INTERNACIONAL
India’s Modi gives army freedom to act as tensions rise with Pakistan after deadly terror attack
India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is giving the armed forces near complete freedom of action to respond following a deadly attack on tourists in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region on April 22 that saw 26 people killed by terrorists. India and Pakistan have exchanged fire every day since the attack along the Line of Control that separates the Indian and Pakistani areas of Kashmir.
The Times of India reported on Tuesday that Modi has given the military the operational freedom to decide on the mode, targets, and timing of the response to the attack in Kashmir.
PAKISTAN FEARS INDIA INCURSION ‘IMMINENT’ AMID HEIGHTENED TENSIONS FOLLOWING TERROR ATTACK
Kashmiri villager women walk past the blown-up family home of Asif Shiekh, a militant who officials all is involved in the deadly attack on tourists in Pahalgam, at Monghama village in Tral, south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Modi is set to convene another meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Wednesday to coordinate India’s next moves.
Modi recently said India will «identify, track and punish every terrorist, their handlers and their backers,» in a post on X. «We will pursue them to the ends of the earth,» Modi added.
India’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Reuters that the country has mobilized its forces because retaliation is «something which is imminent now.»
The Resistance Front (TRF), an extremist group linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist organization based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack in Pahalgam. Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and is known to have links with the Pakistani military and a partnership with Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attack.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is garlanded by senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Rajnath Singh, left, party President JP Nadda, right, and Amit Shah, at the party headquarters in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
The attack, which killed 26 people and was the worst terrorist attack on India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has increased tensions on the Indian subcontinent between two nuclear-armed powers.
«An Indian military response is likely reflecting the more muscular foreign policy of the Modi government as noted by its actions following previous terrorist attacks,» Chietigj Bajpaee, senior research fellow for South Asia at Chatham House, told Fox News Digital.
HERE’S WHY A FLARE-UP BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN OVER KASHMIR MATTERS
Bajpaee noted that a surgical strike or airstrike is the most likely form of retaliation, and the response will likely take a calibrated approach to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties and to control the escalation ladder in order to keep the conflict below the nuclear threshold.
«However, this is easier said than done given the possibility of accidental escalation» and a «broader tit-for-tat military escalation cannot be ruled out,» he warned.
Although there was limited outreach from Modi in the past, two rounds of escalation in 2016 and 2019 have soured relations.
Indian army officers stands guard near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Sadanand Dhume, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital that Modi is facing pressure to mount a tough response.
«The Indian public is outraged by last week’s terrorist attack in Kashmir, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under immense pressure to respond to the atrocity by striking Pakistan, which has long sponsored attacks on India,» Dhume said.
INDIA VOWS TO HUNT TERRORISTS ‘TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH’ AS TENSIONS WITH PAKISTAN RISE AFTER KASHMIR ATTACK
Already India has suspended the landmark 1960 Indus Water Treaty, a key water-sharing agreement covering rivers that overlap both countries. Pakistan’s Minister of State for Law and Justice told Reuters that Islamabad plans on challenging India’s suspension of the treaty and is raising the issue with the World Bank.
Pakistan said the impediment to the free flow of water would constitute an act of war.
Supporters of the Pakistan Murkazi Muslim League party protest against the suspension of water-sharing treaty by India with Pakistan, in Lahore, Pakistan on Thursday, April 24. (AP/K.M. Chaudary)
The rivalry between India and Pakistan dates back to the partition of the former British colony of India in 1947, with the establishment of Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. The partition plan also provided the contested regions of Jammu and Kashmir with the opportunity to choose if they wanted to join either newly established nation. Kashmir ultimately decided to join India in exchange for help against invading Pakistani militias, with India and Pakistan fighting three wars over the territory since 1947.
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India and Pakistan have an estimated combined 342 nuclear warheads, according to the Arms Control Association.
INTERNACIONAL
El cardenal Ángel Rossi y el sucesor del Papa: “Esperemos que no haya un cambio brusco y que aquel que suceda a Francisco tome su legado»
El cardenal Ángel Sixto Rossi asiste a una misa de duelo por el Papa Francisco en el tercer día de Novendiali (nueve días de luto después del funeral del Papa) en la Basílica de San Pedro. Foto Reuters
INTERNACIONAL
Norway raises security concerns over Manhattan-sized Arctic land sale as tensions rise
A large plot of private land in Norway’s Arctic Svalbard archipelago may soon be sold for about €300 million ($330 million), but the deal has raised concerns in Oslo over national security.
The property, known as Søre Fagerfjord, covers roughly 60 square kilometers (23 square miles) and is the last privately owned land in Svalbard.
A group of international and Norwegian investors has offered to buy the land, but officials in Norway worry it could give foreign powers a strategic foothold in a sensitive Arctic region.
The land is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the main town of Longyearbyen and has been in Norwegian hands for over a century. It was listed for sale last year, and the government quickly made it clear that any sale must be cleared in advance due to security laws.
NORWAY TO KEEP SUPPLYING US NAVY WITH FUEL DESPITE COMPANY BOYCOTT CALL
Snow-covered mountains near the Kings Bay research station in Ny-Ålesund on Spitsbergen island, Norway, April 10, 2015. (Jens Büttner/picture alliance via Getty Images)
One of the sellers even called it a «strategic foothold in the High Arctic,» which has only fueled concerns.
