What did India and Pakistan gain – and lose – in their military standoff?
Islamabad, Pakistan – Four days after a May 10 ceasefire pulled India and Pakistan back from the brink of a full-fledged war following days of rapidly escalating military tensions, a battle of narratives has broken out, with each country claiming “victory” over the other. The conflict erupted after gunmen killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam, in Indian-administered Kashmir, on April 22. A little-known armed group, The Resistance Front (TRF), initially claimed responsibility, with India accusing Pakistan of backing it. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised retaliation, even though Pakistan denied any role in the attack. After a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures between the neighbours, tensions exploded militarily. Early on the morning of May 7, India fired missiles at what it described as “terrorist” bases not just in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, but also four sites in Pakistan’s Punjab province. In the following days, both sides launched killer drone strikes at each other’s territory and blamed one another for initiating the attacks. Advertisement Tensions peaked on Saturday when India and Pakistan fired missiles at each other’s military bases. India initially targeted three Pakistani airbases, including one in Rawalpindi, the garrison city which is home to the headquarters of the Pakistan Army, before then launching projectiles at other Pakistani bases. Pakistan’s missiles targeted military installations across the country’s frontier with India and Indian-administered Kashmir, striking at least four facilities. Then, as the world braced for total war between the nuclear-armed neighbours, US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire, which he claimed had been mediated by the United States. Pakistan express gratitude to the US, even as India insisted the decision to halt fighting was made solely by the two neighbours without any third-party intervention. Since the announcement, both countries have held news conferences, presenting “evidence” of their “achievements”. On Monday, senior military officials in India and Pakistan spoke by phone, pledging to uphold the ceasefire in the coming days. However, analysts say neither side can truly claim to have emerged from the post-April 22 crisis with a definite upper hand. Instead, they say, both India and Pakistan can claim strategic gains even as they each also suffered losses. The debris of a drone lying on the ground after it was shot down by the Indian air defence system, on the outskirts of Amritsar, on May 10, 2025 [Narinder Nanu/AFP] Internationalising Kashmir: Pakistan’s gain The military standoff last week – like three of the four wars between India and Pakistan – had roots in the two countries’ dispute over the Kashmir region. Advertisement Pakistan and India administer different parts of Kashmir, along with China, which governs two narrow strips. India claims all of Kashmir, while Pakistan claims the part India – but not Islamabad’s ally China – administers. After the 1971 war between India and Pakistan, which led to the creation of Bangladesh, New Delhi and Islamabad inked the Simla Agreement, which, among other things, committed them to settling “their differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations”. Since then, India has argued that the Kashmir dispute – and other tensions between the neighbours – can only be settled bilaterally, without third-party intervention. Pakistan, however, has cited United Nations resolutions to call for the global community to play a role in pushing for a solution. On Sunday, Trump said that the US was ready to help mediate a resolution to the Kashmir dispute. “I will work with you both to see if, after a thousand years, a solution can be arrived at, concerning Kashmir,” the US president posted on his Truth Social platform. Walter Ladwig, a senior lecturer at King’s College London, said the latest conflict gave Pakistan a chance to internationalise the Kashmir issue, which had been its longstanding strategic goal. “Islamabad welcomed mediation from a range of countries, including the US, framing the resulting ceasefire as evidence of the need for external involvement,” Ladwig told Al Jazeera. By contrast, he said, India had to accept a ceasefire brokered externally, rather than ending the conflict on its own terms. Advertisement Sudha Ramachandran, the South Asia editor for The Diplomat magazine, said that Modi’s government in India may have strengthened its nationalist support base through its military operation, though it may have also lost some domestic political points with the ceasefire. “It was able to score points among its nationalist hawkish support base. But the ceasefire has not gone down well among hardliners,” Ramachandran said. Highlighting ‘terrorism’: India’s gain However, analysts also say the spiral in tensions last week, and its trigger in the form of the Pahalgam attack, helped India too. “Diplomatically, India succeeded in refocusing international attention on Pakistan-based militant groups, renewing calls for Islamabad to take meaningful action,” Ladwig said. He referred to “the reputational cost [for Pakistan] of once again being associated with militant groups