Bangladesh-China and Bangladesh-US relations have evolved from reluctant engagement to increasingly consequential strategic partnerships.
'Actual implementation of the 14-point agreement is proving hard to achieve let alone striking and sustaining a long-term treaty or deal.'
The question is no longer whether the war will expand. It has. The next few days will tell us whether the war stabilises around Hormuz or whether the Strait itself becomes the trigger for a far larger rupture. What to watch for over the next 48 hours is simple: Any move by the US toward direct naval control of the Strait; any credible Iranian attempt to disrupt or mine shipping lanes and, critically, whether energy infrastructure in the Gulf continues to be targeted.If those lines are crossed in tandem, the war will no longer be containable within the region.
Climate change has increased the likelihood of temperatures high enough to affect player performance at 97 of the 104 tournament matches.
Indian benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed marginally lower due to profit-taking, following the Reserve Bank of India's decision to keep the repo rate unchanged while lowering its growth expectations for the current fiscal year and forecasting higher inflation.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, is set to be football's largest tournament but will unfold against a backdrop of significant geopolitical tensions, including conflicts, strained alliances, and complex immigration policies, challenging its traditional role as a symbol of global unity.
China has established a new county in Xinjiang province near Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the Afghanistan border, a move seen as strengthening security along the Wakhan Corridor and addressing concerns about Uyghur separatist militants.
...reopen for up to six months. Until then, the Strait stays nearly closed. The world pays. And no one, including the man who started this, can say when it ends, notes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the Iran War.
Karex, the Malaysian company that makes roughly one in five of the world's condoms -- about five billion a year, supplying Durex and Trojan among others -- announced this week that it is raising prices by up to 30 percent. The reason is the Strait of Hormuz.
'Once the currency goes out of the hand, then possibly your major challenge is that it will not come back.'
Both sides have now revealed a preference for escalation over strategic defeat, and each new provocation narrows the space for the next pause. The Touska seizure, Iran's refusal to negotiate under blockade, Israel's strikes on Iranian oil infrastructure -- all of these add up to an increasingly untenable situation. This makes the wild card -- Trump and his motormouth -- more consequential than ever, notes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the Iran War.
'It was diminishing even before Trump came to power.' 'The US was at the centre of the global economy. That position is going to become less and less important and less central.'
Trump may strike. He may announce productive talks and extend again. He may do both at the same time. Iran will not open the Strait on someone else's terms, so no matter what happens, that problem will remain unsolved. And the IRGC will still be collecting its $2 million toll from every ship bold enough to ask permission to pass.
'In such a scenario, Iran could proclaim itself victor, rebuild, re-enforce its diminished regional proxies to further destabilise neighbouring nations and take control of the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz.'
Taking Kharg would give the US control over virtually all of Iran's oil exports and thus provide significant leverage, notes Prem Panicker in his must read daily blog on the Gulf War. It would also put American troops within range of Iran's remaining missiles, drones, and artillery on a piece of real estate that is just eight square miles in size, and just 15 miles from the Iranian mainland.
The core issues to be settled -- access to Hormuz, Israel's aggression in Lebanon, the question of Iran's nuclear programme, sanctions relief and compensation -- are thorny enough to require weeks of patient negotiation. The most likely outcome of the opening sessions is that both sides take the measure of each other, establish what is and is not negotiable, and return home without having broken anything. That would count as progress.
US-Israel air attacks intensified on the seventh day of war, striking Tehran and other Iranian cities.
Israel and the United States had a plan. Iran punched back. And now the Gulf is reeling, the world is beginning to feel the pain and, as on date, no one in Washington or Tel Aviv appears willing to admit that the punch has landed, notes Prem Panicker, continuing his must-read blog on the war in the Middle East.
Amar Subramanya's appointment comes as John Giannandrea, Apple's senior vice-president for machine learning and AI Strategy, prepares to step down, transitioning to an advisory role before retiring in spring 2026.
Alliances fight wars effectively only when they share an endgame. If Israel acted without US knowledge, then the military alliance is operating without real coordination at the level of strategic targeting. Neither picture is reassuring in a war that is no longer regional in its consequences. Prem Panicker continues his must read daily blog on the Gulf War.
'Mojtaba Khamenei supervised the most recent repression in December 2025 and January 2026 which remains ongoing.'
When everyone has footage and no one can verify it, the loudest voice wins, notes Prem Panicker who begins a daily blog on the War in the Middle East.
'Pakistan is an ally who gives the US access.' 'If we have a presence there, it puts us that much closer to China and puts our assets closer to China and Iran.'
In yet another deadly attack on Indians and Indian-Americans in the United States in recent months, a 34-year-old trained classical dancer from India and a student of Washington University, was shot dead in St Louis, Missouri.
Former World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu on Thursday said the US economic policy towards India has taken an unfortunate turn, noting that President Donald Trump's harsh stance against New Delhi appears baffling. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods from August 1, amid signs of a stalemate in the ongoing bilateral trade negotiations between the two countries.
Let's work flat out and create a policy framework that fosters the growth of Indian non-family business VC and private equity firms. This will allow our Indian startups' dreams to flourish, explains Ajit Balakrishnan.
'We should watch -- in the near term -- for signs that the two have totally fallen out at a personal, political level.' 'Trump and Modi know how to be dealmakers, but they also know how to hold a grudge.'
Former Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna passed away at his residence in Bengaluru early Tuesday morning, his family said.
The Trump trade shock is a chance to push long-overdue reforms, rather than tinker with tariffs to appease the US, suggests M Govinda Rao.
iNCOVACC is the world's first intranasal vaccine for COVID-19 to receive approval for the primary two-dose schedule, and as a heterologous booster dose.
Artificial Intelligence, innovation and next-generation technologies figured prominently during the high-stakes discussion between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump at the White House, as the two sides announced transformative measures, including the US-India TRUST initiative, roadmap on accelerating AI infrastructure and INDUS Innovation, to boost tech ties.
The project shows a lack of respect for history, even if an inalienable part of it is colonial history, asserts T N Ninan.
United States President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the nomination of popular Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth, 44, as his defence secretary.
Non-coffee drinkers who sat for six or more hours a day were at almost 60 per cent higher risk of dying compared to coffee drinkers sitting for less than six hours, according to a research published in the journal BioMed Central (BMC) Public Health.
The vaccine would not have production scalability issues unlike Covaxin, Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 virus vaccine.
The finance minister continues to be backed by the same policy team in charting out the broad strategy as in the few earlier Budgets.
India has been rejecting China renaming places in Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that the state is an integral part of the country and assigning "invented" names does not alter this reality.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first-ever in-person meeting with President Joe Biden raised a number of issues involving the Indian community in America, including access for Indian professionals in the US and speaking about the H-1B visas, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla has said.
The report Air Quality and Health in Cities combined ground-based air quality data with satellites and models to produce air quality estimates for cities around the world.
Privatisation in Russia was endorsed by technocrats. It led to the rise of Vladimir Putin.
