Secret Pakistan arms sales to the U.S. helped to facilitate a controversial bailout from the International Monetary Fund earlier this year, according to two sources with knowledge of the arrangement, with confirmation from internal Pakistani and American government documents. The arms sales were made for the purpose of supplying the Ukrainian military — marking Pakistani involvement in a conflict it had faced U.S. pressure to take sides on.

In Vladivostok this week, the 'Russian Far East' was on full, glorious display. Russia, China, India, and the Global South were all there to contribute to this trade, investment, infrastructure, transportation, and institutional renaissance.

The top adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Mikhail Podoliak, blamed “Russian propaganda” on Wednesday for reaction to his remarks about China and India having “low intellectual potential” and allegedly not understanding the world properly.

“Classic Russian propaganda: take it out of context, distort the meaning, scale it up to separate target audiences with conflict provocation,” Podoliak said on X, formerly Twitter. 

Pakistan is now back to the rule of the generals under a ruthless military dictator, a setup that Washington adored throughout the Cold War and has engineered once again.

The population of 240 million is being terrorized and brutalized, and the Western mainstream media is criminally silent. 

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday pushed back against plans announced by the leaders of India, Saudi Arabia and the EU to create a trade corridor that would link South Asia to Europe and bypass Turkey.

Pakistan has accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of constructing “unlawful structures” at a key border crossing, calling it a violation of territorial sovereignty.

The Torkham border crossing in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been closed since Wednesday after a deadly exchange of fire between their forces. Hundreds of trucks carrying essential goods have since been stranded on both sides.

French President Emmanuel Macron has visited Bangladesh in a bid to “consolidate” his country’s Indo-Pacific strategy and counterbalance a “new imperialism” in a region where China’s influence is increasingly being extended.

“Based on democratic principles and the rule of law, in a region facing new imperialism, we want to propose a third way – with no intention to bully our partners or to lead them to an unsustainable scheme,” Macron, speaking in English, told Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday.