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Wednesday, February 25, 2026
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Taliban is gambling for strategic autonomy. Will Iran, China fill the Pakistan-sized hole?

Cutting trade ties with Pakistan is easier said than done: the neighbouring country is Afghanistan’s largest single trading partner, taking in 45 per cent of Afghan exports in 2024.

Kashmir’s new-generation jihadis want to attack India’s heartland, not just its army

Lack of movement on building a genuine democratic culture in Kashmir after 2019 is helping the region’s jihadists.

Saudi oil power is waning. What this means for its ties to the US

There’s little doubt that Saudi Arabia contributed to its own problems, driven by leadership hubris and poor advice. The Line is a case in point.

Sudan shows what happens when the world is happy to let mass killers rule

Fourteen million refugees, and 25 million facing acute hunger, should be reason enough for the world to dismantle the dystopia in Sudan — even if the sadism of its rulers is not.

War was the norm between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Asim Munir is bringing it back

Pakistan massively enhanced the funding for Islamists in Afghanistan, hoping to bury ethnic nationalism. That strategy has now backfired spectacularly.

Russia’s super-missile test shows a new, expensive technological race—with dire outcomes

The test raises a question. Why have Russian nuclear strategists now invested in the Burevestnik, when the US abandoned nuclear ramjet propulsion in 1964?

Trump wants to control ‘unruly’ regimes—so he launched a war on Venezuela

Like drug wars in the past, Trump’s efforts are likely to deepen the chaos in Central America—exposing the US to greater danger.

America imagines Asim Munir is the cure to jihadism. He is the disease

Less than an hour earlier, William Putscher had been lunching on a hot dog by the poolside, in the congenial environment of the American...

FM Muttaqi’s Deoband visit signals Taliban sharpening daggers for Pakistan

Taliban factions nurture the TTP as both an ideological ally and because Emir Hibatullah Akhundzada’s regime views the borderlands as Afghan, not Pakistani.

America gifted China its rare-earth monopoly — and India helped too

The rare-earth crisis shows how misplaced government policies and corporate greed can collude to create a strategic crisis.

On Camera

Kerala, Keral, Keralam. I’m a Malayali and the name change is more annoyance than pride

North Indians are so used to dropping the ‘A’ at the end of Kerala. Now they have to train themselves to add another letter.

‘Dark chapter’ over, Chhattisgarh budget sets Naxal hotbed Bastar on path to ‘education cities’ & tourism

The Vishnu Deo Sai government's 2026-27 budget outlined a post-Naxal era vision for Chhattisgarh's tribal-majority belts of Bastar & Surguja. Finance Minister OP Choudhary presented it Tuesday.

Decoding India’s defence budget & how various govts struggled to spend it—from UPA to NDA

Every February, headlines focus on defence budget allocation. But real question is—how much money was actually spent & why did promise-delivery gap widen in some years, narrow in others?

No country is ever fully sovereign. Cold War era taught India its real meaning

India’s fraught neighbourhood places multiple constraints on its strategic choices. It leaves no time to take a deep breath, lean back and reset.