embraces

The future of streaming media just got a whole lot more interesting. I certainly didn’t see it coming, and I bet no one else did either. Last week, Netflix (NFLX 0.40%) and Spotify (SPOT 2.01%) teamed up to put some of Spotify’s top podcasts on the video-streaming veteran’s global platform.

Netflix and Spotify’s groundbreaking podcast partnership isn’t just another content deal. It’s a glimpse into a radically different entertainment ecosystem. Former rivals become allies, audio-only podcasts turn into TV shows, and the very definition of “content” becomes beautifully, chaotically fluid.

This is the streaming evolution nobody saw coming: Specialist platforms finally realizing that collaboration might just be the ultimate competitive advantage.

What’s happening?

Early next year, you’ll see a handful of Spotify podcast shows on the American Netflix service. The partnership starts with a couple of true crime talk shows, a larger set of popular culture and lifestyle shows, and a really heaping helping of sports-oriented podcasts. Other markets will gain access to these series later, though the exact timing and geographical reach remains unknown.

Spotify sees the team-up as an effective way to grow people’s access to these podcasts, including ultra-premium stuff like The Bill Simmons Podcast. As a reminder, Spotify paid $185 million for Simmons’ Ringer studio in 2020 and presumably even more for a renewal of that deal in March 2025.

Netflix’s management highlighted the growing popularity of video-style podcasts, giving subscribers one more content type to enjoy.

Image source: Getty Images.

Netflix gets sports content on the cheap

I think it’s a stroke of genius from both sides of the dealmaking table, though Netflix probably gets the sweeter end of this deal.

Netflix suddenly expands its burgeoning sports coverage very quickly by getting podcast rights, and without paying billions of dollars for direct event coverage deals. Leagues like the NFL, the NBA, and MLB want a lot of money for their game-tracking deals. For example:

• Comcast‘s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) NBCUniversal division is reportedly close to a three-year deal with Major League Baseball, priced at $200 million per year.

• The National Basketball Association signed an 11-year coverage deal in the summer of 2024, splitting the rights among NBCUniversal, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Prime Video, and Walt Disney‘s (NYSE: DIS) ESPN for about $7 billion per year.

• As for the National Football League, Netflix has nibbled on a few specific games, but the big contracts are found elsewhere. Comcast, Disney, Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ: PSKY), Amazon, and Fox (NASDAQ: FOX) are all paying billion-dollar sums per year for their specific slices of NFL media rights. Even YouTube entered this arena, as the Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) subsidiary inked a seven-year deal for Sunday Ticket coverage at $2 billion per year.

The financial details of the Netflix/Spotify partnership are not known, which suggests the payments may be small enough to not require public disclosure. After all, both partners are expecting positive outcomes from this contract. But even if Netflix is spending a few hundred million dollars, it still found a cheaper way to tap into the lucrative sports market.

Audio meets video (and beyond)

I think of podcasts as an audio-centered media format, but this deal was an eye-opener. Adding a few high-end cameras and decent lighting to the radio-like studio instantly creates a video stream instead, and a lot of people prefer that format. From the podcast creators’ point of view, I’m sure it doesn’t hurt to upgrade the studio environment and pay more attention to the visuals.

So the edges and borders between different content types are getting smudged. Spotify is doing video content and Netflix is adding audio-centric shows. And it won’t stop there. I mean, Netflix has dozens of video games already, and there’s a hidden “snake” game in the mobile Spotify app. Digital entertainment is digital entertainment, and specialists in one particular media type can easily expand to other fields.

That’s particularly true for the well-heeled global giant that started the video-streaming industry in 2011. Netflix has the resources to keep its business growth going by exploring new media types. Recent examples even include brick-and-mortar stores and the upcoming Netflix House experience centers in Philadelphia and Dallas.

It’s a tradition for the Marquez High football team to raise a black Gladiators flag up the stadium pole after each victory.

Imagine how often that flag could be raised each time Elyjah Staples, the school’s star outside linebacker, earned an A on his report card? That’s the only grade he’s gotten in three years of classes, no matter taking Chemistry, Algebra 2 or Advanced Placement U.S. History.

He seems to be in a personal competition to keep getting A’s along with sacks at the Huntington Park school.

“He’s one of a kind,” coach Rudy Fortiz said. “Just his leadership. ‘Hey, you’re doing this wrong.’ Everyone follows. Whatever he wants to do, he’s going to put his mind to it.”

