Senator Van Hollen Meets Abrego Garcia Who Was Wrongly Deported To El Salvador

Apr 18 2025, 12:32

On Thursday, Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. His case has sparked a clash between the Trump administration and the judiciary, raising concerns about a possible constitutional conflict.

The senator posted on X an image of himself in El Salvador with Abrego Garcia, dressed in a collared shirt, jeans and a baseball cap, a day after being denied access to the notorious prison for gang members where he has been held.

“I said my main goal of this trip (to El Salvador) was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance,” the senator wrote in his post, but giving no indication of Abrego Garcia’s health or state of mind.

“I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love,” Van Hollen added. “I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.”

Supreme Court Order

The U.S. Supreme Court has directed the administration of President Donald Trump to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return after Washington acknowledged he was deported because of an administrative error.

In a statement apart from the ruling, liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the government had cited no basis for what she called Abrego Garcia’s “warrantless arrest,” nor for his deportation or imprisonment in El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say he has never been charged with, nor convicted of, any crime, and deny the Justice Department’s accusation that he belongs to the criminal gang MS-13.

But the government has given no indication it plans to seek his return and said it had no authority to release a man from a foreign prison, raising the potential for a constitutional conflict should Trump defy the highest court.

In a statement after the meeting, White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai repeated the unproven accusation that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13.

“Chris Van Hollen has firmly established Democrats as the party whose top priority is the welfare of an illegal alien MS-13 terrorist,” Desai said.

“It is truly disgusting. President Trump will continue to stand on the side of law-abiding Americans.”

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told CNN the man belonged in prison, despite the Supreme Court directive.

“He’s a citizen of El Salvador and he’s in El Salvador. He’s home,” Homan said.

“I think we did the right thing, I think he is where he should be. Even if he came back … he’s going to be detained and he’s going to be removed as per the order of removal.”

Hundreds Others Deported

Along with Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration has deported to El Salvador hundreds of people, mostly Venezuelans, whom it says are gang members, under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, without presenting evidence and without a trial.

A U.S. district judge, James Boasberg, has already threatened administration officials with criminal contempt charges over the deportations.

Boasberg said the administration demonstrated “willful disregard” for his March 15 order barring the deportations to El Salvador under the 1798 act.

Salvadoran officials have also shown no interest in releasing Abrego Garcia.

During a meeting with Trump at the White House on Monday, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said he had no plans to return Abrego Garcia.

Bukele also posted pictures of the encounter with Van Hollen on social media, followed by a post saying he would remain in the custody of the Central American.

“Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody,” Bukele said.

Van Hollen, the U.S. senator from Maryland, where Abrego Garcia lived, arrived on Wednesday in El Salvador to meet senior officials and advocate for his release, but was told by Vice President Felix Ulloa he could not authorize a visit or a telephone call with Abrego Garcia.

It was not immediately clear what changed to allow the senator’s access.

Abrego Garcia, 29, left El Salvador at age 16 to escape gang-related violence, his lawyers said, and received a protective order in 2019 to continue living in the United States.

Representatives of Abrego Garcia and Van Hollen did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on the meeting.

(With inputs from Reuters)

India Plans Liability Cap To Woo U.S. Nuclear Suppliers: Reports

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 12:14

India Nuclear Liability — U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands as they attend a joint press conference at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 13, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

India is preparing to relax its nuclear liability laws by capping accident-related penalties for equipment suppliers, according to three government sources. The move aims to attract U.S. companies that have hesitated to enter the market due to fears of unlimited liability.

The proposal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is the latest step to expand nuclear power production capacity by 12 times to 100 gigawatts by 2047 as well as provide a fillip to India in trade and tariff negotiations with the U.S.

A draft law prepared by the department of atomic energy removes a key clause in the Civil Nuclear Liability Damage Act of 2010 that exposes suppliers to unlimited liability for accidents, the three sources said.

India’s atomic energy department, the prime minister’s office and the finance ministry did not respond to requests seeking comment.

Allaying Concerns Of Suppliers

“India needs nuclear power, which is clean and essential,” said Debasish Mishra, chief growth officer at Deloitte South Asia.

“A liability cap will allay the major concern of the suppliers of nuclear reactors.”

The amendments are in line with international norms that put the onus on the operator to maintain safety instead of the supplier of nuclear reactors.

New Delhi is hoping the changes will ease concerns of mainly U.S. firms like General Electric Co and Westinghouse Electric Co that have been sitting on the sidelines for years due to unlimited risks in case of accidents.

Modi Admin Confident Of Getting Approval

Analysts say passage of the amended law is crucial to negotiations between India and the U.S. for a trade deal this year that aims to raise bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 from $191 billion last year.

Modi’s administration is confident of getting approval for the amendments in the monsoon session of parliament, set to begin in July, according to the sources.

Under the proposed amendments, the right of the operator to compensation from the supplier in case of an accident will be capped at the value of the contract. It will also be subject to a period to be specified in the contract.

Currently, the law does not define a limit to the amount of compensation an operator can seek from suppliers and the period for which the vendor can be held accountable.

Law Grew Out Of Bhopal Disaster

India’s 2010 nuclear liability law grew out of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, the world’s deadliest industrial accident, at a factory owned by U.S. multinational Union Carbide Corp in which more than 5,000 people were killed.

Union Carbide agreed to pay an out-of-court settlement of $470 million in damages in 1989.

The current liability law effectively shut out Western companies from a huge market, and also strained U.S.-Indian relations since they reached a deal on nuclear cooperation in 2008.

It also left U.S. firms at a disadvantage to Russian and French companies whose accident liability is underwritten by their governments.

The draft law also proposes a lower liability cap on small reactor operators at $58 million, but is unlikely to alter the cap for large reactor operators from the current level of $175 million, the three sources said.

India is betting big on nuclear power to meet its rising energy demand without compromising on net-zero commitments, for which it proposes to allow private Indian companies to build such plants.

Indian conglomerates like Reliance Industries, Tata Power, Adani Power and Vedanta Ltd have held discussions with the government to invest around $5.14 billion each in the sector.

($1 = 85.6320 Indian rupees)

(With inputs from Reuters)

Judge Extends Ban On DOGE’s Access To Sensitive SSA Records

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 11:14

On Thursday, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that continues to block billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing private records on millions of Americans stored in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander of Maryland said Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency had failed to show the need for the “unprecedented, unfettered access” it had sought to the SSA’s data to achieve their stated goal of rooting out fraud.

Win For Labor Unions, Advocacy Group

Hollander had issued a temporary restraining order last month restricting DOGE access to SSA data, but it was due to expire on Thursday. The preliminary injunction cements the restrictions for a longer time while the case plays out.

The injunction is a win for the two labor unions and an advocacy group that sued SSA, Musk, DOGE and others in February, seeking to stop DOGE members from accessing some of the agency’s most sensitive data systems.

