Global Pulse

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  • US, Iran negotiation delegations to hold talks in Islamabad Saturday: Pakistani PM

    US, Iran negotiation delegations to hold talks in Islamabad Saturday: Pakistani PM

    ISLAMABAD – In a significant step toward de-escalating long-running tensions in the Middle East, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed Friday that senior negotiation delegations from the United States and Iran will convene for direct talks in the Pakistani capital on Saturday. The announced meeting comes on the heels of a recently agreed temporary ceasefire in the region, marking the start of what Sharif described as a far more challenging phase of diplomacy to lock in lasting, permanent peace.

    In a public address announcing the planned talks, Sharif emphasized that dialogue remains the only viable path forward to resolve deep-rooted disputes fueling instability across the Middle East. With the temporary pause in hostilities already in place, the next critical step is to translate that short-term truce into a durable, long-standing peace through constructive negotiations, he added.

    The Pakistani prime minister also made clear that his country’s leadership is committed to doing everything in its power to create an environment conducive to productive dialogue, and to ensuring the negotiations reach a successful outcome. As a key regional actor with long-standing diplomatic ties to both Washington and Tehran, Pakistan has positioned itself as a neutral mediator to bring the two sides to the negotiating table amid heightened regional tensions that have threatened to spill beyond the Middle East in recent months.

    The planned talks mark a rare high-level engagement between the United States and Iran, two nations with decades of strained diplomatic relations that have been a core source of instability across the Middle East. The international community has widely welcomed the decision to hold negotiations, with many regional and global powers expressing hope that the talks will open the door to broader confidence-building measures and a lasting reduction in tensions.

  • ‘Every drop of water counts’: Fear for the future of Argentina’s glaciers

    ‘Every drop of water counts’: Fear for the future of Argentina’s glaciers

    Nestled in the shadow of the snow-capped Andes, Virginia de Valle walks through her family’s 16-hectare Bodega Gieco vineyard in Argentina’s renowned wine hub Mendoza, gesturing to the rows of grapevines that produce 100,000 litres of premium wine annually. Her opening remark carries unshakable gravity: “Without water, there would be no wine.” For Mendoza’s winemaking community, every drop of irrigation water traces back to the Andes’ winter snowpack and ancient glaciers – natural reserves that now sit at the center of a fierce national debate following recent parliamentary approval of sweeping reforms to Argentina’s landmark 2010 glacial protection law.

    For generations, Mendoza’s identity has been tied to its glacial water supply. Residents call the region “the daughter of the Andes’ water,” and as droughts grow more frequent and severe across the semi-arid province, glacial melt has become a critical buffer that keeps vineyards productive and household taps running. De Valle’s fear is shared by millions across the country: the rolled-back protections will open vulnerable glacial ecosystems to destructive large-scale mining, putting vital water sources at irreversible risk. “Every drop of water counts,” she emphasizes, a warning that resonates far beyond Mendoza’s vine rows.

    Argentina was a global pioneer in glacial conservation when it passed the 2010 Glacier Law, the first national legislation in the world dedicated specifically to protecting these critical frozen water reserves. The original law designated all glaciers and surrounding periglacial environments – including permafrost that traps billions of liters of frozen water – as strategic national reserves, banning any commercial activity that would damage them, and required a full national inventory maintained by the country’s leading glacial research body, the Argentine Institute of Snow Research, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences (Ianigla).

    The new reforms shift all decision-making power to provincial governments, which will now determine which glaciers within their borders qualify as “strategic” – defined as reserves that provide water for consumption, agriculture, biodiversity, scientific research or tourism. Glaciers deemed non-strategic can be removed from the national protected inventory, stripping them of all legal environmental safeguards. Proponents of the changes, led by President Javier Milei’s libertarian administration La Libertad Avanza, frame the original 2010 law as an unnecessary regulatory barrier that has blocked Argentina from unlocking its vast mineral wealth. They argue that opening glacial regions to copper and lithium mining will catalyze regional economic growth and accelerate the global transition to clean energy, which depends heavily on both minerals. Milei, who has campaigned on cutting red tape to attract foreign investment, has pointed to neighboring Chile, which shares the Andes mountain range and exports $20 billion worth of copper annually, while Argentina currently exports no copper at all. According to Bloomberg reporting, major global mining firms including Glencore, Lundin and BHP Group have already met with Milei, with plans to invest roughly $40 billion into Argentina’s untapped copper reserves if regulations are loosened.

    Opposition to the reforms has erupted across the country, from Mendoza’s wine valleys to Patagonia’s popular hiking destination El Chaltén, with the rallying cry “Los glaciares no se tocan” (Hands off our glaciers) painted on walls and sidewalks nationwide. More than 100,000 people registered to participate in a public hearing on the reforms in March, though fewer than 400 were able to speak during the two-day session. Agostina Rossi Serra, a biologist with environmental advocacy group Greenpeace, argues that widespread public opposition demonstrates this is not just an environmentalist cause – it is a fight for public water security. “It made clear that it’s not just environmental organisations who were asking for this law not to be amended; it was the people, the public, who were asking for water to continue to be protected,” she says.

    Many of the provincial governments pushing for the reforms, including Mendoza and neighboring San Juan, are located in arid and semi-arid regions where water is already a scarce, highly contested resource. Serra accuses these regional governments of prioritizing mining revenue over the long-term well-being of local ecosystems and communities: “They are provinces that believe mining development is far more important than ecosystems and the communities themselves.”

