Escalating Iran Tensions and Geopolitical Rivalryactive

The escalation of the conflict with Iran is experiencing a period of truce. Following a Tuesday threat from U.S. President Donald Trump, who warned that "an entire civilization will die tonight" if Iran failed to reach an agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz, negotiations – mediated by Pakistan – resulted in an agreement for a two-week ceasefire. This temporary respite is far from stable, and it has prompted questions about what each country involved has gained from these 40 days of confrontation. In the case of the United States, there is no evidence to suggest that it has achieved two of its objectives: a change in the Iranian regime – even though Israel eliminated the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – and preventing the country from developing the capabilities to create a nuclear weapon. As we explain in these pages, the conflict has further damaged Trump's credibility, and his actions in Iran have caused severe economic repercussions worldwide, with soaring oil prices and a consequent impact on inflation. We saw this just this week in Chile with the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), which showed an increase of 1% in the last month. Despite this, negotiations between the countries continue, although recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon constantly threaten to derail them. Meanwhile, in our country, it has been a month since José Antonio Kast assumed the presidency. He has focused his efforts on an agenda to combat violence in schools, prioritizing it over the "Law of R..." (the text is incomplete here).

In a televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to appease domestic critics who argue that the war failed to achieve its objectives.

Neither side wants its rival to gain dominance. And the competition could become even more intense.

The world’s two superpowers are waging an information war to influence the minds of Africa’s young and media-savvy demographic, with articles pitched by the United States and China designed to show each other in an unflattering light. On March 31, Africa Defence Forum magazine, a publication of the US Army’s Africa Command, ran an article called: “China’s floating fish factories plunder Guinea Bissau’s resources”. It detailed illegal operations by Chinese fishing trawlers in the West African...

