From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Thursday, May eighth, twenty twenty five. Unions are threatening to strike on Australia's biggest renewable energy project, snowy two point zero workers, some of whom earn over two hundred thousand dollars, want pay rises, productivity bonuses and better entitlements.
A ban on smacking is being urged on the Queensland government, with a group of academics saying it's a breach of human rights and leaves children with fewer protections than dogs. The change wouldn't affect most Queenslanders, but would mean removing a defense of reasonable punishment for alleged offenders charged with assaulting children. Those two exclusives are live at the Australian dot com dot a U right now. Insanely beautiful and
dangerous as hell. Kashmir is one of the world's most hotly disputed pieces of territory, the mountain state of India, which Pakistan believes it should control now. In response to what it says is Pakistani terrorism, India has launched missiles and Pakistan has responded with artillery fire. Dozens of civilians are reported dead. So is this just another skirmish or a new war? For us all to get our heads around Today, Foreign editor Greg Sheridan breaks it down. Greg,
I've just been looking at some pictures of Kashmir. It looks like Middle Earth or Switzerland, doesn't it It does.
I've spent some time in Kashmir and it is really one of the most beautiful places on Earth. The lake is magnificent, dotted with these lovely antique house boats. The town Shrinegar is full of magnificent little markets and shops of local produce and so forth. The Indians have preserved the best of the British colonial architecture, so you go for morning tea and some grand old building. And the Indians have a genius for drawing out the nostalgia of
the Raj without submitting to its politics. And if it weren't for the endless terrorism and disputes, it would be flooded with tourists always because there's magnificent countryside and wildlife reserves and so on. That's next time you're in Kashmir, don't miss this place. It still gets a lot of tourists anyway. The minute there's a bit of peace, they get a lot of tourists from the rest of India and two minutes of peace. This brings a lot of
tourists from the rest of the world. Tonight, India says it has targeted nine sites quote it's in terrorist infrastructure. The new video explosions can be seen and heard. Pakistani officials say at least one child is dead and two people are injured after India struck parts of Pakistan and Pakistan controlled Kashmir.
India has launched missile strikes against Pakistan tonight in an apparent response to a deadly terrorist attack in Indian Administered Kashmir two weeks ago. So why is Kashmir at the center of a dispute between India and Pakistan which has resulted in the past forty eight hours in India launching air strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan Administered Kashmir.
The state of Kashmir, Kashmir and Jamu as it's called, is the only Muslim majority state within India and the dispute goes back to the partition between India and Pakistan and nineteen forty seven when there was the most terrible inter communal massacres. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs were all massacred in huge numbers in the breakup of Pakistan and India, and there was a massive population transfer between the two states,
and Kashmir went with India and became part of India. Now, India has always been a secular democracy and in a sense it's quite proud of having a Muslim majority state. Pakistan has never accepted the legitimacy of Indian rule of Kashmir, and Pakistan has continued to sponsor a really futile, needless, destructive and violent campaign of terrorism within Kashmir, and that, of course has often led to pretty severe overreaction from
Indian security forces. So there's been a lot of nasty violence in what should be almost the garden of Eden.
The latest version of that was on the twenty second of April, when twenty six people, mostly tourists, were killed in a resort town called Pahalgan. Indian Prime Minister or and Ramodi said at the time that India would pursue the attackers to the ends of the earth. Clearly India
blamed Pakistan, although Pakistan denied responsibility. And now we're seeing the result what's the truth there greg about whether or not Pakistan is actually perpetrating acts of terror against civilians in these places.
So Claire, I have no independent way of verifying Pakistani involvement in that particular terrorist attack, but there's no doubt at all. Pakistan sponsors are a great range of terrorist groups within Kashmir. And it does that for several different reasons. One is that it will never give up its claim to Kashmir, a little bit like China with Taiwan. This is rooted in the nationalist myth of Pakistan. Another is that it has a tremendous inferiority complex towards India. India
is much bigger, much more successful. India is now a global dynamic power, a global dynamic economy. Pakistan is really a very unsuccessful state. But then there are darkomotives as well. Pakistan is challenged internally by Islamists extremism and by jihadism, and one of the ways it deals with that, one of the ways it sort of copes with that is to try to redirect that chie hardest energy at external enemies.
So it did this for a time in relation to Afghanistan, and it has always done it in relation to India. So it's sub rosa dialogue with its own extremists. So to speak, is to say that you might not think where Islamist enough, But by golli, we are supporting our brothers in Kashmir against those perfidious Hindu in lopers from India. The reality is India will never ever give up Kashmir. That's inconceivable. The Indian state would have to be liquidated
before it would give up Kashmir. So to continue to support terrorism is utterly futile and nihilist. This is a very dangerous situation, extremely dangerous. But up until now, India and Pakistan have shown a lot of expertise in going so far, but not further.
Now, how does the rest of the world line up? Greg China is interested in this region. In fact, China and India ford war over a different part of Kashmir in the past. Does China have skin in this particular game?
Not really. China has its own bit of Kashmir, which it's not going to give back to anybody, certainly not to Pakistan or anyone like that, and it has other territorial claims against India. China is a strategic backer of Pakistan. I mean, Pakistan really got its nuclear weapons capability ultimately from Chinese sources, and that was done by the Chinese in order to hurt India. China and India are strategic rivals. But China at the moment is completely preoccupied with Donald
Trump's economic challenge. But I think China wants the situation to de escalate. There's nothing in it for China to have an escalation of this situation. Similarly, America certainly wants a de escalation. The United States is certainly not going to back anybody with military force anywhere in the world, it seems, and I think the outside world will just be urging restraint and de escalation on both parties.
Coming up. Could this turn into nuclear war? Is this a potential nuclear war of the future.
Well, every situation that involves nuclear armed states is a potential nuclear war. This is a very tense border. One of the big questions of our time is whether the extended US nuclear deterrent will apply during President Trump and
after President Trump. One reason the world has been able to contain the spread of nuclear weapons is that all American allies shelter under extended American nuclear deterrance, which means that I don't need nuclear weapons of their own because the nuclear attacks on them are deterred by America's power
to respond. That doesn't apply in India and Pakistan. But India and Pakistan are a good example of where the world would be if we didn't have extended American nuclear deterrans because many more nations would feel that their security compel them to have new clear weapons. If the American Alliance system breaks down, you're going to have India Pakistan
replicated all over the world. Half the Gulf States who feel under threat from Iran would feel they need to have their nuclear weapons if Iran has nuclear weapons, and so on. The nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would devastate the whole planet. It wouldn't just be a regional matter. But neither nation would want it. I mean, both India and Pakistan are still very poor nations, and not only would they not want a nuclear exchange, they would regard
a nuclear exchange as absolutely devastating, almost armageddon. Therefore, I think a nuclear exchange is extremely unlikely, but I don't want to suggest from that that we should be complacent about a shooting war between two nuclear armed rivals. With deep enmities and a long history of military conflict across their borders.
Greg Sheridan is The Australian's Foreign editor and our go to expert whenever the world starts looking complicated. You can read his analysis and reporting anytime by joining our subscribers at the Australian dot com dot au