Iran’s diplomatic mission in Kabul has called for strengthened border services and infrastructure to support Afghan migrants amid mass deportations and growing pressure on transit routes. According to an official statement released Saturday, Hassan Bigdeli, the head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Kabul, and Seyed Ali Marhamati, Iran’s consul general in Herat, met with senior officials in Iran’s Khorasan Razavi […]

This episode explores the recent Eid remarks by Taliban leaders, focusing on growing concerns about internal rifts within the group and Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s apparent fear over the potential collapse of the Taliban rule. The discussion features insights from Sayed Baqir Mohseni, a university professor and political analyst, and Toryalai Hemat, a political affairs expert.

The United Nations Refugee Agency said it is witnessing a sharp surge in Afghan returns from Iran under increasingly difficult conditions, warning that the massive scale of returns risks further destabilizing an already fragile Afghanistan. Since March 20, when the Iranian government implemented a return deadline, more than 640,000 Afghans have returned across the border — 366,000 of them deported, […]

Data Cutoff: June 25, 2025 The China–Taiwan Weekly Update is a joint product from the Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute. The update supports the ISW–AEI Coalition Defense of Taiwan project, which assesses Chinese campaigns against Taiwan, examines alternative strategies for the United States and its allies to deter the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) aggression, […]

Japan will begin building bomb shelters next year on its remote islands closest to Taiwan amid fears that its far western territory could become a legitimate target for Chinese missiles if China and the United States go to war. The plans point to a possible scenario in which Beijing orders preemptive strikes against major U.S. and allied bases in the […]

Contrary to the popular assessments of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership, Chinese and Russian national interests primarily converge in the Asia Pacific and Arctic, not in Europe and Ukraine. For the last two decades, the United States has not paid adequate attention to this convergence at our peril. Overall assessments by the US national security community, think-tanks, and academia of the […]

As the most populous and historically most economically and strategically powerful state in South Asia, India for decades has wielded considerable influence throughout the subcontinent. In some places, like Bhutan, it essentially controlled the country’s foreign policy for decades and still has massive influence. In Nepal, India for years wielded so much power, through its investments in the country and […]

On June 20, a senior female Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadre, carrying a bounty of Rs. 800,000, was killed in a gun battle with Security Forces (SFs) on the Kotri riverbank near the forested hills between Amatola and Kalpar villages under Chhotebethiya Police Station limits in the Kanker District of the Bastar division of Chhattisgarh. Based on credible intelligence […]

As reported on June 4, 2025, the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) asked the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Punjab, to prevent the Ahmadi community from observing Islamic rituals on the occasion of Eid ul Azha and to take action against its members if found violating the law that prohibits the Ahmadis from claiming they are Muslims, or from […]

Maoists: Persistent threat, aggressive consolidation On June 20, a senior female Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadre, carrying a bounty of Rs. 800,000, was killed in a gun battle with Security Forces (SFs) on the Kotri riverbank near the forested hills between Amatola and Kalpar villages under Chhotebethiya Police Station limits in the Kanker District of the Bastar division of […]