When the U. S. and Israel launched their war on Iran, it put as many as 1 million Americans living in the Middle East at risk. Many found themselves stranded in an expanding war zone by a government without a plan, much less the personnel and expertise, to rescue them. That’s because the Trump administration fired hundreds of key State Department personnel with the skills needed to safeguard U. S. citizens abroad and usher them from harm’s way, lawmakers say. These foreign service officers — who lost their jobs amid Elon Musk’s purge of the federal workforce — contacted members of Congress last month with dire warnings about the department’s inability to manage the ongoing crisis. “The Department is actively preventing experienced, cleared, available officers from helping American citizens in crisis,” a group of nearly 250 mostly mid-career and senior State Department foreign service officers wrote in a letter sent to lawmakers that was shared exclusively with The Intercept. “The crisis now unfolding in the Middle East is, in part, a foreseeable consequence of this and other short-sighted decisions taken by this administration to undermine the federal bureaucracy by eliminating expertise and politicizing our apolitical workforce.” They added: “The expertise required to manage the current crisis has been systematically removed.” Related Putting Fuel on a Ceasefire: Israel Tries to Kill U. S.–Iran Talks The situation in the Middle East remains dire, even as a fragile ceasefire between the U. S. and Iran has taken hold following a genocidal threat by President Donald Trump. After Trump teased that he was willing to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization” earlier this week, the State Department advised American citizens to reconsider travel across the Middle East due to serious risks to safety and security. Days earlier, the department had urged “citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial flight options remain available” and to flee Iraq via “overland routes” due to fears of “widespread attacks against U. S. citizens.” The FSOs responsible for the letter to lawmakers are among more than 1,300 State Department personnel fired by the Trump administration as part of a purge by Musk’s now-disgraced Department of Government Efficiency last July. Under the rules governing federal employment, they were not immediately terminated but issued reduction-in-force, or RIF, notices, which is the legally prescribed federal procedure for laying off career civil servants. The Bureau of Consular Affairs, whose top priority is to “protect the lives and serve the interests of American citizens” around the world, was especially hard hit, losing 102 personnel — including the entire rapid-response consular officer team. These FSOs, all with Top Secret clearances and who are still being paid, have indicated their willingness to return to service, and include many with experience in the Middle East, crisis management, evacuation operations, or so-called “active conflict/ordered departure environments,” according to the letter. President Donald Trump began his war of choice with Iran on February 28, stating its “objective is to defend the American people.” But it wasn’t until March 2 that the State Department put out an alert for U. S. citizens to “DEPART NOW” from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen “due to serious safety risks.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on March 3 that stranded Americans should call a State Department hotline for assistance. Those that did were told they were on their own. “Please do not rely on the U. S. government for assisted departure or evacuation. At this time, there are currently no United States evacuation points,” an automated message stated. “At this time, there are currently no United States evacuation points.” The entire Massachusetts congressional delegation, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called out the “failures of the Trump administration and State Department to adequately prepare for the threats to American citizens living in the Middle East” in a March 5 letter and asked Rubio to provide answers to detailed questions about the evacuation failures. A month later, the State Department has yet to reply. “Secretary Rubio has no answers for the failures on his watch, but these brave public servants paint the clearest picture yet of the damage the Trump administration has wreaked,” Warren told The Intercept. “Rubio recklessly purging hundreds of State Department experts has threatened our national security and put U. S. citizens in danger in the Middle East.” The State Department did not provide answers to detailed questions from The Intercept about the fired FSOs. Instead, a spokesperson passed along anodyne talking points. “The RIFs did not have any negative impact on our ability to respond to the developments in the Middle East, our ability to plan, or our ability to execute in service to Americans,” she wrote in an email. “There were no RIFs that affected our overseas operations that are working in the field to assist Americans.” As U. S. citizens scrambled to flee the Middle East last month, nearly 20,000 flights to and from the region were canceled and major travel hubs, including the world’s busiest international airport in Dubai, were shut down for days. Americans found themselves stranded in countries that were quickly engulfed in America’s war, like a family from North Carolina left cowering in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem as missiles exploded outside, and a Philadelphia native living in the United Arab Emirates who described the State Department’s evacuation notices as “absolutely cavalier.” “I saw in the air missiles and lights and all that and everyone got on their knees and started praying,” Evelyn Mushi, who was transiting through the airport in Abu Dhabi with her 82-year-old mother, told NPR. “I’m just very shocked and upset that I see other nations getting their citizens out and we’re just stranded here.” Stuck in a hotel in Doha, Qatar, Odies Turner, a private chef from South Carolina, told ABC News: “I really don’t know what to do. I’ve reached out to the embassy, consulate and airlines. There’s no information on when I will get back home. It’s a mess.” The Trump administration claims that it “has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans worldwide.” But while Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Operation Epic Fury was the “culmination of months, and in some cases, years, of deliberate planning,” Trump said the administration had no evacuation plans for Americans abroad because “it all happened very quickly.” With Americans stranded and endangered, the State Department sat on its hands, the FSOs allege. On March 5, a former member of the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Rapid Response team with significant crisis management experience volunteered their services but say they were rebuffed. “At this time, there are no opportunities for officers who were subject to the July 2025 RIF to volunteer for the Middle East Consular Task Force,” the FSO was told by the State Department, according to the letter. The State Department did not reply to repeated questions about why the FSO’s offer was rejected. Last month, Foreign Policy reported on a letter from John Dinkelman, president of the American Foreign Service Association, to Michael Rigas, State Department deputy secretary for management and resources, in which he noted that many of those fired in July 2025 had offered to assist in the Middle East evacuation effort. Related No Way Home, Episode One: Life and Death Among the fired FSOs are officers who managed emergency evacuations from Ukraine in 2022; evacuation from Afghanistan — including an officer who led operations responsible for relocating 52,000 Afghans across multiple countries in 2025 and another who processed 8,000 evacuees in under 30 days at a remote site; evacuations from the Middle East during the Arab Spring; the tumult of the Covid-19 pandemic, including an officer who adjudicated tens of thousands of visas from a single overseas post; the 2006 Lebanon evacuation, which was the largest U. S. noncombatant evacuation operation since World War II; and those that managed posts during ordered departures from Bahrain, Ethiopia, and Iraq, among other relevant experience, according to the letter. One officer who shared their story on the condition of anonymity noted they joined the Foreign Service in the late 2000s, serving in South Asia and the Middle East, among other posts. A speaker of Urdu, Pashto, and Arabic, this FSO was one of those who played a major role in the Afghanistan evacuation, helping to process more than 34,000 Afghans, including 900 American citizens, whose identities and case statuses, such as those who worked with the U. S. military and had special immigrant visas, needed to be verified. “I loved my work and gave it my all,” said the officer. “I was on sick leave when I received an email that I was laid off. Shock can’t describe how I felt.” Others offered similar resumes and disbelief at the dismantling of the Foreign Service by the Trump administration. “Collectively, members of our group are prepared to staff multiple crisis task force shifts. We have a deep bench of Middle East experts, consular experience, crisis expertise, crisis communications background, and relevant language skills to immediately deploy to help,” wrote the fired FSOs. “The U. S. Government is not trimming fat. It amputated capability, and Americans are now paying the price.” “The U. S. Government is not trimming fat. It amputated capability, and Americans are now paying the price.” The July 11, 2025 reduction in force terminated 1,346 State Department employees, including 276 Foreign Service Officers — some of whom were later reinstated to correct purported firing “errors” — as well as 1,070 civil service employees. The Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations alone lost 62 personnel, including a senior stabilization adviser embedded with the military who supported evacuation planning. The department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs also lost close to 80 employees between August and December 2025, and the position of the assistant secretary in charge of Near Eastern Affairs remains vacant. The administration’s most recent budget proposed a 40 percent cut to the bureau, although Congress eventually settled on a less dramatic reduction. The cuts are symptomatic of the hollowing out of the State Department, especially in the Middle East. As of March, the United States had no confirmed ambassadors in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, Algeria, Libya, or Iraq. Career ambassadors to Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, and Algeria were also dismissed without replacement. The State Department did not respond to a request to confirm that all those positions remain open, nor did the press office address how the lack of leadership in so many key countries has affected diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. The post DOGE Cuts Left U. S. Unable to Help Americans Stranded in Iran War Zone appeared first on The Intercept.

