Latest news with #South
BBC News
39 minutes ago
- Automotive
- BBC News
Newbury MP calls for new A34 slip road safety signs
An MP is calling for new safety signs to be put on the slip roads leading from two villages on to one of the South's busiest A roads. Lee Dillon said such signs would make the roads near East Ilsley and Beedon easier to navigate while more expensive, long-term solutions were drawn pleased that some stretches of the A34 have recently been resurfaced, the Liberal Democrat MP for Newbury said he is hoping to get a bill through Parliament to make the roads Highways, which is responsible for the road, said it takes safety very seriously. It said it expected work to make improvements on the A34 southbound, East Ilsley, which started last month, will finish on sections of safety barrier on the southbound verge area are also being upgraded, and a new section will be installed in the gap to join the existing sections together. The Newbury MP made his comments as part of a wide-ranging interview with BBC Radio Berkshire breakfast presenter Phil Mercer. He said one of the hot topics he was dealing with locally is the trialing of a longer no-go zone for vehicles wanting to drive through the town centre at Berkshire Council has banned cars from going through the town centre between 10:00 and 23:00. Previously the roads were only closed until 18: this is only a trial, Dillon said he thinks making the town centre car free for longer will make Newbury a more attractive place at he said it was ultimately for local people to decide whether the trial should become permanent or not. Dillon also talked of his frustration that the hospital where he was born world in 1983 will not be rebuilt until 2037 at the very hospital, on Craven Road in Reading, was set to be replaced under the last government's new hospitals this has been delayed as the current government says the previous plan was not affordable. A year on from being voted in, Lee Dillon, like all MPs, has a lot on his plate. An avid football fan and Friday night player himself, he says the game gives him an escape from the pressures of the he says it's important that MPs of all parties work together wherever possible to improve the country's fortunes there's at least one politician and fellow football fan he might struggle to find common ground with. For while the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is a renowned Arsenal supporter, Newbury's Dillon is a life-long Manchester United fan.
News18
2 hours ago
- Politics
- News18
Book By Paul Kapur, Trump's South Asia Pick, Captures Pakistan's Jihad Strategy & India's Response
Kapur's 2017 book 'Jihad as Grand Strategy' is more than an analysis of Pakistan's use of jihad as state policy. It anticipates much of what is unfolding today In and around the Indian subcontinent, S Paul Kapur is going to become an important figure, working carefully behind the headlines. He will be the eyes, ears, and at times the hand of the world's most powerful nation in this region. Kapur has been nominated as America's representative in India's neighbourhood. He will be the new Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs in the US State Department. The extent of the power vested in him can be gauged from the legacy of his predecessor, Donald Lu. Lu is credited (or discredited) with engineering regime changes in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Kyrgyzstan; fomenting violent protests against the nationalist government in India; mishandling Afghanistan; keeping the Maldives and Nepal on the boil against India; and interfering in Central Asia's Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. So, who is Paul Kapur? What are his core geopolitical convictions? How closely do these align with India's vision and strategic approach? Kapur is an academic born in New Delhi to an Indian father and an American mother. He rose through the ranks of the foreign service and enjoys enough of the Trump administration's trust to be entrusted with one of the most sensitive regions in the world. His appointment becomes even more significant in light of the recent Pahalgam massacre of tourists by Pakistan-backed jihadis and India's response via Operation Sindoor. Jihad as Grand Strategy. It is not just an analytical study of how Pakistan has used jihad as a central lever of its state policy— in many ways, the book anticipates what is unfolding today. Kapur opens with a blunt statement of truth: 'Terrorism's ascendance as one of the world's leading strategic dangers has been a central development of the post–Cold War security environment… Scholars and analysts have generated a voluminous literature attempting to identify the demographic, economic, psychological, ideological, strategic and other patterns in terrorist violence. Although the nature and prevalence of such patterns are a matter of vigorous debate, one recurring theme concerning terrorism is strikingly clear: A disproportionate amount of it has been linked to Islamist terrorists based in Pakistan." He backs this up with examples—how Al Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trained 9/11 terrorists in Karachi and later wired funds for their mission; how Osama bin Laden was found hiding in Pakistan's garrison town of Abbottabad; how the leader of the group that bombed London in 2005 received paramilitary training in Pakistan and got bomb-making instructions from a caller in Rawalpindi; and how the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. The book primarily deals with the impact that Pakistan's support for terrorism has had on its strategic interests. Kapur rightly argues that the Islamisation of Pakistan did not begin with General Zia-ul-Haq, as is widely believed. The so-called 'liberal' Zulfikar Ali Bhutto used Islamism for political ends and was ultimately consumed by it. He was the one who declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims and banned alcohol in Pakistan. 