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Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, arrived in Washington this week for high-stakes talks with President Donald Trump, marking his first visit to the United States since the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The meeting, widely anticipated in both diplomatic and business circles, signaled Riyadh’s determination to reset and expand its engagement with Washington across defence, technology and investment, while also underscoring the complexities of regional security dynamics. Trump personally greeted the crown prince outside the White House, shaking hands as senior officials from both countries lined the entrance. A fighter jet fly-past marked the start of the…

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent visit to the refurbished Karachi Cantt Station, and his remarks on the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), mark more than a ceremonial milestone in Pakistan’s transport sector—they signal a deliberate attempt to recast urban mobility as a cornerstone of national cohesion and economic revitalization. For decades, the KCR has existed more as a symbol of aspiration than reality, ensnared in political rivalries, bureaucratic inertia, and the sprawling chaos of a city whose growth has outpaced its infrastructure. By framing the railway as a necessity that transcends political divides, Shehbaz Sharif has positioned the project not merely…

The United States’ approval of a significant arms sale to Taiwan has once again cast a spotlight on the fragile and increasingly tense dynamics of the Taiwan Strait, revealing the deepening complexities of Sino-American relations and the enduring sensitivities surrounding Taiwan’s status. The agreement, valued at $330 million, involves the supply of spare parts for F-16 fighter jets and C-130 transport aircraft, marking the first major arms deal of this kind since the Trump administration. While the transaction may appear, on the surface, as a routine defence arrangement, it carries far-reaching implications for regional security, international diplomacy, and the delicate…

The Economist’s recent special report on Bushra Bibi, the wife of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, has reopened a debate many in the country have tiptoed around for years. The magazine’s findings, stark in detail and unsettling in implication, revive persistent questions about who really wielded influence during Khan’s premiership and how far the boundaries between the political, the spiritual and the absurd were allowed to blur inside the country’s highest office. For a woman who spent most of her time shielded from public view, Bushra Bibi now stands at the center of a narrative that intertwines statecraft with…

Pakistan’s decision to halt the attempted import of Afghan-origin fresh fruits through Iran has thrown a fresh spotlight on the fragility of regional trade and the growing strain placed on Afghanistan’s already overstretched logistics. The episode, though technical on paper, speaks to a much larger story unfolding along Pakistan’s western borders: a region where political mistrust, security anxieties and administrative bottlenecks now shape the daily reality of trade more than any formal agreement ever could. For Afghanistan, a landlocked nation whose farms produce some of the region’s finest fruits and perishables, these disruptions are not abstract policy disputes; they threaten…