Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: South Africa continued their winning streak in the ICC Women&rsquo;s World Cup 2025, thrashing Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in a rain-hit match at R. Premadasa International on Friday.&nbsp;Due to rain, the match was reduced to 20 overs, with South Africa restricting Sri Lanka to 105-7 before comfortably chasing a revised target of 121 in 14.5 overs to consolidate their hold on second place in the points table.&nbsp;Sri Lanka, who chose to bat first, were 46-2 when rain stopped play. After the break, left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlba took 3-30 as the bowlers allowed only 59 runs in the last eight overs while taking five wickets.&nbsp;Vishmi Gunaratne&rsquo;s quick 34, which included six fours, was the only notable contribution for Sri Lanka.&nbsp;Chasing six an over, South Africa&rsquo;s openers made the task look easy. Captain Laura Wolvaardt struck an unbeaten 60 off 47 balls, while Tazmin Brits hit 55 not out off 42 balls with four fours and two sixes. Their 125-run stand came off just 89 deliveries to complete a commanding victory.&nbsp;For a team bowled out for just 69 by England in their opening game, South Africa&rsquo;s recovery has been impressive with four wins in a row.&nbsp;Sri Lanka remain winless after five matches in a campaign affected by rain and inconsistency.&nbsp;The victory took South Africa to eight points, one behind defending champions Australia on nine. England, the four-time winners, are third with seven points and a game in hand.

Cricket

Wins by 10 wickets in a rain-shortened Women’s World Cup match in Colombo, restricting them to 105-7 before chasing a revised 121-run target in 14.5 overs.