operating from its soil”. “While Islamabad denied involvement and called for neutral investigations, the burden of proof in international forums increasingly rests on Pakistan to demonstrate proactive counterterrorism efforts,” Ladwig added. India has long accused Pakistan of financing, training and sheltering armed groups that support the secession of Kashmir from India. Pakistan insists it only provides diplomatic and moral support to Kashmir’s separatist movement. Planes down may be Pakistan’s gain India claimed that its strikes on May 7 killed more than 100 “terrorists”. Pakistan said the Indian missiles had hit mosques and residential areas, killing 40 civilians, including children, apart from 11 military personnel. Advertisement Islamabad also claimed that it scrambled its fighter planes to respond and had brought down multiple Indian jets. India has neither confirmed nor denied those claims, but Pakistan’s military has publicly shared details that it says identify the planes that were shot down. French and US officials have confirmed that at least one Rafale and one Russian-made jet were lost by India. Indian officials have also confirmed to Al Jazeera that at least two planes crashed in Indian-administered territory, but did not clarify which country they belonged to. With both India and Pakistan agreeing that neither side’s jets had crossed their frontier,
‘We need our bananas back’: Traders left in limbo amid Malawi-Tanzania spat
Lilongwe, Malawi – Since he was young, Enock Dayton has made a living from bananas. The 30-year-old was born and raised in Molele, in the southern Malawian district of Thyolo, which was at the heart of local banana production until a plant virus devastated crops more than a decade ago. At his stall at Mchesi market, in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe, Dayton serves customers from the bunches of green bananas that he has. “I started this business when I was young, and we had farms where we were growing bananas and we would take trucks and bring them here and sell them to individuals,” he told Al Jazeera. But in 2013, the deadly banana bunchy top disease wiped out almost all the crops in the country. Farmers were asked to uproot their banana plants to avoid the spread of the virus; hundreds of thousands of people were affected. Bananas are Malawi’s fourth biggest staple crop, after maize, rice and cassava, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The United Nations body – which is working with other organisations to help revive banana farming in the country – said in 2023 that with “the right investments and strategic support, the banana sector has the potential to provide greater benefits in food and nutrition security and commercial value for growers, transporters, consumers and food processors”. Advertisement But in the meantime, to maintain their businesses in the absence of sufficient local produce, farmers and fruit-sellers like Dayton turned to neighbouring Tanzania to import the crop and complement their own meagre local supplies. In 2023 alone, for instance, Malawi imported more than $491,000 worth of bananas, with the majority of that – 5,564,180kg (12,266,920lb) – coming primarily from Tanzania. The remainder came from South Africa and Mozambique. But this year, that arrangement came to a sudden halt. In March, Malawi said it was temporarily banning the import of some farm produce, including bananas, from Tanzania and other countries. The government said this was to help support local industries and stabilise the country’s foreign exchange shortage, which has led to challenges that include the inability to import some necessities, like pharmaceuticals. But Malawi might have underestimated the effect of its bold move, observers say. In retaliation, in April, Tanzania banned the entry of all agricultural imports from Malawi, responding to what it described as restrictions on some of its exports. That ban also extended to South Africa, which for years prohibited the entry of bananas from Tanzania. This was bad news for Malawi, observers say, as it is more on the receiving end of trade between the neighbours. According to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), Malawi exports less than $50m worth of products to Tanzania, including soybean meal, soybeans and dried legumes, while it imports hundreds of millions of dollars in the form of mineral fuels, oil, distilled products, soaps, lubricants, cement and glassware, among other products. A Malawian trader sells maize near the capital Lilongwe [File: Mike Hutchings/Reuters] In its response, Dar es Salaam went a step further, extending its trade ban to the export of fertiliser from Tanzania to landlocked Malawi. It also threatened to stop goods en route to Malawi from passing through Tanzania. Advertisement By land, Malawi depends on Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique for the import of goods. As it lacks direct access to the sea, Malawi utilises seaports in Tanzania and Mozambique. But the instability of the Mozambique route – due to insecurity caused by conflict, recent post-election violence and truck drivers facing harassment – made the deadlock with Tanzania a bigger challenge for industry. Businesses that rely on the import of farm produce started crying foul as their trucks of groundnuts and other produce