amounting to $190bn (£143bn).
Delhi has already lowered tariffs on Bourbon whiskey, motorcycles and some other US products, but the US has a $45bn trade deficit with India, which Trump wants to reduce.
"As Trump always blamed India’s high tariffs for the trade deficit, India could offer to make 90% of US exports tariff-free from day one, using a "zero-for-zero" approach - cutting tariffs on all goods except autos and agriculture. But the deal must ensure strict reciprocity, with both sides eliminating tariffs equally," says Ajay Srivastava, a Delhi-based trade expert.
Trump and Modi have set a target to more than double trade to $500bn, but Delhi is unlikely to offer concessions in sectors such as agriculture where there are deeper political sensitivities involved.
India has recently shown more openness to doing trade deals after years of scepticism.
Last week, it inked a trade pact with the UK that will substantially slash duties in many protected sectors like whisky and automobiles.
India also signed a $100bn free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) last year - a group of four European countries that are not members of the European Union - after almost 16 years of negotiations.
EU and India are also pushing to get a free trade agreement done this year. IAEA should take charge of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, says Indian defence minister (Reuters)
Reuters [5/15/2025 3:46 AM, Surbhi Misra and Sakshi Dayal, 5.2M]
The International Atomic Energy Agency should take charge of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday, days after the nuclear-armed neighbours ended their worst military conflict in nearly three decades.
Deadly fighting broke out between the old enemies last week after India struck what it said were "terrorist camps" in Pakistan in retaliation for an attack in Indian Kashmir last month that killed 26 men, which it said was backed by Pakistan.
Islamabad had denied the allegations and both countries sent missiles and drones into each other’s airspace in the days that followed, before they reached a truce on Saturday.
"Are nuclear weapons safe in the hands of such an irresponsible and rogue nation?" Singh said while addressing soldiers in Indian Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar. "I believe that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons should be taken under the supervision of IAEA."
There was no immediate response from Pakistan to Singh’s comment.
The IAEA is a Vienna-based U.N. watchdog which monitors nuclear programmes to ensure they are peaceful.
India and Pakistan became nuclear powers after they conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in 1998 and their decades-old animosity has made the region - the world’s most populous - one of its most dangerous nuclear flashpoints.
The latest military conflict between the South Asian neighbours spiralled alarmingly on Saturday and there were briefly fears that nuclear arsenals might come into play as Pakistan’s military said a top body overseeing its nuclear weapons would meet.
But the Pakistani defence minister said no such meeting was scheduled.
Military analysts said this may have been Pakistan’s way of hinting at its nuclear option as Islamabad has a "first-use" policy if its existence is under threat in a conflict.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that India would strike at terrorist hideouts across the border again if there were new attacks on India and would not be deterred by what he called Islamabad’s "nuclear blackmail".
Pakistan rejected Modi’s statements as being "provocative and inflammatory assertions", saying it represents a dangerous escalation.
Hindu-majority India and Islamist Pakistan have fought three wars in the past, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
India also blames Pakistan for supporting Islamist militants battling security forces in its part of Kashmir, but Islamabad denies the accusation. Why India could not stop IMF bailout to Pakistan (BBC)
BBC [5/14/2025 8:43 PM, Nikhil Inamdar and Archana Shukla, 126906K]
Last week the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $1bn (£756m) bailout to Pakistan – a move that drew sharp disapproval from India as military hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours flared, before a US-led ceasefire was unexpectedly declared.
Despite India’s protests, the IMF board approved the second instalment of a $7bn loan, saying Islamabad had demonstrated strong programme implementation leading to a continuing economic recovery in Pakistan.
It also said the fund would continue to support Pakistan’s efforts in building economic resilience to "climate vulnerabilities and natural disasters", providing further access of around $1.4bn in funding in the future.
In a strongly worded statement India raised concerns over the decision, citing two reasons.
Delhi questioned the "efficacy" of such bailouts or the lack thereof, given Pakistan’s "poor track record" in implementing reform measures. But more importantly it flagged the possibility of these funds being used for "state-sponsored cross-border terrorism" – a charge Islamabad has repeatedly denied - and said the IMF was exposing itself and its donors to "reputational risks" and making a "mockery of global values".
The IMF did not respond to the BBC’s request for a comment on the Indian stance.
Even Pakistani experts argue that there’s some merit to Delhi’s first argument. Pakistan has been prone to persistently seeking the IMF’s help – getting bailed out 24 times since 1958 – without undertaking meaningful reforms to improve public governance."Going to the IMF is like going to the ICU [intensive care unit]. If a patient goes 24 or 25 times to the ICU then there are structural challenges and concerns that need to be dealt with," Hussain Haqqani, former Pakistani ambassador to the US, told the BBC.
But addressing Delhi’s other concerns – that the IMF was "rewarding continued sponsorship of cross-border terrorism" thereby sending a "dangerous message to the global community" – is far more complex, and perhaps explains why India wasn’t able to exert pressure to stall the bailout.
India’s decision to try to prevent the next tranche of the bailout to Islamabad was more about optics then, rather than a desire for any tangible outcome, say experts. As per the country’s own observations, the fund had limited ability to do something about the loan, and was "circumscribed by procedural and technical formalities".
As one of the 25 members of the IMF board, India’s influence at the fund is limited. It represents a four-country group including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Pakistan is part of the Central Asia group, represented by Iran.
Unlike the United Nations’ one-country-one-vote system, the voting rights of IMF board members are based on a country’s economic size and its contributions – a system which has increasingly faced criticism for favouring richer Western countries over developing economies.
For example, the US has the biggest voting share - at 16.49% - while India holds just 2.6%. Besides, IMF rules do not allow for a vote against a proposal - board members can either vote in favour or abstain – and the decisions are made by consensus on the board.
"This shows how vested interests of powerful countries can influence decisions," an economist who didn’t want to speak on the record told the BBC.
Addressing this imbalance was a key proposal in the reforms mooted for the IMF and other multilateral lenders during India’s G20 presidency in 2023.
In their report, former Indian bureaucrat NK Singh and former US treasury secretary Lawrence Summers recommended breaking the link between IMF voting rights and financial contributions to ensure fairer representation for both the "Global North" and the "Global South". But there has been no progress so far on implementing these recommendations.
Furthermore, recent changes in the IMF’s own rules about funding countries in conflict add more complexity to the issue. A $15.6bn loan by the fund to Ukraine in 2023 was the first of its kind by the IMF to a country at war.
"It bent its own rules to give an enormous lending package to Ukraine - which means it cannot use that excuse to shut down an already-arranged loan to Pakistan," Mihir Sharma of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) think tank in Delhi told the BBC.
If India really wants to address its grievances, the right forum to present them would be the United Nations FATF (Financial Action Task Force), says Mr Haqqani.
The FATF looks at issues of combating terror finance and decides whether countries need to be placed on grey or black lists that prevent them from accessing funds from bodies like the IMF or the World Bank.
"Grandstanding at the IMF cannot and did not work," said Mr Haqqani. "If a country is on that [FATF] list it will then face challenges in getting a loan from the IMF – as has happened with Pakistan earlier.".
As things stand though, Pakistan was officially removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list in 2022.
Separately, experts also caution that India’s calls to overhaul the IMF’s funding processes and veto powers could be a double-edged sword.
Such reforms "would inevitably give Beijing [rather than Delhi] more power", said Mr Sharma.
Mr Haqqani agrees. India should be wary of using "bilateral disputes at multilateral fora", he said, adding that India has historically been at the receiving end of being vetoed out by China in such places.
He points to instances of Beijing blocking ADB (Asian Development Bank) loans sought by India for the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, citing border disputes between the two countries in the region. India blocks X accounts of Chinese state media over coverage of Kashmir crisis (The Guardian)
The Guardian [5/15/2025 1:54 AM, Helen Davidson, 78.9M]
The social media accounts of some Chinese state media were blocked inside India on Wednesday, after Indian officials accused the outlets of spreading Pakistani propaganda and misinformation. The move came as India protested over Beijing’s decision to rename some locations in a disputed border territory.
The X accounts of China’s official state news agency Xinhua, and a state-backed nationalistic tabloid, the Global Times, were inaccessible inside India on Wednesday. Turkey’s TRTWorld was also blocked. Both China and Turkey are allies of Pakistan, with China providing the bulk of its weapons purchases. On Thursday, the Global Times account was restored, reportedly after a legal request.
India has targeted thousands of social media accounts in the last week, including a number of reputable media outlets and reporters, sparking criticism from press freedom groups. It’s not known if the blocking of the Global Times, Xinhua, and TRT are part of the same crackdown. X, formerly Twitter, is banned inside China.
India and Pakistan have given very different accounts of last week’s military clashes, in what was the worst violence between the two nuclear-armed nations in decades. Unverified reporting and propaganda has been rife throughout social and traditional media from both sides during the short conflict.
Last week, the Indian embassy in China accused the Global Times of “pushing out … disinformation” after it carried a report claiming Pakistan had shot down an Indian warplane. India’s ministry of information and broadcasting has been contacted for comment.