 South Africa crush Sri Lanka to extend dominant World Cup run

LONDON: As Israelis and Palestinians wait anxiously to see what comes after a ceasefire in the two-year war in Gaza, the experience of the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s may offer lessons in the thorny process of moving from seemingly intractable conflict to enduring peace. Two key figures who helped steer the Northern Ireland peace process &mdash; former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his former chief of staff, Jonathan Powell &mdash; have returned to the international spotlight due to their involvement in talks with the US and other countries about the future of Gaza.&nbsp;&lsquo;We stand ready&rsquo;: Starmer &nbsp;Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that &ldquo;drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland, we stand ready to play a key role in the decommissioning of Hamas&rsquo; weapons and capability.&rdquo; Around 3,600 people were killed and 50,000 wounded during &ldquo;the Troubles,&rdquo; three decades of violence involving Irish republican militants determined to wrest Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom. After years of false starts and setbacks, a peace accord was struck in 1998 that largely ended the conflict and led to the disarming of the Irish Republican Army and other militant groups. Trump-backed plan&nbsp;The Trump-backed plan for Gaza is far narrower and does not address the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which began decades before the latest war. It also provides no clear path to Palestinian statehood, something Israel rejects but that is seen internationally as the only way to resolve the conflict. The plan calls for Hamas to disarm, something the group insists it will not do &mdash; although it has expressed a willingness to hand over some weapons to a Palestinian or Arab body. In Northern Ireland, the IRA&rsquo;s reluctance to give up its weapons was a main sticking point that threatened to derail the peace process. Major differences&nbsp;Experts say there are parallels &mdash; but also major differences &mdash; between the Northern Ireland conflict and the devastating war in Gaza. Israel&#39;s war has reduced much of Gaza to rubble, led to famine in some areas and killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza&rsquo;s Health Ministry, that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. &ldquo;The level of challenge in the Middle East now is monumental,&rdquo; said Kristian Brown, a politics lecturer at Ulster University in Belfast. &ldquo;The level of bitterness, the sense of immediate threat and the levels of destruction (in Northern Ireland) were not as cataclysmic as Gaza.&rdquo; &#39;Counsel patience and pragmatism&#39;The Irish Republican Army eventually agreed to put its arsenal &ldquo;beyond use&rdquo; by way of a secret process supervised by an international commission. Disarmament ran in parallel to efforts to resolve political disputes at the heart of the conflict, something that more than three decades of US-led peace efforts in the Middle East have failed to accomplish. It was slow going: The first batch of IRA weapons was decommissioned in 2001 and the last in 2005, seven years after the Good Friday Agreement.&nbsp; Several other British loyalist and Irish republican militant groups also disarmed as part of the process. &ldquo;The British might be able to counsel patience and pragmatism,&rdquo; said Niall &Oacute; Dochartaigh, a professor of political science at the University of Galway. &ldquo;The IRA leadership had to be helped in various ways to make that argument (for disarmament) within the organization. &ldquo;Ultimately, decommissioning only happened in the Irish case once the IRA was satisfied that there was a political settlement bedded down,&rdquo; he added.&nbsp; And while &ldquo;the contours of a compromise settlement emerged quite early in Northern Ireland,&rdquo; a similar consensus in the Middle East appears far off. Big gaps&nbsp;The 20-point plan for Gaza sets out a sweeping vision, from ceasefire to peacemaking &ndash; but leaves big gaps about how it will all be achieved.&nbsp; And it says nothing about the thorniest issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians, including the status of Jerusalem, the return of Palestinian refugees, security arrangements, future borders and the scores of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Good Friday Agreement was more detailed about the structures that would be established in Northern Ireland to underpin peace, including a legislature and government.&nbsp; It was the product of two years of US-backed negotiations that helped build trust between sworn enemies. But peacemaking was still slow and fragile. Shaky power-sharing political systemFour months after the Good Friday agreement, IRA dissidents set off a car bomb in the town of Omagh, killing 29 people in the deadliest single attack of the conflict. Today, dissidents still attempt occasional small-scale attacks. The power-sharing political system set up under the peace agreement has collapsed several times. Amnesties mean killers have gone free and some victims have not received justice. Yet peace has largely held. Political parties once linked to violent groups, including the IRA-allied Sinn Fein, play a major role, with former gunmen and bombers among those who now sit as lawmakers. &quot;Engaging those involved with violence and bringing them down democratic paths&rdquo; was key to the success of Northern Ireland&#39;s peace process, according to Peter McLoughlin, a senior lecturer in politics and history at Queen&rsquo;s University Belfast. &lsquo;Inclusive process worked&rsquo;He said excluding Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, in the future of the strip, could be a problem. &ldquo;If there was a broad lesson from the success of Northern Ireland, it&rsquo;s that an inclusive process worked &ndash; and I mean inclusive in the full sense, all different parties, even including militants,&quot; McLoughlin said. &ldquo;Hamas is being excluded from the political process and is expected to give up its weapons,&quot; he added. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how feasible that is.&rdquo; Key players returnStarmer&#39;s reference to the UK&#39;s experience in monitoring ceasefires no doubt refers to the achievements of Blair and Powell. President Donald Trump has said Blair, who was UK prime minister between 1997 and 2007, is a potential member of a &ldquo;Board of Peace&rdquo; to oversee administration and reconstruction in Gaza. Blair has long experience in the Middle East, having served as an envoy to Israel and the Palestinians for the &quot;Quartet&quot; &mdash; the US, European Union, Russia and the United Nations &mdash; for eight years until 2015. He also played a pivotal role &mdash; along with then US President Bill Clinton &mdash; in putting together an international coalition that conducted airstrikes in 1999 to end Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic&rsquo;s crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. But Blair is also a highly controversial figure because of his decision to take Britain into the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.&nbsp; Trump has acknowledged that Blair might not be &ldquo;an acceptable choice to everybody&rdquo; in the region. &lsquo;Small diplomatic part&rsquo;Powell, meanwhile, is now Starmer&rsquo;s national security adviser and attended Trump&rsquo;s summit in Egypt.&nbsp; US Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff praised Powell&rsquo;s &ldquo;incredible input and tireless efforts&rdquo; in reaching the agreement. Bronwen Maddox, the director of Chatham House, the UK-based international affairs institute, was skeptical about drawing parallels between the two processes. She said Britain &ldquo;can play a small diplomatic part&rdquo; in Gaza, but probably not a decisive one. The Northern Ireland peace deal &ldquo;was a successful and really important peace negotiation,&quot; she said. &quot;But it was very much of itself, I think.&rdquo;

Middle East

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that “drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland, we stand ready to play a key role in the decommissioning of Hamas’ weapons and capability.”