Last season, as a sophomore in his first year playing high school football, Staples had 13 sacks. He also played volleyball, basketball and ran track. Now he’s 6 feet 3, 205 pounds, only 16 years old, has a football scholarship offer from Stanford and wants to be his school’s valedictorian in 2027. Older brother Ezavier Staples plays receiver for UCLA.

He’s on his way to becoming as synonymous with Marquez as former basketball standout Mitchell Butler was for attending tiny Oakwood in North Hollywood before going on to UCLA and the NBA.

Wherever the 16-year-old Staples walks on campus, he’s recognized. He loves participating and welcoming strangers and friends alike. It makes perfect sense as a freshman he decided to take a year off from playing football and joined the cheer squad. That’s part of his outgoing personality. Then he had a change of heart when the football team was struggling.

“I saw everyone out there and I was like, ‘I have to get back to this excitement.’ And they were losing. I was, ‘I got to get out there to do something,’” Staples said.

Last week against La Puente, he caught four touchdown passes and made 10 tackles with two sacks. He has five sacks on the season and leads the team with 15 receptions for 517 yards and 10 touchdowns.

He’s perfectly comfortable and confident sticking with Marquez (4-1) and playing in the City Section despite his growing recognition as a future college athlete.

“The No. 1 reason is community,” he said. “I’m really big on how I’m treated. I feel I’m very loved on campus. I love the academics. The teachers are flexible.”

His academic success is a family tradition and requirement. “I looked up to my brothers and they kept having good grades and my mom is strict,” he said. “She told my coaches, ‘If his grades aren’t up there, his sports stuff is cut off.’”

Staples plays in so many sports at Marquez that fans get to see him perform all year long.

“I hear ‘Staples’ a lot from the stands,” he said. “I’m always playing sports. Whenever they see me, it’s Staples, Staples, Staples.”

That sounds like a future NIL opportunity sponsored by Staples, the office supply company.

Marquez faces a tough challenge from Eagle Rock, a passing team, on Friday night. Quarterback Liam Pasten is known to use his athleticism to create opportunities, so it will be fun to see how he deals with Staples trying to chase him down.

Staples certainly makes it clear football has become his sport of choice.

“It’s the excitement and being out there with my teammates and being like a family. This is my family now,’’ he said.

In the days since Charlie Kirk’s killing, conservatives have embraced a phenomenon they previously called toxic: cancel culture.

The impulse to cancel some voices this past week is understandable: Celebrating murder is cruel. It’s gross. It’s wrong. But the irony is impossible to miss: Conservatives, who long treated cancel culture as an affront to the 1st Amendment spirit of open discourse, are now calling for people to lose their jobs and their livelihoods, all because of something stupid they said on the internet.

This is the same issue that drove numerous stand-up comedians, young men, podcasters and Silicon Valley tech bros into the arms of Donald Trump in 2024. But now, in an amazing turn of events, conservatives are now aping the progressive scolds and speech cops, only with red hats.

Actually, their version is worse. The left’s “accountability culture” mob might have been overbearing, but their agenda was (with a few notable exceptions) largely driven by hall monitors. Today’s “woke right” is executing things in a more overt, efficient and official manner — which for the record means it can violate not just the spirit of the 1st Amendment but the actual, you know … 1st Amendment.

As a case in point, JD Vance, the vice president of the United States of America, recently told Kirk’s radio audience: “When you see someone celebrating Charlie’s murder, call them out. And hell, call their employer.”

Which raises the question, what if their employer is the government? That would be awkward. But no problem! Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly telling staff to track down soldiers guilty of wrongspeak. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) is trying to get teachers terminated, tweeting: “We don’t fund hate. We fire it” — which feels like the sort of slogan Mao might have had printed on a T-shirt.

And speaking of printers, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi has warned that the government can “prosecute” any professional printer who refuses to “print posters with Charlie’s pictures on them for a vigil.” She also pledged to “absolutely target” anyone who targets anyone with “hate speech.”

Not long ago, progressives insisted bakers must bake cakes for gay weddings, and now a U.S. attorney general from a Republican administration is insisting that printers must print images for vigils. Funny how the tables turn.

