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The US Department of Energy said it had loaned 8.48 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to four companies, as part of a second round of releases aimed at easing fuel prices amid the Middle East conflict.The Department said the recipients were Gunvor USA, Phillips 66, Trafigura Trading and Macquarie Commodities Trading.The move follows an offer a day earlier to sell 30 million barrels of light, sweet crude from the West Hackberry site in Louisiana.The DOE said companies took about 45.2 million barrels in the first round last month, roughly 52% of the volumes offered, indicating weaker-than-expected demand.SPR releases are structured as exchange agreements, requiring companies to return the crude at a later date with additional barrels as a premium, a mechanism the Department said supports supply without cost to taxpayers.Washington had offered on April 1 to loan up to 10 million barrels in the second round, part of a broader plan to release as much as 172 million barrels through 2027.The United States is also acting in coordination with other members of the International Energy Agency, which have agreed to collectively release around 400 million barrels to stabilize markets following supply disruptions linked to the conflict.The SPR currently holds about 413.3 million barrels, its lowest level since the mid-1980s, equivalent to just over four days of global oil demand. Source link
Pakistan on Saturday expressed hope that the United States and Iran would engage constructively in talks hosted in Islamabad, aimed at easing regional tensions.Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a statement that Pakistan remains committed to facilitating dialogue between the parties to help achieve a lasting and sustainable resolution.A high-level US delegation, led by Vice President JD Vance and including Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, arrived in Islamabad to take part in talks scheduled for later on Saturday.On the Iranian side, the delegation is headed by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.The talks follow a recently announced ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran after weeks of heightened tensions since late February, in a move aimed at de-escalating the situation and safeguarding energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Related Story Source link
The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced an unchanged 15-member squad today (11 April) for the first two ODIs of the upcoming home series against New Zealand. To…
Former US Vice President and Democratic Party nominee for the 2020 presidential election, Kamala Harris said on Friday that she was considering running for president again in 2028.In remarks, Harris revealed that she was considering a run in the next election, but many observers and analysts have downplayed her chances of winning the Democratic primaries and securing the party’s nomination.Harris previously served as a US Senator and Attorney General of California, among other positions, and ran against current US President Donald Trump in the presidential race. Source link
Whatever be the outcome of the Islamabad talks — and undeniably, these remain on highly fragile ground — Pakistan’s rearguard diplomacy to even get the US and Iran to come to the negotiating table cannot be credited enough, especially after US President Donald Trump’s threat to “wipe out a civilisation” that left the world teetering on the edge. When the world’s most powerful nations cannot speak to each other, they have often found a way to whisper — through Pakistan. It is a role Islamabad has quietly perfected over half a century: the trusted go-between, the carrier of messages that dare not travel openly, the host of conversations that officially never happened. Neither fully Western nor wholly Eastern, neither Arab nor Persian, Pakistan occupies a peculiar diplomatic sweet spot — and it has learned, with considerable skill, to make that ambiguity pay. The most celebrated example came in 1971, when General Yahya Khan’s government shepherded Henry Kissinger through Islamabad on a clandestine flight to Beijing, laying the groundwork for Nixon’s historic opening to China. It was a masterstroke of quiet statecraft — Pakistan asking no questions, seeking no credit, content with gratitude and goodwill from two of the world’s great powers simultaneously. That currency proved extraordinarily durable. The pattern repeated across the decades, in different registers and with varying degrees of success. During the Soviet-Afghan War, Pakistan was the indispensable frontline partner in the UN-brokered Geneva talks, coordinating mujahideen pressure and diplomatic suasion in equal measure until Moscow agreed to withdraw. The resulting accords were a genuine achievement. Between 2018 and 2020, Pakistan’s stubborn leverage over the Afghan Taliban made it central to the Doha Agreement, the deal that ended America’s longest war. In the chronic cold war between Riyadh and Tehran, Islamabad has positioned itself with particular care. It declined to join Saudi Arabia’s Yemen coalition in 2015, a decision that caused diplomatic friction but preserved Pakistan’s credibility in Tehran. It then used that credibility to quietly work the phones during successive spikes in Gulf tension offering itself as a de-escalation channel at moments when the alternative