Maham Khan

ISLAMABAD: With angel wings on its cover, the children&rsquo;s book told the story of a father watching over his son from heaven, a tale Utah mother-of-three Kouri Richins said she wrote to comfort children grieving the loss of a parent. It would later be revealed that she had poisoned her own husband six months earlier. On May 13, a Utah judge sentenced Richins to life in prison without parole for the 2022 fentanyl murder of her husband, Eric Richins, 39, as reported by ABC News The date was not incidental. It was Eric&#39;s birthday. He would have turned 44. The book was called &ldquo;Are You With Me?&rdquo; Richins published it in the months between killing her husband and her arrest, appearing on local television, speaking about loss, and building the image of a widow doing her best. A ghostwriting company helped produce it, according to CNN. Her mother mailed a copy to the Summit County Sheriff&#39;s Office with a note describing Kouri as a &ldquo;devoted wife.&rdquo; However, investigators were less convinced. Eric Richins was found unresponsive at the foot of the couple&#39;s bed on March 4, 2022, in their home near Park City, Utah, United States. A medical examiner determined he had died of fentanyl poisoning, at five times the lethal dose, as reported by several American news outlets, including the New York Times and CBS News. The fentanyl was illicit. There was no therapeutic explanation for the concentration found in his system. And it was not the first attempt. On Valentine&#39;s Day, six weeks earlier, Eric had consumed a fentanyl-laced sandwich, suffered a blackout and respiratory distress, and survived only after a family member administered an EpiPen, according to CNN. He called a friend afterward and said, &quot;I think my wife tried to poison me,&quot; as per the New York Times. He was right. The father of three would be dead within weeks. The motive, prosecutors argued, was financial and cold. By early 2022, Richins had accumulated approximately $4.5 million in debt, according to several local news outlets, including The Park Record and CNN.&nbsp; She had taken out fraudulent credit lines in Eric&#39;s name, opened life insurance policies on him without his knowledge, and purchased a $2 million mansion he had refused to fund. She closed on that property the day after he died, according to CBS News. Eric had been quietly preparing to leave. He consulted a divorce attorney in 2020 and restructured his estate to exclude her, according to KPCW, a public radio station in Kouri&rsquo;s city. Prosecutors argued Kouri did not know this and believed she stood to inherit millions. The digital record was direct. Searches recovered from her phone included &quot;What is a lethal dose of fentanyl?&quot;, &quot;How is poisoning marked on a death certificate?&quot;, and &quot;Luxury prisons for the rich America,&quot; according to AP News. The family housekeeper testified that Richins had purchased fentanyl pills on at least four occasions. While in custody, Richins was found with a handwritten six-page letter allegedly instructing family members to tell investigators Eric had sourced the fentanyl himself, as per CNN and KPCW. The defense called it fiction. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before convicting her on five felony counts, including aggravated murder. At sentencing, the boys she had written the book for delivered statements of their own. The middle son, now 11, testified that his mother locked him inside the house when she was intoxicated. He said he would feel safer if she stayed in prison, according to CBS News. Judge Richard Mrazik sentenced her to life without parole, calling her &quot;simply too dangerous to ever be free,&quot; as reported by KPCW. She wrote a book about children who lose their fathers, yet her own children lost theirs &mdash; and she was the reason.

Kouri Richins reacts to impact statements from the Richins family during her sentencing in 3rd District Court in Park City, Utah. (AFP)

Americas

Utah woman Kouri Richins is sentenced to life without parole for murdering her husband with fentanyl after writing a children’s book about loss while portraying herself as a grieving widow.

Kouri Richins wrote about losing a father after killing one

ISLAMABAD: On a warm Sunday in May, Sumaira loaded her arms with cherries, a dress and a changair &ndash; a decorative basket woven from reeds &ndash; and brought them to her mother. It was not a grand gesture, she said. But her mother smiled. Across Pakistan this Mother&#39;s Day, similar scenes played out in living rooms and on WhatsApp video calls, in households where the holiday is embraced warmly and others where it barely registers. The day has taken a quiet hold in urban Pakistan over the last decade. Not uniformly, not without dissent, but undeniably. Pakistan TV Digital reached out to people across the country to find out how they marked the occasion. In Rawalpindi, Arhama kept it simple. A cheeseboard, she said, because that is what her mother likes. The specificity of the choice mattered. It was not picked from a promotional display or a sponsored post. It was chosen because someone paid attention, and had been paying attention for years. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/a3b56717-d920-4f2b-912b-e3691c37ce22-2197cfcd-b157-4cb8-b0dd-c2cdc8602cef.jfif" alt="2197cfcd-b157-4cb8-b0dd-c2cdc8602cef.jfif" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">Cheeseboard assembled for a Mother&#39;s Day celebration in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, May 10, 2026.</figcaption></figure> That kind of quiet knowing is what the day, at its best, seems to surface. Not the roses sold for Rs300 or more outside every major shopping plaza, but the accumulated knowledge of a child who has watched their mother long enough to know exactly what she enjoys. For some, the day was measured in distance. Umair, based in Peshawar, spent Mother&#39;s Day at the office. There was no way to get home in time. He arranged flowers and a cake online and had them sent to his family. Later, they sent back a video. His mother was leaning over the cake, cutting through it. She looked happy. He had not been there to see it in person. It is a situation familiar to millions. Pakistan is a country where young men &ndash; and now even women &ndash; routinely relocate for work, sometimes to other cities, sometimes abroad, and the distance quietly reshapes how families observe these days. The phone screen becomes the table they gather around. The video call becomes the room. The holiday itself is relatively new to Pakistan in its current form. Social media accelerated its spread through the 2010s and the markets followed. Restaurants offered Mother&#39;s Day brunches. Florists doubled their prices. For some families, particularly in larger cities, it became a fixture. For others, it remained foreign territory. In Karachi, Areeba falls firmly in the second camp. No one in her family observes the day. Not Mother&#39;s Day, not birthdays, not any of it. She is direct about why. It is commercialized, she said, and the point is lost on her. Her position is not that mothers do not deserve recognition, it is the opposite. She believes they deserve it every day, not because a market calendar has designated the second Sunday of May for the purpose. Her skepticism is neither new nor uniquely Pakistani. But it carries a particular weight here. Reverence for mothers is embedded in this society at a level that goes beyond sentiment. It is present in religious teaching, in poetry, in the way major decisions are still deferred to a mother&#39;s judgment. The word maa is among the first a child learns. The argument that every day is already Mother&#39;s Day is not deflection. For many people, it is genuinely how they live. Still, for those who do observe it, the holiday offers something the everyday does not. An occasion, a nudge, a shared moment that might otherwise be quietly postponed. A cheeseboard. A changair. A cake cut on a phone screen 400 kilometers from where a son sat watching. The mothers, by most accounts, were touched.

A Pakistani woman carries her son as she walk on a street in Islamabad on May 13, 2012, on Mother's Day. (AFP)

Culture

Across cities, families found small, tender ways to honor the occasion. Not everyone was convinced they should have to though.

From Rawalpindi to Karachi, Pakistan marks Mother's Day –  with cake, cherries, and a few skeptics