'A number of other factors underlay Pakistan's use of Islamist militants, such as the lack of a coherent national founding narrative and material weakness relative to India," Kapur explains. 'Finally, Pakistan did not adopt its militant strategy during the Zia era; the Pakistanis had been using Islamist militants as strategic tools since achieving independence, long before Zia's emergence. It is a deliberate, long-running policy as old as the Pakistani state. Indeed, supporting jihad has constituted nothing less than a central pillar of Pakistani grand strategy." Pakistan's use of jihad as central state policy did not simply begin after independence; it was a driving force in the violent separation from India and the formation of the Pakistani state—on both its eastern and western fronts. Grand strategy, Kapur explains, is a state's theory of shaping national security. Pakistan has three main grand strategic tools: nuclear weapons, conventional forces, and militant proxies. Before 1971, Kapur notes, Pakistan believed it could defeat India in any conventional conflict—drawing from the centuries-old triumphant lore of Muslim invaders. India disabused it of that notion by vivisecting it and creating Bangladesh. A bloodied and humiliated Pakistan then ramped up its use of terror proxies. Other nations have also used non-state actors: Iran backs Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis; the Soviet Union supported the Red Brigades and Black September; the US trained the Afghan mujahideen and ironically propped up Al Qaeda and the Taliban, who later turned on their mentor; China is believed to support Maoist insurgency in India and radical movements across western democracies. But for no other nation is terrorism as central to state policy as it is in Pakistan, Kapur argues. And Kapur believes jihad has, in some ways, worked for Pakistan. It has delivered a number of significant domestic and international outcomes. The strategy has promoted internal political cohesion, offering Pakistan a raison d'être in the absence of a coherent founding narrative. By steadily attriting Indian military and financial resources, it has also helped address Pakistan's material weakness vis-à-vis India. Additionally, the strategy has enabled Pakistan to continue challenging Indian control over Kashmir and to ensure the region remains on the international agenda. It has also allowed Pakistan to shape the strategic environment in Afghanistan and install a favourable government on its western frontier. However, these 'successes" are now backfiring. The terror organisations Pakistan nurtured are increasingly spinning out of control and severely undermining its interests. Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) is no longer content with simply bleeding India—it harbours ambitions of conquering the entire country and spreading globally. The Tehreek-e-Taliban has seized large swathes of South Waziristan, launching attacks on Pakistani politicians and military personnel. The Baloch Liberation Army leads a fierce armed freedom movement to liberate Balochistan from Pakistani control. Groups like LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed often exceed the brief of their sponsors, conducting operations that drag Pakistan into dangerous confrontations. Kapur also notes that Pakistan's military strategy has diverted crucial resources away from development, impeding its internal progress. Perhaps the greatest blowback, Kapur writes, has been India's sweeping military modernisation in response. Operation Sindoor has highlighted India's growing defence preparedness under PM Narendra Modi, if emerging expert accounts are anything to go by. India reportedly executed remarkable acts of deception—most notably with the Rafale's X-Guard, an AI-powered towed decoy system that successfully fooled Pakistan's Chinese-made PL-15E missiles and J-10C fighters. 'It's the best spoofing and deception we've ever seen," former US Air Force F-15E and F-16 pilot Ryan Bodenheimer is quoted as saying by He added that the technology may have redefined the rules of electronic warfare. 'Driven by AI, the X-Guard constantly adjusts its signals to replicate Doppler shifts, creating the illusion of a jet roaring through the sky at Mach 1. For enemy radars and missile seekers, the decoy becomes indistinguishable from the real aircraft. Its fibre-optic tether ensures real-time communication with the cockpit, keeping pilots informed of missile locks and decoy status while staying immune to electronic jamming," the report said. John Spencer, executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute, affirms Kapur's thesis on India's rapidly strengthening conventional bulwark against Pakistan's militant strategy. Spencer writes: 'The operation demonstrated India's shift from a reactive posture to a proactive, precision-oriented doctrine. Seven of the nine terrorist targets were struck using long-range fires from the Army rather than airstrikes, including loitering munitions and rocket artillery. Counter-drone technology played a key role, with integrated use of radar, jammers, and both kinetic and soft-kill systems to neutralise incoming threats. Real-time battle damage assessments were enabled by persistent ISR from satellites and human intelligence. I was briefed