Mecca Joint Defence Agreement is built on on a 2025 Saudi-Pakistani pact under which Pakistan had sent about 8,000 troops to the kingdom by May (Photo: Agencies). Pakistan defence forces chief Asim Munir agreed to quickly deploy more Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia, despite the Pakistani Parliament voting to stay out of the Houthi conflict…
Guns, gold and tolls How Congo’s militias and guerrillas profit from the M23 war In a remote mining village in the Democratic Republic of Congo, teenagers carrying Kalashnikovs guard a gold mine while claiming to fight for their country. But behind the language of patriotism lies another reality: a growing militia economy fuelled by war,…
‘Shakti Shalini’ director Aditya Sarpotdar recalls Nana Patekar cooking mutton for the crew: ‘He used to say that I’m a better cook than an actor’ Nana Patekar’s last screen appearance will be in the horror comedy ‘Shakti Shalini’, and director Aditya Sarpotdar now remembers the actor with deep sadness. The veteran star, who died on…
Experts say H-1B visas are an indication of the larger crackdown to ensure Americans don’t lose out on jobs. Indians, particularly IT sector professionals, hoping to work in the US, have a steep uphill climb. And, under the Donald Trump administration the fear is that the path may itself be lost! The repeated tightening of…
The reform could nevertheless create an opportunity for the centre-left if its parties can overcome their differences and form a broad alliance. Recent polls put Meloni’s Brothers of Italy at about 28%, followed by the Democratic Party at around 20% and Five Star at 12.5%. Italy’s parliament on Thursday gave final approval to an electoral…
A view of the British consulate with signage removed, on the deadline set by Israel for its closure. (Reuters photo) The diplomatic relationship between Britain and Israel has suffered a fresh setback after Israel said the British Consulate in east Jerusalem would no longer function as a consulate, with 20 British diplomats, including the consul…
A person claiming to be Daniel Robson has been writing for Canadian media for two years until Turkiye Today claimed that the person is not a real person but a fake AI persona. Two years after Daniel Robson emerged in the Canadian media scene as an expert in extremism, terrorism, and cybercrime, several Canadian outlets…
Image credit: Texas Parks and Wildlife For four decades, Texas rancher and physician Paul Burns worked to restore land that had been part of his family’s history since the 19th century. What began as a severely degraded ranch in Brown County, Texas, gradually recovered through brush removal, native-grass reseeding, protection of springs and changes in…
A protester holds a French flag behind a barricade to block the Boulevard Saint-Germain during a blockade of Sciences Po university in Paris. Across Europe, a protest movement that began with French high-school students is increasingly finding echoes in neighbouring countries, as young people complain about overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, ageing school buildings, rising education…
‘My first memory of him is everybody standing scared and so terrified of him’, Sutapa Sikdar remembers Nana Patekar on the ‘Khamoshi: The Musical’ set Nana Patekar, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 75, was a feared presence on the sets of ‘Khamoshi: The Musical’ in 1996. Dialogue writer Sutapa Sikdar, then…