US-Iran Tensions and Negotiationsactive

Israel and Lebanon are due to hold talks in Washington on Tuesday, though a ceasefire remains a distant prospect. Israel says it will not discuss any halt to the fighting with Hezbollah, which it considers the main obstacle to peace. The meeting will mark the first formal contact between the two countries, which have no diplomatic relations. Meanwhile, Lebanese authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,950 people, including over 350 on the first day of the US-Iran ceasefire alone. Daniel Quinlan reports.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is being urged to go further in loosening restrictions on stablecoins, after granting the city’s first two licences to banks to issue the digital currency. Bankers, venture capitalists and analysts said the long-awaited approvals – awarded to HSBC and a joint venture led by Standard Chartered – fell short of market expectations, underscoring the regulator’s cautious stance amid lingering risk concerns. “It came as a surprise that only two licences were...

The weekend’s peace talks in Islamabad mark Vance’s highest-profile assignment as vice president, with concomitant political risk.

According to the sources, "indirect consultations have already taken place" and "the upcoming negotiations will be direct

A US ​government plane carrying ​top US officials landed in the ​Pakistani ‌capital Islamabad ⁠on Saturday for ‌peace talks with Iran. Washington and ​Tehran are ‌set to begin negotiations to permanently end the six-week-old Iran ​war that has killed thousands of people across ​the Middle ​East. Daniel Quinlan reports.

Negotiations will be the first direct contact between the adversaries in more than four decades

Iran’s delegation led by Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf arrived in the Pakistani capital on Friday night

Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, is set to host peace talks today with leaders from Iran and the US, including Vice President J. D. Vance. (Image credit: Anjum Naveed)

The White House canceled a planned prime-time address by Trump on the Iran ceasefire due to concerns about unclear terms.

Fake news and a growing number of political scandals: Hungary hasn't seen an election this fraught since after 1989's collapse of the Soviet Union.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has described the upcoming US-Iran talks in Islamabad as "make or break."

With Prime Minister Viktor Orban seeming vulnerable before Sunday’s vote, criticism is growing from within institutions his party once counted on for support.

Days before Pakistan had helped to secure a ceasefire in the Iran war this week, the United Arab Emirates was seeking repayment of a US$3.5 billion deposit from Islamabad’s central bank. The withdrawal, brushed off as a “routine financial transaction” by Pakistan’s foreign ministry, equated to roughly 21 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange reserves. It was accompanied by a wave of criticism on Emirati social media directed at Islamabad. “When our security is directly threatened, we hear...

Vaianu, forecast to bring heavy rain and winds of up to 130 kmh (80 mph), is expected to hit on Sunday Thousands of New Zealanders were ordered to evacuate their homes on Saturday as the country’s North Island braced for Cyclone Vaianu, which authorities warned could cause coastal flooding and landslides. Vaianu, forecast to bring heavy rain and winds of up to 130 km/h (80 mp/h), was expected to hit on Sunday, then pass west of the remote Chatham Islands on Monday, the country’s weather forecaster said. Continue reading...

According to sources cited by the channel, the agenda for the talks will likely be approved by the US and Iran through representatives for Pakistan

The ministry also confirmed the arrival of an Iranian delegation in Islamabad

Lebanese Health Ministry says people killed in Israeli attacks since March 2 rises to 1,953 with 6,303 wounded.

The Justice Department (DOJ) is asking a federal judge in Virginia to allow it to conduct its own search of a Washington Post reporter’s seized electronic devices, rather than have the court do the review. Federal prosecutors urged U. S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga in a March 31 court filing to overturn a lower court…

Vice-president’s war doubts and his boss’s desperation to reopen Red Sea look like a weak deck against bolstered opponents As JD Vance arrives in Islamabad to negotiate a peace deal with Iran, his first high-profile assignment of the war looks to be a poisoned chalice. Vance, a vocal opponent of US wars in the Middle East gone quiet since the beginning of the current military campaign, will now face off with Iranian negotiators who feel emboldened by their new control of the Hormuz strait and their resilience in the face of the largest US-Israeli onslaught in history. Vance’s presence at the talks as vice-president will make it the highest-level meeting since the Iranian revolution of 1979. Continue reading...

A tense phone call took place between Trump and the Prime Minister, with a power struggle to prevent the summit in Pakistan from being cancelled. However, the Israeli Defense Forces are continuing their raids.

The White House says devastating attacks on Iran have strengthened its hand in coming talks, but some officials say Iran could still field more missiles.

