"SATISFIED" · 총 39건
필터 보기현재 지수
50.3
0 = 부정 우세
50 = 중립
100 = 긍정 우세
최근 7일 기준 75,744건을 분석한 결과, 뉴스 심리지수는 50.2(균형)입니다. 긍정 3,874건(5.1%)·중립 69,977건(92.4%)·부정 1,893건(2.5%)이며, 중립 비중이 뚜렷하게 높습니다. 성향 지수는 종합 15.3(중도 균형)입니다.
The finance minister II says he was granted an audience by the Pahang sultan last week, and came away believing the ruler was satisfied with the government's commitment.
St. John's is excited, but not satisfied. Thrilled to still be playing, but not content.
"In this range, consumers will probably be satisfied, and producers will have the opportunity to implement their investment programs," the Russian deputy prime minister said
Last year, 31 percent of residents of the Netherlands were satisfied with how visible the police were in their neighborhoods, while 21 percent were dissatisfied with this.
The Chinese business community is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to the US' proposed additional 12.5% tariffs on Chinese goods.
Junaid Hafeez | Social Media Dear Junaid Hafeez, We are writing to reassure you that, although we sentenced you to death nearly seven years ago, you should take some solace in the fact that we have never hanged anyone convicted of blasphemy. You might ask, if we don’t intend to carry out the sentence, why for the past six years are we not listening to your appeal? Why are we denying you your day in the court? A day on which a judge can overturn your sentence and release you. Or go through the evidence against you and confirm your punishment, so that you can file another appeal and then another and, finally, when your death sentence is confirmed by the highest court in the land, you can file a last mercy petition. You have been waiting for 13 years to find out what it is that we intend to do with you. You might argue that, if you had committed second degree murder, got caught and convicted, with some good behaviour, you would be nearing the end of your sentence now. But you didn’t kill anyone, you didn’t commit treason, you hatched no plans to overthrow the government, you didn’t challenge the authority of any institution. Instead, you read books, you talked about books, you wanted to live a bookish life, you went to a classroom, you were accused of blasphemy, you were sentenced to death. There may be a tacit promise by the state that you’ll not see the gallows, but we’ll also deny you the opportunity to prove your innocence and go home. Junaid Hafeez has been in jail on blasphemy charges since 2013. His appeal against his 2019 death sentence is pending in the Lahore High Court since 2020. May 18 was supposed to be yet another date for his hearing, which passed by without his appeal being heard You might think that in the 13 years (do you still count days or are you counting years now?) you have been behind bars, the world has forgotten you. But your name does appear on human rights organisations’ annual reports, your picture does come up on our social media memories. It has even been suggested that Junaid Hafeez gets more attention than hundreds of other victims of our slow justice, because it’s easy to identify with him. He is every working class parent’s dream boy, who tops every board exam, gets into Pakistan’s top medical college and, midway through his medical education, decides to pursue a life of letters, gets a Fulbright fellowship, returns home and continues to teach and learn. Here’s the kind of boy we always say is the bright future of this country. There are many others who get far less attention than you. There are hundreds waiting trials, more than 50 who have been sentenced to death, their appeals not heard for years, sometimes for 10 sometimes for 20 years. In order to give you some hope, we might have given you Zafar Bhatti’s example, a medicine salesman who spent 14 years in jail on blasphemy charges. Last year, he finally had his day in court, and he was freed. Freed. After keeping him in jail for 14 years, we declared that he was innocent. He went home. He died after three days. Three days of freedom after 14 years of captivity for a crime that never happened. Our judicial system is often blamed for being an impossibly slow grind, and for being extremely reluctant to take up the appeals of those convicted on blasphemy charges. It seems as if opening the case file of a blasphemy convict will constitute blasphemy itself. We can’t judge our judges too harshly for not wanting to listen to these appeals. Let’s not name names but lawyers, a judge, a minister and a governor have been assassinated trying to get the likes of you out of prison. Since judges have to deal with murderers and terrorists, they are promised life-time police protection. Although they are courageous enough to convict and then preside over the appeals of dangerous criminals, they are wary of having a blasphemy convict in their court. “They know our society, they know our system, why would they trust it?” says your lawyer Asad Jamal. He also points out that the door to a hall on the premises of Lahore High Court Bar Association is named Baab-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwwat [Door of the Seal of the Prophets]. “Here’s a daily reminder to the judges of the times and places we live in.” We can assure you though that times are changing. In the past one year, there’s been a spate of bails, acquittals and people have got what we call ‘relief’. A woman who was snared into a blasphemy trap after playing a game of PUBG was acquitted after five years