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Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Islamabad, Pakistan, April 25, 2026. REUTERS US President Donald Trump Saturday cancelled a planned visit by two American envoys to Iran war mediator Pakistan, dealing a fresh setback to peace prospects after Iran’s foreign minister flew out of Islamabad without any sign of a breakthrough.Trump said in a social media post that he had called off the planned trip by his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, citing what he described as confusion within the Iranian leadership.”Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’ Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” he wrote.Trump later told Fox News: “We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.” Asked by Axios whether the cancellation meant a resumption of hostilities, Trump said: “No. It doesn’t mean that. We haven’t thought about it yet.”Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier left the Pakistani capital after meeting Pakistani military chief Asim Munir, a key figure in the mediation effort, along with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.Araghchi described his visit to Pakistan as “very fruitful,” adding in a social media post that he had “shared Iran’s position concerning (a) workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran. Have yet to see if the US is truly serious about diplomacy.”Sharif said he spoke by phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian Saturday after the talks were called off and reaffirmed Pakistan’s readiness to help resolve the conflict. “Pakistan remains committed to serve as an honest and sincere facilitator — working tirelessly to advance durable peace and lasting stability in the region,” Sharif wrote on X.Iranian media reported that Araghchi had flown to Muscat to meet senior Omani officials. He will however, head back to Pakistan after visiting Oman, state media reported Saturday.The IRNA news agency, citing the foreign ministry, reported that Araghchi “is scheduled to visit Pakistan again after completing his trip to Oman and before travelling to Russia”.Part of his delegation had returned to Tehran, it added, “to consult and obtain the necessary instructions on issues related to ending the war, and is scheduled to rejoin Araghchi in Islamabad tonight”.He is also expected to travel to Russia to discuss efforts to end the war, which the United States and Israel began against Iran on February 28.Tehran has ruled out a new round of direct talks with Washington. An Iranian diplomatic source in Islamabad told Reuters: “Principally, Iranian side will not accept maximalist demands.”White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had earlier said the US had seen some progress from the Iranian side in recent days, while Vice President JD Vance was ready to travel to Pakistan. Vance led a first, unsuccessful round of talks with Iran in Islamabad earlier this month.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Saturday they had no intention of ending their blockade of the waterway. “Controlling the Strait of Hormuz and maintaining the shadow of its deterrent effects over America and the White House’s supporters in the region is the definitive strategy of Islamic Iran,” they said.European Council President Antonio Costa said the strait “must immediately reopen without restrictions and without tolling. This is vital for the entire world.” Related Story Source link
Workers load tonnes of rare earth minerals into bags ready for shipping at a refinery in eastern Malaysia, fuelling the global pushback against China's grip on the critical sector.Rare earths are a key ingredient in products ranging from smartphones to fighter jets, electric cars and wind turbines — and increasingly for hardware powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.Global jitters about Beijing's dominance as a rare earths producer have kicked Australian mining giant Lynas into action, expanding its portfolio of rare earths refined in Malaysia as it hopes to boost its approximately 10% share of the market.China makes up the other 90% of the world's market, stoking fears about Beijing's ability to choke global supplies.’China has built its success on executing a clear industrial plan — it takes us to be serious about it,’ Lynas company's chief executive Amanda Lacaze told AFP.Pushing against Chinese dominance will ‘take discipline, focus and clear planning’, she said during a rare press visit to the company's sprawling chemical plant in Malaysia's Gebeng industrial hub, near the coastal city of Kuantan.The Lynas facility in Gebeng is now the world's largest single rare earths processing plant.Downstream demandSince 2012, the facility has been refining pure metals from raw materials mined in Western Australia, in an intensive and complicated separation procedure.It currently handles 11 of the 17 rare earths — a number that is increasing — with plans to expand even further to include ‘heavies’ such as yttrium and lutetium, used for lasers, medical imaging and cancer therapy.From the plant, the bags are transported to Port Klang on the other side of Malaysia, and leave on a ship for Japan, where the metal powders are turned into high-performance magnets used in advanced industries such as electronics and aerospace.Most bags contain NdPr, short for neodymium-praseodymium, a rare-earth mixture and key magnet material, which sells for around $100,000 per bag.Smaller quantities of other separated heavy rare earth oxides like dysprosium, terbium and samarium are sold in 25kg tins.Rare earths are so vital for the global economy that they have become a flashpoint in the