Svalbard is becoming more important as melting sea ice opens up new shipping routes and increases global interest in the region.
PUTIN NEEDS TO BE CONVINCED DEFEAT IN UKRAINE IS INEVITABLE, NORWAY’S FINANCE MINISTER SAYS
A white rainbow over the Arctic Sea at Svalbard, Norway. (Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The buyers describe themselves as environmentalists from NATO countries who want to protect the land.
«The consortium includes both Norwegian and international investors who have a long-term perspective of protecting this territory from environmental changes,» said Birgit Liodden, a shareholder and climate activist.
She added that about half the money from the sale would go toward environmental projects in Svalbard. So far, the group has not discussed the sale with the Norwegian government.
In the area surrounding Nordenskjøld Land National Park in Svalbard, a lone polar bear is exposed on the rocks where a decade ago a glacier stood. (Mark Fitzsimmons, Sony World Photography Awards 2023)
Still, Norwegian officials are cautious. In 2024, they blocked a similar attempt by Chinese investors. Trade Minister Cecilie Myrseth warned at the time that such actions could harm regional stability and threaten national interests.
Svalbard is governed by a 1920 treaty that gives over 40 countries, including Russia, China and the U.S., equal rights to live and do business there.
Russia, which operates a settlement on the islands, has accused Norway of breaking the treaty by increasing its military presence, something Norway denies.
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The sellers’ lawyer, Per Kyllingstad, said the buyers only want to protect nature and that the sale should not be blocked.
INTERNACIONAL
Trump roasted Dem critics, media with new nicknames in first 100 days online: ‘Watermelon-Head’
President Donald Trump has been unafraid to publicly blast Democrats and the liberal media during his first 100 days in office, continuing a similar trend from his first term.
In one high-profile skirmish, Trump publicly berated Maine’s Democrat. Gov. Janet Mills for defying his executive order barring biological males who identify as transgender from competing in women’s sports.
«Your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports, so you better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding,» Trump told Mills during a meeting of the nation’s governors at the White House in February. Mills argued she would «see [him] ion court» over the matter, to which the president responded: «I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one.»
TRUMP TOOK ON THE ‘ENTIRE’ INTERNATIONAL GLOBAL WORLD ORDER WITH TARIFFS: JOURNALIST
«Enjoy your life after governor,» he added, «because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.»
A second notable clash with Democrats came during Trump’s joint address to Congress in March. Several Democrats held up anti-Trump signs, shouted and moaned in the middle of Trump’s speech, and some ultimately walked out. Progressive Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas had to be escorted out of the House chamber because he would not stop disrupting the president’s speech and was subsequently censured by members of his own party over the stunt.
«I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or make them stand and smile or applaud,» Trump said during his address, looking toward the Democrats’ side of the House chamber. «I could find a cure to the most devastating diseases. A disease that would wipe out entire nations, or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history… and these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements.»
PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT: HOW TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS STACK UP AGAINST INAUGURATION DAY PLEDGES
«It’s very sad,» Trump added. «And it just shouldn’t be this way.»
The press has not been spared from public lashings by Trump during his second term, either.
In one notable back-and-forth, Trump was asked by a reporter in the Oval Office whether he thought he had the legal authority to mass deport illegal aliens. In response, the president flipped the script on the reporter, asking in return: «Did Biden have the authority to allow millions of people to come into our country?»
In another testy back-and-forth with reporters, this time aboard Air Force One, Trump did not mince words with a reporter from Bloomberg who questioned Trump about his tariffs.
HOW DONALD TRUMP DOMINATES THE NEWS, BOTH POSITIVELY AND NEGATIVELY
«I think your questions are so stupid,» Trump told the reporter aboard Air Force One after he was asked if there was any «pain in the market at some point you’re unwilling to tolerate?»
«I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,» Trump shot back. «And we have such a horrible, we have been treated so badly, by other countries because we had stupid leadership that allowed this to happen.»
President Donald Trump speaks to the press aboard Air Force One before arriving at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, on March 28, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump’s public lashings of Democrats and the media have also included new nicknames for the president’s political opponents.
One of those targets, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., garnered himself a new nickname this term: «Watermelon-Head.» The nickname follows Trump’s first-term nickname he gave to Schiff: «Pencil neck.»
TRUMP WHITE HOUSE TAKES 100-DAY VICTORY LAP ON REFORMING KEY AGENCY AMID FIERCE PUSHBACK
«Adam ‘Schifty’ Schiff – can you believe this guy?» Trump said at a dinner hosted by the National Republican Congressional Committee earlier this month. «He’s got the smallest neck I’ve ever seen – and the biggest head: We call him Watermelon-Head.» Trump went on to ponder how Schiff’s «big fat face» could «stand on a neck» the size of the president’s finger.
«It’s the weirdest thing – it’s a mystery; no one can understand it.»
Trump gives his joint address to Congress and is interrupted by Rep. Al Green protesting his cuts to multiple government programs. March 4. (AP)
Another Trump nickname to come from his first 100 days did not target a specific person, but Democrats as a whole who have been against his tariff policies.
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«The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!),» Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social earlier this month. «Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!»
Trump’s First 100 Days,Democratic Party,House of Representatives Democrats,Donald Trump,Adam Schiff
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