After hostilities escalated between India and Pakistan, China urged restraint from both sides, however it has been seen as more supportive of Pakistan, particularly in its provisions of weaponry, including fighter jets that were reportedly involved in the shooting down of Indian warplanes – an event celebrated by Chinese media.
On Sunday, China’s government announced a new batch of “standardised” placenames for what it says are Chinese locations in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh – which China calls Zangnan.
The release prompted a rebuke from India, which called it “vain and preposterous”.“Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, said on Wednesday.
Later that day a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, said the region was Chinese territory and the naming was “within China’s sovereign rights”.
India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, have had a fractious relationship, with occasional military clashes of their own along a 3,800km stretch of disputed border in the Himalayas. A deadly fight between opposing soldiers in 2020 saw 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers killed. Indian travel firms report drop in Turkey bookings over Pakistan support (Reuters)
Reuters [5/14/2025 3:51 PM, Hritam Mukherjee, 41523K]
Indians are cancelling holidays in popular resorts in Turkey and Azerbaijan after the countries supported Pakistan during its recent conflict with New Delhi, two booking firms said.
Ties between India and Pakistan nosedived after a deadly attack in Indian Kashmir last month that New Delhi said was backed by Islamabad.
Pakistan denied involvement, but intense fighting broke out when India struck what it said were "terrorist camps" in Pakistan last week. They agreed a ceasefire on Saturday which has largely held.
Turkey and Azerbaijan, popular budget holiday destinations for Indians, issued statements backing Islamabad after India’s strikes.
"Bookings for Azerbaijan and Turkey decreasing by 60% (over the last week) while cancellations have surged by 250% during the same period," a spokesperson for MakeMyTrip (MMYT.O) said.
EaseMyTrip’s (EASM.NS) Chief Executive Officer, Rikant Pittie, said the platform had seen a 22% rise in cancellations for Turkey and 30% for Azerbaijan "due to recent geopolitical tensions".
Travellers had switched to Georgia, Serbia, Greece, Thailand and Vietnam, he added.
Another ticketing platform, ixigo, earlier said in a post on X that it would be suspending flight and hotel bookings for Turkey, Azerbaijan and China.
EaseMyTrip’s founder and chairman Nishant Pitti said in a post on X that 287,000 Indians visited Turkey last year and 243,000 visited Azerbaijan.
"When these nations openly support Pakistan, should we fuel their tourism and their economies?" Pitti said. At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels killed in India’s ‘biggest ever operation’ against decades-old insurgency (CNN)
CNN [5/15/2025 1:32 AM, Rhea Mogul, 22.1M]
Indian police have killed 31 suspected Maoist rebels in what is being described as the “biggest ever operation” against the long-running insurgency.
Security forces spent 21 days attempting to capture the rebels along the border of the states of Chhattisgarh and Telangana in central India, Home Minister Amit Shah said Wednesday.
Describing the operation as a “historic breakthrough,” Shah said security forces carried out the “biggest ever operation” against the rebels, killing 31 of them in Karreguttalu Hill, considered a Maoist stronghold.
Indian authorities have been battling Maoist rebel groups, also known as Naxals, across several central and northern states since 1967. Inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, insurgents have over the decades launched attacks on government forces in an attempt to overthrow the state and, they say, usher in a classless society.“Our security forces completed this biggest anti-Naxal operation in just 21 days and I am extremely happy that there was not a single casualty in the security forces in this operation,” Shah wrote on X, congratulating the soldiers for their “bravery and courage.”“So far, a total of 214 Naxal hideouts and bunkers have been destroyed in this operation,” a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs said, adding that hundreds of explosives were recovered during the search.
The insurgents are known as Naxalites in India after Naxalbari, a village in West Bengal state where they originated in the late 1960s.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the operation in a post on X.“This success of the security forces shows that our campaign towards rooting out Naxalism is moving in the right direction. We are fully committed to establishing peace in the Naxal-affected areas and connecting them with the mainstream of development,” Modi said.
The Indian government has cracked down in areas where Maoist groups are active – an approach that, while appearing to reduce the threat level, has been criticized by some observers as heavy-handed and prone to abuse.
Incidents of violence by rebel groups fell from 1,936 in 2010 to 374 in 2024, according to data from the home ministry. The total number of civilian and security-forces deaths have also fallen by 85% during this period, the data shows.
But villagers who live in Maoist territory are largely cut off from the country’s rapidly growing economy, and many live in fear, both of rebels taking their children as recruits and violent government raids. Some villagers in Chhattisgarh previously told CNN that they were forced to pay taxes to the Maoists, or face abuse or even torture. But if they did pay up, they risked being labeled Maoist sympathizers by government forces.
At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels and two police officials were killed in February, in what was described by police as the deadliest combat this year so far.
In 2021, 22 Indian security force members were killed and 31 injured in 2021 during a four-hour gun battle with insurgents, officials said. NSB
Bangladesh to receive $1.3 billion from IMF as reform deal reached (Reuters)
Reuters [5/14/2025 11:02 AM, Ruma Paul, 126906K]
The International Monetary Fund is set to release $1.3 billion to Bangladesh in June following the fourth review of its $4.7 billion loan programme and a breakthrough in talks on exchange rate reforms, the finance ministry said.
The funds, covering both the fourth and fifth tranches, had been held up as the IMF pressed for greater exchange rate flexibility, particularly the adoption of a crawling peg mechanism that would allow the taka to adjust gradually over time.
The fourth review in Dhaka in April was followed by further discussions during the IMF and World Bank’s Spring Meetings in Washington last month that focused on critical reforms in revenue management, fiscal policy, and the foreign exchange regime.
"After carefully reviewing all the issues ... both parties have agreed on the revenue management, currency exchange rate and other reform frameworks," the finance ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The IMF confirmed it had reached a staff-deal with Bangladesh on the combined third and fourth reviews of the country’s Extended Credit Facility (ECF), Extended Fund Facility (EFF), and Resilience and Sustainability Facility arrangements.
Upon approval by the IMF Executive Board and completion of required prior actions, Bangladesh will receive SDR 983.8 million (approximately $1.3 billion), it said in a statement.
Bangladesh had also requested an augmentation of SDR 567.2 million (about $762 million) under the ECF and EFF to address rising external financing needs and support macroeconomic stability, the IMF said.
The move comes amid persistent macroeconomic pressures, including high inflation, low growth, and an external financing gap.
The government has committed to tightening fiscal and monetary policies, reforming the tax system, improving banking sector governance, and advancing climate-related investments to stabilize the economy and enhance long-term resilience, it said.
The government has dissolved the National Board of Revenue (NBR), replacing it with two divisions under the finance ministry, to meet a key IMF condition.
One division will handle tax policy with the other managing tax collection and administration, aiming to enhance efficiency, transparency, and accountability, the government said.
In addition to the IMF funds, the government expects budget support of $2 billion from development partners, the finance ministry added.
Bangladesh turned to the IMF in 2023 for the $4.7-billion bailout as its foreign reserves were pressured by a global surge in commodity prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, straining its ability to pay for key imports of fuel and gas.
It received $2.3 billion across the first three tranches.
An interim government led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus took office in August after the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina following deadly protests. IMF And Bangladesh Reach Agreement On $1.3 Bn Payout (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [5/14/2025 4:08 PM, Staff, 931K]
The International Monetary Fund announced Wednesday that it has reached agreement to expand an existing multi-billion-dollar loan program with Bangladesh and to authorize a $1.3 billion payout.
The IMF expects Bangladesh’s export-driven economy to grow by just 3.8 percent this year, causing a significant early challenge for the new government of Muhammad Yunus, which took power last year after the toppling of the autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina.
That would be the lowest growth rate outside of the Covid-19 pandemic for more than two decades, according to IMF data.
"Amid significant macroeconomic challenges, the authorities requested an augmentation," of the existing loan program by around $762 million, IMF Bangladesh mission chief Evan Papageorgiou said in a statement following a visit to the country.
The IMF has also agreed to combine the third and fourth reviews of three separate loan programs, which would unlock around $1.3 billion for Bangladesh as it continues its economic reforms.
Both the augmentation and the reviews are subject to approval from the IMF’s executive board, which is largely a formality. No date was given for when the board would meet on Bangladesh.
"To address the emerging external financing gap and support a continued decline in inflation, near-term policy tightening is essential," Papageorgiou said.
"Fiscal consolidation should focus on the prompt implementation of additional revenue measures -- such as streamlining of tax exemptions -- while containing non-essential expenditures," he added. Maldives parliament removes two Supreme Court judges (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [5/14/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 18.2M]
The Parliament of the Maldives has impeached two judges of the country’s Supreme Court, deepening a political crisis triggered by President Mohamed Muizzu’s push to amend the constitution and strip legislators of their seats if they switch political parties.
The Parliament, where the governing People’s National Congress holds a supermajority, voted on Wednesday to remove Justices Azmiralda Zahir and Mahaz Ali Zahir on allegations of abuse of power.
The vote, which passed 68 – 11, took place as dozens of opposition supporters rallied outside the Parliament House, calling for Muizzu’s resignation and an end to what they called the intimidation of judges.
