Fight on toward goals that keep receding, or exit with most objectives unmet. Trump is agitated, his poll numbers falling below the Plimsoll line, his base fractured between those who back the war and those who remember that he campaigned on ending them.
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.
What we are watching is something different: A fog manufactured and maintained by the people who started the war, so that the question of why it was started never has to be answered, observes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the war in the Middle East.
'I suspect that Bangladesh being given permission stuck in India's official craw, and this story was an attempt to balance the scales by giving the impression that a similar waiver had been given to India as well.'
Trump has approved sharing targeting data with Ukrainians as the administration weighs sending powerful weapons, the news outlet reported on Wednesday (local time).
Sections in the US State Department and Pentagon have always felt more comfortable dealing with all powerful Pakistani generals instead of elected civilians, points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
By threatening to punish India with high tariff, Trump is actually planting a tantalising thought in the Indian mind that the Modi government should suitably 'incentivise' him, explains Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
United States Vice President Joseph Biden has described WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as a 'high-tech terrorist' who has put lives of people in jeopardy, and has said Washington is exploring what charges could be slapped against him.
'Communist China continues to aggressively expand its domain in the Indo-Pacific region.' 'It's crucial for the USA to continue its support in countering these malicious tactics.' 'India, along with other nations in the region, is not alone.'
Sukanya Verma lists everything you can watch on streaming platforms this weekend.
Former Telecom Minister A Raja, at the centre of the 2G spectrum allocation scam, has earned the dubious distinction of figuring in the list of Time Magazine's "an ignominious club of privileged leaders who stepped too far".
'N Ram and I met on the lawns of Mani Shankar Aiyar's bungalow.' 'I pulled out a rolled printout from my jacket and handed it to him.' 'In the cut-throat world of journalism, this was like high treason.' 'But letting a story be killed because you can't publish it is a bigger crime than passing it to the competition,' recalls Shekhar Gupta.
'This is total fraud. You are showing me the slip of my vote but not counting it so this is fraud.'
Even as Microsoft has seen exponential growth for its cloud platform Azure in India, the firm has not yet set up local servers.
Lauding India's ambitious space programme, The New York Times has said the country, currently witnessing an 'explosive' growth in space-tech start-ups, is set to 'transform the planet's connection to the final frontier' and can emerge as a 'counterweight' to China.
The United States has demanded that the whistle-blower website Wikileaks hand over all classified US military documents it has not yet published and remove existing material posted online, indicate emerging reports.
Former Washington Post editor Benjamin Baradlee, who guided the daily through its coverage of the infamous Watergarte scandal and transformed the newspaper into one of the world's leading publications, has passed away.
The reports were changed by CENTCOM higher ups to adhere to the Obama administration's public line that the US is winning the battle against the terror groups, claim analysts.
Bradley Manning, the United States army soldier who leaked a massive trove of secret US government files to WikiLeaks, was on Tuesday acquitted of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy but was convicted of several counts of espionage.
The anticipated surgery and recovery are expected to incapacitate Putin for 'a short time', the report said.
'Given the past record, no one will be prosecuted, especially since the beneficiaries comprise the most powerful people in the country. They will pay a fine and be let off.'
The bench said that 'argument on the preliminary issue and the claim of privilege raised by the Government of India is reserved'.
Aziz Haniffa reports from Washington, DC on how the American Enterprise Institute, a leading neo-conservative DC think-tank, wants the US to boost its military relationship with India.
US military is looking at options for a unilateral strike in Pakistan if a successful terrorist strike on US soil is traced back to the country, senior Pentagon officials were quoted as saying on Saturday.
Days after the WikiLeaks went onto release more than 92,000 classified documents pertaining to the war against terrorism, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged that thousands of such classified papers are missing from the department of defence.
The US Department of Defence has awarded a $284.6 million contract to Lockheed Martin to produce infrared target sight systems for the US Navy and Pakistan, a media report said on Saturday.
The Pentagon is moving elements of a supersecret commando unit from Iraq to Afghanistan to step up the hunt for Osama bin Laden, reports Rowan Scarborough in The Washington Times.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has developed a life threatening heart defect and a chronic lung condition during his years confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in southwest London, according to a report.
China on Wednesday asserted that it has enough "will and ability" to enforce its unilaterally declared new air defence zone over disputed islands in the East China Sea after two US B-52 bombers challenged Chinese authority over the controversial airspace.
The United States on Tuesday evacuated nearly 90 Americans from Yemen, while the Britain has withdrawn all diplomatic staff in the country amid a worldwide terror alert linked to electronic intercepts from Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, ordering a major attack since 9/11.
China should not feel cornered by a raft of geopolitical moves by the US and Japan against it by forging closer ties with India, Russia and others in the region and Beijing should focus on becoming a strong economic and military power, a state-run daily said on Thursday.
Last year, the US assistance to Pakistan was $534 million.
'America's withdrawal from Vietnam was an inspiring moment for all of us. We believed that it was a glorious victory of ideology and spirit and as historic as the defeat of the Nazis exactly 30 years ago,' remembers Kumar Ketkar 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War.
Carter has said India's designation as a 'major defence partner' would allow the US to cooperate with it --
A strong partnership with US would deter China from making any aggressive posture against India, said Puneet Ahluwalia, a member of the Trump's Advisory Committee on Asian Americans.
The Trump regime has informed the Congress that it 'strongly supports' transfers of F-18 and F-16 fighter proposals put forth by Boeing and Lockheed Martin respectively.
Nitin A Gokhale, Co-founder, BharatShakti.in and long-time Rediff.com contributor, remembers a most unusual politician.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the United States against any unilateral military stike on Syria, saying it would trigger a new wave of terrorism, result in the collapse of the United Nations and claim more innocent victims as the conflict could spread beyond Syria's borders.
Investors and EOW waded through a maze of legal obstacles to get their hands on the 'kingpin'.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances