Category: 2. World

While Donald Trump is hard to beat when it comes to stealing the global spotlight, Xi Jinping proved this week he can also put on a good show.

In memorable scenes reminiscent of a family reunion, the Chinese leader embraced and riffed with some of the world’s preeminent strongmen — including an impromptu conversation with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un about organ transplants and immortality.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s exports of services rose by 18.27 per cent year-on-year in July — the first month of FY26 — mainly on the back of a strong performance in telecommunication, computer, and information services, official data showed on Thursday.

According to figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, services exports increased to $745.52 million in July, up from $630.38m in the corresponding month of the previous fiscal year. On a month-on-month basis, exports rose by 4.47pc.

In rupee terms, services exports grew 20.74pc to Rs211.89bn in July compared to Rs175.49bn in the same month last year, indicating continued strength in foreign currency inflows from the sector.

The data highlights that the double-digit growth was primarily driven by a 23.77pc surge in telecommunication, computer, and information services, which reached $354m in July compared to $286m in the same period last year, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.

IT-related services lead a 23.8pc rise in telecom, computer, and information exports

Other business services also posted robust growth, rising 17.96pc to $151m from $128m a year earlier. Transport services exports increased by 21.54pc to $79m from $65m.

However, the export of travel services declined sharply by 20.33pc, falling to $47m from $59m in the same month of FY25, reflecting subdued demand or reduced outbound activity in the travel segment.

Despite the overall rise in services exports, imports of services marginally declined by 0.61pc to $871.44m in July compared to $876.83m in the corresponding month last year. On a monthly basis, however, imports rose by 3.41pc.

The slight decline in imports was largely due to reduced spending on transport and business-related services. Transport services imports dropped 2.97pc to $391m in July FY26 from $403m a year earlier. In contrast, travel services imports rose 16pc to $210m from $181m in the same period.

As a result of rising exports and easing imports, Pakistan’s trade deficit in services narrowed significantly by 48.91pc in July FY26, falling to $125.92m from $246.45m in the same month last year.

In FY25, the country’s services exports grew 9.23pc to $8.39bn, compared to $7.68bn in FY24. The momentum has largely been fuelled by consistent growth in IT-related exports since February 2024, though the sector did witness a 6.5pc dip in August 2024.

Analysts believe the performance of the services sector — especially IT and digital services — will remain a key driver of foreign exchange earnings in the current fiscal year, particularly amid volatility in goods exports.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2025

• Muddy water pours into many homes in low-lying areas
• People wade through floodwaters in areas surrounding historic Red Fort
• Crops across tens of thousands of acres destroyed in Punjab
• Torrential rain in hilly areas has swollen several rivers

NEW DELHI: Parts of Delhi and India-held Kashmir were flooded on Thursday after two rivers breached the danger mark following heavy rain in several northern areas, but weather officials forecast some respite from downpours.

A fierce monsoon season has brought immense destruction in the region this year, killing at least 130 people in August.

Torrential rain in the hilly areas of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the Himlayan enclave of Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh has swollen many rivers, which have crossed danger levels.

Residential areas were flooded in the key city of Srinagar after a breach of the Jhelum river embankment, and authorities urged people to evacuate homes.

“The Jhelum is climbing, but at a much slower rate than was feared,” Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of held Kashmir, said in a post on X. “The administration is not going to lower its guard. We continue to monitor the situation very closely.”

Rescuers searched for any people trapped under debris after the rain triggered a landslide at the Ratle hydroelectric power project on the Chenab river in Drabshalla, officials said.

Indian weather officials have forecast showers to ease off on Thursday, with moderate rain expected in held Kashmir and the state of Uttarkhand.

In Delhi, the capital, the Yamuna river passed the danger mark on Tuesday, in a flow the Central Water Commission described as a ‘severe’ situation.

On Thursday, muddy water poured into many homes in low-lying areas, from which thousands had already been evacuated to safer places as a precaution.

Authorities shut the historic Loha Pul, or Iron Bridge, spanning the Yamuna in the older part of the city.

People waded through floodwaters in areas surrounding the historic Red Fort, many carrying an idol of Lord Ganesha, the Hindu god who vanquishes obstacles, for immersion in the river waters in an annual ritual.

Crops across tens of thousands of hectares have been destroyed by the rains in the breadbasket state of Punjab where 37 have died since August began.

The deluge spurred authorities to release water pent up in dams, further flooding areas in both India and Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2025

• Pope raises ‘tragic situation in Gaza’ with Israeli president
• Top European official slams bloc’s inaction over ‘genocide’ of Palestinians

JERUSALEM: Israel controls 40pc of Gaza City, a military spokesperson claimed, as its bombardment forced more Palestinians from their homes and claimed the lives of at least 53 more people on Thursday.

Most of the casualties were in Gaza City, where Israeli forces have advanced through the outer suburbs and are now only a few kilometres from the city centre.

Residents said Israel bombarded Gaza City’s Zeitoun, Sabra, Tuffah, and Shejaia districts from ground and air. Tanks pushed into the eastern part of the Sheikh Radwan district northwest of the city centre, destroying houses and causing fires in tent encampments.

In the Tel al-Hawa nei­ghbourhood in Gaza City’s west, where the strike took place, AFP footage sho­wed Palestinians outside damaged tents, clearing up scattered belongings.

Further south, in the Nuseirat re­­fugee camp, Gaza civil defence said an Israeli air strike killed sev­en people including three children. At Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hosp­ital, where the dead and wounded were being received, bodies wrapped in white shrouds lay on the floor of the hospital’s morgue.

‘40pc of Gaza City’

Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin told a news conference that the Zeito­­un and Sheikh Radwan neighborhoods were in their control. “The operation will continue to expand and intensify in the coming days.”

Defrin confirmed that army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir told cabinet ministers that without a day-after plan, they would have to impose military rule in Gaza.

Pope raises Gaza situation

Pope Leo discussed the “tragic situation in Gaza” with Israeli President Isaac Herzog during a meeting on Thursday, calling for a permanent ceasefire in the Pales­tinian enclave, the Vatican said.

The pontiff also called for the release of remaining prisoners held by Hamas, the statement said, and reiterated the Vatican’s support for a two-state solution to the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict.

“A prompt resumption of negotiations was hoped for … to secure the release of all hostages, urgently achieve a permanent ceasefire, facilitate the safe entry of humanitarian aid into the most affected areas, and ensure full respect for humanitarian law,” said the statement.

‘Genocide’

Meanwhile, One of the Euro­pean Union’s most senior officials called the war in Gaza a “genocide”, ramping up criticism of Israel and slamming the 27-nation bloc for failing to act to stop it.

“The genocide in Gaza exposes Europe’s failure to act and speak with one voice,” European Com­m­i­ssion vice president Teresa Rib­era said during a speech in Paris.

Top EU officials have so far shied away from calling Israel’s actions in the territory a “genocide”.

One spokesman said it was for the courts to make a legal judgement on whether genocide was happening. The splits are also present insi­de the EU’s executive, where Spanish commissio­ner Rib­era has expre­ssed frustration over the failure to push on the issue.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2025

History often reserves its cruellest surprises for nations that mistake momentum for permanence. In May 2025, during Operation Sindoor, India’s confrontation with Pakistan was brief, but the aftershocks were immense. What might once have looked like proof of strength instead revealed fragility, exposing Delhi’s overconfidence and its diminishing global weight. India, long celebrated as an emerging pole of power, suddenly appeared adrift, isolated diplomatically and battered economically. The starkest symbol of this shift came at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Tianjin, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to Chinese soil after seven years. His presence no longer suggested bold outreach but reluctant necessity, a recognition that India could not afford absence when other doors were closing. In Tianjin, under the gaze of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, India looked less like a shaper of events than a humbled participant, forced to acknowledge that the SCO, once dismissed as peripheral, had become a stage 

it could not ignore.

The rupture with Washington pushed India further into this corner. After Sindoor, Donald Trump scorned Delhi’s escalation as “a shame” and imposed punishing 50 per cent tariffs on Indian exports, one of the harshest measures ever applied to a supposed ally. For a country that had built its foreign policy around an “all-weather” partnership with the United States, the blow was devastating. At home, the opposition branded Modi’s failed gamble “Narendra Surrender,” mocking his spectacle-filled friendship with Trump as naïve theatrics that collapsed under real pressure. For Delhi, the message was clear: the West could no longer be counted on to rescue its missteps. With G20 and Quad channels less reliable, the SCO emerged as one of the few viable forums to reassert a place on the world stage. Modi’s appearance in Tianjin, then, was not triumph but survival, an acknowledgement that multilateralism on Beijing’s terms was better than isolation altogether.

The symbolism of Tianjin cut deep. Since the Galwan clash of 2020, Delhi had prided itself on refusing Chinese platforms, framing absence as defiance. Now, silence replaced protest. The SCO under Xi is no longer a loose forum; it has become a pillar of Eurasian integration, binding Central Asia, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, and increasingly the wider Global South. At its heart lies the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, long denounced by India for slicing through contested territory. Yet in Tianjin, there was no confrontation. India, once positioning itself as a counterweight to China, appeared instead as a participant in a framework designed by Beijing. The elephant, once imagined as defiant, now moved cautiously, aware it needed the SCO more than the SCO needed it. That reversal was visible not only to China and Pakistan, but also to smaller members like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, who read India’s presence as proof that even proud powers must eventually align with the region’s gravitational centre.