    Leading glaciologists have also pushed back on the core justifications for the reform, calling its central claims fundamentally flawed. Lucas Ruiz, an independent glaciologist researcher at Ianigla, explains that the argument that some glaciers do not contribute to river systems is scientifically baseless. “The most false part of it all is the claim that there are glaciers that do not contribute to rivers. If it’s a glacier, it has ice and contributes water. It’s very basic,” he says. Ruiz adds that the reform’s vague language creates massive uncertainty: “We are left not knowing what criteria will be used, not knowing which technical bodies will be involved, and clearly, any glacier and any periglacial environment could be at risk.”

    Ruiz also acknowledges a painful paradox at the heart of the debate that complicates the scientific community’s position: glacial melt is accelerating globally due to climate change, driven by fossil fuel emissions. Avoiding the worst-case scenarios requires a rapid global energy transition to renewables – a transition that depends entirely on large-scale extraction of copper and lithium for batteries, transmission infrastructure and clean energy technology. “It is a stark paradox, hard to accept, but it is the reality. Because the message from science is that energy transition is necessary,” he says. The solution, he argues, is not to roll back protections entirely, but to require rigorous environmental impact assessments for any mining project that would affect glacial ecosystems, and ensure all development is conducted responsibly.

    Greenpeace remains deeply concerned that the profit motive will push provinces to weaken protections to attract investment. “If I have an international company looking for a place to develop a project, I’ll probably choose the province with the fewest environmental restrictions. That’s the concern we’re going to face,” Serra says.

    Supporters of the reform argue that provincial control is the most fair and effective governance structure. Federico Palavecino, a Buenos Aires-based lawyer who advises mining projects on glacial regulation, says that since provincial communities will bear the consequences of any mismanagement, they should have the right to set their own rules. “Why should we tell them how to live?” he asks, arguing that removing regulatory barriers will bring much-needed economic investment to struggling rural communities.

    Back in her Mendoza vineyard, De Valle is working to educate visitors about the potential consequences of the reform, framing the fight as one that affects all Argentines, not just winemakers. “It will affect wineries, but first, it will affect life,” she says. With more than 16,900 glaciers across Argentina feeding 36 river basins that supply water to seven million people across 12 provinces, the outcome of this debate will shape the country’s water security, economic future and environmental legacy for generations to come.

  • Trump administration unveils 250-foot ‘Triumphal Arch’ design

    Trump administration unveils 250-foot ‘Triumphal Arch’ design

    A new controversial urban and memorial proposal has moved into the formal review stage in the United States’ capital, as former President Donald Trump’s administration has unveiled detailed architectural renderings for a 76-meter-tall triumphal arch monument, a project that has already sparked debate over its scope, cost, and place in Washington D.C.’s existing monument landscape.

    In a post shared to his social platform Truth Social on Friday, Trump lavished praise on the proposed structure, which has been nicknamed the “Arc de Trump” by observers. He claimed it would become “the GREATEST and MOST BEAUTIFUL Triumphal Arch, anywhere in the World”, adding that it would stand as a lasting, positive addition to the capital for generations of American visitors to enjoy.

    Administration officials confirmed this week that formal planning documents have been submitted to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the federal body tasked with reviewing federal projects and public art in the nation’s capital. Notably, the commission is currently staffed with several appointees aligned with Trump, and the panel is scheduled to vote on the proposal during its upcoming meeting next week.

    If approved and constructed, the monument would surpass two of Washington D.C.’s most iconic landmarks in height: the United States Capitol Building and the Lincoln Memorial. Preliminary renderings released by the White House reveal a gold-accented design: prominent gold lettering reading “One Nation Under God” will adorn the main arch, the structure will be crowned by two golden eagles framing a gilded winged statue of Lady Liberty, and four golden lion statues will stand guard at the monument’s base.

    In a formal statement, White House press secretary Davis Ingle framed the project as a tribute to American service members and national history. He argued that the arch will improve the visitor experience for guests arriving at Arlington National Cemetery, serving as a permanent visual reminder of the sacrifices made by American service members over the nation’s 250-year history, sacrifices that have allowed current generations to enjoy the country’s freedoms.

    Planned to be sited along the approach to Washington D.C. from Arlington National Cemetery, welcoming visitors crossing Memorial Bridge into the capital, the arch is modeled after Paris’ famous Arc de Triomphe, a design influence Trump made public when he first announced the project last year. It is one of several high-profile initiatives Trump has pushed forward to reshape Washington D.C.’s public landscape to align with his personal vision. Another of these projects, a planned expansion of the White House ballroom, is currently tied up in ongoing litigation, putting that work on indefinite hold.

    One major unanswered question remains around the project: the Trump administration has not released any details about the total construction cost or a formal funding plan for the arch. Trump has previously suggested that unused funds allocated for his fully financed White House ballroom project could be diverted to cover the arch’s costs, but no concrete budget or funding timeline has been made public.

  • An inappropriate joke nearly ended his career. Now he’s back with more humour

    An inappropriate joke nearly ended his career. Now he’s back with more humour

    One year after a high-profile controversy derailed one of India’s biggest online comedy careers, 29-year-old creator Samay Raina has stepped back into the public eye with a raw, deeply personal new YouTube stand-up special that has already resonated with fans across the country.