The United States and Iran failed to reach an agreement after a day of highly anticipated face-to-face peace talks, Washington's lead negotiator Vice President J. D. Vance announced on Sunday. (Image credit: Jacquelyn Martin)

Negotiations in Islamabad have failed, according to Vance: "Tehran has made no commitments regarding its nuclear program." The response: "The demands are unreasonable, and there is no rush to hold another round of talks."

The U. S. brings superior size to economic warfare, but China and Iran have fought back through control of critical economic assets.

Iran and the United States failed to reach an agreement to end the war in the Middle East, US Vice President JD Vance said Sunday after marathon talks in Islamabad, adding that he was leaving after giving Tehran the "final and best offer".

Negotiations in Islamabad have failed, according to Vance: "There has been no commitment from Tehran regarding the nuclear issue." The response: "The demands are unreasonable, and there is no rush to hold another round of talks."

Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Office of the President, stated that following the return of 182 Ukrainians, another prisoner exchange is being prepared by the end of next week.

President Donald Trump’s attack on Iran sent gas prices surging, giving Democrats’ focus on affordability more traction if they can get voters to trust them.

China, the U. S., Russia and others have ramped up their contest over artificial-intelligence-backed weapons and military systems. The buildup has been compared to the dawn of the nuclear weapons age.

The firm claims it withheld an AI model for cybersecurity reasons, but skeptics say this was hype intended to attract investment. This week, the AI company Anthropic announced that it had developed an AI model so powerful that, out of a sense of overwhelming responsibility, it would not release it to the public. The US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, summoned the heads of major banks for a discussion about the model, Mythos. The Reform UK MP Danny Kruger wrote a letter to the government urging it to "engage with AI firm Anthropic, whose new frontier model Claude Mythos could present catastrophic cybersecurity risks to the UK." The platform X (formerly Twitter) erupted. Continue reading...

Following a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), the largest opposition party in Taiwan, which is considered "pro-China," China has announced measures that include economic incentives for Taiwan. This move is intended to further increase pressure on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, which China views as "separatist."

The United States and Iran ended a historic round of face-to-face talks early Sunday without reaching an agreement and the fate of the fragile, two-week ceasefire still unclear. Vice President JD Vance, who led the US delegation during the 21 hours of talks in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, said negotiations finished without a deal after the Iranians refused to accept American terms to refrain from developing a nuclear weapon. France24 correspondent Fraser Jackson shares his analysis from Washington.

Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that disagreements over “two or three" key issues prevented the conclusion of an agreement with the United States in Islamabad.

US Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday that 21 hours of peace talks in Pakistan between the US and Iran had failed to produce an agreement to end the war. Each side blamed the other for the failure of the negotiations.

JD Vance said that the Iranians refused to accept Washington's 'terms.'

The U. S. had demanded that Iran immediately reopen the strait to all maritime traffic, but Iran said it would do so only after a final peace deal, according to Iranian officials.

Hong Kong and Singapore routinely top global rankings of unaffordable cities. Yet it is the residents of Manila, Colombo and Yangon who are far more likely to tell pollsters they cannot afford shelter. The Philippines recorded the world’s highest share of people reporting difficulty affording housing in a new survey from US-based firm Gallup, with 55 per cent saying they had struggled to pay for shelter in the past 12 months. Sri Lanka followed at 54 per cent, Myanmar at 49 per cent and Thailand...

Vice President JD Vance said the Iranian delegation had not accepted American terms for ending the war after a marathon session in Pakistan.

According to the Ukrainian army, there were 2,299 violations, while the Russian Ministry of Defense reported 1,971.

