Habib Siddiqui

  Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to a temporary “pause” in hostilities during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr this week, officials said, amid weeks of   deadly violence  between the neighbouring countries. Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Wednesday that the pause – set to run from midnight on Thursday (19:00 GMT, Wednesday) until midnight on Tuesday (19:00 GMT, Monday) – had been requested by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye. Recommended Stories list of 3 items list 1 of 3 UN revises Kabul rehab strike toll as Pakistan denies targeting civilians list 2 of 3 Pakistan ‘strongly’ rejects claim it struck Kabul hospital list 3 of 3 Do Taliban’s drone attacks expose a chink in Pakistan’s armour? end of list “Pakistan offers this gesture in good faith and in keeping with the Islamic norms,” Tarar wrote in a  social media post . However, he warned that “in case of any cross-border attack, drone attack or any terrorist incident inside Pakistan, [o...

  Every war produces dissent. Most people keep it to themselves. Some leave quietly. Very few say plainly what they think. Joe Kent did. The director of the US National Counterterrorism Center did not hide behind bureaucratic language or talk of “policy disagreement”. He said Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States. He also suggested the war was being driven by pressure from Israel and its lobby. Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4 President or Congress? Who in the US has the power to declare war? list 2 of 4 Different parties ‘on the rise’ within the anti-Netanyahu right list 3 of 4 The ‘bad leader’ trap list 4 of 4 US Senator Van Hollen: Trump ‘has no idea where this war is going’ end of list This goes beyond a normal policy disagreement. Kent is not a marginal figure. He served multiple combat deployments and lost his wife in war. He is not someone distant from the consequences of these decisions. When someone like that steps down and says the next generat...

  Photograph Source: Prime Minister’s Office –  GODL Three months before taking power in 1949, Mao Tse-tung  wrote  of the solidarity required for the Chinese people’s revolution, remarking that a “principal and fundamental experience” was to “unite in a common struggle with those nations of the world which treat us as equals and unite with the peoples of all countries.” Mao warned, though, of “domestic and foreign reactionaries, the imperialists and their running dogs.” Fast forward to last week (March 9), as Indian writer Arundhati Roy  rebuked  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government: “Some of you will remember how we used to joke about that florid, overblown Chinese communist term, ‘Running Dog of Imperialism.’ But right now, I’d say, it describes us well.” Are BRICS rising? Or spalling? Or running (dogs)? Does the critique of Modi’s allegiance to Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu apply more broadly, when we consider the Brazil-Russia-India-China-So...