The move comes more than two months after the judicial watchdog, dominated by Muizzu’s allies, suspended the two judges and their colleague, Justice Husnu al-Suood. At the time, the seven-member Supreme Court bench had been holding hearings into a petition challenging the anti-defection measures.
Suood later resigned from the top court, accusing Muizzu and Attorney General Ahmed Usham of intimidating all the judges of the Supreme Court to secure a judgement in their favour.
The president and his lawyer deny the charges.“I do not interfere with the judiciary,” Muizzu told reporters during a 14-hour news conference on May 3. “I have never done so. I do not control the [the judicial watchdog].”
The crisis has paralysed the Maldives’s Supreme Court, halting hearings in all ongoing cases, including on the constitutional amendments. It has also raised fears of renewed instability in the Indian Ocean honeymoon destination, which held its first multiparty elections in 2008, but has been roiled by political turmoil since, including a coup d’etat, disputed elections, and the killings and jailing of dissidents.‘Attack on judiciary’
Azmiralda and Mahaz denounced their impeachment on Wednesday.“This is an attack on the Maldivian judiciary. It is no ordinary matter to bring the Maldives Supreme Court to a halt,” Azmiralda said in a statement. “My hope is that one day, when the rule of law is established in this country … all of the various officials who took part in destroying the Supreme Court are held accountable.”
The case against the two judges stems from the arrest of Azmiralda’s husband, Ismail Latheef, during a police raid on a spa where he was receiving a massage in the Maldivian capital, Male, on December 4 of last year.
The incident happened two weeks after Muizzu ratified the anti-defection measures.
The controversial amendments stipulate that legislators elected on a political party ticket would lose their seat if they switch parties, or if they resign or are expelled from their party. The provisions effectively allow Muizzu to maintain his supermajority in Parliament, where his party controls 79 of the chamber’s 93 seats.
The president has argued they are necessary to “improve political stability”, but opponents say they would destroy the country’s system of checks and balances.
At the time of Latheef’s arrest, a former member of parliament had filed a petition at the Supreme Court challenging the legality of the amendments, but the bench had yet to decide to take up the case.
Latheef was held overnight for more than 12 hours, on charges of soliciting a prostitute, but was released by a judge at the Criminal Court. In the ruling, the judge noted that the masseuse treating Latheef was fully clothed at the time of the raid, and that the room they were in was unlocked.
The prosecutor’s office later shelved the case against Latheef, citing a lack of evidence.
But after the Supreme Court began reviewing the constitutional amendments in February, the watchdog Judicial Services Commission (JSC) took up a separate case against Azmiralda and Mahaz, claiming the two judges had unlawfully lobbied lower court judges to secure Latheef’s release.
The JSC recommended that the Parliament impeach them last month.‘No ulterior motives’
The judges have denied the charges, with lawyers for Azmiralda saying that the case was “manufactured by top government officials to suspend” them “in order to influence the outcome of the constitutional case before the Supreme Court”.
Usham, the Attorney General, has told Al Jazeera that the government “categorically denies these allegations”.“There is absolutely no truth to the claim that the executive branch had any hand in the JSC’s [the judicial watchdog’s] decision,” he wrote in an email. “The suspension was pursuant to law and… any suggestion of ulterior motives is firmly rejected by the Government.”
The case, however, has drawn criticism from the United Nations and rights groups.
Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN’s special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, expressed grave concern last month over the action against the three judges, saying they appear to be aimed at undermining the Supreme Court’s judicial review of the anti-defection measures.“The disciplinary proceedings brought against three of the Supreme Court’s Justices appear to violate the principle that judges can only be dismissed on serious grounds of misconduct or incompetence and in accordance with fair procedures guaranteeing objectivity and impartiality as provided for by the Constitution or the law,” she wrote. “The pressure of suspensions, disciplinary proceedings and investigations may amount to an interference in the independence of this institution.” Sri Lanka To Monitor Bus Drivers With AI After Worst Crash In Decades (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [5/14/2025 8:22 AM, Staff, 931K]
Sri Lanka will use artificial intelligence to monitor bus drivers and make seat belts mandatory on public transport, a government minister said on Wednesday, after the country’s worst bus crash in two decades killed 23 people.
The South Asian nation, which records an average of 3,000 road fatalities annually, has some of the most dangerous roads in the world.
Buses are to be equipped with driver monitoring systems from next year, while seat belts will become compulsory on public transport from June, Transport Minister Bimal Rathnayake told reporters in Colombo.
It came after an overcrowded bus carrying dozens of Buddhist pilgrims plummeted into a precipice on Sunday.
The changes are aimed at "educating motorists to develop a better driving culture and improving safety standards", Rathnayake said.
"We are going to make AI-backed driver observation systems mandatory on all buses from next year, and we will expand them to all long-distance trucks as well."
The minister said the cause of Sunday’s crash in the tea-growing mountainous region of Kotmale was still being investigated, but that two more passengers had died, raising the toll to 23.
Fifty-four passengers were admitted to hospital, Rathnayake said, adding that preliminary inquiries had found no immediate indication of driver error.
Another driver had reported a problem with the bus’s steering wheel the day before, but managers said it was attended to.
Sunday’s crash off a cliffside road was the deadliest recorded in Sri Lanka since April 2005.
The state-owned bus was carrying around 77 passengers -- about 20 more than its capacity.
In March 2021, 13 passengers and the driver of a privately owned bus died when the vehicle crashed into a precipice in Passara, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of the site of Sunday’s crash. Trump’s tariffs must spur Sri Lanka to deeper regional integration (Nikkei Asia – opinion)
Nikkei Asia [5/15/2025 5:05 AM, Salman Rafi Sheikh, 1.2M]
The Trump administration’s imposition of a 44% reciprocal tariff on Sri Lankan exports has dealt a serious blow to an economy already reeling from sovereign default and which is reliant on the International Monetary Fund for assistance and reforms. For this reason, Colombo’s immediate response to these tariffs was to engage with Washington, offering to lower its own tariffs on imports from America. In late April, a Sri Lankan delegation met with U.S. trade representatives, although no agreement has yet been reached.
Engagement with the U.S. is vital. As Sri Lanka’s largest export market, imports to the U.S. amount to about $3 billion annually -- mostly in apparel, tea and rubber goods -- and accounts for almost 25% of Sri Lanka’s total exports. Yet Sri Lanka’s imports from the U.S. stand at around $443 million, showing the trade deficit that angers Trump.
Should these tariffs remain in place, Sri Lanka’s exports, as some estimates suggest, could see a decline of over 20%, jeopardizing its efforts to stabilize the economy. Still, while an agreement is essential for various reasons, the deeper issue lies in Sri Lanka’s trade vulnerability, with its overdependence on a single market underscoring the urgent need to diversify.
Many in the Sri Lankan business community argue that high duties and a lack of trade agreements have made it difficult to access alternative markets. This problem is compounded by Sri Lanka’s weak integration into regional trade networks -- it is one of the least integrated economies in Asia.
Sri Lanka has been part of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) since 2005. But given that SAFTA is under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), it has largely stalled due to SAARC’s own descent into dysfunction. Sri Lanka’s reliance on bilateral trade deals, such as those with India and Pakistan, has yielded limited gains due to their narrow scope, restrictive rules of origin and long lists of sensitive goods.
In recent years, Colombo has tried to revive its trade via more bilateral deals. It reinstated its suspended agreement with Singapore in 2023 and signed a new deal with Thailand in 2024. Unlike the deals with India and Pakistan, these agreements avoid some of the typical limitations. However, both Singapore and Thailand are relatively minor trading partners, and Sri Lanka currently runs trade deficits with them.
What can Sri Lanka do differently? The answer lies in multilaterally driven regional economic integration -- specifically through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Unlike ASEAN, which limited new membership to Southeast Asian countries in 2007, RCEP has no such geographic restrictions. RCEP includes ASEAN nations, along with Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea -- making it the world’s largest trade bloc.
Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe acknowledged Sri Lanka’s missed opportunity in the 1960s to join ASEAN during a 2023 speech at the Indonesian Embassy in Colombo. Despite informal invitations at the time, Sri Lanka never responded, and that window has since closed. RCEP, however, presents a fresh opportunity to tap into the immediate region’s vast trade and economic potential. It is an opportunity that Colombo cannot afford to ignore.
For Sri Lanka, joining RCEP would offer significant economic benefits. The partnership emphasizes strengthening regional supply chains and enabling what is known as "network trade," where production processes are spread across multiple countries. This model could help Sri Lanka plug into global value chains emerging from this part of the world and thus expand its export base.
Currently, Sri Lanka’s exports to RCEP countries account for just 10% of its gross domestic product. Overall, exports have plummeted from 33% of GDP in 2000 to only 12% by 2020. Greater integration with RCEP could help reverse this trend, particularly in sectors like iron and steel products, electrical equipment, plastics, and components for motorcycles and wheelchairs.
Tea exports could also benefit significantly. With the right investment from RCEP members, Sri Lanka could move beyond bulk tea shipments to higher-value finished products. Japan offers a useful comparison: although it produces less tea than Sri Lanka, its revenues are higher due to value addition and branding.