US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that there would be an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fight in the White House grounds to mark his 80th birthday on June 14. Trump, a UFC fan, made the announcement on social media. This year marks the 250th anniversary of US independence and the initial plans were for the fight to take place on July 4, US Independence Day. On Saturday, Trump was attending a UFC fight in Miami with several family members and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, when...

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stated that his country proposed to Russia an extension of the ceasefire during the invasion of Ukrainian territory, following the celebration of Orthodox Easter. He emphasized that Ukrainian forces will only respond if Russian troops violate the truce. In a speech posted on social media, the President said: "Yesterday and today, we spoke in detail with the Commander-in-Chief, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and the Security Service of Ukraine, about the periods of silence, now coinciding with Easter. Ukraine has proposed this on numerous occasions. And it is good that it has yielded results. Easter should be a time of safety, a time of peace. It would be desirable for the ceasefire to continue. We made this proposal to Russia." Zelenskyy warned that if Russia chooses to continue the war, "this will once again demonstrate to the entire world and to the United States who they truly want to be and what they truly want." He added: "If there are no Russian attacks, we will not respond. We remember what happened in similar situations, and we know perfectly well who we are dealing with. If there are no Russian missiles or drones, we will also remain silent in the sky. The tasks on the front lines are similar, but each Ukrainian unit has the right to respond." The President stated that the proposal to extend the ceasefire had already been conveyed to Russian authorities. Meanwhile, the K…

War with Iran has brought 15 American sites across the UK countryside firmly into the spotlight They are dotted across the UK countryside, often obscured from public view behind highly secured perimeter fences. Technically, they are on British soil, and misleadingly most have “Royal Air Force” in their name. But in many respects, these military outposts are under the control of the US president and commander-in-chief. Continue reading...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife, Olena Zelenska, greeted Ukrainians on Easter.

Earlier, Dmitry Bakanov, head of Russia's Roscosmos State Space Corporation, called for the development of a legal document to prevent an arms race in space and to enable all countries to use outer space for peaceful purposes.

Carlos Ulberg takes the UFC light heavyweight title with a first-round knockout win over Jiri Prochazka in Miami.

Eric Swalwell has been accused of keeping his illegal live-in Brazilian nanny, Amanda Barbosa, in the US by violating immigration and employment law.

Tehran is grateful to Islamabad for its mediation efforts, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said

Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister, Ishaq Dar, stated, "I, along with the Chief of the Army, Field Marshal Syed Sim Munir, helped mediate several rounds of negotiations."

Delegations from Washington and Tehran arrived in Pakistan on Friday with the aim of working towards a deal and possible permanent end to the ongoing conflict.

Talks ended without deal due to 'excessive demands' made by US: Iran

Earlier reports said that the first, preliminary round of consultations between Lebanon and Israel would take place in Washington on April 14

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has insisted the US and Iran must uphold their ceasefire agreement.

Three supertankers laden with oil exit waterway amid global energy crunch, shipping data shows.

Top EU countries and US states appear one after the other in economic size rankings. However, US states surpass the top EU economies in GDP per capita, both in nominal terms and purchasing power.

Industry experts say the booking of the controversial US rapper was a calculated risk with implications for all festivals. The fallout from Wireless announcing Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) as its 2026 headliner was swift and considerable. Last Sunday, major sponsors of the three-day festival, including Pepsi and Diageo, began to withdraw their involvement in the face of significant backlash against Ye's shocking pronouncements on the Jewish community and the Holocaust. UK Jewish groups threatened to protest if the shows went ahead. Keir Starmer called the decision to book the rapper who wrote a song titled "Heil Hitler" "deeply concerning." Continue reading...

The United States and Iran have failed to reach an agreement to permanently end the war.

The U. S. had demanded that Iran immediately reopen the strait to all maritime traffic, but Iran said it would do so only after a final peace deal, according to Iranian officials.

