Pakistan PM calls for ‘neutral’ probe into Kashmir attack as he vows to defend sovereignty

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaks during a passing-out parade at the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on April 26, 2025. (Screenshot)
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaks during a passing-out parade at the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on April 26, 2025. (Screenshot)
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Updated 26 April 2025
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Pakistan PM calls for ‘neutral’ probe into Kashmir attack as he vows to defend sovereignty

Pakistan PM calls for ‘neutral’ probe into Kashmir attack as he vows to defend sovereignty
  • Shehbaz Sharif’s remarks came as Indian, Pakistani troops exchanged gunfire for a second successive day on Saturday
  • Ties have plummeted between the nuclear-armed neighbors over this week’s attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 tourists

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said Pakistan’s armed forces were fully prepared to defend the country’s sovereignty and called for a “neutral” investigation into a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that has brought Pakistan and India close to the brink of another conflict.

Sharif’s remarks came as Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged gunfire for a second straight day on Saturday as ties plummeted between the two nuclear-armed neighbors over the attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 tourists on Tuesday.

Indian police have identified three suspects, including two Pakistani nationals, who carried out the April 22 attack. Pakistan has denied any involvement. Since the attack, both nations have unleashed a raft of measures against each other, with Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines and India suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty that regulates water-sharing from the Indus river and its tributaries.




Indian Border Security Force personnel (brown) and Pakistani Rangers (black) take part in the beating retreat ceremony at the gates of the Wagah border post, about 35 km from Amritsar, India. (AFP)

Sharif said the tragic incident in Pahalgam was yet another example of New Delhi’s “perpetual blame game” that must come to a halt, adding that Islamabad was “open to participate in any neutral, transparent and credible investigation” into the attack.

“Water is a vital national interest of Pakistan ... any attempt to stop, reduce or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty would be responded to with full force and might and nobody should remain under any kind of false impression and confusion,” Sharif said during a passing-out parade at the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad.

“Our valiant armed forces remain fully capable and prepared to defend the country’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity against any misadventure as clearly demonstrated by its measured yet resolute response to India’s reckless incursion in February 2019.”

Sharif’s comment was a reference to the downing of an Indian fighter jet in 2019 in response to Indian airstrikes in Pakistan, following a militant attack in Pulwama in Indian-administered Kashmir in which at least 40 Indian paramilitary police were killed. India had also blamed the Pulwama attack on Pakistan, while Islamabad denied any complicity.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the territory in full but governing separate portions of it.

Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Tuesday’s assault happened as tourists enjoyed tranquil mountain views at the popular site at Pahalgam, when gunmen burst from the cover of the forest and raked crowds with automatic weapons. Survivors told Indian media the gunmen targeted men and spared those who could give the Islamic declaration of faith.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said his country would “track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” vowing to “pursue them to the ends of the Earth.” There has been growing concern since Tuesday’s attack that India could conduct a military strike on Pakistani territory as it did in 2019.

The UN has urged the neighbors to show “maximum restraint,” while US President Donald Trump has downplayed the tensions, saying that the dispute will get “figured out, one way or another.”

Rapidly deteriorating relations between India and Pakistan over the deadly shooting in Indian-administered Kashmir are also starting to have small but prickly economic consequences for both nations.

While India unveiled a series of mostly symbolic diplomatic measures against Pakistan, Islamabad responded on Thursday with similar tit-for-tat measures but upped the ante by halting trade with New Delhi and closing its airspace to Indian airlines.

Experts say that while the retaliatory moves will not have an immediate or far-reaching impact, they will likely result in longer and more expensive flights for Indians, while forcing Pakistan to increase pharmaceutical imports from other countries.


Gabbard fires 2 top intelligence officials and will shift office that preps Trump’s daily brief

Gabbard fires 2 top intelligence officials and will shift office that preps Trump’s daily brief
Updated 6 sec ago
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Gabbard fires 2 top intelligence officials and will shift office that preps Trump’s daily brief

Gabbard fires 2 top intelligence officials and will shift office that preps Trump’s daily brief
  • “The director is working alongside President Trump to end the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community”: Gabbard’s office

