Formerly Iran's second-largest oil customer, Indian financial institutions were forced to withhold crude oil payments following the 2018 US sanctions.
The US has seized an oil tanker, 'Skywave', linked to Iran in the Indian Ocean, as part of efforts to disrupt Iran's oil shipments and enforce sanctions. The vessel was part of a network transporting sanctioned Iranian crude oil, with the seizure occurring amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Donald Trump expressed optimism about securing an agreement with Tehran to prolong a truce and restore transit through a strategic maritime chokepoint within the next week, even as he criticised political opponents and the media for what he described as their tendency to distort outcomes, even in a hypothetical scenario of complete Iranian military surrender.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report said Trump believes the conflict is in its final stages and has urged aides to adhere to the four-to-six-week timeline he has outlined publicly.
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.
...is a way out, notes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the Iran War. What the indefinite extension produces is a prolonged condition of not-war-not-peace, in which oil markets cannot stabilise, Asian refineries cannot plan, European governments cannot stop subsidising consumption they cannot afford, and the next flashpoint -- a seized tanker, a miscalculated drone strike, a Truth Social post that claims too much -- is one news cycle away.
United States President Donald Trump has said that Iran is under close watch and a 'massive fleet' is heading towards the Gulf region.
The United States, which entered this war in expectation of a short, sharp win along the Venezuela model, is now preparing for deeper involvement in a conflict it does not fully control, without the allies it typically relies on, against an adversary that is not behaving as expected, in a global environment that is already absorbing economic shock. Prem Panicker continues his must read daily blog on the Gulf 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.
The ceasefire is still technically holding, to the extent that no overt hostilities have been reported yet, but the rhetoric has hardened dangerously. The week ahead will also clarify whether the Islamabad failure was a negotiating tactic or whether Washington has genuinely locked itself into a position from which the only exits are climb-down, escalation, or the slow bleed of a new status quo that nobody chose and nobody controls. Prem Panicker continues his must read blog on the Iran War.
The clock on the ceasefire is running out. But everyone's already whispering about round two, possibly as soon as this weekend.
He said he has always maintained that instead of fighting with each other, India and Pakistan should together fight against poverty.
The delegations from the US and Iran head to Islamabad on Friday, carrying a ceasefire that is already fraying, a Strait that is technically open and practically closed, and a negotiating agenda that would challenge even parties actually negotiating in good faith, which these groups are not. Prem Panicker continues his must read blog on the Iran War.
Like the realisation on the failure of development, we have also internalised the failure on democracy, argues Aakar Patel.
The 'rescue' operation occurred within kilometres of Iran's underground tunnel complex at Isfahan, assessed by the IAEA and US intelligence as holding a substantial portion of the country's 60 per cent enriched uranium stockpile. Retired senior US military officers have highlighted that the mission's footprint -- hundreds of special operators, multiple heavy-lift aircraft deep inside Iran -- appears outsized for recovering a single airman. Prem Panicker continues his must read blog on the Iran War.
'For the first time in a hundred years, the army has been taken out of the political equation. And for the first time ever, there is only one man who calls the shots. Not even Mao had this kind of power.'
If Xi Jinping can establish control over the PLA Ground Force, relations between India and China will settle down to an even keel. The next few weeks will show whether Xi has finally succeeded in gaining control over the PLA Ground Force. That could bring about the substantive shift in India-China relations that both our leaders have been working for, observes Ambassador Prabhat Shukla.
The 61-year-old senior diplomat was taken away for questioning in late July after returning to Beijing from an overseas work trip, the paper reported, quoting people familiar with the matter.
United States President Donald Trump is set to engage in high-stakes bilateral meetings on Thursday, including a closed-door session with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the Oval Office, according to Trump's public schedule released by the White House.
The US unit of PwC will lay off about 1,800 workers, marking its first formal job cuts since 2009 as the company seeks to restructure its technology group. This comes amid a slowdown in demand for some of its advisory business, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Half of the anticipated layoffs will target offshore positions, impacting a wide range of employees from associates to managing directors.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal ahead of his first state visit to the United States, Modi also talked about the Ukraine conflict, saying some people say that India is neutral but it is on the side of peace.
Trump's method are more destabilising than his policy. So, a good idea these couple of years is to sip Kool-Aid, and savour the joys of Trumplomacy, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
China on Wednesday expelled three Wall Street Journal correspondents, the largest expulsion of overseas media personnel from the country in more than three decades, after the newspaper declined to apologise for a column which Beijing criticised as "racist" and tarnishing its efforts to combat the deadly coronavirus epidemic. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China made repeated representations to the US newspaper over the opinion piece which had the headline: 'China is the real sick man of Asia', but regretted that it had not offered a public apology.
Chinese billionaire and Alibaba group founder Jack Ma is suspected to be missing following his mysterious disappearance from the public eye for over two months after Beijing's aggressive crackdown on his business empire.
Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu, a dean at China's National Defense University, stressed that he was expressing a personal view, not official policy, The Asian Wall Street Journal reported.
Attributing to Microsoft CEO for greater China, Simon Leung, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company plans to invest $100 million in Chinese companies, on top of the $40-million the software maker has invested since 2006.
Economist Joydeep Mukherji, who tracks India and China for Standard and Poor's, has joined the minority of economists who believe that with a little more effort India can overtake the Chinese economy.\n\n\n\n
Soybean cloth is touted as a more ecologically sound alternative to traditional cloth made of cotton or wool.
A few weeks ago, contrary to speculations among the Chinese, Zhao Baige, deputy director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China, announced that the country would be continuing with its one-child policy for another five-year term starting 2011.
US senators have alleged that TikTok, owned by the Chinese Communist Party, has interfered in elections of various countries, including India, and called for extending the deadline for a ban on the platform in the US. They applauded India's ban on the social media platform, citing concerns about Chinese propaganda and data harvesting. Lawmakers, including Democrats and Republicans, introduced legislation to delay the ban by 270 days, arguing it would allow for a more thorough review of the implications and potential alternatives to a ban. They also criticized the rushed nature of the ban and its potential impact on free speech and the livelihoods of American users.
Describing it as a "spectacle in Houston", the Wall Street Journal said Trump is hoping to pick up a larger share of this growing voters bloc in 2020 than he did in 2016. Trump understands the benefit of associating with Indian Americans, whose contributions are crucial to the prosperity of both nations in the 21st century, it added.
China is demanding America's best technology as the price for entry into its market.\n\n\n\n
India and China has the capability to emerge as new rivals to the US economy in the coming decades, an influential US daily has said.
Internet giant Yahoo may shed its substantial holding in China's Alibaba Group and in its Japanese affiliate in transactions totalling about $18 billion, says a media report.
The move came as the United States and its European allies are believed to have faced resistance in pushing their case for referring Iran's nuclear activities to the United Nations Security Council.
The recent action comes amid the ongoing tension between India and China after the violent standoff on June 15 in Galwan Valley area in eastern Ladakh in which both sides suffered casualties.
Demystifying the Chinese economy, a noted economist has said the Asian giant is living on 'borrowed growth' and this "surreal economy cannot continue indefinitely."
The world economy is in trouble, and governments are making things worse, says the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom published by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.
Trump's latest move will raise duties on more than 5,000 products made by Chinese producers, ranging from chemicals to textiles and consumer goods.