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is hosting negotiations between the United States and Iran, the latest chapter in a decades-long diplomatic record that spans secret back channels, hostage negotiations, arms deals, and multilateral nuclear talks, most of which ended without a lasting agreement. Official records and news archives show that despite the absence of formal diplomatic relations since 1980, the two governments have returned to the negotiating table repeatedly, across administrations and across continents. What follows is a chronological account of every significant diplomatic engagement between Washington and Tehran on record. November 28 &ndash; December 1, 1943 | The Tehran Conference Venue: Tehran, Iran US President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Allied leaders in Tehran to coordinate military strategy during World War II. According to US State Department archives, the discussions covered military objectives for the remainder of the war, as well as the future of Iranian sovereignty. The conference concluded with a formal declaration committing the Allied powers to the maintenance of Iranian independence and territorial integrity after the war. November 4, 1979 &ndash; January 19, 1981 | The Algiers Accords Venue: Algiers, Algeria (mediated) Formal diplomatic ties dissolved during the Iran hostage crisis on November 4, 1979. According to US National Archives, the two nations conducted 444 days of negotiations through Algerian intermediaries. The discussions covered four matters: the release of 52 American hostages; the unfreezing of Iranian government assets held in US banks; a formal US pledge of non-intervention in Iranian affairs; and the establishment of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal at The Hague to resolve financial disputes. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Algiers Accords were signed on January 19, 1981. The agreement was properly concluded. The Congressional Research Service noted that the two countries have not maintained formal diplomatic relations since 1980. May 1986 | Secret Tehran Meetings Venue: Tehran, Iran US officials conducted secret meetings in Tehran in May 1986. As reported by the Reagan Library, a delegation led by former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane traveled to Iran to discuss an exchange of arms for the release of American hostages held in Lebanon. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the broader arrangement also involved redirecting proceeds from arms sales to fund other covert operations. Iranian Ambassador Said Rajaie-Khorassani stated at a New York press conference that the visits were &ldquo;fruitless.&rdquo; The talks did not result in a formal agreement. January 1998 | Cultural Diplomacy and Track-Two Contact Venue: Various Iranian President Mohammad Khatami proposed cultural engagement during a televised broadcast. As per US State Department files, this led to informal track-two diplomatic contact, including sporting exchanges later that year. Official government-level talks did not follow. September 1998 | Six-Plus-Two Talks Venue: United Nations General Assembly, New York US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Iran&#39;s deputy foreign minister met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, within the framework of the Six-Plus-Two multilateral talks on Afghanistan. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the meeting was the highest-level contact between US and Iranian officials since 1979. The discussions addressed regional stability, specifically the situation in Afghanistan. The National Security Archive noted this as part of a broader shift in US approach toward pursuing direct contact with Tehran. The meeting did not produce a bilateral agreement. April 2000 | Bilateral Diplomatic Outreach Venue: Washington, DC Secretary of State Albright delivered a formal statement acknowledging the United States&#39; role in the 1953 overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, calling prior US policy toward Iran &quot;regrettably shortsighted,&quot; according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The outreach included the lifting of some US sanctions on Iranian goods. The CRS noted that this period represented a brief improvement in bilateral relations. No comprehensive diplomatic framework resulted. December 5, 2001 | The Bonn Agreement Venue: Bonn, Germany Following the September 11, 2001 attacks and US military operations in Afghanistan, the United States and Iran participated in multilateral negotiations in Bonn on Afghanistan&#39;s political future. The two governments coordinated on two specific issues: post-Taliban governing arrangements in Afghanistan, and the repatriation of Afghan refugees, as per the Council on Foreign Relations. The two sides worked jointly on terms allowing displaced Afghan citizens to return home. The National Security Archive described this as a notable instance of direct US-Iran cooperation on a shared regional objective. The Bonn Agreement was concluded and signed on December 5, 2001. May 2003 | The Grand Bargain Proposal Venue: Washington, DC (delivered through Swiss intermediaries) Iran submitted a comprehensive diplomatic proposal to the United States through Swiss diplomats, who represented US interests in Tehran. According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, the document (which became known as the Grand Bargain) offered nuclear inspections, cooperation on regional security, and steps toward broader normalization. The CRS noted that bilateral tensions had risen in the early 2000s amid reports of previously undisclosed nuclear facilities. The proposal was not taken up. Talks did not proceed to a formal conclusion. March 2013 &ndash; July 14, 2015 | The Secret Oman Channel and the JCPOA Venue: Muscat, Oman (back channel); Geneva, Switzerland (interim deal); Vienna, Austria (final agreement) The Obama administration opened a secret diplomatic back channel with Iran in Muscat, Oman, beginning in 2011. As reported by the White House, the meetings centered on Iran&#39;s nuclear activities and laid the groundwork for formal multilateral engagement. In September 2013, President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by telephone (the most direct contact between the two countries&#39; leaders since 1979). The call opened a formal negotiating track between Iran and the P5+1 &mdash; the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany. An interim agreement, the Joint Plan of Action, was signed in Geneva on November 24, 2013, providing limited sanctions relief in exchange for a partial freeze of Iran&#39;s nuclear activities. The process moved to full negotiations and concluded in Vienna on July 14, 2015, with the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The JCPOA required Iran to dismantle and redesign its nuclear reactor at Arak, submit to enhanced IAEA verification, and limit uranium enrichment for a minimum of 15 years. In exchange, the US waived secondary sanctions on Iran&#39;s oil exports and financial sector, the EU lifted its ban on Iranian oil purchases, and UN Security Council resolutions imposing related restrictions were revoked, per the CRS. The agreement was concluded and signed by China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. April 2021 &ndash; August 2022 | JCPOA Revival Talks Venue: Vienna, Austria Multilateral negotiations aimed at restoring mutual compliance with the 2015 JCPOA were held in Vienna beginning in April 2021. According to the US State Department, the meetings focused on a mutual return to the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement. The sessions were structured as proximity meetings, in which US and Iranian delegations held separate sessions in the same building while European intermediaries carried proposals between them. The CRS reported that the talks addressed the same core issues as the original JCPOA: the scope of Iran&#39;s nuclear activities and the corresponding level of sanctions relief. Multiple rounds were held over more than a year. The talks did not reach a new agreement. September 2023 | Prisoner Exchange Venue: Doha, Qatar (transfer point) The United States and Iran concluded a prisoner exchange mediated by Oman, Qatar, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The specific terms covered two matters: the release of five Iranian-American dual citizens detained in Iran; and the transfer of approximately $6 billion in Iranian funds frozen in South Korea, released through a US sanctions waiver and routed through Qatar. The CRS reported that the funds were designated exclusively for humanitarian purchases. The exchange was concluded. No broader nuclear or diplomatic agreement was attached to it. April 12 &ndash; May 11, 2025 | Direct Nuclear Talks Venue: Muscat, Oman (April 12, April 26, May 11); Rome, Italy (April 19) Four rounds of direct US-Iran nuclear talks were held between April 12 and May 11, 2025. As reported by Iranian state news, the delegations were led by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. It was the first direct, face-to-face engagement between US and Iranian diplomats since 2017. Omani officials served as intermediaries across multiple sessions. The discussions addressed Iran&#39;s nuclear enrichment program and the removal of US sanctions. The CRS reported that the two sides exchanged written proposals during this period. The discussions were inconclusive. No agreement was finalized. April 11, 2026 | Islamabad Talks Venue: Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistan is currently hosting negotiations between the United States and Iran in Islamabad. Officially dubbed Islamabad talks will begin on April 11, 2026, following a military conflict between the two sides that began February 28. As per Iranian government statements, the agenda covers a 10-point peace plan addressing regional stability and the status of the Strait of Hormuz. These negotiations are currently active.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (R) talks on January 14, 2015 with US State Secretary John Kerry before their meeting in Geneva. Zarif said on January 14 that his meeting with his US counterpart was vital for progress on talks on Tehran's co

Middle East

From a 1943 wartime conference to active talks in Islamabad, the United States and Iran have sat across the table from each other repeatedly — through revolution, hostage crises, and nuclear standoffs.

The secret channels, sealed deals, and unfinished business of US-Iran diplomacy

ISLAMABAD: For decades, political leaders, generals, and commentators have leaned on a familiar phrase to explain repeated foreign failures in Afghanistan: &ldquo;the graveyard of empires.&rdquo; The expression suggests inevitability, that geography and culture doom any outside power to defeat, turning policy missteps into acts of fate. But scholars and analysts argue the phrase is less historical truth than convenient narrative. Abdul Basit, Senior Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University, calls it &ldquo;a very narrow framing which deprives the country of its diversity and the vitality it offers.&rdquo; He warns the implications extend beyond semantics: &ldquo;If Afghanistan is in trouble, because it is the heart of Asia, the entire Asia will be in trouble.&rdquo; A modern phrase, not an ancient truth The historical record does not support the idea that Afghanistan has consistently defeated foreign powers. The phrase itself only entered widespread use in November 2001, when former CIA station chief Milton Bearden wrote in Foreign Affairs that empires from Alexander the Great to the Soviet Union had been undone by &ldquo;unruly Afghan tribals.&rdquo; Historians R. Gerald Hughes and James Fergusson reject that thesis, arguing it is &ldquo;historically illiterate and empirically flawed.&rdquo; They contend the narrative distorts two millennia of regional history, though its resurgence in 2001 aligned closely with the United States preparing to invade Afghanistan. Research drawing on imperial records and studies by Thomas Barfield indicates the territory was under foreign rule for at least 75.95% of the past 2,000 years, rising to 87.85% under stricter definitions. Barfield describes an &ldquo;Afghan Paradox&rdquo;: stability historically depended on strong centralized authority, not resistance to it. Empires including the Mongols, Kushans, Mughals, and Safavids ruled successfully for extended periods. In this framing, Afghanistan was less a graveyard than a strategic corridor. A &ldquo;highway of conquest&rdquo; linking major regions. Origins in imperial failureThe roots of the myth trace back to the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839&ndash;1842). While the British invasion initially succeeded, it ended in catastrophe during a retreat in which thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed near Gandamak. According to Martin J. Bayly, colonial records framed the defeat in ways that shifted blame from military leadership to the environment and local population. Nivi Manchanda argues this narrative was deliberately constructed to shield decision-makers from scrutiny. Sahar Khan of the Stimson Center describes the pattern clearly: &ldquo;The term shifts the blame away from decision-makers and onto things like the terrain, decentralized power structures, and cultural norms.&rdquo; The British themselves undermined the myth during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878&ndash;1881), adapting their strategy and ultimately imposing a protectorate over Afghanistan for decades. Repeating the narrativeThe Soviet experience followed a similar trajectory. Journalist Arshad Yousafzai notes: &ldquo;the Soviets didn&#39;t collapse solely because of Afghanistan, they fell apart because of deep economic rot and political shifts back in Moscow.&rdquo; Despite this, the &ldquo;graveyard&rdquo; framing persists, often simplifying complex geopolitical failures into cultural inevitabilities. Human consequencesAnalysts say the narrative carries real-world costs. By recasting policy failures as destiny, it obscures accountability and sidelines the lived realities of Afghans. Recent reporting by Amnesty International and the US State Department documents severe restrictions on women&rsquo;s rights, along with arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings. As Khan puts it, &ldquo;The phrase &lsquo;graveyard of empires&rsquo; transforms a policy failure into a destiny.&rdquo; The historical record suggests otherwise. What ended foreign campaigns in Afghanistan was not an immutable landscape or culture, but decisions made by those who led them.