stood in line at the Songwe border. Malawi also found itself in a tricky situation as it depends on Tanzania for its harbours to import fuel. Soon, even Kenya found itself entangled in the conflict as cargo from Malawi, which has to travel through Tanzania, was also stopped en route. The ensuing row shone a light on Malawi’s precarious geographical location, as well as regional agreements aimed at facilitating trade, the efforts by individual nations to follow the rules, and the macroeconomic imbalances in a nation designated as one of the poorest in the world. After weeks of tensions, this month, a high-level meeting between Malawi and Tanzania appeared to have brokered the differences, paving the way for the lifting of the bans between the two countries, according to a spokesperson for Malawi’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ‘Symptom of a huge challenge’ For Ernest Thindwa, a political commentator based at the University of Malawi, the recent trade dispute does not exist in isolation – and should also be viewed from a political lens. Both countries are heading for polls this year, first Malawi in September and then Tanzania in November. Within an election environment, the dispute says something about the attempts by both countries’ leaders to display patriotism and a sense of empowerment to their citizens, the analyst said. “The current administration [in Malawi] wants to be seen to be delivering and they want to be seen to be responding to people’s concerns,” Thindwa told Al Jazeera. “And certainly they need to make sure that local producers are protected, which has become more urgent as we go towards elections.” Advertisement Thindwa said that both Malawi and Tanzania are signatories to regional and international trade agreements, the frameworks of which entitle them to take measures to protect their trade interests when they deem necessary. However, he questioned the timing of these moves, asking why the initiatives by Malawi were not implemented earlier if they were indeed to protect local industries. Answering his own question, he said, “Because then it might have not been an agent in terms of attracting votes.” “What you would call subsistence or smallholder producers … would be significant for the government in terms of trying to win votes from such social groups,” he observed. Malawi is one of
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Trump continues to defend Qatar gifting US $400M jet: ‘We should have the most impressive plane’
President Donald Trump continued to defend his decision to accept a $400 million jet from Qatar during an exclusive interview with Sean Hannity on Air Force One on Tuesday. Trump has received backlash for planning to accept the jumbo Boeing 747-8 jet from the Qatari royal family since news of the gift broke on Sunday. “Now, some people say, ‘oh, you shouldn’t accept gifts for the country.’ My attitude is, why wouldn’t I accept the gift? We’re giving to everybody else? Why wouldn’t I accept the gift?” the president said to Hannity. TRUMP DEFENDS QATAR JUMBO JET OFFER AS TROUBLED BOEING FAILS TO DELIVER NEW AIR FORCE ONE FLEET The luxury jet, which was offered to the United States because of delays in Boeing’s production of the new Air Force One fleet, will serve as a temporary method of transportation so that the current presidential plane doesn’t have to be flown. Trump has said AF1 is nearly 40 years old and looks “much less impressive” when compared to the planes in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. “You know, we’re the United States of America. I believe that we should have the most impressive plane,” Trump told Hannity. TRUMP CLARIFIES OWNERSHIP OF AIRCRAFT IN DEFENSE OF QATAR’S GIFT In addition to Boeing running behind on delivering the new fleet, the jumbo jet is a gift to the Department of Defense for “a job well done” in successfully defending Qatar “for many years,” Trump added on Truth Social a few hours after the interview. “Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE from a country that wants to reward us for a job well done,” he wrote. Trump has said the plane will be retired to the presidential library once Boeing delivers its new AF1 fleet. The president will be in Qatar on Wednesday for the next stop of his three-day visit to the Middle East, marking his first major international trip of his second term. He spent Tuesday in Saudi Arabia meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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Buttigieg says ‘right now I’m not running for anything’ during Iowa stop
