A popular Indian YouTuber’s recent arrest has sent shockwaves through social media and beyond, raising questions about travel vlogging, national security, and the blurred lines between cultural exchange and espionage. Jyoti Malhotra, a 33-year-old travel vlogger from Hisar, Haryana, who runs the YouTube channel “Travel with JO,” was taken into custody on May 16, accused of spying for Pakistan. Her videos, which showcased her trips to Pakistan and painted a warm picture of its people, are now at the heart of a heated controversy as authorities dig deeper into her alleged ties to Pakistani intelligence.
Jyoti, with over 370,000 subscribers on YouTube and 130,000 followers on Instagram, built her platform on vibrant travel content, documenting journeys to places like Bangladesh, China, Thailand, and the UAE. But it was her multiple visits to Pakistan—most recently in March 2025—that caught the attention of Indian authorities. Her videos, with titles like Indian Girl in Pakistan and Indian Girl Exploring Lahore, highlighted her experiences at cultural sites like the Katas Raj Temple and even a luxury bus ride, often emphasizing the hospitality she received. In her personal diary, which police recovered, she wrote about her “journey full of love” in Pakistan and expressed a hope that more Indians could visit ancestral sites there, sentiments that are now being scrutinized for allegedly promoting pro-Pakistan narratives.
The Haryana Police, along with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), allege that Jyoti was more than just a curious traveler. They claim she was in contact with Pakistani intelligence operatives, including a staff member at the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi named Ehsan-ur-Rahim (alias Danish), who was expelled from India on May 13 for suspected espionage. Authorities say Jyoti shared sensitive information with these operatives via apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Snapchat, violating the Official Secrets Act and posing a threat to national security. Police also point to her travel patterns—visits to Pakistan, China, and even Kashmir before the recent Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people—as evidence of a deeper agenda. Hisar SP Shashank Kumar Sawan stated that Pakistani intelligence was grooming Jyoti as a long-term “asset,” possibly to push anti-India narratives through her platform.
Jyoti’s arrest is part of a broader crackdown on alleged Pakistani spy networks in India, with 14 people arrested across Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Odisha in the past two weeks. Among them is Shahzad, a businessman from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, arrested on May 19 for espionage and cross-border smuggling. Shahzad allegedly provided Indian SIM cards, money, and sensitive information to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) while facilitating travel for others to join ISI operations. The timing of these arrests, following the Pahalgam attack and India’s Operation Sindoor—a counteroffensive against terror infrastructure in Pakistan—has heightened tensions between the two nations, making Jyoti’s case a lightning rod for public debate.
Her father, Harish Malhotra, has come to her defense, insisting she’s no spy. He told media outlets that Jyoti traveled to Pakistan with proper permissions to shoot videos for her channel, questioning, “If she has friends there, can’t she call them?” But later, he admitted he didn’t know about her Pakistan visits, saying she told him she was going to Delhi. Authorities, however, are unconvinced, pointing to her financial transactions and travel expenses, which they claim don’t match her known income. They’re also probing her connections to other influencers, suspecting a wider network of social media figures being used for “narrative warfare” by Pakistani operatives.
This case has sparked a firestorm online. Some see Jyoti as a naive vlogger who got caught up in something bigger, possibly lured by the promise of views and sponsorships. Others view her as a traitor, with her rosy depictions of Pakistan now seen as a betrayal, especially amid fresh wounds from the Pahalgam attack. The debate touches on deeper issues: Can cultural exchange through travel vlogging ever be truly innocent in a region as tense as South Asia? And how much should personal expression on platforms like YouTube be policed when national security is at stake? For now, Jyoti remains in custody as investigations continue, her once-joyful travel videos now evidence in a case that’s anything but a journey full of love.
Washington’s caught up in a real showdown right now over the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, and it’s got everyone talking as a big House vote looms tomorrow. The cap’s been stuck at $10,000 since 2017, but there’s a push to bump it up to $30,000, and it’s tearing Republicans apart. President Donald Trump wants to lock in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for good with his “one big, beautiful bill,” but this SALT drama is making things messy. So, who’s really going to benefit from this tax break, and why’s it causing such a fuss?
Here’s the deal: the SALT deduction lets people who itemize their taxes take off some of what they pay in state and local taxes—like income taxes or property taxes—from what they owe the federal government. Before the $10,000 cap came along in 2017, it was a lifesaver for folks in high-tax states like California, New York, and New Jersey. Back then, two-thirds of the deduction’s benefits went to households making $200,000 or more, with the average deduction hitting $13,000—sometimes even $30,000 in fancy spots like Westchester County, New York. By 2020, only about 8.6% of people claimed it on their federal taxes, but it was a big deal in 13 high-tax states and Washington, D.C., where 10% to 20% of filers in places like Maryland and California counted on it. These are usually well-off homeowners who’ve been feeling the squeeze ever since the cap showed up.
If the cap jumps to $30,000, it’d be a huge relief for those folks. Picture a family in New Jersey paying $28,000 in property and income taxes—they could deduct all of it and save a good chunk on their federal taxes. But here’s the catch: the people who’d benefit most are already doing pretty well. Raising the cap would give the top 20% of earners an extra $2,500 in tax cuts on average, and the top 1%—those making over $430,000—would see their savings shoot up from $40,100 to $71,000. Meanwhile, the bottom 80% of us, who mostly take the standard deduction ($15,000 for singles, $30,000 for couples in 2025), wouldn’t feel much of a difference. That’s why some folks are saying this deduction is just a big favor to the rich, leaving everyone else wondering why they’re not getting a break too.
This whole thing is splitting Republicans right down the middle. Lawmakers from high-tax states are fighting hard for their people—think doctors, lawyers, and tech workers in places like San Francisco or Manhattan—who are really struggling with the $10,000 cap. In California, where even a regular house can have a $10,000 property tax bill, the cap feels like a punch in the gut. But Republicans from lower-tax states like Texas and Florida aren’t on board. Their folks don’t pay as much in state and local taxes, so they hardly ever hit the cap and don’t get much out of the deduction. To them, raising it feels like using taxpayer money to help out wealthy blue-state voters. Plus, the Joint Committee on Taxation says a $30,000 cap would cost $915.6 billion over 10 years, and that’s got some Republicans worried about the deficit when money’s already tight.
It’s a tough time for this debate, too. Trump’s tax plan is already shelling out $175 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense system to protect against threats from countries like China and Russia. And just this week, a scary report came out saying the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting so fast they could force 230 million people to leave their homes by the end of the century. Some people are asking: shouldn’t we be spending on things like flood walls or helping coastal towns move instead of giving tax breaks to people who are already well-off? But those who want the cap raised say it’s only fair—the SALT deduction has been around since 1913 to keep the federal government from taking too much of what states need, so why should people in high-tax states get the short end of the stick?
With the vote coming up fast, this SALT fight is hitting close to home for a lot of people. For folks in expensive states, a higher cap could take some pressure off. But for most of us—and for a country dealing with huge issues like climate change and global tensions—it’s a tough idea to get behind. As the clock ticks down, this debate is a big reminder of how hard it is to balance what’s best for some with what’s best for all of us in a world that’s getting tougher every day.