Still, regional integration alone is not enough. To take full advantage of RCEP, Sri Lanka must implement key domestic reforms. This includes further liberalization, streamlining tariffs, and addressing the ad hoc policymaking that has characterized its economy since it first opened up in the late 1970s. More consistent and transparent economic policies would increase investor confidence and attract foreign capital.
A more liberal trade environment would also create healthy competition, pushing local industries to improve efficiency, cut costs, and focus on areas where they hold a comparative advantage. This shift could help Sri Lanka specialize its economy, improve productivity, and enhance long-term resilience.
Ultimately, while securing a trade deal with the U.S. is important, it should not be the cornerstone of Sri Lanka’s economic strategy. Overreliance on a single export destination is risky, especially in today’s volatile global trade environment. The path forward must involve broader integration with dynamic regional economies and a commitment to structural reform at home. Central Asia
Kazakh Oil Exports Near Record Again as OPEC+ Tensions Persist (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/14/2025 7:38 AM, Sherry Su, 16228K]
Kazakhstan is set to raise its seaborne crude exports to a near record next month as tensions persist between Astana and its partners in the OPEC+ alliance over how much the landlocked country should be pumping.Total loadings of its CPC Blend grade from a Russian terminal in Black Sea are expected to raise to 1.65 million to 1.70 million barrels a day in June, according to people with knowledge of the shipments. The higher end of that range would match an all-time high set in February.Overproduction by Kazakhstan has become a vital sticking point for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, prompting them to boost output into a market that doesn’t look like it needs more oil. The producer club, led by Saudi Arabia, is seeking to remind nations of longstanding commitments they made to help keep a lid on global supply.Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry said earlier this month that it is considering its options for complying with its OPEC+ obligations to cut production, without giving further details. According to the OPEC+ agreement, Kazakhstan should pump just under 1.4 million barrels a day of crude this month. The nation’s planned crude production for May will be about 1.75 millions barrel a day, according to Bloomberg calculations based on energy ministry data.Likewise, the country’s government has yet to ask international companies to cut back.Chevron Corp. said previously that it had received no instructions from authorities to rein in its massive Tengiz project, which has largely been responsible for the recent surge in Kazakhstan’s production.CPC crude exports jumped to record 1.7 million barrels a day in February, following the completion of the expansion at Tengiz, loading programs show.The volume stayed near the record level in March but dipped to about 1.63 million barrels a day in April due to loading restrictions. In May, exports are planned at 1.50 million to 1.55 million barrels a day, mostly due to three days of planned maintenance at the terminal.CPC exports account for about 80% of total crude exports from Kazakhstan. The majority of CPC is from Kazakhstan, with Russian only contributing about 150,000 barrels a day. Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates the pipeline, has stopped issued loading programs since January 2023.Formal loading programs for CPC crude, which is shipped from the Russian port of Novorossiysk, halted a few years ago — alongside those of Russia itself. Instead, people involved in the exports collate information from equity holders to monitor monthly flows. Tajikistan Decriminalizes ‘Likes’ Online (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [5/14/2025 10:21 AM, Catherine Putz, 777K]
On May 14, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon signed into law amendments to the country’s criminal code that should effectively decriminalize "liking" content on the internet.
As Asia-Plus reported, First Deputy Prosecutor General Umed Karimzoda, who presented the bill to amend the criminal code to parliament last month, said that 1,507 people were in prison for liking videos and reports on the internet. According to Asia-Plus, the amendment to the law specifically says: "In the notes to Articles 179 (Supplement 3) and 307 (Supplement 1) of the Criminal Code, add the words ‘except for approval (putting a like or other sign).’".
The bill was adopted unanimously.
In 2018, Tajikistan’s parliament had amended Articles 179 and 307 of the Criminal Code, which refer to "public calls" to commit or justify terrorism and extremism, respectively, by adding "via the internet." The change opened up a pathway for the authorities to bring criminal charges – with prison sentences up to 15 years – against individuals who "liked," shared, or added emoji reactions to social media posts related to "terrorism" and "extremism-related" topics.
The precipitating cause for the change is arguably comments Rahmon made last October. While delivering a speech at the opening of a military training facility in Dushanbe, Rahmon said that "the involvement of some of our ignorant citizens in extremist groups and terrorist organizations is alarming." But then he pivoted, noting that "along with significant results in the activities of law enforcement agencies, there are also numerous shortcomings":
For example, recently the authorities consider the fact that some citizens like materials and videos distributed on social networks as evidence, as a result of which they experience enormous difficulties.
In other words, some agencies are groundlessly initiating criminal cases against them, these actions must be stopped.
A Tajik lawyer, in comments reported by Asia-Plus in November 2024, pointed to three possible reasons for Rahmon’s criticism. Lawyer Ranjet Yatimov cited Tajikistan’s international reputation, public discontent, and the broad, selective, application of the law.
"We expect that after the president’s order, cases of unfounded prosecution will decrease and prosecution for likes will cease," Yatimov said, although at the time Tajikistan’s parliament would not comment.
In the years since the 2018 amendments were made, Tajik authorities across the country used the law selectively to punish individuals, sometimes even forcing violations. As a November 2024 Current Time TV report noted, "A common way for law enforcement to open a criminal case is when a person’s phone is temporarily taken away under the pretext of an inspection, and then they use it to log in and like content that is prohibited in Tajikistan, which then turns into a big problem for the person.".
Tajikistan is what Freedom House terms a "consolidated authoritarian regime." In power since 1992, Rahmon is the longest-serving leader across the former Soviet Union. The "Leader of the Nation," as a 2015 law dubbed him, is the ultimate authority. The 2018 amendments passed because he wanted them to, and so the reversal is also under his direction.
In January 2025, Asia-Plus ran an article titled "Don’t slander, don’t threaten, and don’t like: Internet rules every user in Tajikistan should know.".
Although the article outlined Tajikistan’s laws – including those guaranteeing freedom of speech – the piece concluded with a pragmatic assessment: "However, the existence of laws alone is not enough. Their proper enforcement is vital. When laws are ignored or violated without consequence, trust in the legal system and state institutions erodes. Without effective implementation, even the most progressive laws remain mere formalities, hindering societal development.".
And that’s worth repeating now that the amendments freeing Tajik citizens to "like" online again without fear of jail time have been signed into law. The existence of laws on paper is not enough; what matters is how laws are enforced – and unfortunately, Tajikistan has plenty of laws that can be weaponized against people for holding opinions contrary to the expectations of the powers-that-be. Tajik-Taliban Relations Slowly Warm, But Both Sides Hedge Their Bets (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [5/14/2025 8:09 PM, Alexander Thompson, 206K]
Talk about mixed signals.
At the beginning of May, a prominent critic of Emomali Rahmon’s government in Tajikistan, Sharofiddin Gadoev, gave an interview to the Afghan television channel TOLOnews tearing into the 72-year-old strongman.
Days later, the Taliban’s chief spokesman issued a upbeat assessment of bilateral ties, praising the "positive relations" between Dushanbe and Kabul and pledging cooperation.
The contrasting comments illustrate the cautious, sometimes contradictory stances staked out by officials from both Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Even so, a warming trend is observable between the two neighbors, countries that share a rugged 1,374-kilometer-long border.
Among the positive signs are a series of public statements from Taliban officials heralding cooperation with Tajikistan, as well as a visit to Kabul by a Tajik delegation in the late summer that was publicly announced by the Taliban.
"What’s really improved is that bilateral meetings are made public. The big game changer is also the fact that [Tajik] authorities have stopped releasing offensive statements about the Taliban," said Mélanie Sadozaï, a researcher at Germany’s University of Regensburg who has extensively studied the Afghan-Tajik border.
But it is not as if relations between the pair are smooth sailing. They remain relatively chilly compared to other Central Asian states, like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which wasted little time in normalizing relations and cutting deals with the Islamic emirate.
Tajikistan still considers the Taliban an extremist group and harbors Taliban opponents, while the Taliban regime continues to shelter members of a Tajik extremist group, Jamaat Ansarullah, and flirt with leaders of the Tajik opposition.
Rahmon’s distrust of the Taliban stems from the earliest days of the group’s existence in the 1990s, a time when Tajikistan was embroiled in a civil war pitting forces loyal to his leadership against the United Tajik Opposition, a grouping led by the Islamic Renaissance Party. Since then, Rahmon has worried about the possibility of the Taliban destabilizing his regime.When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Rahmon’s government adopted a defensive posture, bolstering border troops. In response, the Taliban emboldened Jamaat Ansarullah fighters.
Relations began to thaw in September of 2023 when Tajikistan allowed the reopening of cross-border markets, which required cooperation by border guards from both countries, Sadozaï wrote in an email response to questions posed by Eurasianet.
Over the past year, there have been more positive signals. Last summer, a high-level Taliban delegation visited Dushanbe, and in late August, Saimumin Yatimov, the head of Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security, and the former Tajik ambassador to Afghanistan, visited Kabul, according to RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, Radio Ozodi.
In subsequent months, multiple Taliban officials made positive statements about the relationship.
"Our political relations with Tajikistan are improving, and there have been noticeable differences compared to the past. Their delegation came here, and our delegation went there, and God willing, these exchanges will increase," the Taliban’s then-deputy prime minister, Abdul Kabir, said in October, TOLOnews reported.
