South Asia and Beyond

Serbian Foreign Minister Meets Russian Counterpart, Uses ‘Football Diplomacy’ To Express Support

Serbian foreign minister Ivica Dačić met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow ahead of a soccer game between the countries’ national teams that was the Russian men’s squad’s first European friendly since the fighting in Ukraine began two years ago. Russia was removed from international soccer competitions after sending troops into Ukraine in […]Read More

UN To Vote On US For Immediate Ceasefire In Gaza

The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a United States-sponsored resolution declaring that “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is “imperative” to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was optimistic that […]Read More

Blinken Says Israeli Assault On Gaza’s Rafah Would Be A Mistake

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday a major Israeli ground assault on the southern Gaza town of Rafah would be “a mistake” and “unnecessary” to defeating Hamas, underscoring the further souring of relations between the United States and Israel. Blinken, on his sixth urgent Mideast mission since the war began in October, spoke […]Read More

Asian Shares Rise After Wall Street Rallies To Records

Asian benchmarks were mostly higher on Thursday after U.S. stocks rallied to records following the Federal Reserve’s indication that it expects to deliver interest rate cuts later this year. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.6% to 40,676.77 after the government reported exports grew nearly 8% in February from a year earlier, in the third straight month of […]Read More

Roadside Bomb Kills Two Soldiers in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

A roadside bomb exploded near a security convoy in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing two soldiers and wounding 15 others, officials said. The attack happened in Dera Ismail Khan, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, said Inayat Ullah, head of the police bomb disposal unit in the region. […]Read More

Suicide Bomber Targets Taliban In Afghanistan

A suicide bomber carried out an attack Thursday at a private bank in Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan, killing at least three people and injuring 12 others, officials said. All of the victims were people who had gathered at the branch of New Kabul Bank to collect their monthly salaries, said Inamullah Samangani, head of […]Read More

Subianto Declared President But Rivals To Move The Courts

Indonesia’s electoral commission announced on Wednesday that Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, a former general linked to past human rights abuses, was elected president. The results immediately drew allegations of fraud from Subianto’s political rivals. Former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan and former Central Java Gov. Ganjar Pranowo have said they plan to challenge the official results […]Read More

Spotting Deep Fakes And Other Signs Of AI Manipulation

AI fakery is quickly becoming one of the biggest problems confronting us online. Deceptive pictures, videos and audio are proliferating as a result of the rise and misuse of generative artificial intelligence tools. With AI deepfakes cropping up almost every day, depicting everyone from Taylor Swift to Donald Trump, it’s getting harder to tell what’s […]Read More

Vietnam Appoints New Interim President

Vietnam’s Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan will serve as acting president after the previous president’s resignation a year into the position, a Communist Party newspaper reported Thursday. Analysts said a permanent candidate was unlikely to be selected soon, underscoring the growing concerns among foreign investors about political instability in the Southeast Asian nation that […]Read More