NEW YORK — A fear of losing again is already shaping how Democrats think about 2028. Chants of “run again!” reverberated through the packed room as Kamala Harris spoke Friday at the National Action Network convention, a gathering of Black voters, lawmakers and power brokers that saw drop-ins from a steady stream of potential presidential candidates. But several Black attendees openly questioned whether anyone other than a straight, white man can win the White House. “The Democratic Party, they’re going to have to consider … who can win? Who can win, Black, white, who can win?” the Rev. Kim Williams, 63, a New Yorker and registered independent said in an interview. “I don’t think [the country is] ready for another different type of person,” said Annette Wilcox, a 69-year old New Yorker. It’s an open question the party is grappling with in the wake of Harris’ decisive 2024 loss to President Donald Trump. Conversations with a dozen people on the sidelines of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s gathering found some lingering concerns that America remains too bigoted — and that as a result, the desire to diversify the highest reaches of government is in tension with the desire to win. In interviews, several of the prospective 2028 Democrats themselves argued that anyone can win. They poured into the midtown Manhattan ballroom over the week to build their relationships with Black voters for what became a barely-hidden shadow primary. Sen. Ruben Gallego, a first-term Democrat who won statewide in Arizona despite Harris losing the state, told POLITICO on the sidelines of the convention that the party shouldn’t let fear narrow who ultimately runs. “If you got stuck into this idea of what an ideal character is … you could potentially miss some really great talent,” said Gallego, who leaned into his identity as a Latino veteran in his 2024 campaign. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, another possible 2028 candidate, said that he doesn’t “know many people back in 2022 who thought that an African American who had never held political office in his life was gonna be the next governor of Maryland.” “People want to know, does your message meet a moment,” he added. On stage with Sharpton on Friday, Harris seemed to agree. She made her most explicit overture at running again for the presidency, telling the audience she was “thinking about it” — to loud cheers and applause. Her appearance at the convention energized an otherwise largely staid event. But even Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman to become vice president, has tacitly acknowledged the limitations of the country. In her latest book, she divulged that former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — another 2028 contender who also made a pit-stop at NAN — was her top vice presidential pick in 2024. But she didn’t select him because she didn’t believe the country was ready for both a woman of color and a gay man in the White House. A spokesperson for Harris declined to comment. Some women, from former first lady Michelle Obama to various convention attendees disappointed by Harris’ 2024 loss, have said the U. S. isn’t ready for a female president. “I believe the current climate of this country is not ready for a Black woman as president,” Aaliyah Payton, 30, a middle school teacher in the Bronx, said while waiting to see Harris speak on the third day of the convention in a line that spanned far outside the convention room. “If Kamala Harris is running as a Democrat, and there is another white man also running as a Democrat, she would have a tough time winning,” said 60-year-old Donna Carr, who lives in New Jersey. “It’s a man’s world.” “I’m not going to lie, it may be too soon,” said 27-year-old New Yorker Justina Peña when asked if Harris should run again. The same handwringing roiled the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, and voters ultimately selected Joe Biden — a more moderate straight white man — to block Trump from winning a second consecutive term. The debate within the Democratic Party over what kind of candidate is electable played out again most recently in Texas, where the Democratic Senate primary was defined by tensions over race and concerns over which candidate could unify enough Democrats, independents and disillusioned Republicans to flip the red state. Voters chose seminarian James Talarico, a white man, over political firebrand Jasmine Crockett, a Black woman, in the end. “We saw it with the race with Crockett, and I saw a woman say she wanted to vote for Crockett, but she knew she could not win against [a] white male Republican,” said Williams, the 63-year-old reverend. Now, those conversations are already emerging for 2028 before a single Democrat has officially announced a bid for the White House. The question over 2028 ambitions hovered over Moore, Gallego, Harris, Buttigieg, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and California Rep. Ro Khanna this week — and while nobody said they officially are, nobody ruled it out. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly are slated to speak on Saturday. Buttigieg has dismissed concerns over his viability, including in a direct response to Harris’ revelation of why she didn’t choose him as a running mate in 2024. “My experience in politics has been that the way that you earn trust with voters is based mostly on what they think you’re going to do for their lives, not on categories,” Buttigieg told POLITICO in a September interview.“Politics is about the results we can get for people and not about these other things.” Some of the Black voters at the conference similarly expressed frustration with the idea that candidates’ identities should be a consideration in the looming 2028 primary. “My concern — biggest concern — is when we get into a crisis like this in this country, people want to go to the ‘center,’ which usually is right of center in my view. A lot of people get kind of left out,” said Wilcox, the 69-year-old New York voter. “In my experience, or history I’ve had with the Democratic Party, I feel like when that happens, Black people get tossed to the side.”

US Iran war talks LIVE: “We go back to the United States having not come to an agreement,” Vance told reporters in Islamabad early Sunday, adding that Washington had clearly laid out its position, saying, Iran has "chosen not to accept our terms.”

Singapore’s national media network Mediacorp has responded to criticism from Malaysian organisations over its drama Highway to Somewhere, which some claim portrays the country as a hub for scam syndicates. In a statement, a spokesperson said the production had taken care in its depiction of Malaysia and that the storyline was not meant to target any specific country. The 20-episode Chinese-language series follows a married couple played by Romeo Tan and Jeanette Aw, and four friends portrayed by...

