‘SPECIAL PERSON’ Vance is on a mostly personal, four-day visit to India along with his wife, who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, and their three children. India is seeking an early trade deal with the US – its largest trading partner – before the end of a 90-day pauseContinue Reading
At least five people have been killed after gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists visiting a favorite beauty place in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials have told the BBC.
The attack took place in Pahalgam, a picturesque town in the Himalayas often described as the” Switzerland of India”.
The country’s general secretary, Omar Abdullah, said the assault was “much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at citizens in recent years”.
Studies say a number of people were also wounded in the assault. The state’s Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, said army and police had been deployed to the field.
Mr Abdullah condemned that strike, saying:” I’m shocked beyond belief. This assault on our customers is an aberration. “
No team has said they were behind the assault, but there has been a long-running rebellion in the Muslim-majority territory since 1989, although murder has waned in recent years.
A former employee of a drinks shop in Taiwan has received her final salary of NT$ 6,972 ( US$ 215 ) entirely in coins of mixed denominations following a dispute with her employer.
The director said the method of payment was justified as a “shock training ” to the girl, sparking a fierce controversy online.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi remarked that the country’s resolve to “fight terrorism is unshakeable” as its security forces conducted a major manhunt on Wednesday ( Apr 23 ), a day after gunmen opened fire on tourists, killing 26 people in the region’s deadliest attack on civilians since 2000. InContinue Reading
SRINAGAR, India: At least five tourists were feared dead and eight people injured after suspected militants opened fire at them in India’s Kashmir region on Tuesday ( Apr 22 ), a police source told Reuters, in the worst such attack in the territory in nearly a year. The attack tookContinue Reading
In 2024, the National Defense Strategy made punishment Australia’s “primary corporate security purpose. ”
With writing today live for the 2026 National Defense Strategy, is Australia actually hinder threats to the country?
Usually, our defense strategy simply asked that our martial capabilities “command value. ” In today’s globe, but, Australia needs a far more effective military posture to protect itself.
To effectively deter an attack, Australia needs the gear, indicators and processes to encourage a potentially hostile country to evaluate the cost of ussr threatening us.
A punishment method promises to reduce the likelihood of issue. It reduces the chances for an attack to report “cheap” wins by communicating how we could “deny ” their main objective and possibly “punish” them for their anger.
It forces an adversary to make a choice: again over or risk failing at your goal and starting a more substantial fight.
While we don’t understand exactly how a potential attack might adapt, Australia must do more to create our objective clear on how we would listen to a provocation. We are part of an international group researching the ways to do this.
This is what we think is needed in the next National Defense Strategy.
Creating a reliable deterrent posture is not easy. The 2024 military technique lists a wide variety of activities that may transform an adversary’s risk assessment.
Some of these things are specific ( surveilling and protecting Australia’s sea lanes of communication ). Others are vague and loosely connected to deterrence ( supporting the global rules-based order ).
To make sure our punishment information is as clear and effective as possible, the 2026 plan will require a little tighter policy platform around where Australia would have the authority to deter an attack, and how we would do so.
It will also need to aspect the particular military preparations Australia has undertaken to properly hinder challenges.
Vagueness in speech or assumptions in proposed behavior will never cut it.
The scientific literature on how to apply an efficient deterrence is essentially drawn from Cold War history.
Numerous times, the US and USSR made purposeful attempts to take punishment signals to the other side. They did this by acquiring new capabilities ( such as longer-range missiles ) and expanding their nuclear stockpiles, or by conducting military exercises and deploying forces around the world. These information, however, were generally misunderstood.
Often, these signs – such as US President John F Kennedy ’s support of West Berlin with an additional battalion during the Berlin Crisis of 1961 – made political feeling, but less so physically.
One approach for Australia to view this deterrent question is considering the adversary’s theory of victory – how they seek to achieve their goal – and then identifying ways to directly and formally present we can destroy it.
For example, after winning the 1982 Falkland Islands War against Argentina, Britain invested significant resources into the Mount Pleasant Air Base on the islands. They are now home to up to 2,000 personnel, enabling significant and rapid reinforcements in the event of future hostilities.
