Leadership

Japan seeks record defence budget, to triple drone spending

[ad_1] Japan in recent years has been shedding its strict pacifist stance, moving to obtain ‘counterstrike’ capabilities and doubling military spending to two percent of GDP. Photo: Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP/FileSource: AFP Japan’s defence ministry is aiming for a major boost to its drone arsenal as part of another record …

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Cash-strapped Taliban look to airspace for windfall

[ad_1] A view from inside a commercial plane flying over Kabul city in November 2021, after the Taliban takeover in August of that year. Photo: Hector RETAMAL / AFP/FileSource: AFP Far above Kabul, the cash-strapped Taliban government has located a potentially lucrative revenue stream: Afghanistan’s airspace. As Israel and Iran’s …

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Trump thumbs nose at decades of India courtship

[ad_1] Activists burn an effigy of Trump to protest against tariff hikes during a demonstration in Kolkata. Photo: Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP/FileSource: AFP India once united US policymakers like few issues. For nearly three decades, US presidents of both parties courted New Delhi as an emerging ally, politely overlooking disagreements …

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