WASHINGTON: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired two veteran intelligence officials because they oppose President Donald Trump, her office said, coming a week after the release of a declassified memo written by their agency that contradicted statements the Trump administration has used to justify deporting Venezuelan immigrants.
Mike Collins was serving as acting chair of the National Intelligence Council before he was dismissed alongside his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof. They each had more than 25 years of intelligence experience. The two were fired because of their opposition to Trump, Gabbard’s office said in an email, without offering examples.
“The director is working alongside President Trump to end the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community,” the office said.
The firings, which were first reported by Fox News Digital, follow the release of a declassified memo from the National Intelligence Council that found no coordination between Venezuela’s government and the Tren de Aragua gang. The Trump administration had given that as reasoning for invoking the Alien Enemies Act and deporting Venezuelan immigrants. The intelligence assessment was released in response to an open records request.
While it’s not uncommon for new administrations to replace senior officials with their own picks, the firings of two respected intelligence officials who had served presidents of both parties prompted concern from Democrats. US Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he’s seen no details to explain the dismissals.
“Absent evidence to justify the firings, the workforce can only conclude that their jobs are contingent on producing analysis that is aligned with the President’s political agenda, rather than truthful and apolitical,” Himes said in a statement.
Though it’s not widely known to the public, the National Intelligence Council plays a key role in the nation’s spy services, helping combine intelligence gathered from different agencies into comprehensive assessments used by the White House and senior national security officials.
Collins was considered one of the intelligence service’s top authorities on East Asia. Langan-Riekhof has served as a senior analyst and director of the CIA’s Strategic Insight Department and is an expert on the Middle East.
Attempts to reach both were unsuccessful Wednesday. The CIA declined to comment publicly, citing personnel matters.
Gabbard also is consolidating some of the intelligence community’s key operations, moving some offices now located at the CIA to ODNI buildings, her office said. They include the National Intelligence Council as well as the staff who prepare the President’s Daily Brief, the report to the president that contains the most important intelligence and national security information.
The move will give Gabbard more direct control over the brief. While the brief is already ODNI’s responsibility, the CIA has long played a significant role in its preparation, providing physical infrastructure and staffing that will have to be moved to ODNI or re-created.
Gabbard oversees and coordinates the work of 18 federal intelligence agencies. She has worked to reshape the intelligence community — eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs under Trump’s orders and creating a task force to examine ways to cut costs and consider whether to declassify material relating to COVID-19 and other topics.
Gabbard also has vowed to investigate intelligence leaks and end what she said was the misuse of intelligence for political aims.


Divisions emerge among House Republicans over how much to cut taxes and Medicaid in Trump’s bill

Divisions emerge among House Republicans over how much to cut taxes and Medicaid in Trump’s bill
Updated 13 min 35 sec ago
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Divisions emerge among House Republicans over how much to cut taxes and Medicaid in Trump’s bill

Divisions emerge among House Republicans over how much to cut taxes and Medicaid in Trump’s bill
  • Democrats decry the package as a give away to the wealthy