was an escalation nobody could afford. These were not headline-grabbing mediations. They were precisely the kind Pakistan does best: discreet and potentially invaluable. What makes Islamabad useful in these situations is that its relationships run in every direction simultaneously — a sometimes-fractious — but currently, close — partnership with Washington, inseparable ties with Tehran, economic dependency on the Gulf states, and an all-weather strategic alliance with Beijing. Where outside observers see a country pulled uncomfortably in competing directions, Islamabad sees leverage. The contradiction is the asset. It is worth noting who augments this diplomacy: the powerful military that sustains Pakistan’s backchannel relationships across administrations, elections, and crises. Now, in 2026, that same tradecraft is being applied to the most combustible dossier on the planet: the long-running stand-off between Washington and Tehran. Islamabad is hosting talks, passing proposals — including a reported 15-point American framework — co-ordinating with Turkiye, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and China, and presenting itself, with characteristic understatement, as merely honoured to be of service to regional peace. Whether this episode yields a genuine breakthrough or dissolves into the familiar fog of stalled negotiations remains genuinely uncertain. But the instinct endures, and the infrastructure of relationships that makes it possible has never been dismantled. In a world that runs chronically short of honest brokers — of countries trusted, however provisionally, by parties who trust almost nobody else — Pakistan keeps raising its hand. In the right moment, that is no small thing to be. Source link
Family members and friends mourn outside the Nasser Hospital, the day after a Palestinian was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, in the southern…
Supporters of the Houthi movement march in solidarity with Iran and Lebanon in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, yesterday. Source link
Lebanon is facing a food security crisis due to Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah group, which has disrupted supplies of goods and pushed up prices, the UN World Food Programme said yesterday. A fragile two-day-old ceasefire has halted the campaign of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, but it has not so far calmed the situation in Lebanon, where Israel began pounding the country, in particular the south, on March 2 after Hezbollah fired on it in support of its patron Iran. “What we’re witnessing is not just a displacement crisis, it is rapidly becoming a food security crisis,” said World Food Programme country director Allison Oman, speaking via video link from Beirut.She warned that food was becoming increasingly unaffordable due to rising prices and demand among displaced families. The Lebanese Ministry of Economy and Trade said in a statement that Lebanon’s food stocks on a national level are sufficient for three to four months, and supply chains and import-export operations are functioning normally at ports and land crossings. However, the price of vegetables has soared by more than 20% and bread prices have increased by 17% since March 2, the WFP said. “What we’re now seeing is a very worrying combination: prices are rising, incomes are disrupted and demand is increasing as displacement continues for many families,” Oman stated. Lebanon faces a two-layered crisis, in which some markets have fully collapsed — especially in the south, where more than 80% of markets are no longer functioning — while those in Beirut are under increasing strain, Oman said. While markets on a national level are broadly functioning, many traders in conflict-affected areas in southern parts of Lebanon are reporting less than one week of essential food stocks remaining, she added. The trade ministry said that strategic reserves of food and fuel are available. Delivering food aid into hard-to-reach areas in the south was also becoming increasingly difficult. Source link
* Iran says ceasefire must include Lebanon, unfreezing of assets* Vance tells Iran not to ‘play us’* Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon continue on Friday Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said yesterday that leaders of both Iran and the United States would attend ceasefire talks in his country set for today – and warned that progress would be hard work. “In response to my sincere invitation, the leaderships of both countries are coming to Islamabad. There, negotiations will be held for the establishment of peace,” Sharif said in an address to the nation. Iranian officials landed late last night at Nur Khan Air Base in Islamabad under Pakistan’s Air Force escort, sources involved in the talks said. While US Vice-President J D Vance was on his way to Pakistan, there had been a question mark over the Iran delegation after Tehran set conditions for the start of negotiations.Iran has said a two-week ceasefire in place must apply to Lebanon, where Israel was still carrying out bombing raids on Iran-backed Hezbollah. Iran also called for its assets frozen abroad because of US sanctions to be unblocked. Sharif sounded a more positive note, thanking both sides for agreeing to meet, but said the hard work was still to come. “A temporary ceasefire has been announced, but now an even more difficult stage lies ahead: the stage of achieving a lasting ceasefire, of resolving complicated issues through negotiations,” he said in his televised speech. “This is that stage which, in English, is called the equivalent of ‘make or break’.” He said his government would “make every possible effort to make these talks successful”. Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X that the two above measures had been previously agreed with Washington and that talks would not start until they are fulfilled, amid mounting dispute over the ceasefire terms. This was echoed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who also demanded an end to Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon. Both officials are expected to be at the talks, Pakistani sources said. Trump, who did not specifically address the Iranian demands, earlier told the New York Post that US warships were being reloaded “with the best ammunition to resume strikes on Iran if peace talks in Pakistan fail”. Vice-President J D Vance, who will lead the US delegation, said he expected a positive outcome as he headed to Pakistan, but added: “if they’re going to try to play us, then they’re going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive”.Iran has been unable to obtain tens of billions of dollars of its assets in foreign banks, mainly from exports of oil and gas, due to US sanctions on its banking and energy sectors. Source link
An Israeli strike, one of multiple on the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh yesterday, killed 13 State Security personnel, the agency said, as Lebanon prepared to start ceasefire talks with Israel.“This painful loss only strengthens our determination to achieve a ceasefire that will protect Lebanon and our people in the south,” Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a statement. President Joseph Aoun called on the international community to “assume its responsibilities in putting an end to the repeated Israeli aggressions”.Naim Qassem, head of Hezbollah, called yesterday for the Lebanese government to stop giving “free concessions” to Israel ahead of talks to try and end the month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah that has left some 1,900 people in Lebanon dead. The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said “enemy warplanes launched a series of heavy strikes” on Nabatiyeh yesterday and an AFP photographer saw extensive damage at the State Security office, where a fire was still raging.Israel, for its part, reported 30 rockets from Hezbollah into Israel yesterday. As the government prepared for talks with Israel, outside the auspices of the US-Iran talks in Islamabad, Qassem called on officials “to stop offering free concessions” and described Israel’s military campaign as a failure.A US official on Thursday said talks would take place in Washington next week.Hezbollah is represented in Lebanon’s cabinet and parliament. “The Israeli enemy has failed on the battlefield… It has been unable to carry out the ground invasion it repeatedly announced,” Qassem said, adding that “the resistance will continue until the last breath”. More than 300 people, mostly civilians according to a Lebanese military source, were killed in a wave of simultaneous Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday despite the announcement hours earlier of a truce between the United States and Iran, with Israel and the US saying it did not apply to Lebanon. Iran has insisted on including Lebanon in its ceasefire negotiations with the US.On Thursday afternoon, the Israeli military issued a warning of incoming strikes for large, densely populated areas of southern Beirut, but had not carried out the threat as of yesterday. A Western diplomat told AFP yesterday that European and Arab states are pressuring Israel to stop targeting Beirut. The Western diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous in order to discuss sensitive matters, said yesterday “there is ongoing diplomatic pressure from European states, regional states and Egypt on Israel to prevent renewed Israeli airstrikes on Beirut after ‘Black Wednesday’”. Thursday’s Israeli warning included areas home to major hospitals and the road to the country’s only international airport. Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny said in a statement carried by the state-run National News Agency (NNA) on Thursday that he had “received assurances” from foreign diplomats that the airport and the road leading to it would be spared. Meanwhile, Mohammad Zaatari, director of the country’s largest public medical facility, Rafic Hariri Hospital, told AFP: “We have received assurances, including from the International Committee of the Red Cross that the hospital would not be targeted.” The World Health Organisation on Thursday called on Israel to cancel its evacuation warning for the Jnah district of Beirut because around 450 patients were in the Rafic Hariri and Al-Zahraa hospitals in the district, including 40 in intensive care. The Israeli military said on Friday it had “dismantled” more than 4,300 Hezbollah sites in Lebanon and killed “more than 1,400” Hezbollah fighters. Hezbollah, for its part, claimed several rocket launches on northern Israel, as well as attacks on Israeli troops advancing in the border area. Hezbollah also said it targeted a naval base in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on Friday, far from the border, with missiles. Source link