UK ready to decommission Hamas: Starmer  

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan&rsquo;s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has criticized the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, accusing it of acting as a proxy for India and allowing cross-border terror attacks in Pakistan. &ldquo;This war of terrorism has been imposed on Pakistan by India, Afghanistan and the TTP working together. The rulers in Kabul, who used to be under our protection and who once hid on our soil, are now sitting in India&rsquo;s lap and conspiring against Pakistan,&rdquo; Asif wrote on X, formerly Twitter. <div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1979192853122420827&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Flogin%2F&sessionId=a3f53bc647d1e4e740203278c506b98829f51cc6&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 441px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div></div> The minister outlined Pakistan&rsquo;s extensive efforts over the past four years to engage Kabul diplomatically and militarily, which, according to him, have been met with betrayal.&nbsp;These included four visits to Kabul by Pakistan&rsquo;s Foreign Minister, two joint visits by the defense minister and ISI leadership, and five trips each by the Special Envoy on Afghanistan and senior Foreign Office secretaries. Pakistan&rsquo;s National Security Adviser also visited Kabul once, and eight meetings of the Joint Coordination Committee were held.&nbsp;&ldquo;Along the border, 225 flag meetings took place, while Pakistan issued 836 formal protest notes and delivered 13 demarches to the Afghan authorities,&rdquo; he added. Despite these persistent efforts, Asif said, the situation has only worsened.&nbsp;From 2021 to date, Pakistan has suffered 10,347 acts of terrorism, resulting in the martyrdom of 3,844 individuals, including civilians, soldiers, and law enforcement personnel, he noted.&nbsp;Asif said Pakistan&rsquo;s sacrifices were met not with cooperation but with hostility from the very regime that once found refuge on Pakistani soil.&nbsp;He declared that Pakistan can no longer afford to maintain relations with Kabul as it has in the past. Asif emphasized that the country&rsquo;s patience has run out, and there will be no more appeals for peace or high-level visits to Afghanistan. Instead, Pakistan will respond decisively to any acts of terrorism or cross-border infiltration.&nbsp;&ldquo;Wherever the source of terrorism lies, it will now come at a heavy cost,&rdquo; he warned.&nbsp;Khawaja Asif also stated that all Afghans residing in Pakistan will need to return to their homeland. He pointed out that it has now been five years since what the Taliban calls its &ldquo;Islamic revolution,&rdquo; and that Afghanistan must now take responsibility for its citizens.&nbsp;&ldquo;The land and resources of Pakistan belong to its 250 million people,&rdquo; he said, adding that the time for forced hospitality has come to an end.&nbsp;The minister stressed that Pakistan desires peace with its neighbors, but it will not tolerate hostility or foreign-backed terrorism.&nbsp;&ldquo;Self-respecting nations do not live off the land and resources of others,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If Afghanistan wants to be a neighbor, it must act like one.&rdquo;

Security

Outlines Pakistan’s extensive efforts over the past four years to engage Kabul diplomatically and militarily, efforts that, according to him, have been met with betrayal.

Taliban now acting as India’s proxy, says Khawaja Asif​

BEIJING: China and the United States agreed Saturday to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world&#39;s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that Vice Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had &quot;candid, in-depth and constructive exchanges&quot; during a Saturday morning call, and that both sides agreed to hold a new round of trade talks &quot;as soon as possible&quot;. On social media, Bessent described the discussions as &quot;frank and detailed&quot;, and said they would meet &quot;in-person next week to continue our discussions&quot;. Bessent had previously accused China of seeking to harm the rest of the world by tightening restrictions rare earths, which are critical to everything from smartphones to guided missiles. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also participated in the call, according to the report by Chinese state news agency Xinhua. Hours before the call, Fox News released excerpts of an interview with Trump in which he said that he would meet Xi at the APEC summit after all. Coordinated response&nbsp;The high-level video call came as Washington worked to rally Group of Seven finance ministers in response to the latest Chinese export controls. For now, the G7 ministers have agreed to coordinate a short-term response and diversify suppliers, the EU&#39;s economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters in Washington. Speaking after the grouping met this week, Dombrovskis noted the vast majority of rare earth supplies come from China, meaning that diversification could take years. &quot;We agreed, both bilaterally with the US and at the G7 level, to coordinate our approach,&quot; he said on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank&#39;s fall meetings. Countries would also exchange information on their contacts with Chinese counterparts as they work out short-term solutions, he added. German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told journalists he hopes that Trump and Xi&#39;s meeting can help to resolve much of the US-China trade conflict. &quot;We have made it clear within the G7 that we do not agree with China&#39;s approach,&quot; he added, referring to the group of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva also expressed hope Friday for an agreement between the countries to cool tensions. The US-China trade war reignited this year as Trump promised sweeping tariffs on imports soon after returning to office. At one point, US-China tariffs escalated to triple-digit levels, effectively halting some trade as businesses waited for a resolution. The two countries have since lowered their respective levies, but their truce has remained shaky.

Americas

China and the United States agreed to hold new trade talks after tensions flared over rare earth export controls and tariff threats. Both sides signaled willingness to negotiate as G7 nations coordinated responses.