WASHINGTON: Cheers broke out early Wednesday as Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee signed off on the GOP tax breaks bill after a grueling round-the-clock session that pushed President Donald Trump’s package past overwhelming Democratic opposition.
But there’s still more work to do.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, also worked past midnight trying to resolve issues with Trump’s plan. Opposition is mounting from various corners of the GOP majority as he tries to muscle the party’s signature package to passage without any votes from Democrats.
On the one hand, the conservative leader of the Freedom Caucus derides the new Medicaid work requirements as a “joke” that do not go far enough at cost-cutting. Meanwhile, a handful of GOP lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states are refusing to support the measure unless changes are made to give deeper state and local tax deductions, called SALT, for their constituents back home.
“To say we have a gulf is an understatement,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a leader of the conservative wing.
Roy said there is “a significant number of us who could not bless this product” in its current form.
Nevertheless, momentum is building toward an end-of-the-week inflection point to stitch together the sprawling package. That means combining hundreds of pages of bill text covering $5 trillion in tax breaks and at least $1.5 trillion in spending reductions on Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs to deliver Trump’s second-term legislative priority.
Democrats decry the package as a give away to the wealthy at the expense of safety net programs that millions of Americans rely on. But Johnson insists the Republican majority is on track to pass the package by Memorial Day, May 26, sending it to the Senate where Republicans are crafting their own version. With his slim majority, he can only afford a few defections from his ranks.
“We’re still on target,” Johnson said at the Capitol. “The American people are counting on us.”
Democrats also stayed up all night forcing marathon public hearings. One at the House Energy and Commerce Committee was still going more than 26 hours later before finishing Wednesday afternoon. All told, Democrats proposed hundreds of amendments trying to change the package, with dozens of votes that largely failed.
“It is a cruel, mean, rotten bill,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., as the House Agriculture Committee debated changes to the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said at least 7.6 million fewer people would have health insurance with the changes to Medicaid, and possibly more with additional changes to the Affordable Care Act.
The CBO also gave lawmakers a preliminary analysis showing that 3 million fewer people each month would participate in the SNAP food program under the changes proposed.
More than 70 million Americans rely on Medicaid for health care, and about 40 million use SNAP.
The Republicans are targeting Medicaid and SNAP for a combined $1 trillion in cuts as a way to offset the costs of the tax package, but also to achieve GOP goals of reining in the social safety net programs.
Most of the cost-savings would come from imposing stiffer work requirements for those receiving the health care and food assistance, meaning fewer people would qualify for the aid. The legislation would raise from 54 to 64 the age of able-bodied adults without dependents who would have to work to qualify for SNAP. It also would also require some parents of children older than 7 — it’s now 18 — to work to qualify for the benefits. Under current law, those recipients must work or participate in a work program for 80 hours a month.
The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Kentucky, insists the changes would “strengthen and sustain” Medicaid for the future, and are the kind of “common sense” policies Trump promised voters.
But Democrats told repeated stories of their constituents struggling to access health care. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., revealed his own diagnosis with Type 2 diabetes at the House Ways and Means Committee hearing and the sticker shock of health costs.
Democrats had proposals to revive subsidies to help people buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Most of the amendments were failing.
One of the most difficult issues for Johnson, has been the more localized debate over state and local taxes as he works to come up with a compromise for New York, California and New Jersey lawmakers. They have rejected an offer to triple the deduction cap, now at $10,000, to $30,000 for married couples.
The speaker met for more than an hour with lawmakers in his office and later into the night.
Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., said the talks were cordial, but there was no deal. “More sizzle than steak in that meeting,” he said late Tuesday.
“The reality is you need 218 votes to pass a bill and the way this bill is currently constructed, it will not have that because it does not adequately the issue of SALT,” said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.
The lawmakers believe they have leverage in the talks because without a deal, the $10,000 limit established under the 2017 tax bill expires at the end of the year and reverts to no cap at all.
“These things are in negotiation,” LaLota said, adding that his constituents “shouldn’t be asked to pay for the large amount of the bill like the were asked to pay for it eight years ago.”
But as Johnson and the lawmakers edge closer to a SALT deal, the conservatives are balking that their priorities must also be met.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Missouri, said he’s a no for now, but would be working to improve the bill so that he could support it.
The conservatives argue that the tax breaks without deeper spending cuts will pile onto the deficit, and they worry that the Medicaid reductions do not go far enough in rolling back federal funds to expand the Affordable Care Act. They also want the work requirements, which don’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2029, to start sooner.
“Basically Republicans are enforcing Obamacare, which is a surreal situation to me,” Burlison said.
Republicans are racing to extend Trump’s tax breaks, which are set to expire later this year, while adding the new ones he campaigned on in 2024, including no taxes on tips, Social Security benefits and others.
A new analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation shows that most tax filers would see a lower tax rates under the proposal, except those at the lowest rates, who earn less than $15,000 a year. Their average tax rate would go up.
 


Putin not listed in Kremlin delegation for Istanbul talks: statement

Putin not listed in Kremlin delegation for Istanbul talks: statement
Updated 44 min 4 sec ago
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Putin not listed in Kremlin delegation for Istanbul talks: statement

Putin not listed in Kremlin delegation for Istanbul talks: statement
  • The Kremlin late Wednesday named four negotiators

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin was not on a list of negotiators the Kremlin published for talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday, despite Kyiv insisting he attend and some allies calling on him to attend.

The Kremlin late Wednesday named four negotiators — including a hawkish former culture minister — and four experts for the talks, set to take place on Thursday in Istanbul.


