theSIGNAL NEWS
11 September 2026
"Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way."
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World

Putin Lands in Delhi as BRICS Summit Opens

Russia's president touches down in New Delhi as an expanded, fractious BRICS prepares for its most diplomatically charged summit yet.

Vladimir Putin stepped off his plane at Palam Air Force Station in New Delhi on Friday, greeted by India's junior foreign minister Kirti Vardhan Singh. The footage, broadcast by Russia's RIA Novosti agency, captured something remarkable: a head of state under an International Criminal Court arrest warrant being welcomed in a country that has refused to take sides in any of the world's sharpest conflicts. The two-day, 11-member BRICS summit is now under way. The gathering is already straining under the weight of its own ambitions.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's arrival marks his first visit to India since 2019 — and the most significant step yet in a cautious diplomatic thaw after a 2020 Himalayan border clash that killed soldiers on both sides. Flights, visas and high-level contacts have been quietly restored in recent months, but deep mistrust over a disputed frontier, a widening trade deficit, and strategic rivalry continues to simmer. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is also due to hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, placing the war in the Middle East squarely on the agenda. That war is now the summit's defining fault line.

"The Gulf conflict is going to be the central fault line this time during the BRICS summit," said Harsh V. Pant of India's Observer Research Foundation. BRICS expanded in 2024 to include Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — three countries with sharply opposing positions on the fighting that has engulfed the region since February. What was celebrated as a diplomatic triumph now looks, to some analysts, like a structural trap.

Photo: Christian Lendl / Unsplash
Indian security forces line a New Delhi boulevard ahead of the high-stakes BRICS leaders' summit.
🏔️
6 years
Since Xi's last visit to India
Discuss
  • Why might India's neutral foreign policy make it an attractive host for rival world leaders?
  • What does Xi Jinping's first visit to India in six years signal about China-India relations?
World

Israel blows up Hezbollah's tunnels beneath Lebanon ridge

A 4.1-magnitude tremor shook southern Lebanon on Thursday evening — not an earthquake, but Israel destroying a sprawling Hezbollah tunnel network under the Ali al-Taher ridge in Nabatieh. Resident Joelle Fares told AFP: "We were sitting there and everything shook." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz called it "strategic terrorist infrastructure built over two decades with Iranian funding." The army says the tunnels stretched more than two kilometres and held dozens of Iranian-made rockets, missiles, drones, anti-tank weapons, and hundreds of mines — plus a Hezbollah command centre. Washington had proposed during ceasefire talks that Lebanon's army take control of the ridge. Hezbollah refused.…
  • Should foreign-backed militant infrastructure change how we define acts of war?
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What was seen until last year as an achievement — the expansion of BRICS — today looks like a big constraint on BRICS.
Harsh V. Pant, Observer Research Foundation, India
World

Asia caught between US and China tech race

Washington and Beijing are both dangling technology deals across Asia — but the price tag is rarely printed on the label. Fibre cables, 5G towers, and AI platforms arrive as gifts. They leave as leverage. Nations from the Philippines to Pakistan are finding that accepting infrastructure often means accepting terms. The real negotiation is not about hardware. It is about who controls the data, sets the standards, and calls in the favour when it matters most.…
  • Should countries reject foreign tech deals that come with political conditions attached?
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theSIGNAL IN THE LAB
IVOCABULARY
fault linesimmer
leveragethawcordons
sprawlingbilateral
IIGRAMMAR FOCUS
Subjunctive mood
The subjunctive mood uses the base form of the verb (without 's' or 'to') after expressions like 'it is essential/vital/recommended that' and verbs like 'suggest', 'insist', 'demand', and 'propose'. It applies to all subjects, including he, she, and it.
be · withdraw · hold · take · remain · cease · address
  1. Analysts suggest that the BRICS summit a dedicated session on the Gulf conflict before divisions deepen further.
  2. It is essential that Lebanon's army control of the Ali al-Taher ridge, according to Washington's ceasefire proposal.
  3. India's government has insisted that every rival nation at the same table during the New Delhi summit.
  4. Washington proposed during talks that Hezbollah its military operations in the Nabatieh region.
  5. It is vital that Asian governments fully aware of the hidden costs attached to foreign technology partnerships.
  6. Critics demand that BRICS leaders the structural tensions created by the bloc's 2024 expansion.
IIIIDIOMS
Define each idiom in your own words. Then write one in a sentence of your own.
  1. to take sides (Article 1: 'a country that has refused to take sides in any of the world's sharpest conflicts')
  2. to simmer (Article 1: 'deep mistrust… continues to simmer')
  3. a fault line (Article 1: 'the summit's defining fault line')
  4. a structural trap (Article 1: 'now looks, to some analysts, like a structural trap')
  5. to sit at the same table (Article 1: 'every rival will still sit at the same table')
IVCRITICAL THINKING
The BRICS summit coverage raises a deeper question about the nature of diplomatic neutrality itself: when a host nation benefits economically and politically from welcoming sanctioned leaders and rival powers alike, can its neutrality still be considered principled — or has it simply become a profitable position? At what point does strategic ambiguity shade into moral indifference?
VCREATIVE · HEADLINES
Write a headline for the top story in each of the following styles. One line each, no explanation:
  • TABLOID NEWSPAPER
  • LUXURY MAGAZINE
  • ACTIVIST BLOG
VIWRITING
The three articles together suggest that global power is increasingly exercised not through military force but through infrastructure, institutions, and invitation lists. Choose one specific example from the articles and argue whether this 'soft' form of power is ultimately more or less dangerous than traditional hard power.
VIIDEGREES OF EXTREMITY
Complete each ladder from mild to strong.
  • cool→→
  • disagreement→→
  • cautious→→
  • restore→→
  • concern→→
  • influence→→
VIIISPEAKING
  1. Can a summit succeed when its members share no common values?
  2. Who ultimately wins when infrastructure becomes geopolitical leverage?
  3. Does BRICS expansion make the bloc more powerful or more paralysed?
  4. What obligations does a host country take on by welcoming sanctioned leaders?