China and US agree to fresh trade talks

SAN FRANCISCO:&nbsp;A United States (US) judge on Friday granted an injunction barring Israeli spyware maker NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users but slashed a $168 million damages award at trial to just $4 million. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that NSO Group&#39;s behavior fell short of a &quot;particularly egregious&quot; standard needed to support the jury&#39;s calculations on a financial penalty. Snooping tactics&nbsp;But in the ruling, seen by AFP, she said the court &quot;concluded that defendants&#39; conduct causes irreparable harm, and there being no dispute that the conduct is ongoing,&quot; the judge granted WhatsApp owner Meta an injunction to stop NSO Group&#39;s snooping tactics at the messaging service. &quot;Today&#39;s ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again,&quot; WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart said in a statement. Reverse-engineering&quot;We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society.&quot; Evidence at trial showed that NSO Group reverse-engineered WhatsApp code to stealthily install spyware targeting users, according to the ruling. The spyware was repeatedly redesigned to escape detection and bypass security fixes at WhatsApp, the court concluded. CyberespionageThe lawsuit, filed in late 2019, accused NSO Group of cyberespionage targeting journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, and others using the encrypted messaging service. Hamilton ruled, however, that the $168 million damages verdict awarded to Meta earlier this year was excessive. &quot;There have simply not yet been enough cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance in the smartphone era for the court to be able to conclude that defendants&#39; conduct was &#39;particularly egregious&#39;,&quot; Hamilton wrote in the ruling, which was seen by AFP. &quot;As time goes on, more of a shared societal consensus may emerge about the acceptability of defendants&#39; conduct.&quot; <h2 style="line-height: 2;">A pocket spy</h2>Founded in 2010 by Israelis Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, NSO Group is based in the seaside high-tech hub of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. Media website TechCrunch reported Friday that a US investment group has acquired controlling interest in NSO Group. The Israeli firm produces Pegasus, a highly invasive tool that can reportedly switch on a target&#39;s cell phone camera and microphone and access data on it, effectively turning the phone into a pocket spy. The suit filed in a California federal court contended that NSO tried to infect approximately 1,400 &quot;target devices&quot; with malicious software to steal valuable information. Malicious codeInfecting smartphones or other gadgets being used for WhatsApp messages meant the content of messages encrypted during transmission could be accessed after they were unscrambled. The complaint said the attackers &quot;developed a program to enable them to emulate legitimate WhatsApp network traffic in order to transmit malicious code&quot; to take over the devices. The software has been pinpointed by independent experts as being used by nation states, some of them with poor human rights records. NSO Group has maintained that it only licenses its software to governments for fighting crime and terrorism.

Viral

WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart said in a statement, "Today's ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again", adding, “We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation.”

US court bars Israeli firm from installing spyware on WhatsApp

VIENNA: A landmark 10-year deal world powers signed with Iran to rein in its nuclear programme officially ends Saturday. But the deal began to fall apart years ago, and wide-ranging UN sanctions were reimposed last month on the Islamic republic, effectively burying the agreement but creating space for something new, according to experts. What does &#39;Termination Day&#39; mean?&nbsp;The deal&#39;s &quot;termination day&quot; was set for October 18, 2025, exactly 10 years after the adoption of resolution 2231, with which the UN Security Council enshrined it. Officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement between Iran and China, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States saw the lifting of international sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on Tehran&#39;s nuclear programme. But Washington left the deal in 2018 during President Donald Trump&#39;s first term in office and reinstated sanctions. Tehran then began stepping up its nuclear programme. Talks to revive the agreement have failed so far, and in August, Britain, Germany and France triggered the so-called &quot;snapback&quot; process, leading to the re-imposition of the UN sanctions. &quot;Termination day is relatively meaningless due to snapback,&quot; Arms Control Association expert Kelsey Davenport told AFP. A diplomat close to Iran&#39;s nuclear issues told AFP that Iran would mark termination day with a statement Saturday at the UN in New York. Where are we now?&nbsp;Though &quot;lifeless&quot; for years, snapback &quot;officially buried&quot; the nuclear deal, with &quot;its sorry fate continuing to cast a shadow over the future&quot;, said Ali Vaez, the International Crisis Group&#39;s Iran project director. Western powers and Israel have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, a claim Tehran denies. Nuclear talks between Iran and world powers are currently deadlocked. &quot;Iran remains sceptical of the utility of engaging with the US given its history with President Trump, while Washington still seeks a maximalist deal,&quot; Vaez told AFP. On Monday, Trump said that he wanted a peace deal with Iran, but stressed the ball was in Tehran&#39;s court. Tehran has repeatedly said it remains open to diplomacy with the United States, provided Washington offers guarantees against military action during any potential talks. The US joined Israel in striking the Islamic republic&#39;s nuclear sites during a 12-day war in June. The three European powers also last week announced they will seek to restart talks to find a &quot;comprehensive, durable and verifiable agreement&quot;. Iranian top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said during an interview last week that Tehran does &quot;not see any reason to negotiate&quot; with the Europeans given they triggered the snapback mechanism. What&#39;s next?&nbsp;Despite the challenges, the death of the 2015 deal &quot;creates space to explore creative solutions to the Iranian nuclear crisis&quot;, analyst Davenport said. &quot;Diplomacy remains the only viable option to reduce Iran&#39;s proliferation risk in the long-term,&quot; she added. But she warned the more time elapsed, &quot;the more challenging it will be to negotiate a deal down the road and the greater the risk of conflict re-erupting&quot;.

