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India said Wednesday it had successfully test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile which, when operational, should be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to any part of China.The Agni-5 missile was successfully launched in India’s eastern Odisha state, with authorities saying it “validated all operational and technical parameters.”India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, are intense rivals competing for influence across South Asia and relations plummeted in 2020 after a deadly border clash.India is also part of the Quad security alliance with the United States, Australia and Japan, which is seen as a counter to China.India’s bitter rival Pakistan has nuclear weapons as well and the two countries came to close to war in May after militants killed 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir, an attack New Delhi blamed on Islamabad. But Pakistan denied any involvement.Caught in global trade and geopolitical turbulence triggered by US President Donald Trump’s tariff war, Delhi and Beijing have moved to mend ties.Last October, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the first time in five years at a summit in Russia. Modi is expected to make his first visit to China since 2018 later this month to attend the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) — a regional security bloc.Ties between New Delhi and Washington, meanwhile, have been strained by Trump’s ultimatum that India end its purchases of Russian oil, a key source of revenue for Moscow as it wages its military offensive in Ukraine.The United States says it will double new import tariffs on India from 25 percent to 50 percent by August 27 if New Delhi does not switch crude suppliers.The Agni-5 is one of a number of indigenously produced short- and medium-range Indian ballistic missiles aimed at boosting its defence posture against Pakistan, as well as China.

More than 20 people were killed on Wednesday in a torrential spell of monsoon rain in Pakistan, where downpours have swept away entire villages over the last week, leaving more than 400 dead.Eleven people died in the touristic northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan and 10 others in Karachi, the financial capital in the south, due to urban flooding that caused house collapses and electrocution, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.Schools remained closed in the city of more than 20 million, as the meteorological department predicted more rain till Saturday.Amir Hyder Laghari, chief meteorologist of the Sindh province, blamed “weak infrastructure” for the flooding in big cities.Karachi’s crumbling pipes and sewer system struggled to cope with the downpours.Many areas of the city remained submerged on Wednesday, as residents scooped dirty rain water out from their homes with buckets.Multiple neighbourhoods experienced power cuts and connectivity problems.Between 40 and 50 houses were damaged in two districts, provincial disaster official Muhammad Younis said.”Another (rain) spell is to start by the end of the month,” NDMA chairman Inam Haider Malik.More than 350 people have died in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous northern province bordering Afghanistan, since last Thursday.- ‘Children are scared’ -Authorities and the army were searching for dozens missing in villages hit by landslides and heavy rain, while excavators removed debris clogging drainage channels.”We have established relief camps where we are providing medical assistance. We are also giving dry rations and tents to all the people,” army Colonel Irfan Afridi told AFP in Buner district, where more than 220 people were killed.Authorities have warned that the rains will continue until mid-September.”The children are scared. They say we cannot sleep at night due to fear,” said Anjum Anwar, a medical camp official in Buner. “The flood… has destroyed our entire settlements.”Landslides and flash floods are common during the monsoon season, which typically begins in June and lasts until the end of September.This year, nearly 750 people have died since the season started, according to authorities.Pakistan is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and is increasingly facing extreme weather events.Monsoon floods submerged one-third of Pakistan in 2022, resulting in approximately 1,700 deaths.

The death toll from a collision between a bus carrying Afghan migrants returning from Iran and two other vehicles in western Afghanistan has risen to 78, provincial officials said on Wednesday.Seventy-six people died in the accident in Herat province’s Guzara district on Tuesday night when the passenger bus hit a motorcycle and a truck transporting fuel, causing an explosive fire, officials and eyewitnesses said.Two of the three survivors later died of their injuries, officials said on Wednesday. “Two injured individuals from last night’s incident succumbed to severe injuries, increasing the number of victims to 78,” a statement by the provincial information department said, citing representatives of the military hospital that received victims.Seventeen children were among those killed, according to army spokesman Mujeebullah Ansar, though a provincial police source put the number at 19.Many of the bodies were “unidentifiable”, said Mohammad Janan Moqadas, chief physician at the military hospital.”There was a lot of fire… There was a lot of screaming, but we couldn’t even get within 50 metres (160 feet) to rescue anyone,” 34-year-old eyewitness Akbar Tawakoli told AFP. “Only three people were saved from the bus. They were also on fire and their clothes were burnt.”Clean-up teams worked to remove the torched shell of the bus and twisted wreckage of another vehicle on the roadside early on Wednesday, an AFP journalist saw. – ‘Children and women’ -“I was very saddened that most of the passengers on the bus were children and women,” another eyewitness, 25-year-old Abdullah, who like many Afghans only uses one last name, told AFP.The bus was carrying Afghans recently returned from Iran to the capital Kabul, Herat provincial government spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi told AFP.The central Taliban government called for an investigation into the accident.”It is with deep sorrow that we mourn the loss of numerous Afghan lives and the injuries sustained in a tragic bus collision and subsequent fire in Herat province last night,” it said in a statement.At least 1.5 million people have returned to Afghanistan since the start of this year from Iran and Pakistan, both of which have sought to force migrants out after decades of hosting them, according to the UN migration agency.Many of those returning spent years outside the country and arrive without a place to go and carrying few belongings, facing steep challenges to resettle in a country gripped by endemic poverty and high unemployment.The state-run Bakhtar News Agency said Tuesday’s accident was one of the deadliest in the country in recent years.Deadly traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, due in part to poor roads after decades of conflict, dangerous driving on highways and a lack of regulation.In December last year, two bus accidents involving a fuel tanker and a truck on a highway through central Afghanistan killed at least 52.In March 2024, more than 20 people were killed and 38 injured when a bus collided with a fuel tanker and burst into flames in southern Helmand province.Another serious accident involving a fuel tanker took place in December 2022, when the vehicle overturned and caught fire in Afghanistan’s high-altitude Salang Pass, killing 31 people.

