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An unfortunate incident of a blast at a coal mine in southern Pakistan, which claimed dozens of precious lives, made the whole of Pakistan sad (“Explosion at coal mine kills 34 in southern Pakistan,” July31,
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India’s data centre capacity additions surged 59% Y-o-Y to 258 MW IT, while absorption grew 31% Y-o-Y to 278 MW IT in H1 2026. Mumbai (38%) and Chennai (26%) remained the dominant markets in H1
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FIFA wants to create a commercial subsidiary to attract private investors, who it says will remain minority stakeholders, but who help increase the kitty bag of national federations. UEFA, which is the governing body of
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After Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” was released in theaters, Elon Musk declared he would use Grok to create a more “historically accurate” version of the ancient epic poem.The uproar over the film’s supposedly woke casting
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When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was appointed secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services in February 2025, I knew my life would become more complicated.I am among the estimated 14 million Americans
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It’s a world of new technology and artificial intelligence. The name artificial intelligence says everything — intelligence that is gathered from human-generated data and information — making artificial intelligence seem smarter than humans nowadays (“China
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A Russia sanctions bill championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham faces a tough road in Congress as Democrats and some Republicans raise concerns about new trade powers the legislation would grant President Donald Trump. Many Democrats, some Republicans, and industry trade groups are unhappy about a provision in the long-stalled bill that would let Trump impose steep tariffs on countries that purchase large amounts of Russian oil and gas, or countries that his administration deems to be facilitating sanctions evasion. The bill would impose sanctions on Russian officials and authorize 100% tariffs on the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas, or the five top countries that help Moscow evade US sanctions and keep funding its war against Ukraine, now in its fifth year. Those countries are not mentioned in the bill but would likely include China, India and potentially some European countries and Japan. Graham, who died suddenly last month, pressed for the bill’s passage for over a year but only in the past weeks secured support from Trump as the Republican president grew more confident in Ukraine and more frustrated with Moscow. The tariff provisions became more important to the White House after the US Supreme Court in February struck down Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs of 10% to 50% imposed last year, which sent the administration scrambling to find new authorities. The sanctions bill would also allow the president to waive the Russia sanctions for unspecified national security reasons, a provision that pro-Ukraine Democrats oppose, given Trump’s shifting views on Russia and Ukraine. The bill would also extend for five years Iran energy and weapons sanctions first enacted in 1996 that are due to expire this year, a measure added as a condition of Trump’s support. Trump earlier this week demanded that the bill also include tariffs on Iran, although trade between the US and Iran is virtually nil. With polls showing that Democrats could win control of the House and possibly the Senate in November congressional elections, some lawmakers say they would prefer to wait to pass Russia sanctions until Democrats have more power over what many see as unprecedented legislation. The legislation advanced with overwhelming bipartisan support for procedural votes in the US Senate on Tuesday and Wednesday, with lawmakers calling it a tribute to Graham. Congressional aides said it could well pass the full Senate before senators head home to their districts next week. But the legislation, renamed in Graham’s honour, faces bigger challenges in the House of Representatives, which is on recess until August 31. Already, some senior Democrats have lined up to oppose the sanctions bill. Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Richard Neal, the top Democrats on the respective Senate and House trade committees, have blasted the bill for granting Trump new tariff powers that they say could fuel US inflation. “There is no question that the US government must take stronger action against purchasers of Russian energy who are fueling the unjustifiable war against Ukraine. But the latest draft of the Sanctioning Russia Act is a prescription for bedlam and higher tariffs,” they said in a joint statement. The legislation is also driving concern among some Republicans. Mahur Patel, a former Republican congressional aide now with Hogan Lovells Cadwalader law firm, said he doubted the legislation could pass the House this year, given the coming election season and lingering Republican skepticism about the breadth of Trump’s tariffs thus far. Patel said many Republicans in Congress remained uneasy about Trump’s previous sweeping tariffs, and some were actively lobbying for specific exemptions, such as the one granted this week that offers temporary relief for phosphate fertilizer from Morocco to avert a shortfall caused by the Iran war. Senator Rand Paul, the sole Republican to vote against the bill on Tuesday, has said that he will offer an amendment to put limits on the tariffs that Trump could impose, and others may follow suit. Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, on Thursday said Ukraine needs quick action before the coming winter. “You know very well that tariffs (are) a partisan issue at this point, so we hope it will not distract everyone from the real intention with the law,” she told an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. Beyond concerns that the bill could raise inflation at home, sanctions and tariff experts say it would give presidents a new ability to target countries through secondary tariffs instead of just sanctioning individuals and entities found to be aiding sanctions evasion. The bill calls for those authorities to sunset in five years, but experts note that governments seldom yield back powers once held. The expanded tariff power could upend functioning multilateral cooperation, including the 40-plus nation US-led coalition that imposed sanctions on Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, one Western diplomat said. Backers of the bill argue the sunset clause narrows the tariff language enough to hit Russian energy revenues without negative consequences. Jess Hoversen, a former senior US government official and now chief economist at the developer platform bank Column, said the bill, if passed, would create a kind of sledgehammer that could target entire bilateral economic relationships. “Secondary tariffs, as designed in this bill, would function as a much blunter instrument that could apply across-the-board duties to all goods from a country based on its energy trade with Russia or its role in sanctions evasion,” Hoversen said. — Reuters
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Hamas said on Friday it agreed to a deal to end the war with Israel that included provisions addressing its weapons and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. The text of the deal has not been released publicly, and there was no immediate statement from Israel. Here are some of the challenges the deal would face on the ground in Gaza. US President Donald Trump announced the “complete disarmament” of Hamas, calling it a critical step towards a new Palestinian government in Gaza. He said Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza “as disarmament is completed”. Hamas officials told AFP a committee established by Trump’s Board of Peace to govern Gaza would oversee the process of storing the movement’s weapons. “Hamas has now accepted a text that fully complies with Trump’s plan for Gaza, one that the Board of Peace endorsed, that Trump himself publicly welcomed, and that (Benjamin) Netanyahu rejected outright,” said Muhammad Shehada, a researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). “As long as Israel maintains that position, there can be absolutely no progress,” he added. Israel has so far not commented on Hamas’s decision. But hours before Hamas announced the agreement, an Israeli political source told reporters that Gaza was not even discussed during Trump and Netanyahu’s meeting this week in Washington. “Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and full demilitarisation of the Strip as a precondition for any process,” the source said. “There will be no Israeli withdrawal from the yellow line in the Gaza Strip before Hamas is disarmed and the Strip is demilitarised,” they added, referring to a demarcation between the area under Hamas control and that held by the Israeli army. Hamas said it expected mediators and the Board of Peace to ensure Israel complied with the deal’s terms, which included Israel’s “gradual withdrawal” from Gaza. “The agreement contains a clear provision stating that Israel must commit to and implement its obligations. If Israel does not implement the agreement, neither will we,” Ghazi Hamad, a member of the group’s negotiating team told AFP. Shehada, however, said Netanyahu was highly unlikely to accept such terms with elections looming. “It would amount to political suicide,” he said, noting that Defence Minister Israel Katz had “even pledged to rebuild Jewish settlements there”. “Our focus now turns to implementation,” the Board of Peace said, adding that the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), established by the board, will “soon begin a phased transition toward full authority”. According to Hamas, Israel’s withdrawal, the deployment of an international force, the installation of NCAG and the handling of the movement’s weapons must all proceed in parallel. “What we are seeing instead is a continued expansion of the (Israeli) occupation,” said Paris-based Hamas specialist Leila Seurat. Israeli military officials say that the army controlled more than 60% of Gaza, more than what it did when the ceasefire was announced in October. Hamas officials say the next two weeks will be devoted to agreeing on the mechanisms for implementing the deal. “We must agree on every detail: how the agreement will be implemented, when it will be implemented and the mechanisms for carrying it out. This is what will take place in the coming days,” said Hamad. Seurat says Hamas’s public announcements are also part of a communications strategy. “Its main objective is to say: we are fulfilling our part of what was agreed, while Israel is doing nothing,” she said. Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, said the implementation stage of the plan “matters even more” than the initial deal. “Implementation and verification have to be real,” Mladenov wrote on X. “Withdrawal must move in lockstep with decommissioning.”