Australia is now acquiring significant new strike capabilities. However, even if we increase our defense spending beyond the 3 % of GDP currently being discussed, the Australian Defense Force ( ADF) will not be able to defend everything across the entire region and the waters around us. We will need to find low-cost defensive actions.
Deterring an adversary from attempting a “cheap win” against Australia, for instance, might require the “forward presence ” of Australian troops far from our own shores.
Even if they would not be able to defend against an attack on their own, they could serve as a “trip wire ” force. This means if they were attacked, it would likely compel Australia to go to war.
So, let’s say Australia has a “forward presence ” of troops stationed in the Cocos Islands, Papua New Guinea or even the Philippines. This signals a credible commitment to use those forces to protect ourselves and our regional partners against a threat.
And should these soldiers be killed, it would likely generate public anger and a political insistence on a significant response.
While a lot of contemporary military thinking is about how to put robots and drones in harm’s way instead of our fellow citizens, some tasks, such as a “forward presence ” deterrence, can likely only be done by humans.
All of this means that deterrence is not just about a country ’s capabilities – going to war is ultimately about politics and human emotion.
As such, credibility also depends on practical rituals– such as Britain holding Cabinet meetings in the Falklands and NATO hosting flag parades in the Baltics. These convey a belief over what matters enough to go to war.
For Australian deterrence to be more credible, the next iteration of the National Defence Strategy will have to be more explicit than its predecessor in spelling out what Australia would be willing to go to war over.
If our government cannot address this now, how are we going to communicate this to an adversary – and convince them of it – in a crisis?
The government is understandably reluctant to be specific about the commitments and threats it is willing and able to make in a public document, or to acknowledge the limits to Australia’s abilities.
But deterring without communicating is a contradiction in terms. We need to be explicit about what would cause Australia to resist or retaliate, even at the cost of war, in order to credibly deter an adversary from taking such an action.
This must be at the core of how the 2026 National Defense Strategy approaches deterrence as Australia’s “primary defense objective. ”
Andrew Carr is associate professor of strategy and Australian defense policy, Australian National University and Stephan Fruehling is professor, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Japan’s ship-mounted howitzer offers a cost-effective and rapid reaction to potential weapon absorption threats by utilizing magnetic energy to release projectiles at fast velocities.
This month, Naval News reported that the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ( JMSDF) disclosed the implementation of its advanced rocket aboard the test send JS Asuka, marking a major breakthrough in electric weaponry.
Developed by Japan’s Ground Systems Research Center ( GSRC ) under the Ministry of Defense’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency ( ATLA ), railgun research began in 2016 and achieved its first shipboard firing test in October 2023.
The tool system demonstrates enhanced mouth speed, reaching 2,000 meters per second, and security for firing up to 120 rounds, overcoming challenges of road degradation and ball flight stability. Recent research aims to transition to a full “gun system, ” integrating constant firing, flight stability changes and a customized fire control system.
Japan’s railgun may bolster marine missile defenses, provide fresh options for land-based artillery quite as counter-battery fire and southern strikes, and potentially contribute to intercepting certain high-speed missile threats. Nevertheless, a miniaturized energy supply remains important for functional deployment.
Japan even collaborates with France and Germany ’s Research Institute of Saint-Louis to improve rocket systems, reflecting global medical assistance. This discovery positions Japan’s howitzer as a core for potential defense systems, promising technical and administrative maturity through FY 2026.
Unlike the US Navy, which halted its rocket project in July 2021 because of considerable power, burning and rail wear challenges, Japan continues to pursue the technology to address the probable shortcomings of missile-based defense and strike capabilities.
Missiles offer powerful long-range strike options but are extremely expensive and limited by shipboard magazine capacity. US Navy destroyers and cruisers carry only 96–122 missiles in their Vertical Launch System (VLS ) cells.
During operations against Houthi rebel forces from 2023 to 2025, the US expended hundreds of difficult-to-replace, multi-million-dollar missiles to down relatively cheap drones and ballistic missiles, highlighting an unsustainable cost curve and dangerously shallow magazines.
