Islamabad, Pakistan – On Wednesday evening, as Pakistan grappled with the aftermath of a wave of missile strikes from India that hit at least six cities, killing 31 people, the country's military spokesperson took to a microphone with a chilling warning. "When Pakistan strikes India, it will come at a time and place of its own choosing," Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a media briefing. "The whole world will come to know, and its reverberation will be heard everywhere." Two days later, India and Pakistan have moved even closer to the brink of war. On Thursday, May 8, Pakistan accused India of flooding its airspace with kamikaze drones that were brought down over major cities, including Lahore and Karachi.

The world's first drone war between nuclear-armed neighbours has erupted in South Asia. On Thursday, India accused Pakistan of launching waves of drones and missiles at three military bases in Indian territory and Indian-administered Kashmir - an allegation Islamabad swiftly denied. Pakistan claimed it had shot down 25 Indian drones in recent hours. Experts say the tit-for-tat attacks mark a dangerous new phase in the decades-old rivalry, as both sides exchange not just artillery but unmanned weapons across a volatile border. As Washington and other global powers urge restraint, the region is teetering on the edge of escalation, with drones - silent, remote and deniable - opening a new chapter in the India-Pakistan conflict.

Pakistan's military said on Thursday morning that the country's air defence system had brought down 25 Indian drones overnight over some of the country's chief cities, including Lahore and Karachi. At least one civilian has died, and five people were wounded, it said. India's Defence Ministry confirmed hours later that it had targeted Pakistan's air defence radars and claimed that it was able to "neutralize" one defence system in Lahore. It said Pakistan had attempted to attack India and Indian-administered Kashmir with drones and missiles overnight, but that these had been shot down. The drone attacks represent the latest escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours, a day after India launched deadly missile strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing at least 31 people, according to Islamabad.

A physician-turned-entrepreneur raised in Kashmir is now part of a team using big data and machine learning to help detect useful patterns in the tsunami of public health data generated world-wide by the COVID-19 crisis and do what he can for those back home. Junaid Nabi, a public health researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, says his experiences with the health system in the developing world drives his current work. "Growing up in Kashmir, a society marred with social, economic, and healthcare disparities, I was exposed to the inherent inequities in my community at an early age," he said, "During the final years of my training, I had an opportunity to work with some non-profit organizations, especially the rescue teams during the Savar building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh." "This is when I noticed that clinical medicine does not answer all the questions clinical work asks." Nabi, who is also an Aspen New Voices Fellow, is now working with colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health to develop digital tools that harness big data and machine learning to rapidly evaluate patterns in the data pouring in from clinical research. "I believe machine learning has an important role in COVID-19," he said.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's military says it has shot down a second Indian spy drone in two days flying in Pakistani airspace over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Gen. Asif Ghafoor says Pakistani troops downed the drone Wednesday along the Line of Control that divides the Pakistani- and Indian-controlled portions of Kashmir. Authorities say Pakistani troops retrieved the wreckage of the Indian drone. Pakistan's military also reported shooting down a drone from India on Tuesday. There has been no comment from India.

In December, I converted my one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco into a "smart home." I connected as many of my appliances and belongings as I could to the internet: an Amazon Echo, my lights, my coffee maker, my baby monitor, my kid's toys, my vacuum, my TV, my toothbrush, a photo frame, a sex toy, and even my bed. "Our bed?" asked my husband, aghast. "What can it tell us?" "Our breathing rate, heart rate, how often we toss and turn, and then it will give us a sleep report each morning," I explained. "Sounds creepy," he said, as he plopped down on that bed, not bothered enough to relax instead on our non-internet-connected couch. I soon discovered that the only thing worse than getting a bad night's sleep is to subsequently get a report from my bed telling me I got a low score and "missed my sleep goal." Thanks, smart bed, but I know that already. Why would I do this? It was appealing to imagine living like the Beast in the Disney movie, with animated objects around my home taking care of my every need and occasionally serenading me.

Indian and Pakistani troops fired at each other in disputed Kashmir on Monday, as Indian troops searched an army camp elsewhere in the region where suspected militants killed an Indian paramilitary soldier. Indian army Lt. Col. Manish Mehta said Pakistani troops fired without provocation using small arms and mortar shells in the Poonch sector of the Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir. Pakistan's army said in a statement that its troops were responding to unprovoked firing by Indian soldiers. Both sides said the exchange of fire was continuing. In Islamabad, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met with the leaders of all Pakistani political parties to discuss the ongoing clashes.

In the deadliest attack against Indian forces in more than a decade, militants sneaked into an army encampment in the disputed territory of Kashmir early Sunday and opened fire on sleeping soldiers, killing at least 17 and wounding dozens. The four assailants, who also threw grenades that caused tents and temporary shelters to catch fire at the army brigade headquarters at Uri, were killed in a gun battle with security forces that lasted six hours, authorities said. Indian officials blamed the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed for the attack, saying it had recovered weapons from the assailants that carried Pakistani markings. Lt. Gen. Ranbir Singh, the director of military operations, said he contacted his Pakistani counterpart to convey "serious concerns." Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh was more pointed, saying on Twitter: "Pakistan is a terrorist state, and it should be identified and isolated as such."

I am from Kashmir, a region prone to earthquakes and floods. When I was 17 years old, in 2005, 70,000 people lost their lives in an earthquake in my hometown. This event compelled me to study engineering and specifically in 2005, start performing earthquake engineering research. Then, in 2014, a combination of two events on different sides of the world inspired the creation of One Concern. In 2014, during a break from graduate school at Stanford, I was visiting my parents in Kashmir when a large flood engulfed the state.