Taliban education authorities in Panjshir province are appointing individuals to key school leadership roles in exchange for bribes, according to sources familiar with the matter. Several sources within the Taliban’s provincial Department of Education told Amu TV that Taliban officials are demanding 50,000 afghanis (about $570) and hosting a banquet in return for the post of school principal. Some of […]

What Aspiring Nuclear Powers Learned From Israel’s Strikes on Iran In the months since Israel and the United States’ 12-day war with Iran in June, analysts and intelligence agencies have widely debated the extent of the damage to the Iranian nuclear program and regime. It is still unclear how much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure has survived and how quickly, if […]

Tiananmen Square shuddered as advanced Chinese military hardware rolled past the leaders of the Axis of Aggressors — Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un. Wednesday’s parade, attended by about two dozen foreign leaders, was intended to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II — despite […]

With the leaders of Russia, Iran, and North Korea watching, Beijing conducted a massive parade on Wednesday, demonstrating the results of a years-long effort by the Chinese Communist Party to build a military it hopes can defeat the United States in the Pacific. Beijing’s growing prowess has eroded American security and increased the likelihood of war in the Taiwan Strait, […]

Last week Zelensky made the curious decision to open up the borders to Ukraine’s 18-22 year old males. The decision was met with both approval and disgust in different quarters of the country: The bigger question is why did Zelensky “liberate” such a vital age group at a time when manpower is at critical lows on the front? Astute observers […]

When regional authorities announced a sweeping list of book bans in Kashmir, the disputed territory at the heart of a recent military conflict between India and Pakistan, veteran journalist Anuradha Bhasin soon learned his book was among the newly prohibited titles. Published in 2022, A Dismantled State: The Untold Story of Kashmir After Article 370 examines growing repression in Kashmir […]

In Indian-administered Kashmir, the new Vande Bharat train glides into Srinagar railway station like a kept promise made visible. Its horn cuts clean through the morning air, scattering a few birds as a curious crowd edges closer — until a policeman in crisp khaki steps forward to remind them, gently but firmly, to stay behind the yellow line. A few […]

Chinese leader Xi Jinping welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin as an “old friend” as the two held a series of meetings Tuesday at a time when their countries face both overlapping and differing challenges from the United States. Relations between China and Russia have deepened in recent years, particularly following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. U.S. President […]

The recent Sino-Indo rapprochement, which was inadvertently brought about by the US, accounts for why this year’s Chinese host agreed to include this in the Tianjin Declaration unlike how it was conspicuously omitted from late June’s SCO Defense Ministers’ draft statement. The Tianjin Declaration that emerged from this year’s SCO Leaders’ Summit in that namesake Chinese city included condemnation of […]

Northeast: Narco-Terrorism Nexus On August 30, 2025, three persons – Neeraj Kumar (26), Jyoti Kumari (25) and Hashna Begum (26) – were arrested at the Agartala Railway Station in West Tripura District of Tripura after Police seized 29.140 kilograms of cannabis valued at around INR 400,000 from their possession. On August 29, 2025, Assam Rifles, in a joint operation with […]