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Signalling that it is all for peaceful restoration of status quo ante in East Ladakh but is also prepared for the worst case scenario, the Indian Army has deployed six T-90 missile firing tanks and top-of-the-line shoulder fired anti-tank missile systems in the Galwan Valley sector. The senior military commanders from India and China are meeting at Chushul on Tuesday to work out the de-escalation and disengagement process on mutual terms.\ The army's decision to deploy the T-90 Bishma tanks was taken after the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) had beefed up its positions on the river bed with armoured...

In 2008, as the Obama administration prepared to take control in Washington, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey offered a list of bold predictions for the coming five years. Some of them bore out: The economy performed well globally despite the Great Recession, relations with Russia became more hostile without devolving into outright dysfunction, and the United States withdrew from Iraq right at the 36-month mark, which McCaffrey specified. Other predictions, such as a North Korean collapse, improved prospects for success in Afghanistan following a massive commitment of resources, and a nuclear breakout for Iran, never occurred.A year later, geopolitical analyst...

CHINA is flexing its muscles with a series of war games in the South China Sea in a show of force aimed at reinforcing its bid to dominate the disputed waters. China, which claims sovereignty over large areas of the South China Sea, has fortified numerous uninhabited islands there. Zhou Zhirong, a flight commander of the army aviation brigade involved in the training, said: "In the exercise, we conducted the training through day and night, set multiple kinds of targets on land, at sea and in the air, and stressed on the tactical coordination in continuous strikes by multiple projectiles....

The private-equity tycoon Stephen A. Schwarzman, backed by an array of mostly western blue-chip companies with interests in China, is creating a $300 million scholarship for study in China that he hopes will rival the Rhodes scholarship in prestige and influence. The programme, whose endowment represents one of the largest single gifts to education in the world and one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever in China, was announced by Mr. Schwarzman in Beijing on Sunday. The Schwarzman Scholars programme will pay all expenses for 200 students each year from around the world for a one-year master’s programme at Tsinghua...

Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey signing executive orders with one to shut down bars, movie theaters, water parks and tube rentals for one month starting at 8 pm local tonight (11 pm Eastern US time). Ducey also prohibiting "social gatherings" of 50 or more people..... Florida authorities moving to close some beaches for the July 4th weekend out of fear of the coronavirus. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis speaking of "widespread noncompliance" with coronavirus restrictions among reopened businesses in the state..... Republican Chief Justice John Roberts again joining the Supreme Court liberals in a 5-4 ruling. This time the decision involves...

India deployed surface-to-air missiles to its border with China in the Himalayan Mountains after a clash with Chinese troops left 20 Indian soldiers dead. The weekend deployment to Ladakh, in Kashmir state, was comprised of Indian-made Akash, Israeli-made Spyder and Soviet-era Pechora and OSA-AK missiles. India and China have increased troop presence and the number of fighter planes, helicopters, tanks and heavy artillery in the region since a June 15 incident between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley. An Indian colonel was among the 20 people who died in fighting late Monday, authorities said, adding that they were...

Joint exercises by the Indian and Japanese navies in the Indian Ocean at the weekend suggest the two countries are drawing closer to face what they perceive as a common threat from China, analysts say. While joint military exercises involving the two countries are not uncommon, the latest activity comes amid tensions both are experiencing with Beijing. Indian and Chinese troops remain locked in a face-off along the disputed Himalayan border where 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a recent clash with their Chinese counterparts, while Japan and China are locked in a war of words over a Japanese move...

India's government has banned TikTok and dozens more Chinese-made apps it says are a danger to the country. In a statement, it said the apps were "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order". In total, 59 different apps were banned - including popular messaging app WeChat. TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is headquartered in Beijing and the app first became popular in the Chinese market before spreading worldwide. As it grew in popularity, it has faced accusations of links to the Chinese state, and of sending user data into China. Many of...

In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 file photo, released by Oman News Agency, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, left, receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Muscat, Oman. (Oman News Agency via AP, File) The “last decade,” notes James Sinkinson in a perceptive article, has seen a “sea change” in Israel’s ties with “key Arab states.” And that last decade is also the one in which Benjamin Netanyahu (again, after a stint in the 1990s) has been Israel’s prime minister — specifically since March 2009.True, conditions for enhanced Arab-Israeli ties have been propitious — particularly the behavior of regional bully Iran, a...

New Delhi: The Centre has blocked 59 apps with Chinese links that included the hugely popular TikTok, WeChat and UC Browser, amid a huge economic backlash against China following the June 15 clashes at Ladakh in which 20 Indian soldiers died in action. Sources said inputs from intelligence agencies suggested that the apps have been violating the terms of usage, compromising users privacy, and being used as spyware or malware. Within minutes of the announcement, the Indian government's TikTok account MyGov, which had 1.1 milliorn followers, was disabled. The move comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India...