Hollander said the plaintiffs would likely succeed on their claim that DOGE staff members had violated privacy laws in their various efforts so far to access data and that an injunction was needed to protect Americans from “irreparable harm.”

“For some 90 years, SSA has been guided by the foundational principle of an expectation of privacy with respect to its records. This case exposes a wide fissure in the foundation,” Hollander wrote in her 145-page ruling.

Hollander was nominated to the federal bench by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat. President Donald Trump is a Republican.

While the injunction prohibits DOGE staffers and anyone working with them from accessing data containing personal information, it does allow them to access data that has been stripped of private information, as long as they have gone through the proper training and passed background checks.

‘Significant Relief’

The advocacy group Democracy Forward said the injunction marked an important step in their case.

“This is a significant relief for the millions of people who depend on the Social Security Administration to safeguard their most personal and sensitive information,” Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, said in a statement.

Spokespeople for the SSA and DOGE did not respond to requests for comment.

The case has shed light on the amount of personal information DOGE staffers have been given access to in the SSA’s databases, which hold vast amounts of sensitive data on most Americans.

During a hearing on the injunction in Baltimore on Tuesday, Hollander expressed skepticism about DOGE’s need for the broad access they have sought to data in order to find what she described as questionable assertions of widespread fraud.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Trump Signals Tariff Truce, TikTok Deal On Hold

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 10:30

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump hinted at a possible resolution to the back-and-forth tariff increases between the U.S. and China that had unsettled markets, while suggesting that a decision regarding the future of social media platform TikTok might be delayed.

“I don’t want them to go higher because at a certain point you make it where people don’t buy,” Trump told reporters about tariffs at the White House.

“So, I may not want to go higher or I may not want to even go up to that level. I may want to go to less because you know you want people to buy and, at a certain point, people aren’t gonna buy.”

Trump’s comments further pointed to a diminished appetite for sharply higher across-the-board tariffs on dozens of countries after markets reacted violently to their introduction on April 2.

The Republican president slapped 10% tariffs on most goods entering the country but delayed the implementation of higher levies, pending negotiations.

U.S.-China Could Reach A Deal

Still, he hiked rates on Chinese imports, now totaling 145%, after Beijing retaliated with its own counter-measures. Last week, China said “will not respond” to a “numbers game with tariffs”, its own signal that across-the-board rates would not rise further.
Trump said China had been in touch since the imposition of tariffs and expressed optimism that they could reach a deal.

While the two sides are in touch, sources told Reuters that free-flowing, high-level exchanges of the sorts that would lead to a deal have largely been absent.

Speaking with reporters, Trump repeatedly declined to specify the nature of talks between the countries or whether they directly included Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Delayed TikTok Deal

Trump has repeatedly extended a legal deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of the short video app used by 170 million Americans. On Thursday, he said a spin-off deal would likely wait until the trade issue is settled.

“We have a deal for TikTok, but it’ll be subject to China so we’ll just delay the deal ’til this thing works out one way or the other,” Trump said.

(With inputs from Reuters)

U.S. Orders Social Media Vetting For Gaza Travelers

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 09:30

On Thursday, the Trump administration directed that all U.S. visa applicants who have traveled to the Gaza Strip on or after January 1, 2007, undergo social media vetting. This directive, outlined in an internal State Department cable reviewed by Reuters, marks the latest effort to tighten the screening process for foreign travelers.

The order to conduct a social media vetting for all immigrant and non-immigrant visas should include non-governmental organization workers as well as individuals who have been in the Palestinian enclave for any length of time in an official or diplomatic capacity, the cable said.

“If the review of social media results uncovers potential derogatory information relating to security issues, then a SAO must be submitted,” the cable said, referring to a security advisory opinion, which is an interagency investigation to determine if a visa applicant poses a national security risk to the United States.

The cable was sent to all U.S. diplomatic and consular posts.

Move Part Of Trump’s Crackdown

The move comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has revoked hundreds of visas across the country, including the status of some lawful permanent residents under a 1952 law allowing the deportation of any immigrant whose presence in the country the secretary of state deems harmful to U.S. foreign policy.

The cable dated April 17 was signed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said in late March that he may have revoked more than 300 visas already.

A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on internal communications when asked about the cable, but said every prospective traveler to the U.S. undergoes extensive interagency security vetting.

Focused On Protecting U.S., Citizens

“The Trump Administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process,” the spokesperson said, adding that all visa applicants are continuously vetted.

“Security vetting runs from the time of each application, through adjudication of the visa, and afterwards during the validity period of every issued visa, to ensure the individual remains eligible to travel to the United States,” the spokesperson added.

Trump officials have said student visa holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, calling their actions a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests.

Rubio’s Warning

Trump’s critics have called the effort an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech for everyone in the U.S., regardless of immigration status. But there have been high-profile instances of the administration revoking visas of students who advocated against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Among the most widely publicized of such arrests was one captured on video last month of masked agents taking a Tufts University student from Turkey, Rumeysa Ozturk, into custody.

When asked about Ozturk at a news conference last month, Rubio said: “Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas” and he warned there would be more individuals whose visas could be revoked.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Hamas Seeks Full Hostage Swap For End To Gaza War

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 08:30

A senior Hamas official said the group seeks a comprehensive agreement to end the Gaza war and exchange all Israeli hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, rejecting Israel’s proposal for a temporary truce.

In a televised speech, Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s Gaza chief who leads its negotiating team, said the group would no longer agree to interim deals, adopting a position that Israel is unlikely to accept and potentially further delaying an end to the devastating attacks that restarted in recent weeks.

Instead, Hayya said Hamas was ready to immediately engage in “comprehensive package negotiations” to release all remaining hostages in its custody in return for an end to the Gaza war, the release of Palestinians jailed by Israel, and the reconstruction of Gaza.

Cover For ‘Political Agenda’

“Netanyahu and his government use partial agreements as a cover for their political agenda, which is based on continuing the war of extermination and starvation, even if the price is sacrificing all his prisoners (hostages),” said Hayya, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We will not be part of passing this policy.”

Egyptian mediators have been working to revive the January ceasefire agreement that halted fighting in Gaza before it broke down last month, but there has been little sign of progress with both Israel and Hamas blaming each other.

“Hamas’s comments demonstrate they are not interested in peace but perpetual violence. The terms made by the Trump Administration have not changed: release the hostages or face hell,” said National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt.

‘Impossible Conditions’

The latest round of talks on Monday in Cairo to restore the ceasefire and free Israeli hostages ended with no apparent breakthrough, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said.

Israel had proposed a 45-day truce in Gaza to allow hostage releases and potentially begin indirect talks to end the war. Hamas has already rejected one of its conditions – that it lay down its arms. In his speech, Hayya accused Israel of offering a counterproposal with “impossible conditions”.