Japan faces a similar problem. In December 2022, Kyodo News reported that Japan had only 60 % of the interceptor missile stockpiles deemed necessary for national defense.
Underscoring the missile threat, Newsweek reported in March 2025 that China has significantly increased the number of its missiles capable of hitting Japan.
According to the report, new bases in China ’s Jilin and Shandong provinces house three types of missiles—the DF-17 medium-range ballistic missile and the CJ-10 and CJ-100 ground-launched cruise missiles ( GLC M), which can penetrate Japan’s existing missile defenses.
Beyond limited magazine depth, the inability to reload VLS cells at sea presents another major constraint.
In a March 2024 article for the Georgetown Studies Review, Tyler Koteskey mentions that despite their effectiveness, US Mk41 VLS must be reloaded in port. Koteskey notes that early attempts to install foldable cranes on US vessels failed, given the challenges of loading heavy canisters of munitions in rough seas.
He adds that, depending on the availability of such facilities, returning to a port capable of reloading VLS can take weeks. He stresses that large-scale missile salvo attacks could rapidly deplete US VLS magazines in a high-end combat scenario.
Japan is already building large Aegis System Equipped Vessels ( ASEVs ) to compensate for magazine limitations. However, concentrating so much capability on a few high-value ships makes them prime targets for North Korea and China attacks.
Railguns may offer a critical solution to these missile defense bottlenecks. In a December 2011 Proceedings article, Maxwell Cooper notes that railguns can deliver many rounds at distances comparable to most missiles with the same lethality and accuracy, while at lower costs and greater quantities.
Cooper explains that railguns fire projectiles at hypersonic speeds, with the round itself using its massive kinetic energy for destructive effects —no explosive filling is required. He also suggests that rounds could be equipped with GPS units for greater accuracy and that the absence of explosive propellant frees up some magazine space.
However, while railgun rounds are smaller and cheaper than missiles, they still require substantial onboard power and projectile storage.
Further, Cooper mentions that the lack of a capable multi-mission gun has forced US Navy commanders to use expensive, limited, high-end missiles for all types of targets, creating a gap in the ability to economically engage lower-end threats such as patrol boats, undefended coastal targets and basic ballistic missiles, which would otherwise be engaged with low-cost gun rounds.
Railguns could also provide an economical means to counter saturation missile attacks. An April 2022 US Congressional Research Service ( CRS ) report mentions that it takes 300 seconds to detect a missile launch signature, track the projectile, and calculate a vector for defensive projectiles.
The report states that an 11-kilogram railgun projectile can disperse more than 500 three-gram tungsten impactors capable of destroying incoming missiles through sheer kinetic energy.
While railguns offer promise, Japan still faces critical questions: Can Japan integrate and scale the technology fast enough to counter China ’s growing missile arsenal? And, can it avoid concentrating too much capability on a few vulnerable ships?
SINGAPORE: While on parole for fraud crimes last year, a 20-year-old person romantically assaulted a 13-year-old woman in his house.
On Tuesday ( Apr 22 ), Muhammad Helmi Halim, now 21, was sentenced to nine years and three weeks ’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane, after he pleaded guilty to one count of murder and one count of fraud.
Another three claims were taken into consideration for his punishment.
Appearing in court via movie website, Helmi apologised for his crimes and promised that he would not undertake such atrocities afterwards.
He added that he would like to take care of his family and wife.
Delivering the statement on Tuesday, Deputy Principal District Judge Kessler Soh said: “You have committed a pretty, very serious crime. ”
“ I hope that, like what you said, this is the last time you commit an offence and that once you get out of jail, you take care of your family. ”
The court heard that Helmi and the victim, who cannot be named due to a gag order, met somewhere in June 2024 after being introduced to each other by a common companion.
At the time, he was out on parole after being arrested for embezzlement crimes.
Studies revealed that he had frequently stolen goods such as mobile headphones, game pieces and sweet drinks from the same petrol station on five occasions between Jan 13 and 18, 2024.