    Walking onto stage with his signature tousled hair and rumpled checked shirt, Raina half-smiles at the packed crowd before he even utters a word — and the audience erupts in laughter before his first punchline can land. It is a homecoming 12 months in the making, a moment that once seemed impossible after a single guest remark brought his thriving career to an abrupt halt.

    Until early 2025, Raina stood at the forefront of India’s fast-growing digital comedy revolution. Unlike most veteran Indian comics who cut their teeth in small underground clubs of Mumbai and Bangalore, Raina was a product of the open internet. A former competitive chess player, he first built an audience during the global pandemic by streaming chess matches online, gradually blending game play with self-deprecating banter, bilingual observational comedy and spontaneous interactions with live chat. His quick, sarcastic wit, which switched seamlessly between Hindi and English, earned him millions of loyal followers in just a few years.

    His breakout hit, *India’s Got Latent*, was a scrappy, unapologetic parody of formal television talent competitions that became a cultural phenomenon for young Indian streaming audiences. The format, which featured eccentric contestants and unfiltered roasts from judges and host, rejected the polished, censored comedy of traditional TV for a raw, real-time style that felt revolutionary. The show drew a eclectic roster of guests from across the digital space: fellow stand-ups, chess grandmasters, TikTok and YouTube creators, and podcasters, all pulled into Raina’s loose, improvisational vibe. For millions of young fans, it was comedy that felt like it spoke directly to their generation.

    Then everything collapsed overnight. During an episode featuring popular Indian podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia — known to his followers as BeerBiceps — the guest posed an explicit question to a contestant that sparked immediate nationwide outrage. Police filed obscenity complaints against everyone involved in the episode, including Raina, and when Raina’s editor was arrested, the comic made the decision to take the entire *India’s Got Latent* series offline and step away from public life.

    For 12 months, Raina largely vanished from social media and stages, stepping out of the spotlight he had worked so hard to build. In Indian comedy circles, his name became a cautionary tale about the volatility of online fame, where a single misstep can erase a career in days.

    Now, Raina is back, and he is using the art that got him into trouble to process what happened. Earlier this week, he dropped *Still Alive*, a 90-minute stand-up special critics are already calling his boldest, most personal work to date. The set weaves together sharp self-deprecating humour with quiet reflection, addressing every part of his year-long hiatus: the whiplash of losing the public identity he built online, the vulnerability of being “cancelled” in an era where social media metrics define personal worth, the loneliness of losing connections with former collaborators, and the anxiety that shook him even as he prepared to return to the stage.

    Where his old comedy was unapologetically brash and unfiltered, his new material carries a thread of quiet melancholy, honed by a year of navigating legal battles and public backlash. Even so, his timing remains as precise as ever. “I always knew there’d be an FIR against me one day,” he jokes ruefully to the crowd. “I just never thought it would be for saying nothing.”

    In one of the special’s most viral moments, Raina opens up about the impact the controversy had on his family, admitting he often struggled to even answer calls from his mother, and that he felt broken by the entire experience. He also confronts the wider reality of modern Indian comedy: the sector has exploded in the last decade, with digital platforms allowing new comics to reach millions of fans across cities and small towns, turning a small urban niche into a massive mainstream industry. But that growth has come with steep new risks: comics operate under far greater scrutiny than ever before, and more creators are facing legal action, police complaints and even arrest over their material, as lines of acceptability are constantly renegotiated in the public square.

    Raina nods to this fragile ecosystem in his set, riffing on George Orwell’s famous line that “every joke is a tiny revolution.” Twisting the quote to fit his own experience, he deadpans: “If Orwell had lived in India, he’d probably have said — every revolution is a tiny joke.” The line earned one of the biggest laughs of the night.

    Rather than completely reinventing his comedy to avoid controversy, Raina has adjusted his approach, testing the line between his signature spontaneous, unfiltered style and the realities of working in a hyper-scrutinized digital space. It is a balancing act that nearly every young boundary-pushing Indian comedian faces today: how to stay true to a spontaneous voice while performing for an audience that is vast, diverse, and quick to judge.

    The controversy that sidelined Raina has not fully disappeared, and the risks of his style of comedy remain real. But if *Still Alive* is any indication, Raina is not chasing a neat public apology or resolution — he is focused on continuing to create. For his fans, the special is not an act of contrition, it is a reassertion of his voice, and his refusal to be sidelined. Closing out the set, he shrugs, mixing defiance with punchline delivery, and says: “I’m still here, and I am going to do whatever I want.”

  • Trump aides caught with pants down as Iran war gooses inflation

    Trump aides caught with pants down as Iran war gooses inflation

    Fresh official inflation data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has laid bare the severe economic fallout of the Trump administration’s military conflict with Iran, confirming a dramatic jump in consumer prices driven almost entirely by disrupted global energy markets. The BLS report, released in April 2026, shows the Consumer Price Index rose 0.9% month-over-month in March, outpacing most preliminary forecasts. Energy prices alone led the surge, climbing 10.9% from February, with retail gasoline costs skyrocketing 21.2% in a single month. On an annual basis, overall inflation hit 3.3% — the highest annual rate recorded since April 2024.