Hamas released 38 hostages under a ceasefire that began on January 19. In March, Israel’s military resumed its ground and aerial offensive on Gaza, abandoning the ceasefire after Hamas rejected proposals to extend the truce without ending the war.

Israeli officials say that the offensive will continue until the remaining 59 hostages are freed and Gaza is demilitarized. Hamas insists it will free hostages only as part of a deal to end the war and has rejected demands to lay down its arms.

Israeli Strikes

On Tuesday, the armed wing of Hamas said the group had lost contact with militants holding Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander after the Israeli army attacked their hideout. Alexander is a New Jersey native and a 21-year-old soldier in the Israeli army.

The armed wing later released a video warning hostages’ families that their “children will return in black coffins with their bodies torn apart from shrapnel from your army”.

Israeli military strikes killed at least 32 Palestinians, including women and children, across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, local health authorities said.

One of those strikes killed six people and wounded several others at a UN-run school in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a Hamas command center.

The war was triggered by Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities.

(With inputs from Reuters)

U.S. Hits Yemen Fuel Site, Kills Dozens: Houthi Media

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 07:55

U.S. strikes on the Ras Isa fuel port in western Yemen killed at least 38 people on Thursday, according to Houthi-run media, making it one of the deadliest days since Washington began targeting the Iran-backed group.

Al Masirah TV said the strikes, which the U.S. military said were carried out to cut off a source of fuel for the Houthi militant group, also wounded 102 people.

The U.S. began large-scale strikes last month against the Houthis, saying it won’t stop unless they cease their attacks on Red Sea shipping.

“The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen,” the U.S. Central Command said in a post on X.

Chinese Aid

The U.S. State Department on Thursday accused a Chinese firm, Chang Guang Satellite Technology, of directly supporting attacks on U.S. interests by Iran-backed Houthi fighters and called this “unacceptable”.

Earlier, the Financial Times cited U.S. officials as saying that the satellite company, linked to China’s military, was supplying Houthi rebels with imagery to target U.S. warships and international vessels in the Red Sea.

‘Unacceptable’

“We can confirm the reporting that Chang Guang Satellite Technology Company Limited is directly supporting Iran-backed Houthi terrorist attacks on U.S. interests,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a regular news briefing.

“China consistently attempts … to frame itself as a global peacemaker … however, it is clear that Beijing and China-based companies provide key economic and technical support to regimes like Russia, North Korea and Iran and its proxies,” she said.

Bruce said the assistance by the firm to the Houthis had continued even though the United States had engaged with Beijing on the issue.

“The fact that they continue to do this is unacceptable,” she said.

Charge Amid Tariff War

The spokesperson for China’s Washington embassy, Liu Pengyu, said he was not familiar with the situation, so had no comment. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China is Washington’s main strategic rival and the latest charge comes as the two economic and military superpowers are in a major standoff over trade in which U.S. President Donald Trump has dramatically ramped up tariffs on Chinese goods.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Trump Birthright Citizenship Case Set For May 15 Hearing

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 07:30

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it will hear arguments next month regarding Donald Trump’s effort to broadly enforce his executive order aimed at restricting automatic birthright citizenship — a central element of the former Republican president’s tough immigration stance.

The justices, in an unsigned order, did not immediately act on a request by Trump’s administration to narrow the scope of three nationwide injunctions issued by federal judges in Washington state, Massachusetts and Maryland that halted his January 20 order while the matter is litigated.

Instead, the court deferred any decision on that request until it hears arguments in the case set on May 15.

‘Easy Case To Win’

Trump’s order, signed on his first day back in office, directed federal agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident.

In a series of lawsuits, plaintiffs, including 22 Democratic state attorneys general, immigrant rights advocates and some expectant mothers, argued that Trump’s order violates a right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868, that provides that anyone born in the United States is a citizen.

The 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause states that all “persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside”.

Trump praised the Supreme Court’s decision to review the dispute, telling reporters this is “an easy case to win”. A Justice Department spokesperson said it looked forward to presenting its case before the justices.

‘Whims Of A Single Man’

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who is helping to lead one of the lawsuits challenging Trump’s order, said in a statement, “Birthright citizenship was enshrined in the Constitution in the wake of the Civil War, is backed by a long line of Supreme Court precedent and ensures that something as fundamental as American citizenship cannot be turned on or off at the whims of a single man.”

The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority.

The administration contends that the 14th Amendment, long understood to confer citizenship to virtually anyone born in the United States, does not extend to immigrants who are in the country illegally or even to immigrants whose presence is lawful but temporary, such as university students or those on work visas.

Universal Injunctions

The administration’s request to the Supreme Court, however, did not seek the court’s review of the constitutionality of Trump’s order. Instead, it used the legal battle to press the Supreme Court to tackle nationwide, or “universal” injunctions that federal judges have issued impeding aspects of Trump’s various executive orders to reshape national policy, including birthright citizenship. Universal injunctions can prevent the government from enforcing a policy against anyone, instead of just the individual plaintiffs who sued to challenge the policy.

An 1898 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case called United States v. Wong Kim Ark long has been interpreted as guaranteeing that children born in the United States to non-citizen parents are entitled to American citizenship. Trump’s Justice Department has argued that the court’s ruling in that case was narrower, applying to children whose parents had a “permanent domicile and residence in the United States”.

Birth Tourism

Trump’s birthright citizenship order “reflects the original meaning, historical understanding and proper scope of the Citizenship Clause”, wrote U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer, representing the administration. Sauer said that universal birthright citizenship encourages illegal immigration and “birth tourism” in which people travel to the United States to give birth to secure citizenship for their children.

Proponents of universal injunctions have said they are an efficient check on presidential overreach, and have stymied actions deemed unlawful by presidents of both parties. Critics have said they exceed the authority of district judges and politicize the judiciary.

Sauer said in a written filing that a “small subset of federal district courts tars the entire judiciary with the appearance of political activism”, issuing 28 nationwide injunctions against Trump’s administration in February and March.

The plaintiffs criticized the administration’s focus on the scope of the lower court orders instead of their conclusions that Trump’s directive conflicts with the Constitution.

‘Blatantly Unconstitutional’

Washington state had urged the Supreme Court to reject the administration’s “myopic” request given that Trump’s order is “flagrantly unconstitutional”.

“Recognizing that the citizenship-stripping order is impossible to defend on the merits, the federal government frames its application as an opportunity to address the permissibility of nationwide injunctions,” the state added.

In asking the court to enforce Trump’s order except against individual plaintiffs who challenged it, Sauer said the states do not have the requisite legal standing to assert the individuals’ rights under the citizenship clause.

