Author: Bill Henery

Even as India was gearing up to use its military to strike at Pakistan this week, calling it revenge for a terrorist strike in Kashmir last month, the government was pursuing other forms of power projection as well: bloodless and more refined, and mostly aimed at Pakistan’s economic vulnerability. On Friday, May 9, the executive board of the International Monetary Fund is scheduled to meet three blocks from the White House. Indian officials have suggested that they will make a new case there: that the Fund should refuse the extension of a $7 billion loan to Pakistan described as crucial to getting…

A new documentary about the 2022 killing of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh claims to have identified the Israeli soldier who fired the fatal shot. Additionally, the film alleges that while the Biden administration had initially concluded an Israeli soldier intentionally shot at Abu Akleh, despite the fact she was identifiable as media, it publicly declared that there was “no reason to believe” her killing was “intentional.” The documentary, produced by independent news outlet Zeteo and titled “Who Killed Shireen?,” follows former Wall Street Journal Middle East reporter Dion Nissenbaum and longtime foreign correspondent Conor Powell as they and fellow journalists…

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Indian military said early Wednesday it had launched strikes against Pakistan in retaliation for last month’s militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, putting the nuclear-armed neighbors in direct conflict for the first time in six years. India’s armed forces said nine sites “from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed” were targeted. The statement said no Pakistani military facilities were hit and characterized the attack as “focused, measured, and non-escalatory in nature.” But the strikes were swiftly condemned by Pakistan. Officials said eight people were killed, including a child and two teenagers, and 35 injured.…

The United States and Houthis in Yemen reached a deal to halt American airstrikes against the group after the Iranian-backed militants agreed to cease attacks against American vessels in the Red Sea, President Trump and Omani mediators said Tuesday. Mr. Trump broke the news of the truce during an unrelated Oval Office meeting with Canada’s prime minister, surprising even his own Pentagon officials. “They just don’t want to fight,” Mr. Trump said. “And we will honor that and we will stop the bombings. They have capitulated, but more importantly, we will take their word. They say they will not be…

China has signaled that it is becoming more open to engaging in trade negotiations with the Trump administration, according to two blogs closely associated with China’s state apparatus, even as Beijing maintains a defiant stance in the trade war. After three months of bluster and tariffs so high they have all but curtailed trade between the world’s two biggest economies, both sides now appear to be softening their rhetoric ever so slightly. This comes amid new data showing that the trade war is already damaging both sides. Beijing sees “little downside in exploring” contact with the Trump administration, wrote Yuyuan Tantian, a blog affiliated…

President Trump’s shake-up of the global trade system has sent tremors through the long-held view that the United States is the source of the world’s safest financial assets. That’s created an opportunity for Europe. The market tumult in which investors simultaneously sold off the U.S. dollar, American stocks and U.S. Treasury bonds eased last week as Mr. Trump backed off his threats to fire the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to reassure foreign officials that trade deals would be struck. But many European officials attending the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund…

Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month but was waved off by President Trump in recent weeks in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, according to administration officials and others briefed on the discussions. Mr. Trump made his decision after months of internal debate over whether to pursue diplomacy or support Israel in seeking to set back Iran’s ability to build a bomb, at a time when Iran has been weakened militarily and economically. The debate highlighted fault lines between historically hawkish American cabinet officials and other aides…

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said Monday that he does not plan to return a Maryland man whom the Trump administration mistakenly deported to his country, as the U.S. judicial system barrels toward a potential constitutional crisis over the standoff. “How can I return him to the United States?” Bukele said in an Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump, responding to a reporter’s question. “I smuggle him into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.” Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran immigrant who is married to a U.S. citizen, was deported last month to El…

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff-driven reversal of decades of free trade is creating financial chaos for the very sector it’s meant to rebuild: American manufacturing. Although the full extent of economic damage is still unclear, volatile tariff policies are making it tougher for American companies to make and sell goods, whether they’re producing medical devices in Florida, toys in Ohio or bicycles in California. Even though the Trump administration put many of its sharpest levies on hold last week while boosting tariffs on China, companies around the country say the recent messiness of announcements and uncertainty is hurting business: Their costs…

Jeff Bezos is shaking up the Washington Post again. The billionaire owner of the newspaper said Wednesday he will change the focus of the opinion section to focus on “support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” According to Bezos, he offered Washington Post editorial opinion page editor David Shipley “the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes,’ then it had to be ‘no,’” Bezos wrote in a post on X. ”After careful consideration, David decided to step away.” As such, “We’ll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this…