Afghan men armed with guns and rifles march in the Zazai Maidan district of Khost province on March 27, 2026. (AFP)

Afghanistan

The phrase "graveyard of empires" is less a historical truth about Afghanistan than a piece of political cover; invented, sustained, and deployed by the very powers it flatters.

Graveyard myth shields empires from accountability in Afghanistan’s history

ISLAMABAD: The debate over how to write &quot;strong female characters&quot; has consumed Hollywood for years. But in the folklore of Pakistan, etched into tombs, preserved in 17th-century manuscripts, and sung across five distinct regions, women have been swimming rivers, crossing deserts, debating clerics and slaying demons for half a millennium. Consider Sohni, from Sindh&#39;s Shahdadpur, where her tomb still stands. Every night, she navigates the treacherous Chenab River on an unbaked clay pot to reach Mahiwal, who waits passively on the opposite bank. She is the risk-taker, the boundary-crosser, the agent of her own desire. When the pot dissolves and she drowns, it is her conscious choice to enter the water rather than accept a life without autonomy. Mahiwal is merely the prize at the finish line. Or Sassui, immortalized in Shah Jo Risalo and anchored to the Kech-Makran route in Balochistan. She walks barefoot across the blistering Thar Desert to find her kidnapped lover Punnhun. The entire Hero&#39;s Journey, the trials, the suffering, the confrontation with the antagonist, belongs to her.&nbsp; Punnhun sleeps. Sassui acts. When threatened with assault by a shepherd, she doesn&#39;t wait for rescue; she commands the earth itself to open and swallow her, protecting her agency through spiritual ascension. She is neither damsel nor deity, she is sovereign. These aren&#39;t anomalies. They&#39;re the rule. In Punjab&#39;s Jhang district, a tomb dated 1471 CE verifies the existence of Heer. In Waris Shah&#39;s epic, she doesn&#39;t weep silently when forced into marriage, she engages the Qazi in fierce theological debate, citing Islamic jurisprudence to argue that forced marriage violates divine law. She schools the clergy. Ranjha, meanwhile, is a passive flute-player content to herd her buffaloes. He is her disciple, not her savior. From the Pashtun highlands of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa comes Gul Makai, preserved in 17th-century prose manuscripts. This woman stops an inter-tribal war by wielding the Quran as rhetorical weapon. She forces an all-male Jirga (council) to submit to her interpretation of sacred text. Her agency is intellectual, theological, revolutionary. Malala Yousafzai didn&#39;t choose this name accidentally. Even the &quot;damsel&quot; archetype collapses. In Sindh&#39;s Sehwan region, Momal builds a palace rigged with lethal puzzles to test and reject male suitors. She controls the gaze, the space, the rules. In Balochistan&#39;s heroic age, Hani is forced to marry the powerful Mir Chakar Rind to save her true love. She refuses to consummate the marriage for thirty years by turning her body into an unconquerable fortress. Her &quot;no&quot; is more powerful than a king&#39;s armies. And then there&#39;s Durdana Chelmard from folk anthologies, the monster-slayer who dresses as &quot;the strength of forty men&quot; to kill the demon terrorizing her kingdom, not for glory, but because the men failed. She is Gretel defeating the witch while Hansel cowers in the cage. These Pakistani tales, with their documented tombs, 17th-century manuscripts, and centuries-old oral traditions, prove that female agency runs deep in human storytelling. Women swimming rivers. Women crossing deserts. Women debating scripture. Women slaying monsters. Not as exceptions. As archetypes. Perhaps the answer to writing strong women isn&#39;t innovation. Perhaps it&#39;s remembering what storytellers already knew five hundred years ago.

From Sindh's river-swimmers to Balochistan's warrior queens, verified Pakistani folktales feature women who debate clerics, cross deserts, and slay demons—while men wait passively as prizes.

Pakistan's folktales: Where strong women slay demons, men wait passively

ISLAMABAD: While 235 million Indians struggle in multidimensional poverty, their government has locked in weapons contracts worth over $23 billion in 2025 alone, a military spending spree that analysts warn is accelerating a dangerous arms race across one of the world&#39;s most densely populated and nuclear-armed regions.&nbsp;The scale of the buildup is staggering. The defense ministry in New Delhi signed 193 contracts totaling 2.09 trillion Indian rupees ($23.28 billion) in the 2024-25 cycle, according to India&#39;s Press Information Bureau. Domestic manufacturers secured 92% of orders under the &quot;Atmanirbhar Bharat&quot; self-reliance initiative, marking India&#39;s most aggressive military expansion in decades.&nbsp;The timing is stark. India ranks 130th on the UN Human Development Index, with 235 million people facing multidimensional poverty and 269 million vulnerable to falling into poverty, according to the 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index published by the UN Development Programme and Oxford University. Yet the Indian Union Budget for Financial Year 2025-26 allocates 13.45% of total federal expenditure to defense and just 2.54% to education.&nbsp;An examination of India&#39;s weapons contracts reveals a coordinated strategy to achieve military dominance across South Asia while forcing regional neighbors into reactive militarization that diverts resources from development priorities and increases the risk of catastrophic miscalculation.&nbsp;Arsenal from three continents The acquisition spree draws from an unlikely coalition of suppliers. India and the US renewed their 10-year Defense Framework Agreement on Oct. 31 during meetings between Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in Kuala Lumpur, according to statements from both defense ministries.&nbsp;Under the renewed framework, Washington approved $45.7 million in Javelin anti-tank guided missiles and $47.1 million in Excalibur precision-guided artillery shells capable of two-meter accuracy at 70-kilometer range, according to US Defense Security Cooperation Agency notifications. The US also approved 113 additional GE-F404 engines for India&#39;s Tejas fighters.&nbsp;The centerpiece of American military sales remains a $3.9 billion procurement of 31 MQ-9B Predator armed drones with 1,000-kilometer operational range, scheduled for 2029 delivery. Negotiations have advanced for six additional P-8I Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and co-production of Stryker infantry combat vehicles, according to Indian defense sources.&nbsp;France and India signed a $7.6 billion Inter-Governmental Agreement in April for 26 Rafale Marine fighters equipped with SCALP cruise missiles offering 300-kilometer standoff range and HAMMER precision munitions, according to the French Defense Ministry. The aircraft will deploy aboard carriers INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya.&nbsp;Russia has continued deliveries of the S-400 Triumf air defense system despite Western sanctions, with three regiments now operational, according to Indian media reports. Indian media reported the systems were utilized during border incidents in May and December. Moscow and New Delhi signed a $248 million contract in March for engines to upgrade India&#39;s T-72 tank fleet, including technology transfer for licensed domestic production, according to Russia&#39;s state-owned Rostec Corporation.&nbsp;Indigenous push Domestic production has accelerated dramatically under the &quot;Atmanirbhar Bharat&quot; initiative. State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited received $6.98 billion for 156 Prachand light combat helicopters, according to company statements. The Defense Acquisition Council approved $28 billion in procurements covering the Nag Missile System Mk-II, BrahMos fire control systems, indigenous medium-altitude long-endurance drones, ground-based electronic intelligence systems and naval surface guns, according to India&#39;s Press Information Bureau.&nbsp;Additional contracts finalized 307 Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Systems valued at $768.5 million, 425,000 close-quarter battle carbines for $308.5 million, and various ammunition types for Pinaka Multi-Barrel Rocket Launchers totaling $1.13 billion, according to Ministry of Defense procurement data. The Cabinet Committee on Security approved development of the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft fifth-generation fighter program in May, according to government statements.&nbsp;&quot;The next warfare frontier is swarm drone attacks,&quot; said Dr. Masood ur Rehman Khattak, assistant professor of international relations at International Islamic University Islamabad, whose doctoral research examined Indian military strategic thinking and its implications for South Asian deterrence stability. &quot;We saw this in the Russia-Ukraine war, Israel-Iran confrontations and the Pakistan-India standoff in May. India is heavily investing in this domain.&quot;&nbsp;Cost of guns over development The opportunity cost becomes clear in comparative terms. The $3.9 billion allocated for armed drones alone could fund approximately 15,000 schools or 500 hospitals based on Indian government construction estimates obtained through Right to Information requests.&nbsp;Trilateral arms race The spending surge extends beyond South Asia&#39;s bilateral dynamics. India faces strategic challenges with China along the disputed Line of Actual Control, where persistent infrastructure buildup by the People&#39;s Liberation Army necessitates &quot;modernization and operational preparedness&quot; to maintain the status quo, according to the Ministry of Defence Annual Report 2024-25.&nbsp; In the Indian Ocean Region, the Indian Maritime Doctrine 2025 formally recognizes the threat of &quot;military encirclement&quot; due to China&#39;s expanding naval presence and dual-use base network including facilities at Djibouti, Gwadar and Hambantota. The competition between India-Pakistan and India-China creates interlocking security dilemmas that ripple through global great power relations. The US has positioned India as a counterweight to Chinese influence through weapons sales and strategic partnerships, while Russia maintains defense cooperation with New Delhi despite Western pressure over Ukraine.&nbsp;&quot;Countries involved in strategic competition do not compromise on defense expenditure,&quot; said Dr. Attiq ur Rehman, a defense analyst specializing in South Asian security, nuclear politics and defense studies. &quot;India has adopted a balanced policy with all great powers &mdash; receiving S-400 systems from Russia while maintaining US strategic partnership &mdash; positioning itself as an essential customer for nations seeking to constrain Chinese influence regionally.&quot;&nbsp;Regional reckoning The arms buildup forces reactive militarization across the region. Pakistan has relied primarily on Chinese military assistance, including JF-17 Thunder fighters jointly produced with China and Type 054A frigates, according to Pakistani military sources. Regional states will be forced to divert scarce resources from development priorities into military modernization, perpetuating cycles of competition that benefit no population.&nbsp;The pattern mirrors historical precedents. Arms buildups preceded the wars of 1965, 1971 and 1999, each time undermining diplomatic efforts and confidence-building measures that had sought to reduce tensions. India launched a massive modernization program following the 1962 Sino-Indian War while Pakistan received substantial American military aid through the 1954 Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute military expenditure data.&nbsp;&nbsp;&quot;The conventional imbalance automatically creates dangerous dynamics,&quot; Khattak said. &quot;This dynamic is extremely dangerous for the region. India is now focusing heavily on artillery with extended ranges &mdash; systems like Dhanush, ATAGS and Vajra K9 that far exceed the range of older systems. They&#39;re adding capabilities systematically, and this creates pressures that make the entire regional security environment more volatile.&quot;&nbsp;Advanced weapons systems lower crisis thresholds and compress decision-making timelines during confrontations, reducing space for diplomatic resolution, according to conflict studies research from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.&nbsp;Dr Rehman noted that the great power competition adds another layer of complexity. &quot;India has positioned itself as essential to constraining Chinese influence, which ensures continued weapons flows from both Western and Russian suppliers despite geopolitical tensions,&quot; he said.&nbsp;Guns-and-butter equation The 2025 acquisitions fundamentally alter South Asia&#39;s military equilibrium. The trajectory threatens to transform one of the world&#39;s most densely populated regions into an arena of intensifying military competition, where advanced weapons systems and compressed crisis timelines increase the risks of miscalculation and escalation.&nbsp;In a region where nuclear-armed neighbors have fought four wars since 1947, where over 500 million people live within potential strike range of the weapons systems India is now deploying (as per UN and SIPRI), and where a single miscalculation could trigger catastrophe on a scale the world has never seen, the $23 billion question is not what India can buy with its defense budget. It is what the entire subcontinent will pay for it.&nbsp;The Rafale fighters, the Predator drones, the S-400 systems &mdash; each represents a choice. Not just between guns and butter, but between a future where South Asia&#39;s 2.096 billion&nbsp;people can pursue development and prosperity, or one where they remain hostage to an arms race that enriches defense contractors in Washington, Paris and Moscow while schools go unbuilt, hospitals remain understaffed and hundreds of millions stay trapped in poverty that military spending helps perpetuate.&nbsp;India&#39;s defense ministry calls it strategic autonomy. History may record it as a collective suicide note, written in weapons contracts and signed by governments that chose military dominance over human development in one of the world&#39;s most vulnerable regions.

