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Good evening, Over a month after the dastardly terror attack, starting today, the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) cabinet and the state’s top civil and police officers will convene at a resort in Pahalgam. According to Nasir Aslam Wani, an advisor to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the move has twin objectives: one is to go to “these far-off places and get first-hand information from the ground,” and the other is to instil confidence in light of what happened there on April 22. CM Abdullah is expected to attend the meeting, and Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo will also be present. The meetings, which will also occur in Gulmarg, come when tourism in the Valley has taken a serious turn for the worse, “with stakeholders in the sector saying 90% of bookings have been cancelled.” The hope is that these meetings will reinforce the confidence of tourism players and tourists to return to the Valley. On that note, let’s dive in 👇🏽
📝 The Debrief
Breaking down Pakistan’s sudden crypto push
Over the weekend, a curious report surfaced in most global news wires. Reuters reported that Pakistan’s Finance Ministry had approved an allocation of 2000 megawatts (MW) “in the first phase of a national initiative to power bitcoin mining and AI data centres.” The “initiative” was to be led by the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC). This two-month-old body has sought to project the country as a leading cryptocurrency destination in South Asia, potentially rivalling a global crypto hub in Dubai. But why is the country, which was among the earliest to regulate crypto (and ban it) in 2018, making a volte-face and going all-in? The positioning: When the PCC’s formation was first announced, Bilal bin Saqib, the government-backed body’s CEO, positioned it as a move to attract international investment. He stated Pakistan’s youthful demographic—60% of people under 30—as a case for embracing new technologies. It also has a high crypto adoption rate, ninth in the world per Chainalysis, with over 25 million active users. To this end, it appointed Binance CEO Zhao Chengpeng as a strategic advisor to the PCC, besides recently naming Saqib as a “Special Assistant for Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Affairs” with a Minister of State rank. Hello, Trump: With Pakistan virtually out of US President Donald Trump’s orbit during his first administration, it is now desperately seeking inclusion. Trump’s change of heart on cryptocurrency, to the extent where he and those around him are obsessed with it, gives Pakistan more than an opening. Late last month, World Liberty Financial, a US-based cryptocurrency firm owned mainly by the Trump family, signed a deal with the PCC to promote blockchain adoption in Pakistan. Trump's sons, including Donald Trump Jr., Eric, and Barron, are among its key players. It also includes Zach Witkoff, the son of Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East. Notably, Witkoff was among the World Liberty delegates who met Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and now Field Marshal Asim Munir during the trip. (Sidebar: This is an excellent New York Times deep dive on the shadowy company.) Terror workaround?: While economics and geopolitics might sound like legit reasons to embrace crypto, Pakistan’s chequered past (and present) with global terror outfits makes you pause and ask: Is crypto a possible workaround to finance these groups? The Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), a terror group backed by Pakistan’s notorious spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has used the privacy-focused coin Monero to raise money and move funds. Ditto for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is now fighting against Pakistan’s armed forces. This is important because the global money laundering and terror financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has repeatedly warned Pakistan against legalising crypto to avoid its grey list.
✍️ From our newsroom
Behind Mumbai’s May-hem: My hometown, Mumbai, just broke a century-old record—monsoon arrived two weeks early on May 26, the earliest since the IMD began tracking in 1950, beating the previous May 29 onset. As my colleague Nayonika Bose explains, this unusual timing was likely driven by a hyperactive Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), a strong cross-equatorial moisture surge, and a low-pressure zone over the Arabian Sea. The result? Mumbai’s wettest May in 107 years, where Colaba logged 295 mm, toppling the 1918 record, while Santacruz saw its rainiest May since 2021. The city also skipped its usual heatwave and woke up to a May 8 morning chill of 22.2°C, the coldest in over 70 years. With the IMD forecasting an “above normal” monsoon for India, Mumbai’s dramatic start could just be a soggy opening act.
🔎 Need to know
Et tu, Bengaluru: Building on the previous section, Bengaluru also recorded its wettest May, with a cumulative rainfall of 307.9 mm until Monday morning. The city broke its May 2023 record of 305.4 mm.
Attend, or else: The United States government notified international students on Tuesday that their visas may be revoked if they “skip classes, drop out, or leave a program of study without informing.” Served: The Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre and states on a petition challenging the Waqf Act, 1995. While hearing writ petitions challenging the Waqf Act, 2025, the court asked why the 1995 Act is being challenged now.
🎙️Expresso Playlist!
In today’s Playlist, I’ll recommend an intriguing episode from A Twist of History, a new podcast I discovered over the weekend. The episode details a murder in 1910, a transatlantic search for the culprit, and how it triggered a cultural obsession.
✋🏽 One last thing
I’ll leave you with this fantastic graphic story in Reuters on the Maha Kumbh’s unprecedented scale. It’s beautifully done.
That’s all from me today. Thank you so much for reading this edition. If you enjoy the Evening Expresso, tell your friends to subscribe to the newsletter. You can do so by signing up for the Morning Expresso. Additionally, you can reach me via email for tips and feedback or simply to say hello! 😀 Until tomorrow, Venkat Ananth |
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