of imprisonment. Last year, Anwar Kenneth, accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death, was acquitted after spending 23 years in jail. After keeping him in jail all this time, we realised that he wasn’t mentally fit to stand a trial. Lawyers remind us that many of those accused of blasphemy have mental health issues. It’s difficult to prove in the court, as the psychiatrists who can testify for them are scared and either wouldn’t appear or want to remain anonymous. Since we insist on keeping you alive and locked, we must give you some hope, however flimsy. Those who made blasphemy the central plank of their politics, and threatened generals and judges and politicians, have been silenced for now. We sometimes fear that your acquittal might poke those monsters we have put to sleep. Or people who decide such things still suspect that these monsters might be unshackled to liven up our political circus. In 2013, the year you went to jail, in India, they hanged Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri citizen accused of terrorism in India. The Indian Supreme Court said in its judgment that “the collective conscience of society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender.” There’s no collective conscience here that needs to be satisfied. There are no hordes baying for your blood, only occasional voices pleading mercy, invoking your lost youth, your talent, your promise. You are a minor speck on our conscience because some of us are allowed to read books and write them and pursue our PhDs, but we can’t grant you the same privileges. Many political analysts tell us that, if you are released tomorrow, no roads will be blocked in protest, no rallies will be held, the country will not burn, nobody will set fire to a tyre even. You are not being kept in a jail to satisfy our nation’s conscience. You are not allowed your day in the court because then we’ll have to face that conscience and decide. Your current lawyer, Mr Saiful Malook, obviously frustrated at not getting your appeal heard, reminds us of the constitutional guarantee that citizens shall not be discriminated against on the basis of caste or colour or religion. But he is not naïve and knows that this is not how our society and justice system works. He simply pleads for equality of the condemned. “The courts are listening to appeals filed in 2023 by those accused of multiple murders and even sentenced to death,” he says. “Junaid’s appeal is from 2020 — why isn’t his appeal being heard? Even if we can’t treat all citizens equally, at least those sentenced to death should be treated equally.” What if judges are not scared for their safety but reluctant because of their faith? What if they don’t even want to touch a case file containing blasphemies, even if fabricated? Islamabad-based lawyer Talha Rehman, who represents more than 60 people accused of blasphemy, says that if the judges are of the view that blasphemy laws are effective, then why are they reluctant to help implement them? “The least they can do is hear the appeals,” he says, “and, if they feel the punishment is justified, they should confirm it, so that the accused can move to the next appeal.” Dear Junaid, as you count your days and years and wait for your day in court, we reiterate that we have never hanged anyone accused of and convicted of blasphemy. But we’ll fit a noose around your neck every morning and take it off every night. So that our conscience doesn’t bother us in our sleep. The writer is a novelist, essayist and journalist. His latest novel is Rebel English Academy Published in Dawn, EOS, May 31st, 2026
IN November 1970, the Bhola cyclone killed up to half a million people in East Pakistan. Yahya Khan’s government introduced a 10 per cent surcharge to fund emergency relief. Bangladesh became independent 13 months later. The affected territory was gone. The levy remained. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government absorbed the revenue into general federal accounts in 1972. No accounting was published. In 1985, Gen Zia introduced the Iqra surcharge, framed as an education fund. The revenue balanced federal operating accounts. No alternative education instrument replaced it when it was abolished under the IMF’s insistence. The template was set. Fifty years later, Pakistan has not deviated from this template. What began as a cyclone surcharge is now a Rs1.55 trillion instrument misclassified as non-tax revenue. The architecture is identical but the scale has changed. Pakistan has pursued this through two parallel tracks. The first collected resources in the name of disaster relief, later rebranded as climate resilience as floods became more frequent. The second imposed non-tax revenue through petroleum pricing. The petroleum development levy (PDL), a general development surcharge dating to 1961, was structurally insulated in 2010 to bypass provincial NFC sharing. It grew steadily, crossing Rs100 billion annually by the mid-2010s and exceeding Rs200bn by FY2018-19. Although never formally framed as a climate instrument, it has acquired a distinct environmental gloss, culminating in the climate support levy of 2026. The flooding track: The 1973 floods wiped out three million houses and erased a year of economic growth. Bhutto created the Federal Flood Commission. Three consecutive 10-year national flood protection plans followed, running from 1978 to 2008 across four governments, each funded through the PSDP