More than 20 people have died on Wednesday in a torrential spell of monsoon rain in Pakistan, where downpours have swept away entire villages over the last week, killing more than 400.Eleven people died in the touristic northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan and 10 others in Karachi, the financial capital in the south, due to urban flooding that caused house collapses and electrocution, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.Schools remained closed in the city of more than 20 million, as the meteorological department predicted more rain till Saturday.Amir Hyder Laghari, chief meteorologist of the Sindh province, blamed “weak infrastructure” for the flooding in big cities.As Karachi’s crumbling pipes and sewer system struggled to cope with the downpours, rush-hour drivers were caught in rising waters late Tuesday, and multiple neighbourhoods experienced power cuts.By Wednesday morning, the water had receded, an AFP photographer reported.Between 40 and 50 houses had been damaged in two districts, provincial disaster official Muhammad Younis said.”Another (rain) spell is to start by the end of the month,” NDMA chairman Inam Haider Malik.More than 350 people have died in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous northern province bordering Afghanistan, since last Thursday.Authorities and the army are searching for dozens missing in villages that were hit by landslides and heavy rain.- ‘Children are scared’ -The floods interrupted communication networks and phone lines in flooded areas, while excavators worked to remove debris clogging drainage channels.”We have established relief camps where we are providing medical assistance. We are also giving dry rations and tents to all the people,” army Colonel Irfan Afridi told AFP in Buner district, where more than 220 people were killed.Authorities have warned that the rains will continue until mid-September.”The children are scared. They say we cannot sleep at night due to fear,” said Anjum Anwar, a medical camp official in Buner. “The flood… has destroyed our entire settlements.”Landslides and flash floods are common during the monsoon season, which typically begins in June and lasts until the end of September.This year, nearly 750 people have died since the season started, according to authorities.Pakistan is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and is increasingly facing extreme weather events.Monsoon floods submerged one-third of Pakistan in 2022, resulting in approximately 1,700 deaths.