According to court documents, he stole a total of 15 items from the petrol station, with the total value of the items amounting to S$ 173. 70 ( US$ 132. 80 ). No compensation has been made.
On one occasion in June 2024, after becoming friends, Helmi and the sufferer spent time up late into the night with a group of buddies that included the offender’s next partner.
When the survivor realised it was late, she did not want to return home as her mother had threatened to switch her out of the house if she returned after 11pm.
Helmi’s girl offered to let the victim be at Helmi’s house that night, and she accepted the offer.
The three of them slept on Helmi’s bed with the offender’s girl between him and the target.
Later that month, Helmi and the victim were suddenly hanging out with friends late at night, but this time, his girl was not provide.
Similar to the previous situation, the sufferer did not want to go home when she realised it was around 11pm. Helmi then offered to let the victim be over at his home again, and she accepted.
According to court papers, she felt secure about staying over with Helmi because she had done but before.
On their way to Helmi’s home, he asked her for sex, but the target rejected him, and he did not repeat his plea.
However, later that night, while she was sleeping next to him on the bed, he sexually assaulted her before attempting to rape her, waking her up in the process.
She struggled to avoid as Helmi pinned her to the bed, but she was not allowed to do so. Helmi therefore raped the target.
The court heard that she regularly said “it is sufficiently ” to get Helmi to prevent assaulting her, but this failed to deter the criminal, who continued to murder her.
She eventually gave up struggling and did no shout for help as she was scared since the accused was of a bigger develop and she felt trapped in his residence with nowhere to go at that time.
The next day, the sufferer woke up and left Helmi’s home.
For raping a person under the age of 14, Helmi could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and up to 12 breaths of the wood.
JAKARTA – At Indo Intertex, a great textiles and garments trade show staged this quarter in Jakarta, the richness and disagreement of Indonesia-China industry were on full screen.
“The business is not good, all knows that, ” said Hery, who sells textile manufacturing equipment to regional companies and, like some Indonesians, goes by one title. “There’s no wealth, probably because there are so many products coming in from China. ”
Behind him stood a great knitting equipment produced by Hengye Mach, a Chinese firm producing the models for which Hery works as a local agent.
At the show, Taiwanese firms occupied an apparent bulk of the hundreds of stalls touting models for various textile-producing processes – spinning, dyeing, printing, weaving and finishing – and selling fabrics ranging from nylon to cotton to silk.
To be sure, Indonesian manufacturers were complaining that waves of low-cost Chinese goods – often smuggled into the country to avoid high tariffs – were driving them to the wall even before US President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day ” announcement of reciprocal tariffs, including a punitive 145 % tax on all Chinese goods.
But some now worry floods of cheap Chinese imports, once destined for the US, will quickly destroy regional markets, forcing underdevelopment across a wide expanse of businesses, not least the nation’s classic textiles.
Managing this is a delicate issue for Indonesia. China is Indonesia’s largest trade partner. In 2024, Indonesia imported US$ 72. 7 billion worth of goods from China – mainly telecoms equipment, computers and machinery, according to Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency ( BPS). In turn, it exported and exported$ 62. 4 billion to China– mainly coal, palm oil and ferroalloys.
China is also a key partner and investor in a number of strategic sectors in Indonesia, including infrastructure, nickel and electric vehicles. BYD is already building a factory in Indonesia.
In June last year, then-Trade Minister Zukifli Hasan announced plans to impose tariffs of up to 100-200 % on a variety of Chinese goods from China, including textiles and ceramics.
The idea was hastily shot down by other ministers who were wary of upsetting China, inviting retaliation from one of the nation’s leading investors. But local calls for protection from cheap Chinese goods have persisted.
Those calls have come from the textiles sector in particular, one of the nation’s largest domestic employers.
They became more pronounced after major producer Sritex declared bankruptcy amid the closure of several other factories that could compete on price with China ’s cheaper wares.
Chinese goods are often blamed with claims of rampant smuggling to evade the hefty duties Indonesia imposes on such goods. In December, President Prabowo Subianto, who has pushed the government to save Sritex, took a hard line on the issue.