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA – Pete Buttigieg pushed back against criticism from President Donald Trump on the job he did as transportation secretary in former President Biden’s administration and declined to say if Biden experienced cognitive decline during his final years in the White House, as he took questions from reporters on Tuesday night. Buttigieg, speaking with reporters after headlining a town hall with veterans in this eastern Iowa city that sparked more speculation that the 2020 Democratic presidential contender is mulling another White House run in 2028, told Fox News that ‘right now I’m not running for anything.” Buttigieg won the 2020 Iowa presidential caucuses and came in a close second in the New Hampshire presidential primary before Biden surged to claim the party’s nomination and later the White House. While Iowa’s caucuses for half a century kicked off both major political parties’ presidential nominating calendars, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) demoted the Hawkeye State on their 2024 schedule, and it’s unclear if Iowa will regain its early state status in the 2028 calendar. LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS INTO TRUMP’S SECOND TERM, DEMOCRATS ALREADY EYEING 2028 PRESIDENTIAL RACE But Buttigieg’s visit, along with his announcement in March that he would pass on a 2026 run for a Democrat-controlled open Senate seat in battleground Michigan, his adopted home state, are seen as signals of his interest in a potential 2028 national run. Buttigieg told a Substack author in a live interview hours before the town hall that when it comes to 2028, he would consider “what I bring to the table.” But asked by Fox News if the trip to Iowa – where he also gathered with staffers from his 2020 campaign and was followed around by a videographer from his political group Win the Era – was the beginning of an assessment period, Buttigieg said “right now, I’m not running for anything and part of what’s exciting and compelling about an opportunity like this is to be campaigning for values and for ideas rather than a specific electoral campaign. So that’s what I’m about.” Told that audience members who said they voted for him in 2020 and would be interested in backing him again if he runs in 2028, Buttigieg said “of course it means a lot to hear that people who supported me then continue to believe in what I have to say.” The Cedar Rapids event was hosted by VoteVets, a progressive group that represents veterans and military families in the political process. The group told Fox News that 1,800 people attended the event. WATCH: TRUMP TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY LAYS OUT NEW PLAN TO UPGRADE AGING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEM The trip by Buttigieg came as he’s faced incoming fire in recent days from Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy over a surge in flight delays and cancellations at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport, which is one of the three major airports that services the New York City metropolitan area. Duffy blames his predecessor at the Department of Transportation and the Biden administration for what he claims was a failure to upgrade the busy airport’s air traffic control system. And Trump, last week, also chimed in, claiming that during his tenure as transportation secretary Buttigieg “didn’t have a clue. And this guy is actually a contender for president?” Trump added. “I don’t think he’s going to do too well.” The president’s jabs came a few days after Buttigieg, pointing to Trump’s underwater approval ratings in national polling, said in a social media post that “Donald Trump is the most unpopular 100-day-mark president in modern American history.” WATCH: TRUMP TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY LAYS OUT NEW PLAN TO UPGRADE AGING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEM The Trump administration argues that Buttigieg oversaw a rocky transition of the Newark airport’s airspace to the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (Tracon) last July. And Duffy, who earlier this week unveiled a major plan to overhaul the nation’s aging air traffic control system, claims the Biden administration is to blame for the recent problems, including air traffic control equipment outages. “Maybe when you work from home, or maybe when you work from Michigan as a secretary, maybe you’re not focused on the real issues that are taking place throughout the airspace,” Duffy said, as he took aim at Buttigieg, who lives in Michigan. Buttigieg, responding, told reporters on Tuesday night that “when you’re the secretary of transportation, you have a tough job and your responsibility is to fix tough problems. You don’t have time to indulge in trying to point fingers or blame other people.” “What I can tell you is we inherited a shrinking air traffic control workforce. We turned it into a growing air traffic control workforce,” he added. “My successor is, of course, not asking for my advice, but my advice would be to making sure that it grows and actually delivering the technological change that’s needed.” Buttigieg’s Iowa trip also came on the same day that excerpts from a new book offered details on Biden’s supposed mental and physical decline during his last two years in the White House. Asked whether Biden experienced cognitive decline, Buttigieg would only say that “every time I needed something from him from the West Wing, I got it.” But he said “maybe” when asked whether the Democratic Party would have been better off if Biden had not run for re-election in 2024. “Right now with the benefit of hindsight, I think most people would agree that that’s the case.” Biden dropped out of the race last July, one month after a disastrous debate performance with Trump sparked a chorus of calls from fellow Democrats for the then-81-year-old president to end his re-election bid. He was replaced at the top of the ticket by then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who ended up losing in November to Trump.
