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Pakistan determined to host full ICC Champions Trophy despite India impasse

Pakistan determined to host full ICC Champions Trophy despite India impasse

PCB chief says he will ‘make the best decision for Pakistan’ at the ICC board meeting on November 29 to decide the tournament’s fate. Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi says he will “make the best decision for Pakistan” at the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) board meeting, which is expected to make a final call on the hosting rights for the Champions Trophy 2025. Pakistan is set to host the eight-team men’s cricket tournament from February 19 to March 9, but India’s refusal to travel across the border has thrown the competition’s logistics into disarray. Naqvi has remained adamant that the PCB will not accept a “hybrid” model, wherein all fixtures involving India are played at a neutral venue, insisting that the full tournament must be played in Pakistan. “The Champions Trophy will be held in Pakistan,” the PCB chief told reporters at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Wednesday. “Our stance remains the same: a hybrid model will not be accepted and we’ll do whatever is in the best interest of Pakistan,” he said. Earlier this month, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) informed the ICC that its team will not travel to Pakistan upon the instructions of its government. For many years, India’s government has barred the national cricket team from travelling to Pakistan because of ongoing political tensions between the neighbours. India has not visited Pakistan since 2008, and the rivals play each other only at multi-team events. The impasse has led to a conundrum for cricket’s governing body, which will now call upon all board members to resolve the issue at a meeting on Friday. The ICC is expected to present the PCB with the option of hosting India’s matches in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) or another neutral venue, but Naqvi said Pakistan “will not sell out” and agree to monetary compensation in return for accepting a hybrid model. “How can it be [fair] that we always go to India to play cricket but [they] don’t come to Pakistan?” he said. “Whatever happens must be on equal terms and we have made our stance very clear to the ICC.” The PCB earlier wrote to the ICC, asking for a copy of the BCCI’s concerns about travelling to Pakistan. It has also sought advice from Pakistan’s government on tackling the issue, and Mohsin said the board will do “whatever the government says”. The Champions Trophy will be Pakistan’s first professional men’s ICC tournament since 1996, when it co-hosted the World Cup with India and Sri Lanka. Pakistan hosted the six-team Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) Asia Cup in 2023, but India’s matches were played in Sri Lanka after their government did not allow the team to travel to Pakistan. Adblock test (Why?)

China says top military official suspended, placed under investigation

China says top military official suspended, placed under investigation

Probe into Miao Hua comes as China slams earlier reports of investigation into defence minister as ‘slanderous’. China has suspended a high-ranking military official suspected of “serious violations of discipline”, the latest in a series of senior figures targeted in a widening crackdown on corruption in the armed forces. The Ministry of Defence said on Thursday that Miao Hua, director of the political work department on the powerful Central Military Commission that oversees the People’s Liberation Army, was being investigated for disciplinary breaches, commonly read as a euphemism for corruption. The governing Communist Party “has decided to suspend Miao Hua from duty pending investigation”, ministry spokesperson Wu Qian told a news briefing. Wu did not provide further details about the charges against Miao, one of five high-ranking officials on the commission that oversees the military and is headed by President Xi Jinping. Xi’s campaign against corruption has focused in the past year on the armed forces, with nearly 20 military and defence industry officials removed since 2023, as well as defence ministers. Wu, the spokesperson, also criticised media reports that Defence Minister Dong Jun had been placed under investigation for corruption. British newspaper The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Dong, who oversaw a recent thaw in military ties between China and the United States, had been caught up in the country’s sweeping anticorruption purge, quoting current and former US officials familiar with the situation. “The rumour mongers are ill-intentioned. China expresses its strong dissatisfaction with such slanderous behaviour,” Wu told reporters in a direct reference to the FT report. China’s former Defence Minister Li Shangfu at the 20th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore prior to his disappearance from public view [File: Caroline Chia/Reuters] While reports on the investigation into Dong remain unconfirmed, two other defence ministers have been caught in the anticorruption dragnet. Dong’s predecessor, Li Shangfu, was removed after seven months into the job, and then expelled from the Communist Party, for offences that included bribery, according to state media. He has not been seen in public since. Li’s predecessor, Wei Fenghe, was also kicked out of the party after serving in the post from 2018 to 2023, and referred to prosecutors for alleged corruption. A Communist Party statement at the time said the pair “betrayed the trust of the party and the Central Military Commission, seriously polluted the political environment of the military, and caused great damage to … the image of its senior leaders”. They were found to have received huge sums of money in bribes and to have “sought personnel benefits” for others, it said. Adblock test (Why?)

