INTERNATIONAL

Nov. 17: Bangladesh's ousted prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, was sentenced to death after she was found guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.

Nov. 17: France's President Emmanuel Macron and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky signed an accord for Kyiv to acquire up to 100 fighter jets and other hardware.

Nov. 17: India signed a deal with the United States whereby the latter will supply nearly 10 percent of the former's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) imports.

Nov. 17: The UK government announced sweeping changes to its asylum system, including drastically cutting protections for refugees and threatening visa bans for countries that refuse to take back irregular immigrants.

Nov. 17: Rugby chiefs officially launched the Nations Championship, a global competition featuring 12 of the strongest teams.

Nov. 18: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met President Trump in the White House where he said that his kingdom wanted to normalize relations with Israel through US President Donald Trump's Abraham Accords, but first needed a “clear path” to Palestinian statehood.

Nov. 18: The United Nations Security Council endorsed Trump's Gaza peace plan.

Nov. 18: Major internet platforms, including X and ChatGPT, were inaccessible for thousands of users globally as web-infrastructure firm Cloudflare was hit by an outage, disrupting internet services.

Nov. 18: Nato tested new anti-drone defences – the Merops system – to counter Russia.

Nov. 19: Bana al Abed, a 16-year-old Syrian girl who caught the world's attention as a seven-year old tweeting from the siege of Aleppo won the Kids Rights Prize.

Nov. 19: Saudi Aramco signed 17 preliminary deals with US companies with a potential overall value of more than $30 billion.

Nov. 19: President Trump announced that the US will formally designate Saudi Arabia a major non-Nato ally.

Nov. 20: The US State Department approved the sale of Javelin anti-tank missile system and Excalibur guided artillery munitions worth $93 million to India.

Nov. 20: UN General Assembly adopted Olympic truce resolution.

Nov. 20: The 24th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference, hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), opened in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz Republic.

Nov. 21: An Indian Tejas fighter jet crashed during an aerial display at the Dubai Airshow.

Nov. 21: Miss Mexico Fatima Bosch was crowned Miss Universe.

Nov. 22: A G20 summit concluded in South Africa with the adoption of a declaration addressing the climate crisis and other global challenges.

Nov. 22: Nations clinched a deal at the UN's COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém, without a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels as demanded by the European Union and other countries.

Nov. 23: The US Export-Import Bank (EXIM) announced to invest $100 billion to secure US and allied supply chains for critical minerals, nuclear energy and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Nov. 23: India beat Nepal to win the first Blind Women's T20 World Cup.

Nov. 23: A federal appeals court declined to clear the way for President Trump's administration to expand a fast-track deportation process to allow for the expedited removal of migrants who are living far away from the border.

Nov. 24: Ethiopia's Hayli Gubbi volcano erupted for the first time in nearly 12,000 years. Ash clouds from the volcano drifted over Yemen, Oman, India and northern Pakistan.

Nov. 24: Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group announced a unilateral three-month ceasefire.

Nov. 24: India's hugely popular Bollywood star Dharmendra died aged 89.

Nov. 24: Israel's military announced the dismissal of three generals over their failure to prevent the October 2023 assault by Hamas, the deadliest attack in the country's history.

Nov. 25: The European Commission gave Germany exemption from the bloc's defence spending rules.

Nov. 26: Two US National Guard members were shot in Washington, D.C.

Nov. 26: Sumo wrestler Danylo Yavhusishyn became the first Ukrainian to be promoted to the ancient Japanese sport's second-highest rank, doing it in record time.

Nov. 26: India went down to South Africa by 408 runs in the second Test to suffer their biggest defeat by runs.

Nov. 26: A group of army officers seized power in Guinea-Bissau.

Nov. 27: A court in Bangladesh sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to 21 years in prison for corruption.

Nov. 27: The US government abruptly halted the processing of all immigration requests from Afghan nationals.

Nov. 29: Finland announced plans to close down its embassies in Islamabad, Kabul and Yangon in 2026.

Nov. 30: Iran and Turkiye agreed to begin constructing a new joint rail link to serve as a strategic gateway between Asia and Europe.

Nov. 30: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on trial facing corruption charges, submitted a pardon request.

Dec. 01: Saudi Arabia and Russia signed an agreement to implement a visa-free regime for tourists and business people from the two countries for up to 90 days.

Dec. 02: Former England Test player Robin Smith died aged 62.

Dec. 03: The US government halted immigration applications for citizens from 19 nations including Afghanistan, Yemen and Haiti.

Dec. 03: Uzbekistan fully reopened its only border crossing with Afghanistan, which had been closed to travellers since the Taliban took power in 2021.

Dec. 03: Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades at the UN peacekeeping force´s headquarters in Lebanon´s Naqura near the border with Israel.

Dec. 04: DR Congo and Rwanda signed a peace deal in Washington.

Dec. 04: Australia's Mitchell Starc broke Pakistan legend Wasim Akram's long-standing record of 414 wickets to become the most prolific left-arm quick in Test history.

Dec. 04: Russian President Vladimir Putin reached India for a two-day visit.