U. S. Vice President JD Vance and other top Trump administration officials are heading home empty handed. Marathon negotiations with Iran in Pakistan this weekend failed to produce a breakthrough that would definitively end the war, which is entering its seventh week. Vance, who spoke early Sunday morning local time, said the Iranians refused to give assurances that they would not try to obtain or develop a nuclear weapon. “They have chosen not to accept our terms,” Vance said. “The simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon.” The negotiations — the highest-level meeting between an American official and Iranians since the 1979 Islamic revolution — were an effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and forestall what President Donald Trump threatened would be a bombing campaign to send Iran back to the “stone ages.” They came as the world economy is teetering, oil and other commodity prices have spiked, and amid growing concern at home and abroad that there are few easy off-ramps to avoid a long and costly war. Vance did not say whether this meant the United States and Israel would resume their attacks on Iran, or escalate them, possibly targeting civilian infrastructure as the president has threatened. “The bad news is we have not reached an agreement,” Vance said. “And I think that’s bad news for Iran much more than it’s bad news for the United States of America.” Trump, who was watching a UFC fight in Miami while Vance briefed the media in Islamabad, has not said whether he would pick up where he left off last week — threatening to destroy Iranian civilization. “We win regardless,” Trump said earlier Saturday. “We defeated them militarily.” But the United States’ military victory was apparently not enough to ensure that the president’s most consistent objective — to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon — was achieved. “We’ve made very clear what our red lines are,” Vance said.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called on his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian to use the negotiations in Islamabad to achieve sustainable de-escalation, and to restore freedom and security of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz as soon as possible.

From Ottoman Sultans to Danish kings, Iran’s toll system for Strait of Hormuz revives an old maritime fight

Hong Kong authorities have been urged to toughen penalties for child abuse as a proposal to review protection laws for minors, which were last updated in 1995, has remained stalled for seven years. A check by the South China Morning Post found that over more than 20 years, only one of 13 serious child abuse cases involving ill-treatment or neglect of a child or young person resulted in a jail term close to the maximum of 10 years. Lawmakers earlier this month called for increasing the 10-year...

Włodzimierz Czarzasty's comments represent a rare instance of criticism directed at the president in a country that is generally pro-US.

Iran’s ability to sustain missile and drone strikes despite heavy US-Israeli attacks has sharpened a debate in Taiwan: if the island’s air defences were degraded in the early stages of a conflict with mainland China, could it still keep fighting? The answer from officials, lawmakers and analysts was cautious but clear. They said the island could be resilient – but only if it shifted away from a missile-heavy defensive mindset towards a more integrated, cost-effective and survivable system. Even...

For years, Southeast Asian countries have preferred to avoid taking sides between China and the United States. This year’s State of Southeast Asia survey shows that this approach still holds, but a more contested geostrategic environment is making it harder to sustain. The region continues to feel uneasy about China’s entrenched influence, is increasingly troubled by US leadership under President Donald Trump and is more conscious of Asean’s institutional constraints. The weakening of confidence...

The world is beginning to lose count of the times Donald Trump has threatened in recent days to abandon NATO and leave his European allies in the lurch for refusing to follow him in his poorly planned military adventure in Iran. This is especially true because they have restricted the use of military bases on European soil — not only Spain, but also France, the United Kingdom, and even Italy have placed limits or conditions on the use of these facilities or prohibited military aircraft from flying over their airspace en route to the Middle East — for a war about which they weren’t even warned. The U. S. president’s threats have been so numerous that his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, warned him this week: “If the commitment is questioned every day, it loses its meaning.” Seguir leyendo

While the U.S. delegation, led by Vice President J.D. Vance, was negotiating with Iran in Pakistan, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, made a strong statement: he said he "didn't care" whether or not his country reached an agreement. The dialogue ultimately ended abruptly after the U.S. accused the Iranian regime of not committing to abandoning its nuclear weapons program, and a White House official announced their withdrawal from the talks. In a statement to the press, the President asserted that the outcome of the negotiations does not change the position of his government. Trump stated that the United States has "completely defeated" Iran and argued that, from his perspective, his country has already "won," regardless of whether an agreement is eventually signed. The negotiations took place in Islamabad and were led by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. Vance explained that the central objective of the United States was to obtain a firm commitment from Iran not to advance the development of nuclear weapons or the capabilities necessary to produce them quickly. The third round of talks took place just a few days after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, within the context of a conflict that has already lasted for seven weeks and has resulted in thousands of casualties, as well as impacts on international markets. There are currently no further details regarding…

US Vice President JD Vance is leaving Pakistan, saying Tehran chose not to accept their ‘final and best offer’.

US Vice President JD Vance says the US delegation has failed to reach an agreement with Iran.

In interview with Al Jazeera, International Maritime Organisation chief says world should reject tolls in waterway.