Islamabad has deployed more than 10,000 military and police personnel as US and Iranian delegations arrive.

President Trump told reporters that he thinks the Strait of Hormuz will be open 'fairly soon' and said that the US doesn't need a backup plan if talks between the US and Iran go south in Pakistan this weekend, as he answered questions on his way to Charlottesville, Virginia. (Source: Bloomberg)

A group of bipartisan lawmakers in the United States has introduced legislation to tighten restrictions on advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, seeking to block Chinese chipmakers from accessing deep-ultraviolet (DUV) immersion lithography systems, as well as related parts and maintenance services. The Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware (MATCH) Act is designed to coordinate export […] The post US lawmakers seek to block China’s DUV lithography access appeared first on Asia Times.

According to the report, new fighter jets and attack aircraft have recently arrived in the region, while between 1,500 and 2,000 soldiers from the elite 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army may be delivered in the coming days

US President Donald Trump on Friday pressed Iran to meet US demands, as Vice-President J. D. Vance travelled to Pakistan to lead high-stakes negotiations seen as a key effort to end the more than month-long Middle East conflict. The talks between the US and Iran, taking place during the agreed two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, are expected to begin on Saturday morning in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed that leaders of both countries had...

US and Iranian delegations are set to meet in Islamabad for peace talks to end six weeks of war.

Iranian official says conditions still not met before talks, as Trump re-ups threat of renewed attacks.

Hungary's election on April 12 is the most important for the state since 1989, and also of historic significance for the EU. DW takes a more detailed look.

Some hardline factions in Tehran want to continue the war. Others see the Islamabad meeting as an opportunity to refashion relations with Washington.

The campaign for Hungary’s April 12 elections has been marred by disinformation. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party, Fidesz, has deployed a series of outrageous AI-generated videos to target his main rival Peter Magyar and his Tisza party, while a vast campaign orchestrated by fake accounts has emerged on TikTok and Facebook.

According to the source, if Israel violates the ceasefire and launches an attack on Beirut, the negotiations will be suspended

Hong Kong taxi passengers will still have to pay the full tunnel toll, despite government relief measures that have halved the fee for commercial vehicles, transport authorities have announced. The Transport and Logistics Bureau stated on Friday that the relief measure, included in a package to support the transport sector as oil prices increase, is intended to assist commercial vehicle drivers and operators. For the next two months, the government will reduce tunnel tolls by 50 percent for all commercial vehicles.

Vice President JD Vance says the US negotiating team heading to Pakistan will not be receptive if Iran “tries to play” the US. He expects talks to be positive. (Source: Bloomberg)

Vice President JD Vance said the U. S. delegation is heading to Pakistan with “pretty clear guidelines” from President Trump to negotiate a deal with Iran. “We’re looking forward to negotiation,” Vance told reporters before departing for Islamabad Friday. “I think it’s going to be positive.” Vance is leading the U. S. group to Pakistan which also…

Consumer prices in the U. S. rose by 3.3 percent over the past year and by 0.9 percent in March, according to new data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This is the highest inflation rate increase in nearly four years — propelled by rising energy costs tied to the U. S.’s military operation…

Hungary is preparing for a potentially pivotal election, with challenger Peter Magyar and the Tisza party promising change after 16 years of Viktor Orban's rule. Polling shows nearly a quarter of voters are undecided.

Hong Kong’s smoking rate fell to 8.5 per cent last year, missing an ambitious target of 7.8 per cent, but health authorities have hailed the success of the city’s tobacco control strategy, which led to a 30 per cent decline in overall cigarette consumption. Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau told a Legislative Council meeting on Friday that the rate – the prevalence of daily cigarette smokers aged 15 and older in the population – had fallen from 9.1 per cent in 2023 to 8.5 per cent last year. The...

An international animal rights group and a veterinary organisation have called for a public boycott of Hong Kong’s major online retailer, HKTVmall, after its parent company revealed a life science project testing the viability of detached animal heads and limbs. The two groups staged an hour-long protest on Friday outside the HKTVmall building in Tseung Kwan O, also demanding that the company disclose more details of the experiments and cease animal testing. The Hong Kong Technology Venture...

Tomorrow’s Iran talks with a US delegation headed by JD Vance are a coup for Islamabad.

In March, new car sales in China decreased by 16% compared to the same month last year. This decline is attributed to the reduction in tax incentives for electric vehicles (EVs) and other types of vehicles. This marks the fifth consecutive month of declining new car sales in the domestic market, and concerns are growing about the future outlook.