    The revelation that senior Treasury Department officials conducted zero pre-conflict planning for the expected economic and energy market disruptions has intensified bipartisan and public criticism of the administration’s approach to the conflict. In a public letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Senate Finance Committee’s top Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon disclosed bombshell details from closed-door discussions with Sriprakash Kothari, a senior advisor to Bessent and Trump’s nominee for Treasury assistant secretary for economic policy. Kothari reportedly told Wyden’s staff that he had not completed any analysis related to energy markets or potential economic fallout in the lead-up to the February 28 launch of military strikes, and that he was unaware of any other Treasury staff conducting such basic contingency planning. Kothari only began working on the conflict’s economic impacts after learning about the February strikes from mainstream news reports, Wyden added.

    Wyden emphasized that the current affordability crisis squeezing U.S. households, which has been sharply worsened by the Iran conflict, was entirely predictable before military action began. Intelligence agencies warned as early as March 2025 that Iran had the capability to disrupt global energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for nearly 20% of the world’s daily oil trade. To date, the six-week-long conflict has already cost U.S. taxpayers more than $30 billion in direct military costs, and American drivers have paid over $8 billion extra for gasoline alone as global oil prices surged. A prior CNN report, citing anonymous sources familiar with internal planning, confirmed that the Trump administration significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to disrupt Hormuz shipping, and that formal economic and energy analysis from the Treasury and Energy Departments — a core part of decision-making for previous administrations — was sidelined as secondary considerations in the planning process.

    Leading economists across the public and private sectors have warned that the March inflation spike is just the first visible wave of economic damage from the conflict. University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers noted that the BLS data marks the first official confirmation of the war’s impact on U.S. consumer prices, and warned that larger increases are still to come. New York Times economics reporter Ben Casselman observed that the 3.3% annual rate is the fastest inflation recorded during Trump’s second term, with the entire increase traced directly to higher energy costs tied to the conflict. Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, highlighted that nominal annual wage growth of 3.5% is now almost entirely erased by 3.3% inflation, leaving most U.S. households with effectively no real income gains amid the price surge. “This is the squeeze many households are feeling,” Long explained. “Their pay can’t keep up with this level of inflation.”

    Elizabeth Pancotti, managing director for policy and advocacy at the progressive policy group Groundwork Collaborative, added that energy price spikes will soon spill over into other consumer sectors. “The toll of Trump’s war in Iran won’t stop at the pump,” she said. “Price hikes on summer vacations, groceries, and electronics are coming down the pike as his war stokes chaos in supply chains around the world. By pursuing this illegal war, the president has made it clear that he’s putting American families last.”

    The Republican Party has attempted to frame the inflation data as a policy win by focusing on core inflation, a measure that excludes volatile food and energy prices, which came in slightly lower than analysts projected. “Core inflation just came in LOWER than expected for the month of March! President Trump continues defying the ‘experts’ and beating expectations,” the GOP wrote in a social media post. But the message drew immediate pushback from social media users, who noted that core inflation is irrelevant for most households when gas prices hit a national average of $4.15 per gallon. Vox senior editor Benji Sarlin drew a parallel to the Biden administration’s failed attempts to calm public anxiety by highlighting core inflation during the 2021-2022 price surge, writing, “Congrats to all the Trump White House folks explaining the difference between topline inflation and core inflation during an oil shock today, I’m sure the Biden WH alums will be very sympathetic. People on social media also love it when you say inflation is actually pretty good if you just exclude gas, try it out.”

  • ‘Make or break’: What to know about US-Iran talks in Pakistan

    ‘Make or break’: What to know about US-Iran talks in Pakistan

    On a Friday morning in Washington D.C., U.S. Vice President JD Vance departed for Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, bringing a more optimistic and conciliatory tone to Saturday’s landmark ceasefire talks with Iran that sets him apart from his superior, President Donald Trump. Speaking to reporters ahead of the negotiations, which will be mediated by Pakistan, a country that maintains friendly diplomatic ties with both Washington and Tehran, Vance struck a measured hopeful note.

    “We’re looking forward to the negotiation. I think it’s going to be positive,” Vance said. Echoing comments previously made by President Trump, he added, “As the president of the United States said, if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we’re certainly willing to extend the open hand. If they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive.”

    Trump, for his part, took a far more aggressive stance in a series of posts Friday on his Truth Social platform, claiming Iran “has no cards” to play in negotiations and arguing that Tehran’s public relations strategy is far stronger than its military capabilities. “The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” the president wrote.

    As both sides prepare for the critical discussions, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif framed the talks as a defining turning point for the region, calling it a “make or break” moment in public comments Friday.

    For Iran, Vance’s appointment as head of the U.S. delegation is viewed as a welcome shift from the failed talks of the past, when the negotiation team was led by special peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, both of whom faced intense criticism for their lack of technical diplomatic experience relative to seasoned Iranian negotiators like Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Notably, Kushner holds no official role in the Trump administration but maintains extensive private financial interests across Israel and Gulf Arab states. Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, is also expected to join the talks; his appearance at previous diplomatic talks in Oman alongside Witkoff and Kushner in February was widely interpreted as a veiled show of military force to reinforce Trump’s willingness to use military power against Iran.

    Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, called Vance’s leadership of the delegation a clear signal of Washington’s increased seriousness. “It shows a lot of seriousness. It’s a major step up,” Mortazavi told Middle East Eye Friday. She added that if Iran sends Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf to lead its delegation, the two sides would be evenly matched. Ghalibaf will indeed join Foreign Minister Araghchi for the talks, but before departing Tehran Friday, he laid out a non-negotiable precondition: the U.S. must first unblock more than $100 billion in Iranian assets held in international bank accounts before formal discussions can begin. “Two of the measures mutually agreed upon between the parties have yet to be implemented: a ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of Iran’s blocked assets prior to the commencement of negotiations,” Ghalibaf wrote on X. “These two matters must be fulfilled before negotiations begin.”

    These talks mark a historic shift from U.S.-Iran negotiations of the past six years. Since the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal in 2018, direct talks between the two countries have been nonexistent, and all discussions have been carried out through third-party mediators shuttling messages between separate delegations. This time around, the involvement of the U.S. vice president opens the door for potential direct face-to-face negotiations, a development that many analysts see as significant.

    Mortazavi noted that Vance’s selection also carries symbolic weight, as he is closely aligned with the anti-war wing of the Republican Party and the Make America Great Again movement. This stands in contrast to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a longstanding hawk on Iran from the party’s traditional neoconservative wing, Mortazavi explained.

    Pakistan, the host and mediator of the talks, has adopted a flexible approach to the format of the discussions. Pakistani Ambassador to Washington Rizwan Saeed Sheikh told Al Jazeera English Friday that “all options are open” for how negotiations will be structured. “I believe it would not be good to have prerequisites or prejudgments or preemptions, but rather let the process flow in accordance with the comfort level of the two conflicting parties,” he said.

    Despite the opening for diplomacy, the shadow of military conflict looms large over the talks. In comments to The New York Post Friday, Trump repeated his open threat to resume military action against Iran if no deal is reached. “We’re loading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made – even better than what we did previously, and we blew them apart,” Trump said of U.S. naval deployments. “If we don’t have a deal, we will be using them, and we will be using them very effectively.”

    Iran, for its part, has placed the responsibility for a successful outcome firmly on Washington, demanding that the U.S. rein in its closest regional ally, Israel. Within hours of a preliminary ceasefire announcement Tuesday, Israel launched strikes in Lebanon that killed more than 350 people and wounded over 1,000 more. Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, a key strategic partner of Iran, is widely viewed as the central sticking point in negotiations, as Israel has long held ambitions to reoccupy southern Lebanon.

    “The Iran-US Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the US must choose-ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both,” Araghchi wrote on X Wednesday. “The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”

    Israel will not have any official representation at Saturday’s talks in Islamabad, and holds no direct role in the ceasefire agreement reached earlier this week. Washington remains the only primary channel for diplomatic pressure on the Israeli government. Analysts note that U.S. and Israeli interests are currently misaligned on the outcome of the talks.

    “They’re not interested in this resolution,” Mortazavi told Middle East Eye of Israel. “And I think US and Israeli interests right now are diverging. Despite Iran saying that the regional cessation of hostilities was part of the agreed ceasefire, and Pakistan has reaffirmed that… this has been a pattern from Israel. Right before the ceasefire or right after the ceasefire, they do an escalation, sometimes essentially in the form of a trap, to push the other side to violate it.”

    In response to Israel’s post-ceasefire escalation, Iran has not followed through on its commitments under the preliminary ceasefire deal to change its posture at the Strait of Hormuz, a key global energy chokepoint that Trump has repeatedly demanded Iran open to full commercial traffic.

    Ryan Costello, policy director for the National Iranian American Council, warned Friday that the core regional tensions that pushed the two sides to the brink of full war remain unresolved, even as talks are set to open. “While the bombardment of Iran has paused for now, the underlying conditions that brought the region to the brink remain firmly in place,” Costello said in a statement. He added that expectations for a breakthrough should be “very low,” noting that “if diplomats succeed in meeting in Islamabad to begin discussions on a broader peace, they will do so in spite of President Trump’s efforts to walk back the terms.”

    For Pakistan, a country with little experience mediating high-level international conflicts between major powers, the bar for success is modest: simply getting the two sides to continue talking would mark a significant win. “Diplomacy is a gradual process,” Sheikh told Al Jazeera English. “For as long as we have to facilitate, we cherish, we value, and we are grateful for the trust reposed in us, and as a repository of that trust, we would be willing to go the whole distance.” The talks come as Pakistan’s own stance on the conflict has come under scrutiny: just two days before the talks opened, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif posted a since-deleted message on X calling Israel “cancerous” and “a curse for humanity.”

  • Event marks 55th anniversary of ‘ping-pong diplomacy’

    Event marks 55th anniversary of ‘ping-pong diplomacy’

    Fifty-five years after a seemingly small sports exchange reshaped the trajectory of China-US relations, stakeholders from both nations gathered in Beijing’s Capital Indoor Stadium on Friday to honor the legacy of the groundbreaking “ping-pong diplomacy” that first opened the door to normalized engagement between the two countries.

    The historic gathering brought together a diverse group of attendees, including surviving firsthand witnesses who participated in the original 1971 cross-border table tennis exchange, rising young table tennis talents from China and the United States, and delegates from a wide range of public and private sectors across both nations. During the event, young athletes from the two countries posed for commemorative photos, symbolizing the continued people-to-people connection that the original diplomacy initiative first built.