The Iran nuclear deal ended on October 18, 2025, after UN sanctions were reimposed. The agreement’s collapse deepens tensions but may open space for new diplomatic efforts to address Iran’s nuclear programme.

Iran nuclear deal officially ends as UN sanctions return

SAN CRISTOBAL: US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro had offered major concessions to ease tensions with Washington and confirmed a new strike on a drug-smuggling vessel, which reportedly left survivors. Washington accuses Maduro of heading a drug cartel and has deployed significant military assets &mdash; including stealth warplanes and seven US Navy ships &mdash; as part of what it says are counter-narcotics efforts in the region. Maduro, an authoritarian socialist who is widely accused of stealing elections last year, claims Washington is plotting regime change. Asked at the White House about reports that Caracas had floated de-escalation plans, Trump was scathing. &quot;He has offered everything, you&#39;re right,&quot; he said. Venezuela&#39;s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, on Thursday denied a Miami Herald report that she had negotiated with Washington on a plan to oust Maduro. Venezuela is the alleged origin of some of the vessels, at least six of which have been targeted and mostly involving speedboats, in an unprecedented campaign of US strikes in the Caribbean since September. The latest attack left survivors on board, media outlets including CBS and NBC reported, citing unidentified US officials. US media later reported on Friday the two survivors were in the custody of the US Navy, with no further details available on their conditions or circumstances. Trump said the target was a &quot;drug-carrying submarine built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs.&quot; Semi-submersibles built in clandestine jungle shipyards have for years been used to ferry cocaine from South America, particularly Colombia, to Central America or Mexico, usually via the Pacific Ocean. Washington says its Caribbean campaign is dealing a decisive blow to drug trafficking, but it has provided no evidence that the people killed &mdash; at least 27 so far &mdash; were drug smugglers. Experts say such summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers. The US campaign has drawn in some of Venezuela&#39;s neighbors. Police in Trinidad and Tobago, located off the coast of Venezuela, is investigating whether two of its citizens were killed in a strike on Wednesday. And Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he believes Colombians have also died in the attacks. A defiant Trump this week announced plans to ramp up operations against Venezuela, fueling speculation that his administration aims to topple Maduro. Trump indicated he had authorized covert CIA operations against Venezuela and was considering strikes on land targets. Earlier this week, in a show of force, US-based B-52 bombers circled over the Caribbean off Venezuela&#39;s coast for several hours, data from tracking website Flightradar24 showed. Venezuela has deployed 17,000 troops to Tachira state, which borders Colombia, in response to the US threats. Venezuelan forces are also stationed in southern Amazonas state, which borders both Colombia and Brazil, and multiple coastal areas. While Trump weighs whether to expand US military action from the sea onto land, the admiral overseeing the naval strikes in the Caribbean announced he will step down. The head of US Southern Command gave no reason for retiring just a year into his tenure, which follows multiple top US military officers being dismissed in recent months.

Washington accuses Maduro of heading a drug cartel; Maduro claims Washington is plotting regime change.