In the Washington state lawsuit, brought by Washington state, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon and several pregnant women – Seattle-based U.S. District Judge John Coughenour issued his injunction on February 6 against Trump’s order. During a hearing in the case, Coughenour, an appointee of Republican former President Ronald Reagan, called Trump’s order “blatantly unconstitutional”.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on February 19 refused to put the judge’s injunction on hold.

(With inputs from Reuters)

China Paves The Road To Paradise –And Ruin

Ramananda Sengupta;

Apr 18 2025, 06:30

In 2010, on the eve of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Delhi, Beijing made a quiet but symbolic announcement: the last county in China without road access — Metok, nestled deep in the eastern Himalayas — would soon be connected to the outside world. It wasn’t just about infrastructure. It was a statement of intent.

In 2013, the road was real — a superhighway carved through one of the world’s most ecologically sensitive and spiritually significant regions. On the surface, it’s a triumph of engineering. But beneath the tarmac, a more troubling story flows — one of environmental precarity, cultural erasure, and escalating geopolitical tension, all carried by the currents of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, known downstream as the Brahmaputra.

Metok — or Pemakoe, as Tibetans know it — is no ordinary patch of earth. It’s a sacred valley revered in Buddhist tradition, believed to be a hidden paradise protected by the goddess Dorje Phagmo. For centuries, its isolation was a shield, preserving rare biodiversity and spiritual sanctity. But that remoteness has now been breached — not just by roads, but by a vision of “development” that sees rivers not as lifelines, but as levers of control.

At the heart of this vision is a $137 billion megadam that China is planning near the Great Bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo, just upstream from the Indian border. Once completed, it will surpass even the Three Gorges Dam in scale. For Beijing, it’s a renewable energy dream. For New Delhi and Dhaka, it’s a nightmare in the making. Renowned Tibetologist and China-watcher Claude Arpi, however, is not sure that China really intends to build a big dam on the Brahmaputra, as Tibet is seismically active. ‘It may build a series of hydel power projects instead,’ he said in an interview to Down to Earth.

But either way, nations downstream will be impacted. Unpleasantly.

There is no water-sharing treaty between China and its southern neighbours. The Brahmaputra supports the livelihoods of millions in India and Bangladesh — not just for agriculture and fishing, but for flood forecasting and disaster preparedness. Without guaranteed hydrological data or legal recourse, downstream countries are at the mercy of upstream decisions. This isn’t just a technical problem. It’s a strategic one.

And Beijing knows it. During the 2017 Doklam standoff between Chinese and Indian troops, China suspended its transmission of river data to India — a subtle but potent form of pressure. In the Himalayas, water is no longer just a resource. It is a weapon, a bargaining chip, and a test of how environmental cooperation can be quietly sacrificed on the altar of geopolitics.

China’s aggressive dam-building isn’t only about control; it’s also about desperation. The country’s water crisis is deepening. Glacial melt is accelerating. Groundwater reserves in the north are drying up. Pollution has rendered large swathes of water undrinkable. Faced with this crisis, Beijing is increasingly turning to transboundary rivers to meet its needs — and to impose its will.

India is responding in kind. In Arunachal Pradesh, the government has proposed the $13.2 billion Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, a massive hydroelectric dam that would store nine billion cubic meters of water and generate 11,000 megawatts of electricity. On paper, it’s a counter to China’s upstream ambitions. On the ground, it’s a catastrophe in waiting.

At least 20 villages will be completely submerged. Nearly two dozen more will be partially inundated. Thousands of residents — many of them Indigenous — face displacement. Environmentalists warn of seismic risks, biodiversity loss, and irreversible damage to riverine ecosystems. Local opposition is mounting, but in the grand chessboard of Asian geopolitics, such voices are often drowned out.

What’s unfolding in the eastern Himalayas is a slow-motion conflict with no declared war, no uniformed troops, and no dramatic flashpoints. Just concrete. Just rivers rerouted and valleys flooded. Just the gradual suffocation of sacred places and fragile communities under the weight of “national interest.”

The stakes go beyond India and China. The Himalayan watershed feeds not only the Brahmaputra but also rivers that nourish Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, and parts of Southeast Asia. As the so-called “water tower of Asia,” Tibet’s rivers are the arteries of a region already strained by climate change, urban expansion, and food insecurity. Weaponising them risks destabilising an entire subcontinent.

So, what should be done?

First, regional diplomacy must prioritise water governance. An Asian equivalent of the Indus Waters Treaty or the Mekong River Commission — imperfect though they are — is urgently needed. Without formal agreements on data sharing and environmental impact, mistrust will fester and crisis will creep. While China is most unlikely to agree, the pressure must continue.

Second, both China and India must reassess the costs of their hydro-ambitions. Renewable energy is critical, but not at the expense of entire communities and ecosystems. Smaller-scale, decentralised alternatives deserve more attention. So does listening to the people most affected. It is important to note that very few people are affected in sparsely populated areas of Tibet.

Finally, we must stop viewing these regions as blank canvases for grand infrastructure. Pemakoe is not just a valley. It is a sanctuary, a storehouse of cultural and ecological memory. Its remoteness was not a problem to solve — it was a gift to protect.

Because when paradise is paved, no one escapes the fallout — not pilgrims, not farmers, not future generations.

Zelenskyy Accuses China Of Supplying Weapons, Gunpowder To Russia

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 05:00

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday accused China of supplying weapons and gunpowder to Russia—his first direct allegation of Beijing’s military support for Moscow.

The Ukrainian leader said at a press conference that his government also had intelligence that China was producing weapons on Russian territory and that he would be able to provide more details next week.

China, which has the world’s second-largest economy, has had close economic relations with Russia during Moscow’s three-year war in Ukraine. But it has sought to project an image of neutrality and denies any involvement in the war.

For Kyiv, direct Chinese supplies of weaponry for Russia would mark a major departure from that position.

Zelenskyy Has Specific ‘Information’

“We finally have information that China is supplying weapons to the Russian Federation,” Zelenskyy said in Kyiv, referring specifically to “artillery,” without specifying if he meant shells, artillery systems or both.

“We believe that Chinese representatives are engaged in the production of some weapons on the territory of Russia,” Zelenskyy said, without elaborating.

There was no immediate public comment from China, and Reuters was not immediately able to seek comment from officials in China, as Zelenskyy’s remarks were made during the late evening in Beijing.

In comments last week about the war, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said: “I would like to reiterate that China is not the initiator of the Ukrainian crisis, nor is China a participating party. We are a firm supporter and active promoter of a peaceful settlement of the crisis.”

Zelenskyy’s allegation comes as President Donald Trump is pressing for peace, having upended previous U.S. policy by directly engaging with Russia and at one point cutting military aid to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader said he had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping during the war and asked him directly about the possibility of Beijing supplying arms to Russia.

“He gave me his word that weapons would not be sold and sent to Russia,” he said.