“Textile smuggling threatens our textile industry, threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of our workers, ” he declared. “ But if it threatens the lives of the Indonesian people, if necessary, we will sink those [smuggling ] ships! ” he said firmly.
If only it were so simple. Before Prabowo took office, former Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjitan revealed a Chinese proposal to establish new Chinese textile factories in Kertajati, Majalengka, with the potential to employ 108,000 workers.
An apparent separate proposal led by Chinese investors sought to establish textile factories across Subang, Karawant, Brebes, Solo and Sukhoharjo, spanning the entire textile production chain from midstream to upstream processes and with an eye on exports.
Whether Chinese-owned factories in Indonesia will be able to elude the 145 % tariffs on Chinese goods is an open question as Trump intensifies his trade war by calling on nations to impose their own “secondary tariffs ” on Chinese producers.
Most of the goods that Indonesia exports to the US are low-end manufactured goods. In 2024, Indonesia exported$ 26. 3 billion worth of products to the US, according to BPS. Manufactured products like electronics, garments and footwear made up the majority of those shipments.
Demand for such goods in China from Indonesia is fairly low. Indeed, that same year, while Indonesia exported some$ 70. 7 billion worth of goods to China, 90. 9 % were commodities like iron and steel, coal, nickel, palm oil, paper pulp, foodstuffs and wood, vegetable and animal products.
All this may complicate China ’s attempts to seize upon America’s aggressive trade demands to position itself as a reliable and lucrative alternative market.
“ In the face of shocks to global order and economic globalization, China and Malaysia will stand with countries in the region to combat the undercurrents of geopolitical confrontation, as well as the counter-currents of unilateralism and protectionism, ” declared Xi at a dinner with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. “Together, we will safeguard the bright prospects of our Asian family, ” he added.
Indonesia, as the largest country in the region, forms part of these plans. While Xi did not visit Jakarta during this three-country swing through the region, he spoke with President Prabowo, who has already visited China twice since his election last year.
On April 21, China ’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a press conference with his Indonesian counterpart that China and Indonesia should oppose “any form ” of unilateralism and trade protectionism.
The two sides should jointly accelerate regional economic integration and maintain the stability of industrial chains and supply chains, he said.
But as Indonesia looks to deal with Trump’s tariff shock, China may not be its partner of choice. The idea that China ’s tariff troubles could ultimately be Indonesia’s gain is already filtering down, despite the reciprocal 36 % Indonesian goods now face.
Mari Pangestu, a veteran technocrat newly appointed as the president ’s Special Envoy for International Trade and Multilateral Cooperation, cited Japan, South Korea and Australia as the best target markets to absorb Indonesian goods usually sold to America.
Meanwhile, negotiations for a trade deal with the European Union seem to be gathering new momentum, talks that have stalled on various contentious issues ranging from palm oil cultivation techniques to resource nationalism since 2016.
There has even been some talk that Ind-nesia might join the Trans-Pacific Partnership– an 11-country trade pact including a cluster of Southeast Asian countries alongside Japan, Australia and Canada.
With regard to China, however, the focus has been different. Looking to reassure pressured local businesses, Pangetsu has said trade liberalization measures, when implemented, will be accompanied by plans to improve local anti-dumping laws, with the implicit target being Chinese goods.
Pangetsu has suggested Indonesia could actually benefit from the trade war by encouraging companies manufacturing for the US market to relocate from China to Indonesia.
Back at the textile expo, Kasikin, an independent wholesaler, is already thinking along these lines.
“Since the pandemic, our exports have been small, ” he reflected. But “ I heard from a friend in this trade war America wants to hit China. There could be a profit for Indonesia – reindustrialization. China could be forced to open factories here. ”
YANGON: Myanmar’s junta on Tuesday ( Apr 22 ) prolonged a ceasefire declared after last month’s devastating earthquake to Apr 30, after aid groups and international mediators called for an extension to ease relief efforts. The junta – which seized power in a 2021 revolution sparking a many-sided legal war Continue Reading