Dec. 04: French President Emmanuel Macron met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Dec. 05: Netflix agreed to buy the film and streaming businesses of Warner Bros Discovery for $72 billion.

Dec. 05: The Trump administration released a new National Security Strategy (NSS).

Dec. 05: Israel's cabinet approved an allocation of $35 billion for defence in the budget for 2026.

Dec. 05: President Trump became the first-ever recipient of FIFA's new peace prize.

Dec. 05: The European Commission imposed a 120 million euro penalty on Elon Musk's X for breaching European Union online content rules.

Dec. 05: Canada-born US architect Frank Gehry, whose daring and whimsical designs from the Guggenheim Bilbao to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles captivated fans and critics, died. He was 96.

Dec. 06: Australia imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on four officials in Afghanistan's Taliban government.

Dec. 07: Celebrated British documentary photographer Martin Parr died. He was 73.

Dec. 08: The United States, Israel and Qatar held a trilateral meeting in New York

Dec. 09: Novelist Elif Shafak was elected president of Britain's Royal Society of Literature.

Dec. 09: Australia banned young teenagers from social media, launching a world-first crackdown designed to unglue children from addictive scrolling.

Dec. 09: Lionel Messi won his second consecutive Major League Soccer Most Valuable Player award.

Dec. 10: Amazon and Microsoft announced a combined $52.5bn investment plan for India over the coming years.

Dec. 11: Time magazine named the “Architects of AI” as its Person of the Year, highlighting the US tech titans whose work on cutting-edge artificial intelligence is transforming humanity.

Dec. 12: Bestselling author Joanna Trollope renowned for her so-called Aga Sagas died at the age of 82.

Dec. 12: Barham Salih, a former Iraqi president, was appointed the next UN High Commissioner for Refugees, breaking the tradition of selecting leaders mainly from major European donor nations.

Dec. 12: Mohammed Ben Sulayem was re-elected as president of motorsport's governing body. the International Automobile Federation.

Dec. 12: The EU agreed to indefinitely freeze Russian central bank assets held in Europe. A first big step is to immobilize 210 billion euros ($246 billion) worth of Russian sovereign assets for as long as needed instead of voting every six months on extending the asset freeze.

Dec. 14: Sixteen people were killed and at least 40 others injured in a shooting at a Jewish festival celebration at Australia's Bondi Beach.

Dec. 14: Hong Kong's oldest pro-democracy party – The Democratic Party, which was founded in 1994 – decided to disband.

Dec. 15: Appeals judges at the ICC rejected one in a series of legal challenges brought by Israel against the court's probe into its conduct of the Gaza war.

Saarc at 40

In 1985, the leaders of seven South Asian states came together in Dhaka to sign the Charter of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. But 40 years later, Saarc remains an unfulfilled dream, marked more by lost potential than any significant achievement in improving regional integration.

What could have been an EU or Asean-like grouping has largely failed to deliver on its promise of promoting the 'welfare of the peoples of South Asia'. The Pakistan-India rivalry has been and remains the biggest obstacle in transforming Saarc into a dynamic regional body. This has been the case despite the Saarc Charter clearly stating that 'bilateral and contentious issues shall be excluded'.

At one time, hawks in Pakistan vetoed moves to improve ties with India. For the past many years, it has been India which has blocked all attempts to break the ice with Pakistan. Indian influence to isolate Pakistan has resulted in the paralysis of Saarc. For example, the last Saarc summit was held in Kathmandu in 2014. The 2016 summit in Islamabad was 'indefinitely postponed' after India engineered a boycott of the event, along with a few other members. No multilateral body can function when one or more members seek to assert their hegemony over smaller states, or attempt to isolate other members. And with the Pakistan-India relationship at a historic low, any revival of Saarc at this point seems remote.

So, should Saarc's requiem be written? Should South Asian states look at other formations SCO, BRICS, etc. to enhance trade and connectivity, as well as improve bilateral ties? Arguably, while bilateral relations should be pursued, and other multilateral partnerships explored further, the South Asian dream of harmony and peace should not be buried in such haste. Without intraregional trade, countries in close proximity cannot prosper.

Perhaps another attempt can be made to revive Saarc, so that while respecting each state's sovereignty a regional community can be built around the principles of trade, peace and people-to-people contacts. But for this, India must stop behaving like a hegemon, and especially shed its animosity towards Pakistan.

International Fund for Agricultural Development

Headquartered in Rome, Italy, IFAD functions as a UN specialized agency established in 1977 to combat rural poverty in developing nations through targeted financing.

IFAD provides concessional loans, grants and technical assistance primarily to smallholder farmers, pastoralists and rural entrepreneurs, emphasizing agriculture, climate resilience, value-chain development and livelihood diversification.

Thailand-Cambodia Conflict

The conflict centers on a long-standing territorial dispute dating back to colonial-era border demarcations made by France in 1907.

At the heart of the dispute is the Preah Vihear temple, a culturally significant 11th–12th century Khmer shrine claimed by both countries.

Though the International Court of Justice affirmed Cambodian sovereignty in 1962 and again in 2013, Thailand has rejected the rulings, and the area remains heavily militarized.