India

New Delhi chooses guns over development, signing $23 billion in weapons contracts that threaten regional catastrophe and perpetuate poverty.

Guns over schools: How India's military buildup is bankrupting South Asia's future

The phone call comes at 9pm, after a long day at work. The man on the other end, introduced through her mother&#39;s WhatsApp network, is pleasant enough. 20 minutes in, he mentions that he can&#39;t cook. Or clean. His mother does everything, he explains, but of course after marriage, that would be his wife&#39;s responsibility. &quot;You&#39;ll still work, naturally,&quot; he adds. &quot;We want a modern woman.&quot; The woman, in her mid-20s, sits in her room and feels a familiar exhaustion. This is the third such call this week. Different men, same script: they want a working woman who will also shoulder all domestic responsibilities. &quot;This is not feminism,&quot; she says, recounting the experience weeks later. She requested anonymity to speak freely about family matters. &quot;Feminism was meant to make our life easier, not harder.&quot; 250 years ago, Jane Austen was born in Hampshire, England. The novelist would create some of English literature&#39;s most beloved characters: Elizabeth Bennet, Emma Woodhouse, Anne Elliot; women navigating the constraints of Regency-era marriage markets with wit and intelligence. Austen&#39;s genius lay not in imagining escape from the system, but in documenting how intelligent women operated within it. Her heroines couldn&#39;t opt out of marriage, economic survival depended on it, but they could resist, delay and ultimately choose partners who offered genuine respect alongside financial security. That tension between autonomy and constraint, individual preference and family pressure, remains startlingly alive in modern Pakistan. Here, the marriage market Austen satirized has evolved but not disappeared, migrating from drawing rooms to WhatsApp groups, from calling cards to biodata profiles. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/8ba2624f-2eee-4643-b7e6-aa6e455d2db1-drawing boards to whatsdapp.jpeg" alt="drawing boards to whatsdapp.jpeg" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">The marriage market Austen satirized has evolved but not disappeared, migrating from drawing rooms to WhatsApp groups. (Illustration from Pride and Prejudice/Jane Austen&#39;s House)</figcaption></figure> Pakistan TV Digital spoke with four women who recently navigated or are currently navigating Pakistan&#39;s rishta system, the network of family connections and matchmakers through which most marriages are still arranged. Their experiences, shared on condition of anonymity, reveal how Austen&#39;s observations about marriage as transaction rather than romance remain uncomfortably relevant. Economics of eligibility The woman, living in Islamabad, describes how proposals arrive: Her mother has joined numerous WhatsApp groups dedicated to matchmaking. When a man&rsquo;s profile appears, it gets forwarded to daughters deemed age-appropriate. &quot;You don&#39;t even want to talk to them,&quot; her mother said after weeks of resistance. She finally relented. What followed were conversations lasting one to two hours, mandatory auditions with prescribed questions. Do you pray five times daily? Can you cook? In &quot;Pride and Prejudice,&quot; accomplished women needed music, drawing, languages. Today&#39;s requirements are different but identical in spirit. Several families specified height requirements: between 5 feet 4 inches and 5 feet 6 inches. &quot;My son is so tall, we want a girl that looks great next to him,&quot; mothers explained. &quot;Even if the guy had no prospects himself, he wanted a perfect wife: has to be religious and &#39;homely,&#39;&quot; she says. The word &quot;homely&quot; in Pakistani usage means domestically skilled, but the expectation is clear. The cruelest irony, she notes, is that families explicitly want working women, dual incomes are increasingly necessary, but refuse to adjust expectations around domestic labor. Unspoken rules A Pakistani woman in her early 30s who holds a foreign passport but lives in Pakistan remembers when the pressure began. &quot;From an early age, since the teens, they were telling us to mentally prepare for marriage,&quot; she says. &quot;Mind you, I was just 24 when the pressure intensified.&quot; She resisted. Proposals came and were rejected. She became engaged once, then broke it off. Her parents, she says, &quot;almost gave up on me.&quot; <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/c621a95d-c5a6-4daf-ab0f-79224ad9e023-AustenIllustrations3.webp" alt="AustenIllustrations3.webp" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">Two centuries after the novelist skewered Regency-era matchmaking, her observations about family pressure and women&#39;s constrained choices remain startlingly relevant. (Illustration from Pride and Prejudice/The Mary Sue)</figcaption></figure> In Austen&#39;s &quot;Persuasion,&quot; Anne Elliot is persuaded at 19 to reject Captain Wentworth because he lacks fortune and connections. The novel&#39;s tragedy isn&#39;t that Anne made the wrong choice; it&#39;s that the choice was never truly hers to make. Family pressure overrode her own judgment. Rare success A 28-year-old woman based in Karachi describes a smoother experience, though one that still operated through the rishta infrastructure. &quot;My parents joined every WhatsApp rishta group on the planet,&quot; she says. She&#39;s currently working in the corporate sector and married two years ago. The proposal came through a family friend. When asked how she knew he was right, her answer is simple: &quot;I felt calm and comfortable with him.&quot; &quot;Marriage is not constant happiness, but long-term emotional safety and partnership,&quot; she says. &quot;I believe the strongest marriages operate with a mindset of &#39;us versus the problem.&#39;&quot; Darker edge For a woman based in Peshawar who married in her early 20s, the process became traumatizing. A proposal came through family friends. The prospective in-laws made their expectations clear: She would not be allowed to study further or work. &quot;They earn enough to feed me,&quot; she recalls them saying. They openly discussed their wealth while explaining her economic contribution would be unnecessary. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/277410c8-7eff-4bca-a973-45f50fbbc660-AFP__20061030__Del69818__v2__HighRes__PakistanSocialMarriageMass.jpg" alt="AFP__20061030__Del69818__v2__HighRes__PakistanSocialMarriageMass.jpg" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">A Pakistani Christian bride shows off her jewellery during a mass wedding ceremony of about 55 couples in Lahore. (AFP)</figcaption></figure> Her family immediately rejected the proposal. Instead of ending there, it became a pressure campaign. &quot;They started insisting and started pressurizing my parents through our mutual friends to say yes,&quot; she says. The mutual friends became intermediaries, delivering messages about what a good match it was, how turning them down was insulting. Persistent question None of the women interviewed have given up on marriage. Like Austen&#39;s heroines, they&#39;re not revolutionaries attempting to dismantle the system. They&#39;re pragmatists trying to find decent outcomes within constraints they didn&#39;t choose. &quot;I&#39;m not against arranged marriages,&quot; one told me. &quot;I&#39;m against the hypocrisy. Say you want a housewife, fine. Say you want a working woman who will also be your mother&#39;s replacement, that&#39;s honest at least. But don&#39;t dress up exploitation as feminism.&quot; What strikes me most is how little has fundamentally changed since Austen&#39;s era. The mechanisms are more efficient, WhatsApp can connect families across continents instantly, but the underlying calculation remains: women as assets to be acquired, their worth determined by attributes that serve family interests. The question Austen asked repeatedly was: Given that you must operate within this system, how do you preserve your dignity and autonomy? How do you find genuine partnership in a transactional market? <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/bab8a1d3-b617-4a41-965a-589303f1c123-P-CE-Brock.jpg" alt="P-CE-Brock.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">Anne Elliot talking to Captain Wentworth &quot;in spite of the formidable father and sister in the background&quot;. (Illustration from Jane Austen&#39;s novel Persuasion/Jane Austen Society of Australia)</figcaption></figure> Elizabeth Bennet rejects Mr Darcy&#39;s first proposal and only accepts his second when he&#39;s demonstrated genuine respect. Anne Elliot spends years alone rather than settle. The women navigating Pakistan&#39;s rishta market are making similar calculations: seeking the same elusive balance between practical necessity and personal fulfillment.

