My Daily Routine (MD Mujeeb Subhan)

  Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi  DOHA: The Taliban warned the United States of negative consequences of destablising their regime during the first face-to-face talks between the two sides since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, as a deadly sectarian bombing brought the group’s grip on power into further questioning. As mourners in northern Afghanistan buried their dead from an attack on a mosque that killed 62, a Taliban delegation told US officials in Doha that any weakening of their government could cause "problems for the people". Scores more worshippers were wounded in Friday’s blast in Kunduz, which was claimed by the Daesh — who appear to be attempting to further shake Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. "We clearly told them that trying to destabilise the government in Afghanistan is good for no one," the Taliban’s foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told the Afghan state news agency Bakhtar after the talks in the Qatari capital. "Good ...

  Award-winning UAE real estate company, Diyár, is aiming to foray into downtown Lahore with the acquisition of a $30 Million super prime waterfront development. “ We have been eyeing Lahore’s prime real estate market for the last 24 months, patiently waiting for the right opportunity. To say we’re exuberant with this acquisition would be an understatement, there is no other residential development in Lahore today that rivals this location. We look forward to delivering a world class scheme that will set a new standard in Pakistan’s uber-luxury real estate segment synonymous with our brand” Diyár said in a statement. Under the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Diyár Homes are setting a new standard in Pakistan’s real estate industry by delivering world class uber luxury real estate leveraging their global expertise whilst for the first time bringing the world’s leading consultants from the engineering, design and architecture world to Pakistan. Overseas Pakistani’s have always b...

  RIYADH: Saudi Arabia announced plans on Tuesday to inject investments worth $3.2 trillion into the national economy by 2030 in a bid to diversify the oil-reliant kingdom's biggest companies. The announcement by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman underscores an effort to jumpstart the domestic economy as the top crude exporter battles high youth unemployment and a coronavirus-triggered downturn. "The total investment injected... into the national economy is expected to reach 12 trillion riyals ($3.2 trillion) by 2030," Prince Mohammed said in a speech carried by state television. Twenty-four of the kingdom's biggest companies, including energy giant Aramco and petrochemical firm SABIC, will lead the investment drive by contributing five trillion riyals over the next decade, the crown prince told reporters later at a virtual briefing. He said the companies, many of them listed, had agreed to lower their dividends and redirect the money into the domestic e...

As Joe Biden is set to assume power this month, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday hoped that the US President-elect would end the incumbent Donald Trump's "Cold War" policy towards Beijing and return to a "sensible approach" by restoring normal ties. The Trump administration launched a broadside against China on all fronts, including trade, Tibet and Taiwan besides, scathing criticism against the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) headed by President Xi Jinping. The Chinese side hopes that the next US administration will return to a sensible approach, resume dialogue with China, restore normalcy to the bilateral relations and restart cooperation, Wang, who is also a State Councillor, told the state-run Xinhua news agency in an interview. "China-US relations have come to a new crossroads, and a new window of hope is opening," he said. Biden, who defeated President Trump in the November 8 Presidential election, is scheduled...

  United Nations:   An additional 207 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030 due to the severe long-term impact of the   coronavirus   pandemic, bringing the total number of the world's extremely poor to more than a billion, a new study from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has found. The study assesses the impact of different   COVID-19   recovery scenarios on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), evaluating the multidimensional effects of the pandemic over the next decade. The study is part of a long-standing partnership between the UNDP and the Pardee Center for International Futures at the University of Denver. "Severe long-term effects of the   COVID-19   pandemic could push an additional 207 million people into extreme poverty on top of the current pandemic trajectory, bringing the total to over 1 billion by 2030," noted the study. The 'Baseline COVID' scenario, based on current mortality rates and the most recent...

  I’m increasingly troubled, when, in discussions of China’s reemergence, every time I raise the question, “What does the United States consider China’s legitimate interests to be?” I am greeted by a stony silence. The answer to that bottom-line question may determine whether the United States can reach a stable coexistence with China, or whether the conflict is inevitable. Sorting out that question has sparked a debate in the pages of policy journals: Is the source of Chinese behavior fueling U.S.-China tensions driven mainly by a will to exercise great-power prerogatives, or by the Communist Party’s Marxist-Leninist ideology? This is not an academic squabble: Power is negotiable but ideology, like religion, offers little room for accommodation. Coming to terms with a reemerging China requires understanding that the balance of power is shifting. The post-World War II order was not ordained by God to last forever. China has a much bigger footprint, and the West clearly doesn’t like...

Lost in the commentary about this month’s U.S. presidential election is just how difficult it is to unseat authoritarian-leaning populists through the ballot box. In fact, around the world, relatively few opposition parties manage to unseat such movements that way, at least in their first attempt. That’s because the populists’ willingness to break norms, drum up anger, and erode checks and balances typically is appealing and works to further institutionalize their power. In Latin America, where autocratic populism has a long history, only two populist presidents have lost elections since the 1980s: Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua in 1990 and Hipólito Mejía in the Dominican Republic in 2004. The rest have won popular votes, only abandoning power under military pressure, as in the case of Bolivia’s Evo Morales in 2019; societal pressure, as happened to Peru’s Alberto Fujimori in 2000; or because of constitutional limits to their reelection, as for Colombia’s Álvaro Uribe in 2010. The most imp...