    Beyond honoring the 55-year milestone, the ceremony also served as the official launch pad for a full calendar of bilateral youth sports exchange programs set to take place across 2026. Organizers and attendees alike emphasized that by carrying forward the spirit of “ping-pong friendship” forged half a century ago, the younger generation of Chinese and Americans is breathing new, dynamic energy into the civil society ties that underpin broader bilateral relations, even amid periods of political tension between the two governments.

    The original ping-pong diplomacy, which grew from an accidental encounter between a US table tennis team member and Chinese athletes during the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Japan, paved the way for then-US President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China the following year, ending decades of estrangement and establishing the foundation for modern China-US relations.

  • This idyllic US town was full of police families – and a serial killer in their midst

    This idyllic US town was full of police families – and a serial killer in their midst

    Nestled along the sun-dappled South Shore of Long Island, just a 60-minute train ride from the hustle of midtown Manhattan, Massapequa carries a well-earned nickname: it is widely known as New York’s ‘cop town.’ This tight-knit, working-class community boasts one of the highest concentrations of law enforcement officers on Long Island – home to generations of multi-generational NYPD detective families, officers from Nassau and Suffolk County police departments, and personnel from dozens of other federal and local law enforcement agencies. It is also the place where, for more than a decade, one of America’s most haunting unsolved serial murder cases lived literally in the neighborhood.

    The first crack in Massapequa’s quiet idyll came in 2010, when human remains began washing up along Gilgo Beach, a popular local summertime spot just miles from town, where teen lifeguards patrol the shore and families gather for picnics and barbecues. As investigators confirmed a serial killer had been operating undetected in the region for years, panic spread, and rampant speculation took hold. Could the killer be local? Was he still preying on victims? Most troubling of all, given the town’s deep ties to law enforcement, could the unidentified murderer actually be a badge-carrying officer?

    For 13 years, those questions lingered, compounded by scandal that only fueled conspiracy theories. In 2013, Jimmy Burke, then the Suffolk County Police Chief leading the Gilgo Beach investigation, was arrested on charges of assault, coercion, and evidence tampering, stemming from an incident where he beat a suspect who had stolen a bag of sex toys and pornography from his official police vehicle. Burke pleaded guilty to reduced charges in 2016 and was sentenced to 46 months in prison. The scandal didn’t end there: former Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas J. Spota and Christopher McPartland, the DA’s former chief of investigations and head of the government corruption bureau, were also convicted on related corruption charges and sentenced to five years in prison. Compounding the outrage among local law enforcement, Burke had cut off cooperation with the FBI on the Gilgo Beach case, turning a high-profile investigation into a breeding ground for misinformation and conspiracy theories that claimed the killer had ties to local police.

    “There was a lot of disgust,” said Bob Livoti, president of the Association of Retired Police Officers. “When I was reading about it, I said, I can’t believe the stuff that this guy got away with. Unbelievable. There were so many red flags, and nobody did anything.”

    All that speculation ended in July 2023, when authorities arrested 62-year-old Rex Heuermann, a married Massapequa Park architect and father of two. Investigators tracked Heuermann down using DNA recovered from a discarded pizza slice he left outside his midtown Manhattan office, tying him directly to the murders. This week, Heuermann made headlines again when he formally admitted in court to killing eight women, closing a chapter that has haunted the Long Island community for nearly 15 years.

    For Massapequa’s large law enforcement community, the confession brings a long-awaited sense of vindication. For years, unsubstantiated rumors had suggested the killer could be one of their own, a cloud of suspicion that hung over the entire close-knit cop community. “It’s a great relief,” said Craig Garland, a retired NYPD detective, lifelong Massapequa resident, and local Little League organizer. “There were people out there trying to pin this on a cop and … it brings great closure to the law enforcement community at large [that] this wasn’t a cop that was a serial killer.”

    The proximity of the killer still shocks many local residents. Heuermann commuted daily from his Massapequa Park home, just blocks from the local train station, past Johnny McGorey’s, a popular neighborhood pub that for years hosted homicide investigators who gathered on Friday nights to discuss the ongoing hunt for the Gilgo Beach killer. “As bodies started being discovered, members of the homicide unit were our Friday night regular guys,” said Joanne Fountain, the pub’s owner. “They would come in, and we would be like, ‘What the hell is going on down at the beach, at Ocean Parkway?’ Then it was all day, every day, on the news.” Neither Fountain nor her regulars had any clue the killer passed through their neighborhood every single day.

    Garland, for his part, only learned after the arrest that Heuermann’s children had participated in the Little League programs he runs. “Whoever thought this guy was living next door to anyone?” Livoti said. “I think everybody was in shock.”

    Even as the community reels from the revelation that a serial killer lived in their midst, Massapequa’s long-standing communal ethos has emerged as a source of strength. At St Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, where a large share of parishioners are cops and first responders, the community even extended support to Heuermann’s own family after the arrest. “People reached out, saying: What are we doing for [Heuermann’s] family? Can we do anything?” said Rev. Gerard Gentleman, the church’s pastor. “And we did. We had some offerings to them and … one of our staff members did actually go and sit with his wife for a little while.”

    Gentleman added that while there is widespread relief the case is finally closed, there is also deep sadness over the violence that unfolded in their quiet town. “People do look at Massapequa as a close-knit community, and this was very disruptive and shattering,” he said. “It’s a middle-class, working community – lots of cops and firemen – and that’s the ethos of the community: when tragedy hits, they draw strength from each other.”