Blogs

Two centuries after the novelist skewered Regency-era matchmaking, Austen's observations about family pressure and women's constrained choices remain startlingly relevant.

Marriage market: How Jane Austen's England lives on in Pakistan's rishta culture 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will officially revive one of South Asia&rsquo;s most vibrant spring festivals next month, as the Punjab government lifts a ban of more than a decade on Basant, the centuries-old kite-flying celebration once halted after deadly incidents caused by razor-sharp kite strings.&nbsp;Punjab&rsquo;s Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb announced the decision on X, declaring: &ldquo;Spring returns to the city of heritage and festivals. Lahore&rsquo;s skies will speak in color again, reclaiming our glory for the world.&rdquo;&nbsp;She said Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif &ldquo;has approved&rdquo; the return of Basant from February 6 to 8 in Lahore, the first officially sanctioned celebration since 2007. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 2;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 672px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1998711272876159402&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2Fnew%2F&sessionId=333af8a47caec9ae1a27b53b80cbf02f1fc98b03&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div>The festival historically transformed Lahore into a citywide spectacle, with entire neighborhoods turning into open-air gatherings and thousands of participants flying brightly colored kites in rooftop competitions. At its peak in the early 2000s, Basant drew international tourists and Pakistani expatriates who traveled home specifically for the event.&nbsp;Aurangzeb noted the festival would be celebrated &ldquo;across Lahore after 25 years,&rdquo; emphasizing that although small-scale celebrations persisted despite the ban, authorities had long blocked any formal or citywide events.&nbsp;A major safety operation is already underway. Lahore has begun installing protective antennas on motorcycles to prevent injuries caused by stray kite strings.&nbsp;&ldquo;Safety is CM Punjab priority,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Let every kite soar and every ride be safe, together we&rsquo;ll make Lahore happy, historic and secure.&rdquo;&nbsp;Why Basant turned deadlyOver the years, competitive kite-flying pushed enthusiasts to coat their strings, known locally as &ldquo;dor,&rdquo; with ground glass, metal or chemicals to gain an advantage.&nbsp;These sharpened strings could slice through rivals&rsquo; kites but also caused widespread harm, cutting electrical lines, triggering blackouts and, most tragically, injuring or killing motorcyclists who collided with the nearly invisible strings.&nbsp;By 2007, authorities attributed dozens of deaths to Basant-related incidents, including falls from rooftops and motorcycle accidents. The Punjab government banned the festival that year, and any attempts at revival in subsequent years were halted following new casualties.&nbsp;The ban hit Lahore&rsquo;s traditional kite-making families particularly hard, forcing many artisans to abandon their craft.&nbsp;New law sets strict controlsBasant&rsquo;s revival follows the introduction of the Basant Ordinance 2025, which sets strict safety rules aimed at preventing the tragedies that once made the festival deadly.&nbsp;Metallic and chemical-coated strings remain banned; only approved cotton strings may be used. Manufacturers and sellers must register with authorities and label each product with a QR code for tracking. &ldquo;Every kite string and seller registered, QR coded and monitored,&rdquo; Aurangzeb said, stressing rigorous enforcement.&nbsp;Penalties for violations include fines of up to Rs100,000 ($353.7) and possible imprisonment of up to three years.&nbsp;Motorcycles are being equipped with vertical antennas designed to deflect or break dangerous strings. &ldquo;On CM Punjab&rsquo;s direction a city-wide campaign to install safety antennas on all motorbikes starts tomorrow,&rdquo; she said, adding: &ldquo;Every motorbike in Lahore will have Antenna for safety before and during Basant.&rdquo;&nbsp;Aurangzeb said the festival belongs to the people but requires collective responsibility. &ldquo;Basant belongs to the people, its success is our collective responsibility. The Basant Ordinance 2025 will be fully enforced and implemented.&rdquo;</div>

It will be the first officially sanctioned celebration since 2007, when the a centuries-old kite-flying festival was prohibited after metal-coated strings killed dozens of people.

Punjab revives Basant festival after long ban with new safety rules

For decades, Pakistan has hosted one of the world&#39;s largest refugee populations, providing sanctuary to millions of Afghans fleeing conflict. But by October 2025, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared that Pakistan could no longer sustain this burden, citing security threats and socio-economic challenges. The result: over 1.47 million Afghan nationals repatriated in what Islamabad said is an orderly but necessary response to an escalating crisis.&nbsp; The numbers tell a grim story. Between 2023 and 2025, Pakistan experienced a devastating wave of terrorist attacks with alleged or confirmed links to Afghanistan. In January 2023, a suicide bomber killed 95 people at a Peshawar mosque. In July 2023, an attack on a political rally in Bajaur claimed over 50 lives. By December, 23 soldiers died in a military post attack in Dera Ismail Khan.&nbsp; In 2023, Pakistan&#39;s former Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti stated that 14 of 24 suicide bombings in that year alone&nbsp;involved Afghan nationals. The pattern continued into 2024 and 2025. After seven soldiers were killed in North Waziristan in March 2024, Pakistan&#39;s defense minister declared that terrorism against Pakistan was &quot;mostly being conducted from Afghanistan.&quot; Most recently, in November 2025, a suicide bombing at an Islamabad district court killed 12 people. Pakistani officials stated that the bomber was an Afghan national and the attack was orchestrated from Afghanistan. For Pakistan, these aren&#39;t isolated incidents but evidence of a systemic problem: militant groups, particularly Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), operating from Afghan territory to launch cross-border attacks. Pakistani officials have repeatedly asked the Afghan Taliban of preventing its soil from being used by these militant groups. Despite diplomatic assurances to the contrary, the Taliban regime has done little. The diplomatic efforts were genuine but ultimately futile. Throughout 2025, Pakistan engaged in multiple rounds of high-level talks with Afghanistan&#39;s Taliban government, mediated by Qatar and Turkey. In April, Pakistan&#39;s Foreign Minister visited Kabul. In May, trilateral talks were held in Beijing. When deadly border clashes erupted in October, three separate negotiation rounds were convened in Doha and Istanbul. All failed. Pakistan demanded verifiable action against militant groups; Afghanistan either could not or would not deliver. The humanitarian dimension of this crisis cannot be ignored. According to an International Organization for Migration report in late November,&nbsp;435,279 Afghan nationals returned to Afghanistan between July and September alone. 93% left through self-organized returns, driven overwhelmingly by fear of arrest. The deportees came from areas that had suffered terrorist attacks: 28% from Quetta, 11% from Pishin. In September 2025, a suicide bombing at a political rally in Quetta, near Pishin, was claimed by the ISIS-K. This is the tragic calculus of national security meeting humanitarian obligation. Pakistan has legitimate security concerns. When diplomatic channels fail and attacks continue, a government faces pressure to act decisively. The international community has largely remained silent, treating this as a bilateral issue rather than a regional crisis requiring multilateral solutions. Afghanistan&#39;s Taliban regime has proven unable or unwilling to control militant groups within its borders, leaving Pakistan with few options. Meanwhile, Afghan refugees become pawns in a security crisis not of their making. There are no easy answers here. Pakistan&#39;s security concerns are real and documented. The failure of diplomatic engagement left Islamabad feeling it had exhausted peaceful options. But the mass repatriation of over a million people, many of whom have known only Pakistan as home, raises profound questions about refuge and the limits of hospitality when national security appears threatened. What remains clear is that this crisis demands more than bilateral negotiations that end in deadlock. It requires sustained international engagement, pressure on the Afghan&nbsp;Taliban to deny sanctuary to militant groups, and genuine support for both Pakistan&#39;s security needs and the humanitarian needs of displaced Afghans. Without it, we&#39;re left with what we have now: a tragic situation where everyone loses, and the most vulnerable pay the highest price.