Tajikistan is maintaining a delicate balance with the Taliban. On one side, Dushanbe is developing economic links with Afghanistan, none more important than the electricity dealsthat have seen Tajikistan export increasing amounts of power southward in recent years. On the other side rest political considerations. Tajik officials still style Dushanbe as the defender of the interests of ethnically Tajik Afghans, who comprise roughly a quarter of Afghanistan’s population. They also dance around the issue of recognizing Taliban control of Afghanistan.
"It’s very paradoxical … ‘We deny your existence, but it’s business as usual,’" Sadozaï said. "They [Tajik officials] have to engage with the Taliban for security and economic purposes, but they also have to be consistent with their political stance, which is supporting the resistance.".
Gadoev’s early May visit to Kabul shows that the Taliban too are walking a fine line.
As the Amsterdam-based head of the Reforms and Development in Tajikistan movement, Gadoev announced an initiative in April to form an anti-Rahmon government-in-exile. He could not have set foot in Afghanistan without the permission of top Taliban leaders. In Kabul, he met with representatives of local groups and cultural organizations with the ostensible goal of furthering cooperation between the two countries, the RFE/RL television channel Current Time reported.
His comments during the televised interview were "extremely harsh" toward Rahmon, Sadozaï said. Gadoev called Rahmon a "dictator" who runs his government like a "mafia.".
Sadozaï suggested that the Taliban might be hedging Afghan relations with Tajikistan by engaging with Gadoev. "If Gadoev embodies a potential successor of Rahmon, investing in him is quite a wise move," Sadozaï said. "[By] letting Gadoev enter Afghanistan, the Taliban really don’t risk alienating their relations with the current regime in Tajikistan because they do have some leverage.".
The Tajik government has not commented publicly on any of the recent developments.
Looking forward, outside factors may place limits on the development of Afghan-Tajik ties. For one, the Trump administration’s decision to cut remaining aid to Afghanistan will hinder the Taliban’s ability to pay for Tajik electricity. At the same time, Dushanbe may worry about jeopardizing the security assistance it gets from the West, if Tajik officials are perceived as cozying up to the Taliban.
The next steps in improving the relationship could include an expansion of trade and loosening entry requirements for Afghans traveling to Tajikistan. The best-case scenario over the near term would be for Dushanbe to resume projects that were suspended in 2021 and continue meetings with Taliban leaders, Sadozaï said.
As to formal recognition from the current Tajik regime, "I highly doubt this will ever happen," she said. Indo-Pacific
India and Pakistan Swap Detained Soldiers as Ceasefire Holds (New York Times)
New York Times [5/14/2025 7:12 AM, Suhasini Raj, 3973K]
India and Pakistan exchanged detained soldiers Wednesday in a further sign that the ceasefire that ended the most expansive fighting in decades between the nuclear-armed countries was holding.
The exchange happened at the Attari-Wagah border, the main land crossing between India and Pakistan. The Indian Border Security Force said that one of its soldiers had been returned after three weeks of detention. A Pakistani official said that an Indian border guard had been handed over in return for a member of the Pakistani Rangers, a paramilitary force, who had been in Indian custody for almost two weeks.
Each soldier had ventured into the other’s country inadvertently and had been detained in the days leading up to the military confrontation this past week, during which India struck targets inside Pakistan as retaliation for a terrorist attack in April in the Indian part of Kashmir. India blames that attack, which killed 26 civilians, on Pakistan, though Pakistan has denied involvement.
The strikes quickly escalated to an intense, four-day military confrontation between the neighboring countries, the like of which had not been seen in decades. The United States helped broker a ceasefire Saturday.
A sense of normalcy has begun to return on both sides of the border in the days since the truce. Commercial flights have resumed, and Kashmiris have started returning to their homes damaged during the confrontation. India and Pakistan Talked Big, but Satellite Imagery Shows Limited Damage (New York Times)
New York Times [5/14/2025 4:14 PM, Agnes Chang, Pablo Robles and Mujib Mashal, 831K]
The four-day military clash between India and Pakistan was the most expansive fighting in half a century between the two nuclear-armed countries. As both sides used drones and missiles to test each other’s air defenses and hit military facilities, they claimed to inflict severe damage.
But satellite imagery indicates that while the attacks were widespread, the damage was far more contained than claimed — and appeared mostly inflicted by India on Pakistani facilities. In a new age of high-tech warfare, strikes by both sides appeared to be precisely targeted.
What is increasingly clear is that both sides suffered casualties among their armed forces, with India acknowledging the loss of five soldiers and Pakistan reporting 11. The heaviest blow to India appears to be the loss of aircraft. While the Indian government has not said how many went down, officials and diplomats say that at least two aircraft were lost, and most likely more.
Where India appears to have had a clear edge is in its targeting of Pakistan’s military facilities and airfields, as the latter stretch of fighting shifted from symbolic strikes and shows of force to attacks on each other’s defense capabilities.
High-resolution satellite imagery, from before and after the strikes, shows clear damage to Pakistan’s facilities by Indian attacks, if limited and precise in nature.
At Bholari air base, located less than 100 miles from the Pakistani port city of Karachi, India’s defense officials said they had struck an aircraft hangar with a precision attack. The visuals showed clear damage to what looks like a hangar.
The Nur Khan air base, within a roughly 15-mile range of both the Pakistani Army’s headquarters and the office of the country’s prime minister and a short distance from the unit that oversees and protects Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, was perhaps the most sensitive military target that India struck.
The Indian military said it had particularly targeted the runways and other facilities at some of Pakistan’s key air bases. Satellite images showed the damage. On May 10, Pakistan issued a notice for Rahim Yar Khan air base saying that the runway was not operational.
At Sargodha air base, in Punjab Province in Pakistan, the Indian military said it had used precision weapons to strike two sections of the runway.
Pakistan’s military listed two dozen Indian military installations and bases that it said its forces had targeted. While Indian officials have acknowledged “limited damage” at four air bases, they have offered few details.
Satellite images of the sites Pakistan claimed to have hit are limited, and so far do not clearly show damage caused by Pakistani strikes even at bases where there was corroborating evidence of some military action.
Pakistani officials, according to state media, said their forces had “destroyed” India’s Udhampur air base. The family of one Indian soldier has confirmed his death on the base. But an image from May 12 does not appear to show damage. Indian strikes on Pakistan damaged six airfields, Post analysis finds (Washington Post)
Washington Post [5/14/2025 2:17 PM, Imogen Piper, Evan Hill, Maham Javaid and Rick Noack, 31735K]
Indian strikes Saturday on Pakistan damaged runways and structures across at least six airfields, according to a visual analysis by The Washington Post, which experts said were the most significant attacks of their kind in decades of simmering conflict between the South Asian rivals.The review of more than two dozen satellite images and aftermath videos found that the strikes heavily damaged three hangars, two runways and a pair of mobile buildings used by the air force. Some of the sites hit by India were as deep as 100 miles inside the country.The strikes marked “the most extensive Indian air attacks on Pakistani military infrastructure since the 1971 war,” according to Walter Ladwig, a senior lecturer in international relations at King’s College London and an expert in South Asian security issues.“High-profile targets were hit in precision strikes with the aim of severely degrading Pakistan’s offensive and defensive air capabilities,” according to William Goodhind, a geospatial analyst at Contested Ground, a research project that uses satellite imagery to track armed conflict.Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at Middlebury College, assessed that the air bases “suffered some damage, but not of the sort that would disable them.”After the strikes, India claimed to have hit 11 bases in Pakistan, including the sites where The Post confirmed damage. It characterized its actions as “measured” and “calibrated.”Pakistan’s chief military spokesperson, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, originally told reporters there had been infrastructure damage to bases, although he did not specify how many. Six members of Pakistan’s air force were killed, the military said Wednesday.Chaudhry told The Post on Wednesday that Pakistan’s military intercepted most Indian missiles.“A few managed to sneak in,” he acknowledged. The military confirmed hits on five bases and one civilian airport. Chaudhry said one aircraft suffered “minor damage.”He added that Pakistan has full confidence in its air defenses.“The satellite evidence is consistent with the claim that the Indian military inflicted meaningful — though in my view not devastating — damage on the Pakistan air force at a number of bases across eastern Pakistan,” said Christopher Clary, an associate professor at the University at Albany and author of a book on the India-Pakistan rivalry.The Indian strikes on Saturday prompted swift Pakistani counterstrikes. Islamabad said it struck numerous military targets in its retaliatory attacks, including several air bases in Indian-administered Kashmir and in the Indian state of Punjab. New Delhi has either denied those claims or refused to confirm losses.India has also made no public comment on Pakistan’s claims to have downed five of its warplanes during an initial wave of strikes on May 7. A Post analysis found at least two Indian fighter jets appear to have crashed during the operation.The rapid escalation on Saturday alarmed Washington, where officials feared the nuclear-armed powers were dangerously close to all-out war. The fighting ended hours later with the announcement of a ceasefire by President Donald Trump.