Russia threatens Europe with strikes while gnawing at Ukraine’s east

Russia threatens Europe with strikes while gnawing at Ukraine’s east

The United States on Tuesday provided the first official confirmation that its long-range Army Tactical Missiles (ATACMS) were in use in Russia, as Europe absorbed the ramifications of Russia’s retaliatory response with an intermediate ballistic missile that could strike “anywhere in Europe”. As the question of strategic escalation swirled around NATO capitals and Moscow, Russian forces continued a dogged advance through Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, seizing more villages. “Right now, they are able to use ATACMS to defend themselves, you know, in an immediate-need basis,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. “And right now, you know, understandably, that’s taking place in and around Kursk, in the Kursk oblast.” In a change of communications tactics, the Russian Ministry of Defence, too, acknowledged Ukrainian ATACMS strikes. Moscow authorities have often fudged Ukrainian missile and drone hits, claiming “falling debris” from a destroyed incoming missile has struck infrastructure and inflamed it. (Al Jazeera) But on Tuesday Russia’s Defence Ministry acknowledged that ATACMS struck an S-400 air defence radar at Lotarevka on Saturday and the Khalino airfield on Monday. Both objects are about 90km (560 miles) from Ukrainian front-line positions in Kursk. Geolocated footage confirmed the hits. The apparent reason for Russian acknowledgement is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s promise to retaliate as appropriate when ATACMS or other long-range weapons are used. Britain and France have licensed Ukraine to fire 200km-range (120-mile) SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles into Russia. Russia fired a new type of intermediate-range ballistic missile at the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro last Thursday, in retaliation against the first ATACMS and Storm Shadow strikes earlier in the week. The missile, dubbed Oreshnik and carrying six warheads, was aimed at a missile and aerospace factory. Ukrainian officials said it caused no serious damage. (Al Jazeera) In a television address after the Oreshnik strike, Putin threatened those European countries whose weapons were used against Russia: “We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities.” “It can hit targets throughout Europe,” said Sergei Viktorovich, commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces in a staged meeting with Putin on Friday. In a more menacing tone, Putin suggested a cluster of Oreshnik missiles would have the effect of a nuclear weapon. “Due to its striking power, especially when used in a massive, group manner, and in combination with other high-precision long-range systems that Russia also has, the results of its use against enemy targets will be comparable in effect and power to strategic weapons.” Can Russia fire many of these missiles? “We have a reserve of such products, a reserve of such systems ready for their use,” Putin said. Vasily Petrovich, first deputy chairman of the Military Industrial Commission, said the Oreshnik had been built “entirely on Russian technologies”, adding that “the issues of import substitution have been resolved” and that Russia’s defence industrial base “allows for the serial production of this type of weaponry”. (Al Jazeera) Non-Russian observers were not so sure. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian intelligence, told RBC-Ukraine that Russia did not have mass production capacity. “The missile is experimental. We knew for sure that two prototypes were supposed to be made by October, maybe a little more. But this is a prototype,” Budanov said. Oreshnik, which means hazelnut tree, was the codename for the research programme that produced the missile, he added. The missile itself was called Kedr, or cedar. Observers were also unsure that the Kedr represented a new Russian technology, as Putin was eager to suggest. Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said it was based on the RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile. Weapons analysts said it had been in development “for some time”. Kedr warheads were capable of travelling at speeds of 2.5 to 3 kilometres (1 to 2 miles) per second on their final approach to their target, said Putin, making them impossible to intercept with existing technologies. But Russia has used ballistic weapons on Ukraine already. The Kedr used on Thursday was part of a cluster of missiles that included a Kh-47 Khinzal ballistic missile and six Kh-101 cruise missiles. Ballistic missile warheads are very difficult to intercept because of their terminal speed and because they are unguided in their final stage, making them impossible to jam or disorient using electronic warfare. They can best be intercepted at the launch and ascent stages, but Budanov said the Kedr’s entire flight lasted only 15 minutes from launch to impact, leaving a very small interception window. (Al Jazeera) Ukraine and Russia traded more conventional aerial attacks during the past week. Ukraine’s general staff said their forces had struck a Russian oil depot in the Kaluga region on Monday. Russia launched a record number of drones and missiles into Ukraine on Tuesday, including four Iskander ballistic missiles and 188 drones. Russia’s advance in Donetsk was also speeding up, according to an assessment by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think-tank. “The frontline in Donetsk Oblast is becoming increasingly fluid as Russian forces recently have been advancing at a significantly quicker rate than they did in the entirety of 2023,” said the ISW. Russian troops had accelerated their advance in Ukraine and had effectively disrupted Kyiv’s 2025 military campaign, Russian defence minister Andrey Belousov said last week. Russian forces had reportedly seized a string of villages north of Vuhledar, a town they had lost to last year’s Ukrainian counteroffensive but reconquered in October, partly thanks to the use of Starlink satellite communication terminals, which helped them to speed up their counterbattery fire. “Russian forces have significantly increased the tempo of their advances in the Pokrovsk, Kurakhove, Vuhledar, and Velyka Novosilka directions since September 1, having gained at least 1,103 square kilometres (426 square miles) in these areas,” said the ISW, in contrast with gains of just 387 square kilometres (150 square miles) in all of 2023. The ISW assessed that Russian gains in September averaged 14 square kilometres a day (5.4 square miles), but