with no ring-fencing. Pakistan suffered catastrophic floods throughout. Three decades of federal plans, without a rupee ring-fenced. No relief fund has ever been legally ring-fenced. Since 1992, when Nawaz Sharif’s government first activated the prime minister’s relief fund model, Pakistan has deployed the same instrument at least five times across floods and earthquakes. The design is deliberate: by classifying flood revenue as voluntary donations rather than taxation, governments simultaneously escape parliamentary scrutiny, judicial challenge and NFC distribution requirements. Benazir Bhutto deployed the identical model after the 1994 floods. So did every government after 2010. The 2010 floods affected 20m people and caused $43bn in damages. The government announced a flood relief surcharge projecting Rs40bn, collected it, and absorbed it into the federal consolidated fund while simultaneously negotiating IMF targets. After the 2022 floods, the government quietly renamed its existing super tax: Section 4B, whose stated purpose was rehabilitation of temporarily displaced persons, became Section 4C, a super tax on high-earning persons. The humanitarian justification was dropped without explanation. The revenue mechanism stayed the same. Three findings hold across every instrument. No relief fund has ever been legally ring-fenced: every prime minister, president and chief minister relief fund is credited to the account of the federation, making it general government money. International pledges substitute for domestic accountability rather than supplementing it. And every fund since 2005 has carried a public commitment to publish an independent audit. None has been published. Justice Saqib Nisar’s 2018 dam fund collected Rs11.5bn from the public in the name of water security, earned Rs2.2bn in mark-up over six years, and was quietly transferred to the public account of the federation in 2024 without a single rupee spent on the stated objective. If money raised under the highest judicial authority in the country can still end up in the general budget, no argument remains that any executive fund can be trusted to do otherwise. The petroleum track: Climate change has been weaponised as a justification to tax citizens. Gen Musharraf used clean-fuel rhetoric to justify development surcharges during the CNG transition without a single rupee being traced to a cleaner fuel outcome. In 2009, the Supreme Court under chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry ruled that revenue collected without a verifiable service to the payer is a tax, not a surcharge, and that imposing it by executive notification violates Article 77. The response was the Petroleum Products (Development Levy) Amendment Act, 2009, that satisfied the court’s procedural requirement while eliminating any ring-fencing obligation. The consequences are calculable. At Rs1.55tr, the PDL represents 10-11 per cent of total federal revenue. Under the seventh NFC Award, provinces are entitled to 57.5pc of all taxes. If correctly classified, Punjab would receive Rs461bn annually, Sindh Rs219bn, KP Rs13bn and Balochistan Rs81bn. They receive zero. It is a tax called a levy because of the NFC Award. The classification is deliberate. PML-N elevated PDL margins in 2016 on the justification that the premium would fund cleaner fuel production. The revenue went instead to IPP capacity charge payments and circular debt service, which reached Rs1.14tr by FY2017-18. The revenue collected in the name of cleaner fuel financed the liabilities of a fossil-fuel-dependent power grid. The PTI then scaled the PDL to Rs424bn, the highest in Pakistan’s history, while branding it a carbon instrument aligned with its Ten Billion Tree Tsunami project. In March 2022, it froze the levy at zero for political reasons. The IMF suspended a $1bn tranche within weeks. A climate-labelled levy had become a macroeconomic emergency. Across 23 programmes since 1958, the IMF has required Pakistan to enhance the PDL without requiring it to distribute the revenue constitutionally. The way forward: Can the PDL be ring-fenced or audited? Ring-fencing 15pc of PDL collections into a sovereign climate fund (SCF) would deploy Rs232bn annually, shared with provinces under the NFC Award and structured as a statutory trust. Following global benchmarks, it can leverage private investment at a ratio of one to four, unlocking approximately Rs900bn in total climate finance conditioned on climate resilience outcomes aligned with Pakistan’s commitments. The IMF objection is predictable but answerable. The SCF does not reduce total PDL collections. Tabled in the next programme negotiation as a structural benchmark rather than a provincial concession, the IMF’s incentives align with the reform rather than against it. The question is not whether Pakistan can create such a fund. It is whether any government is willing to surrender a revenue stream that it has prized too much to ring-fence. The writer is a climate expert. Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2026
Women in Sweden are generally more satisfied with their sex lives than men in comparable age-brackets. That's according to a new survey by the Public Health Agency of Sweden in which nearly 16,000 people aged between 16 and 84 were asked about sexual health and reproductive rights. However, the survey also points to continued challenges when it comes to women experiencing unwanted sexual attention and sexual violence.