Pope Leo says he will make ‘every effort’ for world peace

Pope Leo XIV visits the apartment III Loggia, in The Vatican. (AFP)
Pope Leo XIV visits the apartment III Loggia, in The Vatican. (AFP)
Updated 14 May 2025
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Pope Leo says he will make ‘every effort’ for world peace

Pope Leo XIV visits the apartment III Loggia, in The Vatican. (AFP)
  • Pope Leo warned against the rise of simplistic narratives that divide the world into good and evil
  • “Our neighbors are not first our enemies, but fellow human beings,” he said

VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV, the first American to head the global Catholic Church, pledged on Wednesday to make “every effort” for peace and offered the Vatican as a mediator in global conflicts, saying war was “never inevitable.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who spoke to the Pope soon after his election, welcomed the Pontiff’s offer and repeated that Kyiv backed all efforts to end his country’s war with Russia.
Leo, elected last week to succeed the late Pope Francis, has already made repeated calls for peace. His first words to crowds in St. Peter’s Square were “Peace be with all of you.”
He returned to the issue while addressing members of the Eastern Catholic Churches, some of which are based in conflict-ridden places such as Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq and often face persecution as religious minorities.
“The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face-to-face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace,” Leo said.
“War is never inevitable. Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them. Those who make history are the peacemakers, not those who sow seeds of suffering,” he added.
Pope Leo warned against the rise of simplistic narratives that divide the world into good and evil. “Our neighbors are not first our enemies, but fellow human beings,” he said.
On Sunday, the pontiff called for an “authentic and lasting peace” in Ukraine; a ceasefire in Gaza and release of all Israeli hostages held by militant group Hamas; and he also welcomed the fragile ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
Zelensky, writing in English on the X social media platform, said he was grateful to Pope Leo “for his wise words about the Holy See’s willingness to play a mediatory role in restoring global peace.”
“We appreciate the Pontiff’s insightful statement and reiterate our commitment to advancing meaningful peace efforts, including a full ceasefire and a personal highest-level meeting with Russia.”
Later, in his nightly video address, Zelensky said: “The Vatican can help diplomacy. There is support for a direct meeting from leaders of the Global South. And this voice is being heard.”
First leader to speak to new pope
Leo spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday in his first known conversation with a foreign leader as pope. He offered to facilitate peace talks as world leaders come to his inauguration mass, the Ukrainian leader said.
Zelensky hopes to be present for the event in St. Peter’s Square on May 18 and is ready to hold meetings on the sidelines, the Ukrainian leader’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak told Reuters on Tuesday.


Mauritania ex-leader Aziz jailed on appeal for 15 years

Mauritania ex-leader Aziz jailed on appeal for 15 years
Updated 14 May 2025
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Mauritania ex-leader Aziz jailed on appeal for 15 years

Mauritania ex-leader Aziz jailed on appeal for 15 years
  • Aziz had appealed his original five-year sentence after his conviction two years ago of using his power to amass a fortune
  • Aziz, 68, remained impassive when the decision was announced

NOUAKCHOTT: An appeals court sentenced Mauritania’s former president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for abuse of office and illicit enrichment.

Aziz, who came to power in a 2008 coup, had appealed his original five-year sentence after his conviction two years ago of using his power to amass a fortune.

The former leader, who has been in custody since his original trial began in January 2023, appeared alongside several former top officials and advisers also facing charges of abuse of office, illicit enrichment, influence peddling and money laundering.

The court in the capital Nouakchott also upheld the confiscation of Aziz’s assets and the stripping of his civic rights.

Aziz, 68, remained impassive when the decision was announced, an AFP journalist saw.

Investigators estimate that Aziz, who led the northwest African country of 4.5 million people for more than a decade, accumulated assets and capital worth $70 million during his presidency.

He was found guilty and sentenced to five years in jail in December 2023.

Aziz was excluded from the 2019 presidential election, won by his former right-hand man, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, who had been at his side for the coup and acted successively as his chief of staff then defense minister.

Aziz led the country linking the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa until 2019, returning to general stability a nation once prone to coups and jihadist activities.

He groomed Ghazouani as his successor and handed over to him after elections in 2019 in what was the first peaceful transition of power in a country that proclaimed independence from France in 1960 but then saw decades of political unrest.

At the time of his indictment investigators estimated that Aziz, the son of a merchant, had amassed wealth and capital of 67 million euros ($75 million) over his time in power.

Although not denying his wealth, Aziz has always strenuously contested the accusations against him, seeing a conspiracy to oust him from political life.

His successor has always denied any interference in the case. After remaining discreet about where he had obtained his wealth, Aziz surprised everyone toward the end of his trial by implicating his successor.

He claimed that, the day after the 2019 election, Ghazouani had handed him two suitcases filled with several million euros.