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July 04, 2026
 

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PAKISTAN

U.S. Vice President JD Vance (L) speaks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ahead of their meeting on Iran amid the U.S.-Iran peace talks in Islamabad on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 12, 2026
U.S.-Iran talks pause for now as disagreements remain
The talks in Islamabad were the first direct U.S.-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and the highest-level discussions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance walks alongside Pakistani Chief of Defence Forces Asim Munir and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar after arriving for talks with Iranian officials in Islamabad on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 11, 2026
U.S. and Iran teams in Pakistan for peace talks amid doubts over possible deal
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and continued fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon threatened to complicate negotiations.
Drivers wait in a line to refuel their auto rickshaws in Biyagama on the outskirts of Colombo on March 15.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Apr 11, 2026
Iran war leaves crisis-scarred countries counting the cost
Sri Lanka, Egypt and Pakistan ‌belong to ‌a group of crisis-scarred countries that analysts fear have been thrust back toward trouble amid rising energy costs.
The President house in Islamabad on Thursday as Pakistan gears up to host the U.S. and Iran peace talks
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 10, 2026
Pakistan’s high-stakes Iran peace bid is fraught with risk
Pakistan’s role as a peace broker marks a stunning reversal in fortunes, and success in Saturday’s dialogue would go a long way toward maintaining its newfound prominence.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Diplomatic efforts to halt the war in Iran were on the verge of collapse when Pakistan mounted an overnight push to secure a temporary ceasefire.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 9, 2026
‘Talks were almost dead’: Pakistan’s last-ditch effort to secure Iran war truce
The effort nearly unraveled after Iran struck a Saudi petrochemical facility that threatened to derail weeks of back-channel diplomacy.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2025.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 8, 2026
How did Pakistan broker a temporary truce between Iran and the U.S.?
Pakistan has emerged as a key intermediary to secure a temporary ceasefire and host negotiations to end the war in the Middle East.
Bags containing methamphetamine within a shipping container. A 53-year-old Pakistani used-car dealer has been arrested by Tokyo police on suspicion of concealing stimulants in 18 of 742 bags of white powder used as a cosmetic that were found in a container from the United Arab Emirates.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 7, 2026
Pakistani man arrested on suspicion of smuggling 270kg of stimulants into Japan
The 53-year-old Pakistani used-car dealer has been detained with five others for alleged smuggling the drugs, worth about ¥14.3 billion, from the United Arab Emirates.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar (center right) meets with his counterparts from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to discuss the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on March 29
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 3, 2026
From outcast to mediator in Iran war, Pakistan’s remarkable makeover
In a striking transformation, Pakistan has gone from diplomatic outcast to trusted regional partner as it mediates between the U.S. and Iran to end the war in the Middle East.
A police speedboat patrols as oil tankers and high-speed crafts sit anchored at Muscat Anchorage near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday in Muscat, Oman.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2026
Secret codes and yuan fees get ships through Iran’s Hormuz tollbooth
Ship owners and operators face difficult legal questions over whether they should pay Iran’s tolls and which rules, sanctions and conventions may be applied to them.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) speaks with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar in Beijing on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 1, 2026
China and Pakistan outline five-point plan to end Mideast war
The two countries outlined a joint initiative “for restoring peace and stability in the Gulf and Middle East region,” after senior Pakistani officials visited Beijing.
Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Moscow in 2025
WORLD / Politics
Mar 31, 2026
Pakistan’s foreign minister to visit China as outlook for Mideast war uncertain
Pakistan has emerged as a key player in seeking to broker peace in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to members of the media aboard Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 30, 2026
Trump calls Iran’s current leaders ‘very reasonable’ as Pakistan prepares to host talks
The U.S. leader’s remarks came after Pakistan, which is acting as an intermediary between Tehran and Washington, said it was preparing to host “meaningful talks” soon.
Bilal Bin Saqib at the Quaid-e-Azam Library in Lahore. Saqib is seen as a key player in transforming the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan over the past year.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 30, 2026
Pakistan’s crypto diplomacy paved way for key role as U.S.-Iran intermediary
Red carpet treatment in Islamabad for the American president’s family business underscores the growing depth of an increasingly important geopolitical relationship.
Military vehicles carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles drive past Tiananmen Square during a military parade in Beijing in 2019.
WORLD
Mar 27, 2026
States deploying more nuclear weapons, monitor warns
Nearly all of the nine nuclear-armed states have begun increasing their arsenals or have announced plans to do so, a report found.
The chimneys of the Taean Thermal Power Station, a large coal-fired plant near Seoul. Asian countries are ramping up use of polluting coal to tackle energy shortages and price spikes linked to the Iran war, but the crisis could have an environmental silver lining.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 25, 2026
Back to black: facing energy shock, Asia turns to coal
Much of Asia is heavily exposed to the energy crisis that has unfolded since the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran began last month.
U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Friday. Trump shared a message posted by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on social media offering to host talks between the U.S. and Israel in Pakistan, but the U.S. president has made no indication of whether he will accept the offer.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 25, 2026
Pakistan offers to host talks with U.S. and Iran in Islamabad in bid to end war
Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, could travel to Islamabad, said one senior Western diplomat.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 24, 2026
Trump began Iran talks as allies warned war risked disaster
The U.S. president said Monday he was giving Iran a five-day reprieve from his threatened action.
Taliban officials and Afghan Red Crescent Society volunteers offer funeral prayers for victims of a Pakistani airstrike on a drug rehabilitation center, during a mass burial ceremony at the Badam Bagh Hilltop in Kabul on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 19, 2026
Pakistan and Afghanistan announce Eid ‘pause’ in hostilities
The halt in fighting came after the deadliest strike in their escalating conflict killed hundreds in Kabul earlier this week.
A member of the Taliban's security forces inspects the site of a drug rehabilitation center, after it was hit by a Pakistani airstrike, in Kabul on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 18, 2026
Afghan authorities say around 400 killed in Pakistani strike on Kabul rehab center
The two sides have been in conflict for months, with Islamabad accusing its neighbor of harboring Islamist extremists who have mounted deadly cross-border attacks on its territory.
Taliban security personnel carry a body on a blanket at the site of a damaged building after Pakistani airstrikes allegedly hit the Secondary Rehabilitation Services Center in Kabul on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 17, 2026
Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of deadly airstrike on drug rehab center in Kabul
Islamabad has struck Kabul several times in recent weeks following claims Afghanistan’s Taliban government has harbored extremists who have carried out attacks across the border.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Japan plans to sharply raise fees for residence permits from October
Foreign tourists walk on the path leading to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in May.
Iran war exposed, but hasn’t changed, Japan’s reliance on imported oil
Wind turbines generate energy from strong easterly winds on the Shonai Plain in Yamagata Prefecture. Despite the oil crisis caused by conflict near the Strait of Hormuz, and concerns instability in the region could continue to impact supply and the price of imports, the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi does not seem to be drawing on the war as a pretext to hasten progress toward Japan's renewable goals.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
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