Fewer than one in 10 SEW customers satisfied with firm’s handling of supply crisis, which left tens of thousands without water South East Water failed to adequately communicate with customers during outages last winter that left tens of thousands of people without water, a report has concluded. Fewer than one in 10 SEW customers were satisfied with how the company handled the water supply crisis that stretched across parts of Kent and Sussex last winter, the consumer council for water (CCW) said. The report found communication was the company’s greatest failing. Continue reading...
The Public Health Agency of Sweden has released the results of a survey which shows that around half of Swedes are satisfied with their sex lives, although there were variations based on age and gender.
Ministry will make proposals when conditions are specified says minister
Sweden Democrat MP suspected of child pornography crimes, more eggs recalled for salmonella risk, and around half of Swedes report being satisfied with their sex lives. Here's today's news.
European Union (EU) top diplomat Kaja Kallas on Monday said the bloc sought stability in the region, adding that it was in everyone’s interest for the ongoing war in the Middle East to end and for the Strait of Hormuz to remain open. Kallas, who serves as vice-president of the European Commission and the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, is visiting Pakistan at the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar to participate in the 8th round of the EU-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, which was held earlier today. In an interview on the Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk’, Kallas said, “This is in everybody’s interest that this war is stopped and the Strait of Hormuz is opened. We are paying a very high price. There are a lot of things dependent on the Strait of Hormuz.” During the appearance on the show, she commended Pakistan for being a mediator between the United States and Iran, bringing all the parties together, adding that, “Eventually, the [warring] parties have to decide.” “Everybody is hoping that the first phase of this agreement is signed, so the talks on the difficult topics like nuclear can be started,” she said. Kallas added that the EU seeks stability in the region. “The problems of our neighbour today could be the problems for us tomorrow. We are all very interlinked.” She called the Strait of Hormuz a “chokepoint”, mentioning that the EU was also looking forward to diversifying its trade routes and supply chain. “You cannot remain dependent on a single route.” When asked if she sees any parallels between Russia’s war against Ukraine and Israeli actions in Gaza and Lebanon, she replied: “I see parallels in all these crises undermining international law. We have the UN Charter, which is very clear: you can’t attack another country; you have to respect another country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. No one should be above the law.” Talking about the renewal of Pakistan’s GSP+ status, Kallas said, “We discussed it with our counterparts today. The preferential access to our markets is also conditional.” “It is true that we have a report coming up in July, and then the question of renewing this preference,” she added. “However, the conventions have to be adopted, particularly on human rights issues, where we need to see improvements.” She elaborated that the renewal process goes through the EU Parliament. “The EU Parliament is always scrutinising, and we have been raising these issues on what more can be done to improve the situation,” she said. When asked whether the EU was satisfied with Pakistan’s legislation to meet the conditions, she said: “Our counterparts are mentioning what they are doing in various files, but this is something where we clearly need to see improvements.” “We are putting forward some very concrete questions. Hopefully, there is time for improvement in those areas, and then we can renew this scheme easily,” she concluded.
Come November, the Republican Party will need the support of voters outside of President Trump’s base, many of whom are deeply dissatisfied with the economy and the Iran war.
Come November, the Republican Party will need the support of voters outside of President Trump’s base, many of whom are deeply dissatisfied with the economy and the Iran war.