JD Vance boarded the plane at 2:08 a.m. GMT

4 ways war in Iran has weakened United States in great power game

According to Iran media, key sticking points included the Strait of Hormuz, nuclear rights, and other contentious issues.

The order comes as the Trump administration challenges a lower court ruling that the estimated $300-million project requires congressional approval. (Image credit: Rod Lamkey)

WASHINGTON, April 11 (Yonhap) -- The United States and Iran failed to reach an a...

A machete-wielding suspect, Anthony Griffin, was shot by police after attacking three elderly people at Grand Central Terminal while calling himself ‘Lucifer’.

Vance said talks foundered over Tehran’s unwillingness to concede ground on nuclear weapons

During the 21-hour negotiations, Iranian negotiators showed flexibility on numerous occasions, and suggested that the US side take a more realistic approach

President Donald Trump attended the UFC 327 event in Miami, and videos surfaced alleging that the audience booed the president.

According to the TV channel, Washington and Tehran have to shape a common stance for continuing the talks

Vice President Vance, speaking to reporters after a day of intense negotiations with Iran, stated that no progress was made towards a peace agreement, which he described as "bad news for Iran." This announcement came during a 14-day ceasefire in the war. Vance described the 21 hours of negotiations with the Iranian delegation, which were mediated by Pakistan and held…

Talks with Iran ended after 21 hours without reaching agreement, says US Vice President Vance

Chief US negotiator JD Vance said that the two sides had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians and called it "good news."

US Vice President said Sunday that talks in Islamabad failed to reach an agreement, saying he was leaving after putting forward a "final and best offer".

WASHINGTON, April 11 (Yonhap) -- U. S. Vice President JD Vance has said the Unite...

US Vice President JD Vance said there was no deal with Iran after 21 hours of negotiations in Pakistan. He said Iranian negotiators had chosen not to accept US terms for deal, which he insisted had been "quite flexible."

US Vice President JD Vance said there was no deal with Iran after 21 hours of negotiations in Pakistan. He said Iranian negotiators had chosen not to accept US terms for deal, which he insisted had been "quite flexible."

The U.S. Vice President, JD Vance, announced this Sunday from Islamabad that the American delegation did not reach an agreement with the Iranian regime after 21 hours of negotiations, and is therefore returning to Washington along with the rest of the American negotiating team. "They have chosen not to accept our terms," he stated during a press conference from the Pakistani capital. "The main objective is to ensure they do not acquire a nuclear weapon," he said to journalists. "Their enrichment facilities were destroyed, but the question is, do we see a commitment to not developing a nuclear weapon in the long term?" In his speech, Vance also praised the work of the Pakistani Prime Minister for facilitating a peace agreement between the parties. Prior to the press conference, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he "didn't care" whether the United States and Iran reached a peace agreement: "Whether we reach an agreement or not, it doesn't matter to me. The reason is because we have won." "We are in very deep negotiations with Iran. We win either way. We have militarily defeated them," the president told journalists. For its part, the Iranian regime, prior to Vance's press conference, had warned that the success of the peace talks depended on Washington avoiding "excessive demands" and "illegal requests." "The success of this diplomatic process depends on..."

"Iinformation from the talks has been scarce, but sources say that the general atmosphere can be described as positive," the TV channel said

Two sides held talks in Islamabad over the weekend

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Following lengthy and high-stakes negotiations with the Iranian delegation, US Vice-President J. D. Vance is holding a press conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, stating that the two sides failed to reach an agreement. "We have been at it now for 21 hours, and we've had a number of substantive discussions with the Iranians. That's the good news," he said. "[The] bad news is that we have not reached an agreement, and I think that's bad news for Iran, and even more so, it's bad news for the United States of..."

Hong Kong is navigating a period of significant economic transition. The city is seeing a surge in family offices. It is an offshore renminbi hub and has one of the world’s most meaningful capital markets. However, it needs systemic change to attract and retain top talent, bring the Hong Kong diaspora back home and lure high-spending tourists. While our capital infrastructure is strong, our cultural infrastructure demands urgent attention. As outlined in China’s 15th five-year plan, the central...

Hong Kong’s 21 ministerial-level officials spent more than HK$46.6 million (US$5.9 million) on trips over the past three financial years, with finance chief Paul Chan Mo-po accounting for nearly a quarter of the total. Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau Ying-wah was the most frequent traveller, making 50 trips in the past three years at a cost of HK$7.21 million to taxpayers, official records released to legislators showed. Chan made 35 visits during the three financial...

Tehran has emerged from weeks of conflict with its uranium stockpile and other components of its nuclear program intact.

