WORLD

Indian defence attaché now has unescorted access to the Pentagon, a top US Defense Department official has said. Such a move is aligned with the trust and cooperation that we share with India, US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said on at a reception hosted by India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu at India House on Independence Day on Monday.

“As of today, the Indian (defense) attaché team now has unescorted access in the Pentagon which is commencement with our close relationship with India’s status as a major defense partner,” Kendall said. “And if you don’t think unescorted access to the Pentagon is a big deal, I can’t get into the Pentagon without an escort,” he said.

The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has asked India to complete the development projects it had started in that country, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said on Sunday.

“We are hopeful that with the upgrading of the diplomatic mission, we will move forward from the humanitarian aspect to development aspects. And in that area, our priority that we’ve also conveyed to the Indian side is that of the completion of some of the incomplete projects that India has done, as a first step,” Balkhi said in an interview with The Indian Express — a day before the first anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

August 15 has been declared a holiday but celebrations by the Taliban regime will be low-key, restricted to an official media event. The main events may take place on September 1, the day the last foreign troops left Afghanistan last year.

Microsoft staff are helping out at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport amid ongoing travel disruption.

Over 100 staff from Schiphol's partners, including Microsoft, help passengers in the terminals.

Microsoft employees are volunteering at one of Europe's busiest airports to help it cope with the summer holiday travel rush.

Former British Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the frontrunner to replace Boris Johnson as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK), has said that he rather would lose the Tory leadership race than "win on a false promise" on how to tackle the current economic crisis in the country.

In an interview with the BBC, Sunak said that the next PM of the UK will have a "moral responsibility" to support the poor households of the country. Attacking his rival Liz Truss, Sunak said her plan to cut taxes won't help anyone.

"I would rather lose than win on a false promise," Sunak, 42, said. "What I'm determined to do is help people across this country through what will be a very difficult winter. My first preference is always not to take money off people in the first place."

As China mounted pressure on Taiwan, carrying out firing drills using land-based missiles and fighter jets around six zones encircling the island, a flurry of war games are taking place in the US aimed at carrying out military operations for various combat scenarios.

In one such war game conducted by a Washington-based think tank, a three-week combat scenario was put to test assuming China launched an amphibious attack - from the seas to the land across the Taiwan Strait, according to Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The results of the war games demonstrated that it would still take several more years for China to be able to decisively capture the island in an amphibious attack.