Then, there’s the so-called Charlie Kirk Data Foundation, which claims to have a searchable list of tens of thousands of people who posted mean tweets after Kirk’s death. Collectively, this purge campaign seems to be working. A lot of scalps have already been claimed, including those of prominent pundits and late night host Jimmy Kimmel (who was suspended after making remarks about the motives of Kirk’s killer).

But — let’s be clear — opposition to cancel culture is merely the latest principle that Trump-era Republicans have conveniently abandoned. Indeed, almost every tenet that conservatives held dear a decade ago has been reversed.

And people are starting to notice. Oregon state Rep. Cyrus Javadi recently switched parties, citing the GOP’s abandonment of principles like “limited government, fiscal responsibility, free speech, free trade, and, above all, the rule of law.”

He has a point. Trump’s America now owns a chunk of U.S. chipmaker Intel (so much for small government), spends like a drunken sailor, slaps tariffs on everything that moves (bye-bye, free trade) and ignores laws he doesn’t like — most recently, the TikTok sell-off mandate that was passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court, which Trump decided to treat like a menu item he didn’t order — until he found a suitable buyer.

But it’s not just normie Republicans who are worried about Trump diverting from the Reagan-Bush playbook.

Comedian and podcaster Tim Dillon recently observed that the Trump agenda looks suspiciously like the dystopia that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones used to warn us about between colloidal silver ads: “Military in the street, the FEMA camp, the tech company that monitors everything, the surveillance. This is all of that.”

So why is this happening? Why the contortions? I’m reminded of an old story Rush Limbaugh used to tell about the late actor Ron Silver.

As the story goes, Silver went to Bill Clinton’s first inauguration as a bleeding-heart liberal and was horrified by the military flyover. And then he realized, “Those are our planes now.”

That’s where conservatives are when it comes to cancel culture. They’ve finally realized that this is their cancel culture now.

And maybe that’s the grubby little secret about politics in the Trump era. Almost nobody cares about values or morals — or “principles” — anymore. Free speech, limited government, fiscal restraint — these are all rules for thee, but not for me.

Cancel culture wasn’t rejected, it was just co-opted. So go ahead. Drop a dime. See something, say something. Big Brother is watching.

Irony, meet guillotine.

Matt K. Lewis is the author of “Filthy Rich Politicians” and “Too Dumb to Fail.”

NEW YORK — President Trump stood among several hundred law enforcement officers, National Guard troops and federal agents at a U.S. Park Police operations center in one of Washington, D.C.’s most dangerous neighborhoods. As the cameras rolled, he offered a stark message about crime, an issue he’s been hammering for decades, as he thanked them for their efforts.

“We’re not playing games,” he said. “We’re going to make it safe. And we’re going to then go on to other places.”

The Republican president is proudly promoting the work of roughly 2,000 National Guard troops in the city, lent by allied governors from at least six Republican-led states. They’re in place to confront what Trump describes as an out-of-control crime wave in the Democratic-run city, though violent crime in Washington, like dozens of cities led by Democrats, has been down significantly since a pandemic high.

Trump and his allies are confident that his stunning decision to dispatch troops to a major American city is a big political winner almost certain to remind voters of why they elected him last fall.

Democrats say this is a fight they’re eager to have.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, an Army veteran, cast Trump’s move as a dangerous political stunt designed to distract the American people from his inability to address persistent inflation, rising energy prices and major health insurance cuts, among other major policy challenges.

“I’m deeply offended, as someone who’s actually worn the uniform, that he would use the lives of these men and women and the activation of these men and women as political pawns,” Moore told the Associated Press.

Trump’s extraordinary federal power grab comes as the term-limited president has threatened to send troops to other American cities led by Democrats, even as voters voice increasing concern about his authoritarian tendencies. And it could be a factor for both sides in elections in Virginia and New Jersey this fall — and next year’s more consequential midterms.

Inside the White House strategy

The president and White House see Trump’s decision to take over the D.C. police department as a political boon and have been eager to publicize the efforts.

The White House offered a livestream of Trump’s Thursday evening appearance, and on Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a surprise visit to Union Station, D.C.’s busy transit hub, to thank members of the National Guard over Shake Shack burgers.

Each morning, Trump’s press office distributes statistics outlining the previous night’s law enforcement actions, including total arrests and how many of those people are in the country illegally.

The strategy echoes Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, which has often forced Democrats to come to the defense of people living in the country illegally, including some who have committed serious crimes.