blistering trade war between the US and China.Beijing leveraged its grip on the precious minerals in spectacular fashion last October, reaching a deal with Washington to pause the trade war after its curbs on exports rattled markets and snarled supply chains.Supply of rare earths is expected to be a key discussion point at an upcoming summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing set for mid-May.But the challenge for Lynas is not its production capacity, chief operating officer Pol Le Roux said.Instead, incentives are needed to boost downstream capacity — the ability to turn raw minerals into a finished product — which is ‘growing too slowly’, he told AFP.Lacaze said the company was already partnering with magnet makers to close the gap between rare-earth processing and manufacturing.However, she stressed: ‘We won't just say that we are going to wake up tomorrow and be a magnet maker.’'Minimise risks' Producing rare earths requires heavy chemicals and can produce toxic waste, with cases including illegal operations polluting Mekong tributaries in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia with arsenic and cadmium.Lynas got the green light last month from the Malaysian government to process rare earths there for another 10 years.The licence was issued as environmental watchdogs such as Greenpeace raised concerns over the management of radioactive by-products.Under the latest agreement, the government said the company must now halt all activities that produce radioactive waste within five years of its renewed operating licence.Lynas however, says its by-product from rare earth refining produces a non-toxic, non-radioactive magnesium-rich gypsum and an iron phosphate with a very low level of naturally occurring radioactive material.Existing by-product is already stored in a permanent disposal facility ‘constructed and managed to ensure the material does not impact on the surrounding environment,’ the company said.Lynas also has ambitions to diversify further into producing rare earths as catalysts over the next decade.Rare earths are particularly important as a low-cost catalyst in the hydrogen supply chain, for instance, in the recovery process when the gas is transported long-haul as ammonia.’In 10 years from now, I expect this to be a substantial part of the business,’ Le Roux said. Source link
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (Reuters/File photo) Ferdinand Marcos will make the first state visit to Japan by a Philippine president in over a decade next month, the presidential palace said Friday, at a time of deepening security cooperation between the two countries.Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako will receive Marcos and his wife Louise during the May 26-29 trip, with the Filipino leader also set to meet Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the palace statement said.Marcos and Takaichi “are expected to discuss the future trajectory of the Philippines-Japan Strengthened Strategic Partnership” as well as international developments, “especially with regard to energy and food security, and maritime security”, it said.The World War II foes have been strengthening military ties in recent years, with Tokyo supplying coast guard ships and radar systems and signing a reciprocal access deal that allowed Japanese troops to take part for the first time in annual US-Philippines military exercises.About 1,400 Japanese personnel are currently in the Philippines for the sprawling, 19-day exercise known as Balikatan, or “Shoulder to Shoulder”.Tokyo has also been a key financer of Manila’s efforts to modernise patrol craft and maritime surveillance systems used in the disputed South China Sea.China claims nearly the entirety of the strategic waterway despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.In February, US, Japanese and Philippine aircraft patrolled over the Bashi Channel that separates the Philippines from Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory, to test what Manila called their “ability to operate seamlessly together in complex maritime environments”.Little more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) separates the Philippines and self-ruled Taiwan, which China has not ruled out taking by force.Manila said Marcos will also meet with Japanese business groups and members of the Filipino community.His state visit would be the first by an incumbent Filipino leader since Benigno Aquino’s trip to Tokyo in 2015. Related Story Source link
More than 1,000 firefighters in northern Japan battled to contain two wildfires for a fourth straight day on Saturday, as the blazes pushed closer to residential areas and forced more than 3,000 residents to evacuate.The combined area affected amounts to the third largest recorded in Japan, where forest fires have intensified in recent years.The first fire broke out on Wednesday in a mountainous area and then a second nearby threatened residential districts in the town of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture.Hilly terrain, dry weather and winds are hampering containment efforts, a fire department official told reporters.By Saturday, the fires had scorched about 730 hectares (1,800 acres), prompting evacuation orders covering 1,541 households and 3,233 people – about a third of Otsuchi's population.The town is scarred by the memory of one of Japan's worst disasters, the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami when it lost nearly a tenth of its population.’Even during the 2011 disaster, this area didn't burn. There was a tsunami but we had no fire here,’ said Taeko Kajiki, 76, a former nurse, who was among those who have been evacuated since Friday.She said