When diplomatic channels fail and attacks continue, a government faces pressure to act decisively.

Pakistan's refugee crisis: When security concerns force difficult choices

24 years ago, the twin towers fell in Lower Manhattan, reshaping not just the skyline but the lived reality of every Muslim in America. This January, Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in as New York City&#39;s 111th mayor&mdash;its first Muslim, first South Asian, and first African-born leader.&nbsp; The geographic irony is almost too perfect: a Muslim mayor taking office in the very city whose police department once mapped every mosque within 100 miles, where &quot;wearing traditional Islamic clothing&quot; was listed as a radicalization indicator, where informants infiltrated wedding parties and college rafting trips in the name of counterterrorism. The distance between those two moments&mdash;between surveillance subject and City Hall&mdash;tells a story not just of individual achievement but of collective survival, political awakening, and the hard-won transformation of a community that refused to disappear. Since at least 2002, the NYPD&#39;s Intelligence Division engaged in what can only be described as systematic religious profiling. The Demographics Unit mapped 28 &quot;ancestries of interest&quot; associated with Muslim populations while explicitly excluding non-Muslims like Coptic Christian Egyptians or Iranian Jews. Undercover officers embedded themselves in mosques, bodegas, coffee shops, and barber shops. Their job, according to civil liberties groups, was to &quot;live the life of a fake Muslim&quot; inside these communities. The statistics are staggering: anti-Muslim hate crimes jumped from 28 incidents in 2000 to 481 in 2001 alone. But numbers can&#39;t capture what surveillance does to a community&#39;s soul. As Dr. Debbie Almontaser, a longtime Muslim advocate, testified: &quot;The community was traumatized because of how invasive the surveillance was.&quot; Trust evaporated&mdash;not just between Muslims and law enforcement, but among Muslims themselves. You couldn&#39;t be certain your neighbor wasn&#39;t an informant. Abdullah Ahmad, a Pakistani-American Brooklynite, who grew up in the 2000s, remembers this atmosphere vividly. &quot;Growing up in New York, it was a lot of Islamophobia,&quot; he recalls. &quot;That smear campaign mentality, the stigmatism that came from the Bush administration and everything after, it shaped how we moved through the world.&quot; Yet this is also where the story turns. Because surveillance, for all its trauma, had an unintended consequence: it politicized a generation. When your community is under siege, you have two choices:&nbsp;retreat or organize. New York&#39;s Muslims chose organization. Mamdani&#39;s victory carries symbolic weight that no single person should have to bear. A 2017 Pew Research survey found that 75% of US&nbsp;Muslims agreed there is &quot;a lot of discrimination&quot; against their community. The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion noted that &quot;widespread negative representations of Islam, fear of Muslims generally, and counterterrorism policies have served to perpetuate, validate and normalize discrimination.&quot; Into this climate steps a 34-year-old who spent his early years in Uganda and Cape Town, a &quot;third culture kid&quot; who once worked as a foreclosure prevention counselor in Queens. He&#39;s being asked to represent not just eight million New Yorkers but, symbolically, 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide. Yeliz Coban, a Turkish-American Brooklynite,&nbsp;understands this weight differently. &quot;It feels like being heard,&quot; she says simply. &quot;Not just being spoken at or spoken about, but truly listened to. It feels like someone who understands both the quiet resilience and the heavier burdens that Muslim communities have carried. His win isn&#39;t just symbolic&mdash;it&#39;s emotional. It feels like the city finally made space for us at the table.&quot; But the political opposition Mamdani faces reveals how precarious this moment remains. President Trump branded him a &quot;communist&quot; and vowed &quot;political retribution.&quot; Sitting members of Congress used fear-mongering, warning that his election would cause &quot;another 9/11.&quot; Trump even endorsed independent Andrew Cuomo&mdash;his political opponent&mdash;to prevent a Muslim from leading America&#39;s largest city. Masroor Jehangiri, a Pakistani-American living and studying in Staten Island, a predominantly Republican-leaning borough of NYC, feels both pride and anxiety. &quot;As a Muslim, I certainly feel proud and enabled that a person from our background can now become mayor of one of the greatest cities in the world,&quot; he says. &quot;This also comes with worry about how much Mamdani can actually deliver seeing how bad the political opposition has gotten. But I&#39;m glad his campaign revealed the mindsets of the politicians that lead us.&quot; Here&#39;s what makes Mamdani&#39;s victory genuinely transformative rather than merely symbolic: he didn&#39;t win by running away from controversy or making himself palatable to power. He won by building the largest grassroots campaign in New York history&mdash;100,000 volunteers knocking on three million doors. He won by centering economic justice: freezing rents for two million New Yorkers, making buses free, creating universal childcare, building 200,000 affordable housing units. &quot;A year ago, almost nobody had heard of Zohran Mamdani,&quot; Masroor notes. &quot;He used social media and multiple mediums to connect with younger generations, but he was also out on the streets doing ground work, genuinely connecting with everyday New Yorkers. For the first time, we witnessed a politician being genuine and honest,&nbsp;who doesn&#39;t seem trained to say certain answers but rather knows what answers people want.&quot; Abdullah saw this authenticity firsthand. &quot;Zohran has been a person of the community since the very beginning. He can speak to folks in Harlem because of his Ugandan background, or with all the desis [South Asians] in Jackson Heights.&nbsp;I recently had friends who went out for Halloween, and he was at the clubs speaking. No other politician would do that. I went to Yemeni delis, and they still have his posters up.&quot; This matters because it reframes the narrative. Mamdani isn&#39;t asking Muslims to be grateful for a seat at the table&mdash;he&#39;s reorganizing the entire table around working people&#39;s needs. South Asian voter turnout in the 2025 NYC primary increased by 40% compared to 2021, not because of identity politics but because a candidate finally spoke to their lived economic reality. The path from surveillance to City Hall wasn&#39;t inevitable, it was built. Built by Muslims who refused to self-censor out of existence, who organized despite fear, who raised their children to claim space rather than apologize for occupying it. Abdullah captures this generational shift perfectly: &quot;This 9/11 rhetoric is sort of ending. Yeah, you can instill fear from the Trump administration or Cuomo or whatever. But I think love and hope trumps all of that.&quot; Yeliz&#39;s hopes are more personal but no less powerful: &quot;My prayer is that Mamdani leads with integrity, keeps his promises, and shows this city that representation isn&#39;t something to fear but something that can expand our collective sense of belonging. If he does that, even those hesitant now will see that this moment isn&#39;t a threat, it&#39;s an opportunity.&quot; 24&nbsp;years ago, Muslim New Yorkers became surveillance subjects in their own city. Today, one of their own will lead it. That transformation didn&#39;t erase Islamophobia or solve systemic discrimination. But it proved something more important: that communities under siege can organize their way to power, that the children of immigrants can reshape the cities that once profiled them, that the distance between &quot;suspect community&quot; and City Hall is shorter than it looks&mdash;if you&#39;re willing to knock on three million doors. The future isn&#39;t certain, but it&#39;s no longer being written about Muslims. It&#39;s being written by them.

Articles

The geographic irony is almost too perfect: a Muslim mayor taking office in the very city whose police department once mapped every mosque within 100 miles.

New York once surveilled its Muslims, now Zohran Mamdani leads it

JERUSALEM: Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday voted to advance a bill submitted by the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin <a href="https://pakistantv.com/article/israel-pm-confirms-gaza-flotilla-interception-says-thwarting-malicious-scheme" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Netanyahu</a> which would dissolve parliament and pave the way for early elections. In a preliminary reading, 110 out of 120 lawmakers voted in favor and none against the bill, which will now pass to a committee before three more parliamentary readings. If the bill is ultimately approved it would automatically trigger elections to be held after 90 days. Polls are currently scheduled to take place by the end of the legislative term on October 27. Netanyahu is under mounting pressure from ultra-Orthodox parties, while his fractious right-wing coalition appears to be facing possible collapse. Ultra-Orthodox parties accuse Netanyahu of failing to deliver on his promise to pass legislation that would permanently <a href="https://pakistantv.com/article/thousands-of-orthodox-jews-protest-israeli-draft-changes-in-new-york" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">exempt young men</a> of their community from compulsory military service if they are studying in yeshivas, or religious seminaries. Sensing an opportunity amid the turmoil, several opposition parties announced earlier this month that they intended to introduce their own bills to dissolve the Knesset. On Wednesday coalition chairman Ofir Katz said: &quot;This coalition has completed its days. &quot;This is the only opposition that caused the coalition to grow. In this term we passed nine budgets and 520 laws,&quot; he added. The bill does not set a date for elections, which would be fixed during the committee stage.

