A local Taliban commander has been arrested in connection with escalating tensions over gold mines in Shukai district in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, local sources said on Monday. The commander, Musa Kaka, who led Taliban forces in Nusay district, was detained by Taliban intelligence forces amid continuing disputes over gold mining operations in the area, sources added. According to local […]

The ongoing Iran War has led to rising prices of essential commodities like fuel, milk, and bread, potentially increasing retail inflation by up to 0.42% in the coming months. The increase in prices of fuel, milk, and bread due to the ongoing Iran War can leave a dent on your pocket, and could push the retail inflation up by up […]

A partnership between India, a country of subcontinental size, and Africa, a continent of fifty-four countries, may seem asymmetric until one notes that both are home to nearly the same number of people—1.4 billion. This essay spells out the existing challenges to the partnership, its optimal potential, and the possible pathways to realize it over the next quarter-century. IntroductionA partnership […]

Toplines CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping met with US President Donald Trump from May 13 to 15. The two discussed global flashpoints, including Taiwan and the Middle East, but did not reach major agreements on these issues. PRC readouts downplayed the issue of Iran, consistent with previous ISW-CDOT analysis. Other top US officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary […]

The first presidential visit to China in nearly a decade will cover trade, technology, and a range of other bilateral topics, including frank conversations on Middle East subjects such as Beijing’s support to Iran and the wider global repercussions of the Strait of Hormuz crisis. The Elephant in the Room: China’s Support to Iran As this week’s summit unfolds in […]

Finalement, Trump ne nous aura pas déçus : comme ses prédécesseurs à la Maison-Blanche, il s’est proclamé le héraut de la liberté, il a distribué les châtiments et les récompenses, et il veut faire croire qu’il sauve le monde à chaque déploiement d’une puissance matérielle aussi impressionnante qu’inefficace. C’est un invariant historique : armé de la bonne conscience indécrottable des […]

The conviction of Jashanpreet Singh, founder of California’s “Punjabi Devils Motorcycle Club”, on May 12, 2026, has drawn renewed attention to the growing involvement of Punjabi-origin gangs in organised crime in North America. Singh, based in Stockton, was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to unlawful firearms dealing and possession of a machine gun. […]

On May 14, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) searched 14 locations across Delhi, Gujarat, Indore, and Srinagar in a FEMA case involving alleged overseas routing of funds collected through online gaming platforms. A day earlier, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) raided over 40 locations across nine districts, questioning 53 youths over suspected links to Pakistan-based gangster Shahzad Bhatti and radicalisation networks […]

Pakistan Hosted Iranian Military Planes To Insulate Them From US Attacks There’s been some outrage in D.C. and among the pundit class over a late in the day Monday CBS News report alleging that US-ally Pakistan allowed Iran to park military aircraft at its airfields, and thus outside the US-Israeli strike zone during Operation Epic Fury: President Trump and admin […]

Traders are waking this morning in the US to some relative market mayhem and questioning what came first – the oil spike or the geopolitical angst – to trigger these moves as it appears the market finally remembered there’s more going on in the world than trading ‘short compute’ demand to the moon… Oil prices are up significantly (WTI >$100)… […]