Non-fossil fuels now account for half of India’s installed energy capacity — years ahead of schedule — but the third-largest greenhouse gas polluter remains deeply reliant on coal for electricity generation.”A landmark in India’s energy transition journey,” Minister of Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi proclaimed after the world’s most populous nation released figures in July.”Five years early,” he added, referring to India’s 2030 target under the Paris Agreement, and marking a step to the country’s stated goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2070.But while the 50 percent milestone is significant, climate expert Avantika Goswami says the figures — which refer only to potential energy production — tell just part of the story.”Overall, actual generation from renewable sources is still quite low,” Goswami told AFP from the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).The reason is stark: nearly three-quarters of electricity continues to come from heavily polluting coal-burning power plants.- Coal paradox -The challenge becomes even more apparent when examining India’s continued dependence on coal. Far from decreasing its usage, the globe’s second-largest consumer of coal pushed up production of the dirty fossil fuel by five percent last year, mining one billion tonnes, according to the coal ministry.”Coal remains crucial,” the ministry said.The stance highlights the practical challenges of India’s energy transition. Coal is needed to fulfil power demands while storage capacity lags behind the surge in renewable sources of power.”The coal sector remains a crucial contributor to India’s energy mix, powering over 74 percent of the country’s electricity and sustaining key industries like steel and cement,” the coal ministry said, celebrating what it dubbed “India’s coal boom”.This reliance places India in a challenging position globally. The country ranks behind only China and the United States for carbon emissions overall.But analysts point out that in a country of 1.4 billion people, per capita emissions are only one-third of the global average, according to official figures.”Looking at India’s per capita emissions, the effort it is making, India is doing pretty well,” said activist Harjeet Singh, head of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.India has set itself the daunting challenge of reducing emissions by 45 percent by 2030.At the same time, electricity needs are expected to more than double by 2047, according to the country’s Center for Science and Environment.Supplying some of that demand “is likely to be met by the addition of renewables”, Goswami said.- ‘Waste that energy’ -Half of India’s 484.8 GW installed capacity is from non-fossil fuel sources.The majority comes from solar, totalling 119 GW — the third-largest level globally.India is building one of the world’s largest solar and wind energy farms, spread over a desert the size of Singapore.It is followed by hydro and wind, and also nuclear power — which makes up less than two percent of the total mix.But solar and wind create steady power only when the conditions are right, and India’s storage capacity is a meagre 505 MWh — far lower than it can generate.The storage bottleneck was not lost on the renewable energy minister.Speaking at the inauguration of a battery storage systems plant in June, Joshi said India’s renewable energy potential was “growing fast” and “adding 25–30 GW every year”. He added: “But without storage, we will either waste that energy or fall back on coal when renewables dip.”Building storage based on batteries requires rare earth metals, with rival and neighbour China controlling 70 percent of the world’s supplies.”We still remain dependent on China,” said Harjeet Singh, the climate activist. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in New Delhi for talks on Tuesday, with the supply of rare earth metals on the agenda.One solution India is considering is pump-hydro energy storage projects. When wind and solar plants produce excess energy, water is pumped into high reservoirs. That stored energy can then be released to generate power when demand surges.But Goswami believes the transition to cleaner power requires a multi-pronged approach.The transition to cleaner power must come from “emission intensity reduction” of often inefficient coal plants, combined with better integrated renewable energy in the grid that “will actually make the shift happen”.

Grinding charcoal with a few drops of goat’s milk, 60-year-old Basran Jogi peers at the faces of two small Pakistani sisters preparing for their first tattoos.The practice of elder women needling delicate shapes onto the faces, hands, and arms of younger generations stretches back centuries in the Hindu villages that dot the southern border with India.”First draw two straight lines between the eyebrows,” Jogi instructs her friend poised with a sewing needle.”Now insert the needle along the lines – but slowly, until it bleeds.”Six-year-old Pooja barely winces as dotted circles and triangles are tattooed onto her chin and forehead.On the outskirts of the rural town of Umerkot in Sindh province, her seven-year-old sister Champa declares eagerly beside her that “I am ready too”.In recent years, however, as rural Hindu communities in Muslim-majority Pakistan become more connected to nearby cities, many young women have opted out of the “old ways”.”These signs set us apart from others,” said 20-year-old Durga Prem, a computer science student who grew up in the nearby city of Badin.”Our generation doesn’t like them anymore. In the age of social media, young girls avoid facial tattoos because they think these marks will make them look different or unattractive.”Her sister Mumta has also refused to accept the tattoos that mark their mother and grandmothers.”But if we were still in the village, we might have had these marks on our faces or arms,” she reflects.- Ward off evil spirits -Just two percent of Pakistan’s 240 million people are Hindu, and the majority live in rural areas of southern Sindh province.Discrimination against minorities runs deep and Hindu activist Mukesh Meghwar, a prominent voice for religious harmony, believes younger generations do not want to be instantly identified as Hindu in public.Many Muslims believe tattoos are not permissible in Islam, and even those who have them rarely display them in public.”We can’t force our girls to continue this practice,” Meghwar told AFP. “It’s their choice. But unfortunately, we may be the last generation to see tattoos on our women’s faces, necks, hands, and arms,” he said.Few Hindus that AFP spoke with recalled the meaning behind the practice of tattoos or when it began, but anthropologists believe it has been part of their cultural heritage for hundreds of years.”These symbols are part of the culture of people who trace their roots to the Indus civilisation,” anthropologist Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro told AFP, referring to a Bronze Age period that pre-dates modern religion.”These ‘marks’ were traditionally used to identify members of a community” and to “ward off evil spirits”, he adds. Admiring the work on the grinning faces of the two little sisters, elder Jogi agreed that it was an ancestral tradition that enhanced the beauty of women. “We don’t make them for any specific reason – it’s a practice that has continued for years. This is our passion,” she told AFP.The marks that begin dark black quickly fade to a deep green colour, but last a lifetime. “They belong to us,” said Jamna Kolhi, who received her first tattoos as a young girl alongside Jogi. “These were drawn by my childhood friend –- she passed away a few years ago,” 40-year-old Jamna Kolhi told AFP.”Whenever I see these tattoos, I remember her and those old days. It’s a lifelong remembrance.”