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said his side had “paused” its operations but was prepared to strike Pakistan again in the event of another militant attack like the one in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 that killed 26 civilians and set off the latest round of conflict. New Delhi said the attack was linked to Pakistan; Islamabad denied any involvement and called for an international investigation.At Nur Khan air base in Rawalpindi, just outside Islamabad, two mobile control centers were destroyed, Goodhind said after reviewing satellite imagery. Video from a parking lot nearby showed smoke billowing from the damaged area.The Nur Khan air base is one of the most important in Pakistan, another military researcher said, because it is the military’s central transport hub. The base is also in close proximity to the Strategic Plans Division, the unit responsible for safeguarding the country’s 170 nuclear warheads — stored in facilities across Pakistan.The military’s General Headquarters and the Joint Staff Headquarters are also housed in Rawalpindi, near Nur Khan. “Such an attack could have been mistaken as an attempt to destroy the control center of the country,” said the military researcher, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.At the Pakistani air force’s Bholari and Shahbaz air bases, satellite imagery showed severe damage to buildings used as aircraft hangars. A large hole nearly 60 feet wide is visible in the roof of a hangar at Bholari, which experts said was consistent with a missile impact. Debris was strewn across the pavement outside and a wall appeared to have toppled over an adjacent building.The Bholari hangar typically houses a Saab 2000 Airborne Early Warning and Control System aircraft — a surveillance plane worth tens of millions of dollars — according to the military researcher. It’s unclear if the aircraft was in the hangar at the time of the strike.At Shahbaz air base, which is used exclusively by the military, satellite imagery showed another large hole in a hangar, over 100 feet wide, and damage to a control tower. To the southeast, at Sukkur Airport, which is used for both civilian and military purposes, another hangar appeared to have been collapsed by a strike and an apparent radar site was destroyed, according to Goodhind.Indian strikes also left large craters in runways at Mushaf air base and Sheikh Zayed International Airport, according to the imagery review by The Post. At Mushaf, the craters appeared to be fixed or under repair by the day after, according to images from the satellite firms Planet and Maxar.Five members of the air force were killed at Bholari and one at Mushaf, Pakistan’s military said Wednesday.Dawn, Pakistan’s English-language newspaper, reported that the Sheikh Zayed airport’s Royal Lounge, named after the late founder of the United Arab Emirates, was damaged significantly.“Striking so many military facilities in Pakistan proper at one time reflects a deliberate shift,” Ladwig said, noting that India had previously limited its air operations to Kashmir, or to remote parts of Pakistan.Now, Ladwig said, India is “treating terrorist attacks as grounds for conventional military reprisals.” Pakistan and India Shift to War of Words After Shooting Stops (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/14/2025 3:16 PM, Kamran Haider, 5.5M]
Although the air strikes and artillery fire between India and Pakistan have mostly fallen silent, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took aim at his counterpart over the border on Wednesday, accusing Narendra Modi of fanning instability and vowing a harsh response to future attacks.
Sharif spoke at a gathering of soldiers near the border, two days after Modi pledged in a speech to neutralize terrorist camps in Pakistan, calling its May 7 strikes inside Pakistan territory as a “new normal” response.“Mr. Modi, if you take this route again, you will get a devastating answer,” Sharif said. “If you attack us, you’ll lose whatever you have.”
The two South Asian nuclear powers have agreed to a ceasefire after their most serious military confrontation in half a century. Tit-for-tat strikes followed India’s operations after militants killed 26 people in the disputed Kashmir region. India has accused Pakistan of involvement, which Islamabad denies.
Sharif said Pakistan’s response to India’s strikes has diminished Modi’s sense of regional “hegemony” and proved his nation’s capability to fight a conventional war. Both countries have claimed their offensive and defensive efforts were successful.
Pakistan has said, for instance, that it downed five Indian fighter jets, including three French-made Rafales. India hasn’t confirmed the claim, but issued a statement Wednesday detailing its military operations successful.“We are ready for peace and war. Choice is yours,” Pakistan’s Sharif said. “Don’t ignite fire. Let it be extinguished. Make this region a home of peace.”
India and Pakistan have a history of bitter relations over the disputed land of Jammu and Kashmir, which they both rule in part but claim in full. The neighbors have fought two wars over it since 1947 and accused each other of sponsoring militancy. Nuclear War Avoided, Again. But Next Time? (New York Times – opinion)
New York Times [5/15/2025 1:00 AM, W.J. Hennigan, 831K]
After four days of exchanging airstrikes and drone attacks on military infrastructure brought India and Pakistan to the precipice of war, these nuclear-armed nations are holding to a tenuous cease-fire.
The world may have sidestepped a disaster. But last week’s fast-moving crisis demonstrates the inherent dangers of the modern nuclear age — and the corresponding and urgent need for diplomacy — as more nations expand their nuclear arsenals and rely on them for coercion or to make up for a weakness in conventional forces. The indefinite combination of more weapons and human fallibility can lead to their use, intentional or not. There is never zero risk.
We’ve seen it throughout the military campaign of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, against Ukraine, where he’s issued implicit and explicit threats to use a nuclear weapon in his war there. We’ve seen it on the Korean Peninsula, where the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, routinely reminds the world that his forces are armed and ready for all-out nuclear war. We see the potential in Taiwan, where observers worry that China could use the threat of its arsenal to impose its will on the island.
Conflict between India and Pakistan is nothing new, of course, and fears over the first use of a nuclear weapon between the neighboring countries have long remained remote. The two sides fought wars in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999 — a year after both nations conducted successful nuclear tests. They now each have estimated stockpiles of at least 170 warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
As their nuclear forces expanded, the two nations established unwritten rules aimed at preventing a dangerous escalation. Neither New Delhi nor Islamabad wants a nuclear war, stopping each side from going too far when periodic skirmishes break out. For decades, their military confrontations have been confined to the border region, and in particular Kashmir, a flashpoint since 1947, when India was partitioned into two states at the end of British colonial rule. For years, both sides have primarily battled with ground forces, and never close to nuclear sites.
But those rules have been changing. The emergence of drone warfare and precision-guided munitions has caused red lines to fade. In 2019, India launched airstrikes against an alleged terrorist training camp in Balakot, Pakistan, marking the first time that one nuclear-armed nation dropped a bomb on another. The attack, which went further than any other conflict between the nations in decades, put the countries on newly dangerous footing. Last week’s clash was even more destabilizing.
After Pakistan-based terrorists allegedly shot and killed 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir last month, the Indian military responded on May 7 with airstrikes on the border region, targeting what it called “terror camps.” It eventually extended its target to a site in Punjab, roughly 100 miles into Pakistan — the deepest strike in more than half a century. Pakistan retaliated with what Indian officials said were as many as 400 drone attacks on several cities, including the Indian-administered city of Jammu, near the heavily militarized border that separates the disputed region of Kashmir between the two countries.
Soon, Indian strikes hit a military air base in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, not far from Pakistan’s Strategic Plans Division, which oversees the nation’s nuclear arsenal. Reports later surfaced that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan subsequently convened the National Command Authority, a group that decides the potential use of nuclear weapons.
It’s incidents like these when the potential for slipping into a nuclear escalation is the greatest. Close calls between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and other more recent nuclear crises, show that adversaries assume the worst and depend on open communication channels, monitoring capabilities and diplomatic measures. India’s airstrikes may have been inadvertent or intentional, but Pakistan won’t allow its nuclear capability to be threatened. India’s conventional forces are superior to Pakistan’s. Islamabad, therefore, sees its nuclear weapons as a means to even the battlefield in an all-out war. Pakistan, unlike India, has no declared restrictions on using its nuclear weapons first in a conflict to protect itself.
It wasn’t until the unthinkable suddenly looked possible that the Trump administration felt compelled to intervene. On Thursday, during an appearance on Fox News, Vice President JD Vance said the tit-for-tat fighting was “fundamentally none of our business.” On Friday, the day India bombed the base in Rawalpindi, Mr. Vance substantially shifted from that isolationist stance, calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India to warn against the mounting escalation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said in a statement that he and Mr. Vance had engaged with senior officials from both countries, including their prime ministers.“We stopped a nuclear conflict,” President Trump said Monday at the White House. “I think it could have been a bad nuclear war, millions of people could have been killed, so I’m very proud of that.” Pakistan has since publicly acknowledged the U.S. role in the truce, while India maintains that the cease-fire was bilaterally reached.
As the Trump administration evidently came to realize, what happens between India and Pakistan is the world’s business, and has been since the nations became nuclear powers. A scientific study in 2019 assessed the potential consequences of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. It found that the detonations would create millions of tons of soot. Clouds of debris would blot out the sun and lower global temperatures to bring about worldwide famine. Millions of people would die, and billions could be affected. The scenario was set in 2025.
This week, tensions between India and Pakistan eased following the truce. But the White House cannot grow complacent. It should lead a diplomatic effort with India and Pakistan to reduce risks in the short and long term to avoid a repeat of last week’s rapid escalation and potential for miscalculation. Why Trump Calmed the India-Pakistan Clash (Wall Street Journal – opinion)
Wall Street Journal [5/14/2025 2:55 PM, Tunku Varadarajan, 810K]
A joke circulating on social media suggests how President Trump could arrest terrorism against Indian Kashmir by jihadist groups based in Pakistan—a country that at its worst actively arms and shelters these terrorists, and at its most benign turns a blind eye. Let Mr. Trump open a large resort in Kashmir, the joke goes. Give him rent-free land on a long lease for golf courses and ski lodges—and then watch how quickly the terrorism falls off.