A White House official, speaking on background to discuss internal deliberations, dismissed concerns about perceptions of federal overreach in Washington, saying public safety is a fundamental requirement and a priority for residents.

Trump defended his efforts during an interview on “The Todd Starnes Show” on Thursday.

“Because I sent in people to stop crime, they said, ‘He’s a dictator.’ The real people, though, even Democrats, are calling me and saying, ‘It’s unbelievable’ how much it has helped,” he said.

The White House hopes to use its actions in D.C. as a test case to inspire changes in other cities, though Trump has legal power to intervene in Washington that he doesn’t have elsewhere because the city is under partial federal control.

“Everyday Americans who support commonsense policies would deem the removal of more than 600 dangerous criminals from the streets of our nation’s capital a huge success,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers. “The Democrats continue to be wildly unpopular because they oppose efforts to stop violent crime and protect law-abiding citizens.”

Democrats lean in

Moore, Maryland’s Democratic governor, suggested a dark motivation behind Trump’s approach, which is focused almost exclusively on cities with large minority populations led by Democratic mayors of color.

“Once again, we are seeing how these incredibly dangerous and biased tropes are being used about these communities by someone who is not willing to step foot in them, but is willing to stand in the Oval Office and defend them,” Moore said.

Even before Trump called the National Guard to Washington, Democratic mayors across the country have been touting their success in reducing violent crime.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who leads the Democratic Mayors Assn., noted that more than half of the 70 largest Democratic-led cities in the country have seen violent crime decrease so far this year.

“He’s stoking racial division and stoking fear and chaos,” Bibb said. “We need someone who wants to be a collaborator, not a dictator.”

Democratic strategists acknowledge that Trump’s GOP has enjoyed a significant advantage in recent years on the issues of crime and immigration — issues Trump has long sought to connect. But as Democratic officials push back against the federal takeover in Washington, party strategists are offering cautious optimism that Trump’s tactics will backfire.

“This is an opportunity for the party to go on offense on an issue that has plagued us for a long time,” said veteran Democratic strategist Daniel Wessel. “The facts are on our side.”

A closer look at the numbers

FBI statistics released this month show murder and nonnegligent manslaughter in the U.S. in 2024 fell nearly 15% from a year earlier, continuing a decline that’s been seen since a pandemic-era crime spike.

Meanwhile, recent public polling shows that Republicans have enjoyed an advantage over Democrats on the issue of crime.

A CNN/SSRS poll conducted in May found that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults said the Republican Party’s views were closer to their own on crime and policing, while 3 in 10 said they were more aligned with Democrats’ views. About 3 in 10 said neither party reflected their opinions. Other polls conducted in the past few years found a similar gap.

Trump also had a significant edge over Democrat Kamala Harris on the issue in the 2024 election. About half of voters said Trump was better able to handle crime, while about 4 in 10 said this about Harris, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of the American electorate.

At the same time, Americans have expressed more concern about the scope of presidential power since Trump took office for a second time in January.

An AP-NORC poll conducted in April found that about half of U.S. adults said the president has “too much” power in the way the U.S. government operates these days, up from 32% in March 2024.

The unusual military presence in a U.S. city, which featured checkpoints across Washington staffed in some cases by masked federal agents, injected a sense of fear and chaos into daily life for some people in the nation’s capital.

At least one day care center was closed Thursday as childcare staff feared the military action, which has featured a surge in immigration enforcement, while local officials raised concerns about next week’s public school openings.

Moore said he would block any push by Trump to send the National Guard into Baltimore.

“I have not seen anything or any conditions on the ground that I think would justify the mobilization of our National Guard,” he said. “They think they’re winning the political argument. I don’t give a s—- about the political argument.”

Peoples and Colvin write for the Associated Press. AP writers Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.

Devon Newberry is closing in on two years as a professional beach volleyball player. Yet for the last 731 days, “professional” has always felt like an elusive label.

The former UCLA standout is accustomed to life as a beach volleyball player — hauling her equipment on the beach, tugging her bag across the uneven sand while weaving through sunbathers and surfboards. She’s used to hearing provisional bleachers creak under sunscreen-slathered fans as music buzzes through nearby portable speakers.

There’s charm in that chaos. But it’s nothing like the entrance Newberry made Friday at the Intuit Dome.