HSBC and a consortium led by Standard Chartered have been awarded Hong Kong’s first stablecoin issuer licences, marking the city’s latest step towards embracing cryptocurrency’s most-traded cash substitute in its bid to become a global digital asset hub. Eight months after Hong Kong’s Stablecoin Ordinance, one of the world’s first such laws, took effect, two issuers were given the green light to conduct business, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced on Friday. The authority had...

PRESS REVIEW – Friday, April 10: Papers focus on Hungary’s opposition leader, Peter Magyar, as he confronts Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Sunday’s crucial election. Magyar is hoping to capitalise on a wave of discontent over Orban's rule. In the US, First Lady Melania Trump has convened the press at the White House to deny any ties to Jeffrey Epstein – but was it a ruse to divert attention from Donald Trump’s chaotic war in Iran? And finally, a new study sheds light on a community of chimpanzees that waged a bloody civil war among themselves.

Vice President JD Vance is leading negotiations this weekend toward an end to a war that he had opposed starting.

The IMF is cutting its global growth forecast, preparing €42.9bn in emergency aid and warning that 45 million people face food insecurity.

According to Professor Canan Terjan of Istanbul Aydin University, the US seeks to gain control over oil or install a loyal regime in Iran

China plans to launch its first rocket from open waters in the South China Sea, in a display of a more flexible, long-range maritime launch capability. The 31-metre (102-foot) tall, solid-fuelled Jielong-3 is expected to lift off at 7.30pm on Saturday from the Dong Fang Hang Tian Gang, a converted barge operating in international waters, according to a leaked schedule circulating on Chinese social media. Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all the islands and rock features in the South China...

China’s healthcare sector has been drawing offshore capital to Hong Kong-listed stocks as investors look for safe havens amid global volatility in commodities. The Hang Seng Healthcare Index, tracking some of China’s most innovative pharmaceutical companies including Akeso and Innovent Biologics, has surged about 13 per cent since March 23, outpacing the benchmark Hang Seng Index’s about 6 per cent gain over the same period. “Although the Middle East conflict has created a lot of uncertainty and...

Commentators are increasingly warning that the United States is losing its soft power, and the data supports this claim. The Brand Finance Global Soft Power Index 2026 ranked the US as the country with the most significant decline among the 193 countries surveyed, with China now less than 1.5 points behind. Richard Stengel, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy […] The post US isn’t losing soft power in SE Asia — it’s ceding it to China appeared first on Asia Times.

US Vice President JD Vance and other officials will meet Iranian counterparts in Islamabad on Saturday, following a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire agreement. Pakistan has carved out an unlikely role as mediator in the Middle East conflict, capitalizing on its warm ties with nearly all of the key players in the six-week conflict. Bloomberg’s Faseeh Mangi breaks down the situation and what to expect from the weekend talks.

Oil rose a second day after Saudi Arabia said its production capacity has been reduced due to attacks on energy infrastructure, but futures remain on track for their biggest weekly loss since June. According to Saudi Arabia’s press agency, the nation's production capacity has been cut by around 600,000 barrels a day. Bloomberg's Anthony di Paola breaks down the situation. (Source: Bloomberg)

The army and rangers will ensure the protection of the red zone housing government buildings and diplomatic missions

As HPC and AI processors push computing performance to unprecedented levels, transistor density has reached a point where thermal behavior is no longer uniform. Instead of gradual, evenly distributed heating, modern chips exhibit sharp, localized hotspots that concentrate extreme thermal loads within small regions.

As UK PM Keir Starmer arrived in Doha as part of a Gulf tour he discussed efforts to secure the US-Iran ceasefire.

In Pakistan’s capital, the army has been deployed, a public holiday has been declared and the streets are eerily empty Middle East crisis – live updates The streets of Islamabad were on strict lockdown as Pakistan’s capital prepared to play host to historic negotiations between Iran and the US that have dangled the promise of an end to war that has devastated the Middle East. Even as the US-Iran ceasefire looked increasingly precarious, amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Lebanon and disputes over the terms of the talks, Pakistani officials insisted that the make-or-break peace negotiations would be going ahead over the weekend as planned. Continue reading...

China's consumer price index for last month rose for the sixth consecutive month, driven by factors such as rising gasoline prices. The producer price index, which reflects the price changes when companies ship products, also turned positive for the first time in 3 years and 6 months, influenced by high oil prices. The key question now is how far companies will pass these increased costs on to their selling prices.

After Pakistan's defense minister called Israel "cancerous" and "evil," Tel Aviv stated that such remarks cannot be made by a country claiming to mediate peace.

According to the White House, US Vice-President J. D. Vance will travel to Islamabad for the first round of talks with Iran on Saturday morning local time, aimed at ending the war in the Middle East. The US Secret Service has already arrived in the Pakistani capital to make security arrangements in preparation for his visit. The American delegation is expected to arrive in Islamabad on Friday local time, with negotiations likely to last for one day over the weekend. Vance – who concluded a visit to Budapest on...

Alibaba Cloud captured more than 50 per cent of global open-source model downloads as of March following the release of its Qwen 3.5 model series, a new report has found. The finding underscores the dominance of Chinese models in the global open-source artificial intelligence landscape, though some US companies including OpenAI and Nvidia are also making early gains. Qwen reached nearly 1 billion cumulative downloads by March, far surpassing rivals like Meta Platforms’ Llama and DeepSeek,...

The 2026 ranking of fast growing companies in the Asia-Pacific region. Plus: Indian winemakers face change; Chinese AI experts return from US; the biggest threat to China’s champions; ticket fees donated to charities; Singapore listings remain scarce

Although it was secured at the last minute, the ceasefire agreement between Iran and the US marks a diplomatic victory for Islamabad, which is set to host American and Iranian delegations on Friday, April 10, for peace talks.

High-stakes talks are set for Islamabad this weekend where U. S. and Iranian officials plan to meet to negotiate the terms of a tenuous ceasefire to end the war in Iran. The White House called the talks “ongoing” but any agreement remains extremely fragile as fighting continues across the Middle East. “As the White House has…

Escalating Israeli strikes on Lebanon raise fears the fragile ceasefire with Iran could unravel.

Israel’s offensive in Lebanon is threatening the tenuous truce.

The news agency did not elaborate

The ceasefire between the US and Iran has marginalized Israel and left its war objectives largely unfulfilled, prompting critics of Benjamin Netanyahu to decry a "strategic failure" that has damaged Israel's standing in Washington. With his options limited regarding Iran, the Israeli Prime Minister has agreed to peace talks with Lebanon under pressure from the US, just hours after vowing to continue his country's aggressive campaign.

After a US-Iran ceasefire deal, strikes slow but tensions remain. Will this hold or collapse?

Discussing measures that could be taken in the face of energy supply disruptions and rising prices, Kristalina Georgieva stressed that "demand adjustment is unavoidable"

Former Pakistan ambassador Maleeha Lodhi tells Mishal Husain why the country’s role in brokering a ceasefire between the US and Iran shows the country has emerged as a geopolitical player. (Source: Bloomberg)

According to Kristalina Georgieva, the growth will be slower even if the new peace is durable

The truce between the US, Israel and Iran has eased pressure on African markets. But economists warn that deep‑rooted vulnerabilities mean the rebound may be short‑lived.

According to TASS estimates based on online maritime tracking services, at least seven commercial vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz overnight from April 8 to April 9, most of them heading toward the Gulf of Oman

US-Iran ceasefire faces strain as violence surges across Lebanon and Gulf, exposing regional vulnerabilities and uncertainty over peace talks.

Lebanon has declared a period of national mourning after a wave of Israeli strikes killed at least 254 people on Wednesday. The EU insists that the country be covered by the US-Iran ceasefire deal.

The global economy is currently experiencing the strongest shock since World War II, Mehmet Simsek noted

Israel bombed more targets in Lebanon on Thursday, putting the Middle East ceasefire in further jeopardy after its biggest attacks of the war on its neighbour killed more than 250 people and threatened to torpedo US President Donald Trump’s truce from the outset. Iranian negotiators were expected to set off later on Thursday for Pakistan for the first peace talks of the war, where they are due to meet a delegation led by US Vice-President J. D. Vance on Saturday. But there was no sign Iran had...

Oil producers refer in their arguments to international agreements, sanction laws and high costs

For Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's critics, Israel is seen as the biggest loser of the conflict with Iran. His war aims including regime change and an end to uranium enrichment have not yet been achieved. And international opinion of Israel has fallen further since the start of the conflict, with a majority of Americans now having a negative view of the country.

Next month’s US-China presidential summit will focus on trade rather than investment, reflecting a reluctance to remove all economic constraints, according to the top US trade official. “I don’t think we’re at the point in our relationship with the Chinese where we want to talk about the investment programmes either way, right?” United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Tuesday at a Hudson Institute event in Washington. He cautioned against “premature discussions” as the...

Lebanon bears the brunt as Israel's army claims the killing of a close aide to Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem.

Abdel Hamid Mahfouzi believes that "the war has led to completely opposite results as it united Iranian society instead of encouraging attempts to change the regime and undermining domestic stability"

In the West Bank of Palestine, debris from missiles fired from Iran towards Israel has caused numerous incidents, resulting in casualties. While a two-week ceasefire has been announced regarding the situation in Iran, residents are calling for a permanent end to the fighting.

As Keir Starmer continues his Gulf visit, the foreign secretary says the laws of the sea prevent Tehran from charging for the passage of an "international transit route." Good morning. Keir Starmer is still in the Gulf, and Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, has been doing a round of interviews this morning, ahead of delivering a speech on foreign policy this evening. As Jamie Grierson reports, Cooper has been arguing forcefully that Lebanon must be included in the US-Iran ceasefire. The starting point here is that this is an international transit route. It's international shipping that uses this. This is part of the international law of the sea. This is a route between the high seas; it is a trading route. As part of the international maritime law, this is a transit route between the high seas. And whether you talk about Dover or Gibraltar or other straits around the world, there may be territorial waters there, but there's also an international shipping route and an international transit route, which means that freedom of navigation principles apply and that countries cannot simply hijack those kinds of international transit routes and unilaterally apply tolls. They cannot do that as part of the laws of the sea and the United Nations conventions. Continue reading...

The publication cited an EU official who noted that Brussels, together with international partners, must speak out more actively on Lebanon and work to resume negotiations

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will seek to ensure that Lebanon is included in the US-Iran ceasefire deal, signaling international concern that continued fighting on Israel’s northern frontier could unravel the truce.

The Serena Hotel is the most likely venue, the source added

Reporting from Jerusalem, FRANCE 24’s Noga Tarnopolsky says that when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally made a statement on the US-Iran ceasefire, he failed to “address the fact that Israel has not achieved any of its stated war goals, which included regime change in Iran, the destruction of Iran's ability to launch and to produce ballistic missiles” and eliminate the nuclear threat.

Laura Loomer has strongly criticised the US-Iran ceasefire, calling it a failed and risky deal.

The two-week truce between the US, Israel and Iran has started showing cracks as the sides disagreed on the inclusion on Lebanon in the ceasefire agreement.

Servicemen accused of plotting against the state are being exempted from an amnesty law.

Israeli strikes hit busy commercial and residential areas in central Beirut without warning on Wednesday, hours after a ceasefire was announced in the US-Israeli war with Iran. A total of 254 people were killed and over 1,100 ‌wounded across Lebanon, the country’s civil defence service said. The highest toll was in Beirut, where 91 people were killed. The health ministry gave a toll of 182 dead across the country and said it was not a final figure. All up, it was the deadliest day in the latest...

Reuven Azar said that Israel aimed to give "the Iranian people an opportunity to embrace their future by debilitating the regime," asserting, "We achieved that."

Hong Kong’s identity as a world-leading international hub has never been static. It has been built over time through openness, adaptability and, crucially, diversity. Recent discussions about the city’s talent strategy, including concerns that the overwhelming majority of applicants under key admission schemes come from mainland China, raise a deeper structural question: can Hong Kong remain truly global if its talent pipeline becomes increasingly concentrated? This is not about downplaying the...

US-Iran war LIVE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a televised address, warned that Israel was "ready to return to fighting at any time," adding that "our finger is on the trigger." Israel has launched its most intense assault on Lebanon since the invasion began.

A Chinese national filed a complaint after suffering abuse during his time in police custody at a station that had already been implicated in similar incidents, for which two officers were convicted in 2024. An investigation has been launched.

China has completed one of Southeast Asia’s largest solar power projects in Laos, at a time when regional economies are stepping up efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels amid global energy disruptions in the Persian Gulf. The initial phase of the 1 gigawatt (GW) solar project was officially connected to the grid on Tuesday, becoming the country’s first large-scale mountainous photovoltaic installation. Located in northern Laos, the installation is expected to generate about 1.65 billion...

Danny Danon, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, says Israel will not participate in upcoming talks between the US and Iran in Islamabad and will do "whatever is necessary" to counter future threats from Iran. He speaks with Kailey Leinz on the late edition of Bloomberg's "Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)

Trump can’t negotiate away free movement in the Strait of Hormuz or highly enriched uranium.

JD Vance also said he saw signs "that the straits are starting to reopen"