conflict
Pakistan's new drone deal is with Trump-backed firm also selling to India
Pakistan's new drone deal is with Trump-backed firm also selling to India Share Pakistan's new drone deal is with Trump-backed firm also selling to India on social media On September 16, a delegation from Powerus, a year-old United States drone company backed by two sons of President Donald Trump, was received by Pakistan's military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, at military headquarters in Rawalpindi. A day later, the company announced it had received a "limited procurement order" from Pakistan's Ministry of Defence for unmanned aerial systems. It also said it had signed a separate memorandum of understanding (MoU) with senior Pakistani defence officials. But for analysts studying Pakistan's venture in drone technology, even bigger concerns have arisen from information that has since emerged. Less than three months earlier, the same company had given an Indian defence manufacturer the exclusive right to make and sell its drone interceptor technology in India.
Ukraine fires drone barrage as Russia launches elections
Is the war entering a new phase? Ukraine has launched a barrage of drones on Moscow and other regions as Russia opened polls for its first parliamentary elections since the start of the war. More than 350 Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian capital on Friday morning, Moscow's mayor reported. With the vote potentially offering the Kremlin a measure of the public mood over the invasion, Kyiv has maintained its bid to use air attacks to have Russians feel the impact of the conflict politically, socially and economically. Only political parties that back the war have been registered to run.
UN experts say grounds to believe US committed war crimes in Iran strikes
Image caption, At least 156 people, including 120 children, were killed in February's strike on the primary school in Minab UN human rights experts say there are reasonable grounds to believe the US committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran that killed at least 177 civilians. A new report by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, external said February's missile strikes on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd constituted indiscriminate attacks causing civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure. There was no immediate comment from the US. It has previously denied striking Lamerd and said it is investigating what happened in Minab. The experts also found Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity during a crackdown on mass anti-government protests in January.
TIME Trailblazers Put People First in Designing a Better World
Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts. Follow Go to your personalized feed WHY FOLLOW? Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens. While much talk about what the future could look like focuses on emerging and rapidly advancing technologies, speakers at the TIME Trailblazers Dinner in Las Vegas on Monday urged focusing on people. Aicha Evans, the chief executive officer of autonomous vehicle company Zoox and a 2026 TIME Trailblazers honoree, talked about how the design of her company's robotaxis--or " toasters," as she jokingly called them, in apparent reference to how boxy they look--prioritizes the rider experience and tries to eliminate the thought of driving altogether.
Jared Kushner's Dollar Diplomacy
Donald Trump's son-in-law represents the kind of Washington figure for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth. "Kushner is plagued with conflicts of interest," Virginia Canter, a former White House counsel, said. "He is supposed to be working for the American people, but in fact he has tremendous financial incentives to further the interests of his investors." In the waning hours before the U.S. went to war with Iran, this February, Jared Kushner held a meeting with Iranian negotiators in Geneva--one last chance to avoid a conflict that would plunge the region into chaos and shock the world economy. Afterward, Kushner dismissed his counterparts as unworthy of his time. "Lots of tricks," he told reporters. Kushner, the boyish-looking son-in-law of Donald Trump, has been given an extraordinary brief in recent years. Along with Steve Witkoff, the President's special envoy, he has been charged with ending wars in Gaza, Ukraine, and just about anywhere else they might break out. Kushner, who is forty-five, has little regard for the craft of diplomacy. In his view, it is less important to know a region's history or the details of the partisans' negotiating positions than to simply hear the sides out and split the difference. Peace deals are like real-estate deals, he has said. Both involve hard bargaining and, at times, bluffing. The fact that so many diplomats before him have struggled is a testament not to the intransigence of international problems but to the mediocrity of his predecessors. "I've been getting criticized for the last couple of years, by all the people who have tried and failed, for not doing this the same way that they have," he said in 2020, after Trump unveiled his first Middle East peace plan. "If somebody was successful, I wouldn't be dealing with this." When Kushner and Witkoff began meeting with the Iranian negotiators, in February, the two countries were on the brink of war. In 2025, American and Israeli forces had bombed Iran's nuclear-enrichment facilities, which Western leaders said were engaged in a decades-long drive to develop a nuclear weapon. Afterward, Trump declared that Iran's capability to enrich uranium had been "obliterated." Yet Trump and other Western officials wanted further concessions. The Iranians maintained a large stockpile of lower-grade uranium. It was buried under rubble from the bombing in 2025, but Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, insisted that the Iranians give it up and forswear any intention of enriching uranium in the future. Trump sent Kushner and Witkoff to present the Iranians with what amounted to a binary choice: turn over their entire stockpile or expect an attack. To emphasize his threats, he had dispatched an armada to the Middle East. "We have to have a meaningful deal, otherwise bad things happen," he said.
Architect of UK's AI policy quits after Anthropic conflict of interest concerns
Matt Clifford said he was stepping down to ensure his Anthropic role'doesn't become a distraction' for the government's AI research unit. Matt Clifford said he was stepping down to ensure his Anthropic role'doesn't become a distraction' for the government's AI research unit. Architect of UK's AI policy quits after Anthropic conflict of interest concerns The chair of the UK government's "moonshot" science and technology research unit has been forced to stand down after taking a job with the San Francisco AI firm Anthropic, in a move senior MPs called a "clear conflict of interest". Matt Clifford announced last week that he was taking a full-time job working for the company behind the Claude chatbot, "leading its engagement" with governments outside the US - including the UK. But he retained his leadership at the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), which funds frontier science and tech projects .
US envoys meet Putin: What's behind latest diplomacy on Russia-Ukraine war?
Is the war entering a new phase? US envoys meet Putin: What's behind latest diplomacy on Russia-Ukraine war? Share US envoys meet Putin: What's behind latest diplomacy on Russia-Ukraine war? on social media US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have held talks with President Vladmir Putin in Moscow, in what appears to be new efforts by the Trump administration to end the Russia-Ukraine war. US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the envoys were bringing "a proposal to end the war" - Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II - and a senior Russian official said it was an "important peacemaking visit". Both Moscow and Kyiv announced a three-day ceasefire to coincide with the latest trip.