US President Donald Trump will only make a peace deal with Iran if it meets all of his conditions, a White House official told AFP on Friday, as questions swirled about the state of negotiations to end the war.The White House had indicated Trump was close to a decision on a potential deal, even as Tehran insisted there was still "no final agreement" on ending the Middle East conflict.Also read: To the Situation Room, now! With new message, Trump stirs Iran cauldron again An Iranian state media report also rebutted several key elements of Trump's characterization of the deal, with sources calling his remarks a "mixture of truth and lies."US sources had told AFP the deal was waiting on Trump's sign-off following weeks of halting negotiations over a conflict that has engulfed the Middle East and shaken the global economy. Trump attended a two-hour meeting in the White House Situation Room on Friday but did not reach a decision."President Trump will only make a deal that is good for America and satisfies his red lines," a White House official told AFP afterward. "Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon," the official added.Trump had announced the meeting in a lengthy social media post, reiterating long-held demands that Iran agree never to develop nuclear weapons and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei pushed back, telling state media that the Islamic republic "said goodbye to the language of 'must' 47 years ago." Exchanges of messages were continuing, he added, but "no final agreement has been reached yet."In a phone call with the Emir of Qatar, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran was ready to achieve a "dignified framework" to end the war, according to state news agency IRNA.In his post, Trump said Tehran would remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz and end its blockade of the waterway with "no tolls," while the US would lift its parallel blockade of Iranian ports. The two countries would also coordinate on removing and destroying Iran's enriched uranium, he said, adding that "no money will be exchanged, until further notice."Iran's Fars news agency, however, cited sources as saying Tehran was demanding "the immediate release of $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets" before moving to the next phase of negotiations. On the toll-free reopening of Hormuz, the sources said "no such clause appears in the text of the agreement," while Trump's comment on destroying Iran's nuclear material "is fundamentally baseless."Also read: ‘Tehran said goodbye to “must” 47 years ago’: Iran rejects Trump’s claims of imminent dealBaqaei also told state TV there were currently "no negotiations" taking place on Iran's nuclear program, as Iran's top diplomat suggested the US was holding up a deal with its approach to the talks.'Telling the truth'? Ali, a resident of the city of Tonekabon north of Tehran, said that whatever the deal was, there would likely be more strife to come."Both sides are speaking in a way that keeps their supporters satisfied. It's not clear who is telling the truth," the 49-year-old said.Hopes of an agreement had risen on Thursday after US officials voiced optimism about the diplomatic progress.Energy markets have whipsawed this week as investors parse the chances of an agreement that could potentially resume normal shipping through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.Washington and Tehran have accused each other of violating the truce in and around the strait as recently as this week, with US strikes on the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas countered by retaliatory Iranian fire.Iranian state TV said Friday that 24 ships had transited the strait in the past 24 hours, in coordination with the Revolutionary Guards and the foreign ministry.But it warned that "ships from hostile countries face a severe response" from Iran's military.Lebanon fighting On the war's Lebanon front, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that his country's forces had pushed deeper inside Lebanon, while Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a series of drone attacks on military targets in northern Israel, including troop gatherings and barracks.It also said its forces were attacking Israeli troops trying to advance in the area of the medieval Beaufort fortress, near the city of Nabatieh.The attacks came as Israeli and Lebanese military delegations held security talks in Washington, which were called "productive" by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's second-in-command.Israel kept up its heavy bombardment of southern Lebanon, where the Lebanese health ministry said a rescuer was among the 11 killed.A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was supposed to have taken effect on April 17, but has never been observed.Both sides accuse each other of violating it and justify their attacks by the other camp's alleged breaches.Lebanon was drawn into the war in early March when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel over the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli attacks, prompting Israeli strikes and a ground invasion.
WASHINGTON: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday that Pakistan remained firmly committed to its longstanding position on Palestine and Gaza and that there could be no change in Islamabad’s stance towards Israel without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. He said this during a press conference at Pakistan’s embassy in Washington after a meeting with Rubio. Dar’s statement was in response to a question about US President Donald Trump urging Muslim countries to join the Abraham Accords as part of a deal with Iran and whether any discussion with Rubio were held on the matter. In his response to the question, Dar also said he had reiterated Pakistan’s position during his engagements at the United Nations earlier this week. “Pakistan remains constantly steadfast on its position on Palestine and Gaza,” Dar said, adding that Israel “must move towards the establishment of a Palestinian state for any change in Pakistan’s stance on Israel”. The Abraham Accords are a set of agreements brokered under Trump in 2020 and govern the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Israel and countries that have historically been hostile to it. The nations named by Trump, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have traditionally advocated for a two-state solution between Palestine and Israel as a precursor to any