Humor aside, Mr. Trump has helped to calm the region and scored his first major diplomatic achievement. On April 22, terrorists said by India to have come from Pakistan shot dead 26 civilians in Pahalgam, a bucolic resort in Kashmir 125 miles from the de facto border between India and Pakistan. (The ability of the terrorists to penetrate so deep into India is proof of their murderous sophistication and of the weakness of India’s military intelligence.) India retaliated by launching missile attacks on terrorist redoubts in Pakistan on May 7. An armed confrontation broke out between the two nuclear-armed countries—more intense than a skirmish yet too circumscribed to be called a war—before a U.S.-brokered cease-fire brought an end to the fighting on May 10.
Mr. Trump has taken credit for the halting of hostilities, and he has done so in his usual bombastic manner: “I said, ‘Come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it. Let’s stop it. If you stop it, we’ll do a trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade.’ “
What should we make of these events, and of Mr. Trump’s role? I asked Husain Haqqani, by some measure the world’s most objective Pakistani when it comes to India. Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2008-11, he is now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think-tank.
Mr. Haqqani notes that Mr. Trump initially showed no interest in the conflict. “Another American president would have gotten into it much earlier,” he says, “and would have been working through it from the very start, on a moment-by-moment basis.” He cites the example of Bill Clinton in 1999, when India responded forcibly to Pakistani intrusions into mountainous Indian territory near the northern town of Kargil.“The Clinton administration started working the phones as soon as the Kargil intrusions were discovered,” Mr. Haqqani says. “They talked to China, and they tried to get everybody to isolate Pakistan, because they thought Pakistan had been in the wrong.” In the case of the recent clash, it was only when “it became apparent that this could actually escalate further because a Pakistani air base had been hit”—the Nur Khan base in Rawalpindi, close to Pakistan’s nuclear assets—”that the Americans said, ‘This is dangerous territory. This goes beyond punishing the terrorists.’ “ Mr. Trump intervened “only when things were right on the edge. But then, because they were on the edge, the effectiveness of the American pushback was also greater.” In fact, he says, “by staying out of the fray early, the Trump administration improved the chances of the success of its intervention when it did finally intervene.”
Mr. Haqqani acknowledges what all Indians believe—that Pakistan has a longstanding policy of using terrorists to bleed India, trusting that its nuclear weapons will shield Pakistan against major Indian retaliation. This view is held by every Western government as well as Japan. Few states outside the Muslim world and China—Pakistan’s all-weather friend—deny that Pakistan exports terrorism as part of its state policy. And yet, Mr. Haqqani says, “the world didn’t come to India’s support the way it wanted, or expected.”
Why? “India jumped the gun,” he says. “Even if it was sure that Pakistani terrorists killed people in Pahalgam, you still have to persuade the world.” He points to how the Bush administration laid out the case for why it believed al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001—and only then went after them. “There was also the question of proportionality in the Indian response. People want to change Pakistan. And they’re right to want to do so. People don’t want to destroy Pakistan.” The world’s alarm was compounded by a jingoistic Indian media, which brayed for blood and called on the country’s navy to bomb the Pakistani port of Karachi.
India, Mr. Haqqani says, was “trying to be Israel, but without having the clout Israel has with the U.S.” That said, he adds that “Israel gets plenty criticized by the rest of the world.” Although India hasn’t been criticized for its use of force, world leaders called for de-escalation almost immediately after India’s first strikes. “India made the mistake of thinking that Pakistan can be treated like Gaza. Pakistan is not Gaza.”
In my view, distinct from Mr. Haqqani’s, where India can emulate Israel is in having a smarter response to terrorism, taking out terrorists on Pakistani soil by stealth and assassination. It has done so in the past, though not nearly as frequently—or efficiently—as the Israelis have in their region. Simply put, India’s counterterrorism competence doesn’t match Israel’s.
In the longer term, the U.S. has an obvious stake in securing peace between India and Pakistan. Mr. Trump needs India as part of his strategy to contain China. The more secure you make India against Pakistan, the freer India will be to help take on China. If India is to be useful to the U.S. as a counterforce to Beijing, it has to be relieved of its Pakistan headache.
For that to happen, however, India has to act with greater wisdom against its obnoxious neighbor—and with much less bluster. India needs to use its head, not thump its chest. Twitter
Afghanistan
Tim Young@Young25Tim
[5/14/2025 11:05 AM, 4.1K followers, 30 retweets, 44 likes]
DHS says it’s safe to deport Afghans back to the Taliban because the regime is promoting tourism and had 7,000 visitors in 2023. @KrishVignarajah absolutely eviscerates this absurd claim, particularly when it comes to women and girls. https://forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2025/05/14/dhs-claims-tourism-to-afghanistan-reason-to-end-immigration-protection/
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[5/14/2025 9:44 AM, 33.4K followers, 42 retweets, 99 likes]
Shocking — the Taliban loves what the Trump administration is doing to throw our allies under the bus. Way to go, team. No notes. #AfghanEvac
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[5/14/2025 4:45 PM, 100.2K followers, 48 retweets, 79 likes]
URGENT ACTION ALERT: Hamid Farhadi, a journalist working with an independent newspaper operating in exile, was arrested by members of the Taliban Ministry of Interior on 3 September 2024. He was sentenced to two years in prison on 19 September, without any access to legal representation. The court accused him of spreading propaganda through his journalistic reports about the situation of women and girls in the country. On 28 March 2025, without explanation or prior notice, Farhadi was transferred from Pol- Charkhi Prison to the notorious Bagram Prison. Hamid Farhadi must be immediately and unconditionally released as he is detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his human rights. Take action Now. Read more below: https://amnesty.org/en/documents/asa11/9387/2025/en/ #FreeFarhadi
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[5/15/2025 3:22 AM, 5.8K followers]
Refugees are human. The world must stand with them. Afghan refugees in Indonesia and other third countries are suffering — facing hunger, no access to education, and the constant threat of deportation. The world & host countries must not save lives. #End13YearsInLimbo_Indonesia
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[5/15/2025 3:13 AM, 5.8K followers, 3 retweets, 5 likes]
Reports:—A family that recently returned from the U.S. had their two daughters, aged 17 and 18, kidnapped in Kabul. They’ve been missing for days. Their mother is desperately searching for them. #Afghanistan is not safe for human rights defenders, journalists, and women’s.
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[5/14/2025 6:13 PM, 5.8K followers, 14 retweets, 31 likes]
No freedom for journalists under Taliban rule. Suliman Raheel was arrested last week for raising women’s issues. Hamid Farhadi & other journalists are jailed for reporting the truth. Farhadi was secretly moved to Bagram Prison. All must be freed now. #JournalismIsNotACrime #HRW
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[5/14/2025 11:35 AM, 5.8K followers, 10 retweets, 9 likes]
AJSO: Journalist Suliman Raheel has been arrested by Taliban intelligence in Ghazni. In Takhar province, three other journalists have also been detained. Their fate remains unknown. Freedom of expression is under serious threat. Silence enables oppression—stand for press freedom. Pakistan
Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan@PakPMO
[5/14/2025 12:10 PM, 3.7M followers, 1K retweets, 6.7K likes]
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif addresses the officers and soldiers who took part in Operation Bunyan al Marsos. May 14, 2025.
Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan@PakPMO
[5/14/2025 12:09 PM, 3.7M followers, 137 retweets, 933 likes]
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif receives briefing regarding the neutralized UAVs and drones that were used against Pakistan during Marka-e-Haq. Pasrur. May 14, 2025.
Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan@PakPMO
[5/14/2025 12:08 PM, 3.7M followers, 143 retweets, 889 likes]
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif interacts with officers and soldiers who participated in Operation Bunyan al Marsos. Pasrur. May 14, 2025.
Imran Khan@ImranKhanPTI
[5/14/2025 11:13 AM, 21.1M followers, 16K retweets, 29K likes]
"They are trying every kind of mental torture technique to break him, but he is a resilient person. We’re extremely worried right now because there have been threats to prosecute him with charges that carry the death penalty. Our message to Pakistan: Don’t lose faith because Imran Khan hasn’t lost faith. He hasn’t given up. He’s not sitting idly in a cell, twiddling his thumbs. He is actively planning for the future and believes that change will come." Illegaly incarcerated Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sons in an exclusive interview with Mario Nawfal
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[5/14/2025 1:17 PM, 8.7M followers, 214 retweets, 1.2K likes]
Pakistan Air Force is the only Air Force in the world which is producing its fighter jets in collaboration with China. Now Pakistan is making JF-17 in Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Kamra itself.Pakistan is not depending on any other country for making tanks & other heavy weapons.
Sara Wahedi@SaraWahedi
[5/14/2025 10:06 AM, 96.1K followers, 10 retweets, 98 likes]
It’s not a controversial take: Pakistan will do all it can to expand proxy control in Afghanistan. Its borders haven’t been this exposed by India in years.