she had stayed up all night watching the red glow of the flames and had packed her bankbook and medical cards as well as the turtle she has kept as a pet since 2010.The firefighters on the ground were supported by helicopters from several prefectures and Japan’s Self Defense Forces, which carried out aerial water drops to try to halt the advance of the fires.’With the land so dry, fires keep igniting. We put one out, then race to extinguish another, over and over again,’ said Masashi Kikuchi, a 37-year-old volunteer firefighter, who moved to a house on higher ground after losing his home to the 2011 tsunami.Eight buildings, including one residential home, have been damaged or destroyed so far, though no injuries or fatalities have been reported, authorities said.’I can't let people lose their homes again after losing them once to the tsunami,’ Otsuchi Mayor Kozo Hirano told reporters. He said the town would seek help from other authorities and provide services, such as hot baths, to help ease stress among residents.While Japan has experienced relatively few wildfires compared with other parts of the globe, climate change has increased their frequency, especially as the early spring months before the humid rainy season have been hot, dry and with winds that can whip up flames.The Japan Meteorological Agency said no rain was forecast for the region over the coming week.According to official figures, the amount of land on fire around Otsuchi is second only to the major forest fire in Ofunato in 2025, which consumed about 3,370 hectares, and the Kushiro fire in 1992, which burned 1,030 hectares. Source link
Participants pour coconut milk into bamboo tubes as they prepare to cook lemang, a traditional glutinous rice dish stuffed into bamboo tubes and filled with coconut…
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attend a press briefing following their meeting in Qabala, Azerbaijan, yesterday. (Reuters) Ukraine and Azerbaijan signed six co-operation agreements yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as he pushes to share Kyiv’s drone expertise amid the Middle East war.Zelensky has clinched several defence deals with Gulf countries that suffered Iranian drone attacks with Kyiv offering its experience and expertise after more than four years of relentless Russian strikes.“We have signed six documents today,” said Zelensky in the Azerbaijan capital Baku, without specifying which fields. “Today, the number one area is security. This concerns the defence-industrial complex,” he said. “We have shared our experience in countering the aggressor today”.Speaking alongside Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, Zelensky said Ukrainian drone experts were already working in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic on the Caspian Sea that borders southern Russia. In early March, drones launched from Iran hit an Azerbaijani airport and exploded near a school, wounding four people and raising fears of a spillover of the conflict into the Caucasus.Since then, already tepid relations between Baku and Tehran have declined further. The Ukrainian president also said he was ready to hold trilateral talks on ending the war with Russia in Azerbaijan, if Moscow showed a willingness to do so.“We shared with the president of Azerbaijan that we are ready for trilateral talks,” said Zelensky. Azerbaijan repeatedly expressed support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sent humanitarian aid after the Russian invasion in 2022.Ties between Moscow and Baku have cooled over the past year, after an Azerbaijani passenger plane was mistakenly hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile in 2024, causing a crash that killed 38. Source link
Tonnes of packaged rare earth minerals sat ready for shipping from a Malaysian plant to loosen China’s grip on supplies of the critical elements. (AFP) Workers load tonnes of rare earth minerals into bags ready for shipping at a refinery in eastern Malaysia, fuelling the global pushback against China’s grip on the critical sector. Rare earths are a key ingredient in products ranging from smartphones to fighter jets, electric cars and wind turbines — and increasingly for hardware powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.Global jitters about Beijing’s dominance as a rare earths producer have kicked Australian mining giant Lynas into action, expanding its portfolio of rare earths refined in Malaysia as it hopes to boost its approximately 10% share of the market. China makes up the other 90% of the world’s market, stoking fears about Beijing’s ability to choke global supplies. “China has built its success on executing a clear industrial plan — it takes us to be serious about it,” Lynas company’s chief executive Amanda Lacaze told AFP. Pushing against Chinese dominance will “take discipline, focus and clear planning”, she said during a rare press visit to the company’s sprawling chemical plant in Malaysia’s Gebeng industrial hub, near the coastal city of Kuantan. The Lynas facility in Gebeng is now the world’s largest single rare earths processing plant. Since 2012, the facility has been refining pure metals from raw materials mined in Western Australia, in an intensive and complicated separation procedure.It currently handles 11 of the 17 rare earths — a number that is increasing — with plans to expand even further to include “heavies” such as yttrium and lutetium, used for lasers, medical imaging and cancer therapy. From the plant, the bags are transported to Port Klang on the other side of Malaysia, and leave on a ship for Japan, where the metal powders are turned into high-performance magnets used in advanced industries such as electronics