Study Kit

JUDICIAL activism is a virtue only when it is accompanied by restraint. In India, as in the US, the supreme court has been notable not for restraint, but for excess. The US supreme court is in a pitiable state. There was a time when its rulings were regarded as persuasive authorities of high scholarship, for it was there that the …

NASHVILLE: Jimmy Tosh’s sprawling hog farm in rural Tennessee is an unlikely battleground in the fight for control of the US Senate. Yet, his 15,000 acres, two hours west of Nashville, showcase the practical risks of President Donald Trump’s trade policies and the political threat to red-state Republican Senate candidates such as Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn. Tosh, a third-generation farmer who …

THE odds are growing that the next American war will be against Iran. Of the three countries designated by the US as the ‘axis of evil’, Iraq was invaded; North Korea has agreed to an uncertain process for ‘denuclearisation’; Iran remains regionally powerful and defiant. Former US President Obama’s strategy was to first neutralise the principal (nuclear) threat from Iran …

BEIJING: The first shots have been fired in a trade war between China and the United States that experts say could be damaging for the world economy. The two superpowers imposed on Friday tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars of cross-border trade. While US President Donald Trump has brushed off warnings that trade frictions with powerful partners like China could …

Social media has been playing an active role in shaping the daily lives of many across the globe. According to the 2018 Global Digital Report, there are 3.2 billion people worldwide using social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Twitter. In Pakistan, 35 million people, or around 18 per cent of the country’s population, is active on social …

In a simple world of two farmers, one who lived by a pond and the other who lived by a stream, the conflict was not of intents but simple gains necessitated by survival. The one at the pond simply wished it to be full and never dry. But the truth was that slowing down the streams to his choosing also …

High level visits and expanding trade ties between Pakistan and Russia bode well for durable peace and stability in the region in the post-cold war era After years of ups and downs, relations between Pakistan and Russia saw unprecedented improvement over the last few years. Established in 1948, Pakistan and Russia celebrated 70 years of their diplomatic relations in May …

Oh, what a pleasure it was to listen to Dr Tariq Banuri. The new chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) was invited to a reception on June 4 by the Inter-University Consortium for the Promotion of Social Sciences (IUCPSS). The consortium has been working since 2012 to promote not only the social sciences but also arts and humanities. Murtaza …

What happened? Recently, Iran’s government has been revisiting a familiar refrain: the threat to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz. In comments published July 3 on his official website, President Hassan Rouhani issued a vague threat against regional oil exports, saying, “the Americans have claimed they want to completely stop Iran’s oil exports. They don’t understand the meaning of this …

In June 2015, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ranked Pakistan among the top 36 countries in the world facing an acute water shortage. In January 2018, Cape Town became the first city in the world to say that it was running out of water. The government and citizens went to work together to ward this off and instituted water rationing …