Dozens of protesters gather in front of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) to demonstrate against a controversial bill that proposes the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners in West Jerusalem on March 31, 2026. (AFP)

Netanyahu is under mounting pressure from ultra-Orthodox parties, while his fractious right-wing coalition appears to be facing possible collapse.

Israeli lawmakers advance bill to dissolve parliament

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan&rsquo;s Senate on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution reaffirming the longstanding friendship and strategic partnership between Pakistan and China as the two countries mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations. The resolution, titled &ldquo;Re-affirming China-Pakistan Friendship and Brotherhood,&rdquo; was presented in the Senate by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar in his capacity as Leader of the House, according to the Foreign Office. Speaking on the occasion, Dar extended heartfelt congratulations to the leadership and people of both Pakistan and China on the historic milestone, describing bilateral relations as a cornerstone of regional peace, stability and development.&nbsp; He said the ties between the two countries, anchored in mutual trust, mutual respect and shared aspirations, have continued to grow stronger over the past 75 years. The deputy prime minister reaffirmed Pakistan&rsquo;s commitment to further deepening cooperation with China across political, economic, strategic and people-to-people domains. He also highlighted the shared resolve of both countries to carry forward their &ldquo;iron-clad friendship&rdquo; for future generations.

Resolution presented before the Senate of Pakistan titled “Re-affirming China-Pakistan Friendship and Brotherhood ”commemorating the 75th anniversary. (Photo: MOFA)

Foreign Affairs

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar presented the resolution, 'Re-affirming China-Pakistan Friendship and Brotherhood,' in his capacity as Leader of the House.

Pakistan Senate adopts resolution reaffirming China ties on 75th anniversary

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has formally reopened offshore oil and gas exploration after nearly 20 years, with the signing of 23 production-sharing agreements and exploration licenses for blocks awarded under the Offshore Bid Round 2025, marking a renewed push to attract investment in the country&rsquo;s offshore energy sector, according to an official statement on Wednesday.&nbsp; The awarded blocks are located in the Indus and Makran offshore basins, adjoining the territorial waters of Sindh and Balochistan. The agreements cover approximately 54,600 square kilometers of Pakistan&rsquo;s offshore area. Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik witnessed the signing ceremony. Two offshore blocks awarded under the same bid round, Offshore Deep-C and Offshore Deep-F, had earlier been executed on December 2, 2025, with Mari Energies Limited, Turkish Petroleum Overseas Company, and Fatima Petroleum Company Limited during a ceremony held at the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Office.&nbsp; The statement said that with the signing of the remaining 21 agreements, the contractual framework for the entire 2025 portfolio is now complete. Mari Energies Limited emerged as the most active participant in the 23 offshore blocks, serving as operator on 18 blocks and as a joint venture partner on five blocks with other exploration and production companies. Oil and Gas Development Company Limited and Pakistan Petroleum Limited have each been awarded eight exploration blocks, including two blocks as operators. Prime Global Energies Limited has been awarded one block as operator. United Energy Pakistan Limited and Orient Petroleum Incorporation, alongside other joint venture partners, also participated in the signing ceremony. Collectively, the awarded blocks represent an investment of approximately $82 million during Phase I of the initial three-year license period. Total investment is projected to increase to approximately $1 billion if exploration activities progress to Phase II drilling operations. Phase I activities will involve extensive geological and geophysical studies, including seismic data acquisition, processing, and interpretation, aimed at better defining the hydrocarbon potential of Pakistan&rsquo;s offshore basins. Subject to encouraging results, Phase II will involve the drilling of exploratory wells in prospective offshore areas. The Petroleum Division intends to engage leading international oil companies in the next phase of offshore exploration, with several global energy firms already evaluating available offshore data, the statement said.&nbsp;

Economy

Agreements signed for 23 blocks in the Indus and Makran basins to attract foreign investment and boost offshore oil and gas exploration.

Pakistan reopens offshore exploration after 20 years, 23 agreements signed 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan declared a three-day public holiday from May 26 to 28 to observe Eid-ul-Adha, according to a government notification. Eid-ul-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice, marks the conclusion of the annual <a href="https://pakistantv.com/article/pakistan-hajj-operation-accelerates-as-thousands-of-pilgrims-arrive-in-saudi-arabia" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hajj pilgrimage</a> to the holy city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The festival takes place on the 10th day of Dhul Hijjah, the final month in the Islamic lunar calendar. It commemorates Prophet Ibrahim&#39;s (Abraham) submission to God. On the festival&#39;s opening day, Muslims gather for special congregational prayers. Families engage in &quot;qurbani,&quot; the ritual slaughter of permissible (halal) livestock, including goats, sheep, cattle, and camels. The sacrificial meat is divided equally among the household, extended family and friends, and the poor. Throughout the celebration, adherents dress in new clothes, visit relatives, and greet one another with &quot;Eid Mubarak.&quot;

Pakistan's government declares a three-day public holiday for Eid-ul-Adha, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signing off on the decision

Pakistan announces three-day public holiday for Eid-ul-Adha

ISLAMABAD: The US Senate on Tuesday advanced a resolution to limit President Donald Trump&rsquo;s authority to conduct military action against Iran without congressional approval, marking the first time Democrats have cleared such a procedural vote after seven failed attempts. The joint resolution, introduced by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and several other senators, directs the president to remove US armed forces from &quot;hostilities within or against Iran&quot; unless Congress formally authorizes military action through a declaration of war or a specific use-of-force authorization. According to the text of the resolution, lawmakers argued that Congress alone has the constitutional authority to declare war under Article I of the US Constitution and that Congress has neither declared war on Iran nor approved military force against the country. The Senate voted 50-47 to discharge the resolution from the Committee, with four Republican senators, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, and Bill Cassidy, joining most Democrats in backing the resolution, while Democratic Senator John Fetterman voted against it, CBS News reported. The resolution further states that military action against Iran, including the enforcement of a naval blockade, would constitute hostilities under the War Powers Resolution. However, the measure includes provisions allowing the United States to defend itself against attacks, continue intelligence-sharing with allies, and assist partner countries targeted by Iran or its proxies through defensive support, according to the resolution. Speaking before the vote, Kaine said Americans were increasingly opposed to another conflict in the Middle East. &quot;They are deeply opposed to this war,&quot; he told reporters, according to CBS News. Kaine also linked the conflict to rising economic pressure on Americans, particularly fuel prices ahead of the Memorial Day holiday travel period. &quot;We&rsquo;re coming up on Memorial Day. A lot of people do a lot of driving, they&rsquo;re going to be paying a lot for gas,&quot; Kaine said, according to CBS News. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the vote showed growing Republican unease over the administration&rsquo;s Iran policy. &ldquo;Momentum is building to check him,&rdquo; Schumer said. The resolution still has to pass a final vote and, even then, would face major obstacles in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which has already rejected similar efforts, and would almost certainly be vetoed by Trump if it reached his desk, AFP reported.

US Senator Tim Kaine speaks following the Senate's vote on the War Powers resolution, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on February 13, 2020. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP)

The Senate has approved a procedural step to limit unauthorized US hostilities against Iran. However, the resolution still has to pass a final vote in both chambers of Congress and likely presidential opposition. 

US Senate moves to restrict unauthorized hostilities against Iran

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations has warned of a growing and potentially grave threat of nuclear terrorism emerging from Afghanistan under the Taliban.&nbsp;According to a UN report, the Taliban regime has sheltered international terrorist groups to sustain its rule, allowing militant networks operating from Afghan territory to pose a serious danger to global security.&nbsp;The report raises particular alarm over 133 tablets of stolen uranium dioxide taken from Tajikistan, which could potentially be acquired by the banned al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan. &ldquo;I think the threat has never been so high as it is today,&rdquo; according to Mauro Miedico, Director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT). &ldquo;Terrorist groups and individuals engage much more strongly with new technologies. Terrorist groups have recruited experts, including AI specialists, and we have seen the use of drones in terrorist acts. This potentially makes it more possible that they will launch a dirty bomb via drone.&rdquo;&nbsp;The report notes that al‑Qaeda has repeatedly signaled intent to conduct nuclear attacks, and that incidents of smuggling and theft of radioactive material have been recorded in several countries.&nbsp;Experts cited in the report say the combination of foreign fighters, modern technology available to militant groups in Afghanistan, and the sanctuary provided by the Taliban creates a real risk of nuclear terrorism.&nbsp;The findings echo warnings previously issued by the United States, Pakistan, European states and Central Asian countries, which have repeatedly described terrorism emanating from Afghanistan as a major security threat.&nbsp;The UN has called for strengthened international cooperation, improved controls on nuclear and radiological materials across the region, and enhanced monitoring and interdiction efforts to prevent dangerous materials from reaching extremist hands.