Above her, the sweeping halo scoreboard glowed, flashing beneath the thump of blasting pop anthems. Around her, where NBA chants once echoed, beach volleyball fans cheered. And strangest of all, tons of sand created a faux indoor shoreline.

After two years chasing it, Newberry found her label.

“I walked into the Intuit Dome today and I was like, ‘I feel like a professional athlete walking in,’” Newberry said. “I haven’t felt like that as a beach player. There’s very rare moments when you’re like, ‘Wow, I am really a professional athlete.’ And when I was going underground here and looking all around me, I was like, ‘I really am a professional athlete.’ And that’s because we’re playing at the Intuit Dome.”

In what began as a head-scratcher for the players themselves, 300 tons of sand were poured into the Intuit Dome, turning the Clippers’ arena into a pop-up beach — where the L.A. Launch kept their perfect run afloat for the start of AVP League Week 5.

The Launch struck first and last — with Megan Kraft and Terese Cannon opening with a win, and Hagen Smith and Logan Webber closing it out — both pairs dismantling the San Diego Smash. Sandwiched between those victories, Palm Beach Passion’s men’s and women’s teams both made quick work of the Miami Mayhem.

The moment Newberry described — descending into an NBA arena re-imagined as a sand-strewn battleground — was the AVP’s moonshot: to re-imagine the sport in lights, not solely sunlight.

“Playing in such an amazing place, brand new building, with everything going on, with the new building around here, it’s really cool,” said 2016 Olympian Chaim Schalk. “To get to play at such an iconic arena is an honor.”

Logan Webber of the L.A. Launch spikes over Chase Budinger of the San Diego Smash at the Intuit Dome on Friday night.

(Joe Scarnici / Getty Images)

Beach volleyball rarely has ventured beyond its coastal roots. But at the Intuit Dome, the sport embraced a new direction.

“This shows that beach volleyball is growing and it’s trying to adapt to the world we live in, finding a new way for fans to interact with the players, and new ways for the sport to be exciting,” said Chase Budinger, a former NBA player who became a beach volleyball player. “This will get more people in the stands because it’s so new and so different.”

In place of sun-worshiping fans camped out on makeshift bleachers, parents lounged on cushioned seats as kids nestled beside them balancing chicken wings and pizzas on their laps.

The sport welcomed a combination of newcomers hunting for Friday night entertainment and AVP devotees.

“There’s so many people who love beach volleyball, and so many people who would love beach volleyball if they were just given the opportunity to go watch,” Newberry said. “And not everybody can make it out.”

Change comes with tradeoffs. With no wind, the court became something of a power chamber — the compact sand lending itself to higher and cleaner jumps, the still air enabling blistering serves and monstrous spikes that might have drifted wide on the beach.

Rallies became quicker and tighter. The margin for error shrank, tightening the grip on the crowd.

“For a lot of people watching beach volleyball for the first time, it’s really hard to conceptualize how wind, how deep the sand is, might affect play,” Newberry said. “So it feels like more of an even playing field which allows everybody to watch really entertaining volleyball.”

By re-imagining the boundaries of where its sport can potentially thrive, the AVP might have sketched out a novel blueprint for other sports.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if other sports follow and start expanding their ideas of where they could play,” said Olympic silver medalist Brandie Wilkerson. “I’m excited to see where this is going to go and see other sports try to catch up.”

Islamabad, Pakistan – In his first address to a joint session of Congress on March 4 this year, after becoming United States president for a second time, Donald Trump made a striking revelation.

He referred to the deadly Abbey Gate bombing at Kabul airport in August 2021 – which occurred as thousands of Afghans tried to flee following the Taliban takeover – and said the alleged perpetrator had been apprehended.

The country he credited with the arrest: Pakistan. “I want to thank especially the government of Pakistan for helping arrest this monster,” Trump declared.

A little more than three months later, Trump hosted Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir for lunch at the White House on Wednesday — the first time a US president has hosted a military chief from Pakistan who isn’t also the country’s head of state. Munir is on a five-day trip to the US.

For a country that Trump had, just seven years earlier, accused of giving the US “nothing but lies and deceit” and safe havens to terrorists – and one that his immediate predecessor Joe Biden called “one of the most dangerous nations” – this marks a dramatic shift.

It’s a reset that experts say has been in the making for weeks, under Trump’s second administration, and that was solidified by the brief but intense military confrontation between India and Pakistan in May, during which the US tried to mediate a ceasefire.