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has miniaturized an electromagnetic railgun and developed pistol- and rifle-sized synchronous induction coilgun prototypes. These weapons’ technical capabilities were recently revealed to the general public for the first time in a demonstration session. Developed by the PLA Army Logistics University, the weapons, named Small Synchronous Induction Coilguns, come with pistol-sized, rifle-sized and land robot-mounted variants, according to a report by Chinese military news website js7tv.cn last week. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The coilguns are essentially miniaturized, portable electromagnetic railguns so they can be used by single foot soldiers, the report said. To deal...

BENGALURU: Till last month, Mandya district had a record number of Covid-19 cases causing concern. But to everyone’s surprise, it has been recording an impressive turnaround despite continuing arrivals from hot spot states. Health officials claim that one of the reasons is because they are giving hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to all those quarantined, including the Maharashtra returnees. They also quoted the government guidelines which permit prophylactic usage of HCQ (prevention). While the matter evoked mixed response from health professionals including concerns of side-effects on aged population as well as consent, top officials in the district declared it as a successful move,...

....A week later, Apple announced it would move a significant amount of its iPhone production out of China and into India. It took about a month since that announcement for Chinese soldiers to club their Indian counterparts to death with sticks wrapped in barbed wire. ................... Polls show that Australians, Filipinos, Kenyans, Indians, and a growing chorus of other nationals around the world have seen their opinions sour on China in recent history, not only as a product of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic but in response to China’s colonization projects, such as its illegal reclamation of the South China Sea...

New Delhi: Indian defence forces have deployed their advanced “quick-reaction surface-to-air missile defence systems” in the Eastern Ladakh sector after PLA air force increased its air activity near LAC in Ladakh and Chinese aircraft were seen last week landing in a Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) airbase. The air defence systems of both Indian Army and the Indian Air Force have been deployed in Ladakh to take on any aerial threat. India has also filled the surveillance gaps to ensure that no enemy aircraft would be able to go undetected. Indian quick reaction air defence missile includes the Akash missile which...

The Indian military is amassing more men and material as a precautionary deployment along the 3,488-km-long disputed border with China. The Indian military is amassing more men and material as a precautionary deployment along the 3,488-km-long disputed border with China. The deployment, perhaps one of the biggest in the recent years, comes at a time when India and China are locked in a hitherto unprecedented standoff – for eight weeks now – at multiple points along their border. Sources said that Indian Army has deployed three more divisions in eastern Ladakh region to bolster its position on the Line of...

Transgender Hollywood star Laverne Cox and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) pushed for the defunding of the police in a joint appearance Thursday on Watch What Happens Live, during which Sen. Harris said that putting more cops on the streets is “just wrong.” Laverne Cox expressed her enthusiasm about the Defund the Police movement in the virtual conversation. “The fact that there’s a national conversation about defunding the police, I think is remarkable. And that people of all races are having that conversation is really exciting to me.”

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it received records from the U.S. Secret Service showing that, for the first five and a half years of the Obama administration, Hunter Biden traveled extensively while receiving a Secret Service protective detail. During the time period of the records provided, Hunter Biden, son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, took 411 separate domestic and international flights, including to 29 different foreign countries. He visited China five times. Judicial Watch’s February 7, 2020, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request sought: Records reflecting the dates and locations of travel, international and domestic, for Hunter Biden...

The number of recoveries in the north-eastern region of India at 5,715 exceed the active cases, which stands at 3,731. No COVID-19 death has been reported from Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim so far, and the number of cases in the north-eastern region was comparatively lower than the rest of the country, the government said on Friday. It also said that lack of testing facilities and dedicated COVID-19 hospitals had initially hampered the fight against the dreaded virus in the eight north-eastern states but the infrastructure has been bolstered since then. As on date, the number of recoveries at 5,715...

While the pandemic and political unrest have taken center stage in the U.S. and Europe, some major policy developments in Eastern part of the world have gone unnoticed. Among those is the big fossil fuel push by India and China. India, in particular, has gone public with its intentions to open new coal mines and increase coal production. It has even celebrated the decisions publicly. These are huge developments that are likely to have a lasting impact on the global energy scene and the politics surrounding the controversial and restrictive Paris climate agreement. They most probably will also impact future...

With an eye on the aggressive Chinese behaviour, the National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal 2021 has sought fighter jet training detachment for India, Japan and Australia in the US Pacific territory of Guam. The move comes six months after the US Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen signed a memorandum of understanding for Singapore to set up a fighter jet training detachment in Guam. The text of NDAA 2021, for the fiscal year beginning October 1, was introduced in the Senate on Thursday... Among other things, the bill establishes the Pacific Deterrence Initiative,...