A record 383 aid workers were killed last year, the United Nations said Tuesday, branding the figures and lack of accountability a “shameful indictment” of international apathy, and warning that this year’s toll was equally grim.The 2024 figure was up 31 percent on the year before, the UN said on World Humanitarian Day, “driven by the relentless conflicts in Gaza, where 181 humanitarian workers were killed, and in Sudan, where 60 lost their lives”.It said state actors were the most common perpetrators of the killings last year, and most of the victims were local staff attacked in the line of duty or in their homes.Besides those killed, 308 aid workers were wounded, 125 kidnapped and 45 detained.”Humanitarians must be respected and protected. They can never be targeted,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.”This rule is non-negotiable and is binding on all parties to conflict, always and everywhere. Yet red lines are crossed with impunity,” he said, calling for perpetrators to be brought to justice.- ‘Life-saving work’ -Provisional figures from the Aid Worker Security Database show that 265 aid workers have been killed this year to August 14.”Attacks on this scale, with zero accountability, are a shameful indictment of international inaction and apathy,” said UN aid chief Tom Fletcher, head of its humanitarian agency OCHA.”Violence against aid workers is not inevitable. It must end.”OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said “very, very few” people had “ever been brought to justice for any of these attacks”.The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement said 18 of its staff and volunteers had been killed so far this year “while carrying out their life-saving work”.”Each killing sends a dangerous message that their lives were expendable. They were not,” the group said.Meanwhile the UN’s World Health Organization said 1,121 health workers and patients had been killed and hundreds injured in attacks across 16 territories —  with most deaths in Sudan.”Each attack inflicts lasting harm, deprives entire communities of life-saving care when they need it the most, endangers health care providers, and weakens already strained health systems,” the WHO said.- Frustration with impunity -World Humanitarian Day marks the day in 2003 when UN rights chief Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other humanitarians were killed in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad.Current UN deputy human rights chief Nada al-Nashif — who survived that blast — urged countries to use the principle of universal jurisdiction to go after the perpetrators of such attacks.”It’s supreme frustration with impunity,” she told AFP.”Where the pursuit in national jurisdictions is not coming through — then we have to resort to universal jurisdiction.”Speaking of the Baghdad attack, she said: “I lost a finger, I was badly hurt, I had about six surgeries over four years, but it is nothing, it pales in comparison to what we lost that day.”I am really saddened that we are in the same place now, where the United Nations is being undermined.”We are being manipulated again, attacked, directly, and find ourselves prey to misinformation and disinformation at a time when more than ever we need a robust, vivid and dynamic UN.”

Rescuers and residents resumed searching on Tuesday for survivors as the death toll from five days of torrential rain rose to almost 400, with authorities warning monsoon downpours would continue until the weekend.Torrential rains across Pakistan’s north have caused flooding and landslides that have swept away entire villages, leaving many residents trapped in the rubble and scores missing.The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said 356 people were killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous province in Pakistan’s northwest bordering Afghanistan, since Thursday evening.Dozens more were killed in surrounding regions, taking the toll in the past five days to almost 400.Rescuers dug through mud and stone in hard-hit Dalori village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the hope of finding survivors and the bodies of people missing.Villagers stood watching and praying as the rescuers worked, a day after the search was halted by more intense rain.Umar Islam, a 31-year-old labourer, struggled to hold back his tears as he spoke about his father, who was killed on Monday.”Our misery is beyond explanation,” Islam told AFP as neighbours tried to console him. “In a matter of minutes, we lost everything we had,” he said.”Our lives are ruined.”Fazal Akbar, 37, another villager, described the aftermath of the floods as “terrifying”.”It happened so suddenly that no one even had a minute to react. Announcements were made from the mosque, and villagers rushed to begin the rescue themselves,” said Akbar.”In less than 20 minutes, our village was reduced to ruins.”- More rain -Many roads have been damaged, making it hard for rescuers to reach areas damaged by the floods.Communication also remains difficult, with phone networks hit in flood-affected areas. Heavy rain also began falling on Tuesday in southern parts of Pakistan that had so far been spared the worst of the monsoon downpours.Amir Hyder Laghari, chief meteorologist of the southern Sindh province, said he feared urban flooding in big cities such as the financial capital Karachi “due to weak infrastructure”.As Karachi’s crumbling pipes and sewer system struggled to cope with the downpours, rush hour drivers were caught in rising waters and multiple neighbourhoods were hit with power cuts.It has also been raining in 15 districts in neighbouring Balochistan province, and the main highway connecting it with Sindh has been blocked for heavy vehicles, said provincial disaster official Muhammad Younis.Between 40 and 50 houses had been damaged in two districts, he said.The rain was expected to continue until Saturday, and “another spell is to start by the end of the month”, said NDMA chairman Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik.More than 700 people have been killed in the monsoon rains since June 26, the NDMA said, with close to 1,000 injured. The monsoon is expected to last until mid-September.Landslides and flash floods are common during the monsoon season, which typically begins in June and lasts until the end of September.Pakistan is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and is increasingly facing extreme weather events.Monsoon floods submerged one-third of Pakistan in 2022, resulting in approximately 1,700 deaths.

