Daily News Brief

April 24, 2025

Welcome to CFR’s Daily News Brief. Today we’re covering how killings in Kashmir are affecting India-Pakistan relations, as well as...

• EU antitrust fines for Apple and Meta

• A climate strategy meeting without Washington

• A truce announcement in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Top of the Agenda

India and Pakistan downgraded ties after India blamed Pakistan for the killings of twenty-six people in Kashmir. The events threaten a sharp escalation between the two nuclear-armed neighbors that have fought three wars over the contested region. 

The latest. New Delhi was the first to announce punitive measures. India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri said the attack had “cross-border” links to Pakistan, and Indian police said they believed Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible. Media outlets were not immediately able to independently verify responsibility. Pakistan responded with countermeasures today, calling India’s blame “frivolous [and] devoid of rationality.” 

• India will bar Pakistanis from visa-free travel to the country, shut a bilateral border crossing, suspend a binational water supply treaty, and withdraw Indian military advisors from Pakistan, Misri said. 
• Pakistan will close its airspace for Indian owned or operated airlines, declare Indian military advisors in Pakistan persona non grata, suspend bilateral trade and visa-free travel, and close its side of a border post, the prime minister’s office said.
• Indian police released sketches of three people suspected of involvement in the attack, saying two are Pakistani nationals and one is a Kashmir resident.

The context. 

• India and Pakistan each claim Kashmir but administer only parts of it. In 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi moved to strip Indian-administered Kashmir of its partial autonomy and put it under tight government control, arguing it would make the region safer from extremism. 
• The two countries established a truce in 2021 following the most recent period of open hostilities.
• While Pakistan-based groups have carried out some extremist attacks in India—Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed more than 160 people—Kashmiri separatist groups have also fought in the region for decades. Rights groups, meanwhile, have accused India of arbitrary detentions and other violations against Kashmir’s Muslim population.

“A destabilized Pakistan creates the risk for further proliferation of militant groups in the region and a greater risk of them holding territory and developing the capabilities to launch international terrorist attacks. Though the collapse of the Pakistani state remains unlikely, its nuclear arsenal remains vulnerable to attack or theft by nonstate actors, a major concern for U.S. and Indian policymakers.”

—CFR’s Global Conflict Tracker

International Economics With Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

U.S. tariffs have exacerbated uncertainty about World Trade Organization standards. Yesterday, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala discussed the organization’s future in the international system as part of CFR’s C. Peter McColough Series on International Economics.  

DRC truce announcement. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government and M23 rebel fighters agreed to an “immediate” ceasefire following negotiations in Qatar, the two sides said yesterday. They pledged to work toward a more permanent truce. An M23 offensive since January has killed thousands of civilians and taken two of eastern DRC’s largest cities. More than six ceasefires have been announced and collapsed since 2021.

U.S.-Ukraine tensions over Crimea. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko both called yesterday for Russia to accept a full ceasefire ahead of further negotiations to end the war. Zelenskyy also pushed back against a reported U.S. proposal for Washington to recognize Crimea as Russian as part of a peace settlement. U.S. President Donald Trump posted that “nobody is asking” for Ukraine to recognize Crimea as Russian territory.

Climate strategy meeting. Brazilian diplomats and UN officials urged heads of state to file new emissions reduction plans by September on a closed virtual call yesterday. China and several European countries missed the original deadline in February. The call also included heads of small island states, and discussed strategies ahead of November’s UN climate summit in Brazil. The United States was not invited, as Trump in January announced plans to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

U.S. call for IMF, World Bank changes. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to limit their missions yesterday, saying the IMF “devotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender, and social issues” and that the World Bank should return to its “core mission.” Washington is the largest shareholder at both institutions.

Abbas’s appeal on Gaza governance. Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas called for Hamas to lay down its weapons and put Gaza under PA administration at a leadership conference yesterday. He has made the appeal for unified leadership in the past but not since the current war with Israel began. Abbas is expected to name a successor in the coming days amid international pressure to reform the PA and equip it to play a larger role in Gaza’s governance.

European Union (EU) fines Apple, Meta. The European Commission fined Apple more than $560 million and Meta over $220 million after finding them in violation of its Digital Markets Act. It called for changes regarding app purchases and data tracking, respectively, but it stopped short of the largest fines possible under the law. 

Deportees in Costa Rica. Costa Rica granted temporary legal status to eighty-five non-Costa Rican migrants deported to the country by the United States in February. Costa Rica originally planned to repatriate the people within weeks, but some migrants rejected repatriation. Human rights lawyers recently sued the Costa Rican government for keeping migrant children detained in a rural camp for nearly two months. The country’s immigration director said the latest action was designed not to “force” people to return to their countries of origin.

Details on Iran talks. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview released yesterday that if Iran wants a civilian nuclear program, it should import enriched uranium rather than be allowed to enrich it domestically. Also yesterday, the UN nuclear chief said Tehran agreed to allow a UN team to visit soon to discuss the return of surveillance cameras at nuclear sites.

Hostilities in Eastern Congo

The current fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo dates back over thirty years, the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Mvemba Dizolele tells The President’s Inbox.

• Today, South Korea’s finance minister Choi Sang-mok meets with Bessent.

• Tomorrow, the UN Security Council discusses Syria.

• Tomorrow, Thailand’s king makes a state visit to Bhutan.

Tracing Conflict Between India and Pakistan

Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Decades of tensions between the two countries since the 1947 Partition of British India have simmered, and often boiled over. Trace both historic and recent developments with the CFR Center for Preventive Action’s Global Conflict Tracker. 

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