Strained Ties

Russia has benefited from military aid from Iran and North Korea. Tehran has supplied long-range drones used to attack far from the front, while Pyongyang has supplied vast amounts of artillery shells, missiles and troops, Ukrainian officials say.

The fighting in Ukraine has long developed into a war of attrition in which both sides try to out-gun and out-kill each other by bringing greater numbers of troops and weapons to bear, making foreign military supplies vital.

Ties between China and Ukraine are already strained after Zelenskyy made public this month its capture of two Chinese nationals fighting for Russia.

He said last week that Ukraine had information about 155 Chinese citizens fighting for the Russian military against Kyiv’s forces.

Zelenskyy said at that time that Russia was recruiting Chinese nationals via social media and that Beijing officials were aware of that. He added that Ukraine was trying to assess whether the recruits were receiving instructions from Beijing.

A week ago, China reaffirmed its support for peace efforts in Ukraine and said relevant parties should avoid “irresponsible remarks,” in an apparent jab at Zelenskyy’s comment about Chinese citizens fighting there for Russia.

Two U.S. officials familiar with American intelligence and a former Western intelligence official told Reuters last week they believed the Chinese citizens were mercenaries who did not appear to have a direct link to China’s government.

China and Russia declared a “no limits” strategic partnership days before Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Two Killed, Four Injured In Florida State University Shooting, Officials Say

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 04:00

A gunman opened fire at Florida State University on Thursday, killing two and injuring four before being shot and taken into custody, authorities said.

FSU Police Chief Jason Trumbower said at an afternoon press conference that the two killed were not students. It is believed the gunman was a student.

The shooting started about 11:50 a.m. local time (1550 GMT). Police shot the gunman and took him into custody, Trumbower said.

Five People In Hospital

Five people, including the gunman, were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds, Trumbower said.

Gunshots were reported at the student union building on the FSU campus in the state capital of Tallahassee. Students and faculty were told to shelter in place as police responded. More than 42,000 students attend classes at the main campus.

Student Max Jenkins described the shooter leaving the student union building and firing four or five shots outside.

“He saw the maintenance guy who was waving everybody, and I guess heard him probably and turned and shot that way,” Jenkins said in a video on the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper website. “There’s a golf cart over here with a bullet hole in it.”

School Shootings Increasingly Frequent

Mass shootings on U.S. school campuses have become almost commonplace in recent years. Thursday’s incident was the second shooting on the FSU campus in 11 years. In 2014, a graduate opened fire early at the school’s main library, wounding two students and an employee as hundreds were studying for exams.

Chris Pento was on a tour of the university with his children and eating lunch at the student union building when shots started ringing out.

“It was surreal, people started running. She just got trampled over,” Pento told local TV station WCTV, referring to his daughter.

Three firearms were found – one on the suspect, one in a nearby car and a shotgun in the student union – a law enforcement source told CNN.

Law enforcement agencies could not be immediately reached to confirm the reports or to comment.

FBI Director Reacts

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X that he had been briefed on the shooting and that a team from the Jacksonville FBI field office was assisting. “We will provide full support to local law enforcement as needed,” he added.

Notable mass shootings at colleges or universities in recent years include the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre in Blacksburg, Virginia, where 32 people were killed and 23 were injured.

In 2023, there were two college mass shootings, one at Michigan State University, where three students were killed and at least five others injured. The other incident unfolded at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where three faculty members were killed before a suspect died in a shootout with the police.

Trump Responds

U.S. President Donald Trump reacted to Thursday’s shooting at Florida State University, calling it a “terrible tragedy” just before meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

“I’ve been updated on the active shooter situation at Florida State University in Tallahassee. It’s a shame—truly a terrible thing,” Trump said. “It’s awful that incidents like this continue to happen. We’ll address it further later.”

(With inputs from Reuters)

Trump, Italy’s Meloni Voice Optimism On Trade Despite Tariff Tensions

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 03:00

Ahead of their White House meeting, U.S. President Donald Trump and Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni voiced optimism about easing trade tensions straining U.S.-Europe relations.

The 27-nation European Union faces 25% import tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars, and broader tariffs on almost all other goods under Trump’s policy to hit countries he says impose high barriers to U.S. imports.

Meloni, sitting across a table from Trump ahead of a lunch at the White House, said she was certain they could make a deal on trade.

“I am sure we can make a deal, and I am here to help with that,” she said.

Trump said that broadly speaking, he expected he would make an announcement about trade deals, but was in no rush.

“We’re going to have very little problem making a deal with Europe or anybody else, because we have something that everybody wants,” Trump said.

Meloni Invites Trump To Italy

Meloni said she would invite Trump to visit Italy. She also said she expected Italy would announce at the next NATO meeting in June that her country would be able to reach the alliance requirement that each member nation spend 2% of its GDP on defence spending.

“We have a very good relationship together and as countries,” Trump said.

Meloni, a 48-year-old conservative who Trump has warmed to, was the only European Union leader invited to Trump’s inauguration in January. Trump’s move to pause most global tariffs for 90 days last week has eased some pressure on Meloni.

Two senior U.S. officials who briefed reporters ahead of the visit said Trump and Meloni have a “very special relationship” and that he sees her as a “valuable interlocutor” between the United States and Europe.

Trump will make clear in the talks that “his expectation for Italy and all of Europe to do their part to be good trade partners with the U.S.,” one official said.

Their meeting took place the day before she hosts Vice President JD Vance in Rome. These back-to-back talks could be critical in determining whether she can play a mediator role between the United States and Europe.

Navigating Ideological And Diplomatic Tensions

Meloni is walking a tightrope between her ideological affinity to the president and her ties with European allies, who have criticised Trump’s tariff hikes and his decision to exclude the EU from talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

Meloni is facing pressure at home to protect Italy’s export-driven economy, which last year ran a 40 billion euro ($45.4 billion) trade surplus with the U.S.

But she must also be seen to defend the interests of the whole 27-nation EU bloc.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Russia Suspends Ban On Afghanistan’s Taliban, Eases Diplomatic Path

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 02:00

Russia on Thursday lifted its ban on the Taliban, which had been classified as a terrorist organisation for more than two decades, opening the door for Moscow to normalise relations with Afghanistan’s leadership.

No country currently recognises the Taliban government that seized power in August 2021 as U.S.-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. But Russia has been gradually building relations with the movement, which President Vladimir Putin said last year was now an ally in fighting terrorism.

The Taliban was outlawed by Russia as a terrorist movement in 2003. State media said the Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the ban with immediate effect.

Russia sees a need to work with the Taliban as it faces a major security threat from Islamist militant groups based in a string of countries from Afghanistan to the Middle East.

“Russia aims to build mutually beneficial ties with Afghanistan in all areas, including the fight against drugs and terrorism,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It added that Moscow was grateful to Afghanistan for military operations against the local branch of the Islamic State.

