Two powerful US Senators have urged President Joe Biden not to impose provisions of the punitive Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act against India for buying the S-400 surface-to-air missile system from Russia.
In its annual threat assessment presented before the Senate Armed Services Committee during a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, the US intelligence community said the expanded military posture by both India and China along the disputed border elevates the risk of armed confrontation between the two nuclear powers that might involve direct threats to US persons and interests and calls for America's intervention.
Trump and the White House has described this as an impeachment hoax. White House asserted that the president has done no wrong.
The United States has made it clear to India that it is "discouraging" it from proceeding with its acquisition of S-400 missile defence systems from Russia but Washington will have to weigh "important geostrategic considerations" while taking a decision on growing calls for a presidential CAATSA waiver to New Delhi, President Joe Biden's nominee for Coordinator for Sanctions Policy has told lawmakers.
In a bid to bring Pakistan's powerful Inter Services Intelligence under civilian control, the Senate has recommended an effective role of Parliament in monitoring it while giving the spy agency power to arrest and detain.
But Trump is about to announce his candidacy for president in 2024. And it is not clear if Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the present hero of disenchanted Republicans, or Biden, who says he might seek re-election (but will decide in 2023), can checkmate Trump, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
'Don't be fooled. There is nothing more moderate about the revived Taliban government'
A United States fighter jet Friday shot down an object, the size of a small car, flying with payloads at a height of about 40,000 feet off the northern coast of Alaska on the direction of President Joe Biden, officials said.
Regional States will be worried that the US's nascent engagement with the Taliban behind the fig leaf of humanitarian aid enables the return of US intelligence personnel to Afghanistan, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The balloon, which was being used by the People's Republic of China in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States, was brought down above US territorial waters.
Yellen, 74, was confirmed by the Senate in a broad bipartisan support of 84-15 votes on Monday. Both the Democratic and the Republican parties have 50 members in the 100-seat Senate.
Nikki Haley becomes the first Indian-American to serve on a Cabinet rank position in any presidential administration in the US.
Biden, 77, made his maiden public appearance with his running mate Harris on Wednesday and said that both of them are ready to get to work in rebuilding America and a better future for its people.
The rather amateurish, even ham-handed, attack would lend some credence to a 'false flag' theory, of the PTI leadership staging this incident, to provide new impetus to a flagging agitation, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RAW, India's external intelligence agency.
The FBI chief also trashed President Donald Trump's allegation that his Trump Tower was wiretapped on the orders of his predecessor Barack Obama.
Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray on Thursday expressed concern that foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs), such as the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, may either launch or inspire large-scale attacks against the United States.
Director of US National Intelligence said that Islamabad's failure to curb terrorists and the rise in number of cross-firing incidents was the cause for increasing tensions.
The FBI chief said that in the last presidential elections, the Russians were not able to change the actual vote tally, but one day they might.
Over the last few weeks, bipartisan support for India against China has been increasing.
Defence Secretary Lt Gen (retired) Alam Khattak told the Senate Standing Committee on Defence on Wednesday that RAW had set up a 'special cell' to sabotage the ambitious CPEC.
The US move came after the Justice Department said that hackers working with the Chinese government targeted firms developing vaccines for the coronavirus and stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of intellectual property and trade secrets from companies across the world.
The National Security Agency lost its authority to collect the phone records of millions of Americans, thanks to a new reform measure Congress passed on Tuesday
Taliban failed to honour Doha accord, never renounced Al-Qaeda: US general Mark Milley
Pakistan and the United States should make concerted efforts to bridge the trust gap between them which has the potential of diluting the common objective of combating terror and not indulge in "blame game", Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday.
James Comey called for a national moment of reflection, in which everybody, regardless of partisan views, to evaluate the President and to consider whether he presents a threat to America itself.
The United States has the right to target the Haqqani network that not only kills American troops in Afghanistan, but also sponsors Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, said Senator Carl Levin, who chairs the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.
He said that while Pakistan public opinion favouring Al Qaeda and the Taliban have declined precipitously in the past year, "on the other hand, despite robust Pakistani military operations against extremists that directly challenge the Pakistani government authority, Afghan Taliban, Al Qaeda, and Pakistani militant groups continue to use Pakistan as a safe haven for organising, training and planning attacks against the United States and our allies in Afghanistan."
'As America's second post-9/11 President takes office, a single country has become ground zero for the terrorist threat we face,' Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in an opinion piece published in The Washington Times.
'At the heart of the strategic relationship between our countries are economic ties.'
A top United States senator has unveiled an 18-point plan, including enhancing military ties with India, to hold the Chinese government accountable for its "lies, deception, and cover-ups" that ultimately led to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday offered to enhance cooperation with India in the field of intelligence to avert attacks like the Pune blast that could 'further the agenda of terrorists' who were holding the bilateral ties 'hostage.'
If Indian concerns are not understood and appreciated by China, and if attempts are not made to address them, the relations could take a turn for the worse in the medium and long-term, says strategic expert B Raman.
The terrorist attack was carried out by ISIS gunmen, General Kenneth Franklin McKenzie, Commander of the United States Central Command, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference on Thursday, hours after the terrorists opened gunfire at American soldiers standing outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
Any fresh terrorist strike in India by Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba would hurt the United States' national security interest and its counter-terrorism interests in the region, a top Obama administration intelligence official has told lawmakers.
"We want good ties with all neighbours including India and Afghanistan," he told the Senators.
The Islamic State terror group has created a global battlefield, a top United States senator with access to intelligence information said on Wednesday.
The Opposition PPP on Thursday alleged that the PTI-led government was planning an assault on the Sindh House in the federal capital.
The United States is looking for a "limited narrow act" of military intervention in Syria that does not involve a "boots-on-the-ground approach", but has not made a final decision yet, President Barack Obama said.
Notwithstanding the recent arrest of high-value Taliban leaders in Pakistan in which the Inter Services Intelligence played a key role, top US Senators and officials have indicated that they continue to remain suspicious about the real intentions of the Pakistani intelligence agency in view of its links to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and other terror outfits.
India has banned as many as 106 Chinese apps, including TikTok, a move welcomed by both the Trump administration and the US lawmakers.
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