Some analysts warn that the evolving relationship should be viewed as a product of Trump’s personal position, rather than institutional policy.

“We are dealing with an administration which changes its tune by the hour. There is no process here,” Marvin Weinbaum, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI), told Al Jazeera.

“One minute the US has no interest, and the next minute priorities change rapidly. You’re dealing with an administration that is mercurial and personalised, and you don’t associate that with traditional US foreign policy,” he added.

However, others point out that even the optics of Trump hosting Munir are significant.

“Trump’s lunch invite to Pakistan’s army chief isn’t just protocol-breaking, it’s protocol-redefining,” said Raza Ahmad Rumi, a distinguished lecturer at the City University of New York (CUNY). “It signals, quite visibly, that Pakistan is not just on Washington’s radar, it’s in the inner circle, at least for now.”

Reset amid regional crises

The meeting between Trump and Munir came amid heightened tensions in the Middle East, where Israel has been conducting strikes inside Iranian cities since June 13. Iran has retaliated with missile attacks of its own on Israel.

The Israeli offensive – targeting Iranian generals, missile bases, nuclear facilities and scientists – has killed more than 200 people. Iran’s missile and drone attacks on Israel over the past six days have killed about 20 people.

The Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israeli government has been urging the US to join the offensive against Iran, which shares a 900-kilometre-long (559-mile) border with Pakistan.

Speaking to the media in the Oval Office after the lunch with Munir on Wednesday, Trump noted that the Pakistanis “know Iran very well, better than most,” but added that they are “not happy”.

According to Trump, however, the main reason for meeting Munir was to thank him for his role in defusing the May conflict between Pakistan and India, a confrontation that brought the region, home to more than 1.6 billion people, to the brink of nuclear war.

“The reason I had him here was that I wanted to thank him for not going into the war [with India]. And I want to thank PM [Narendra] Modi as well, who just left a few days ago. We’re working on a trade deal with India and Pakistan,” said Trump, who is known to enjoy a warm relationship with Indian leader Modi.

“These two very smart people decided not to keep going with a war that could have been a nuclear war. Pakistan and India are two big nuclear powers. I was honoured to meet him today,” he added, referring to Munir.

The crisis had begun after an April attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 Indian civilians. India blamed Pakistan, which denied the charge and called for a “credible, independent, transparent” investigation.

On May 7, India launched strikes inside Pakistani and Pakistan-administered Kashmir territories. Pakistan responded via its air force, claiming to have downed at least six Indian jets. India confirmed losses but did not specify numbers.

The conflict escalated as both sides exchanged drones for three days and eventually launched missiles at military targets on May 10. It ended only after intense backchannel diplomacy, particularly involving the US, led to a ceasefire.

Trump reiterated his role on Wednesday. “I stopped the war between Pakistan and India. This man [Munir] was extremely influential in stopping it from the Pakistan side, Modi from the India side, and others,” he said.

While Pakistan has acknowledged the US role, India insists the ceasefire resulted solely from bilateral dialogue. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stated on Tuesday that Indian PM Modi had spoken to Trump by phone to underscore New Delhi’s view that there was no US-led mediation between India and Pakistan.

Arif Ansar, chief strategist at Washington-based advisory firm PoliTact, said Pakistan’s military performance during the confrontation prompted Trump’s engagement.

“It demonstrated that despite its political and economic challenges, the country can outmanoeuvre a much bigger adversary,” Ansar told Al Jazeera. “This has led President Trump to engage with Pakistan’s traditional power centres based on core strategic interests.”

“Opportunity to reassert relevance”

That engagement has a long history.

Pakistan’s relationship with the US dates back to its 1947 independence, after which it aligned with Washington during the Cold War. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan supported US objectives there, and the two collaborated closely to support the mujahideen that eventually forced Moscow to pull out its troops.

Subsequently, Pakistan also backed the post-9/11 US “war on terror”.

However, over the years, many within the US strategic community also started questioning Pakistan’s credibility as a reliable security partner, especially after 9/11 architect Osama bin Laden was found in Abbottabad, close to Rawalpindi, home to Pakistan’s military headquarters in 2011.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the strategic partnership has waned further. Pakistan has increasingly turned towards China for economic, military and technological support.

But Weinbaum said that since Trump returned to office, Pakistan has been getting respect that was lacking under the previous Biden administration.