Restoring Ties

Moscow also aims to strengthen trade, business and investment ties with Kabul, leveraging Afghanistan’s strategic position for future energy and infrastructure projects, the ministry statement said.

In March 2024, gunmen killed 145 people at a concert hall outside Moscow in an attack claimed by the Islamic State. U.S. officials said they had intelligence indicating it was the Afghan branch of the group, Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), that was responsible.

The Taliban says it is working to wipe out the presence of the Islamic State in Afghanistan.

Western diplomats say the Taliban’s path towards wider international recognition is blocked until it changes course on women’s rights.

The Taliban has closed high schools and universities to girls and women and placed restrictions on their movement without a male guardian. It says it respects women’s rights in line with its strict interpretation of Islamic law.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Trump Supporter Prince Strikes Deal With Congo To Secure Mineral Resources

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 01:31

Erik Prince, a prominent Trump supporter, has agreed to assist the Democratic Republic of Congo in securing and taxing its vast mineral resources, according to two sources close to the private security executive, a Congolese government official, and two diplomats.

The agreement, aimed at reaping more revenue from an industry marred by smuggling and corruption, was reached before Rwanda-backed M23 rebels launched a major offensive in January that has seen them seize eastern Congo’s two largest cities.

The discussions now on implementing the deal with Prince come as the U.S. and Congo explore a broader deal on critical minerals partnerships, after Congo pitched a minerals-for-security deal to U.S. President Donald Trump‘s administration.

Prince founded Blackwater before renaming the private military company and selling it in 2010 after several employees were indicted on charges of unlawfully killing Iraqi civilians. The men were convicted but later pardoned by Trump during his first term.

The Trump administration has not said how the U.S. might contribute to security in Congo as part of any minerals deal. Analysts and former U.S. officials have said leaning on security contractors such as Prince could be an option.

A Congolese government source told Reuters that any agreement between Congo and Prince would need to be reviewed in light of the push for a deal with the U.S.

The security deal was agreed with the finance ministry, and Prince’s advisers will focus on improving tax collection and reducing cross-border smuggling of minerals, the two sources close to Prince said. There were no plans to deploy security contractors to areas of active conflict, the sources said.

Prince declined to comment through a spokesperson. The Congo presidency did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. State Department declined to comment.

Initial Focus On Copper Mines

Democratic Republic of Congo has vast reserves of copper, cobalt, lithium and coltan – a mineral used widely in smartphones, computers and electric vehicles – but has been plagued for decades by violence in its eastern region.

The agreement between Congo and Prince initially involved a plan to deploy contractors to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and the largest city in eastern Congo. But Goma is now under M23 control, and that plan has been put on hold. M23 controls tracts of mineral-rich territory.

A source close to the Congolese government told Reuters an initial deployment of Prince’s advisers was expected to start in the south, far from the area controlled by M23 and its allies.

“If you just look at Katanga, if you look at Kolwezi down just off the Zambian-Congo border, they claim that there’s like $40 million a month in lost revenue of what’s going out and what’s coming in,” the source said.

A diplomatic source also told Reuters that the first stage of Prince’s effort in Congo would focus on securing mines and tax revenues in the copper-producing Katanga province.

One of the sources close to Prince said advisers were expected to deploy with technical experts from a company specialised in testing and inspecting commodities. The advisers would initially target larger mines and expand as revenue collection improved.

The source did not provide details on how the advisers would tackle corruption in the sector, which has long drained revenue that would otherwise flow to the state.

A source in the office of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said an agreement in principle had been signed with Prince, but the details on where and how many advisers would be deployed remained to be established.

History Of Working In Africa

Prince has worked in Africa for over a decade, initially providing logistics for oil and mining companies working in remote corners of the continent.

A number of Prince-controlled companies have operated in Congo since 2015. They have been involved in trucking and have also sought to get involved in the minerals sector.

The two sources close to Prince said the new agreement followed years of talks over how to improve Congo’s control over its mineral resources.

Prince previously proposed sending thousands of contractors to the eastern region during talks with Kinshasa in 2023, a U.N. expert panel reported that year. Those discussions did not ultimately lead to a deal.

Congo has long accused Rwanda of plundering minerals from the region, a claim supported by independent entities including the United Nations and the nonprofit Global Witness. Rwanda denies that.

That loss of mining revenue is one of the key concerns that Prince’s team will seek to address, one of the sources close to Prince said.

The goal is to ensure “that extraction industries and others are operating transparently, and that their production and revenues are properly distributed in accordance with the Congolese mining code”, the source said.

United Nations and Western governments say Rwanda has provided arms and troops to the ethnic Tutsi-led M23.

Rwanda has denied backing M23. It says its military has acted in self-defence against Congo’s army and a Rwandan militia operating in east Congo that was founded by perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Ukraine Says Russian Forces Employing New Mass Assault Tactics

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 01:21

Russian forces are testing a new tactic involving large-scale assaults with hundreds of soldiers, Ukraine’s military says, as Kyiv braces for another offensive from its larger adversary over three years into the full-scale war.

The change signals a possible break with the tactics which Russia has leaned on for over two years, sending in tiny groups of infantry to seep slowly through Ukrainian lines.

A post from the Ukrainian military’s southern command on Thursday showed video footage of what it said was a Russian attack involving 320 men and 40 armoured vehicles in the vicinity of several villages on the southern frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The post said that the attack took place on Wednesday evening and lasted approximately two and a half hours before it was beaten back, adding that heavy losses were inflicted on the Russians.

Reuters could not verify the battlefield claims.

Russia’s tactic of attacking with small, lightly armed infantry units was in itself an evolution from how Moscow fought early in the war, when its vast armoured columns found themselves taking huge losses from nimble Ukrainian units.

Drone Warfare

The rise of mass drone warfare, which can hit targets far more precisely than mortars or artillery, has also made life much more difficult for armoured vehicles.

“Approximately 5-7 men would prepare for these assaults, make a so-called corridor with electronic warfare (anti-drone) equipment and try to go as far as possible with these groups of infantry,” Vladyslav Voloshyn, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, said of Russia’s tactics in recent months.

According to Voloshyn, there would be around ten such small attacks on a typical day on this part of the Zaporizhzhia frontline.

He said that, as well as Wednesday’s mass assault, the Russians had carried out a similar large attack on Sunday.

“Entire assault platoons came forward, which then tried to disperse into assault groups. Each assault group carried out its task, trying to capture a position of ours,” he said.

The commander of Ukraine’s National Guard, Oleksandr Pivnenko, said on Thursday that one of his brigades had repelled a large assault, involving armoured vehicles and hundreds of infantrymen, on a different part of the frontline near the embattled eastern town of Pokrovsk.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Trump Challenges Judges’ Inquiries Into Deportation Order Compliance

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 01:16

The Trump administration is challenging attempts by two judges to examine whether government officials violated their orders by deporting migrants to El Salvador, intensifying a standoff between the executive and judicial branches.

