Category World News

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – When cricketers from India and Pakistan step onto the field for their Asia Cup 2025 match on Sunday, a lot more than two points will be on the line, according to cricket fans and experts.

The match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium will be played under the cloud of lingering hostility after their intense four-day conflict in May.

While an all-out war between the two cross-border nations was prevented after an internationally brokered ceasefire, a sense of bitterness remains.

“People in India have been very angry about the match ever since this fixture was confirmed,” Kudip Lal, an Indian cricket writer, told Al Jazeera.

“They feel that it’s not right to play this match while the overall relationship between both countries is so strained,” he explained.

“It’s the worst time for an India-Pakistan match.”

‘Why play cricket in the aftermath of war?’

Lal said that fans in India see the fixture as a money-making avenue for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), whom they blame for trying to cash in on the profit generated by these high-profile clashes.

Lal believes the BCCI, widely regarded as the most wealthy and powerful cricket board in the world, could have “easily skipped” the match.

“If the Indian government has stopped issuing visas to Pakistanis, if the diplomatic ties are suspended and Pakistanis visiting India have been sent back, then why have the cricketers been asked to play this match in the aftermath of a war?” Lal questioned.

He expressed fears of a backlash in case India lose the Group A fixture.

Whenever India and Pakistan play, emotions run high and a loss is not taken well by fans on either side of the border.

In the past decades, players’ homes have been torched, their family members have been threatened, and effigy-burning protests have been carried out on the streets.

The current political climate between India and Pakistan is worse than it has been in several decades.

Shared laughs and ‘bromance’ of the past

Despite the political deadlock between the nuclear-armed neighbours, the recent on-and-off-field exchanges between players have been fairly cheerful.

When India last played Pakistan in the Asia Cup in September 2023, the two key talking points were Virat Kohli’s utter dominance of Pakistani bowlers and the countless feel-good moments shared between both teams.

The match was played in the middle of the monsoon season in Sri Lanka, where fans cheered for both teams regardless of their allegiances and danced away their worries during the countless rain delays.

Pakistani fans were seen declaring their nation’s love for Kohli, and the festive atmosphere spilled over onto the pitch.

There were memorable player-to-player exchanges that were plucked right out of a social media manager’s dream.

Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi swapped his on-field aggression for off-field warmth as he handed India’s Jasprit Bumrah a gift hamper for his newborn son. Cue millions of retweets and shares on X and Instagram.

Social media was also flooded with reels highlighting the “bromance” between Kohli and Pakistan allrounder Shadab Khan.

This time, however, experts do not foresee similar public displays of goodwill and friendliness.

“The friendship and warmth seen in the past will not be on display because anything can be blown out of proportion by impassioned fans, and the smallest move can agitate the public,” Sami Ul Hasan, former head of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) media and communications department, said ahead of the match.

When Pakistan beat India by 10 wickets at the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan were warmly embraced by Kohli, and all three shared a hearty laugh while walking off the pitch.

“We can’t expect similar scenes to unfold on Sunday,” Hasan said.

“The interpretation and optics of an overtly friendly encounter could go very wrong, and things could blow up on either side of the border.”

Mixing cricket with politics

Hasan, who has worked with cricketers and cricket officials, said the players will attempt to bat away political questions by saying they are not meant to deal with political matters.

“Sports and politics can never be separated, but athletes aren’t politicians, so they can’t be expected to act like diplomats.”

Despite the heated atmosphere and tense build-up to the fixture, some fans believe the match can still be seen as just another India-Pakistan match.

“Politics shouldn’t be mixed with cricket, which has always helped ease the tensions, so why should it be used as an avenue to propagate politics?” Asad Khan, a Pakistani fan, said.

“When you bring political agendas into cricket, it ruins the game and causes unnecessary stress for the players.”

Khan urged fans to put aside the politically and religiously motivated chants at cricket stadiums and instead enjoy a now-rare India-Pakistan match.

Given the years-long halt in bilateral cricket series between India and Pakistan, their fixtures are limited to multination tournaments.

Cricket fans are hopeful that both teams will not give in to the politically-charged atmosphere and help lighten the mood.

“The players should do their jobs as cricketers and the fans should treat it as just another game,” Ali, a Pakistan fan, said, told Al Jazeera in Dubai.

“Why must the cricketers worry about what happened on the border four months ago,” Ali

But cricket expert Lal believes otherwise.

“When the two teams enter the field on Sunday, they can’t be expected to be completely detached from the conflict. It will play on their minds.”

A hot and humid September evening in Dubai cannot be blamed solely for turning the “Ring of Fire” stadium into a cauldron.

Come Sunday, the latest chapter in a decades-long bitter rivalry will have the players and fans on the edge.

The United Nations General Assembly has endorsed a resolution reviving a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. It also calls for Hamas to end its rule in Gaza. Israel and the United States were among the 10 members who voted against it.

New York, USA – Next week, the United States Federal Reserve will hold a two-day policy meeting to decide whether to lower interest rates.