and aerospace. Most bags contain NdPr, short for neodymium-praseodymium, a rare-earth mixture and key magnet material, which sells for around $100,000 per bag.Smaller quantities of other separated heavy rare earth oxides like dysprosium, terbium and samarium are sold in 25kg tins.Rare earths are so vital for the global economy that they have become a flashpoint in the blistering trade war between the US and China. Beijing leveraged its grip on the precious minerals in spectacular fashion last October, reaching a deal with Washington to pause the trade war after its curbs on exports rattled markets and snarled supply chains.Supply of rare earths is expected to be a key discussion point at an upcoming summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing set for mid-May. But the challenge for Lynas is not its production capacity, chief operating officer Pol Le Roux said.Instead, incentives are needed to boost downstream capacity — the ability to turn raw minerals into a finished product — which is “growing too slowly”, he told AFP. Lacaze said the company was already partnering with magnet makers to close the gap between rare-earth processing and manufacturing.However, she stressed: “We won’t just say that we are going to wake up tomorrow and be a magnet maker.”Producing rare earths requires heavy chemicals and can produce toxic waste, with cases including illegal operations polluting Mekong tributaries in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia with arsenic and cadmium. Lynas got the green light last month from the Malaysian government to process rare earths there for another 10 years. The licence was issued as environmental watchdogs such as Greenpeace raised concerns over the management of radioactive by-products. Under the latest agreement, the government said the company must now halt all activities that produce radioactive waste within five years of its renewed operating licence. Lynas however, says its by-product from rare earth refining produces a non-toxic, non-radioactive magnesium-rich gypsum and an iron phosphate with a very low level of naturally occurring radioactive material.Existing by-product is already stored in a permanent disposal facility “constructed and managed to ensure the material does not impact on the surrounding environment,” the company said.Lynas also has ambitions to diversify further into producing rare earths as catalysts over the next decade.Rare earths are particularly important as a low-cost catalyst in the hydrogen supply chain, for instance, in the recovery process when the gas is transported long-haul as ammonia.“In 10 years from now, I expect this to be a substantial part of the business,” Le Roux said. …
With US gas prices up, President Donald Trump’s approval ratings down and the Iran war dragging on, Republicans are recalibrating their blueprint ahead of November’s midterm elections. The strategy? Seek to tap Trump’s turnout power without making the races a referendum on an increasingly unpopular president. In a closed-door meeting this week with top conservative campaign officials, Trump’s political advisers, including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, political chief James Blair and longtime pollster Tony Fabrizio, outlined a plan for candidates to promote Republicans’ tax cuts and inflation-fighting policies, according to four people familiar with the gathering. But Republicans want to avoid making Trump himself the focus of the campaign, as strategists worry that his sagging political fortunes could hurt candidates in competitive congressional races. Trump’s party faces an uphill battle to keep its House of Representatives majority, and a growing risk of losing control of the Senate. Among some Republican operatives, concern is increasing that Trump’s presidency — and political clout — are running out of gas, according to three of the people, plus another seasoned Republican campaign source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings and offer candid assessments. Trump appears mired in a deadlock with Iran, with both military and diplomatic efforts falling far short of denuclearising the Islamic Republic and reopening the Strait of Hormuz after two months of war. Rising gas prices — the national average is near $4 per gallon – threaten to neutralise new tax policies from Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the signature legislative achievement of Trump’s second term. Only 36% of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, the lowest of his current term, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. And many Americans, including some Republicans, have some concerns about the 79-year-old president’s temperament and mental sharpness following a series of explosive outbursts. “Are going to try to nationalise the election and say we’re a rubber stamp for Trump,” a Trumpworld political strategist told Reuters. “We have to break out of that and show race by race why we’re the better choice.”Inside the president’s political operation, enthusiasm remains strong that Trump is an effective messenger. Kiersten Pels, national press secretary for the Republican National Committee, said that Trump would remain “the most powerful driver” of conservative voter turnout in the midterms, and that Republican candidates are eagerly seeking his endorsement. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said Trump was the “unequivocal leader of the Republican party and he is committed to maintaining Republicans’ majority in Congress.” Over coffee and pastries in the meeting on Monday held at what was once Trump’s luxury Washington hotel, now the Waldorf Astoria, Trump’s team asked guests to sign non-disclosure agreements, then predicted Republicans would win a redistricting election the next day in Virginia. The mood was optimistic, the people familiar with the gathering said. Details of the meeting leaked immediately. A day later, Virginia voters approved the new congressional map Democrats drew to favor their party in November. “If the people framing this approach are confident about Virginia and they get beat in Virginia, you have to question, are they overconfident about the whole package?” one of the people familiar with the meeting said. Some Republican insiders are quick to point out that the midterm elections are months away, and that much can change before voters go to the polls. If armed hostilities with Iran slow, gas prices could fall and inflation could cool more broadly. “The panic is people looking at things right now, but I think the key is to project where it could be over the summer, and it’s still very fluid,” said David McIntosh, president of the Trump-aligned Club for Growth.Headed into the election cycle, Republicans planned to promote Trump as the party’s standard-bearer, and as the figure who, in his oft-repeated phrase, turned the US into “the hottest country anywhere in the world.”Wiles in December said Republicans would upend the traditional midterm playbook by putting Trump “on the ballot,” rather than keeping the sitting president at a distance. Now, the people said, that plan is less attractive. Republicans will look to emphasise local issues rather than allegiance to the president, they added. “The politics have changed,” said another of the people familiar with the meeting. “In January, nationalising the race around him made some sense. “Voters don’t feel the president is doing enough to make their lives cheaper, but they still believe Republicans want to do that,” the person said. The Trumpworld strategist added that the Democratic Party’s low popularity gives Republicans an effective foil with which to contrast policy ideas. Trump’s faltering support could give Democrats fertile ground to attach Republican candidates to the president’s shortcomings, making some conservative campaign operatives skeptical of the White House’s political approach. After campaigning in 2024 as a critic of “stupid wars” and styling himself as a “peace president,” Trump is now overseeing the largest US military operation since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.Critics say Trump’s administration showed little consideration of how Iran would respond to the joint US-Israeli attack or the vast economic fallout, including an unprecedented global energy supply shock and the threat of a worldwide financial downturn. Trump’s decision on Tuesday to indefinitely extend what was originally a two-week ceasefire was widely viewed as a retreat, with Tehran maintaining its grip on the Strait of Hormuz and commitment to a nuclear program.Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for both Democratic and Republican administrations, said Iran believes it holds leverage with Hormuz and can also endure economic pain. Source link
US media reported that Secret Service agents evacuated Donald Trump from the hall of an official event after gunshots were heard, as a precautionary measure to ensure his safety.NBC reported that the incident occurred during the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, held at the Washington Hilton, where security personnel immediately escorted President Trump out of the hall.Reports confirmed that the president and members of his administration were unharmed, while authorities quickly evacuated and secured the event venue.Preliminary information indicates that the gunman was killed inside the hotel lobby, while security agencies continue their investigation to determine the circumstances of the incident. Source link
Meta Platforms Inc plans to cut 10% of workers, or roughly 8,000 employees, in an effort to boost efficiency and offset its heavy spending on artificial intelligence. The company disclosed the move in a memo sent to employees on Thursday, saying the layoffs will come on May 20. Meta also won’t hire workers for 6,000 open roles that it had intended to fill. The job cuts come as Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is spending aggressively on the talent and infrastructure needed to develop state-of-the-art artificial intelligence products, including large language models and chatbots. Meta already projected record capital expenditures this year, and has announced several multibillion-dollar deals with AI partners over the past few months. Employees have been encouraged to use AI agents internally to help with writing code and other tasks. Meta alluded to its AI spending in the memo, which was written by Janelle Gale, chief people officer. “We’re doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making,” she wrote in the note, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. Meta employees have spent much of the year fretting about job cuts, which already hit the Reality Labs division and other teams. Gale said that the company was announcing the layoffs early since details of the plan had already leaked. Reuters first reported on Meta’s planned workforce reductions earlier this month. “I know this is unwelcome news and confirming this puts everyone in an uneasy state, but we feel this is the best path forward, given the circumstances,” Gale wrote. Other big tech companies are making cuts in the face of booming AI spending. Microsoft Corp offered voluntary retirement to thousands of US employees on Thursday.Meta had almost 79,000 employees at the start of the year. The company is scheduled to report first quarter earnings next week. Source link