On Wednesday night, the Justice Department said it would appeal Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s finding that there was probable cause to believe the government had violated his order to return alleged members of a Venezuelan gang who were deported to El Salvador on March 15 under an 18th-century wartime law. Boasberg said administration officials could face criminal contempt charges.

Also late on Wednesday, government lawyers asked the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stop U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland from ordering U.S. officials to provide documents and answer questions under oath about what they had done to secure the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

In both cases, the Trump administration has denied it violated court orders and accused judges of overstepping their authority.

“A single district court has inserted itself into the foreign policy of the United States and has tried to dictate it from the bench,” the Justice Department lawyers wrote in its filing with the Fourth Circuit. “Emergency relief is needed.”

Over 150 Legal Challenges

The Trump administration faces more than 150 legal challenges to its policies. Democrats and some legal analysts say officials in some cases are dragging their feet in complying with unfavourable court orders, signalling a potential willingness to disobey an independent, coequal branch of government.

Administration officials have responded with blunt criticism of Boasberg and Xinis, both of whom were appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama. After Boasberg blocked the deportations of the Venezuelan migrants, Trump called for his impeachment.

That prompted a rare rebuke from U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, who said appeals, not impeachments, were the proper response to disagreements with court orders.

The judiciary is not the only U.S. institution to come under pressure. The Trump administration has targeted others that have long cherished their independence from partisan politics, such as universities and law firms.

Either the government or lawyers for the migrants could seek to have the U.S. Supreme Court review any unfavourable rulings by appeals courts in the cases of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was removed on March 15 despite an order blocking his deportation to El Salvador, and the 238 alleged Venezuelan gang members.

The Supreme Court has weighed prior questions in both cases before and issued rulings that both sides portrayed as victories.

Deportations Under Wartime Act

In the case of the Venezuelan migrants, the high court on April 7 ended Boasberg’s order blocking deportations under the wartime Alien Enemies Act, but said individuals must be given the chance to challenge their deportations in court before they are removed.

And the Supreme Court on April 10 told the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia from El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, but said Xinis’ prior order that the administration also “effectuate” his return was vague and may exceed her authority.

The Justice Department has said facilitating Abrego Garcia’s return only meant removing any domestic barriers to his return, an interpretation Xinis has said “flies in the face of the plain meaning of the word.”

In its appeal to the Fourth Circuit, the government lawyers said the judge had no power to order them to do anything more.

“The federal courts do not have the authority to press-gang the President or his agents into taking any particular act of diplomacy,” the lawyers wrote.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Russia Denies Missile Strike On Indian Pharma Warehouse In Kyiv, Blames Ukraine

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 01:06

MissileStrike — Ukraine claimed a Russian missile hit an Indian pharma firm's warehouse in Kyiv on Sunday. Photo courtesy: X/@MartinHarrisOBE

Russia has denied Ukraine’s allegations that a Russian missile hit the warehouse of an Indian pharma company in Kyiv last week.

In a statement, the Russian embassy in India said Ukrainian air defence missiles likely fell on Kusum Healthcare’s warehouse, setting it on fire.

Russian Forces ‘Not Involved’

“In response to the accusations spread by the Embassy of Ukraine in India, the Russian Embassy in New Delhi informs that the Russian Armed Forces did not attack or plan to attack on April 12, 2025, Kusum Healthcare’s pharmacy warehouse in the eastern part of Kiev,” it said.

“On that day, Russian tactical aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles and missile forces hit an aviation plant of the Ukrainian military industrial complex, the infrastructure of a military airfield and armoured vehicle repair and UAV assembly workshops at a completely different location,” the embassy statement said.

Ukraine Blamed

“The most likely explanation of the incident is that one of the Ukrainian air defence missiles fell on Kusum Healthcare’s warehouse, setting it on fire. Similar cases have occurred previously, whereby Ukrainian air defence interceptors failing to hit their targets fell in urban areas due to ineptly operated electronic warfare systems,” it said.

This comes after the Ukrainian embassy in New Delhi claimed that a Russian missile hit the warehouse of the Kusum pharmaceutical company in Kyiv.

It alleged that Russia “deliberately” targeted Indian businesses in Ukraine.

“Today, a Russian missile struck the warehouse of the Indian pharmaceutical company Kusum in Ukraine. While claiming ‘special friendship’ with India, Moscow deliberately targets Indian businesses – destroying medicines meant for children and the elderly,” Ukraine’s embassy said.

Owned by Indian businessman Rajiv Gupta, Kusum is among the largest pharma firms in Ukraine.

As per reports, the company’s products are significant across Ukraine as they ensure the availability of basic medicines.

(With inputs from IBNS)

Trump-University Clash Halts Research Funding For Harvard

Team StratNews;

Apr 18 2025, 00:00

Dr. Donald Ingber, a Harvard researcher whose work bridges medicine and engineering, had federal funding for some of his projects put on hold this week amid a clash between his university and President Donald Trump’s administration.

While Trump and his advisers portray the freezes as a temporary measure employed to force Harvard to make policy changes and address antisemitism on campus, Ingber and other scientists disagree. They fear long-term negative impacts on a tradition of partnerships between the government and university researchers dating back to World War II that made the U.S. the most technologically powerful country on earth.

Scientists say the damage is already aiding competitive rivals like China.

“We’re killing the Golden Goose of innovation that has let America be the scientific leader in the world,” said Ingber, the founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. “This is destroying our competitiveness.”

He has seen two government research contracts worth over $20 million halted since the Trump administration announced a $2.3 billion funding freeze against Harvard this week. One focused on assessing and developing drugs to combat radiation damage in humans. The work can be the basis for drugs to help cancer patients cope with the side effects of radiation therapy, and it could be used to protect soldiers and civilians alike in the case of nuclear war or during a nuclear plant explosion.

Funding Freeze

The Harvard funding freeze came after the school rejected government-mandated reforms of its academic programs, admissions process and hiring practices that are meant to stamp out what the Trump administration sees as the “radical left” at the school and other colleges across the country.

Trump officials point to the wave of pro-Palestinian protests at several schools last year following the 2023 war in Israel and Gaza as a rationale for its demands. However, critics among faculty and student groups say the measures are designed to chill speech and that campuses should be a place for freedom of speech and academic thought.

Ingber said he knows of post-doc applicants who are now turning down research positions in the U.S. that they had accepted because they are afraid to live in America as foreigners. They are turning to China or Europe to carry out their work.

“We were the magnet for the best young scientists around the world to come and pursue innovation,” Ingber said. “It’s over. After three months of this administration, it is over.”

White House spokesman Kush Desai said that the funding freeze on Harvard and Columbia “is motivated by one thing and one thing only: tackling antisemitism.”

