Gems of Humanity

India’s game is over, the world top Intelligence agencies have joined forces for regional security.

Andhbhakts will give the excuse that this is “strategic” blah blah and then cry about heatwaves at the same time. Good job by Rahul Gandhi for raising this issue. This forest must be saved at any cost.

🇵🇰Pakistan just opened 6 land corridors to Iran. 6 overland routes from Karachi and Gwadar straight to the Iranian border Gabd, Taftan, multiple variants. 3rd country goods can now transit Pakistan to Iran by truck under customs oversight. 3,000+ containers were sitting stranded in Karachi, unable to sail because of Hormuz. They now have a road. Pakistan presents this as trade policy. The effect is strategic: it punches a hole in the economic logic of the US naval blockade. The blockade controls the sea not the Karakoram Highway. Oil and bulk energy flows are still choked trucks can't replace tankers at that scale. But machinery, consumer goods, industrial inputs, and 3rd-country cargo can now reach Iran overland. These corridors can carry Chinese or other foreign goods into Iran under Pakistani transit rules. Every country that trades with Iran and doesn't want to pick a side is watching. The naval blockade is still the dominant pressure. But it just got flanked.

Pakistan just successfully test launched the Fatah-II Missile, designed specifically to take out India's S-400 air defence capability. Range of 400 km, accurate up to 10 m, not impacted by GPS jamming, fired from a mobile unit which can be quickly deployed and relocated, takes a low, flat trajectory which S-400 radar can't pick up, maneuverable to evade interception.

I travelled through Great Nicobar today. These are the most extraordinary forests I have ever seen in my life. Trees older than memory. Forests that took generations to grow. The people on this island are equally beautiful - both the adivasi communities and the settlers - but they are being robbed of what is rightfully theirs. The government calls what it is doing here a “Project.” What I have seen is not a project. It is millions of trees marked for the axe. It is 160 square kilometres of rainforest condemned to die. It is communities that have been ignored while their homes have been snatched away. This is not development. This is destruction dressed in development’s language. So I will say it plainly, and I will keep saying it: what is being done in Great Nicobar is one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against this country’s natural and tribal heritage in our lifetime. It must be stopped. And it can be stopped - if Indians choose to see what I have seen.

NDTV talk with HAL chief, on Tejas LCA AF Mk2 & GE F414 Mk2 prototype: - Center fuselage done, wings made - Rollout by end of FY (so by March 2026) - First flight early next year, usually takes 6 months after rollout So FF is possibly late 2026- early 2027 - By 2030 targeting certification & to commence LSP production by 2029 F414: - GoI has mandated 80% ToT in F414 deal - IPR for some parts not owned by GE but with 3rd parties, working with GE to ensure no gaps - 6 rounds of negotiations done, tram going in early October