House Republicans face down Dem attacks, protests to pull all-nighter on Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
Three key committees in the process of putting together President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” are expected to work through the night to advance their respective portions of the Republican agenda. The House Agriculture Committee, the Energy & Commerce Committee and the Ways & Means Committee are all holding meetings aimed at advancing key parts of Trump’s bill. Sources told Fox News Digital they expected the Energy & Commerce and Ways & Means meetings, which began on Tuesday afternoon, to last upwards of 20 hours each. The Agriculture panel’s markup is also expected to last into Wednesday. Democrats on each committee, meanwhile, have prepared a barrage of attacks and accusations against GOP lawmakers looking to gut critical welfare programs. ANTI-ABORTION PROVIDER MEASURE IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ COULD SPARK HOUSE GOP REBELLION Sparks flew early at the Energy & Commerce Committee meeting with protesters both inside and outside the room repeatedly attempting to disrupt proceedings – with 26 people arrested by Capitol Police. Protesters against Medicaid cuts, predominately in wheelchairs, remained outside the budget markup for several hours as representatives inside debated that and other critical facets under the committee’s broad jurisdiction. Inside the budget markup, Democrats and Republicans sparred along party lines over Medicaid cuts. Democrats repeatedly claimed the Republican budget proposal will cut vital Medicaid services. Many Democrats shared how Medicaid services have saved their constituents’ lives and argued that millions of Americans could lose coverage under the current proposal. Meanwhile, Republicans accused Democrats of lying to the American people about Medicaid cuts – a word Kentucky Republican Rep. Brett Guthrie, Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, deterred his colleagues from using. Tensions arose when the word was repeated as Democrats called it a mischaracterization of their testimonies. Republicans have contended that their bill only seeks to cut waste, fraud, and abuse of the Medicaid system, leaving more of its resources for vulnerable populations that truly need it. That committee was tasked with finding $880 billion in spending cuts to offset Trump’s other funding priorities. Guthrie told House Republicans on a call Sunday night that they’d found upwards of $900 billion in cuts. Democrats have seized on Republican reforms to Medicaid, including heightened work requirements and shifting more costs to certain states, as a political cudgel. At one point late in the evening, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., made an appearance at the Energy & Commerce panel’s meeting. “I just want to mention our Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is here because of his concern about Medicaid. Thank you,” the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said. But tensions remain between moderate Republicans and conservatives about the level of cuts the committee is seeking to the former Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act green energy tax subsidies. The meeting at the Ways & Means Committee, the House’s tax-writing panel, had relatively little fanfare but was equally contentious as Democrats attempted to offer amendments to preserve Affordable Care Act tax credits and changes to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap. At one point, Reps. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., got into a heated exchange over SALT, with Suozzi pushing Van Duyne on whether she’d ever been to New York. Van Duyne earlier called Texas a “donor state” in terms of taxes, arguing, “We should not have to pay to make up for the rich folks in New York who are getting raped by their local and state governments.” Suozzi later pointed out Van Duyne was born and went to college in upstate New York – leading to audible gasps in the room. Van Duyne said there was “a reason” she left. BROWN UNIVERSITY IN GOP CROSSHAIRS AFTER STUDENT’S DOGE-LIKE EMAIL KICKS OFF FRENZY “We’re sorry you left New York, but in some ways it may have worked out better for all of us,” Suozzi said. The SALT deduction cap, however, is still a politically tricky issue even as House lawmakers debate what Republicans hoped would be the final bill. The legislation would raise the $10,000 SALT deduction cap to $30,000 for most single and married tax filers – a figure that Republicans in higher cost-of-living areas said was not enough. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., threatened to vote against the final bill if the new cap remains. As the committee’s marathon meeting continued, a group of blue state Republicans are huddling with House GOP leaders to find a compromise on a way forward. Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., hinted at tensions in the meeting when he posted on X that Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., a member of the SALT Caucus and Ways & Means Committee, “wasn’t involved in today’s meeting” because her district required “something different than mine and the other most SALTY five.” Malliotakis had told Fox News Digital she was supportive of the $30,000 cap. She’s also the only member of the SALT Caucus on the critical tax-writing panel. The Agriculture Committee, which began its meeting on Tuesday evening, saw Democrats waste no time in accusing Republicans of trying to gut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), colloquially known as food stamps. Rep. Adam Gray, D-Calif., accused Republicans of worrying that “somebody is getting a meal they didn’t deserve or kids are getting too fat” instead of more critical issues. Republicans, like Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, touted the bill’s inclusion of crop insurance for young farmers, increasing opportunity for export markets, and helping invest in national animal disaster centers aimed at preventing and mitigating livestock illness. He also said Republicans were working to “secure” SNAP from waste and abuse. House and Senate Republicans are working on Trump’s agenda via the budget reconciliation process, which allows the party in power to sideline the minority by lowering the Senate’s threshold for passage to a simple majority, provided the legislation at hand deals with spending, taxes or the national debt. Trump wants Republicans to use the maneuver for a sweeping bill on his tax, border, immigration, energy and defense priorities. Two sources familiar with