on how even legacy systems, like L-70 guns, were effectively combined with modern platforms to create layered defences. The integration of kinetic force with narrative control was deliberate. What stood out was the clarity and firmness of India's red lines. Every terrorist attack will receive a military response. There will be no distinction between the attacker and those who support or harbour them." S Paul Kapur's views in his book may occasionally collide with the murky realpolitik that shapes America's foreign policy. But one thing is certain: Kapur is no natural sympathiser of jihad, particularly the industrial-scale terrorism emanating from Pakistan. top videos View all He sums up Pakistan's double-edged sword perfectly: 'Pakistan suffers from a jihad paradox. Political and material weakness originally made Pakistan's militant policy attractive and useful. Now, however, the same weakness makes Pakistan's support for militancy extremely dangerous." Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. tags : Islamic Jihad Operation Sindoor Osama bin Laden view comments Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: July 11, 2025, 08:22 IST News opinion Book By Paul Kapur, Trump's South Asia Pick, Captures Pakistan's Jihad Strategy & India's Response Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Business Wire
6 hours ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Cinemark to Host Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call
PLANO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cinemark Holdings, Inc. ('Cinemark') (NYSE: CNK), one of the largest and most influential theatrical exhibition companies in the world, today announced that it will report its second quarter 2025 operating results pre-market and host a webcast and conference call to discuss the results on: 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time Interested parties can listen to the call via live webcast. Please access 5-10 minutes before the call: A replay of the call will be available at following the call and archived for a limited time. To automatically receive Cinemark financial news by email, please visit our Investor Relations website and subscribe to email alerts. About Cinemark Holdings, Inc. Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK) provides extraordinary out-of-home entertainment experiences as one of the largest and most influential theatrical exhibition companies in the world. Based in Plano, Texas, Cinemark makes every day cinematic for moviegoers across approximately 500 theaters, operating in 42 states in the U.S. (304 theaters; 4,246 screens) and 13 South and Central American countries (193 theaters; 1,398 screens). Cinemark offers guests superior sight and sound technology, including Barco laser projection and Cinemark XD, the world's No. 1 exhibitor-branded premium large format; industry-leading penetration of upscale amenities such as expanded food and beverage offerings, Luxury Lounger recliners and D-BOX motion seats; top-notch guest service; and award-winning loyalty programs such as Cinemark Movie Club. All of this creates an immersive environment for a shared, entertaining escape, underscoring that there is no place more cinematic than Cinemark. For more information, visit
Time Out
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A vibrant South and Southeast Asian wine bar and restaurant has opened on Rose Bay's waterfront
Rose Bay sure is a beauty, but let's be honest, she can be a little sleepy. Good news then that Rasa House – a new, vibrant South and Southeast Asian wine bar and restaurant – has opened, bringing fire, spice and all things nice to the waterfront. The 60-seat Rasa – which means flavour, aroma and taste in Indonesian, and the essence of life in Hindi – is the first venture for screenwriter Vinay Matta. But good food runs in his blood: his parents founded Sydney go-tos The Spice Room and Jewel on the Bay, which is right next door to Rasa House. Fresh, seasonal produce is key at Rasa House, which sources its seafood from The Fish Market at Maroubra, and meat from Sydney's Field to Fork. Plus, herbs – like mint, rosemary and turmeric – will come from a local community vegetable garden in Rose Bay. Menu highlights include crisp Java-style squid with kombu, burnt chilli and lime mayo; Indonesian-inspired yellowfin tuna ceviche with lemongrass, lime and bird's eye chilli; Afghan-Indian lamb shank boti with hung curd, pomegranate and slivered almonds; and Nepalese vege dumplings – momos – in a coconut gravy. 'Inspiration is all around, you just need to be willing to embrace it,' says Vinay. 'The idea for Rasa House came from my travels, my art as a screenwriter, my heritage and my parents' journey in hospitality – I've learnt a lot from them, but I'm also ready to make things my own. To do something that isn't rooted in legacy but will create a legacy of its own.' It's not just the food that's hot. The dining room is decked out in earthy tones with colourful accents and custom murals by local Sydney artist Mali Pilgrem Blasco, which bring life and warmth to the sunlit space. Plus, the alfresco seating lets you and your date soak up sparkling views of Rose Bay Marina and Shark Island. Spanning drops from Australia, Spain, France, South Africa, Germany and Morocco, the wine list is varied and interesting. Cocktail-wise, expect riffs on the classics, including a Singapore Sling, the Oriental Vieux Carré, Lychee Margarita and a Japanese Tea Old Fashioned. Got plans this weekend? Leave your house and come check out Rasa House. Find out more here. These are best wine bars in Sydney right now.