Trump wanted “counterterrorism assistance,” Weinbaum said – and seemingly got it.

On June 10, General Michael E Kurilla, chief of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), detailed how that cooperation led to the capture of the suspected Abbey Gate bomber.

“They [Pakistan] are in an active counterterrorism fight right now, and they have been a phenomenal partner in the counterterrorism world,” Kurilla said, in a testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in Washington, DC.

According to Kurilla, who also oversees the US military’s Middle East operations including Iran, this progress, including the arrest of the Abbey Gate bombing suspect, was made possible due to direct coordination with Pakistan’s army chief. “Field Marshal Asim Munir called me to tell me they had captured one of the Daesh-K [ISKP or ISIS-K] individuals,” he said.

As the icing on the cake for the bilateral relationship, Weinbaum suggested, Pakistan has thrown in “more goodies, such as a trade deal with no tariffs, offering rare earth minerals, and crypto“. Weinbaum previously served as an analyst for Pakistan and Afghanistan in the US State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Rare earth minerals, critical for industries like defence, robotics and electronics, are among Pakistan’s assets now being offered to foreign investors, including the US and Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan has also recently formed a crypto council and held talks with US officials to attract investment and partnerships.

Rumi called the Munir-Trump meeting “historic”.

“The US wants Pakistan’s help in de-risking regional volatility without offering much in return. For Munir, it’s an opportunity to reassert relevance and perhaps negotiate manoeuvring space at home,” he said.

Transactional ties and democratic costs

Historically, Pakistan’s ties with the US have been largely transactional, particularly in the security sphere. US aid and investment often followed Pakistan’s alignment with US strategic goals, helping build its infrastructure and military.

But the relationship has also been marked by distrust, with US administrations accusing Pakistan of double-dealing, while Pakistan claims the US has failed to respect the sacrifices it has made while siding with them.

Whether this latest engagement proves to be another fleeting phase or a more durable alignment remains to be seen, say experts.

Rumi, the New York-based academic, said the US has traditionally engaged Pakistan when it needed to, and retreated when it could.

“Unless this relationship is institutionalised, beyond the security lens with which it is viewed, it’s another tactical romance. And like past dalliances, it could fade once strategic goals are met or regimes change,” he said.

Ansar added that Pakistan again stands on the brink of a major strategic choice amid the global power shift.

“Much depends on whether it leans toward China or the US. That decision is also tied to the evolving Israel-Palestine conflict and the role of Iran,” he said.

But Weinbaum, the former State Department official, described the reset in ties as temporary, as “nothing is permanent in this administration”.

“If Pakistan does play some role in the Iran crisis, they have could have more substantial meaning to these ties. But it needs to be prepared that there is nothing settled with this administration. It can change on a dime, at any hour,” he said.

Power behind the scenes

The military remains Pakistan’s most powerful institution, exerting enormous influence over politics and society.

It has ruled directly for more than three decades, and the current government, elected in a controversial vote last year, is widely seen as secondary to the military leadership under Munir.

This is consistent with historical precedent. Pakistan’s first military ruler, Field Marshal Ayub Khan, had close ties with the US in the 1960s. Subsequent military rulers, including General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s and General Pervez Musharraf in the 2000s, also maintained strong US relations. All three were hosted by US presidents at the White House – but only after they became heads of state.

Munir, now only the second Pakistani to hold the rank of field marshal after Khan, reinforces the perception that Pakistan’s real power remains with the military, despite the presence of a civilian government, say experts.

Still, CUNY’s Rumi said it was important not to “confuse symbolism with transformation”.

“This [Trump-Munir] meeting validates the enduring military-to-military track in US-Pakistan [ties], but it also bypasses the civilian setup, which should worry anyone rooting for democratic consolidation. If this is the “reset,” it’s one where khaki once again trumps ballot,” he cautioned, referring to the colour of the military’s uniform.

Ansar from PoliTact concurred, saying that the meeting reflects adversely on the civil-military balance in Pakistan, as it showed who remains the “real power bearer” in Pakistan.

“In the long run, these dealings in the past have led to tremendous political, economic and security-related repercussions for the nation [Pakistan],” he said.

“But additionally, it has promoted a norm that critical decisions impacting the nation must be made in private without discussion, consensus or public ownership. This results in increased societal and political disillusionment regarding the future of the country.”