Artillery shells have hit areas near the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine since the full-scare Russian invasion of the country in 2022. (File photo: United Nations/IAEA)

The report notes that al‑Qaeda has repeatedly signaled intent to conduct nuclear attacks, and that incidents of smuggling and theft of radioactive material have been recorded in several countries.

UN warns of rising nuclear terrorism risk from Afghanistan under Taliban

STRASBOURG (FRANCE): EU lawmakers and member states reached a deal in the early hours of Wednesday to implement the bloc&#39;s nearly year-old trade pact with the United States, as President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs unless the pact is implemented by July 4. The 27-nation bloc struck an accord with Washington last July, setting levies on most European goods at 15%, but to Trump&#39;s frustration, it had yet to make good on its pledge to scrap levies on most US imports in return. Negotiators from the EU&#39;s parliament and capitals wrangled late into the night, finally emerging several hours after midnight with news of an agreement to move forward. &quot;This means we will soon deliver on our part,&quot; EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said as she welcomed the agreement and called for the implementation process to be finalized quickly. &quot;Together, we can ensure stable, predictable, balanced, and mutually beneficial transatlantic trade,&quot; von der Leyen said in a social media post. The EU agreement puts the bloc on track to meet Trump&#39;s deadline for ratification of the deal sealed in Turnberry, Scotland, between Trump and von der Leyen, and hopefully turn the page on more than a year of transatlantic trade battles. Short of that, Trump had warned the European Union should expect &quot;much higher&quot; tariffs -- and had already vowed to raise duties on European cars and trucks from 15% to 25%. The tariff blitz unleashed by Trump before the Turnberry accord, including hefty levies on steel, aluminum and car parts, jolted the bloc into cultivating trade ties around the world. But the EU cannot afford to neglect the &euro;1.6-trillion ($1.9-trillion) relationship with the US, its largest trade partner. No more &#39;sunrise&#39;&nbsp;The EU parliament gave the deal a conditional green light in March, after months of delay caused by Trump&#39;s designs on Greenland and a US Supreme Court ruling striking down many of the president&#39;s tariffs. Lawmakers were under pressure to renege on several amendments that the Americans considered unacceptable -- including a suspension clause that would scrap favorable tariff conditions for US exporters should the US breach the deal. The final text empowers the European Commission to trigger the suspension mechanism if the US fails to meet its commitments or disrupts trade and investment with the EU, including by &quot;discriminating against or targeting EU economic operators.&quot; It also gives the EU means to address spikes in US imports &quot;that cause or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic producers,&quot; with suspension again a possible outcome. But parliament also agreed to scale back some demands -- and the final text notably gave the US until the end of the year to drop surtaxes above 15% on steel components, rather than insisting on it as a precondition. Another fight was over so-called &quot;sunrise&quot; and &quot;sunset&quot; clauses under which the EU side of the accord would kick in once the US makes good on its pledges, and would expire unless renewed in 2028. The sunrise clause was removed altogether, while the sunset was pushed back to the end of 2029, according to a parliament statement. The head of parliament&#39;s trade committee, Bernd Lange, faced the challenge of hammering out a common stance between different factions that haggled until the last moment. Lange played down the concessions extracted from lawmakers, declaring after the deal was announced that &quot;parliament has prevailed with its demands for a comprehensive safety net.&quot; But Anna Cavazzini of the EU&#39;s Greens was less effusive, saying the &quot;deal puts the EU at a disadvantage&quot; while conceding &quot;it can secure a certain degree of economic stability.&quot; &quot;One can only hope that the agreement on the tariff deal will now calm the situation, so that other major issues in the EU-US relationship can be addressed,&quot; she said.

Europe

EU lawmakers and member states approve progress on a major US trade pact to avoid fresh Trump tariffs and stabilize the $1.9 trillion transatlantic economic relationship after months of tensions.

EU agrees to implement US trade pact after Trump threats

SYLHET:&nbsp;Spinner Taijul Islam took six wickets to lead Bangladesh to a 78-run win over Pakistan in the second Test and clinch a famous 2-0 series win on Wednesday. Pakistan, who started the fifth day on 316-7 chasing a record 437, were bowled out for 328 in the first session in Sylhet after Mohammad Rizwan hit a valiant 94. It was Bangladesh&#39;s first Test series win at home against Pakistan and a second successive sweep after their 2-0 triumph on Pakistani soil in 2024. The win marked another major milestone for Bangladesh, who secured four successive Test series victories for the first time in their history. &quot;It&#39;s difficult to explain the emotions of that final hour because Pakistan were batting really well and we were under pressure,&quot; Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto said. &quot;But compared to previous matches, we controlled our emotions better and avoided panic. &quot;Every player and member of the support staff contributed, and as captain I feel very proud of the team&#39;s work ethic.&quot; Wicketkeeper Rizwan kept Pakistan in the hunt for an unlikely win with a 166-ball stay after the visitors had slumped to 162-5 on day four. Rizwan put on an eighth-wicket partnership of 54 with overnight partner Sajid Khan, who made 28. Taijul broke through to dismiss Sajid for his 18th Test five-wicket haul, and pace bowler Shoriful Islam had Rizwan caught in the next over to end Pakistan&#39;s resistance. &quot;It&#39;s never good to lose games,&quot; said Pakistan skipper Shan Masood. &quot;In both matches we had significant chances, but we need to reflect on where we lost the game in batting, bowling and fielding if we want to move forward as a side.&quot; Taijul took the final wicket of Khurram Shahzad to return second-innings figures of 6-120 and trigger the Bangladesh celebrations. Taijul&#39;s four wickets on Tuesday had left Pakistan in deep trouble. Former captain Babar Azam counter-attacked with 47 before wicketkeeper Litton Das produced a stunning catch off Taijul. Captain Masood made 71, while Salman Ali Agha added 71 in a crucial 134-run sixth-wicket stand with Rizwan before Taijul broke through. Taijul, a left-arm spinner, also took 3-67 during Pakistan&#39;s first innings of 232. Litton, who was named player of the match, scored 126 in Bangladesh&#39;s first innings of 278. Veteran batsman Mushfiqur Rahim scored 137 in the second to guide Bangladesh to 390, with contributions from Mahmudul Hasan Joy (52) and Litton (69). The 39-year-old Mushfiqur was named player of the series for his 253 runs in two matches. Bangladesh won the opening Test by 104 runs.

Bangladesh's players celebrate after the dismissal of Pakistan’s Babar Azam during the fourth day of the second Test cricket match between Bangladesh and Pakistan at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet on May 19, 2026. (Photo: AFP)

Cricket

With this win, Bangladesh completes a 2-0 whitewash, marking their second consecutive series win against Pakistan in red ball cricket.

Taijul takes six to lead Bangladesh to Pakistan Test series win

ISLAMABAD: Taliban authorities in southern Afghanistan&rsquo;s Kandahar province have imposed new restrictions on YouTubers and video content creators, warning them against producing and publishing videos on social media platforms, according to Afghanistan International on Wednesday. According to the report, officials from the Taliban&rsquo;s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice recently summoned several YouTubers and social media activists in Kandahar and ordered them to stop creating video content.&nbsp; The move has alarmed young Afghan creators who say social media platforms such as YouTube have become one of the few remaining outlets for cultural expression and employment in the country. Youtubers spoke to Afghanistan International that they made videos about the city, historical sites, markets, traditions and people&rsquo;s lives.&nbsp; They said some of the videos also focused on social issues, including harmful customs, drug addiction and illiteracy. Other creators said their content had attracted thousands, and in some cases millions, of online views, helping showcase Afghan culture and daily life to international audiences. &ldquo;YouTube was one of our main sources of income, but now that making videos has been banned, we are effectively unemployed,&rdquo; another creator said. The restrictions currently appear to apply only in Kandahar province, though creators expressed concern that the policy could expand to other parts of Afghanistan. Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have steadily tightened restrictions on media and public expression. Under the Taliban&#39;s morality law, the publication of images of &ldquo;living beings&rdquo; is prohibited. As part of enforcing the policy, Taliban authorities have suspended state television broadcasts and shut down or restricted several local media outlets in different provinces. International rights organizations and media advocacy groups have repeatedly condemned the Taliban&rsquo;s restrictions on images and media content, calling on the authorities to respect freedom of expression and reverse policies limiting independent journalism and digital media activity in Afghanistan.

Freedom of expression - (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The Taliban in Kandahar have banned YouTubers and content creators from making videos, further tightening media restrictions and threatening livelihoods and freedom of expression in Afghanistan.

Afghan Taliban tighten restrictions on youtubers and video creators in Kandahar

BEIJING: Beijing has agreed to work with Washington on reducing levies affecting tens of billions of dollars in goods, a commerce ministry statement said Wednesday, days after US President Donald Trump visited China. Under the auspices of a newly established trade council, &quot;both sides agreed in principle to discuss a framework arrangement for reciprocal tariff reductions on products of equivalent scale&quot;, covering &quot;$30 billion or more on each side&quot;, the online statement said. US President Donald Trump was in Beijing last week, where he held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, over a variety of issues, especially the trade tariffs.

Asia

A statement from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that Beijing and Washington agreed in principle to discuss a framework arrangement for reciprocal tariff reductions on products of equivalent scale.

Articles by Maham Khan