AllAfrica
12 hours ago
- Politics
- AllAfrica
Can Indonesia stay non-aligned while joining BRICS?
When Indonesia joined this year's BRICS Summit as a full member in Rio de Janeiro, it was stepping into a long-anticipated role. The Southeast Asian nation has long aspired to be more than a leading regional actor; it seeks to be a global leader, and BRICS membership offered the symbolism of arrival. President Prabowo Subianto leveraged the moment to call for a revitalized multilateral order, greater South–South cooperation and fairer global governance. He invoked the spirit of Bandung — the 1955 conference Indonesia famously convened to unite newly independent nations under the banner of peace, solidarity and nonalignment. But for all the talk of balance, Indonesia's BRICS debut also raised fresh concerns about tilt as questions arise about whether Prabowo's Indonesia is drifting into China and Russia's orbit and away from the West. The evidence is not conclusive, but the optics are striking. In one of his first diplomatic moves after winning the presidency, Prabowo flew to Beijing — even before formally taking office. He later signed a joint statement with China, which many in the region saw as overly conciliatory, particularly regarding the South China Sea, where the two nations have overlapping claims. Meanwhile, at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Prabowo praised China and Russia as countries 'without double standards,' raising eyebrows given both countries' questionable records on sovereignty, repression and international norms. His absence from the G7 summit only deepened the perception of lean. Indonesia has good reasons to challenge the dominance of Western institutions. Western powers have long wielded influence in ways that often ignore or exploit the interests of the Global South. The failures are real — from broken climate finance promises, to selective outrage over territorial violations, to a rules-based order applied unequally. Indonesia is right to demand reform. But opposing Western hypocrisy should not mean excusing the same behaviors when they come from elsewhere. This is the core danger of being seen as part of an 'anti-Western axis': it casts foreign policy not as a principled stand, but as an act of alignment — the very thing Indonesia's bebas aktif doctrine was designed to avoid. That doctrine, which has guided Indonesia since the Cold War, rests on two pillars: independence and active engagement. It allowed Indonesia to work with all sides without serving any. It's what gave Jakarta the credibility to lead the Non-Aligned Movement and host the Bandung Conference. And it remains one of Indonesia's most strategic diplomatic assets. But independence is not neutrality. And active engagement means speaking up, especially when it's inconvenient. Indonesia's foreign policy cannot succeed if it avoids difficult conversations. Jakarta must be willing to call out abuses of power wherever they occur: in the West, yes, but also in China, Russia and other BRICS members. Remaining silent on Russia's invasion of Ukraine or downplaying China's human rights violations in Xinjiang doesn't look like independent diplomacy. It looks like avoidance. Indonesia's power lies in its ability to serve as a bridge — between the developed and developing world, between major powers and emerging ones. But bridges require trust. And trust comes from consistency. Right now, that consistency is in question. If Indonesia speaks forcefully against Western double standards but not against the violations of its new BRICS partners, it risks being seen as selective rather than principled. Indonesia should engage the West and the non-West. It should deepen cooperation with China and maintain strong ties with the US, Europe and Japan. It should continue playing an active role in ASEAN and take full advantage of its BRICS membership to promote reform of global governance. But with every new partnership comes a harder obligation: the obligation to hold partners accountable. This is especially critical as BRICS – now expanded to include Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Iran, the UAE and Indonesia, thus representing more than half the world's population – itself evolves. What started as an economic bloc is now drifting into the realm of political identity. With members like Russia and China in the fold, BRICS risks becoming more about opposition to the West than about offering meaningful alternatives. Indonesia's job is not to amplify that drift — it's to anchor the bloc in something more constructive. At the Rio summit, Prabowo rightly invoked the legacy of Bandung. But Bandung was not about polite diplomacy. It was about bold leadership from the Global South — leadership that challenged colonialism, injustice and domination in all forms. That legacy only lives on if Indonesia is willing to confront power, not just shift its gaze from one pole to another. The world doesn't need another country choosing sides. It needs countries willing to speak honestly to all sides. That is the test Indonesia now faces. At BRICS, Indonesia took a step onto a bigger stage. What it says next — and who it's willing to say it to — will determine whether it becomes a global leader or just another cautious voice in a crowded room. Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat is director of the China-Indonesia Desk at Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS).