Rescuers and residents resumed searching on Tuesday for survivors as the death toll from five days of torrential rain rose to almost 400, with authorities warning monsoon downpours would continue until the weekend. Torrential rains across Pakistan’s north have caused flooding and landslides that have swept away entire villages, leaving many residents trapped in the rubble and scores missing.The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said 356 people were killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous province in Pakistan’s northwest bordering Afghanistan, since Thursday evening.Dozens more were killed in surrounding regions, taking the toll in the past five days to almost 400.Rescuers dug through mud and stone in hard-hit Dalori village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the hope of finding survivors and the bodies of people missing.Villagers stood watching and praying as the rescuers worked, a day after the search was halted by more intense rain.Umar Islam, a 31-year-old labourer, struggled to hold back his tears as he spoke about his father, who was killed on Monday.”Our misery is beyond explanation,” Islam told AFP as neighbours tried to console him. “In a matter of minutes, we lost everything we had,” he said.”Our lives are ruined.”Fazal Akbar, 37, another villager, described the aftermath of the floods as “terrifying”.”It happened so suddenly that no one even had a minute to react. Announcements were made from the mosque, and villagers rushed to begin the rescue themselves,” said Akbar.”In less than 20 minutes, our village was reduced to ruins.”- More rain -Many roads have been damaged, making it hard for rescuers to reach areas damaged by the floods.Communication also remains difficult, with phone networks hit in flood-affected areas. Heavy rain also began falling on Tuesday in southern parts of Pakistan that had so far been spared the worst of the monsoon downpours.The rain was expected to continue until Saturday, and “another spell is to start by the end of the month”, said NDMA chairman Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik.More than 700 people have been killed in the monsoon rains since June 26, the NDMA said, with close to 1,000 injured. The monsoon is expected to last until mid-September.Authorities also warned of urban flooding in big cities in coastal areas of Sindh province, including the financial capital Karachi, “due to weak infrastructure”.It has also been raining in 15 districts in neighbouring Balochistan province, and the main highway connecting it with Sindh has been blocked for heavy vehicles, said provincial disaster official Muhammad Younis.Between 40 and 50 houses had been damaged in two districts, he said.Landslides and flash floods are common during the monsoon season, which typically begins in June and lasts until the end of September.Pakistan is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and is increasingly facing extreme weather events.Monsoon floods submerged one-third of Pakistan in 2022, resulting in approximately 1,700 deaths.

Pakistan demoted former captains Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan on Tuesday in a contract review that scrapped the top category after a string of poor recent results.There are now no players in the top category A for the first time since the system of central contracts was introduced 21 years ago.Azam and Rizwan have both been demoted to category B contracts, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said.”We have awarded central contracts to 30 players with 10 each placed in B, C and D. Notably, no player has been selected in category A in this cycle,” the PCB said in a media release, without giving any reason.Azam and Rizwan are the biggest names in Pakistan cricket but poor performances in the past 12 months saw them lose their places in the Twenty20 international squads announced for a tri-series and the Asia Cup.Joining Rizwan and Azam in category B are T20I captain Salman Agha, Fakhar Zaman, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan and Shaheen Shah Afridi.The national team’s recent performances in all three formats of the game have fallen badly.Pakistan beat England in a home Test series 2-1 last year but then lost 2-0 in South Africa and drew 1-1 at home against a lowly West Indies, finishing 10th and last in the World Test Championship.The slump has also resulted in Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood being demoted from category B to D.Pakistan won their first one-day international series in Australia for 22 years in November and routed South Africa 3-0 but then crashed out in the first round of the Champions trophy, an event they co-hosted with Dubai.They also crashed out of last year’s Twenty20 World Cup in the first round and lost a recent Twenty20 international series in Bangladesh 2-1.The tri-series, also involving Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates, starts from August 29 in Sharjah, followed by the Asia Cup in Dubai.