Trump says Venezuela's Maduro offered 'everything' to ease tensions

Muhammad Usman Amin

PESHAWAR: Trade disruptions at key border crossings are causing daily losses of several million dollars, a top business leader warned, noting that while Pakistani traders are affected, the impact on Afghanistan&rsquo;s fragile economy is far more devastating. Bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan has come to a near standstill following the suspension of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) and the continued closure of key border crossings, triggering a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as winter approaches. For landlocked Afghanistan, the APTTA serves as a crucial economic lifeline, providing access to Pakistan&rsquo;s seaports at Karachi and Port Qasim, essential gateways for international trade. It also facilitates regional connectivity through land routes such as the Wagah border with India and the Sost crossing for trade with China. The current shutdown has effectively disrupted these corridors, cutting Afghan businesses off from global markets and halting the flow of vital imports and exports. At major border points, the situation has turned dire. Hundreds of trucks remain stranded at Torkham, while others are stuck at the Kharlachi and Ghulam Khan crossings. Many of these vehicles are loaded with perishable items, rice, flour, and fresh produce from Pakistan, now at risk of spoilage. On the Afghan side, over a thousand containers carrying coal, dried fruits, and other export goods are unable to cross into Pakistan, strangling one of Afghanistan&rsquo;s few remaining sources of revenue. &ldquo;This blockade is causing a daily loss of more than Rs1 billion [$3.54 million],&rdquo; said Junaid Altaf, president of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), in an interview with Pakistan TV Digital. &ldquo;From a sewing needle to aeronautical components, everything flows through Pakistan into Afghanistan. There is some loss to Pakistani businesses, but the blow to the Afghan economy is huge,&rdquo; he added. The disruption comes at a critical time. The World Food Program (WFP) recently warned that nearly 9.5 million Afghans are facing acute food insecurity, with international funding shortfalls already hampering aid efforts. The ongoing border closure threatens to worsen food shortages and fuel humanitarian distress in the coming weeks. Within Pakistan&rsquo;s business community, there is a growing consensus that the onus lies with Kabul to ensure the security and stability necessary for trade to resume. &ldquo;The Sarhad Chamber will ask the Afghan business community to pressure their government to establish peace so trade can be restored,&rdquo; Altaf said. Until stability returns, the crucial trade arteries linking Afghanistan to regional markets remain blocked. And with them, a vital economic and humanitarian lifeline for millions of Afghans.

Asia

Daily losses worth several million dollars mount as Pakistan-Afghanistan border closures cripple trade, with business leaders warning Afghanistan’s fragile economy faces worsening strain amid deepening humanitarian and food insecurity challenges.

Afghan trade faces collapse amid prolonged border shutdown with Pakistan

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Friday called on Kyiv and Moscow to &ldquo;stop where they are&rdquo; and end their brutal war following a lengthy White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump&#39;s frustration with the conflict has surfaced repeatedly in the nine months since he returned to office, but with his latest comments, he edged back in the direction of pressing Ukraine to give up on retaking land it has lost to Russia. &ldquo;Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts,&rdquo; Trump said in a Truth Social post not long after hosting Zelenskyy and his team for more than two hours of talks. &ldquo;They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!&rdquo; Later, soon after arriving in Florida, where he&#39;s spending the weekend, Trump urged both sides to &ldquo;stop the war immediately&rdquo; and implied that Moscow keep territory it&rsquo;s taken from Kyiv. &ldquo;You go by the battle line wherever it is &mdash; otherwise it&#39;s too complicated,&rdquo; Trump told reporters. &quot;You stop at the battle line and both sides should go home, go to their families, stop the killing, and that should be it.&rdquo; The comments amounted to another shift in position on the war by Trump. In recent weeks, he had shown growing impatience with Russian President Vladimir Putin and expressed greater openness to helping Ukraine win the war. After meeting with Zelenskyy in New York on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly last month, Trump even said he believed the Ukrainians could win back all the territory they had lost to Russia since Putin launched the February 2022 invasion. That was a dramatic shift for Trump, who had previously insisted that Kyiv would have to concede land lost to Russia to end the war. Zelenskyy, after Friday&#39;s meeting said it was time for a ceasefire and negotiations. He sidestepped directly answering a question about Trump nudging Ukraine to give up land. &ldquo;The president is right, we have to stop where we are, and then to speak,&rdquo; Zelenskyy said when asked by reporters about Trump&rsquo;s social media post, which he hadn&#39;t seen. Trump&#39;s tone on the war shifted after he held a lengthy phone call with Putin on Thursday and announced that he planned to meet with the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, in the coming weeks. The president also signaled to Zelenskyy on Friday that he&#39;s leaning against selling him long-range Tomahawk missiles, weaponry that the Ukrainians believe could be a game changer in helping prod Putin to the negotiating table. Zelenskyy, at the start of the White House talks, said he had a &ldquo;proposition&rdquo; in which Ukraine could provide the United States with its advanced drones, while Washington would sell Kyiv the Tomahawk cruise missiles. But Trump said he was hesitant to tap into the US supply, a turnabout after days of suggesting he was seriously weighing sending the missiles to help Ukraine beat back Russia&#39;s invasion. &ldquo;I have an obligation also to make sure that we&rsquo;re completely stocked up as a country, because you never know what&rsquo;s going to happen in war and peace,&rdquo; Trump said. &ldquo;We&#39;d much rather have them not need Tomahawks. We&#39;d much rather have the war be over, to be honest.&rdquo; Trump&#39;s latest rhetoric on Tomahawks is certainly disappointing to the Ukrainians. In recent days, Trump had shown an openness to selling Ukraine the Tomahawks, even as Putin warned that such a move would further strain the US-Russian relationship. But following Thursday&rsquo;s call with Putin, Trump began downplaying the prospects of Ukraine getting the missiles, which have a range of about 995 miles (1,600 kilometers.) Zelenskyy had been seeking the Tomahawks, which would allow Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russian territory and target key military sites, energy facilities, and critical infrastructure. Zelenskyy has argued that the potential for such strikes would help compel Putin to take Trump&rsquo;s calls for direct negotiations to end the war more seriously. Putin warned Trump during the call that supplying Kyiv with the Tomahawks &ldquo;won&rsquo;t change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause substantial damage to the relationship between our countries,&rdquo; according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin&rsquo;s foreign policy adviser. It was the fifth face-to-face meeting for Trump and Zelenskyy since the Republican returned to office in January, The president said on Friday it was &ldquo;to be determined&rdquo; if Zelenskyy would be involved in the upcoming talks in Hungary &mdash; suggesting a &ldquo;double meeting&rdquo; with the warring countries&#39; leaders was likely the most workable option for productive negotiations. &ldquo;These two leaders do not like each other, and we want to make it comfortable for everybody,&rdquo; Trump added. But Zelenskyy told reporters that the animus toward Putin &ldquo;is not about feelings.&rdquo; &ldquo;They attacked us, so they are an enemy for us. They don&rsquo;t intend to stop,&quot; Zelenskyy added. &quot;So they are an enemy. It is not about someone just hating someone else. Although undoubtedly, we hate the enemy. Undoubtedly.&rdquo; Trump, going back to his 2024 campaign, insisted he would quickly end the war, but his peace efforts appeared to stall following a diplomatic blitz in August, when he held a summit with Putin in Alaska and a White House meeting with Zelenskyy and European allies. Trump emerged from those meetings certain he was on track to arranging direct talks between Zelenskyy and Putin. But the Russian leader hasn&rsquo;t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine. Asked on Friday if he was concerned that Putin was stringing him along, Trump acknowledged it was a possibility but said he was confident he could handle the Russian leader. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well,&quot; Trump said. He added, &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m pretty good at this stuff.&quot;

