Latest news with #ColdWar
Perth Now
28 minutes ago
- Politics
- Perth Now
‘Daunting, grim': Warning on Chinese nukes
Beijing's nuclear ambitions and Chinese military build up create daunting and grim challenges across the Asia-Pacific, Australia's Deputy Prime Minister has warned. Defence Minister Richard Marles used a speech at a summit in Singapore to reiterate alarm bells over Chinese and Russian nuclear weapons. 'China's decision to pursue rapid nuclear modernisation and expansion, which aims in part to reach parity with or surpass the United States, is another reason the future of strategic arms control must be revitalised,' Mr Marles said in a speech on Saturday. Richard Marles says Cold War era arms controls are now inadequate. NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia 'And that is a difficult and daunting project. 'We also have to counter the grim, potentially imminent, possibility of another wave of global nuclear proliferation as states seek security in a new age of imperial ambition.' Mr Marles made the speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Shangri-La Dialogue conference in Singapore on Saturday. The annual conference attracts defence ministers, senior military and security officials and diplomats from across the Asia Pacific; it is the pre-eminent regional security forum. Beijing has not sent its National Defence Minister Dong Jun, instead sending a lower-level academic delegation. Last year's forum resulted in a meeting between Mr Dong and then-US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. In his speech on Saturday, while acknowledging the US as a nuclear superpower, Mr Marles said arms controls needed to be strengthened. 'Russia suspended its participation in the last remaining binding bilateral arms control treaty between the United States and Russia in 2023,' he said. 'This leaves no legally binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals of the two largest nuclear powers for the first time since 1972. 'New technologies like cyber, the weaponisation of space, and the ability to integrate nuclear weapons with autonomous systems means traditional arms control frameworks are being surpassed without any established method of control to supplement them.'
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
On Cam: China's Spooked Reaction To Trump's Huge Taiwan Weapon Aim, Chinese Students' Visa Trouble
China issued a sharp response to US' plans to revoke visas of Chinese students. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian termed Washington's move as "ideological bias and Cold War zero-sum mentality". This comes after US State Department spokesperson Tammy Brce warned Chinese nationals will face repeated vetting, claiming that the CPC is 'exploiting' American universities.
Scroll.in
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
June nonfiction: Six recently published books that try to make sense of India's past and present
The Dismantling of India's Democracy: 1947 to 2025, Prem Shankar Jha India's democracy, once celebrated as an unprecedented experiment in pluralism and participatory nation-building, now faces a grave crisis. In this urgent and penetrating work, veteran journalist Prem Shankar Jha traces how the country's hard-won democracy – rooted in diversity and tolerance – has been steadily hollowed out since Independence – slowly at first, and since 2014, with determined ferocity. Structural flaws in our Constitution, like the lack of state-funded elections, Jha argues, were made substantially worse by Indira Gandhi's ban on company donations to political parties. As parties increasingly turned to clandestine donors for election financing, politics became a near-criminal enterprise, facilitating the rise of a predatory state long before 2014. And now, under the Modi regime, the weaponisation of state agencies, the serious undermining of electoral processes and the transformation of governance into a tool of political vendetta threaten to tear down the last remnants of India's democracy. Jha further argues that the erosion of democratic institutions, the rise of Hindu majoritarian politics and the normalisation of state repression are not isolated events but symptoms of a deeper transformation. Drawing on Indian history and global parallels, he makes the bold case that what India is witnessing is not simply a drift towards authoritarianism but the emergence of a distinctively Indian form of fascism. Our only hope cannot be, he says, an electoral victory for the opposition; it must be grounded in a commitment to both political accountability and cultural inclusivity. A Man for All Seasons: The Life of KM Panikkar, Narayani Basu KM Panikkar was a multifaceted man, one of India's first public intellectuals when India won its independence. His imprint is all over India's colonial and post-colonial history: from constitutional reform in the princely states, where he was a strong advocate for India's current federal model to charting India's maritime policy as a free country. He believed in an essential Hindu culture that held his land together, yet he was a committed secularist. He was Gandhi's emissary and the founder of the Hindustan Times. He was independent India's first and most controversial ambassador to both Nationalist China and the People's Republic of China. He was Nehru's man in Cairo and France and a member of the States Reorganisation Commission. He had enemies in the CIA as well as in India's own Ministry of External Affairs. He frustrated his admirers as much as he provoked their reluctant respect. From the British Raj to the Constituent Assembly, across two world wars and an ensuing Cold War, KM Panikkar was India's go-to man in all seasons. Through it all, he never stopped writing – on Indian identity, nationalism, history and foreign policy – material that remains as relevant today as it was seven decades ago. Yet, about the man himself, strangely little is known. In A Man for All Seasons, Narayani Basu bridges that gap. Drawing on Panikkar's formidable body of work, as well as on archival material from India to England, from Paris to China, and from Israel to the United Nations, as well as on first-time interviews with Panikkar's family, Basu presents a vivid, irresistibly engaging portrait of this most enigmatic of India's founding fathers. Featuring a formidable cast of characters – from Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel to Zhou Enlai, Chairman Mao and Gamal Abdel Nasser. Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia, Sam Dalrymple As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait – were bound together under a single imperial banner, an entity known officially as the 'Indian Empire', or more simply as the Raj. It was the British Empire's crown jewel, a vast dominion stretching from the Red Sea to the jungles of Southeast Asia, home to a quarter of the world's population and encompassing the largest Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities on the planet. Its people used the Indian rupee, were issued passports stamped 'Indian Empire', and were guarded by armies garrisoned in forts from the Bab el-Mandab to the Himalayas. And then, in the space of just fifty years, the Indian Empire shattered. Five partitions tore it apart, carving out new nations, redrawing maps, and leaving behind a legacy of war, exile and division. Shattered Lands presents the whole story of how the Indian Empire was unmade. How a single, sprawling dominion became twelve modern nations. How maps were redrawn in boardrooms and on battlefields, by politicians in London and revolutionaries in Delhi, by kings in remote palaces and soldiers in trenches. Its legacies include civil wars in Burma and Sri Lanka, ongoing insurgencies in Kashmir, Baluchistan, Northeast India, and the Rohingya genocide. It is a history of ambition and betrayal, of forgotten wars and unlikely alliances, of borders carved with ink and fire. And, above all, it is the story of how the map of modern Asia was made. Tagore in Tripura: An Enduring Connection, Khagesh Burman A part of Rabindranath Tagore's life that remains largely unknown is his connection to the state of Tripura. Tagore had close ties with four generations of the Tripura royal family, especially Maharaja Radhakishore, who helped set up and fund the Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan. Tagore's relationship with the Tripura royal family began in 1882, when Maharaja Birchandra was so moved by his poetry that he sent his minister to congratulate the poet. During Birchandra's son Radhakishore's reign, Tagore was involved in Tripura's administration, advising the king on all state matters. He visited the state several times too. Later generations of the royal family continue to patronise Tagore and Visva-Bharati, sending several students with stipends to the university. This book, written by a member of the Tripura royal family, explores their connection with Tagore, including the friendships and associations the poet formed and the ways in which Tripura appeared in his writings. The Outsider: A Memoir for Misfits, Vir Das When comedian and actor Vir Das found himself stranded on a pier in Cozumel, Mexico, watching his cruise ship sail away without him due to visa issues, it became a metaphor for his life: he's always been, and will always be, an outsider. Standing on that beach, he took in the absurdity of it all-broke, hungover, dumped, jobless, trousers full of sand. He knew the best way to deal with the situation wasn't to retreat. It was to laugh. Vir's story is one of cultural dissonance and identity exploration. As a child, he bounced from India to Lagos, Nigeria, and back again. He navigated life between worlds, never quite fitting in. In Africa, he was the kid from India, and back in India, he was the kid from Africa. As the only Indian kid costarring in War and Peace on stage at Knox College in Illinois, his outsider status was undeniable. Whether he's washing dishes at a Grand Lux Cafe in Chicago, navigating Bollywood, getting cancelled by an entire country and then embraced by that country all over again, or performing on stages from New York to Mumbai to Stavanger, Norway, Vir has learned to lean way into his place as an outsider, and to find humor and meaning on the fringes. Meet the Savarnas: Indian Millennials Whose Mediocrity Broke Everything, Ravikant Kisana In the early 2000s, India was expected to 'shine' and emerge as a rising superpower. It was the post-1990s golden generation – professionals fresh out of B-schools and engineering programmes – who were supposed to take us there. The Great Indian Dream was ready to lift off. Except we never left the ground. No one could really explain what went wrong. Some blamed politicians, some corruption, some capitalism and some communal polarisation. Most people missed the giant elephant in the room – caste. Caste in India is mostly researched and reported from the experience of the oppressed. Caste as a privilege is not well understood. How do caste elites respond to modernity? How do they understand culture, intimacy, love and tradition? Were their ideas, institutions and imaginations ever even capable of delivering upon the Great Indian Dream?