Sara Wahedi@SaraWahedi
[5/14/2025 10:10 AM, 96.1K followers, 2 retweets, 26 likes]
That argument by Pakistani pundits - that a “peaceful Afghanistan with its own agency” is desirable - is false. Stability threatens Pakistan’s leverage. Because given the choice, Afghans will never choose Pakistan over India. And they know it.
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney
[5/14/2025 1:27 PM, 290.5K followers, 917 retweets, 3.7K likes]
Had Pakistan gained the upper hand in the military conflict, it would have pressed its advantage without hesitation, seeking a decisive and possibly humiliating outcome for India. In stark contrast, India agreed to a ceasefire just as its armed forces had gained battlefield momentum — relinquishing a hard-won position of strength. While this move may reflect India’s restraint or diplomatic calculus, it also risks being seen as a strategic misstep. In conflicts where perception shapes power, backing off at the moment of advantage can embolden adversaries. India’s decision, though measured, may yet come back to haunt it.
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney
[5/14/2025 10:36 AM, 290.5K followers, 769 retweets, 1.9K likes]
In recent days, Trump bailed out Pakistan, the exporter of Islamist terrorism. With US backing, the IMF is clearing a $1.3 billion loan for Bangladesh despite its slide into Islamist chaos. And now Trump meets Syria’s jihadist ruler, a US and UN-designated terrorist.
Mariam Solaimankhil@Mariamistan
[5/14/2025 12:20 PM, 100.7K followers, 64 retweets, 282 likes]
Pakistan has been peddling propaganda and lies for decades, and India hasn’t made one move without accountability and proof. Don’t believe the social media trolls remember where Osama bin Laden was found. India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/14/2025 10:14 AM, 108.6M followers, 8.7K retweets, 58K likes]
India’s strides in the world of semiconductors continue! Today’s Cabinet decision regarding the establishment of a semiconductor unit in Uttar Pradesh will boost growth and innovation. It will create innumerable opportunities for the youth as well. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2128605
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/14/2025 3:49 AM, 108.6M followers, 9.8K retweets, 84K likes]
Attended the swearing in ceremony of Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. Wishing him the very best for his tenure.
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[5/14/2025 12:55 PM, 8.7M followers, 628 retweets, 2.4K likes]
Modi is in big trouble. President @realDonaldTrump is contradicting him again and again by claiming that it was US which brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan but Modi is saying Pakistan contacted India for ceasefire. Now @nytimes also proved him a liar. https://x.com/i/status/1922697235176796225 NSB
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[5/14/2025 8:44 AM, 162.4K followers, 35 retweets, 374 likes]
Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus addresses villagers in Bathua, Hathazari, Chittagong, on Wednesday.
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[5/14/2025 8:43 AM, 162.4K followers, 43 retweets, 716 likes]
Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus offers prayers at the graveside of his ancestors at Bathua village in Hathazari on Wednesday.
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[5/14/2025 4:43 AM, 162.4K followers, 34 retweets, 329 likes] Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus is conferred with the honorary Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt) degree by the University of Chittagong on Wednesday during its 5th Convocation at the university campus.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP@bdbnp78
[5/14/2025 2:23 PM, 82.4K followers, 7 retweets, 50 likes]
BNP Standing Committee Member and Chairperson’s Advisor on International Affairs, Dr. Abdul Moyeen Khan hosted a farewell dinner at his residence this evening (14 May) in honour of outgoing German Ambassador Achim Troster. Ambassadors from 12 EU countries, including EU Ambassador Michael Miller, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Sarah Cooke and South Korean Ambassador Park Young-sik, attended the event.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP@bdbnp78
[5/14/2025 9:48 AM, 82.4K followers, 4 retweets, 55 likes]
The path to dictatorship is never written in a nation’s constitution or laws. It begins when those in power disregard them. That’s when fascism begins to rise. Tarique Rahman Acting Chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney
[5/14/2025 3:55 AM, 290.5K followers, 306 retweets, 808 likes]
A new Great Game? Bangladesh’s unelected, Islamism-promoting regime is taking flak at home for agreeing to establish, with UN and US support, a so-called "humanitarian corridor" to Myanmar’s Rakhine state. This development holds security implications for India’s remote northeast. The brutal Arakan Army, or AA, controls most of Rakhine state, including the entire 271-kilometer border with Bangladesh. The latest wave of Rohingya refugees are fleeing not from Myanmar’s military but from the anti-junta AA rebels, whose savage attacks have forced Rohingya militias to now work with their former oppressors, the country’s armed forces. https://project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-administration-must-pursue-strategic-engagement-in-myanmar-by-brahma-chellaney-2025-04
This undercuts Bangladesh’s claim that the corridor is for humanitarian aid. Any aid will be controlled by the anti-Rohingya AA. This has spurred speculation that the corridor’s real purpose is to help advance the U.S.-led proxy war against Myanmar’s junta through increased military aid to rebels.The U.S. has already funneled nearly $400 million in what it calls "non-lethal" aid to rebel groups in Myanmar. Some such arms have entered India’s Manipur state, fueling ethnic conflict there.
In Bangladesh, the BNP is questioning how an unelected regime can agree to a corridor that symbolizes a "geopolitical conspiracy." BNP’s Amir Khasru has asked, "Are we trying to turn Bangladesh into another Gaza? Are we pushing Bangladesh toward a war zone again? For whose interest?" https://thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/politics/news/investors-wont-take-risk-until-elected-govt-comes-power-amir-khasru-3893726
The corridor, and the AA’s expanding control in Rakhine state, represent a threat to India’s Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP), which seeks to connect the landlocked northeastern Indian states to the Bay of Bengal through Rakhine. India’s northeast is connected to the rest of the country by a narrow strip known as the "chicken-neck."
New Delhi has realized the strategic importance of completing KMMTTP after the Bangladeshi regime has implied that if the "chicken-neck is cut off," India’s "northeast could be captured with the help of China," according to Zoramthanga, former chief minister of India’s Mizoram state. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/centre-expediting-kaladan-project-due-to-bdesh-threats-zoramthanga/articleshow/121084353.cms
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[5/14/2025 6:57 AM, 113.2K followers, 112 retweets, 110 likes]
The President’s Office commences the "Executive Development Program 2025-2027"
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[5/14/2025 7:25 AM, 113.2K followers, 152 retweets, 148 likes]
The President’s Office commences the "Executive Development Program 2025-2027". The programme is an initiative led by the Political Appointees Performance Management Unit at the Political Affairs Office (PAO), in collaboration with the Civil Service Training Institute (CSTI) and the Foreign Service Institute of Maldives(FOSIM).
MFA SriLanka@MFA_SriLanka
[5/14/2025 6:24 AM, 39.2K followers, 30 retweets, 98 likes]
GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA STRONGLY REJECTS UNFOUNDED GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS AND PROTESTS CONSTRUCTION OF MISLEADING MONUMENT IN CANADA Read more : https://mfa.gov.lk/en/government-of-sri-lanka-strongly-rejects-unfounded-genocide-allegations-and-protests-construction-of-misleading-monument-in-canada/ #DiplomacyLK #lka
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[5/14/2025 2:18 PM, 151.5K followers, 15 retweets, 127 likes]
Joined the 60th anniversary celebration of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna…
Namal Rajapaksa@RajapaksaNamal
[5/15/2025 2:25 AM, 435.1K followers, 1 like]
Attended the 75th anniversary celebrations of Urapola Siri Rathana Jyothi Pirivena Vidyayana alongside Most Ven. Omara Kassapa Anunayake Thero and esteemed guests. A significant milestone in education and culture, reflecting our rich heritage and commitment to learning. Central Asia
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[5/14/2025 1:34 PM, 216.6K followers, 1 retweet, 6 likes]
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed renovation and investment initiatives in Tashkent, with an emphasis on expanding green spaces and improving irrigation. A number of new developments, including retail and entertainment centers as well as industrial facilities, will be established through foreign investments.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[5/14/2025 11:28 AM, 216.6K followers, 2 retweets, 9 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed #Uzbekistan’s @wto accession progress and steps to accelerate the process. Plans include completing bilateral negotiations, holding Working Group meetings, and finalizing the group’s draft report.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[5/14/2025 6:24 AM, 216.6K followers, 5 retweets, 22 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed proposals on strengthening seismic safety measures. Plans include introducing international quality standards for new construction, adopting a renewed practice of building inspection, amending regulatory documents on assessing seismic risk and impact.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[5/14/2025 5:37 AM, 216.6K followers, 5 retweets, 34 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed plans and progress in the road sector. Upcoming projects include building new roads with international funding and enhancing roadside infrastructure. A revised "On highways" law will establish legal frameworks for toll roads, roadside services, regulation of heavy vehicle traffic, with environmental considerations and pedestrian-friendly design.
Navbahor Imamova@Navbahor
[5/14/2025 10:49 AM, 24.3K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
UZ-RU to expand partnership in the supply of petroleum products, the development of hard-to-extract oil fields, and the digitalization of the industry.{End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.