For Beijing, the shift validated years of patience. The SCO has always been more than a talking shop; it is China’s instrument to entrench primacy without overt conflict. Unlike NATO or the Quad, which showcase military postures, the SCO emphasises infrastructure, security coordination, and development arenas where China steadily consolidates influence. At Tianjin, Xi spoke of the “dragon and elephant” destined to cooperate, but the framing was deliberate: India’s participation was portrayed as a mutual necessity, not a concession wrung from Delhi. The message to the wider Global South was unmistakable: Asia’s future would be shaped not by Western-led institutions, but by platforms built around Beijing’s vision. For India, the choice was stark: embrace a forum it once mistrusted or risk being left outside the region’s new architecture. The SCO became both refuge and reminder, underscoring that India’s autonomy now required engagement on terms it did not dictate.

While India grappled with this external humility, domestic turbulence deepened the picture of contradiction. On Independence Day, Modi hailed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as the “world’s biggest NGO,” provoking outrage from opponents who accused the RSS of opposing the freedom struggle, rejecting the Constitution, and fueling communal division. Congress mocked the organisation as a “Rashtriya Sandighda Sangathan,” questioning its legality and role in weakening democracy. Kerala’s Chief Minister denounced the Prime Minister for equating Savarkar with Gandhi, calling it a betrayal of history. These controversies reinforced the sense of a government projecting ideological triumphalism at home even as it bent abroad. The juxtaposition was striking: a humbled India in Tianjin, where it deferred to Beijing’s stage, and a triumphant India in Delhi, glorifying an outfit accused of undermining its pluralist ethos. Together, they projected not strength, but incoherence a country at once subdued internationally and combative domestically.

In sum, the story of 2025 is not of resurgence but reckoning. Operation Sindoor revealed the limits of bravado, U.S. tariffs exposed the fragility of economic reliance, and Tianjin showed the compulsion of seeking shelter within Chinese-led institutions. The SCO, once peripheral, became central to India’s survival, even as domestic choices inflamed division. For decades, India styled itself as the democratic counterweight to China and the pluralist model for Asia. Now it risks being seen instead as a chastened participant in Beijing’s architecture and a divided polity at home. Power lies not only in action but in narrative; at Tianjin, the narrative belonged to Xi, not Modi. Unless India rebalances with humility, the year 2025 may be remembered not as a stumble but as the moment when the elephant, once proud and independent, found itself tethered to someone else’s stage.

Omay Aimen
The writer frequently contributes to issues concerning national and regional security, focusing on matters having a critical impact on these milieus. She can be reached at omayaimen333@gmail.com

EDITORIAL: The scenes from Indonesia these past days are a warning to elites everywhere who imagine that public patience is endless.

The spark was almost banal in its brazenness: lawmakers granting themselves housing allowances nearly ten times the minimum wage in Jakarta, even as the government cut health, education and public works.

The outrage grew into a nationwide protest after a 21-year-old delivery driver was killed when a police armoured vehicle ran him over in Jakarta. The result has been seven dead, hundreds injured, and more than a thousand detained, in what is already being described as the most serious test yet for President Prabowo Subianto’s government.

The parallels for Pakistan are uncomfortably close. Here, too, the common man endures harsh economic conditions while the privileged classes insulate themselves with perks, protections and subsidies.

Here, too, the gulf between the ruled and the rulers keeps widening. Indonesia’s protests are not only about one allowance or one life lost, they are about a system that appears to mock the sacrifices of ordinary people. That is a lesson Pakistan’s elites should heed, because this country has seen how such gaps feed discontent and distrust.

The echoes of the Arab Spring are unmistakable. That wave, triggered by the self-immolation of a Tunisian street vendor protesting harassment and economic despair, spread with startling speed across the Middle East and North Africa.

The outcomes varied from country to country, but the common thread was that neither the repressive governments nor the ordinary citizens emerged stronger. The uprisings left institutions weakened, economies more fragile, and societies polarised. The warning is not that every protest becomes a revolution, but that once legitimacy is eroded, it rarely returns intact.

Indonesia’s experience shows how quickly a narrow grievance can become a national crisis when governance has already alienated the governed. Anger at perks cascaded into fury at the military’s growing role in civilian life, resentment at austerity, and outrage at heavy-handed policing.

The government scrambled between concessions, such as cutting parliamentary privileges, and crackdowns, labelling protesters as “treasonous” or “terrorists.” That duality only deepened suspicion. Once public trust is lost, gestures that might otherwise calm tempers are seen as tactical rather than sincere.