“Antisemitic protestors inflicting violence and taking over entire college campus buildings is not only a crude display of bigotry against Jewish Americans, but entirely disruptive to the intellectual inquiry and research that federal funding of colleges is meant to support,” Desai said.

The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Long, Lasting Effects’

Since the end of World War II, the government has identified strategic areas of research in public health, military or other areas. Researchers then respond by proposing projects, of which less than the top 10% may receive federal funding.

For decades universities have provided infrastructure and administration for these joint projects. The researchers are most often independent of the colleges, with no teaching duties or connections to the student politics that have riled universities’ relationships with the federal government.

Noam Ross, executive director of rOpenSci, a non-profit global initiative that supports open and reproducible research, is helping lead the creation of a database where canceled grants and contracts are listed, culled from scientists’ reports, notifications on government websites, legal cases and news reports. Ross hopes the scientific community can use the information in legal battles or to better make its case in the court of public opinion.

“You need information available to people so they can understand the impact of the administration, and understand what it means that they’re going after the health and scientific enterprise that has powered this country’s economy and progress for 100 years,” Ross said.

Ross has compiled data on funding cuts to research on transgender health or DEI, issues the Trump administration has targeted. But it also shows the threats to research at Harvard, Columbia and scores of other colleges.

Columbia Shares The Pain

Columbia University researchers and administrators went through what Harvard’s Ingber is experiencing now in March, after the Trump administration said it was terminating grants and contracts worth $400 million to the university.

Among the Columbia projects affected by the Trump administration’s funding freeze was a study designed to improve the safety of blood transfusion therapies for adults, children and newborns, and research on uterine fibroids, non-cancerous tumors that can cause pain and affect women’s fertility.

Dr. Ronald Collman, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for AIDS Research, said his center has seen cuts made by the Trump administration, and he felt compelled to help the public understand what is at stake is not funding for a new recreation center for privileged Ivy League students.

“Sure, the researchers get a short-term punishment, but the long-term costs, the real punishments, are for the public who will not get the benefits of the discoveries,” Collman said, emphasizing that he was not speaking on behalf of his university.

He added that incentivizing research is “the American way.”

“This notion now that the central government is going to control every aspect of the research is how we destroy that, it’s how we will make China great,” Collman said. “It’s going to have long, lasting effects.”

(With inputs from Reuters)

Qatar’s Emir Tells Putin Syria Wants Closer Ties With Russia

Team StratNews;

Apr 17 2025, 21:20

During talks at the Kremlin on Thursday, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Syria’s new leadership is eager to develop closer ties with Moscow.

The assurance from Sheikh Tamim comes as Putin attempts to retain Russia’s use of two military bases in Syria and avoid a serious blow to its strategic influence in the region, after the fall of its ally Bashar al-Assad in December. Assad was toppled by rebels led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has replaced him as president.

“As for Syria, a few days ago President al-Sharaa was in Qatar, and we spoke with him about the historical and strategic relationship between Syria and Russia. He is keen on building a relationship between the two countries based on mutual respect,” the emir told Putin at their meeting.

Putin said the development of the situation in Syria, which has been rocked by sectarian violence in recent weeks, was of serious importance.

” We would like to do everything to ensure that Syria, firstly, remains a sovereign, independent and territorially integral state, and we would like to discuss with you the possibility of providing assistance to the Syrian people, including humanitarian assistance,” he told the emir.

“There are many problems there: political, security, and purely economic.”

Russia’s Dialogue With The Middle East

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was in dialogue with all regional players in the Middle East about its ties with Syria.

The two leaders also discussed the situation in Gaza, where Qatar played a key role in brokering a January deal between Israel and Hamas for a three-phase ceasefire.

Israel restarted its offensive in the enclave in March, and talks to try to restore the ceasefire have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough.

“Qatar, in its role as a mediator, will strive to bridge differing perspectives in an effort to reach an agreement to end the suffering of the Palestinian people,” Sheikh Tamim said.

Putin told the emir: “We know that Qatar is making very serious efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unfortunately, the initiatives put forward, including by you, have not been implemented – peaceful people continue to die in Palestine, which is an absolute tragedy of today.”

Interfax quoted Peskov as saying there was no substantive discussion of the war in Ukraine but Putin expressed thanks for Qatar’s involvement in arranging the return of children from both countries who were separated from their parents during the war.

The two leaders also signed an agreement under which each country will pay an extra 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion) into a joint investment fund.

Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, told reporters that Qatar was a major investor in Russian infrastructure, and Russian companies were interested in entering the Middle East market with Qatari partners.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Iran’s Leader Ali Khamenei Sends Letter To Putin Ahead Of U.S. Nuclear Talks

Team StratNews;

Apr 17 2025, 20:57

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sent his foreign minister to Moscow on Thursday, carrying a letter for Russian President Vladimir Putin to update the Kremlin regarding nuclear negotiations with the U.S., which has issued threats to bomb Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with bombing and to extend tariffs to third countries that buy Iranian oil if Tehran does not come to an agreement with Washington over its disputed nuclear programme. The United States has moved additional warplanes into the region.

The Trump administration and Iran held talks in Oman last weekend that both sides described as positive and constructive. Ahead of a second round of talks set to take place in Rome this weekend, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that Iran’s right to enrich uranium is not negotiable.

Russia, a longstanding ally of Tehran, plays a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and a signatory to an earlier nuclear deal Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.

“Regarding the nuclear issue, we always had close consultations with our friends China and Russia. Now it is a good opportunity to do so with Russian officials,” Araqchi told Iranian state TV.

Letter For Putin

He said he was conveying a letter to Putin that addressed regional and bilateral issues. Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said Putin would receive Araqchi.

Western powers say Iran is refining uranium to a high degree of fissile purity beyond what is justifiable for a civilian nuclear energy programme and close to the level suitable for an atomic bomb. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and says it has a right to a civilian nuclear programme.

Moscow has bought weapons from Iran for the war in Ukraine and signed a 20-year strategic partnership deal with Tehran earlier this year, although it did not include a mutual defence clause. The two countries were battlefield allies in Syria for years until their ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December.

Russia’s foreign ministry said talks with Iran would focus on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the world powers’ 2015 nuclear treaty with Iran from which the United States withdrew during Trump’s first presidency.

“We intend to further expand mutually beneficial relations with Iran in the interests of regional stability and international security,” the ministry said.

Putin has kept on good terms with Ali Khamenei as both Russia and Iran are cast as enemies by the West, but Moscow is keen not to trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

Russia has said that any military strike against Iran would be illegal and unacceptable. On Tuesday, the Kremlin declined to comment when asked if Russia was ready to take control of Iran’s stocks of enriched uranium as part of a possible future nuclear deal between Iran and the United States.

(With inputs from Reuters)