South East Asia

It is a long, tongue-twister of a name for a government scheme – ‘Viksit Bharat—Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin)’. It is even more torturous to read if you are not a Hindi speaker.

This is the name of the new scheme, which will replace the two decade old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or MNREGA. Claimed to be an improvement over its predecessor, it is in fact a calculated dilution of the most critical lifeline for India’s rural poor

Mullah Shirin, the Taliban governor of Kandahar, has become one of the most powerful figures within the Taliban, wielding influence that in some cases surpasses the authority of their chief minister, multiple sources told Amu TV.

Six sources familiar with the matter said Shirin plays a central role in major decisions, often recommending ministerial appointments before they are formally considered by the Taliban chief minister Hassan Akhund’s office. They added that he manages much of the day-to-day affairs of Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s office, making him the closest aide to the reclusive supreme leader.

Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani met Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada during a visit to the southern city of Kandahar, sources familiar with the matter told Amu TV.

Details of the meeting have not been made public, but the visit came days after Haqqani sharply criticised the Taliban’s style of governance in a speech in the eastern province of Khost on December 12.

When President Trump travels to Beijing early next year to finalize a new trade deal, China will deploy one of its favorite pressure tactics: restricting exports of rare earth elements.

Last month, The New York Times’s Thomas Friedman warned that China’s threat to cut off rare earth exports could “trump Trump’s tariffs tenfold.” He’s right that Beijing sees these minerals as strategic leverage, but the real story is more complicated. The market is small, innovation is closing the gap, and allied countries are building alternative supply chains faster than many realize.

Pakistan’s military on Tuesday issued a cautious response to Taliban accusations of deadly airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, saying it does not conduct undeclared military operations and “never targets civilians”.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that Pakistani strikes hit parts of Khost, Paktika and Kunar provinces overnight, killing at least 10 civilians. Mujahid described the attacks as “violations and crimes” and said Afghanistan would issue a “timely” response.

Pakistan’s military denied on Tuesday it had struck neighbouring Afghanistan, rejecting accusations by the Taliban government that it was behind an overnight air raid that killed 10 people near the border.

“Pakistan has not attacked Afghanistan,” army spokesman Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in comments carried by state broadcaster PTV, adding that “the allegations of the interim Afghan government are baseless.”

Pakistani security forces killed 20 Pakistani Taliban insurgents in raids on hideouts in the northwest region bordering Afghanistan, the military said Monday, as tensions between the two countries escalated.

Separately, militants including a suicide bomber tried to storm a cadet college in Wana, a city in the South Waziristan district also in the northwest, triggering a gunbattle that killed at least two of the attackers, the military said.

At the Xi-Trump meeting, China paused rare-earths curbs for a year and pledged to refine detailed plans, offering a cautious sip of a bitter cup ahead.

On 10 October, a remark made by China’s former leader Deng Xiaoping was recalled around the world, becoming a focal point of commentary across Europe.