According to the report, residents took to the streets of the Iranian capital carrying national flags and photos of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

A shooting was feared at Birkdale Village, the shopping center at 8712 Lindholm Dr #202, Huntersville, in North Carolina, on Saturday.

The talks in the capital of Pakistan continue for more than 15 hours

DUBAI – The new Supreme Leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, is still recovering from the serious facial injuries and leg wounds he sustained in the airstrike that killed his father at the beginning of the war, according to three people close to his inner circle, who spoke to Reuters. Khamenei's face was disfigured in the attack on the Supreme Leader's complex in downtown Tehran, and he suffered a significant injury to one or both of his legs, according to the three sources. However, the 56-year-old is recovering from his injuries and remains mentally alert, the sources said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. For now, Iranians only see him in the posters that the regime has put up in the streets. He is participating in meetings with high-ranking officials via video conferences and is involved in decision-making on important issues, such as the war and negotiations with Washington, according to two of the sources. The question of whether Khamenei's health allows him to lead the affairs of state arises at a time of the greatest danger that Iran has faced in decades, with peace talks with the United States scheduled to begin this Saturday in the Pakistani capital. The accounts from people close to Khamenei's inner circle offer the most detailed description of the leader's condition in weeks. Reuters has not been able to independently verify their descriptions. His whereabouts, his sta…

A new technical paper, “Neural Computers,” was published by researchers at Meta AI and KAUST. Abstract “We propose a new frontier: Neural Computers (NCs) — an emerging machine form that unifies computation, memory, and I/O in a learned runtime state. Unlike conventional computers, which execute explicit programs, agents, which act over external execution environments, and world models, which learn environment dynamics, NCs aim to make the model itself the running computer. Our long-term goal is the Completely Neural Computer (CNC): the mature, general-purpose realization of this emerging machine form, with stable execution, explicit reprogramming, and durable capability reuse. As an initial step, we study whether early NC primitives can be learned solely from collected I/O traces, without instrumented program state. Concretely, we instantiate NCs as video models that roll out screen frames from instructions, pixels, and user actions (when available) in CLI and GUI settings. These implementations show that learned runtimes can acquire early interface primitives, especially I/O alignment and short-horizon control, while routine reuse, controlled updates, and symbolic stability remain open. We outline a roadmap toward CNCs around these challenges. If overcome, CNCs could establish a new computing paradigm beyond today’s agents, world models, and conventional computers.” Find the technical paper here.  April 2026. Related blog post here. arXiv:2604.06425. The post An Engineering Roadmap Toward Completely Neural Computers (Meta AI, KAUST) appeared first on Semiconductor Engineering.

In a quiet street in northern Singapore, a car plies the road like any other – except it is a left-hand drive from China and the person in the driver’s seat has been trained to keep his hands off the wheel and his foot off the pedals unless an emergency arises. Eventually, there will be no need for a safety officer or any human behind the wheel at all – mirroring the autonomous vehicles (AVs) already operating in cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, San Francisco and Los Angeles. For now, Singapore...

Iran and US continue direct talks in Islamabad, with the Strait of Hormuz believed to be a key sticking point.

Negotiations between representatives from the United States and Iran, aimed at ending the conflict between the two countries, began on November 11th in Pakistan, the mediating country. We will provide an analysis of the progress of the negotiations and the outlook for the future. (Broadcast on the "Ohayou Nippon" program, 7:00 AM on November 12th.)

The Russian leader emphasized that it helps to preserve Russia’s historical and cultural heritage

China is preparing to deliver new air defense systems to Iran in the next few weeks, following over a month of U. S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s military and missile capabilities, CNN reported Saturday. The outlet cited three people familiar with recent U. S. intelligence assessments. Two of these sources told the outlet that Beijing could route…

Democrat Eric Swalwell is in the midst of a controversy as an ex-staffer accused him of sex assault and now an alleged video shows him kissing another woman.

As the Eric Swalwell sexual misconduct case unravels, new revelations were made on Saturday

"Slopaganda" is too weak a term to capture how powerful this "highly sophisticated" content is, one expert says.

The Prime Minister's attendance at the opening of the event, scheduled for May 9th, is increasingly uncertain. The matter concerning the Venetian foundation is expected to be a key topic of discussion for EU ministers during their meeting in Luxembourg on April 21st.

Abbas Aslani, an expert accompanying the Tehran delegation, stated: "We want a lasting peace and the guarantee that we will not be attacked again."

The philosopher stated: "Christian nationalism, which was very prominent in the Trump administration, can have dangerous consequences."

The US military said Saturday that two Navy warships transited through the strait to begin clearing it of mines. The Iranian military denied that any American warships had entered the waterway and threatened to respond if they do so.