Author: HeraldStar

By Wania Tahir The post-1945 economic order, predicated on the free movement of goods and the sanctity of alliances, may well have breathed its last this Wednesday. In a move that has sent shockwaves from the polder lands of Veldhoven to the industrial clusters of Gyeonggi-do, the White House has announced a sweeping 25 per cent tariff on select semiconductors, manufacturing equipment, and derivative products. The executive order signed on January 14, 2026, by President Trump pivots the crosshairs of American economic artillery away from strategic rivals and squarely onto Washington’s oldest partners: Japan, South Korea, and the Netherlands. The…

By Dr. Muhammad Shahbaz, President of China Pakistan Medical Association The China-Pakistan International Neurosurgery Forum was held at Zhongnan (Central South) Hospital of Wuhan University, marking an important step forward in strengthening bilateral medical cooperation between China and Pakistan. The forum brought together leading neurosurgeons, medical scholars, administrators and international students from China and Pakistan, creating a high-level platform for academic dialogue and practical cooperation. Its core focus was on neurosurgery clinical practice, joint training, scientific research collaboration and the broader vision of building a China-Pakistan health corridor under the framework of international medical cooperation. The opening session was chaired…

Ilham Aliyev’s recent interview with local television channels goes far beyond assessments of Azerbaijan’s domestic and regional agenda. It also offers a tough, realistic, and ideologically unembellished diagnosis of how the international system actually functions. The President’s remarks on the concept of “international law,” in particular, provide a fundamental framework for understanding 21st-century geopolitics. Aliyev states the issue plainly: “Today, there is no such thing as international law in the world. Everyone should forget about it. There is power, there is cooperation, there are alliances, and there is mutual support.” These words are not a pessimistic rejection but a definition…

By Wania Tahir The dust is yet to settle on the streets of Caracas, but on the trading floors of New York, London, and Singapore, the verdict—at least superficially—seems to be one of euphoric relief. The dramatic ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro following a swift, unilateral U.S. military operation earlier this week has sent global equities soaring to record highs. The narrative being peddled by Wall Street is one of “optimism”: a belief that the reopening of the world’s largest proven oil reserves will lubricate the gears of the global economy and that the removal of a geopolitical thorn…

By Wania Tahir In a decision that marks the most dramatic contraction of American diplomatic engagement since the isolationist era of the 1930s, the United States has formally initiated its withdrawal from 66 international bodies. The move, codified in a presidential memorandum signed on January 7, 2026, targets a vast array of United Nations and non-UN entities focused on climate change, social policy, migration, and development. For the corridors of power in Islamabad, Brussels, and Beijing, the announcement was not unexpected, yet the sheer scale of the exodus has sent tremors through the edifice of global diplomacy. The White House…

By Urooj Babar In the cold, early hours of January 3, 2026, the geopolitical tectonic plates shifted violently. The United States’ surprise military operation in Caracas, which forcibly detained Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, was not merely a regime change operation; it was the kinetic baptism of a new strategic paradigm. Washington has shed the diplomatic subtleties of the past, openly declaring that major U.S. oil companies will now lead the operation of Venezuela’s petroleum resources—assets comprising roughly 17 percent of the world’s proven reserves. This aggressive posture, widely dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine”—a portmanteau of “Donald”…

By Hadia Safeer Choudhry In the lexicon of modern video games, there exists a ruthless mechanic known as the “execution threshold” or “kill line”. It is a programmed boundary, a specific percentage of health points below which an enemy ceases to be a combatant and becomes a victim, susceptible to an instant, unblockable elimination move. It is a binary state: above the line, you are fighting; below it, you are already dead, even if your character is still standing.Recently, this gaming terminology has migrated from the digital battlegrounds of MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games to the stark reality of…

By Hadia Safeer Choudhry In the complex world of global finance, few relationships are as enduring or as revealing as the one between gold and the US dollar. As 2025 draws to a close, this relationship has once again taken center stage. With gold breaking through long-standing barriers and trading near an unprecedented $4,500 per ounce, the global economy is clearly witnessing a flight to safety. This movement says a lot about growing concerns over the American currency. For decades, the US dollar has held the “exorbitant privilege” of being the world’s primary reserve currency. But developments in the past…

By Hadia Safeer Choudhry In a landmark development that diffuses one of the most volatile technological stand-offs between the world’s two largest economies, the Chinese tech giant ByteDance has formally inked a deal to divest a majority stake in TikTok’s US operations. The agreement, signed on Thursday, effectively averts a looming nationwide ban that had threatened to sever the app’s access to over 170 million American users. The deal, which sees a consortium of investors led by Oracle Corp and including the Abu Dhabi-based MGX and private equity firm Silver Lake taking significant stakes, represents a complex commercial and geopolitical…

By Hadia Safeer Choudhry It was a move thirty years in the making, yet when the gavel finally fell in Tokyo on Friday, global financial markets reacted with a characteristic blend of reverence and ruthlessness. The Bank of Japan (BOJ), the last great anchor of ultra-loose monetary policy, unanimously voted to raise its benchmark interest rate to 0.75 percent — a level not seen since the heady days of 1995. For a generation of traders who have experienced nothing but a near-zero or negative yield landscape in Japan, the decision marks the definitive end of an era. The ‘cheap Yen’…