Author: i2wtc

The withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukraine would be one of the main conditions to lift or amend EU sanctions, a European Commission spokesperson said on Wednesday.European Union countries renewed the bloc’s two sanctions frameworks on Russia for another six months at the end of January and earlier this month. Any changes to sanctions require unanimity among its 27 member states. “The end of the Russian unprovoked and unjustified aggression in Ukraine and unconditional withdrawal of all Russian military forces from the entire territory of Ukraine would be one of the main preconditions to amend or lift sanctions,” the spokesperson…

A panel discussion themed on “AI: How to Strike a Balance between Application and Governance” is held during the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2025 in Boao, south China’s Hainan Province, March 26, 2025. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)Jiang Xiaojuan, a professor of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, speaks at a panel discussion themed on “AI: How to Strike a Balance between Application and Governance” during the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2025 in Boao, south China’s Hainan Province, March 26, 2025. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)Zeng Yi, a professor of the Institute of Automation under the Chinese Academy…

Listen to article Like other leading nuclear powers, India has been modernising its conventional and nuclear forces. Recent reports from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Arms Control Today, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, International Institute for Strategic Studies and many other leading national and international think tanks reflect how and why India is growing and modernising its deterrent forces. Scholarly assessments could be a) prestige, b) power projection, c) escalation dominance, and d) temptation for preemptive strikes for winning short and long battles. It is imperative to note that India has been developing Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) systems, Multiple Independently-Targetable Reentry Vehicles…

Hamdan Ballal says he was assaulted by settlers and soldiers outside his home in Susiya in the occupied West Bank.The Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land says he thought he was going to “die” at the hands of Israeli settlers and soldiers before his arrest this week in the occupied West Bank. Hamdan Ballal was arrested on Monday by Israeli forces after he was beaten and injured three weeks after winning his Oscar in Hollywood. He was released on Tuesday from a police station in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba. The incident took place in the…

Listen to article A United States government panel on religious freedom has recommended targeted sanctions against India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), over its alleged involvement in assassination plots against Sikh separatists abroad. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in its annual report released Tuesday, also advised that India be designated a “country of particular concern” due to the deteriorating conditions for religious minorities, particularly Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs. “In 2024, religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate as attacks and discrimination against religious minorities continued to rise,” the commission said. USCIRF accused Prime Minister…

As part of a recently declared $1bn prize pot, football’s governing body offers largest winner’s cheque for a FIFA tournament.The winners of FIFA’s first 32-team Club World Cup in the United States could earn a football record $125m as details of a $1bn prize money fund were finally published. FIFA said it allocated $525m in guaranteed fees for teams taking part in the June 14 to July 13 tournament, ranging from $38.19m to the top-ranked European team – likely Real Madrid – to $3.58m for the Oceania representative Auckland City. A further $475m is to be earned by results in…

Former Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal has thanked fans for their support as he recovers from a serious heart attack he suffered during a match earlier this week. The 36-year-old was leading Mohammedan Sporting Club in a match of the 50-over Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League when he was rushed to a nearby hospital complaining of severe chest pain on Monday. He has since been relocated to a larger medical facility in the capital where he remains under observation. “It’s the heartbeat that keeps us alive, but we often forget that this beat can stop at any moment, without any warning,”…

(L-R) US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz speaks with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as US President Donald Trump meets with French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2025. Ludovic Marin | Afp | Getty ImagesThe Atlantic on Wednesday published the full text thread from the Trump administration’s Signal group that accidentally included a prominent journalist in discussions of pending U.S. military strikes.Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor in chief, had withheld some of the contents of the thread in his bombshell report Monday revealing that he had been looped in on…

Photo taken on Oct. 9, 2023 shows the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)The incident is a “disaster, as it shows a high level of amateurism,” Darrell West, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, told Xinhua. “It is naive to have such important conversations over a non-secure channel. It sends a bad signal to friends and adversaries.”WASHINGTON, March 26 (Xinhua) — Top U.S. officials are facing a tsunami of criticism after a journalist was accidentally invited to their online discussion over war plans on Houthi forces in Yemen.Lawmakers, media outlets and political analysts have lambasted top…

Listen to article RAWALPINDI: A court in Rawalpindi on Tuesday awarded death penalty to five accused, along with life imprisonment and a cumulative sum of Rs6.5 million in fines in a blasphemy case registered against them by the Cyber Crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). Additional District and Sessions Judge Tariq Ayub pronounced the verdict in the court, which was packed with lawyers and a large number of people. The court declared that the five criminals, Muhammad Arsalan, Ali Abbas, Faisal Rehan, Khurram Afzal and Zunair Sikandar, had been sentenced to death. The additional district and sessions judge ruled that…