    For many in law enforcement, Heuermann’s guilty pleas bring a long-sought end to a case that plagued the region for decades. “It brings great closure to everybody that this individual is behind bars,” Garland said. “It’s the right guy, and it’s nothing that anybody has to be concerned with moving forward.”

    Even so, retired Nassau County homicide head John Azzata noted that justice cannot erase the pain left in the killer’s wake. While police feel vindicated and local residents feel safer, Azzata said, closure remains out of reach for the families of Heuermann’s victims. “People say they get closure; there’s no closure,” he said. “You may get justice, but victims’ families never get closure.”

  • Exclusive: What the Lebanese government wants from talks with Israel

    Exclusive: What the Lebanese government wants from talks with Israel

    Trapped between competing regional and global powers, Lebanon’s newly elected government is waging a quiet diplomatic battle to claim full sovereignty over its own future, pushing to position itself as an equal, independent negotiating party ahead of next week’s Washington talks with Israeli officials. The ongoing conflict that has shattered the country has put Beirut in an unenviable position: squeezed between Israeli military aggression, Iran’s regional power projection, and inconsistent diplomatic attention from Washington, leaving the small state scrambling to rewrite the rules of negotiation before its fate is decided by outside actors.

    The conflict traces back to a US-Israeli strike that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which triggered retaliatory cross-border rocket fire from the Iran-aligned militant group Hezbollah. Israel responded with a full-scale bombardment of Lebanon, acting on long-held plans to push Hezbollah back from the shared border that the movement has controlled for decades. When Washington and Tehran announced a two-week ceasefire mediated by Pakistan earlier this week, both Iran and Islamabad said the truce would include Lebanon. But Israel immediately rejected that inclusion, launching a devastating 10-minute air assault on Beirut and other Lebanese areas that killed more than 300 people, the majority civilians including dozens of children. Under mounting international pressure and threats of further Iranian retaliation, Israel eventually agreed to de-escalate its attacks and enter direct talks with the Lebanese government in Washington next week to discuss a permanent end to hostilities and the future of Hezbollah.

    For Lebanon’s leadership, which took office in early 2025 on a mandate to restore state authority after years of fragmentation and a previous devastating Israeli war sparked by the Gaza conflict, the upcoming talks represent far more than a chance to stop the bombing. Senior Lebanese officials have made clear that their core demand is non-negotiable: all future negotiations and decisions about Lebanon’s future must be channeled exclusively through official state institutions, led by President Joseph Aoun’s office. The government is intent on abandoning the old military-dominated negotiation frameworks that have governed Israeli-Lebanese border talks for years, and separating any Lebanese agreements from separate deals being struck between Iran and the United States. This position is as much about survival as it is about sovereignty: after decades of foreign interference and economic collapse that has left the state fragile, Lebanese leaders view formal control over negotiations as the only way to rebuild public trust in state institutions and avoid being reduced to a bargaining chip in a larger regional conflict.

    Not all stakeholders have aligned with this framework, however. Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed armed movement that holds significant political and military sway in Lebanon, has rejected the current timing of the talks, insisting that any negotiations can only begin after a full ceasefire, an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory, and the safe return of displaced civilians. The new approach also creates friction with both Israel and Iran, whose competing priorities directly undermine Beirut’s goals. Israel has made clear it intends to decouple the Lebanese file from wider talks with Iran, seeking to maintain military pressure on Hezbollah and keep Lebanon as a bargaining chip to prevent Iran from claiming a diplomatic victory by protecting its regional ally. For its part, Iran has resisted any separation of the two fronts, viewing the US initial attempt to exclude Lebanon from the Iran ceasefire as a outright betrayal. Iranian officials have repeatedly stated they will not move forward with any truce that leaves Lebanon exposed to continued Israeli attacks, a stance echoed by senior diplomatic sources in Egypt, which is leading Arab mediation efforts. Any public abandonment of Hezbollah would also carry severe political costs for Tehran both domestically and among its regional allied networks.

    International powers have been split in their approach to Lebanon’s demands. Pakistan, Turkey, and Egypt have all sought to reassure Beirut and urge patience as diplomacy moves forward, with Egypt actively pushing for Lebanon’s full inclusion in any regional ceasefire framework. Both France and the United Kingdom have also publicly called for any US-Iran truce to extend to Lebanon. But Lebanese officials report that Beirut also faces quiet external pressure: some global and regional actors do not want to see Lebanon positioned as a success for Iranian diplomacy, after earlier Arab mediation efforts failed to stop the war. For President Aoun, this creates a no-win dilemma: even as his weak government relies on Iranian pressure to secure a ceasefire, he cannot afford to be seen as a mere proxy for Tehran, which would undermine his mandate to restore sovereign state authority.

    The scale of the crisis facing Lebanon makes this diplomatic push all the more urgent. The latest conflict has displaced more than one million people – roughly one-fifth of the country’s entire population – and the International Monetary Fund warned earlier this year that Lebanon’s fragile post-collapse economic recovery will remain unstable without deep structural reforms. The current ad-hoc negotiation framework, which has been anchored in a US-chaired military truce committee and UN-backed monitoring since a 2024 ceasefire, was expanded to include civilian envoys in late 2025, but Aoun’s administration is pushing for a fully political channel centered on the presidency and cabinet, rather than the legacy military-focused machinery.

    Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is expected to travel to Washington and New York in the coming days to frame any diplomatic progress as a victory for the Lebanese state, rather than a concession to regional power brokers. But even if he succeeds in securing a ceasefire through state-led channels, core sticking points – including the future of Hezbollah’s arsenal and the status of southern Lebanon – will remain tied to the broader US-Iran regional standoff. In the end, Lebanon’s government is trying to secure three competing goals: an immediate ceasefire to end civilian suffering, full state control over all negotiations, and a political outcome that does not hand Iran a symbolic diplomatic victory – all while holding almost none of the decisive power needed to shape the final outcome.

  • China’s state media turns to social media and AI to tell its story — and often mock the US

    China’s state media turns to social media and AI to tell its story — and often mock the US

    In a marked departure from its decades-long tradition of stiff, dogmatic political messaging, China’s government has embraced cutting-edge artificial intelligence and viral social media strategies to project its worldview onto the global stage — with the United States frequently serving as the central target of its sharp-edged content. This shift marks a new chapter in the intensifying global information war, where Washington has already begun ramping up countermeasures to push back against foreign anti-U.S. narratives that it says threaten its national security.

    The most prominent recent example of this new approach is a five-minute AI-generated animated short released by China’s state-run China Central Television, framed in the style of a classic martial arts film to deliver an allegorical take on the ongoing conflict in Iran. In the video, a well-dressed white eagle standing in for the United States cackles menacingly before launching an attack on a faction of black-cloaked Persian cats representing Iranians. After losing their leader, the cats vow to retaliate and block a key global trade chokepoint, weaving together themes of injustice, resistance and geopolitical power plays. This Iran-focused short is just one of multiple AI-powered satirical works produced by Chinese state media in recent months that cast the U.S. as a global bully, targeting former President Donald Trump’s provocative policies ranging from his open suggestion of annexing Greenland to his push for U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

    This evolution of Chinese global messaging aligns with years of push from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has prioritized expanding China’s global communication capacity, securing a louder voice in international affairs, and countering Western narratives that Beijing views as biased or hostile to its interests. It is not only Chinese state outlets deploying this tactic: pro-Iran factions have also turned to polished AI-generated memes to taunt the U.S. and its former leadership as part of broader information campaigns.

    Experts note that AI-infused “infotainment” distributed via social media represents a far more effective tool for winning over young global audiences than the dry, slogan-heavy propaganda of the past. “It is a new way for Chinese mainstream media to engage global Gen Z audience and social media users to understand Chinese standpoint and viewpoint of international affairs,” explained Shi Anbin, director of the Israel Epstein Center for Global Media and Communications at Tsinghua University. The Iran-themed animation, widely regarded as one of the most polished pieces of state media AI content to date, quickly went viral among Chinese domestic audiences after its release, earning praise for distilling a complex geopolitical crisis into an accessible, engaging narrative. After an X user translated and shared the subtitled clip to English-speaking audiences, it racked up more than 1 million views in just a few days. Andrew Chubb, a senior lecturer in global affairs at Lancaster University who studies political propaganda, noted that the work feels far removed from traditional overt propaganda: “It’s hardly even like propaganda — it almost seems more just a historical fiction dramatization of the situation.”

    This shift is a dramatic break from China’s communication past. For decades, Chinese official messaging relied on stiff, slogan-filled speeches in party-run newspapers, dry ideological study materials required for students and junior officials, and rigid, unapproachable rhetoric that failed to resonate with younger generations. As domestic audiences drifted away from this outdated tone, Beijing began a deliberate overhaul: it now embraces playful internet slang to retell party history, uses rap music to celebrate the ruling party’s achievements, recruits A-list pop stars and actors to star in blockbuster patriotic films that draw audiences through star power rather than mandatory attendance, and even turned anti-corruption dramas into hit television shows by prioritizing compelling plots and sharp writing.

    Urged to deliver messaging that is both engaging and persuasive, Chinese state media have rushed to experiment with non-traditional, digitally native formats, AI-generated content chief among them, according to Wang Zichen, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing-based Center for China & Globalization. “Whatever one thinks about the format, the message itself clearly resonates with increasingly larger audiences, which helps explain why such content gains traction online,” Wang said.

    Beijing has invested heavily in building a sprawling global communication ecosystem, constructing a vast “matrix” of social media accounts across major Western platforms including X and Facebook, managed by a mix of diplomats, state media outlets, influencers and automated bots. These outlets regularly seize on current events to push Beijing’s narrative. In February, for example, state-run Xinhua News Agency released an AI-generated music video mocking Trump’s suggestion to take over Greenland, featuring a military-uniformed bald eagle singing lyrics that brag “Anything I want, I’ll get it. One way or another, I’ll get it.” A month later, after Trump hosted the “Shield of the Americas” summit, Xinhua followed up with another short video, this one depicting a suited bald eagle trapping small birds in a cage under the pretext of national security, dryly noting “Sometimes, security comes with a little control.”

    The growing sophistication of these foreign messaging campaigns has already prompted pushback from Washington. Recent State Department diplomatic cables have warned that state-run foreign media campaigns on digital platforms “pose a direct threat to U.S. national security and fuel hostility toward American interests,” and the U.S. has pledged to ramp up its own efforts to counter these narratives in what has become an escalating global information conflict.