discussions on the normalisation of relations with Israel. Mediation efforts appreciated During his press conference, Dar said Washington “deeply appreciates” Pakistan’s efforts aimed at easing tensions between Iran and the United States, noting that this recognition was conveyed during his meeting with the US secretary of state. He referred to a statement issued by the US State Department after the meeting, which said that “the Secretary thanked the minister for the constructive role Pakistan continues to play […] for peace in the Middle East and its mediation efforts with Iran.” The statement added that the two sides agreed on the “importance of working together to further strengthen a meaningful partnership that fosters security and prosperity for both Americans and Pakistanis”. Later, Rubio shared this in an X post as well. In a separate statement attributed to State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott, Washington said Rubio had met Dar in Washington and discussed bilateral cooperation as well as regional security issues. It added that Rubio also expressed his condolences for the victims of the terrorist attack in Quetta on Sunday, in which a suicide bombing targeting a shuttle train claimed more than 10 lives and left several others injured. “The secretary and the deputy prime Minister agreed on the importance of working together to further strengthen a meaningful partnership that fosters security and prosperity for both Americans and Pakistanis,” the statement said. Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Foreign Office (FO) in Islamabad also said that Rubio acknowledged Pakistan’s “sincere diplomatic and mediatory efforts for peace and stability in the region and beyond”. It further said the two leaders “expressed satisfaction over the positive momentum in the Pak-US bilateral relations and exchanged views on the evolving regional and global situation”. “The two sides agreed to strengthen the bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual interest including trade and investment, security, and counter-terrorism. “They also agreed to advance Pak-US partnership, propelled by high-level exchanges and shared interests in regional peace, security and prosperity,” it added. Dar also separately commented on the “very good” meeting with Rubio, saying, “Always a pleasure to engage with him on further strengthening Pak-US bilateral relations and advancing our shared goals of peace, stability, and prosperity for our two countries and the wider region.” During his press conference, Dar also maintained the cautious approach reflected in the two official statements, emphasising that he was not in a position to divulge further details of his talks with Rubio and other American and Iranian officials. He added, however, that he was very hopeful Pakistan’s efforts would help achieve comprehensive peace in the Middle East. “Pakistan cannot compromise its role as a mediator by divulging details of the talks because we are deeply invested in the peace process,” he said. The foreign minister said he and his team, which included Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, were “very satisfied” with their talks with Secretary Rubio. “We are the mediators and, as such, we are required to maintain secrecy,” he said, adding that both the Americans and the Iranians appreciated Pakistan’s approach. Dar said it was not only the United States and Iran but also countries across the globe that were appreciating Pakistan’s efforts. “The mediation has brought global recognition for us, as did our victory against India [in May 2025],” he added. Dar said Qatar, Oman and several other countries had also expressed interest in hosting the talks, but Pakistan was chosen because of its close and friendly relations with all parties involved in the conflict. When reminded that the United States traditionally maintained a transactional relationship with Pakistan and asked whether the country’s current mediatory role could lead to a more substantive and strategic partnership, Dar said that during Friday’s meeting he proposed holding substantive discussions on building a strategic partnership, and that his proposal was accepted. Rubio, he said, also agreed to visit Pakistan later this year. He did not say whether the next round of US-Pakistan talks would be held in Islamabad, but emphasised that Pakistan would continue to play a key role in the process. Dar travelled to New York earlier this week to participate in a China-sponsored discussion at the UN Security Council on the role of the United Nations in resolving global disputes. Dar reached Washington for his meeting with Rubio earlier on Friday. Upon his arrival, he was received by Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, along with senior officials of the Pakistani embassy. The visit comes amid reports in American media that US and Iranian negotiators have edged toward a deal to extend their fragile ceasefire for 60 days. But the potential breakthrough was still hanging on President Trump’s approval, who said on Friday he was making a “final determination” on the Iran deal. The US sources confirmed reporting by Axios that the two sides had agreed on a memorandum of understanding to prolong the ceasefire and launch negotiations on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Under the proposed deal, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz would be unrestricted, with no tolls or harassment; Iran would remove all mines within 30 days; and the US would lift its naval blockade if commercial traffic resumes, Axios reported. But Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing a source close to Tehran’s negotiators, said the text had not been finalised and that Pakistan would be informed if a deal was reached. Iranian sources cited by local media said any deal would be complete only when announced by Tehran, not unilaterally by Trump. Additional input from AFP
[Parliament of South Africa] The Select Committee on Social Services has expressed its dissatisfaction in a meeting today with the Free State Department of Health's briefing on progress in implementing commitments arising from the committee's oversight visit to the province in March 2026.
Madras High Court closes the case after being satisfied with the report filed by Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) T.S. Anbu
Persistent frustration over the economy and foreign policy have left many Americans feeling politically homeless, and young voters are particularly frustrated.