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘Unfriendly and meddling': Cuba reprimands US diplomat amid rising tensions
Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement of protest against the head of the United States mission to the island, Michael Hammer. In a news release published on Friday, the Foreign Ministry accused Hammer, a career diplomat, of 'unfriendly and meddling behaviour' since his arrival in Cuba in late 2024. 'By inciting Cuban citizens to commit extremely serious criminal acts, attacking the constitutional order, or encouraging them to act against the authorities or demonstrate in support of the interests and objectives of a hostile foreign power, the diplomat is engaging in provocative and irresponsible conduct,' the Foreign Ministry wrote. 'The immunity he enjoys as a representative of his country cannot be used as cover for acts contrary to the sovereignty and internal order of the country to which he is assigned, in this case, Cuba.' The Foreign Ministry said the message was delivered by its director of bilateral affairs with the US, Alejandro Garcia del Toro. Friday's statement is the latest indication of increasingly rocky relations between Cuba and the US, particularly since President Donald Trump began his second term in January. Diplomatic ties between the two countries, however, have been icy for decades, stretching back to the Cold War in the 1960s. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the US government imposed strict trade restrictions on the island and backed efforts to topple the newly established Communist government. But there have been efforts to ease the tensions, notably during the administrations of Democratic presidents like Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the US. In 2016, for instance, Obama sought to normalise relations with Cuba, only to see those efforts rolled back during the first Trump administration, starting in 2017. Likewise, President Biden – who formerly served as Obama's vice president – removed Cuba from the US's list of 'state sponsors of terrorism' in the waning days of his term in January. But upon taking office for his second time on January 20, Trump reversed course once more, putting Cuba back on the list that very same day. Trump also included in his presidential cabinet several officials who have taken a hardline stance towards Cuba, most notably former Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Born to Cuban immigrants, Rubio is an outspoken supporter of continuing the trade embargo against the island. The Cuban government, meanwhile, has continued to accuse the US of attempting to destabilise its leadership. In Friday's statement, the Cuban Foreign Ministry accused Hammer of 'public and insulting manipulation' for his recent visit to the tomb of a 19th-century national hero, Jose Marti. The US Embassy to Cuba posted a video of the visit with a voiceover of Marti's words, 'Respect for the freedom and thoughts of others, even of the most unhappy kind, is my passion: If I die or am killed, it will be for that.' Critics have interpreted that citation as an implied endorsement of dissent on the island. In recent months, there have also been signs that Trump plans to once again tighten the screws on the Cuban government, in a return to the 'maximum pressure' campaigns that typified foreign policy during his first term. In February, for instance, the Trump administration announced it would yank visas from anyone who works with Cuba's medical system, which sends thousands of healthcare workers abroad each year, particularly in the Caribbean region. Critics have criticised the healthcare programme for its low pay and hefty restrictions on its employees. Trump and Rubio, meanwhile, have claimed the medical system amounts to a form of 'forced labour' that enriches the Cuban government. But leaders in Havana have denied that allegation. Then, in April, the US government condemned Cuba for re-arresting a group of dissidents, among them prominent figures like Jose Daniel Ferrer and Felix Navarro. Cuba had initially agreed to release Ferrer and Navarro as part of a bargain brokered by the Vatican earlier this year. Cuba was expected to release 553 prisoners, many of whom were swept up in antigovernment protests, and in exchange, the US was supposed to ease its sanctions against the island. The sanctions relief, however, never came. An additional measure was taken against Cuba just this month. The Department of State, under Rubio's direction, determined that 'Cuba did not fully cooperate with US counterterrorism efforts in 2024'. It accused Cuba of harbouring 11 fugitives, some of whom faced terrorism-related charges in the US. 'The Cuban regime made clear it was not willing to discuss their return to face justice in our nation,' the State Department wrote in a news release. 'The United States will continue to promote international cooperation on counterterrorism issues. We also continue to promote accountability for countries that do not stand against terrorism.' As punishment, Cuba was labelled as a 'not fully cooperating country' under the Arms Export Control Act, a designation that limits its ability to buy weaponry and other defence tools from the US. Furthermore, Hammer had recently signalled that new sanctions were on the way for the island. But in the face of Friday's reprimand, the State Department indicated it was undeterred and would continue to support dissidents against Cuba's 'malign influence'.
South Wales Guardian
4 hours ago
- Business
- South Wales Guardian
‘No doubt' UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence by mid-2030s, Healey says
The Government has previously set out its 'ambition to reach 3% in the next parliament', after meeting its pledge to ratchet up defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by April 2027. But the Defence Secretary has promised a 'certain decade of rising defence spending', according to The Times, and said there was 'no doubt' the UK would meet its target. Mr Healey told the newspaper: 'It allows us to plan for the long term. It allows us to deal with the pressures.' The Government is looking at the roles, capabilities and reforms required by UK armed forces as part of its strategic defence review (SDR). It will explore 'deliverable and affordable' solutions 'within the resources available to defence within the trajectory of 2.5%'. When he announced the targets earlier this year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: 'In an ever more dangerous world, increasing the resilience of our country so we can protect the British people, resist future shocks and bolster British interests, is vital.' The new defence money will be found by reducing UK overseas aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of GNI (gross national income), according to the Government, a move which prompted then-international development minister Anneliese Dodds to resign. 'You have maintained that you want to continue support for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine; for vaccination; for climate; and for rules-based systems,' she told Sir Keir. 'Yet it will be impossible to maintain these priorities given the depth of the cut.' Nato heads of government are set to meet in The Hague, in the Netherlands, next month. Addressing the alliance's parliamentary assembly in Dayton, USA this month, Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte said: 'I assume that in The Hague we will agree on a high defence spend target of, in total, 5%.' A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: 'This Government has announced the largest sustained increase to defence spending since the end of the Cold War – 2.5% by 2027 and 3% in the next parliament when fiscal and economic conditions allow, including an extra £5 billion this financial year. 'The SDR will rightly set the vision for how that uplift will be spent, including new capabilities to put us at the leading edge of innovation in Nato, investment in our people and making defence an engine for growth across the UK – making Britain more secure at home and strong abroad.'