Europe

US president implies Moscow keep territory it’s taken from Kyiv; comments amount to another shift in position on war by Trump. 

Trump calls on Ukraine, Russia to ‘stop where they are’ and end the war

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan&#39;s Foreign Office on Friday strongly rejected Indian remarks about recent cross-border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, calling them &ldquo;unfortunate&rdquo; and a &ldquo;deliberate mischaracterization of the situation on the ground.&rdquo; Responding to comments made a day earlier by India&rsquo;s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Pakistan&rsquo;s Foreign Office said New Delhi&rsquo;s statements were &ldquo;obviously aimed at sabotaging the efforts currently underway to restore peace and normalcy.&rdquo; In his weekly briefing on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal made remarks accusing Pakistan of supporting insurgent groups and of blaming its neighbors for internal matters. He further claimed that Pakistan was &ldquo;not happy with Afghanistan exercising sovereignty over its own territories,&rdquo; while asserting India&rsquo;s &ldquo;commitment to Afghanistan&rsquo;s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence.&rdquo; Rejecting these assertions, Foreign Office Spokesperson Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan said the Indian remarks &ldquo;reflect a deliberate attempt to distort facts and misrepresent the situation.&rdquo; &ldquo;India&#39;s baleful influence on South Asia and its negative role in destabilizing the entire region are well known,&rdquo; Khan said. &ldquo;Pakistan&rsquo;s actions are guided solely by considerations of its security and undertaken in self-defense against unprovoked and destabilizing activities along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.&rdquo; He emphasized that India was &ldquo;in no position to cast aspersions on others, given its own well-documented record of involvement in acts of terrorism and extraterritorial assassinations in Pakistan and beyond.&rdquo; &ldquo;Its claims of respecting Afghanistan&rsquo;s sovereignty and territorial integrity ring hollow in light of its persistent interference in the internal affairs of other countries,&rdquo; he added. Last week, Afghan Taliban and allied militants launched unprovoked attacks along the border to facilitate the infiltration of Khawarij formations, a term Islamabad uses for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan Army troops responded with artillery, tanks, and air assets, targeting Afghan military posts and militant hideouts. The military identified Fitna al-Khawarij, TTP, and Fitna al-Hindustan, a term referring to Indian-backed proxies, as the main instigators. The cross-border violence left over 200 attackers dead, while 23 Pakistani soldiers were martyred, according to the ISPR.