Pakistan has lived through its own cycles of public anger, most often over food prices, utility shortages and corruption. But the warning from Jakarta is sharper: when people believe that sacrifices are demanded only of them and while the state’s resources serve an insulated elite even small triggers can ignite a much wider fire. In such moments, the state’s instinct to repress is precisely what confirms the protesters’ claims.

The path forward for any government, whether in Indonesia or Pakistan, is not to rely on force or temporary appeasement, but to narrow the gap between promise and practice. That requires transparency in public spending, restraint in official perks, and visible accountability for those who abuse authority. Above all, it requires listening to the grievances of ordinary people before those grievances turn into rage.

Indonesia is a stark reminder that governance divorced from fairness courts instability. Pakistan knows this truth too well. The only question is whether its ruling classes are willing to act on it, or whether they will wait, as others have, until the streets deliver the message in ways no one can control.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025

US President Donald Trump is directing that the Department of Defense be known as the Department of War.

He will sign an executive order on Friday for the defence department to use the new name as a secondary title and for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to be known as Secretary of War.

The Pentagon – which oversees the US armed services – is the successor to the War Department, which was first established as a cabinet-level agency in 1789 and existed until 1947.

The responsibility of creating executive departments rests with the US Congress, meaning that an amendment would be required to legally change the department’s name.

The BBC has seen the text of the executive order, which says: “The name ‘Department of War’ conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to ‘Department of Defense,’ which emphasizes only defensive capabilities.”

In an effort to “project strength and resolve,” the order authorises the defence secretary, his department and subordinate officials to use the new titles as secondary names.

The order also instructs Hegseth to recommend and include legislative and executive actions to move toward a permanent renaming of the department since Trump cannot formally change the name without congressional approval.

The Department of War was established by George Washington but was rebranded following World War II.

According to the executive order, restoring its name “will sharpen the focus of this Department on our national interest and signal to adversaries America’s readiness to wage war to secure its interests”.

The White House is yet to say how much a permanent rebrand would cost, but US media expects a billion-dollar price tag for the overhaul of hundreds of agencies, emblems, email addresses, uniforms and more, possibly hampering the Pentagon’s efforts to cut spending and waste.

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of the name change, arguing that the US had “an unbelievable history of victory” in both world wars under the previous name.

He has also expressed optimism that lawmakers would support such a change.

“I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don’t even think we need that,” the president said last week. “But, if we need that, I’m sure Congress will go along.”

Trump and Hegseth have sought to refocus the department on “warfighting” and a “warrior ethos”.

They have argued that the department has become too focused on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes and “woke ideology”.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump downplayed suggestions about seeking the Nobel Peace Prize.

“All I can do is put out wars,” he told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner. “I don’t seek attention. I just want to save lives.”

The renaming marks the president’s 200th executive order signed since he took office.

Although the renaming was somewhat expected, it comes on the heels of China unveiling a range of new weapons, drones and other military hardware in a massive parade that many interpreted as a clear message to the US and its allies.

Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday authorizing the US Department of Defense to rebrand itself as the “department of war”, the White House said, as part of an attempt to formalize the name change without an act of Congress.

The order will designate “department of war” as a “secondary title”, an administration official said, as a way to get around the need for congressional approval to formally rename a federal agency.

But the order will instruct the rest of the executive branch to use the “department of war” name in internal and external communications, and allows the defense secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials to use “secretary of war” as official titles.

The order – seemingly in recognition of the limitation of the executive action alone – also directs Hegseth to recommend potential legislative moves the administration could take to permanently rename the defense department.

Trump and Hegseth have been publicly pushing for the rebrand for weeks, claiming the change would present the US military as more aggressive to the world by reverting to the name that was used when the US was victorious in the first and second world wars.

“Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was the Department of War,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week. “Then we changed it to Department of Defense.”

Asked about the need for congressional approval to change the name of a federal agency, Trump suggested the administration saw it as a formality. “We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along, if we need that. I don’t think we even need that,” he said.

White House officials privately suggested on Thursday that they were keen to do something symbolic to mark the 200th day of Trump’s second term.

The US government had a Department of War until shortly after the second world war, when the Truman administration split the US army and air force and merged it with the navy. In 1949, Congress amended the National Security Act, which named the new agency the Department of Defense.

The rebrand to the Department of War comes as Trump has repeatedly made the case that he should receive the Nobel peace prize for pushing for the end of conflicts in the Middle East and the Ukraine war.

But critics have suggested the renaming of effort runs counter to the aims of the prize and his interventions to try to end conflicts have come at a cost, arguing Trump often aligns himself with aggressors.

Additional reporting by Lauren Gambino