6. Open market set to remove cap on dollar rate from today
• For the first time in the country`s history, exchange companies have said there are removing a self imposed cap on the selling and buying of dollars in the open market from Wednesday (today) a system they said has created a black market offering better returns, stifled inflows from official channels and reduced remittances sent by Pakistanis working abroad.
• The announcement was made after a detailed meeting of exchange companies from across the country on Tuesday.
• Their representatives will also meet top officials of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) the regulator of the exchange companies in the morning today to discuss the matter
7. Germany agrees to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to send Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine and allow other countries such as Poland to do so while the United States may supply Abrams tanks, two sources familiar with the matter said.
• The decision concerns at least one company of Leopard 2 A6 tanks that will be provided out of Bundeswehr stocks, said Spiegel magazine, which first reported the news.
• One company usually comprises 14 tanks. `Today the (German) Chancellor made a decision that no one took lightly. The fact that Germany will support Ukraine with the Leopard tank is a strong sign of solidarity,` Christian Duerr, parliamentary leader of the co-governing Free Democrats (FDP), was quoted as saying by t-online news portal
8. Turkiye postpones Nato talks with Sweden, Finland
• Turkiye on January 25, 2023 postponed Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland, further denting the Nordic neighbours` hopes of joining the Western defence alliance after Russia`s invasion of Ukraine.
• A Turkish diplomatic source said the tri-party meeting has been pushed back from February to a `later date`, without providing further details.
• The decision further diminished the chances of the two countries joining Nato before Turlciye`s May presidential and parliamentary elections
9. Moscow`s new military plan responds to Nato expansion
• The newly appointed general in charge of Russia`s military operations in Ukraine has said Russia`s new military reforms respond to possible Nato expansion and the use of Kyiv by the `collective West` to wage a hybrid war against Russia.
• Valery Gerasimov, in his first public comments since his Jan 11 appointment to the role, admitted to problems with the mobilisation of troops, after public criticism forced President Vladimir Putin to reprimand the military.
• The military reforms, announced mid-January, have been approved by Putin and can be adjusted to respond to threats to Russia`s security, Gerasimov told a news website, Argumenty-i-Fakty, in remarks published late Monday
10. US `prevented` South Asia nuclear war in 2019, claims Pompeo
• Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has revealed that India and Pakistan came close to nuclear war in 2019 following the Balakot airstrike, and that US intervention helped prevent an escalation, the Press Trust of India and AFP reported.
• In Feb 2019, India launched airstrikes inside Pakistani territory after blaming a militant group for a suicide bombing that killed 41 paramilitary soldiers in Indian held Kashmir. Pakistan then shot down an Indian warplane, capturing the pilot.
• `I do not think the world properly knows just how close the India-Pakistan rivalry came to spilling over into a nuclear conflagration in February 2019,` Mr Pompeio wrote in Never Give an Inch, the memoir of his time as Donald Trump`s top diplomat and earlier CIA chief
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