Foreign Affairs

Spokesperson Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan says New Delhi’s statements distort facts, reflect hostility, and are “clearly intended to derail ongoing diplomatic efforts focused on restoring stability and preventing further escalation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.”

Pakistan rejects India’s remarks on Afghan clashes as ‘deliberate mischaracterization’: Foreign office

JERUSALEM: Hamas handed over to Israel the remains of one more hostage on Friday night, after insisting it was committed to returning all the dead captives still unaccounted for under Gaza&#39;s ruins after two years of war. &quot;Israel received, via the Red Cross, the coffin of a deceased hostage who was returned&quot; to its security forces in Gaza and would be identified at a medical analysis center in Israel, the prime minister&#39;s office said in a statement. Under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, the Palestinian fighter group returned all 20 surviving hostages and the remains of nine out of 28 known deceased ones, not counting the remains handed over on Friday night. In exchange, Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from its jails and halted the military campaign it launched in Gaza after Hamas&#39;s October 7, 2023, attack. Bodies under Gaza rubble&nbsp;Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday reaffirmed his determination to &quot;secure the return of all hostages,&quot; and his defense minister has warned that the military will restart the war if Hamas fails to do so. Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad on Friday called those threats &quot;unacceptable pressure tactics.&quot; &quot;The issue of the bodies is complex and requires time, especially after the occupation changed the landscape of Gaza,&quot; Hamas said in a statement. &quot;We will return the bodies and adhere to the agreement as we promised.&quot; Turkey dispatched a team of specialists to help retrieve remains buried under the rubble, but the group was still waiting on Friday for Israeli permission to enter the territory. &quot;It remains unclear when Israel will allow the Turkish team to enter Gaza,&quot; a Turkish official told AFP, noting that the team&#39;s mission included locating both Palestinian and hostage remains. A Hamas source told AFP the Turkish delegation was expected to enter by Sunday. Gaza&#39;s civil defense agency said more than 280 bodies had been recovered from the rubble since the ceasefire went into effect. Aid enters Gaza&nbsp;The ceasefire deal has seen the war grind to a halt after two years of agony for the hostages&#39; families, and constant bombardment and hunger for Gazans. The UN&#39;s World Food Program said on Friday it had been able to move close to 3,000 tons of food supplies into Gaza since the ceasefire took hold. But it cautioned it would take time to reverse the famine in the Strip, saying all crossings needed to be opened to &quot;flood Gaza with food.&quot; Trump&#39;s 20-point plan for Gaza calls for renewed aid, with international organizations awaiting the reopening of southern Gaza&#39;s strategic Rafah crossing. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said he entered Gaza on Friday, where he watched a convoy of aid head to Rafah from Israel&#39;s Kerem Shalom crossing and later visited a bakery making pita bread. &quot;We&#39;ve begged for this access for months, and finally we&#39;re seeing goods moving at scale: food, medicine, tents, fuel, a lot of fuel got in today,&quot; he said, in a video message posted to social media. Identifying the dead&nbsp;Families of surviving hostages rejoiced in their return, while others buried the returned remains of their loved ones. &quot;We&#39;ve been waiting for this for so long, two years that we&#39;ve been fighting for him every single day,&quot; said 30-year-old Gal Gilboa Dalal, the older brother of Guy Gilboa Dalal, who was released after two years in Hamas captivity. Gal told AFP that Hamas had intentionally starved his brother and another prisoner for three and a half months to use him as a prop in a propaganda video about hunger. &quot;Their bones hurt, their muscles hurt. Their recovery will be very long.&quot; At the Nasser Hospital in Gaza, meanwhile, families searched for their loved ones among the bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel. One, Akram Khalid al-Manasra, told AFP he identified his son &quot;thanks to the birthmark on his nose and his teeth.&quot; Others were clearing the rubble from their destroyed homes. &quot;I&#39;m right under the threat of death. It could collapse at any moment,&quot; said Ahmad Saleh Sbeih, a Gaza City resident. &quot;But there is no choice.&quot; The war has killed at least 67,967 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the territory &mdash; figures the United Nations considers credible. The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children. Hamas&#39;s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Turkey dispatched a team of specialists to help retrieve remains buried under the rubble, but the group is still waiting for Israeli permission to enter the territory.