The meeting follows a months-long pause in rates and comes amid heightened pressure on the central bank.

US President Donald Trump recently dismissed Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook on allegations of mortgage fraud, which she is contesting in court, and has escalated his loud and repeated criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

The Fed, which emphasises its independence from political influence, will weigh new economic data as it considers its next move. The benchmark interest rate has remained at 4.25 percent – 4.50 percent since December.

So far, the Fed has held rates steady, saying the stance preserves flexibility to respond to economic shocks tied to shifting trade policy. But many economists now believe a rate cut is imminent.

They point to signs of a cooling labour market and tariff-related pressure on inflation as factors that could support lowering rates, not political pressure.

“I think that the Fed has made it pretty clear that they’re going to cut rates in September, and the market certainly expects that,” Daniel Hornung, policy fellow at Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research and former deputy director of the National Economic Council, told Al Jazeera.

CME FedWatch, which tracks the probability of Fed policy moves, puts the likelihood of a quarter of one percentage point cut at 94.5 percent, echoing research from JPMorgan last month.

“For Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the risk management considerations may go beyond balancing employment and inflation risks, and we now see the path of least resistance is to pull forward the next cut of 25 basis points to the September meeting,” Michael Feroli, chief US economist at JP Morgan, said at the time.

Prices jump

Consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in August from the previous month, the sharpest increase in seven months, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI) report released on Thursday.

The gain followed a 0.2 percent rise in July. Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast a 0.3 percent monthly increase in core CPI.

Energy costs climbed 0.7 percent, fueled by a 1.9 percent jump in gasoline. Airfares climbed 5.9 percent, apparel prices rose 0.5 percent, shelter increased 0.4 percent, grocery prices were up 0.6 percent, and restaurant meals rose 0.3 percent.

Some goods saw particularly steep increases. Coffee prices jumped 3.6 percent on the month as Brazil, the world’s top coffee exporter, redirected shipments away from the US following new tariffs.

The Producer Price Index (PPI), which tracks prices businesses receive for goods and services, showed coffee up nearly 7 percent from July and more than 33 percent over the past year.

There is a comparable phenomenon with beef, for which the US relies heavily on Brazil.  CPI data showed a 2.7 percent increase, while the PPI measured a 6 percent monthly rise and a 21 percent yearly increase.

Overall, the PPI slipped 0.1 percent, suggesting some businesses are absorbing tariff costs rather than passing them to consumers. Service prices fell 1.7 percent, driven by a 3.9 percent decline in margins for machinery and vehicle wholesalers, which offset a 0.1 percent increase in goods prices. That came after wholesale inflation was revised higher to 0.7 percent in July, which was well above economists’ forecasts.

Even so, companies are beginning to warn that they cannot continue absorbing higher costs. In recent weeks, Campbell’s Co, which makes Campbell’s Soup and Goldfish crackers, and Procter & Gamble have both said they plan to raise prices on consumer goods in the months ahead as tariff pressures persist.

Labour market tumbles

The US labour market, a key factor in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions, has cooled sharply.

Approximately 263,000 people submitted initial jobless claims last week, the most in four years, Department of Labor data released on Thursday showed.

On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised down job gains over the past few months, as well as between April 2024 and March 2025, when the US economy added 911,000 fewer jobs than had been previously reported.

All of that is echoed by poor jobs numbers last week. In August, the economy added only 22,000 jobs, with gains concentrated in healthcare (which added 31,000 jobs) and social assistance (which added 16,000). The unemployment rate climbed to 4.3 percent, the Labor Department reported.

Revisions showed July job growth slightly stronger at 79,000, up from 73,000, while June was cut from a modest gain to a loss of 13,000.

“The recent job numbers were really, especially the revision of the earlier numbers, were really kind of problematic for the economy,” Michael Klein, professor of International Economic Affairs at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, told Al Jazeera.

Job openings and turnover also declined, leaving more unemployed workers than available positions for the first time since April 2021.

A report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas highlighted the strain, noting a 39 percent jump in job cuts between July and August. Private payroll growth slowed as well, according to the ADP National Employment Report, which showed just 54,000 jobs added, down from 106,000 the prior month.

Competing forces

Typically, high inflation prompts higher interest rates, which discourage borrowing and spending and help rein in prices.

“The Fed is in a very difficult position right now because there is both a weakening labour market and evidence of higher inflation. Typically, if the Fed is facing a weaker labour market, it would want to lower interest rates. And if it’s facing higher inflation, it would want to raise interest rates. But we’re in a situation now where there are countervailing forces,” Klein said.

The labour market is already weighing on consumer spending. Rising layoffs and slower hiring have made shoppers cautious, and the latest consumer confidence index shows plans to buy big-ticket and discretionary items are slipping.

With Trump’s shifting tariffs and hardline immigration policies, businesses are stuck in a “wait-and-see” mode, increasing uncertainty.